Check out this great video, Social Media Revolution. Spotted today on LibraryBytes!

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I’ve been listening to George and Joan, Thinking Out Loud for a while now and always find their insights helpful or intriguing. Their latest podcast is a favorite of mine, as it resonated with many of my own personal beliefs about libraries. In the podcast, they share their “This We Believe” statement and how their own personal beliefs both differed and melded together as they prepared to share their thoughts. One quote in particular from Joan, really reflects how I’m feeling about library service these days:

I believe that we need to be community specialists, not just subject specialists. Human behavior over time reveals patterns, and those patterns can and should inform our work. It’s okay for the individuals and communities we serve to want what they want, and it’s not our job to bring them around to our point of view. I believe that our most important product is the user experience, and that we are most effective when we support and facilitate rather than control and deliver that experience.

I’ll have this in mind when I walk through the doors of my library as a first-time director on Monday. It’s thrilling to face a new challenge in my life, and I look forward to getting to know the communities of Kimberly and Little Chute so that I can shape the library’s services around their needs and wants. I can’t wait to get started.

Listen to the podcast, One From the Heart. Shape your own belief statement and share it. I’ll be working on mine!

I recently attended an online webinar sponsored by SirsiDynix Institute entitled “Leading in Difficult Times,” presented by Kitty Pope from the Alliance Library System in Illinois. I found Pope’s presentation inspiring, so I visited her system’s web site to sign up to receive her weekly articles, “On a + Note.” The weekly articles and the slides from her presentation are available here.

Pope’s article Where Does Self Confidence Come From? really struck a chord with me in light of an upcoming career change I’m embracing. She wrote:

I believe self-confidence is the difference between being scared and being passionate; it’s how we feel about ourselves and what we can accomplish. In these challenging times, I think our communal self-confidence to truly affect change, has taken some serious blows. The good news is self-confidence can be learned and nurtured. So, how do we stay confident in these stressful times? Where does self-confidence come from? To be self-confident, you need to control your inner fears. You need to be conscious of what scares you and take actions to bring your inner turmoil under control.

In July, I will become the new director of the Kimberly-Little Chute Public Library. I am so excited and thrilled to have been given this opportunity! But to be honest, it’s also bringing out some fears and worries that I’m grappling with now.

I know I’ll have  A LOT to learn in my new position, and that’s a bit daunting. I’m leaving a job I’ve built over the past 11 years and an employer I greatly respect and appreciate, so that’s a bit daunting, too.  I have a family I help support, so leaving the safety and security of a known-entity is also a bit intimidating, especially in the current economy.

But here’s the deal. I am going to face my fears. I am going to take a leap. I am going to be completely out of my comfort zone for quite a while. And I am going to face my fear so that I can live a passion-filled life doing what I love doing and learning more and more each day. I can hardly wait to get started!

Thanks go out to Kitty Pope for the inspiration.

Here’s a video I came across in a post on LibraryBytes. I keep going back to it again and again, because I find it inspiring and a good reminder of how I want to be in my professional life. Take a look and see what you think!

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YouTube Direkt

I received a funny message in my email yesterday morning:

So sorry to bother you, but I had an accident – my coffee spilled in my bag and I lost the little cards that you handed out at the conference.

Really it’s true

Do you mind sending me the links for Googlicious and Casting@Owls.

I replied by asking if her dog drank the coffee and ate her bag, too… ;)  And then sent the links along to the info for my presentations at WAPL.

But here’s what made my day. She ended her message by saying:

I’m inspired to try something new.

Way, way, way cool. Today is a good day!

Helene Blowers recently shared a link to her library’s annual report in her blog, LibraryBytes. The Columbus Metropolitan Library has decided not to create a paper report, but to instead create an online version to save money and contribute to the green movement. After only a brief look, I have to say I LOVE IT! It is so much more engaging than any print version could ever be. What a fantastic way to share what your organization has accomplished in a real and tangible way. Great job, CML!

Be sure to take a look and post your thoughts in the comments!

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Seth Godin’s book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, and today I was thrilled to find Godin’s presentation on tribes on TED.com. I found not only his message inspiring, but also the way in which he presented it. Check it out!

I subscribe to Gale’s Funny You Should Ask…, a weekly email that comes every Monday “presenting real-world questions that cause reference librarians to wonder: ‘Why in the world would anybody want to know that?’” If you’re interested, you can sign up to receive it here. I loved this week’s question:

What if your turtle isn’t moving?

(Asked by a very young child on the phone.)

I just think this is a beautiful thing! Okay, sad, because it may not be a good thing if your turtle isn’t moving anymore, but beautiful because this child thought to call the library. We may not be able to answer every question that comes to us, but isn’t it great to be the first choice?!

I had the honor of being a presenter for 2 sessions at last week’s Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries (WAPL) conference in Wisconsin Dells.

The first session I did was a report on the ‘Casting grant OWLS received in 2008. You can view the slides here or take a look at the ‘Casting @ OWLS blog for all the details.

In the afternoon, I had a great time presenting Googlicious! with Stef Morrill, Associate Director of the South Central Library System. Stef is always a blast to present with, and we had a standing room only crowd which made it all the more exciting. Here’s the link to a site we created for the session.

Thanks to everyone who attended my sessions, and thanks to all who helped out with the conference! It’s a lot of work to pull these conferences off, and I, for one, appreciate everyone who worked to make it happen.