Working on a Growth Mindset

Pixabay image

I was struck by a 2015 post on the InformED website that Stephen Abrams linked to on cultivating a growth mindset.

It wraps into much of my thinking as someone who feels like a day is a lost cause if I don't learn something new - about the profession, about myself, about the world (both locally, regionally and globally), about how others experience the world. Learning is what I do.

Sharing that learning is also what I do. I have been teaching and sharing through classes, lectures, presentations, mentoring, informal chats in hallways, linking people to people, (more recently) this blog for more than thirty years.  We are lucky to be in a marvelously connected profession where we can celebrate all the ways of knowing and providing services.

Over all that time my thinking and consideration of youth work has grown and changed as I have absorbed far more than I shared from my reading, listening and attendance at conferences.

Most recently, I was struck by the learning that went on at the ALSC Institute in Cincinnati. Sessions were focused on research and on "how I run my library good". The research was bracing. The practical sessions included not just the triumphs but honest assessments of the rocky path there - the obstacles, fails and solutions that made the project or plan truly work for each community.

A key to this conference is that it really is all learning all the time - not just in information sessions -and provides ample time to connect with and meet many new people. Because the Institutes are located in areas that ALA conferences never come to, it is an extraordinary opportunity to meet library staff from the regions surrounding the conference and learn a ton. I came knowing very few people and left knowing lots of new colleagues that I met during breaks, at receptions, at meals and sitting next to me at sessions. It's exciting not just to hang out with people you know but to reach out and include everyone.

That personal learning is powerful especially at a conference whose theme was diversity and inclusion. My take-aways included learning about links to inclusive programming; the importance of identity in programming, and sharpening my eye in terms of decolonializing book selection and my work in making sure I do this. It made the closing session a painful reminder of how there is much work to be done here and I need to be part of that work in my sharing and learning.

Growth mindset. Learning. A sense of and a re-commitment to: "We can all do better".

The Importance of Being at the Table

I'm at the ALSC institute this week in Cincinnati with a few hundred sister and brother youth librarians learning a ton and meeting many new colleagues. What I love about these biennial Institutes is the concentrated sessions with plenty of time network with regional librarians who don't often get the opportunity to attend ALA conferences. There is no committee work so all our time is learning and connecting with new friends.

This year, the overarching theme is the importance of making sure we get everyone at the table. We in youth librarianship should be leaders in inclusion, equity and diversity.

The programs so far have really celebrated this concept with thoughtful reflections and stirring calls to action on identity in children's programming; decolonializing our book selection methods; demystifying advocacy; true advocacy that recognizes every child and so much more yet to come in the next two days.

I will be presenting on the importance of reaching out and being a leader in connecting community and library to benefit all kids. It's exciting to be part of the group of energetic and innovative colleagues sharing programs, thoughts and action..

The next Institute will be held in Minneapolis MN Oct 1-3, 2020. You might want to mark your calendars now for this immersive experience.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 = Empowerment

Hafuboti expresses what everyone feels in the CE class

Two things are happening that make me happy and excited and proud and want to run in circles of OCD happiness (I am controlling myself).

Thing 1.
I am teaching an online CE course for UW-Madison on issues in youth library management. In the description I lay out the narrow set of issues we can address in a four week course - some good stuff but by no means ALL. THE. THINGS. I also, as in all my CE classes, made it known that this isn't a guru-to-grasshoppers paradigm: "The course will be collaborative as you share your experiences and ideas that have worked in managing your youth services area."

Bless the participants. They are taking me seriously! In our first week, over 300 posts flew back and forth. Questions, answers, ideas, sadness, happiness, problems, solutions, thoughts and support, support, support for each other. It is clear that a community of practice is budding. We are all learning a ton. And I think we are all learning to be unafraid to put our thoughts and fears out there. The graphic in this post is from Rebecca Brooks who blogs at Hafuboti. It's her meme on how she feels about wanting to jump in. That's what I'm talking about!

Thing 2.
Our state youth library consultant, Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, is deservedly being named Wisconsin Library Association Librarian of the Year in a few weeks. Right there that is a Thing 2. It is very rare to have a youth person win this award and it makes my heart very happy.

Happier still, though, is what brings Tessa to this award. In just 2.5 years on the job, she created a statewide initiative, Growing Wisconsin Readers, that supports early literacy throughout our state with ready-made materials. She planned a Youth leadership Institute in 2013 that brought non-MLIS children's librarians together and gave them information and power that have made these people mighty. She has created shared system workshops and powered a new look at youth statistics that honors not just active programs and SLP statistics but all the ways we program and bring children to literacy.

But best, best, best of all??? Tessa has been a mighty person who has given voice and power to youth librarians (whether MLISed or not) throughout our state. She has empowered staffers from our smallest libraries to share their amazing work - through blog posts, through invites to present at statewide conferences and as part of webinars. She has opened the door and invited everyone through. As she says, "You're only leading if you're extending forward as much as you are reaching behind and pulling up others."

Word.

Just to See if I Could

I love technology even when I'm less than facile with it. Having come from the horse and buggy days when overdue notices were handwritten, check-out cards (by the thousands) were hand alphabetized for each due date and slowly searched to unite card with returned item, and phone notices ate up a morning each week, how can I not love?

Back in the day, to reach out to your colleagues meant a drive or a long-distance phone call. It wasn't unusual for a director, sweating the bottom line, to ask you to use snail mail. Not exactly conducive to a conversation.

Technology has been powering our work and connectivity since the '80s. Each year it gets better, faster and more interwoven. Social media gets us brainstorming, learning, commiserating and celebrating with pals, new and old, near and far. Travis Jonker just wrote this article on power-using. Combine that with chats, google doc collaboration and we can be right there with each other all the time. I'm with you, buddy!

Bringing technology into our work with kids has also been great. Watching parents using iPads with their kids, kids gaming and solving in Minecraft, kids learning animation, coding, filmmaking, using iPads for trivia/scavenger hunts on tours and more in libraries (check out Jbrary's recent post on iPad programs) has been way exciting. I will never be the Luddite that screams "Books! Books! Nothin' but books!" There is room for all the ways to interact with print and discover and learn information.

So where is all this going? Well with new iPhone I bought last night in hand, for the first time I am free to blog wherever and whenever. So I did, just to see if I could!

Sigh! Technology I heart you!

[Although I couldn't *quite* figure out how to get the links and photo in...more study ahead!)

Nurturing Ideas - and Each Other

Stellar Nursery in Orion

This is one of my favorite photos at the always amazing Astronomy Picture of the Day. It shows the Great Nebula in Orion - a huge cloud of gas and energy where suns are forming in a stellar nursery. While the science intrigues me, I see it as a metaphor for what we can do best in youth services - help support and lift up our colleagues anywhere on their career path.

I've been thinking alot about this lately - partly because I've been teaching. There is this aspect of giving information in the act of teaching but a far deeper piece where the students give just as much -  sharing, problem solving, teaching and supporting each other. I always learn when I teach.

I've also been thinking about this - partly because I have been looking at management and hiring not just in our own library but also as I develop workshops, presentations and courses on  youth services management. Part of what you do every day as a manager is look for ways to open a path for the team members to work more smoothly - whether its removing a rock from the path, helping re-find the way, putting the brakes on a cart careening off the path or providing a little muscle to help ease the passage up a tough hill.

Partly because I have been in so many conversations with colleagues all over the country about how to encourage the sharing so we can preserve knowledge but also build on it. We should each want to plug into librarians at all points in their career to network, to share and to encourage their work and passion. Whether new or a vet, we can lift each other up by asking for our colleague's opinions, program ideas, and youth librarianship thoughts.

Amy Koester wrote recently about this is Storytime Underground and I couldn't agree more. We all have something to share, to learn and to gain. It isn't just the bloggers and presenters who have a platform though. It is every youth librarian every day in their work pushing that envelope further out. The stellar nursery isn't just for the beginners in librarianship - it is for everyone along their career's path. We all need that nurturing and support - and we all can give it.

Maybe, in addition to our PLN (personal learning networks), we need to commit to a ULN (universal learning network). Open ourselves up not just to our familiar network but build further and more openly outside of our tribe and our group and our lanes of connectivity. If we each think ourselves as a mentor - even if we are just six months into our first position - and our job is to lift each other up, how powerful could that be?!?!

We can then consciously support a youth librarian idea nursery that spreads and supports the work of us all by connecting to the unconnected, the un-cohorted, the un-MLISed. We can build the network by including never-before-presenters to panels we are creating to present at CE/conferences/webinars at all levels. We can make sure our blogs are open for guest posts. We can nurture those who don't have a path to leadership or an audience and are hesitant to step forward.

Flannel Friday, Storytime Underground, Thrive Thursdays and lots of bloggers are leading the way to this kind of universal support. Our challenge is to continue and reach more deeply out to those unconnected who can use the support just as much. I know we do it. But can we do it more? Oh yeah, we're youth librarians and we all are that nursery for each other.

Image Credit: R. Villaverde, Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA

Roadtrip CE

There is always a flurry of activity and a frisson of excitement when conferences are on the horizon (PLA! ALA! State Conference! SLJ Think Tank! ALSC Institute! Symposium! Unconference!). If you don't happen to be attending one of these opportunities to learn, share, network, it's easy to feel - well #leftbehind.

But you may not be missing as much as you think! As we have seen from recent blog posts on PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) here and here and here and here and here and (...pant, pant, pant!), you can stay right in your library at your desk and connect to a wealth of knowledge. Friendships and collegial relationships blossom through social media - win!

But perhaps you're not mainlining Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and blog reading is kind of catch as catch can. You're only partway connected through social media but you long for connection to your peers - especially face-to-face. How do you connect and learn?

Road trip!!!!  If you can steal time a couple of times a year, hit the road and do some boots-on-the-ground library visiting and IRL colleague meeting.  It's a great way to see how another library does it good and to chat about concerns with colleagues who are or become friends.

Yesterday, a couple members of our department took a road trip to the Twin Cities to hear Rainbow Rowell speak. Along the way they met up with a colleague, toured her branch and another library, shared a good meal and most excellent conversation. What did it cost them (well, some sleep - it was a loooonnng day!)? Some quality time away from their desks and driving time - we have a library van available. It was a very reasonable cost for the library and me, as manager, to make sure these staffers could have a day away that was a mix of CE and connecting.

As a free-lance storyteller and workshop presenter, I often find myself on the road and in libraries. I make sure to connect with colleagues to share a meal, a drink or break and talk about what matters to us.  It is connectivity and comfort. I learn about libraries of all sizes, I never fail to pick up a new idea or twenty, I get ideas for blog posts and I get to hear what is happening with colleagues. Youth librarian colleagues drop by and do the same at our shop when they are passing through our town.

It doesn't cost much. It connects you up. And you learn. Now that's CE I can get behind.

#ALA2013 - Youth Librarians Win!

I've been conferencing a loooonnnng time at ALA.  I agree with colleagues posting and tweeting, this conference was a win in every way for youth librarians.

Maybe because this is the first newly compressed conference - fewer days and fewer sessions sponsored by units and almost all programs held at the conference center itself. This seems to make it possible to attend more events than ever before.

Maybe the addition of and continued support for member-driven content (ignite sessions, uncommons, conversation starters) that resulted in great youth presentations. The unit-supported content was pretty amazing as well.

Maybe because groups of librarians connected through blogs, the twitterverse and groups like EL, ALATT and Flannel Friday reached the perfect storm of connectivity creating kismet meet-up moments and IRL chat.

So, despite substantial time spent fulfilling responsibilities as ALA chapter councilor for my state, I have to say that this conference was an amazing, robust and energetic one for youth librarians.

A few highlights:

• Caldecott 75th Anniversary Celebration with astounding speeches and delightful pre- and post- banquet fun thanks to the hard working planning committee 
• ALSC Caldecott Preconference!
• Guerrilla Storytime!
• Declaration on the Right to Libraries! 
• Youth Librarian Meet-ups  including Kid Lit Drinks Nite on Friday and Karaoke on Saturday!
• Home-made-pitched-by-individuals-and-voted-on Conversation Starters filled with Youth content!

This doesn't even begin to address the ALSC and YALSA supported programs, the exhibits, committee work, the auditorium speaker series...and just everything.

There was energy and innovation and excitement - not just to see each other but to strategize what else we can do to be uber superhero librarians back in our communities and looking at the future. I talked about this kind of collaborative energy here and here.

And while I celebrate attending conferences, I also think we do so much outside of conferences to stay fabulous and tuned in and inventive. So whether you were at ALA or not, the doors are open for you to walk through!

Mel from Mel's Desk gets at the core of what I LOVE about this at-conference-and-not-at-conference paradigm in what I believe will be THE blog post on personal learning, connecting with those who share your passion and empowerment for the next decade. Conferences like ALA are one way to connect and learn - but there are so many other ways too that happen everyday when we reach outside our workplace and connect.  Let's go and let's do it.

WIN!!!

ALA - Let's Get Together Yeah Yeah Yeah

With ALA slamming up at breakneck speed, I feel the need to make sure I connect to each and every one of you who come to Chicago.  Logistics tell me I'm nuts. But then again, it's worth the try.

Although there are some great social events in the offing, I think another youth services blogger and readers of blogs and twitter -peeps gathering would be fun to do especially if you're thinking of being at the Newbery/Caldecott awards banquet on Sunday June 30 at the Sheraton or the speeches after! It struck me that lots of us would be hanging around this premier youth services celebration, so...

....if you plan attend the banquet or just drop by the speeches after the dinner (there are chairs set up and you can listen to the speeches free and gaze upon the glitterati in the audience!), we can do a meet-up!

Traditionally, at the conclusion of the banquet, a receiving line with the honorees takes place right after the speeches outside the hall. There is always a cash bar. It's a great spot to gather and chat late night (caffeinate early to be up late!).

So consider this for your schedule and say hi!

Post N/C Youth Blogger/Blog Reader/Tweep Meet-up
Sunday June 30
Sheraton Chicago banquet area
10:30-11pm-ish start (or whenever N/C speeches end)
 

Only Connect

I attended the SLJ Think Tank in NYC last week. It was a transformative day for me - not just because of the outstanding and thought-provoking speakers but also for the chance to be with colleagues I have met in a whole new way.

In the past, if I wanted to bounce ideas off people or get my collegial-jolt, attendance at state and national conferences was the main way I interacted to get my youth librarian-idea fix. The networks of colleagues who mentored me, friended me and supported me (and back at all of them with the same from me) especially at ALA was grounded in real time and in real places. The gabbing, blue-skying, laughing, eating and drinking that brought us together helped me become the children's librarian I am.

But something changed in the last year that broadened and opened my horizons so far I feel that I can almost see to the end of the universe. Although I've been communicating in new ways through this blog and Facebook, my time on Twitter and in Facebook groups brought a new immediacy and connectivity to my work. For those who find this journey of discovery ho-hum, bear with me.

I was a late Twitter adapter, partly because, as a yakker of legendary repute, how could I harness that into 140 characters? But once I jumped in, I realized that the immediacy of the conversations and links led me to deep connections with and respect for people I had never met IRL. Ideas hatched, work flowed, tempers flared, sympathy was extended and support and wicked humor was always there.

Professional Facebook and Google groups (ALA Think Tank, Code Named Awesome, Flannel Friday), all discovered through Twitter, added to the fun and gestalt. The overlap among them all in terms of interacting with colleagues across many social media platforms only increased the connectivity.

So when I came to New York (you knew I'd get back here, right?), I got a chance to meet, IRL, so many people who are friends in social media: @amyeileenk, @mmlibrarian; @libraryvoice, @MissReneeDomain @melissaZD, @sophiebiblio. I realized that despite the fact we were meeting for the first time, I felt we had been friends forever.

And I felt free - and connected - in a way that is deeper than my professional association connections - perhaps because there are no expectations of work for me when I am involved with social media friends and colleagues (well, unless we hatch something!). These connections and chats sustain me and spark my imagination. It is really connecting with people's minds directly and I learn at the feet of these colleagues (take note Twitter and FB lurkers: engage and show your stuff!!).

So a big shout-out to all my creative partners on social media whether I've met you IRL or not. Our connection is what fuels me!

Let's Chat Children's Librarians!

My new tweep, Michelle is leaping out in front and hosting a children's librarian chat on Thursday night at 9pm ET.

As Michelle writes on her blog, Lit Chat for Kids:  "I don't know if this has been done on Twitter with this exact topic, but I will be hosting my first one tomorrow night at 9 PM ET, hashtag #jlib. If you are a children's librarian or studying to be one, you are invited to this chat. We will be talking about a variety of Children's library related issues such as: collection development, programming, outreach and more. Feel free to submit your questions to me here or DM me on Twitter (mmlibrarian). Hope to see you then"

I don't think I can resist!  Hope to chat with you all there!

Oh, and Michelle?  You go girl!!!

Flannel Friday Fiesta! A Civilian's View

Flannel Friday is fast approaching it's second anniversary. As the auspicious day approaches, participants in Flannel Friday are sharing what this movement has meant to them. Sharon over at her blog Rain Makes Applesauce is gathering the posts of participants. All are worth reading.

I myself am not a flannelist anymore. Or a prop-meister. Or a storytime provider. I once was and enjoyed that part of my work more than I can say. But even as a manager, I love and appreciate the efforts in the field of storytime and early literacy and the great places people are taking them. So, though I am not an active participant and really just an observer, let me still share with you what these intrepid folks and their blogs have meant to me and my professional life.

The blogs that participants are encouraged to start have often blossomed well beyond sharing flannel stories and patterns. Many of these new bloggers have expanded their content with thoughts about their work, programs, children's services and issues swirling around youth librarianship. When I celebrated the linkiness of my life a few weeks ago, it was also a homage to FF folks who have jumped into the blogosphere with both feet and enriched my thinking and work life so profoundly.

The FF community also led me fully into the world of Twitter. Many of these bloggers were the first tweeps I followed and chatted with. They have become a community of friends that I rely on and learn from.

I am in awe of the founders of (thank you, thank you) as well as the participants in this amazing grassroots effort. You have affected a sea change in youth librarianship and connectivity.

Big fireworks for you all!

Image: 'Fireworks 04'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/53139634@N00/472327992 Found on flickrcc.net

I Want to Tell You a Story

We have a favorite partnership in our community. It's with our La Crosse Storyelling Festival.  As part of my job, I represent the library on the planning committee for this annual festival, held the first weekend after Labor Day for over 800 avid storytelling fans. The festival features tellers from our local guild, from the state and national tellers.

The library began as a partner years ago by sponsoring children's crafts during breaks in the children's tent storytelling. When I started work at the library four years ago, the fest steering committee asked me to serve on their board - they are all storytelling colleagues that I had known for years in my storytelling circles. Our library wants library staff to serve, on library time, on local organizations and boards (Rotary, Jaycees, Optimists, Earth Day planning committee) so this fit right in with the library goals. And it was storytelling. As a free lance storyteller, it was a great fit!

As a board member, I've been able to work on behalf of the festival - but also on the library's behalf.  I look for ways to make our contribution meaningful and to highlight the library beyond having our logo displayed. The library now co-sponsors the Friday night spooky tales. I host the evening as the "Wizard of Reading" and get to plug the library and reading.  Anyone who shows their library card gets $3 off their admission. The library, pays the difference - we consider it part of our programming.

The Saturday craft area that we sponsor has mellowed into an activity area with one or two book-related activities (bookmark making, writing or drawing activities) and a space for reading and books.  I also do storytelling in the children's tent off and on during the afternoon. It's also a great chance to spend time with folks who are regular library users, chatting about their thoughts on the library;  promote our services to non- and new- users and be there for support of literacy through storytelling.

So the twelve and fourteen hour days I work at the festival are about as fun as they can be for work hours. And the partnership between storytelling and the library...well, it's perfect.

WAPL Wowza Indeed

I am just back today from our annual WI Association of Public Libraries (WAPL) spring conference and I am inspired!  The variety of programs and wealth of information; the breaks that gave us all plenty of time to connect, reconnect and schmooze; the central location at a facility that was not too big, not too small but just right really made it a pleasure.

Our revitalized Youth Services Section (YSS) really put out a a great raft of programs: an award winning team of doctor and librarian shared their collaboration to put books into the hands of babies. Great facts and insights and poignant stories made "Books Build Better Brains" a template and a motivator for becoming more involved in well baby visits - library partnerships.  At the same time another program based on knowledge gained at PLA described Exploration Station an hour long class that involves preschool children and their caregivers in hands-on math, science and writing.

A panel on using technology with kids had the audience discovering great content to let kids loose on including Zimmertwins, Xtranorml, Wordle, Make Believe Comix, kids creating book trailers and teens piling into the building to work on laptop labs.  Another panel (I was part of it!) delved into easy ways to stretch budget and staff time by developing DIY and stealth programs. A swap of ideas on elementary aged program ideas produced not only great new ideas but support and solutions for programming conundrums . An exploration of summer reading outreach programs rounded out the YSS offerings.

Other programs not sponsored by YSS were just as informative for my work: a discussion of the process of combining a youth services and adult services service desk into one to address budget cuts; websites to be aware of; African American body image in youth literature; and tips on successful presentations and panels at conferences (wonder how ours did!).  Thrown into the mix was participation in the YSS board meeting and a chance to chat informally with our state's new Youth consultant Tessa Michaelson Schmidt. Members continued the conversation over meals and later at parties and in hallways.

And, blessedly, there were no programs about summer reading programs - a pet peeve of mine is when every darn conference has to keep flogging SLP.  When I leave a conference with more ideas taken than the number I came to share, I know my time was well spent. Kudos to my WAPL colleagues who planned this conference. Ya done good!

What the....?!?!?!?!

You know how I posted a few weeks ago about how much I loved the calm days just prior to and during the holidays?

I must have angered the gods and goddesses because this first week of the new year has been rockin' out crazy.  I suspect everyone put off tasks and to-do's "until after the New Year", and man, we've all been busy like little beavers.  My email inbox has been bursting with requests and my own finger over the "Send" button has been tapping feverishly. And stuff around the library...aieee!

What's up?
- ALA annual housing opened up and negotiations needed to happen with my roommate
- a major typo mix-up in a handout precipitated massive negotiation between a couple of departments to create the right solution
- continuing planning on our efforts to bring in every 2nd grader in for a class visit went into high gear
- emailing art teachers with an art contest entry in collaboration with our local Earth Week committee
- helping to oversee the melding of our Youth Dept shelvers into the Circ department
- negotiating a venue for our state library association's Foundation fundraiser
- working with a colleague to suggest ways to move a request through the ALSC board
- continued detail work on eleven upcoming SLP workshop presentations in two states
- helping support a colleague across the state in a touchy situation
- starting to blog on our youth services blog and recruit a posse of colleagues to help create content
- get ready for ALA midwinter: first ALA council sessions; finish writing up cool programs for a "101 Great School Age Programs" for my committee; prep for ALSC Nominations Committee meeting
- empty out my office bookshelves for transfer into colleagues' offices and prep for new bookshelves
- looking over a colleague's resume
- meeting as library rep with our local Storytelling Festival committee to solidify plans
- getting the news that a website is up for an advisory committee I was part of and we need to help provide some good content
- working some desk time

I could go on. Suffice it to say the 2012 has started with a bang and here I gooooooooooooooooooo!

How's about you?

Image: 'Crazy Kawaii Bot'   http://www.flickr.com/photos/7315825@N04/4837849029

Staying Connected and Above Water!

My friend and co-worker Becky just posted on Facebook a link to Steve Rubel who speaks about the stream of information and getting the word out on your product. In a brief, tight fifteen minutes, he makes some cogent statements about the increasing flood of information inundating everyone who is connected and how the more information out there, the risk is that the less attention will be paid to it. Information that rises to the top of the clammor stream and that is personally affecting for people will get noticed more.

He argues that it is vital that organizations use multiple social networking sites to deliver their message and that the messages do not have to be all the same. He likens various networking sites as embassies for each business that allow them to advance their work and reach. And he sends a clarion call to business leaders to allow employees to use social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and others so they are part of the stream of new communication - they become comfortable with them and can begin to use them for the business as well.

It is thoughtful stuff for us in libraries. Written handouts and the newspaper aren't enough. Your website; your Facebook account, your Twitter account (and your openness to learning new things to add to your marketing arsenal when the old ones drop off - remember Second Life; remember My Space) all add to your libraries presence and advance your mission. Helping your staff feel comfortable using these sites to explore and communicate on work time gives them the chops to fell comfortable doing this for the library as well (see Tasha's Sites and Soundbytes for more on this).

So here comes my mantra (and it is to myself too!): be brave, don't fear. You can do it!

Image: 'River Rivelin' http://www.flickr.com/photos/54601101@N00/624642056

Finding Inspiration

I was emailing with a friend today about how to keep the "zing" in our programming work with kids and teens. Sometimes we get so caught up in the programming planning that we don't give enough time for the program to just happen. It is exciting when we open ourselves up to those possibilities and sheer exhilaration when kids and teens take control to guide it to a new place.

But how do we get there? I sometimes feel that as I get older I have a tougher time finding my spark. I have to push further to find fresh inspiration. When I changed jobs last year, it was truly a shot in the arm - I was with new people, new ideas, new ways. But changing jobs isn't a realistic approach to finding a spark!

Better is networking with colleagues and talking over ideas - through in-person attendance at conferences, workshops and any place where youth library folks gather. Reading blogs and tweets; keeping up-to-date on listservs; keeping up with journals and reading widely is another way to stay fresh with ideas that you can tailor to your workplace.

If you are very very fortunate as I have been in my work places, you will have a co-worker (or two or three) who will talk kid and teen books with you; who will tell you about an exciting program they would like to try; who will inspire you with the way they approach programming or problem solving or working with the public; who will be a devil's advocate to push you to better the idea that you have.

In my experience, true inspiration is always a result of collaboration. Almost no one is brilliant or creative in a complete vacuum. We build upon the work and ideas of others or our perception of a need to create something more. The more you touch base with others, the better your ideas - and the more inspired you can become.

Image: 'Shiva Meditation' http://www.flickr.com/photos/23665057@N213877957416

Are YOU Connected?

Tasha over at Sites and Soundbytes has a great post today about the importance of rethinking policies that prohibit staff and patrons from mixing work and social activities especially as it relates to our increasingly networked world. As more people use facebook, twitter, IM, maintain blogs and websites and other cool new technologies, the lines become more blurred.

I know that with all of the social networking tools I use, it is totally a mix of work and play. Being allowed to learn and use these tools while at work has helped me to help people who come in -as well as make a quicker connection with them. And I know I haven't been slacking at work while this is all happening...on the contrary, I think it has helped me do more! Score!