Guardienne of the Tomes

Ruthless Prioritization (Track D, Management Tips and Practices) Rebecca Jones Whats's in it for them (WIIFT)? WIIFM (What's in it for me)? See  Manifesto of Ruthless Prioritization Manifesto of Ruthless Prioritization: Prioritization "means falling in love with the organization's mission" and "Ruthless prioritization means having the discipline to solve the big, really hard problem rather than being seduced by all the small, easier problems." Mission: Libraries were created to help people to solve a problem, make a decision, or learn something new. Leaders are not supposed to encourage people. They are supposed to build encouraging environments for their people to work in. (paraphrase of Rebecca Jones) Return on investment: what value for customers i being created? How much time will this take? Estimate a return on investment in terms of your missions for each project. Constraints and dependencies. Whats needs to happen first to allow proje...

I received an email from a colleague who keeps us all reminded of faculty development opportunities. One of the things she regularly emails about are the regular weekly faculty writing groups that have been established--a way for faculty to set aside time to write alongside colleagues. My personal favorite is the Friday morning silent writing group that history professor and fabulous colleague Dr. Robin Mitchell set up--no discussion, no talking, just a handful of us around the table, plugged in and surrounded by our notes, clattering away at keyboards. It's my preferred way of group writing. Some of the other groups do regular shares or colleague critiques. I find that what I need most is really just the set-aside block of time where I can focus and dive deep for three or four hours. There's no good way to make that happen in my office with the myriad distractions, and I don't like writing from home because pajamas, dog, tv, bed, couch--you get the idea. I need something w...

Session 1: The UX of Online Help - Ruby Warren About 2015-16, web redesign. Back to basics - usability testing was already done, but it was a more fundamental issue. Did interviews about library's website with different user groups - UG, grad students, faculty, regional folks. What they go for, what they do, when it happens. Only when they have a problem that needs fixing and they cannot wait anymore (midnight, weekends, weekend midnights). Needed asynchronous help option. Internally called Help Hub - series of 55 videos and text tutorials arranged according to usergroup (U of Manitoba Libs) built in LibGuides. Usergroup appropriate language. After 8 months, do they use it? Everybody hates new things. Yes, they did. Spike in September, usage follows pattern of academic year. They're going to it, but does it work? 9 usability tests (high) - ensuring users can get to help area, navigating to tutorials should be intuitive, language makes sense; 35 interviews (12 currently comp...

How I say BOOM to this day: 1. Two surprise student consults this morning because their professors told them to come see me specifically. 2. A professor just called in an emergency status, needs some research to support a major NIH grant, thought immediately of me. Yep, I can help with that. Due Thursday? No problem. 3. Finished and submitted a complicated "revise & resubmit" research article to one of the top journals in my field. 4. Chatted with a friend about researching grants for her business idea. 5. Made comments on a group report submitted by one of the groups of students in my experiential learning social justice class. 6. Had a phone call to clear up some things about the library leadership book manuscript. 7. Rejoined the local CSA - 12 biweekly deliveries of a giant box of farm fresh veggies. Back onto the Autoimmune Protocol. 8. Submitted a poetry book manuscript to a press 9. Already located some good sources for #2 - sent 5 articles to the faculty member 1...