I've always felt that if I don't learn one new thing every day, it's a wasted day. As I've grown older, I would have to up that learning paradigm to 10 or more new things daily. In the last year, the last few months and weeks, the learning has accelerated even faster.

Learning isn't always joyous. It can also be painful and difficult. But I believe it is a lifelong process and commitment. It is in the smallest of details, the largest of grand schemes and, most importantly, in the everyday work and personal lives of everyone I meet, everyone I read, everyone I hold dear and every stranger who is unknown but knowable.

I have had many opportunities to learn this year - from students in my classes; from librarians on the front line in the small libraries in the system that I serve as youth consultant in; from proteges, peers and mentors in the library field; from those who are struggling - and fighting - to make sense of gross injustice and insensitivity based on their gender, color, beliefs and identity. Learning inevitably leads to action and to constant changes and growth in my world view.

While I teach, mentor and share, I also listen, read and learn from so many others. I will always be a learner and a seeker.

As I reflect on this learning, I also want to express my gratitude for those who teach me. You make me better. Thank you.

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Registration has opened for the first ever national youth library leadership conference for youth staff and managers: Power Up: A Conference on Leadership for Youth Services Managers and Staff.

Scheduled for March 30-31, 2017 and sponsored by UW-Madison SLIS Continuing Education Dept, the conference brings together speakers from throughout the country to address aspects of leadership and management for youth librarians at all stages of their careers.

The conference kicks off with Gretchen Caserotti's keynote and concludes with an address by Deborah Taylor. Also featured is a reception and tour at the Cooperative Children's Book Center, a short 15 minute walk from the conference center.

Seventeen sessions packed with information from multiple perspectives and voices include: Reflective Leadership
Considering How Managing Your Collections Affects People
Determining if Management is for You
Benefits of Finding Your Programming Style
Developing Leadership Through Book Discussion
Leading a Multigenerational Team to Success
Channeling Passion into Leadership
Unconventional Outreach; Discovering Your Power
Addressing the Need for Confrontation
Leadership for Unofficial Leaders
Reaching Underserved at Small Libraries
Start Anywhere on Your Leadership Path
Managing Media Mentors

If you are a Wisconsin library staffer, ten scholarship s are available for registration.

It looks like a great conference and I hope to see and meet lots of colleagues there!

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Today I was in beautiful Madison WI making mischief around the concept of strategizing effective change and building balance in youth programming. And it wouldn't be November in Wisconsin without a look at the summer ahead and quenching the "hair-on-fire" fear we sometimes feel before we realize there are ways to make summer funner!

Below are links to information cited in the presentation.

Happy reading!

Summer Learning
Get Ready for Endless Summer Reading.
Libraries at the Center of Summer Learning Toolkit

Easing the Stress
Summer Library R/Evolution Pinterest Board - links to many articles and posts that help us re-think how we support kids during the summer.
It's the End (and I Don't Want to Die)
Counting Kids
Going Weekly -Prizeless
Unprogramming webinar and resources

Samples of Summer Learning SLP logs
Weekly cards with experiential choices
Passports to adventure
Summer Reading Booklets
Bingo Cards

Building a Better World Program Ideas
Kids Give Back at Portage Public Library
Food Donations, Adopt an Animal, Charity Challenges
Pinterest Board on Build a Better World Program Ideas - Sharon Goforth
Pinterest Board on Build a Better World - Loch-Wouters

After our workshop, I hope everyone felt that we got here:

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How many times do you say, “They didn’t teach me this in school!” as you navigate some portion of your day as a youth librarian and/or manager?  There are so many conversations to be had that we are digging in to re-offer our online CE course How Did You Manage THAT?!?! - the Sequel running January 30 - February 24, 2017

Whether you were in our first class this fall or not, join us to take this hands-on, hearts-out course on youth management issues. We’ll explore the delicate dance of navigating personnel issues (library staff, patrons and partners) as well as discover tips to more effectively balance, advocate for and marshall resources to make smart management decisions. The course will be collaborative as you share your own experiences and ideas that have worked in managing your youth services area.


Registration is now open for this course as well as other amazing courses for youth services librarians through the UW-Madison SLIS CE office. And you get a 10% discount if you register by January 16, so don't delay! Hope to see you next year!

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Tonight I am humbled and so grateful I can hardly find a place for all the feelings.

I am at our annual state library conference. I had the honor of working with all our youth services conference presenters to bring fifteen programs to our members. These programs were extraordinary -  Amy Koester came up for IL to share her thoughts on leadership and involving families. Wisconsin youth librarians shared their expertise on play groups, tangly issues on collection development, shared TABS, service to teen moms, teen college and career planning, service on award committees, transformative partnerships, new SLP paradigms, youth art galleries in libraries and so much more.

We celebrated our award winners - library and librarians of the year and inductees into the Wi Library Hall of Fame.

And more personally, so many colleagues said yes to me over the past few days. I have been elected the president-elect of the WI Library Association. My term as president begins in 2018. Over the past two days, so many colleagues from all types of libraries serving all ages have answered "YES!" when I have asked them to help me in creating an annual conference of consequence in 2018 and to step up to create a strong board, amazing committees and a place where all library staff feel welcome to interact and push library service in our state further and faster. I am humbled by their commitment and their faith.

Our Youth Services Section nurtured  me, my WLA board colleagues of the past six years forged me and the confidence of the members of the association lift me up. I am so lucky to have this support and the guidance of my colleagues. This is the true grace that makes all things possible.

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Kelsey Johnson-Kaiser, Youth Services Manager at George Latimer Central Library in St. Paul MN, and I presented a session on passive programming at the Minnesota Library Association this week. The following links can lead readers to more information about the programs we talked about - and introduce you to some great bloggers!!



1000 Books Before Kindergarten (origins, facts, research, planning tips and more!)

Craft Cart and Scavenger Hunt 1 (ideas from St. Paul libraries)

Check-Out Clubs (tried and true hits from La Crosse Public Library, WI)

Tabletop Prompts 1  (from La Crosse Public Library, WI)

Tabletop Prompts 2 (from Gretna Public Library, NE)

Exploration Station (from Monroe Public Library, WI)

Scavanger Hunt 2 (from Gretna Public Library, NE)

Scavenger Hunt 3 (from Texas)

Scavenger Hunt 4 (from La Crosse Public Library, WI)

Letter of the Week (from La Crosse Public Library, WI)

Pinterest Passive Program Board (a plethora of ideas from...everywhere!)

Book - DIY Programming and Book Displays - Amanda Struckmeyer and Svetha Hetzler

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Every year as September winds down, I like to give a little birthday party for the blog. She's nine years old now and half a million views from her beginnings in 2007 as a class project.

The blog has connected me to you, dear readers, over the years and continues to call me - even if I resist her siren song far more in semi-retirement.

Thanks for all your support and friendship. I still can't promise more frequent posts but we shall see what next year brings.

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There was recently a thread on the ALSC listserv discussing whether there was a national "finisher" rate for summer reading program.

It became clear pretty quickly that definitions of finishing ranged from counting the number of kids who signed up to the library setting a goal and counting the kids who reach it - and everything in between. It was also pretty apparent that each library takes an individual approach to SLP and the idea of any national benchmark beyond number of kids participating (and even that is shaky) is apples and zucchinis.

I have had my turn at this dance over the years. When we shared information with our schools, we kept careful excel sheet or database data that we updated each time a child returned. When we looked to increase usage by certain grade levels or from certain schools, we loved our stats - and used 'em. When we handed incentives along the way or created a goal, we kept track to see when kids hit that level. I have been stat bound on some level most of my career.

But this summer I watched as colleagues at my former library dispensed altogether with sign-ups. When children registered they put a sneaker on a pillar. Throughout the program, kids could pick up weekly activity sheets. Both methods used the "count back" strategy to arrive at numbers. You know how many sneaker cut-outs you began with and count what you have leftover to determine sign-up numbers (1000 sneakers; 25 left = 975 kids starting the program). You have 300 copies of a weekly activity sheet and at the end of the week you have 10 = 290 kids participated that week.

This took the pressure and onus off the staff and provided less widgeting for kids. Since the library went prizeless a few years ago (except for a book for the kids) and seldom used stats on grade level or school, this was a simple evolution. Kids earned a book this summer after returning once and a "Summer Reader Lives Here" yard sign when they self-reported a 5th return visit.

Record keeping and definitions of success can be administration/board driven or an internal call to crazy stat keeping. But when we break down what we really - no I mean, REALLY - need in stats we gather (whether in-house or online), it may become clear that we are over-asking kids and over-working staff for returns that have no larger meaning.

Finding ways to simplify the process of getting the numbers we need (kids signed up; average participation rate) can take some real stress out of a busy time and carve needed time to reach out and really interact with kids and families. And seems worth the change!

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I'm happy to say I have the opportunity to once again present "How Do You Manage THAT?!? Issues in Youth Services Management Part 1", October 17-November 11 for UW-Madison SLIS CE. This course was originally offered in fall 2014 so I'm pumped to examine the issues in this first version of the course.

What are we covering?

•  Collection Development Mojo – savvy selection, weeding, confounding conundrums (bindings, salespeople, cold calls, awards, earning a place on the shelf)
• Strategic Planning Power – big picture visioning; outcomes and goals; balancing services; statistics power
• Room Management and Space Issues- from chaos to calm; involving your public; creative space-making; managing behaviors
• Leadership from Within – fostering  relationships with other library staff; dealing with reluctant administration/board/patrons/co-workers/employees;
• Zen Balance and Creative Engagement – partnerships/collaboration; PLNs

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The sands of time are quickly running out for putting in program proposals for the exciting national conference on youth leadership and management coming in spring 2017. This is a perfect opportunity to pitch your thoughts and ideas relating to that topic.

The audience will be be both staff and managers, leaders and those who want to become more effective leaders. It promises to be a thought-provoking two days that hone in on the power that youth librarians hold!

Here are the details. But don't wait. The deadline is Sunday July 31.

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Sarah Houghton, she of the Librarian in Black blog, wrote a powerful post on lessons learned at ALA 2016.

She wrote: "I’ve had a hard few years professionally. I was looking for this conference to make me believe again–in what I do every day and in what I’ve dedicated my life to. Spoiler alert: It worked.  So…what did I learn?" Find out here.

You, like me, may find yourself nodding your head. 

Every day is a great day to be a librarian!

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It was with real pleasure that I read that ALSC is offering their recently cancelled bienniel Institute (originally scheduled to take place in Charlotte NC in Sept) as a Virtual Institute online.

It is a BIG thing to undertake the cancellation of a major conference  - especially one that had already opened for registration. The ALSC board under the leadership of Andrew Medlar, with the able assistance of the ALSC office staff, listened, encouraged member discussion and input and researched what we as an association could do to respond to the law passed in NC that went against core values of our division as well as basic human rights.

The process was transparent and input deep and thoughtful -on all sides. The decision was a difficult one but one that I wholeheartedly supported. The ALSC board promised to honor the work of the institute organizers as well as committed participants by offering a way to still hold the conference - perhaps as a pre-midwinter conference in Atlanta or virtually.

I am very pleased that the decision was to go virtual on Sept 15-16, the time when the Institute would have been offered in Charlotte. Many of us had blocked out that time already. And for just slightly over the cost of an ALSC online course, ALSC members and non-members are invited to register for two days rich with online content. For many people who struggle to afford the costs of registration, lodging and transportation, this is an incredible bargain!

Head on over to the Virtual Institute webpage and register - and I'll see you virtually in September!

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A big MWAAAAAA to all my library friends and colleagues out there!

Thanks for all your passion and work serving your community in your library work! Like most of us, the reason you get up and go into work is that opportunity to serve your patrons - whether it is the public in public, academic and special library work or other librarians in your role as consultant or educator. That bread and butter focus is what informs our work and helps us push through challenges and change.

While I used to tell the kids that Library Week is like a "birthday for libraries," it is just as much a celebration of each and every staffer who cares enough to work so tirelessly in every aspect of library work to bring great services to their communities. Your dedication makes the library tick like the heart of the community that it is. Libraries transform - and so do you!

So here's to you, my friends!

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Mel Depper and I have a Conversation Starter proposal in for the upcoming Orlando ALA conference. Each Conversation Starter proposal goes up for a vote by the public which accounts for 30% in the selection process. ALA staff votes account for 30% and 40% is decided by an advisory group of ALA members.

We hope you - our public - will read our proposal and consider voting for it.

Our program, You Say Yes, I Say No: Achieving ALL.THE.THINGS. will be full of tips on finding the space and time to serve our local and professional communities and still leaving time to have a rich non-work life. It's easy for all of us to be overwhelmed with all the great new shiny services and opportunities to create real change in our libraries as well as spread the word to our peers. This session will address those issues as well as savvy strategies to create realistic outcomes.

You can read all about it at here.

Voting is easy; just click the Thumbs up! But hurry, voting closes on Wednesday April 20!

And don't forget to look at all the amazing Ignite and Conversation Starters you can vote on too!

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Change and no-change is often a tug-of-war we face at work. Delving into the change sometimes reveals a distinct air of "let's do it because we can" - but does it really accomplish what we want or are we just rebranding or rediscovering something that already exists? It also can bring out the "don't change a thing" attitude from co-workers. Rather than beat on each other about it, it's important to move the process forward by listening.

Jessica Olin over at Letters to a Young Librarian recently addressed aspects of this issue.  She concludes, "The main thing I'm thinking about, though, is that I'm starting to understand why more experiences library professionals say things like, "we've always done it that way." I know it's easy to hear that phrase and think the speaker is stuck. But at this stage of my career, I can hear nuances in that much reviled statement. I can hear when someone means "but I really want to change it" versus when they mean "and I'm scared to try something new." More importantly, though, I've noticed an undercurrent of "I'm not afraid of change so much as I'm scared of uninformed progress for the sake of progress."

Things change. It's a fact so true that it sounds a bit cliched. But change without awareness of history can be worse than no change at all. Knowing where we came from can be a road map of sorts. After all, you want to void those million dead-end streets, don't you?"

I think in any situation of change and moving everyone to the same place of yes, it's important to listen to the many voices and to figure out what a change really means. Listening both to the yes and no perspectives and moving towards consensus is time consuming but worth it. Listening can make all the difference.

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This is one in a series of posts about Youth Services management issues. We'll be looking at different aspects of working as a manager in YS including reflections, challenges and maybe a solution or two.

Now I know that there is some fear out there about whether these corners will just be alot of MLW blah-blah. And I would say some...but certainly not all because youth management is an important subject!

So important, that our smart-cookie colleagues over at ALSC are presenting, at this very moment, a free series of four monthly webinars on the very subject. Each hour-long webinar features panels made up of members of ALSC's Managing Children's Services committee as well as other youth managers/staffers willing to share their knowledge (Kendra Jones! Rachel Fryd! Kalsey Johnson-Kaiser! Megan Egbert! Claudia Wayland! Krissy WIck! Lisa Kropp! Amanda Yother! Madeline Walton-Hadlock!)

The webinars address communication, scheduling and time management, financials and supervision. The next one up is the third in the series, Managing Financials in a Youth Department, on March 15 at 11:00 am CST. You simply register and log-in instructions will be emailed to you!

What?!?! You missed the first two? No problem. They are archived on the ALSC site waiting for you to learn a ton. Just register and drop by! Hope to see you all there!

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I am so excited to see Dr. Carla Hayden nominated for the Librarian of Congress by President Obama. Not just because she is a librarian, an African American, a woman. But also because she started in her long career as a youth librarian.

We are contemporaries. Watching her work in ALA, become ALA president, take on more and more leadership roles in her career always got me excited - a children's librarian was doing all the things! It was something that always made me proud and convinced me of the potential for amazing leadership that youth services folks have.

I wish her luck in the confirmation process and hope we see the day that she becomes our Librarian of Congress. Carla, you go!

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This is one in a series of posts about Youth Services management issues. We'll be looking at different aspects of working as a manager in YS including reflections, challenges and maybe a solution or two.
There are other ways we honor our staff and our place in space as a manager - and a front-line leader. These include (but in no way are limited to) participating in programming, working in the night and weekend rotation, filling in extra shifts at the desk when staff are sick, vacationing or need time to offer a tour, outreach or program. Allowing staff to have first picks at vacation times; volunteering to take less attractive pre-holiday hours or weekends are all subtle ways to both lead and to honor people whose pay is often far less than ours.  

Pitching in on the least of tasks  - straightening shelves daily; cleaning the breakroom; helping to clean up after someone else’s program; counting handouts  - let’s our staff at all levels know that we care about their work and see it as valuable. Lip service is one thing; showing by our actions our understanding and appreciation of their work is another.  Our leadership in these areas helps staffers in turn value their work and know that because we manage we are not above the day to day.

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This is the first in a series of posts about Youth Services management issues. We'll be looking at different aspects of working as a manager in YS including reflections, challenges and maybe a solution or two.

I've been doing quite a bit of thinking, learning and teaching on youth services management.

Like many of us, I entered management very early in my career (18 months) and, except for a four year stint as a staffer under a manager I previously managed (whoa, baby that was fun!), spent the rest of  my day-to-day library career as manager.

I learned a ton as a newbie from my first manager (and career-long mentor) and loved working with her.  She encouraged me to take on my first management gig - her position when she left a short 1.5 years after I arrived.

I really didn't want to. I felt there was so much children's-librarianing I wanted to do! My manager pointed out that if I didn't try and a new manager came on board with a different philosophy than mine, it would be an adjustment. And she told me that no one is born being a manager - we learn along the way.

I was forever grateful for that advice. I went to the school of hard-knocks and learned a ton. In fact, that learning has been an ongoing part of my work life - right up to and including retirement.

When I recently shared some of my top mistakes in a webinar, the reaction I got from people surprised me. Some found it comforting ("You make mistakes?!?! Thank gods, me too!), and others found it revelatory ("You make mistakes???? Then I can too!!!). I am sure many also thought "Dork!" The reactions also told me that we all need to hear that we make mistakes and have positive takeaways  - whether we are managers or not -  and this needs to be shared.

The true mistake we make in any work we do is when we assume anybody knows anything. I sometimes read posts where people feel badly or inauthentic or imposter-ish or unworthy because they've made a mistake or had a fail in some aspect of work. But really, how else do we learn? For me, a day without learning, even from mistakes, is pretty much a wasted day. It's how we grow and deepen and get wiser about stuff.

So in "YS Manager's Corner", we'll walk along the path of discovery, reflection, failures - and recovery - and issues we encounter in managing - and being managed.  I hope you join me on this journey on the hills and valleys.

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I saw a change recently at the library I used to work and I got happily excited. It was a BIG change! It had nothing to do with my time working there and the change was wholly delightful.

It got me thinking...

The best part of librarianship for me is the way we are always pushing forward. While change is anathema for many people, I find it refreshing.

Some people see change in confrontational terms and so fear it. Rather than looking at change as expanding our knowledge, it becomes easier to feel threatened, think in terms of "this vs. that" and trot out worn-out tropes to try and put on the brakes. We've all seen discussions like this - fear of using apps with kids; fear of re-configuing a children's area or collection; fear of having diverse award winners; fear of creating breaks in programming. It may be only a voice or two but that fear of change is front and center.

If we didn't make changes, evolve our service and experiment to find better models, we wouldn't see the transformations that libraries of all types have been going through. And we wouldn't be serving the ever-changing demographics and needs of our community. We would simply stand still. Our professional growth, our service to our community would be frozen in a drop of fossilized resin.

I think often about change. As a career-long change-agent,  I like to see work flow from a place of discovery, to a place of experimentation, to a place of knowledge that leads us inevitably to a place of discovery that starts the cycle all over again . It's that "pushing the envelope" that helps us adapt and create.

That envelope is seldom pushed alone. Co-workers and peers around the country may lead us or may follow our lead. We discover in a million big and small ways - through journals, social media, CE opportunities, partnerships or information outside of librarianship that awaken us to new possibilities - how we can tweak, and finangle, and build and tear down.

Change is done with reflection, planning, big sky visioning and preparation. It is also accomplished through patience, attention to detail, training of staff (and patrons!)  and research. Combining the big and small helps to bring staff and patrons on board for success.

And most importantly, change never belongs to just one person. It is an accumulation of many threads woven together from many sources by many hands. Successful changes almost always owe a long line of people profound thanks for their efforts and foundational thinking.

I take great pleasure in watching sea changes happen at my former libraries after I leave any job. I am a huge believer in no one  - and nothing that they have done or created  - being irreplaceable or unchangable. Seeing how approaches, thinking, methods and models are grown differently, mightily and through new vision and ideas delights me.

While not all change is earth-shattering, all change is transforming. And that transformation is what pushes us from the past to meeting the future.

Oh, and what transformed that got me this excited at the library?

The new Kid Lab wall at La Crosse (WI) Public Library - a eye-catching, kid-catching magnetic chalkboard that gets school kids right in the action

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At ALA midwinter meeting, Pinkney was announced as recipient of  two lifetime achievement awards: Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement winner as well as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for his “substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.”  

That is an extraordinary thing and most well-deserved. Pinkney has been a hard working and creative author and illustrator throughout his career. Never one to bask in the spotlight, he has just kept producing extraordinary work on behalf of kids.

Recently, Hornbook (January 26, 2016) did a quick Five Questions for Jerry Pinkney. 

The brief Hornbook article ended with the following question and answer: "You're known as a lion in this field. Do you have any advice for the young cubs just coming  up?" 

And Jerry's reply? "Make it all about the work. Everything else will follow."

I read that and thought, yep, that pretty much applies to any work in any field including our profession. And he has it exactly right.

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Our new  2106 Youth Services Section (YSS) board for the Wisconsin Library Association met recently in our first in-person retreat (maybe ever!). To start us off during an afternoon of brainstorming and reflection, we took the time to learn about our responsibilities as members of a statewide board.

I volunteered to guide the group through our responsibilities as board members. As the YSS rep on our WLA board, I've developed some knowledge on how our association and unit work.  I've also thought alot about the reasons that group work like board work, committee work and even group projects and staff teamwork can be so hard.

Depending on the circumstances, some people consider their service a step up the ladder of fame; some people let others do all the heavy lifting; there always seems to be one or two who appear AWOL much of the time; people lose the thread of continuity and make up stuff; guidelines or bylaws or org manuals are ignored. I could go on but we've all been involved in group work and can share a horror story or two.

It doesn't have to be hard.  But I think before we say yes to a board or committee, we need to consider our responsibilities to the group. Here's what I suggested make for stronger group work on a board level.

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I've been trying over the past couple of months to finish writing on two projects.*

For the first time in a really long time, I found it a real challenge to get down to business and put fingers to keyboard to do the actual composition of what amounts to five presentations all due within a few days of each other. I procrastinated over this in November and December. EVERYTHING seemed to take precedence over writing - from the ridiculous to the mundane. You know, that stuff.

While immersed in this procrastination period, I worried whether I was having some kind of performance anxiety. Why couldn't I get down to business? Was I struggling because I had bitten the forbidden fruit of retirement relaxation and lost some of my drive and discipline? Was I feeling like I had less to say on these subjects because I was less active in the day to day of librarianship? Or had I simply lost the confidence to express myself?

January finally kick-started me (as looming deadlines will) and I got 'er done (hurray)!

Then the tinkering started.  I dipped in and out of what I wrote constantly (thank you computers for letting me make constant revisions so easily). No sooner would I say, "I'm done" then a new piece of research would be published, a new blog post from a peer, a new article in the professional journals, a new Twitter thread, a new conversation with colleagues would get me right back to revising and refining my thinking.

If that all wasn't enough, over the past few days, during the amazing Wild WI Winter web conference developed by the equally amazing Jamie Matczak from the Nicolet Federated Library System, I plunged into webinar after webinar (and so can you - all the webinars are archived in the site).

You guys, I learned so much!! And that lightening bolt thought stitched together the last few month's writing delays into a realization.

It wasn't performance anxiety that held me back. It was more that I was learning so continuously that committing to something as a finished product seemed almost sacrilegious. Each revelation adds to my thinking and enlarges my view of librarianship. How can something one writes or thinks or believes ever be truly "finished"?

I don't think I'm alone here. In fact you may be going "She is one dense person. Isn't this obvious?" But that's learning for you.

Our lives are constantly about learning and revising and growing. This best part of our librarianship involves that ability to absorb, debate, revise, change, evolve and build on what we know given all the things we encounter in all the places. I am so appreciative of all the sharing everyone does that helps me keep learning and growing.

And I swear, I'll stop and call the class finished now (oh, look a link....).

*One was a webinar on my 10 biggest management mistakes for the Wild WI Winter Web conference (above). The other is an upcoming four week class on youth management problem solving for UW-Madison SLIS CE

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I retired from my job as Youth Services Manager at the end of SLP this year. What's it like?

Not surprisingly, it's been great fun and the best stress-reducer known to humankind. Though I worked to keep stress under control and made lots of decisions to keep things balanced (forgoing some things; saying no to others; passing offers on to other youth librarians; working on some work things at home to leave more time for co-workers during the work day), work stress is just one of those things that was part of my day-to-day. Can't say I miss it.

Many friends said it would feel like vacation. It doesn't. It feels like freedom.

Lingering warm weather allowed me to have an extra run at summer, a season I felt unfamiliar with after SLPs entered my life. It's good to make her reacquaintance. Nature has been my balm and I was able to plunge in with hikes, bikes and adventures in this beautiful driftless region and northern parts of my new state MN.

I read - alot. I cook - alot. I visit and help with friends and family - alot. I take my time - alot. Time does tick down from here (one doesn't usually retire because one is young) but more slowly and at a more measured rate.

I found that I retired from a job, not from a career. While I am lots more relaxed, I still keep my fingers in library "stuff" - but at a pace that allows me to finally do all.the.things.

I realize now- in a huge way - that because of my longtime outside commitments in professional associations, presentations, teaching and consulting, almost all my work weeks were 60-65 hours. There was my 40 hours paid for by my library. For all those other outside things, all the prep and doing was done in home-time (good morning 4 a.m!; hello long weekends of prepping sessions; why I'd love to work at that after supper until 10 pm; oh a vacation week to stay at home and put this course together, that's swell). Lucky I was - and am  - to have a supportive partner! Now I have all the time in the world to put this stuff together since all my time is my own. Feels good!

I'm most excited to be embarking on a long-time dream. I will be the youth services system consultant for the Southwest (WI) Library system libraries on a very part-time basis for 2016 while they transition into a more permanent consultant position for 2017. I look forward to delving into work with the youth staffers and directors who-do-everything and lending a helping hand.

I'll still be seeing lots of you. I'm on the ALSC Sibert Award committee so my reading will turn to youth non-fiction in 2016 and ALA conferences remain on the agenda. I will be working on lots of teaching, webinars and presentations in the next year. I pumped to help contribute to planning for a national youth librarian leadership/management conference sponsored by UW-Madison SLIS and scheduled for April 3-4, 2017 (there will lots more on that soon!).

Blogging will occur at the same languid pace I've adopted in the past year or so. I promise to stay in touch and hope you will too.

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