In the past two weeks I was fortunate to have two one-day opportunities to meet and learn from academic library colleagues. First, I got to attend the Vermont Library Association College & Special Library section‘s annual conference, “Reaching Across the Aisle, Reaching Across the Desk: Engagement, Inclusion, & Outreach in Academic Libraries.” Then I went to WALDO’s Open Access Forum at Simmons College. Afterwards, I visited Harvard’s Countway Library of Medicine, where a colleague generously spent about forty-five minutes telling me about her job and discussing some of our common challenges. 

Not only did I come home with notes and photos (of signage and of a well dressed skeleton) and email addresses and a renewed feeling of community with my fellow librarians, I came home well-fed. By which I mean, I felt nourished, both informationally and professionally. Taking time to meet and talk with other librarians about our work, I was able to reflect on my place in this profession, and in a long tradition of librarians serving students and faculty. Taking time to type up my notes, I was able to spend time thinking about what ideas might work at some point in my own library (a mindfulness space in the library,  participating in Fair Use Week, blogging about special collections, participating in online faculty orientation, using some new hashtags to spice up our social media channels), and what might be required to implement these ideas. And to think appreciatively about those ideas which might not work at my institution (a 24 hour library, embedded librarians, tiered student workers), but which I’m glad someone is carrying out in theirs.

Are you well-fed in your work? There are many other ways to nourish yourself besides getting to a conference or meeting like these, such as participating in online discussion groups, reading professional journals and blogs, or just picking up the phone or sending an email to a counterpart at another library and asking for a few minutes to chat. What do you do to feed your professional self?