Resolution #10. Build Staff Camaraderie
“Camaraderie” defined by Merriam-Websters Online Dictionary is “a spirit of friendly good-fellowship”. When power fails, computers crash, and the lights go dim, the human element still works, and camaraderie is the circuit along which knowledge will continue to travel.
To develop that among the variety of age groups and intellects that work in a library is no easy task. Sharing two things, food and humor, are excellent methods to develop this. Food I’ll leave to individual tastes (pardon the pun) but relevant humor can be trickier to find.
Castles’ del.icio.us resources include Unshelved, from Overduemedia.com (saved by 108 members), has hundreds of funny cartoon strips about librarianship. Librarians have unique opportunities to observe the human condition, and have a good laugh over it. Unshelved does that without being mean. Today’s page has a photo sent in by a fan with a great librarian quote on her T-shirt, “Will work for books”. Love it!
I would imagine there have to be more strips like this. Feel free to comment if you know of any others!
This brings me to a final point about the del.icio.us collection software. Unlike the Librarything various display options, del.icio.us only offers chronological sequencing at this point in time. The last link you put in is the first link the visitor will see. I edited mine in chapter sequence, and found that the first chapters are at the back of the list! I’d forgotten the Unshelved link, and put it in after I added an introduction link. Unshelved appears as my first link!
You could use an introduction link like I have just below the Unshelved link. It doesn’t offer much writing space, but it compensates for the fact that the site doesn’t offer as many descriptive capabilities as the Librarything profiles do. An introductory link can help visitors use your collection better.
Plan if you want your links in specific order. I could delete my current intro link, and reenter it so it would be the top one. However it’s more useful to demonstrate this concept for this blog the way it is now.
A new book also takes a interesting look working in a library. The title says it “all”: Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library by Don Borchert. If you and your staff ever feel inundated by the public, especially middle-schoolers, this book is for you. It was published after Castles Against Ignorance so I couldn’t use it in my book. One book I do mention is the Whole Library Handbook 4 by George M. Eberhart, which is a great compilation of library facts and trivia. This resource has grown the most since I put my books resources online; it now has 160 members sharing it, up from 45 last summer!
Another outlet and way to build up your understanding of staff issues is to join listservs or monitor blogs like this one. Librarything has a very active web site with chat areas as well as message boards for specialized groups. And who has the largest group on Librarything? Librarians! Librarians who librarything has over 3700 members. They have a very well put together page. I’m enjoying reading the “Books that just never seem to be returned” thread.
To summarize, here are my 10 ways to make your library great in 2008, using the Web 2.0 tips and tricks in this blog and in my presentation:
1. Use Technology
2. Continuously Train
3. Polish your Comportment
4. Reduce Clutter
5. Handle Noise
6. Handle Conflict
7. Have a Plan
8. Develop Partnerships
9. Create Great Programming
10. Build Staff Camaraderie
Remember, you are not working in a warehouse, or an assembly line, or a bar.
You are librarians, who preserve and help propel our civilization forward!
I hope this has been helpful. Please leave comments or get back to me personally at erossman@shakerlibrary.org
Good luck on your resolutions. Here’s to a great 2008!
-Ed Rossman, Interim Branch Manager for the Bertram Woods branch of the Shaker Heights Public Library and author of Castles Against Ignorance: How to Make Libraries Great Educational Environments
Click here to access an archive of Ed’s webinar and a PDF of the slides he used.