Older Librarians Can Be Gold

Last week, I was at the hair salon getting my hair cut.  It’s a super friendly place and I was chatting with one of the young women who works there – she’s 19 years old. Since I’m a new client, she asked me what I did for a living. Of course, I said “I’m a librarian”. Her response?  And I quote, “You’re awfully nice to be a librarian”.  All I could say was “that makes me really sad”.

It turns out that her concept of librarians is that they’re, you guessed it, kind of scary and always telling people to be quiet.  The frowning shusher, intent on policing behavior and collecting fines.

You and I both know that’s an outdated stereotype, but the sad truth is that so many people still think the same thing.

And the sadder truth is – there are still too many librarians acting that way. 

In my years of working in libraries, I’ve seen this many times and – I’m sorry to say – was guilty of it myself in my early days.  I thought the library should be a quiet space and that we should teach people, especially children, responsibility by holding them accountable for borrowed materials by charging fines. 

But over time, I realized that what I was really doing was just turning kids off to books and libraries.  Maybe permanently. They’re the kids who grew into adults who say things like “You’re awfully nice to be a librarian”.  And then I read a quote by Doug Johnson, author of the Blue Skunk Blog that said “The goal of a library is not to get back all the books, but all the readers” (Doug Johnson, 2013).

For complete show notes, please visit masterfullibrarian.com/ep-31

In this very short episode, I’m going to talk about the value of story. No, not the kind of stories we usually think of in libraries, but rather the kind our team members have to tell. It’s in these personal narratives that you might discover the most magical solutions to troubling issues.  

As usual, full show notes can be found at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-30.

I discovered this gold mine in a surprising way. 

One of the best parts of my new job is exit interviews.  When a staff member of one of my direct reports leaves, for any reason, they have the opportunity to do an exit interview with me. So far, I’ve had the privilege of doing two – one with a retiring staff member and one with someone who was moving on to a new opportunity. 

 I really love doing these interviews! Although it’s always sad to see an employee go, I just never cease to be enthralled with the stories they tell me about their lives, their work in the library, their challenges, and their successes. And when I really listen and ask powerful questions, I learn much that I can bring to bear in solving library problems.  

 In fact, I learn so much about things like what has worked well, what has done damage, or where an employee might have been better supported along the way, that I realized it was a shame to wait until they were leaving to do these interviews!  So,  I’ve started doing similar interviews now, long before a team member is  even thinking about leaving. 

And although it’s true that someone who’s already out the door will often be more forthcoming with feedback - both constructive and not so much -  I’ve found that when I create for an employee the time, space, and safety to share without fear of retribution – and remember team leaders, that is key, to share without fear of retribution - stories start to flow out like a waterfall.

It’s incredibly useful information for me, as a team leader.

You can do this, too.  It takes some time and a willingness to listen without judgement or even comment, but the payoff is worth it.  

It’s honestly what coaching is all about – asking meaningful, open-ended questions and then really listening to the response.

Because here is the truth.  Every single one of us has a story.  We come to our work, not as blank canvases, but as real people with an infinite variety of experiences, successes, failure, scars, and habits (not all good) . And all of those are interwoven to create the tapestry that is our unique and personal story.

 I have found that when I invite an employee, a member of my team, or really anyone, to tell me their story and I sit and I listen with an open and empathetic mind and heart, they will begin to open up and share some of their authentic narrative with me. And in this way, we can connect and begin to build a relationship of trust and respect. And when I care enough to validate their experiences and their personal viewpoints and perceptions – even when I don’t agree, or when I know that their perception is not accurate – that relationship grows stronger. 

 And when that relationship grows stronger, I have the opportunity to develop that individual into a better team member and to help them move forward toward their own personal goals and objectives. So it’s a win-win.

And when I’m doing that - when that happens - the magic of true collaboration and teamwork starts.

For complete show notes, please visit masterfullibrarian.com/ep-30

Hello librarians.  Welcome to this week’s episode where I’m going to talk about leaders in the library – they’re not always who you think they are.  As usual, for complete show notes, you can go to masterfullibrarian.com/ep-29.

I like to think, learn, and share about leadership.  It’s really kind of my thing. Becoming a better leader is something that I work at all the time. And since I started my new position, it’s been even more important to me because I have a fairly large team that I lead. And  one of my responsibilities is to nurture and develop the people on my team – the leaders on my team – the experienced and the emerging.  So it seemed like a good thing for me to talk about with you. 

There are lots of definitions of leadership. Here are just a few:

1.      the one in the charge, the person who convinces other people to follow (https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/leader)

2.      a person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal (http://www.vtaide.com/gleanings/leader.html)

3.      someone who can see how things can be improved and who rallies people to move toward that better vision (https://www.chieflearningofficer.com/2020/01/06/what-is-leadership-and-who-is-a-leader/)

I kind of like that last one, but I’m most drawn to this definition from a White Paper by Bal et al.  In  the paper, The Role of Power in Effective Leadership, they define a leader as someone who has the potential to influence others.  

True leaders are powerful people and it’s because of this ability to influence. 

You could be that leader.

For complete show notes, please visit masterfullibrarian.com/ep-29.

As I told you in my episode 29, Masterful Librarian is Back, I’ve returned to work in a library again. And those of you who have been listening to my podcasts are probably wondering about that.  After all, in my very first episode, Why I’m Glad I Lost my Library Job, I said I was kind of burnt out on working in libraries and, at the time, that was true.  But after a year and a half away, things have changed.

Teamwork

The best thing about being back in a library is the teamwork!  I love working with a dedicated group of like-minded individuals. Much of my library career, including this last year as a Librarian Success Coach,  has been spent in solo situations.  Although I loved those jobs and often worked on cross-departmental teams in those organizations, there’s nothing like working with a group of your peers to envision, develop, and improve collections, programs, and services. 

When I work alone, I get things done and have ideas.  But when I work with a group toward a goal or objective?  The ideas just seem to flow like a great river and the completed work boggles my mind. There’s nothing I love more than a free-flowing, but targeted, brainstorming session or a well-facilitated meeting to create action steps toward a goal. These things really get my juices flowing and I love it.  

And here’s what’s important.  Sometimes we don’t realize how much working and being around like-minded people energizes us and brings joy to our days. It’s easy to get frustrated or irritated by co-workers when we’re with them day in and day out and to start thinking we’d love nothing better than to escape to a quiet, secluded place to work. And sometimes we need to do that – for a little while.

But I believe that most of us, especially those called to work in libraries, are simply better together.

Libraries & Librarians Matter

Way back in episode 2, I told you all how much you matter to your users and the community.  If you haven’t listened to Librarians, You Matter More Than You Know, you can find that masterfullibrarian.com/ep2. And it’s true. Libraries are one of the most vital institutions in society and that’s only because of the librarians who work in them.

Although my work with Masterful Librarian certainly contributes to that greater good, I’m definitely more in the game now.  I love knowing that everything I do in my role at the library contributes to making my community, our society, and the world a better place.  

That’s pretty important stuff.

And the same thing is true for you in whatever role you’re filling at your library. Even if you’re in the most junior level positions you’re making that kind of difference.  

If you’re at the Circ desk, or shelving in the stacks, or sorting and processing  book returns, you’re still an essential cog in the big and beautiful wheel called a library. Never underestimate your power to make an impact in your library world.

For complete show notes, please go to masterfullibrarian.com/ep28

Hello librarians!  I’m finally back – after a much longer than anticipated absence.  My apologies for that! Sometimes – maybe most of the time – my life doesn’t go according to my plans!

In my last episode, I promised some exciting news when I returned.  So here’s the big reveal.  I’ve gone back to work in a library!  

Now you may be thinking “What? You said in your first episode you were glad you lost your library job!”  And you would be right.  I did say that – and at the time it was 100% true. 

If you haven’t listened to that episode, called “Why I’m Glad I Lost My Library Job”, you can find it at masterfullibrarian.com/ep1. 

But the rest of that story is that over the course of the year of the lockdown, working with my coaching business, I discovered that being at home all the time and only getting to work with people remotely just didn’t do it for me. 

Don’t get me wrong – I love coaching and love working with clients on the phone and virtually that way.  And I will continue to work with clients.  At the same time, I genuinely missed working with a team – in person. I need that sort of interaction and the energy that gets generated when two or more people are actually in the same room collaborating. 

So, I sent out some applications a few months ago and the amazing people at the Milwaukee Public Library offered me something I just couldn’t turn down.  They offered me the position of the new Public Services Area Manager for Central.  Which means, I’m the head of public services at the main library building of the Milwaukee Public Library.

I started back on August 16 and I absolutely love it!  I love the library, the role I fill, I love the people I work with. It’s been amazing! It’s a little early to say, but this just might be one of the best jobs I’ve ever had the privilege to hold. It’s great to be here.

That means that at the end of July, I moved – again.  Second time in four months. I’ve got to cut down on that! It’s hard.

And, of course, it totally turns my life upside down -  it seems for longer each time I have to move. And that brings me to why it took me so long to get back to producing the podcast.

For complete show notes, please go to masterfullibrarian.com/ep27

Summer is in full swing and I know many of you - especially my school librarian listeners - are finally enjoying some well-deserved time away from work.   It’s been a tough year. 

If you’re a public librarian, you may be in your busiest time of year as Summer Reading Programs are in full swing right now.  But I hope you, too, will get some time off to refresh and rejuvenate sometime this summer.

This has been a pretty crazy year for me and  I am once again entering into a time of big change and transition. I’ll tell you more about that in a future episode.  

 But for now - for the month of July, I’m taking a vacation, too. That will allow me to get recharged and focused before I enter into my exciting new adventure.  It will also give me time to take care of details related to that adventure. 

Look for my next episode on August 4.  I hope you’ll be back with me at that time. I’ll have lots to share!

In the meantime, enjoy this season of longer days, warmer nights, maybe some afternoon naps, time to read all those wonderful new books you’ve been receiving in your libraries all year, maybe get some fresh fruits and vegetables at the market, and enjoy some beach, lake, or pool time, if you can.  I know I’ll be trying to do as many of those things as I possibly can during the month of July.

So, for now, enjoy your summer! And I’ll see you back on August 4.

Do any of these sound familiar to you?

•  You create an important document for presentation to others. You’re pretty sure you need to make some changes, but use it anyway, only to receive the feedback that it needs those very changes.  
• You have a significant problem at work.  You instinctively envision a solution, but don’t trust it.  Instead, you get guidance from an outside authority and end up making the problem worse.
• You receive what looks like a great job offer but your inner “danger” radar keeps going off.  You ignore those signals, take the job anyway, and find yourself unemployed several months later.

I personally have had all three and more over the years of my career. My guess is that you’ve had your share of very similar experiences – because most people do. 

What’s wrong when this happens?  Why do we do that?

We’re not following our own brilliant inner guidance systems. 

Every one of us has an intangible but accessible genius within us.  That genius is capable of guiding us correctly nearly 100% of the time.  

In fact,  it may be 100% of the time, we just don’t quite interpret the signals correctly and get something wrong.  But the guidance was sound.

Some people refer to this inner guidance as their intuition, some their higher self and some call it divine guidance.  It doesn’t really matter what you call it or even if you believe in it - it’s there and it always knows how to set our perfect course.

Why would we ignore such valuable information?  Because our minds and, for some, our insecurities, get in the way.

Most of the time, when I ignore my inner wisdom, it’s because my logical mind convinces me that I must be wrong.  Or I’m convinced that someone else knows better than I do – so I ignore my gut and follow the other person’s instructions.  Things usually go wrong for me when I do that.

The truth is, our minds are just machines – mechanical entities that move along in well-established and comfortable grooves. 

The mind doesn’t “think outside the box”.  It relies on memory and past impressions and can easily ignore – actually willfully ignore - flashes of insight and creativity. And it’s typically afraid of trusting anything that it doesn’t feel is supported with visible, tangible evidence.

That inner guidance system, on the other hand, can give you instructions that seem totally novel, random, or out of the blue. Maybe even illogical. Those instructions may not look logical at all.  But if we follow those nudges, we rarely go wrong. 

It’s pretty amazing.

I’ve used this inner guidance for everything from hiring personnel to making cross country moves with no promise of employment.  

When I follow it, I always land on my feet in a good place.  

When I don’t – I can end up flat on my backside in a mud pit.

For complete show notes, please visit masterfullibrarian.com/ep25

In this episode, I’m talking about good enough librarians – and how vitally important those people are.  

So if you often feel uninspired and fret over not having brilliant new ideas for you library programs and lessons, stick around.  This episode is for you.

You’ve probably noticed that I often mention people I consider to be rock star librarians. I’m fortunate to know and have worked with many of those people. And I love them.

They’re full of fresh and fun ideas, boundless enthusiasm, and a great passion for libraries.  I learn so much from visionary people like that. 

And I am not one of them!  

For a long time, I faulted myself for that. I kept telling myself I should be more creative and resourceful - that I should be posting cutting-edge ideas on social media and writing articles for library journals.  

And for a long time, I didn’t do those things and I felt like that made me a lame librarian. 

I was dead wrong. I wasn’t lame – I was good enough. 

By that, I don’t mean I was a slacker or that I did just enough to get by.  I mean that I did my best and it was enough! 

We’ve all heard the aphorism, attributed to Voltaire, that “perfect is the enemy of the good”.  This is a profound truth. Doing our best and working hard is what’s called for – there’s no need or purpose for all of us to be rock stars.

If you don’t feel like a rock star librarian because you aren’t doing all the things either, how can you give your users the best?

Well, my motto was always “don’t reinvent the wheel”.  

As I’ve recommended in previous episodes such as episode 17,  smart librarians follow the thought leaders and influencers.  

Identify  some real rock star librarians that you admire and resonate with and get ideas from them.  That’s why they’re putting all their stuff on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram - why they’re writing articles of library journals, and presenting at all the conferences.  They want you to use their ideas. 

So do it!  

Maybe you’re not generating the innovative content, but you can sure be an early adopter! You can be as cutting edge in your library as they are - simply by using their awesome ideas.

Collaborate with other library professionals and co-create lessons, programs, and services together.  My best ideas are always generated when I’m brainstorming or problem-solving with a group.

It’s like somehow great conversations turn on the creativity faucet in my brain. I always come away energized and with fresh perspectives and innovative plans when I’ve worked with a group or with another peron. 

Could that work for you, too?

For complete show notes, please visit  masterfullibrarian.com/ep-24.

Hello Librarians!  Thanks for joining me. Today, I’m sharing my top two tips for achieving your library, or even your personal, goals. It’s a short episode and you’ll find the full show notes at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-23.

My first tip, that I’ve talked about before, is to take one small step at a time.  Identify one small action, schedule the time to take that action on your calendar, and then follow through. It’s simple. 

I’ve done an entire episode on the idea of small steps, so if you’d like to hear more about that, please listen to my episode, Small Steps Toward Big Library Impact. You can find that one at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-5.

My second top tip for achieving your goals is to stop trying.  You heard me right.  Stop trying. Stop striving, exerting tons of effort, or working around the clock. Just relax and let go. 

Does this mean to do nothing at all?  Absolutely not!  You have to take those small steps I just mentioned.  But the harder your try to attain something, the further it will recede from you.  It’s called the Law of Reversed Effort and it’s a universal truth whether you want it to be or not. 

Ideally, we will live our lives and complete our responsibilities with effortless effort.  Allowing ourselves to stay relaxed and focused and in the flow. 

We all have heard about great athletes and masters of other skills who get into what is often called the “zone”.  When they’re in that space, they aren’t striving or trying hard. They’re focusing, relaxing, and allowing something greater than their worried little minds to act through them to accomplish their goal.  This is effortless effort. 

 Most of us still believe we can control our lives and it’s simply not true.  The more we try to control and force outcomes, the more we will be disappointed.  When we cling tightly to a certain order of events or a specific outcome, the more we tighten up and constrict and that makes it awfully hard to create anything. 

Think about drawing a picture or writing a poem.  If you sit down with paper and paints or pencil and make yourself create a beautiful work of art, I guarantee you it will not come easily - if it comes at all. The more we try to force inspiration, the less we’ll have.  This holds true with our daily working life, our professional and institutional goals, and our personal dreams and responsibilities.  It holds true for all facets of our lives.  

The harder we try, the less  we will achieve. 

The key?  Set your vision, see it concretely, identify and take your first step toward that vision,  then let go of the rest.  Relax and feel yourself expand and open to the infinite ways your vision can become reality – or possibly not become reality.  Sometimes the universe has other ideas for us beyond what we can possibly imagine.

And those ideas are always so much better than anything we could envision. As Allen Saunders wrote and John Lennon sang, “"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans”. It rarely goes the way we expected it to.

So for today, at least, allow yourself to let go.  Know that your goals and dreams are attainable with effortless effort. Allow yourself to enter a relaxed focus and expand and tap into the powerful creative current of life.  

Row your boat gently down that stream and I believe you’ll soon arrive exactly where you need to be and you’ll be pleased with that destination. 

Tell me, are you a cheugy librarian?  If you are, I’d like you to change that. 

Actually, I’m not entirely certain I underestand what cheugy means, but it got a lot of media attention at the first of May and I just like the word! 

Cheugy is a word coined back in 2013 and broadly means being out of date, off-trend, or trying too hard.  It’s really kind of a silly, niche term but I wanted to use it today because it’s fun and seemed like a good way to start a conversation about staying current and relevant as librarians – which is vitally important.

Today’s show notes can be found at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-22.

I’m going to give you four ways that you might be a cheugy librarian.  And does this sound like you at all?

You’re Stuck in Some Past Vision of What Your Library Should Be

If you’re like me, and you started your library career literally decades ago, it’s possible that you’re clinging to some outdated ideas and beliefs and your library’s physical space, collections, and services reflect that.  And there’s a good chance you can’t see it because you’re too close to it. 

So, I invite you to take a really close look at what you’re doing, what you’re believing in your work and ask yourself, “Am I clinging to something that I picked up I graduate school that’s no longer appropriate or relevant today?”

When was the last time you refreshed your library’s physical space?  I’ve talked about this before and I’ll say it again – if you’ve got faded pictures and old dirty plush animals or decorative items that are dated, those need to go.  You may not have decision-making authority around those things, but you can always make suggestions to your supervisor or to your director, if they’re accessible to you, to see if they can make those changes. 

Also, if your library doesn’t reflect your community the way it is today – if it isn’t diverse, inclusive, and welcoming to all, please begin addressing that. You should be offering programs that reflect popular interests and cultural movements, such as podcasting and social justice, not the same programs you were offering ten years ago – even if they are delightful and fun.  

We often do that because it’s easy but I urge to do whatever is in your power to create a library for today and for everyone.

You Don’t Stay Current with Library Issues, Trends, and Best Practices

Do you attend library conferences – either virtually or in-person? Are you even a member of a library association?  Do you frequently take advantage of professional development opportunities in a really engaged and curious way, so that you learn?  Do you read library journals and magazines?  Do you follow library influencers on social media?  

If you’re not doing any of these things, I wonder how you’re staying up to speed with all the rapid changes happening in libraries now? 

I’ve known librarians who never attended any conferences or trainings because, as they put it “there’s nothing for me there”.  That always astounded me.  I have never been to a conference of any type – even ones that weren’t in any way connected to libraries – where I didn’t pick up new ideas and new skills that I could bring to my work. 

If you think there’s nothing new out there for you to learn, I urge you to think again about that.  None of us can know it all and there’s always something new developing that you can learn. 

For complete show notes, please visit masterfullibrarian.com/ep-22