Free Range Librarian for Rent

Note: you can email or IM me at kgs@freerangelibrarian.com, Twitter me at kgs, or poke me on Facebook.

Iâ€™m job-hunting — with the awareness that my family life is here in Tallahassee — but I am also hanging out my shingle for short-term contract work.

My availability

In April I resigned from a job I held briefly that was not a good fit. Since then I’ve been freelancing (writing and presenting), working on my creative writing, and applying to several local positions.

I’m feeling rejuvenated, even perky, and am broadening my search.

Iâ€™m committed to staying in Tallahassee for the next few years, where my partner has a great job (though work-related travel, distance work, or creatively blended commuting opportunities are all good options). I also have some interesting job prospects Iâ€™m pursuing that I feel optimistic about, but if they happen, nonetheless wonâ€™t happen overnight. So this is a bifold approach: basically, I’m for hire.

My background and skill sets

Naturally, I have a c.v.; this is just the executive summary. Iâ€™ve worked in nearly every type library in both management and technical positions, and before that served for eight years in the Air Force. My last significant job ended last fall when we moved to Florida: five years as the manager of Librariansâ€™ Internet Index, a great gig that in addition to the joy of working with an A-Team of virtual librarians gave me all kinds of project management skills and buffed up my supervision, management, reporting, and grant-writing. It was a job that was a great match for my flexibility, technical acumen, entrepreneurial spirit, love of writing, and creativity.

I write, I teach (LIS, at two institutions, on-site and distance), I’m a skilled presenter, I am a good planner, and I work well with others. I like deadlines, I know what a deliverable is, Iâ€™ve got broad (if not always deep) knowledge of most library operations, I have a very broad understanding of library technology, and Iâ€™m personable.

Long-term jobs: don’t let the location put you off

I have a lot of flexibility in my life, I’m an excellent distance worker, I live fifteen minutes from an airport, and I travel well. So drop me a line if you know of a job that doesn’t require someone on site every day (or could be adapted for a distance worker). Note that while I work well “face to face,” I interact with remote workers better than most people in my age group or with my level of management experience.

Short-notice summer teaching and presenting assignments

Stuff happens; illness and injury donâ€™t honor the school calendar. If you know (or later learn of) of an LIS program that needs a substitute instructor for all or part of a class this summer, please contact me immediately. I can teach remotely or fly to your institution and pick up the reins.

The same goes for English composition, with the caveat that I’ve never taught — or taken — a comp class, so we’d all be in for a merry ride. Still, if your comp instructor just ran off to join the circus or fell and broke her wrists (n.b.: the latter scenario is my excuse for not doing step aerobics), hand me a syllabus and let’s talk it over.

(I could also step in to a nonfiction literature class in a writing program, but I’m not counting on that at all.)

That goes for filling in for a program presenter who suddenly can’t make it to your presentation: ask me. If it’s local, I can jump in a car. If it’s far away, I’ll fly. I’ll get there.

Teaching, longer-term

If you’re reading this wishing you could offer an LIS class this fall on that-topic-you-don’t-have-an-adjunct-for, talk to me.

I debated whether to seek LIS teaching assignments for the fall, in case full-time work with benefits opened up. I have decided if adjunct teaching opportunities became available, I would take them and then advise possible future employers that these teaching assignments are part of the commitments I made when I was freelancing, and a deal’s a deal.

I’m still trying to decide if there’s room in any LIS programs for a full, 3-credit course about writing for librarians, but if you think there is, I agree with you, and let’s have me teach it.

(Of course, Iâ€™d love to teach creative writing, but so would a few thousand other MFA grads. Then again, if you want me to guest-lecture on “Research for Writers” â€“ a topic often underlooked by writing programs — make an offer, any offer, even a cover-my-mileage or here’s-a-hot-dog-and-a-thank-you offer; I’d love to get my foot in the door on this topic. Might also make a killer AWP panel … Laura?)

Possible presentation topics

So you’re thinking, you have this staff development day coming up and you’d like to invite me, but you don’t know what to ask me to do.

Just for starters, think about these topics:

2.0 for Everyone: getting started with social software
Death to Jargon: How to spiff up your library’s written communications
LOCKSS in a Box: Building a pain-free, low-cost digital preservation network for your library and your community
We Have a Blog, Now What? Building buy-in, content, and market for your libraryâ€™s blog

Or pitch me an idea! Why not a half- or all-day writing workshop for your library staff — not a talk but a hands-on jazz-up-that-prose class? Or an online workshop on the same topic?

Writing and Revision

In addition to old-fashioned article-writing (and thank you to my writer friends who sent me work before I even put out a call — I appreciate the opportunities and am enjoying the diversity of the topics!), allow me to put my skills to work for you by (for example):

Creating or editing copy for your library, organization, or company blog
Revising or creating content for your library, organization, or company website
Review, analysis, and suggested revisions for policies, procedures, job descriptions
Review, analysis, and suggested actions and revisions for grants

In Sum…

Short- or long-term, I’m a good investment. I’ve been in the full-time workforce for thirty years (yes, since I was two years old — o.k, o.k., since I was nineteen), and bring skills, humor, perspective, and joie de vivre to everything I do (except perhaps housework… no, definitely not housework). I am a happy camper and a team player who enjoys a good day’s work done well.

Whether you are interested in hiring me for a two-hour presentation or for the next seven years, I’m open for discussion, so drop me a line. I’ll also be at the ALA annual conference in D.C.

Thanks also if you can spread the word.