On April 25th I’m being inducted into Epsilon Omega Epsilon Honor Society. Never had such honors at grad school before. I sent in my wedding picture to use during the commencement ceremony. At least there’s a live stream of the event so I can watch if I want to.
Library Management
I’m working on my Reflective Diary that will be used to create a Definition of Management for a final paper. Right now I’ve been reading about planning, leadership, budgeting, and managing people. So far I’ve decided that Library Managers have to keep everything balanced, pay the closest attention to the budget which isn’t going to get better any time soon so planning has to be made at a needs-based system. We also have to pay closest attention to our patrons, do what our Library Directors want us to do (but make sure to give feedback) and support your staff. A mouthful? Well, I’ve been writing on this for the whole term and the definition changes slightly each week (as the assignment wants it to). Then by May 6th, I’ll have my final paper on what I believe Management is, and then I’ll be done. I mean, I have my group work on the City of Dallas and its colleges for the Dallas Public Library stakeholders project as well but all in all, this is it. I’m getting it all finished in 25 days.
From what I’ve been reading, I’m not terribly optimistic in my job prospects right now though. The Colorado Dept of Labor projected that by 2019, they will only need 64 more library positions open for the whole state. Hhmm… Granted, this is being thought of through the eyes of the Recession but still. I’ll just have to keep my degree on hand, keep applying and see if things turn up.
In the States we can volunteer to keep our experience up but so far in the U.K. that isn’t going to be possible. I was never called back by the Newcastle Library and the Gateshead Library blatantly told me that “we don’t do that”. If they need volunteers it’s only through the Friends of the Library when they have events. Don’t know how librarians get experience in England without volunteer opportunities.
