Managing The "Super-Stars" In The Library

Stephen Abrams' November 28th, 2012 Personal Editorial entitled "Managing High Potential Employees in Libraries: The Rock Star Dilemma" REALLY raised a deep seated concern with me. Ohh, I could go on and on about this topic and am sad to report that if one has supervisors with fragile egos, a "super-star" employee is difficult to suffer on staff~Unfortunately, I've experienced this situation first-hand. I've also experienced what's it like when an employee has an employer who understands, encourages and supports staff members who are ambitious and eager to infiltrate the library profession on as many levels as they can handle. Super-star employees can also be hard on fellow colleagues, but if the super-stars are genuinely concerned about the areas of the discipline they're involved in and are willing to aid, assist, train, and otherwise develop and encourage others, feelings of jealousy and resentment can be minimized. However, I am firmly convinced that supervisors with very little interest in contributing to the profession, combined with severe knowledge gaps that are more than apparent in their staff, an employee in this situation may be going through "Hell Right Here On Earth", as staff and upper management will undoubtedly find every way possible to make employment within that library/system VERY UNBEARABLE. Can you IMAGINE that a former supervisor of mine who works in a MEDIUM SIZED LIBRARY SYSTEM in an economically diverse multicultural city, mentioned to me when I was the Organizer of my IFLA Section's August 2012 Pre-Conference on "The Homeless and Libraries" that, and I quote, "what's libraries got to do with the homeless?" My fellow library land colleagues, with supervisors with this mentality at the helm, there's no way a more gregarious employee will be supported and encouraged.

Stephen's entire Blog Post can be found here:  

Managing High Potential Employees in the Library

Growing Your Talent Tree: Practical Tips for New Professionals

Growing Your Talent Tree: Practical Tips for New Professionals

by Veronica L. C. Stevenson-Moudamane

Remaining professionally developed is an ongoing challenge for both new and seasoned library professionals in today’s environment of continual change. With each new resource acquired or service offered, library staff are perceived by their customers as the information professionals and the resource to turn to for assistance. Staff are expected to have knowledge of and proficiency with all the library’s services and available resources. However, as a new professional, you’ve probably already noticed that a great deal is and will be required of you, yet the support systems may be wanting. You’ve no doubt asked yourself, “How will I ever achieve it all?”

Simply stated, “growing your talent tree” is a combined lesson in patience, dedication, perseverance, and commitment to the profession, to the specific mission of your workplace, and to yourself. In spite of the hurdles that many new professionals face, you can develop professionally by being willing to promote yourself as a recognized expert in your discipline, by doing community outreach, by being innovative, by thinking outside the box, and by being willing to educate your community and your colleagues on that which you do best.

So how do you begin growing your talent tree? The six practical suggestions outlined below are key areas in which to focus your attention.

1. Be willing to commit to learning and building needed skills

As a new professional, you’re able to look at your new workplace from a fresh perspective. You’ll be able to see areas that may have never been addressed, are being addressed with mediocrity, or have been dropped due to lack of interest from colleagues or the community. These weaknesses just might be areas at which you could excel if you obtain the necessary skills. Your first course of action is to submit a proposal to your supervisor for approval and financial funding to attend classes or workshops to help you gain these skills. However, if these areas are outside your discipline, you might not get approved.

That’s OK; this simply means that if you want to obtain these skills, you may need to take classes or participate in workshops beyond the workday or on your days off. Does this mean that you’ll need to actually put some of your own money and time into your professional development? Yes, it does!

However, it also means that you’re in control of your own professional development. Although learning something new and different might be outside your daily responsibilities, your efforts will show your determination and your willingness to develop professionally, including by expanding your educational boundaries.

Sassy Librarian Tip: Another common practice in libraries is that you may be required to work a few hours per week in another department. Although this area may not be your specialty, try to become as proficient with that department’s activities as you can. While specialization is a great job enhancer, in today’s “do more with less people” environment, being knowledgeable of other disciplines is a welcome attribute.

2. Serve on local and/or national committees.

Nothing develops one’s professional career faster than by joining local and/or national committees and being willing to volunteer for projects. Committee work keeps you up-to-date with current developments in your discipline and what other libraries are doing both locally and nationally. First, consult your organization’s professional development policy to determine if your employer will pay your membership dues to any professional organizations. If your library’s professional development policy does not include payment of your membership dues, you will need to do this on your own dime. You may be able to deduct the dues as professionally related expenses when you do your yearly taxes, so don’t let being required to pay your own dues keep you from joining professional associations.

Sassy Librarian Tip: Simply stated, some work colleagues are just not generous in the sharing of information and ideas department and can become very defensive of their intellectual property or the tangible contributions they make to the organization. Unfortunate as it may be, some colleagues always

want to be the “stars” and delight in feeling that you are merely mediocre. If this is your situation, then you’ll definitely want to join a local or national committee. Once you are an active participant on a couple of well selected committees, you will be indebted to the bounty of knowledge that you will bring back to your library, especially when it’s brainstorming time.

3. Join local or national listservs

Joining local or national listservs (electronic discussion lists) that focus on your specific discipline or those areas in which you desire further training is another great way to stay intellectually connected with the greater world, especially if there are obstacles preventing you from joining committees or attending meetings. Great work and ideas are often discussed on electronic discussion lists; listserv participants may also ask for solutions to challenges that you may be experiencing at your library. To get started, consult ALA’s website at www.ala.org or check with your state’s association for a list of active electronic discussion groups.

Sassy Librarian Tip: If using email for listserv activity is not high on the list of networking or professional growth priorities at your institution, you can always subscribe using your personal email address. If you don’t have a computer at home, you can set up a free email account with a service such as Yahoo! or Hotmail using the computers at your local library.

4. Be a mentor

 

As you grow professionally, be willing to serve as a mentor to someone who is relatively new to librarianship. As you assist your mentee in navigating the highs and lows of the profession, you develop invaluable leadership, counseling and management skills, and you will also begin to see the profession from a whole new perspective. The mentor/mentee relationship can serve as a “booster shot” and is a wonderful opportunity to refresh your attitude and approach towards the profession.

Sassy Librarian Tip: Mentoring is a developmentally wonderful process in itself. If you’re not able to find a newly minted professional with whom you can work, consider volunteering to work with or tutor youngsters that attend your local youth center. The relationships you build are often positive and rewarding in themselves, and they also provide another excellent way to fine-tune your valuable leadership skills.

5. Get published

Get your thoughts on paper! The topics you could write about are limitless. For example, if you’ve discovered inequalities in service to specific segments of the population or have some great ideas for righting some of the “wrongs,” write them down and submit your manuscript to the appropriate publishers for possible publication. Perhaps you’re doing something at your organization that deserves national attention or can serve as a model for other libraries to emulate. This could serve as an excellent starting point for a great article!

If you don’t feel you’re quite up to a full-fledged peer reviewed article or book chapter, try your luck with the growing number of online newsletters that are being published by library professionals for library professionals. If you’re concerned about your writing style, ask a colleague or perhaps your mentor to

review your piece for grammatical and logical problems prior to submitting it. If the subject matter is strong and timely, most editors will be glad to assist you. The key is to get your ideas out there for your fellow colleagues to read.

Sassy Librarian Tip: OK, getting started is not as easy as it sounds. If you’ve got the drive but are having difficulties in the procrastination department, look for a colleague or two who might be interested in co-authorship. With two or more on the team, you’ll be more inclined to shoulder your share of the work and meet assigned deadlines. Having colleagues as co-authors also provides you with a professional sounding board within a “safe” environment.

6. Attend local and national meetings—Network

Attending a state or national conference is a great way to meet other people in the profession who are doing what you’re doing or who have done what you want to do. Networking plays a crucial function in professional development as it is through meeting and talking with others that you will often discover resources or solutions to issues you are facing, including marvelous ideas which you can implement at your library. In other words, we learn, we share, we practice and we grow!

Sassy Librarian Tip: Simply put, all organizations are not equal. What one may do for its new hires may not be what is practiced at another organization. Some organizations strongly support all their employees in attending local and national conferences, while others may recommend that only their senior level staff attend. Should the latter be the case at your organization, you may wish to consider attending the conference on your own time. Local and national conferences offer so many educational, cultural and networking opportunities for their attendees that you just might feel that you’re truly on vacation.

article originally published in 2005 by LIScareer

Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in LIScareer articles are those of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the LIScareer editors.

TREATING ALL CUSTOMERS EQUALLY

Treating all customers equally is not only KEY to developing good customer service, it's simply just THE RIGHT THING TO DO.  Customers we know well, we tend to smile more readily with them and welcome them more openly, but such behaviors are easily observed by other visiting customers, ESPECIALLY when the treatment they've received is less than stellar.  For us public service professionals, we're in the business of wanting ALL persons who enter our doors to feel welcome and feel a sense of sincere concern that we're genuinely interested in their needs and whether we can assist in helping them acquire the resources they desire.  This includes customers who may not look as sophisticated as we'd like them to look, speak as refined as we'd like them to speak, smell as inviting as we'd like them to smell, or treat US as friendly as we'd like them to treat us.  Yup, dedicating one's self to the field of public service can be a difficult decision AND can be definitely a challenging career path at times BUT it's unlikely there'll be a career choice that is MORE REWARDING than that of public service.



MOTHER GOOSE ON THE LOOSE!

I recently came ACROSS this clip of the filming of Marin County Free Library System's "NEW" programming feature of MOTHER GOOSE ON THE LOOSE to be offered at all county libraries~It was FUN doing the baby programs for Novato City Libraries!  Children's Services is SO VERY REWARDING on many levels!

The Homeless and the Libraries - The Right to Information and Knowledge For All

Colleagues from around the world are invited to participate in the Satellite Program sponsored by IFLA's Library Services to People with Special Needs (LSN) Section and Tallinn Central Library in Tallinn, Estonia.

In 1990 the American Library Association approved Policy #61, Library Services to the Poor. This policy was created based on the belief that “it is crucial that libraries recognize their role in enabling poor people to participate fully in a democratic society, by utilizing a wide variety of available resources and strategies.” The policy, overseen by ALA’s Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, includes sixteen objectives to accomplish this goal, from promoting food drives to eliminating fees for those who can’t afford to pay them, as well as creating low-income programs and services.

The “Poor People’s Policy,” as Policy #61 is called, is a statement of belief and a list of general tenets that all libraries are encouraged to adopt, similar to the Library Bill of Rights. However, as Sanford Berman described in a 2006 article in "Street Spirit," the Poor People’s Policy has not been accepted as widely as that older document. Berman’s observations on the tension between library ideals and reality are an insightful and passionate reflection of our profession’s unintentional hypocrisy. Library services, in general, serve the haves and exclude the have-nots, a circumstance he labels “classism.” Examples of classism include the small number of libraries carrying major serials on homeless issues; the fact that libraries in the lowest income areas are often open the fewest hours; and policies and laws banning “offensive body odor,” bathing, or sleeping.

How do librarians measure the impact of what they do? What have we learned about evaluation and assessing impact the homeless may gain through active participation at their local public library. Libraries, especially public libraries, can play a major role in initiating, partnering and/or seeking out new ways to support the homeless in their community. Libraries can actively experiment with a variety of approaches and adjusting services and programs based on the feedback they receive. Libraries can take the lead within communities in building an environment of sensitivity and accommodation, to embrace the Poor People’s Policy and serve as model examples of a library-community agency partnership created for the benefit of the homeless in their areas. Come to this full day IFLA Satellite Program and learn how your colleagues in libraries around the world are addressing homelessness.

For Program and Registration Info Click Here