Taking Off My Manager Pants

Hi. It's been a minute.

That's because there have been some changes going on!

Let me start at the beginning...

When I was in library school, one of the required courses was a management course. I thought this was ludicrous; I had no interest in getting into management. I took the course, but repeatedly said to everyone that I would never be a manager.

My first job out of grad school was up near Chicago. After a few years there, I started to look for something closer to my hometown and my family. The job that came up? A manager position. Library jobs around my hometown are scarce, particularly jobs that pay you enough to live as a single person. I didn't know if they would hire me; I didn't have any management experience.

But they did hire me. Suddenly I was in a manager position.

I know lots of you are in a similar boat. You're a great youth services librarian and the only place to move up in your organization is a management position. You feel like that's the next step, so let's do that. Does that mean you suddenly have a passion for managing people? For mentoring and coaching and all the things that come with a management job?

Maybe it does! That's awesome! But sometimes not. And for me, it did not. It took a long time for me to really realize that and longer still for me to come to terms with it and to be okay with it. It was fine for awhile, as I concentrated on building up our program schedule and making connections for outreach: manager work that needed to be done to get us up to speed, but that was still the librarian work that I loved. However, when a new director came in and started really working with the leadership team and providing training and workshops and development for us, I started to panic.

I felt like I had NO TIME to incorporate all the things that I was supposed to be doing as a manager, mentor, and coach. I felt like I would have to work 60-80 hour weeks to get all my manager tasks done in addition to all the other things I was responsible for. I realized that the reason that I had no time was because I was still also doing all the work of a front-line librarian and that the thought of giving up those tasks to do the true work of a manager broke my heart.

Honestly, it took breaking down at the Power Up: Youth Services Leadership Conference to really start to take a hard look at why I was so unhappy. Gretchen Caserotti asked me why I wouldn't consider seeking a director position and I told her "Because it would be all the parts of my job that I hate and none of the parts that I love." I burst into tears whenever someone asked me how I was doing. HELLO. I was in the wrong job.

So, I gathered up my courage and I went to my administration and I told them that I would love to stay with our library but that I wanted to step down from my management position. I wasn't sure how it would go. I wasn't sure if they had a role for me other than my current role. I cried the entire morning before I went in for my meeting with them, rehearsing what I was going to say. But I wanted to stay, so it was worth a shot.

I have an incredibly supportive and understanding administration team. They listened to what I had to say. They readily acknowledged that many people find themselves in management positions when they don't really want them. I felt like a fool for taking eight years to figure this out, but they applauded me for figuring it out at all. They told me that they would work with me, that it would take a little time to figure out what we could do, but that we could do something.

Just hearing that made me feel so much lighter. And now, our library is undergoing a major restructure (which was in the works before I approached them) and I'm stepping into a new role as the Collection Development Lead. Which is pretty much my dream job.

I am proud of the work that I did as the Children's Manager and then Youth Services Manager at my library. Together, my staff and I made great strides forward with our department. This new role doesn't change any of that. This change doesn't mean I love the people I work with any less. I am thrilled to continue to get to work with them in a different capacity and to see where they take our library's youth services next. I know it will be awesome.

Changes are coming as we transition to our new staffing structure. And I'll just be over here taking off my manager pants and putting on some new pants. I think they'll feel great.

Leaders are Readers: A #PowerUp17 Book List

I had the GREAT pleasure of attending the first Power Up Conference in Leadership for Youth Services Managers and Staff at the University of Wisconsin - Madison last week. It was such an amazing two days and I am feeling really empowered (!!).

But the learning continues even now that I'm back home from conference. Not only will I be taking some time to read back over my notes, journal, and reflect, but I am busy tracking down all the great leadership and professional development books that were mentioned at the conference! Of course (since we're librarians), many of the presenters had book suggestions for us. And here's a compiled list. If you're looking to power up your leadership skills, start with these books!

Leaders are Readers: A #PowerUp17 Book List

**I did my best to write down as many book suggestions as I could, but of course I couldn't be in two sessions at once. If you remember any that I'm missing, please comment and I'll add them to the list!!**

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything in Business by Patrick Lencioni (Josey-Bass, 2012).

Being the Boss: 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader by Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011).

 Brene Brown - This author was mentioned, though not a specific book.
Daring Greatly (Avery, 2012).
The Gifts of Imperfection (Hazeldon, 2010).
Rising Strong (Spiegel & Grau, 2015).

Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block (Berret-Koehler, 2008).

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson et. al. (McGraw-Hill, 2002).

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink (Riverhead Books, 2009).

Effective Difficult Conversations by Catherine Soehner and Ann Darling (ALA Editions, 2017).

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by James Collins (HarperBusiness, 2001).

It's Always Personal: Navigating Emotion in the New Workplace by Anne Kreamer (Random House, 2011).

Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek (Portfolio, 2014).

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandburg (Knopf, 2013).

Library 2020: Today's Leading Visionaries Describe Tomorrow's Library ed. by Joseph Janes (Scarecrow Press, 2013).

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer (Harper, 2006).

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek (Portfolio, 2009).

Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath (Gallup Press, 2007).

**What books did I miss? Please tell me in comments and I'll update!!**

How our Walk-Around Log has Changed Desk Time

What is your job when you're working the public service desk?

That seems like an obvious question. Your job on the public service desk is to serve the public. But I know that it gets a little more complicated when you have a ton of tasks to get done and very little off-desk time to do it. Between customers, you'll often find your librarians completing other work.

I wanted something more for our desks. As a former Barnes & Noble bookseller, it was drilled into me to put the book in the customer's hand and I always walk customers back to the shelf. I always told my staff that they're not tied to the desk; I want them to be up and walking around.

Enter the walk-around log:

And yes, here's a link to a similar file I created for a walk around log. Feel free to download and edit to fit your needs.

Confession time: our walk-around log originated as a way to deal with some security issues we were having in our building. We exist in an old, sprawling building, and we cannot see everything in our Teen Room or our Children's Room from the desks.

So I created a log for each desk and made it a requirement of my staff to do a lap of the room at least hourly while they are on desk. I know how easy it is to get involved with a project you're doing on desk, particularly during those periods when we may go a few hours between patrons, and tune out to what is going on around you. That's not good customer service and that's not keeping the library secure.

When you take a few minutes to walk around your department:

• You know who's in there. You know if there's someone back in the stacks. If you're paying attention, you become aware of any potential problems hopefully before they become actual problems. 
• Patrons know you're there. They know that you see them. If it's a situation where they were thinking of doing something inappropriate, they may now rethink because they know you're not just zoned in on your computer screen. 
• You can make sure your space is welcoming. You can make sure there are pencils, you can pick up the blocks, you can check the battery charge on the iPad stations, you can refill displays. You can take a few seconds to spruce up your room. 
• (This is an important one!) You can offer help to folks who might not ask for it. Based on my years of customer service, I can tell you that there are some people who will not ask for help. But if you approach people proactively, often they do actually have a question. Or if they think of one they will be more likely to approach you or seek you out. It doesn't have to be pushy. When I do my laps, I try to approach everyone browsing in the department and say something like "Is there anything I can help you find today? No? Well, if you have any questions, you just let me know."
• You're being healthy! It's healthy to get up and move periodically! Get that blood flowing! Get your steps in! 

Keeping up with our walk-around logs did help solve the security issues we were facing. It's also increased the number of reference questions we're answering. It also gives us a place to record any little notes we want to make, if there are any issues going on that I need to know about or future desk staff need to be aware of. 

I started out with consumable paper logs that I collected each morning to make sure my staff were remembering to do it. They did great and once I was confident that this was part of our new desk routine, I laminated a log for each desk and provided sharp point dry-erase markers to keep our logs. 

This is something that has worked well for us. What do you do to ensure your staff is providing good customer service at your public desks? 

End of the Year Tasks

Photo by Dafne Cholet

Yesterday was my last day of work in 2015 and for the past couple of weeks, with schools out (no booktalks) and our winter programming break on, I've been concentrating on some end-of-year tasks that will have me in good shape when I return to work in 2016.

• I updated my yearly meeting and program planning doc for 2016. I changed the dates, penciled in meeting agenda items, added dates for submitting program publicity to marketing and special tasks like booking summer performers and ordering prize books for Summer Reading Club. This way, as our department meeting approaches each month, I have a starting point to put together our agenda and I can make sure we have plenty of time to brainstorm program ideas, etc. 
• I looked through our brainstormed list of book display ideas and penciled in twice-monthly display themes and started making the display signs. I think this is a task I may delegate to our new part-time person, so I only made the signs through March. While I love putting up book displays and I've found that we get the best results when we change them every two weeks instead of once a month, it was difficult for me to come up with display ideas on the spot. Planning them out and penciling in ideas helps, and of course we can always change it up if we have great ideas later in the year. 
• We decided our monthly Reading Wildly topics at our last meeting and, together with one of my teen librarians, I have been finding and saving articles for us to read and discuss. 
• As I completed annual evaluations with each of my employees, I made sure to print out a list of their goals so we can touch base throughout the year. 
• I started working on compiling our 2015 statistics for the annual report we submit to the State. Of course, we were still doing programs yesterday so I don't have all the numbers yet, but I hope it'll now be easy work for next week since the bulk of the adding-up is done. (This year, I'm going to compile the stats monthly to share with stakeholders and to make it easier as we're putting together the annual reports next year!)

Unrelated, but still exciting: I finished our 2015 weeding this week, having discovered the magic of teen volunteers pulling weeding candidates. We're all working so many more desk hours now that we have two desks to cover that weeding has been a particular challenge for me. I'm hoping to spend more time in the stacks since we're getting additional part-time help this year. 

What end-of-year tasks do you find helpful? 

On Scheduling Vacation

This is how I envision vacation... Photo by Janne Hellsten

I posted earlier this year about taking vacation and here I am again. A couple of years ago, my library switched our vacation "schedule". Instead of taking your vacation time by your work anniversary date, we now have everyone on a January-December schedule. Employees here are awarded their vacation time January 1 and it must be used by December 31. A limited amount can be carried over each year, but I really try to encourage my staff to take their vacation time throughout the year.

One practice that has helped us with this is penciling in potential vacation time for the year at the beginning of the year. I know that in January not everyone is going to know every vacation date that they want for the whole year, so we are flexible about changing things around as we go. But having my staff look at the calendar and pencil in when they might want to take their time helps us in a couple of ways:

• It helps me plan programming and school visits around folks' vacation time. I always want to give people the time they want off when they want to take it. We earn our vacation time and it's part of our salary. Planning ahead helps me give people the time they want off without driving everyone crazy because we scheduled a ton of programs when we're short staffed. 
• It allows me to see where I have two or three people wanting the same time off (happens most often around the holidays) so I can figure out our staffing levels. If I have to tell someone they can't have the exact days they want, it gives us plenty of time to figure out who will get what and what is a fair compromise. 
• It helps my staff be aware of the vacation time they have and it helps remind them to take it. My library is generous with staff vacation time, especially for staff that have been here awhile. If we go ahead and pencil in weeks for the year, even if they are kind of random weeks, it helps everyone remember that they can use their time even if they're not expecting to go out of town.

I prefer to make my staff schedule pretty far in advance. At the beginning of the month, I start working on the schedule for the next month, so we know our schedule up to 8 weeks in advance. Of course, as we get around to each month, situations may have changed. Staff may or may not want to take the time they penciled in 7 months ago, but I can check with them and make any changes. A couple of days before I start working on the schedule, I send everyone an email asking them to submit any time off requests that they haven't already put in. That has really helped cut down on the amount of times I need to make changes or redo part of the schedule once it's published.

I try with all my might to get staff to schedule their vacation (or at least pencil it in) BEFORE we plan major programs, which requires sending out some reminders. For instance, I just put out a call for winter/spring vacations since I'm about to schedule booktalks for the spring semester. Summer vacation requests must be in by March 1, etc.

We can almost always keep everything covered, but I make sure to maintain a good relationship with our circulation staff and our reference staff just in case we get in a jam and need someone to babysit our desk. Other departments are willing to help us out because they know we are willing to jump on the circ desk if there's a long line or send someone up to the reference desk to cover during a meeting.

How do you or your workplace handle scheduling staff vacations? Any tips or tricks for me?

The Perfection Myth

Image from Indexed

I wouldn't call myself a perfectionist (there is a reason that I ask Ms. T to make all my storytime props - I know she'll take her time and do a better job than I would!). But I do take my work pretty seriously, and as a manager I really try to stay on top of things so that I can help my staff stay on top of things. I try to have my ducks in a row when it comes to scheduling and communicating and touching base with everyone about upcoming programs.

But sometimes I make mistakes.

I recently blogged about the new challenge of becoming a "Youth Services" department and the changes that has necessitated. We now have two desk schedules and lots more programs to keep up with. I now have additional staff to touch base with and coordinate with. We were promised an additional part-time Youth Services clerk, but that has yet to materialize (I am crossing my fingers for January....!).

And all this has meant that sometimes we don't have desk coverage. And sometimes that's just because we don't have the staff, and sometimes it's because I've missed something. A program didn't make it onto the schedule. I didn't realize how long an outreach visit would actually take.

There was a time that I would beat myself up for these mistakes, but I have come to learn that they happen. We readjust. We make notes for next time. We move on.

I am very lucky to have an extremely supportive and capable staff who are willing to change things around and help cover as needed. I can count on one hand the number of times that an organizational mishap has actually affected the people that we serve. (Although that happens occasionally, too! And guess what, people usually understand!)

As a manager, I think the best reaction when these mixups occur is to own it if it's your mistake. Let your staff know that you, too, are human. Be willing to laugh about it, apologize for it, and help cover what needs to be covered. If it's someone else's mistake, remember that it's probably not that big a deal. Address it once you're no longer annoyed and with a proactive mindset - what could be changed to avoid mistakes like this in the future?

The image in this post has been taped to my computer monitor at work since I started my job here six years ago. As a person in my first managerial position, I really put a lot of pressure on myself to get everything right. It's taken me until now, but as I accept this new challenge of managing additional staff and getting to know a new patron base, I have realized that everything's not going to be perfect right away. There's a learning curve here and that's okay.

And I know that one day this will all seem routine and I can go back to feeling on top of things once again.

On Becoming "Youth Services"

There have been changes afoot in my library.

New Teen Scene!

Back in April, our Reference Services and Circulation/Media departments undertook a big move. They moved all the media materials (DVDs, CDs, etc.) and public computers upstairs and moved the Teen Scene downstairs. Basically, these sections flip-flopped in order to create a teen area that is MUCH bigger, allows the space for teens to talk and hang out, has teen-only computers (that we can actually enforce), is close to the Children's Room while still being a completely separate area, and has its own reference desk.

I LOVE our new teen area.

In June, we merged Teen and Children's Services to create the Youth Services Department, which I am now supervising (previously I was only supervising the Children's staff). It was a move that makes sense for us, although I know some librarians would argue for keeping Teen part of adult services or making Teen its own department.

Teens can actually make noise here!

The staff employed in Children's are a good fit to serve as back up and support for our teen librarians. Because the teen area is across the hall from Children's, it's easier for us to help patrons and work hours on the desk than it would be to bring someone down from Reference. Our middle schools have students in grades 5th-8th, so Children's and Teen were working together to serve them with booktalking visits anyway. We also work together on our Summer Reading Club offerings. It was a natural evolution to merge our areas of the library and all work together serving our young people.

It's been a very positive change, but it hasn't always been easy. We had to carve out office space for our teen librarians (previously their only work stations were at the public desk, which is just not super feasible for some kinds of work). We are now covering two desks with no additional staff, which means that everyone is working a lot more desk hours (including me! I am not used to this!). We're trying to make evening and weekend scheduling as fair as possible (hard to do with no additional staff), so everyone is working extra evenings and weekends for the time being.

Luckily, I have amazing, hardworking, talented staff. They have faced this challenge head-on with me and everyone has been extremely positive and flexible as we've made these changes.

Teen Reference Desk!

I have worked hard to get our Children's staff comfortable with working in the teen area. I brought in a trainer from our State Library to do a workshop on teen behavior and another trainer to do a Reference workshop. (Teens' projects can be a lot more involved than elementary projects!) We have been consciously scheduling "Children's" staff to work the teen desk so that everyone becomes familiar with where things are located and starts to feel more comfortable interacting with and helping teen patrons.

It's been a learning curve for patrons, too. For the most part, patrons LOVE our new teen area like I do, but we do have occasional complaints about the adult computers being moved upstairs. We have been fighting the good fight for our teens to have this dedicated space.

(I just want to tell all the adults that adults get the WHOLE WORLD, so they need to respect that we have carved out this one room just for teens!)

Students-only computers!

Adults are, of course, welcome to browse and use the teen collection and check out teen materials. They are restricted from setting up shop in the teen area (unless they are working with or supervising a teen, i.e. tutors or parents) and they are not allowed to use the teen computers.

Slowly but surely I am getting used to supervising additional staff (I am now supervising our Youth Services page, too), trying to figure out our crazy schedule, and making notes of changes we need to make, supplies we need to purchase and procedures we need to work out. I know it's difficult to change supervisors and that I manage a department differently from our Reference supervisor, so it's a new experience for all of us.

It has been a lot of work. It has taken a lot of my time and energy to take on this new challenge, but it is so, so worth it. Youth Services for the win!

Debriefing the Summer Reading Club at the ALSC Blog

Today, I'm over at the ALSC Blog, talking about how we debrief our Summer Reading Club. Do you dedicate time to reflecting on and discussing your successes and the things you could improve about your Summer Reading Club? What kinds of things do you talk about? What changes have you made?

Click on over to the ALSC Blog to check it out and add your two cents!

I Didn't Check My Email (and Lived to Tell the Tale)

Vacation! No emails in sight...

This past October, I had the pleasure of taking Marge Loch-Waters's online youth services management class and I wanted to post about one small thing I'm trying to put into practice:

Your email does not have to own you. 

On last week's vacation, I made a pact to myself that I would not check my work email. I'm often so tempted to log in, even just to delete the hundreds of ads I know will be waiting in my inbox. But even if it's mostly ads, there's always something I need to respond to. Maybe it's something I can respond to or forward right away, maybe it's something I need to star and come back to later. But logging in when I'm supposed to be off work just lets it into my head. 

And, especially in a career when SO MANY OF US struggle to find a balance between life and work, it's important to know that you can draw a line. I still thought about checking it at least once a day while I was away, but I made a conscious decision not to log in, not to let that email encroach on my vacation time.

Guess what?

Everything was fine. My staff held down the fort. They knew that if something important came up, they could call me. And when I finally did log in to my email, out of over 100 emails, only about 20 of them had information I needed or items I needed to respond to.

Don't let your email run your life (or ruin your vacation)! Keep these things in mind:

• It was pointed out in my management class that no one expects an instant response to an email. If something that urgent is happening, someone will call or text you.
  
• You can set an auto-response so that anyone who does email you will know who to contact if they need a response more quickly. I always make sure to set mine up, particularly because I will sometimes get school collection requests emailed directly to me and those can be time-sensitive.
  
• No one minds you taking a vacation. If someone does mind, she's probably not a nice person. You're probably being conscientious about scheduling your vacation time to create the least disturbance and to make sure everything is covered or breaks are well-advertised. You earn that time off as part of your salary. Take it!
  
• And you need to take care of yourself so that you can take care of your patrons. The burned-out, no-rest librarian can all-too-easily turn into the bitter, resentful librarian and not the welcoming, flexible paragon of customer service that your patrons deserve. If you're checking in twice a day while you're on vacation, are you really getting the rest you need? 

Even now that I'm back to work, I'm trying to wean myself of the habit of checking my email first thing in the morning and constantly throughout the day. Yes, I like the idea of being available to teachers and patrons and colleagues so that working with me is super easy and awesome. But, as suggested by one of my management classmates, I'm making an effort to check off a couple things on my to-do list in the morning before I check my email. I'm trying to consciously close my inbox when I'm not actively working on email, which results in a lot fewer interruptions. 

So, take stock of your email habits. If you feel like your email is owning you, maybe it's time to rethink some things. 

(Super thank-you goes out to Marge Loch-Waters and all of my awesome YS Management classmates! I'm finding lots of ways to implement what I've learned in that class!)

Keeping Organized at the @ALSCBlog

Friends, I'm over at the ALSC Blog today talking about how I keep myself organized for program deadlines and staff meetings. Please click on over there and add your input!

Somehow, I Manage

I've written about my experiences with library management before, but a lot has happened since then. I am far, far, far, far from being a perfect manager, but I feel like I am finally starting to get to where I want to be, manager-wise. We've had some staffing changes in my department over the last year, including a retirement and hiring an MLS children's librarian (the only MLS in our department besides myself). It's changed how I look at things, and so today I offer some tips from what I've learned.

First, a little background: I'm the Children's Manager at a one-library system in Southern Indiana (i.e. no branches). When at full staff, I supervise three full-time and two part-time employees (we have not actually been at full staff since last spring, but hopefully we will be soon!). We recently hired an MLS children's librarian who is full time, and at present one of my part-timers holds an MLS, as well (though she is not currently in an MLS position here and her experience is in law libraries). The other full-timers are paraprofessionals.

CC: terren in Virginia

Celebrate the achievements of your staff and challenge them to achieve more. When you're a manager, the job's not all about YOU developing an awesome new program. It's about what your department develops, how your department as a whole serves patrons and meets goals. This has definitely been a transition for me. I've had to change from thinking about what programs I have done to make myself look good, to add to my own portfolio, to talk up in potential future job interviews to allowing my staff to take ownership of their own programs. To guide, but not take over. To help brainstorm but not dictate ideas.

You know what will happen when you do this? Your staff (if they are awesome like my staff) will take stuff off your plate. They will have their own ideas, they will do it their way. And you'll find yourself with free time to develop NEW ideas. You will also realize that it is not the end of the world to turn a program over to someone else, even if it is a program you really like.

It's important to develop your staff. They need it. If you have new librarians, they're trying to build their resumes and portfolios, too. It might be for future jobs or it might be for committee work or leadership roles in library associations or other groups. So let them plan, let them execute, let them take responsibility.

CC: Phil_Parker

Train, train, train. In Indiana, we're required to earn Library Education Units to keep our certification, but that's not the only reason you should send your staff to training. Find out what your options are for sending your staff to workshops or meetings or bringing in trainers. Think about what areas you want to concentrate on over the next few years, what programs you hope your department will offer. Do you have new staff who need to take an Every Child Ready to Read workshop? Would your department benefit from someone taking an online class about STEAM programming? Make it happen. Ask your staff to share the information they learned with the rest of your department. Don't take all the professional development budget for yourself, even if your employees don't ask to attend conferences or workshops, or even if you are presenting at conferences. (Yes, I have been guilty of this!)

Deal with problems as soon as possible. Ignoring it will NOT make it better, but will only make it harder when you do finally have to deal with it. If you're noticing it, your staff is noticing it, too, and it's probably bringing down morale and productivity. It's sometimes unpleasant to deal with problems, especially if they concern people you like. Believe me, it's not going to be any more fun to deal with six months from now and it's not going to get better on its own.

Going along with that: document, document, document! It can be hard to see a pattern of bad behavior over a period of weeks or months unless you're keeping track.

Document the good stuff, too. We do yearly evaluations and it is always so helpful to be able to turn to my files and have examples at hand of good things my employees have done. This may also show you employees' strengths and weaknesses, which is helpful for when you consider moving duties around or taking on new projects. If you get compliments from patrons about your staff members, send 'em up to your boss. Not only is it a great practice to brag on your employees, but it reflects well on your department, too.

Go to your boss or a mentor for help. I am lucky to have a very supportive administration, including the new director we got a year and a half ago and a super human resources manager. You also might have a mentor or colleagues at your library (other department heads) or in your library community (another great reason to be active in state and national library associations!) you can turn to. I know not everyone is as lucky as I am, but if you find yourself with those resources, USE THEM. No librarian is an island and you don't have to deal with problems on your own.

CC: tanakawho

Plan, plan, plan. Last spring and summer we were dealing with some staffing issues and I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants when it came to planning the Summer Reading Club. I sat down in May or so and planned the next 12 months, including programs and programming breaks, deadlines for Summer Reading Club tasks and program calenders, and agenda items for monthly meetings. It's hard to get us all together for meetings, but it's important to me to stay on track.

I started with the kick-off date for the 2013 Summer Reading Club and thought about how fan in advance I'd like each task to be completed so that I could make our deadlines. For example, we visit the schools to talk up SRC and distribute calendars in May, so our program calendar needs to be completed, proofread, and run off by mid-April. That means all our program assignments, dates, and blurbs need to be finished by the beginning of April, etc. Once I had deadlines for program calendars and SRC tasks, I went through month by month to outline agenda items for the monthly meetings. Of course, we add any additional agenda items we need to when it comes time for the meeting.

And yes, I wrote down in my plans when it's time to write out plans for the next year. ;)

Those are some of the things I've learned over the past year of managing my children's department. I am still (always) polishing my skills and striving to communicate clearly and often. I know there is lots of room for improvement. What other library management tips do you have to share?

On Being the Boss

We're in the story hour room, which is connected to our Children's Services offices by a door which was currently open. While we were doing the craft at my program, two of my staff members came in from the office, exclaimed over the kids' projects, and then went back into the office. Then the Kindergartners and I had the following conversation:

Kindergartners: Do they live in there?
Me: No, they don't live in there. They work in there.
Kindergartners: Oh, are those the offices?
Me: Yes, those are the offices.
Kindergartners: Do you work in there?
Me: Yes. I work in there and Miss T and Miss A work in there, too. We all work in the offices.
Kindergartners: *pause* Who is the boss?
Me: I am the boss.
Kindergartners: *Are they looking at me with newfound respect or am I imagining it?* Ooooh.

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Managing youth services. 

It's not something I ever thought I would be doing. But it turns out that sometimes in order to have a job in a certain area or to make a living wage, you're destined for management. And, honestly, it has its ups and downs. (Mostly ups for me, since I am lucky to have a wonderful staff and very supportive administration.) 

Today I want to talk a little bit about what I do as a department head. But first, a little background. 

My title is Children's Services Manager and I'm the only MLS librarian in my department. I supervise three full-time and two part-time employees. I've been there for almost three years now. Before I started my current position, I was a Youth Services Librarian I for 2.5 years at a different library in a different state.

I think the biggest change for me when I took my current job was the increased responsibility. That sounds obvious, I know, but suddenly instead of being responsible for my own work, I was responsible for the work of a handful of people. It's up to me to decide how to run the department, which programs we're going to offer, what we're going to spend our money on. It's also up to me to cover if someone calls in sick or needs to be off. I'm salaried, which means that I can work my normal 37.5 hours or I can work 50 hours a week and I'm paid the same.

As manager, I'm responsible for keeping track of time sheets, doing staff evaluations, attending managers' meetings, and reporting to the director and/or Library Board about our department. I'm also responsible for dealing with problem patrons and mediating any problems among my staff. And I'm the one who can decide to bend the rules.

The hardest part for me is figuring out how to balance the work I love to do (children's services, outreach, collection development) with the work I have to do (the management stuff). And I've learned a few things about that since I started:

- It's impossible to do everything I want to do all at once. Relax. There is plenty of time. If I don't get this super awesome program started this year, I can always try it next year. Good ideas'll keep.

- It is necessary to delegate. Yes, that means that sometimes I don't get to go to every school I love to do our afterschool programs. Yes, that means that some days I have to let other people interact with patrons while I work on staff evaluations in my freezing cold office. But I have realized that if I don't delegate, I'm going to burn out and fast.

- Everybody has a different way of doing things, and it's okay if not every single thing is done the way I would do it. As long as the work gets done and we're serving our patrons, I can let go of the details. Also: I do not always know best! I learn as much from my staff as they learn from me.

For me, the first year of management was the hardest and it's gotten much easier since then. Since I was coming in to a new library, learning a new community, I didn't want to change everything right away. I wanted to go through a year the way things would typically be before I decided what needed to change. That meant doing a Summer Reading Club I didn't plan myself, that meant doing storyhour the way it had always been done. But once I had done that, I felt like I had the knowledge to know what we should keep and what we should change.

And of course, it's essential to get staff input along the way. I'm lucky to have an energetic, passionate staff and my employees are generally up for whatever I ask of them. I want them to feel ownership of their department, so I let them be in charge of their programs (offering help when needed, of course). My job is not to do their work, but to give them the tools to do their work.

Perhaps the best advice I can give to anyone taking the leap to management is to never speak in anger. Always, always, always think before you react to a situation. If you can't react rationally at that moment, walk away and take some time before you say things you might regret. Always try to see all sides of an issue. Always get everyone's story before dealing with interpersonal problems (including patron complaints). And always treat everyone fairly. Your staff know if you're treating some of them differently and they will talk to each other about it and it will undermine morale.

Think about the managers you've had. And strive to emulate the good ones. And learn how not to manage from the bad ones. And you will be fine.

Other library managers out there? What would your advice for new managers be?