Author Archives: cbecker53

How Successful are Your Meetings?

Meetings.  Who likes them?  Who hates them? Meetings, just for the sake of having meetings are useless, and “good” meetings that accomplish what they are supposed to are better, but many of us complain about having “too many meetings!”  (By … Continue reading

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Little Free Libraries

So much has been written about the Little Free Library project, there’s little I can add. Started in 2009, the concept is simple:  little boxes that look like miniature buildings (originally 20” wide by 15” deep by 18” high), mounted … Continue reading

Posted in Library Funding, Library in Community, Public Libraries | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Steven Covey, and 7 Habits (both Highly Effective and Highly Ineffective)

I’ve always aspired to be organized, a good worker and leader, and, upon occasion, impart advice to others on how to do the same.  Many times over the years, at workshops, presentations, and courses, the book The Seven Habits of … Continue reading

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Harry Potter, Pottermore, eBooks, and What Does It all Mean?

I’ve been sitting on writing this post for awhile, because I wanted to do some more research and understand it better.  I still don’t understand what it all means, but I decided to go ahead and put this out there … Continue reading

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A New Kind of Librarian

The term “embedded librarian” has been around for awhile now, but it is still relatively new, and not well understood. Embedded means rooted or planted within, and most of us became familiar with something akin to embedded librarianship when the … Continue reading

Posted in Embedded librarianship, Library in Community, Library Partnerships | Tagged , | 3 Comments

It’s Good to have Goals (and Vision too!)

Yes, your library needs a strategic plan.  I liken a plan to road map.  You need to have one so you know where you’re going, and be able to measure your progress toward getting there.  You also need one so … Continue reading

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Libraries are Hot Stuff!!

The big news this week is the heat—I mean, the HEAT—as a record-breaking heat wave continues to sweep much of the United States.   The cool thing for libraries (pardon the pun) is that the heat wave provides them another … Continue reading

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Be Powerful–Be a Partner!

I’ve written before about the importance of library partnerships—personally, I think partnering with other agencies, organizations, and your community strengthen your ties to your community, and also increases your standing among tax payers. But you can’t just phone it in.  … Continue reading

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Feedback, Again

Although I recently posted about feedback, today I have another excellent source to share with you on this topic.  Giving Feedback?  Don’t Make These 10 Mistakes by Alison Green pulls together some common traps managers tend to fall into when … Continue reading

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“How Am I Doing?”

What a great question!  And when others ask it of you, what do you say?  I ran across this great post The Essential Component of High Performance: When someone asks how they did, I realize I haven’t done well at … Continue reading

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