Connecting Librarian

I will end this year’s Blog Every Day of June the way I started – with public libraries.

I never planned to work in public libraries. I wanted to be a librarian since Grade 6 and always imagined that I would be a school librarian, or once I had done by library course placement in university, a special librarian. I had experience in Year 10 in a public library, but that hadn’t changed my mind. But I took a chance, and applied for and got my first job as a new graduate in a public library. I have been in public libraries every since.

Not that I haven’t had a chance to get out, I have had a few and nearly taken them as well, but for various reasons, didn’t and I don’t regret that for a moment.

Public libraries have been good to me and for me and I take some pride in knowing that I have been good for them too. They are a valuable, local resource that we are forever trying to let more people know about and when we succeed its awesome and when we don’t, its frustrating.

I was fortunate that my family were always public library users and some of my early memories of making my own decisions, rotated around choosing what I wanted to read, not just what the adults thought I should. I want that kind of experience for many others as well.

There has been much talk about the death of public libraries, but I can’t see that happening, at least not in my lifetime and hopefully not in my children’s. Public libraries are great at change – we were amongst the first public institutions to come on board with computers and then the internet – we have free wireless without having any pressure for a purchase or other commitment and we are open and welcoming to all. Plus we have those old things people keep asking for, local history stuff and oh yeah, books. 

We are embedded in our local communities, have their needs at the forefront of what we do and we do it without vested interest in anything but the community. What other free community service can that be said about?

I love working in a public library, I love what we do for our communities and that we are always looking to meet their changing needs. And I plan to be there for a while yet, helping to make that happen.

Thanks for reading during the Blog every day of June. It has been a great reflective and challenging experience for us all I would guess!

Have you ever looked at an object or person and seen something that you know has always been there, but that you have never really noticed until that moment? I had another of those moments today. I get them often enough to remind myself periodically not to take things for granted, that there is more than meets the eye and that if you look you will find something truly worth seeing.

This works at my library too. We get so used to seeing things the way we see them, that sometimes we miss out on things. Have you walked through your library’s front doors recently?  Have you used your library as they do?  Is there something you could change, add or remove to improve the experience for your users?

I am on a week’s leave – just spending time with the family during the holidays, but plan to use this time to clear my mind a little of the things that have become routine and to try and look at things with fresh eyes when I get back to work.

What lessons have you learned from a new perspective on something established?

Librarians are trained to answer questions. We are taught the reference interview process so that we can discover what the asker is really seeking, as often what they initially ask for is either too general, or not really what they are wanting at all.

But some questions are just too general or maybe too tentative and have a tendency to amuse library staff – although we would never show our amusement to the asker.

What sort of questions, you might ask?

My favourite and the most common one I get asked, usually on the phone is: Do you have a book?   Followed by a distinct pause. What I sometimes want to say is we have over 300,000.  Instead, I start by asking for the title.

Another that I get often is do you work here? Usually when I am walking out of the workroom or from behind the desk and/or with shelving, or other obvious library accoutrements that I would otherwise have to be stealing to have in my possession. But the answer I give is yes, how can I help you.

One of my favourite stories about this was from a few years ago. I was at the desk and watched this gentleman walk into the library and stand just a metre or so inside the door. He then did a complete 180 degree scan of the library and back again, including looking over the desk where I was standing. He then came up to the desk and asked if we had a photocopier.  Doesn’t sound like a silly question, except that it was only a metre further in from where he stopped to scan, there was nothing between him and the copier and there was a rather large sign above it saying photocopier. I didn’t say anything (although I thought plenty), as I was so surprised, but I did manage to point him to the facility and then offer to help him if he needed assistance.

There are the people who ask if we really do provide school holiday programs for the whole day for their child to attend, for only $1?  – No, our programs only run for about an hour and parents need to attend with their child. There are the people who ask if really have to pay the overdue fine on the items that they have a courtesy reminder, overdue notice and billing notice for? Yes,  we made every attempt to remind you that the items were due. And those who ask if they have to pay for the damage that was incurred to library items whilst they had it on loan. Yes, when you borrow an item you are responsible for it and anything that happens to it whilst on loan to you.

I am always diplomatic when dealing with any of these sorts of questions, after all, everyone has a awkward moment or two in their life, including us. But I can’t help but be bemused, when we seem to encounter the same sorts of moments over and over again.

I am sure this happens in all libraries – so in saying that, what are your favourite interesting questions?

After talking about blogging and seminars etc, I thought it only appropriate to record my notes here from my most recent seminar.

I attended this one as host. One of our libraries hosted a seminar “When great minds don’t think alike” with Nadine Shome from Reminds. Nadine created a company that helps children with learning difficulties and speaks from experience with her own child, as well as years of research and practical experience in helping other children.

Why would it be of interest here on a blog about libraries? It might not be, but it could be of use to those librarians who may have dealings with people with this issue – young or old.

She described the disorders which are responsible for many learning disorders, which were dyslexia, ADHD, auditory processing and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). One of the things that really grabbed me was that they are amazingly interlinked. There are symptoms in common between the first three and ASD has elements of them all.

Her company looks at a range of things that need to be considered in order to meet the needs of a child with learning difficulties. These include, the diagnosis, medical requirements, home/lifestyle factors (which could include diet), treatments and ultimately school results.

She emphasised that before anything can be achieved academically, there are two massive hurdles that have to be overcome – Motivation and Memory. A lot of these children can achieve very successfully if they are motivated. As memory is also an issue for a lot of these children, this has to be improved if any of their learning is to take. There are many solutions for the former, but the only way to improve long term memory is repetition, repetition, repetition.

Amazingly, the best way to set up the brain for learning with this children is via activity: a jump rope or trampoline helps cognitive focus, singing uses both halves of the brain and even gaming consoles, like the Wii, which require timing and judgement can be used to the benefit of the child and their learning needs.

The transition from physical to mental is not easy. so she suggested a game that incorporates both, to start them on the road to the thinking side of things.

She also spoke briefly about concerns with regard to food additives and suggested the book “Fed up with food additives” and a number of sensory toys which can help children who need to move all the time.

So its given me plenty to think about it, hope it can help you too.

Its funny, but when I first started this blog back in 2005 (7th anniversary next month), I never thought about it having an end date. I just kept blogging. Anything I thought might have some value to a reader (and I hoped to have at least some of those), I blogged. I needed to get something sorted out in my own head, I blogged. If I wanted to review and note-take from training, a conference, a seminar, I blogged.

When Twitter came along, things changed. A lot of my fellow bloggers and I took to Twitter like ducks to water. And why not, it is a great networking tool and an awesome way to discover new resources etc. As Twitter grew and the library network on it matured and as other things happened in library land, library bloggers started to fall away. Understandable, you have to spend your time and energy where it works best for you.

With my job situation, I can’t spend as much time on Twitter as I would like. However, I always find time to read through my blog feeds and find things of interest. My blog roll has changed over the years and the frequency and the length of my blog entries have lessened and I have often toyed with the idea of finishing altogether, but for many reasons I have kept going. Funnily enough, I discovered some of those reasons in an article I discovered today.

19 reasons you should blog and not just tweet (http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/05/10/reasons-you-should-blog-and-not-just-tweet/) on Future Buzz, was ironically written in 2009 and doubly ironic is that I was referred to it by someone I follow on Twitter.

So why am I still blogging? The reasons that worked for me out of this article were:

1. It demonstrates my commitment and passion to my industry….

2. Old articles have value (as demonstrated by the one I am referring to) and still read years later…..

6. You own and control your own work…….. 

7. Its about deeper engagement with the content

9. I can measure impact more fully with my blog…..

The article has dated a bit in its view of Twitter, but between it and the comments, there are some good points made.

Something that wasn’t in the article, but has also played a big part in me still being here – I have a knack for event blogging. It seems I am good at blogging conferences, training, seminars and the like. Its good for me because its gives me training notes, but feedback I get indicates that its good for the reader too. Win-win!

I love Twitter and will be there when I can be, but I’ll be here too – putting my discoveries and my learnings and my thoughts into the ether, so they are there for me and anyone else to discover and hopefully benefit from.

Thanks for journeying with me thus far, hope you can stick it out with me in future – I’ll be here.

I like being made to think. I like having to answer questions and reconsider how things are happening or how they could be done. Or who I am and what I do.

But I also like routine. I like going about my usual tasks and doing things and knowing what I am doing. And being questioned on any of these things can be a challenge.

Notice the dilemma?

Today I have been challenged in my thinking and in my processes in a few different ways.

First off, was my annual appraisal. As expected, it went pretty smoothly, but what was unexpected was a few words of caution on some things I have done or do. As I have noted in an earlier post, its sometimes hard to hear criticism, but fortunately this wasn’t. It was good advice from a good manager, advice which I plan to and hope to be able to take and make work properly.

Second was a seminar we had at our library tonight, which I chaired. It was about children with learning difficulties. It made me think about the issues that not only children but adults with the same difficulties experience. And the fact that we will have those people in our libraries everyday. And that without knowing their backgrounds, we have to provide good customer service to them, as we do with everyone else who comes through our doors and that this may take more patience and perseverance that we usually require and may need us to look at things in different ways. What a challenge.

Third was a new TV show I watched tonight, which made me think about what I am getting from the television that I watch. Ironic I know.  But maybe now I’ll watch TV with a bit more thought and investigate a bit more fully before taking on board what they say is happening. Its not like we’re lacking in the resources to do that anymore.

So its been a thought provoking day. It doesn’t happen everyday and for that I am a little bit thankful as I don’t know if I could handle that much introspection.

Ever have days like that? 

Its hard to believe its nearly a new financial year. With it, for our library, it means a new budget and hopefully some new projects.

So what am I looking forward to in the new financial year?

Hopefully:

• a sustainable discovery layer
• a new website
• a bigger team working on these things
• more widespread use of our QR codes or whatever will replace it
• the chance to play with new technologies and see how they will fit with our library
• and whatever new surprises will come our way…..

And on the personal front:

• now that I have my own tablet (Acer Transformer), trying out reading my first full-length novel on it
• writing the odd article or two for publication
• maybe a new job

What sorts of things will the new financial year bring you?

At a staff meeting yesterday, I asked staff for feedback on our training blog. The overwhelming response was that actually using the database and seeing what it can do (achieved through an introduction and series of questions that utilise its different features), made staff more aware of the resource in their daily work, more likely to use it themselves and definitely more likely to use it in response to a library user’s query.

I have found that seeing is believing is true in many other instances also.

When called upon to assist a library user with a computer problem, I will try to take the staff member who sought my help with me, so that I can teach them as well as the user, the solution. If that is not possible, I will at least tell the staff member of it afterwards Seeing is believing however and I have found that if they can see or work through the solution themselves, they are more likely to remember next time.

Then there was the situation where I was trying to help a user who was having trouble accessing one of our online resources. She could access it, but couldn’t log in and access the modules she required. It took several emails back and forth before I realised that she accessing the resource through a Google search and was not looking at our library homepage (which was the starting point for the solution) and then two more to discover that she wasn’t keying in the website address into the address bar, but into the Google search box at the top of the screen. In the end, a screenshot of where she had to enter the library website address was emailed  and that was that. (or at least I hope it was).

What situations in library land have you come across where a picture told a thousand words and in a much better way as well?

I am generally a positive and uplifting person.  I don’t know why, but of late I have gotten into the habit of having a bit of harmless fun at other people’s expenses.  Just light hearted little smart comments made at the spur of the moment. And getting caught up in gossip.  And I only just realised it today.  When I first started working in libraries as a new very young graduate, I quickly decided that I could throw around compliments as easily as insults and it was better for everyone involved.

Now decades later (yes two and a half to be exact), a study has come along which supports my long held assertion.

Harvard Business Review has recently published The Power of Small Wins which recently explored how managers can tap into relatively minor victories to significantly increase the satisfaction and motivation of their employees.

And you can start with simple things as suggested by another article on HBR – Can We Reverse The Stanford Prison Experiment?  And amazingly, you don’t necessarily need to be a manager to use them.

1. Start your next staff meeting with five minutes on the question: “What has gone right since our last meeting?”

2. Take two minutes every day to try to catch someone doing the right thing.

3. Create a virtual community board where employees, partners and even customers can share what they are grateful for daily.

So I am going to start by being grateful for the awesome people I work with and to let them know that I plan to do better by them and appreciate them, by telling them personally – and to keep any disparaging remarks, no matter how jokey, to myself.  And like this latter article says “… experimenting with the principle could have far-reaching consequences.”

Social networking again proved its worth last night, when within seconds of the Melbourne Earthquake, there were tweets and Facebook statuses galore as people from around Victoria reported in with their own experiences.

This quickly gave us all a picture of what had happened, which was just as well, because the media took quite a bit before they posted anything. The first I saw was a tweet from the ABC. Their potential delay could have been because the Geosciences Australia website had also crashed and so there was no official information available about the quake. However, some enterprising tweeter looked it up on the US Geological Services site and so we had an idea of the magnitude, location and how widespread it was felt, long before any official word came out from anywhere.

What was even more surprising and amusing, was that 10 minutes later, still before we had found any official word on what happened, the jokes, images and funny comments were coming thick and fast. My favourites included:

and a tweet from the University of Melbourne, which went along the lines of “its the first time some of our books have moved on shelf for years!”.

I don’t use Twitter as much as I would like these days, as I am working full-time and the nature of my work doesn’t give me time to access it.  However, its things like this that remind me that there is more to social networking than reading about what someone had for lunch and that there is good reason why I am still in that sphere.