A couple hours ago I wrote and sent off an email that I found very difficult to write.
This weekend I received an email asking me to sit on a panel at ALA to help discuss a topic of current concern to some. But, unfortunately and for various reasons, I decided early in the year not to go to ALA. I chose to go to NASIG instead (June), along with ASIST (Oct.). I have since added ISKO-NA/NASKO in June.
Despite having lodging in the DC area, there is simply no way I can decide to go at this late date. I most certainly cannot afford it, nor can I afford to miss even more days of work.
But how is one to turn down such an offer? This is certainly the highest level invitation of any kind I have received in my so far short library career; probably even of my whole life.
I know some of you turn down these sorts of things frequently. But did you turn down the 1st one? “They” say “timing is everything” and so much about the timing(s) of this is perfect. But bounce that timing off the reality of life and it skews real poorly on one or more axes. OK, one axis. Money.
Several people of importance to me are encouraging me to accept and I am grateful to them for that wisdom. But it simply is not to be. <sigh>
But. Tomorrow I start a(nother) new job and will become a Rapid Monographic Cataloging GA (well, hourly for the summer; GA in the fall). Yay, me!
I am seriously looking forward to actually making some forward progress each day (as in number of titles cataloged). My serials gig is anything but rapid. It’ll be hard to remember that I can only do copy cataloging with the monographs, though. 
Life is full of trade-offs it seems. And some of them are even good ones.
P.S. I was reasonably OK with my decision a few hours ago, but now I am finding it hard to fathom that I said “No, thank you.” I can certainly believe the reality of it, though. Oh well. “Buck up, kid! You get to learn something new tomorrow.”
17 responses so far ↓
1 Meredith // May 23, 2007 at 5:42 am
Mark, I’m pretty sure it won’t be your last speaking offer, though I can understand why turning down an opportunity to speak at the biggest conference of our profession would give you pause. I’ve definitely had to turn down some really exciting opportunities as well — due to scheduling conflicts, not being able to take off from work, not being able to afford to attend, etc. — and you do kick yourself for a while. But with your passion for your areas of interest, I know you will be getting more offers in the future; offers you WILL be able to say yes to.
I’ll miss seeing you at ALA. I was asked to give a keynote at NASIG, but was way too busy with other commitments in June. Bummer.
2 Mark // May 23, 2007 at 5:57 am
Thanks so much for this, Meredith!
I am feeling a little better again this morning, and your kind words certainly helped.
Happy Birthday!
3 Karin Dalziel // May 23, 2007 at 7:27 am
It’s hard to turn down something like this, but if you can’t, you can’t. Meredith is right, you’ll get plenty of other opportunities- you articulate ideas so well, people will be banging down your door to present.
4 Angel // May 23, 2007 at 8:46 am
Second Meredith’s comments and add: you gotta do whatcha gotta do. With your talent and skill, I am sure other opportunities will come along.
Best, and keep on blogging.
5 walt crawford // May 23, 2007 at 9:18 am
I’ll third it. There’s always at least one “wonderful, but impossible” opportunity–I seem to remember one equally early on. You don’t really doubt that you’ll have great opportunities down the road, do you? Don’t: You will.
6 jenny // May 23, 2007 at 9:27 am
Yeah being a serials cataloger makes you look at monograph cataloginging like a piece of cake, don’t it?
I remember at NASIG when I told people I did a lot of Slavic Serials Cataloging they almost fell over. 
I understand the difficulty in turning people down! I did not do so but I am pretty okay with my decision–that could be because I haven’t bought tix yet and it’s going to hurt!
7 Mark // May 23, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Meredith, Karin, Angel, Walt, Jenny, thank you all!
No, I don’t really doubt that there’ll be other opportunities. And there are a couple of things I was trying to be kind of circumspect about here, although you are all smart enough to figure the venue out once it gets announced, and I have no doubt you know the topic.
Besides the saying “No” being a disappointment, there are some other intricately related issues tied in with it.
Based on a little reporting I did lately I seem to be a (very) minor “celebrity” at the moment, which I find rather odd. You do what you see as a duty and a public service and you get noticed.
I am really bad at self-promotion and the whole job search thing (esp. the academic variety–I have been on search committees) is probably one of my most feared and disliked things in life.
While I have not made this public, and it is still low-key/unofficial, I *am* on the job market.
I am at a point in my 2nd degree where I can easily leave (if need be) and still be able to finish. I am taking a distance class this summer and then technically only need to do the 8 hours of my project. That can be done away from here and slowly–I have 4 years left to finish. Educational progress is no longer an impediment.
I just received my new business cards today and will be happily taking them to NASIG in just over a week. Of course, having an interview suit and an up-to-date cv would be even more useful. I don’t intend to fish for a job but *if* it comes up ….
Things are changing up some where I am and while there are no openings at the moment there may be. I would love to stay.
So add all that together and it just seems like I *ought* to be making the best of an opportunity that might give me a better public face (visibility, anyway) in my rapidly approaching public job search without much active self-promotion on my part.
Of course, I could always just make a fool of myself (but would be working hard to avoid that outcome) on the panel, but it was just so perfect a “placement” opportunity; even if I don’t seriously start applying until next spring.
Anyway, I was trying to keep all of this under wraps, but I don’t want any of you thinking I’m just whining or over-reacting; NOT that I do think that. Also, perhaps one can have too much humility.
8 Mark // May 23, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Jenny, I’m not going to claim (yet) that monographs look like a piece of cake. Some things are far simpler, but they also use many more MARC fields and subfields. Plus there’s all the special and local rules about cutters for certain kinds of literatures, so on and so forth.
But in under 2 hours today I was able to do 4 titles. And that was very slow! I had to ask a couple questions, mostly due to local stuff and because we were unable to set up a 2nd profile for me in Voyager for some reason (will try and tackle that tomorrow).
But 4 books in 2 hours (and even faster soon)! Woohoo!
But, yeah, I will say that monographic holdings records ARE a piece of cake.
9 Karin Dalziel // May 24, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Mark- there seems to be a wave of LIS students looking for jobs recently (not surprising, since it’s May and all), and I’ll be watching you all anxiously. Better find something quickly, or I’ll have to conclude all the horror stories of not being able to find a job are true.
As someone with a tiny bit of notoriety lately (in a weird way…) I can say it does make me feel like I should keep doing more, more more, to keep up the momentum, but my sanity and bank account are important too. So I completely understand the anxiousness you must feel. Just blogging here will probably do more for your career, though. (Just a wildly uneducated guess.)
10 Mark // May 24, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Well, I’m not actually in a hurry so don’t gauge the market by my progress, although I am watching a bundle of friends closely.
The “Actual” plan at the moment is to stay in school through spring and be done then. But I’m just saying that I *could* take a job as of now if one fell in my lap. Certainly NOT counting on that, though.
11 Karin Dalziel // May 24, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Are you open to moving anywhere, or do you have certain areas of the country in mind?
12 Mark // May 24, 2007 at 1:44 pm
I’m pretty much open, although I don’t want to be in a huge city and preferably somewhere at a university. Although I would consider several colleges.
13 Karin Dalziel // May 24, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Good to know. I’ll let you know if I see anything.
14 Jenn // May 26, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Monographic cataloguing is going to be such a bore to you after serials…
15 Mark // May 26, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Perhaps eventually, when I get good at them. But as much as I love a good puzzle and constructing things from “scratch,” I also value (sometimes) seeing some real progress for a “day’s work.”
And on that count, I’ve done 11-12 books in under 4 hours now. And will only get faster (although I started with some of the “easier” things).
16 Jenn // May 27, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Have fun with all those science and math books I left you. Springer Press is such a joy.
17 Mark // May 28, 2007 at 7:31 am
Oh, yes, I started with the science and math books, and some of the European security type stuff.
I left all those biographies, literature, etc. aside for now figuring I’d try to get a good handle on the basic fields, series, etc. before worrying about all the extra “stuff” [great technical term, btw] that goes along with those kinds of materials.