Last week after my There Are No Magic Beans post one of my favorite librarians, Daniel Cornwall, emailed me with some concerns about the post.  I emailed him back and we had a good discussion.  With his permission* I’m posting a revised edition of our conversation here. I’m sure he is not the only person who had one or all of these thoughts.

… I’m concerned that posts like these are going to have the opposite effect you intend. In concept I’m with you. People have to drop the expectation that they need do nothing after their shift ends (when I finish typing this note, I’ve got homework on digital repositories to do for Best Practices Exchange 2010). We all need to be lifelong learners even if we don’t want to be.

People already say and think those things about me. I don’t think one post is going to sway them one way or another. In fact based on my interactions with people like that nothing I say or do will change them. I can only hope they retire or find a new profession.

I think essentially telling people to grow up, stop whining and get back to work confirms whiny people in their belief that people just don’t understand what their lives are like. That it’s easy for a Bobbi Newman (and, in the world of govdocs, a Daniel Cornwall or James Jacobs) to do librarianship 24/7, but “some of us have lives – blah, blah, blah.”

Can I just say how much it pisses me off when people say something about “having a life” when it implies I don’t (or Daniel doesn’t). I have a life thank-you-very-much. One I’m pretty happy with actually. Granted it doesn’t include parking my butt in front of a tv for hours at an end, but I’m ok with that. I don’t do librarianship 24/7 but I do live my life with purpose aligned to my larger goals.

Nobody said it was going to be easy. Most things worth doing aren’t. I’m not interested in babysitting non-starters. I hope to provide motivation and ideas for people who already have some motivation. But the people who have heard the message and know there is a need and choose to spend their finding reasons not to it, nothing I say or do will change them.

Oddly enough I wrote that post in July and posted it the morning before TEDx Atlanta but I’m only more certain of it. I saw speeches from people who accomplished incredible things, things people told them they couldn’t do or that were impossible. They didn’t waste time trying to persuade the non-believers.

At the risk of suggesting something you might have already tried in the past, it might be more effective to highlight the ways that people make time to learn more or solve their problems. Ask your fan base for how they do it. I’m finding that my time on my stationary bike in the morning is good time for professional reading or networking with Facebook. Although today I watched Stargate Atlantis on my iPhone, but you get the idea.

Other suggestions might be material from WebJunction or any other number of sites that have resources of interest there for the taking. Empower people to make their lives richer and maybe they’ll take you up on it.

I think all of those are great ideas! Go for it! There is value in it and someone needs to be doing it. There was a point when I thought and did a lot of those things. It just isn’t how I’m interested in spending my time anymore.

Or keep whining. But if folks like us won’t stay positive, who will?

I actually see the original post as positive. I  have worked long and hard to get where I am. I didn’t get here by whining that I didn’t have enough time. I found time, I taught myself. I’m a firm believer in hard work and taking responsibility for your own actions. There is so much I love about being a librarian and what I do. I’m tired of allowing a few to drag me down, I see that post as a declaration of that.

*Please note my comment policy states I reserve the right to post emails regarding blog posts. Similar Posts:

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It never fails at a conference or a webinar or on twitter or a blog post someone always says – but I don’t have time for that, IT will never let us do that, administration will never let us do that. Never mind what “that” is. There is always a reason. An excuse. Yes an excuse. I don’t understand these people. I’m not sure what they are looking for, magic beans? fairy dust? There isn’t any.

I read this post Yeah You’ve Got Problems. So Solve Them by Will Richardson during the mad rush between a workshop and ALA in July. It really stuck with me. I think I’m going to borrow his approach.

That is a problem. What are you going to do about that?

I hear ya’. How you gonna fix that?

I love talking with other librarians and library staff.  But there is always a least one person who wants the presenter to take them by the hand, follow them back to work and wave my magic wand over their problem.  Guess what? No one else can solve your problem.  It’s your problem. At your job. No one knows that situation better than you. People can give you tips and suggestions and motivations and links, but no one can fix your problem.  That’s your job.

Maybe this post is harsh, but I think a call for a little responsibility is in order. Sometimes that means doing research on your own time, in the evening (gasp!), fighting for what you believe in, what you need, what your patrons need, even if the person you are fighting is a coworker.Similar Posts:

• More About Magic Beans
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This post has been rolling around in my head for a while and after reading Stephen Abram’s response to  Emily Lloyd’s strip about 23 Things I’m putting fingers to keyboard to get it out.

My reaction to Emily’s post is different from Stephen’s. What I see is how important it is to keep learning.  23 Things was, and still is, great. But let’s not forget lesson 2 was on life long learning. The purpose of 23 Things was to get your feet wet, a place to start, test the water, so you could jump in and swim, not continue to sit on the dock.

We have this idea that once we’ve memorized all the dates, learned the facts and pass the test we are done.  I think it starts in school. You learn something, you take a test, write an essay and check! you’re done learning about that on to the next thing. There is no focus on ongoing learning.  I talk about this when I talk about transliteracy, you are no longer done learning. You can not learn Flickr, or Twitter or how to use your current phone and declare yourself transliterate, it is a journey, a process. There is no end.

Which brings me to my rant (I have a birthday coming up I suspect I’m becoming old and cranky).

I hear over and over from people – I don’t have time to learn all those new things, how do you keep up with everything, I don’t have time for that.  Guess what? You do. Turn off the tv, put down the gossip magazine, quit watching cute cat videos on YouTube and start learning.  You do have time, you are just choosing to spend it doing something else. When you say you don’t have time what you are saying is that it is not a priority. That’s fine, we all have different priorities. But stop telling me you don’t have time, you do.

Stop complaining that no one gives you time to learn these new fangled things like Twitter at work.  Why should they? (yes I can think of numerous reasons why they should) But if they aren’t or wont, take some initiative! Continual learning makes you a better person, a better employee and a more informed citizen. Stop waiting for someone to hold your hand and show you the way.  Figure out how to use an iTouch on your own, hear about a new site or online service on the news or from a friend? Check it out! You’re smart, you have common sense, you don’t need me there telling you not to post your home address or publish those pictures of you from that vacation you took at the nude beach. Really. You can do it!Similar Posts:

• More About Magic Beans
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The newest video from David Lee King & Michael Porter debuted at Internet Librarian to a room full of people and a live remote audience thanks to streaming by the Shanachies.

Library 101 is more than just a video, it’s a project with a website that includes essays from libraryland leaders about what Library 101 means to them.  It also has a great source page that lists 101 Things to Know.

Disclosure: I’m in the video and listed in the blogs on the Things to Know page (no pressure right?)

PS The video made Boing Boing!!!!Similar Posts:

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Last week I read this post on Seth Godin’s blog and loved it. I tweeted it hoping other people would pick it up. After reading Stephen Abrams post – What is Cloud Computing where he states

I’ve given a few talks lately and I was surprised to get a few questions about “what is cloud computing?” I guess I really do live in the bubble. Then again I have had my share of what is YouTube? eBay? iTunes? questions lately too.

I decided to devote a blog post to Eternal September, its the idea that every fall new freshmen show up and you need to teach them the ropes, rules, guidelines, etiquette all over again.  New people show up on the internet everyday.  People who don’t understand how blogs work or what Twitter is or why they would use an aggregator & RSS.  It can be easy when talking amongst your cohorts to get caught in a bubble, when most of the people you interact with know what the cloud is and use Twitter everyday (or almost every day) you can forget that the majority of people don’t.  If you’re like me, you like (or even love) the web and all the awesome things it can do.  You probably want other people to do them too.  It can be easy to forget how much you’ve learned, how far you’ve come and how much you know that others don’t.  What you take for granted can be amazing, intimidating, daunting, foreign or just plain scary to new people.  When you’re talking about the web, stop and explain The Cloud or Twitter, even if you think everyone already knows what it is and how to use it.  People often feel dumb for asking.  Do it with patience and understanding.  Don’t just say how awesome it is, explain it in terms that matter to them, how they can use it, how it will save them time, how it will make their life better.

If you’re a leader or an expert or a presenter or even just a blogger you need to be prepared to teach the freshmen.   They are looking to you for explanations and guidance.  After all you are a senior. Similar Posts:

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I recieved this email from one of the students in the Collection Development class I taught at Mizzou and thought in addition to giving my answer I’d open it up for the hive mind.

I had read somewhere, it might have been on your blog in fact, that it might be a good idea for library school graduates to learn some web design languages. I am thinking of picking up in my spare time (whats left of it) some web design language and I’m not sure what would be appropriate in the library setting. Which brings me to my question. Do you have any suggestions as to what technical languages or proficiencies would be good to pick up? I have thought about HTML, ColdFusion, ASP, and JSP, but beyond knowing a little bit of HTML/XML I am unsure what would be most useful. What do you think? What would you like to see on someones application if you were hiring?

What advice can you give Chris?

Some other blogs that have addressed this

• Why every Library Science student should learn programming
• Technology education and the “real world”
• Core skills: Curiosity
• technology advisory

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spotted over on The MLsperienceSimilar Posts:

• What programming should a library science student learn?