Library Day in the Life: January 24

I started my day off very early by responding to an email from the chair of an ALA New Members Round Table committee I serve as the supervising board member. A significant part of my work as a librarian is my involvement in the American Library Association. I strive to be timely in my responses to all email, so even at 1:01am I'm likely to write back. Why yes, one of my goals for 2011 is to improve my work-life balance. We'll blame my early email response on an eagerness to start off Library Day in the Life.

That is my library (taken about 3pm today). I've been here since September 20, 2010. I'm having a lot of fun in my current position. I get to deal with a lot of different things. In the morning I assisted our LIS intern, Sarah, with a student's reference question. It's always fun to collaborate with her and provide reference service mentoring. Sarah interns ten hours per week in our library and is here on Mondays and Thursdays this semester. She's going to be a great librarian.

This afternoon I spoke with a patron about an overdue lost item and associated fines. I had to gather information about the item from our circulation system and learn from my full-time library assistant how lost and replaced items have been tracked and dealt with in the past. I even found a little bit of time to unpack more boxes in my office. My new file cabinet and bookcase finally arrived last week, so I'm working on getting settled. I ate lunch at my desk but despite my intentions I did not really multitask. It did give me an opportunity to catch up on the #libday6 tweets.

This afternoon a candidate gave a presentation for an open position for an assistant professor of communications position. As a member of the faculty, I attended that job talk. Throughout the day I waded through lots of email. I even responded to some messages, including a request to be a reference for a scholarship applicant. I also spent some time talking on the phone with a colleague at another campus about some committee work and the upcoming ACRL conference in Philadelphia.

Library Day in the Life: Round 6

Round 6 image courtesy of Library Day in the Life

I'm excited to be participating in Library Day in the Life Round 6. It's coordinated by Librarian By Day. I'll post blog entries, tweets, and photos from January 24-30, 2011.

While I kind of randomly (and blindly) participated during round 5 on Twitter when I saw the hashtag being used by others, this year I'm official. I think it will be particularly interesting since I'm in this new management role, four months as of January 20. There are a few interesting items on my calendar for the week I hope make it interesting for everyone, including me.

I also plan to tell my library intern Sarah about the project so she can follow along to get multiple library perspectives, not to mention global perspectives.

Feedback Needed: White Paper on ALA Midwinter Meeting

On December 30, 2010 Keith Michael Fiels and Mary Ghikas distributed the "White Paper on the ALA Midwinter Meeting". The background cover information notes "the combination of technological change and economic stress has caused many members to question the way in which ALA groups accomplish work. In particular, they have raised issues related to the continuing viability of the ALA Midwinter Meeting." It further notes "that Midwinter must be "repositioned" in our conversation and shared understanding to reflect the current, not past, practice and a new understanding of "the business of the Association"."

The document is available as a PDF from the ALA Governance Office website.

As a member of the ALA Executive Board and an ALA member, I am interested in your feedback on this document and the concepts presented. I encourage you to read the document and either post your comments here on my blog or email them to me, cly11 AT psu.edu. Thank you in advance for your input and assistance in helping me serve the membership and lead the Association.

So you want to run for ALA Council

I get asked about running for council on a fairly regular basis. People either come to me directly or are referred by someone else. In addition to my post from my first orientation session, I thought I should post some of what I've been sending to ALA members.

Council meetings are on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays. In addition, there are two council forums, usually one Sunday afternoon or evening and one Monday night. Attendance at the forums is optional but they really are valuable and until Midwinter 2010 I never missed one. The forums allow you to get to know councilors and discuss upcoming resolutions, referred resolutions, or anything else that comes up as a result of council work. There are Council committees, and they can add to the workload. I served on the Resolutions Committee for a year, expertly chaired by Michael Golrick.

I must say one of the surprises for me when I first started was the ALA/APA Council. You would also be an ALA/APA Councilor, and it is going through some interesting times right now. ALA/APA is not too much of a time commitment per se, but it was never mentioned to me when I ran for council as NMRT Councilor. It has equally important work to do and it too has committees. As with what we do on a daily basis, there is no shortage of work.

My first time on as the NMRT Councilor I'd say it took me 1.5 years to really get my feet under me with regards to what was going on and the like. I sought out mentoring and there were lots of people willing to help me with the processes, understand the discussions, and understand the history. There are also great people on Council and I appreciate that I was able to build that network. I agree Council needs fresh perspective from new members from all walks of life. I think they
welcome that and you will find the majority of people extremely supportive and interested in what you have to say.

I wrote the NMRT Councilor Handbook entry. There was no description for this position before I was elected. It also includes helpful information.

As always, if you have additional questions please let me know.

Tuesday at Midwinter

Today's Schedule

8am-12:30pm Council III
1-5:30pm ALA Executive Board

Council managed to get through all of the agenda items that were moved from Council I and Council II. We even got done a little bit early. Not to worry, all of that time was filled by the Executive Board.

I know a number of people were stranded in San Diego due to the winter storm in the eastern part of the country. I am not looking forward to returning to the cold temperatures and snow. San Diego has been an amazing city for the Midwinter Meeting. I'm definitely looking forward to coming back either as a part of a future library conference or just for a vacation (I know and understand the concept of vacations, I just don't take them).

Monday at Midwinter

Today's Schedule
8-10am OITP Advisory Liaison Visit
10am-12:15pm Council II
12:30-1:30pm ALA Executive Board Candidate Forum
2-5pm ALA Executive Board
8:30-10pm Council Forum - did not attend

Despite spending a good portion of Thursday with OITP at their retreat, I delivered my board talking points at their morning meeting. They're a great group so it's always nice to see all of them.

Many of the agenda items from Council I that were moved to Council II were once again moved, this time to Council III. I think this is a result of improved communication about resolutions via the Council listerv and discussions during the optional Council Forums.

I saw most of the Executive Board Candidate Forum. Having been on that stage in 2009, I know how exciting yet stressful the process can be. As I posted to the Council listserv in December, I am thankful to all the councilors willing to stand for election to serve on the ALA Executive Board.

The rest of my afternoon was spent at the ALA Executive Board meeting.

Sunday at Midwinter

Today's schedule

9-10AM ALA/Council/Ex. Bd. Membership Info Session
10:30AM-12:15PM Council I
1-3PM Spectrum Luncheon (did not attend)
1:45PM Green Room
2:00-2:05PM Introduce Neil Gaiman and Nancy Pearl
2:30-3:30PM BARC/Division Leaders Joint Meeting
3:30-5:30PM ALA President's Program
6:30-10PM ProQuest’s Private Party Aboard the U.S.S. Midway
8:30-10PM Council Forum

Things are moving right along with my Midwinter. Council I ran a bit long so I didn't even attempt to attend the Spectrum Luncheon at Roberta Stevens' suite. I'm co-chairing a Spectrum subcommittee with ALA Past President Jim Rettig. We're working on ideas to get student chapters to participate in raising money for Spectrum. It is a pleasure to work with Jim on this initiative.

The highlight of the day was my opportunity to meet Neil Gaiman and Nancy Pearl then introduce them for the "An Afternoon with Neil Gaiman and Nancy Pearl" program. It was my first time meeting both, and they were incredibly nice. It was fun talking with Neil Gaiman while he and his publishing staff posted and read tweets @neilhimself.

Nancy Pearl, Neil Gaiman, Courtney Young

He also noticed my t-shirt and said that he liked it. When Jenny Levine asked me if I might wear it at Midwinter so many people would see it, I knew Sunday was the perfect day. This also made the shirt's concept originator very happy. You too can wear a shirt Neil Gaiman liked and support libraries, so go get one from the ALA Store! Size S | Size M | Size L | Size XL | Size XXL