Category Archives: New Librarians

Q&A with Authors Linda Miles and Susanne Markgren on LIS Professional Development

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CPDWL focuses on professional development in the field. We provide numerous resources, training materials and updates on the trends in continuing learning and professional development in the workplace. In this blog post, we speak with librarians Linda Miles and Susanne Markgren, authors of How to Thrive as a Library Professional: Achieving Success and Satisfaction (2019) about their book on professional development for librarianship, and their thoughts on professional development in the field.

Congratulations on this book! How did the book get started? 

There are really two things that came together to prompt us to take on this book project. The first is that we truly love what we do professionally. Our career satisfaction has increased incrementally as we have taken on new challenges, collaborated with colleagues, and found success. We have built thriving careers and we want to support others in that endeavor.

The second element is the work that we have done together, specifically. We have collaborated for many years, and those collaborations have all been about supporting the professional and career development of MLIS students and librarians at any stage in their careers. We’ve organized panels and workshops that covered navigating the job search and hiring process, the first days/weeks/months/years on the job, and building relationships and networks, among other topics. These have been presented under the auspices of institutional, regional, and national organizations. In addition, we have collaborated with others to support a mentoring initiative and a research and writing support group.

We’ve enjoyed hundreds of collegial relationships along the way and participated in thousands of conversations about becoming a professional and building a practice. To say that we are passionate about this work is an understatement.

How do you think librarians can use the book for professional development?

In this book we provide conceptual framing for six key career-development areas: vision, relationships, organizational culture, building productive habits, the use of narrative, mindfulness and self-compassion, and reflective practice. Throughout we provide framing, concrete examples, practical advice, reflective prompts, and exercises. One of the unique features of the book is our use of five “personas,” where we provide narrative examples from the worklife of professionals at varying stages of their careers and working in different sectors of librarianship. This enhances the reader’s ability to connect the framing, advice, and exercises we provide with their own lived experience and aspirations.

Although we initially envisioned this book serving individual graduate students and librarians (and it certainly does that!), each chapter is also valuable as a potential text for focused professional development. For example, our chapter on organizational culture has served as required reading for ACRL’s 12-week Fostering Change Cohort program. There are seven great topics to choose from in this book, but two of our chapters are freely available via the City University of New York’s institutional repository: Getting Your Bearings: Understanding Organizational Culture and Gathering and Lending Support: Relationships.

Where do you see PD changing in the field? 

In recent years, we’ve witnessed a growing demand for programming to assist people with some of the challenges and struggles they feel as they seek direction and meaning in the profession, adapt to new roles, go up for promotion or tenure, or simply work to find a job. Many of the concepts, exercises, and questions that are included in this book grew out of the collaborative programming we have developed.

We predict that there will continue to be an increasing need for different types and formats of professional development programming—in-person, hybrid, virtual, institutional, cross-institutional, interactive, reflective, continuous, etc.—and we hope to be a part of that effort. One of the formats we have been experimenting with recently is that of the “knowledge-share session,” whereby we briefly introduce and frame a particular topic, provide discussion prompts for small groups that each include veterans and newbies to the topic, and facilitate a reflective “share out” for the whole group at the end. We then follow up after the session by providing online access to our introductory framing and notes gathered from each of the discussion groups.

Thanks for speaking with us! What’s next?

We continue to conduct career-development programming for a variety of associations/conferences/events, many of which stem from, and support, chapters in our book. And, at the same time, we are in the process of conceptualizing two other book ideas, whose themes have arisen from workshops we’ve done. One of these is about informal leadership as a tool for professional and career development. We have contributed a chapter on informal leadership (freely available via institutional repository) to a 2023 anthology on mid-career librarianship. For the other topic we are playing around with, we conceive of professional reputation as something that is “constructed and contextual,” and will explore the “building blocks” that can support that construction, something we have begun to present on regionally and nationally.

Librarians in the borderland between professionalism and amateurism

I know – the title may provoke, but by the end of this text, it will hopefully seem comprehensible and justified.

As senior lecturer at a Swedish university offering educational programs in Library and information science (LIS), I sometimes get questions and comments about the training of future librarians. Often it is about what aspiring librarians should know and how this is best taught. It is striking how engaging the issue of librarians’ competence is – the various opinions come from widely different quarters. Sometimes librarians’ work is even proposed as the answer to major societal challenges such as reawakening young people’s lust to read and strengthening citizens’ digital skills.

In addition to the outside world’s expectations of the profession, there is an internal tendency to problematize the professional role and competence. That debate has recurred over decades in trade press, mailing lists and social media. In parallel, research is conducted with the aim of understanding, challenging, equipping and ideally inspiring the profession, and the production of Bachelor and Master theses at our universities testifies to the interest in profession-related topics among students. Their small-scale research contributions are quick-footed and likely to delve into the field’s hottest questions.

Debate and recurring discussions are sometimes interpreted as the profession facing a crisis. For my own part, however, I am both optimistic and incurably curious (the researcher’s occupational injury?). I see vivid discussion as an expression of the importance of libraries for the country’s inhabitants, and internal debate as a sign of vitality. Few professions show such spark! The need for discussion can be linked to the history of the profession; the professionalization process of the past century, amalgamated professional organizations, academisation of training and the establishment of the LIS discipline. Today the profession is powerfully organized, but at the same time it spans disparate activities.

As a natural reaction to societal developments, and perhaps as a backlash for the unifying professional project, new competences are called for in libraries, and more specialized training.

Another important aspect of the position of librarianship today, is its quality as a welfare profession; one of the female-intensive occupations that have thrived within the Nordic welfare hub. Ambivalence towards the profession’s theoretical basis is typical, and compared to classic professions, the welfare professions are less hierarchical, more collaborative and highly focused on the clients. I know from experience, that responsiveness to users’ needs and interests is a shining beacon for aspiring and active librarians, regardless of library type.

Surely that sounds nice? But every medal has its flip side. The emphasis on responsiveness, commitment, and (often) idealism, can make librarians stretch far in their compliance. Always being prepared to tone down competitive thinking and professional pretensions out of consideration for the interests of others, is an attitude that risks backfiring. For an illustration of this dilemma of a welfare profession, we may turn to the children’s librarians – a group that was early associated with selfless work of the “vocational type”. We’d like to think that image faded decades ago, but my research into the competence of children’s librarians was an eye-opener.

The participants in my study said they appreciated the rich opportunities for competence development as well as their chance to influence its content. But several librarians also described dissatisfaction with the overly free choices and the perceived lack of managerial steering of the knowledge-developing activities. Rather than seeing the collective competence as a strategic resource for the workplace, competence development was often treated as an encouraging ‘salary benefit’. Several managers also hesitated in connection with my interview question concerning what incentives they saw for children’s librarians’ competence development. Their answers were that the librarians’ heartfelt meetings with the users – in this case children who love to read – were to be regarded as both a driving force and a reward.

Get me right – trusting relationships and personal appreciation are worth their weight in gold in everyday work, but should we really, in 2022, regard professional work as its own reward? Such an approach, with the logic of the old “vocation” just below the surface, undeniably brings to mind non-profit and amateur work.

There is no room here for the follow-up questions that need to be asked. I end by stating that those concerned with how the librarian profession can be strengthened for the future, should pay attention to where the boundaries are drawn between professional and personal commitment. As a representative of research and higher education, I want to promote a reflective professional practice, where sensitivity to the outside world is complemented by research-oriented and proactive working methods; an ambition that probably applies to most universities offering LIS education around the globe.

What do you think – is there reason to push the discussion about the prerequisites and the future of librarianship one step further? I think so.

 

Jenny Lindberg
Lecturer at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Sweden

 

Note: This article has previously been published in Swedish at http://www.noll27.se

The study on children’s librarians mentioned in the blog entry is accessible (in Swedish): https://regionbiblioteket.se/publicerat/barnbibliotekariers-kompetens/

 

Online Conferences and Learning: An Interview with Jane Dysart

Photo: Jane Dysart

I was lucky to speak with Jane Dysart, a member of IFLA’s Knowledge Management Standing Committee and Continuing Professional Development Committee and Workplace Learning Standing Committee! We talked about her work in supporting online professional development learning, LIS trends and what’s in store for her upcoming virtual conference!

Ray: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me! With the shift to digital learning, it is unfortunate that all in-person meetings and conferences have been cancelled or converted to online formats. What are your thoughts on this approach and why did you decide to combine Computers in Libraries & Internet Librarian virtually together? 

Jane: Yes, very sad to miss all our fun learning and networking face-to-face events. However, Information Today is hoping to make our first virtual library event,  Computers in Libraries & Internet Librarian Connect, an exciting online learning and interactive experience. Computers in Libraries was scheduled for late March in Washington DC and we had to cancel it a few weeks before.  Internet Librarian was scheduled for mid-Oct and early in July it became apparent that we couldn’t hold an in-person meeting even though we’d already planned the conference and had shared the program online.  We wanted to do a virtual event to honor those who had registered for CIL and agreed to roll their registration over to 2021 and we wanted to reach our fans of Internet Librarian too. We also wanted to experiment and learn the ins and outs of virtual events. So voila!  We put two strong, already planned, programs together, checked with speakers, and created a very ambitious 5 day event online!

Ray: What are some exciting sessions that you’d like to highlight from Computers in Libraries & Internet Librarian Connect this year?

Jane: We’re very excited about the format of our new event – each day of the week from Monday September 21 through Friday September 5. We’re starting early in the morning ET and including “Talking with Libraries: Stories from Around the Globe” — interviews by popular European library star, Erik Boekesteijn.  The first interview features IFLA President Christine Mackenzie! We have two keynote every day, one early and one late: Lee Rainie, Sarah Boisvert, Clifford Lynch, Nicol Turner Lee, Daniel Russell, Eepmon (Erick Chan), David Feriero, Leslie Weir, John Bracken, Misty Jones, Bryan Alexander, Michael Edson, Dana Mitroff & more! We hope to attract library folks from all over the world and have some content during waking hours in their time zones! We have about 180 speakers — knowledgeable library practitioners, thought leaders, and experts from around the world! Prepare yourself if you look at the list of speakers, on our online platform, they are listed alphabetically BY FIRST NAME!!  LOL, obviously not our choice!

Ray: That is funny indeed! What are tips that you’d like to share with the international library community interested in organizing online conferences?

Jane: There is definitely a learning curve with creating virtual events: from choosing a platform (there are many out there; we went with Pheedloop because it could support 5 tracks of content at the same time, much like our F2F events); learning the platform and dealing with its imperfections (or at least handling things differently that we are used to!); ensuring we all know how to deal with the technology (we’re doing training with both our moderators and speakers); marketing a new event (at least library folk are familiar with our F2F brands and we hope will support our digital one!). Our goal was to make this event as interactive as possible so our regular session programs are organized with 5 tracks of sessions over 5 days focusing on Content Discovery & Management; Libraries & Communities; Technology; Management, Marketing & Change; Internet@Schools, Makerspaces & More! You can see more about the daily topics of each track on the website, for example, Track A over 5 days, https://pheedloop.com/cilil2020/site/tracks-a/. Most of our sessions will feature a speaker for 20 minutes followed by 20 minutes Q&A/discussion and then 20 minutes of speaker availability in the networking area as we get ready for the next speaker. I am sure we will all be exhausted by the end of the week, but are really looking forward to the experience and seeing lots of library folks from around the world! We will have a virtual exhibit hall (still working on that), many meet ups (still in process), and lots of networking opportunities. So keep checking out website for new updates!

Ray: How exciting! Finally, what are some trends you see that the international library community should be exploring more?

Jane: Interesting question.  I really believe we need to reset, not look for a new normal or try to fit the old ways into the new environment, but really rethink what we want to accomplish in our communities.  We definitely need to build up our digital collections in libraries with many different learning and discovery avenues, such as couch safaris to different places, zoos, museums, art galleries, aquariums, etc; virtual bird watching expeditions using webcams all over the world; as well as open access to our research and scientific resources and lots more.  I think we need to build more relationships with our communities (academic campuses, municipalities, enterprises, schools), bridging many of these communities in our geographic locations.  We also need to look for strong partners as IFLA always says – stronger together.  We need support from many new and diverse partners. I’m looking forward to our discussion in this session:

Health Crisis: Stress Test?

What did we learn in the past 6-plus months? Where did our libraries and communities fall short? How can we improve our services and readiness now and into the future? Vint Cerf recently said the virus was a really effective stress test of technology and technology companies, but what about libraries? How did we do with this stress test of our services. Where did we pass, where do we have more work to do and what does that look like?  Hear about recent community experiences and share yours!

Thanks again for letting me share my passions – libraries, learning, information discovery and management, communities, building relationships and sharing our knowledge and experiences. Hope to see lots of IFLA members online and will look forward to your feedback following the event!

Here’s another link, Jane’s blog calling our ambitious program a librarypalooza, https://dysartjones.com/2020/08/sept-21-25-librarypalooza-cil-il-connect/

***

JANE DYSART, Founding Partner of Dysart & Jones and Curator of Curiosity, She specializes in designing learning and leadership events and customized conference planning. Jane has brought together experts and facilitators, keynote speakers and presenters for more than 100 successful events in Canada, the US and the UK.

Resources from Latin America & the Caribbean libraries in the face of COVID-19 / Bibliotecas de América Latina y el Caribe ante el COVID-19: Recursos

COVID-19 has forever changed our world including our libraries. Now more than ever we need to work united to continue providing access to information during and after the pandemic. We need to start working on our future, today.

IFLA, librarians and library associations from all regions of the globe have developed resources to guide changes including shifting from in-person services to online services, copyright matters, online programming from all types of libraries, e-resources, and wellness for library workers. These are some of the areas mentioned by librarians from Latin America participating in an online series, “Loida, Bibliotecas Live,” I started last March to help each other en Español.

On this blog, I am going to highlight a selection of online events and resources from my beloved Latin America and Caribbean region (LAC) and others serving people from the region. I hope they are useful and inspiring to all. Colleagues reading this blog post can feel free to share events from their regions on the comments section.

I would like to invite everyone to visit a page that IFLA as the global voice of libraries developed including a myriad of resources related to libraries and COVID19.  It also includes actions and resources by library associations, national libraries, and library partners from all regions of the world responding to the Corona virus pandemic.

Special highlights for this blog post are the actions from library associations from LAC included on the IFLA page such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, and the National Libraries of Argentina and Aruba, and the Library of Congress of Argentina. All available here:  https://www.ifla.org/covid-19-and-libraries#actions

Here is a selection of online events and resources from Latin America & the Caribbean:

Argentina

ABGRA, Asociacion de Bibliotecarios Graduados de la Republica de Argentina—Informe: Bibliotecas argentinas ante el aislamiento social y obligatorio por COVID 19 / Report: Argentine Libraries Faced with Social and Mandatory Isolation by COVID 19

Biblioteca del Congreso  junto a la Oficina de IFLA LAC – Conversatorio: Bibliotecas y comunidad en el context del aislamiento social preventivo: Imaginando el future  / Conversation: Libraries and community in the context of preventive social isolation: Imagining the future)

Brazil

FEBAB, Federação Brasileira de Associações de Bibliotecários, Cientistas da Informação e Instituições / Brazilian Federation of Associations of Librarians, Information Scientists and Institutions – Resource page

Dominican Republic

Biblioteca Juan Bosch – Dialogo de Bibliotecas en Cuarentena /Dialogue: Libraries in Quarantine

Puerto Rico

Sociedad de Bibliotecarios de Puerto Rico /Library Society of Puerto Rico – Multiple on their YouTube Channel

Mexico

AMBAC,  Asociacion Mexicana de Bibliotecarios/ Mexican Library Association– Serie acerca de Covid y Bibliotecas / Covid and Libraries series

Lineamientos para la reapertura de bibliotecas ante la emergencia sanitaria por COVID-19/ Guidelines for the reopening of libraries in the face of the health emergency due to COVID-19

CNB, Colegio Nacional de Bibliotecarios/ National Library College – Bibliotecas mexicanas ante el COVID19: Experiencias y retos / Mexican libraries in the face of COVID19: challenges and experiences

IIBIs, Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliotecologicas y de la Investigacion / Institute for Library Research and Investigation– Investigar, ensenar y aprender en tiempos de COVID / Research, Research, Teach and Learn in Times of COVID

Associations

ACURIL, Asociacion de Bibliotecas Universitarias, de Investigacion e Institucionales del Caribe / Asociation of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries – Conversatorio: Voces bilbiotecarias ante la crisis: Al mal tiempo buena cara /Conversation: Librarian voices in the face of the crisis: Good face in bad weather

REFORMA, La Asociación Nacional para Promover Servicios de Bibliotecas e Información a Latinos e Hispanohablantes / National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking – Serving Spanish Speakers in COVID-19 Times

Bibliotecas de América Latina y el Caribe ante el COVID-19: Recursos

COVID-19 ha cambiado para siempre nuestro mundo, incluidas nuestras bibliotecas. Ahora más que nunca necesitamos trabajar unidos para continuar brindando acceso a la información durante y después de la pandemia. Necesitamos comenzar a trabajar en nuestro futuro, hoy.

La IFLA, bibliotecarios y asociaciones de bibliotecas de todas las regiones del mundo han desarrollado recursos para guiar los cambios, incluido el cambio de servicios en persona a servicios en línea, asuntos de derechos de autor, programación en línea de todo tipo de bibliotecas, recursos electrónicos y bienestar para los trabajadores de las bibliotecas. Estas son algunas de las áreas mencionadas por bibliotecarios de América Latina que participan en una serie en línea en español, “Loida, Bibliotecas Live”, que comencé en marzo pasado para ayudarnos unos a otros.

En este blog, voy a destacar una selección de eventos y recursos en línea de mi querida región de América Latina y el Caribe (LAC) y otros que sirven a personas de la región. Espero que sean útiles e inspiradores para todos. Me gustaría invitar a los colegas que leen esta publicación de blog a compartir eventos de sus regiones en la sección de comentarios.

Me gustaría invitar a todos a visitar una magnifica página desarrollada por la IFLA como voz global de las bibliotecas, que incluye una gran cantidad de recursos relacionados con las bibliotecas y COVID19. También incluye acciones y recursos de asociaciones de bibliotecas, bibliotecas nacionales y asociadas a bibliotecas de todas las regiones del mundo que responden a la pandemia del virus Corona.

Destacan especialmente las acciones de asociaciones bibliotecarias de LAC incluidas en la página de la IFLA como Argentina, Brasil, México y Puerto Rico, y las Bibliotecas Nacionales de Argentina y Aruba, y la Biblioteca del Congreso de Argentina. Todos disponibles aquí: https://www.ifla.org/covid-19-and-libraries#actions

Aquí esta una selección de eventos y recursos en línea de América Latina y el Caribe:

Argentina

ABGRA, Asociacion de Bibliotecarios Graduados de la Republica de Argentina—Informe: Bibliotecas argentinas ante el aislamiento social y obligatorio por COVID 19

Biblioteca del Congreso  junto a la Oficina de IFLA LAC – Conversatorio: Bibliotecas y comunidad en el context del aislamiento social preventivo: Imaginando el future

Brazil

FEBAB, Federação Brasileira de Associações de Bibliotecários, Cientistas da Informação e Instituições – Página recurso

Dominican Republic

Biblioteca Juan Bosch – Dialogo de Bibliotecas en Cuarentena

Puerto Rico

Sociedad de Bibliotecarios de Puerto Rico – Multiple on their YouTube Channel

Mexico

AMBAC, Asociacion  Mexicana de Bibliotecarios – Serie virtual acerca de Covid y Bibliotecas

Lineamientos para la reapertura de bibliotecas ante la emergencia sanitaria por COVID-19

CNB, Colegio Nacional de Bibliotecarios – Bibliotecas mexicanas ante el COVID19: Experiencias y retos

IIBIs, Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliotecologicas y de la Investigacion– Investigar, ensenar y aprender en tiempos de COVID / Research

Asociaciones

ACURIL, Asociacion de Bibliotecas Universitarias, de Investigacion e Institucionales del Caribe – Conversatorio: Voces bilbiotecarias ante la crisis: Al mal tiempo buena cara

REFORMA, La Asociación Nacional para Promover Servicios de Bibliotecas e Información a Latinos e Hispanohablantes – Serving Spanish Speakers in COVID-19 Times

Online coaching available!

The IFLA Coaching Initiative welcomes colleagues who want to take part in an online coaching session. Please see the following information for coachees (the persons who want to be coached):

Information for interested coachees:

Dear colleagues,

Are you interested in developing your career, tackling challenging situations and achieving your goals? Would you like to find out how participation in the work of IFLA can help you to expand your career and professional development opportunities?

The IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning Section and the IFLA Management and Marketing Section invite you to this year’s Online Coaching Week 17-21 August, as part of the IFLA Coaching Initiative.

The coaching sessions, previously planned as face-to-face sessions at the IFLA WLIC in Dublin, which had to be cancelled, are now available for booking as one hour online coaching sessions. Online booking with an individual coach within your time zone is available at: https://calendly.com/ifla-management.

Coaching is currently available in the following languages: English, Spanish, German and Swedish. The coaches are based in various countries and different time zones. You can choose your preferences for a language and time slot that suits you best.

After booking, please wait until the coach contacts you to discuss which online platform (Zoom, WebEx, skype…) you prefer and to explore alternative time slots. In addition, you can also ask the coach about the format of the coaching.

We look forward to your participation!

Kindest regards,

The IFLA Coaching Initiative work group: Ewa Stenberg (convenor), Almuth Gastinger, Vera Keown, Ulrike Lang, Carmen Lei, Barbara Schleihagen

Information Professional Caucus Camp for Kenyan New Professionals by Nyakundi James Nyambane

(IPC camp organizers and participants March, 2020)

The IPC Camp event was hosted by the KNLS Nakuru at the American Corner on 6th of March 2020. The event attracted new professionals from all over the country. It was themed “Invigorating New information Professionals”  The New professionals comprised of students, new employees and senior employees as well.

The camp received a grant from the Kenya Library Association of USD 500 dollar in support of the event. The event attracted 160 new information professionals and other invited guests.

Aim of the KLA New Professionals Camp

The aim of The KLA New Professionals’ Camp was to attract new professionals who have the spirit and motivation to run with the new vision. Hot and trendy topics in the library world were deliberated upon with an aim to give working solutions in the Kenyan contemporary society of information. The camp also presented an immense opportunity for networking and professional interaction.

Objectives of the Camp

  1. To empower new professionals in the library and information career to get involved in the national association and with KLA, thus prompting them to be local and international thinkers and leaders.
  2. To increase the librarians’ network by linking new professionals with each other and existing gurus, thereby sharing experiences, opportunities, social interaction and laying strategy for further virtual interaction through social spaces.
  3. To offer first quality free training and knowledge exchange opportunities through open programmes and future satellite meetings.

 

Mapping New Professionals’ Camp Concept

There has been a new and awakening trend in the library profession to have camps, otherwise referred to as ‘unconferences’.  These are refreshing yet informal setups that have been attributed to seeing the sharing of new ideas, rise of motivation among peers, fostering of unity in librarians and key discussion of future trends which have a direct impact on the professional. Impressive ideas pertinent to the career were shared. From the participants who attended the event, the camp was more than a success. For The KLA professionals, it is a matter of catching up with the in-thing, as we have a lot more to share than to ignore in this profession.

Proposed schedule of events

The venue was settled at the American Spaces Nakuru KNLS, Venue provided by Nakuru KNLS Librarian Purity Kavuri. Experienced presenters who are information professionals from within the country and the Globe dedicated it to exploring a variety of trends. In addition to the lively discussions, the IFLA SG- Gerald Leitner sent the new professionals a message of encouraging such events and gatherings for new professionals. Below are some of the presenters.

           Purity Kavuri- “Library Advocacy” KNLS-Nakuru Branch Librarian

Raymond Pun, International “Librarianship and academic publishing” (California, USA)

Prof. Tom Kwanya, “Invigorating New information Professionals”  Knowledge Management Expert. Director, School of Information and Communication Studies The Technical University of Kenya.

New professionals’ camp was about daring to give the body freedom of being an important part of creative processes, provoke mind and connect it with ideas through the different “logic”, also to brush up the ability of alternative from spoken word ways of communication. The participant-driven approach allowed for active involvement of all attendees.

In conclusion, librarians are encouraged to find ways to include new professionals in library association projects. We encourage senior librarians to provide mentorship and guidelines for new professionals.

 

Nyakundi James Nyambane,

Librarian User services, USIU-A.

IFLA CPDWL Member

CPDWL/NPSIG Webinar: “Mindfulness to Manage Workplace Stress and Microaggressions”

Save the date! IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning, IFLA New Professionals Special Interest Group, and the American Library Association invite of all you to take part in a free webinar “Mindfulness to Manage Workplace Stress and Microaggressions”. This meeting is a part of the webinar series “New Librarians Global Connection: best practices, models and recommendations“.

Date/time: Tuesday, July 14th at 8 am PT, 10 am CT, 11 am ET (check your time zones here: https://www.timeanddate.com/)

Registration Here!

Description: Navigating workplace stress and microaggressions—verbal and non-verbal messages that are invalidating or demeaning—can be difficult in any profession, but is especially challenging in service-oriented professions like librarianship. In addition to identifying and naming stressors and microaggressions, various tools can be employed to mitigate the negative effects of these encounters. This session will provide attendees with a framework—mindfulness—that can be used to help process the often-fraught interactions that may take place in our libraries. The webinar will be recorded.

What will you find out on the webinar?

You will understand the roles of microaggressions and workplace stressors.
You will know how mindfulness can be used in workplaces in libraries.

Speakers:
Chippewa M. Thomas is a Professor of Counselor Education in the Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and Counseling and Director of the Office of Faculty Engagement at Auburn University. Thomas has published in journals such as the Journal of Counseling and Development, The Family Journal, Educational Gerontology, Journal of Specialists in Group Work, International, Journal of Thought Journal of Progressive Education and collaborated on book chapters in edited books. Thomas’ scholarship focuses on culturally competent counseling practice, social justice in action, community engagement/publicly-engaged scholarship, and wellness/vitality in higher education. She is active with several professional national and international counseling, education and outreach-scholarship affinity groups and organizations, and currently roster-listed as a Fulbright Specialist in Counselor Education.

Pambanisha Whaley is the Collections, Assessment, and Resource Management Coordinator at Alabama State University. Whaley has been an academic librarian for 15 years. Her research interests include: the role of minority library residencies in career advancement, the relationship between psychosocial factors and the success of library mentoring programs, and retention strategies for librarians from underrepresented groups.

Jaena Alabi is a Research and Instruction Services Librarian for the areas of English, psychology, and Africana Studies at Auburn University’s Ralph Brown Draughon Library. Her research interests include peer review of teaching for academic librarians, library collaborations with writing centers, and the effect of racial microaggressions on librarians and profession.