Librarian by Day » Chit Chat

Books: A Love Letter

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:34:01 +0000

I don’t write about books here. Not really. I write about ebooks and technology and the future of libraries (which may or may not involve books depending who you ask) and sometimes I write about what I’m reading, but I don’t really write about books. This is about books.

I have a confession to make, like many people I got my library science degree because I love books. I love the idea of them, what they are capable of, the power within them (even if it is just a good index). I love what I do, I love where my career path has taken me and the focus of this blog and I still love books. I read. A lot.

I thought I’d try to share that with you.

I think it was after I finished my undergraduate degree that I realized that other people don’t really read as much as I do, I just assumed everyone did and they didn’t talk about it, it turns out I was wrong. It was a startling revelation. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think how much you read has a bearing on how much you love books. I’m just thinking out loud and rambling as love letters are wont to do.

Like many people my memories of books and libraries are intermingled. The public library in my hometown was small and I can remember spending hours scouring the shelves for something I hadn’t read that I was interested in reading. Most of my life the majority of books I read come from the public library, if it weren’t for libraries I wouldn’t have bought more books, I would have read less.

I have a very distinct memory of faking illness when I was in grade school so that I could stay home and read, unfortunately I can’t remember which book tempted me so. I remember books I read, and loved in grade school, books I still own and love. I remember books I read for reports and credit and extra credit. But most of all I remember books.

Books have transported me to new and different worlds, or just made me reexamine the one I live in. Books have helped me take a break when time were hard or escape when times were just down right awful. I’ve learned new lessons and re-learned old ones, some good, some bad: good doesn’t always triumph over evil, the good guy doesn’t always win, the bad guy doesn’t always lose, true love conquers all, there is no right or wrong path just the path we take and its up to us to make the best of it.

Books have been my comfort at the end of a long day, my reason for waking up in the morning, they have filled long weekends and late nights. They are my constant companions and oldest friends. They have introduced me to old friends and new loves and deep fears and brave hopes. I can’t imagine my life without the magic they bring with them. I am deeply grateful for the role they have played, and continue to play, in my life.

Well, that’s it, I did do my best, but like so many love stories, its complicated and complex and I think, in the end, you have to be there to truly understand it.

http://www.demotivation.us/books-1247061.htmlSimilar Posts:

Real Winning Isn’t About Torpedoes It’s About Giving

Bobbi Newman — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:44:17 +0000

Disclaimer: This post has NOTHING what-so-ever do with libraries.

I can’t express how disgusted I am with the whole Charlie Sheen thing and that instead of helping that man people are encouraging him. I’m even more disgusted that people are willing to pay up to $350 to see him.

Recently several of my friends retweeted this tweet by Wil Wheaton and I thought YES! This! ”I wish everyone going to the Charlie Sheen Pay Attention To Me Tour would skip it and donate the ticket price to a battered women’s shelter.” I wish this SO much.

Andy Woodworth has taken it one step further and set up a wiki encouraging people to donate to one of these charities.

Domestic Violence: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Drug Addiction: The Partnership At Drug-Free.org
Mental Illness: NARSAD

Now, I’m sure none of my readers have paid, or are considering paying to go see CS, but please consider donating to one of these, your local library or other charitable organizations.

The BBB has some great tips and suggestions for giving wisely.

PS if you do donate I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment with the org and why you chose it.Similar Posts:

I am Honored and Humbled to be Included in the 2011 Movers and Shakers.

Bobbi Newman — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:33:49 +0000

Three years ago I when I started putting together a list of the Movers & Shakers with links to their blogs and Twitter accounts, it never occurred to me that one day I would be on that list. I am honored (and humbled) to be included with people I know, people I call friends and colleagues including Ned Potter, Courtney Young, Buffy Hamilton, Sue Polanka, Aaron Tay, Cindi Trainor, Anthony Molaro, Sarah Steiner and Gwyneth Jones! Plus so many great people I haven’t had the opportunity to work with yet!

I have to say thank you to my peeps! I have some fabulous friends and colleagues, and some amazing coworkers over the years , (I hesitate to name names for fear of forgetting someone) who have been encouraging, supportive, and pushed me when needed. Thank you to everyone who nominated me I appreciate that you think I’m worthy! *cue the music*

My write and up picture

Twitter List of 2011 Movers & Shakers

Movers & Shakers 2011, The People Shaping the Future of Libraries, the article

Subscribe to all the blogs in one click! Thanks to the Google Reader bundle from Micah Vandegrift

Congratulations to everyone!

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Librarian by Day as an Android App

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 17:33:28 +0000

Earlier this week someone asked me if I had ever created an app. My answer – nope, never had a reason to. But it got me thinking about it and serendipitously this morning on twitter I saw this:

Quickly Turn Your Blog Into an Android App with Feed.nu http://rww.to/dXuxtV

Sure its just a blog but and its a very simple app but it uses RSS so you could use it for anything that produces a feed. Event calendar anyone? So I went through the process to create my own app. You create an account a Feed.nu and it walks you through the process, basically enter your feed, upload some images and viola! You have a an Android app!

I made the logo and header by grabbing an image of my blog using the Lightshot Chrome extension, editing them in Paint.net saved them as .png because that’s the file type Feed.nu said it wanted.

Basically all together it took me maybe 15 or 20 minutes. Of course you could spend more time creating headers and logo images. The app can be downloaded from the website at http://librarianbyday.feed.nu/ (screenshots below) or I could spend the $25 to upload it to the Android Market to make it official.

How can libraries use this? Well most events calendars produce a feed. You an create an App for events or anything you’re producing an RSS feed for. Yes it only works on Android devices and it’s not as fancy as professionally developed apps such as the Boopsie one at San Jose Public Library or the DC library’s iPhone app.

But it was free and easy and I didn’t need to know any coding to create it and for many libraries without the funding or staff capable of creating one this is a great option.

There is the app logo! Second row left side.

First screen when you open the app. The header is a customizable.

Read items have the washed out RSS symbol next to them, unread have the LbD logo – these are customizable

It displays rather nicely I think.

You can’t leave a blog comment via the app but the links would and will take you to the sites by opening a web browser.

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Looking Forward – How Will You Use Your Gifts In the Coming Year?

Bobbi Newman — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 17:52:39 +0000

Thank you to Buffy for bringing this to my attention.

I’m not usually one for resolutions, but 2010 has been a long year and I am looking forward to the New Year with unusual anticipation, and this is so timely for me. As we look forward to 2011 it is important for some reflection, so ask yourself as librarians, teachers, leaders, individuals:

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?

Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?

Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?

Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?

Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?

Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize?

Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?

Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?

When it’s tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?

Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?

Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?

Regardless of your feeling about Jeff Bezos or Amazon.com take the time to watch or read the commencement speech he gave at Princeton earlier this year.

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The Best of the Best: The 20 Most Important, Thought Provoking, Helpful Posts I Wrote in 2010

Bobbi Newman — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 16:54:40 +0000

That’s a pretty bold title if I do say so myself I know there are 7 days left but with the holidays I feel ok publishing this list now.

I didn’t base these on stats or comments but rather what I feel was the most import. Sometimes I put my heart and soul into something and it gets so little attention I want to cry, and other times I spent 15 minutes cranking out something I’ve barely thought out and people go mad for it. So I decided to hand select what I feel where the most significant posts.

Thoughtful and thought provoking (I hope)

1. Librarians Play a Vital Role in 21st Century Literacies

Many organizations are looking at the definition of literacy and expanding it to include the knowledge and skills it takes to be an active participant in today’s society. What baffles me as I read through reports and recommendations from so many organizations is the lack of mention of libraries and librarians

2. Employers You Don’t Have a Facebook Problem You Have an Employee Problem – My response to all the “how do we stop employees from wasting time online?” question

3. Defining Transliteracy – Any early attempt to clarify transliteracy, especially timely given the current discussions

4. Should Broadband Access be a Right? I Say Yes – and given the recent moves by the FCC this is still an important topic.

5. The Four Most Valuable Lessons I Learned in 2010 – these are deeply personal

6. How I Got Over My Issues and Learned to Love eBooks – I have a Kindle. I love it. I know it was the right choose for me.

7. Yes You Do Have The Time to Learn That New Fangled Internet, Just Put Down The Remote – I think the title says it all.

8. Want Innovation? Get Out of the Way

You know what I’m talking about, someone reads an article, attends a presentation, has a conversation over coffee and comes back to work and says – we’re going to be innovative! Maybe there are even a few committees put together. But then what? Nothing. The committees quit meeting and things go back to the way they were. Maybe one or two people are still trying, but no one is listening.

9. The Problem with Pseudonyms – yes I know there are some examples of anonymous posters doing good, but I think bad far out-weight them.

10. What’s at Stake With Facebook is Not Privacy or Publicity But Informed Consent and Choice – I think the title says it all, but go read it.

11. There Are No Magic Beans You Have To Do The Work – I got a lot of flack for this post but I still stand by it.

12. Thinking Outloud About The Echo Chamber – my post about the echo chamber that Ned Potter has worked hard to draw attention to this year.

13. Why Mobile Phone Are Not the Key to the Digital Divide They’re not. Really.

14. There is No Excuse for Bullies at Work (or Anywhere Else – Word. Read it for some good advice and links

Helpful

15. 10 Ways Twitter Will Make You a Better Employee, Better at Your Job and Benefit Your Library

16. Be the Master of Your Domain, How to Conquer Your Feed Reader

17. Is She Crazy to Want to Work in Libraries? Advice for a Potential Librarian.

18. So You Want to be a Librarian? A Guide For Those Considering an MLS, Current Students & Job Seekers

19. Nine Questions to Ask Before You Accept That Speaking Gig

20. Library Day in the Life Round 4, January 2010 – with decision to do a Round 5 fast approaching I’ve been looking back at how successful the last round was. It’s so big I’m not sure it really is my decision anymore Similar Posts:

The Donate Button Versus Google Ads- Your Tips Are Appreciated

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:55:50 +0000

I’ve toyed with the idea of ads on the blog for a while now.But I’ve been hesitant for a couple of reasons including I know some people have a strong opinion about them or block them with browser ad-ons. I also have some concerns over lack of control and the appearance that I am endorsing the advertised item or service when I am not. When I considered other options the possibility of a tip jar occurred to me, heck they are everywhere now, it seems like I can’t get a sandwich or an oil change without seeing one. I thought I’d give tips a try before ads so I’ve added a donate button to the right side of the blog.

If you only read the feed you’ll never see the button. As much as I hate the ads that show up in my reader along with blog posts I do see why it happens and I think that most people like me have just accepted them as the way things are and ignore them. But for now, I’ll see how the tip jar works out and hold off on ads. So if you like what you read and find this blog useful feel free to tip as little or as much as you like.

Like what you read? Feel free to tip as little or as much as you like .
I’m trying this as an alternative to AdsSimilar Posts:

The Four Most Valuable Lessons I Learned in 2010

Bobbi Newman — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 16:16:47 +0000

Inspired by Justin Hoenke’s great post I decided to make my own list of libraryland/professional things I learned in 2010.

1. Not everyone is going to like you

This was probably the most important and the hardest lesson I learned. I was having a conversation with a friend in April when he said these words to me, and I’ll admit at first I was pissed. Easy for him to say I thought, then I cut the conversation short and went right back to feeling slighted.

But the words stuck with me and as I thought about it, I realized the truth of them. There are plenty of people I don’t care for, some for very good reasons, others just rub me the wrong way. I try to be professional and courteous to everyone but I’m sure at some point these people have felt slighted by me. Of course if I don’t like everyone I certainly can’t expect every to like me. And I don’t want them to. I’ve always believe that if I’m not rocking at least a few boats I’m doing something wrong. If I have done all I can to connect with someone and they don’t like me I need to stop wasting my energy whining about it and move on.

I felt even better when a few months ago I stumbled across an old post of Karen Schneider’s How to be “famous” (wink wink, nudge nudge) in which she writes:

Some people will resent you no matter what. I’ve had to get comfortable with the fact that some people really do not wish others well. Some will badmouth you publicly, and even worse, some will badmouth you sotto voce. I hesitated about even writing this post, which I’ve been thinking about for close to a year, because in my head I hear a voice making snide remarks about so-and-so thinking she’s hot stuff (hence also the cautiously qualified title). But hence the next piece of advice:

Own up to your own feelings. I spent years whining that “so-and-so doesn’t like me” before I got honest with myself and acknowledged that the feeling was mutual. Likewise, boycotting an activity because another famous so-and-so was invited is also not cricket (yup, seen it happen, thought about doing it myself). Be an adult, please. You may not think highly of this person, but someone does, so put on your best public face and do what needs to be done.

If someone I admire and respect as much as Ms. Scheinder has stuggled with these feelings I must not be so horrible after all. Which leads me to my lesson:

2. Admit you are human.

A year ago I wouldn’t have written a post like this, admitting my flaws so publicly. Fortunately I know some amazing people. Every time I see a post like the one by Justin that inspired this post or the one previously linked to one by Karen I am awed and slightly jealous of the comfort they feel being open and honest. I’m not sure what I expect to happen when I open up, but when I do I amazed at the reaction from others. People, for the most part, are kind, compassionate and want to connect to and help others, even me!

While I feel I have learned this lesson this year, this area will no doubt continue to be a work in progress for me.

3. Don’t take things so personally.

For years I have hated this advice, to the extent that person offering it was risking a swift kick in the shins. I mean really, it’s happening to ME how am I supposed to take it? This year I’ve come to realize that the problem with taking things personally is it negates your ability to calmly, coolly and affectively deal with the situation. Taking it personally activates your fight or flight response neither of which works today’s world. (Unless you actually are being chased by a lion, then in that case, by all means, FLIGHT!)

A lot has happened this last year: transliteracy has grown amazingly quickly with both the blog and the Interest Group which has made the word a big target and sometimes me along with it. People have quit group projects they started with me, abandoned articles, publicly called me rude and condescending after repeatedly being rude and condescending themselves, declared my work and effort a waste of time, a joke or a ploy for attention, these things have been said publicly and occasionally privately when they thought I wouldn’t find out about it, then I did anyway.

I’ll admit it, I ranted or swore or cried or all three, occasionally at the same time. But in the end I really only have two choices: I can either accept that I have no idea what is happening in the lives of these people an assume they didn’t intend to be mean or spiteful or petty or cruel. Or I can:

4. Ignore the assholes.

I know I don’t usually swear on this blog, but I love the book The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. I think a great deal of improvement would be seen in libraries if every manager from the director on down had this book sitting in their office, proudly on display and more importantly subscribed to the practices it talks about.

Some people are just assholes, they are unhappy, miserable and petty and find great joy in spreading this around. Ignore them. Find away to remove them from your space- don’t read their blog posts or their Twitter feed, filter their emails to the trash so you never have to see one again.

Don’t misunderstand I’m not advocating never acknowledging someone who disagrees with you. It is possible to disagree or to argue without being an asshole. But the assholes are out there with their drive-by-snark, their flip comments, name calling, juvenile attempts at humor. I know some people think there is value in engaging with these individuals I do not. I find every time I give into the temptation and engage these individuals I came away feel dirty and am reminded of the words of George Bernard Shaw:

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

4.5 Haters Gonna Hate - Edited to add about 30 minutes after hitting publish, this is what I get for not sleeping on it. But its so closely tied to four I’m ok with sneaking it in here.

Have I mentioned how awesome my friends are? They are. A different friend than I mentioned in number one said this to me earlier this year. He’s right. They will. The real power is in letting it go. It may sound cliche and maybe juvenile but the truth is those people, the Haters, they are gonna hate nothing you or I do will stop them.

Some visuals on haters from two of my favorite blogs. Above a very recent drawing from Indexed:

Below: An older drawing from The Gaping Void

What did you learn this year?Similar Posts:

Voting for the Edublog Awards is Open

Bobbi Newman — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 01:07:42 +0000

I’m thrilled to be on the list of librarians nominated in the Best Librarian/Library category, its an honor just to be included among such great company. Voting is open until December 14th.

For those of you visiting for the first time – Welcome! I write about a wide variety of topics related to 21st century literacies, learning and working.

I’m also excited to announce that Libraries and Transliteracy was nominated for Best New Blog and Best Group Blog! Thank you to everyone who nominated this blog and/or the L&T blog!

Please vote!

If you’re not familiar with the awards:

The Edublog Awards is a community based incentive started in 2005 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes.

The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.

The best aspects include that it creates a fabulous resource for educators to use for ideas on how social media is used in different contexts, with a range of different learners.

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Ned Potter Interviews Me For the LIS New Professionals Network

Bobbi Newman — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:34:44 +0000

My first memory of interacting with Ned Potter is when he emailed me about the Library Day in the Life style for a new project called Library Routes. We quickly connected via Twitter and occasionally email, and Ned soon became one of my favorite UK Librarians. (In fact if you click on the link to his blog you’ll find he has even been gracious enough to let me copy his theme) He has helped introduce me to other library-types outside of the States and get me thinking about important issues like the Echo Chamber, so when he asked if I would answer a few questions for LISNPN I agreed without hesitation. My interview is part of a set he did that also includes Andy Woodworth and Buffy Hamilton. I have copied my portion below and you can read the interviews in their entirety on LISNPN.

Q. Welcome to the first ever LISNPN interview! Seeing as this is a US librarian special, let’s look at some cultural differences first of all. In your opinion is there any difference in the way people in the UK or America view the library as an institution (and the people who work there)?

A. You know I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer this one. I make a point of following people outside of my bubble including UK librarians, but I don’t know that I’ve noticed a difference in thinking. It may be that my focus still tends to lean towards like minded individuals even ones outside of the US.

Q. I’ve always had the impression, just from my limited experience of Twitter etc, that a greater number of senior professionals engage with social media in the US than in the UK – would you say that’s something you’ve noticed? And if so, why do you think this is? I like it when senior pros use social media because it levels the playing-field – its communication to anyone whose interested, rather than just to other high up people.

A. It is my impression that more professionals use social media in the US, so that would make it likely that there are more senior professionals. We had a huge push towards using social media in libraries here in the US about 5 or 6 years ago. There are still articles in our professional publications detailing why you need an online presence and how to build one, whether it’s a blog or Twitter or a website

If there are more of using social media in general it would stand to reason that there are more senior professionals using it.

Q. Okay last cultural difference question – in the UK we have a concerted New Professionals movement. People who’ve joined the profession in the last five years or so get bracketed as New Profs and grouped accordingly for events etc. Is there anything similar in America? I’ve not noticed such a specific move to label the newbies on your side of the Atlantic…

A. We have several listservs for New Librarians or NextGen Librarians. ALA has a New Members Round Table with services like resume review and special sessions for new conference attendees. ALA also offers Mentor Connect as part of ALA Connect, our social site for ALA members . Members can fill out a mentor or mentee profile or both and the site helps them find a fit.

I will say when I was a newbie Mentor Connect did not exist and I wasn’t encouraged by my library to be involved in ALA so I wasn’t involved in the NMRT. I did belong to the listservs but eventually gave them up due to too much bickering and complaining. The connections I’ve made through social networking and the blogs I’ve read have, by far, been the most use to me.

Q. Do you see libraries as being in something of a state of crisis at the moment? What is the biggest threat we’re facing – governments, media, public perception, what?

A. I don’t. Yes I know that funding is being cut at many libraries. The economy is still recovering in the US and all industries are suffering. The latest report from the Institute of Museums and Library Service shows that use continues to rise.

Our largest challenge right now is the diversity of our services; we have our traditional print media, recently added media like music CDs and DVDs, and newly added digital content including databases, downloadable content like ebooks, music and videos. We are becoming more focused on community resources and being services centres with the addition of gaming, complex programming for adults and children. Local, state and federal governments are looking to us for support as they put more forms, instructions and services online and direct people to visit their local library.

The role of the Reference Librarian is no more. The days of sitting behind a reference desk and helping patrons find the tallest mountain in the US is long past, despite the clinging nostalgia of some. Instead reference librarians are expect to help patrons create a resume, open their first email account, adjust their Facebook privacy settings, find their favourite tv shows online, not to mention find resources for papers due tomorrow, help entrepeneurs find the much-needed free information to start their own business, break up fights, keep teens and adults from performing lewd acts in the stacks, defend funding to the public, board members and upper level managers. An MLS prepares one for only a small portion of this.

Q. Future trends – what are the developments on the horizon which will change the way we work, or just generally make things cooler?

A. It is an exciting time to be a librarian! We have more of an opportunity to shape what being a librarian means that any generation of librarians who came before us. My position Digital Services wouldn’t have existed 10 years ago. The ability to connect with others hundreds and thousands of miles away, across time zone and countries means we are exposed to more ideas that our predecessors. Our personal learning networks are huge and diverse, we have access to more help and more minds than any group of librarians before us. I think it is hard to see while we’re suffering growing times, but this is one of the most control we, librarians, have had over our own destiny probably since the formation of the first library.

Q. Is there a single achievement, or event, or change, of which you are most proud in your career?

A. I definitely consider my work with transliteracy my proudest accomplishment. The group blog with co-authors* Tom Ipri, Brian Hulsey and Gretchen Caserotti has been a huge success. I’m actually blown away by the number of readers we have and the comments from the library community on the need for a project like this. The subsequent creation of the Transliteracy Interest Group, under The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) a division of ALA was a major mile stone for the cause.

Over the last year I have become more aware of and more focused on the digital divide and more importantly what the divide really means to those on the loosing side of it. The need to be literate is no longer enough to be an active engage member of today’s society. Reports like that of the Knight Commission clearly demonstrate that we are dangerously close to a new type of second class citizen. Libraries are the most logical organization to tackle this problem and help close the gap.

Q. I really liked that #inatweet meme on Twitter – is there a particular platform or piece of technology you find really useful that you’d like to share with others?

A. Do I only get 140 characters for each one?

Evernote – It’s invaluable for taking notes from blog posts and articles online and tracing mentions of you and/or you library.
Tweetdeck– I couldn’t use Twitter on my desktop without the columns Tweetdeck makes possible.
Seesmic – For using Twitter on my phone, allows me to see my lists and choose my retweet style.
Google Reader – I know a lot of people are giving up on feed readers but I can’t imagine parting with mine. I can’t be on Twitter or Facebook all the time, and this week when I’m spending my time writing, I know that my feeds are waiting for me this weekend.
Gmail – the threading and filtering of messages is amazing and the searching is lightning fast, the recent addition of priority inbox makes it almost perfect.
My Planner – I have to throw this in because I recently went back to a paper planner, I prefer it to an online calendar and task list

Q. Bobbi, a lot of people in my own personal echo chamber have similar interests in terms of social media, new technologies, presenting at conferences etc. A big difference between you and me, it seems, is that your job encompasses all that stuff (where as mine occasionally dips into it, but largely the two aspects of my career exist separately) – is there anything you can say about chasing the kind of role that allows you to do all that stuff? How does one achieve job-satisfaction that encompasses all those cool things..? [I'm not sure about this question - I know what I mean but can't quite make it clear on paper.. do you get what I mean?]

A. I can see how it might appear that my job encompasses all that from the outside, unfortunately it is not an accurate view of how I spend my days at work. I spend a great deal of time at work answering emails, in meetings, serving on committees and writing reports or procedures. I estimate I spend and average of 20 hours a week of my own time investigating social media, new technologies and doing the work (like writing my blog) that allows me to present at conferences. I do it because I’m interested and I’m passionate about what I do, not just the 9-5 part of my work but the professional work I do outside of my day job. In some ways my job does line up with those interests. But I could also see doing it if I worked the reference desk full-time, I would still see the digital divide, still encounter the issues I see with ebooks etc, and my personality is such I would research those things even if I had to do it on my own time so I could provide better services to our patrons. Now maybe cataloguing wouldn’t be the best match for me at this point in my career but I don’t feel that a change in title or position would affect how I spend my time.

As far as chasing a role you think you want I would offer words of caution. My title of Digital Branch Manager might indicate I spend all my time with new technology and digital services but it really is a small portion of my responsibilities. Real satisfaction has to come from within, if you know what you’re interested in and you want to contribute be prepared to make those contribution on your own time, if you’re fortunate enough to get a job with some overlap that’s great.

Q. Final question, which we’re going to ask everyone who does these LISNPN interviews. Take yourself back in time to when you’d only been in the profession for a couple of years – is there one piece of advice you’d give yourself, or one thing you know now that it would be have been useful to know then?

A. Get more involved in professional organizations. The libraries I worked didn’t encourage involvement with professional organizations and I wish I’d taken the initiative to do it on my own. I didn’t know where to start and I felt overwhelmed. Believe it or not, I am shy and socially awkward, I find it hard to strike up conversations with strangers and I’m terrible at small talk. Being involved has helped alleviate a lot of those issues. The advancement of the social web helps too, I would have found direction from blogs or Twitter and felt on some level part of the community before just jumping in.Similar Posts: