Welcome to Season Nine of Linking Our Libraries! We are so happy to have you join us again! Welcome to the first episode! We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and our members are all types of libraries and their staff.

This season we are going to focus on topics that are important to library support staff. We will be discussing each of the ten competency sets in the American Library Association’s Library Support Certification program. Some of these may overlap with our Library Basics series from Season Seven, but we will be looking specifically at the material the ALA has identified as important this season. We will link to the ALA’s program, if you want more information or want to sign up for one of their classes.

This week we will start with one of the required topics in the series of ten offered by ALA: Foundations of Library Services. “These competencies are fundamental to understanding the mission and roles of libraries. These competencies cover the ethics, values, and governance of libraries, and the basic knowledge needed for all positions in a library.”

It doesn’t matter what you do in a library – it all contributes to the overall mission of service. Understanding a few fundamentals will help you to be clear on not only what you are doing, but why it is important and how it fits into the work all the libraries do to serve their communities.

Let’s take a look at each of the twelve different components the ALA has identified as important here, and talk about a little information on each one.

1. Knowing the mission and roles of your specific library is important, as well as knowing the mission of libraries in general. Look around for the mission or vision statement in your library. And if your library doesn’t have one, now would be a great time to get one written! We have talked about these a few times; check out Episode 809 if you want more details on that. They do not need to be complicated; but they can give everyone a sense of what the library will accomplish.
   
   What other libraries are serving your community? If you are in a school library, you may be working with a local public library, and referring people to their services. Don’t forget any college library in your area; they may be open to the public, and can be good sources of information. THere may also be a local historical center with a library, a hospital library, and maybe some local businesses have libraries that could be helpful to your community. Reach out to them!

2. Knowing the ethics and values of the profession, including an understanding of the Library Bill of Rights, the ALA Code of Ethics, freedom of information, confidentiality of library records, and privacy issues is important. Libraries are a profession, and part of being in a profession is understanding the ethics and norms that make us distinct. We link to these documents in our show notes page. If you go with the premise that you want to give as much information as possible, and make everything as accessible as possible, while protecting their privacy – you are on the right path.

3. You want to know the roles of library support staff and other staff in different types of libraries. There are so many different ways people can work in a library. When you think about everything that needs to be done in a library, you can get a feel for the breadth of different things possible. You can start by thinking about public service jobs – the jobs that are working directly with the public, like working at the Circulation Desk. And then think about the support service jobs – the jobs that do work for the community at more of a distance, such as cataloging. These jobs are in every type of library, even if they are not specifically broken out into separate staffers in the smaller libraries.

4. It’s also important to know the responsibilities of and the relationships among library departments or functional areas. It’s a saying in theater that there are no small parts, only small actors – and it’s pretty much the same in libraries! It doesn’t matter what you are doing in the library, it is important and helps to support the mission. The shelvers are important, because they provide the physical access to the books. The circ staff are important because they are the ones connecting the materials to the people. The IT staff are important because they provide the tech that makes libraries run. The catalogers are important because they provide the tools to help people find the materials they need. You see where this is going. Everyone depends on the work everyone else is doing – whether you are in a huge library or a very small one. The work everyone does matters, and it’s all important.

5. Library support staff need to know basic principles of several library tasks. You want to know about reference and information services, and how to find the best material to answer the questions from your patrons. You want to know how circulation works, including interlibrary loan and collection maintenance. How do books get to your library, and how do they get ready to leave you in the hands of patrons? You want to have an idea of the current cataloging and classification systems your library is using. You do not necessarily need to know how everything works, but some basic knowledge will help you to be better with patrons. And you want to know some basics about acquisitions and collection development. What kinds of books and materials does your library collect? What are you doing to serve different people and groups? A little knowledge will help you to be better in your work every day!

6. You want to know how libraries are governed and funded, including how libraries fit within larger organizations or government structures. In some libraries, this is pretty simple. If you are in an academic library, you know you work for the director, who works for the provost, who works for the Vice President of Academic Affairs, who works for the President, who works for the Board of Trustees. You are funded by tuition and by taxes and (maybe) by grants and fundraising. In other libraries, the structure can be a little more circular and complex. 

It will be worth your time to figure out how your library is structured. Who really runs it? Who has the final say? Where does the money come from to pay you and to buy books? Understanding all of that can be helpful to you as you think about not only how to provide service, but where the resources come from to make it happen. Knowing this will let you identify the stakeholders for your library, and then you can be sure you are connecting with the people who are most involved in your organization.

7. An important skill is to know the value of cooperating with other libraries to enhance services. No matter what type of library you are working in – there are others around you, and others in your state. Reach out to these libraries, and just send some quick emails or phone calls. Each of you will need to ask questions, to get advice, to bounce ideas around a little bit, and people who do what you do will be the best people for that. Don’t be nervous about reaching out to someone you don’t know – library people are generally always going to be happy to talk with other library people, and helpful.

8. Connected to the last skill is the importance of understanding your responsibility to pursue all available means to keep your knowledge and skills current, including involvement in professional associations. This one is probably an easy one – you are already here and listening to this podcast. Great! Whether you work in your library for just a year or two, or thirty years, things change a lot. That is a feature, not a bug. Libraries are supposed to be exciting and innovative organizations, on the leading edge of providing the best information. The best ways to do that will continue to change and to improve. Staying connected with all the different professional organizations in your geographic area and your area of professional interest, will make this so much easier!

9. One incredibly important skill for anyone in a library is to understand the basic principles of and practice quality customer service. Beyond anything else, this is a vital basic for everyone in every job. We spent an entire episode talking about this topic: Episode 502. (We give you a link in our show note page, or you can find it in your podcast app.) We are here to help people find the information they need and want. The “help” is the important part there. It doesn’t matter whether it is information you need or want – your job is to help. So look around your library to see how you can set it up to be more accessible and make things easier to find. Talk with everyone in the library about the ways they approach the patrons. Be proactive in reaching out, saying hello, asking what they need, and being ready to help them find it. It is the essence of your job.

10. A skill that may be a fun one is to communicate and promote the library’s mission and services to staff, volunteers, users, and the community. You have probably already noticed this, but people like the library! They like hearing about it, the work you do, the resources you provide. And people are always surprised by all the good things in the library. So tell them about it! Be sure you are communicating with your administrators and funders about your work. You aren’t bothering them – they want to get some good news, and it’s good to share your results. Set up a social media account, have a newsletter, start a blog, talk to people in the hallways, put up posters in the library (and anywhere else) – just get the word out to people about your programs, services, and materials!

11. Of course, working in a library means knowing to recognize and respond to diversity in user needs and preferences for resources and services. You probably already do some of this, but every library can keep working to improve this. One very fundamental thing is to work on making your library accessible to people with all sorts of disabilities. Reach out to community groups, to see what they can suggest you do to make your library easier to use for everyone. Talk with student groups about some of the different areas they want to see the collection grow. Hold a community night, and get suggestions from people who might not usually think to come to the library. The more people who give you ideas, the stronger your library can grow, and the better service you will provide.

12. And finally, all library staffers need to demonstrate the ability and willingness to uphold policies and decisions and know when exceptions are appropriate. It is important to know the rules and directions of your library. You probably will not love all of them – but that is not the point. It helps to protect you and the library when you know and follow policies. Think about a weeding policy, for example. If someone complains that you are just throwing away books, you want to have a policy to show that you are acting according to the best professional standards. And, know when the rules can be bent. Does a student really need a book overnight that is on a two hour course reserve shelf? You can probably make an exception and let them have it, so know when that is possible and how to make it happen. Your rules and policies should never be a punishment to patrons, the are in place to help you find ways to say yes to every patron.

Books Read

Now, let’s get to the part of every episode that we love: sharing a book we are reading. We will link to these books on our shownotes pages, and the link will take you to Amazon. You probably know this, but when you click one of our links and then buy anything at all from Amazon, they give us a small percentage of their profits. That support really helps us, and although it’s anonymous so we won’t know it was you – we appreciate you taking the time to help us!

• Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells
• The Smell of Other People’s Houses, by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

Conclusion

This was a quick overview of the foundations of library services. Stay with us all season to get an overview of all ten of the ALA/APA’s certification topics for library staffers. And if you want to find out more about getting certified yourself, check the website (linked in our show notes), or just email us at admin@cmle.org.

Thanks for spending time with us today. It is always great to have this time to chat with you about libraries and the skills we need to be successful. Come back next week, because we have more information to share about libraries! This is just the beginning, and there are so many other great things to share!