Here is my article - Coordinating with Librarians:
Several years ago a friend and I were talking about another
librarian. My friend made the comment
that this other librarian was odd. I
asked, “Is he really strange or is he just library
odd?”
Over the course of my twenty-five years of working in
libraries, visiting libraries and attending library conference, I have come to
the realization that librarians on the whole are a pretty odd lot. Before anyone takes offense – be assured that
I count myself among the odd.
Of course, being odd is part of what makes us interesting
and part of what takes us into the realms of research and reference. That’s why many of us think outside the
box. Some of us don’t even see the box!
Appreciating our
differences:
We are all different.
Some of us are extroverts; some of us are introverts.
After taking a Myers-Briggs exam,
I learned that I am an Introvert. Then I
read the descriptions of the various facets and combinations. Lo and behold! There’s nothing wrong with being an
Introvert. It is useful to know what our
type is and understand the people around us so we can work better as a
team. Yes – we all have to be part of a team.
Even solo librarians work with other people.
I am an introvert who has learned to be an extrovert. Sometimes I have to psych myself up to attend
a party and interact with people. And
then I need some serious downtime.
The point of taking the Myers-Briggs exam is to learn better
how you work and how you can be more effective with your colleagues. It helps if other members of your staff take
the exam so everyone can learn to work together more effectively.
There are other ways of accomplishing this – find what works
best for your group. The important thing
to understand is that everyone on the staff is a little different. They will each approach the same task in a
slightly different manner.
Respecting our
differences:
When I was working as a cataloger the library hired a director
of Technical Services. She wanted to sit
down with me and review my work procedures.
I had a moment of resentment. I
had been doing my job for over a year and I didn’t need anyone telling me what
to do. Fortunately the moment
passed. I considered that was now her
job to supervise me so she needed to see what I did. And, since she had a lot more experience in
libraries than I did, I just might learn something from her.
In fact, I learned a lot from her – including how to be
gracious to staff members who can be resentful.
She was always fair showed respect for all of her colleagues.
Get acquainted:
In June I attended the SLA Annual Conference in San
Diego. The highlight of the conference
for me was a presentation by Capt. Winston Smith, USN, Commander of the SanDiego Naval Base. So much of what he
said resonated with me and what I have been trying to do over the past year.
He says he spends 1/3 of his time visiting the ships at the
navy base, 1/3 of his time meeting with the tenants and other commands on the
base, and 1/3 of his time outside the fence – engaging with the local
communities.
These visits aren’t inspection tours – he wants to know the
people and them to know him so he can be approachable and better understand
their needs. So, in a library we should
spend 1/3 of our time with our colleagues, 1/3 with our customers and 1/3 with
our administrative stakeholders.
Some of these interactions will be formal such as staff
meetings and presentations. But don’t
forget the informal – grabbing a cup of coffee or sharing lunch. Find connections with others that don’t
involve classification schedules or acquisitions. But when you are working with your staff –
make sure they know you appreciate what they are doing. Remind them how their work fits into the big
picture and serves the mission of the organization.
Know thyself:
This is an aphorism that dates to Ancient Greece. And we still forget its importance!
Again I recall something that Capt. Smith said in his
presentation in June - What is your
psychological driver? Identify your own strengths and weaknesses.
When we know our strengths we are free to let others be
strong too. Another person’s expertise
isn’t viewed as a threat when I know that I have my own expertise. Hopefully our expertise is complementary and
we can learn from each other. When we
combine our efforts we can accomplish more for our organization.
Putting it into
practice:
A year ago I started a new job. I am a director of an agency library
program. I give support and policy
guidance to my libraries but I have no supervisory authority over them. They are themselves a consortium – each is
independent of the other. They are
funded and supervised locally.
Fortunately I have a boss who sees the importance of my
visiting the libraries and meeting with the librarians and the local
supervisory and command staff. This has
helped me to understand the work in each of the libraries as well as get to
know my librarians.
A few months before I started one of the librarians
organized a monthly conference call to coordinate work on the eJournals
resource. I was surprised to learn that
this was a recent development.
In addition to visits to the districts to meet the
librarians, I started a weekly email to update everyone on what I was doing and
sharing any agency information that I knew of.
I usually get some feedback on those –so that tells me that they are
reading the messages.
My agency has several librarians who have been on board for
many years. I have made an effort to
reach out to them to learn the history of the agency as well as the particular
history of the library program. They
have been a big help and have saved me from making several mistakes. They have pointed out matters of protocol as
well as practical matters of working with the Department of Defense.
Email has become my default means of contacting people. I have had to overcome that and pick up the
phone and talk to my colleagues.
The personal meetings with my librarians and the personal
phone calls have been the biggest asset to me in working with them and learning
how to best support them in their work.
Nothing can beat that personal touch.
I learn a great deal by meeting others and it reminds me that I still
have a lot to learn.
I encourage other librarians to be constant learners. Learn from others at all levels of
experience. One librarian I know is also
a potter. She tells me that she is
always intrigued to watch a novice potter throw clay on the wheel for the first
time. It allows her to observe an untrained
approach and gauge what her instruction might be for that person. And sometimes she learns something new.
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