When I made the career shift from training and development of library staff to instructional design at a university, I had some trepidation about moving away from the library world. Is this goodbye? Am I throwing away all those years of experience and service? Have I made a horrible mistake? Of course, it wasn’t a complete right-turn in my career path, just a fork in the road. I would still be using the same skills. Right? In the back of my mind, I feared I was abandoning the best part of my life. Would I come to regret this decision?

It’s been a couple months since I made the leap, and this is what I know so far.  I use my librarian skills every day. Understanding copyright is a huge need. Being able to explain why some usage is okay and other uses are not is a valuable skill. I am using information literacy skills constantly. Is this learning material valuable? Who produced it? What was their motive?  In my environment, the instructional designer is the project manager. There are tight deadlines, many moving parts, and a number of people to track in the process. This is the organization of knowledge, or at least the organization of information that will become another’s knowledge. I’m librarying all the time. Essentially, my job is to help others introduce their content in a structured manner that supports the acquisition of knowledge. I help people educate students. But who helps me?
I have the obvious support system that is my coworkers. It’s a team with discussions and ideas to help each project be its best. Still, when I’m in the groove of designing and developing, it is my university library I turn to for things. Maybe I go there out of familiarity? I did, after all, come to this position after a couple decades working with libraries. It’s a safe space for me. They are family.  I have the privilege of knowing the library is a foundational pillar to which all of our most vital institutional processes are connected in some way. In reflecting on how I have used my university’s library in the brief time I’ve been in this role, I realize I used it to:

• Identify a go-to citation builder to properly format citations in a course module for content provided by faculty. I’m used to one format, but the different academic units I work with use others, so it is helpful to have a tool at the ready.
• Locate research to support instructional methods. Yes, there really is research suggesting that learners prefer alternatives to 90-minute talking-head videos. I kid. Not about the talking head videos, but the research I look for is more focused on the application of tools.
• Seek Open Educational Resources (OER) supporting course content by using the guides and up to date links the librarians have created.
• Research instructional design, universal design for learning, and accessibility information for my personal professional needs. The library is kind enough to deliver physical materials right to my office.
• Find a new bibliographic citation manager for my personal professional research. My new university-sponsored email address gets me access to a few no-cost options I didn’t have before.

My career as a librarian was a unique situation where, much of the time, I was a librarian who did not work at a library. I was working in consortia or the state library; I was a sort of librarians’ librarian. I was being a librarian but always interacted with my local library as a customer. I’m delighted to find myself in that role still. As a customer, the university library has already demonstrated value to me — and this when I know I have more to learn about their offerings. Better, though, I find myself in a new relationship with the library. Partner.
I’m thrilled to see how my department within the university is partnering with the library on things like OERs and academic program development. I look forward to opportunities to partner with them more as I dig into my new role. This new role, though, is not all too different from my previous role. The familiarity of functions is reassuring, and make for an excellent base upon which this bold new adventure will be built.  As usual, it appears I had nothing to worry about when I made my leap.