Connecting Librarian

I have been reading some great memes and reviews of people’s 2007 in various library blogs and was going to do the same for my first post.  However, my Christmas and New Year were nothing to write home about and I find myself more and more looking to the future in a wide variety of areas, so decided to do the same here.

I have been working in public libraries since I graduated from university in 1985 (just need a Bachelor’s degree in Australia to work as a librarian).  Of my 22 years in libraries, I have worked full-time for 13 and now half-time for 9 since I had my children.  Now that my youngest is about to start school, I am thinking about what I want to do with the rest of my career, which until the last year or so was on cruise control.

I spoke to my Library Director seeking advice about working towards my future and he asked me to consider what I wanted to  do.  I have some thoughts about where I would like to go, but the one thing I am sure of is that it will involve leadership in some form.

I have been a leader of some sort throughout my career.  I have not always lead well as some of my past co-workers could well testify, but I have learnt well.  I am not officially a manager at this stage of my career, but have been so long with my library and in a wide variety of roles, including managerial, that I take on an unofficial leadership role and am sought for advice, opinions, assistance on a regular basis.  Not that I do anything to undermine the existing leadership.

So I got to thinking about what I should do to develop my leadership skills, which got me thinking more about leadership.  What is it?  What skills make a good leader and what extras make them great? Having said that, I think that it would be awesome beyond all belief to be considered a good leader, I have no illusions about being great.

Then, whilst watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a favourite of my kids and I, my daughter asked me if Leonardo was the leader because he was the eldest brother.  A natural assumption from my 8 year old.  However, he is leader because of other abilities, including recognising and utilising the skills of his brothers.  As his brother Michelangelo pointed out, he also had the hardest job because Raphael could leave the thinking to Leonardo, Donatello was free to dream and Michelangelo was free to clown because their big brother Leonardo took on all that responsibility.  If you know the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you will understand.  Wow, wisdom on leadership from a kid’s cartoon!

I have also learnt much from my friends in the blogosphere, musing about their leadership experiences.  They are far too many to list here, but to you all I give thanks - you have given me a great start.

So what have I been learning about leadership from all these musings?  Here’s the very shortest beginnings of what I know will be an ever growing list, from which I hope to keep learning.

A good leader:

• knows people
• is able to follow
• is able to take the lead when required
• is able to motivate those being lead
• is able to lead without being obvious about it most of the time
• never asks staff to do something they wouldn’t do
• sees the big picture
• is able to dream
• gets the job done
• brings the best out of the people they lead
• can utilise the people they have for the best results for everyone
• is responsible
• takes pride in their team
• gives credit where credit is due
• is always learning
• adapts to change
• is able to inspire people
• takes risks
• is committed (or ought to be )
• also serves
• has integrity

And why do I need to know this?  Because I plan to be working in libraries for another 30 years or so and can’t and won’t stay at this level for the rest of those days.  For me to progress further, leadership is one of the skill sets I will need to develop further.  I have a good foundation, built on pain, experience and the patience and teaching of many good staff and managers - all to whom I give my sincere apologies for my mistakes and my heartfelt thanks for the lessons they taught me - many without knowing they were doing so.

And knowing the pain that can be and is involved in leadership, why would I want to go down that path?  Because of the great satisfaction that also comes out of doing it and doing it well.  It truly is a joy to lead a team who works well, beyond expectations and enjoys doing so.  That’s not easy to come by, takes a lot of hard work but is so worth it in the end, when you see the awesome results that can be achieved.

And so I look to you now too, to add to my short list.  What leadership skills or abilities do you see as being key to a good or great leader.  I am sure that you have also had some inspirational leaders in your lives, what lessons did they teach you about doing it right?  Can it be done right?  Can it be learnt or is it inherent?  Please contribute your thoughts in a comment and we will see how this list develops.

Jo Stewart Rattray from Vectra Corp spoke on “Information Security”. All libraries have information assets we need to protect, would we know if our systems were under attack? An international study found that 70% of all attacks are internal, not necessarily intentional, can be accidental.

Information security is confidentiality, integrity and availability of info. 80% is about the info, 20% is the tech. It is a people issue and it is everyone’s responsibility. The two most valuable assets of an organisation are its information and its people and we don’t want tampering with either.

Hackers just want to get into the system to show their tech expertise, its pride. Cracker is doing it for malicious gain, destruction, financial gain. Freakers hack into phone systems, often to make free calls. Simple security will help protect, including unguessable passwords and logging machines out when not around.

Good information policies should be easily understood and distributed to all staff. Should include everyone’s rights, roles and responsibilities and be a part of pds.

Dr Gillian Hallam presented “Don’t ever stop: career long learning”, outlining results from a survey on the sustainability of the LIS workforce in Australia, as part of the Nexus project.

Online survey was conducted from mid September to the end of October 2006, with 2354 responses received. 85% had completed studies, 8% still in study. 79% professional, 17% paraprofessional. Age ranges for librarians only: 18-25 2.8%, 26-35 18.8%, 36-45 25.8%, 46-55 33.8% and 56+ 16.1% which was similar to the figures for all LIS staff. Interestingly, 40% of new graduates were career changers and 44% were over 40. New graduates had shorter stay in jobs, mid to late careers were long serving. With the percentage of middle and senior managers retiring in the next 9 years (32%), there are real concerns for succession planning.

The skill sets that will be lost will be middle and senior management such as organisational planning, budget, collections, reference, research and information services. Only 28% of staff have formal training often, 23% rarely. Informal training is much better, with 42% often and 15% rarely.

Of interest again was the 62% who believed they were overqualified for their current role, the 21% who were interested in further study, and the 42% who were ALIA members (of which 47% rarely or were never actively involved). However, ALIA professional members are twice as likely to be involved in training.

Mei Lin Gray and Warren Cheetham from Thuringowa Public Library spoke about their changing reference service in “From Table to Tablet”. Customers and staff were uncomfortable with the reference desk (and the photos showed good reason, lol), they were more likely to approach roving staff. Renovations in the library led to a smaller more modular circ desk and self serve loans, so they took the opportunity to revisit the info desk.

Changing to a desk, where librarian and patron could sit side by side, they trialled a tablet PC, fully networked via a wireless system, giving them access to all PC based software, the internet etc. Now they are able to revise their query on the go, without having to make trips back and forth to the desk. Disadvantage with the tablet was the small print size and some connectivity issues.

After 9 months, 2 staff are very comfortable and enthusiastic about the change, another has partial use of it and the last 3 staff are still desk centric.

Recommendations: - staged approach, use old and new for a time
- time to play away from the desk, so that staff get comfortable with it
- follow up training and sharing of stories.