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Picture book, What Do You Do With An Idea.
What Do You Do With An Idea is a brilliant picture book by Kobi Yamada, illustrated by Mae Besom, that many of us know and love. It has an inspirational message that all creators, makers, dreamers, and children’s librarians alike can appreciate: Hold tight to your ideas and see them become reality.
We all know that when we have an idea we need to consider it precious and valuable, but what if the idea is not your own? What do you do with an idea if you are a manager, or anyone else within a library, who has the power to help turn dreams into reality? How do we give meaning to the ideas of other people, while still upholding our jobs as a manager? It is a tight-rope walk between two vastly different terrains, but it is possible to achieve.
We all know that feeling. Someone is sitting in your office and they are bursting with excitement about some new idea/project/collection/program they want to do. Instantly our mind can go to a few places.
- This is way too much work.
- We’ve tried to do this before and it didn’t work.
- This person has had too much caffeine and they are on a different level than I am.
Those things might be our immediate response, but as a manager it is critical we take a step back and approach things a little bit differently. Here is what I’ve found to work when I am approached with an idea.
- Say yes. I know this sounds crazy. What if the idea is really big? What if they don’t have time to pull it off? What if the idea is really crazy? As long as the idea falls within their job scope, I suggest you start by saying yes. I’ve been inspired with the philosophy behind the book, The Answer to How is Yes. You start by saying yes, you show a dedication to their idea, and then you work out the details.
- After saying yes you clarify what they see your role being. This is as important for a manager as it is a staff member. “What do you need from me?” and “When do you need it by?” are key questions to ask. You won’t necessarily be able to commit to their needs, but it is the starting point for a conversation.
- Last, you shape the parameters of the idea. If number one made you really nervous, number three should help you feel better. Just by saying yes it doesn’t mean that you have to turn the library into a circus in three weeks (although I think Children’s Librarians could pull it off). At this point you can offer suggestions about a timeline, about scaling the idea, and advice for who can help them pull the miraculous feat off.
With these three easy steps, managers can make sure that they are approachable and open to the ideas of others, while still maintaining their job role and supporting their staff members. It is important that managers are interested in ideas, and treat them carefully, after all the picture book that inspired this post will tell us:
“And then, I realized what you do with an idea… You change the world.”
The post What Do You Do With An Idea (The Manager Version) appeared first on ALSC Blog.
Starting a new job can be tough. You’re often overwhelmed by floods of information, meeting new people, and learning a community you may not have known before. But getting a new manager when you’re already established comes with a learning curve of its own, too! Here are some things to remember:
- Keep an open mind. Far easier said than done, but remember that suggestions about doing things differently, or trying something new, are probably not intended as a slight against your current practice, just an alternate way of considering things! Staff that are quick to say “no” right off the bat can end up like the boy who cried wolf: their constant objections dilute the strength of their opinions when they actually feel strongly about something. This doesn’t mean you have to go along with everything your new manager says, but if your immediate reaction is to shoot something down, take time to consider why. Do you have legitimate reasons, or are you just feeling uncomfortable with change?
- Step back. Your first instincts may be to give the new person lots of information and insight. Librarians love to help out and share what they know! But not everyone finds that useful when they’re new. If your manager seems to respond well to this tactic, by all means proceed! But sometimes you can be just as supportive by taking a step back and letting your manager experience things for him or herself.
- Give it time. No matter how things start out, it takes months (often longer) to get to know one another and fall into the rhythm of working together. If things begin on a positive note, that’s great! Hopefully with time they’ll get even better. If it doesn’t start out so hot, don’t assume you’re destined for failure. Continue to be your best friendly, polite self and stay optimistic that your working relationship will improve.
- Use it as a learning experience. No matter what, new situations and people give us the opportunity to change and grow. Take time to reflect on the thoughts and feelings you’ve had during the transition. What were the positives? What would you do differently next time? How will you use this experience to inform your actions the next time you’re the new person? For better or worse, we all have to deal with change, and being thoughtful about your experiences will only help you continue to navigate them in a healthy and positive way.
The post From the Other Side: Things to Remember When Getting a New Manager appeared first on ALSC Blog.
At a recent state library association conference, I attended a great session on Everyday Advocacy. What’s that, you ask? I wondered the same thing myself before the presentation, and just 45 minutes later, I left feeling a little more knowledgeable, and a little more confident.
Image from Everyday Advocacy website
Everyday Advocacy is the idea that we are all advocates for our profession, our libraries, and ourselves each and every day. It’s also an ALSC initiative working to equip us with the tools we need to be everyday advocates. As we build relationships, strengthen our communities, and connect with families, sometimes it’s hard to know how to talk about those things in ways that get attention. How can we empower ourselves, our colleagues, and our staff to feel prepared to engage in advocacy?
One of the big take-aways from the session I attended was crafting your elevator speech. We’re all probably familiar with the idea of an elevator speech: a very quick summary of what you do and why it’s important. But here’s the key: when you talk about what you do, it’s not a list of job duties like “storytime, collection development, and the Summer Library Program.” You want to talk about how you actively impact a particular group and the larger result. So the phrase “I work with kids and families at the library” becomes “I help kids and families unpack their curiosity at the library so that the kids can go out and change our world for the better” (example from ALSC Everyday Advocacy website).
The Everyday Advocacy website provides information and tools to equip us to engage in advocating for ourselves and our communities. As you take a look, keep in mind that your behavior can have a powerful ripple effect. When we engage in advocacy, we’re modeling to our staff and colleagues, and hopefully empowering them to engage in some advocacy as well. Managers, remember that an important part of the supervisory role includes mentoring and enabling staff to become strong leaders themselves. When we say that advocacy is all about relationships, it’s not limited to relationships outside the librarian community! It’s also those we cultivate with our staff and peers. Take a look, feel empowered, and spread the word about the impact you’re having on your community every day.
Kelsey Johnson-Kaiser is a Youth Services Librarian at the La Crosse Public Library in La Crosse, WI and is a member of the Managing Children’s Services Committee.
The post Advocacy? Me? appeared first on ALSC Blog.
As we become seasoned youth services librarians, it’s natural for our professional confidence and expertise around things like child development, children’s books, and summer learning to grow. At some point, we may feel like we’ve arrived! We are now ready to dole out ALL the brilliant advice! (I don’t know about you, but I can be an insufferable advice-giver. Just ask my family!)
A Deficits-Based Approach
And isn’t advice-giving sort of built into our jobs as librarians? When we work on the reference desk or the public service floor, we are there under the assumption that people will have problems for us to fix. Small problems (not finding the right book) and monumental problems (food and housing insecurity among a family of regulars) cross our paths daily. No fear! We have tools in our Super Librarian belts and resources to share!
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
But if we position ourselves as superheroes, doesn’t it follow that we assume library users are victims who need saving? Despite our best intentions, this deficits-based assumption can subtly suggest to families that we do not value their inherent worth and potential.
When organizations act as experts on resolving the problems of people, we deny and limit those particular individuals facing the problem the opportunity to explore what strengths and capacities they might have in the process of exploring, participating, taking control and learning (Herman-Stahl & Petersen, 1996).
A New, Strengths-Based Approach
Applying a strengths-based approach to customer service can have powerful outcomes for you and your library. A strengths-based approach:
- Assumes that all people have strengths, expertise, and potential
- Promotes a relationship of trust between library staff and customers
- Allows us to learn side-by-side with our customers
- Takes the pressure off us to be experts
- Recognizes that dominate cultural and organizational assumptions can limit the growth of individuals, families and communities
So, how might youth services librarians apply this strengths-based approach? The most important first step is simple in concept and enormously challenging in practice—we can change our attitudes and assumptions about the families in our libraries. This takes practice, and you might have to fake it to make it at first. But gradually, applying strengths-based assumptions will start to become more natural… and you may even find yourself feeling more optimistic about working in public service.
Here are some familiar library scenarios with examples of how applying strengths-based assumptions might positively change our interactions with families:
Image courtesy of Creative Commons
A mother texts on her phone while her two young kids run around the library.
- Deficits-based assumption: This is an inattentive parent who needs to be informed of our rules surrounding unsupervised children.
- Strengths-based assumption: This mother is a competent person who knows more than I do about her children. There may be complicated reasons behind her decision to use her phone rather than pay close attention to her children in this moment. How can we partner with this parent to make sure her children are safe in the library?
Image courtesy of Creative Commons
A parent insists that his son, a reluctant reader, must read high level books and stay away from graphic novels and “easy books”.
- Deficits-based assumption: This parent doesn’t understand the importance of reading motivation and only cares about getting his child into the best university.
- Strengths-based assumption: This father loves his son and wants the best for him. There may be cultural or other factors influencing his parenting decisions and beliefs. How can we have a non-judgmental conversation with this father starting with the assumption that he is the expert when it comes to his family’s well-being?
Image courtesy of Creative Commons
During Stay & Play, a mother mentions she’s worried that her 18-month-old isn’t playing well with other kids.
- Deficits-based assumption: This parent doesn’t know much about child development, so she would benefit from learning about parallel play and being assured that her that her child’s behavior is normal.
- Strengths-based assumption: Whether or not this parent is familiar with child development theory, she is an expert when it comes to her child. Instead of positioning ourselves as authorities on child development, how can we use this interaction with the parent to build a partnership around the child? What open-ended questions can we ask to draw out the parent’s expertise before offering advice?
This strengths-based approach can also be a powerful tool for youth services managers to use when working with staff. Staff members who feel acknowledged, valued, and heard will be more likely to extend the same courtesy to the public!
Madeline Walton-Hadlock is the Early Education Manager at the San José Public Library and a member of the ALSC Managing Children’s Services Committee. You can reach her at [email protected]
The post We Don’t Need to be Superheroes! appeared first on ALSC Blog.
Being a children’s librarian has to be one of the most fun and rewarding jobs a person could have, but that doesn’t mean it is easy! Balancing multiple responsibilities, tight scheduling, and having to constantly be “on” are just a few of the everyday challenges. Luckily, for us, there are tools out there to help us along the way. I posed the question to the ALSC Listserv “What are your favorite apps or online tools that help you stay organized, focused and energized?”
Here are some of the ways youth service staff are using technology to their benefit.
Productivity:
Google Keep is a post-it style system for checklists and notes. Share across your devices or with others. See real time progress on collaborative checklists or setup location reminder notifications.
30/30 is a task management system with a built in timer that tells you when to move on to your next task. The task list is controlled completely by gestures, and is the recipient of many awards and positive reviews.
Professional Development:
Many people use Evernote for note taking, but it can also be used for much more. Save program resources and collection development resources, tweets, bookmarks and more!
Pocket allows you to store articles, videos or anything else to read at a later date. Save directly from your browser or from apps and access anytime, even without internet.
Wellness
Headspace is a meditation app that provides personal training for your mind. Learn the basics of meditation and participate in guided or unguided exercises ranging from 2 minutes to one hour.
Pocket Yoga lets you take your yoga instructor with you anywhere you go! Choose between different practices, different durations and different difficulty levels.
Programs:
Canva allows anyone to create visually appealing graphics. Flyers, social media posts, ads, and even presentations can be created by dragging and dropping images and fonts. Canva for Work is coming soon.
Finally, this one isn’t available yet but I know it will be worth the wait!
The Mother Goose on the Loose Online Construction Kit (OCK) is a free cloud- based tool developed by Mother Goose on the Loose, LLC that is designed to make planning storytimes easy by utilizing three big databases. One database aggregates nursery rhymes information such as: lyrics, instructions, pictures, relevant illustrations, etc. The second database stores titles and bibliographic information of quality children’s books. The third database consists of developmental tips that can be used to explain the value and purpose of certain activities being done with children. There is also a wizard friend who will help users combine information from all of the databases mentioned above to generate either a barebones outline or a fully-fledged script with lyrics and instructions to help make planning high-quality programs for young children a breeze. OCK is still in beta testing, and anyone who is interested can contact [email protected]
We hope these tips will help you further the amazing work you are already doing!
The post Apps, Online Tools, and More! appeared first on ALSC Blog.
Do you get caught up in the goal-oriented, stats-oriented, what-can-we-accomplish-next part of your job? I certainly do, so this past December, I took the Youth Services staff meeting (ahem, party) to the next level, adding in a look back over all the major accomplishments of the past year.
We always have plenty of fun at our December meetings, included a white-elephant gift auction, pot-luck lunch and a Secret Santa-type gift exchange. In 2013, we did a food theme for the gift exchange, but most of us (except for those lucky few, grr!) are watching their weight, so my colleague came up with the idea of socks for 2014. It was awesome—I got peacock feather socks and socks with books on them!
This year was the first of what I hope will be many “let’s celebrate what we have accomplished” themed meetings.
I created an “Annual Report” type document replete with pictures and fun quotes, printed it up big and taped the sheets up around the room. It took me about 3 hours from start to finish, and I wondered along the way whether it was worth it. I wouldn’t have been able to tackle it without the Board Reports I do every month (I knew those would come in handy someday). And I wouldn’t be able to do the Board Reports without the Monthly Updates I ask my staff to submit, which miraculously, they do!
When I had everything interesting and noteworthy culled from the Board Reports all together in a document, I saw that everything fell into these categories:
• Our Space
• Community Partners
• School Partners
• Our Staff
• Program Highlights
• Summer Reading Club Highlights
• Technology Ups & Downs
• Summer Reading Highlights
Here’s a sample of one of the pages:Next year, it might be an electronic slide-show or it might take a different format. But watching my staff as they looked at all we had accomplished this year all together, and remembered things that seemed like they were from ages ago, and pointed things out to each other, made the few hours I spent on it totally worth the effort.
Let us all know what you do to remember and celebrate accomplishments at work!
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Shelley Sutherland wrote this piece as a member of the Managing Children’s Services Committee.
The post The State of the Union, er, Youth Services Department appeared first on ALSC Blog.