I started this blog to keep track of professional activities and accomplishments, but I haven’t posted since October 2019. I’d like to say I’ve been super busy (I have been busy, just not super busy), but the fact is that I’ve had some trouble staying motivated the past few months. This isn’t the first time I’ve fallen off my blog-writing schedule, and I doubt it will be the last, but I’m happy to be back here sharing my professional journey.

Recently, my circumstances have changed so much that I’ve been reevaluating my priorities and how I spend my time. My husband landed a job in Boise (yay!) and we’ll be moving there in April. I’m currently working remotely for COVID-19 reasons, and will continue to do so when I move to Boise. I’m ridiculously excited to make the transition to remote work because I love being at home and I feel like I’m more productive when I have control over my distractions. The other major plus to working from home is that I’ll get two to three hours back in my day from my commute, and I’d like to put that time to good use. So I’m taking this time to re-evaluate my goals so I can spend this extra time wisely.

I picked up web development a few months ago, and I’m still learning the basics. I switched to a different Udemy course that I like much better, and I started a #100DaysOfCode challenge in January (I’m on Day 56!). My original reason for learning web development was to develop a skill-set that would allow me to pursue full-time employment as a front-end web developer, but as I’ve spent more time in this world, my ambitions have changed. Now, I’m learning web development to add another tool to my librarian toolbox and also because it’s a fun hobby 😄.

I’ve also been working on a research project for the upcoming Medical Library Association annual meeting in (now) August. I’ll be presenting a poster on the role of non-randomized studies in rapid reviews, and I’m currently in the data abstraction stage. I’m lucky to have one of my colleagues helping me out on this project and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Most recently, I joined a group called the Librarian Reserve Corps that will be sorting through COVID-19 literature and sending it off to the people that need the information the most. We’re just getting ourselves put together, but I’m looking forward to putting the search skills I’ve been honing over the last 10 months to good use during this crisis.

There’s a lot more for me to talk about, but I’ll save that for another post!