{"id":2520,"date":"2008-10-10T13:16:55","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T17:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/?p=2520"},"modified":"2008-10-10T13:19:45","modified_gmt":"2008-10-10T17:19:45","slug":"what-we-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/10\/what-we-need.html","title":{"rendered":"What We Need"},"content":{"rendered":"

The cover story for the October issue of Library Journal is titled What We Need<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 It centers on the results of a survey of Movers & Shakers, the annual group of people recognized by Library Journal for innovation and leadership.\u00a0 It contains a lot of great information, and even a few surprises.<\/p>\n

Most of all, if you are in a job situation where people are not encouraged or rewarded for innovation, don’t feel that you are isolated and alone.\u00a0 Many of those surveyed come from similar circumstances.\u00a0 What emerges from this article is not so much the people who excel because of a supporting environment and management, but in spite of it.\u00a0 Most received more support and encouragement from their peers at work than from their supervisors.<\/p>\n

What surprised me so much that I had to put down the article and simply let it sink in was the following passage:<\/p>\n

Nearly half of all respondents (48.6%) stated that their organization did not celebrate their being named as an LJ<\/em> Mover. Many of the total respondents commented that internal recognition was limited to a librarywide email from the director or a brief comment at a staff meeting.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Think about that.\u00a0 Library Journal picks about 50 people each year to recognize their enthusiasm and contributions to libraries.\u00a0 Nearly half of their workplaces didn’t think this recognition important enough to celebrate.\u00a0 My first thought was about the unhealthy workplaces; however, that large of a number signifies to me a sickness in the profession.\u00a0 Consider the following:<\/p>\n

Some respondents noted that the recognition from outside of the library actually hurt their work life. When asked if and how their being named a Mover was celebrated, one respondent answered \u201cnot at all, created a lot of problems.\u201d Another noted \u201cfriends and colleagues celebrated; administration ignored the award.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are the cream of the crop!\u00a0 How many potential Movers & Shakers (and I am not limiting this to those officially recognized as such) have been demoralized over the years by this environment?\u00a0 More importantly:\u00a0 what can we do about this?<\/p>\n

Simply put:\u00a0 celebrate innovation, wherever it may come from.\u00a0 Support your coworkers, whatever their “level” or title, when they succeed at something new.\u00a0 Support them even more when they fail… the attempt is of the utmost importance.<\/p>\n

I feel strongly for these people when I hear these stories, because I have experienced those environments.\u00a0 I know people who are still existing in situations that rob most people of their enthusiasm for libraries. I can tell stories, but often do not because of the pain and frustration the memories invoke.\u00a0 Not only careers but lives can and do get ruined.<\/p>\n

What you can do is this:\u00a0 Take heart, and keep on striving to do everything you can to learn, and apply what you learn.\u00a0 Try… Fail… Try again.\u00a0 Support each other, because sometimes all you have is each other.<\/p>\n

Just keep at it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cover story for the October issue of Library Journal is titled What We Need.\u00a0 It centers on the results of a survey of Movers & Shakers, the annual group of people recognized by Library Journal for innovation and leadership.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2943],"tags":[4183,4746,4627,4045,4184,4044,4747],"class_list":["post-2520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-libraries","tag-annual-group","tag-another","tag-director","tag-library-journal","tag-movers-shakers","tag-movers-and-shakers","tag-pain"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSU5g-EE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.libology.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}