Me? Forget? Of Course!

I have never said I was perfect. In fact, I am the first person to admit that I am not. This has even been developed into my "style" of leadership. Even though I am fifty-!@#$ (something) I do not have the experience of those who have been a librarian "all their lives." So I have always looked for and/or invited other people's input on a given issue or decision-making process. I admire those, on the other hand, who seem to "have it all together." I have done this long enough now, though, to discover that this is sometimes a cultivated talent, not necessarily a natural one in others.

I have learned much since taking this position - I am to claim my strengths and staff my weaknesses (so I am told); use tools of organization - like calendars, day planners and schedules (etc.), pace myself, put different tasks into my weekly or monthly calendar that seem to never get done, delegate jobs and responsibilities to others (you DON'T have to do it all yourself.), check your email, voice mail and schedule every morning and more.

However, inspite of the best attempts to use these organizational tools, there invariably comes a situation that reminds me once again that inspite of my best efforts, I still fail the system. (not vice versa) One of the issues of getting older (!) is that of remembering verses forgetfulness. Some folks have said to me 'oh, you just have too much on your mind,' or 'you're under a lot of stress.' They are kind folks as they use these remarks in attempt to console me and maybe even themselves when I fail.

I was reminded again just this morning of this human fraility of 'older age' called forgetfulness. We are in the midst of spring break. Students are gone and the faculty and staff are also taking various amounts of time off. One of my own staff ladies arranged to take today and tomorrow off. That would work just fine, I figured. I was taking off Monday and Tuesday, have Wednesday off already. I would be back for Thursday and Friday. Everything was settled.

This morning when I got up at 7 I realized, LL won't be there to open today at 8 am, I had a meeting elsewhere and would not even arrive in the office until after lunch and AdJ doesn't start work until 8:30. GREAT! I didn't have AdJ's phone number as she has a cell phone with a long distance number (Puerto Rico, no less). What was I going to do? Well - the students are all gone. Even my boss is gone. (That may be a good thing!) What could I do? I decided that I would have to just let it ride and find out when I got to work what happened. Good, bad or indifferent that is what I did. Hopefully given the week, the fallout wouldn't be too bad.

After my meeting, I called in and found out that AdJ had come in (unaware of the need) 15 minutes early which helped. So we opened at 8:15 instead of 8:30 like I expected. And, the only person waiting to get in was an on-campus student who is in and out of the library all day, anyway (with "nothing" to do). At least it wasn't someone who had driven across town to get in and then couldn't. Fortunately the fallout was very little and quite forgiving. AdJ was apologetic that she didn't think to come in earlier because she had known that LL was going to be gone. She just didn't put the two together. (Another kind soul) I told her that I was the one to carry the blame, I was the library director, it should have been me to have seen to it that someone was here. She had no reason to be apologetic. It was I who should apologize!!! And did!

Well, not to sound like I am beating myself up, unmercifully tho' well-deserved, it would be encouraging if these reoccuring occasions would help to eliminate these from happening again, or to educate oneself to know better next time. But for some of us, is there any hope??? Hmph! I doubt it.

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btw, my husband and I were out driving yesterday. On our way we saw some buffalo. These were domesticated ones, but you still don't see them very often. (Yes, we live in Kansas.) - See post for March 15th: a year of beauty.

A Year of Beauty

I had a dear friend, who started out being my English teacher in High School. She was such an inspiration. The 50th year of her and her husband’s marriage she wrote down something every day that she saw that was beautiful. I’m sure there were a few days that that was a struggle. But the rest of the time there was at least something to many things to choose from.

I was reminded of this the other day when I saw my first robin! And I noticed that my tulips and grape hyacinths are sprouting and my daffodils are up and some are blooming.

I even get quite fascinated looking at clouds and have been known to take a few pictures of them, stopping along the road on my way to somewhere. So even when it is a cloudy or stormy day you can still find something beautiful. That seems to be so true of life, even.

What have you seen today that is beautiful?

It's beginning to look alot like - SPRING!!!!

Yeah! Springtime! It couldn't come soon enough. For this area we had a lot of snow this year, maybe not in inches, but in frequency!

But I can tell Spring must be just around the corner because already activity is picking up. I have hired JM's replacement (see last post), and gotten her started on her training. (JM has also come back 2 times to train DS and she will come one more time.) Then the end of February we had our annual booksale. We did all the usual advertising, but we had very poor results this year - the least since I started working here. Now this weekend is "Campus Preview" (where highschoolers come and look us over) and our annual play. (This year it's Pirates of Penzance.)

I had my bi-monthly library committee meeting last week. We are working on our department manual - or I should say - I am. Then I take it to the committee for review, discussion and/or approval. I was hoping I had it all done, but alas, no - I need to take our objectives and plug them into the feedback and assessment procedure page.

I have been trying since I came to get the Friends of the Library revived. It has been to no avail. I'm not good at marketing and really don't know what I can do or do differently that would solve the problem. This institution being a private, christian school (Bible College) really limits me as to who I can go out to and bring in. The booksale is technically an FOL project to raise money. If I disband FOL, and continue the sale - what will happen to the money? Will the library be able to keep using it for special projects? Or will the administration step in and say (in essence) 'hand it over.'? If that happens it will be put in the Big Black Hole called the Pot and disappear! It won't stay compartmentalized.

Now, on top of that, I have a buyer who wants to buy the inventory I have left over from the sale. He wants to purchse it for 10 cents a book! We normally hold over the books from one year to the next as we do not get enough in, in one year to really make it worth having a book sale. We have about 7000 books, so I need to decide: do I want "this" or do I want "that." I have been picking the brains of fellow Christian librarians to see what is done in other colleges. It pretty much runs the gamit.

I just finished a meeting with our current (for one more day) webmaster. Our whole method of updating content is being totally overhauled and is becoming much more managable. For me that means I need to do some thinking of what I want on the library's page - what is most useful to our students today. I love computer/internet/website/technology. So I am looking forward to working on this task.

I have also gotten my budget for next year worked on and done. Procrastinator that I usually am, I have it already turned in - 9 days ahead of time. That must be a first. I also have an IPEDS report to finish. It is a report we make every 2-3 years to the government's Department of Education. It's due by the end of the month. I would have it finished but I am waiting on one bit of information on our Reserves transactions. When I get that I can go back into the IPEDS page put that in and another tidbit and, Voila!!, I'M DONE!

On a personal note, I did get to go to Anthony, Kansas last Saturday with my family to attend the Kansas wedding reception of a friend and fellow librarian. It was wonderful to see CG now CM and meet her new husband JM. They are into clogging and basically that's how their romance got its start. They were able to do a little demo for us with a third friend of theirs. It was really fun to watch. Only disappointment - CM didn't clog in her wedding dress like she did at the the reception following the wedding. She did have it on to start with, and she made a lovely looking bride. I hope to see her again at our annual Association of Christian Librarian's annual conference in Grand Rapids, MI in June.