For those of you keeping track, the Board approved the library’s new mission and vision statements at tonight’s meeting. They are:
Mission
Henrietta Public Library: where our community connects, discovers, and learns.
Vision
Henrietta will be known for its library, the heart of a diverse community.
Although to me they’ll always be:
This is HPL:
The most distinctive feature of the building, as you are no doubt noticing, is the tower on the roof. HPL was built in 1978, and the tower was meant to house the HVAC, which the builders intended to be powered by solar panels.
That didn’t work out.
Since then, they’ve put a couple different HVAC systems up there. The current one works most of the time, although I seem to wind up climbing into the tower once a week or so to reset a unit that isn’t working. That usually does the trick. And when I say … Read the rest
You should know I’m redesigning my presentation. Right now, it looks like this:
I know that now you’re probably so super-excited for the presentation that you can hardly stand it, but you’re going to have to wait a week. From tomorrow. Find full details here.… Read the rest
So I’ve been running a library for a little more than six months now. It’s probably time to start talking about what I’m up to.
I decided before I even started at HPL that we needed a strategic plan–I talked about it in my interview, in fact–but once I started, I was overwhelmed by how big a task it would be amid all the other things I needed to learn and do. So I spent time thinking and observing and reading and talking and thinking some more. Finally, I made a strategic planning plan.
This is, I’ll admit, one … Read the rest
So a few places I’ve been finding inspiration lately.
First, and especially since our move, I’ve been feeling pretty inspired by my cat Ella. She has this arthritis in her back legs that clearly bothers her and makes it hard for her to move around, but she’s so sanguine about it. She keeps doing all the things she wants to do, even though it maybe takes her longer or is clumsy. I don’t just want to be more like that; I have to be more like that. I mean, if my cat can handle life with such grace, can’t I?… Read the rest
A few months ago, one of the librarians at RIT contacted me about the possibility of having a public library card sign up day at their library. She was thinking that even students who couldn’t get transportation to our library could still access all kinds of wonderful things through OverDrive (our ebook and downloadable audiobook system). We have a lot of students living in our town, and the idea of doing more to serve their needs and also to collaborate with our area colleges has come up multiple times in brainstorming sessions with staff, and I thought this would be … Read the rest
Being in charge of a library is not nonstop fun all day.
But it’s pretty fun.
For instance, a few months ago, I told the staff that my dress code requirement was “not dirty.” So, in other words, I don’t care if my colleagues wear jeans or t-shirts or whatever, as long as they’re clean. This change (jeans and t-shirts were previously not allowed) was not without controversy, but I let it stand, for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, I employ intelligent and capable adults who can pick out their own clothes without my assistance. Also, library work … Read the rest
“I just open my eyes, remember who I am, what I’m like, and I go, ‘Oh. Aw, I guess. I guess. Do it. I don’t know. I guess.’”
-Louis C.K. on waking up in the morning, Louie (season 1, episode 3, “Dr. Ben/Nick”)
For years I’ve been insisting that it’s not that I’m not a morning person.
But it is that. Exactly that. I am not a morning person.
I am in awe of people who wake up and immediately go perform some higher-level function like working out, some of them without even eating or drinking anything, not even coffee. … Read the rest
The Rochester Area Library System Directors put on a breakfast at HPL this morning to thank our area legislators for their support of libraries. I had an extremely minor role in all this (by which I mean I reserved the meeting room, showed up early this morning with my keys, and smiled a lot at everyone who put this together–I smiled a lot at the staff, too, who graciously stepped in and helped, bless them), but then I got to enjoy all the fun of 105 people in my library, which I loved. A lot of the people who came … Read the rest
“But I can tell you, speaking for every librarian in this building, we wish they would call us more.”
-Glen Creason in “Los Angeles Librarian is All Over the Maps” by Larry Harnisch in LA Times (September 20, 2012)
I’ve been meaning to write about this article since I read it a few weeks ago, because I found it so interesting and inspiring. The quote above is my favorite, because I think Creason is not just speaking for every librarian in his building: I think he’s speaking for every true librarian everywhere. He’s speaking for library staff in … Read the rest
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