Customer Service Experience

Although I am terribly late in completing this task, here goes....

I last ate out at a restaurant on Friday, October 4 at a local restaurant called OKRA. I eat there all the time and am friends with (and former employee of) the owners and typically have good experience. But, as in any place you eat at regularly you find that you prefer some servers over others. On Friday, I was lucky to get the waitress I really like. She has taken the time to learn what I like and always jokes that I am in such good moods on Fridays. When she waits on me, I never have to ask for refills or the check, she is always on top of it, and Friday was no exception. My one complaint is that she is one of those waitresses who calls everyone sweetie and honey...I don't really like that. To me, calling customers pet names is a little too informal and frankly insincere since you call EVERYONE sweetie, etc. Plus, calling people by some pet name tells me that you never took the time to learn their actual name. But, that is a minor complaint, I suppose she could call me much worse than sweetheart. OKRA is very consistent and the food is fantastic, so I usually leave a very happy girl!

A Look Back at PLMI....

Our week at PLMI went by so fast! I think I put in more hours than a regular work week...and that's saying a lot! All joking aside, it was truly a great experience and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to get to know my fellow Directors as well as Heather and Laura. Although I learned a lot about what I am doing right and what I need to do, I think what I found most beneficial was the time we took to stop, breathe, and THINK. I was able to reflect on how far we have come in my library in only a few short months, and I was able to take the time to really ponder where I want us to go. The time away from family, work, and cell phone service was probably the greatest advantage to last week, as time is so short in our everyday lives.

I am happy to say that I am attempting to use my Pomodero and had relatively good success today. I actually did accomplish quite a bit on my to do list. The hardest parts are the interruptions that come along in the day to day...board members stopping by, customers who want to say hello, etc. and those people you just cannot control. I am going to keep trying it and hoping it works well. I am actually going to give it a-go with school work as well.

My staff and I are planning a staff meeting soon so that I can relay to them the new mode we are entering and I will be finding ways to expand their education in the areas that interest them. Let's face it, we are much more productive when we do things we enjoy, right? They are aware that I am going to be working on policy and procedures and have been great about offering up ideas and comments on items they do not feel are clear within the existing policies. We have a lot of new and exciting things that are in the planning phase right now and I am hoping to successfully capitalize on their momentum.

I will say that immediately upon my return I sent out an email to my board and attended a special meeting tonight with my Friends group. After hearing some of the stories from other directors I realized how incredibly fortunate I am to have a board that is proactive and incredibly supportive. I never feel alone and we have a great working relationship and I began to see how very important that is and how much I had just taken it for granted, assuming they must all be this way. I took some time to attend the Friends meeting tonight so that I could tell them thank you for all they do. Now knowing that many of our libraries either have no Friends group or have those that are not effective I feel so fortunate once again to have a very active and successful group that manages to achieve incredible feats for the good or our library. Again, we have a great working relationship and they are so proud of where we are and are without doubt my number one fans. They have recently recruited several new, young members that have brought a new energy and creativity to the table and will be working on some great new projects. One of these new members is a good friend of mine that also has an MBA and a brilliant business mind. She has agreed to help me with my strategic planning so that I can lay out plans that are more like business plans in a nice presentable format. Being so intertwined with the library she can also help to keep me grounded (as I tend to want to seriously overachieve) and lay out realistic one year, three year and ten year plans. Again, I am terribly fortunate.

So, overall, at PLMI I re-learned something...I am bad ass (that one is for you, Heather)! Yes, I think we established that I probably have a little too much confidence, but we can all blame my mother who never wasted a minute of my life telling me that I have to love myself and believe in myself because sometimes I maybe the only one who does. Moreover, one must be confident if one wishes others to follow. While I have managed to achieve great things in the past 6 months or so (a $38,000 increase to operating funds to name one), I have several tricks up my sleeve that I now feel are more manageable and doable. I am going to seriously focus on training and creating my ideal library based on the vision I see at the horizon. I also learned that in general we librarians tend to not think ourselves to be great or important, and we need to realize just how incredible we are! I mean, it takes someone special to do this work. We certainly don't do it for the money or the glory! We do it because, as we discovered, we have all had something happen in our lives that brought us here and informed our hearts that we are meant to serve a greater good and in some small way change our little part of the world for the better.

PLMI Day 4

I have to admit that I began to lose some steam today. By Day 4 I, like I am sure most of us, am really beginning to feel the effects of being away from home: my husband, my kid, my dog, my routine, and my bed! Nonetheless, Day 4 proved no less useful and educational.

One of our assigned group activities was to teach class for a while, and our group (the overachievers) was assigned the topic of Directing. In the process of researching, planning and creating our presentation one very important notion became clear. Although we were attempting to break the topic down and tackle it in components, we had to realize the under the umbrella of Directing pretty much all of those areas close related to one another. More importantly, as directors, we need to understand them all and know how to synthesize those skills and tools in order to be most effective. I think most enlightening was the area that I spent the most time on, which was empowerment and its closely related cousin, motivation. I definitely have not spent time and energy understanding empowerment and sadly have not devoted the time to actually doing it with my staff.

Lani gave a fabulous presentation about organization. I have longed prided myself on my organizational skills. But, I have recently begun to question just how good I am at it. Because I began at my library under somewhat hectic and odd circumstances I have not taken the time to be truly organized and the results have begun to bother me. Lani gave some great tips and made some wonderful analogies. I realized that I am quite organized when it comes to "stuff" but am not all that great at actually organizing people and tasks...a result of not having adequate plans and structure.

PLMI Day 3

What a day we have had! It seems that everyone has begun to be more comfortable and getting to know one another, making for a more jovial experience here at PLMI. Today was not only informative but also fun and inspiring.

Much of what we discuss pertaining to leadership is nothing new for me. I spent my high school years heavily involved in the FFA and attended leadership camps and retreats right here at Fall Creek Falls (as odd is that is!)  and continued on with leadership development in college and employment. Yet, as I have grown older and moved into ever more demanding roles of leadership and administration, the pracical implementation of those skills is a constantly evolving process. Today's real treat came from our visit with Dr. Self. I was touched, inspired, and surprised by not so much what she had to say but how she drove her points home.

My expereience with Dr. Self surprised me because I was prepared for another speaker to come in and give a PowerPoint presentation while preaching to me about leadership. Yet, she taught through metaphor and analogy and the self-reflection exercise made me truly stop and take account of where I am and why I am there. During our partner exercise I was touched by Kim's story and I was inspired by the passion I saw in her eyes when she related that experience to me. But, more than that I was inspired by myself. By making me pause and think about what I am passionate about and how my expereience had helped to shape me and inadvertantly bring me to my current position, I felt an almost immediate sense of renewal, a new attitude emerged. I am vowing to return home and make myself take time out of the blinding paperwork and constant office duties to allow my heart to be filled by actually spending time with people and focusing my efforts on creating a library that offers a level playing field for everyone through the empowerment of education and access to information....a statement that I think is the beginning of either a vision or mission statement. I actually feel like I made a great stride today in helping me to be the best Director I can be.

An Interview with Daphne Windham

Until today I felt sure that among our PLMI class I would definitely be the newest to the Director's post. Yet, I now know that I was wrong, and newly appointed Briceville Public Library Director Daphne Windham beat me out by a month. Although Daphne and I come from varied backgrounds and live and work in counties that are hundreds of miles apart, we share many of the triumphs and tribulations that are common in rural libraries, and despite many challenges, Daphne is forging ahead.

Born and raised in Anderson County, Tennessee, Daphne spent her childhood in the Briceville Public Library, making her a natural fit for the role of its Director. Daphne related that in her adult life she returned to her local library by way of her three children. As a mom, she sometimes felt the need to get out of the house with her kids, and what better place to go than the library. The role of library customer transitioned into working with the Friends of the Library, which then led to her filling the vacant Assstant's position. When the long time Director was forced to vacate because of health reasons, Daphne transitioned into the directorship beginning on February 1, 2013. Like all of us, Daphne struggles with the constraints of space and funds, but works each day to make the most of what she has, and this month will move library operations into a brand new facility. When I asked Daphne what she considers her greatest accomlishment to be thus far, she replied "we're still there." As someone who can relate to this new world of library Director, that accomplishment is certainly one to be relished.

Because as librarians we are often seen as that persona instead of our own indiviudal personalities, the public sometimes forgets that we are dynamic people with layers of history and personality. Daphne, of course, is no different. Her children are the fifth generation of her family to live in their current house, which in my opinion speaks volumes about her sense of family roots and the importance of tradition. Daphne and her husband have been married for 18 years, and while I will not share the details of their hardships, I will say that they have been incredible obstacles to overcome. From only the short time we spoke, I can tell without question that her three boys (ages 11, 13, and 16) are the light of her life. Like so many of us, Daphne did not set out to become a library director. Instead she began her studies as a paralegal and then moved into the waste management business within the famed town of Oak Ridge. These previous occupations seem varied for sure, but the skills she acquired seamlessly transferred to her new role as Director and have only served to make her stronger in that role. Daphne enjoys reading (naturally), she is a self-proclaimed lover of history, and enjoys writing whenever she possibly can.

I have no doubt that Daphne will sustain a long and successful career at the Briceville Public Library. I know this because I could see the passion in her eyes when she spoke about her new plans for her institution upon moving into their new space. I can also tell that she feels a vested interest in making her library serve it's people as well as possible. Afterall, her roots are deep in her hometown and it will likely be the perminant home of her sons and (at least some) of her future grandchildren.

Day 2: Time Management and Personal Branding

Day 2 of PLMI has been instructional and incredibly useful. Kia's presentation on personal and library branding was great! I was telling her over lunch how helpful it was in the simplest ways....so many times I recognize abstractly that I need to work on my brand or image, but I just don't know where to start or exactly how to formulate the plan and implement it effectively. So, having someone so adept in that area come and lay out even the simplest basics is hugely helpful. Formulating both my brand and that of the Library is definitely on my to do list. I have a general idea of what I want to express, it is just knowing how to do it.

I was reading Lani's blog earlier and she made a really important point about what we learned from Kia today. She pointed out that she is not the person she was five years ago and will not be this person in five years. This is really important because we have to recognize that we are ever changing people and our goals and visions will change, and we absolutely must be open to embracing those changes.

Our work on professionalism was great today as well. However, in examining one of the most vital traits in a professional, that of time management, was profoundly useful for me. I have realized for a while now that I needed to get a hold on my time at work and be more efficient and productive, especially with a baby at home that I feel I never see. Being so new to my position and my library I really had to hit it hard and create immediate results because of the particular situation we were in. Well, that hard work has paid off, and as I was telling Heather today, I am now in a trasitional period of management and leadership. I had begun to explore ways to keep track of what I need to do and how much I was actually accomplishing, but still felt I needed a more structured approach. I am really looking forward to trying out the Pomodoro technique and am hopeful it will work for me. I think, like most of us, I will struggle with saying no and forcing myself to complete one tast before beginning another. One of my biggest downfalls is email. I recognize that I allow myself too much time and attention to email, when I really should limit myself to particular blocks of time in the day. I am also a proponent of an open door policy for my staff and my customers, but lately I have been forcing myself to close the door and alert the staff to limit their knocks to only those things that cannot wait. Being the beginning of the fiscal year and budget time, this was more easily done out of absolute necessity. I really like to encourage the free flow of ideas between my staff and I, and worry that telling them to wait until I finish what I am working on will be a difficult thing to do. But, sometimes we have to take a step back and contemplate the bigger picture and force ourselves to do those things we are uncomfortable with for the benefit of the greater good.

My Name is Jill &...

I am an organized researcher who directs others in a forward momentum through leadership by example.


"I am" statement exercise result from our session with Kia Jarmon of MEPR, Nashville, TN. Thanks for a great presentation and work session today, Kia!

PLMI Day One--The Bigger Picture

The start of the Public Library Management Institute has finally arrived, and here we are at the beautiful Fall Creek Falls State Park to begin our three year journey together. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been accepted into this program, as being so new to the public library setting it will be an invaluable piece to my career portfolio. I have a diverse background that includes independent book retail, archaeology/architectural history, city planner, and manager/administrator. But, I have no background in running a public library. So, while I know a thing or two about working with local government and running large budgets, I lack a great deal of knowledge pertaining to the history and background information pertaining to the Tennessee public library system.

Day 1 has gotten off to a great start! Our class has spent a good deal of time participating in ice breakers and getting to know one another--most importantly sharing some horror stories about their experiences, making us realize that we are never alone in our library adventures. As someone brand new to this scene, that is a priceless comfort! We heard from Don Reynolds about some of the background and "big picture" items relating to the ALA and other organizations that in a sense form the backbone of what we do. It was very interesting to learn about the core values of librarianship and what we believe in. Perhaps most interesting is how similar those notions are to those found in the ABA (American Booksellers Association). I was quite proud to be a "militant and radical" bookseller and am even more proud to find that many of those same principles apply to my current role as a "militant and radical" librarian. Although nothing new, it was great to hear Lynette's presentation on the Regional Library System and the history it entails.

Something I keep thinking about is the idea of creating a balanced library with a balanced collection. I am absolutely all about free speech and the right to read, but living in a small, rural community presents issues in that area in many cases. So we are told to not inhibit the access to knowledge, but at the same time we must reflect the values and character of our communities--particularly considering that those are the people and groups that fund our libraries and the programs we may offer. It is most definitely a fine line to walk and a tight rope to balance and one wonders the best way to navigate these sometimes treacherous waters. Is there a best way?

My weak area also entails policy making--a topic that Don discussed at length. Unfortunately, my predecessor left on not-so-good terms, so my library and the staff I inherited did not come with an instruciton manual! In many cases it is completely unclear as to whether certain policies exist or have ever existed. So, I am thinking that maybe I will take the approach I have already begun and throw out the play book and start over in many cases. I prefer to take responsiblity for whatever I am in charge of, so my "restart button" approach has been successful so far and I have been able to begin anew and do things my way. However, writing library policy is not something I have expereince with, so I will be visiting my regional library for some help with that. I prefer to go to my board well informed and with a solid plan!

Gearing Up for PLMI!

In the state of Tennessee we are fortunate to have a program sponsored by the State Library and Archives that is specifically geared for public library directors (like me) who do not have advanced degrees in library sciences. This three year long program is designed to help us become better library managers by allowing us to network and learn about new ways to advance our libraries. Next week we head up to Fall Creek Falls State Park for our first year of Public Library Management Institute, and it is an exciting time!