Spring Spruce-Up

Spring has sprung. At least, the first day of spring is “officially” here, according to the calendar.  In Wisconsin, that means slightly warmer temps. . . on some days. On another day, we might get snow! (But I digress.) But we do forge ahead and do “spring things” anyway. For example, on Saturday, our condo association is having a block clean up. We’ll walk around our neighborhood and pick up trash, stray branches, leaves, and the like.

The advent of spring is a good time to take a look around your library and see what needs sprucing up.

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

“We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each others children.”

This quote (one of my favorites) from former President Jimmy Carter, sums up my feelings about war and violence.  People say things like “there have always been wars,” and “there are ‘good’ wars and bad wars, and good wars can’t be avoided.” 

A Wall is Just a Wall

Today’s Blogging 101 assignment: “Publish a post based on your own, personalized take on a blogging prompt.” What? Huh? What’s a blogging prompt? Apparently, just a question someone asks, that you then use to “prompt” you, to inspire you, to write a blog post.  “Writing prompts can be a blogger’s best friend: when inspiration is low and fresh ideas few, responding to someone else’s question can do get you out of a slump. There’s no need to treat them as requirement, though; prompts work best when you personalize them to fit your interests and perspective.” 

The Future of Libraries

I attended a webcast on March 12 on the “Future of Libraries.”  Speakers were from a variety of settings: public library, academic library, public library consortium, and an independent library web developer.  When we talk about the future of libraries, lots of things might be mentioned. But here are some points I made note of:

Be Part of the Community

I’ve written before of the importance of the library to the community, and the need for libraries to position themselves as essential services.   Today’s Blogging 101 assignment is to write a post that builds on one of the blog posts I commented on this week, and I am choosing one of the blog posts I mentioned yesterday, the one on libraries and community engagement.

Exploring My “Neighborhood”

Today’s assignment in the Blogging 101 course I’m taking is to “be a good neighbor” by exploring some other blogs in the WordPress Reader, and to comment on some blogs I haven’t commented on before. During my exploring earlier this week and today, I thought it might be a good idea to share some of what I found with you:

Burning Bridges

I wrote an earlier post about the importance of things like communication and consensus. Today I’d like to add another C to that list: Collaboration.

Though Inclined to Collaborate? You Should Be (All Things Workplace) starts by talking about the importance of collaboration between companies, it moves on to address how important it is for individuals as well.

Presenting. . . ME!

One thing we do a lot of in libraries is presentations. To our staff, to our board, to our patrons, at conferences, and so on.

That’s why these two articles from Harvard Business Review may come in handy.  Some, or maybe even a lot of this stuff I’ve heard before. But that’s OK—I probably need reminding. I’m doing a staff inservice for a public library in May. Time for me to review this stuff.  How about you?

• How to Give a Stellar Presentation
• Finding the Right Metaphor for Your Presentation

 

 

Praise is Not Enough

There is an article, In Praise of Libraries (The Rotarian Magazine, March 2015), that is getting a lot of buzz in library circles.  Even if you aren’t in the library world, you should read it.  It’s a hymn of praise, as you can see by its opening paragraphs:

The public library is the only civic institution in my community that is uncompromisingly successful. Not everyone in my small town is crazy about the police force, and not everyone is all that pleased with the public schools. No one ever seems terribly happy with the planning board, the architectural review board, the board of trustees. Some people think the volunteer firemen get too much money for new equipment, though no one ever dares say it out loud.

The public library is different. The public library is the community’s kindly grandmother: helpful, patient, understanding. Nobody in my town ever stands up and says he dislikes the public library. Nobody in your town does, either. Grumpy old librarians who keep shushing you, sure. But not the library itself.

There are some great points like: the library is taken for granted, the library is free (“come one, come all”), the library makes society better, the library is not judgmental. .  . and on and on.  As I said, the article is getting a lot of praise and appreciation. The following Twitter post is just one example:

Things we <3? This fantastic article in praise of libraries from the @therotarian! http://t.co/M71OV7DiWR #LibraryLove

— bibliocommons (@bibliocommons) February 25, 2015

And I agree. It’s a fantastic article. But, I also think talk is cheap. From my experience there are lots of people who think the library is great. There are even lots of public officials who think libraries are great. But they don’t want to pay for them, or have their constituents pay for them, or fund them properly in their budgets. So we need to go one step further. We need to speak out, to our local officials about how great libraries are, AND how we need them to appropriate sufficient funding.  Libraries are great and important things for society, for communities, and the folks who live in those communities. But good libraries don’t come cheap. Praise alone is not enough.

Why “A Life in Libraries?”

Today’s assignment is to edit my blog’s title and tagline. But I’m not going to, because I “sort of” took the Blogging 101 course last year, and I changed my title and tagline then.  I thought about them again today in conjunction with this assignment, but I decided I still like them.

When I started blogging someone told me to use my name as the URL, I think to make it easy for people to find, so I did. She also told me to use my name as the blog title, so I did. I added “A Life in Libraries” as the tagline.  Last year when I changed the title and tagline, I changed the title to “A Life in Libraries,” and the tagline to “what I’ve learned . . . and am still learning.”

I call it A Life in Libraries, because I feel like that’s really what I’ve led. I started using my local public library as a child. I worked in that same library when I was in high school. I worked in my college library when I was a student. Then I was, in this order:

• a bookmobile “librarian” in a small town
• a branch “librarian” in a smaller town
• a graduate student at UW Madison School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS), while also working at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC)
• head of reference at a university library
• reference librarian at another university library (wearing many different hats in several different positions there)
• library assistant, then assistant director, at a small public library
• library consultant at a public library system
• happy retiree, who also consults and offers training/workshops at local libraries, and part-time online instructor

Enough said, about that, I think. I think you can see why I say I’ve led a life in libraries. (The word “librarian” is in quotes in the first two bullets because although that was my title, I wasn’t officially a professional librarian because I didn’t have my Masters degree (MLS). Those of you in libraries will understand.)

And I made my tagline “what I’ve learned. . . and am still learning” because that’s what I try to write about here. Both things I’ve learned from my life in libraries, but also a lot of new posts I run across about libraries and library management (and management in general.) I share a lot of other people’s posts, but I often add some of my own thoughts from my own experience.

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! And that’s my title and tagline and I’m sticking to them, too!