A brief, ironic treatise on library humility

January 30, 2009 at 6:28 pm (humor, leadership, philosophizing, professional development, traditional library services)

Want to come back down to earth after a conference?  Volunteer to work at the circulation / customer service desk.  I strongly recommend it as a grounding exercise.  Library card registration, collecting fines, checking things in, checking things out…all activities designed to remind you that no matter how many conferences you go to, and how many big ideas you have, it is, at the end of the day, all about service to your patrons.  I made some goofs, but luckily RK, BL, and DG were there to shepherd me through.  Good to get back to basics!

How do you stay grounded and focused at work?  When your department is short-handed, do you have people you can call on?  Do you ever shadow in an area different from your own?  How can we synthesize ideas from conferences into practical reference desk / customer service applications?  And can you really write a blog post about humility without a touch of irony?

Just some stuff to chew on.  We’ll return to what passes for normal next week.

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Bookstore love

January 28, 2009 at 2:16 am (ALA Midwinter 2009, conferences, personal, Uncategorized)

All that growth and learning can take a lot out of an alchemist, so today I made it a point to visit Tattered Cover, a local independent bookstore.   It was a feast for the eyes and a treat for the soul, with a wide range of books and gifts for all sorts of tastes.   On top of that, the entire store looked like a library.  From the large wooden circulation desk at check-out to the old-fashioned desks and filing cabinets used by the staff to the hardwood floors, high ceilings, and wide windows, the whole place reeked of bookish nostalgia.   As if that weren’t enough, there were subtle touches to indicate the store had been planned with care and love, like the wooden pew smack-dab in the middle of the religion section, or the cardboard cassette tape of The Lord of the Rings hanging near the sci-fi/fantasy section (as read by the Pope, run time of three days). 

Meandering through Tattered Cover felt like coming home somehow, and I made sure to support the local economy in a fashion that could arguably be described as A Bit Much.  It was worth it, though.  My only regret was that my party and I had already eaten lunch, as the store also features a sumptuous cafe with plenty of vegetarian options.   If you’re ever in Denver, you simply have to go, as it’s a perfect example of the kind of past even the most forward-thinking library would do well to preserve, in atmosphere, if not in particulars.

And that’s Midwinter in a nutshell!  I think it’s all still too fresh and exciting to try to sum up – suffice to say, I’ve learned a lot, and I’m returning to CLP with ideas, energy, and enthusiasm.  Besides, anybody can write a “what I learned” post – the real test will be seeing whether or not I can put all of these experiences into action.  I have faith. :)

Tomorrow’s a travel day, and I suspect most of Thursday will be spent getting back into the swing of things, so I’ll see you Friday, maybe.  I’ve already got a tweetfest planned, so blogging on top of that might be alchemy overkill.

Besides, I’d rather hear what’s been going on with you.  What’s new in your library world since I’ve been away?  Any good reference questions?  Brilliant ideas?  Reading any good books lately?

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Midwinter Monday Miscellany

January 27, 2009 at 1:03 am (ALA Midwinter 2009, conferences, Emerging Leaders 2009, leadership, Library 2.0, management, professional development, social justice, wikis)

Today’s sessions included:

ALA Recruitment Assembly

Some of the Emerging Leader projects, including my team’s initiative, are tied to the Assembly’s work, so I thought it would be good to show up and see how they operate.  We discussed the various team projects, and I gave a summary of our team’s initial efforts.  I really enjoyed hearing about one team’s work expanding the recruitment wiki, a tool ALA members can use in their own recruitment efforts or in conjunction with their community partnerships.

Do you recruit people to librarianship, or to ALA? It’s something I love doing, mostly because I believe in libraries and library workers, and all the things we can do. Things don’t look great in the short term, to be certain. If, however, you pull back and take the long view, a world where information keeps expanding exponentially is a world that’s going to need a lot of information professionals. And you can’t have professionals without the word “profess,” which would be my first pick for a word to replace “recruitment.”

At any rate, here’s a semi-hypothetical question for you: if you had five minutes to talk about libraries and librarianship, what would you say? Would you be willing to say it on video? In a podcast? Would you prefer to write a humanifesta? What’s the best way to get the word out about libraries and librarians?

Dialogue With Directors Discussion Group

Ever wonder what directors, managers and administrators are thinking?  This discussion group was an interesting peek into the minds and thoughts of upper management, and if you think you’re too far removed from those concerns, you’re underestimating the value in understanding how people at all levels of your organization think.

Most of the discussion centered around the job-hunting process, which makes sense.  It’s good to know just how the rules and politics change once you reach a certain level of achievement.  Public library directors, for example, are hired by boards, and are expected to do different things than, say, middle managers.  Still, being a director seems so far out of reach at the moment; I found the following general advice most useful and helpful for the here and now:

  • Take on extra projects, especially when times are tough
  • Seek out good mentors
  • Make people your passion, because leadership/management are about supporting people
  • Create a list of skills you want, then seek out projects/opportunities to build those skills
  • Conduct informational interviews with people who have the kind of job you want
  • Be able to say no to opportunities that aren’t right for you
  • Be willing to pitch in and get your hands dirty, no matter what level job you have

SRRT Action Council

I thought this was going to be the membership meeting, but apparently that was a typo in the program – member meetings are only held at annual.  It worked out well, though, because I got to spend more time observing parliamentary meeting procedure and learned about a number of cool SRRT projects in process.

For example, there’s a resolution that went to Council Forum tonight suggesting that ALA start a “One Book, One Conference” project.  The resolution specifically indicated that a book devoted to Palestinian concerns (a few titles were suggested) would be a good selection, considering the current conflict in Gaza.  This is a controversial notion, but the point of SRRT is not to be popular:  it’s to raise questions and offer a dissenting view.  And without its dissenters and freethinkers, organizations become stagnant, stale, unable to change and grow. 

Another development I’m looking forward to is SRRT’s upcoming experimentation with OPAL for virtual meetings and task completion.  Social justice and technology – like chocolate and peanut butter, they’re just better together.  If you’re interested in alternative media; hunger, homelessness and poverty; GLBTQ issues; feminism; the environment, or a host of other social concerns, visit their page and see if this is the ALA slot that’s right for you.

We’ve covered a lot of territory over the last few days, in an attempt to shed some light on as many different parts of ALA as possible.  I remain amazed at how we’re all working toward the same goal – effective libraries – but use different skills, tools, and philosophies to achieve it.

What’s your role in your library?  Where do you feel like you’re doing the most good?  What tasks are you drawn to naturally?  Do see membership in a professional association as something that enhances your career, or your ability to serve?  Both?  Neither?  What roles and functions of library service are you happy to leave to others?  Your ever-curious alchemist wants to know!

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Emergence, evolving. Also, opportunities to learn and grow.

January 26, 2009 at 2:29 am (ALA Midwinter 2009, conferences, creativity, Emerging Leaders 2009, ethics, innovation, leadership, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, management, philosophizing, professional development)

Day three of the Midwinter whirlwind continues!  Truly, the best January 25th ever.  Here’s why:

Emerging Leaders Subcommittee

Can you tell how much I believe in this program?  I attended the subcommittee meeting because, having benefited from Emerging Leaders, I’d like to pay it forward on all levels.  I’ll be writing a report for RK, obviously, and vague plans are afoot with some of the PA ELs to offer our experiences to the PaLA folks planning the state leadership program.   But helping at the ALA level would be an immediate way to give back, so I screwed my courage to the sticking place and went to the meeting.

It was made of awesome.  Why?  Because one of the first things that was decided was that, starting in 2010, the Emerging Leaders program will be open to library workers who do not hold an MLIS.  This is a huge step toward diversifying the profession, I think – everyone can be a leader, even if a decision about the degree hasn’t been made yet!  Some people can emerge just fine on their own, but others need the structure and the push, and that support should be available to everybody.  Who knows?  It could be just the encouragement a person needs to go GET the MLIS.  But if not, that’s okay too.

Don’t think I won’t be coming after certain members of my reading audience and “strongly suggesting” they apply.  She said, not looking at any two people in particular (IY and RA).

At any rate, watching meeting procedure one more time was very instructive for me in my ongoing efforts to get better at meeting dynamics.  And being present with people who really want to see library workers succeed inspires me to go home and be a leader, albeit in my own quirky fashion.  Remember when I said I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do next with my career?  I not only have a much clearer picture now, but a better roadmap for how to get there.

LITA BIGWIG Interest Group

Blogs, wikis?  I’m interested!  I was also mistaken, but in a very good way.  The group has actually evolved beyond its initial purpose, and does a lot of cool things I wasn’t aware of.  So I did what you do when you’re a stranger in a strange land:  I listened, and learned.  A lot.  The group is made up of smart, passionate people who have big ideas, the group hierarchy is flexible, and they make it really easy to get involved – check out Your BIGWIG for more details.

Listening to the discussion, though, made me conscious of how much I have to learn, and reminded me that if I’m feeling uneasy about the learning curve, some of our patrons and colleagues must be completely mystified. Ergo, I’m finally ready to take that tech-bodhisattva vow: we’re all going to the brave new world together, or I’m not coming. :)

Speaking of Opportunities…

Those of you who have been to conferences before know that sometimes the best opportunities for growth and development come in the gaps of unscheduled time when you serendipitously meet people.  The whirlwind of breakfasts, lunches, dinners and coffees with both new friends and old has reminded me more than once these past few days of an Edith Wharton novel, in a very good way.

If you’re smart, I think, you learn a little something from everybody you come in contact with, from the person who serves your coffee to the committee chair in a field wildly different from yours who ends up sharing a table with you in the convention center causeway.  It’s really easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of your job and not see the bigger picture.  Every single person I’ve talked to so far has helped me renew my committment to library work, and am ready to come home and communicate that excitement through concrete action, knowing that I’m part of something larger than my own library, something that can help me help my peers make the library better.  I win, my colleagues win, patrons win, everybody wins.

But we’re not done just yet.  Another report tomorrow night, if I can.

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Emerging Leaders, Day II. Also, other Midwinter tidbits.

January 24, 2009 at 11:54 pm (ALA Midwinter 2009, Emerging Leaders 2009, leadership, professional development, Uncategorized)

Another day crowded with incident!  I could write a book, but will confine myself to summaries.

Emerging Leaders – Town Hall Meeting

Day two of the Emerging Leaders program consisted of a town hall meeting with the previous two EL classes.   We did a number of group exercises designed to get us thinking about leadership.  Things that left impressions include:

  • When you interact with people, you should be conscious of both what you need, and what you have to offer. 
  • If you’re having a hard time figuring out what you have to offer, you should have close friends and trusted peers tell you – sometimes you take for granted all the great things you have to contribute because they don’t seem special to you.
  • You can learn a lot from people who are very different from you, so you should surround yourself with those people.  They’ll keep you sharp and help you grow.
  • Everybody is somebody’s whacko.  Translation:  no matter how great you are, you’re not going to be everybody’s cup of tea.  So, get over being universally liked, and make an extra effort with those people you find challenging.

The fun cap to the day was receiving a ribbon that says “weaver.”  These are meant to indicate that leaders bring all sorts of different threads together to create unity.  Not unlike alchemy, eh? :)

Additional Quick Observations

  • Attended the SRRT All Task-Force meeting and met some great people.  I’ve picked a task force and made a committment to a project.  More details to come as the project evolves.
  • Made it a point to attend the ALA Presidential Forum.  If I’m going to cast an informed vote, I should know what the candidates stand for, right?  I strongly urge you to read up on the candidates, Roberta Stevens and Kenton Oliver, so you can decide whose vision of ALA leadership you prefer.  Keep an eye out, too, for YouTube appearances, scheduled for March ’09, in which the candidates respond to the questions previously submitted via YouTube.

Thus ends day two.  I’ve got a slate of discussion groups and meetings scheduled for tomorrow, so stay tuned.

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Emerging Leaders, Part I

January 23, 2009 at 10:24 pm (conferences, Emerging Leaders 2009, ethics, leadership, management, philosophizing, professional development)

Things to do in Denver when you’re half-dead from a day of conference goodness? Update your library blog, for one thing. I’m completely jazzed from a day of meeting librarians from all over the country, and I thought I’d share an outline of what we did today, mainly because, really, everyone would benefit from a program like this. I know CLP’s Leadership Team is hard at work on the implementation of the IMLS grant we received for such training, but I know not everybody in my reading audience will get the chance to participate in that. So, we share and, hopefully, grow.

Day one of the EL experience was a full-day seminar on leadership, with time allotted for the project teams to meet and work on their assignments. 

Excerpts from Leslie Burger’s remarks

Leaders ask “Why?”

They aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo

They’re bold, and they aren’t afraid to go to talk to “famous” ALA folk [I still need work on this - I'm too shy to go talk to the people I admire.  Perhaps this is because I"m much cooler online.]

Leaders foster collaboration and listen to other people’s pov.

Leaders take breaks when they need them [how gratifying to hear that said out loud!]

Leaders break the rules and apologize later. :)

Excerpts from Maureen Sullivan’s remarks

You learn how to lead by leading.  Leaders see difficult sitautions as places where they can make a difference.

5 practices:  challenge the process, inspire shared vision, enable others to act, model the way, and encourage the heart.

Nota bene:  I have so many notes and thoughts jotted down under those large headings, it could be – and might later be – a whole separate post.  I found Maureen incredibly inspiring, and hope to get the chance to tell her so in person before I leave.

Two ideas, though, that deserve special consideration:

  1. Sometimes, you have to have the courage to leave situations that aren’t working, if you’ve done your best.  This notion comes from a book I simply HAVE to read now, The 5 Courages of Leadership.
  2. Every one of us is capable of more than they think they are.

If you never pay attention to anything else I type, remember those two things.  I think they are the core notions that will help libraries thrive during the current challenging times.

I also got a really big kick out of the “Appreciative Inquiry” approach Maureen mentioned, which posits the organization as a mystery to be embraced.  Does that sound like our library or what? :)

Project Meetup

My group, which has christened itself “The Group With No Name,” is taking a second look at the marketing plan created by a previous EL group for LibraryCareers.org.  Our official task is to prioritize the implementation of their suggestions, but we are also at liberty to go off in new directions the original group didn’t consider.  Marketing and recruitment are topics fraught with conflict in library world, but I think it’s time to reclaim those words for a good cause:  attracting the talented people who would be able to benefit both others and themselves by this particular way of service.

You see, I have another heretical notion that’s tied to the sad, sorry fact that most of us are still not encouraged to follow our hearts when it comes to a career.   How many potential library workers never find our profession because they’re too busy chasing the things in life they think they “should” want?

At any rate, The Team With No Name has created an action plan using the extremely spiffy rubric that I have to share with everybody in Allegheny County when I get home.  I am more of an ideas person than a details person, so I nearly wept with relief to see a project planning sheet that contains elements I plan to adapt, overtly or covertly, for every single group project in which I ever participate from this day forward.

Post-lunch session

At this point in the day, my feelings of overwhelm began to kick in, and so the rest of the afternoon is somewhat of a blur.  However, we did do an exercise that involved another worksheet I plan to adapt for personal use when I get home.  It involved creating an action plan for your own personal leadership development, written by Maureen Sullivan, and it contains the following elements:

  • Identifying your current leadership strenghts
  • Identifying challenge areas where you could improve
  • Selecting 2 of those challenge areas and writing a goal for each one
  • Creating an action plan for each goal by selecting:
  1. A starting point
  2. Resources you’ll need
  3. Steps you can take toward the goal in the next 2 months
  4. A signal that you’ve achieved success
  • Identifying barriers to development
  • Identifying folks from whom you can seek support

We took 5 minutes to fill out these sheets for ourselves, then paired up with another EL to discuss them.  My partner and I had a great conversation about our challenges and goals, and have agreed to be mini-mentors for each other, and check in semi-regularly on our progress.  I decided to work on work-life balance and project management, my two big bugbears, and plan to bring the worksheet to the library unconference planning meeting with Kelley, as I think a lot of people could benefit from a hands-on exercise like this.

Final thoughts

As I sit here in the internet cafe in the back of the exhibit hall, somewhat overwhelmed by conference goodness and sorely needing both dinner and quiet time to reflect on the day, I keep thinking about Puddleglum the Marshwiggle, comic antihero of C.S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair (Chronicles of Narnia IV).  When told that all he remembers of life in the world aboveground is imaginary, Puddleglum asserts, “I’ll stand by the play world.”   He then stomps on the enchanted fire that’s putting everyone to sleep, restoring consciousness with the horrible smell of burnt marshwiggle.

I mention poor Puddleglum because he seems to exemplify the kind of leadership we need now more than ever.  Library world needs people who are willing to stand up for ideals, no matter what.  And it needs people who are willing to raise a stink when necessary.

Plenty of stuff to chew on there.  I’ll be back with another report sometime tomorrow night, hopefully.

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Personal, political, inaugural. Also, professional reading.

January 21, 2009 at 9:36 am (ethics, intellectual freedom, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, news, nonfiction, personal, philosophizing, professional development, reviews, web resources)

Yesterday some of my peers and I paused to stand shoulder to shoulder with our patrons and watch the inauguration ceremony. It was a beautiful moment, amplified by the fact that those physically present at the event were joined by both in-person and online gatherings all over the country. Participation and interactivity were the order of the day, and anybody who couldn’t be present or wet-wired can already watch the video on YouTube. O brave new world!

One passage from President Obama’s address feels especially pertinent/relevant to libraries this morning:

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends–hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism–these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths.

There you have, in a nutshell, a testament to librarianship. We have an arsenal of tools for providing information. We support, with our collections, programs, services and staff, the best and highest values a democracy can offer. We toil, quietly and not-so-much, in the service of something greater than our individual selves. And I’m confident that librarians of all stripes–special, medical, public, academic, bloggers, pundits, vendor-folks, technomages, futurists, dreamers, leaders, managers, and infinite hybrid variations of said types–will be able to put aside their differences and work together in support of our new president’s goals, which are really the ones we never lost sight of.

Why not aim high, if you’re bothering to aim?

On a more practical front, I’ve been trying to clear the decks and tie down the loose ends before I vanish to attend Midwinter conference in Denver. This has meant meetings, spreadsheets, number-crunching, and a lot of time in the book order room. I will probably still take work with me, but that’s a post on work-life balance for another day! For now, a quick recap of 2009 professional reading so far:

    Mobilizing Generation 2.0, Ben Rigby. This is the book you want if you need to either justify 2.0 dabbling to your boss, or explain it to co-workers who are not entirely convinced.  Rigby explains how emerging technologies can benefit a non-profit and provides specific examples of how various organizations have used blogging, Twitter, and other tools to advance their missions.  You’ll find the companion website here, and those hankering for quantifiable data will be interested in the social network ROI calculator created by Care2, and highlighted in Rigby’s text.

    Future Savvy, Adam Gordon.  The author admits right out of the gate that futurists get heckled a lot for being wrong and/or non-methodical.  The rest of the book goes on to make a case for GOOD forecasting, and explains how organizations can do that.  Very, very, very interesting!

    Out Front With Stephen Abram, Siess & Lorig, comps. I am just now getting around to this because the wait list for our copies has been quite long. Quality inspiration and leadership advice, however, is worth waiting for, and I’m encouraged that so many of my colleagues have read this too. Good fodder for an unconference, I’m thinking.

    Leading With Kindness, Baker & O’Malley. The theoretical underpinnings of the leadership and management I see around me every day.  When it comes to leadership, the kinesthetic approach trumps the readerly, I think.  However, the more books about the human element of leading people we have, the better.

So, there’s that. I’ll be blogging Midwinter, of course, recaps rather than live sessions. If you’re going, and would like to meet, please ping me. If you’re not, I’ll do my very best to report on things I think would be useful and helpful to you. What might those things be? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

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Making librarianship work for you.

January 16, 2009 at 6:25 pm (humor, leadership, Learning 2.0, news, personal, philosophizing, professional development)

Sometimes I’m not sure what’s better: library blogs, or library blog comments. While musing over Lee Leblanc’s TTW guest post about the nature of librarianship these days, I found Librarian Idol. The post to which I’ve linked takes Lee’s thoughts and runs with them on a parallel track, and if you’ve got a moment this weekend, Andrew’s thoughts are well worth a look.

The only thing I can really add to the goodness of this particular discourse is my somewhat heretical opinion that the question “Where’s the bathroom?” is neither stupid nor pointless. If you’ve ever been in a strange place with dire need for the facilities, you know. Like any other question that comes to the desk, this one deserves our care and respect. The fact that we might have heard it 20 times in a day means very little to the individual with kidney distress.

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Then again, maybe I won’t. But we’ll always have meetings.

January 15, 2009 at 8:47 pm (Uncategorized)

Last night’s presentation on how start a book club was cancelled due to weather. We’re trying to reschedule, so stay tuned for that. If the latest NEA report is accurate, there will be plenty of opportunities, not just for me, but for other folks countywide, to help people get organized and enthused about their reading.

Speaking opportunities come and go, but meetings are forever, or maybe they just feel that way. Things are going well with the database committee, but I still don’t feel 100% comfortable as the group leader. I’m guessing this is something that will improve with practice, advice from my boss/mentors, and watching other people run meetings, to learn from their styles.

One thing I worry about is “empowerment.” I use this word because there isn’t an analogue that doesn’t sound horribly lame. Basically, I want to make sure people feel that they can express their opinions openly and honestly, and that I’m not assigning tasks or making proclamations without adequate time for dicussion and input. At the same time, I recognize that sometimes I’m just going to have to say “I need a volunteer to do X” and if the crickets chirp, the crickets chirp.

At any rate, we’ve made some procedural changes that will, I hope, make for better use of everybody’s time. Given how quickly the meeting minutes went up this month, I’m going to call it a success so far. There’s nothing worse than unnecessary and unproductive meetings, except, quite possibly, unnecessary and unproductive meetings with no snacks.

Would you rather lead a meeting, attend a meeting, or avoid a meeting? How can we make meetings better? What about virtual meetings – do they work for you, or not?

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Gratitude. Also, outcomes and other forward movements.

January 13, 2009 at 12:27 pm (access, blogging, catalog, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, philosophizing, professional development, tagging, virtual reference)

Part I: Gratitude

A thought from John Galsworthy:

We are not living in a private world of our own. Everything we say and think has its effects on everything around us.

It’s been really encouraging to watch the various responses last week’s blogversation on e-mail reference, as initiated by David Lee King. Thanks to everyone who took five seconds out of her/his busy day to visit and read our perspective on the issue. It’s really encouraging to watch people discuss and comment on this. We may not always agree, but we’re talking. Only good can come of this!

Thanks, too, if you found your way here via the discussion of technology and heart. I don’t really know what else to say about this sudden fanfare for the common blog, other than, wow…look what we can do, when we speak truthfully, listen to each other, and then act!  Look what we can do.

Okay, enough sentiment – back to work. :)

Part II: Outcomes

Funny how you don’t realize you need a boost until you get one, sometimes. The reference crew has been having some excellent conversations about e-mail reference and service. It’s inspired me to take the following specific actions:

  • RK has started scheduling some of us for phone and VR at the same time.  I’ve decided that if I get a call while I’m in the middle of a chat, the chat takes priority.  After all, when I’m staffing the chat widget, I’m the lone gunwoman (for the moment).  If I can’t grab a phone call, I have backup.  The chances of getting a call and a chat at once are astronomically small…so of course it happens at least once each shift!  Still, that’s my new priority, and I’m sticking with it.
  • Based on some of the comment threads that discuss cost and staffing re chat services, I’ve decided to research and write a generic flextime/telecommuting proposal, based on observations of CLP reality.  Would it work for us?  There’s only one way to find out…
  • It’s time to take another look at the comment guidelines on Eleventh Stack. All this talk about inclusive language has me wondering if we’re not unintentionally turning people away; I mean, we get comments, but not as many as we’d like. Time to see if we can fix that.  I’m also flirting with the notion of having unmoderated comments.  After all, WP’s spam filter does a pretty good job of keeping out the Cialis ads and other drek.  My theory, though, is that moderating comments forces people to be thoughtful and choose their words carefully.  That could be good, but I’m feeling uneasy about that word “forces.”  Again, one way to find out…

Part III:  Forward Motion

Today’s an exciting day here at CLP because Encore debuted this morning. I can’t wait to work a desk shift today and find out what people actually think of it. Needless to say, I’ve been all over it myself this morning, playtesting it and tagging it. It’s clean, it’s user-friendly, it clears up a lot of things that were previously unclear. We are still offering the classic catalog view for those for whom Encore proves to be Rather Too Much – we’ll see if that fear is justified or groundless, too, I suppose.

Ryan H. worked really hard on putting this together, so I’m calling him out on his quiet toil. Who at your library today has been working hard without a lot of recognition? Maybe you should take him/her to lunch today? Just a thought.

Back to prepping for tomorrow night’s book discussion, and following up on actions from yesterday’s database committee meeting. More thoughts on both later this week.

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