What did I do this year? 2014–15 edition

librarian word cloud

I jump-start my annual self-evaluation process with a low-level text analysis of my work log, essentially composed of “done” and “to do” bullet points. I normalized the text (e.g. emailed to email), removed personal names, and ran the all “done” items through Wordle.

2014–15 was my third year in my job and the third time I did this. (See 2012–13 and 2013–14). I do this because it can be difficult to remember what I was up to many months ago. It’s also a basic visualization of where my time is spent.

What did I do at my job this year?

Aside from the usual meetings, emails, and Reference Desk duties…

  • chat: I implemented a chat reference service with my colleagues (this had been tried before on this campus, but with subpar software and bad staffing experiences; this time, we have limited hours and are very happy with LibraryH3lp)
  • 50th: I worked on a physical and digital exhibit on the 50th anniversary of John Jay
  • mmc: We rolled out the Murder Mystery Challenge for the second year
  • l-etc: I co-chaired the LACUNY Emerging Tech Committee for the second year
  • dc: I worked more on our Digital Collections site, importing materials and refining the UX
  • mla: I went to MLA 2015 in Vancouver and gave a presentation
  • onesearch: We further implemented CUNY’s web-scale discovery service; I organized and ran a usability testing session with my colleagues
  • caug: I began to convene the CollectiveAccess User Group at METRO
  • socialmedia: I became more active on behalf of the library on the @johnjaylibrary Instagram account
  • newsletter: I designed two more biannual issues of Classified Information, our department newsletter
  • drupal, page, fixed, update, added, etc.: I continued to maintain the library’s Drupal-based website

What’s on tap for 2015–16? Lots of online education outreach and much more instruction than I’ve previously done! I’m also starting to flex my writing muscles, starting with a quarterly column in Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian.

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