Not a Real Post (With Kitties)

I had a topic all lined up for today (based on a session I taught to the Delaware ILEAD group), but when I tried to retool it into a blog post, it didn't go so well.

After trying and trying and trying to moosh a blog post into shape, I'm giving up. #bloglife pic.twitter.com/7bkCaq9BOT

— Jessica Olin (@olinj) July 20, 2015

And as I looked around for another topic, I realized I didn't have anything that I could get done quickly, so instead I'm going to share a video and some pictures of my new-ish cats and beg your forgiveness. I'll be back with something more substantive next week.

Are Your Colleagues Dumb? Read This, by Kimberly Sweetman

When I think back over my career of almost 20 years, I can think of one or two defining moments. One in particular happened when I was about 2 years out of library school. I was living in the West Indies, 27 years old, and working as the associate director of the small library at an offshore medical school. That’s a great story in and of itself, but a story for another day. This was back in the mid ‘90s, and part of my responsibility was providing campus-wide training and support in Microsoft Office.

One day after assisting a colleague in the housing office with a spreadsheet, she turned to me and said, “you know, I used to wonder what value a young kid like you brought to the workplace, but now I know that you really know your stuff and do a good job.” This comment has stuck with me through my career. While librarianship was a second career for me as it is for many of us, I spent only a nano-second in my first career and earned my library degree in my mid-twenties. And I looked young. At a job interview about 10 years later (I still looked young then) I was asked how I deal with people assuming I’m younger and less experienced than I am. I was able to relay the story of what my housing office colleague had said and reply that my strategy has always been to be excellent at what I do.

Just as people no doubt dismissed me based on my appearance, I admit I did the same. When I first started out, I thought I was pretty hot stuff. I was bright and committed. There definitely were times I thought I was brighter and more committed than my colleagues. Sometimes I didn’t listen to them. And it’s a mistake I’ve seen repeated by lots of newly minted librarians. How about you? You’re smart. You’re energetic. You’re committed. You’re passionate. What do you think of your colleagues? Are they as smart, energetic, committed and passionate as you are? 

Diversity of perspective is essential in the workplace. Only recently (by reading Roger Martin’s The Responsibility Virus) did I realize that my choice to assume that my colleagues didn’t bring value to the discussion wasn’t just my own rash, over-inflated sense of self. Human beings are hard-wired to protect their own viewpoints and dismiss other perspectives. Roger Martin describes the four governing values that inform our actions when dealing with differing perspectives as:

1. Win, don’t lose;
2. Maintain control;
3. Avoid embarrassment;
4. Stay rational.

So, when someone offers a different perspective on something under discussion, we instinctively shift into a mode of wanting our perspective to prevail (win, don’t lose), of getting our way (control), of wanting our supported choice to be the right one at any cost (avoid embarrassment), and of staying rational to the point of being rigid. We tell ourselves that our perspective is the right perspective, and the answer we bring to the table is the right answer, which shuts us down from hearing differing viewpoints. We assume the other party is uninformed or possibly out to sabotage the organization. And we try to get others to see our way at the cost of listening to other ideas—ideas that could be really useful!

If we can alter this frame we can work with others to develop the strongest plans and ideas possible. Even opening your mind for five minutes to the possibility that others have something to contribute can change the dynamic. Rather than assuming you have all the answers, try this: actively tell yourself that although you have a lot of knowledge and understanding, you may not see or understand everything. By acknowledging that other people have different experiences that allow them to see things in different ways, you can remind yourself that their perspective will contribute to your understanding. Make your primary task accessing the collective intelligence in order to make the best choice.

The next time you are working with others to solve a problem, pause and check your mindset. Without being aware of Roger Martin’s theory, this is what my housing office colleague did. By actively reminding yourself that the perspectives of your colleagues, combined with your own, can make for stronger choices and options, you will ensure that your organization moves forward collaboratively. This benefits not only interpersonal relations in the workplace but also the plans and projects your organization carries out. Plans created with a diversity of perspectives are stronger and generally more successful. And fully thinking through an issue by weighing the contribution of everyone involved really does lead to better solutions.

After spending 20 years in library public service, Kimberly Sweetman now works as a consultant and coach helping libraries and library people to reach their goals and develop superior service through exceptional leadership. She blogs at kimberlysweetman.com and tweets as @sweetcoachcons.

Interview: Jessica Olin

To get things started with these interview posts (previous post for context), I'm going to be the first to fill out this questionnaire. So, here goes...

Me, chatting with my office mate: a velociraptor stuffy.

Biographical

Name?
Jessica Olin, or, to my friends, Luna Lovegood

Current job?
Director of the Robert H. Parker Library at Wesley College

How long have you been in the field?
I got my first gig as a professional librarian almost exactly 12 years ago.

How Do You Work?

What is your office/workspace like?
Small with lots of windows. I've got a couple filing cabinets, a desk, a bookshelf, a bulletin board, a slow & old computer, an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax, a phone - all the requisites. I try to keep it as neat as possible because, as I've already mentioned, it's small and very visible. I have lots of toys there, too, as you can see from the photo I posted above.

How do you organize your days?

Is "over organized" a thing? I plan every work day at the end of the previous day, looking at which projects are in process and what meetings I have. I try to be flexible about it, too, since as the director and one of only two librarians on staff, chances are pretty high I'm going to have something unexpected dropped in my lap. Being this structured almost always helps me have room to stop for lunch and leave work on time. I've learned the hard way that too much work and not enough rest makes Jessica grumpy.

What do you spend most of your time doing?

Administratriva. I'm our bookkeeper and our scheduler and bill payer and and and... I take care of lots of little details, but I make sure to carve out time every day (well, almost every day) to work on longer term projects. It's hard to find a balance between long term goals and short term needs, but I'm getting better at it.

What is a typical day like for you?

I know this is a cliche, but there's not really a "typical day" for me. On an academic calendar, you go in cycles. Right now it's the summer, so I spend a lot of time in my office reading and working on projects that got ignored in the 9 months prior, During the school year I'm sometimes too busy for projects; I've got meetings and meetings and instruction sessions and did I mention the meetings?

What are you reading right now?

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather. I realized I'd never read anything by her, even though I consider her works part of the American Canon, so when I saw a used copy get donated to my library's book sale, I snapped it up and I'm really glad I did. 

The World Exchange by Alena Graedon. I'm actually listening to this right now, but I think audiobooks count. Even though I have a short commute, I still listen to audiobooks. I picked it up on a whim because the cover art appealed and the description sounded interesting. I'm really digging it so far.

The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal. Part of finding balance is being mindful, and this book is a great help towards that end. 

What's the best professional advice you've ever received?

"Stop interviewing for the job you already have." My mentor from the College Library Directors' Mentor Program, Jessame Ferguson, said this after she visited my campus. When I started applying for director positions, I didn't expect to get one. I was expecting to get an assistant director gig at best. So when I was hired for a director spot, I was startled. And she was right - I was still trying to prove to them that they'd made the right choice instead of concentrating on the work at hand.

What have you found yourself doing at work that you never expected?

I joke that my job is 90% "and other duties as required," but if I'm honest I'd say the percentage is closer to 50%. That means the unexpected comes on a regular basis. I have, in my 2.5 years a director: cleaned up after a flood in the basement; put together furniture; moved furniture; dealt with many arachnid and insect critters, rescuing my staff from the critters and the critters from my staff; taken apart furniture. (Yes, lots of furniture.)

Inside the Library Studio

What is your favorite word?

Mellifluous. It is an example of what it means.

What is your least favorite word?

Derogatory words associated with minority groups - all of those words.

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

Wildlife rehabilitation. Especially raptors and/or bats.

What profession would you never want to attempt?

Any kind of elected office. I'm glad there are people willing to serve in that capacity, but I wonder about their sanity.

Everything Else

What superpower do you wish you had?

Jamie Madrox, or Multiple Man, can create multiple copies of himself. The copies can go off, do things, and then when they return he can reabsorb them and have their memories and skills and what not. I wish I had that power. I mean... THINK OF HOW MANY BOOKS I COULD READ!

What are you most proud of in your career?

That this blog has done what I set out to do: help people who are either new or at a crossroads in this field. I've been pretty lucky in the way I've stumbled into the paths of mentors, both traditional and peer, but not everyone is that fortunate. The ever-growing blog readership and professional acclaim are nice, but that I'm meeting the goal I set is the thing that makes me proudest.

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

I used to get so excited about ideas and projects that I was compared to a steamroller in one place and a bull-in-a-china-shop in another. I've had to learn the hard way to be more circumspect and politic.

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

Making cover band jokes on Twitter? Actually, the things I've been spending lots of free time on are reading and crafting. Cross-stitch is my craft of choice, and I tend to be fairly omnivorous with reading. I try to go hiking, too, but have been lazy about it lately.

Who else would you like to see answer these questions?

I'm going to play the "it's my blog" card here and skip this question. Too many people to name, but I've already started approaching people privately.

#CritLib Recommended Reading List

source

To Read

Last week I asked #critlib to recommend some reading to me. I haven't participated much with #critlib, but that's because I'm mostly fried by that time of night. This is important stuff, though, so I try to keep up with what is being discussed. However, I have volunteered to lead one of these discussions coming up, so I want to beef up on theories and theorists before then. For my own ease, I wanted to have all the readings in one place, but doing it here will help others who might not feel comfortable asking for the same recommendations. Also, I only got names in a lot of instances, so I'm hoping you all can recommend where to start with those theorists/writers.

Here's the list, in alphabetical order:

• Maria T. Accardi, Emily Drabinski, and Alana Kumbier, Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods
• Alma Flor Ada (She's written lots of things, but I'd like advice on her pedagogy writing.)
• Sara Ahmed, "Against Students"
• Andrea Baer, "Critical Information Literacy in the College Classroom: Exploring Scholarly Knowledge Production through the Digital Humanities"
• Stephen Eric Bronner, Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction
• Lisa Delpit, Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom
• Michel Foucault, start with Discipline and Punish
• Avery Gordon, Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination
• Donna Haraway
• Sandra Harding
• bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress
• Kevin K. Kumashiro
• Carmen Luke and Jennifer Gore, Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy
• Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
• Bic Ngo
• Hope A. Olson
• Donald D. Palmer, Structuralism and Poststructuralism For Beginners
• Mary Louise Pratt, "Arts of the Contact Zone"
• Laura Rendón, Sentipensante (Sensing/Thinking) Pedagogy: Educating for Wholeness, Social Justice and Liberation
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
• Joan Wink, Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the Real World

I've got a lot of reading to do.

source

Already Read

Also, here are some books that I've read that inform my perspective on librarianship. They tend to be a bit on the practical application side of things, but praxis is my jam, so... (Also, be warned: May Contain Some Misogyny.)

• Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals

The subtitle for this book, "A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals," should give you a hint of why it's on my list. Alinksy is considered by many to be a founder of modern community organizing. 

• Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are

Chodron's writing was the beginning of my becoming a Buddhist. She talks about compassion, both for ourselves and for others. Compassion and kindness are core to the kind of librarian I've become.

• Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Practical application of epistemological theories (not that the authors talk about their work using that language, but that's what it is)...? Yes, thank you.

• Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

I'm of the opinion that anyone in a service oriented profession like librarianship needs to know some basic behavioral economics, and Kahneman won a Nobel for his work. Bonus: Kahneman's writing is accessible.

• Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

This is the reason there's a misogyny warning on my list, but in my defense: it's really only in one chapter. This book covers topics like epistemology, emotive ethics, philosophy, and beyond. I don't agree with some of his conclusions, but his writing emphasizes the idea of broader context.

• Jack Zipes, Why Fairy Tales Stick

Zipes looks at fairy tales from what he calls an epidemiological perspective. I've spoken with some people who are better versed in epidemiology than me, and they took some issue with Zipes theories, but there's still something to be said for reading a book that talks about how memes and ideas spread. (He basically says that Little Red Riding Hood changes from culture to culture for the same reason that Darwin's finches had different beaks.) Caveat: he writes like an academic instead of like a person, but it's worth powering through to get to the ideas.

What Else?

"I think you have too many books." "Don't talk to me until you apologize for that remark. I have a phylactery, I have a plan."

— Evil Supply Co. (@EvilSupplyCo) December 17, 2014

I've already got 500+ books on my To Read list on GoodReads, plus all those books up there, plus books I bought but haven't read yet, and so on and so on. I have more books to read than I can reasonably expect to get to in a lifetime. I know that, but I'm still going to ask: is anything else you'd add to this list? Articles are welcome, too. You may or may not have noticed that my To Read list up there is heavily waited towards women and people of color, and that's on purpose. Last year I noticed I'd been reading mostly cishet white American male authors and have been trying to correct for that. Shameful realization for a heartless, humorless feminist like me. However, any suggestions are welcome. I am starting with Foucault, after all.

Just for Fun: Oop. Ack.

Back when my age was still a single digit and reading the funnies section of the newspaper was an act of daily devotion, I had one true love: Bloom County. You may or may not remember a post I wrote last year about my nerdy t-shirt. In that post I wrote about how I still own the vintage Bloom County t-shirt that I got by using an order form in the back of a Bloom County book. That's how long I've been devoted to this strip. A few other things you should know about my love for this title before I share a few favorite memories from the work of Berkeley Breathed:

• I bought and own Secondhand Lions mostly because the art of Berkeley Breathed had an important role in the film.
• When I need to give myself a pep talk, I frequently recite a line from A Wish for Wings That Work to get myself motivated. Telling myself, "I can do this. I can fly this thing," almost always does the trick. (By the way, I own that short on VHS. Still watch it on occasion, too, even though I pretty much know it by heart.)
• In 1984, when I was in elementary school, our teacher taught about democracy by having us vote for presidential candidates. Neither Reagan nor Mondale stood a chance: Bill the Cat and Opus won the election in my grade because of a campaign that I and some friends ran.

Now, some important highlights that will give you a bit more insight into my sense of humor than I should probably provide.

Pear Pimples for Hairy Fishnuts

click to embiggen, it's worth the effort

I know that strip by heart and yet it still makes me laugh when I read it. The confusion of Opus and the increasing frustration of the Hare Krishna disciple combine so perfectly.

Positive Portrayal of Disability

Cutter John, the gentleman in the wheelchair, is a doctor who has a great girlfriend and who is one of the more popular characters in the fictional municipality of Bloom County. His wheelchair is definitely part of the story, but it's not the only thing about him. He is more than his disability.

Pop Culture References

Very little escaped the notice of the characters. Apple Computers, Kiss, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Donald Trump, Vietnam, Michael Jackson, and so on. 

For those of you who have fond memories of this comic strip, please share a favorite moment in the comments. And I quote that great philosopher Bill the Cat as a way to leave you: "Oop. Ack."

What is Success?

I gave a talk last week to the Delaware ILEAD group (I'll be posting that talk next week - probably) and part of my talk was about how to be successful. I only had an hour to talk, so I couldn't expound at length on what I mean by "successful." But that's what a blog is for, right?

My thoughts on this are kind of messy, due in part to the fact that external success doesn't always lead to feeling successful. For now, the best way to explain how I think of success is to share that clip from City Slickers. Each person, each project, really needs a separate definition of success. The important part is to think long and hard about why you're doing a thing so you'll know what success looks like.

If at first you don't succeed, immediately reevaluate your operationalization of success.

— Shit Academics Say (@AcademicsSay) June 24, 2015

I think the hardest thing for most people is that they think their success has to look like other people's successes. Sometimes they will, like earning a graduate degree or finding a parking space near the door. For others, it will be highly individualized. I knew my graphic novel collection at a former workplace was successful when I saw senior faculty members, and even emeritus faculty, checking those books out. I knew that this blog was successful when I started seeing library science graduate programs in the Traffic Sources section of my blog stats.

A particularly tricky part of defining success is that people tend to get frustrated when it doesn't happen immediately. I've had twelve years since getting my MLIS to transform small career successes into bigger ones. I've had 2.5 years of being a library director with small successes leading to bigger ones. This process of watching my small successes turn into larger successes is so important to me, and so central to keeping myself motivated, that I've made it a part of my workflow. I regularly document all of my small successes and map them onto larger successes (and I have it in my Google Drive so I have immediate access to it no matter where I am).

There's also the fact that success has an internal measure. We are all so busy comparing ourselves to others. Even if those other people have very similar circumstances to ours, we can't know everything that goes into another project. Timing and people's moods and the small breeze from a butterfly's wings in Bangladesh can all make a difference. Or, in the words of one of my writing partners, "The fleeting and contingent recognition of success is not an accurate representation of the awesome [stuff] your readers are accomplishing."

Finally, and this cannot be stated enough, there's always a little bit of luck involved in success - especially the big flashy successes that get both external recognition and give you an internal sense of accomplishment. This blog, my other publications, my conference presentations, and even my job title all get high marks for recognition and accomplishment. They are also, all, a result of being in the right place at the right time.*

So, how do you define success? Have I made you think differently about it?


*Your mileage may vary, especially when one takes privilege or lack thereof into account.

Leading Means Teaching, by Patrick Wohlmut

As I write this post, I have just completed end-of-year evaluations for my library’s student staff of reference workers.

You read that correctly. We have students working at the reference desk.

We trust our student reference workers, who we call Lead Workers, with a lot. To be eligible for the position, student workers must have worked in the library for at least one year. Lead Workers offer research assistance to library patrons, make sure that the library runs smoothly when librarians are not present, handle difficult situations as they arise, take on small projects for librarians and library staff as needed, and refer patrons to the proper place for help when necessary. Where the student staff of the library is concerned, Lead Workers really are leaders. The cream of the crop. Some students look up to them as role models.

For me, assuming leadership of this team was daunting. I hadn’t had much experience with this kind of supervisory position before and, since I was a visiting faculty member and didn’t know whether or not I would return in the next school year or who would head the program after me if I didn’t, it kind of felt like this:

source

I had to figure out very quickly how to do several things:

• combine authority with approachability;
• make the transition between supervisors as smooth as possible for the Lead Worker team;
• balance my work with the Lead Workers against personal concerns, including an hour-and-a-half commute, being a dad and husband, and the interview process for the tenure-track position that would replace my visiting one, not to mention my other job responsibilities;
•  take ownership of my new role while knowing that I may have to let go of it at the end of the school year;
• and make sure that the Lead Workers got what they needed to succeed and were impacted by as few of these struggles as possible.

Mostly I was successful; predictably, I also made mistakes. Here are five of the many important things I learned as a result of spending a year doing this job:

Leading Means Teaching

Teamwork, communication, initiative, acting on vague or missing information, and dealing with difficult people effectively and respectfully are just some of the skills Lead Workers have to develop. I was always modeling these skills for them. I quickly learned that in this position, leading means teaching, and teaching means modeling both my successes and how to learn from my mistakes.

Make the Expectations Clear

Young Adults aren’t always good at handling ambiguity, so they have to learn. Giving them a project with very broad guidelines, no concrete deadlines, and only a fuzzy idea of what I expect, and expecting them to do their best, is like asking a polar bear to fish without giving her any ice where she can fish. I learned to be very clear about my expectations.

Let Them Run

At the same time, dealing with ambiguity is a huge part of a Lead Worker’s job. I found that I had to give them enough opportunities to take ownership of what they do, make clear where and when they can run with a project or with the job in their own way, and in what areas I completely trust their decision-making and discretion.

Make Them Reflect

Aristotle was wrong: excellence is not a habit. It’s a process. I could follow a rubric and make sure that my student workers are able to do everything on that rubric, and they still might not grow, either as people or as Lead Workers. I learned that to really do their job well, my workers needed chances to reflect on what they do, on what they do well, and on what they could be doing better.

Connect With Them

I have a great library director, and one of the things I admire about her is her authenticity and how well she connects with her library staff as a human being. It makes it very easy to respect her, listen to her, and follow her lead, because I know exactly who is getting my respect. This is a quality I have tried to emulate with my Lead Workers. It bites me in the rear sometimes (I’m kind of a softie), but mostly it works.

Doing this job has been a yearlong, rewarding, confusing, joyful, scary, headlong-rushing balancing act. It has also been one of the best learning experiences of my life, and one that I have since been hired to do more permanently at the same library. I have so many ideas for the future, and I can’t wait to try them out.

Patrick Wohlmut is the Teaching and Research Librarian at Nicholson Library at Linfield College. He walked away from most social media around a year-and-a-half ago, and has never been happier. He’s also a produced playwright, and juggles a mean three-ball Mills Mess. He can be reached at pwohlmut@linfield.edu, and blogs very, very occasionally at patrickwohlmut.com/blog.