Slow management in a fast world
Last month, I had the great pleasure of keynoting the CALM (Conference on Academic Library Management) Conference, which is consistently one of my favorites. The video of my talk, Slow…
Posted inslow librarianship Work Work-life balance
When I surrendered to the current
One author whose newsletter I read avidly is Dr. Zed Zha. In Ask the Patient, she writes about holding on to humanity and humility as a health care provider and…
The double life of being chronically ill at work, slow librarianship, and checking in as an expression of care
Developing a long-term illness, whether chronic or acute, is like being dropped into a country completely unfamiliar to you. You don’t know the language, the customs, the cuisine, the people.…
Rest as a productive act
I’m a member of an online support group for the autoimmune condition I have and one of the recently diagnosed people wrote a post about how hard it is to…
Toxic comparison, time poverty, and a manager’s duty of care
I haven’t written anything in a while because it’s been a really hard few months. My health has taken a turn for the worse with a new condition – also…
Community Time and Enoughness: The heart of slow librarianship
Photo credit: Mushrooms surrounded by trees by Valentin S. This is the sixth and final essay in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list…
Posted inslow librarianship Time Work Work-life balance
Queer Time, Crip Time, and Subverting Temporal Norms
Photo credit: The Harvesters by Pieter Bruegel the Elder This is the fifth in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of…
Meredith’s Slow Productivity (not to be mistaken for Cal Newport’s Faux Slow Productivity)
Image credit: Dolce Far Niente by John William Godward This is the fifth in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of…
Slow productivity is a team sport: A critique of Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity
Image credit: Dolce far Niente by John Singer Sargent This is the fourth in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of…
The Productivity Trap
Photo source This is the third in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of them on the first essay. In my…
Posted inslow librarianship Time Work Work-life balance
With Work Time at the Center
This is the second in a series of essays I've written on time. You can view a list of all of them on the first essay. Once upon a time,…
Posted inslow librarianship Time Work-life balance
Time: It doesn’t have to be this way
“What we think time is, how we think it is shaped, affects how we are able to move through it.” -Jenny Odell Saving Time, p. 270 This is the first…
Slowness, disability, and the art of losing
A few weeks ago, I had what honestly felt like a perfect day. It was a bright sunny day in December that felt almost stolen from the jaws of our…
Slow librarianship and prioritizing life over work
I recently wrote an essay for CHOICE's LibTech Insights blog entitled "Building a Better Library Tech Future with Slow Librarianship." It provides a brief introduction to slow librarianship, how it…
Vocational awe is always harmful
A friend of mine wrote a tweet that really made me think the other day: I understand arguments against a default "vocational awe," but much of the discourse denies the…
Posted incommunity college libraries instruction librarianship mid-career slow librarianship Work Work-life balance
Stop normalizing overwork
In the years that I have been trying my best to avoid overwork, I've become more attuned to the signs that I am indeed overworking. I usually notice one of…
Universal design for work?
I've had migraines for over 20 years. I didn't seek workplace accommodations for them until this year. The biggest barrier to getting accommodations at work was my own internalized ableism,…
When to say yes (or no)
Workaholism is a hard addiction to recover from. It's not like some addictions where you can avoid the places or substances that played a role. Most of us are not…
What is slow librarianship?
Last week, there was a lot of chatter about slow librarianship on social media. People were looking for writing on the subject and I realized that my work is scattered…
Slow life, slow librarianship
It's been a quiet summer over here, focused on family, recovering from the stress of the academic year, and doing a lot of reading. I'd had fantasies of getting a…
