Connecting Librarian

Today is the last day of Blog Every Day of  June, so I thought it appropriate to talk about when a project should finish in a library.

The quick answer is never.

Let me clarify. Any new service, equipment, initiative, procedure etc being started in a library has an implementation program. The implementation part has a finish date, but the new ‘whatever’ it is, shouldn’t.

For every new thing that comes into our libraries, there should be a monitoring and assessment program that is ongoing, either until the day it dies or is replaced, or otherwise forever. Not only does this help you to assess whether it’s being used and whether its an effective use of your staffing hours and resources, but only it gives you useful data for demonstrating your library’s worth.

On a side note, the same goes for professional development. It also does not end when you have finished your qualification. It goes on and on and on and on and on……

This question also has a second answer.  It is also no. But it should sometimes be yes.

If we had these ongoing monitoring programs (and in some instances, even when we do), we need to determine when the point is reached that running such a program/equipment/service is no longer justified, in whatever terms have been set. So when we start, we need to determine what will be considered a success and what will be required to write off the project as completed once and for all.

We are good at starting things in libraries, not always so good at finishing them. And there are many things we do that require no finishing, but do need to be demonstrated as having worth and ongoing assessment will give us that. In fact, we need to be shouting out about them from the rooftops, but that’s another issues altogether.

But there are things we do, that do need to end and we need to let them go.  That can be hard, so work out what it will need to look like for that to happen and we might just find it easier to do it when the time comes.

Thanks everyone for following patiently during the last 30 days of blogging. Looking back, I never thought I could have so much to say in this forum. Not all of it was good, I freely acknowledge.

Surprisingly, I find that there are a couple of things I had planned on, but didn’t blog about in this month, so there will be more to come, just not every day, (sigh of relief for everyone!) and probably not even this week.

But I thank you for joining me on this ride and for your comments, they are both truly appeciated.

Michelle

I’m a pretty upbeat person, takes a lot to get me down. But I do get down, when I’m sick or tired (or both). And I’ve been sick twice in the last week, so I’m speaking from recent experience here.

So what do I do to get myself back up again?

Well there’s the usual advice – eat well, get plenty of rest, but you know all that. So here’s what else I do.

Give myself a break – the world isn’t going to hell if I don’t work today, get the house in order, have takeaway for dinner – even though it feels like it will.

Let others look after me – which is hard as I’m an independent sort, but everyone needs looking after and that includes me. And it feels good to feel cared for.

Rest – I may not sleep, but just chilling out in front of the TV has been good for me – giving my mind and body a chance to recuperate.

Read – its not always top of my priorities, so when I need to have a break, I catch up on a lot of reading. I enjoy not only the reading, but the fact that I have crossed it off my list of things to do.

Indulge myself – chocolate works really well for me here. Not too much indulgence though, or I’ll pay for it later. (but since when do I need to be down to indulge in chocolate, lol)

Listen to music – listening to the right stuff lifts my moods at all times, but is even more powerful when I’m down.

Take time out – I need it sometimes, just to be able to stay on top of life, never more-so than when I’m down.

Acknowledge that I’m human and that this happens from time to time and I’ll get there.

Like I said, I’ve been sick twice in a week (which doesn’t happen to me) and I’m not letting it keep me down. I’ve had my rest, been catching up on reading and long ago recorded TV shows, (when I didn’t have the energy for anything else). I’ve taken time for me and let other things lapse – I know they’ll be caught up and in the meantime I feel much better, focusing more on my immediate needs than on those things. I’m not well yet, but I’m well on the way.

What do you do to get yourself back on top, when it all gets too much?

I have had my eyephone for nearly two years now and I love it. Not necessarily the fact that its an eyephone, but the fact that its a smart phone.

The reference librarian in me likes being able to look things up at the spur of the moment.  The nerd in my just likes having the internet available to me, whatever the reason, everywhere I go (ISP/Phone provider allowing that is).

As these sorts of devices proliferate, my library has headed down the road that many have, of providing our content in a mobile accessible format. Its just basic at the moment, with links to mobile accessible versions of our branches and opening hours, our catalogue and account logins, our calendar of events etc.  Our library system vendor has an eyephone app, so it links to that as well.   Its a work in progress and its live, so it will be interesting to see how it is used.

Our website detects when a request for it is being made by a mobile device and it automatically delivers the mobile version. That’s great and I am pretty sure most mobile accessible websites work the same way.  From statistics we know that the library items we have on our mobile site are the most used, but they are not the only ones used. So we have a link to the desktop version of our website for those who are seeking other content.

You can imagine my frustration then, when I have gone to do something similar on other mobile sites – get to content that is not on the website’s mobile version, but is on their main site, only to find that I can’t. There have been at least two sites recently that I have ended up having to wait until I got to a desktop computer to access the content that I couldn’t from my phone.

A lesson learned for us.

The other lesson we are learning at the moment is considering how much of our website content needs to be there and if it stays, can it be into a mobile accessible format. But that’s ongoing, so stay tuned……

What sort of mobile accessible website delights or disasters have you come across?

My kids have just got their half yearly reports and have both done well, so as a reward, we took them to the movies.

We can’t take our staff to the movies every time they have a success, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be celebrating our successes. Some sort of acknowledgement is great for morale and for confidence.

I have been known to celebrate success at work with cheesecake, which always goes down a treat. And it works wonders for morale.

Its easier to celebrate big successes and we should, but they only come along every now and then. We aren’t necessarily working on a big project every day. Do we need to celebrate the little ones too?

I believe we do, but not necessarily with cheesecake, lol. (and yes, I can hear the sighs of disappointment from here). There does need to be some acknowledgement, just to recognise the work put in, the  achievements made, the improvements completed, the new service introduced. Recognition of the small things can lead to inspiration, innovation and even just happy staff. And happy staff make for happy library users. Its a win all around.

So what do you do to celebrate the small successes? I occasionally bring in some chocolates or flowers for someone who has done something difficult or noteworthy, but more often than not, I just tell them. I know from a personal viewpoint that I do like to hear that I am doing or have done a good job – its just nice to get the confirmation and acknowledgement that your hard work is recognised and is having an impact. (and doing it at appraisal time is not enough).

How do you recognise the little successes at your library?  How about the big successes?

Its been a heck of a week.

Been busy during the week, various family members have been sick and this weekend has been full on with the beginning celebrations and activities related to our daughter’s forthcoming 12th birthday.

And there has been so much percolating around my mind.

But I’m just tired and have decided, if its not that important, then I’m just going to let it go.

And amazingly it has resulted in two things. I’m not worrying about things that are not worth worrying about it and I’m feeling better.

So this is my blah post for blog every day of June.

Not bad considering its taken me this long to get there, lol.

Enjoy what’s left of your weekend – I’m planning to!

Very interesting word discretion. It gives me the image of someone tapping the side of their nose, saying nudge, nudge, wink, wink. But in the library world, its about giving the staff the opportunity to ‘bend’ the rules, where they deem there is a situation where they should be bent.

Rules are important. They aim to guarantee that the world doesn’t dissolve into chaos and that everyone has equal opportunity and treatment, that we are kept safe and our privacy protected and much more. But if rules are always followed without discretion, they we have gone too far the other way.

Unfortunately, some staff mistakenly believe its  just about bending the rules. Its also about the situation and the people involved.

It may be appropriate to do so where a recipient is deemed worthy, or a situation where not to do so would be detrimental. Sometimes its just good PR.

And there are some rules which are easier to bend than others.

But all this requires, not only good judgement on whether the rules should be bent, but also on whether they should be bent in that particular situation and for that particular person.

Too often, a rule has been bent for a library user and despite being told that it was a one off and that they must abide by them next time, every single time they come in, they try to bend them again with the whole – “but they let me do it last time!”  Saying this is a virtual guarantee to never having any leeway on any situation in the library every again!

Making that sort of judgement call can be very difficult and is probably why staff will often refer to more senior staff to confirm it is the right option (or not) to take. (it also helps that they won’t get the flack if there is any problems resulting from the decision).

There are some rules I will bend more easily than others and some that I refuse to bend for anyone. Again it comes back to a judgement call on both the rule and the people involved in the situation. You want to help people, but you don’t want to make things difficult for other library staff if it all backfires.

The good news is that no-one is damaged irretrievably if using staff discretion leads to a difficult situation. And sometimes it doesn’t matter which way you go, you lose. But if nothing else, our managers will always support us if we stick to the rules, so if unsure, we are told to do that.

Have you had an instances where staff discretion backfired on you?  Are there rules you would bend more easily and others you wouldn’t bend at all?

Unfortunately no-one lives forever.

I was sad to hear that one of my library services retired staff had passed away. He was a lovely gentleman who drove one of our mobile libraries for what seemed like forever – from when it was a bus, through to an articulated lorry.  And he was a gentleman, endlessly quiet spoken and polite, un-phaseable and entirely focused on customer service.

It got me thinking about how many stories that give the soul to the history of our library, we are losing. Its important to know the dates and the details of events in our libraries’ history, but its the stories that give it life.

I am forever telling stories of things that have happened with our libraries and users over the years to the newer staff. To share some of our fun, frustration and just how far we have come over the years. Its amazing, how where so much has changed in some ways, so little has changed in others.

Stories like the man who came in, scanned around the entire library and then asked whether we had a photocopier – which was 2 metres away from where he stood, with a sign above it and nothing in the way. Or the lady who was convinced that we saw her coming up the path to the library and  immediately added overdue fines to every one of her family’s five library cards. Or the lady who said the dripping wet book we found on the returns bench must have been wet by a leak in our roof (on a day it wasn’t raining).

Fortunately, the person this gentleman worked with on our mobile library still works with the library service, so we still have a lot of the stories from that era in our library history, especially important now that mobile is long gone from the roads (due to council amalgamations in 1995).  And we will continue to tell those stories to other staff.

But I wonder what happens when the last of those storytellers are gone. These stories are the fun in our history. Much more entertaining and informative than just dates and stark details.

And the same could be said for our local histories, our family histories and more.

We need to be more proactive about retaining these wonderful stories. Of making sure that there people are memorialised in real ways, with real life encounters recorded for posterity. And I need to be making sure that’s happening in at least my little neck of the woods.  Because no-one else will and that history is too valuable to be lost.

And Keith – rest in peace – you were a great teacher and inspiration and you are sadly missed………

So I have been thinking about making a change for a while and finally decided to go ahead with it.

No, I’m not talking about changing jobs, but amazingly the same criteria apply for that as for this and for many other things I would guess.

My decision was to totally change my hairstyle.

Making the decision itself was hard enough. I am a big change agent at work, but I like my routine and don’t change a lot about myself (apart from what I’m learning), very often, so this has been a big decision and a bit of a risk.

But the decision has been made and as part of the process and continuing on after the decision, there are several things I needed to consider.

What sort of change? Do I go totally different or do I stay in the same arena?

I have slightly past shoulder length hair and I have decided to go very different – I’m going short (but not too off-beat) and am open to what my hairdresser suggests. However, I have been colouring my hair forever and have decided not to change the colour at the same time, but to stick to the usual. That way, I am getting used to one change and I then have the option to make that second change at a later date.

Why do I want to make the change?

Its all the fault of Daily Image 2011 (lol). I noticed that with taking a photo of myself everyday, that my hair style didn’t really work for me even regularly. I could look very nice (like in this photo), but more often than not, it wasn’t doing its best for me.

What are the implications of the change?

My first concern was my husband. He likes longer hair. But after discussing it with him, he diplomatically agreed that my current hairstyle wasn’t working for me and that after all it was my hair and I was entitled to do with it what I wanted. (thanks honey!)

Then there is the whole issue of what if I don’t like it, it doesn’t suit me, its too cold on my neck, people hate it etc etc concerns. I trust my hairdresser, but she’s human too and I might miscommunicate what I am wanting. The answer – I’m not stuck with it forever, it will grow, I can change colours, change style again at the same length. I have options or I can wait a bit and then change again. (its a risk and I have to live with it in the meantime if it doesn’t work, but its worth the chance – and I’ve done it before and survived, so I can do it again)

The other implication is warmth. My hair presently keeps the back of my neck warm, so I’ll have to dig out my scarves to replace my hair as neck warmer in our cold Melbourne winter. And in summer, make sure it is covered so it doesn’t get sunburnt.

When to make the change?

I could go out tomorrow and get it done, but I am waiting a week. My reason? Its my daughters birthday next week and we have various birthday and family celebrations and the focus should be totally on her and not on what I’ve done with my hair.

Contingency plans?

My only contingency plan is to let it grown back out and cope with it, if the style doesn’t work out. Oh and to seek feedback on the change (although I don’t think I’ll have to do much seeking, lol). Then there’s always the option of hats…..

Make the change already!

Making the decision and carrying it out aren’t the same thing, so I have given myself a timetable. I know that external forces can interfere with that timetable, but I’m adaptable, so I’ll adapt.

So that’s my change management process. I’ll post a photo here when its done and let you know if everything went to plan and what else I learned through this process.

We learned an interesting lesson yesterday at our library, which also resulted in unexpected promotion of the library.

We are introducing pre-overdue notifications via email, so sent out an introductory notice to all our users with email addresses on their accounts, to let them know it was coming and to give them the option to opt out.

This is the bit where people don’t read.

We had so many people call or visit, because they thought that possibly something had gone dreadfully wrong with our records and they thought, we had overdue items against their records.

This raised a few interesting points:

• That if library users had properly read their email, they would have known that it was a notice to let them know the service was starting and this was their opportunity to opt out if they wished
• That we needed to be more blunt with the start of the message, to let them know this was for a forthcoming service – not an existing one and hence avoiding some concern and lots of phone calls and visits
• That it did result in phone calls and visits from library users who hadn’t been in for a while and who had not seen the pre-publicity we had already had in the library for weeks
• That it resulted in awareness again for those library users, who also now were able to add tech savvy and good customer service to their view of the library (once we explained it to them) and those who attended with their concerns often left the library with borrowed items
• That not many people opted out – more people will receive these pre-overdue notices now, than if we had made it opt-in instead

So what began as a notification at a new service and was, for some, translated as something else, has ended up being good PR for the library (if frustrating for library staff).

The irony is, that we had a gentleman come to the desk in the midst of all this chaos and in his broken English, request to sign up for the service.  The one person who struggled to read English, understood what was going on, when those whose language it is, didn’t.

Have you had a similar situation in your library? Did it work out well for you? How?

I’m well and truly in middle age now, so am watching the older generation to see how to age gracefully. Unfortunately, all too often I see older people for whom everything is too much to learn. They can’t learn how to use things because they are ‘too complicated’ and sometimes that is the case, but quite often you can see that they just don’t want to. I have noticed that those are the people who age more quickly.

We have all seen the stories of older people doing amazing things – skydiving, completing university courses etc in their 90s. I really admire them – they are grabbing every bit of life and draining it for all its worth. That’s what I want to be like when I get to that age. I want to leave this world, kicking and screaming, because I have more to learn before I go.

But it doesn’t just happen overnight. You don’t just suddenly want to stop learning, (barring exceptional circumstances) I think its more of a change of attitude and a gradual transition. Which means that if I want to be a true life-long learner, I need to be laying the foundation for it now.

We have two streams of focus in our library – reader development and lifelong learning. They both go right through the life cycle and I plan to make the most of both.

So what are my plans? I learn something new pretty much everyday, through my work, through my family, through everyday life. But I think lifelong learning needs to be more than incidental learning. So every now and then I plan to learn something new. My next learning project is going to be Drupal 7 – the most recent and very changed content management system. We are using Drupal 6 for our library website and a community group site I administer, but I know enough to get by with the day to day. With Drupal 7, I hope to learn more about how the thing works properly, so I can get our websites updated to it and be able to do more with them.

That should take the rest of the year at least, lol. After that, I’m sure I’ll find something else to keep my mind well and truly focused and engaged.

What about you, what are you planning in your lifelong learning journey?