#el12ala – Coral Sheldon-Hess

Rockstar Librarians

Published on September 27, 2014

If you donâ€™t want the responsibility that comes from having power, get off the effing stage. There are so many people who do want it and who will use it well. And if you choose to keep the power, without being responsible, then understand: many of us will turn our backs on you. We wonâ€™t come to your talks, follow you on social media, work for your organization, or vote for you when you want to govern our associationsâ€”whatever form of power you have been granted, it will fade if you are not responsible. I, for one, am tired of granting power to people who donâ€™t deserve it. I wonâ€™t do it anymore, and I hope others will join me in that.

Paying Our Dues

Published on September 22, 2013

I spent this weekend at the annual face to face meeting of the Alaska Library Association’s (AkLA’s) Executive Council, which is made up of our E-Board (President, Treasurer, etc.) and the chairs of all of the association’s committees, roundtables, and chapters. It’s a great group of people, with a lot…

2012 is over, time for 2013!

Published on January 1, 2013

2012 was an incredibly hectic year. I have been especially tired, this winter, even beyond the normal sleepiness that comes from short days—enough so that I took the three workdays between Christmas and New Years off, which I never do. (It’s so quiet! You can get so much work done!)…

Librarians Build Communities talk at PNLA

Published on August 4, 2012

I talked (for what seems like the millionth time, though it’s not) about Librarians Build Communities at the Pacific Northwest Library Association conference, yesterday. This is what I gave as the description of the talk: Librarians have a set of very useful skills, which could benefit our local communities enormously.…

Comparing and Contrasting Leadership Programs

Published on July 20, 2012

I’ve been very fortunate, in my nearly three years as a librarian, to have had the opportunity to participate in two library leadership programs: PNLA Leads and ALA Emerging Leaders. The programs have different methodologies and different goals, so, unsurprisingly, my experiences and takeaways were very different. I should acknowledge,…

ALA Day 1

Published on June 22, 2012

(Numbering the day is no promise to write one of these every evening.) I’m on an iPad, so this will run brief (and choppy) for a post in a CoralBlog. It isn’t so bad to type on, but it’s slow. This was the first day of my first conference in…

See you in Anaheim?

Published on May 31, 2012

Things have been hectic, since Midwinter. Work’s been busy (because when isn’t it?), some things in the Alaska Library Association have moved forward (which is fantastic, but potentially time-consuming), various life stuff (including more of Dale’s and my first year as homeowners) has continued to happen, and Group G’s Emerging…

Do you volunteer?

Published on April 30, 2012

Folks, I’m going to ask you to do a thing you might not get to do very often: write about how great you are. Or, if you prefer, how great an experience you have had, specifically while volunteering. I know, anecdotally, that librarians and library workers volunteer a lot of…

SMART Goals and Alaskan Librarians Build Communities

Published on March 8, 2012

You’ve heard that goals need to be “SMART,” right? It’s a fairly common model for making goals, you know, not pointless. And I have, over the past few years, improved at making goals “Specific,” “Measurable,” “Relevant,” and “Time-bound.” The first two, especially, I do well—I think it’s the engineering training…

Bits and pieces

Published on February 20, 2012

Google Plus OK, I don’t know how long this will be available (and I don’t know a better way to capture it forever than to play-and-grab with screen capture—any Elluminate Live wizards out there with a better plan?), but my Google Plus talk is available here. You’ll need to fill…

Category: #el12ala