Job

For the last seven months, much of my time and brain space has been devoted to job searching. After 15 job applications, 5 job interviews, and 3 job offers, I've finally accepted a tenure track position at University of Wyoming libraries as the Instruction and Assessment Librarian and I'm totally excited about the job. This is the job description:

The Instruction and Assessment Librarian provides leadership for the Libraries for our instruction program that includes bibliographic and formal instruction. The position also oversees an assessment program that evaluates our instruction program and will provide direction for improving information literacy for the university. This position also provides reference and instruction, including night and weekend work and may have subject liaison responsibilities. The Librarian reports to the Head of the Reference and Instruction Services. As a member of the library faculty, you will pursue an active and ongoing program of professional development, scholarship, and service.

This position is a great fit for me because it will involve a great deal of teaching, which is my favorite part of librarianship and what led me to library school in the first place. The University of Wyoming is in Laramie and meets many of the requirements that Mike and I had for our next place: it has mountains, an active outdoor culture, and is within a day's drive of many of our family members who live in Idaho, Utah, and New Mexico. They do have nasty winters in Laramie, which we experienced firsthand in December 2007 when we got stuck there while driving from Illinois to Idaho. But, harsh winters notwithstanding, we are really looking forward to getting settled there. Mike is looking into employment options with the University, area community colleges, the Wyoming Arts Council, Wyoming Humanities Council, and more. Laramie is a small town of about 27,000 people, but it's just about a two hour drive to Denver, so it's not completely remote from civilization.

We're planning to move in mid-July and I'll start work at the beginning of August. We're taking a house-hunting trip to Laramie in the middle/end of June. So, if your travels take you to Wyoming in the near future, get in touch and come visit us!

Graduation!

Yes, I'm a real librarian with a master's degree in Library and Information Science! The commencement ceremony was today and it was a beautiful, sunny day. Very exciting!

Michael has been the most supportive spouse through this whole degree program. He's simply the best!

I started the MS program with these three lovely ladies two years ago and we worked together for those two years at the Central Reference Desk. They're the best coworkers a person could ask for and I will truly miss them.

(Regalia was optional -- I didn't wear a cap and gown, but I really did graduate!)

So, I got the degree. I'll post about the J-O-B after I accept it tomorrow morning!

Another Trip to Chicago (The Last for a While?)

Last weekend we had a super-fun, super-quick trip to Chicago. It may be our last visit to the Windy City in a while, since we're hoping (planning) to move back to the West this summer. (More on that later, once I actually have a job. Don't want to jinx it by saying too much too soon. But I have a few interviews in the next few weeks.)

We ate dinner at one of our all-time-favorite Chicago restaurants, Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinders. Problem is, it's everyone else's favorite, too, and we waited an hour and twenty minutes for a table. But it was worth the wait. After dinner, we went to The Second City for a hilarious show, America: All Better! We spent some lovely quality time at the Art Institute. One of the best parts was an exhibit of portraits by Yousuf Karsh. He photographed everyone, from Elizabeth II to Walt Disney to Audrey Hepburn, and the exhibit was really fantastic.

We went to the Chicago Public Library main branch for the first time and it's a lovely place. The picture above is an atrium on the 9th floor. They also had an interesting Lincoln exhibit.

This was one of my favorite "library" quotes on the walls of the Chicago Public Library. "The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man." T.S. Eliot.

One more picture from the library -- a future librarian!

The main reason for our trip to Chicago was to see This American Life, live at the Chicago Theatre. It was amazing! We got to see it again in a local theatre on Thursday night, and it was maybe even more amazing in the movie theatre because we were seeing Ira Glass's face up close and huge on the big screen instead from 2 balconies back. We're huge, giant fans of TAL. You should listen to it if it's available on your local NPR station. My favorite story from the live show was Dan Savage's story about faith, loss of faith, and his mother's death.

Below are just a couple of random photos from our walk around Chicago. First, some cabbages growing in a flower pot and second, a giant "American Gothic" statue with the two iconic people as world travelers.

Rita Dove at Purdue University

Last night we had the pleasure of hearing and seeing Rita Dove at Purdue University. (The picture is awfully dark -- my bad.) Our good friend Karl, who is a student at Purdue, invited us for the evening and it was fantastic. Dove, who I studied back in "Women Writing Poetry" in the English department at USU, is a very accomplished poet, and was actually the U.S. Poet Laureate for a couple of years in the '90s. Last night she read from her new book, Sonata Mullatica, which is a book of poems (including a farcical play somewhere in the middle) that tells the story of George Bridgewater, a mullato violinist to whom Beethoven dedicated a violin sonata. Dove has a wonderful reading voice and stage presence and the reading was just lovely. One of her most interesting comments was about learning to play music and learning to write -- they're very similar, in that one must learn very good technique in order to play/write so that it looks effortless. Very interesting.

We spent a bit of time with Karl in Lafayette, then (thanks to Karl) listened to Neko Case's new album Middle Cyclone on the drive home. I highly recommend the album. The song "This Tornade Loves You" is incredible.

Finally, here's a very cute kitty, keeping me company while I read Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer:

Happy Easter!

It was a windy (but sunny) Easter Sunday in central Illinois.

Choir Concert

For the past few months I've been singing with a choir called the Heritage Singers. It's been fabulous -- the directors and members of the choir are really talented. It's exciting to sing with a group that can pick up a fairly complex piece of music, sight-read it, and have it performance-ready within a couple of rehearsals. The group is made up of graduate students and spouses of graduate students at the University of Illinois and we rehearse at the LDS Institute of Religion. This week we had an Easter concert at St. Matthew Lutheran church in Urbana and it was really great. I don't have any pictures, but our program contained:

• Two motets: "Jubilate Deo" by Mozart and "Regina caeli" by Lotti
• Two hymns of Zion: "Peace Unto Zion," a Shaker hymn, and "Beautiful Zion, Built Above" from the LDS hymnbook
• Three spirituals: "I Wanna Be Ready," "Balm in Gilead," and "Walk Together, Children"
• Two hymns: "Where Can I Turn for Peace" and "Come, Thou Glorious Day of Promise"
• and three new Easter anthems: "Song of Creation and Salvation," "This Is the Christ," and "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need."

The audience was small but appreciative and the choir sounded great in the big, open space of the church's sanctuary.

Where all the cool kids hang out

(found at librarian.net)