Study as a way to freshen my outlook

I have noticed work becomming a bit ho hum of late and decided I needed to do something to push me beyond the daily grind and to start thinking again. Not that I ever stop thinking but with out focus said thinking turns into endless ruminations about 'what if' I undertook the Copyright online course through LIANZA and found it interesting and I did learn a few things so when the opportunity came up to do the Research module online, I jumped at it. So far it has been straight forward but I now have to think up a project and focus on the ethical ramifications of it. I'm thinking about the way reference material is displayed In one of the Branch Libraries. It is shelved in with the regular non-fiction. As a small library with very little shelf space, the reference material occupies most of it in places. What are the ethical considerations when designing a survey to ask customers if they want it to stay this way, or indeed, if we need a reference collection in Branch Libraries.... I will have to sleep on this as nothing immediately springs to mind. Might go back and read more on 'Ethical Guidelines for Observational Studies: Observational research, audits and related activities, Revised edition' 2012.

Well this is a sad state of affairs......no posts for months.  I think about lots of things but it all seems a bit overwhelming really.  Lately I've been thinking about what are the odds of work still being here in for libraries and in general in the next ten years.  Have been reading lots about alternatives to Branch Libraries, funding cuts and Branch library closures around the world not to mention the high Kiwi dollar and the loss of many many jobs in various industries in only the first two months of the year.  What I wonder is were we too complacent in thinking we survived the recession and financial crisises which afflicted European countries.  Are we just slower at going down the same path and taking a slightly more convoluted route? Is that even the the question I should be asking?   The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy comes to mind.......42

Career Development and KRA's

Went to a Career Development workshop run by Lynley Stone in August.  It got me all fired up and rearing to go.  The main point being that your career will develop so long as you take the responsibility to develop it.  Wanted to put myself out there and take on a project or two.  I even began to write things down within the first half hour suggesting projects I could embrace.  Funny how study days always energise but the reality of the working day doesn't sustain it.  This brings me to this years 'big five' a concept I've been struggling with.... I came up with five things I'd really want to get involved in and learn about and two that have been on my plan for about the time I've been a librarian. So seven things, two relate to usual duties and library displays but the other five were about learning to trouble shoot IT problems, learn from the librarians involved in specialist collections about what they do, be a part of a newletter development to promote the mobile library, investigate sources of Maori literature with a view to building a list of distributers of new resources and of course keep my professional registration up to date.  Those seen as acceptable were, the usual duties and library displays, added were 'investigate new potential sources of Maori literature', 'potential mobile library newsletter in consultation with the mobile librarian' and professional registration journal maintained.   At least there is the possibility that investigating new potential sources of Maori literature and the potential mobile library newsletter have some promise for a project of more depth.  In sole charge at a Branch Library IT problems and reference inquiries relating to some of our specialist holdings pop up when you least expect and generally take a longer time to resolve as you are 'it' and help isn't always available.  I will have to think of a way to address these two issues.

July already and another round of Performance Reviews.  What are my big five goals for the next year?  I find it impossible to say really.  Since last August there has been less time available to spend on the nice to do things let alone my last years 'big five' and it has been a daily rush just to get the basics done. Given the state of the local economy and the Government saying Local Councils need to save money....will I even survive another year.  No wonder I feel a certain lassitude towards goal setting and a certain frustration in not achieving my last 'big five'. How ever in an effort to stay positive I did look to do some reading that explained the way I felt.  I have a personal view that understanding helps in acceptance of situations and therefore hopefully inspires an action plan.  The book was 'Three signs of a miserable job' by Patrick Lencioni and it was a good read.  I found myself identifying with most of what he said.  The signs are, immesuability (how do you measure your daily achievement on the job, if you can't think of anything then how do you know you are doing it well), anonymity (the boss or your colleagues really don't know a thing about you,  it is hard to do anything about this because if you tell them all about yourself you run a risk of over exposing yourself, or being labeled as an  'it's all about me' person) and the last sign is irrelevance and that's about not really being necessary to the product or running of the organisation, if you are sick you are replaced and no one seems to have been upset by it.  My personal goal albeit a small one has been to try and find things I can count or score in some way so I know I'm doing a good job.  It is tough but worth the effort and it makes the job a bit more enjoyable.  I keep adding to the number of reference inquiries I can tot up in a day.  I must get or create a situation where there is a least one and any more are a bonus.   Since most of my job is check in, check out and shelve, the reference inquiry is a challenge, both in finding the time to address it and in delivering an in depth result.  Give the book a go and start measuring your success. 

A New Year

A few weeks ago I attended a session about e-books. Some discussion at the session revolved around when the participants thought books as we know them, would be superseded by electronic formats. The best guess was in about five years. It is a brave new world out there for sure and there can't be too many folk under thirty that don't use electronic tools to get through their day but I for one will always want a book to curl up with. I don't think an e-reader would survive being rained on, having coffee spilled on it or drop safely onto the floor as sleep invades consciousness, let alone be able to act as a furniture leveler or flower pressing weight. I'm not saying rain, coffee, dropping a book on the floor or using it for non book like activities is necessarily good for it, but at least it can still be read and will never flash the terminal blue screen before the ending is reached. A future without books....I hope not.

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.