Preparing for Maternity Leave as a solo MLS Librarian

How I prepared for maternity leave as the solo MLS Librarian for a small rural library with a full time staff of five, serving a population of 30,000.

The key to preparing for maternity leave when you are the only MLS holder and solely responsible for collection development, community outreach, budgeting, and facilities management, is to get strong Board support.

The first and key step is getting your Library Board to support your leave and how it will effect your library.  My board took 5 months to approve my leave, even though I do qualify for FMLA and will not be receive paid leave outside of my earned vacation time.  While they couldnt deny me the FMLA time, I wanted them to support my decisions about how library services would be handled while I was gone and make sure they understood that I would not leave our citizens in a situation where they would losing access to quality services.  One key element to this goal is that I agreed that I would pre-plan everything possible and to clearly communicate with local government and other agencies that library services would continue and who the appropriate contacts would be during my absence.

My maternity leave will roughly be August through October.  The timing worked out pretty good, because those are actually the slowest months for our library usage and my office paperwork.

My planning included the following:

• Plan all library events for August through December with the exception of movie showings since I dont have access to release dates that far out.
• Complete all paperwork (that I have access to) that will be due prior to my return
• Pre-schedule Board meetings ( we will have 1 while I am on leave).  My Board agreed that I should be present for all Board meetings.  We will have to have 1 meeting in September so that we can pass our annual budget
• Clarify any special tasks for staff via email ( so there is a record to refer to - verbal requests can be easily forgotten).
• Set out off office message to reflect the situation, length of leave, and alternate contacts for information.
• Meet with staff to review expectations while away.
• Send memo with alternate contacts and leave expectations to local government and other relevant agencies.
• Updated my laptop with current antivirus and made sure that I could access our ILS from my laptop on my home network.
• Contact the schools and let them know we will not be providing school visits during my leave, but that a library presence for special events may still be requested ( for which I will schedule other staff).

• Order or purchase all craft supplies, reception needs, equipment, etc in advance as much as possible.
• Intensively weed collection to prepare the shelves for 3 months of non-weeding.

Additional specifics:

• I have an assistant that works in my office with me 10 hours a week.  She will be responsible for filtering my email, forwarding messages as needed to other staff, typing event calendars, and bringing all messages, correspondence, etc to my home once per week.  This will make sure that no deadlines are missed.  She will also compile book requests for me into a spreadsheet, and prepare/send Board packets out for our September meeting.
• While on leave I will plan to work approx. 1 day per week from home to make sure books are ordered, documents are signed, and any needs of the library are met that other staff do not have the skill or legal ability to handle.
• In preparing for my leave I have not taken on any new projects, so that I can leave the office without creating an extra workload I will need to keep up with.
• I have asked the staff who will be acting as Library Manager to send me weekly reports via email of any library, patron, staff issues and/or incidents so that I will be aware of any problems in case they are brought to me at a later date.
• I have made sure that the staff have my cell phone number, but know only to call with absolute emergencies that they themselves cannot handle.

In a later post, I will share the written request I submitted to my Board an the memo I prepared about my leave for other agencies I regularly interact with. 

Emerging Leader 2011 - Now What

I was thrilled to be able to participate in the American Library Association's Emerging Leader program for the class of 2011.  The program allowed me to meet librarians from all over the country, some of which I hope to maintain lifelong friendships.  The program allowed me to learn a significant amount of information about ALA and provided me the opportunity to get more involved with the organizational side of the organization.  I truly believe that the Emerging Leaders program has given me opportunities that I would never have had otherwise.  The opportunity to meet and mingle with ALA officials and staff was not only memorable, but it gave the opportunity to create professional ties with many people I might not otherwise have met and/or had the courage to speak to on my own.

I am excited to say that my participation in the Emerging Leaders program, along with my participation in my state library association, has allowed me to help push forward and solidify the Arkansas Library Association's future sponsorship of Emerging Leader participants.

Update - August 2014

The Arkansas Library Association now has a standing Emerging Leader Selection Committee.  This committee is organized with past Emerging Leaders and our goal is to continue to encourage Arkansans to apply for the program and participate in both the state and national library associations.  For more information about the Arkansas Library Association's Emerging Leader Selection Committee, please view our webpage here: http://arlib.org/organization/emerging_leader.php

Libraries for Leslie

Yesterday, Leslie Creekmore, A Children's Librarian from Fort Smith, AR died from complications of the flu.   I did not know Leslie personally, but she will be missed by those who knew her and by the library community. Her loss has hit me hard.

Leslie  was originally hospitalized in January where she was quickly put into ICU and placed on a ventilator.  While hospitalized last month she gave birth at 20 weeks, but the baby did not survive.  Being pregnant myself, the news stories have been hard to watch and I cant stop the tears as I write this blog.  Now Leslie has passed from this world to join her child, leaving her husband behind as a survivor.

Several news outlets have reported on this story and it has reached national coverage because she was told NOT get get a flu shot during her first trimester.  This vaccine probably would have saved her life and the life of her child.

If you havent seen this tragic story I encourage you to do so.  Here is the local Fort Smith coverage.

There has been two campaigns started to help this family: A gofundme account and a t-shirt campaign entitled "Get Your Damn Flu Shot."  There has also be a facebook page created.

Libraries are about family and I think most of us in the library profession feel that way about each other. Step up and support Leslie's family and please get your flu shot!

New Name Badges at the Library

My staff and I all got new name badges today!  They look so much better than our old ones!

Our old badges were a basic gray name tag from Demco that were boring and ugly and weren't even big enough to include our library name.

Our new badges are from Mighty Badge and are wonderful.  I like that we can now create badges in our office and not have to wait weeks to get badges in for new staff.  It was tricky learning how to print the inserts without smearing the text, but practice makes perfect, right?  We could have gone with a more custom layout, but that cost more money and these will work just fine for us!

BBW and Ethics

Banned Books Week has always been my favorite "librarian" celebration.  I admit, its partly because I like to push the envelope and make people uncomfortable.  But isnt being uncomfortable a good thing? Being comfortable is boring (intellectually comfortable that is).

Today I was at a meeting in which I was talking about the importance of Banned Books Week as a springboard to educate others about the value of open access and the ability to balance ourselves with multiple opinions.  It was disheartening to hear many people in the room respond in favor of censorship.

These people felt that I should be acting as a parent to my young patrons and keeping them away from topics that were "inappropriate."  Of course the book in question had the word "mommies" in the title.  It was so sad to hear others who work in libraries (although these particular respondents did not have an MLS) say that children's books with same sex parents were "not appropriate."

I whole-heartedly believe that it is my job to PROVIDE these materials.  In fact, its more than my job, its that thing that keeps me awake at night.  I cant stand the thought of censorship, but to hear it applied to libraries makes my stomach turn and my heart ache.

In trying to find a good educational response to this conversation, I found myself re-reading the ALA Code of Ethics, the Library Bill of Rights, and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

If you haven't taken time to read these documents, please do.  They offer many words of wisdom and they depict a clear vision of why I have dedicated my life to librarianship.

Thanks Quayside Books!

I was excited to learn that my library, the Malvern-Hot Spring County Library, in Malvern, AR was the winner of a prize from the 2013 American Library Association Annual Conference.  We won 10 free books of our choice from the Quayside Books catalog.

Eight of our 10 books arrived today, so I thought I would share.

Thanks, Quayside!

Favorite moment of ALA 2013

So for those who don't know me and maybe some of you that do know me, The Giver by Lois Lowry is my favorite book.  It has been my favorite book since I was 9 or 10 years old and I still reread it every year.  As an avid fan, I read all four books in the series and I must say that I liked all of them except book two.  In fact, if I had to rank the books in order of my most favorite, I would place them in this order: 1, 4, 3, 2.

These books are the ones I most frequently recommend (to both children and adults) to my patrons and to my friends.

Why do I love this book so much?  The Giver is a great coming of age, dystopian novel that that makes on rethink society and re-evaluate our lives.  Every time I re-read this novel I learn something about myself and reading often causes me to think beyond the scope of my personal reality.

At the Annual American Library Association Conference this year in Chicago, IL I got to MEET Lois Lowry.  When I found out that she was going to be at the event I was beside myself with excitement.

So behold....A picture of me with Lois Lowry!!!!!!!!!!!!!