I'm writing this on October 9 but dating it as October 8 as I meant to write yesterday about my one month anniversary at RPL. So far, the first month is a blur but I'm enjoying it immensely – from the work I've been able to do to my co-workers to just learning about the organization itself (and the upcoming changes.)
I'll probably write more later but I've got to go change a diaper. (Trust me – I'd rather flesh out this entry!)
…I bumped into my Director and Deputy Director at the Ottawa Airport and was like “So, you're on the 6:45pm flight too?”
“No, 7pm” was the reply.
We quickly realised the slight difference was because they were flying Air Canada and I was flying WestJet.
“Oh, you'll beat us by 15 minutes then!” they joked. “Or maybe more since we have a quick stopover in Toronto.”
“Well, I've got to go to Calgary then back to Regina so I think you'll probably beat me.”
How right I was. When I got to my gate, I found out that there was some sort of wind storm in Calgary so they were delaying all incoming traffic at its source. We finally got away from Ottawa half an hour late but when I got to Calgary a few hours later, I soon realised that I'd missed my connection. (Hearing my name called over the PA system was a pretty big clue.)
I was pretty anxious to get home after a few days away so this is a big disappointment but I'm trying to stay zen about it – they've put me up at the Airport Delta, I'm waiting for some supper to arrive (also comped), I've got a free in-room Internet connection (luckily I didn't accept the $10 rip-off wireless access the clerk offered when I asked about Internet) and I'll be home later tomorrow morning.
I'm about as burnt out as you can get so I think I'll leave it there and maybe type more about the HR Summit and other related topics over the next few days. Good-night…
All the problems are solved.
All the jobs will be filled.
All other meetings have been canceled.
The crust has been browned.
You can sell library cards if they're made of art.
MLIS education has been called “rinky dink”.
The revolving restaurant that spun us past Parliament Hill at lunch was nice.
Lunch was like looking into the future.
Have they squeezed the idealism out of me after two years as a working professional? No. Yes.
Do I know you? “I have a blog.” Oh, you.
Thanks for all who posted comments over at the official summit blog. Keep 'em coming – I'm reading them if no one else is.
I got name-checked from the podium – more in passing than anything positive or negative. Still weird when that happens.
I was the hub in a room without wireless.
That allowed me to sit in the back and watch quietly.
I couldn't bribe the other blogger who was a runner with the mic during the Q&A to do a Darth Vader whisper “RETIRE!” from under the table.
All the problems are solved.
All the jobs will be filled.
All other meetings have been canceled.
[Barb pointed out in the comments here that you have to fill out your name, e-mail address and web site as required fields otherwise you may lose your comment when you click 'submit' on that blog. I didn't realise this and apologise to anyone who may have lost their comment. If you don't want to post your particulars because you're job seeking or you don't want your information spidered, you should be able to put in fake details that work just as well.]
Okay, the blog is up and my first post is asking people for their thoughts on any aspect of HR as it relates to libraries.
I don't often beg on this blog but I would *really* appreciate if you help me justify the expense they went to in bringing me here by going over there and posting a few thoughts – whether it's about the good and bad of library school (I know you can do that one!), what libraries should be doing in terms of recruiting and training new librarians, what myths you've heard about the future of staffing in libraries – anything really.
If it helps inspire you, pretend this is a thread where I post that I've got my first job or my baby is born and you feel compelled to post like you never have before (remember – post over there because posting here doesn't count.)
Also, this is a great opportunity to directly address many of the top decision makers and senior managers in the Canadian library world so why not take advantage of that?
Thanks in advance for your help!
…means that they can get you an early check-in as soon as you walk up the street from your old, cheap crappy hotel. Of course, the downside is that, unlike your crappy $90 Econolodge hotel which at least has free in-room wireless, even if you have to fight to get it working, your $200/night downtown ritzy business hotel charges you $10/day for in-room wired Internet access. What a rip-off!
I'm sitting in a motel room in downtown Ottawa, having arrived safe and sound earlier today. Here's some random thoughts on my trip so far…
– my absolute favourite part of flying is take-off and landing during that brief window of time when you're able to see the city you're at from above with everything below you identifiable but on that “Lego Little People” scale. I will refrain from making some faux-deep observation about how it reminds you that we're all ants, scurrying about. (Ooops, too late.)
– you know an area that always gets overlooked when libraries are designed? Bathrooms. The Ottawa airport and many others have great bathrooms – infrared sensors on everything, no-touch entrances (ie. no doors that you have to push or pull open), hourly inspection logs, lots of urinals and stalls, etc. I'll always remember the story of a European businessman who bought a failing gas station chain. The biggest single investment he made after the purchase was completely upgrading the bathrooms across the entire chain. Soon the company was at its highest profit level ever! Of course there are differences between providing comfortable rest spots for travelers and library patrons. But if we're really competing with places like Chapters, inviting bathrooms needs to be part of the equation.
– I was able to go for supper and later, dessert with a few friends from FIMS and it was nice to catch up with everybody and hear their thoughts on libraries, being new librarians and what's happened with fellow colleagues that I've lost touch with.
– I would say that Ottawa is home to the most librarians per capita in the country by a far margin.
– apparently 98% of these Ottawa librarians went to FIMS.
– that reminds me, I haven't updated the “Spirit of Librarianship” page for a couple semesters. (Er, anybody at FIMS who's reading this happen to know the winners and/or nominees in the past couple semesters?)
– the FIMS triple cohort in the fall of 2007 which I'm sure I heard was going to be a “one time only” intake has apparently happened again this fall.
– is somebody updating the stats on the ratio of new librarians being pumped out to librarians that will be retiring in the next few years? I hope that balance isn't being thrown completely out of whack, especially with these triple cohorts and ANOTHER library school supposedly coming to Ottawa in the near future.
– so far, being in Ottawa during an election campaign is like…being in Regina during an election campaign. Not much to compare since I've only been here for a bit but I would give Ottawa the edge in lawn signs.
– this is my third time in Ottawa, once with my folks when I was younger, a couple years ago for the CLA conference when I drove a vanload of FIMS students up and now this trip. It's a weird sort of deja vu, being here for a library conference, staying in the same area (in the same “budget” price point although I've upgraded from youth hostel to “hotel that appears to come with a free hooker with any room booked” according to one of the FIMS colleagues who came here tonight to pick me up) and planning to wander past many of the same attractions as last time.
– just a bit more on that “free hooker at the hotel” thing. That's an exaggeration but I did look in a nearby window when we were leaving and saw two elderly people sitting at a desk in their room playing cards. With a bottle of vodka and a bottle of water between them!
– with all that said, I don't know if I'll ever reach a place in life where I'm comfortable paying more than $100 a night for a room (this place was $90 but I'm obviously paying for the proximity to downtown rather than the ambiance.) When I went to a CanCopy conference way back in 2000, they put us up at the Westin Harbour Castle in TO. I had to ask and then, when I heard the rooms were $350/night, bean to wonder if I could somehow go check into a hostel and get paid the difference?
I guess that's about it for now. Good night!
Mine was “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce. What's yours?
Five Things That Will Probably Happen When I Play With My Old Rec Hockey Team For The First Time in Seven Years Tonight
1. I will very likely puke after my first shift.
2. I will likely suffer an injury of some sort, probably to my groin.
3. I will need a wheelchair to get around at work tomorrow.
4. I will do this.
5. I will puke again at various points throughout the game.
As for Ottawa-based folks who've been writing, I think Sunday seems to be the consensus for getting together. How does brunch sound? Is there a good place in or near the Byward Market? How does 11am sound? Other suggestions for locations/times greatly accepted.
Exciting news! I've been asked to attend the Canadian Library Human Resources Summit in Ottawa on October 6-7. It's sort of short notice but an all-expenses trip paid to Ottawa so who am I to complain?
Here's the blurb I was sent which explains a bit more about what the summit is and how it came about:
“The Canadian library community has an invaluable data resource through the research of the 8Rs Research Team on the state and future of human resources in the Canadian library community. To assist practitioners and management to use the research, in 2005 then CLA-President Stephen Abram struck the President’s Council, composed of individuals from a variety of practice settings. The President's Council in the past year has focused primarily on information gathering, with the major project being the Info*Nation website (http://www.cla.ca/infonation/). These projects have helped to bring in other contextual information to the published 8Rs report, and have continued to raise the profile of the work that has been done thus far.
The key question for the next incarnation of the President's Council is how to map out the next stage of work: an action-oriented national strategy. This strategy should include actions designed to ensure that the sum of work already accomplished by the President’s Council is maintained. CLA has offered to lead a community-wide effort in partnership with other associations and organizations that can commit resources to achieving the project goals.
VISION: To develop a national strategy and action plans that will ensure an adequate supply of well-educated, well-trained librarians and information professionals who will meet Canada’s knowledge and information management needs in the first three decades of the 21^st century.
GOALS:
· To build upon the President’s Council work and to recommend specific actions that will lead towards the achievement of this vision.
· To propose and promote specific actions and outcomes to be undertaken by organizations and associations on key human resource issues.
The Summit’s agenda will involve research presentations on several different human resource concerns we are currently facing in the library community, including the accessibility of MLIS education, leadership development models, and continuing professional development for staff. These presentations will include models that could be adopted by the Canadian library community to address the concerns. After the presentations, small breakout groups will discuss whether these models (or others) might be feasible from their perspective, and report their discussions back to the larger group.
The Summit delegates represent a range of library sectors (academic, public, and special; representing individual libraries as well as associations). The delegates tend to be senior administrators, human resource managers, and/or executive association members who have much experience in the field and have the ability to speak to their area’s need for and interest in a particular strategy.”
I booked my flight tonight and will get to Ottawa late on Saturday afternoon. I'll have that evening and all day Sunday to be a tourist before going to the conference on Monday and Tuesday (anybody in Ottawa want to get together for supper and/or drinks?).
I don't know what they're calling us but the seven “youth delegates” as I think of the group of new librarians who've been invited have also been asked to blog about their experiences so I'll be sure to post that URL when it's up.
That whole idea about “find an specialty and become a ranking practitioner within your first three years as a librarian” that was raised in a list of tips for new librarians by Wendy Newman that I reprinted has me wondering if Library HR/Organization Development might turn out to be my specialty? That would be…unexpected.
But it makes sense in some ways. In fact, I had a conversation today with someone and we both wondered if I may be the only professional librarian working in the HR department of a public library in Canada? Who knows? Maybe I'll find out at the Summit…
