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[born2late]

B2L (and sikora, I think as well): Would the adjuncting help with library privs? I teach PT occasionally at a different school and they let all PT faculty use their library and ILL.

This may or may not apply in any case, but sometimes schools offer alumni privs for school services, including the library (and in some cases, some percentage off the going tuition rate)

I would think so. The place I'm hoping to adjunct at is a CC, but if they allow ILL privs for adjuncts, then I would still have access to a wealth of materials. One of the best things going for ILL requests is WolrdCat.

[secretweapon]

Two pieces of information that I discovered recently that are really fabulous:

1.  My undergrad alma mater has opened its electronic reserves up to alumni (as well as in-person access - I don't know about borrowing rights, but I live a few thousand miles away so I don't really care).  You have to sign up but it's free - they give you a password and you log in through their website.  I can now access all the online journals I need!  I am absolutely thrilled.  I'm not sure how this came about - the Alumni Association may have been involved - but it might be worth checking if any of the universities you attended offer such a thing, or would consider doing so.  (If you want to petition a university to do this, you're welcome to PM me and I'll tell you the name of the university that's doing it).

2.  My professional association (AHA) will offer letters of introduction for its members.  This means that when my archival library cards expire -as most of them have done or will soon - I'll be able to get letters of introduction, which some libraries may require.

[bibliothecula]

Also, and I just posted this elsewhere, NCIS is offering a list of libraries that offer access and info about how to get it as a membership perk. Might be worth the fee (I think memberships start at something like $20) to get the info.

[malcha]

Also, and I just posted this elsewhere, NCIS is offering a list of libraries that offer access and info about how to get it as a membership perk. Might be worth the fee (I think memberships start at something like $20) to get the info.

Here's the link to the thread bibliothecula posted on -- that thread has other suggestions that may be useful as well.

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,57277.0.html

[tt_wannabe]

My question is how does one become an independent scholar?

No, really.

I have a Masters degree, but one would think of it as more 'professional' in that there was no thesis or research of any kind. I'm an adjunct (I also work full time) so I have the resources of a library and ILL available to me (and they are pretty good). I read a lot in my field and subscribe to a few journals. I haven't attended any conferences (and I know thta is something I should change). I think I have good ideas for studies (or at least questions that really intrigue me; I know, everybody does), but I don't have any experience with study design, quant. or qual. analysis, etc. Why would anyone give me grant money without a background like that? I suppose I could write a paper in my field of interest and submit it to get started. But I don't really have any experience doing that either.

How do you break in?

[dept_geek]

Get out and meet people. Go to conferences. See if anyone is doing interesting things. Talk to them. Volunteer for groups in your professional field.  Oh, and write. For small journals, big journals, interesting newsletters, .... Just start writing.

Others will have much more and speak in dulcet tones. I prefer short sentences.

[dellaroux]

Start putting it under your name:

Name
"Independent Scholar"
Field

Works for some...

[malcha]

Copied from another thread, since I think it is good to keep this one live and linked to relevant discussions elsewhere on the fora.

Just a reminder--while of course, one wants the TT position, not getting it should not be equated with having to leave academic work and life entirely. It's possible to have tentmaking jobs and stay active in research, writing and conference presentions.

I've had to do that; when necessary I would get to bed two hours earlier, get up two hours earlier, and do the writing then.

I could also take an occasional day off (or, if working near libraries, long-ish lunches) to get specific research done and hit the public library on weekends for more mundane stuff.

Actually having paid vacation days meant that when I needed to do a couple of longer research trips, it wasn't all on my own dime, either. And I"m really not interested in lying on beaches, anyway. Give me a good library trip any day...you meet more interesting people.

At one place, I negotiated for a Thursday afternoon 2.5 hour time release in exchange for the fact that I often had to stay late to accommodate a particular person's requirements and rarely took a full lunch hour. Library time!

A friend negotiated a two-hour-longer day on M-T-W and Friday, and got Thursdays off as a library day; then used Sat for her second library day and Sun for writing up stuff. She has two books coming out soon.

Further discussion on this may belong on a different thread, but it just seems worth saying on this one that it is vitally IMPORTANT to keep your work afloat in whatever ways you can. (especially while waiting to hear....)

I'm starting to see results, and if I'd let things go in those periods past, I wouldn't have been able to get stuff done now because I'd have been catching up to myself when I could have been working.

So, don't think you have to throw out the baby just because the bathwater looks like it's starting to drain....and don't pull any plug before its time.

[secretweapon]

Thanks, Malcha!

[minidonut]

Thank you, SW, for starting this thread - which I stumbled upon due to a mention on another thread (and glad I did).  I agree that with the job market the way it is, there may be many of us who become, by choice or circumstance, IS's.

But I absolutely promise that if I do "become" one, and present at a conference while one, I'm going to insist that they put my (day)job title as my affiliation, NOT "independent scholar" - e.g:

Minidonut
Hairdresser

[born2late]

Born2late
Wal-Mart door greeter

[malcha]

Malcha
Cat Piller

[secretweapon]

Secretweapon
Motivational speaker

Secretweapon
Blogger Extraordinaire

Secretweapon
Housewife who writes academic books

Secretweapon
DSM

I like this idea, if only for the potential comic effect.

[frenchdoctor]

I always enjoy the reactions of my "colleagues" when they ask : "and you, where do you teach ?" or "what do you do ?" -- and politely frown at my answers. Since I'm published by a good UP, they always assume I'm "maître de conférence" or something.

Me ? No title, no affiliation, no institution, no ranking, no boss, no administrator, no bureaucracy, no bibliometrics, no aggressive whiny grade-grubbers to entertain (*)...

"Frenchdoctor, lone rider" or "Frenchdoctor, maverick" would be nice. I'd wear my Texan hat, let my spurs ring on the floor of the Sorbonne, show that clinteastwoodian look of mine when I start my speech, and everyone would marvel at my freedom.

Or laugh.

All in all, I prefer to keep a low profile. To gain respect when you're independant is very difficult -- and rightly so, since so many wackos lurk in the vicinities of universities. People have good reasons to be suspicious about independant scholars : the huge majority of them work on the influence of ET activities on various forms of governement, explain Einstein equations thanks to his wife's horoscope, claim Elvis was inspired by the Mahabharata, provide evidence that Shakespeare wasn't Shakespeare and ascertain that Tex Avery actually wrote Auden's poetry (**).

You have to prove you're a serious scholar before everything else. Don't rush anything and humbly wait to be accepted by the community.

And, of course, if Yale, Cambridge or Harvard call, I might reconsider my position.


----------------------
(*) but no salary, no research budget either... It's a trade-off. This said, many "official" researchers, in France, don't have budgets, don't have good salary and don't have much spare-time for research either. Because of general pauperization, my situation seems less weird as time goes by. Alas.

(**) thanks to post-modernism and cultural studies, many official researchers also work on such matters. Here again, things tend to equalize.

[secretweapon]

Great post, Frenchdoctor!  In my field, independent scholar is too often synonymous with "local historian who only wants to know how many pairs of shoes a certain nineteenth-century D-list aristrocrat owned" or "weirdo who is trying to get historical justification for extreme, possibly violent political views." 

Another problem is the suspicion of people who have "gone commercial" and marketed their work to a broader audience.  I think, in cases where the quality of the work has not suffered, the suspicion is often rooted in snobbery (who wouldn't like to actually make money on their books?).