we're really excited to be co-hosting today's webinar with The Association for Rural and Small Libraries.
Shout-out to you who are members or board members of ARSL.
We are excited to be working with them on our webinars.
If you're not yet an ARSL member, take a look.
It is an excellent opportunity for you to connect with other folks who work in small and rural libraries.
I'm going to post a link the ARSL site.
Be sure to check out information about the upcoming conference.
I know many of you will be there and we look forward to seeing you there.
All right.
We're going to go ahead and get our are recording started and I'm going to introduce today's presenter, who is an ARSL board member.
Jennifer Pearson comes to us as the director from the Marshall County Memorial Library in Marshall county, Tennessee.
We had a great pleasure of working with Jennifer at oclc.
She was there for almost 10 years or over ten years and has been at the Marshall county library for two years.
We're excited she was willing to bring her fresh insights on the elements beyond the job description you all have in your work, as directors or perhaps, aspiring directors.
I'm going to pass it over to Jennifer and let her get started and we're so excited you're all here.
>> Jennifer Pearson:  Thank you.
And as Jennifer Peterson said earlier, we did work together, so to here, I am pearson and she's jp.
I want to thank all of y'all for attending today.
I want to thank WebJunction and [Indiscernible] present to you today.
I want to give you quickly -- jp tells me we don't like a lot of introductory material.
I want to give you a little bit of background on me because I came to this in a circuitous way and you might find it interesting.
I worked at oclc for about 10 years.
Prior to that, I worked at engram library services.
I was director of cataloging.
I became a project manager and I realized my passion for my community and public libraries.
 I realize where my passion lied was working within my own community to make the public library a very integrated hub in the community.
So that's what we'll take about today.
That's where my passion lies.
And we're going to start, today, with a little quiz.
So, I hope you guys are ready to answer the quiz.
What we're going to do, on the next slide, is we're going to --
I'm going to ask you how long you've been a library director, if you are, in fact in a library director.
You're going to look for the little pencil at the top-left of your screen.
You're going to click on the pencil.
There's going to be a drop-down menu there.
From the drop-down menu, you're going to click on -- oh, somebody's already doing it.
You're going to click on the square and then the check mark.
Okay?
So, on the next page, get ready.
You guys are great.
So, on this next page, I want you to put a check mark on the area of how long you've been a library director, or if you are.
Okay.
So for those of you who are not yet a director, I will do my very best not to scare you away from becoming a  a director.
If am I scaring you away, tell me in chat to back away because you're scaring me away.
A lot of six to 12 months.
One to five years.
There are those of you out there who have more experience than I do.
And you are more than welcome to give your experience.
I would love for you to give your experience, as we go along, to say, hey, I've done this and this is how this works.
Or, any ideas you have.
The more interactive this is, the better.
I think it's so cool to see a lot of people who aren't directors yet.
So, here's what we're going to do.
Okay?
We're going to move along now.
To the first tip.
So there are 10 tips today and this, I think, is the most critical tip there is.
And that is, learning what your community's needs are and how the library can meet them.
You come into this job with all sorts of ideas.
You've read stuff.
You're reading library journal, you're following WebJunction, you're following all sorts of blogs and interesting things and you have all of these great ideas.
Well, guess what?
It's not about what you want.
It's not about what library journey says you should do.
It's about what your community wants and needs from you and you can't assume that you know what they want and what they need, especially if you're new to that community.
I moved here -- I grew up in Mississippi.
I lived in Nashville, Tennessee for years.
My husband is a native of Nashville.
I was not from this community.
If there are other ones of you on the webinar who are from the South, I want you to tell me in chat, the first two questions that people ask me when I moved to this community.
Anybody?
If you even -- even if you are from your community, you can't assume you know what people need because it's all really based on your own perceptions.
If you're not asking.
That's right.
Where are you from?
Where do you go to church?
Who's your daddy?
That's exactly it.
This may be something that's pervasive.
I'm familiar with rural communities, which is where I'm from.
Where do you go to church?
Who are your people?
What does your daddy do?
You're not from here, are you?
No, I'm not from here.
But I am not.
Community needs?
How do you assess those?
One great way is to create a survey.
I'm going to tell you something I did wrong when I got here.
I got to Marshall county and had been working at oclc for 10 years.
It was all about technology because we were an international organization and worked with people all over the world so I created an online survey for my community.
I realized, after I did that, and about 50 people took it, that my community's not an online community.
So, there was my first mistake.
I created a tool that didn't work for my community.
I had to fly over the other rotary board members who didn't want to check their email.
So, create a survey, but figure out the best way to give that survey.
It may be online, it may be handing it out at the grocery store or giving it to people at a church.
Create a survey, ask people who come into the library, their feedback is really valable to you.
As is the feedback of people who don't come to the library.
People who don't come to the library are those people that you think of as people you want to come to the library.
So you want to know what they want to.
Talk to YOIR stakeholder, your board, your foundation, your friends of the library and especially those people who fund you.
You really need to know what they think and what their ideas are.
And then, find some partners.
You're going to want to reach out to those people who can help you in the community.
Another thing that will help you when you talk to partners is to know what other organizations are already doing.
So, even if you hear, in your survey, if you hear feedback about things that people want and you know that they're already happening in the community, don't try to duplicate them or replicate them.
Most of you come from small communities like I do and it doesn't make a lot of sense for multiple organizations to be doing the same things.
So, instead look at that as an opportunity to promote what otherother organizations in your community are doing.
Let's talk about partners for just a minute.
I've listed some possible partners here.
The schools, obviously.
Parks and rec.
Civic clubs.
MUSEUMs.
What are good resources you use when you're working on library things and community involvement?
Farmers market.
Churches.
Senior centers.
Schools.
What's the dba?
They're going so fast.
Health department.
Banks.
United way.
Oh, this is all great.
Okay.
So, there are so many organizations you can partner with.
You're going to know in your community who your best partners are.
What you have there.
What your opportunities are.
I like agextension, that's really important in a lot of rural communities.
We are partner with agextension and health department right now to be a healthier Tennessee's community and that's an initiative, a state-wide initiative, to get people more active and involved in healthy habits here and we had a meeting about that just yesterday and had representation from the agand the state rep.
It's great to see who's out there and who you can partner with.
So, the second tip -- some of these tips are cautionary tales for me because they're things I'm not good at.
I came into this job with so many ideas.
I wanted to do so many things.
I was so excited about doing them.
Guess what?
You can't do everything at once.
So, what you do with that community feedback, which is the first thing you want to have, is you take that list and you prioritize that list.
You're going to be in this job, hopefully, for a long time.
It's going to give you a lot of opportunity to do lots of interesting and creative things that your community needs for you to do.
You don't have to do it all next Tuesday.
My staff and my board and my foundation and anybody who knows me would laugh out loud that I'm telling you to do this because they say to me, you can't do everything all at once, all the time.
I'm telling this to myself, as I'm telling it to you.
So, it's about your priorities, right?
So, make a list of your priorities.
Write it down.
Keep it.
It'll be part of your strategic plan.
Apart of your planning with your board and stakeholders.
You'll want to have this written down and put in a way that makes sense with people you work with on these priorities.
So, what do you base the list on?
What you found out from the community.
What are the needs you can fill?
You may be already filling some of them.
Another thing to take a look at is if you get feedback saying we want X, y and z and you're already doing x, y and z, take a look at how you're telling your community what you're doing.
They're obviously not hearing it if many of the things on their list are things you're doing.
Take that to heart.
You need to figure out the best way to communicate with folks.
So, base it on some quick wins.
You want to have fun with this.
If there's something you can get done in a couple of weeks or minutes or months, put it on the list and do it.
Get some medium terms, long-range.
Most importantly, make this about practical things you can actually.
If you need a new building to do it, it's not going to happen.
If you need to increase your staff by 50%, it's not going to happen.
If you need $1 million to do it, it's not going to happen.
Put asperational things on there.
Make them things you can do because you'll get frustrated if you have a list of things you can't actually implement.
So, related to the last tip is this tip, which is stuff takes time.
This is another cautionary tale to myself.
Obviously, I'm not good at prioritization and doing everything all at one time, I have no patience.
You can't build a better library in a day or a week or a month or a year or two years.
I've been here 2 years and I have a lot of my plate.
Deep changes, the big, deep changes.
Mindshift changes take a long time.
Building partnerships takes a long time.
The most important thing you have to do, that does take time before you can build on your vision and your community needs, though, is establishing that trust.
And if you are a newer director and if you are living in a new community and if it is a small community, it's going to take some time for you to build that trust.
My daddy's not from here.
I didn't grow up here.
It's taken me a little bit of time to build trust because I'm not a known quantity.
Just know that it happens.
It happens over time.
If you are transparent, if you are open, if you are honest, it's going to happen but you need trust from your stakeholders and your community at large and from your staff.
Very important.
You need trust from your staff.
And then once that trust is starting to be established, you can build some great partnerships.
You can build a following for your programming, your social media and the things you're trying to do in the community and then you can really, really build on the vision you have for the library.
I can't stress enough how important it is to establish this trust with people first.
So, we're going to talk about staff a little more in-depth.
Your staff -- if you're a new library director, your staff is probably already there when you got there.
You're probably not hiring your staff from scratch and that's awesome because they can tell you so many things you need to know to succeed.
They've been here.
They understand what's happening.
They know more about the community than you do, if you're not from the community.
But you have to figure out what the culture is you want to create for your library, and for your staff.
And that's really important for you to do and you have to start doing that almost immediately.
But the culture at the library where I work was dramatically different under the previous director than it is now.
There's no right or wrong.
There's a difference in personalitys, the way I do things, the things that are important to me.
I am the staff.
Well, you have to have this lecture for yourself.
[LAUGHTER]
I know that there are some of you that are the staff.
You'll have to give this lecture to yourself and figure out what you're good at and what you're not good at.
Volunteers and board.
That's very good, jp.
Thank you.
If you are your own staff, you have to figure out who can help you and we'll talk about that more later.
Figuring out the culture and the culture you want to have and the culture you want people to come in and see is important and getting the staff on-board with the culture is important.
If you are lucky enough to have staff -- I'm talking about finding the right fit.
These are some of my great staff people, who don't know I put their pictures on the slides here.
But I just wanted to show you some of their faces.
You got to figure out what people are good at.
What they're not good at, what they're passionate about and what they want to learn more about.
When I first got here, there wasn't a lot of specialization on my staff.
Everybody -- everybody did what they were told.
There wasn't a lot of specialization.
There wasn't a lot of autonomy.
There wasn't a lot of thought given to what their ideas were for making the library a better organization.
And that was one thing I really had to work on with them, was to say, you know, you can do it.
You're good at this, you can do it.
There were people doing things that they weren't good at.
There were peep doings things and weren't able to work at their passions.
At the end of the day, this is a job and you're not going to get to do everything you want and you don't get to refuse to do what you don't want to do.
If I could, I would refuse to look at another excel spreadsheets.
I wish I still worked with Kendra so she could do spreadsheets.
So here's one thing, in the top-right, that's Laura with her dog.
I have a library staff full of dog lovers.
They're not cat lovers.
Laura also has a pet pig.
Laura is now my adult programming person because she's passionate about that and she's also very crafty.
She does a crochet club.
She does recycled book art.
She does our adult coloring class.
If you're not doing adult color at your library, you need to get on that.
We do it quarterly, where we do coloring with soft music and hot tea and it's very nice.
Anyway, so Laura does that for me because she's really good at it.
We didn't have adult programming when I started here.
The only program we had was storytime.
This past year, we've had over 300 programs.
So, that's something that's ramped up a lot for us.
So, figure out what they're good at.
Figure at what they're not good at.
If they don't have to do it, don't make them do it because they're going to resent coming to work every day.
There's probably somebody who's good at what they're not good at.
If you are hiring staff, figure out what you need and hire somebody based on what you need.
If you need somebody who's good ad spreadsheets, hire somebody who's good at spreadsheets.
I don't have -- my positions are me, director, darlene who's in the middle, with her oversize sunglasses and then we have library assistants.
So, the job description is basically the same, but I've figured out, you know, the needs I have and I try to hire people who can fit those needs, if I can.
It's a small community and so sometimes there are things that I need that we can't afford to have, based on the fact that we're a small community with a small budget.
But I just can't stress enough how important it is.
If you have staff that don't fit the new culture, nine times out of 10, it will work itself out.
They will retire, they will find something, they will move on.
But if they don't, you're going to have to make some hard decisions.
Because having a toxic work environment is going to make it toxic for anybody who wants to come to your library.
So you may have to make some hard decisions.
I think the chat's been flying by.
I think some of you may have been talking about this in chat.
Sometimes you have hard decisions you have to make.
And if you do, you need to make them.
You need to have the support of your board or whomever else is apart of your decision making.
If they're not a good fit, it's not a good fit for them or for you.
All right.
So, this is my favorite part.
Most people say, I didn't get into being a librarian because I want to be out there, being a public relations person.
Well, I do.
This this is one of those things that comes easily to me but I know it doesn't come easily to a lot of people.
But you have to make yourself known to your community.
I always flash back to my work on geek the library and the things we told people based on the study we did about getting better funding for libraries.
If people know the librarian and they know the people who work at the library and they see them as being out in the community and supportive and engaged in community events, they're much more likely to support the library.
So, you've got to get out there.
Your most important job, as the director is to be an advocate for the library in the community.
It is your most important job.
So, you've got to get out there.
You got to be a joiner.
You got to do things.
Join organizations, speak, get stuff done.
Okay?
So, how do you want to be involved?
That's me, with my rotary pin.
How do you want to be involved?
How can you be involved?
You can be a part of civic organizations.
Most cities and counties have leadership programs.
I took our local leadership program called leadership Marshall last year.
I'm doing a leadership program that encompasses about eight counties in our area.
That is a great way to learn about your community and network with people.
You can be a part of social clubs, religious organizations.
Don't turn down the speaking engagements, that's the best way to get out there and engage with the community outside of the library.
You've got to get out of the library.
You -- can I say that again?
You have to get out of the library.
You have to take the library to the community.
Not just in your speaking engagements in the community, but you have to be part of community festivals, school fairs, anything you can be a part of to get out of the library.
Volunteer opportunities.
So, you guys are talking about things, here, but what are some other things you can do?
While you're doing that, I will tell you, this is also a cautionary tale for me because I get overinvolved.
I will tell you, don't get overinvolved.
Locally, I -- I'll give you a list of what I'm doing.
Don't do all of this.
Locally, I'm in the rotary, I'm on the board.
I'm on the board of the downtown alliance.
I'm on the community development board.
I'm doing a regional leadership program.
In addition to that, I'm on the board of the ARSL and doing work that the aspen institute is doing.
I'm doing too much.
You have to learn how to say no sometimes.
It's my passion and I want to be involved and I want to be in the community.
And -- so, somebody is asking --
I think it's intriguing -- have you found it's good to stay neutral with church organizations?
I say that heavily depends on the community.
If I wereed involved in the church, I would not be looked upon favorably.
I will say, to all of you, that I -- I think -- I think the place where you have to stay neutral is politics.
I don't discuss my politics in my community.
I don't think it's important.
I think it's important that I do the best thing for the community, not based on if I'm a democrat or republican.
That's a very important thing to do.
You're out there, working on behalf of your community.
So, that's my line that I don't cross.
Okay.
Other organizations?
Just scrolling through the chat for a minute.
Yeah, I probably do need an intervention, if you're talking to me.
I like this, using lieutenants to represent the library to the public also provides leadership.
A thousand times, yes.
Because having people who are community members who are out there in the library, advocaing for the library is a million times better.
Everybody knows the librarians want to keep the library doors open, it's their job.
Of course they want to keep their job.
Of course they think the library's important.
Having community members tell your stakeholders how important your library is, is so important.
You have to do it, but they need to do it.
They can be board members, friends of the library, just be people that are working in your community, who are library supporters.
But you've got to get them involved.
Anytime somebody comes to me and says, oh, the library is doing great.
I say, would you say please tell your county commissioner that because they fund us.
If you think we're doing a good job, tell the county commissioner how important the library is to you.
That's a little off-topic, but it's really important.
All right.
I'm trying to move the slide.
And it's not currently moving.
So, the next tip, as I wait for the slide to move, is about asking for help.
You -- you have a lot to do.
You can't necessarily do it all yourself.
So, you're going to need to ask for help to get things done.
So, who do you ask for help?
There we go.
Who do you ask for help?
There are a lot of people that you can ask for help.
But, they need to fit certain criteria.
So, some of the people you want to ask for help are -- again, I'm having trouble moving the slide.
Here we go.
All right.
So, who can help me?
First of all, they need to be somebody you trust.
If you don't trust them, don't ask them.
They need to be people who can help you with needs that you have, so that could either be something specific that you need and you know that you don't have the capacity or the knowledge or the skills to do it yourself.
Or, it could be a more broad need that you have.
And they should be influencers sometimes, too.
So, who should be on your list?
I'll tell you, you know, here are some ideas, but throw some out there in chat.
Business owners are great because they understand how to run a business and, yes, your library's a business.
You're running a business and you need to understand how to efficiently run your business.
Economic development officers and workforce development people, really important.
You help create jobs.
You help your city expand.
Sometimes, people don't get that about the library.
So, reaching out to people who do economic development, who do workforce development, those sorts of things and getting them into your inner circle of trust and helpers and very important.
City, county officials, AKA, your funders, your biggest stakeholders.
You got to get them to help you, when they can.
I'm going to be quite frank here and say some of our commissioners are very helpful.
Some of our commissioners are not.
No one's against the library, but others are better in terms of being there when you have questions and things you need.
You really want to talk to anyone who understands how things were in your community.
I'll give you an example.
I am not from Marshall county, I am not from Tennessee and that's a positive and a negative.
My best friend, who is also the very best partner I have, is the director of parks and rec.
She's about my age.
She's also really excited about getting things done and moving things forward in our city and our county and doing great things for the community here.
I trust here and she knows how things work and she can tell me things that I don't know or understand because I haven't been here long enough.
As a matter of fact, she's coming over tonight for some informal trust-building, AKA, drinking beer on the back porch with me because you need people like that in your life, who you really trust, who also know what's going on.
Make sure that you're connecting with other people in your position, who live close to you.
So, if you're a director or you want to be a director, be friends with other directors who live in your area and work with people who get stuff done.
You can find those people really easily.
Those people, in your community, who say if you need something done, they're getting it done.
Find those people.
Seek them out.
They will be so helpful to you.
Okay.
Here is the next tip.
This is about bulldozing your way in.
So, when you're new and you have lots of ideas and you're really excited about them, sometimes you can get overlyeager to implement them.
Remember, you're a politician.
Okay?
As a library director, you are a politician.
Maybe you didn't get into this job to be a politician, but that's what you are so you have to be politic.
You have to understand what's going on around you and the library and the community.
You have to listen.
You have to see what needs to be done.
Who you need to talk to and how you need to talk to them.
Always, always, always know what's going on in your community that could affect the library.
I would like a new library building.
I'm embarking on a strategic planning project with a consultant, a 10-year plan, and part of that will involve upgrading existing facility or building a new facility.
We have a main library and a tiny branch.
Teeny, tiny branch.
The biggest thing to get out of this planning is to figure out the needs and how to service the needs of all citizens in Marshall county.
It's not necessary how to get a new library building in lewisburg.
I know in my county, that we are paying off school bonds right now.
I know that I cannot walk into a county commission meeting, to a budget hearing and say, I want a new building this year, because I know that the county doesn't have the money for that until 2021.
So, guess what?
In my strategic plan, there won't be anything about a new building for five years because I understand that's not going to happen and there's no point in fighting that fight.
Know the best way to work with your different stakeholders.
Different people speak different languages.
Learn what languages they speak and speak it back at them.
So, if you're working with your funders, they want to know how much it costs and why you're doing it and what it's worth.
If you're working with your friends group, they might have a different concern.
If you're working with your board, their concern might be different.
Compromise when you need to.
You're not going to get everything you want, so you're going to have to compromise and drop it, if you have to drop it.
If people aren't ready to hear it, stop saying it.
They might be ready next year or the next year.
So, you win some, you lose some, right?
You're not going to win everything.
You're not going to get everything you want the first time you ask for it.
Or, maybe ever.
So, the best way to win is to be prepared.
You got to know that what you're asking for is reasonable in the eye of the beholder.
You have to do your due diligence.
You have to know if what you're asking for costs money, what it costs.
Have you found the best price?
You have to know if who you're asking has the money to give.
From my example earlier, my county doesn't have the money so I'm not asking for big things.
You really have to know that you're asking the right people and how to talk to those people.
This goes back to knowing your audience and being politic.
Are you asking the right questions of the right people in order to get what you need?
In some cases, it's your funders.
In some cases, it's your partners.
In some cases, it's your volunteers, it's your board.
Ask at the right time.
It goes back to what's happening and what's important and are you asking for the right thing, at the right time.
So when you lose -- you're going to lose and that's okay.
Last year, my budget, I asked for some things I didn't get and I realized that it wasn't the right time.
I asked again, this year and I got them.
Sometimes you're going to lose and that's okay.
So take every no and figure out why it was a no.
Was there not enough money?
Did you not express your needs properly?
Were your needs not seen important for whatever reason?
Once you know why the no was given, you have to figure out how to turn it into a yes or if you even want to turn it into a yes.
You've got to go back and ask people questions.
If they say, no, you've got to know why they said no.
Our budget community last year, I presented our budget to them, and our budget officer came back to me and told me what my new budget was.
They didn't tell me why I didn't get what I asked for.
They didn't invite me to the table when they talked about why I wasn't getting it.
So I said to them this year, I said I can't do it this way this year.
I'm going to present my budget and you're going to tell me why you say no to something.
And, they did.
And I appreciated it.
You've got to figure it out.
If someone's telling you no, why are they telling you no?
Sometimes you have to ask them because it's not always easy for people to be candid with you about why you're not getting what you need.
So, owning your successes and your mistakes.
This is all related to the winning and losing.
You've got to own it.
It's great to own your successes.
It's not as easy to own your mistakes.
But you have to own both of them.
So, when you succeed, the most important thing to do is to celebrate it and to tell people.
Because, if you're not telling people what you're doing, it's not a true success.
So, if we do something great at the library, I want it in the paper.
I want to talk about it on Facebook.
I want it on the radio.
I want people talking about it.
Because I want to be able to replicate that success.
So if my success is a great program.
We had a huge reading program this summer.
It was very successful.
I want to talk about that so I can improve on it and expand it next year so people know what we're doing and buy in to what we're doing and will help us to do it even better.
Figure out why it worked so you can replicate it.
Always, always, always, always acknowledge everyone who helped you.
99.9% of the things you've done, you haven't achieved by yourself.
Say thank you.
Everybody wants to be aprecated.
It's important to say thank you to your staff and your stakeholders and your volunteers.
Always remember, just say thank you.
So, when you lose, you got to take responsibility.
This is the flip side of acknowledging everyone who helped you get something right.
You've got to take responsibility.
You can't blame other people.
You can't say, oh, well, it would have worked if Susie q over there didn't mess me up.
Anything you're trying to do for the good the community, you're responsible for it.
Did you ask the wrong thing?
Did you ask at the wrong time?
Is it something you need to correct or something you just didn't need to do in the first place?
So, figure out, and learn from, the things that you lose at.
This is my favorite one.
Best for last.
Whether you like it or not, the library is a reflection of you.
I mean, you, the person.
Not the collective you.
Not the royal you.
Well, I guess it is the royal you.
You, the one person.
The library director.
Everywhere you go, people know you as the library.
Even though all those thousands of people helped you get things done, you're the person they think of as the library.
In your community, it's really powerful and it's really exciting and it's my favorite thing in life.
So, you got to look at what you see and make sure that it fits what your library image is.
So, you always -- wherever you are, you got to articulate your vision and state it to anybody who asks, I don't care if it's in the library, at a meeting or in a Mexican restaurant.
Think to yourself, right now, can you, in one to three sentences, articulate what your vision is for the library, as a part of the community?
You can type it in chat, if you want.
But just think about it.
If somebody said, hey, what's your vision for the library, can you articulate it?
Also remember that wherever you go in your community, you're the face of the library wherever you go.
Right?
No Jell-O shots for you at the bar on Friday night because everybody's going to be talking about you.
So, we were at --
[LAUGHTER]
we are lucky enough to have a state park in our county and our -- the new ranger of our state park is awesome and he's a mover and a shaker and doing all these cool things.
It's called Henry Horton state park.
One of the things they did at Henry Horton state park is they opened a small lounge, a tavern, if you will.
Now, it is the only tavern in Marshall county.
So, we went for the grand opening of the travern, as a community building event.
I had a glass of wine.
The county mayor comes to me and he says, you know, you have to be really careful about that because you might get your picture in the paper and I looked at him and I said, Mr. Mayor, I understand and I appreciate that, but I'm a grown woman and I'm going to have one glass of wine and you know the paper is my husband, right?
So he's not going to put a picture of me in the paper with a glass of wine.
But, you got to be careful.
It is what it is.
It also means that you have huge amazing opportunities to take the library to the community.
Everywhere you go, you have an opportunity to advocate for the library and everywhere you go, just by being who you are, people are going to connect it with the library.
It's an awesome responsibility and an amazing opportunities.
Have fun with it.
This is the best part about being a library director.
You know, everywhere I go, people are asking me what's going on at the library.
It's just great.
I really think that once you embrace this, it really is the best thing that happened to you every day.
I can't tell you how excited I get when I'm walking down the street and some random person says, hey, I went by the library the other day and you were doing such and such and what a great thing.
So, own that and love that.
With that, I am done with my 10 ideas.
My ideas are all related to very big, broad things that happen to you.
I will tell you that as part of the guide, I think there are -- 
there are tips that were collected on the ARSL Listserv, which is another perk of membership.
Some of these tips are very concrete and I think they're going to be linked to the presentation.
I want to ask some questions.
One is, what do you want to work on right away?
So, in chat, what are -- yeah, there it is.
Chris ripples advice to new librarians.
It's in the chat.
What do you want to work on right away?
Building trust.
Vision.
Number 7, I had someone beating on the door and we didn't open for two hours.
I had to lock my door and tell people to leave me alone to do this.
What was number 7?
Number 7 was, don't bulldoze your way in.
Being politic about what you're doing.
Staff, independence, vision, join, creating relationships.
Okay.
So, I also want to ask, did you hear -- did I say anything you disagree with?
Because I would love to hear, you know, if there's something I said that you guys have tried and don't work for you.
Let's talk about that in chat because I think it 's important.
I don't have all the answers.
So, if there's something that you either disagree with or that you would add that you think is really important, that I didn't cover?
Programs and policies.
Yeah, everything I've talked about was really, really broad.
Jell-O shots, I agree to some extent.
No -- yeah.
I don't want to give up my identity.
There are social norms I have to follow based on where I live.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  You know, I'm going to jump in because I did collect a few of the questions.
Some of them are very, very meaty.
I'd love to hear your thoughts -- you know, a lot of it was included in some of the bits you mentioned.
There are folks who have challenges with their friends or their board.
When you have a situation where maybe you have information, perhaps it's about the budget, for instance, that you want to be sure the people -- the other folks that are sort of above those decision-making stakeholders, community stakeholders, is there a way you've found to nurture the relationships?
How have you approached that?
>> Jennifer Pearson:  So are we asking if the gatekeepers are saying something that may be is not in alignment with what's actually happening?
Is that -- 
>> Jennifer Peterson:  Yeah, or the information isn't getting, you know, sort of real situation isn't being shared.
>> Jennifer Pearson:  You know, that's a really tricky one and what I would say is that if you know who is doing this, you know, if you know the person who is creating the gap in information or the misinformation, I would go directly, personally and privately to that person and say, you know, I'd really like to -- you know.
I'd like to chat about this.
I think that, you know, the situation is this and maybe there's some misunderstanding that we have about what the situation is.
And if that doesn't work, it's a tricky and tough situation.
I'm very fortunate in that with my board and with the people who disseminate information, they're generally good about trying to get it right.
I don't have anybody actively trying to sabotage me.
If you do and they are really actively trying to sabotage you, you have to figure out who they trust and who they talk to and see if you can get to them that way.
But the best, best, best first alternative is always to talk to the person, one-on-one and privately.
It generally is a misunderstanding.
Sometimes people are trying to sabotage you.
It's generally a misunderstanding.
Make sure you get the right information out there.
Okay?
So, if somebody else is actively disseminateing wrong information and you know they're doing that purposefully, you disseminate the right information.
You don't have to say that you heard that other people are disseminateing in correct information, generally, in a small town, people understand that there are people who want to sabotage things.
And they get it.
And they know the person and they know what they're doing.
So, it's going to generally work itself out.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  I'd also like to mention, too, we added this to the learner guide as one of the assets to explore.
But a lot of the questions and comments that are coming up are related to more of the soft skills, you know, around communication or conflict and I've just posted a link to the webinar's for our personal growth and development section, where those kinds of webinars are gathered and there are outstanding presentations that address issues around communication or conflict or additionally building trust.
So, definitely keep that in mind, as another way to exflore -- explore on that asset on the work that you're doing.
But I know that it's really difficult and, you know, I think the one thing I would say, pearson, that I didn't see in there is that it is tiring.
Make sure to take care of yourself because you do need to have that energy because it's never ending and exhausting and be sure to take care of yourself and the staff and a lot of the ideas that are shared in those webinars will help you be able to support your staff in that area, as well.
Let's see, other questions?
I want to mention, too, that the link that we shared to the list that Chris ripple collected does address some of the more policy-related issues.
It's been exciting to see the approaches you're taking to programming.
I was fascinated by the one comment who said there was no programming in the four years and now they've had hundreds of programs.
So, kudos to you for making that happen.
I encourage you all to explore WebJunction.
There are many webinars that talk about programs.
If you're in small and rural libraries, some of the approaches.
I want to thank you all in chat, as well, for great contributions.
Pearson, I want to make sure you advance your slide because you suggested that folks can contact you, as well.
you can learn together, like I said, I know many of you are -- 
have been in your positions for longer, so I know Jennifer's excited to learn from you, too.
>> Jennifer Pearson:  Yes, absolutely.
So, this is my contact information and this is me, dressed up as the grinch as I do at the Christmas parade every year.
You guys, feel free to contact me if you have questions for me or advice for me.
I'm still really new at this and I'd love your advice.
You can call me, email me, hit me up on Skype.
Thanks so much, guys, for being here and being so active.
I just love seeing all this chat.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  There was a great question that come up.
I know that your husband works for the newspaper so maybe your answer would be the newspaper.
How do you reach patrons to talk about programming and services who maybe don't have technology, aren't online?
What are ways you're doing your marketing outside of technology?
>> Jennifer Pearson:  We do the newspaper.
We have a great local radio station that we use.
I put up fliers.
I just -- on bulletin boards around town.
Here, in my particular community, reaching the churches is important.
Taking stuff to schools is great, if it's -- I work with the schools to hand stuff out at schools and to put stuff up in schools.
It just -- it depends on what your community reacts to and relates to.
But, a good old fashion printed flier, here in my non-internect connected community does.
Sport events is great.
I have very, very, very little advertising, like, next to none.
If I have money to spend, I put banners up at the football and soccer stadiums here.
Sports is huge here.
Huge.
So, if you can connect with the sports team and the way they advertise, I suggest connecting with them if it's as big in your small community as it is in my small community.
>> Jennifer Peterson:  
Excellent.
That's great.
There was a question -- a suggestion from someone in terms of getting support and ideas for how to deal with perhaps your board or your friends.
Definitely tap your state library agency.
There are staff there whose job it is to help you make some of those decisions and come up with approachapproaches.
They're aware of the standards in your area.
So, use them, they can be a great advocate for you, as you try to help improve those relationships, locally.
And also, I just want to -- 
again -- mention ARSL is a great way for you to connect with other folks.
We see lots of questions come through the ARSL Listserv related to some of these trickier bits and I know that your colleagues there will be happy to help.
So if you're not yet a member of ARSL, as I said, it's very affordable.
It's a great way for you to connect and hear from others.
Many folks, here, I know, are members and I know some of them are board members.
So, thank you to all of you who are doing the great work as volunteers to maintain and bring such great work by ARSL.
All right.
Thank you so much to all of you.
And, thank you, so, so much, Jennifer Pearson for all your great work.
It's so exciting to see you blossom in your roll as director and, yes, we all want to come visit you.
And, thank you, again, to all of you, for participating and being here today.
I will send you an email once the archive is available and also, I'll send you a certificate for attending today, within a week.
And, again, please let us know, as well, as you leave, we'll send you to a short survey and we'd love for you to share your feedback.
We'll be sharing that with today's present R and it will help us guide our ongoing webinars.
And thank you, too, to our captioning.
Everyone, have a fantastic day.