Things went according to plan. I wrote more articles and papers, with a view to a book submission a bit further along the line. As you’ve read in earlier blogposts, I did eventually submit my thesis for publication with Ashgate. It included an extra chapter, written to embrace the research that I did subsequent to the PhD. As I write this, I have a rather wonderful document in front of me – my book. My copies have just arrived by post, in advance of their publication mid-March 2013. We’re having a launch in the Whittaker Library on 26th April, with talks from me and our Director of Academic Development, and music from some of our students and friends.

I’ve also given occasional lectures at two of our local universities, and talks to some local interest groups.

Best of all, I’m currently seconded for 40% of my time to be a postdoctoral research fellow on an AHRC-funded project involving the Universities of Glasgow and Cambridge. Which you could say is the best of both worlds, as I still have the stability of the “day-job”, whilst having the opportunity to extend my research interests. It benefits other people, too, as a new professional has the opportunity to cover my librarianship role for those two days a week – and that effectively developes expertise for the next generation of subject librarians. (I’m not at the end of my career yet – as the main breadwinner, I have four hungry males to support – but I’m more than halfway through.)

Having worked full-time as a librarian for nearly three decades, it’s interesting to find myself job-sharing for the first time. It’s working well; we’re getting used to the leaving “handover notes” for each other, not to mention tasks left half-done for someone else to complete, queries partially answered, and the catching up that occupies those first hours back on the job again.

My research existence takes place outside the library – whether elsewhere in the Conservatoire building, or across at the University – and the first thing I learned on Day One was not to show my face in the Library on a research day! If you’re seen, you’re naturally enough assumed to be available. And cries of “while you’re here …”, just cause embarrassment all round. Best not to be there, until Wardrobe run me up a cloak of invisibility.

I wasn’t intending to open library-related emails on research days, and an out-of-office message alerts my unavailability, though I’ve realised it keeps things flowing more smoothly if I open anything that looks as though it can be answered quickly. After all, I can always forward it to my mini-me.

So – does having a PhD make a difference?

We had our first project team plenary meeting last week. I almost had to pinch myself! I might not have ascended to the dizzy heights of a promotion, but considering all that I’ve done post-doctorally, having a PhD has certainly made a difference.  I’ve even been asked to talk to postgraduates about career trajectories, and that’s something I never imagined myself doing!  But I’d have to qualify my response to the question.  Complacency gets you nowhere – it takes determination to capitalise on the potential benefits.  But if you can pick up the ball and run with it – that gives you the best chance of benefiting from your hard-earned qualification.

Our Ancient National Airs: Scottish Song Collecting from the Enlightenment to the Romantic Era

However, life goes on, so my music librarian self has continued to sort out reading lists for the new curriculum, catch up with cataloguing, and generally do all the stuff that music librarians do.   And blog for the departmental performing arts blog, Whittaker Live, naturally. (Do take a look, and tell me if you like it!)

In my spare time, I’ve recently written and submitted a completely fresh article about a Victorian song collection that I stumbled across a couple of months ago.  This one was published in Glasgow, and is the earliest I’ve encountered with sol-fa as well as conventional notation.  The editor was a music professor at what became the University of Strathclyde.

The other day, I got an earlier article returned to me.   Our team didn’t win.  (The paper was somewhat savaged, to be honest.)  That hurt, but hey, that’s life.  I took on board the bits of the criticism that made sense, and revised it again last night.  So far, so good.  But this morning,  I awoke with the realisation that I could not send it out into the world again until I’d done a bit more information-gathering.  No point in stating the equivalent of, “And I haven’t bothered to source those twelve books of correspondence.”  It’s okay to say, “I tried but was unable to”, but it’s just not good to do a literary shrug and fling one’s hands up in the air.  So I’ve taken steps.  Here’s hoping I manage to find what I’m looking for!

I’ve kept the most exciting news until last: I’m to be seconded as a part-time post-doc research assistant for an AHRC-funded project at the University of Glasgow!  I can hardly believe that I get to do research for two solid days a week for the next three years.  I mean, I didn’t even get to do that when I was doing my PhD, so this really does feel like a honour and a privilege.  We start later on, in the Autumn.  I’m sure I’ll be blogging about it again once it’s under way.

If I haven’t posted here much of late, it’s because my spare time has been spent working on my book manuscript, and at the same time writing a short series of lectures, a book review and a couple of conference papers.  (Like buses, nothing comes along for ages and then suddenly the opportunities come in a flurry.)

I did an evening talk to a local association a week past Monday; and this weekend I’m off to the IAML(UK & Irl) Annual Study Weekend in Cardiff – with a new paper to deliver.  My research was on historic Scottish song collecting, but last year I gave a paper in Dublin embracing Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies, too.  So it follows that in Cardiff I need to talk about Welsh bards.  (Strange to say, I now know a huge amount more about them than I ever did while I was doing my PhD!)  Still, it’s all grist to the mill – it expands my repertoire of things I feel able to speak on, and everything goes on the CV.

Looking ahead at my diary, I see I need to write another lecture next week, and the following week the final lecture, besides revising a paper for a local conference.

May is looking strangely empty.  I wonder what will turn up to occupy my evenings and weekends?!