Do any of your family members have unexplained nicknames? My oldest relative on my Chinese side has been called "Crying Uncle" for as long as I can remember. He tends to get emotional at all our family functions; I always supposed he just had a sensitive nature.

 

I never gave it a second thought until earlier this year, when someone dropped the actual reason he has trouble containing his emotions: the psychological trauma he sustained during the Communist Revolution. How I missed that bit of backstory my whole life, I really don't know.

 

But that's not even the most unusual nickname in my family by any stretch. My dad has been called "Rick" pretty much his whole life. It's how his friends know him, and my mom, and even his siblings. His real name? Nowhere close to Rick. And I have no idea how that one came about, either. I'm starting to think I've missed more than a little backstory.

 

Speaking of missing out, don't forget to take a look at these new CLIR+DLF Jobs:

 

• Software Engineer, Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries
• Biology/Biochemistry Information Specialist, California Institute of Technology
• Systems Engineer, Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries
• Systematic Review Librarian, University of Florida, Gainesville
• Director of Instructional and Curricular Design (Equity and Inclusion), Bates College
• Library Assistant IV, Columbia University Libraries
• Metadata Management Librarian, Stanford University
• Research Fellow, Metadata Architecture, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian
• Data Services Coordinator/Assistant Professor, UNC Greensboro University Libraries
• Music Librarian, Tufts University

 

Know someone who may want to receive the Digest without signing up for the DLF listserv? Send them this way, to our new mailing list. View listings on our site or by tracking #DLFjobs. If you have a position description to share with the community, you can submit it quickly—for free, if you’re from a CLIR Sponsor or DLF Member institution.

 

With regret for the embarrassingly uncreative nickname,

“Becca”

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Rebecca Quon | she/her/hers

Program Officer

Council on Library & Information Resources (CLIR)

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