Episode 810: Episode 100!

810 100th episode logo

Welcome back to Season Eight of Linking Our Libraries! We are so happy to have you with us today! Because this is a big episode: our final episode of Season Eight and our 100th Episode!

It has been so exciting to be part of the library world with this podcast! We want to thank all of our Guest Hosts over the years, who have been so gracious to share their experiences and their ideas with us. 

We want to thank you, the listeners, who have been with us since the beginning – special thanks to Chuck and Ralph who have been such good supporters! We want to thank people who drop in for episodes they like. And also to the listeners who are newbies – it’s great to have you join us.

Let’s take a trip back in time, and revisit some of the past ideas we have covered together.

Season One:

Season One was so long ago now! Things were very different back then, we had a different format. We had two microphones, so when we had guests we had to share! We didn’t have a great idea of what we were doing yet, and did not do a lot of planning ahead yet. But, these are still good topics, we had some good guests, and it was a lot of fun!

Season Two:

We had a rhythm built up here! Again, these are all good topics, and this is where we started noticing that we were being noticed around the state. Thanks to everyone who has sent us nice notes, or talked to us at conferences about the podcast. And this season was our first bonus episode on stress management – which was our most-downloaded show for a long time.

Season Three:

This was a fun season for Mary, as our topics are lifted directly from her Library Management syllabus she has taught at assorted library schools for several years. Management and leadership skills are so important in a library, and few librarians or library staffers get enough training – or any training at all. Even if you think you don’t want to be a manager, or if you work in a very teeny library; building up your skills with these topics will make you better not only in your library but also better at working with people across your entire organization.

Season Four:

Not to get too scholarly here, but all of the topics in this season were competencies from Mary’s doctoral dissertation research. These were identified as the things library leaders most needed to know to be successful. One of the main things to learn from that kind of research? There is no perfect list! These are all good skills, and everyone would benefit from building these and making them stronger in ourselves. And there are probably several other good competencies that will make you good in your library too. So, start here and go on to build skills across all eight seasons of the show!

Season Five:

All of our topics this season were drawn from lists of skills people said were the most important for library people to master. There are several organizations that set up lists of the things they think different people in the library should definitely know. And, as with last season’s list there are probably no bad answers. We started letting people choose the topics they wanted to cover, to some extent, by looking at the lists. And we hustled around to find guests to meet some of the topics we thought were most important to cover.

501Cataloging: Basics and Ethics
502Customer Service
503Social Media
504Policies and Procedures
505Collection Development
506Children’s ServicesKelly Groth
507Answering Tech QuestionAriel
508Web Design
509DisplaysAriel and Lydia
510Programs
511 bonusStress Management

Season Six:

As we have said before, most of our 300 library members are school libraries. And while library skills really do transfer across all types of libraries, school libraries have some specific needs and specific skills. This season we did talk to a variety of people in different types of organizations, as we always do; but we tried to really bring a focus to the skills needed in school libraries. When you guys are working at it, you are so awesome, so inspirational, and do such amazing things – it’s just wonderful to be able to work with you!

Season Seven:

This season was a challenge to record. You might remember a little thing called the COVID-19 pandemic. As we record today, we are still right in the middle of it. But this season was recorded right at the beginning. We actually had some guests lined up, and some ideas about what we wanted to do. And we basically had to toss a lot of that, and just do what we could do at a distance. It was definitely a learning experience! And really, the episodes ended up being good and we had a good time!

Season Eight:

And here we are, looking at our current season! We hope you have been with us the past few weeks, while we looked at some topics we have covered in past seasons, and brought forward some new library skills and ideas! A lot has changed, our focus has moved around to different ideas, but our basic idea has never wavered. We are here to help all library staff to build their skills, and to feel confident in their abilities. Everyone in a library is here to serve their community. It is not easy, it takes a lot of time and effort – so we want to do whatever we can do to help you in that work!

801Library Gardens
802Hosting Virtual events
803Maker Spaces
804Cultural Competencies
805Podcasting
806Reference Interview
807Teen Service Competencies
808Library Board
809Strategic Planning/Needs Assessment
810Episode 100!!!

If you were carefully counting, you might actually notice that there were 102 episodes. But two of them were bonus episodes on stress management – an important topic, but the numbers worked out nicely to just not count them. So, in our hearts, today is episode #100 and the end of Season Eight!

Thank you for joining us, thank you for being part of this community – it has been great having you here with us.

Conclusion

Thanks to you for joining us this week! It’s always better when you are here with us! You make all of this worthwhile, and we really appreciate that you are able to join us each week. If you want some other ideas, new topics, etc – reach out to us. You can email us at admin@ cmle.org any time.

Be sure you are subscribed to Linking Our Libraries in your favorite podcast app – or just stream it on our website. We are taking a break starting next week, but not leaving you. We will be dropping short episodes every Tuesday, with six book suggestions for you. And we are working on the next season of Linking Our Libraries, so be sure you are subscribed to get Season Nine!

If you want to hear more about books, subscribe to our podcast Reading With Libraries in that same favorite app. Get a new episode each week, with more book suggestions.