Masterful Librarian Podcast

In last week’s episode, called “Librarians, Let It Go!”, I mentioned that I was in the process of packing up and moving again. If you haven’t listened to that episode, you can find it at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-19.

Although I have been back in New Mexico for only about a year and a half now, I’ve decided to head back to Georgia again. I came to New Mexico from Georgia over 20 years ago and raised my children here. New Mexico feels like home, but most of my family is back in the Southeast, so that’s why I’m Georgia-bound.

I’ve had to accept the reality over the past few days that it’s a little tough to produce a podcast each week when most of my belongings are in boxes and I’m keeping all the details and plans for a cross-country move in my head. And trying to jugge a lot of activities and responsibilities. It’s honestly become a bit too much for me right now.

So I’m pausing the podcast for a few weeks. My hope is to be settled enough in my new home in Georgia by mid-May, with a little studio set up. that I can reboot at that time. I plan to check in with you from time to time as I move through the next few weeks, but I’m not making any promises!

If you haven’t listened to my other podcast episodes, I invite you to do that while I’m away. You can find those, along with today’s show notes, at masterfullibrarian.com/podcast.

I’d be really happy if you signed up for my email list while you’re there. If you do, you’ll automatically get notified when I return to the podwaves again.

You can also download my free gift, 4 Simple Steps to Achieve Greater Relevance, Meaning & Impact. I would really love to have you as part of my email family, and I promise I don’t abuse that by sending you a lot of junk that you don’t want to see!

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you about topics that interest you that I might address on the podcast. I’m always looking for ideas for the podcast. You can email those ideas to [email protected], or connect with me on Facebook on my Masterful Librarian page.

I hope that I hear from some of you and hear your wonderful and inspiring ideas for podcast episodes.

I’ll talk to you again real soon. I thank you for your patience with me as I make this huge transition.

Welcome! I’m glad you’re joining me today. Complete show notes for today can be found at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-8.

Over the last several days, the American Librarian Association held it’s annual Midwinter Meeting. The meeting was virtual, of course, but still filled with great speakers, programs, and events. ALA programs and conferences never disappoint. There was so much to learn and see!

Being a part of this conference got me to thinking. One of the most effective ways to up your librarian game and have greater impact in your work is to become an active member of your library associations.

At a bare minimum, we all should belong to our state and any local library associations or consortia. Our state associations often do the most specific work to help out libraries.
If at all possible, join the American Library Association and the divisions relevant to your work.

For instance, if you’re a school librarian you should definitely join the American Association of School Librarians or AASL, which is the school division of ALA. If you’re in a public library, join the Public Library Association, and if you’re an academic, the Association of College and Research Libraries. There are many other professional groups you could consider as well. I’ll put a list with links in the show notes.

If there’s one thing I know for sure it’s that, as librarians, we are definitely better together. I’m always amazed at how many librarians don’t take advantage of that. Today, I’m going to give you three good reasons for joining library associations.

Education

If it’s one thing library associations and consortia do well and do often, it’s education. Whether it’s in-person workshops or online conferences and webinars, there are always opportunities for learning.

Although some of the highest quality events are not free and may even have a substantial fee, many others are free or extremely low cost.

Here’s where it’s especially smart to be a member. Many associations allow attendance at events by non-members, but that will almost always cost substantially more.

I’ve noticed that during the pandemic, there’s an opportunity for learning with some association or division almost every week. Some weeks, there’s something almost every day!

I think this is especially important for people serving in libraries who don’t have an MLS or who have never taken any coursework. There’s so much to know about library work. If you don’t have the professional educational background, please take advantage of association offerings.

Even if you do have an MLS or coursework, things are always changing and we all need to keep up. If you want to deliver the highest quality service to you library community and have the greatest impact, you must keep your knowledge base current and your toolkit strong.

In my experience, the saddest, most ineffective libraries are the ones where no one on staff has received any type of library education or where continuing education and professional development don’t happen because no one cares.

For two more reaons and complete show notes, join me at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-8.

Hello librarians. Thank you for joining me. Today’s episode is short but essential. It hits at the heart of what you do.
Today, I’m going to talk about the why of what you do and why that why matters.
You can find today’s show notes at masterfullibrarian.com/ep3.

When I ask why you become a librarian, I don’t mean how did you come to this profession.
That may not be that relevant at all to why you are inspired to do the work you.
For instance, I got my MLS only because I couldn’t find a good job with my Public Relations degree and the chance for a graduate stipend from the University of Alabama Graduate School of Library and Information Service (now SLIS) dropped in my lap.
My mother was a college library director and a graduate of the school. The Dean happened to call her looking for graduate assistants while I was sitting in her office making a nuisance of myself.
I applied and the rest is history.

That’s how I got into the profession, but it certainly wasn’t why I stayed.
When I talk about your why, I’m referring to the concept so beautifully articulated by Simon Sinek in his 2009 book “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action” and his subsequent TED talks with the same title.
If you’ve never read the book or listened to the talk, I highly recommend doing both. You can check out his work and his message on his website at simonsinek.com. The link is in the show notes.

One of the most powerful things Sinek says in this book is
“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”.
He uses the example of Steve Job’s masterful marketing for Apple. Apple’s marketing strategy didn’t focus on their products, which of course were good; it focused on the company’s own why.
Sinek describes a Golden Circle needed to be successful in engaging others.
This circle has Why a business does things at it’s core, How it does things as the next circle out from the core, and what it does or produces as the outer circle.
In his TEDx talk he describes Apple’s Golden Circle this way:
“The inner core, the Why- In everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently; the next circle, the How – We make products that are beautifully designed and user friendly; and the outer circle, the What – We just happen to make great computers. Wanna buy one? "

So when I ask about your why, I mean that thing that serves as the bedrock of your motivation and inspiration for your library work. It’s the deep belief or beliefs that drive your ideas, decisions, programs and professional relationships.
And it’s an absolutely critical component to achieving greater relevance, meaning, and library impact.
Your patrons, your users, will be drawn to your why much more so than your what.
In fact, I would say that librarians who struggle the most to gain support and be effective are the ones with the least compelling and service-oriented why’s.
For complete show notes, go to masterfullibrarian.com/ep3.

Librarians, You Matter More Than You Know

Hello, Librarians. In today’s episode, I want to talk to you about how important you are and how much impact you actually have on the people you serve. You all matter so much more than you may know or realize.

In my very first podcast episode, Why I’m Glad I Lost my Library Job, I talked about how I reached out to librarians all over the country and asked questions. If you haven’t listened to that episode, you can find it at MasterfulLibrarian.com/1.

Those conversations were both informative and heart-warming. What I heard over and over is that you love your work and the people you serve. And that you want to have an even greater impact than you feel you’re currently achieving. But I also heard lots of great stories about the positive impact librarians are already having. And that was the truly heartwarming part.

If you’re at all like me, it’s easy to let the less pleasant things that happen in your work dominate your attention and your memories. Like, remembering that Board member who objects to every single programming change you bring before the Board, or every policy change; or the parent who comes in and complains that you were buying too many diverse and inclusive books; or the lawmaker who held his expensive tablet up while asking why you need more print books when everyone has one of those.

Those memories might take up way more space in your mind than maybe they deserve. That’s only normal - research suggests that events charged with emotion, especially negative emotion, stick more in our minds. So it’s only natural to remember those things more. But it can definitely put a damper on your morale and enthusiasm for your work.

So today, I’m going to tell you about some real life stories of magical things librarians have done. And this is meant to stir memories I know you have of times you’ve made a difference in the life of a patron or a student. And I hope that it lifts your morale a bit and brightens your day. Because what you do truly matters. It has the power to change lives and inspire greatness. Often, some seemingly small action you take, a book you share, or a program you offer, will be that one thing that causes a sea change in someone’s life.

A parent recently shared with me that when her now adult children were little and she was newly divorced, she didn’t have any money for any entertainment for her kids – not even for something like a movie rental. And back in those days, movies were coming from places like Blockbuster. So, every week, they’d make a trip to their local public library where the kids not only got great books to read, but where they could check out movies to watch at home. She told me that some of the happiest moments she had with her little ones during those very difficult times were when they were sharing books and snuggling up together in front of the TV to watch a movie from the library. She also shared that she regrets that she never let the librarians at that branch know how important that service was to her.

Mary Chappell, my friend and a rock star elementary school librarian, recently told me a story that brought a tear to my eye. When her district closed schools in March because of COVID-19, she went to her principal and said, “our kids will be scared. They need to see one of us every day to see that we’re all fine. They’ve got to see someone they know really, really well, so I’m going to start doing videos and posting them on the school website.” She started those videos that next Monday and got an email in about ten minutes from a parent saying this: “I had no idea that our child

In this very short episode, I’m going to talk about the value of story. No, not the kind of stories we usually think of in libraries, but rather the kind our team members have to tell. It’s in these personal narratives that you might discover the most magical solutions to troubling issues.

As usual, full show notes can be found at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-30.

I discovered this gold mine in a surprising way.

One of the best parts of my new job is exit interviews. When a staff member of one of my direct reports leaves, for any reason, they have the opportunity to do an exit interview with me. So far, I’ve had the privilege of doing two – one with a retiring staff member and one with someone who was moving on to a new opportunity.

I really love doing these interviews! Although it’s always sad to see an employee go, I just never cease to be enthralled with the stories they tell me about their lives, their work in the library, their challenges, and their successes. And when I really listen and ask powerful questions, I learn much that I can bring to bear in solving library problems.

In fact, I learn so much about things like what has worked well, what has done damage, or where an employee might have been better supported along the way, that I realized it was a shame to wait until they were leaving to do these interviews! So, I’ve started doing similar interviews now, long before a team member is even thinking about leaving.
And although it’s true that someone who’s already out the door will often be more forthcoming with feedback - both constructive and not so much - I’ve found that when I create for an employee the time, space, and safety to share without fear of retribution – and remember team leaders, that is key, to share without fear of retribution - stories start to flow out like a waterfall.

It’s incredibly useful information for me, as a team leader.

You can do this, too. It takes some time and a willingness to listen without judgement or even comment, but the payoff is worth it.
It’s honestly what coaching is all about – asking meaningful, open-ended questions and then really listening to the response.

Because here is the truth. Every single one of us has a story. We come to our work, not as blank canvases, but as real people with an infinite variety of experiences, successes, failure, scars, and habits (not all good) . And all of those are interwoven to create the tapestry that is our unique and personal story.

I have found that when I invite an employee, a member of my team, or really anyone, to tell me their story and I sit and I listen with an open and empathetic mind and heart, they will begin to open up and share some of their authentic narrative with me. And in this way, we can connect and begin to build a relationship of trust and respect. And when I care enough to validate their experiences and their personal viewpoints and perceptions – even when I don’t agree, or when I know that their perception is not accurate – that relationship grows stronger.

And when that relationship grows stronger, I have the opportunity to develop that individual into a better team member and to help them move forward toward their own personal goals and objectives. So it’s a win-win.

And when I’m doing that - when that happens - the magic of true collaboration and teamwork starts.

For complete show notes, please visit masterfullibrarian.com/ep-30