Interview Post: Gillian Byrne

Staged Reenactment

Biographical

Name?
Gillian Byrne

Current job?
Manager of the Toronto Reference Library, which is part of the Toronto Public Library system.

How long have you been in the field?
17 years as an academic librarian, 3 months as a public librarian.

How Do You Work?

What is your office/workspace like?
Pictures aren’t mandatory for this answer, right? [Editor’s Note: As you can see from above, I convinced the author to take a picture after all.] Piles of paper everywhere (and no, there’s no secret system where I know what’s in each pile). Not a lot of knick-knacks or personalization. I’d like to say that this is because I’ve just moved in, but in all honestly, I don’t pay a lot of attention to my work surroundings. I often don’t even notice that I’m working in the dark until someone comes to see me. If I have a computer and coffee, I’m usually good.

How do you organize your days?
My days organize me, really. Flexibility is a must. I keep a keen eye on deadlines, but don’t tend to block off time, use to-do lists, or in any traditional way optimize my efficiency. I do plan, but it tends to be opportunistic – “ooh look at that lovely free day I have next Tuesday, going to do all the things!”

What do you spend most of your time doing?
Sitting in meetings is an obvious answer, but what I do more than people generally realize is to, well, *think*. I spend a lot of time in my office or wandering around the building mulling over thorny problems/strategic approaches, etc. As a profession, I don’t know that we’ve built this into our work culture very well. Effectiveness is something more than busy-ness. And, in my experience, once I’ve thought a long time about something, I can move pretty fast.

What is a typical day like for you?
I’m three months into a new job, so that’s something I’m still figuring out. Over my career, I’ve been fond of getting an early start – that hour or so before anyone else is around is great for prepping for the day. From there I tend to mentally divide my days into “meeting days” – where 2 or more meetings are on the docket, and “free days” where I’m less scheduled. On meeting days my energies are devoted to preparing for meetings and following up after them. Days where I’m less structured I tend to look at my deadlines, then select the priority work that matches what I’d like to do. There’s always enough work, so for example, the days I’m feeling creative, I might work on long term planning, and the days I’ve feeling analytical I’ll work on policy development. That said, all of this will get quickly pushed aside when something comes up. And when you’re part of the team that runs the largest branch of the largest public library system in Canada, something always comes up!
What are you reading right now?
Confessions of a library worker: I go through phases where I just don’t read. I’ve got a bunch of articles on library space bookmarked for when I have the spare brainpower, and the new George Saunders novel on hold. It’ll right itself eventually.
What's the best professional advice you've ever received?
Something along the lines of “your enthusiasm is great, but can be exhausting”. I’m not a linear thinker and when I get ideas, I can’t always communicate them in a way that’s understandable to others. At my worst I’m tripping over words, jumping from one idea to the next, barely allowing people time to breathe. [Look up any of my recorded conference presentations. I’ll wait.] After hearing this early in my career I’ve focused hard on ensuring my communication skills are equal to my enthusiasm.

What have you found yourself doing at work that you never expected?
Oh gosh, these days everything! I find myself continually amazed at the breadth of work public library workers do for – and with - their communities. I’m getting involved in emergency planning as part of my job; it’s this entirely new and complex world I’m excited to explore.

Inside the Library Studio

What is your favorite word?

Imagination

What is your least favorite word?

Excellence

What profession other than your own would you love to attempt?

Professional wrestling (in an alternate universe where I wasn’t carrying all the injuries of my careless youth…and had some talent).

What profession would you never want to attempt?

Elementary school teacher. I can’t imagine having that much direct responsibility for children’s success, day in, day out. So much respect.

Everything Else

What superpower do you wish you had?

Patience. I was born without any and have managed to discipline myself into a little, but on my bad days I think I’m more likely to gain the power to fly than wait patiently.

What are you most proud of in your career?

Throughout my career, I’ve tried hard to be as transparent as possible as a manager. I think particularly in academic libraries, management is often seen as a black hole, or as oppositional to the work that goes on in libraries. It’s not always clear what management positions do, what the work is like, how decisions are made. So my proudest accomplishment is the people who have told me that they view library administration differently – or are even more interested in moving into management - because of something I’ve written or said (or ranted about). The thing about being a manager is that you’ll fail more than you succeed, most of the time. To be honest and open about that isn’t always easy, but so important.

If you're willing to share, tell about a mistake you made on the job.

My very first management job was as head of circulation. The staff were fantastic and open to doing new things. I had this half-baked idea about rearranging the reserve stacks and carelessly mentioned it a meeting. I thought I was throwing out ideas, staff heard a directive. The staff being their amazing selves, went out and did the move in like a day! It turned out to be a terrible idea. I immediately apologized and we talked about expectations and communications. It’s been the major lesson of my career – when initiatives fail, it’s almost always because we haven’t taken enough time to ensure everyone involved has a shared understanding of what’s going on.

When you aren't at work, what are you likely doing?

Exploring the many fine craft beers of Toronto and/or looking for neighbourhood cats to pet.

Who else would you like to see answer these questions?

Oh gosh, so many people. Can I cheat and say I’d love to hear from an archivist or two, library workers in non-traditional roles, and librarians in their first couple of years on the job?


Gillian is on Twitter as @gillmbyrne.

Leadership Transition

I'm winding down my time at my current institution - I've basically got 3 weeks left here, but I'm taking a week off in the middle to take care of all those details that need attention when you're moving states away. And in anticipation of my move, I've been co-writing a document with the person who will be interim director. This document is partially to help the interim director between when I leave and when the new director is hired, but also to help my boss (the provost) as well as the next director. We've spent hours so far on this document and will be spending more time between now and my last day. Thought I'd share with you all the kinds of things we're including.

1. Who to talk to, and how, about what. Sure, people have job titles that are easy to find, but job titles and knowledge don't always correspond. There are always people in any library/college/government/etc., who are great but you really need to talk to their administrative assistant if you want action on something. Some people respond better to email whereas others you need to call. And then there are the people who will promise you the moon but won't deliver unless you can prove they made a promise. This transition document we're writing has things like who to contact when you need new keys or have questions about student workers, who to call about accounts payable and how to get changes made to the website. These are all little things I had to learn for myself, so I might as well pass on the knowledge.
2. What ongoing projects will need attention soon. Because of the way things worked out with my job transition, I'm going to be able to handle pretty much all of the big projects that are in motion, but not all. Some things are sort of on hold because we're in summer session, for instance.
3. Overview of what I do in an average month. Everything from "pay bills" to "biweekly staff update email" to "work with local and statewide library oriented organizations" is listed. I've also included a rough estimate of how much time I spend on each of these, but that is more for the higher ups so they know what the interim director will be trying to fit into their 35 hour work week.
4. A list of projects I never got to. Of course, each person new to a job will want to come up with their own projects, however I did some preliminary work for some of these and wanted to share in case the interim, the powers that be, or the next director have the same ideas.
5. My contact information. As exhaustive as we are trying to make this document, I know we're going to forget something. Some event I said the library would host or some DVD I said the library would buy or even the idea I had to handle a specific set of circumstances if they ever came up. I won't work here anymore, but I also want to make sure the transition is smooth.

So, what about you? Is there anything else you wish your predecessor (actual or future) would let you know?

Why I Became a Director

I've talked a lot here about what it's like for me to be a library director, how I go about my daily work, and even about the path I followed to this stage of my career, but I didn't realize until recently that I've never talked about why.

Truth be told, I never expected to be talking about this at all. Back when I was a baby librarian, my director went on maternity leave and a couple of us split her duties between us... I took on her committee responsibilities. Let me tell you: I did *not* enjoy that. I was talked over and ignored, even in small meetings, and when my director came back I firmly told her that I thought she was a crazy person for taking that job and that I'd never follow in her footsteps.

And yet, over the intervening years, I set about gathering all sorts of knowledge and skills that equipped me to follow exactly that path. For instance, I became increasingly interested in how a library fits into the overall landscape of parent institutions, in assessment beyond information literacy and programming, and in building relationships beyond the library and even beyond the campus walls. I was preparing myself to become a library director, despite my repeated avowals that I didn't want that job.

Flash forward a bit to me attending a small, CLIR-sponsored symposium about the future of libraries at library arts colleges. If I remember correctly, it was geared more towards library directors but I was already going to be in Milwaukee for another conference earlier that week and my boss asked me if I wanted to go to two instead of just one. How do you say no to something like that? At that symposium, I was my usual loud self. I remember saying something along the lines of, "perhaps at your institution you can get away with doing things like that, but the culture is very different where I work." The person I said that to was this very self-important kind of guy, and a few other people in the room appreciated me confronting him. Afterward, I ended up chatting with someone I admired a lot at the time, and the fact that I wasn't a library director came up. The person I admired told me, point blank, that I should be one.

I have to admit that got me thinking. I, like so many people, had moments of "I could do a better job than that" when watching my directors. I'd also learned about the gender disparity in academic library leadership (women make up an estimated 80% of academic librarians, but only 50% of administration roles). But still I resisted. I love instruction and I don't love meetings. Then one day I mentioned the conversation with the Much Admired Librarian™ to a couple of friends, both of whom were and still are library directors. Both of them said "yes, you definitely should be a library director." I talked about it with my director at that time, who also agreed, and I started applying.

So, why did I become a library director? 30% natural progression; 30% feminist agenda; 30% thinking I could do a better job; and 10% peer pressure.

Interview Post: Cecily Walker

Biographical

Name?
Cecily Walker

Current job?
Assistant Manager for Community Digital Initiatives, Vancouver Public Library

How long have you been in the field?
I've worked as a librarian for just over 8 years now. I worked in user experience for about 3 years before making the switch.

How Do You Work?

What is your office/workspace like?
Sparse. Even though I've had this job for awhile, I was temporary for two years and moved around a lot. Boxing up desk toys and office accoutrements lost its allure. I have a single monitor setup, an L-shaped desk that gives me additional writing space (even though the L is facing the wrong way) an ergonomic chair, and an office with a window that opens.

How do you organize your days?

There's no real rhyme or reason to it. I usually start with email, and then I handle questions with my direct reports, as needed. I have semi-weekly meetings with the Community Digital Initiatives team, and a weekly meeting with the supervisory team in my department. The rest of the day is spent either on administrivia, project management, or keeping my door open in case anyone wants to stop by for a chat/with questions.

What do you spend most of your time doing?

Procrastinating. ;-)

Officially I'm a supervisor, unofficially I'm a project manager, and both of those things require that I spend the lion's share of my day removing obstacles, facilitating discussions, and helping my direct reports be successful. I also do a fair amount of email/Slack chatting, so there's rarely a moment that I don't have fingers to keyboard.
What is a typical day like for you?
Mostly quiet, with infrequent bursts of fussing about/keeping projects on track. Nothing terribly exciting.
What are you reading right now?
Joan Didion's South and West. I don't know why I'd never read any Didion before now, but better late than never. I love the way she paints pictures with her words, and I'm intrigued by her assertion that the notes in her notebooks aren't always true, but over time they become more true than the original story. The pieces in this collection were written over 40 years ago, but the people and situations she describes sound similar to the political circumstances we find ourselves in today.
What's the best professional advice you've ever received?
I don't have a pithy aphorism to share, but it has meant a lot to me to meet and connect with librarians of colour, especially Black librarians, and to lean on them when I find myself experiencing difficulties that arise from cultural differences. These women and men have helped me understand that no, I'm not imagining things. They've also encouraged me to look outside my workplace to find inspiration and opportunities, particularly speaking opportunities. As a result of their gentle encouragement, I managed to give a keynote at the LITA forum this year, which thus far has been the height of my career.

What have you found yourself doing at work that you never expected?
Working with community partners to build a digital collection of the Women's Memorial March Quilt. Even though my library places a premium on community-led librarianship, I wasn't prepared for the emotional labour involved with working with a community that still lives through the trauma of Vancouver's Missing and Murdered Women.

Inside the Library Studio

What is your favorite word?

Mellifluous

What is your least favorite word?

A tie between squid and custard.

What profession other than your own would you love to attempt?

A pyrotechnics engineer. Whenever I get frustrated with library work, I find myself looking at the explosives and pyrotechnics program at one of the local polytechnic schools. I think blowing things up would be cathartic, and I imagine I'd never go home in a bad mood at the end of the day.

What profession would you never want to attempt?

Surgeon. Bodies are gross. Well, not the fact of bodies, or when they're intact, but I can't even stand to watch the surgery scenes on Grey's Anatomy, so I'm clearly not cut out for this.

Everything Else

What superpower do you wish you had?

Teleportation, though I suppose that might have to go along with invisibility. If I could teleport, I'd never have to worry about not fitting into airplane seats, and I could see my friends/loved ones whenever I wanted.

What are you most proud of in your career?

That I'm still here, even though health challenges and a lingering suspicion I'm not cut out for library work make it difficult to stay in this line of work.

If you're willing to share, tell about a mistake you made on the job.

My chronic illnesses mean I live under a near-constant mental fog, and I don't read closely/comprehensively on the best of days. The biggest mistake I made was convincing a boss to upgrade a product we used based on features I thought were offered as part of the upgrade, when they would cost us more on top of the upgrade. I'm glad I don't have to worry about this anymore in my current position.

When you aren't at work, what are you likely doing?

Tweeting, marathoning shows on various streaming services, hanging out with my cat, or having a few pints with friends.

Who else would you like to see answer these questions?

Tara Robertson


Cecily is on Twitter as @skeskali.

How I Interview

We're getting ready to do another round of hiring for a library associate position (works at the circulation desk with other assigned projects), so I'm revisiting how I've hired in the past. One thing I'll never change is that I don't look at an applicant's name until I've looked at their resume - it's one way I've found to fight unconscious bias against names that don't sound Caucasian. Another thing I'll never change is to have someone besides me (aka the boss) give candidates a tour of the building. But, as much as I like the questions we've asked in the past, I'm considering changing them up. Below is a list of the questions along with a brief explanation of why we ask them:

1. Can you tell me why you’re interested? I'm pretty sure we've asked this because everyone asks this. I think I'm going to cut it, actually.
2. How do you handle a bad customer service interaction? (Give example.) Students, faculty, and staff don't always act their best when they are stressed, and the person working at the front desk is the front line. I need to know that they aren't going to take it personally when people get angry.
3. When you use libraries, how do you use them? To be honest, this is more of an intro to something I want all candidates to know - that this library is an academic department and a physical location and that we do plenty of things that are traditionally seen as student life. I want to give them a head's up about the things that aren't necessarily in the job description.
4. How do you like to learn new work skills? We give preference to people who have either experience in a library or in a public facing role in higher ed, but regardless of what they bring to the job - there's a lot of learning for them. We need to know how to tailor what we teach to how they learn.
5. How do you handle projects you’ve been given? This is a way to get at how they approach things when they aren't supervised. 
6. Tell me about a previous job — what did you love and what didn’t you like? This is another question we ask as a way to introduce a topic I want to discuss, namely my management style. 
7. How do you respond when you don’t know the answer to a question? We need people who are willing to admit they don't know everything and know how to handle that.
8. What is good customer service? We're looking for people to talk about respect. Most of our students are first generation college students, so making sure our students feel comfortable coming in the building is important.
9. How would you handle it if the phone rang right as a line formed at the circulation desk? Trying to figure out how they handle stressful situations - hypotheticals are good for that.
10. How do you handle it when you disagree with coworkers? How about with a boss? This is important information, but yet again it's an opportunity to talk to them about my management style - about how I want people to let me know when I've made a mistake.
11. What questions do you have for me? You can learn so much about a person by the kinds of questions they ask.

What do you all think? Anything you'd change? (Feel free to borrow these questions if you like them.)

Just for Fun: In Case of Emergency (Cute Therapy)

I talk about this occasionally on Twitter, but I have an entire tag on my Pinboard account that is just cute/funny things: InCaseofEmergency. I've tried to label all the animals, because I don't want there to be any surprises like a snake I think is cute but you're an ophidiophobe. I offer this up because this is a crazy-inducing time in politics, and I think we could all use some gratuitous cuteness today. Here are some of my favorites, but please @ me on Twitter or comment here with others and I'll add them to my files... to my little mental health public service.

If you don't know about the adorableness that is the fossa, time to learn:

Then there's this ridiculously cute creature:

https://library-graffiti.tumblr.com/post/150225890147/trashgnomesanonymous-thenimbus-charmera

A squeaky baby fruit bat (not sure why there's no image here, but the video does work):



And perhaps my favorite of all my saved links, an argumentative ibex:

So how about you? What makes you laugh no matter what? What helps you calm down? Please share!

How I Lead

Donna Lanclos published a short piece yesterday about being a leader. It's a great. short read if you have time to read it. In it she talks a bit about the JISC Digital Leaders program, and says that during the program she "will be resisting any requests for to-do lists, or top-tips around practice." And while I agree that approach is sound, I'm still going to offer a list of things I've learned - some of them the hard way.

Here are some leadership traits and behaviors that I think should be universal:

• You should have responsive leadership/management style. This is my phrase for how I describe adapting my style to the needs/strengths of each member of my staff. There is no one size fits all way to lead and manage. You'll have people who are amazingly self-directed and you pretty much just need to get out of their way, with occasional check ins. You'll have people who *think* they're amazing, but they aren't, so you'll have to keep them focused without killing their enthusiasm. You'll have people who have been treated badly in the past and you'll need to help them find their enthusiasm again. You need to tailor your management style to each person.
• I've talked about this before, but you need to be able to admit mistakes. You're going to make them. It happens. I made a joke that someone took seriously, and I was absolutely mortified later when I realized what I'd done. I apologized and we found a way forward, but it all started when I admitted the mistake.
• It's all well and good building consensus and getting people on board, but sometimes you're going to have to be able to make unpopular decisions. Maybe it will be money. Maybe it will be lack of personnel. Maybe it will be something coming down from administration. Maybe you'll even have to fire someone. I'm as transparent as possible, explaining everything that leads up to a decision. And let me tell you - this was a hard lesson to learn.
• Another hard lesson was learning to own my strengths and weaknesses. I cannot be all things to all people, but I tried at first. I really tried. I cannot recommend the Gallup Strengths Quest enough for this, because not only did it help me understand my strengths but it also gave my staff a common vocabulary.
• One thing that wasn't as hard for me was being able to handle change. Yes, I'm kind of talking about this in a generic "things always change" kind of way, but I'm also talking about change as in a specific "people move on" kind of way. At my current library, there are only two full time employees - and I'm one of them. Everyone else who works here is a part time employee, which means no benefits and no more than 29 hours per week. And that means I have a fair amount of turnover. Is it inconvenient when people move on in the middle of the semester and leave me scrambling? Sure it is. But it doesn't mean I take it personally. In fact, I've helped more than one person in my employ find a better gig when it was better for them.
• This phrasing comes from Jake Berg, but it's so important: the chain of yelling goes up, not down. It's not that you'll never correct people (I wrote about that previously), but when things go wrong I take the blame and if it's not my fault it goes up the ladder. 
• Your most important duty as a manager and leader is to run interference so your people can get shiz done. That's why I picked the gif above to accompany this post - it's the thing I spend most of my time doing. Making things easier for our students and for our faculty, for the staff outside of this department and most especially for the staff inside of this department. One thing from Lanclos' post that really stuck with me was the title of her post: "Being a Leader Isn't About You." The reasons I became a library director are complicated, but I always knew it wouldn't be about me once I got in the captain's chair - and I was right.

If you're considering moving into a leadership role, whether it's leading from the middle or from an administrative role, you have to be yourself - but be the best version of yourself. The things I put in that list are general qualities and skills, but I really believe they make me a better leader. That and the fact that I never give up trying to improve.