After weeks of strained silence, I finally get to announce that I have a permanent full time job. The official notification went out to my colleagues yesterday. I hadn’t been able to talk about things largely because there was nothing to talk about. My boss had been investigating the possibility of doing a direct hire/appointment for the position but it was very up in the air and there was really nothing I could report until everything was approved and signed.

I thought she undertook this process because no one thought I would actually make the cut in a formal hiring process–not because I’m not shiny, but because on paper I don’t have the requisite years of yadda yadda. It has since been explained to me that this was probably not the case. Apparently the national faculty search process here takes months on end and it sounds as though it was assumed that I would be long gone by the time that all panned out. I have no real idea of the “truth” here and I suspect it’s a situation with many truths.

My truth is that this is an amazing opportunity for me and I feel incredibly lucky and ready to start formally settling in at the college. Realistically, I began settling in at this college on my first day and it would have broken my heart to leave. I feel so tremendously well supported at this institution–something I know to be a real blessing in this first-year librarian rat race we have goin’ down in the metro region.

While I am beyond ecstatic to have the job, I worry that some people will question my qualifications or appropriateness for the position. Some coworkers have told me, in short, that anyone not on board should get the finger. I haven’t quite got the chutzpa to adopt this ideology, but I am getting there.

My appointment comes under a diversity initiative set in motion by the current district president. As my boss has explained to me repeatedly, the color of my skin is not the diversity she is trying to bring to the library, but rather my diversity of perspective and practice–all of that nexgen librarian gobbledygook I like to talk about. I talked to a colleague today about what she thinks the reactions will be and she really helped me to put things into perspective.

There will be some raised eyebrows, but they are not raised at anyone’s choice in me as a permanent faculty librarian, but rather because the first hiring my boss has done for this college didn’t include any faculty input. So, people may be puzzled by the process, but not by the choice. I can accept this. We have a work party coming up and hopefully this will be a good chance for us all to crack a beer and get comfortable with it…

I think some of my nerves stem from a sense of doubt in my own abilities, but as a really amazing coworker told me today:
ANYONE who works with you, I would say anyone who even meets you will know that you are a talented librarian and we are friggin` lucky to have you!

I am trying really hard to adopt his confidence in my abilities and move forward with grace and poise. This is a joke because those who know me know I am completely devoid of grace or poise… nevertheless, I’m going to try.

I am really blessed to have a boss who lets me shriek into her ear on the phone: OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!

Please join me in congratulating Allie. I made this appointment after a lot of consideration and after a lot of close observation of Allie’s work. I am delighted to be able to add to the library’s diversity through this process and also feel that Allie brings added diversity to the library system as a next-generation librarian. I know that these positions are highly sought after and I did not make this decision lightly. I am honored that Allie has accepted the offer. Many of you know Allie already – her enthusiasm is difficult to miss.