New Books

• The Frugal Librarian Thriving in Tough Economic Times edited by Carol Smallwood

FYI: "The Thirty-four chapters of The Frugal Librarian present insightful-and often personal-responses and recommendations on how to not only survive but also thrive in tough economic times." -from the Foreword

• Winning Library Grants: A Game Plan by Herbert B. Landau

FYI: "Tightening budgets and ever-shrinking sources for funding have made winning grants more important than ever before. But where should a library grant novice begin? Right, here of course. Herbert B. Landau, the author of The Small Public Library Survival Guide and an experienced marketeer and manager, offers a practical and comprehensive manual that guides you through grant fundamentals." - from the back cover

New Book

• Everyone Plays at the Library: Creating Great Gaming Experiences for All Ages by Scott Nicholson

Librarian Origin Stories

Librarian origin stories
Bruce Jensen is engaged in a large-scale study of the vocational backgrounds of librarians worldwide. In his “Librarian Origin Stories” survey, he wants to know what led you to choose a library career. If you have questions about the survey, send him an email....
Bruce Jensen

"Whether you're a first-year circ clerk or a retired library administrator, Librarian Origin Stories wonders how you joined our merry guild. It's a worldwide exploration of the experiences and backgrounds of all who work to keep these wonderful places humming.
You can be as private as you want; the online survey offers several flavors of anonymity. And if you like, you can request results when you finish the short questionnaire." - from Bruce Jensen's Web site

[Click the Librarian Origin Stories hyperlink above to tell your story.]

Approachable You

Published on American Libraries Magazine (http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org)
Tue, 02/08/2011 - 16:49

By Will Manley


Aren’t you looking at me?

I am not a behavioral psychologist but it seems to me the most basic element of establishing a connection with someone is making eye contact. Take my granddaughter, Sophia. She’s 3 years old and is always the most popular person wherever she goes because she loves to go right up to people, look them in the eye, and with unbridled enthusiasm blurt out, “Hi, my name is Sophie!”

Unfortunately in today’s world, even our most extroverted librarians are not making eye contact with the people in their libraries. Walk into any library at any time and you will see the same sorry syndrome. Librarians at public services desks are not looking at the public, but at their computer screens. Nothing makes me angrier. And everybody wonders how best to frame library advocacy in a time of dwindling resources and Tea Party politics. How’s this for advocacy? Look like you give a darn! Keep your eyes on the prize—the patrons!

You librarians, what are you doing? A patron has to wonder. You’re not laughing while you’re looking at your screens so you’re probably not watching YouTube clips of great moments in comedy. You don’t look terribly absorbed so you’re probably not reading a Stephen King novel. You don’t look particularly serious so you’re probably not doing anything very important for your actual job. You also don’t look half asleep so you’re not reading library literature.

To be precise, you have that bored, listless look about you, as though you are engaging in that great America at Work time waster: surfing the internet. At least that’s what it looks like to me and everyone else trying to get your attention. What a great way to reinforce one of the library profession’s most odious stereotypes: “Oh, you’re a librarian? You must get to do a lot of reading on the job.”

This is not fair. Back in the Dark Ages, when I worked the reference desk (and yes there were no “snow days” then so you walked three miles through a blizzard to get to work) we were not allowed to read at the reference desk because of that very stereotype; it made us look unapproachable. So why is it okay now to move your eyes over a computer screen? How is that different from a book or a magazine?

I suppose the theory today is that if you are staring at a computer, you are doing something serious, like research. Serious research, my foot! We all know where internet surfing takes you: into the most inane sites imaginable. I mean this really bugs me.

So, today I’m shopping out of town and pass a library I’d never been in before. Like any nosy librarian, to the great frustration of the family members I am with, I just have to go in for a look/see. What do I see? I see a reference librarian staring at a computer screen. This makes me really flippin’ mad.

Since no one knows me at this library, I decide to sneak up behind the reference desk and see what inane, inconsequential, and idiotic site this librarian is staring at. It’s my daily blog Will Unwound [2]. I’m not kidding.

Did I say I have a problem with reference librarians looking at computer screens? You must have misunderstood me. I actually think it’s very important for librarians to keep up with their library blogs, especially those that tell them to keep their eyes on the customers.

New Books

• Be a Great Boss: One Year to Success by Catherine Hakala-Ausperk

FYI: "To help library managers improve their skills and acumen, renowned speaker and trainer Catherine Hakala-Ausperk presents a handy self-study guide to the dynamic role of being a boss. Organized in 52 modules, designed to cover a year of weekly sessions but easily adaptable for any pace...Suitable for all levels of management, from first-line supervisors to library directors, this book lays out a clear path to learning the essentials of being a great boss." - from the back cover

• Managing Library Volunteers (2nd ed) by Preston Driggers and Eileen Dumas

FYI: "Authors Preston Driggers and Eileen Dumas have completely overhauled their classic work and present a top-to-bottom toolkit for recruiting, interviewing, training, supervising, and evaluating volunteers..." - from the back cover

Productivity

Micro-productivity: Accomplishing Major Goals With Minor Effort

-from www.lifehack.org

When I’m not writing for Stepcase Lifehack, I spend my time crafting microfiction. I am the author of a 365-part fiction serial running at MargeryJones.com, and I have a piece of microfiction being featured in an upcoming HarperCollins fiction anthology on sale this June.

So I know a little something about getting a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. For example, sitting down and creating a novel is intimidating. But by focusing my efforts into writing a daily serial, I’ll have a novella complete by the end of the year with very little time invested per month. Some of the precepts of writing microfiction can easily be applied to any situation to help you reach a major goal or milestone.

I’m not the first person to write about this kind of “micro-productivity”. The Friendly Anarchist wrote a blog post about making the most of those 5-minute windows of time we all have in our day. He suggests that when you have a spare couple of minutes with nothing to do, you should use it to do something worthwhile, something productive: “Create cool stuff: Edit some photos, skribble some sketches, jot down an outline for your next essay, write a haiku.”

He argues that we sometimes psyche ourselves up when reaching for major goals or blocking out time for creative pursuits. By working in small chunks of time, “your old buddy procrastination has no chance to hit, if all you got are five minutes. And who knows, maybe…you’ll get an effortless 20 minutes of action, without even having to struggle.”

So, if you’re interested in accomplishing big projects with just a little bit of effort, here’s the basic process to follow.

1. Set a major goal

This is the time to dream big. Maybe you want to write a novel, get in shape, or earn some extra income with a side business. Decide what major life goal you have been putting off for years, and make a commitment to make a dent in the work required to make that goal a reality.

2. Break down that goal into micro-tasks

Say your major goal is to get rock hard abs by the end of the year. You might decide that the way for you to accomplish that goal is to do 100 crunches a day. If you’re committed to writing a novel, break down the work of writing into a set number of pages, chapters, or words.

The important thing isn’t how you break down the work leading towards successful completion of your goal, but rather that you break down the work into small, manageable micro-projects. Think about what you can conceivably get done in a 5 or 10 minute period of time, or what you can do over several such blocks of time without major fits and starts.

3. Set a schedule

For example, say you’re still planning on working on your abs, and want to do 100 crunches a day. You break down those 100 crunches into 4 groups of 25, making your goal easy to achieve during the commercial breaks of an hour long TV show.

Or maybe you’re dead-set on finishing a novel, so you dedicate three of your coffee breaks at work each week to scribbling a few passages into a notebook.

4. Get ahead of schedule

How do you do that? Simple. Just make an effort to use any 5-10 minute chunks of free time that you would otherwise “waste” to work on your project. I mentioned working your goals into TV commercial breaks above. Other great places to sneak in a little productive time include your morning commute (assuming you are a carpool passenger or subway rider), or while you’re making dinner (while waiting for water to boil or the microwave to ding).

And when you’re ahead of schedule (which is easy to do when it only takes 5 minutes to make progress), you’ll find that your this boosts your confidence. And when you feel good about your project and your goals, you’ll be more motivated and more productive.

Conclusion

Obviously you shouldn’t use every spare 5-minute chunk of your day towards your goals. Everybody needs a little down time to veg out and recharge their batteries. But by making a conscious effort to spend a few minutes per day working towards a major life goal, you will make slow, measured progress that might not be possible otherwise.

And even if you don’t have a major goal you’re working towards, using several 5-10 minute blocks of time towards a productive goal each day can really do wonders for both your personal and professional life. In an older post here at Lifehack.org, Leo Babauta wrote a great list of ways to make productive use of these small chunks of time. Those tips included balancing your checkbook, networking with your professional contacts, or even earning extra money by freelancing on the side.

Big goals are scary. You can easily get derailed working on major projects if you get frustrated or anxious about working on them. Working on a project for 5-10 minutes at a time can keep you from becoming your own worst enemy. And when you aren’t getting in your own way, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.


Author: Tucker is a writer and social media professional living in New England. When she's not staring into a tiny electric box, she engages in pointless acts of stupidity at BadBoozeReview.com and posts daily at MargeryJones.com