Sabbatical Musings
July 2009
This month’s column is being written on the eve of a four-month sabbatical that will take me away from the Choice office through this coming September. This, I hasten to add, promises to be a completely novel experience. It will mark the first time in a now improbably long publishing career that I will have been away from work for longer than two weeks. It’s a wonderful prospect, but also a terrifying one. How will Choice get along without me? What if things go better during my absence? What if they don’t want me back?
And how will I get along without Choice? What exactly will I do with myself when I don’t need to set out on that fifty-mile commute to Middletown first thing Monday morning? Tuesday morning? Wednesday morning? Belatedly, I am reminded of the old proverb, “Be careful what you wish for.” Still, it’s a bit late for sabbatical remorse. Ready or not, this particular change is a-comin’, and the question is not whether to deal with it, but how.
Fortunately, I know that I’m leaving Choice in good hands. During my absence, Fran Graf, our indefatigable editorial director and twenty-five-plus-year Choice veteran, will be acting editor and publisher. This is an encore role for Fran, who wore the same hat during the extended interval between the departure of Patricia Sabosik, my predecessor, and my August 1995 arrival. More than anyone, myself included, Fran knows the ropes at Choice. Fair, firm, and nearly unflappable, Fran can and will steer the good ship Choice with one hand while tending to her other multitudinous chores with the other. I will owe her big time when I return, but I will sleep well while I’m away, knowing that Fran is on duty.
As always, the rest of the Choice staff will step up to the plate as well. For example, Becky Bartlett, our irrepressible and talented humanities editor, will be assuming all or some of the editorial writing duties. It won’t be difficult to identify Becky’s editorials. If they’re lively, colorful, sophisticated, and provocative, they’re Becky’s. Which raises the question of why we haven’t already just turned the job over to Becky in the first place? There’s a reason for that though. The current editor and publisher needs something to do, and he likes to write editorials too.
On a more serious note, it’s hard to ignore that this personal escapade is taking place at a time of considerable economic and financial distress. Like you, I am only too well aware of the tumultuous changes now buffeting our global and national economies, and their depressing impact on academic library budgets and the scholarly communication system. The past decade and a half has not been an easy time for either academic libraries or scholarly publishers. Right now, the next decade doesn’t look so great either, but maybe our real problem is cloudy vision. That’s what I’d like to think anyhow, as I contemplate these coming days of personal change. The only thing I’m sure of today is that together we will find a way. Good luck to us all, and for now, au revoir.—IER
|
