Head Tale

I’ve known for a couple weeks but since I now have a start date, I thought I’d officially announce that I have a new position at RPL.  As of September 3, I’ll be the new branch head at Regina Public Library’s Regent Place Branch.

This is exciting for a number of reasons…

• Regent is the branch closest to our house and was my home location before I ever started working at RPL (in fact, the first RPL employee to hear I’d been hired by RPL as a staff member at Regent!)
• I’m fairly familiar with the community around there via my volunteer work and also just by living in the area for ten years.
• It’s RPL’s newest branch, having opened just over a year ago  (I stopped in on their opening day even though I had no formal role in getting the branch open) so it has all kinds of innovations that many branches at RPL don’t yet have – self-check, video game collection, BISAC-based cataloguing system, etc.
• Being close to our house, I’ll be more likely to get home at lunch to see the family – a privilege I also had when Pace was a baby and I was working for Southeast Regional Library in Weyburn (the bad flip side is I will likely give up my bus pass and end up driving most days but yay free parking!)

Since it’s been announced that I’m moving from Central Library where I’ve worked since I started at RPL five years ago to a branch, various people have shared their pearls of wisdom about how to be successful in my new role.

(Of course the only commonality I could find in the different pieces of advice is they often reflect as much on perspective of the person giving the advice as anything.  Oh, and that oftentimes, the advice I receive is quite contradictory) 😉

Here’s some samples of advice I’ve gotten recently (mixed with a few I’ve heard at other similar junctures in my life)…

• “Just be yourself.”
• “A move like this is an opportunity to change your approach and therefore how you are perceived.  Think about how you want to be thought of a year from now and then make that happen.”
• “Go in and change one thing immediately to assert your authority.”
• “Go in and just watch how your new staff do things for awhile before making any significant changes.”
• “Don’t give in to any negativity you might encounter.”
• “You’re kind.  You’ll be a good fit for that branch.”
• “Reputation is something external you can’t control; what matters is your character which you can control.”
• “I think you’ll do fine.”
• “Don’t screw up!”
• “You have a wonderful opportunity to build something nearly from scratch in that location.”
• “Be aware of who your quiet leaders are.”
• “Can you get me some new video games?” (That one was from Pace if you can’t figure it out.)