What if everybody read the same article?

Today's guest post is from Susan Gilmont, who is a Library Technician with Guin Library at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. She writes about how she and her team are working together to re-imagine space use in the library -- and this could really apply to any type of change any group is working towards or facing. Be sure to check out her helpful list of resources at the end of her article!


Current Awareness Reading for Library Teams

Is your department facing changes in the year ahead? Would you like to give everyone in your unit a shared vocabulary as you move forward? Current awareness reading is a valuable technique that can help groups adapt to change and form a united perspective.

The Setting:
I work at the Guin Library, a small branch of the Oregon State University Libraries, located over 50 miles away from our main campus and main library. We have 2.75 FTE, including a librarian and two library technicians. Although we travel to our main campus several times a year, and we are able to attend library meetings by polycom, we are to some extent cut off from the rich learning environment of our main library.

The Issues:
The OSU Libraries are in the process of building a culture of assessment, in which we examine and attempt to quantify our efforts. Our staff needs to learn current thinking about assessment. We also need to develop assessment projects of our own to contribute to the Libraries’ efforts.

In addition, we are in the process of redesigning our library. The marine science center where we are based is short on space, and we have an abundance of space in the library. We want to re-envision space to the best advantage for library users. As part of this effort, we are studying how patrons use the library.

Our Process:
The Guin Library Team meets once a week. Each month, we agree on an article to read. Any team member can suggest reading material. We read one article each month. We use many sources to find articles, such as LITA recommended reading resources, discussion lists, or American Libraries Online. To help us think about the articles, our librarian gave us this template to use:

1. Citation for article read
2. Intended audience
3. Methodology used
4. Premise of article
5. Findings
6. Applications for this material / What can be shared?
7. Other staff comments

Results:
Our current awareness reading program has worked well for us. We’ve learned much more about assessment, and one of the articles (Hoivik) gave us the method we used for a recent study of space use. We’ve enhanced our understanding of how technology is changing library use. Better still, we have an incentive to be on the lookout for good articles for the group to read, an incentive to be active learners. Whether you are trying to help someone stubbornly resisting change, or to inspire and re-invigorate your staff, a current awareness reading program might be just the thing for your group.

For those who might be interested, here are some of the articles we have read:

Zeno's Projects

I was on vacation in late October and early November. Since we weren't planning any major trips, I had a list of projects to get done at home, including trying new recipes, learning new music, and selling some stuff on Ebay. However, the weather was gorgeous, and I didn't want to spend much time inside, so I concentrated on one project in our yard. I had started it in February, simply planning to prune the ivy away from a brick border during a time it was too wet to do much else. Once I got started, I discovered a lot of other over-grown things, and began to feel I'd never finish. I eventually named it Zeno's Yard Project, after the best-know of Zeno's paradoxes.

This Zeno's paradox basically says that it's impossible to get anywhere, because you always have to cover half the distance left, and then half that distance, and then half that distance, etc., etc. I was fascinated with it as a child; I remember trying to keep moving my finger smaller and smaller distances, but never touch the wall I was standing by. My Zeno Yard Project was something like that. I did finish it (after all, it is a paradox), but it involved a lot of work, and some serious sawing of 30-year-old arbor vitae and cotoneaster, not to mention pulling dried blackberry canes out of 10-foot-tall holly trees. and pulling up half-inch thick ivy vines. (For those concerned about invasive species, I'm replacing these invaders with native plants)

So what does this have to do with libraries? Well, after I got back to work, I started to notice that I've got a number of Zeno project here, too. They tend to be pretty technical services oriented, although I imagine folks in other library disicplines have them, too. Mine are usually lists (fequently in Create Lists in Millenium) of records than need to evaluated, and possibly updated or deleted. They frequently point out other problems that need to be addressed. They also typically aren't particularly high priority, so other demands take my attention away from them for months at a time.

I bet most of you out there in support staff land have similar projects. I'm not claiming to be in control of mine, but I have come up with some coping ideas:

• Scope small: It's easier (and safer) to eat things in small bites. Don't get distracted from the thing you set out to accomplish. For instance, if your goal is to clean up check-in records, don't start cleaning up order records.
  
• Harvest the low-hanging fruit: Do the easy stuff first. It's possible that will be enough.
• Ask for help: You might need someone with different expertise to handle some of the project. Or, with a more general project, you may be able to turn it into a group event, where everyone pitches in for an hour.
• Say "no": This is tough! If the project is really low-value and low-priority, a diplomatic "I'm sorry, but other priorities will keep me from working on this" is worth a try. (Of course, this is assuming this isn't a project that you assigned to yourself!). At the very least, asking to postpone the project, and giving a recommended date to start, may help.

We're all juggling multiple priorities in busy workplaces. Recognizing and managing Zeno projects can make our work a little easier.