Tag Archives: Skills

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Disaster Planning for Libraries

Disasters happen. Great River’s recent fire (St. Cloud) and flood (Belgrade) are scary reminders that all kinds of disasters can happen in libraries, and planning ahead for them can help make them less terrible.

Have you looked at your library’s disaster plan lately? Does your library even have a disaster plan? You can not assume your parent organization (school, college, city, corporation, or whoever) will include you, or that they will understand enough about what you are doing to include meaningful information. When disasters strike your library, you want to be ready with procedures that will quickly help you to cope.

Tsunami sign
This is one disaster we can avoid in Minnesota!

Think realistically about the kinds of disasters that might strike your library. In Minnesota, we do not need to worry about hurricanes; but tornadoes, power outages, and fires are all pretty likely. I have seen library policies dealing with bears in the parking lot and rattlesnakes in the stacks; if these are likely to occur in your library – set up a plan! Are you ready in case your library’s website falls victim to a ransomware demand for Bitcoin? (see Radiolab podcast: Darkrode) It is starting to be an issue for hospitals – libraries could be vulnerable without protection and backup. (Wired: Hospitals as targets).

As with so many things, we can just follow the procedures other libraries have created. If you look at your disaster plan (or the blank space where a plan should be), and see that it could use some updating, you have a few basic options:

  • call other libraries in your area to see what they are doing (we are great resources for each other!),
  • check in with your system to see what suggestions they have (see: this entry!),
  • look online at other libraries and their plans,
  • browse through plans for other types of organizations,
  • talk to your parent organization about their suggestions for updates, and ideas on how you will fit into their plans.

Here are a few resources you might look to as you prepare your own disaster planning:

This is definitely something we can work on together as a system. If you want some organized training, or a writing session where we all work together, or just someone to be a sounding board as you start your disaster plan work – let us know!

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

In case you missed it – Nuts & Bolts Supervisor Workshop

photo-1422854068916-cf163783f7ca“This was a great workshop and I hope it is offered again in the future. Although it was only 2 sessions, I really felt the information was good and talking through peoples’ situations helped us process what readiness levels and leadership styles meant and how they worked together.”

CMLE was pleased to offer this two-part series regarding situational leadership and supervisory skills (if you are interested in learning more about using situational leadership, check out this article). We were able to employ the services of consultant Chris Kudrna, who called on his extensive experience to teach and advise our group of library professionals. He covered a lot of information, and we’ve tried to include the main points for your benefit.

Part One of the series focused on the basics of situational leadership, including the steps of leadership, readiness levels, and leadership styles.

Leadership = any attempt to influence

The steps of leadership include identifying the task, identifying the person’s readiness for the task, and using the correct leadership style. We discussed the four levels of readiness, and that it is up to the leader to decide which one is correct.

Then, based on the level of readiness, the leader will select (hopefully!) the correct style of leadership, of which there are also four. However, it’s important to recognize that the follower gets to decide the style that is being used. As a leader, if you are unsure you are leading in the style you intend, it is a good idea to simply ask.

Part Two focused on power, the fact that it is a neutral entity, and that we personally do not get to decide how much power we have. The amount of power one has can fluctuate, even on a daily basis.

Power = influence potential

There are two main categories of power; with several types of power within each category.

Position power comes from your organization (such as your job title). We discussed several types of position power, and how there are effective ways to use each of them. Some types of position power are especially suited for specific professions, like teaching.

Personal power refers to the extent to which followers want to follow you –  it takes into account how much they genuinely like you. We discussed the three types of personal power, and the fact that all of them require time to accumulate.

Something to keep in mind is that in order to be a successful leader, you must have one or more of these power types; the more the better! It is also very important to be able to correctly identify the task and readiness of the people or person you are leading. That ensures you will be able to use the correct leadership style to be successful. As always, clear and efficient communication is a necessity of any effective leader.

“I LOVED getting real, concrete examples of how to phrase things and to handle situations. So many light bulb moments happened when a situation was presented and Chris offered a concrete way of handling it.” 

We want to thank everyone that was able to attend, your experiences contributed to lively discussion and highlighted the need for events like this one!

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/0Sy4gfZ2RXU (Ross Tinney), licensed under CC0 1.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

How will you deal with end of the year burnout?

I have a plan. (187/365)Many of our academic librarians are already done for the academic year, public librarians are gearing up for summer reading programs, and our K-12 audience is usually coming to the finish line on fumes. Just in case you want to throw your hands up in the air and simply storm out of the worksite at year end, dig deep, and consider taking the time to reflect on the year. Seriously…even if it felt like this year almost killed you! I find it enormously helpful to take a breath, get honest, and take stock about this time of year. Consider the following questions, and write down (and save) your answers if at all possible.

  1. What was hardest this year? Why?
  2. What brought you joy? How often did you feel joy?
  3. What do you know you could do better next year?
  4. What skills must you learn to feel fully up to speed doing your job?

You may be too tired to set goals, but wouldn’t it feel great to have a plan for next year? Wouldn’t it be nice to end next year without feeling completely exhausted, depleted, or sad? The folks at Edutopia recently wrote a Teacher Wellness post about dealing with burnout throughout the year. You will notice one of the strategies is writing it down! A quick read, and you could even save it to put with your notes from this taking stock exercise I described here! You will enter a new academic year confident that you have a plan!

Have a phenomenal summer, you all deserve it.

Patricia-

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/qc788l4, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Library directors identify top skills for librarians of the future

Luring for InspirationLibrary Journal reached out to academic and public library directors and other thought leaders to find out what new skills they expect to need in librarians in the next 20 years. Eleven skills emerged as the essentials. Don’t expect fancy new skills, indeed, many of them build on what is already needed in the library community!

It strikes me that our profession seems to attract lots of introverts, when in fact, many of the needed skills may really push introverted librarians outside of their comfort zone. As you review this list, consider how many of these things are areas you are strong in and where you need to grow to stay on top of your craft!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/q4ce8mw, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

 

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

What Students Need From Reference Librarians

Image by Pascal Maramis. Retrieved from FlickR. Used under Creative Common's licensing.
Image by Pascal Maramis. Retrieved from FlickR. Used under Creative Common’s licensing.

Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) released a post online pertaining to a recent study exploring the various interactions librarians have with students.  The article discusses what specific skills, knowledge and experience the librarian used to assist each individual student. This study evaluated the effectiveness of working with a librarian from the student’s perspective. General areas discussed included;

  • Understanding resources and procedures
  • Knowledge about subjects and terminology
  • Ability to development topics
  • Personal experience with research
  • Subject expert referrals
  • Synthesis of questions
  • Interview and active listening skills

A summary of the findings can be found online: http://tinyurl.com/okxowtn

“What students need from reference librarians: Exploring the complexity of the individual consultation,” College & Research Libraries, 74, no 6 (June 2013): 288-29;  full text article.