Did I miss a week? I see Thing 6 sitting there in Google Reader, but I don’t remember it coming in. :\/<\/p>\n
Anyway, professional organizations are very much on my mind right now. I am, as those of us on the tenure track sometimes say, “overcommitted to service” at the moment. The problem is, I find involvement in professional organizations very fulfilling, which makes it hard for me to say “no” as often as I probably should. I feel like it’s easier to make a difference in my volunteer work than it is to do so within the confines of my place of work, for a number of reasons. <\/p>\n
That said, a line does have to be drawn. I am not, for instance, attending the Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA) conference this year, though I had originally planned to do so. After the email went out saying how low the pre-registration numbers were, I feel extra guilty about it. I very much want to support the organization, because their leadership institute was such a good experience for me, but I already went to another conference, this summer, and I’m trying to buy a house (expected closing date: August 1) and plan a wedding\/reception on the east coast (in mid-October). I just can’t justify the expense. <\/p>\n
Before I talk more about what I’m not<\/em> doing, maybe I should talk a little about what I do. From local up, here is my involvement:<\/p>\n But, as I alluded to in the bulleted list above, I don’t currently do much with LITA, certainly not as much as I want to, or with PNLA. I pay my dues, and I follow their blogs and listservs–and help when I can–but there’s no official<\/em> involvement, on my end. I really want to join committees and do work for both, but my hands are too full right now. I have to keep reminding myself, “Professional involvement is a marathon, not a sprint!” I will definitely get my chance to be uber-involved in LITA–if nothing else, ALA NMRT will boot me out in 6 years. :) And I will also get my chance to be involved in PNLA (assuming it doesn’t go bankrupt before my AkLA commitments die down :\/).<\/p>\n So, I guess what I’m saying is, I totally get the value of professional organizations. If I had to add one to the queue, that I was thinking of joining but hadn’t, I’d have to pick ASIS&T – the American Society for Information Science & Technology. Their conferences always sound very exciting! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Did I miss a week? I see Thing 6 sitting there in Google Reader, but I don’t remember it coming in. :\/ Anyway, professional organizations are very much on my mind right now. I am, as those of us on the tenure track sometimes say, “overcommitted to service” at the…<\/p>\n\n