Leading the Way with Project Compass

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving – we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

North Carolina libraries have a great deal to be proud of in spite of these trying times.  Here at the State Library we are not only sailing forward but also leading the way nationally, in partnership with WebJunction, with Project Compass.

Through a grant announced in September 2009 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), WebJunction and the State Library of North Carolina launched a one-year initiative to gather and share best practices among state libraries nationally for providing library-based employment services and programs to the unemployed.

Project Compass featured four regional summits where state library staff from around the country shared strategies for meeting the workforce needs of their communities.   Content for these summits was created by the very talented Library Development staff here at the State Library, including Jennifer Pratt, Pam Jaskot, and Raye Oldham.  Summits were then held in Atlanta, Georgia; Portland, Oregon; Providence, Rhode Island; and Denver, Colorado in March and May 2010, with representatives from all 50 states in attendance.  Program manager Betha Gutsche observed that Project Compass has great potential for national impact because states are coordinating their efforts and sharing information and resources.  WebJunction and our Library Development staff are continuing Project Compass online with a webinar version of the summits which have so far attracted over 40 participants from libraries around the U.S.

Just today IMLS announced a follow-on grant for 2010-2011 with which WebJunction and the State Library of North Carolina will conduct an impact and needs assessment on unemployment across the U.S. and create a corresponding curriculum that can be tailored to meet local needs.  In addition to one train-the-trainer workshop, WebJunction will deliver up to 75 local workshops for public library staff working in the highest unemployment areas – and we expect that this will include public libraries here in North Carolina.

For more information about Project Compass, please visit WebJunction at http://www.webjunction.org/project-compass.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

“If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants,” Issac Newton, 1676

Throughout our lives, we have all had teachers, professors and mentors who have had a significant influence upon us, how we think, and even what we do with our lives.  For me, Dr. Edward G. Holley, who recently passed away, was one such person.  Dr. Holley was Dean of the School of Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel when I was a student there in the 1970’s.  Although I did not take a class with him, his influence permeated the school.  I would like to share with you some of the things that I learned from Dr. Holley:

• The key to successful administration:  A distinguished scholar, historian and educator, Dr. Holley was also a very successful administrator.  He understood the importance of leadership, and demonstrated it in all his endeavors.  But he also understood that the leader is not the “whole show.”  In an interview with Tommy Nixon, published in the Summer 1998 issue of North Carolina Libraries, Dr. Holley talks about the development of the graduate library school in Chapel Hill, and he says, “The key to having a first-rate program is having good people and letting them do their thing.”  Following his lead, I have marveled throughout my career at the remarkable accomplishments that occur when library staff members are allowed “to do their thing.”
• The importance of library associations:  Dr. Holley was the incoming president of the American Library Association when I was a student, and he made sure that all of us understood and appreciated the value of library associations.  He even hired a bus and took a group of us students to the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Washington, D.C. – and I have been a active member of the American Library Association ever since.  Through him I have learned that we are members of a powerful profession, and connectivity with other librarians enhances that power, both for ourselves and for the profession itself.
• The good of the order:  Robert’s Rules of Order describes the part of a meeting called “the good of the order” as an open forum in which general discussion on any topic regarding the work of the organization may occur.  For Ed Holley, this phrase took on a much greater meaning; it serves both as the title of a festschrift published in his honor in 1994, and, finally, his epitaph.  Interim Dean Dr. Barbara B. Moran recently noted that Dr. Holley “always put the ‘good of the order’ before his individual needs.”  She describes him as a “truly remarkable person” who was “always concerned with the good of others.”

I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to stand upon the shoulders of this giant in our field of library and information science.

Being a SURVIVOR in the Library and Media Center

Much to my surprise and delight, I recently learned that the television reality show SURVIVOR has a great deal to offer us librarians and media specialists.

Each year in January the great folks at the Joyner Library’s Teaching Resources Center at East Carolina University host a Librarian to Librarian Networking Summit.  This year’s fifth annual program, held on January 9, 2010, was entitled Survivor – Media Center and drew school librarians and media specialists and coordinators from all over eastern North Carolina.

My panel was entitled Surviving During the Lean Years, and among my fellow panelists was Kelly Brannock, Media Coordinator, Wendell Creative Arts & Science Magnet Elementary School.  Kelly is also the President of the North Carolina School Library Media Association this year.  Kelly’s presentation was so outstanding that I wanted to share it with you.

Based on her knowledge of SURVIVOR techniques, Kelly presents the top ten strategies of the ultimate survivor – and they are relevant and useful to all of us as we negotiate the jungles, deserts and mountain tops that we face everyday in these challenging times.

Read, enjoy, and survive!

http://ncslma.blogspot.com/2010/02/oh-what-trying-times-these-are-bad.html