Connecting Librarian

Today, Monday 26th July, 2010 was Round 5 in the Library Day in the Life, where librarians around the globe write about what they did. Its a snapshot in the working life of librarians and builds an amazing picture of the wider ranging work that librarian’s do.

So anyway, here’s my contribution to the big picture.

Speaking of which, let me set the scene first. I am currently Acting Branch Manager at a large public library, which is part of a regional service in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. On a Monday, I have about 12 staff working at our branch and we have a weekend’s backlog to recover from.  So here goes….

8.45am – Arrived at work and noticed one of our emergency exit lights was annoyingly on the blink. As I needed to log a maintenance call to get it fixed, I did a quick review and noted other lights that needed fixing/replacing, before placing said call.

9.00am – Touched base with staff arriving for work and with some managers who were meeting with another staff before meeting with me.

9.05am – Made sure that all people who worked the weekend turned up and were paid appropriately. Very happy that this process is all computerised now and very straightforward. Last time I did this (many moons ago), it was all paper based.

9.25am – Adjusted our daily roster to accommodate changes arriving from the absence of one staff member and the addition of extra hours for another.

9.35am – Meet with our Customer Services Manager and our Adult Collections Manager to do a quick wander around our adult collections, to discuss needs, over stocking and collection maintenance. Our users will be happy to know that one of the immediate impacts will be that we will be getting more romances.

10.30am – More rostering and report completion.

10.40am – Assessing donations, dealing with duplicates discovered on our collection review.

11.15am – Started work on next week’s rosters as I realised I was going to be away on training the next two days. This involved compiling the weekend roster for two weekends ahead and beginning the desk roster for next week.  Got the first draft done, to be completed when I get back to the branch on Thursday.

12 noon – Lunch.

1.00pm – Short staffed over lunch, so spent the next hour trying to make an impact on the 33 boxes that arrived from our headquarters and other branches in our region. Along with one of our branch staff, we managed to get through about half of those boxes. Left the work in the capable hands of other library staff.

2.00pm – Dealt with stock rotation items that had appeared on the courier run. Assessed, made decisions on which titles I wanted for our branch, added them to our collection and sent the others on.

2.15pm – Did some website updating and created one of our e-newsletters – this one on suggested reading on the topic of Mind and Body Fitness.

2.50pm – Answered the email enquiries that had come in over the weekend. Queries ranged from “I returned that item” to “Can I do this…..”

3.00pm – Posted a staff created book review on our adult reading blog.

3.10pm – Briefed one of our librarians on what’s happened whilst she has been on holidays and what might be happening during the two days that I am away.

3.20pm – Added a range of CD’s from another branch to our collection and spent time accommodating them on our shelves.

4.15pm – Dealt with a couple of user issues – including payment for a damaged DVD and a disputed return of an item.

4.30pm – Spent the last of my day on desk which was uber-busy and involved a circulation desk overflowing with returned stock. Our process has been significantly slowed by the RFID tagging process, so an extra hand was very much required.

5.15pm – Finally headed home once I realised two things – one, that the staff could handle it and two, that if I didn’t leave, I could be there all night.

So that’s been my day. Not entirely typical, but not atypical either.

Hope your day was interesting, I look forward to reading of all you have been up to as well.

Its Day 6 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge, its Sunday and has been busy anyway – so what’s new, lol. 

Recently, my 8 year old son has taught me that there are different levels of motivation with different outcomes.

For example, in the last year he has committed to and learnt how to ride his bike without training wheels and to tie laces properly, once offered the right motivation.  Once offered the right reward, he quickly and with great dedication, committed himself to the task and achieved it more quickly than I expected.  He can also be motivated to do smaller things using smaller rewards.

Uploaded to Flickr by solidariat on March 10, 2009

Got me thinking about what motivates library staff to do the work they do. The money is nice but you would be better off working in another sector or another industry if it was just about the money. Being local is a big motivator for family people and having family friendly work policies – which works well in a public library employing mums who work locally.

But much as they are motivating, more often than not they only motivate you to turn up and clock in on time and do what you have to do. There are many library staff out there, who put in the extra time without extra pay and who go beyond the call of duty in their daily work. What’s their motivation? (can I bottle it please?)

For me, my motivation is the love of the job. I absolutely love what I do. I enjoy the work, the people, the challenges, the satisfaction I get and of course being local and getting paid don’t hurt either.

But what motivates other library staff? Can I find out what motivates the dedicated ones and help ensure that motivation continues? Can I find out what may motivate other less dedicated library staff, in order to help them fall in love with their jobs? Do I have the right or responsibility to do that or is it something that is or should be out of my control?  Or am I asking too much, expecting that more people can love their job as much as I do?

Its Day 4 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and I am continuing the focus on staff, which is not suprising, as it is a large part of my job.

Its been a time of change at our library.  Besides getting me as temporary manager at my library, there have been some other changes – new staff coming in, short termish replacements for a staff member out due to injury and more.  So its been quite a time of turmoil, change and trying to settle in to a new routine with new colleagues and a new boss.

And the best thing that my staff have been able to do for me, is to need minimal interaction with me personally. What I mean is that I can rely on them to do their job, know what needs to be done and when, without having to ask me every 2 seconds. They don’t need close supervision, just a direction, some priorities and I can leave them to it, because I know they will do a great job and do it well.

Fortunately I work in a library where the majority of the staff fit this description. And because of that, they free me up to deal with those that don’t, as well as all the other issues that come with being branch manager of a largish public library.

So to those staff (and they know who they are), thank you. For all the great work you do and for helping to make my job that much easier. I truly appreciate it.

Its Day 3 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and today I have chosen to focus on staff. (I’ll just underplay the fact that everyday for me now is a focus on staff, lol)

I did a couple of things today which I think two of my staff really appreciated and which were both reasonable things to do, but which don’t always happen with managers.

The first was really listening to a staff member. She had a gripe – a legitimate one and I sincerely listened and thought about what she was saying and what we could do about it. I really couldn’t solve all of the issue, but I can make a small change which hopefully will make a difference.  She seemed to appreciate that I both listened and was open to making a change.

The second was doing what I said I would. I took an action which was technically outside whatt would be expected of me by my work, but not by myself. Although it put a bit more on me, it decreased the pressure on this staff member. She truly appreciated it. (and it was a one off so it was no big deal to me)

Its been a long time since I have directly managed people and I don’t think I’ve lost the ability as much as I feared I would. It does disappoint me however, that people have the experience of not being listened to, or actions not matching words.  I have been fortunate to have had managers who have listened and acted and its to them I give credit and who I try to emulate. Only time will tell if I am able to honour them by my own example.

I have been a librarian for 24 years and have had quite a few roles in that time, all in public libraries.  I started as  a Readers Advisor, then went on to Branch Manager in a new library, Acting Deputy Branch Manager in a large public library, back to my Branch Library, Acting Branch Manager in a different large library and Information Services Librarian in a newly formed Library Service (although it wasn’t Information Services when it was created – it got there after a year or two.).

Then nearly 11 years ago my daughter was born and my career took a side-step.  I went from full-time to exactly half-time and stepped down out of management.

I have never regretted that decision. It kept me in touch with my profession, gave me an opportunity to develop professionally in ways that working full-time may not have, gave me time with my family and helped keep me sane. (I’m not the stay at home type).

Not that the time was quiet, as I also enjoyed an 18 month period in there, job-sharing the Information Services role with a colleague I admire and respect.

In those ten years my part-time job also changed, from reference librarian through to virtual services – from being branch focused to having a broader regional role and taking on much responsibility for our library’s online presence.

After Aurora last year, I decided that it was time for my career to ramp up a bit again.  It has in the professional development realm, as I have presented at conferences and seminars and had some journal articles published etc.

Image by Jason McHuff on Flickr

Now the work side is going to catch up. After a 10 year absence, I am going to be Acting Branch Manager in a large public library again. Its only for four months, but with training in the lead up time and covering the Branch Manager who is moving up into a more senior Acting role for the same period, it will be longer.

Its got a lot of positives going for it and multiple challenges.

On the positives, I have a lot of branch management experience that  I will bring to the role, both formal (but from over 10 years ago) and informal, as I have worked at the branch as OIC on night and weekend shifts for many years. It will, more importantly, give me the opportunity to refresh and strengthen those much underutilised skills and I am sure that I will find out fast how much things have changed in that time.

There will be the challenge of my family adjusting to me work full-time, let alone the challenge of me adjusting to working full-time after 10 years away. Fortunately one concern has already been eliminated, we recently had our home cleaning outsourced (loved that part of the change process!)

I am hoping that the preparations I have worked through with the kids will help them adjust to the change, but we will see how it goes.

One of the big challenges that will come with those role will be what is also happening during that time. We are moving to RFID. The tagging and launch process will mostly occur whilst I am in training/transition, but I think just as big a challenge will be the adjustment to potentially different demands from our users as they adjust to the new technology.

It is going to be an interesting time and I am both excited and anxious. I want to do this well, not just for myself, but for the library staff and the Branch Manager who will be coming back to her job.

And the detour part?  I never thought I’d go back to being a Branch Manager.  But after being away from a staff/resources management role for so long, I fully acknowledge that it is a great opportunity to update and exercise those long dormant skills, but also an opportunity to share my wealth of knowledge and experience with my staff, from a new direction. I also expect that I will learn a lot and that is something else to look forward to. (I’m the not sitting still type)  I look forward to being able to share, update and learn and am very grateful for the opportunity being given to me.

Fortunately, I will still be able to keep my hand in the virtual side of our library, in supporting my current Manager who will take a larger slice of that responsibility. I am certain that I would miss it if I couldn’t keep my hand in.

So the detour is taking me where I had never expected to be going not so long ago, but I am looking forward to the journey and all the places it will take me. So you may see some new perspectives here, as my work focus broadens out. I hope you stick around to share the detour with me.

As promised, here is the update.  Its quick.  Check out the previous blog post for the details of what happened, and for Monique (Branch Managers) update in the comments.

The cleaners did a great job and the carpet was dry and library staff were able to put all the shelving back to its normal places by late Friday afternoon.

Children's area as it was and is again

Although there was close on 100 items affected by water, only about 12 had to be withdrawn, mostly magazines and humour which were on fixed shelving.  The rest of the affected books were dried out, the minor damage noted and returned to circulation.

Eighteen interior roofing tiles will be replaced, due to the water damage.  The cause was the amount of rain – it was too much, too quickly and the gutters and drainage just couldn’t cope.  Barring another such storm, it is not expected to happen again.

As of yesterday, the Council Offices were still drying out sections of their carpet affected by the flood.  The shopping centre mostly returned to normal operations by Monday just gone, although the cinema complex, where 9 out of the 10 cinemas were flooded, only reopened yesterday.  ( the noise of many wails heard from teenage girls not able to see New Moon locally, finally abated).

We were very fortunate in terms of where the flood hit us – it was not near electronic equipment and in the only part of the library where 90% of the collection was on wheels.  So between placement and fast acting staff, we got off very lightly.  Now its as if it never happened.

Business as usual.