2012 in Review

I seriously can't believe how quickly the past three months have flown by...or this year for that matter! I'd thought I'd finally take some time away from my busy new life as a library director to update this blog with a review of the past 12 months. I promise to be as concise as possible and keep it to one post! I'll start with the books I've read. Along with GoodReads, I started using Pinterest to keep track of my reading history - it's a wonderfully visual way to look back on what I've discovered. Click here to check out my "Books I've Read 2012" board.

My favorites would have to have been John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood, and Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles.

My life has proven to be nearly as adventurous as some my reading choices this year. In April, as I was celebrating my 27th birthday, I had to say goodbye to a wonderful coworker whose wake was the evening of the same day. My first year and a half at the Lawrence Public Library, I got to work a lot with Olga, the interlibrary loan specialist. Her wit and smile were contagious - she was one of the reasons I enjoyed working at LPL so much. As summer approached, I prepared to express my love and commitment to my husband, Nate, in front of my family and friends - and it was extra special to have my good friend, Becky, my two brothers, and my current supervisor, Lynn, stand up with me as my guests of honor. At the end of August came another big change: I applied for and was offered my first director position at the Oskaloosa Public Library, and Nate and I packed up our things and moved to Iowa!

The changes didn't stop there! Because we weren't able to get out of our lease in Lawrence, we decided to stay with Nate's parents - who live about 30 minutes away from Oskaloosa. Thankfully they kindly agreed to let us stay rent free until we either found a subleaser or got out the lease, as long as we helped out with groceries and necessities. However, we quickly realized our allotted space was a little too constricting, and my Cat, Echo, wasn't getting along with the feline locals - Sissy and Zoey. So we bought a house! A beautiful two story, four bedroom, two bathroom turn of the century home. We actually closed yesterday, and Nate and I spent the evening and a good part of the night transferring our stuff again, unpacking, hanging picture frames and putting together our bed. We're now looking forward to the new year - and many more - in our new residence!

Meeting the Technology Needs of the Community

One of the ideas I've been excited to bring to the Oskaloosa Public Library is offering free computer classes to the public. It's obviously not a new idea - the staff has offered Q&A sessions in which patrons could bring their own devices before, but because of budget cuts that affected part time hours, they had to stop. The local cable and Internet provider comes in and offers classes once a month in one of the meeting rooms, too, but I wanted to be able to do something more. So I scheduled a few classes in December as a trial run just to see how the community would respond.

Coming from a library that serves a population of nearly 100,000 residents to one that serves a little more than 11,000 - I've quickly realized the limitations I have to work with. The computer lab that I'll be using only has 8 computers in it, but two of them are so outdated they're pretty much useless for this purpose. Thus, I have to limit my class sizes to six. Because the library can only afford to replace a few computers at a time, we have a mismatched set. Funding has also limited the programs that we have on the computers - not all of them have the basic Microsoft Suite. Staff time, too, is limited. However, I've decided these things aren't going to stop the library from offering the best service we can.

The day after I released the schedule for December's computer classes and sent out a press release, the local newspaper, The Oskaloosa Herald, published it on the front page. By that evening, my two Computer Basics 1 and Computer Basics 2 sessions had filled up. By the next morning, we had enough people on the waiting list to fill another session of each. I can't express how good I feel about this. It's a clear demonstration that opportunities to gain technology skills is a real need in the community, and that the library can be the first place people can go for it. I'm excited to see how the classes go!

An Update...Finally

Where do I begin? I haven't posted about what I've been reading in a while. After a Harry Potter re-reading binge in which I read straight through the fourth book, I moved on to Alison McGhee's Falling Boy. Ready for something a little less fantastical, I was satisfied with the story of sixteen year old Joseph, paralyzed and having trouble coming to terms with his new wheelchair bound life and the accident that brought it on. Zap, a coworker at the bakery Joseph works at, and his strange little sister Enzo, who wants to believe Joseph's a superhero, inadvertently help him get there through their interest in his past. I loved the characters and couldn't put the book down til the end.

From there, I moved on to Veronica Roth's Divergent and Insurgent at the suggestion of my administrative assistant and cataloger. Another dystopian trilogy, the Divergent novels follow Beatrice - or Tris - Prior, as she leaves the selfless Abnegation faction she grew up in to join the Dauntless, a group of people who live for thrill. However, this transition is just the start of her problems, as she discover's she's a Divergent - someone who shows aptitude for more than one faction. My cataloger said she enjoyed these much more than The Hunger Games. I personally can't say I feel the same; however, I did enjoy them. The second got a little slow for me - I kept wanting a little more action, but got very little til the end. I'm still looking forward to the conclusion to the trilogy though.

Things at my new library couldn't be going better. Not only do I have a great staff to work with, but a wonderfully supportive Friends of the Library group and an incredible Board of Trustees. The past month has flown by, with my keeping busy with collection development, learning the budget, and getting to know the community. I've been working on a couple of projects that I'm excited to present to the board, projects that I hope will help increase the library's visibility and relevancy in the community. One of those is a redesign of the logo - I've already shown my idea to the staff, and they've seemed pretty receptive. I'm looking forward to the tasks and challenges ahead - one of which came a little sooner than expected.

After my staff meeting a few weeks ago, my Children's Librarian, Mrs. Fox, handed me her letter of intent to retire. Mrs. Fox has been with the library for nearly thirty years and has built a strong relationship with the parents, teachers and children of the community. I spent all of last week shadowing her - following her to preschool and elementary school classes and observing her storytimes and activities. Because I value the work she does, I want to make sure the library continues to live up to the level of service that she has provided for the community. I'm now working with the Friends of the Library, the Library Board, and the local Parent Teacher Organization to put together a reception for her so we all can thank her and wish her well in her retirement.

10,000!

At some point today, this blog surpassed 10,000 page views! Though I've got some regular readers for which I'm very grateful, most of those are thanks to a February post in which I shared a "What I really do..." meme image I created. It's responsible for 1,825 of those views. (So that's pretty much how you gain page views if you really want them: embrace the meme.) Other popular posts were a review of Kimya Dawson's song, The Library (411 views); my About Me post (178) and a Top Five Friday post on librarian blogs (128). Anywho, thanks for visiting and reading!

Interested, Invested and Involved

From stepping into the building for the first time to attending my first library board meeting tonight, I can't believe how quickly my first two weeks as director have gone by. I've done everything from touring the building and meeting the staff to managing invoices, placing orders for new materials, and even interviewing and hiring new staff! I arrive every day at 8:00 a.m. and am amazed at how fast 5:00 comes around. The board of trustees, Friends of the Library and Library Foundation sponsored a great reception the Thursday evening after my first day, during which I met many members of the community, including the mayor and a few city councilmen. I interviewed with the local newspaper, the Oskaloosa Herald, Osky News, an online news site, and CRI News, the local television news station. I almost felt like a celebrity!

One of the questions I had to answer was "What are your plans for the library?" When I interviewed for the position, I told the board that I wouldn't consider any major changes within the first 6 months to a year. My first intentions were to get to know the staff, the board and the community, and then I said I would work from there. One small goal I've been working on, though, is increasing the library's social media presence. So far since I've started helping provide content, the reach of the library's Facebook page has risen to about 6,000 (up from ~250) with an average of nearly 200 people interacting with our content weekly, and we've gained a couple of new followers on Twitter. At the board meeting tonight, I presented this information, explained that I'll be forming a social media and website team with staff, and then requested the policy committee work on developing a social media policy, which will help guide and inform the team. I'm very excited to see where we can go with social media.

Facebook and Twitter aren't the only areas in which I'm getting involved, though. Day by day, I'm learning the collection, training at the desks, and working with the staff in understanding how they've gotten along so far and coming up with ways in which we, as a team, can improve the services of the library. In his closing remarks at tonight's meeting, the president of the board of trustees said that I was a breath of fresh air for the library. He explained that I was the first director to express an interest in meeting with each of the board members individually and mentioned that I was also the first to attend the teen advisory board's Annual Cemetery Walk. I'm just doing what they asked me to do, though - be interested, invested and involved in as many of the details of the library as possible. To me, that's what it means to be a library director.

A Final Farewell and New Beginnings

This is the third and final post in which I am reflecting and reminiscing on my former position as Reference Librarian at the Lawrence Public Library. I'll also include a little bit about my first day as Director of the Oskaloosa Public Library in Oskaloosa, Iowa.

By the time I left the Lawrence Library, I really felt I had done almost everything. Managing the Book Club in a Bag service, scheduling and teaching computer classes, keeping track of reference desk statistics, providing technical support for eReaders and audiobooks, creating reader's advisory handouts, working on displays, serving on the staff development committee, processing interlibrary loan materials...I'm grateful that my supervisor allowed me so many avenues in which to explore my creativity as a librarian and information professional.

Reflecting on my time at LPL and in Lawrence, I really feel like I couldn't have had a better start to my career in librarianship. I had a wonderful, supportive and encouraging supervisor, Lynn, and many great coworkers who were fun to work with and easy to get along with. Lawrence, too, was a great place to be as a young adult getting started - progressive, culturally vibrant, and full of interesting, friendly people. As evident in the approval of the upcoming expansion and renovation project, the library serves a community that recognizes the value of its services - which makes working there much more fulfilling. That renovation is one thing that I'm kind of sad I'll miss out on - but I know I can always come back to visit and check it out.

I don't know how often those visit will be, though - today was my first day as a director! Bright and early at 8 a.m., I met the city manager, who's been acting as interim director, and he introduced me to some of the staff and gave me a tour of the building. One of my favorite parts: my office. My office. Going from a work space shared with about 8 others to a full size office of my own is a definite upgrade - and I'm pretty sure it made a few of my Facebook friends a little jealous. The rest of the day was spent filling out HR paperwork, setting up my email account, meeting staff and volunteers, observing, and reading over board packets, budget reports, and annual reports. Oh, and I also had the local news station come in and take a few clips of me working...or wandering around the library and straightening a few books, that is.

So what will I be doing tomorrow? Who knows?! Well...I do have a few meetings planned and I'll be receiving training on the circulation desk. I'll keep you updated on my adventures!

Farewell LPL, Part 2

This is a second post in which I am reflecting and reminiscing on my time in my former position, and giving a final farewell to the Lawrence Public Library.

Until my attempts to get a position in a library, I had never experienced trouble feeling confident in interviews and getting jobs. Because I had already met Lynn, though, I was able to relax and feel comfortable again in my interview with her and Sherri, the assistant director of LPL. Afterward, Lynn seemed very impressed and pretty much told me to expect a phone call. She told me that there were a few other people from my library school class who did a reference observation at her desk, but I was the only one who sent a thank you note - and that impressed her very much. And so, just a few days later, she called and offered me the part time Reference Assistant position and my adventure with the Lawrence Public Library began.

Me as Harry Potter at the Halloween themed
Caddy Stacks golf in the library event in
October 2010.

Once I started, I wanted to do everything. I told myself never to say no to a task asked of me, no matter how tedious. From keeping track of reference desk statistics to helping process interlibrary loan items, from shifting ranges full of books to sitting at the lower level computer lab reference desk for more than 2 hours - I never hesitated to do things some of my coworkers deemed undesirable. In retrospect, I almost feel taking the job was a big risk. I had intended to stay on at Lawrence High, but they weren't willing to work with me. As librarianship was my intended career path, I gave up the full time job; however, I definitely don't regret it.

Over the next two years, I managed to gain full time status and then a professional title through a series of fortunate events. In 2010, a coworker who was half time interlibrary loan and half time serials went on maternity leave and decided not to come back, so Lynn merged my part-time reference position with the serials half. She was determined not to lose me, because she knew I was needing a full time position badly. In 2011, the serials responsibilities that I took over were then given to the technical services department. Since I had finished my MLS at that point, administration decided to give me the official, professional title of Reference Librarian, along with all the benefits that come with it. This finally gave me the time and freedom to do what I really wanted.

To be continued again...

Farewell LPL, Part 1

Well, my last day as a Reference Librarian at the Lawrence Public Library has come and passed, and I'm just a few short hours away from driving away from Lawrence. As I look forward to my new adventure as a library director, I want to take a couple of blog posts to reflect and reminisce on my experience at LPL.

Before I started library school and was offered a job at the library, I commuted to Lawrence from a small neighboring town and worked as a paraeducator at Lawrence High School. I used to drive by the library everyday on my way home from the high school and tell myself, "Some day I'm going to work there." My supervisor laughed and thought I was being mendacious when I first told her this, but I wasn't. I knew what I wanted, and by reminding myself of that goal everyday helped me take the first steps and apply for entrance into the School of Library and Information Science at Emporia State University. I had long before decided librarianship was the career field for me, instead of education, as I wanted to work in a place where people come because they want to learn, not because the government requires them to.

Getting that job, though, was much tougher than I had imagined. With two high schools and a university, the job market in Lawrence is very tough - it always helps to have connections. I didn't. By the time I had gotten through my first semester of library school, I had applied to two different positions at LPL, and I heard very little to nothing in response. I also offered to volunteer my time, but even those opportunities are scarce. Figuring I'd have to start elsewhere, I applied and interviewed for a simple circulation desk clerk job at a small library in another town, and I was told I didn't have enough experience. I almost gave up. But then I was assigned a reference observation report for one of my classes, and that's when things started to fall into place.

I emailed the director of the Lawrence Public Library and asked if I could set up a time to observe at their reference desk. He referred me to the Adult Services Coordinator, Lynn Koenig, who was happy to let me come in and watch for a bit. When I did, she just happened to be covering the desk. She was very friendly and expressed interest in my school work, as she too graduated from Emporia. We chatted for a while, I watched her interact with a couple of patrons, and I left with enough information to write my paper. When I visited the library's website to get a little bit more information, I noticed that there an opening in Lynn's department. I promptly wrote her an email thanking her for allowing me to do the observation, and I mentioned that I would be submitting an application...

To be continued...