My brain is still having trouble understanding that 2021 is over and we're a month into 2022.
2021 was busy for many reasons: ongoing pandemic, wonderful folks retiring from our department and a new wonderful person being hired, the challenges of remote work, the challenges of in-person work resuming, the challenges of living in a state that explicitly blocks mask mandates during the ongoing pandemic, the joys of vaccines coupled by the sorrow of immeasurable loss. The list goes on. Rather than be exhaustive about all things 2021, I just want to highlight a few things: I have such gratitude for the coworkers who get. stuff. done. and do it with grace and humor. These folks have made the day-to-day interesting and bearable; they've engaged in important work and asked important questions to keep things moving forward for our students and the learning community around us. You know who you are -- thank you!
I went through my 2021 tweets to help remind me of just all we went through last year. While there is a lot I'm not including here, below are a few professional and other highlights:
- Oh, hey COVID is still happening, and then the January 6th Capitol insurgence happened.
- I posted and liked a lot of pet photos throughout the year, including pet appearances at online conferences.
- Attended a session by Dr. Adrienne Coleman (Candid Conversations Matter) on equity based library policies hosted by the Iowa Library Association (ILA)
- Attended ALA Midwinter for the first time ever -- it was so nice that it was virtual, because every other year I've had conflicts with teaching at the start of the semester. I attended presentations and lovely talks by: Amanda Gorman, Ruby Bridges, Dr. Carla Hayden, Dr. Jill Biden, Tracie D. Hall, and others. It was nice to see Native voices recognized in the 2021 Youth Media Awards.
- I tried to promote vaccine access and testing access to my followers, and created a Google Doc to hopefully help people who weren't on Twitter navigate those processes/forms necessary to gain access.
- Worked with The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion as a Managing Editor and helped with social media throughout the year.
- Supported friends, family, colleagues, and students through unimaginable stress and losses.
- Laughed at the "I am here live. I am not a cat." lawyer video.
- Participated in ILA advocacy day writing postcards and contacting legislators to advocate for the ILA legislative agenda.
- Learned so much while getting to support our remarkable graduate and undergraduate students through 1:1 consultations and course instruction.
- Started fostering pups from a few different organizations (more on this later).
- Cheered on colleagues when they did cool things like conference presentations, papers, and workshops.
- Attended the CALM conference and it was one of the best professional conferences I've attended, hands down.
- Was grateful for the scholarship and labor of Kaetrena Davis Kendrick and her work studying and sharing about low morale in libraries.
- Attended National Library of Medicine, Greater Midwest Region's Blossom conference.
- Celebrated getting my vaccine doses and my booster!
- Advertised, interviewed (as a member of the hiring committee), and hired a new librarian to replace two full time staff and student workers.
- Helped recognize excellence and nurture future professionals through service on ILA and ILA ACRL awards committees. There some pretty amazing folks in Iowa's libraries.
- Purchased books for the School of Education and advocated for more journals.
- Attended SUNYLA Midwinter online.
- Presented with Kris Stacy-Bates and Erin Thomas at the Illinois Information Literacy Summit online.
- Presented with Rachel Seale for the C&UA Section of SAA online professional development offerings.
- Enjoyed many ASERL online professional development panels and workshops.
- Returned to the physical library.
- Literally ground my teeth through a new daytime occlusal guard behind my mask...
- Attended the ILA Refreshing Leaders institute facilitated by Maureen Sullivan.
- Helped with sessions at the International Society of Bassists convention online.
- Led AAUW Start Smart Salary Negotiation workshops for the ISU community.
- Took a very sick dog to the hospital where she stayed several days, recovered, and now enjoys fancy prescription food.
- Adopted our foster pup, giving her her forever home and a big, drooly, mastiff sister.
- Helped with a campus workshop on building your online professional presence with Megan O'Donnell and Abbey Elder.
- Attended the first Activating Community Voices symposium in Boone.
- Coordinated all the dog/human volunteers for Barks@Parks, our comfort animal program during prep week before finals.
- And completed my annual evaluation reflecting back on a heck of a year.
