Library Alchemy

Random thoughts on my mind at the end of a busy week:

Mistakes

Everybody makes them.  I fervently wish I were the person my cats think I am, and if I had a dollar for every time I’ve goofed, I’d have plenty of startup capital for my goat farm.  No, making mistakes is not the issue, really – it’s bouncing back from them successfully that counts.

My SOP for mistake-making is to take corrective action and/or come up with a solution ASAP, and then ‘fess up to all the stakeholders.  Finding a solution is key, I think, even more so than the ‘fessing up:  bosses love solutions.  If you must bring them a problem, it looks a lot more palatable if you’ve got it bundled with potential solutions.

Of course, correcting the patterns that led to your mistake in the first place is always a good idea–that way, when you inevitably err again, you will at least be making different mistakes.

Mentoring 

I’m of the opinion that everybody is your mentor, whether or not you (or they) realize it.  The flip side of that, of course, is that you are always teaching somebody something, either by word or example.  What are you teaching people today?  What would you like to be teaching them?

I have more thoughts on formal mentoring, but I want to save them until next week, so I can time them with an upcoming Eleventh Stack post.

Management

This is related to the first two ruminations in that I’ve noticed something:  more and more of my job has been revolving around the soft skills, rather than what most people think of as library work (either old-school OR new-jack).  I’m still working the desk, ordering books, and exploring emerging technologies, but slowly the bulk of my projects has involved meetings, negotiations, and–for lack of a better term–organizational politics. 

The learning curve on those skills seems to be steeper, and comes with a higher price – if you bobble a blog post or miscatalog a book, it’s “no harm, no foul.”  If you don’t listen, or don’t communicate well, or otherwise mismanage people skills, the consequences can be a little more serious…unless you’ve also learned to apologize well.  Given that you will make mistakes, it’s probably also helpful if you’ve mastered “Don’t Take It Personally 101″ and “Check Your Pride 202.”

Magic

Back in the day, men–and it usually was men–who fancied themselves magicians would write up all their know-how into big black books they called grimoires.  These books were filled with symbols and formulae, as well as a lot of nonsense, hooey, folderol and misdirection, and knowing their contents–whether or not they actually worked, which they frequently didn’t–was the gold standard for being a good magician.

Nowadays we have science to explain things we used to call magic, and other terms to explain things we still don’t understand, but don’t feel comfortable calling magic.  I would argue that there is still magic in the world, and that a great deal of it resides in libraries.  In our mad rush to discover the magic in library books, however, we often overlook the potential for magic in library people.  In that respect, we are mostly Mickeys, clueless, but utterly adorable in our oversized robes and wizard hats, struggling to tame the buckets and brooms we have unwittingly brought to life with our careless words, and thoughtless actions.

Too cynical?  Maybe.  But them’s my thinks!  Next week I want to talk about the experience of having an intern.  I’ve never worked with anyone in that capacity before, and it has been very educational.  After that, we’ll see if I can’t get back to something a little more “librarian-y.”