This Does Not Define You

 This does not define you. You are more than the grade on a civil service exam. You are a strong, talented, highly educated librarian. You work hard to stay on top of your profession while going to school, working two jobs, raising a family, or maybe still living at home. Every day at the desk adds to the sum total of your experience and knowledge.  Each and every day you become a better, more experienced professional.

You may be an expert in technology, reader’s advisory, or story time. You may struggle to keep up with Live-brary’s never-ending updates. But that does not define you. Your willingness, your dedication, and your determination to succeed will help you leave a mark in the library world regardless of your place on the list or your annual salary.

Wherever you are in your career, you are a valuable member of this profession. We all want to grab that brass ring, to score a 100 and snag a full-time job. Don’t make it your whole world. You’re doing good work. And if no one else has told you that lately, they should have, because it’s true.

So when you sit down to take that test tomorrow, take a deep breath and relax. Do your best and leave the rest to the universe (however you define it). You are more than a grade. You are more than a library professional. You are a valuable, capable, loveable, worthwhile individual.

Good luck, my dear colleagues.  I’ll see you on the other side.

2014 Goals

Well, 2013 was a wild ride!  The cats are exhausted.  Time to strap in for the new year and set a few goals down in writing ... just to keep me honest.  So for 2014 I'd like to ...


Read 50 books cover to cover, according to Shelfari I made it 36 this year.  I know there were a few I didn't post there, so for 2013 I'll give myself 40. Fifty should be doable.

Create a file of annotations to use for Reader's Advisory and bibliographies. 

Be more consistent about posting book reviews on the blog every Friday.

Post something every Tuesday: tech tips, interesting articles, observations, who knows.  And yes, I realize today is Wednesday, this is a goal to strive for, and I've got some work to do in the organization department, too.

Read more industry literature: Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, books from our professional development collection, etc.  I've been a little sporadic about that sort of thing.  The only thing I read consistently every month is AudioFile, but then I do order the audio books for the adult department at my library.

Rack up at least 20 hours of professional development: Webinars, MOOCs, conferences, in-service training, etc.  I've recorded 29.5 for 2013.

Keep working on the ARRT Popular Fiction List.  I've found it is a valuable tool for helping me become more familiar with authors and genres I don't always read.  Reading something from the list every month gets me out of my comfort zone and makes me a better reader's adviser.  

So that's the plan for 2014.  We'll see how it goes.
Happy New Year!

Library Service Win

We really didn't do anything special.  It was just the Adult Services staff doing what we always do.  But we made a difference...
Last Tuesday an older woman came to the desk asking to use a public access computer.  She was shaking like a leaf.  And she told us her story. 

The night before she'd gotten a phone call from someone claiming to warn her that her PC was in danger of crashing.  When she went to her PC her cursor was moving seemingly by itself.  The man on the phone said he could "fix" the problems with her computer, but she'd have to pay him.  She pulled the plugs on her computer, hung up the phone, and called the police!! 

And now she was in the library hoping to access her email and online accounts to make sure everything was okay.  She asked if we could recommend someone to help her with her computer, so we gave her the number for the local Geek Squad.  We also recommend Norton Anti-Virus.  Then I logged her onto a computer.  And when she was too nervous to log into her email account, I helped her get there, too.  When she opened her email and everything was still there, I could see her visibly relax.  Later one of my co-workers helped her with something else, and then I was with her again helping her print some documents. Every time we worked with her she told us her story again.

So that's it.  We did our jobs and we listened.

Yesterday, when I got to work there was a gift bag addressed to me on the counter.  It was from our patron.  A thank you note to me and the rest of the staff (my name was the only one she remembered) and a delicious box of cookies, to let us know she appreciated our efforts.

What a great feeling. 

Reader's Advisory Win!!

Last week a woman came up to the Adult Services Desk with her young daughter in tow.  The daughter had an armful of books from the Children's Department.  The mother told me that she wanted a book to read so could set a good example to her daughter by reading along with her.
     "But," she said. "I don't read, I just watch movies."
So there went 90% of the standard RA interview.  She doesn't read, she doesn't have a  favorite book, nothing she's hated, doesn't know what kind of  genre she might like.  So I asked her what movies she's liked recently.
    "Harry Potter and Twilight"
Did she want to read the books?
    "Well the story's pretty much the same isn't it?"
So I recruited my co-workers at the desk for some ideas and plunged into the stacks.  What might be a good fit?  Something magical? paranormal? romantic? historical?  character driven? Nothing to heavy or dark.  I thought perhaps something on which a movie might be based. AND, of course, something on the shelf right now that I can put in her hands and that I know enough about to explain and sell.
   Eegad!!!
I gave her The White Queen by Philippa Gregory and One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (my co-worker's suggestion), we looked for a Neil Gaiman, but he wasn't on the shelf.  She seemed pleased and hopeful that she would like the books and off she went.

Yesterday, I was home and got an e-mail from my co-worker, the woman had come back.  She LOVED The White Queen and finished it in three days.  Huzzah!!!  A reader is born.

In the immortal words of Hannibal Smith, "I love it when a plan comes together."

Book Review Friday ...

A confession.  I am reading 3 books right now, and I'm only up to about chapter 3 in each of them.  It's not as crazy as it sounds, one print book, one audio book, and one on my nook.  But I can't do a book review justice on only 3 chapters.  In addition, my older daughter is graduating from high school this weekend and reading and writing have taken a back seat.
So, to keep the promise to myself to get my blogging act together and post SOMETHING.  Here's a link to a great blog post at the AMACOM Book Blog.  "Discovering the Library and the World" by AMACOM's managing editor Andy Ambraziejus is an essay on what libraries meant to him growing up and how he feels about libraries now.  As a librarian it was good to read about someone with such warm memories and strong feelings about, what I think, we are all trying to accomplish in our libraries. 

Here's a sample of what he had to say:

"For me, the library was both a refuge and a place of discovery during adolescence and my teen years."

"The memory is of a place, a place where I felt at home.  Safe and secure, and away from the tumult of the real world with its responsibilities and sometimes conflicting demands. The quiet hush was not oppressive but nurturing, a place to unwind and relax and start exploring everything the library had to offer. And being surrounded by other people doing the same thing gave added comfort and security.  There were other people like me who preferred this place to hanging out or playing outside.  I wasn’t alone."

This is how I want people to feel about the library.  This is the goal of every transaction and communication, to make patrons feel welcome, safe, and home.

Bench marks for a good day

A benchmark is an incredibly useful thing. 

Surveyors use them to measure elevation.

I use them as a way to measure my relative failure or success.  Lately in the library I've developed a few new ones.  For example, any day when the police don't come and there are no bodily fluids on the floor or furnishings is a good day.  It's incredibly easy to have a good day when you're keeping it all in perspective.  It just depends on where you put your bench marks.