Tag: goals

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A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory. – Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller (1949)

We made it through the first quarter of the 21st century. By the skin of our teeth, if you ask me, and we’re still holding on by a thread. 2025 wasn’t a spectacular year for me personally, but it also wasn’t the worst I’ve experienced. I had some small wins at work. Some bigger wins at home. Let’s call it a rebuilding year. 

2026, on the other hand, may prove to be a doozy. I’m scheduled to go up for full librarian. Our university is under new management. And I’m currently signed on to two major libraries projects: developing a marketing kit for open educational resources and helping to re-launch Project CORA. My team was also cut 25% so I’m doing the proverbial more with less. So it goes.

As is customary this time of year, I’ve been thinking about where I want go and how I want to be in 2026 (or, how I want to go and where I want to be). I saw a post recently where the author “manifested” their professional hopes for 2026. I liked the format so here I go. Here’s what I’m hoping to manifest for 2026:

  1. The “Recently in Academic Libraries” posts really pop off and I can justify spinning those into a regular Substack or Patreon newsletter.
  2. We assemble a team of academic library marketing/outreach folks to conduct hardcore research that helps codify library marketing/outreach as its own LIS specialization/subfield. 
  3. The academic library marketing folks build a vibrant online community (preferably not on Facebook).
  4. I’m invited to give a keynote about marketing and outreach in academic libraries.
  5. Some academic library—doesn’t have to be mine—starts going viral on the regular in the same way that LAPL and Milwaukee Public have, drawing attention to the role we can play as cultural shapers.

It should be apparent from the above that one of my current obsessions is the professionalization of academic library marketing and outreach work. I’ll admit it: I’m somewhat jealous of my colleagues in public libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions who are doing amazing marketing work and who are rightfully drawing national attention for it. As an outsider, it appears that marketing and outreach work in these organizations is treated as more essential to strategy and operations (though, I’m sure it doesn’t feel like that from the inside!). I want to see that success—and the support that that success requires—manifested in academic libraries as well. 

What I’m reading 

Why AI Didn’t Transform Our Lives by Cal Newport. “Such breathlessness now seems rash.” The AI agents that so many in tech said would revolutionize our lives are surprisingly incapable of simple tasks. Or, to put it differently, living and thinking in meat space is far more complicated than we give it credit for. 

The State of Library Marketing 2026 by Angela Hursh. The #1 challenge for respondents to Angela Hursh’s annual survey is time and capacity:  “41 percent of respondents stated they feel they lack the time or resources needed to perform their jobs effectively.” I definitely feel the stress of all five challenges highlighted. 

Research as Leisure Activity by Celine Nguyen. “I truly think that autodidacts are responsible for all that is good and great about alternative culture.” When I finally win the lottery and no longer need to work for a living, I look forward to spending my days as a leisurely researcher. 

Links to the past 

  • 1 year ago: I think about this quote at least once a day. 
  • 5 years ago: I set out to write every day. Hm, I should do that again.
  • 10 years ago: I’m still “the guy who wears the bow ties.” Why stop now?
  • 15 years ago: Some advice from ALA Midwinter on personal branding online. Most of this still holds up! 

Overheard online 

ways you can tell I am in fact a trained librarian  despite the unusual career path: just sent a text which included the phrase “✨ structured metadata ♥️” – @thatandromeda on Bluesky

banner photo: Lemon crate label, Progressive Brand, Lehmann Printing and Lithographing Co. (on flickr)

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The past few years, I’ve made a concerted effort to do less, but to do better, in my work as a librarian. Fewer projects, but more impactful work. Attending fewer conferences, but spending more time writing for publication. Accepting fewer committee appointments, but taking on more substantial roles in committees. I am not doing less in terms of my attention or impact, but only as measured by the number of distinct projects on my plate.

You can see the results of this effort reflected in my annual reviews. At my place of work, librarians are not tenured, but we do have a promotion plan that mimics the tenure review process. In order to progress in rank, we have to show evidence of development and impact in three areas: performance, professional development or research, and service. For each of these areas, we are expected to set annual goals at the beginning of the academic year.

The goals we set each June determine what we’ll be spend our time and attention on in the next twelve months. In June 2016, I set 25 goals for myself. Some of these included things like:

  • Create a checklist for exhibition partners that outlines specific tasks for which exhibitors are expected to take responsibility when partnering with the library.
  • Review and update the collection development policy for Music.

These goals did not require much of me and were fairly easy to accomplish. Not all of my goals were similar in scale. For example: “Work with the Office of International Students and Scholars to develop a library outreach plan for international students” required a substantial amount of collaboration and work. However, most of my 2016 goals were similar in scope and impact to the examples above. Here’s how my goals break down in the following years:

  • In June 2017, I set 15 performance goals (plus 3 research goals and 4 service goals).
  • In June 2018, I set 18 performance goals (plus 5 research goals and 5 service goals).*
  • In June 2019, I set 14 performance goals (plus 4 research goals and 3 service goals).
  • In June 2020, I set 9 performance goals (plus 3 research goals and 2 service goals).

*I was going up for promotion that year, hence the bump in ambition.

In June 2021, I only set 11 total goals (6 performance, 3 research, and 2 service): far less than I’ve done in the past. Goals in this year included things such as:

  • Complete the development of a 2-3 year library outreach plan that outlines objectives, messaging, and assessment measures for four distinct campus communities: students, faculty, senior leadership, and the LIS community.
  • Finish the assessment of the data collected from the programming feedback forms and write an article for publication about the process and results.

Moreover, I strategically crafted goals that could be mapped out to specific trimesters, so I was not trying to work on more than 3 goals at the same time. With the exception of one goal that I needed to drop because of an unexpected project than came onto my plate, I am on track to accomplish all my goals by the end of the academic year.

Next year, I am hoping to once again limit myself to no more than 6 performance goals, 3 research goals, and 2 service goals. Ideally, I’ll only be working on 2 high-impact performance projects each semester, plus 1-2 research projects, and 1 service project. Onward and upward.