Reinvention Free-Range Style

I apologize! I meant to post a shout out to Karen Schenider the day she started her new job at Florida State.

Here’s a bit about her first day:
http://freerangelibrarian.com/2006/12/alice_in_academia.php

And I especially appreciate this:

http://freerangelibrarian.com/2006/11/a_little_this_a_little_that.php

What is my new job, you have asked? It’s an extremely cool gig. Florida State University originally hired me as the ERM librarian, which I thought sounded fun-‘n’-cool, and is in fact still my position, in a way. But then the fellow who hired me got hired himself by a supercomputing center, and the next thing I knew I was agreeing to be Acting Director of Technology and Research.

It’s a big job, and at first I wondered how I would wrap my brain around it, but the more I hear about it the more it sounds like bits and pieces of every job I’ve had across two careers, with some new twists and curves to keep my middle-aged brain flexible.

I still hold out hope that one day I’ll be able to divide my time between library work and creative writing, so the fact that the job is “acting” keeps it in my comfort zone. But it’s also enough outside my comfort zone to intrigue me.

Hooray for jobs outside the comfort zone! I must admit coming to Dominican and facing 25 students every week for 14 weeks in a classroom, all of them looking at me, waiting for me to speak was and is a bit daunting! But I love it as well. Best to you, Karen, in your new adventure!