“Any library initiative anywhere, matters to every library everywhere.”
Today, we have John Chrastka, Executive Director of EveryLibrary on the podcast. John is the enthusastic founder of the library world’s first Super PAC. This political action campaign is making sure that libraries everywhere have the support they need. John is a profound supporter of libraries and an innovative advocate. Please check out EveryLibrary.org.
Resources we discuss:
Today, we are visiting with Rebekah Cummings of the Mountain West Digital Library. We are talking about the PR problem that many libraries have, copyright, our library school experiences, and just why Rebekah is so great in general.
Resources we discuss:
This week, I’m going to take advantage of you, my favorite captive audience, and shamelessly plug an upcoming innovation-centric event. Sleazy, I know, but I swear it’s worth your while to keep reading.
On February 27, 2015, the J. Willard Marriott Library is hosting our first ever Symposium on Emerging Technology Trends in Higher Education. Taking a cue from the New Media Consortium’s 2014 Horizon Report, the symposium will explore the intersection of teaching, research, and technology and higher education.
And this is where you come into the picture, dear readers: We’re inviting presenters to talk about their perspectives on that intersection, focusing on challenges, trends, and future developments. You can check out the call for papers for presentation ideas, but you’re certainly not limited to those suggestions. The proceedings will be published as an open access journal following the symposium.
And here’s the real kicker. The symposium is a free (FREE!) day-long event, and we will provide a coffee service and a light lunch.
To register to attend or to submit a proposal, please visit our site.
By: Adriana Parker, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah
We have a surprise second podcast this week. Adriana Parker, of the University of Utah Marriott Library, and I are going to talk about sexual harassment in the library and what happened this week in Utah with Anita Sarkeesian. We talk about how we respond to these events, and the fact that it is crazy that we are still denying that there is a problem and squelching conversation.
Resources we discuss:
Today we have Meredith Farkas on the podcast. Meredith is a librarian at Portland Community College, a well-known blogger, writes a technology column for American Libraries, skeptic of tenure, and advocate of openness. Meredith has a great perspective on librarianship and how to help the people!
Resources we discuss:
By: Tegan Davis, Eagle Valley Library District, PR Librarian
Why are you a librarian?
This question was proposed to the 90+ librarians attending Lead the Change; after watching a short clip of Simon Sinek explaining the ‘golden circle’ and our brain’s neocortex and limbic systems response to it. We were instructed to write our ‘Why’ on a sticky note and put it on the conference room wall. Here’s what I wrote: ‘To serve and to assist in dreams becoming a reality’.
This is why I’m a librarian: to serve my community in whatever capacity I can and to assist my community in making their dreams a reality. I want to be of my community and librarianship is about building relationships and assisting in growth.
Lead the Change came right after I completed my final module for Leadership Park City (Class XX) with guest speaker Walter C. Wright, Jr. (He proposed 8 questions, which I’ll get to.) Mr. Wright stated a correlation between leadership and mountaineering in that—“like it or not we’re all tied together” on the same rope. To lead requires at least one follower; thus, leadership is about a relationship between two people—one who seeks to influence and one who chooses to be influenced. Yet, as with any relationship, they both will influence and be influenced by each other.
How does this effect an organization or a mountaineering team?
In that the decisions the leader makes based on the leader’s values have a ripple effect throughout an organization (from administration to front line staff) or a mountaineering team (from the first to the last person on the rope). It’s not just about the summit—toxic leadership, which has adverse effects on staff and their morale; the organization and short and long-term performance of the organization. A great leader is focused on the trail they leave behind for their team:
“The values and integrity of leadership shape the relationships of trust and respect that enable collaboration and cooperation in any organization. Character matters!” –Walter C. Wright, Jr.
Mr. Wright proposed 8 questions to be answered in order to get your bearing on your values as a leader and as a follower (who do you want to be on a rope with?).
The 8 questions:
What’s the single most important thing in life to you?
What do you want to be known for?
At this point in life, what do you want to learn?
What gets you up in the morning?
What makes you weep?
What are you good at?
With whom in the day do you laugh, play, and weep with?
What’s your exercise program?
These questions are not always easy to answer; for example, a fellow Leadership Class XXer shared the eight questions during a staff meeting. The response: staff yelled, discussed shortfalls, and some people started crying. All the more reason to answer these questions!
What’s your ‘Why’ and ‘8’? What’s your organization’s ‘Why’ and ‘8’? Figuring these out will help you as a leader, as a follower (finding organizations or leaders that align with your values), and in engaging with your community by articulating the ‘Why’ and ‘8’.
Today, Tegan and Dustin are talking all about their experiences at Library Journal’s Lead the Change. It was an inspiring day that encouraged all librarians to engage their communities in conversations and continue to break down their library walls. A big thank you to B.A. David Company and Library Journal for bringing this conversation to Utah, the City Library for hosting the event, and Peter Bromberg and John Spears for facilitating.
Resources we discuss:
Holt Zaugg, Assessment Librarian for the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University, was generous enough to share his knowledge on Library Impact Maps (LIM) and strategic planning. I personally thank him for allowing the dissemination of this map.
The colorful map displays an assessment of the Harold B. Lee Library. Here is a downloadable version of the map: FULL
The original map source is from Megan Oakleaf’s “Academic Library Value: Impact Starter Kit.” Here is the Excel file from BYU: LIM_BYU_Template
This map was discussed at the following event:
“From Statistics to Story: Making Your Numbers Meaningful”
Professional Development Retreat 2014 | Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC)
Friday, August 15th, 2014
My biggest takeaway from this Impact Map study was the gray area: CB=There “could be” an impact if we did something better or differently. From looking at the map, you can see that the gray area is largely portioned in the middle of the map. From that, discussions were had involving ways librarians could collaborate to do things better and differently for the betterment of libraries and library services.
Here is a blank version of the map, in which libraries can benefit by assessing impacts in their library environments. BLANK 2
By: Kristen Stehel, State Data Coordinator, Utah State Library
Today we have Peter Bromberg on the podcast, and this might be my favorite podcast so far. We talk about the upcoming Lead the Change event at the Salt Lake City Public Library, EveryLibrary’s 2014 ballot initiatives, emotional intelligence, emotional transfer, and what is going on in the Salt Lake County Library System.
Resources we discuss: