Susanne Markgren - How to Thrive as a Library Professional

Chapter 1
Forging a Path: Career Vision

Chapter 2
Gathering and Lending Support: Relationships

Chapter 3
Getting Your Bearings: Understanding Organizational Culture

Chapter 4
The Choices We Make: Creating Habits for Professional Growth

Chapter 5
Telling Our Stories: Using Narrative for Self-Promotion, Professional Development, and Influence

Chapter 6
Finding Your Place: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

Chapter 7
Discovering Your True Purpose: Reflective Practice

We are indebted to Barbara Ittner, who believed in us from the beginning, and to our editor, Jessica Gribble, who brought us to the finish line. Thank you to our colleagues: Jill Cirasella, Maureen Clements, Jeremy Czerw, Julia Furay, Christine Anne George, Amy Handfield, Sharon Jorrin, Gina Levitan, Kate Lyons, Carrie Marten, Jane Suda, Lisa Tappeiner, Eamon Tewell, Sharell Walker, Susan Wengler, and Haruko Yamauchi, who generously and graciously provided us with feedback or other assistance, and a special thank you to Kate Adler and the amazing Rena Grossman for their most valuable contributions. Without our partners, families, and closest colleagues, our vision would never have come to fruition. Special thanks to staff of An Beal Bocht Caf, the Bronx watering hole where much of our collaboration unfolded. We are profoundly grateful for all the support.

In the measurement world, you set a goal and strive for it. In the universe of possibility, you set the context and let life unfold.

Zander and Zander (2002, p. 21)

Dority (2016) defines a successful career as one that is agile, opportunistic, sustainable, and meaningful (p. 212). In considering the direction and trajectory you might want for your career, Dority suggests, among other things, that you think carefully about who you are, who you can be, and who you want to be; that you come to understand and accept change; that you become skilled at spotting opportunity, anticipating what might come, and are willing to take risks; and that you are committed to continuous learning and develop an ability and willingness to continually reinvent yourself (pp. 79). These are important competencies that can assist us as we build our practices and grow as professionals.

The term professional practice holds many meanings. At a base level, it refers to practice in the sense of repetitionthe tasks we do over and over to accomplish our work and support our patrons. We research information, acquire and organize resources, market library materials and services, teach patrons, answer questions, collaborate, innovate, improve, and lead library organizations. These actions are built upon skills we have developed through formal training and experience. We enact them repeatedly. We practice (v.) them. And as we develop these skills, our practice (n.) evolves and develops as wellit unfolds. Ones professional practice could be considered spatially, encompassing the entirety of a realm of activity or influence. In this sense, a librarians practice comprises all the tasks, responsibilities, collegial and supervisory relationships, patrons served, professional networks, and scholarly or creative work generated. In practice is also where theory becomes grounded in the real worldwhere we apply what we have learned in real situations in real libraries with real colleagues and patrons, where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Sometimes it seems as if the work we do just happens; the skills, tasks, and relationships to which we have become accustomed carry us along almost without our needing to think about practice, in any sense of the word. But what if we took a more deliberative approach to cultivating a practice? What if we hit the pause button and really examined our own individual careers and aspirations, the paths weve taken to get to where we are, and the direction in which we are headed?

This book focuses on what professional practice means for working librariansthe tasks we do routinely to support our patrons, the realm of influence in which we operate, and where the rubber hits the road as theory and action come together in the workplace. We cover a range of topics that are key to professional success, including figuring out where you want to go in your career and how to get there; cultivating multilateral relationships; understanding and successfully navigating organizational culture; developing proactive habits; using narrative and storytelling to define yourself as a professional, to advance your priorities, and to get the work done; employing mindfulness and self-compassion to support well-being and satisfaction; and practicing reflectively with an eye toward continual growth. Each chapter offers discussion, concrete examples, practical advice, exercises, and insights from a variety of fields of study, including psychology, education, health, sociology, and business.

Each chapter can stand on its own, and readers are encouraged to explore at their own pace and navigate by following their own curiosity and current needs. In the first chapter, on developing a vision for your career and a path forward, you will be introduced to five professional personas, giving you a taste of what librarianship is like, day to day, in different contexts. Joy is a branch manager in a public library, Marcus is a school librarian, Amir works in a special library in the financial services industry, Sana works at a small liberal arts college, and Camila is an archivist for a literary society. Throughout the book, we will rely on these personas to provide concrete examples of some of the challenges and practices discussed. These people are composites, their experiences and attitudes drawn from those of people we have met along our own professional journeys or pulled from situations and obstacles and relationships weve experienced ourselves. Their individual stories help to illustrate specific circumstances, as well as problems, actions, and solutions. Weve attempted to design the persona narratives in any given chapter to stand on their own. However, it may be helpful to glance at the Boots on the Ground section of , where the personas are first introduced, to get a sense of each librarian and their role and background, before reading (or jumping around in) the remaining chapters. On the whole, the discussion and advice presented in this book are relevant to all librarians, no matter the type of institution where you practice or where you are in your journey. Students working toward a career in librarianship will be particularly rewarded.