I really don’t think they’ll let me get away with this introduction, which is a shame:
There is a spectre haunting universities, the spectre of plagiarism. All the powers of academe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Professor and Provost, Einstein and Derrida, Humanities deans and Engineering adjuncts.
So I think I know why I’ve hit the funk so hard lately.
At first I thought it was just the incredible amount of weight I’ve gained. That’s a big part of it, but there’s something much, much worse.
I’m on my first search committee, part of the team assembled to decide which aspiring candidate will be invited to work at our library. As such, I’ve read through all the application packets of all the candidates.
This is an entry-level position, although 2-3 years experience are preferred. Entry salary has been bumped up since I was hired (grr), but it’s still not exactly enough to be a lure in itself. The area isn’t exactly a desirable one, and the position itself, while interesting, doesn’t exactly stand out. What I’m getting at is, this isn’t at all a bad position, but it doesn’t exactly stand out and sparkle.
So among the candidates, there is a sprinkling of PhDs, plenty of subject-area Masters, tons and tons of professional experience, a goodly number of journal publications and conference presentations, and at least one bloody textbook.
These are the people competing for the kind of job I was hoping to step up from in a couple of years.
That’s enough to drive a man to nachos.
(Comments? Hosed. Why? Dunno.)
I just googled my name and location to see what kind of footprint I’m leaving, what sort of things might hamper my attempts to move on to a more lucrative position in a few years. The top result? Apparently some University of Minnesota librarian’s wiki experiment, where she used the text of a listserv post I’d written as filler text. Weird.
It has, more or less. Must find something to write about, soonest.
Comments, I think, are still hosed. Also need to figure out what’s up with that.