Survived

Have survived this round of restructuring and am now refocusing on doing a great job. Went to Reference and Information Services workshop and revisiting all the common sense ideas and the basics was re-invigorating. I was amazed to learn that good customer service, smiles , chatting to the customer etc was more important than actually giving competent service. Made me wonder why I put so much effort into doing the job well when all I really need to do is smile more. Did get given a few good blogs about what concerns librarians have and and thought you'd like to check them out as well.
http://freerangelibrarian.com
http://stephenslighthouse.com
http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com

Just hanging on

Just when I thought the way forward was clear the economic downturn hit. Many of us have been involved in a restructure couched in words such as 'growth and development of the region' but between the lines, it was a cost cutting exercise. It has been both frustrating and stressful and is not quite over. The sad thing is, restructure in this instance meant job cuts, now there are less of us to do the work, as it gets busier it will be harder to get excited about work every day especially when service falls short. There is this naievity that job cuts do not mean a drop in service. Eventually as job cuts increase to save money, services will suffer with less people to fulfil the obligations. A slow implosion as all service industries turn in ever tightening circles and in the end achieve nothing. It is a pity this is a sign of the times and unfortunately, I think this form of restructure is going to be the norm.

I finished my Professional Development Journal yeah!!! It was quite an eye opening experience, apart from seeing the actual evidence of all I have learned and attended written in one place, it also highlighted what still needs to be worked on and even suggested some project ideas. It also showed me that some of the projects I started or was asked to do never really saw total completion and it was with sudden illumination I understood why at times, my job frustrates me. Having realised this, the way forward is clearer.

I began putting my Professional Development journal together for revalidation. I took a week off work to complete it and it probably would have been ample time if I didn't find that the gardening needed doing and the house was over due for a spruce up before winter...you get the picture. Seems like everything else competed for my time but i have started it now and already I have found the process rewarding. Even if I have to say so myself, I have learned a lot in the few years that I have been a librarian.

Fines

There have been a lot of borrowers coming in with huge fines lately. Decided to advertise the resources we have within the libraries repertoire to help people avoid fines. To this end I have continued the 'Ask a librarian' theme on the display boards but ask the borrower do they know about ELF or ONLINE resources. We ran out of pamphlets the first day the display was up.

Library week

Have just finished putting up displays which encourage patrons to "Ask a Librarian" Might be my imagination but reference inquiries seem to have increased. While no one has really asked the answers to the questions posted on the display board with out being prompted I think the message may be getting through in a subliminal way. This week has certainly been more interesting on the information finding front.

Internet training

Went to the Internet Training Jenny did last week. Funny how one thinks they are competent, I thought so, only to find out the truth in that saying..."but wait there's more..." Learned about a dozen things, some little some not so little that I didn't know before. Thanks to Jenny for quietly pointing out the things I should have known but didn't and things I never knew.

LIANZA Conference 2009

The link below will take you to the feedback I wrote on the LIANZA Conference held in Christchurch in October 2009. It was a very informative and thought provoking, especially the keynote address by Sir Tipene O'Regan and his daughter and the presentation by Richard Stallman. Indeed the latter was a bit scary. Click the link and read all the feedback.

Secret url: http://www.slideshare.net/secret/8ma7M8GyDblakX