Well known in OLA as an active contributor to our organization, Janet will be retiring from the University of Guelph in May 2011 after 35 years of service. Janet served as OCULA President in 2000 and as OLA President in 2006. In 2003 OCULA recognized her contributions to academic librarianship with its annual award. I recently took the opportunity to chat with Janet, a colleague of 25 years, to record her thoughts on academic librarianship as a career and some of her experiences.

How did you get into the profession?

I graduated in 1974 from the University of Waterloo. I considered going into law, and had been accepted for an MA in history at Waterloo. While doing my BA I worked at the UW Library in the government documents unit. Carolyn Presser, who was the head of the unit, was encouraging about the profession. I saw that librarians had interesting jobs. I was also a big public library user as a kid and was nurtured and encouraged by staff at Waterloo Public Library. That was a subtle influence, perhaps. Carolyn helped me decide to attend the library school at the University of Toronto.

Talk about your career at Guelph. What roles have you taken on?

I have had many roles in the library starting out as a Government Documents librarian and moving on to become the Head of the Government Documents & Media Resources unit. After about 13 years in gov docs I moved outside the library into the position of Director of the University’s Employment and Educational Equity Office. I did that for three and a half years before coming back into the library as a social science reference librarian (with responsibility for the map collection). When the library reorganized and consolidated the social sciences and arts subject sections, I chose to move into a science reference librarian position. Other opportunities arose and I was able to take on the role of Manager of Information Literacy and Distance Education programming, and as a result of another reorganization several years ago I became the Head of Information Services. Most recently, as a result of a major library restructuring, I’ve moved into a new team called Discovery & Access and will be coordinating the library’s research help (reference) desk, and be responsible for carrying out a review of the team’s services. I’ve had lots of roles at Guelph. Probably one of the reasons I’ve stayed is because I’ve had the opportunity to take on different challenges and learn different skills.

What do you love about the profession? What made you stay for so long?

I love the fact that libraries are so dynamic – particularly in last 15 years or so. The library I started working in is strikingly different from the one I’m in today. There are always new things to engage in and new ways to do it. I suspect that without the changes (changes in roles, changes in environment) that the challenge would have disappeared for me. Working directly with users, especially undergraduates, has always been something I enjoyed. Starting in gov docs I found that I was helping people with questions for which there were no straightforward answers. The questions were always interesting and different, and the hunt for the answers enjoyable. I’ve also always enjoyed doing instruction.

Did you have any mentors who guided you early on in your career?

I’ve had lots of informal mentors and role models. One of the reasons I came to Guelph was because of Margaret Beckman [Chief Librarian at the time]. Margaret believed very strongly that librarians needed to be visible outside the library and build relationships with the community. Margaret very much encouraged the librarians to become involved in activities outside their day-to-day jobs as librarians. One of the first opportunities I had to do that was to become a library representative to the Faculty Association’s council. This was not a coveted role because of the politics involved but it was a great opportunity. I met lots of other folks on campus and learned a lot about the institution. [Janet served the Faculty Association in many capacities over the years including a term as chair]. There have also been lots of people outside the nniversity that I’ve met in my volunteer work that encouraged me to develop new skills that have been complementary to my work as an academic librarian.

What is it about the OLA that got you involved in the first place? What’s kept you involved?

I’d been an OLA member from the late 1970s but drifted away from it when I worked outside the library. When I came back into academic librarianship the first conference I attended was the 1995 Super Conference. I was so impressed with the organization of the conference and the content that I contacted the OCULA President, Sue Moskal (a gov docs librarian at Waterloo), to tell her how much I enjoyed it. Sue asked if I’d be interested in taking on conference planning for the next two years. I finished the stint as planner and then moved into an OCULA Council role as Vice President. As Vice President and President of an OLA division you attend OLA Board meetings. There I got to know other people from the various divisions and was drawn into a broader range of issues and interests of OLA. As a librarian in academia I’ve seen that it’s easy to get caught up in what you do in your environment and be uninformed about what’s going on in other library sectors. The work with OLA made me more aware of issues related to all kinds of libraries and all kinds of librarianship. Often that broader knowledge has enabled me to make connections in things happening in my institution or universities in general.

What advice do you have for people coming into the profession?

Think about what you hope for in your career not just your first job. Have a plan – your horizon has to be beyond “I just want to be a reference librarian.” With a plan you can be prepared for opportunities when they arise. Be open minded – you may not want to be a Chief Librarian but you shouldn’t discount moving into management roles. I wish more beginning librarians were interested in management – it’s not necessarily why you become a librarian but we need skilled people in those positions.

Jim Brett is a librarian on the Information Resources Team at the University of Guelph. jimbrett@uoguelph.ca