I attended a program called "Shift Happens: Aligning Financial Decisions with Strategic Directions" on Sat, June 28 at 10:30 am. The panelists were Monique le Conge, Director of Library and Cultural Services, Richmond, CA; Catherine Tweedie, Director fo Finane and Analysis, Univ. of Minnesota Libraries; and Linda Fenster, Director of Library Services, City Univ. of Seattle. Each panelist spoke about critical budget decisions they made that affected their programs, personnel and services. They also described how they allocated resources to support the strategic directions of their respective institutions. Very informative and helpful to those of us working on a group project about strategic planning for LIBR 204.
For more info on this program, please visit http://presentations.ala.org. Casey
The top two things I got out of the program were: 1) libraries need to make sure they're spending their money on what they say is most important to them 2)there is a program called Sharepoint where everyone can share the same spreadsheet to keep track of monthly progress toward goals
Oops, I just noticed that I left the "c" of out finance in my first post. Sorry about that! Casey
How Branding Can Increase the Relevance of Your Library James Keller, Director of Marketing and Communications, Queens Public Library, NY
Some of this seemed old news for an organization like ours (let your stakeholders know what you’re doing, work with other “competing” agencies…), but Keller did present an interesting perspective as to why we need to pay attention to not just what we’re doing, but why we need to do it.
Two key points:
1. Develop a strategy or plan for creating your library brand It isn’t enough to have a great slogan, you need to make your “product” understandable and desireable to the user, the stakeholder and the staff.
2. People expect more from their libraries; librarians should expect more from themselves. We have to rethink what we do, how we do it and why we do it. If we want support, we need to establish ourselves as vital and essential. While police and fire are customarily thought of as part of basic services, libraries need to become third on that list. Librarians are the ones that can make that a reality.
There were some basic tips and tricks: try using postcards to get your message out rather than flyers, don’t do promotion on the cheap – it shows, make sure you have clear achievable objectives. Overall a good introduction to the 21st Century Library.
Selling Your Story: How to Use the PLA Service Responses to Market Your Library Speakers: June Garcia, Library Consultant and Sandra Nelson, Library Consultant
This workshop was about "how we talk about ourselves to ourselves." The speakers suggested that before libraries can promote their products, they need to determine exactly what those products (or service responses) are. PLA did a survey of public libraries, and these were the services that they said they provide: 1) help people to become informed citizes on local, national and world affairs 2) Build successful enterprises (business and nonprofits) 3) Celebrate diversity (this means treating everyone the same and with respect) 4) connect people to the online world 5) create young readers 6) discover your roots (genealogy and local history) 7) express creativity (create and share content) 8) get facts fast 9) help people know what community resources and services exist 10) learn to read and write (adult, teen and family literacy) 11) make career choices 12) make informed decisions (health, wealth and other life choices) 13) satisfy curiosity 14) stimulate imagination
The workshop also covered place, price and promotion of these services. What I learned: 1) people only listen to messages when it's about them, so we need to tailor the messages to the target audience (i.e. use electronic messages to reach teens, use print to reach seniors) 2)only the mediocre are at their best at all times
This was one of the programs in which I was most interested. The main speaker was Maureen Sullivan who is a fabulous speaker. The overall theme was employee recognition and appreciation programs, methods of recognizing people, and basically, how tough this is to do!
Maureen Sullivan: 1. Get to know your employees and what they do. The most important thing you can do as a supervisor is recognize what people are doing, appreciate them for it, and celebrate what they have done. 2. She recommended the book “Encouraging the Heart” by Kouzes and Posner that talks about our basic need for valuing who we are and what we do. 3. High performance and improved performance comes from recognizing people for who they are and what they do. The Center for Creative Leadership focuses on this. Basically they say there is a difference between high performing and low performing managers, which is affection, affiliation and control. 4. Resonant Leadership (3 components) a. Practice mindfulness – be able to focus one’s attention on what’s important b. Compassion – our ability to demonstrate care for others c. Hope – manages that have hope make followers want to believe in them and the goal 5. Seven Essentials for effective appreciation and recognition a. Setting Clear Standards – set the goal, monitor progress, and give feedback on the progress b. Expect the Best – convey a positive expectation | convey the belief that people can do well c. Pay Attention – pay attention by being around, know what staff are doing, trends that are occurring, and catching them doing something right. Center your attention around them. d. Personalizing Recognition – select what would be meaningful to the employee (Card? Chocolate? Email to staff?) e. Tell the Story – provide meaningful recognition through stories. Tell the story of how the employee did a great job. Humanize the experience. f. Celebrate Together – bring everyone together to celebrate accomplishments g. Model the Behavior You Expect – be positive, mindful, and recognize others
6. Recognition doesn’t always have to be topdown. It can also be from the bottomup.
There were also speakers from a couple libraries. Whereas some of them seem to have recognition programs that work, there is not a cookie cutter version to just implement. Here’s what some people do: 1. Have a employee recognition committee where each department is represented as well as all levels 2. Have a nominating process 3. Awards ceremony during National Library Week (not just best employee, but best baker, best bright idea, best bright star, best team player, etc.) 4. Holiday party of some thank you event (I think this is a bit like our inservice) 5. Acknowledge people they way they want to be acknowledged (some want fanfare, some want personal email, lunch, gift card, etc.) 6. Need a *budget* for this – for prizes
Lastly, one other interesting idea that was mentioned was workshops and conferences. Many libraries consider attendance at these types of events (like Infopeople, ALA, CLA, Eureka, etc.) to be employee recognition and appreciation. I guess I hadn’t really thought of it like that, but they are probably right.
Two things I took away with me: - I need to spend time working on this - Acknowledging people needs to be more than just a gift, but rather taking the time to say “good job”
5 comments:
I attended a program called "Shift Happens: Aligning Financial Decisions with Strategic Directions" on Sat, June 28 at 10:30 am. The panelists were Monique le Conge, Director of Library and Cultural Services, Richmond, CA; Catherine Tweedie, Director fo Finane and Analysis, Univ. of Minnesota Libraries; and Linda Fenster, Director of Library Services, City Univ. of Seattle. Each panelist spoke about critical budget decisions they made that affected their programs, personnel and services. They also described how they allocated resources to support the strategic directions of their respective institutions. Very informative and helpful to those of us working on a group project about strategic planning for LIBR 204.
For more info on this program, please visit http://presentations.ala.org.
Casey
The top two things I got out of the program were:
1) libraries need to make sure they're spending their money on what they say is most important to them
2)there is a program called Sharepoint where everyone can share the same spreadsheet to keep track of monthly progress toward goals
Oops, I just noticed that I left the "c" of out finance in my first post. Sorry about that!
Casey
How Branding Can Increase the Relevance of Your Library
James Keller, Director of Marketing and Communications, Queens Public Library, NY
Some of this seemed old news for an organization like ours (let your stakeholders know what you’re doing, work with other “competing” agencies…), but Keller did present an interesting perspective as to why we need to pay attention to not just what we’re doing, but why we need to do it.
Two key points:
1. Develop a strategy or plan for creating your library brand
It isn’t enough to have a great slogan, you need to make your “product” understandable and desireable to the user, the stakeholder and the staff.
2. People expect more from their libraries; librarians should expect more from themselves.
We have to rethink what we do, how we do it and why we do it. If we want support, we need to establish ourselves as vital and essential. While police and fire are customarily thought of as part of basic services, libraries need to become third on that list. Librarians are the ones that can make that a reality.
There were some basic tips and tricks: try using postcards to get your message out rather than flyers, don’t do promotion on the cheap – it shows, make sure you have clear achievable objectives. Overall a good introduction to the
21st Century Library.
Selling Your Story: How to Use the PLA Service Responses to Market Your Library
Speakers: June Garcia, Library Consultant and Sandra Nelson, Library Consultant
This workshop was about "how we talk about ourselves to ourselves." The speakers suggested that before libraries can promote their products, they need to determine exactly what those products (or service responses) are. PLA did a survey of public libraries, and these were the services that they said they provide:
1) help people to become informed citizes on local, national and world affairs
2) Build successful enterprises (business and nonprofits)
3) Celebrate diversity (this means treating everyone the same and with respect)
4) connect people to the online world
5) create young readers
6) discover your roots (genealogy and local history)
7) express creativity (create and share content)
8) get facts fast
9) help people know what community resources and services exist
10) learn to read and write (adult, teen and family literacy)
11) make career choices
12) make informed decisions (health, wealth and other life choices)
13) satisfy curiosity
14) stimulate imagination
The workshop also covered place, price and promotion of these services.
What I learned:
1) people only listen to messages when it's about them, so we need to tailor the messages to the target audience (i.e. use electronic messages to reach teens, use print to reach seniors)
2)only the mediocre are at their best at all times
Employee Recognition and Appreciation
This was one of the programs in which I was most interested. The main speaker was Maureen Sullivan who is a fabulous speaker. The overall theme was employee recognition and appreciation programs, methods of recognizing people, and basically, how tough this is to do!
Maureen Sullivan:
1. Get to know your employees and what they do. The most important thing you can do as a supervisor is recognize what people are doing, appreciate them for it, and celebrate what they have done.
2. She recommended the book “Encouraging the Heart” by Kouzes and Posner that talks about our basic need for valuing who we are and what we do.
3. High performance and improved performance comes from recognizing people for who they are and what they do. The Center for Creative Leadership focuses on this. Basically they say there is a difference between high performing and low performing managers, which is affection, affiliation and control.
4. Resonant Leadership (3 components)
a. Practice mindfulness – be able to focus one’s attention on what’s important
b. Compassion – our ability to demonstrate care for others
c. Hope – manages that have hope make followers want to believe in them and the goal
5. Seven Essentials for effective appreciation and recognition
a. Setting Clear Standards – set the goal, monitor progress, and give feedback on the progress
b. Expect the Best – convey a positive expectation | convey the belief that people can do well
c. Pay Attention – pay attention by being around, know what staff are doing, trends that are occurring, and catching them doing something right. Center your attention around them.
d. Personalizing Recognition – select what would be meaningful to the employee (Card? Chocolate? Email to staff?)
e. Tell the Story – provide meaningful recognition through stories. Tell the story of how the employee did a great job. Humanize the experience.
f. Celebrate Together – bring everyone together to celebrate accomplishments
g. Model the Behavior You Expect – be positive, mindful, and recognize others
6. Recognition doesn’t always have to be topdown. It can also be from the bottomup.
There were also speakers from a couple libraries. Whereas some of them seem to have recognition programs that work, there is not a cookie cutter version to just implement. Here’s what some people do:
1. Have a employee recognition committee where each department is represented as well as all levels
2. Have a nominating process
3. Awards ceremony during National Library Week (not just best employee, but best baker, best bright idea, best bright star, best team player, etc.)
4. Holiday party of some thank you event (I think this is a bit like our inservice)
5. Acknowledge people they way they want to be acknowledged (some want fanfare, some want personal email, lunch, gift card, etc.)
6. Need a *budget* for this – for prizes
Lastly, one other interesting idea that was mentioned was workshops and conferences. Many libraries consider attendance at these types of events (like Infopeople, ALA, CLA, Eureka, etc.) to be employee recognition and appreciation. I guess I hadn’t really thought of it like that, but they are probably right.
Two things I took away with me:
- I need to spend time working on this
- Acknowledging people needs to be more than just a gift, but rather taking the time to say “good job”
Michelle
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