I have been wanting to write a post on work-life balance for a while, especially after spending a week at ACRL Assessment Immersion with a bunch of people who are deeply committed to their work and all define balance in their lives differently. Some of the people there are so active in the profession, so plugged-in, publish a ton, travel a ton, and get to meet lots of awesome librarians. Others are dedicated to work during their 40 hrs/wk there and are deeply focused on family and community. Most of us probably fall somewhere in between. And yet we are ALL amazing professionals.

I’ve noticed a tendency in our profession (and probably others) to see being immersed in the profession and spending lots of time outside of our 40 hrs/wk on professional stuff as unhealthy. And at the same time, there’s a tendency to see people who view their work as a librarian as a 9 to 5 job as not committed. To me, the only mistake you can make here is buying into what other people think and not defining balance as what works for you. It’s not about quantity, people, it’s about quality.

Colleen has written a great post about not wanting to feel like her job is her identity and become so immersed in her work that it makes her unhealthy. While I have to say that her “I am a librarian” vs. “I serve as a librarian” distinction doesn’t mean much to me (especially because I do feel like being a librarian is an important part of my identity), I applaud her efforts to find a healthy balance in her life:

Being a librarian for all my waking hours is no longer a model that works for me. … So now I am working on a certain separation of powers, if you will. When I am librarianating, I focus entirely on that, to make sure I am being the best librarian I can be. But I am also now a woman who needs 8 hours of sleep, to make sure that I am also a Rested and Healthy Colleen. I am a student, and when I do that I am Studious Colleen. I’m working on improving my Downtime Colleen self by taking at least one day a week and dedicating it to anything not school- or work-related.

There are a lot of guidelines out there for finding work/life balance, but in my opinion, besides a few (get up from your desk periodically, get enough sleep, don’t ignore the needs of your loved ones, etc.), work/life balance is very subjective. For some people, work/life balance means clocking out at 4 or 5pm and not ever checking work email from home. For others, doing work on some evenings and weekends is the norm. For others, working evenings and weekends is a frequent occurrence. Is any of this a problem? Only if it’s a problem for you.

We all have a pretty set finite amount of time each day to do what we need and want to do (those lucky people who physiologically need less sleep get a bit more than those lazy bums like me who only function well on 8-9 hrs.). Let’s think of that time as a bucket and all the things you need or want to do are glasses of water. Most people probably have a lot more water in their glasses than can fit into their bucket so we have to pick and choose how much from each glass we want to empty into the bucket. Even people who have the exact same types of glasses of water (kids, exercise, tenure, etc.) will pour different amounts in the bucket based on what is most important to them.

Before I had my son, I filled my bucket very differently. Librarianship was a huge portion of my bucket. I wrote long blog posts quite frequently, networked online a ton, traveled often to speak at conferences, and did all sorts of professional projects (Five Weeks to a Social Library, a book, the Library Success Wiki, etc.). People often commented that they were amazed by how much I did professionally and my stock response was “that’s because I have no life.” That wasn’t true. I still did fun things with my husband and friends, went on great vacations, and did a lot of reading. I never felt like anything in particular was missing or that it was unhealthy for me to spend so much time on my work. I found what I did immensely fulfilling.

I had a child full-well knowing that things would change. I knew I would have less time to spend on being professionally active and I was ok with that. The first year and a half after having my son, I did feel out of balance. Between meeting his many needs and barely sleeping for that entire first year, it was hard to find the time or energy for anything else. I also felt guilty every moment I spent outside of my 8-4:30 workday on librarianship. I should be devoting that time to my son. A lot of moms fall into that trap and feel like bad parents when they prioritize activities that don’t revolve around their child. And, at the same time, I missed being professionally active. I missed writing terribly. Over time I realized that as long as the time I did spend with my son was of quality (doing fun things and giving him my undivided attention rather than just sitting around watching TV), it was actually more important that he have a mom who feels fulfilled and happy than one who is with him every waking moment. For some parents, being fulfilled means being with their child all the time, and for some, being fulfilled means being with their child much less than I am. Again, there’s no one definition of balance. What matters is that you and your family feel good about what you’re doing. I’m lucky to have a very supportive husband who would be ok with me taking more time for work, but at 2 1/2, my son is a hell of a lot of fun, and I don’t want to miss much. I am in awe of parents of young children who travel a lot — I’ve realized I’m not built for it, emotionally. That’s why, when I speak in New Zealand at LIANZA next Fall, I’m going to have a 3 1/2 year old (and my husband) in tow. It won’t be the New Zealand trip I’d always dreamed of, but it’s the best option for my heart and we’re going to make it an awesome trip.

For me, I don’t mind doing work at home, whether it’s answering email, working on a document for a committee I’m on, or developing a presentation or an article. What I don’t like is when work issues bleed into the time I’ve dedicated to other activities. Like when I wake up in the middle of the night and obsess about a project, or I come home in a bad mood because of a meeting that went badly. I want to be fully present in whatever I’m doing, so when work prevents me from being “in the moment” with my family (or sleeping through the night), I feel the lack of balance. To me, if anything is objectively bad for people, it’s that. I don’t find that happens very often to me these days, but when I was a child and family psychotherapist, I obsessed about the poor kids I worked with constantly. The problem wasn’t so much about working crazy hours (though I did do most of my paperwork on weekends); it was that I could never be mentally away from work when I was away from work. My mind was going 24/7 and it made me physically and emotionally exhausted.

I don’t think that people seeking a perfect balance are ever going to find it. For one, that balance is constantly shifting based on what’s happening with those different cups of water you’ve poured into your bucket. If my son or husband gets sick, if I’m working under a writing deadline, or even if I’m reading a book that I just… can’t… put… down, I am going to need to shift things around. But also, few people ever have few enough cups that they can pour everything into their bucket. For me, balance is about accepting that I’ll never be able to do as much of everything I want to do as I’d like and being fully present in whatever I am doing. It’s about focusing on what I feel (not other people’s yardsticks and “should’s”) and my family’s needs. As long as I’m doing all that, I feel a balance in my messy and imperfect life.

How do you define balance in your life? Have your notions about balance changed over time or through professional and personal life changes? Do you feel like you have a work-self and a non-work-self and is it preferable to make that distinction?

I’m one of those people who has a hard time waiting for people’s birthday to give them presents. Whenever I try to surprise my husband with something, I always end up telling him about it early. I can keep other people’s secrets, but I’m terrible at keeping my own. So I’ve felt like the cork in a bottle of champagne trying to wait until it was totally official to tell my friends and colleagues my good news.

The news is that I’m moving on to a new job in a new library in a new state on the other side of the country. EEK! Starting in late April, I will be the Head of Instructional Services at Portland State University in Oregon. I’ll be working with a terrific team of liaison librarians to provide instruction to a student population that is almost 10 times the size of Norwich! There are some unique instructional challenges at PSU that really attracted me to the position, and I got the sense during the interview that the time was right for creating meaningful change in instructional services there. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with such a change-oriented, user-focused and dedicated group of professionals and I’m looking forward to the new challenges this position will bring. Being on the tenure track should be… interesting… but I’ve had a lot of research and article ideas percolating in my head for years that I’ll finally have the impetus to pursue.

The moving part I am looking forward to far less. While the whole family is really excited about moving to Portland (ok, Adam and I are; Reed at 22 months, doesn’t have a clue what’s coming), it’s going to be difficult to leave Vermont and the logistics of moving across the country with a toddler are just miserable. I’m even letting my husband pick out our rental home in the middle of February since someone has to stay home with the little guy. For a control freak like me, this whole moving thing is a major exercise in letting go. I know living in Portland is going to afford my son so many opportunities he simply wouldn’t have had in Vermont and it’ll be fun to live in a place with a renowned restaurant scene, lots of parks, major cultural opportunities, and 15 Targets (the closest one to us now is over 100 miles away!). Vermont is a wonderful place, but the career opportunities here are extremely limited and I knew that if I didn’t leave Vermont now, I’d have to leave at some point in the future. Better to go when Reed’s not even two than when he gets into school and gets attached to friends and his life here. Portland seems like a good place for Reed to grow up. Having a child has had a huge impact on my career trajectory and choices — how could it not?

I was extremely lucky to start my career at Norwich (especially since my dream job was to be a distance learning librarian and who gets their dream job their first time out???). I’ve gotten experience in so many aspects of librarianship (public services, distance learning, curriculum development, budgeting, supervision, collection development, working closely with faculty, outreach, systems, emerging tech, committee work, statistics gathering and analysis, project management, etc.). It’s been great to have a Director across the hall whose door is open to me anytime. It’s been refreshing to work at a place where staff are so open to change and where the biggest barrier to getting things done is often your own energy and time. I think working in a small library is perfect for a first job, because you get to do a bit of everything and really figure out where you want your career to go in the long-run. I dreaded teaching when I got into the profession; now it’s my favorite part of my work. I never thought I’d want to be an administrator; now it’s my long-term goal. At a larger institution, the distance learning librarian my never get to teach face-to-face classes; I was thrown head-first into it. And thank goodness for that! Working at a small place made me more flexible, collegial and focused on what’s best for the library/patrons rather than on the cool projects I wanted to do. I wouldn’t be the person I am today professionally if it weren’t for my experiences at Norwich. For so many reasons, moving on will be bittersweet for me.

So Portland (and Oregon) librarians, I can’t wait to connect with you! I already know of some really cool librarians in Portland and in the Oregon State University system, so I couldn’t be more excited about contributing to the profession at a local level and making friends with some fantastic librarians. Adam and I never really thought we’d live on the West Coast, and we don’t have any family out there, so the idea of moving to an unfamiliar city far away from our previous life is quite daunting. I’ve had second thoughts about such a big move a hundred times over the past month, but I feel in my gut that this is going to be the right place for us.

I’m looking forward to heading out in early April toward the beautiful Willamette River Valley. Hopefully we won’t shoot any bison, break a wagon wheel, or get typhoid along the way.

This is a post mainly for those professionals who are passionate about their careers and are considering having children but wonder/worry what impact it might have on their life and their career. I’m going to talk about my own experience finding an identity as a working mother over the past year. Remember that your mileage may vary — there is no telling what you’re going to feel when you have a child and how that will impact your life and your feelings about work.

This was one of my biggest concerns before Adam and I decided to get pregnant, and, unfortunately, the women I talked to about being a parent didn’t fill me with confidence that I’d be able to balance work and family well. I heard from women who told me that they’d become less ambitious once they had children; women who hated leaving their child at daycare but didn’t have a choice; women who worked 9-to-5, took care of their children and never did anything else; women who could count on one hand the number of times they spent alone time with their spouse in years; and women who chose to stay home with their children. Since Adam and I both had mothers who stayed home with us, we didn’t have many exemplars of mothers who successfully and happily balanced work and family. My mother was actually horrified at first that I was going to send Reed to a daycare. I felt like I couldn’t win.

My biggest worry when I had Reed was that I would want to stay home with him forever when that simply wasn’t financially feasible. I was envious of my former colleague (who had her baby a week before I did) who decided to quit her job and stay home with her daughter. I felt like I would miss so much time with my son and wouldn’t be able to bond with him as well. While, at first, it was hard to comprehend being away from him, I am so glad that I go to work and that he goes to daycare.

A good daycare is one of the best things for a child’s social development. When I get the chance to watch Reed at daycare, I see all of the opportunities he has to learn about sharing, about interacting with other children and adults, about bonding with people other than his parents, and about social play. Just today, I saw him and a little girl trying to play with the same toy — learning how to deal with this simply isn’t something he’s going to get from being home all day, and (most) playgroups are often play mediated by mothers. I’m fortunate that Reed immediately took to being in daycare when we started him in it at 4 months — he’s an incredibly social and high-energy little boy, so being around different people perfectly suits his personality. I very quickly felt comfortable leaving Reed at daycare, because I didn’t feel like it was a second-best/no-other-choice option for childcare — I really do think he’s better off there. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with staying home with your child; this is just what works for us.

I also realized that I need my identity as a professional. I like going to work, interacting with adults and working on projects. I like giving talks, writing articles and taking part in professional conversations. While I think about Reed when I’m at work, I don’t wish I was home with him. Any concerns I had about my losing my ambitions after having a child went out the window shortly after going back to work. My priorities have not changed. Family was always first — I chose not to write a second book a few years ago because I didn’t want to put such a burden on my husband in taking care of the household. I’m still passionate about my work and it’s just as important to me as it was before. I think the only thing that’s changed is how I manage my time. I don’t have the luxury of coming home from work and writing a blog post or working on an article — I have a sweet little boy play with, feed, bathe and put to bed (and, frankly, I wouldn’t trade that time with him for anything, no matter how tired I am when I get home). I have to find little pieces of time here and there (naps, after Reed goes to bed, Monday mornings since I work a night reference shift, etc.) and obviously can’t do as much as I used to. But I’ve lost none of the passion I had before for technology and our profession.

With all of the (bad) advice being thrown at new mothers, it can be incredibly difficult to find your identity as a mother. I found that many mothers were all about guilt-trips and one-upsmanship. You don’t use cloth diapers? You don’t breastfeed exclusively? You feed your child baby food from a jar? You leave your child with someone else so you and your husband can spend some alone time together? I got the sense from reading books, articles, and (especially) discussion boards that my entire life should revolve around my child since one wrong choice could have terrible consequences, and that having a child would require me to be completely selfless and put my own desires at the bottom of the pile. And I bought into it for a while.

The hardest thing about the first few months after having Reed was letting go of all the expectations I put on myself because I thought that was how a mother was supposed to be. I made myself so miserable trying to be someone I’m not and trying to do things that simply weren’t working for any of us because I thought I had to. Part of it was crazy post-pregnancy hormones and postpartum depression (an issue I never talked to anyone about at the time other than my doctor and my husband), but I feel strongly that a lot of it was my unwillingness to let go of this idea that I had to martyr myself to my child’s needs. I have to wonder how much postpartum depression is caused by these unrealistic expectations people have for themselves as new mothers and what happens when their expectations don’t mesh with the reality.

If anything, I’m more selfish now than I was before having a child. I’m very protective of my time and say “no” to doing a lot of things that I would have said “yes” to a year ago. I work hard to ensure that my husband and I make our relationship a priority, even if it means leaving my precious child with his grandparents while we spend a night at a hotel (which is exactly what we’re doing this Sunday — woo hoo!). And I do things for myself or buy things for myself that make me happy. I realized after that very scary episode with postpartum depression (my first major depressive episode since I was 19) that I need to make myself happy to be a good mother to Reed. Happy mommy = happy baby. So I’ve learned how to balance taking care of me and my marriage with taking care of my little boy. And judging by how happy and mellow he is most of the time, I’d say I’m doing an o.k. job at it.

I’ll also say that having a good work/family/fun balance depends greatly on having a supportive partner (with an emphasis on the word partner). My husband is a partner in every sense of the word — we parent and take care of the house 50-50. He is so wonderful with Reed and there’s nothing I enjoy more than watching Reed climb on his dad and seeing the smiles they both have when they look into each other’s eyes. Without Adam, I can’t imagine making this all work. Thanks hon!

I wish someone had told me all these things when I was thinking about having a child. Yes, you can still be ambitious in your career — you may have to spend less time speaking at conferences and writing books, but you don’t have to give it up altogether. It’s not only ok for you to send your child to daycare, but it might actually be the best thing for him or her. You can be selfish and still be a good mother. If you decide to get an extra hour of sleep instead of making your child’s baby food yourself, he or she won’t be irrevocably scarred by eating food from a jar. That what’s most important is that your child is loved and well cared-for and so many of the other things you think are important when you read baby books or magazine articles really aren’t.

So if you’re on the fence about having a child because you feel like you might have to give up being who you are, realize that choice is up to you. You can still be the passionate, hard-working professional you are and be a great parent — the only thing you’ll absolutely have to change is how you allocate your time. I also wish that someone had told me how much fun it is to have a child. Everyone tells you it’ll change your life, you’ll never sleep again, you’ll never go out to the movies again, etc., but you never hear enough about the awesomeness of parenthood. Reed is really the most fun person I’ve ever known and I treasure every minute I spend with him. I feel so lucky to be his mom. Parenthood isn’t for everyone, but it’s a far more fun and awesome adventure than I’d ever expected.

Yes, I knew I’d have to teach people how to use email. And unjam printers. And help people use copiers. But I don’t think I ever understood in library school how important sales and marketing would be to the success of our profession.

Within a month of starting work as the Distance Learning Librarian at Norwich University four years ago, I was painfully aware of that fact and felt woefully unprepared to play the role of salesman.

I laugh at how naive I was back then. I just assumed that faculty, who were complaining about the poor quality of sources students were using for graduate-level research, would welcome my offer to teach their students how to find and evaluate information resources. I assumed that if I put up information about all of the library resources and services available to them, students would look at it. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. True, some faculty/administrators were very interested in information literacy instruction, and some students were really up on what the library had to offer. But for the most part, I found I had to do a lot more “selling” than I’d ever anticipated.

Steven Bell talks about this a bit in his post Academic Librarians Are Not Salespeople – But They Should Be:

Somewhere during the discussions one of the participants said something along the lines of “Academic librarians are not good salespeople.” I can’t quite recall how that came up but it struck a chord with me because I’ve thought the same exact thing for quite a few years. Frontline librarians need to do more than just respond when the end users are looking for information. They’ve got to be out in the field spreading the word, and making the sales pitch for why the library’s resources are vitally important to the teaching and learning process.

Here’s an example. I was at a meeting last week of our Distance Learning Advisory Group. Our leader asked me to say a few words about how the Library supports online learners – and where we need to improve. As I finished one faculty member blurted out “I had no idea I could do at that with your resources.” How many times does that happen? Too many. We’re also doing LibQual+ and there are far too many comments with suggestions for what the library should be offering – that we’ve already been offering for two or more years.

I’ve seen that in our assessments too, and it frustrates me to no end when I see that we are offering something they want and they just don’t know it. And a lot of the time, I’m not quite sure how to tell them about it. It’s not as difficult with our undergraduate population, because we reach nearly all of them as Freshman with library instruction, and we deal with them in the physical world all the time. But there is no “captive audience” element with our distance learning population. They don’t even have any required synchronous components to their program where we could come in as guest speakers and make our “pitch.” All of the information is there for them, but they have to choose to look at it. The online graduate programs are in the process of redesigning their online orientation and we’ve been able to insert library learning activities for students to complete where they can’t get to the next section of their orientation until they do them. This will at least get them looking at our website and using some key resources in their discipline, but I still don’t feel like it will do enough to make them aware of what we have to offer.

I feel strongly that library schools need to teach marketing and salesmanship to future librarians. We don’t all come to the profession with those skills, and the idea of selling library services to faculty can be daunting for the new professional. We go into library school thinking that we’re going to help people who want our help, and then we find that we have to convince people to accept our help, which is a whole other kettle of fish.

When I was in Iceland, I talked about the importance of LIS schools teaching marketing, and Ken Haycock (Director of SJSU’s SLIS program) mentioned to me that they offer a marketing class and it receives very low enrollment. This tells me that there is a real disconnect between what skills libraries need and what library school students think librarians need. Maybe they don’t see marketing enough in job descriptions and job requirements. Or maybe marketing shouldn’t be its own class. Maybe it should be taught as part of classes on public librarianship, academic librarianship, school librarianship, law librarianship, etc., with information on how to “sell” to the stakeholders in each area. As you can see in Stepping on Toes: The Delicate Art of Talking to Faculty about Questionable Assignments (from one of my favorite blogs, In the Library with the Lead Pipe) many librarians feel uncomfortable putting themselves out there and making suggestions to faculty.

In terms of what Steven Bell wrote, I think it’s more about advocacy, persuasion, outreach and marketing than “sales” in the business sense (or is that just a semantic distinction because we don’t want to feel like used-car salesmen?), but I’m sure we could learn a lot from salespeople that would inform our ability to market library resources to our patrons. And whatever you call it, librarians and LIS educators need to make it clear to LIS students that marketing/outreach/advocacy is a critical skill for all professionals.

Take a look at this truly amazing group of people that Library Journal chose to recognize this year. I’ve never known more folks on the list and so many are folks I absolutely adore:

Sarah Houghton-Jan – it’s kind of amazing that she had not been recognized as a Mover and Shaker before this given the impact she has had on so many in the profession with her teaching (though her blog, her speaking, her work with InfoPeople, etc.). I was pleased to be part of the mob of people who nominated her this year and am glad this long overdue recognition finally happened.

Jason Griffey – I get warm fuzzies every time I think of Griffey. In addition to having such a generous heart, he has been an inspiration to me in how he has tirelessly worked to make LITA a better professional organization. While I have my moments of trying to make things better from the outside and in, I definitely do not have the patience and persistence that he does to create pockets of innovation within LITA. We all can learn a thing or two from him about pushing for change from the inside.

Dorothea Salo – When Dorothea kept proclaiming over the years that someone like her would never be recognized as a Mover and Shaker by Library Journal, we all knew better. The profession desperately needs people who constantly question the common wisdom, no matter how impolitic it may be to do so, and I admire Dorothea’s courage in always being that voice of dissent/reason. Dorothea’s blog was one of the first I ever read and she was my role model for the sort of blogger I wanted to be. I had the great pleasure to work with her on Five Weeks to a Social Library and I fervently hope to have opportunities to work with her again in the future. She’s just the sort of person you want on your team.

Chad Boeninger – It’s kind of ridiculous that Chad wasn’t named a Mover and Shaker the same year as me. That was the year after he came out with the Biz Wiki, which was the very first wiki subject guide created by a librarian. How many dozens and dozens of subject guide wikis have come from that inspiration??? He has done so much with social software in his library, but in a really practical way that I admire greatly. I always try to rope him into online learning things I do, because he shares my pragmatic view of technology as well as my excitement about the potential of social software. He’s just the sort of person who needs to be teaching. I’ve learned so much from him.

Jenica Rogers-Urbanek – There are a small number of bloggers these days whose posts I always mark “keep new” for later reading, because they always write such interesting and thoughtful content. Jenica is at the top of that list. She is another person who feels like a kindred spirit to me in terms of her views on technology and management. If you ever get the chance to hear her speak, definitely do so, because you will get a really level-headed look at whatever topic she’s covering, 100% hype-free. I am so pleased to see her get the recognition she deserves.

Karen Coombs – The girl is wicked smart. Seriously. I wish I knew even 1/10 of what she knows about library technologies — her talent and intelligence make my head spin. But somehow she manages to coherently explain these technologies to the rest of us (in her writing and her conference speaking), which is something a lot of serious techies are incapable of doing. It’s also really refreshing to see a geek girl making a name for herself in such a male-dominated area of our profession. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer person.

Lori Reed – I had the pleasure of having dinner with Lori when I was at a conference in North Carolina this Fall, and it was so nice to get to know someone whose work I’ve admired from afar for years. Lori is an inspirational trainer — she has created great programs at her library, has advocated for all-staff learning programs, and has done a lot to promote the cause of non-degreed library staff. I remember last year’s kerfuffle when someone argued that “paraprofessionals” should not be recognized as Movers and Shakers. Lori exemplifies what a Mover and Shaker is, much more so than many people who do have an MLS.

Michael Porter – If he wasn’t named a Mover and Shaker, he certainly would have been named Best Dressed Librarian or Mr. Congeniality. But there’s so much more to him than his swanky suits and his absolutely lovable personality. He’s also a great teacher, having educated so many thousands of librarians over the years about technologies. And he’s a community builder, especially on Flickr and at WebJunction. He always manages to inspire, while never seeming to take anything too seriously (especially himself).

And then there are the people I don’t know well but whose work I’ve admired greatly: Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap Van De Geer, Geert Van Den Boogaard, Lauren Pressley, Pam Sessoms, Dave Pattern, Rebecca Blakeley, and Melissa Rethlefsen.

Congratulations all of you!!!

On a less encouraging note, I’ve heard from several people who were worried about how people at work might react to their recognition. While I’m constantly amazed by how open and encouraging most people in this profession are, it’s a sad statement on our profession that people should worry about such a thing when they’ve done something good. It’s an awful way to feel — wondering and worrying about what someone might say about it and, even worse, what those who don’t say anything might think of you. In the survey that Chrystie Hill and I did of Movers and Shakers, we found that nearly half of those named Movers and Shakers were not celebrated by their institution. And those people had a significantly more negative view of their work, their colleagues, etc. than did those who were celebrated. How must that impact their sense of motivation at work? While I’ve experienced it, I still don’t understand why people wouldn’t congratulate a colleague who was honored for their work. And what kind of message do administrators send when they don’t celebrate things like this? Are they saying “be a good employee, but don’t be too good“??? If library administrators want to encourage their staff to do their best work, maybe great work should be celebrated. Any honor for the individual should be seen as an honor to the organization.

So to those organizations that are already planning parties for their Movers and Shakers or are at least giving them a hearty pat on the back to show them how much you appreciate them, good for you! I hope you continue to attract the motivated, exceptional employees you deserve.

I know people have been bemoaning the death of blogging in recent months. I certainly haven’t helped any with my lack of posting, but it’s certainly not from a lack of inspiration nor from my immersion with microblogging (which I’ve never quite managed to get into on a regular basis). I actually have lots of ideas for things to blog about, but have become so immersed in the pregnancy/baby thing that I haven’t had any additional mental energy to actually put any of these ideas “on paper.” With my class at San Jose State winding down, I hope I’ll be able to carve out a little bit of energy to focus again on blogging.

I’ve been particularly remiss in not writing about the Triangle Research Libraries Network Management Academy, which I attended in early November in beautiful Chapel Hill. It was truly an amazing professional development experience, and by the end of the week, my head was so full of ideas that I was practically chomping at the bit to get back to work (not what I usually feel when I enjoy a conference). I learned so much that will benefit me directly in my work, helping me to be a better manager, coordinator, seller of ideas, and project manager.

All of the sessions were great, but some definitely spoke to my immediate needs as a manager more than others. The sessions that I found most valuable were on Wednesday and Thursday of the week where we discussed performance management and communication (managing people) and resource planning (project planning and management). As a brand-new manager, these are two areas I really struggle with. It’s hard for me to find a balance between being hands-off and micromanaging people. While I do well with a more hands-off approach (just tell me what our goals our and I will figure out on my own how to get it done), some people require more supervision. Wendy Hamilton Hoelscher from Duke University taught us a way of approaching the supervision process that really made sense to me, and that I plan to employ from now on. Lynda Aiman-Smith, management professor at NCSU, taught us so much about planning, which will be important as I am leading a lot of projects now where I’m working with people who are not my direct reports. We talked a lot about managing people who we are not directly responsible for supervising, and it was something almost all of us have to do in our work. I feel much more confident in my ability to lead and manage as a result of this Academy.

Friday morning was also fantastic as Susan Nutter and Sarah Michalak (UL’s for NCSU and UNC respectively) came to visit and talked about being Directors. Susan Nutter is a bit of a hero to me; what she’s done at NCSU and how she’s supported innovation and talent in our profession is inspiring. She’s the kind of director I’d like to be one day. What struck me most is how much Susan’s early career experiences mirrored my own. She started her first management position after working for three years, by which time she felt like she’d been doing the same thing forever and felt very ready for this new responsibility. She admitted that she made a lot of mistakes in that first management position (which I am most assuredly doing as well) but learned a lot from the experience (which I most assuredly am). There have been times when I’ve wondered if my impatience would hinder me in my career. Seeing that someone who has risen to the top of our profession was similarly impatient gives me a lot of hope. Maybe impatience isn’t such a bad thing as long as it’s tempered with also being politic. It’s my impatience that led to the things I’ve done that led to my promotion.

But it wasn’t just the speakers who were terrific. It was also amazing to spend a week with 35 exceptional members of our profession. Engaging in a dialogue with them and hearing about their experiences and insights was such an incredible learning experience. It was nice to bounce ideas off people, to discuss the things each of us struggle with, and to realize that we’re all dealing with many of the same issues. While I did feel like the course was geared towards folks working at ARL’s, I still got a lot out of it. While we don’t have the money or man-power that an ARL has, I am very lucky in that I get to be involved in my library’s operations at all levels. All professional librarians here are involved in budget discussions and decision-making. We get to help make big decisions that impact the entire library. I don’t feel like there’s anything at my library that’s shrouded in mystery or that I can’t try to fix. So while I definitely felt more like a “have-not” at this Academy, I also feel lucky to have the opportunities that working at a small library afford me.

Would I recommend the TRLN Management Academy to others? Without hesitation! This was, without question, the best professional development experience of my career so far. If you’re a new manager or coordinator, this is a brilliant opportunity to help you find your footing. The participants at the Academy ranged from being very early-career to folks with 25 years of professional experience. It was nice to have that diversity of experiences and perspectives, as we all had so much to learn from one another. I will treasure the experience and look forward to putting much of what I learned into practice.

My last big library-related trip before baby is taking place next week. I’ll be jetting off to Chapel Hill, NC for the TRLN Management Academy, a week-long intensive learning experience for individuals looking to develop strong resource management and planning skills. I am absolutely honored to have been chosen to take part in the Academy, especially when I look at the list of participants (PDF). Wow!

Management is an area I’ve been itching for more training in, especially since I am now a manager and coordinator of a very important piece of our library’s mission (instruction). In library school, I had a class on management, but it was extremely theoretical. Still, of all the classes I took, it was the one that interested me the most (no one has to twist my arm to read more Peter Drucker and Harvard Business Review articles). I just wish there had been more after it that focused on human resource management, budgeting, planning, etc. When so many people come out of libraries and go immediately into management positions (or even directorships), it’s critical that this training be received in library school. At least I was lucky to have several years to get my feet wet before diving into a management position.

I am really excited to have been chosen to take part in this intensive course where I’ll meet up-and-comers in the profession (and see some I already know) and learn about management from some really amazing instructors (PDF). I’m not sure if I’ll be blogging the Academy or not, but if I think my reflections might be of use (and I’m not too mentally/physically exhausted), I definitely will. Pregnancy has taken a lot out of me, so I try not to make a lot of promises these days about doing things that may require more energy than I have. At the very least, I’ll write a wrap-up post so people know how it went and whether or not it would be worth their while to apply for this next year. From what I’ve heard from a previous participant, this should be a really fantastic experience.

I often tease my husband about his need to always be involved in a project. He’s always got to be working on something outside of his “day job”, whether it’s cleaning out his storage room (better known as the troll room), digitizing his parents’ slides, digitizing all of our documents, or creating the most awesome whole-house DVR system ever. Usually there are things that I’ve asked him to do that he abandons for doing his projects, which is why I feel I have license to tease him about it frequently.

The more I think about it, though, the more I realize how much he’s rubbed off on me. For the past three and a half years, there has barely been a moment when I haven’t been involved in some project or other. It started with the ALA 2005 Chicago Wiki, went on to Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, then the book, then HigherEd BlogCon, then Five Weeks to a Social Library, then the crazy speaking schedule, then teaching at San Jose State. This summer was the first time I felt like I had time to take a breath. And it was really nice. I finally had time to get my house in order. We’ve lived here for three years and I’ve barely had a moment to get things organized how I like it. So I really focused on that and on culling my collection of junk I don’t use anymore. It was nice to focus on home and family.

My next project is one I’ve been planning on taking on for a long time, but was waiting for the right moment. While it took a lot out of me, I really enjoyed the whirlwind of the past few years and don’t regret a moment of it. I love speaking at conferences, writing, teaching, etc. and I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing those things. But I’ve gotten to the point where I’m ready to slow down. I’m at the point where the thought of speaking in far-flung places like Chile and London just don’t seem as appealing as they once did (and you don’t need to tell me I’m stupid for turning down those opportunities; I’ve already heard it). I just really like being at home.

So after ALA Annual, the time seemed right to start on our next project: a baby. And I’m happy to say that we’re right on schedule with this project, expecting a miniature version of me and Adam in early April, 2009. We couldn’t be more thrilled! And while I’m really going to miss seeing my friends at ALA Midwinter, Computers in Libraries, etc., I’m ready to make sacrifices for my little one. I may actually be at Annual since Adam’s family lives in Chicago, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from friends who are parents, you never know what life will be like after baby, so I can’t make any promises.

If you’ve noticed that I haven’t been posting much over the past few months, this is why. I’ve been feeling pretty miserable — nauseous and exhausted beyond anything I’ve ever felt. I’m not complaining since feeling like crap in the first trimester is usually a sign of a healthy pregnancy, but it’s been difficult even to put in a full day at work, much less do anything beyond that. I’m coming out of the first trimester now, so hopefully I’ll be entering into those halcyon days of high energy, good appetite, and “glowing” (I wonder what I’ll look like when I glow). Hopefully that will lead to better posting frequency, but again, no promises. If I’m not feeling inspired, I’m not going to write “filler.”

Needless to say, the blog is going to continue. I am not leaving my job or my engagement in the professional dialogue. I’m sure I’ll be less involved for a good while, but I plan to go back to speaking and writing (though with a drastically reduced schedule) and will definitely keep up with the profession.

With my new focus on home and non-library-related projects, a brand new blog has been born. /var/log/farkas is a collaborative project between me and my husband, Adam. I’ve been bugging Adam forever to get his own blog, because he has such interesting insights on technology (he’s really the brains of this operation) and does so many cool organizational/productivity projects that others might be interested in replicating. I also have been wanting a blog to post about things that aren’t library-related but still interest me, be they technology-related or not. I don’t want to have a “baby blog” or a “mom blog”, but I wanted to have a space where I could post some news about my pregnancy and the baby so I don’t annoy the heck out of 99% of the people who read this blog. So I’d say that the blog is about everything Meredith-related other than libraries with a heapin’ helping of Adam’s absolutely frightening brilliance and great sense of humor thrown in.

It was a hard choice to decide to have a baby when I feel like I’m on an upward trajectory, career-wise. But what I realized is that there is never a perfect time for a baby, and you can spend your entire life waiting for that “just right” time to come. And when I saw the baby moving around on the ultrasound last week, it was very obvious to me that this totally beats a speaking gig in Chile, London, or even on Mars.

There is a very small, select list of people who I really see as role models in this profession. One of them is Mary Chimato, Head of Access Services at North Carolina State University. Her generosity, her strength, her humility, her sense of humor, her unwillingness to be steamrolled by anyone, her focus on being a truly great manager… she exemplifies everything I hope to be. Whenever Mary writes a blog post about being a manager, I save it and read it several times, because she really knows what she’s doing.

There’s an opening at NCSU that involves working directly under her to develop innovative access services at the library. The idea of working with Mary is so tempting that I’d almost be willing to leave my new and rather awesome job for this position, but things are finally falling into place this year with library instruction and the opportunities for change are way too good to pass up. However, that wouldn’t stop you from applying for this Associate Head of Access and Delivery Service position at NCSU, a library that is already doing so many innovative things and will be building a new library over the next few years. If you’re looking for a job where you can really effect change in public service, this would be perfect.

I’m still trying to figure out if I have anything to write about my time at ALA (or that would be politic to write in a public forum). I had a great time and managed to create a schedule that didn’t completely exhaust or overwhelm me, but this conference just didn’t seem to have the energy that others did. And that may just have been how I experienced the conference, but I’ve heard the same from a few others (with the exceptions of a few events like the Social Software Showcase). Still, it’s always a pleasure to see my friends and colleagues and share interesting ideas. I always come from conferences with great ideas, but it’s usually more from talking to people instead of from going to sessions. Is that something I really need to fly across the country for?

While I didn’t get tagged yet, the passion quilt meme really spoke to me. For this meme, you’re supposed to post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about.

Here’s mine:

Original image

Vikings

Originally uploaded by librarianmer

When I was in high school, I had a best friend I was pretty much joined at the hip to. She and I both had part-time jobs, though hers was for money to pay for college while mine was just for spending money. As a result, I always had more spending money than she did. So, if I wanted to do something with her that involved money, I had to pay for both of us. I never felt like that was a sacrifice, because spending time with her was so much more important to me than money. But my mother used to get really angry about it, saying that she was taking advantage of me and whatnot. She felt that things like this had to be “tit-for-tat” and if she wasn’t paying me back, then I was being taken advantage of. I didn’t buy that argument then, and I don’t buy it now. I realized then that sharing was rarely going to be tit-for-tat, but that people were more important than things or money. And frankly, I was benefiting. Sharing my money with my friend made me much happier than if I hadn’t. I wouldn’t give up the memories of that summer before college for anything.

I feel the same way about sharing in the library profession, but of course now it’s ideas. I really believe strongly in sharing knowledge. I do it on my blog, on wikis, through Five Weeks to a Social Library, in my column, in my LIS class, etc. Lots of people hold on tightly to what they know and don’t give it out unless someone’s paying. I believe strongly that my willingness to share has been a driving force in my professional success. It’s not always a direct “tit-for-tat” but I believe all the good I’ve given has come back to me ten-fold. I even found out late last week that I won a Nintendo Wii for attending a feedback session at Computers in Libraries. Wow! I don’t know if all this is luck or karma or what, but I know that I’m going to keep sharing because good things seem to happen when I do.

So maybe you think your knowledge wouldn’t be useful. I used to feel that way too, and I’ve learned how wrong I was. Maybe you feel it’s not worth sharing. I assure you, it is and it will help others. Maybe you just don’t want to make the effort to share. I promise you, your sharing will benefit you; maybe not immediately, but it will. You can’t look at sharing in the short-term what’s in it for me? sense, because the benefits are much more long term and much less direct. Sharing will help others. Sharing will make you feel good about yourself. Sharing will help you make friends. Sharing will make others see you as someone “in the know.” But most importantly, sharing will encourage others to share. And when there’s a culture of sharing, when we’re all sharing knowledge, we will all benefit.