New Year, New Library (kind of)

When I’m in the library, I’m often not of it.
When I’m outside the library, I’m of it.

And that glibly sums up the first three-quarters of a year of my tenure as a library director. When I’m in the building, I’m often doing administrative things like payroll, setting schedules, keeping people happy, and planning, among others. I try to catalog and do reference from time to time, just to keep my skills fresh, but it’s not easy. In fact, I’ve found it easier to be a librarian outside the library, when I’m talking up the library to faculty and the university administration. It’s a strange dichotomy, one I didn’t expect, and I’m still getting used to it. With that in mind, I did something I consider unusual: I called a meeting of all our full-time and part-time staff, and told them to treat the library like a laboratory. We’re going to try some things here. We will fail some of the time, but that’s life, and I’ll do my best to limit the damage.

None of these staff members is over 30. All have skill sets that I, and the others, don’t. Some are still in library school. I retain veto power, but this will be interesting. More later.