Author: Catherine

This general blah feeling can be unmotivating. Between the beyond-gloomy weather in Philadelphia and the sadness of not being at ACRL 2013, I’m in need of a little pick-me-up. You too? Great. Let’s do this.

Tiger is still not sure about this, but maybe these books and links can change his mind while providing some much needed recharging:

Steal Like an Artist: Short, powerful, and a kick in the butt. This book by Austin Kleon is based on a list of 10 things he wished he had been told when he started in the creative industry. Applicable to any job where innovation and creation happens.

5 Ways to Step Forward When You’re Scared to Death: Kick in the butt, part 2. The tl;dr version is that it’s OK to be scared; it’s not OK to let it stop you. This article helped me through the getting started portion of a major personal professional development plan. You can do [whatever it is that scares you] too!

Being a Librarian … 10 Years On: Joe Hardenbrook shares 10 quick bits of advice from his first 10 years as a librarian. Good advice for newbies and veterans alike.

A Culture of Optimism: I found this post third-hand on Twitter, and then vigorously nodded my head through all of it. I had lunch this week with another newer librarian, and we both struggle with the timbre of our workplace. In addition to being committed to stay optimistic ourselves, we now have some ideas for how to infuse the rest of the building with the same uplifting feelings.

Good Work Isn’t Enough: There’s no shortage of articles about the qualities successful people share, but Cognition takes on the issue as a challenge to check ourselves and our attitudes.

workisnotajob manifesto: “The world is your playground — not your prison.”

What’s inspired you lately?

*The tournament, in terms of massive time commitment on my part, is considered over once Kansas loses. I’ll still watch, but now from the comfort of my own home.

Now that the NCAA tournament is winding down, I found myself with a lot of reading time this week. Or catching up on the Internet since March 21.

For inspiration during a faux spring week:

Things I Would Tell My Younger Self: On the value of believing in yourself, getting going, and sandwiches. Never underestimate the value of a sandwich.

For better time management:

Why You Never Finish Your To Do Lists at Work and How To Change That: I’m feeling especially motivated by nos. 2 and 3. And before you balk at finishing to-do lists with a lot of variable-effort responsibilities on your plate (ref desk, anyone?), take note: “If your position is one where each day brings lots of unexpected tasks, try leaving one medium and two small tasks blank, in preparation for the last-minute requests from your boss.” Or students and faculty. Same thing, really.

If You’re Always Busy, You May Just Be Procrastinating: Having lots to do (or making lots of things to do) does not equal busy. The “I’m the most stressed and busiest person in the room” game is not one you should aspire to win.

For thinking bigger and better:

How To Think Like An Engineer: This has long been my view on learning to code. It’s a different way of thinking. Master that, and you can apply that thinking strategy to your organization’s toughest challenges. I should add that even a tiny bit of programming know-how will have a positive effect on your working relationships with the coding folks, but the bigger benefits are in the shift in mindset.

As a Kansas alumna, March Madness is near and dear to my heart and my biggest commitment this time of year, hence the short list this week.

The Most Important Question You’re Forgetting to Ask (The Story of Telling): Librarians, we need to ask this one.

The Smart Creative’s Guide to Dressing for Work (99u): Dress like you mean it. Look put together, and you’ll start to feel it.

And on a less serious note, I’m happy to report that my department now has its own sigil. A little humor goes a long way in getting our major upcoming project off to a good start. Our motto? Rule No. 1: No Dying.

It’s been a crazy few weeks, and I’m looking forward to an unplugged weekend to recharge and reflect. But first, links!

The Complexity of Simplicity: Ten principles that can help keep things simple (one of my favorite topics!). Keep these in mind the next time you attack your library website.

How to Do the Work You’re Not Ready For: Hint, you probably are ready. Go for it!

18 Principles for Highly Creative Living: A mental breath of fresh air. My favorite part? “Use the word ‘yes’ to connect with people; use the word ‘no’ to protect your space, work, time and relationships. Inside every ‘no’ is a ‘yes’ to something else. Know what that is.”

Time management is always a struggle, especially in libraries where we often cannot predict how our days will play out and where we might be doing two or more jobs. Here are two articles to help manage your time:

The 5 Types of Work That Fill Your Day: If you’re like most librarians, you likely spend most of your day on reactionary tasks. But there is hope — audit your work, and better balance your time.

Break Your Addiction to Meetings: Check out the awesome decision tree in this post.

This week also includes a strong set of marketing and messaging posts:

Building A Brand Versus Selling A Commodity: Love this definition of brand

4 ways to find — and replace — jargon in your writing: Now that we have identified jargon, it’s time to fix the problem.

Message isn’t working? Here’s a three-point diagnosis: See #2. Your message is for your USERS, not for other librarians.

If you follow me on Twitter, you know how much I hate poorly run meetings. As a result, I am constantly striving to run better meetings myself. I have two rules: 1. Cookies. 2. Agendas. Agendaless meetings are disasters before they begin. They waste time and can even create more problems than they solve.

We start our weekly links at Inc., where Steve Tobak shares six tips for leading a great meeting.

Other great reads from this week:

7 ineffective habits of scientists who communicate with public audiences: This article was written for scientists but applies equally to librarians. Lose the jargon!

An Event Apart: Silo-Busting with Scenarios: I was introduced to Luke Wroblewski’s work through my local UX book club chapter when we read his book Mobile First. Luke attends a number of fascinating conferences each year and is always generous with sharing his notes from each talk. This particular talk addressed problem solving through scenarios to break us out of our silos. This could help us break across the barriers between circ, reference, tech services, IT, etc., in libraries to best serve our patrons, regardless of where they start their question.

How Can You Communicate With More Authority as a Manager? Many newer librarians (myself included) often end up supervising those who are older and more experienced than ourselves. Alison Green shares some concrete examples here of how to better assert yourself in management and leadership roles.

What business are you in? As we continue to explore the future of libraries, it’s good to explore our purpose. Are we in the book business? The teaching business? The helping business? Or something else entirely?

The post-holiday back-to-work rush finally caught up with me this week, and I’ve spent more time than usual relaxing and letting my mind rest. As a result, the regular weekly roundup of links is not to be.

I have taken some of this downtime to reflect on the future of library websites.

One departmental library has already launched a redesigned site, and my department likely will be doing the same later this spring. Our current website has been accumulating for years without any clear strategy. I’m hoping to change that and improve the usability of our site (which is the home to all of our DIY documentation) with a much simpler home page.

The Onion’s brand of satire occasionally hits an issue perfectly, and simplicity on the web is no exception in “Internet Users Demand Less Interactivity.” I want our new home page to get users to the information they need quickly, rather than pepper them with every possible option. I hope starting from scratch also will help us rethink our documentation structure and writing style, getting rid of jargon and awkward phrasing and terminology. It’s a lot of work, but the potential benefits are worth it, and I’m looking forward to getting started.

On that note, here are some articles for further reflection:

Removing library jargon from our home page — what Google Analytics tells us

xkcd: University Website

The Benefits of Less

Some of the best from outside Libraryland this week.

10 Ways to Make Life Good Again: Full of #librarianstress? Take a deep breath and prepare to bring the good times back.

Beware of Reactionary Workflow: Is your workday proactive or reactive? A good argument for focusing your energy on the bigger tasks.

Defeating Busy: Better time management = better work and happier people. I’m looking forward to trying a few of these tips.

Jargon is hurting your company’s bottom line: Can I be honest? There are a lot of library and tech-related acronyms and terms *I* don’t know. What does that mean for our users? Nothing good.

Social media is not your saving grace: Being on a social network for the sake of being there is not going to turn your library into a magical millennial-friendly space. Have expectations and goals to deliver value in that realm.