Last weekend was the busiest one I’ve had in a long time – the culmination of about two years’ work with a group of colleagues in organising the 5th New Librarians’ Symposium. The weather last weekend was uncharacteristically wet, wild and woolly (for a Perth September), but happily the symposium itself went off really well. I was pretty exhausted by the end of it – running around doing last minute bits and pieces, meeting up with old friends and new, and learning, learning, learning!
Here’s some of what I learned – and which I am still pondering today:
Get evidence
Kate Davis’s keynote, Research and evidence and theory – oh my! Paving your own yellow brick road, gave me a lot to think about. She reminded me of the importance of evidence to support what we do in libraries. Feelings, and but-we’ve-always-done-it-like-this are not enough. Research is important to help us gather this evidence. Kate made me think about how we go about planning new projects and I’m now thinking about how we can build in the right metrics/statistics/information-gathering so that we can hopefully see the effectiveness – or otherwise – of our work more clearly. I think this is going to be increasingly important for libraries, whatever sector we’re serving, as our parent organisations and funding bodies ask for evidence of our effectiveness. Note: Kate’s posted her takeaways, too. Great stuff! Still pondering: how/can I develop partnerships with interested researchers/academics to improve my evidence gathering?
Learn
I think each of the keynote speakers talked about the importance of learning, in one way or another. They reiterated for me how vital it is that I expose myself to new ideas, and continue to do so. Even as a busy manager, there’s always more to learn. And really, it’s not difficult to learn, whether by reading, watching, listening, playing, or engaging with my Personal Learning Network. I loved David Lee King‘s example of library staff willing to practice for hours for national book cart synchronised dances – do we all commit as much time for our own learning?
An important part of learning is reflection. My days can be so busy it can sometimes be rather difficult to slow down enough and give myself time to reflect. I do know that it does help me when I can stop and think things through. I don’t like detail (is this unusual for a librarian?) so it is vital that I work things out in my head, plot next steps and so on. It’s also quite valuable to think about things that make me react vehemently and negatively – as Garry Conroy-Cooper said, just because you don’t agree with something, doesn’t invalidate it. And, if something didn’t go so well, if I failed, well, what can I learn from it? (To paraphrase Mal Booth, better to have tried and failed, then never to have tried at all. Mal’s presentation here.)
Know yourself
Kathryn Greenhill’s inspiring keynote reminded me that in any interaction I bring a host of assumptions about the other person (as do they), and that these assumptions can colour my response to them. My thoughts and responses are the only thing I can change. (And really, there’s no point worrying about trying to change the other person.)
I do know what a lot of my preferences tend to be in any given situation (e.g. I am an introvert who has learned many coping behaviours to get me happily and successfully through social settings) but I can definitely keep working on my responses and actions. As the Buddhists would say, my responses and actions can become more skillful.
And finally, it was just so WONDERFUL to be under the same roof as so many of my PLN. I found myself realising that I am not alone. And I am better with others.