Library Buzz

Greetings all,

I got approval to attend SLA this year in Denver. My first trip to the Mile High City - capital of the Centennial State!

Since I know that my plans are important to so many others… I thought I’d share w/ you the sessions I plan to attend. The SLA 2007 Annual Conference Website has a great Personal Planner tool. I recommend that folks use it!

• Saturday, June 2 - Leadership & Knowledge Services
• Sunday, June 3 - SLA Leadership Development Institute; Mass at the Cathedral; Tour of the Molly Brown House & Museum; Opening Session w/ Al Gore; Business & Finance Open House
• Monday, June 4 - B&F Division Meeting; SLA Career Connection; Government Information Business Meeting; GLBTic meeting
• Tuesday, June 5 - B&F Financial Services Breakfast; Govt. Librarians Get Saavy; 20 Tips for Searching the Web; Web Tools for Legal Researchers; GLBTic dinner
• Wednesday, June 6 - How to Train Staff; Closing session w/ Scott Adams
• Thursday, June 7 - Tour of the Capitol and the Mint

Does the Denver Mint give out free samples?

sla2007

No Responses »

One of the nice things about the profession and DC being a small town. I got to see several friends at the Professional Development Panel on March 19.

Among them - to former colleagues from another federal agency, a couple of classmates from library school days, and Jill Calabria from SLA. I met Jill on my way to the Internet Librarian Conference in 2005. Jill and I bonded on the flight to Las Vegas. She was going to fly into San Francisco and I was flying into Monterey - nice little airport and much closer to the conference site.

I had just started blogging at that point, but my company laptop couldn’t use the wireless connection that was set up at the conference, but she let me use SLA’s computer to post to my blog.

Just thought I’d share that.

No Responses »

Last week (was it really only a week ago?) at the Lexis/Nexis Professional Development workshop a couple of speakers mentioned the value they find of attending conferences and meeting with non-Librarians and learning quite a lot.

In my other life I play trombone and last week I attended the Eastern Trombone Workshop where I heard some great music, met lots of nice folks and learned some things that will hopefully make me a better musician.

One of the workshops was presented by Army Trombonist Harry Watters. He is an excellent trombonist and has a dedicated practice routine. He talked about the need to concentrate to make the most of out short bursts of rehearsal time. I mean individual rehearsal when we put in 5, 10, 30, 60 minutes of time on our instrument.

One of his mantras is Obsessive curiosity is more important than talent. Talent is a great thing - but through rehearsal and striving always to improve our pitch, tone and technique, we can overcome the shortcomings of our talent.

So how do I translate this to my professional life?

For one by taking the 5 or 10 minutes to read/scan an article in a professional journal. I may have to close the door and concentrate just a bit to do it. Bet even if I only spend a few moments at a time - it adds up so I can get an hour of reading done in a day.

That and always being curious to learn what I can from others and build on their talents.

No Responses »

Some observations about the Lexis/Nexis panel.

I thought the speakers all raised some interesting points. I have known of other Libraries where the Librarians are assigned to support a particular team on a project. State Department Libraries did this at one time, I don’t know if they still do.

It is always good to think outside the box - so long as we recognize that sometimes the box is just fine. There’s nothing more frustrating than a six-month process that determines that the status quo is the best plan.

The talk about working as a team reminded me of two different moments in my life.

In Library School I had a professor, Neal Kaske, who was then head of the Engineering Library. He asked us why Library students were always asked to work on team projects - was it just to annoy us? He pointed out that in the sciences there were always teams working together on projects. Each person has a specialty though there is often some overlap. People would conduct their research as part of the team effort.

Now, most Library students come from a Liberal Arts background where folks tend to study and research on their own. So, part of Library school is designed to teach us how to work as a part of a team.

Then if we do as Roberta Shaffer suggests and capitalize on our strengths - we’d build a great team for working on projects for our Libraries and our agencies.

The other moment was a real epiphany. I had taken the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator test and I was reading through the various possible results. I recall that I’m an ENTJ. My epiphany is that there are no wrong types - people are who they are. Okay - I don’t like the “judging” part of me all the time, so I work at tempering that a little, but it doesn’t make me a bad person.

So I realized the benefit of something like this for building a team. You need a diversity of people. I thought about the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible. The were sisters and friends of Christ. Once when Christ came to visit Martha was busy in the kitchen tending to the household and preparing the meal. Mary sat with Jesus and talked to him and listened to him.

I can imagine Martha out in the kitchen, a fire going and she’s chopping and mixing ingredients. From time to time she looks out to the front room and sees Mary just sitting there smiling. So Martha goes back to rattling pots and pans and her looks to the front room turn into glares. Finally she comes out to shame Mary into helping her in the kitchen. But Jesus tells Martha that she shouldn’t worry about such things. Besides, Mary has chosen the better part and it shall not be taken from her.

So I always felt that Martha gets a bum rap. She’s doing what she feels is important. So my epiphany on this includes realizing that Martha is who she is and Mary isn’t a slacker either, though I wouldn’t rely on her to wash the dishes after supper is over. There’s more to the Martha story - but that is more spiritual and not for here. Email me if you are interested to hear my take.

Well, that’s the morning in several nutshells. One last thing, Melanie, the DOJ Librarian, admitted to me that she truly admires Roberta Shaffer and wonders how she manages to look at things so differently and knows so much. I said - probably Roberta was inspired by someone else just as Melanie is inspired by Roberta. So, in a few years maybe it will be Melanie sitting on the panel and sharing what helps to make her a really great Librarian. And then there will be someone in the audience who will be really inspired by Melanie.

We can only hope the same for all of us!

Peace out!

No Responses »

At this point Marie Kaddell asked the panelists:

How do you keep up professionally?

Reading, networking, conferences. James King urged folks to experiment with MySpace and blogs as possible tools for serving the customer base.

Others said it is good work with other offices within the agency – we learn what they are doing and how the Library can assist their efforts.

Challenge the assumptions that we make.

Read broadly, i.e. outside our field. The professional literature is great, but also look at Harvard Business Review, Chronicle of Higher Education and even journals like Science and Nature.

Roberta’s rule of airport reading is to pick a magazine for a topic that you know nothing about and really study it – read it through, look at the ads, the photos, the type face. Consider the audience and then reflect on our own patrons.

How do you develop leadership skills?

From professional associations, but get value out of our professional associations. Participate fully in them – don’t just pay your dues!

Also, attend meetings and talk with people outside our profession – get a different perspective.

James King said that professional associations give us the chance to improve all libraries and learn from other professionals. As the saying goes; a high tide raises all boats.

Learn more about the people you serve.

David’s analogy - Many folks have a favorite restaurant that they frequent. After a few visits there’s a waiter and/or bartender who greets you – has your preferred cocktail or beer at the ready. They suggest specials that you might like or make sure the salad is prepared the way you like it. Bartenders learn from their customers so they can better accomodate them and make better tips. We seldom get a gratuity, but shouldn’t we be as good to our patrons?

After the session was over and I was walking over to the Metro station, I chatted with another Librarian who had attended. Melanie works at DOJ and has her law degree in addition to the MLS. She had asked a question during the panel about the merits of taking Continuing Legal Education courses in addition to keeping up with her Library skills. The answer was a resounding YES! It will be a way to network with other attorneys and also know what they are studying.

All in all, a very good morning!!!

No Responses »

Next up was Roberta Shaffer whose resume is as long as my arm. She is currently the director of FLICC. Her topic was Hard facts about soft skills.

Roberta started out by sharing some lessons she has learned from observing her dog.

• Don’t bite when a bark will do.
• Sniff around before taking action.
• Accept praise and learn from criticism.
• Stretch when rising.
• Drink plenty of water.
• It is better to be dogmatic than catatonic.
• Practice obedience when it suits.

In the workforce there is a move away from formal training. People will find their own training. But there is a move toward testing and pre-testing applicants for a job.

One of these tests is the Berkman(sp?) Test used by the Military to determine how people work as a team member. The military had trained their bomber crews, but had failed to train them to work as a team.

Roberta also talked about Asset-based Thinking and she mentioned a book Now Discover Your Strengths.
This book encourages people to stop wasting time correcting their weaknesses – look at your strengths and play to them – make them work for you. I like that idea!

Next Roberta mentioned Change the Way you See Everything, by Cramer and Wasiak. The authors (and Roberta) challenge us to look at our workplaces with new ideas. (That reminds me of something a friend once said that geniuses look at things in totally different ways from other people.)

Along these same lines, Roberta mentioned another book Generations at Work, my impression is that if we worked to look at things the way that other generations of workers see things, we might have new ideas about them too.

According to Roberta there is now more of a modular world of knowledge that reflects the modular organizational chart. Many places are much less hierarchical than before – people work less on programs, more on projects. How much does your workplace talk about Project Management?

She also mentioned that looking at the Senior Executive Series (SES) model for tasks would be helpful. SES folks apparently work on building coalitions – assembling teams to tackle projects.

No Responses »

Blane Dessy from the Department of Justice Library spoke next. Blane talked about the professional development of our users.

We are not Records Managers, we are not Archivists – we are Librarians. And much of what we do is patron education (training). We used to call this Bibliographic Instruction – but Marketing & Outreach is training; Information Literacy is training; Mentoring is training.

Never confuse your profession with your function.
- Jacques Barzum

What is my function in the organization? What should my function be?

How do we assure that our patrons are using our resources? Well, are they becoming literate in using information?

Some of the practices at the DOJ Library:

• Librarians instruct DOJ Staff via the agency’s closed circuit television network
• One site has developed an Information Commons a place where staff can meet and collaborate on projects
• Librarians participate in new employee orientation
• Blane has formed a Catalog Development Committee to see where the Catalog needs to take them in the new century

No Responses »

Richard Huffine – (US Geological Survey) if James King is the past – Richard is the “now” part of the program. He views his work as a Librarian as – That’s what they pay me for. So we need to demonstrate that are worth that money.

In the world of the printed word – Libraries make sense because it is more cost effective to purchase a single copy of something that others can share. We need to see how we do that in that in the modern digital age. We are good at discovering what information is good.

Richard recommended the book Ambient Findability

The book’s central thesis is that information literacy, information architecture, and usability are all critical components of this new world order. Hand in hand with that is the contention that only by planning and designing the best possible software, devices, and Internet, will we be able to maintain this connectivity in the future. Morville’s book is highlighted with full color illustrations and rich examples that bring his prose to life. (from Amazon.com book review)

“Libraries will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of whatever the accountants do because the need is there.”

Richard encourages us to have a mentor – his mentor is Guy St. Clair, who he talks with every month or so. Richard recommends Guy’s book Entrepreneurial Librarianship. Richard mentioned another book The Next Library Leadership. He disagrees with the arguments in the book, but it is thought provoking.

Other ways we can develop ourselves in our profession is through networking. Salon lunches (sounds all very Algonquin to me). In reality it is just Librarians getting together for lunch – similar to the dining out that DC/SLA organizes. In any case - I’m always happy to join others for lunch!!

Also membership in and participation in professional groups like SLA, ALA, ASIS&T are important. If we don’t really participate in these groups we’re not getting our money’s worth from them!!

Finally – Richard encourages us to write about what we do – for ourselves, for our management, for our colleagues. That way we leave behind a record of what we have done for our Library and our patrons.

No Responses »

On March 19 I attended the LexisNexis Library Week Federal Government Breakfast Seminar again held at the National Press Club. Nice digs!

Guest Speakers for the event moderated by award-winning Marie Kaddell, were Blane Dessy from the Department of Justice Library, Richard Huffine, US Geological Survey Library, James King from the Naval Research Laboratory Library, and Roberta Shaffer from FLICC.

The topic for the day was Professional Development and the gathered flock of federal Librarians wasn’t disappointed. After a few introductory remarks by Marie – the each panelist spoke for a few minutes on his or her focus.

I was working on my write up about this and realized that it would be too long, so I’m breaking this up among the different speakers.

James King - Naval Research Laboratory Library- led off the discussion by saying that we in order to develop and move forward in our field, we have to understand our past. To that end, he mentioned a clip on You Tube about introducing the book

James pointed out that everything on the Web is in beta – people throw stuff up and there to see what sticks. Sometimes it does, sometimes not. James spends time playing with new products such as creating a MySpace page.

The Millenials (the post-Gen-Y’ers) use text messages at their preferred means of communication – even phone calls are obsolete! They expect to be more affluent than their predecessors, the esteem the ability to lead as well as to follow – to be a part of the team, they see a greater diversity of staff and less stratification. It won’t be professionals and technicians – it will be folks who perform their task/function well as a part of the team.

No Responses »

I don’t know about you, but I sort of fell into being a Librarian. There are a few of us out there who have life-long goals of working in Libraries. Mostly they are the book lovers among us. There are also a number of people who were inspired by a Librarian who opened the world of information and decided at an early age that she or he wanted to do that too.

Having taught a few classes I understand why folks want to be teachers since pay and benefits aren’t the top incentive. Every now and then you get to see the light bulb go off and a child or an adult student understands. That is truly priceless and makes the substandard pay of teachers tolerable (for themselves - we shouldn’t be content that they don’t deserve better.)

Okay, so back to my being a Librarian. (And forgive me that I always capitalize Librarian. It is an affectation much like always typing theatre.) In my younger days I had set other vocational goals and later saw them come to naught. By then I had been working in a federal library for several years and liked the environment and the pay. So I decided to get my degree and in May 2000 I was graduated from the University of Maryland, College of Information Services.

For many years prior to earning my degree I attended the Computers in Libraries Conference held in the DC area. I continued to attend this conference but looked for others that would feed my professional needs. One year I attended a Conference of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). That was also quite good - but a little beyond my ken.

Along the way I have taken courses through Fedlink and FLICC that have been very practical. I have been really impressed with many of the folks who serve at FLICC - they are a great bunch of professionals!

I have also taken advantage of workshops provided by Lexis/Nexis, Westlaw and some other companies who routinely provide training and development opportunities. It has been helpful to build good relationships with representatives from these companies as a way to keep abreast of what programs are being offered. Marie Kaddell of Lexis/Nexis is a great help to us Federal Librarians.

Lexis/Nexis runs a Librarian Certificate of Mastery program, plus they have an annual seminar for Federal Librarians. A couple of years ago Gary Price spoke, last year was Steve Cohen, and this year there’s a whole panel of folks.

To date I have attended two SLA Conferences - Nashville and Baltimore, and I look forward to making the trip to Denver. Though the conference is a bit unwieldy - so much packed into a few days - it has been a great experience.

In Nashville I learned about down-sizing, marketing, financial resources, and how to have fun. In Baltimore I was inspired by Ken Haycock and Mary Ellen Bates. I have met some wonderful folks both socially and professionally.

I review the professional literature. I also read articles from outside the field to learn more about planning and management. Our own association training through ALA, ASSIS&T and SLA and others is the best because we’re learning from other Librarians and Information Professionals. It allows us an opportunity to ask questions and learn more. These workshops and presentations are really the professional life preservers that keep our heads above water.

I wonder if Mary Ellen Bates, Gary Price, Greg Notess, Steve Cohen and the rest like this notion of themselves as the Life Guards of our profession!

No Responses »