Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
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Friday, August 06, 2004

Whew! I'm out of marathon-paper practice!

I have just finished (and submitted) my first piece for a professional journal--the
Journal of Hospital Librarianship. I had been asked to write a column concerning library services within the hospital system for which I work. This wound up being a challenge, because of course I wanted to maintain a positive and professional tone, especially because there are lots of good things about the system, things that other librarians should know about. But the last year, post-layoff, has been frustrating, too, and so that was a tall order. I think I managed to balance the successes and challenges without sounding whingy. I read it to Dwana over the phone and she said it was the most coherent overview of our system she'd ever heard, and she wished she'd had something similar to read when she first starting working at the hospital. I'll count that as a success, since that pretty much was the point of the article.

Twelve pages (longest I've written in two years of being away from school!) + fighting with Word to paginate all but the first two sheets = a somewhat drained librarian, but it was worth it. I'll let you know if it makes the cut. :)

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