"Empowering Staff"

  Robert Benson was my favorite speaker of the day.  Robert works with the Roane State Community College Library.  We enjoyed our interaction with him because not only did he listen to us - he understood exactly how we felt about different issues concerning our libraries and he was able to help us find solutions to questions we asked.

  He recommended the following three books:  The One ThingYou Need To Know, by Marcus Buckingham, Start With Why, by Simon Sinek, and Good to Great, by Jim Collins.  These books should help us with leadership development.  Robert pointed out many things which would help guide us in our decision-making pertaining to staffing and building an engaged team.

 

  He reminded us that our libraries were a place for personal connections, emotional connections, and people connecting with people.  We need to engage people to help support our library!  My focus will be on building an engaged team within our city, our friends group, our library volunteers,  and our county library board of trustees.   Our region and state are always there to help us and advise us, and I am so glad.

  I am going away with a great plan to try to focus on my strengths, things that I am good at so that I will be able to achieve all that I possibly can.  Robert pointed out that we tend to focus on our weaknesses.  He said we don't need to waste time doing that.  Truthfully, I had not looked at it that way at all!  I will definitely work on that and then maybe someday I will be brilliant.  (maybe even by next year so I can help my team win at library jeopardy!  (ha!)





Where I am NOW and Where I WANT to be

  I do have one small change I will tell you about - though it may turn into a GIGANTIC project if it is successful, and I believe it will be!  I am going to put it into high gear when I get home because I plan to meet with our city planning commission, and then meet with our city LEO's!  I believe they will like what I will have to say about my plan to "build on" to the little baby library. 
  The city, and especially the library has such a small budget that this is going to require lots and lots of time applying for grants, but I know it can be done and if nobody takes the initiative to do it - guess what, IT WON'T GET DONE!
  I feel like I am the one with the vision, therefore I should carry through with the plan.  The community is desperate for a bigger library, so I will have my work cut out for me.  I have been given some tips this week at PLMI on how to slowly get people use to the idea, so I would rather go a little slow and have more people on board than strike out on my own, pushing my own agenda.  I really believe if it is a team effort - it will be worth it all!
  It will be for the community and I feel good about leading something I believe is the right move to make.  We have plenty of land beside the library so we should be able to keep the library open while building on - almost up to the time when it is finished and a wall has to be changed or a window made into a door.  We will see.  I have many ideas and I will be happy to let you know the progress!
  Good luck to all of you in the changes you will be making in your libraries also!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014 Public Library Management Program

Fall Creek Falls

 

  Our speaker today was Maggie Bahou, Secretary of State's HR Director talking about evaluations and managing performance.  Presently my library staff is not being evaluated (including me)!  Since I am the only person on staff, I have never considered evaluations.  Today I decided that I could actually have a library customer evaluate me, maybe a volunteer would like to do that, plus one of

the city commissioners could be asked. 

  I received an answer to my question about who should write and/or update our library director's job

description.  Maggie said that I should be able to do that, then get the board to approve it.  For me that would be the McMinn County Library Board because our city does not have a board.  I have been planning to do this for some time, and will now carry through with this idea.

  Maggie also went over different examples of evaluations that a library director could possibly use.  I will more than likely choose one of these which are in the packet she gave us.  Very helpful and informative!

Staff Development Plans



  I am so jealous of all you who have a staff to work with in your library!  That is my dream!  It is a long story, but when I get my city on board to "build on", I'm sure many more people will use our library just because they will see "something is changing", "something exciting is going on" and people will want to participate when they see growth happening!  I am optimistic!

  Since I have no staff members, I will tell you about how I work with my Friends of the Library members, the library volunteers, and my Planning and Technology Team!  These are the people I feel like I lead, although, as all library directors, I do work with my city, my county board, and my library trustee.

  First of all, I am so glad that I have four library volunteers to assist whenever I ask them to fill in, or if I just need a day off.  In the three years in this position, I have never had a vacation, and I have only took two or three days off at different times when I had to go out of town and each one of those days, a different person worked for me, with no pay (volunteer!)  One volunteer works every Tuesday and Thursday about two or three hours, and another one comes in on Fridays for a while, which really helps.  They clean the computers, vacuum the carpet, straighten book shelves, and anything I ask them to do!

  My FOL need to be a little more active, but I am trying to work with them slowly while getting new people on board, because if I want to build on and expand the size of the library, I do want them to be quite a bit more assertive, and interested! 

  The Technology/Planning Team is awesome and they have worked many hours developing long range plans - the best our little library has ever had!  I just asked them about their interest, some were more interested in general planning assistance while one person was only interested in the technology aspect of the long range plan, so it all fit together.  This is the team who has helped me develop policies for our library and as far as I know, our library has never had computer policies before.

  In the future I do plan to reward my volunteers in some way, which is an idea acquired at PLMI.

I continue to learn a lot at PLMI and mostly I feel I need the motivation I gain while realizing most other library directors face many of the same challenges I face.

Green Movement

Greening the Library:

Collection Development Decisions

 

Concordia College

Virginia Connell

Library Instruction Librarian

 

   This was a most interesting article and I did feel a certain amount of motivation from this reading, therefore I will briefly mention a few things I found helpful.

   The article considers three facets of collection development:  selection of materials, de-selection processes, and selection of a material format, specifically print or electronic.

   Most of the discussion was devoted to the issue of print versus electronic resources, which is one of my main areas of concern when ordering materials.  Because libraries are vested with the duty of maintaining knowledge and information from one generation to the next, like the article pointed out, we have to be concerned about sustainability.  Books are ultimately more earth friendly than electronic resources.  They can be used, reused, and recycled.  Considering the Green Movement I must be on the right page, because I really do prefer books! 

   References were given (you who are involved in PLMI have the into) to provide us with a detailed look at the library's formal involvement in green activities.  The ALA Task Force continues to actively addresses issues of greening the library.  Many advocates within the library profession promote reusing books, recycling paper, investing in green library architecture, and providing green programming.  One library converted on-site green space into a community garden, tended by patrons.  This was an unexpected bit of information I received, since over a month ago one of our library customers volunteered to lead a group of adults during our Summer Reading Program.  One of four projects the adult SRP participants accomplished was learning about raising gardens and growing vegetables in small spaces.  They actually planted tomatoes and peppers in two different large pots and placed them in from of our little library.   As a customer leaves the library then now can  pick a pepper or tomato to take home for a meal.

Long-Range Plans

   Obviously this is the wonderful time of year for libraries to work on long-range plans!  A 5-Year Long Range Plan is not a fun thing to work on though it is necessary, but it does help when you have a brand new Planning Committee on board to help you, which I have.  I am so glad!  At our meeting this morning we actually started thinking about developing at least a minimum charter and writing our purpose statement.  We will see how this goes!  We sort of defined rolls in the sense that each person stated what they are best at or more interested in.  I have a homework assignment of working on the purpose statement for our new charter.

   But today I am trying to remember how to blog.  Just to figure out which buttons to push seems to be kind of time consuming.  Once you get started it is o.k.  Just want to greet those involved in PLMI and tell you I am excited to read your blogs to see what you have posted.  I'll let you know what I learned, o.k.??  I see no reason why we can't enjoy this while it lasts!! 

   Heather, being the kind, sweet person she is gave us lots of time to watch our webinars so I hope everybody enjoyed their webinars as much as I did.  Mine was great and really helped me a lot.

   I finally have business cards for the library.  I am so excited about that.  I enjoyed attending Library Legislative Day in Nashville also!

Sandra @ Niota Library

PLMI ASSIGNMENT

      The name of the webinar i watched is “Why Teams Fail: Dealing with Friction and Dissension”.  The most important thing i learned is that there should always be a charter and a purpose statement for clarification.

     When organizing a team, build a solid foundation from the beginning by writing a charter that states the purpose. 

1.      Figure out your purpose statement.  (Why is it necessary to have the team?  What do you want to accomplish?)

2.      Make a list of your goals and how you want to accomplish them.

3.      It is important for each team member to have significant responsibility.

     A few months ago I put together a Technology Planning Committee to help write long-range plans for our library.  The city took my recommendation, voted on and approved the committee.  My mistake is that I failed to lead them to properly organize from the beginning.

     Although I made this mistake, the planning committee has worked very well together and after many hours and some revisions, came up with computer policies which I have been able to present to our McMinn County Library Board for review and approval!

     However, at our next Tech Planning Committee meeting I plan to explain the need to write at least a minimum charter for the committee and develop a clear purpose statement.  The webinar has given me guidance and direction.

     One reason I chose to watch this webinar about friction and dissension is that our city commissioners, who are local elected officials, are always disagreeing and even fussing and fighting among themselves at public city meetings.  Even though friction is a natural part of teams, as the webinar points out, problems should be faced and dealt with.  A good leader sometimes needs to say “STOP!”  And then say  “We need to speak one at a time and listen to each other.  No interruptions, no debate, listen and try to understand each other and what each one is saying when they are expressing their opinion”.  Niota’s commissioners need to rediscover their purpose and try to stay more focused!

     Confusion, friction, and dissension is sometimes brought on by lack of clarity.  That’s why we need a clear purpose!  But there are always going to be challenges.  Treat them gently, as the webinar points out.  Have a passion toward the bigger purpose.  Communication is so important when working with teams.  Remind the team where they are going and talk about the best way to get there.

     To have a more productive team, make an effort to improve communication.  A rule of thumb is that when communication is altered, relationships are also altered.  Be the behavior you want to see in others!  Remember, when communication changes, relationships also change!

     In conclusion let me say that almost every paragraph you have just read contains either a thought or a partial quote taken from a webinar by Dr. Eunice Parisi  entitled “Why Teams Fail: Dealing with Friction and Dissension” and the link came from Heather Lambert’s e-mail.

 

Sandra’s PLMI Blog

Due March 20, 2014