Not a Monkey!

I went to the zoo yesterday with John's Family and took lots of pictures. I also caught a short video of one of the koalas, too!

I had always heard that koalas are vicious animals, prone to attack, and that the way they look is extremely deceptive. After doing some research, however, and reading a few articles, it seems that's not the case at all. They actually sleep most of the time due to their diet of eucalyptus, which is extremely low in protein and other nutrients.

Management: My Philosophy

A week from today, I'll be embarking upon on my second stint as a library manager, but with much more responsibility that my last managerial role. This will be the first time I'm supervising other library professionals.

This leads me to reflect on my own management philosophy. A few years ago, maybe back in 2002, I read A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results: Fish! The book really characterizes how I feel about work. The "Fish Philosophy" is based on four principles that I completely agree with. Below is my take on them:

Choose Your Attitude

From the book: "'I realize now that my grandmother didn't love dishwashing. She brought love to dishwashing, and her spirit was infectious.'"

My take: While you can't always choose your work, the main message of this principle is to choose the attitude you bring into your work. I care about how people experience the work environment, and it really bums me out when people aren't happy on the job. I think it's very important that leaders role model an attitude that helps others feel better about the jobs they're doing. We may not always like the job, but if we bring a positive attitude into a job, it's bound to provide a better experience for everyone involved.

Play

From the book: "'. . . we discovered we could be serious about business and still have fun with the way we conducted business.'"

My take: Yes! Several people have written about "play" as being a key component of the Library 2.0 phenomenon.

In my opinion, it's so important that work be approached not only with a healthy sense of humor, but with the freedom to play. Lifelong learning involves being inquisitive about the world around you. How cool is it to have the time to investigate new tools and their application toward the work you do? Wouldn't it be great to brainstorm off-the-wall solutions to problems with no fear of looking silly or being taken less seriously? That's the kind of environment I hope to foster in my new job.

Make Their Day

From the book: "'We look for as many ways as we can to create great memories. And we create great memories whenever we make someone's day. The playful way we do our work allows us to find creative ways to engage our customers. That's the key word: engage.'"

My take: Creating great memories for our users. Wow. We all know good customer service when we experience it, and that's what keeps me returning to service providers again and again. This is what I want not only for our users, but for employees as well. I want to make sure employees are able to leave work with great memories. Folks work hard and need to be engaged in their jobs or the quality suffers.

Be Present

From the book: "'The problem was they were having a good time with each other, not me. . . . They weren't present and focused on me, the customer.'"

My take: Creating an environment in which employees can have fun, be engaged in their work, and provide excellent customer service takes balance. If we become too wrapped up in our own good time, then areas of service get neglected. Being aware of our users' needs, especially when they're standing in front of us, is top priority. Likewise, as a supervisor I need to be aware of the concerns and needs of employees.

Canal Daze

Yesterday, John and I went to the canal at White River State Park. We rented bikes and rode past the zoo, across the river, around the canal, then met some friends at Henry's on East. The 500 Festival Parade was just ending, so there were lots of people in the neighborhood. After that, we happened to run into some friends and went to the the Rathskeller Biergarten.

All in all, it was a great day, even if I did get a sunburn :/

In about a week, I start my new job at the Hancock County Public Library. I'm so excited, because I started a wiki to organize my thoughts and shared it with my new boss. She responded to say it's the first time she's ever used a wiki before, but thought it would be a great communication tool. That made my day, and I haven't even officially started work there!

Perhaps once I get settled in, I can talk to the IT Manager to see about setting up an internal wiki.

Anyway, have a great holiday, everyone. Enjoy the race, if that's your thing :)

State of Information

Do people realize they can read many magazine articles (back and current issues) right alongside scholarly research articles, and they're already paying to access them?

Occasionally, my library's web server goes wonky and prevents access to our database page. When this happens, students lose the ability to search our popular article indexes like EBSCO's Academic Search Premier. So, what can they do if they need a scholarly, full-text article for their paper?

During those times of impending mental/emotional breakdowns, we point them to the State of Indiana's virtual library: INSPIRE. BSU Libraries subscribes to over 200 academic databases. While Indiana's list is shorter and geared toward general interest use, there's still a lot of information available for folks to browse (including full articles from popular titles like Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated.)

But I don't want you to think that only my home state has a virtual library program. In fact, most of the other 49 states do too. When you're in a pinch, or just would like to see the articles in this week's issue of Newsweek, don't forget that your tax money is supporting programs like these!

Not just Google

One site that I've been watching recently is AltSearchEngines.com. I originally heard about it from the Librarian in Black.

I subscribe to the RSS feed, and get lots of updates on different kinds of search engines throughout the day. It's been really refreshing to see how different ideas are being tried in an effort to sift through all of the information available on the web. Lots of folks are apparently looking for ways to de-throne Google as the search engine of choice.

Anyway, one of my favorites of late has been the "people search" at pipl.com. According to the site, pipl searches the "deep web" to find its results. That's great, but I especially like the way its results are organized, looking first in the US, then outside the country. Those results are further divided into categories like, "Contact Details," "Profiles & Directories," and "Public Records."

If you're interested in some different ways to find web content, I highly recommend AltSearchEngines for lots of new ideas.

Saving the Universe

Over the past few days, I've been on a mini-vacation from my Ball State job. During that time, I've rediscovered my favorite MMORPG of all time: City of Heroes.

My avatar's name is Checkerd Jester and I play on the Victory server. He's a character I've had for a while now (probably since 2005). I enjoy having fun while I team up with other heroes, and I have several catchphrases that show my character's humorous side.

I've been on hiatus for about a year, but seeing Iron Man inspired me to renew my subscription to the game. There have been a lot of changes, but the community is as strong as ever. I've been impressed with how easy it's been to get back into the swing of things.

I found a new resource about the game from one of the members of my supergroup the other day. It's a wiki that tells you everything you'd want to know about the game. That's one thing I love about CoH; the commitment of its players.

Tomorrow I go back to work, so expect some library related postings in the near future. Until then, good night!

Raiding Bloomington

So, I spent the afternoon in Bloomington today visiting family. It was nice to be back after not having been for a while. We went to a park and played with John's niece, who's 2.5. It was a great day for being outside.

Now I'm watching Raiders of the Lost Ark on USA. Indiana Jones is one of my favorite movie characters, and I'm really excited about the new film coming out in a couple of weeks.

It seems to be the summer of superheroes in 2008. Iron Man was awesome, Ed Norton is playing the Incredible Hulk, and the late Heath Ledger makes a final appearance in the Dark Knight as the wicked Joker. The Avengers teaser after the credits of Iron Man is great. It just leaves me wondering if a Justice League film is on the horizon. That begs the question: is there a Wonder Woman movie in the works too?

Accessing....

I've been inspired to start a blog again.

I'm starting a new job on June 2 at the Hancock County Public Library. It's going to come with a lot of challenges, as the position is new to their library system.

A recent inspiration comes from listening to a library talk show delivered via TalkShoe called Uncontrolled Vocabulary. The recent discussion of a post from the ACRLog: Sorry, but you can't have it all got me thinking about the fact that I'm a Gen X'er going into library management, and over my 8 or so years in the profession, I've discovered that work-life balance is extremely important.

Another thing I've found out about myself was illuminated when I learned about the ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) concept of allowing employees to work where they're most productive. In my current job at Ball State University Libraries I've found that for a variety of reasons I've resisted my natural tendency to work wherever I wanted to like I did at my last job at IU Bloomington. I'm hoping that the new job will be a bit more flexible.

I feel like my life is at an exciting place. I'm transitioning from academic librarianship to public librarianship, for one. I've recently started taking classes in programming, which I'm enjoying a lot, so that's great, too.

We'll see what happens tomorrow. Until then....