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For the past fifteen years I’ve operated on an academic schedule. When September rolls around on the calendar, it begins to feel like New Years is approaching and I shift into resolutions mode. At my library we are in the midst of our annual review process so we are all thinking about what we’d like to see and do in the coming year.

One of my big goals for this year is to revamp our reference services by creating a more flexible desk schedule, shifting our attention to research consultations and virtual reference, and redesigning our student training process. Ideally, I’m hoping to create a model that (1) utilizes librarian time and attention more efficiently; (2) properly trains students to triage and refer reference questions to library staff; and (3) increases the awareness and accessibility of library reference services among students.

For us, the reference desk is no longer a primary place of academic support, but one of customer service and technical support (this conclusion is based on two years of detailed statistics). Rather than continue to push a model of reference that isn’t useful to our students in that location, I want to focus our energies on creating real reference connections in other spaces. Some of the specific milestones for this goal include:

  • Develop an FAQ website for reference questions using the Libraryh3lp platform consisting of, at minimum, the top 20 questions asked at the Info Desk.
  • Create a Libraryh3lp training workshop for librarians.
  • Set up a system that allows for students to reserve a research consultation time with librarians.
  • Create a new training module for all library student workers that teaches how to identify, capture, and refer reference questions to a librarian.
  • Develop a marketing plan to highlight virtual reference services, especially text-a-librarian.

From the user’s perspective, our reference desk setup will look exactly the same, but I’ll be making changes on the back-end throughout the semester. If my plan is successful, we may move away from the traditional desk model altogether. Or it may further necessitate the need for the desk. At this point, we don’t know which way the winds are blowing.

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couple walking beside ruin of gascon hall, perthshire: Image taken from page 148 of 'Life and Songs of the Baroness Nairne; with a memoir and poems of Caroline Oliphant the younger. Edited by ... C. Rogers ... With a portrait and other illustrations'
image credit: the British Library on flickr

One of my favorite blogs, Brain Pickings, recently posted a brief meditation on leisure, based on Josef Pieper’s Leisure: The Basis of Culture [public library]. Pieper argues that leisure — which is more than simply “a vacation” — is an active pursuit that allows us the chance to reclaim our humanity.

“Leisure is not justified in making the functionary as “trouble-free” in operation as possible, with minimum “downtime,” but rather in keeping the functionary human … and this means that the human being does not disappear into the parceled-out world of his limited work-a-day function, but instead remains capable of taking in the world as a whole, and thereby to realize himself as a being who is oriented toward the whole of existence.”

I’ve been actively working to incorporate more leisure into my daily life. I wake up at 4:45 each morning to walk the dog and make breakfast before the rest of my family rises. This allows me almost two hours of solitude during which I only allow myself to read and write. In the evening after Ms. 2 goes to sleep, I spend half an hour reflecting upon my day and about an hour reading non-professional literature before bed.

I’ve managed to maintain this habit all throughout the summer. I can attest that I am more rested, clearer of mind, healthier, and less stressed than usual. For the first time in many years I am beginning to see myself as more than my job. While most of my identity is deeply rooted in being a librarian (and I don’t begrudge that), long-forgotten aspects of myself are beginning to rise to the surface again.

We’ll see if it holds once the Fall semester starts. September through October is the busiest time of the year for me as an instruction librarian and the time when I’m most likely to bring work home. However, after three years, I know I’ve got this so perhaps I can afford the opportunity to be kinder to myself.

Aletheia questioned my choice of shoes for work this morning. “You’re wearing those shoes to work?” She was, of course, right: I’m wearing my ugliest (but most comfortable) pair of shoes today. I’m so proud.

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I am constantly tweaking my social media feeds mostly in an effort to limit what I see when I log into Twitter, Facebook, or whatever. A recent post by David Moldawer of Boing Boing gives some insight into the type of writing I try to avoid:

“The long tail of odd and authentic content is bigger than ever, but if you find your content the way most people do, through the algorithmically warped suggestions in your social media feeds, the stuff you stumble onto feels less like writing and more like wordage, a sort of tips-and-tragedies lorem ipsum.”

One of the first things I talk about in my library instruction courses for First-Year writing seminars is the difficulty of doing research in the Filter Bubble, but Moldawer’s post has me thinking about this from a different perspective: library marketing. I am not opposed to occasionally using popular forms of web writing (listicles, grabby headlines, lifehacking) to catch a reader’s attention, but I strive to create an authentic voice for our library, one that is friendly, energetic, and attentive to users’ interests and needs.

Which reminds me, I need to found out how the University of Iowa’s Special Collections’ team creates these awesome gifs. Also, you should follow their Tumblr.

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Brian Mathews’s blog The Ubiquitous Librarian has come to an end with the impending closure of the Chronicle’s blog network. I will miss reading Brian’s thoughts on leadership and possible futures for academic libraries (though, he will no doubt continue to write). In one of his final posts, he talks about highlighting student scholarship in the library. I particularly like this idea:

“I really want to explore serialized content. For example, take a design or architecture  course with a semester long project. Week by week I want to display their sketches and renderings so we can follow the progression and perhaps provide feedback via a social media channel.”

Let’s keep going with this: we could highlight student writing by projecting lines of poetry onto the floor; we could have a scrolling feed of students’ thesis topics/titles to show what students are currently writing about; we could have a live feed from any classes using Twitter; we could display the cover of the last book checked out (or returned); we could play songs based on usage stats from our streaming music database; we could show a live dashboard of the number of users in the library, or using our discovery service, or connected to our wifi network. There are so many possibilities!

I am not sure what will happen to all of Brian’s posts, but it’s been a pleasure seeing his posts in my feed reader each week. Best of luck with your new projects, soldier!

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“In an age of distraction, nothing is so luxurious as paying attention,” says Pico Iyer [SLYT], “and in an age of constant movement, nothing is so urgent as sitting still.” I’ve been trying to work more silence into my life, but in practice this only happens a few minutes a day for perhaps a couple days a week. For many librarians, making a living and making a life are often the same thing. I am undecided on the issue (and admittedly guilty of lacking any sense of work-life balance), but I would be content to have a set moment every day for reflection.

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I have never regretted my liberal arts education. It has provided me with a substantial level of [mental, emotional, spiritual, financial] satisfaction in life. And while I constantly trawl the depths of Amazon for new STEM toys to buy my daughter, I fully intend to push her in that direction as well. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I get rankled when I see reports like Beyond College Rankings by the Brookings Institution that seek to improve “college rankings” (which in itself is a ridiculous concept) by focusing entirely on financial gain as if the sole purpose of going to college is to become an employable adult.

JSTOR Daily recently took up this topic by bringing in Newman’s The Idea of the University [public library]:

“The liberal arts rarely teach skills that one can immediately apply in a career. Instead, they impart a ‘habit of mind … which lasts through life, of which the attributes are freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom.’ Newman counsels anxious parents that a philosophical habit of mind is the best aid to professional and scientific study. A liberal arts education does not directly train you to be a lawyer, physician, or businessperson, but it prepares you to succeed in any career where you have to think, speak, write, or converse with others.”

We don’t simply need more engineers and computer scientists. We need more innovators, communicators, and wise leaders.

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