Tag: Public Library

A New Career In A New Town, Libraries, Life

A New Career In A New Town: The Rejection Letter

Justin Hoenke

“WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU WERE NOT CHOSEN FOR THIS PARTICULAR ROLE. WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR APPLICATION AND WE WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK IN YOUR FUTURE.”

Every single person reading this post who has applied for a job has received these two sentences or some variation of them at some point in their career. Be it through email (the preferred choice of employers these days) or the postal system, these two sentences are never what a job seeker wants to hear. But if you want to find a job, you have to face the fact that you will see these two sentences at some point.

My recent job search has found me encountering the many wonderful variations of the two sentence rejection email quite a bit. I’ve gone through all of the emotions that someone who didn’t get the job will go through: sadness, a dash of anger, a lot of confusion, some conspiracy induced paranoia (convince me that there’s not a library cabal made up of folks that get together at conferences and have huge Facebook message threads where they gossip about everyone), and a whole lot of introspection. Here’s what I’ve told myself about all of those emotions: I’m totally supposed to be having them. No emotion is better than the other, and all of them together are part of the whole picture. I’ve found this approach to life in general to be quite exhilarating. When you give yourself permission to feel, you get the full experience of what it means to be a human being in the modern world.

But I’m getting off topic here. What we’re talking about today is the rejection letter. And once you’ve seen a few of them over the course of a few months, you start to have ideas about how you can make them better. I’ve only got one idea on how we all can make the rejection letter a better experience for the job seeker. It’s a big idea, but here goes:

WE SHOULD BE OFFERING FEEDBACK, NOT FORM LETTERS

The two sentence, cut and paste cookie cutter language, ending with the logo of the library that you just applied to rejection letter needs to die. We are not helping anyone but ourselves and our own time when we hit send on these types of rejection letters. I get it…time is precious, we only have so much of it, and there’s so much to do. But for a profession that believes so much in the power of sharing and mentoring we’re doing quite a poor job of it when it comes to communicating with those who we did not select for the job. Instead we’re giving them even more fuel for their sadness, anger, confusion, paranoia, and introspection and while emotions are healthy, direction and guidance is needed.

Job seekers will often wonder for hours on end why they didn’t get the job. Was there one little spelling error that threw off the person reading the cover letter? Was the candidate just not qualified for the job? Was there something else underneath it all that led the job panel to pass on this applicant? Instead of a cookie cutter rejection letter, try to imagine a rejection letter that was clear and direct on why the person did not get the job ending with some feedback from the panel. Here’s an example that I’ve cooked up.

Dear Sally Struthers, 

Thank you for your application for the Librarian opening at the Everytown USA Library. The panel has concluded reviewing applications and has decided to move ahead with another candidate. We are sorry but your application was not selected for this role. 

Your resume was very detailed and your experience in libraries shows a great deal of unique situations which have no doubt helped you develop into the librarian that you are today. For this role, Everytown USA Library was seeking an applicant with more customer service management experience, whereas the experience detailed in your resume was more rooted in behind the scenes administration. We specifically liked the Tater Tots For Fines initiative that you led at Busytown Library. That initiative was very inspiring and specific for the community you served, but it has helped us think about what we could do for our own community.

Once again thank you for your interest in the Everytown USA Library. If you would like further feedback on your application, please feel free to contact us via email.

Sincerely,
Scott Baio
Human Resources
Everytown USA Library

I probably didn’t nail it in the example above, but it gives a brief idea of what I’m thinking about when it comes to beefing up the rejection letter. Something more than just two sentences, and something that acknowledges that the panel did indeed read everything you put together and gave it the thought it deserves goes a long way. There’s still gonna be a little bit of sadness for the person that did not get the job, but all of those other emotions can either be minimized or all together avoided if there was just a bit more communication, guidance, and kindness from the employer. Take a moment, write some thoughtful worlds, and that energy you put into the world can go a long way.

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Benson Memorial Library, Community Building, ebooks, Libraries, Library Director, Technology

When The Circulation Has Gone: Helping Your Community Understand the Worth of the Public Library in the Modern Age

Justin Hoenke

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What’s this that you see above? I call this the Benson Memorial Library circulation scorecard. What this circulation scorecard is doing is keeping track of our overall circulation from January 2010-Present. I could go back even further (we have the records) but I kept it at 2010 for the time being. I use it as guide to see what we’ve done, what we’re doing now, and how it relates to each other. Is our circulation up? Is our circulation down? If either one of these situations is the case, why is that? This scorecard is a nice and handy way to check up on all things related to circulation.

I don’t think that any library’s circulation number should be the number by which the library is judged, ranked, understood, etc. Every library’s circulation number by day, month, or year will first depend on the library that community serves. Is your community one that loves to visit the public library? If so, you can expect your circulation to represent that. In our service area of 14,904 (based on 2016 State Library stats), having 5,269 circulations in the month of September was a good month for us. A total circulation number of 5,269 for one month may look horrible to another library that serves a larger area or it may look shockingly amazing for a smaller area. That number looks just about right for us. This number will look different for everyone. It is up to you at your own level to interpret and understand that number.

As I said above, I don’t think that any library’s circulation number should be the number by which the library is judged or understood, but here’s the kicker. This circulation number is a big deal to a lot of people. To those people, a public library is a place which loans out materials to people in the community. When a person has this belief, the best way they can understand how their public library is doing is to see this number. With that said, yes, the circulation number is an important number for the public library.

But as the world changes and the way we read, watch, and look for information or media moves towards the internet or something digital, our circulation numbers are set to look like they’re decreasing. They are. Let’s face it: people don’t come in and borrow books on how to do things/fix things/research things anymore. They Google it or they go right to YouTube where they can get a step by step video. I’m a librarian, and this is exactly what I do. Why do I do this? Because this is the quickest, easiest, and probably the most efficient way of doing things these days.

So, as the title of this post asks: what do we do when the circulation has gone? If our circulation numbers decrease, we need a different way of sharing the value of the public library with the community. With that said, here are some ideas that I’m having these days.

CIRCULATE OTHER STUFF

This seems to be the big thing of the moment: fishing poles, museum passes, and gadgets galore, libraries are branching out and lending out things that you may not have seen in libraries before. One library in my region, the Oil City (PA) Library is doing just that. They call it the Cool Stuff Collection. Adding these unique items to your collection may draw more people into the library and help boost your circulation.

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AS AN EVENT SPACE

This is a great one. Public libraries all around the world have amazing spaces, and one of the best ways we can show off that space and bring people into the library is by offering great programs. There are so many libraries out there doing this and I could provide hundreds of examples. Here’s one of them: the Darien Library in Connecticut. Their schedule is always packed full of great programs any day of the week. When a library focuses on public events, the attendance at these programs as well as the number of events held at the space becomes a great statistic to share with your community.

THE DIGITAL STUFF

The digital stuff, most of which is probably offered through your website, is another way to show the value of the library. While they’re no longer all the rage, eBooks are still around and are used by a segment of the population. Showing off the circulation of eBooks can boost your circulation number but it can also be used to show your community the changing nature of how we read.

My favorite “digital stuff” statistic these days is the number of connections we have to our wifi network and the number of logins we’ve had on our public computers. What have I noticed? That our wifi connections are going up while our public computer logins are stagnant or going slightly down. Yes, there is still a very strong need to offer public computer access, but as the cost of devices (laptops/tablets/and the big one, phones) comes down and more people are able to access them, I think we’ll see the public library become more and more of a spot in the community that offers free (and hopefully reliable and safe) wifi for everyone.

The title of this post was inspired by this most excellent jam

Benson Memorial Library, Libraries, Library Director, Life, Management, Presentations, Titusville, PA

Library Related Things in the Second Half of 2016

Justin Hoenke

 

I haven’t spent a lot of time talking about library related things in my world recently because…well…when I look at the other stuff being written about libraries out there it hits me that what we’re doing here in Titusville PA may not just be of much interest to people in libraries these days. While other libraries out there are talking about makerspaces, open data, hackathons, social justice, and more, we’re here focusing on the simple things: opening our doors, welcoming the community into our space, and doing what we can do to make life in our little neck of the woods just a bit more enjoyable for everyone.

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We hosted the local Chamber of Commerce event “Home For The Holidays” in our Community Room. It brought community members and local artists and vendors together and hopefully some folks got some neat local holiday gifts for their family and friends.

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We decorated the inside and outside of our space for the holidays. Just a few little decorations can really brighten up the mood and add to the positive spirit that goes around this time of year. It makes me smile.

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It snowed! The steps that we restored over the summer are holding up nicely in the late fall/early winter weather and we do our best to clean them off and take care of them so that our community doesn’t get injured as they come and go from the library.

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We hired Becky Stahl to be our new Youth Services Librarian at the Benson Memorial Library. She’s awesome, a lot of fun, and very kind and I appreciate that. My sons Finn and Aero love her craft and tech programs.

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Guardian Elder Care in Titusville, PA helped us fund our front step renovation project. To celebrate the event, we held an outdoor live music event which was attended by over 20 community members. There was free food! That was awesome.

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My first speaking event of the Fall was for the Pioneer Library System in Canandaigua, NY. What a great library system full of very kind people. I was very impressed by who attended the event…it wasn’t just librarians but there were trustees, Friends of the library, and state legislators in the audience. It was great to share and chat with everyone.

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My final speaking event was in November at the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library in New York. What a great library! It reminded me a bit of the Darien Public Library in how the building was laid out, which was extremely customer friendly and welcoming. The staff at the library was so very kind as well, and before and after the event I always felt like I was part of the staff and had worked there for at least 10 years. That’s the best!

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Happy this time of year to everyone out there from the Hoenke Family. We love you all. We’re gonna watch a lot of holiday movies and listen to the same holiday music we listen to every year and just enjoy the hell out of our family and friends. This is the best time of year. Love love love love love.

 

Libraries, Library Director, Management, Teens

More Library Stuff

Justin Hoenke

I am just going to toss out quotes that are floating around in my brain. Connect them in any way that you will.

  • Libraries count circulations, door counts, and more. These are great numbers but we need to think bigger than this. How can we count hi-fives and hugs from our patrons? A hi-five from a teenager in a library is one of the most important things that can happen in a public library. How do we fix our broken world and help everyone see that there is value in hi-fives and hugs?
  • Some people are good at customer service. Some people are good at using the public library as a canvas for their creative public programs. Recognize these talents in each and every individual and respect these talents. Don’t push people to be everything at once. Let them be themselves.
  • The moments where we relax with each other, chat, and not force work are some of the best moments we can have in a library. Relax. Talk to each other. This is your job, not your life. Sit back, make some tea, and talk.
  • Working in a public library is not about competition. It is about community. We are not here to be Library Journal Library of the Year 5 Star Winner Full Page Cover Spread. We are here to ensure that those that visit us and utilize our services leave with a smile.

Every blog post needs an image and here’s a great image of Prince being the fucking coolest person that ever lived.

ALSO PS: here’s a 14 minute track of all the background music in Purple Rain shhhh it is pretty darn amazing.

Libraries

Think About The Little Things

Justin Hoenke
"Ladybug": Photo by Gordon Wrigley. Used by Permission with a Creative Commons License. http://www.tolomea.com/2010/08/28/ladybug/
Blog posts are always better with images. Ladybugs are great little things that live on Earth. “Ladybug”: Photo by Gordon Wrigley. Used by Permission with a Creative Commons License. http://www.tolomea.com/2010/08/28/ladybug/

The little things matter….a lot…or so I have come to believe over the past year of my life.  When the little things are a bit out of order, the world can quickly become chaotic and overpowering.

I had this thought once when I was doing the dishes. There have been times where I have worked myself up into a rage because the dishes were just so overwhelming. I thought about them. Why are these dishes driving me crazy? I realized over time that they were a little thing that bugged me so very much that added up and got to a point where it was now no longer a little thing but instead a big and overwhelming thing. The path to clarity? It was realizing that if I did the dishes on a daily basis, at least once per day, that they would then not become a big and overwhelming thing. Anything more than once per day would be a bonus. The dirty dishes did not all need to sit around. They could be done at least once per day and everything could all alright and manageable in the world.

I think about these things a lot in my life and then I try to apply them to my work in libraries. What little things can I think about in my day to day work that can overall improve my mood, my work flow, and make me a better librarian for the community? Here are some things that I have learned as I think about the little things in libraries.

PATIENCE
No matter what public library that we work for, we all have to deal with how slow change can come. We are an excited profession.  We want to try new things all the time and that gets us excited!  But in the public library world, there are some barriers that just exist that makes change a bit slower to happen than usual. This is ok!

Patience in our day to day work helps. Understand that the public library is like a work of art….it is never truly completed. It is in a state of constant change and growth. The ideas and changes you have will happen eventually. Keeping focused and positive on what you want to accomplish is key.

Things do not happen in a day. I sometimes wish they did, but they just don’t. It would’ve been great to have The 2nd Floor up and running on day one (Monday April 22, 2013) but that isn’t realistic. Things need time to change and grow. Patience helps with that.

SETUP
When you walk into your library space, what is the first thing that you notice? Is it an unpleasant looking table that’s out of place? Or is it a smiling employee waiting there to help you? What you see around you and how these things are setup in a library matter quite a bit.

These little things in the public library space matter. There’s a reason why supermarkets usually put the milk and bread at the very back of the store. They want you to walk through the store and purchase more stuff that you “need”. We can take a similar approach in libraries.  Recently, I visited the Darien Library in Darien, CT. When I walked through the door, I was greeted by employees and materials on what the library calls Main Street . All of the materials and employees were customer facing and inviting to anyone visiting the library.  The library also had large and  clear digital signs that talked about library programs, upcoming events, and more. All of the little things that came together to make up Darien Library’s Main Street created a great and unique experience. The little things become HUGE when they work together. They can be used for a positive experience.

GOSSIP
Let me paint a picture that may happen in your place of work: Wednesday afternoon. Everyone’s around the water cooler/coffee pot/tea kettle. There’s a bit of a lull in public service before the after school crowd comes in. Everyone’s at work so it’s natural that everyone talks about work. People begin to talk about the things that are happening at work. They wonder “why are things going this way or that way?”. They wonder what other employees are up to and where they are going. They talk about things they see around them at work. There are tidbits of information passed around, conspiracy theories presented, and speculation all around. These little things can add up over time and create a not so pleasant working atmosphere.

Don’t get me wrong: I love a good conspiracy theory (see my Facebook Timeline for more) and I love speculation (I read Star Wars blogs obsessively trying to figure out where the new movies are headed). Information, conspiracy theories, and speculation get our minds humming and our hearts racing. It’s kind of fun. But over time, especially in the workplace, these little things can create a paranoid and unhealthy atmosphere.  It’s not possible to get things done for the community if you’re spending a good chunk of your time at work worrying and thinking about something that may or may not be true or something that may or may not happen. Look, I’m not saying that we’re going to completely eradicate gossip and conspiracy theories from our lives, but instead what I’m saying is this: cut back on engaging in that pattern of behavior. Use that energy, those little bits of energy, for something else more constructive.

Think about the little things. They add up. If managed in a certain way, they can powerfully benefit your life.

Libraries

Some thoughts on “THE SECRET LIFE OF A PUBLIC LIBRARY SECURITY GUARD”

Justin Hoenke
Me, Dillon Bates (who is now a Maine State Representative), and Marko Petrovich, February 2013.
Me, Dillon Bates,  and Marko Petrovich, February 2013.

Sometime this past week, a very well written and interesting essay titled “The Secret Life of a Public Library Security Guard” made the rounds on the internet. I was immediately drawn to this article because of my strong belief in the importance of having a strong security staff at urban public libraries. What’s that belief? It’s simple. A strong security staff at all urban public libraries is critical for the health of the organization. When an urban public library has a strong security staff, this allows both the community and the librarians to better utilize the library as a community center. Everyone loves a happy, healthy, and safe place. Security in an urban library setting allows the public library to establish that “safe place” setting.

The second reason I was drawn to the article was because I had a professional connection to the subjects of the article. From 2010-2013, I worked at the Portland Public Library and as manager of the Teen Library had a great working relationship with the security staff at the library.  The security staff at the Portland Public Library is top notch. Marko, Paul, and the other members of the staff run a tight ship that allows the library to be the community center for Portland, ME.  Simply stated, the security staff at the Portland Public Library puts forth many of the qualities of what an urban public library security staff should be: safety first, community oriented, and human focused. This comes directly from the security staff, a group of employees who at their core care about the public library and the community. You can see this when Petrovich states at the end of the essay, “You don’t need to respect me,” he reminds patrons. “Respect this place. Respect this library is public.”. They’re at the library to help keep it a safe place for the community.

I know that to most non library people who read the article that the entire “sex, drugs, booze” slant of the article stood out the most. I bet many people thought “THIS STUFF HAPPENS IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY WHERE I TAKE MY KIDS TO STORY TIME/PICK UP MY DVDs/USE THE INTERNET?” The answer is yes. This stuff goes on at pretty much any library around the country.  I’ve worked in big libraries and I’ve worked in small libraries. It happens everywhere.  It’s a part of the job that all librarians have to face, understand, and come to terms with. It will never fully go away, and this is another reason why it is important for larger urban libraries to have a security staff. They’re the people that make sure this kind of stuff doesn’t happen in the library or if it does, they make sure it doesn’t happen again. They do all of this without the community and staff (usually) knowing that anything happened.

Marko and the security staff at the Portland Public Library have done an amazing job at making their library a safe and welcoming place for their community. Their efforts and care for the library and the community show in their day to day work. Their leadership and management of all things security related at their library help make the community of Portland, ME a better place for the citizens.

Public libraries, take note. The Portland Public Library Security Team have developed a great model for how we should manage our spaces.

Libraries

I want to open a public library in a public restroom

Justin Hoenke

For real, I ain’t screwing around.  We shouldn’t be confined to our buildings.  If public libraries are all about community, THEN WHY THE HELL ARE WE NOT OUT IN THEM? (roar!)

I dig @librarythingtim for his ideas and honesty.  His post “Five Models for libraries outside libraries” has got me thinking.  The public library has nothing to do with the actual building itself.  It is all about the community (I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it until that’s the focus).  I ask myself time and time again…”Are we properly serving our public by just having a building full of books and other materials?”  NO NO NO NO NO NO!  We have to leave our desks and get out there into our community.

GET IT VISIBLE!
That’s my new clichéd slogan for this campaign.  A building, new or old, shiny or dull, isn’t gonna make people come to the library.  I love people and I have so much faith in the human race, but all in all, people are lazy.  Case in point?  Signs.  I spent so much of my professional time making signs for my programs, signs for materials, signs for everything.  Cue that stupid Five Man Electrical Band song if you’d like.  Do people read them?  Not really at all.  They’re just junk collected on a wall.  Instead, I found it much better if I put those signs and flyers in the hands of the people I was trying to attract.

In much the same way, the public library needs to be on the street.  We should be handing materials out to our patrons.  We should be putting them in the coffee shops, restaurants, and grocery stores that our patrons are visiting. We should be putting our materials in public restrooms, a place where EVERYONE visits (unless you are some kind of robot.  In that case…) in order to get the word out about what we can do for our community.

Ideas?  Read @librarythingtim‘s post over here and also check out the comments.  Lots of good stuff.  In the meantime, let’s brainstorm.  How can we convince our administration that the public library should be everywhere?

Image courtesy of Svadilfari on Flickr