What I like about being a librarian

What I like about being a librarian, part I

What I like about being a librarian is knowing about everything. . . or
knowing where to look. . . or knowing how to find out where to look.

"We're going to the opera tomorrow," my mother in Detroit offers on the
phone the other day. "Oh," I say, "What are you going to see?" "I don't
know," she says, "I'll have to find the tickets." "Don't worry," I say
without thinking, "I can look it up online," knowing I could find the
schedule for Michigan Opera Theatre (and the cast, ticket prices and
parking information) faster online than she can find the tickets buried
on her desk. Or my friend visiting New York City, who calls me on her
cell phone so I can look online for the addresses of the Houston's
restaurants, where she wants to go for lunch.

How many times have we heard, "Oh it must be so nice to be a librarian!
You get to read books all day!" Well, not exactly. I read books at home.
At work I read email, blog posts, journal articles, spreadsheets,
procedure manuals, memos, catalog entries, book reviews, reports and
(mostly illegible) notes. I browse, scan, peruse, glance over and
generally careen through mountains of text every day.

Has the Internet changed how we do our work? No doubt about it. For the
better? Yes, in this case--more is more is more.

What I like about being a librarian, part II

What I like about being a librarian is the trust customers have that we
will be able to find the answers to their most urgent questions--How can
I get custody of my child? What does [long complex medical term] mean?
How do I get an opossum out of my garage? Their trust is humbling and their
appreciation, when I help them, is very gratifying.

For all the difficult, demanding, impatient customers I encounter on any
given day, there are just as many (or more) who are appreciative, happy,
satisfied. Of course, we all know the full moon skews that balance a
little. But the satisfied customers, their confidence in my ability to
meet their needs rewarded, provide the my ego with the little, immediate
strokes it needs to keep going--much better than waiting for those
few-and-far-between ones from the powers that be.

Risk and Generosity

I had the opportunity to attend a high school graduation this weekend,
something I haven't done in a long while. After much blood, sweat and
tears, my friend's daughter graduated Houston's High School for the
Performing and Visual Arts, one of the city's most competitive magnet
high schools. What was so impressive about the graduation ceremony was
not only the performances by the music, dance and theatre graduates and
slide shows by the visual arts and theatre tech kids (being, after all,
an arts high school), but also the effusive and warm response of their
peers in the audience. After all, they all have been in the spotlight at
one time or another during their high school careers and appreciate the
risk-taking that making art requires, the vulnerability and exposure
resulting from putting your passion out there on the stage or in the
gallery for everyone to see and to judge.

Why did I find this so inspiring? Well, in a workplace undergoing change
(and where is this not happening?), I see colleagues who are passive and
reluctant to make suggestions or question assumptions. It seems safer to
sit back and complain than to risk having your ideas slapped down.
Something these students have learned that we seem to have forgotten is
that it's easier to put yourself out there on a limb when everyone else
is doing it too, that risk-takers need company. So, I invite you
potential risk-takers lurking in the shadows to come out and join me. I
could use some company out here on this limb. . .

HSPVA: http://www.hspva.org/dhtml/

4 Rules

Yale librarian Todd Gilman's "The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians" (published in the Chronicle of Higer Education, 5/23/07) has been making the rounds of library blogland, and rightly so. He makes the point that "many of us librarians are our own (or one another's) worst enemies and that if we were more adept at working together, we could improve our lives and those of our colleageues." Borrowing from Steven Covey, he recommends four traits (or "habits"): 1. openess; 2. responsiveness; 3. collaboration; and 4. communication. I've pinned the list over my phone as an aide-memoire, to keep me from sinking into the slough of despond* when nothing's going well, or even going at all.

I also find motivational speaker Deena Ebbert's FISH! philosophy useful for the same reason (and it's also posted by the phone, where my despond usually takes place): 1. be there; 2. play; 3. make someone's day; and 4. choose your attitude. Number 4--choose your attitude--is especially important. We go through life making choices. I've learned (the hard way, of course) that the attitude I choose affects how the rest of my day goes, how I deal with problems and how people respond to me.

It's not just a bunch of blah-blah. Life is tough enough, so . . . choose your attitude.

Gilman's article: http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=hzkjQFgJVFwvCjYJVQsyhZdxwxrkjPTq
FISH! principles: http://www.charthouse.com/content.aspx?nodeid=1076
*a state of extreme depression, from Pilgrim's Progress (by way of Merriam-Webster)

What's your techno-type?

A colleague forwarded this techno-quiz from the Pew Internet & American Life Project: http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/

After giving it my off-the-top-of-my-head answers (the best kind), I was surprised to discover I was classified as an "Omnivore," the most technologically evolved. Better yet, equivalent of a 24-year-old guy with all the latest stuff. Not possible. So I tweaked the answers and came back with a more plausible result, the "Connector"--techncially savvy but not full-bore. I find this to be a great compliment but who am I fooling here? My blogging experience is less than a month old, the cell phone with the digital camera less than that and I use my MP3 player to listen to the radio (no downloads there!). But--I do find my productivity, my professional development, my connection to the world out there all greatly enhanced by these new tools. In this case, more is more.

Twinkies Re(De)constructed

Twinkies have this continuing allure for me, but they never manage to fulfill my childhood expectations. When I was a kid, my mother wouldn't buy them for us (too expensive for her taste), so, naturally, I craved them. As an adult I'm inevidably disappointed because they never taste as good as I remember. The most recent disappointment being in February during our monthly selection meeting, when we reviewed Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into What America Eats by Steve Ettlinger. It's a chapter-by-chapter exegesis of the natural and unnatural ingredients in Twinkies. Reviewed with real Twinkies (regular and low-fat) in hand, the better to compare the truth with reality. The book was better than the Twinkies and one of the more unusual titles we've considered this year. Here's a review from Sunday's Houston Chronicle: "A Twinkie by any other ingredient wouldn't taste as processed" (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/4814243.html).

Coming in 2007-2008

Here's the tentative schedule for the Houston Reading series next year:
http://www.inprinthouston.org/inprint.cfm?a=cms,c,10,2,5. A modest $5 (plus parking downtown) to hear great writers read from and talk about their work. Not to be missed!

Sponsored by Inprint, a great supporter of the literary arts in Houston. Their website: http://www.inprinthouston.org

On leadership

"We expect it to come from the outside. And so we wait and listen for the sound of some mighty voice. But real leadership comes from the quiet nudging of an inner voice. It comes from realizing that the time has come to move beyond waiting to doing." --Madeleine Albright's commencement address, UNC-Chapel Hill, 5/13/07.

Heard this morning on "Morning Edition" while riding the bus to work.
To hear the full story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10253829; for a transcript of her speech: http://www.unc.edu/news/speeches/commencement051307.html.