Library Web Chic

My portfolio for Continuing Appointment is due on November 2nd and so I’ve been working on and off on it the entire month of October. The problem is that I’m actually gone Nov 2 and the whole week before to give presentations at conferences. So I have to finish what I’ve jokingly been referring to as “the binder from hell” before I leave for Internet Librarian next Friday.

It seems silly of me to whine about doing my portfolio since I have done more than enough to get continuing appointment. But the minutiae of putting together the packet is driving me nuts. I’ve got lots of stuff and I’m having a difficult time deciding which materials (articles, presentations, committee work) I want to include in the binder for the committee to look at. (All the stuff I’ve done gets listed as part of my packet but I can pick and choose which actually representation of my work to include in the binder.) Part of me is annoyed that I can’t do this all electronically because 90% of the stuff people want to see is on my blog. Exacerbating the situation is my poor memory concerning workshops I’ve attended and the fact that some of my stuff got lost in the move from Cortland to here. I thought I had it but that must of been one of the boxes I left in the garage when we moved into the house and then got infested with roaches (roaches I learned love a good cardboard box and/or paper) causing it to be disposed of.

So what this the point of all this inane detail and whining? If you are in the continuing appointment or tenure-track line or intend to ever be in one, create a binder, folder or something of all the stuff you’ve ever done. Plus an accompanying inventory (which we dubbed a shine sheet at Cortland) that you keep religiously up to date. Love your binder and inventory and take VERY good care of it. Otherwise, come time to put together your promotion, continuing appointment packet/thing you will be frustrated and cursing the gods like I am. (I’m really not as disorganized as this post may make me seem. I pretty much have my stuff together. I just have too much to do this month! So the whole thing is making me cranky.)

Getting continuing appointment isn’t just about doing stuff, it is about doing stuff and documenting it. Getting your documentation as you go along makes life much easier when the deadline looms. Take it from the someone with a looming deadline, too little time and too much stuff to sort through.