Earlier this month, I finished up an article and sent it to the editor who asked me to write it. So far, that’s how I’ve done most of my publications; I was asked to write them. Now I’m back where I was before, trying to figure out if I have anything scholarly to write about that hasn’t been covered already by someone else.
Part of the reason why I am concerned about this is because it has recently become apparent that despite prior assurances to the contrary, the provost of my place of work has a rather narrow perspective of what is scholarly, and a significant portion of professional library literature would not fall under that category. If I intend to remain at this institution (and that’s looking less likely), I’m going to have to step up on the scholarly publishing thing. “How we do it good”-type articles won’t cover it. I’ll have to write stuff that looks scholarly to a biologist.
Ugh. I don’t even read half that stuff. For example, I’m more interested in what Jane Librarian writes in her blog about some innovative workflow concept that has improved library services at her place of work than what Joseph P. Librarian writes in College & Research Libraries about the number of libraries using standard workflows and the statistical impact on user services.
Here are the topics I’m interested in that directly relate to what I do every day:
- serials and electronic resources acquisitions
- serials and electronic resources management
- collection development
- personnel management
Am I any kind of authority on any of those topics? Hell no. So who am I to even think about writing anything about them that anyone would want to read? I’m not enough of an egotistical poseur to pull that off. Which brings me back to where I started. Trying to find something scholarly to write about that other people would want to read and that I have more than average knowledge about.
I am pretty much in the same boat. I feel like a lot of what I want to say has already been said….better.
The only tidbit of advice I can give is perhaps team up with someone who may have more “authority” to write about what you are interested in and add your perspective to the mix.
If you’re interested in personnel management, why not write about how libraries are going to manage the Millennial librarians coming out of library school — or how the libraries will have to change to attract Millennials and Post-Millennials (now in grade school) as users. If you need some references, contact me and I’ll send them to you.