Seasoning Librarianship: Seeking Nourishment on the Tenure Path

Abstract

This exploratory chapter uses the metaphor of preparing a meal to reflect on early tenure-track academic librarianship. Exploring the roots of slow librarianship in the slow food movement, it resists a culture of speed to prioritize attentiveness and intention in the tenure-track process. The author offers personal adaptions for the pre-tenure period including strategic intention, seasonal approaches to teaching and research, and a reconsideration of purposeful busyness. The chapter makes a case for nourishment as a legitimate aim of academic work and for connection and care as a foundation for sustainable, authentic librarianship.