ARSL Conference 2013

“Empowering Small Libraries”

Omaha, NE 9/26/13-9/28/13

First Day Highlights

Like all conferences I’ve ever attended, the ARSL conference has too much to do with too little time. Today’s opening keynote speaker was Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. This was the first time I had heard him speak and as he freely admits, he does speak fast.  He discussed Pew Research data that can be used for library advocacy, and presented data associated with rural communities, comparing it to urban communities. Interestingly, there is no real statistical differences accept in the perception that “libraries give everyone a chance to succeed”. Rural communities were ten points lower in this area.  But their research shows libraries are appreciated (90%), improve the quality of life, libraries are keeping up with technology, and are still relevant in the google age. When asked how important libraries are to communities, their importance is highly rated at the same level as fire fighters.  But libraries are very poor at advocacy. What do people want from their libraries? To coordinate more closely with the schools, offer free literacy programs to prepare children for school, provide separate spaces for different services--but people to not want libraries to give up book stacks to free up spaces.  Lee left us with a vision of the next rural library - a platform for growth and creativity.

The first workshop I attended was “Dazzling Displays of a Dime” presented by Leah Krotz, the director of the Belleville Public Library in Belleville, KS. She shared many basic marketing principles that she has used in display development, as well as many display ideas. Tips on how often to change displays, setting up displays in the stacks, using versatile cubes as backdrops, and more. I especially liked the “Book of the Day” displayed right at the circ desk for that last minute impulse checkout!

The luncheon speaker was Mary Beth Stenger, the director of Southern Area Library in Lost Creek, WV. The Southern Area Library was selected as the Best Small Library in America for 2013 by Library Journal.

This is an amazing achievement, considering the operating budget of $32,000 per year!

The next session I attended was “Makers and Mentors and More” led by Tim Owens from IMLS. This session was more of a panel discussion of various maker library campaigns.  And, no, a 3D printer is not necessary to provide a maker space. Some time was spent talking about people (staff and patrons) and places where maker “aha” moments can be realized.  And of course, my personal favorite, using LEGOs!

The last session of the day I selected because I really had never heard of the FREE program offered by OCLC for library advocacy. The session, “Build Library Awareness by Engaging Your Community”, described the ‘Geek the Library’ Community Awareness Campaign from OCLC. And did I mention it is free? Materials, planning support, management support. Apparently, there are currently no participating libraries in Maryland, which may be why I haven’t heard of it. I plan to have the Hancock Library be the first.

Summit 2013: Updates & Reminders

Registration closes at the end of this week so I can get accurate numbers to Frostburg State University's catering company and so the Summit 2013 #makeithappen team can start making room assignments for the various breakout sessions. The two charts show the number of staff registered for the various breakout sessions in the morning and in the afternoon.

Reminders about the day:

Where: Frostburg State University's Lane University Center.

When: Nov. 11, 2013. Arrive between 9:30am-9:45am. The day will end by 3:30pm.

Parking: In any lot that suits you - preferably one that is close to the Lane University Center.

Transportation: Our individual library directors will be communicating about transportation.

How to dress: Business casual. Jeans in good condition and layers in case it's chilly or warm.

Summit 2013 Logo

Ashley Hutson, Smithburg Branch Manager (WCFL), won the logo contest with:

Congratulations, Ashley!! We'll be showcasing the logo on as many of our marketing and advertising materials as we can! 

Summit 2013: Content Preview

Click the image to enlarge it.

YA Readers' Advisory Panel 3 panelists will lead a discussion of the reviews of the newest trends in young adult literature and reviews of the most popular titles.

Helping Mentally Ill Customers Presented by Brook Lane. This is a customer service focused piece that will educate us about how we can best serve customers who experience mental illnesses and how we can best provide a safe and welcoming environment in our libraries.

Stretch Toward a New You Kirsten Hansen, Licensed Massage Therapist and Instructor at the Allegany College of Maryland presents, easy steps you can take to prevent stiff muscles and exhaustion. Feel energized and have a life after work.

Live Online Communication Marilyn Pontius (Manager, Hancock Branch of the Washington County Free Library) and Trina Panagos (Staff Development Coordinator for the Frederick County Public Libraries) will present best practices and logistical requirements for using Google+ Hangouts and Blackboard Collaborate to conduct online meetings.

Laura Gross & Tammy Gantz

Story Time Swap Presented by Laura Gross and Tammy Gantz (both of the Smithsburg Branch of the Washington County Free Library). This is a participant-driven workshop which means A meeting of the minds, where librarians share program ideas in order to prevent story time burnout down the road.  Participants will get to share some of their best story time ideas in a small group setting; these ideas will be compiled ahead of time in a jump drive that each attendee will receive at the completion of the program.

Ask Your Experts! Technology Panel For the purposes of this panel, your technology experts are: Tracy Carroll (Web Specialist for WMRL); Josh Linkner (IT Specialist for WCFL); Allen Dunson (IT Specialist for RELIB). If you register for this program you will be asked to submit your burning computer/Internet/technology questions. Panelists will review the questions in advance so they are prepared with rich answers! Panelists will also be leading the hands-on portion of the program where - based on your questions - we will have technology stations where you can get more practice.

Stephanie Anderson

Tumblr for Adult Services Readers' Advisory

Presented by Stephanie Anderson, Darien Public Library (CT). Whether you’re a tumblarian or not, come learn about the ways in which tumblr is being used for readers’ advisory, and share your own experience. We’ll discuss the nuts and bolts of using tumblr for RA, as well as how to make it part of your existing RA practices.

Emergency/Disaster Preparedness Presented by Mary Spalding, Program Coordinator/Medical Librarian for the Western MD Area Health Education Center.

Maurice Coleman's Top 5 Online Learning Resources Presented by Maurice Coleman, Technology Trainer for Harford County Public Library.

Ask Your Experts! Marketing Panel For the purposes of this panel, your marketing experts are: Renee Mason (ACLS), Bonnie Winters (RELIB), and Pat Wishard (WCFL). If you register for this program you will be asked to submit your burning marketing questions. Panelists will review the questions in advance so they are prepared with rich answers. Panelists will also briefly present their 'marketing best practices for non-marketing personnel.'

Intentional Leadership Model

This model was introduced to me at the ALA leadership Institute on day 1. I'll introduce it here and share some thought exercises that go along with it. Then I'll write a follow up post showing how I've applied this model to my role as a staff development coordinator for the Western MD Regional Library. 

Sara King, Robert Altman, and Robert Lee describe the Intentional Leadership diagram as a personal leadership model or framework but I am saying that we can extend this model to our current jobs/positions/employers, as well as to our professions. Below is now they describe the 5 elements of the model. Try to answer the questions for yourself as you read through them. 

Changing context and demands:

• What is the context of your current or potential leadership role?
• What special expectations or realities do leaders face today?
• What views of leadership prevail in your current situation, and what assumptions about leadership do you personally hold?

Vision:

• What is your own personal vision, and is leadership a part of that vision? Why or why not?
• If so, do you also have your own personal leadership vision?

Values:

• Are your personal and leadership values based on your own core values?
• What are your core values?

Self-Awareness:

• What personal qualities support your work as a leader and give your work its own distinctive style? 
• What adjectives describe your authentic self?

Balance:

• Do you have adequate balance and focus in your life, resulting from a good integration between your leadership work and other aspects of your life?
• When do you feel most balanced? What does your life look like when it is in balance?

Questions to ask ourselves:

These were gleaned from conversation at the institute. Feel free to add others. 

• What can I/we quit? What can I/we stop doing?
• Do I see myself as others see me? Or how do others see me? 
• Do we see ourselves as others see us? Or how do others see us?
• Where are my comfort zones? My safety zones? 

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Exercise: Creating Your Personal Vision

I challenge anyone reading this to spend the next  20 minutes reading the following prompt and answering these questions. I found it to be very revealing. 

Imagine that you have achieved an outcome in your practice (aka work, profession, etc.), one that you deeply desire. Envision what it would be like to be doing what you most want to achieve. Answer the follwing questions using the present tense, as if it is happening right now. 

1. What does this look like?
2. What words would you use to describe it?

Now answer these questions using present tense:

1. If you were to be the kind of leader you've always wanted to be, which qualities would you exhibit?
2. What is your ideal professional or work environment?
3. What types of relationships would you have with colleagues, followers, etc? 
4. What is your vision for the community in which you live?
5. Imagine your leadership practice has a unique purpose - fulfilled through what you do, how you engage and work with others, and by the way you work and live. Describe that purpose. 

Leadership by the Cup: Embody Greatness

Sigh. The ALA Leadership Institute is over. It went by so fast and was such an amazing experience. 

Now I find myself tasked with continuing the good habits I developed while there, such as writing about the leadership lessons my Yogi tea bag teaches me (or reminds me of) every morning.

It's only been one day since the institute came to a close and the tea is already holding up its end of the bargain - water has been boiled; tea bag acquired, opened, and plunked in and is currently steeping. 

Now for my part. 

Feel great, act great, and approve of yourself. 

When I first read the tag I envisioned feeling great as I remember feeling about Christmas morning when I was a kid - excited about the mountains of gifts Santa would bring to the point of not sleeping and only having one response to everything put to me (at least I remember it seeming this way in my head): a delighted squeal. It was just an overwhelming sense of joy for everything and everyone. 

It's sad to admit but this feeling is temporary. Or at least it is for me. I wish I could have those feelings of  squeal-worthy joy 16 hours of the day (not when I'm trying to sleep) but then I started thinking that maybe that type of greatness-the kind associated with an emotion or emotions-isn't meant to endure. 

Instead, embodying the qualities that define a great human being is a more reasonable goal because those qualities can be practiced, can become habits, can endure partly because these qualities are not identified with high emotion, unlike my squealing joy. 

Be great. What defines a great human being will differ slightly from person to person and culture to culture but for the sake of bringing this post back to my experience at the leadership institute, I'm going to posit that the same qualities we defined for a great leader are the same for a great human being. 

Feel great. Once we identify one-two qualities we specifically want to improve then it just becomes like practicing any other skill. You know how if you fake a smile for a few seconds by putting a pencil in between your teeth you eventually start to feel like smiling all on your own? I believe we can achieve the same effect with leadership qualities and I'm sure research has been done on this I'm just too lazy right now to bother to look it up but if you're reading this and you can quote some supplemental articles and/or books, I'd appreciate you commenting those!!

We can train our brains to behave in certain ways but as we learned in the institute, it has to be intentional. We have to do it on purpose. Let's say I'm a Negative Nelly and through conversations with colleagues and friends, and through self-reflection I realize that my negative outlook is impacting my interpersonal relationships and thus effecting my ability to be a good leader. So, I decide to make my first reaction - whether spoken or unspoken - to all situations to be, "hmm, this could be a good thing." I phrase it this way intentionally because, 1) the "hmm.." causes me to pause and I realize that when I say, "hmmm" my face changes to this:

My eyes look up and to the left which, if I remember my college psychology accurately, means that I'm thinking. I could be thinking about experiences I may have had previously, etc. But I am considering which takes time away from reacting.

2) In addition to the "Hmmm,,,", I say "...could..." because for me it's a word of possibilities. It's open and neutral and there's no ownership in it. Then I make the biggest change and flip my script and 3) say "...good..." because I'm trying to retrain how my brain thinks about situations. When my default is ...bad/crappy/negative/wrong... etc, I really just want to flip it 180 and go for the good/great/wonderful/positive.

Approve of yourself. When I'm doing great and feeling great, I find it hard to think of an example of when I wouldn't approve of myself but I think what the tea bag is alluding to is the topic of confidence. Confidence in knowing that what I'm doing is great. And that brings me full circle to having more conversations with colleagues and friends, and doing more self-reflection to check in. Awareness of what we are doing and how we are being (self-awareness) is crucial to, 1) developing confidence and 2) being able to approve of ourselves.

So, which leadership quality do you want to work on and how will you try to trick your brain into adopting that quality? 

Leadership by the Cup: Attitude of Gratitutde

Ok.  Enough.  Seriously. The tea bags are becoming prophetic.

Today is the last day of the ALA Leadership Institute and what does this morning's tea bag say?

An attitude of gratitude brings opportunities. 

What a nice leadership trait to have: gratitude. We must add it to the long list of leadership qualities I wrote about in my Twinkle Lights post. 

This trait not only embodies being able to recognize when I've received the generosity of others but also the ability to express my thanks to those individuals. Additionally, i think it is just as important to recognize when I've been generous to others and myself, and to thank myself as well. 

As I reflect on the past three days and four nights of the institute here is what I am grateful to others for:

- encouragement and support from colleagues to apply to this program

- financial support from my employer 

- a ride to and from the airport from my sister

- a ride to and from the resort from A1 limo

- a skilled airplane pilot who got me to IL safely

- friendly resort staff

- a spacious and clean room with bee friendly toiletries and a balcony with a screen door

- plentiful and tasty food

- Suzanna sharing with me a glass of her wine

- a patient boyfriend who didn't mind only talking but once a day

- inspiration and the time to write

- the time and solitude to meditate

- lots of laughing

- two skilled and dedicated facilitators who organized and lead a rich program, complete with a resource-filled binder and who didn't kill me with PowerPoint and who shared illustrative stories, exhibited patience, flexibility, humility, good humor, and an insane amount of expertise and knowledge. 

- 39 talented, passionate, diverse, self-disclosing classmates who opened up to share their stories and perspectives, listened to others' stories, walked us down their ladders, offered suggestions for solutions, recommended books to read, provided rich conversations, played bocci ball with me (and totally kicked my butt), offered rides to the mall, Ikea, and around Chicago in general, and who came together to create a wonderful and energizing first ALA Leadership Institute experience. 

- Also, the wifi - otherwise you wouldn't have the pleasure of reading this till I got back to the office. :)

I'm sure I've left off some things so, I guess I'm grateful for the ability to edit this post later. 

What are you grateful for?