Space

Some days, working in a library means being surrounded by books, computers, piles of report, patrons, and more meetings than anyone should be forced to attend. It can get overwhelming, even for those of us who are the biggest library fans.

So, today remember to take a few minutes in a crowded day to gain some space for yourself. Push back from the desk and walk outside for a few minutes. Step into an empty section of the stacks for some alone time. Close your eyes and picture endless blue skies, or ocean waves, or another image that works for you.

Take the space you need, and get refreshed.

Then you can dive back into the hurley burley of an active library -  ready to be fantastic again!

Roll with it!

So I was surprised to see snow this morning! It's April and I was pretty sure all our snow was done.

This reminded me of working in any public library: the unexpected seems to happen fairly often! Part of being effective in a public library is flexibility. You need to know how to handle 50 extra kids, or water running down the walls, or the catalog ceasing operations one day. (I'd add in the toilets doing excitingly unexpected things - but that's not really a surprise, is it?)

Being resilient in the face of change, ready to salvage a good program from a potential disaster - it not only makes you a better librarian, but should help you to cope with the stress of work.

Head out and explore your environment! Are there unexpected events occurring today? What unexpected people have you met? Definitely keep your eyes out for the great kinds of surprises too!

I'm hoping for more unexpected chocolates in your desk, and fewer exploding  toilets for you today!

Have a marshmallow!

While we are thinking about happiness, it is always good to have a few little treats. Money CAN buy happiness for a while: having enough food, a place to live, and paying the bills regularly, can all diminish stress.

After that, you need other things to increase your happiness.

So if you are a marshmallow fan, go out today and have a couple! If you prefer other small treats, go ahead and have that! Are we structure some larger-scale workplace stress reducers, don't lose track of the small daily things you can do for your own happiness.

The Marshmallow Principle: Have a small treat to increase your happiness!

And of course one of the best ways to make yourself happy is to do nice things for other people. So if you have a friend who loves marshmallows, today is the day to give her a marshmallow! Applying The Marshmallow Principle to your colleagues can help to make the workplace better for everyone.

Finding Your Way: Stressed out in the Library

Sometimes the path just disappears

Sometimes when you are trying to figure out how to get things done, it seems like everything will be too challenging, or the effort will be too hard - your path is gone and even if there is another way it's going to be hard. 

I like to talk about stress in libraries, not because we are bad places - we are not! - but because it seems important to point out that this is a real problem. Every time I've given a conference presentation about stress in libraries, I always have people who whisper (it's always a whisper) how happy they are that someone is talking about it, because they thought they were the only ones.

I plan to spend a lot of time here talking about making the library workplace happier, because I think it is something we can all improve! I've broken library workplace happiness into three categories we can change: individual, organization, and profession. Too many pieces of advice stop at the individual level: smile more! take a deep breath! And sure, those are good. But to really make the whole library workplace a better and less stressful place to work, we need to work on issues that span the library, and issues that cross the entire profession.

For today, I only have small, individual suggestions for busting stress - because we have to start somewhere and starting small is useful. When we can be happier with ourselves and our lives, it can spread around to others; contagious emotions are real. So yes: smile more! Take a deep breath! These things will be small benefits, and small benefits can be good.

I have been a big fan of Gretchen Rubin's ideas on increasing happiness since her first book, and I have recently started listening to her podcast "Happier with Gretchen Rubin." Yesterday I listened to an episode that resonated with me, as a librarian and prolific book reader:  May 20, 2015 Podcast 13: Stop Reading a Book, a Know-Yourself-Better Quiz, and the Trap of Free Stuff If you don't like a book, stop reading it! It feels like something we would tell our patrons; but I've seen librarians grimly persevere through books because they "have" to finish. More than anyone else, we should really know that life is short and books are unlimited - so just quit the ones you don't enjoy! I have been guilty of this in the past, but I do feel free now when I realize I'm hating a book, waiting for the main character to get hit by a car, or find myself grading papers in an effort to avoid finishing it - that I can just quit. I delete it from my Goodreads account, and I'm free! Yes, it's a small step. Her podcast has a lot of other small steps to take - a new one each episode - so feel free to check it out for yourself. 

Find some other small things that make you happier as a librarian: read books, use the Overdrive app to hear books by great readers, listen to podcasts, go to conferences, join listserves and chat with other librarians who like things you like, organize something, gamify something. We are a fantastic profession, filled with interesting and nice people! I think we can start to combat the stress we all feel at work, and taking some small steps will get us there. 

Today we are not solving all our problems; but we are still moving along the path to workplace satisfaction!

Aaahh!

At the end of a long week, it is comforting to just look at the books, remember why we do this, and look forward to a weekend of reading!

It's possible this is just me, but I'm pretty sure a lot of my colleagues will join me in this sentiment!

I wish you a weekend of good books, across all formats!

Be Nice!

Yes, this is like bringing coals to Newcastle.

Librarians are pretty known for being nice, helpful, and generally lovely people. And yes - the stereotype is generally true, we are lovely! Nobody gets into librarianship to make oodles of money (well, if they do they immediately depart I imagine); we get into this for the love of the profession and the desire to help other people.

So yes, nice. This is our thing.

In this election cycle (like most of them, really), we see people behaving on camera in ways that would be horrific in real life, or in people we personally know. Everyone looks at this freak show and resolves to be better than this very low bar of decent behavior

But I think too many librarians confuse being nice with being a doormat. Too  many of us nicely step back and wait for others to give us money or resources to keep the library open and up to standards. We wait patiently for other people to recognize the good things we provide. 

We don't speak up, we don't ask for things, we don't draw attention, we don't like be pushy.

Nobody wants to be the jerks on TV. And let me give a massive round of applause for that! I don't want to be those jerks either.

But there is a middle area that would be great for us to explore, as a profession. That area where we can advocate for ourselves and our communities. Where we stand up and tell people what libraries do for the communities, instead of quietly whispering to each other about it. Where we are not proud of our ability to do more with less - but instead demand more so we can do more!

Advocacy is more than just a nice thing, or something that those rare extroverts in the profession can handle. It is something we all need to do! Today! Tomorrow! Every day after that! The profession needs all of us to stand up and demand better treatment. Our communities need us to tell them what we can do for them, and how much it's going to cost. Our library staff need us to protect them against ignorance, or sheer idiocy, that would see us reduced to nothing but snivelers begging for any leftover budget scraps.

AND YOU CAN DO THIS!  

If you are not sure about your advocacy skills - check out the ALA's site for advocacy. There are lots of helpful tips. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/

If you are nervous about doing something on your own, try working in concert with hundreds of other librarians at the National Library Legislative Day in Washington, D.C.: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/nlld. Also check out your state's legislative day, and attend that.

Do one small thing. Talk to one person. It is literally the least you can do for the profession.

Then tomorrow, do one more small thing. Talk to one more person. Send one letter. Write one press release. Something is better than nothing here!

The profession needs you. You need  the profession and your own library to survive. Advocacy is how it happens!

Go, be nice. 

And get a stable library source of funding from it!

Creativity in library work

Public libraries are amazing creative engines for staff, for patrons, and for communities!

I think this is one of the under-discussed competencies for good librarians; but the ability to be creative is so important for everyone in a public library in all kinds of situations.

It is probably obvious in the Children's department, where people expect creative things to happen, pictures to be drawn, glitter to be spread, and other examples of creativity from both staff and patrons. Even the decorating and furniture in this area is often very creative and cool. Check out some of these great places: https://www.pinterest.com/sbplsystem/childrens-libraries/ And of course, this is great! I want to go visit these libraries, and play with their toys!

And we see a lot of creativity in YA departments as well - all the better to entice this population into the library for our cool things, and hopefully inspiring them to be life-long library supporters! Look at a few of the neat projects libraries doing with YAs: http://www.libraryasincubatorproject.org/?tag=young-adults.

And we can push that creativity into all areas of our work. One big issue every public library needs to be handling is advocacy. Here is some great stories about libraries using digital advocacy projects: http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2015/10/share-your-librarys-impact-with-digital-advocacy/.  I am big fan of storytelling - it helps connect your listener to the important issue you want to cover. Here are some good suggestions: http://www.techsoupforlibraries.org/blog/how-to-advocate-for-your-library-through-storytelling. And of course, the needs of public libraries transcend borders - here are some examples of European libraries advocating for themselves! http://www.publiclibraries2020.eu/

Expand that to other areas of library work. I'm in the middle of a research project on job ads, and I can tell you so far it's pretty grim. Think about adding some color to these! You want to entice people to come work for  your library, so tell them what it is like, the interesting things that happen, the things they might enjoy outside of work: whitewater rafting, breakfast at Tiffany's - whatever your location has to offer! (And always put in a salary, or a salary range!! Don't waste everyone's time.)

I have done research into stress in libraries (more details on that in a future post), and I think that focusing on ways to bring creativity into the work you are doing each day can help you to handle some of the stress that is going to happen. Do something new, try something that seems too hard, talk to different people. Use colored pens. Draw pictures. Bring bubbles to work. Plant some flowers or herbs to share in the library. Just try something that may work for you!

Feel free to share some stories of library creativity in the comments!

“How to Get Away With Murder” and the ethics-friendly organization

Leadership Lessons in Popular Culture

“How to Get Away With Murder” and the ethics-friendly organization

As a manager you want to be thinking about how you will set up an ethics-friendly library. I wave my hands at this show as a great example of pretty much everything you do NOT want to do! If you have not yet heard of it, at least the title should give you some ideas about the ethics going on here. Yes, murdering people is one of the ethics problems that happened in this organization. (Not just once!)

The main character, Annalise Keating, is a significant position of power over a group of interns as both their professor for a required class in their first year, and as their boss at work. She has two other employees, who also assist in supervising the students. Together, these people work to make this an amazing ethics-unfriendly place to work, even discounting the murders that they keep committing.

Okay, yes – that’s a lot to discount. But let’s assume that your library does not have that problem with staff. (If that is not the case, then “call the police” is step one in making your library ethics-friendly!)

A few other ethics problems that come up are potentially more common or likely in a library:

·         Sexual relationship between a supervisor and a student

·         Violation of professional code of ethics (repeatedly, nearly constantly)

·         Violations of the law, not including murder (drugging witnesses, lying about evidence, colluding with other attorneys – really we could be here all day just on this)

·         And yes, murdering people. It is hard to get past that one.

Yes, it’s a TV show and hopefully your library is not as bad. Run, don’t walk, for the door if it is! But every library and archive has the potential to either focus on ethics, or to let them slide. You want to lead in a place where ethics are a part of your daily activity, so let’s lay out some ideas for making your library ethics friendly. Being a librarian is not just a job, it’s a profession; and we need to follow our ethics codes to share in the larger world of the profession.

• ·         Talk about your code of ethics. We all are under the ALA or the SAA, but you may have other codes from your parent organization, or other professional work that you do that puts you under other codes. Know this, and be sure to share it with all your staff
• ·         Have regular training sessions. Hopefully your degreed professionals had some ethics training while getting their MILS; but the rest of your staff did not. Talk about not only what our ethics are, but how they should be applied in different situations
• ·         Distribute codes to everyone. Have them in employee handbooks, on the website so patrons can see them, framed on the Reference desk – anywhere. You want ethics to be part of what people do every day, so have them around for easy viewing.
• ·         Bring in someone else to talk about them! Do you have someone from HR, or from the Provost office, or your system office, or a consultant who can come over and chat? That would be a great thing to do for a staff in-service day session, or even to have someone else come in to talk about ethics across the profession. Getting a big picture can help to emphasize that it is not just you talking about these things – we all talk about them.
• ·         Establish a procedure for people to report ethics violations. Maybe you want them to talk to you, but what if you are the problem? Hopefully not, but have someone else for staff or patrons to go to with problems. Usually this will be an HR office, but tailor that to your own organization and community.

Part of being a good leader is setting the tone for good ethics across the board. You need to talk the ethics talk, and walk the ethics walk. Otherwise, you end up shot by an employee and constantly under threat of being disbarred or going to jail or losing really important cases! Take notes on this show – and resolve to run your library so much more ethically!!

Pop Culture Leadership Lessons: Game of Thrones edition - Ned Stark and Employee Discipline

In a world that is as huge as the lovely George R. R. Martin has created for us in his enormous book series, there are innumerable lessons in good leadership. But for right now I only want to look at one: employee discipline as poorly demonstrated by the hapless Ned Stark.

If you have read the books, or seen the TV show, think back to the early days when Ned was still hanging around, being the Hand of the King. He is set up to be a very ethical guy, the nice guy who plays fair and who seems like he would be a good boss.

Set in opposition to him is the apparently evil Queen Cersei. Ned discovers her children are not the biological children of her husband; and therefore they are not really in line to be next in succession. (There is much more to the story, if you have not yet read or watched it – so I encourage you to do that!) He seeks advice from a political wise man or two, and promptly disregards it all of their useful advice – deciding to just be a nice guy. He talks to Cersei, telling her that he will give her a chance to slink away in the night (I’m paraphrasing here) and take her children to free up the throne for the biological next in line. Cersei, who has established herself as very interested in the throne as well as being from a very politically astute family, is amused. When Ned shows up to tell her to leave, she has used her advance notice of his actions to arrange to have him arrested. He is later beheaded.

Of course, all of this is fun to read and watch; but when I was first listening to the book, I was horrified at the very poor management decisions Ned was making!

He did absolutely the right thing in the beginning. When you discover an employee has done something that is very wrong in the workplace, you want to get advice on how to handle it. (Usually the advice will not be “kill her quickly” but something more situationally appropriate to your workplace.) You may feel uncomfortable about disciplining the employee. Really, no manager enjoys this part of the job. (Okay, King Joffrey springs to mind – so if this is the manager’s mindset we can assume that is a really bad thing.) But you have to manger up and get it done!

Plan in advance for your discussion with the employee. Assume that the employee is not going to be happy about any level of discipline that happens. Prepare for tears with a handy box of tissues, for threats with a security guard standing nearby or a phone ready to dial 911, and for a storm of angry shouting and arguing with a lack of emotional response. Have documentation ready for the decision you have made to be carried out on the spot. If this discipline is a termination meeting, then be ready with some empty boxes for her to pack her things that morning, and for someone else to wipe out the departing employee’s access to your server, catalog, and other vital online services.

Have a witness around for any of these things. This is why you have an HR department at your City or your school or your corporation. They will be so much happier if you talk to them in advance about any discipline, instead of having to clean up the mess from a disastrous meeting you decided to have on your own.

It is a good thing to be a nice manager – everyone likes that and it’s great. But “nice” in the context of employee discipline does not mean getting mushy and refusing to follow some basic procedures. Instead it means being firm and setting guidelines – then enforcing your decisions. Letting a poor employee have you arrested and beheaded (hopefully metaphorically) is a serious loss of control as a manger, and the sign of someone who does not know what she is doing. Instead be smart, be tough, and be fair to everyone involved – organization, other employees – and use effective employee discipline. 

Now, go study these important management materials!

Library Leadership through a Lens of Popular Culture: Buffy

Leadership in libraries is a fluid and interesting area. How do we know we are doing a good job? How do we know things are going well? What kinds of models do we use to lead?

There are scholarly theories and ideas that you can use, and will make you stronger. But I also like to use models that are closer at hand, as you develop your own leadership style. Pop culture is a very viable structure that will give you some ideas you can use – and let’s face it: it’s easy to understand and makes the sometimes tough problems of leadership easier to implement.

For many of us in Library and Information Science, Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show has been a model in all kinds of library service and practice – and leadership is a great example of how useful Buffy can for us! There are a few different types of leadership that are shown in this show, and any or all may be applicable to you in different situations.

Buffy: The obvious first leadership example. (Her name is right there in the title, after all!)Her leadership is based on a few different factors. First is superior skill. She is The Slayer, she is the only one born to this knowledge and skill set; though she has to train to keep up her skills and to learn new things, but she was born with her essential leadership skills.  You may find this in libraries, where people work to build skills that make them better leaders. Another source of her leadership power is her title. Having that title, inherited so it cannot be challenged, gives someone authority; but it may not give enough to ensure people follow. A librarian who is seen to have inherited a managerial job, or to have been awarded it for the accomplishment of hanging around a long time without much else to recommend them for it, is not one people will follow. Be like Buffy – combine a nice heredity gift of authority with some solid training and building up of new skills!

Willow. Another great example of a leader, and one that many librarians can relate to. Willow’s leadership authority primarily comes from her status as an expert. In early seasons, she is the self-described book nerd and computer geek, who enthusiastically embraces research both in paper formats and online. She represents the changing of the information sources from paper to digital, and presents both a challenge and an assistant to Giles in this. Later she wants to become more valuable to the team, so she becomes an expert in magic. More than any other character, she symbolizes the leadership of expert power. People who know things, people who can make things happen, and people who can encourage others to do things – these are leaders everyone wants to have leading them. Managers can emulate Willow by bringing their expertise to their jobs. No one person can know everything and be good at everything, not even Willow. Instead, find the areas you are passionate about and really develop your skills there.

Giles. He combines a few different sources of leadership. First of all he has the title of Watcher, which comes with the knowledge and skills a Slayer needs to know; so he has a positional authority immediately. When Wesley arrives on the scene a few seasons later, we have a clear distinction between someone who can effectively utilize those skills to motive their staff, and someone who relies too much on just positional authority without being able to back it up in the field.  People see the difference between managers who just talk and those who can do things – and they make the decision to follow or not accordingly. Giles employs a contingency theory of management, shifting his leadership strategies both over time, loosening up the overt micromanaging as the team gets older and more skilled, and working with different members in different ways. In his career as a store owner, he has a much different relationship with Anya than he does with other members of the team – because he sees how different people need different strategies to encourage them to get things done. Though not a perfect example of a leader (no one ever is), he is pretty darn close!

Zander. As the perpetual nice guy with no discernable talents, Zander actually brings a strong leadership skill to the team:  Followership.  Part of leadership involves knowing that other people are more skilled or knowledgeable in an area, and the ability to step back and let them direct your actions. This is something that many of us who are naturally drawn to leadership positions can struggle with, and something people naturally drawn to back-of-the-group positions need to overcome at times. But every team needs people who set aside their own vision and their own self-interest to make the bigger picture happen. Be like Zander when you support your experts in their work, without insisting they follow your lead at all times!

Take these Buffy lessons into your practice as a library and/or archive manager, to make your work stronger! Share your experiences or insights below, so we can all learn more Buffy lessons!