Educating children to be knowledgeable and excited about taking part in elections and governing is an important first step toward an informed electorate. The information literacy required to make crucial decisions is an essential element of intellectual freedom, and libraries have an important role to play.
Tag: children’s services
Children’s Librarians Are Experts at… Leading a Team
Gretchen Caserotti gave an inspiring keynote presentation at the 2017 Power Up Leadership Conference for Youth Services Managers and Staff about natural leadership traits inherent in children’s librarians. The comparison has crept into my thinking multiple times since. Using LLAMA’s Leadership and Management Competencies as a framework, it’s easy to see why children’s librarians are experts at leading a team. Change Management and Problem Solving Who hasn’t planned the most beautiful, age-appropriate story time for 4-5 year olds, only to be surprised by a room full of toddlers? Or sensed in the first pages of a story that you’re losing the wiggly kids in front of you? Children’s librarians are experts at flexibility and problem solving. We can improvise a Plan B, achieve buy-in, and motivate a group to follow our lead, breaking into song or dance when needed. We take risks, try new things, persuade others, and keep a sense…
Children’s Librarians in the Lead #alaac14
As anyone who has ever worked as a children’s librarian or teen librarian knows, youth services librarians are basically superheroes. Many of us do a little bit of everything in the library, even though it is probably not included in our job descriptions. This great panel session featuring three successful ladies who have risen through the ranks from children’s librarians exhibited how we can use the many facets of youth librarianship to become leaders, managers and even directors. The hour long session was absolutely packed with awesome advice but a few points especially stood out to me. Remember that you have to give up stuff. You want to move up to a management position, great! If you are at a larger library, don’t expect to be able to keep doing that storytime program you love or order the juvenile fiction every month. You will have to take on more responsibilities…