The agile librarians guide to thriving in any institution

The Agile Librarian’s Guide to Thriving in Any Institution This page intentionally left blank The Agile Librarian’s Guide to Thriving in Any Institution Michelynn McKnight LIBRARIES UNLIMITED An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC Copyright 2010 by Michelynn McKnight All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McKnight, Michelynn The agile librarian’s guide to thriving in any institution / Michelynn McKnight p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-1-59158-668-5 (acid-free paper) Library science—Vocational guidance Librarians—Professional relationships Librarians— Professional ethics Career development I Title Z682.35.V62M37 2010 020.23 dc22 2009041908 14 13 12 11 10 This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook Visit www.abc-clio.com for details ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America Contents Preface xiii Acknowledgments xv Knowing Your Value to the Organization Librarians’ Specialized Expertise Determining Information Needs and Desires Knowledge of Information Sources Connecting Needs and Sources Librarianship as a Profession Common Traits Acting the Role of Librarian in the Institution 12 Know How the Institution Needs This Profession 12 Show How This Profession Supports the Business of the Institution 13 Tell the Decision Makers How This Profession Plays a Necessary Role 14 Summary 15 References 16 Delighting Your Clients 19 Client-Centered Service 20 Professional Service: What’s the Difference? 21 Take Action: The Onus Is on Us 25 What Do Clients Need and Want? 26 vi Contents Population Information Needs 26 Evidence of Population Information Needs 26 Students 27 Researchers 28 Public Library Clients 28 Individual Information Needs: Application of the Traditional Reference Principles to Delight Today 28 Remove Service Rules as Barriers to Client Delight 33 Location, Location, Location 34 Self-Service, Assisted Service, or Professional Service? 34 Traditions and Habits: Gateways or Barriers? 35 When? 37 Ambience and Attitude 38 Summary 39 References 40 Expanding Your Political Influence 43 Effective Organizational Politics 45 Understand Your Corporate System 45 Know When to Hold and When to Fold 49 Believe in Win-Win Situations 50 Play Fair 51 Think First, Act Later 51 Lessons from the Pros in Government 51 Use Good Information Sources 52 Show Up, Speak Up 52 Come Prepared 53 Engage and Balance Responses 53 Constantly Build Positive Alliances and Relationships 54 Building Positive Political Capital 56 Advocacy outside the Institution 58 Summary 58 References 59 Contents vii Pleasing Your Boss 61 Understanding Roles and Perspectives 63 Allies, Mentors, and Mentees 64 What Does the Boss Want? What Does the Boss Need? 65 Leadership and Management Styles 66 Training, Educating, or “Sharing with” the Boss 67 Information Services for the Boss 69 Reference and Update Services 69 Informing the Boss: The Good, the Bad, and the Inconvenient Truth 72 When the Agile Librarian Is a Boss, Too 75 Summary 75 References 76 Impressing Decision Makers 77 Who Are These Decision Makers? 77 Why Are Their Understanding and Experiences of Library Services Important? 79 What Are Stakeholder Concerns? 81 Actions That Impress 84 Active and Personal Direct Information Services 84 General Visibility 85 Stakeholders’ Reports 85 Your Reports 86 Summary 88 References 88 Choosing an Instantly Credible Professional Image 89 A Study of the Image of the Library and Information Professional 90 Improving Our Image to Increase Our Credibility 91 Color Attracts 91 Dress for Your Clients 93 Neatness Counts in the Library 95 viii Contents That Sounds Good! 96 That Tastes Good! 97 You Don’t Look Like a Librarian! 98 Summary 99 References 99 Ensuring Positive Communication 101 Welcome 102 Personal Welcome 102 Save the Client’s Time 104 Where Is It? 105 Negative Actions 108 Verbal Messages: From Negative to Positive 110 What to Say 110 Scripts and the Magic Eraser Word 111 What to Write 113 Transforming Complaints or Confrontations into Opportunities for Positive Innovation 114 Complaints as Reference Questions in Disguise 114 Stages of the Complaint Interview 115 Stage One—Opening a Communication Channel 116 Stage Two—Gathering Information to Frame the Larger Context of the Problem 117 Stage Three—Working Together to Define and Refine the Central Problem 117 Stage Four—The Search for Information, Answers, or Solutions 117 Stage Five—Communication, Evaluation, and an Invitation 118 Acting Professionally when Feelings Are Intense 118 Common Ground and Innovative, Mutually Beneficial Solutions 119 Resulting Promotions and Innovations 121 Prioritizing Your Own Complaints 121 Contents ix When You Should Complain 122 Summary 122 References 123 Additional Suggested Reading 124 Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations 125 Real Marketing 126 The Right People: Who are the Clients and Potential Clients? 127 Market Segmentation 128 Relationship Marketing 128 The Right Product: What Services Should We Provide? 129 Strategic Marketing 129 The Right Promotion: Advertising, Branding, and Public Relations 130 Advertising 131 Branding 135 Public Relations 137 The Right Point in Time and the Right Place: When and Where to Advertise or Provide Service 138 Marketing Research: Discovering the Right P 139 What Evidence Would Answer the Question? 141 Gathering and Analyzing Data 141 Drawing Conclusions, Taking Action, and Asking Another Question 142 Similar Processes 143 An Example of a Marketing Study 143 The Marketing Study—Ask (Define the Question) 143 The Marketing Study—Study (Estimate Where the Answer May Be Found) 145 The Marketing Study—Study (Choose a Method for Finding Out) 145 The Marketing Study—Study (Gather the Data, Analyze the Data) 146 The Marketing Study—Act and Ask 146 Sustaining Your Green and Growing Career 189 would be third, and so on Should two numbers be tied for the same number of circles, just look at the one place where those two numbers were compared and put the circled one first In the end, you have an ordered list that accurately reflects your priorities It’s interesting that this process also works for group decisions Let’s say you’re on a nominating committee for a professional association, and you need an ordered list of people to ask to run for president You can’t ask them all at once; you have to prioritize whom you are going to ask first After you ask one or two people, you have to wait for each person to say yes, in which case you are finished, or no, in which case you ask the next person on the list What usually happens in the committee meeting is that either the most influential or persuasive committee member pushes everyone else into supporting his or her choice, or you go through several rounds of balloting and run-offs It takes less time to just make up a numbered list of possibilities (Step 1) and hand out copies of matrices with the appropriate number of number pairs (Step 2) For Step 3, the committee members turn in their matrices, or even just their totals for each number, as anonymous ballots, and someone not on the committee who doesn’t know the names that go with the numbers adds up the totals for each number The final totals clearly rank the names of people to ask The beauty of this method is that it fairly takes into account how strong people’s preferences are The numbers from the person who rates a possible candidate very high will be balanced out in the middle by the numbers from someone who ranks the same candidate very low, and the result is a middle rank Candidates who generally fall in the middle but have a few high votes will have a higher rank than those who generally fall in the middle but have a few low votes The same process can work for a department planning a party or a family planning a vacation Long and Short Anyone who’s ever worked from a to-do list knows the temptation to first what takes the least time The reward is seeing a lot of things crossed of the list The down side is that one can use the items that take less time to postpone doing the larger items There are several ways to compensate for this bias One option is to break up things that will take a lot of time into smaller, more or less equal pieces Large, time-expensive projects, just like big purchases, can be broken down into small regular payments It’s certainly easier to complete that project well in small, quadrant two doses than to crash into a quadrant one crisis without the time to it! One way is to break it up into discrete tasks to accomplish toward finishing it, and another is to simply break up your work on it into set periods of time This is what Lakein (1973) calls the “Swiss Cheese Method.” The idea is that you take a bite out of the whole project here, then another bite there, and eventually, after taking out enough bites, you’re left with the remaining work being like a piece of Swiss cheese with a lot of holes in it and very little left to swallow He explains that we often put off doing a big project we know will take a lot of time because we are wishing for a large enough block of uninterrupted time to all of it at once Of course, that means putting off starting the project while we wishfully wait for that block of time When that 190 The Agile Librarian’s Guide to Thriving in Any Institution happens, we either never get around to the project, or we force it into a quadrant one crisis when we have to binge to get it done and in the process don’t it very well He writes, “The key to getting an Overwhelming A-1 under control is to get started on it as soon as you’ve identified it as an A-1 task.” He recommends starting with an “instant task” that “requires five minutes or less of your time and makes some sort of hole in your Overwhelming A-1” (Lakein, 1973, p 103–104) Some of the instant tasks will lead to longer periods of involvement Some won’t “Don’t try to bite the same hole twice.” In any case, biting out enough holes can make the entire process seem easier to accomplish than it seemed at first (Lakein, 1973, p 96–108) When you are driving at night, your headlights reveal only a few feet of pavement in front of you, but it’s enough for you to complete the entire journey Many prolific writers not have large blocks of time for writing According to psychologist Robert Boice (1990, 1994) “writer’s block” is often manifested by procrastination Writers may be waiting for inspiration or large blocks of time, neither of which appear to be forthcoming Most successful writers, even those few blessed with large amounts of time, write on a strict daily schedule of a set period of time or a set number of pages, neither of which is very large Regularity is what makes it work Boice strenuously recommends brief daily sessions, which he calls “bds,” of as little as 15 to 30 minutes Interestingly enough, because of how our minds work in the background while we sleep or other tasks, these daily sessions can generate surprising inspirations that seem to pop up out of nowhere in the shower or on the drive to work Successful musicians, athletes, writers, and students understand not only the value of daily practice, but also that what Boice calls “binging,” not working for a while and then working for a long time, even to the point of exhaustion, is counterproductive Built into the practice of “bds” are three important points: the time to start, the time to stop, and leaving a note, a sentence or a thread, as in needlework, hanging where one can pick up the work the next session One way to combat the tendency to the smaller A-1s first and reap the satisfaction of seeing things crossed off the list is to break the longer tasks up into shorter ones Another way is to stick strictly to the prioritized order established through the paired numbers method Both are easier said than done A third option is to group tasks by how much time we estimate that they will take My own lists are actually tables with columns for A-1s, A-2s, B-1s, and B-2s, with no Cs, and rows for tasks that would take more than an hour, 15–60 minutes, and less than 15 minutes It helps me keep things in perspective Scheduling “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities” (Covey, 1989, p 161) Physical first; pay attention to your own natural daily biorhythms Although sleep and exercise are necessary for good health, most people can’t go for a long run, then hop into bed and immediately fall asleep When are you your most mentally alert? It’s probably not right after a big lunch Right after lunch may be a good time to something not too difficult that includes some moderate moving around, like running Sustaining Your Green and Growing Career 191 an errand or straightening your desk or office Some people naturally better solo creative work in the morning; others at night Find a daily rhythm that works for you and use it to your advantage Make Appointments with Others and Also with Yourself If something is important enough to be an A-1 plan for you, it’s important enough to set a specific time to it If visiting teachers in your school, individual members of your board, or your managerial cousins are a high priority for you, you have to schedule time to it The same goes for reoccurring maintenance and for parts of larger projects you need to “I am going to exercise more” or “I am going to spend more time doing X” won’t work unless you schedule the time to it Just wishing that someday you’ll have the time won’t work Of course, you also have to schedule time to review and revise your plans and lists One List Is Never Enough Calendars are a good start, but they aren’t enough Be sure to schedule time for yourself to review your goals, evaluate your tasks, and rearrange your priorities Keep a running to planning list of prioritized one-time tasks in several areas of your life, or keep separate lists Recurring tasks are easier to keep track of in a spreadsheet than a list Some things need to be done daily, some weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually, so you can have different spread sheet pages or sections for each time period Just enter the date every time you one of those tasks As time goes on, you will discover that you can afford to move things you thought had to be done weekly to monthly, and so forth Occasionally, you’ll discover you need to some repetitive task more often than you thought Of course, you can’t work from all of these lists and spreadsheets every day Pick a period of time for your ultimate current list; it could be for today, for the next two days, or for the next week, but don’t try to make a list for more than a week Consult your big lists and spreadsheets to choose what to put on the current real list That creates the voluntary constraints to make it all work for you For more detailed suggestions for librarians, see Judith A Siess’s Time Management, Planning and Prioritization for Librarians (2002) Risk Taking and Reward When you were a toddler, you didn’t learn to walk by waiting until you could be sure that you would not fall down You did fall down, but then you got up and tried again because you really wanted to get somewhere! Staying green and growing means being willing to see and seize new opportunities It means being mature enough to understand that even failures can be learning opportunities Marketing, innovating new service, writing a grant proposal, or doing research are all risks that require investment of thought and time “But we’ve never done that before!” never should be the sole reason for not trying something new 192 The Agile Librarian’s Guide to Thriving in Any Institution Dare to Be Proactive “People frequently think they are doing good marketing when they react to what their customers want, however, the most effective service marketers anticipate customer demands and satisfy them before competitors When Fred Smith came up with the idea of overnight delivery of packages, freight workers rejected the idea because no one had asked for it Yet Federal Express became a successful company by anticipating customer needs and proactively creating the services to address them Coming up with new service products requires creativity and a certain level of risk (Gorchels, 1995, p 503) When in doubt, DO something When I used to teach music lessons, my students sometimes found it difficult to play in tune They were aware that something wasn’t quite right about a note, yet they sustained the note exactly the same to the point of annoying themselves and everyone else When asked, the student said, “I knew something wasn’t right, but I didn’t know whether it was flat or sharp, so I didn’t change it.” The simple reply is “Change it anyway You’ve got a 50/50 chance of going the right direction immediately and if it gets worse, you’ll know which direction to go to fix it.” When bored, discouraged, delighted, excited, or curious, try something! Observe users, ask clients, pay attention not just to other libraries, but to other services that welcome clients What attracts you? Can you adapt that idea for your library? Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM, reportedly said, “If you want to succeed, double your failure rate” (Brown, n.d.) Harry Drive-Up Service Beckwith reminds people marketing services Mary Cosper LeBoeuf put in a drive-up window with a call that “To Err is opporbutton at the Terrebonne Parish Library in Houma, Louisiana, because she liked being able to drive up to get her dry cleaning tunity big mistakes and fast food She was careful to place the drive-up window near are big opportunities the desk of someone doing interruptible technical work in a staff Write an ad for area Requested and returned material were on nearby shelving your service If after a and the person providing the window service was not providing week your best ad is other public services Once the service was running, LeBoeuf disweak, stop working on covered that it was very popular with mobility challenged clients the ad and start workThese were clients who found it difficult to walk all the way from ing on your service” a parking space into the large, impressive (and ADA-compliant) (Beckwith, 1997, p 12) building and through the stacks They could shop for library Try out new ideas with materials online, call the library, and then just drive by for pick up the understanding that and return Other clients used it, like she used the business driveif they fail, they are ups, just because it saved their time a learning experience Libraries have had drive-up drop boxes for decades Why not drive up pick-up windows? What message does having one you would have missed without the other present? Does it say that it’s more important to had you not tried return library materials than to get them to use? How much less Risk spending useful would ATMs be if bank customers could use them only for some time on continudeposits and not for withdrawals? ing education courses; Sustaining Your Green and Growing Career 193 use your best information retrieval skills to find out what you want to know Librarians may publish “How I done it good” articles, but they rarely publish accounts and analyses of innovations they tried that failed Talk to colleagues who tried things that did fail and figure out why they failed in that circumstance You don’t have to “reinvent the wheel,” you can learn from both your failures and those of others if you can figure out why the projects didn’t work Practice Winter’s second mark of a professional, lifelong learning, even if you have to risk some of your own off-work time and personal funds (Winter, 1983, p 10) You have to invest in yourself to stay green and growing The Agile Librarian has the thoughtful knowledge and experience to grab an opportunity quickly, literally in the blink of an eye Malcom Gladwell describes such good, quick, intuitive decisions as a result of expertise and study (Gladwell, 2005) A century and a half ago, Louis Pasteur wrote that chance only favors prepared minds (Pasteur, 1854), and the Agile Librarian is, by definition, prepared for opportunity Even in times of downsizing, cutback, and even school or organizational closures, the Agile Librarian can finds opportunities for new ways to delight clients, please bosses, and impress decision makers in the organization, even if it means taking the risk of leaving one organization and going to another institution Summary: We Just Keep Starting Again “We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope Only in this way shall we live without the fatigue of bitterness and the drain of resentment” (Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963, p 93) To be vibrantly green and growing, we plan, we act, and we risk disappointment Innovative risk taking means that some things will fail Then we just start again Even if we succeed, we have to get up the next morning and start again Even if we exercised and ate well yesterday, we have to start over again today Even if we delighted all of our clients and stakeholders yesterday, we have to start again today Even if we’ve taken a lot of classes, read a lot of professional journals, and talked to a lot of colleagues in the past, we get up and start again today to stay green and growing Even though we know that the boss, the clients, and the decision maker once got the message that we could make life easier and better for them, we still have to know, show, and tell again Staying “green and growing” is a matter of continuously starting again If something is important, it’s important enough to start again and again and again That’s how we stay green and growing We’re agile professional librarians—doing better what we’ve always done well References Anderson, Rick 2007 It’s Not About the Workflow: Patron-Centered Practices for 21st–Century Serialists Serials Librarian 51:189–199 Beckwith, Harry 1997 Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing New York: Warner Books 194 The Agile Librarian’s Guide to Thriving in Any Institution Boice, Robert 1990 Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing Stillwater, OK: New Forums ——— 1994 How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency: A Psychological Adventure Westport, CT: Praeger Bolles, Richard Nelson 2005 What Color is Your Parachute Workbook: How to Create Picture of Your Ideal Job or Next Career Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press ——— 2009 What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job Hunters and Career Changers [Annual.] Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press Bolles, Richard Nelson, Carol Christen, and Jean M Blomquist 2006 What Color is Your Parachute for Teens: Discovering Yourself, Defining Your Future Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press Bolles, Richard Nelson and John E Nelson 2007 What Color is Your Parachute for Retirement: Planning Now for the Live You Want Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press Bousquet, Joie n.d The Prioritizing Grid http://www.joiedelor.com/siteperso/qualitytools/ PriritizingGrid.htm Accessed December 27, 3008 Brown, John Seely n.d John Seely Brown http://www.johnseelybrown.com/ Accessed January 1, 2009 Covey, Stephen R 1989 The Habits of Highly Effective People New York: Simon & Schuster Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly 1996 Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention New York: Harper Collins Gladwell, Malcolm 2005 Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking New York: Little, Brown and Co Gorchels, Linda M 1995 Trends in Marketing Serivces Library Trends 43:494–509 King, Martin Luther, Jr 1963 Strength to Love Reprinted Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981 Lakein, Alan 1973 How to get control of your time and your life New York: Signet Lewis, C S 1949 Letter to Sarah Neylan April 1949 In C.S Dorset, Lyle W., and Margaret Lamp Mead (Eds.) C S Lewis Letters to Children New York: Macmillan, 1985 Pasteur, Louis 1854 Le hazard ne favorise que les esprits préparés Lecture University of Lille Quoted in Eves, H Return to Mathematical Circles Boston: Prindle, Wever and Schmidt, 273 Picture It Solved 2007 Prioritizing Grid for 10 options http://www.pictureitsolved.com/ resources/prioritizinggrid.cfm Accessed December 27, 2008 Ryle, Beverly n.d Richard Bolles’ Prioritizing Grid Ground of Your Own Choosing http://www groundofyourownchoosing.com/grid.htm Accessed December 27, 2008 Schwartz, Barry 2004 The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less New York: Harper Collins Seligman, Martin E P 1990 Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life New York: Pocket Siess, Judith A 2002 Time Management, Planning and Prioritization for Librarians Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press Sifton, Elizabeth 2003 The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War, New York: W W Norton Voltaire 1772 Contes Quoted in Envision Software 2005 Voltaire quote: The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good Famous Quotes http://www.famous-quotes.net/Quote.aspx? The_perfect_is_the_enemy_of_the_good Accessed December 9, 2008 Winter, Michael F 1983 The Professionalization of Librarianship Occasional Papers, no 160:1–46 Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science Index Abbott, Andrew, Absher (Web site), 91 Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP), Advertising See Marketing Alman, Susan Webreck, 126, 139 Amazone.com®Kindle, 21 American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), American Association of School Librarians, American Library Association (ALA), accreditation program, 7–8 American Medical Library Association (MLA), American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), Anderson, Rick, 36 Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE, formerly Association of American Library Schools), Association of American Library Schools (AALS, now Association for Library and Information Science Education), Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), Associations participants in, 6–7 state, Authority, defined, 44 Baez, Joan, 165 Baker, Sharon L., 156 Barriers to service delivery, 38–39 Basefsky, Stuart, 79 Basic Research Methods for Librarians (Powell and Connaway), 152–153 Beckwith, Henry, 125–126 Bellman, Geoffrey, 44 Bixler, Susan, 95 Black Causus of ALA, Body language and client interaction, 29 Bolles, Richard, 182 Bosses appreciating differences in perspective, 64 communication, 68 crisis managers, 66 demonstrating integrity, 73–74 difference in perspective, 61, 63, 73–74 educating, 69 as frequent client, 69, 70–71 informing, 62 goals and motivations of, 64 information services for, 69 librarian as, 75 librarian versus nonlibrarian, 67–68 macromanagers, 66 management style and, 65 management versus leadership, 66 Managing Upward and, 62 as mentor, 64–65 micromanagers, 66 organizational structure and, 61 persuasion and, 67 reference services for, 69–70 reporting problems, 72 take responsibility for problem solving, 74 testing versus serving, 71 thoughtful and mindful learning and, 62–63 training, 67–69 and understanding of librarianship, 67 understanding what matters, 65–66 value evidence for, 159–161 what to tell, 73 who s/he is and is not, 63 winning over, 70 working with, 61–62 196 Index Brandon, Nathanial, 54 Budgeting organizational political savvy and, 43 and perceived value to, 43–44 sustaining within the organization, 80 value evidence for decision makers, 159–161 win-win, 80–81 Bushman, John E., 93 Cafes in libraries, 97–98 Career fair, information sheet for, 14–15 Career, sustaining See Professional development Case, Donald O., 26 Change agile librarian’s use of, 26 politics and, 47–48 rigid librarian’s fear of, 25 Childers, Thomas, 152, 155 Chockrek, Denise, 126 Clients barriers to service delivery, 38–39 closing time issues and, 38 defined, 20 delighted versus unhappy, 19–20 expanding services to, 25 fines and, 37 friendly search systems and, individual service and, 3–4 learning goals of, libraries and, 2–3 library services and, 12, 16 and library survival, 20 personal versus invisible services and, 24–25 population information needs and, 26–28 providing help to, 34 public library, 28 relationships with, 21 researchers, 28 seeking interaction with, 25 service and, 20–21 service hours and, 37–38 service locations and, 34 service rules and, 33–34 students, 27–28 versus “Users,” 20–21 visiting, 34 working with individual, 28–33 Color and library image, 91–93 Communication client service and, 104–105 complaint interview, stages of, 115–118 complaints, as clues for improved service, 123 complaints, as reference questions in disguise, 114 complaints, transforming, 114–115, 121 empathy for client needs and, 101 employee dress and, 103 disclaimers, 110 empathy and, 122 marketing messages, selecting, 134 name tags and, 103–104 negative stereotypes and, 108–110 negative to positive, 110–111 library signage and layout and, 105–108 personal welcomes, 102–103 prioritizing your own complaints, 121–122 professional responses to intense feelings, 118–119 pseudonyms and name tags, 104 putting a customer at ease, 101 saving client time and, 104 saying “no,” 111–112 solutions, 119–12121 welcoming a client, 102–103 what to write, 113–114 Community recognition of librarians, 11 social resources and information retrieval, 22 Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, 152 Covey, Stephen R., 50, 65, 120–121, 183, 184–185 Cowen, Janet, on professional activities, Crabtree, Anna Beth, 83–84 Crash Course in Marketing for Libraries (Alman), 126 Creating the Customer-Driven Library: Building on the Bookstore Model (Woodward), 97 Credentials, displaying, 10 Crisis management, 56 Decision makers See also Stakeholders importance of, 77 perceived value to, 43–44 Decisions assessment and measurement, 155 client satisfaction and, 158 collections-centered, 156 counterproductive benchmarking, 157 evidence and, 151, 161 evidence-based librarianship (EBL), 154-155 librarian education and research, 152–153 materials-centered approach, 156 professional associations and research for, 153–154 quality versus value in, 161 Index researching and making, 151–152 standards and benchmarking, 155–158 Dewdney, Patricia, 109–110 Dig Your Well before You’re Thirsty (Mackay), 56 Drive-up service for a library, 192 Dudden, Rosalind Farnam, 156 Dugan, Lisa Scheerer, 95 Ethics advocacy for libraries and information access, 177–178 basic ethics in the codes, 166–167 busy librarians and service, 173 codes of, 9, 166 confidentiality, 170–172 copyright law and, 174 equitable information access, 172–174 fostering development of others, 177 intellectual property rights, 174 parent organization rights and, 174–175 personal professional habits and, 165–166 privacy protection, 169–170 professional development and, 175–177 real-life, 178–179 reference interviews and, 171–172 respect for legal rights and ownership, 173–174 respect for others, 168–169 responsibility for best possible service, 167–168 service quality and, 165 Exercises closing time challenges, 38 color discovery, 93 describing your professional role, 13 entering the library with fresh eyes, 105 market segmentation, 128 preparing to meet with your boss, 66 prevent culture shock, 107–109 purpose, 50 “What Have You Done for Me Lately?,” 47 “Who’s Who,” 46 “Whying” game, 12 Steps to Professional Presence: How to Project Confidence, Competence, and Credibility at Work (Bixler and Dugan), 95 Fines, collecting, 36–37 Fisher, Roger, 44 Food and drink, 38–39 Freed, David H., 63 Friedman, Charles P., 158 197 Getting It Done: How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge (Fisher and Sharp), 44 Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge (Bellman), 44 Gilbert, Carole, 92 Goleman, Daniel, 11, 43–44, 51, 118–119 Gorschels, Linda, 125, 131 Groen, Frances K., 35 Gunn, Tim, 94 Habits versus traditions in library services, 35–37 Hale, Kaycee, 90 Hartzell, Gary, 65–66, 71–72 Honoring the Self: The Psychology of Confidence and Respect (Branden), 54 How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life (Lakein), 182 How to Work a Room: The Ultimate Guide to Savvy Socializing in Person and Online (RoAne), 53 Hyman, Karen, and the “Rule of 1965,” 35–36 Image agile versus rigid librarians and, 91 choices about, 89–90 client dress and, 94–95 color and, 91–93 credibility and, 89, 90, 91, 99 dress and, 93–95 food and beverages for staff and, 97–98 librarian, study of, 90–91 looking like a librarian and, 98 neatness and, 95–96 need for, 89 recommendations for, 57–58 self, 90–91 sensory perceptions and, 93 sounds and, 96–97 Influence, defined, 44 Influential people, 44 Information literacy, teaching, 22, 23 Information needs versus desires, 2–3 discovering and defining, 30–33 and information sources, populations and, 26–28 Information service See Library Information sources evaluating, 4, 23–24 using, 23–24 Information technology, dilemmas with, 82–83 Internet services, 21 198 Index Jowett, Garth S., 45 King, Martin Luther, Jr., 193 Kirchner, Terry, 126 Knowledge and professionalism, Koontz, Christine, 126 Kuhlthau, Carol, 27 Lakein, Alan, 182 priority management tools, 186 Lancaster, F Wilfrid, 156 Laughlin, Sarah, 158 Leckie, Gloria J., 93 Levitt, Theodore, on decline of rail service, 130 LibQUAL+, 159 Librarian(s) See also School librarians agile, xiii agile versus rigid, 20, 50 and bosses (see Bosses) career fair information sheet, 14–15 client access to, 34 and client interaction, and client learning goals, communicating value, 1–2 continuing education of, defined, xiii, 11 employer support and, greatest value of, image (see Image) as intelligent agent, 22 as knowledge information sources, need to communicate value, and non-librarian decision makers, xiii one person (OPL), and others, politics, lack of training in, 43 professionalism and, rigid versus agile, 20 salaries, 11 self-management, 12 specialized expertise of, work of, xiii Librarianship defined, 5–11 evidence-based (EBL), 154-155 and institutional needs, 12–13 and parent organization, 16 service orientation, 10–11 traits of, 5–11 Library ambience and staff attitudes, 38–39 competition for, 36 designed for clients, 39 fines, collecting, 36–37 food and drink in, 38–39 habits versus traditions in the, 35–36 image (see Image) library services versus, 12–13 and others, permanent collection tradition, 39 service delivery systems, 33–35 value in organizations, The Library as Place: History, Community, and Culture (Bushman and Lecki), 93 Locations for services, 34 Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs, and Behavior (Case), 26 Mackay, Harvey, 56 Marketing advertising, 131–135 advertising versus, 125, 126 advocacy, 126, 130 branding, 135–136 data needs, 141– demand stimulation, 135 differentiation, 133–134 discovering something you did not want to know, 139–140 drawing conclusions, 142–143 finding and reaching clients, 127–129 market segmentation and, 128 non-users and, 127–128 promotion, 130–135 public relations, 126, 137–138 question clarification, 140–141 relationship (RM), 128–129 research and, 126–129, 139–141 selecting services and, 129 services and, 125–126 similar processes, 143 strategic, 129–130 study, example of, 143–146 time and space and, 138–139 what to advertise, 133–134 win-win, 142 Maslow, A.H., 90 McCarthy, Grace, 127 Mentoring relationships bosses and, 64–65 flow of learning in, risk of having only one, 65 sharing both ways, 65 Index Mobile phones, banning, 97 Morris, Ruth C T., 23 Negative closures, 33, 109–110 “Negative Closure: Strategies and CounterStrategies in the Reference Transaction” (Ross and Dewdney), 109–110 The New Professional Image: From Business Casual to the Ultimate Power Look (Bixler and NixRice), 95 Niebuhr, Reinhold, 183 Niels, Mara, 47–48 Nix-Rice, Nancy, 89, 95 O’Donnell, Victoria, 45 Office Politics: Positive Results from Fair Practices (Wolfe), 45 One person librarian (OPL), Online Dictionary of Librarian and Information Science, The, 11 Organizations, parent budgeting and politics in, 43–44 communicating value to, 14–15 influence of librarians in, 43 informal structures within, 46 information needs and desires, 2–3 and librarians, xiii library needs of, 12–13 library support of, 13–14 need to understand, 45–49 and service value of librarians, 9–10 supporting growth for, 58–59 Outsiders See also Organizations, parent communicating value to, 1–2 Overdue books, 36–37 “Over-givers” and “over-takers,” 6–7 The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (Schwartz), 186 Peabody, Frances W., 122 Peer credentialing programs, Petrosino (blog), 91 Plutchak, T Scott, 160 Politics and advocacy outside the organization, 58 avoiding offending, 49 “bonding by complaining,” 55 building positive alliances, 54 champions-in-reserve, 55 changes and, 47–48 closed libraries and, 122 complaints and, 121–122 199 dark side of, 44 effective organizational, 45–49 fair play and, 51 go-to person skills, 56–57 holding and folding, 49–50 image and (see Image) image recommendations, 57–58 librarian’s need to use, 43 literacy in, 44 meetings and social events and, 52–53 other’s battles and, 55 picking issues, 49–50 political capital, building positive, 56–58 preparing for meetings and social events, 53 relationships, building, 54–56 skills in, 44, 56–57 talking to strangers and, 54 think fact and act later, 51 true story about using, 48–49 using for good, 44–45 using good information sources and, 52 using influence, 49–50 using listening and encouraging skills, 53–54 watching professional politicians and, 51 win-win situations, 50 “Politics of the Library of the Future” (Niels), 47–48 Population information needs differences in, 26 evidence of, 26–27 Powell, Ronald R., 152 Power, defined, 44 Professional development appointments, 191 appointments with yourself, 191 cost in time, 186 goals, setting, 181 importance, 183–185 innovation, 192 keep starting again, 193 mission roles and balance, 185 perfect versus good enough, 185–186 personal mission, 181–182 priority check, 182 priority management, 186–189 priority setting, 182–183 proactive habit, 192–193 reality check, 182 risk taking and, 191 scheduling, 190–191 serenity prayer, 183 urgency, 183–185 working from lists, 189–190 200 Index Professional practice, influence in, 43 Professionalization of Librarianship, The (Winter), Propaganda and Persuasion (Jowett and O’Donnell), 45 Public library clients, 28 “Public Library Effectiveness Study” (Childers and Van House), 155 Public relations See Marketing The Quality Library: A Guide to Staff Driven Improvements, Better Efficiency, and Happier Customers (Laughlin and Wilson), 158 Quinn, James, 110 Ranganathan, S R., 70, 96, 104, 105 Reference desks, 24–25 Reference interviews, 3–4, 28–33 Reference of User Services Association (RUSA), Reference principles and today’s library clients, 28–33 Relationships, need to build, 56 Researchers, as clients, 28 Rigid librarian versus agile, 20, 24, RoAne, Susan, 53 Ross, Catherine Sheldrick, 109–110 Rules, service See Service rules Schachter, Debbie, 56, 137 School librarians, services and, 22–23 Schwartz, Barry, 186 Search systems, and client services, Self-management, 12 Self-service system, and access to personal help, 34 Seligman, Martin E P., 183 Service clients and, 20–21 delivery models, 34 example of agile librarian’s, 24 hours of, 37–38 in life of client, 27 locations, 34 professional, 21–25 rules and, 33–34 technical versus public, 21–22 Service hours, 37–38 Service models, 34–36 Service orientation, 10–11 and parent organization, 16 Service rules, as barriers, 33–34 SERVQUAL, 159 Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey), 50, 120–121, 183 Sharp, Alan, 44 Special Libraries Association (SLA), 6, 11 Stakeholders See also Decision makers actions that impress, 84 budgets and, 79–81 building relationships with, 81–82 as clients, 88 concerns of, 81–82 dilemmas and, 82–83 identifying, 77–78 information services for, 84–85 organizational cousins and, 78, 79 out of date views and, 83–84 proving value to, 79 reading and supplying reports, 85–86 role played by, 78 social intelligence and, 84–85 types of reports for, 86–88 value evidence for, 159–161 visibility and, 85 Stark, Mallory, 94 Strangers, talking to, 54 Strong, Gary E., 25 Students, as library clients, 27–28 Surveys and focus groups, using, 27 designing, 159 Tips displaying credentials, 10 planting an idea seed, 56 talking to strangers, 54 Traits of Librarianship body of knowledge, 8–9 community recognition, 11–12 ethics, 9–10 formal education, 7–8 professional association, 5–7 service, 10–11 “Trends in Marketing Services” (Gorchels), 125–126 Value career science fair handout, 14–15 communicating to parent organization, 14–15, 16 need to communicate, 1-2 price of hiding, Van House, Nancy A., 152, 155 Index What Color Is Your Parachute? (Bolles), 182, 188 What’s Good? Describing Your Public Library’s Effectiveness (Childers and Van House), 152 White, Herbert S., 130 “Whying” game, 12 Wilson, Ray W., 158 201 Winter, Michael, on common traits of librarians, 5–11 Wolfe, Rebecca Luhn, 45, 49 Woodruff, Paul, 165 Woodward, Jeannette, 39, 97, 104 Working with Emotional Intelligence (Goleman), 11, 43–44, 51, 118–119 This page intentionally left blank About the Author MICHELYNN MCKNIGHT is an Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge For more than two decades she was the director of the Norman Regional Hospital Health Sciences Library in Norman, Oklahoma She has also worked in the reference departments of a public library and an academic library, as well as in a school library and a music library She has served on the Medical Library Association Board of Directors and the Biomedical Library and Informatics Review Committee of the National Library of Medicine Her publications include Mathematics Education Research: A Guide for the Research Mathematician (with McKnight, Magid, and Murphy), chapters in four books, and more than sixty-five articles in professional journals .. .The Agile Librarian’s Guide to Thriving in Any Institution This page intentionally left blank The Agile Librarian’s Guide to Thriving in Any Institution Michelynn McKnight... clarify the client’s goal and provide the best service 4 The Agile Librarian’s Guide to Thriving in Any Institution Some reference interviews are initiated by the librarian, not the client In the. .. expertise in their profession and in the business of gaining and maintaining influence, as well as in marketing and public relations Agile Librarians not only know what they best, but they demonstrate