Book Title: Thriving as a Mid-Career Librarian: Identity, Advocacy, and Pathways
Edited by Brandon K. West and Elizabeth Galoozis
CFP URL: https://sites.google.com/view/midcareerlibrarianbook/home
There’s a lot of advice out there for new librarians, and for librarians at all career stages looking to become leaders or administrators. But what about the rest of us? The mid-career stage often brings more questions than answers: How do we continue to grow professionally if we don’t want to move upward? How do we make decisions about whether to stay at an institution (or in the profession) or go? What strategies do we use to sustain ourselves amidst burnout, constant change, wage compression, or even boredom? How do we navigate cultures of white supremacy and hierarchy? We often have conversations about these topics informally, but there are few meaningful resources for this particular stage of a librarian’s career.
This book will explore the different contexts in which mid-career librarians are working. Not all librarians in the same career stage, or even in the same library, are grappling with the same issues or will make similar decisions. Most often, leadership is touted as the only path for the mid-career librarian, but not everyone is interested in or capable of pursuing these types of positions. For this reason, this book will offer strategies and practical advice for navigating mid-career, based on different roles in libraries, positionalities, and identities, as well as the need to serve as one's own advocate long-term. This book is for librarians interested in thriving in their mid-career, written by those who have been there and who are there now.
Book Sections
- Section 1: Staying Engaged in Your Career: We are soliciting chapters that focus on specific roles within academic libraries and the unique qualities that keep each type of role engaged in their work.
- Section 2: The Role of Identity in Shaping Mid-Career Librarianship: We are soliciting chapters from authors for whom their identity has presented barriers to their careers, and explore how these folks have sustained themselves in light of any adversity they may face.
- Section 3: Being Your Own Advocate: In this section of the book, we will solicit chapters that highlight strategies for navigating day-to-day and year-to-year conditions within complex institutional environments. We will focus on individual strategies rather than institutional ones, though they may intersect.
- Section 4: To Lead or Not to Lead?: We are soliciting chapters that consider multiple factors in deciding whether, and how, to assume leadership responsibilities. They may include: internal and external expectations, work-life balance, and institutional structures.
We are seeking chapters on a variety of mid-career perspectives and experiences. For more details, examples of chapter topics, and how to submit a proposal, visit https://sites.google.com/view/
The deadline to submit a proposal is January 8, 2021.
For questions about submitting a proposal, contact the editors at midcareerlibbook@gmail.com.
