"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.