The Small College Librarian – Part 3 – Multitasking

The Small College Librarian – Part 1 – Introduction

The Small College Librarian – Part 2 – So Many Jobs, So Little Time

This brings us to multitasking and task switching.  Working at a small college library with only four staff members, it is unavoidable.  But does it have to control us or can we assert a certain level of control over it?  Let me first start by saying that if you want a job where you can start one project or task and continue on that task undisturbed until it is complete, then this is not the job for you.  In fact, there are very few professional jobs that can say that.  But for librarians, this can be downright daunting if not handled properly.  First, even at times when you are completely zoned in on a project and an able to block out thoughts of other projects, the inevitable distractions such as a phone call or a student needing reference assistance will disrupt that progress.  A second type of challenge is one where you may have multiple projects in the works that may tempt you to drift off to one of these projects because you feel a sense of urgency.  The third type is the most destructive and that is multitasking when you do not have to.  This would include bouncing from a project to checking email, to checking news websites or RSS feeds, or whatever shiny object out there that catches your attention.  The third type is also the most avoidable.

What comes with the territory?
•    Being responsible for the job of several librarians (reference, library instruction, collection development, electronic resource management, etc).
•    Disruptions (from library staff, students, faculty, vendors)
•    Working on professional development / self education with very little time to do so

The self sabotage activities that can be avoided or managed
•    Excessive task switching
•    Checking email too often or allowing Outlook’s notifications draw your attention
•    Checking various sites throughout the day (news websites, facebook,  twitter, etc.
•    Electronic devices such as cell phones, pda, etc.
•    Spending too much time on any one major area of your job

I am not an expert on the benefits or the perils of multitasking, but I have learned a few things.
First, it is important to set goals and objectives for yourself, both professionally and with what you are doing for your organization.  Without a clear path as to where you want to be in a month, year, two years or longer, you will find yourself bouncing from one uncompleted project to another or end up with a series of unrelated projects that do not add up to much.  These goals and objectives should be in line with the goals and objectives of your library.
Second, devise a time management strategy that will allow you to divide up your time in such a way that each area will gain the proper amount of attention.  Some areas will require more time than others.  Be flexible and be willing to make adjustments as you go along.  Be mindful of areas that are easy to neglect and schedule time for them.  For instance, collection development can be an easy target to keep pushing down the priority chain to the point of where it never gets done.  This kind of mistake will catch up with you soon or later.  Also, be willing to delegate work to others if you are in a position to do so.  You should make lists on what you want to accomplish over periods of time such as per month, per week, and per day.  It’s OK to plan more than what is possible to accomplish, but be reasonable in what you can expect to do, prioritize your activities and don’t stress about what you were not able to accomplish as long as it’s a lower priority.

Third, your time management schedule should reflect two things, 1) the times of day when you have long stretches of time where you are not usually interrupted, and 2) the times of day that your mind is at its sharpest.  If you are sharp in the morning, then that might be a good time to work on that grant proposal which requires high cognitive and analytical skills.  If you are more tired in the afternoon and your mind wanders, that might be a good time to do some cataloguing.  The key is to maximize your time based on the flow of your work day and your body cycles.

One of the trickiest parts of balancing multiple projects is that often times we are unable to move on something because we are awaiting information from others such as call backs, email responses, or others to contribute their part of a job.  Don’t obsess too much over this, but keep these loose ends on your radar and schedule times to follow up.  Make use of something like Outlook’s calendar and set alerts to follow up on a bunch of loose ends at specific times.

Forth, AVOID TIME WASTERS. It should go without saying that work time should be used for work related activity only.  But in the digital world, which is where librarians spend most of their time, the lines between the professional and person can blur.  Who can say they have never checked or responded to personal email while at work?  Who can say they have never looked at a news website or checked in on a social networking website while at work?  I would guess very few of us.  But this could be a deal breaker when it comes to accomplishing goals or not accomplishing them.  Not only does outside activity take time to do, but the task switching involved can derail a project being worked on or it can derail an entire day.  Studies have shown that this type of multitasking and task switching saps our ability to do any one particular job well.  It also slows us down.  If you are working on updating catalog records while also listening to the news, responding to incoming emails as they arrive, or checking your twitter feeds, your cataloging activity will go much slower and you will be more likely to make mistakes.  Self control over time management and avoiding self-sabotaging is important.   It is also important to not allow technology to control us.  If you need to have Outlook open for calendar reminders or quick access to contacts, set the email reminders to minimal setting so they are not constantly popping up notifications and beeping at you every time a new email comes in.  If shutting it down completely at times is an option, than that can help as well.  Likewise, if you are someone who gets numerous personal phone calls or text messages throughout the day, try to minimize those distractions as well.

Finally, flexibility is not only a virtue, it’s a necessity.  Be aggressive in your goals, but go easy on yourself.  Remember that you are not working at a large university and are not expected to be a specialist.  Depending on how thinly your staff is stretched, you may not be able to tackle every task or part of your job at the highest level that you would like.  A day with high reference demand may derail your day’s goal to accomplish a particular task such as updating catalog records.  But remember that it is our user community that we are there to serve and should be our number one priority.  Take pride in a good days work.  Then at the end of the day, go home, leave the job behind, and enjoy your personal life.

The Small College Librarian – Part 2 – So Many Jobs, So Little Time

See other parts -
The Small College Librarian – Part 1 – Introduction

The Small College Librarian – Part 3 – Multitasking
One challenge that most librarians at small colleges face is the need to juggle multiple duties at one time.  At some colleges, like mine, we must do the job of several librarians at once.  This juggling act can vary from library to library, but I will lay out the scenario at Rose-Hulman as an extreme example.  With four staff members that provide traditional library services and two others that are a part of the library but provide other services, we all wear multiple hats.

Position: Library director
Duties: Manage library policy, staffing, budget, conduct reference duties including two nights a week and occasional Sunday evenings (shared), conduct bibliographic instruction to classes on demand (shared), cataloging, collection development for print collection, serve on institute committees.

Position: Reference and Electronic Services Librarian (me)
Duties: Conduct reference duties including two nights a week and occasional Sunday evenings (shared), conduct bibliographic instructions to classes on demand (shared), manage the library website, manage LibGuides, manage holdings in EBSCO AtoZ database, manage EZproxy, evaluate and make recommendations on all electronic resources, negotiate licensing terms for electronic resources, manage subscription to all databases (not including journals), library computer technology management, manage access to all electronic resources, manager of Digital Archives Project.

Position: Associate Institute Librarian & Technical Services/Interlibrary Loan Librarian
Duties: Coordinate interlibrary loan requests (internal and external), technical services, manage journals, acquisitions, collection development.

Position: Circulation Coordinator

Duties: Coordinate circulation department, manage reserve materials, supervise student workers, administrative support, budget tracking, supply ordering, ready reference, stack maintenance.

A lot of work is done by four staff members.  The two other positions that the library director manages but are not directly related to traditional library operations are:

Position: Instructional Technology Analyst
Duties: Coordinate classroom requests, provide equipment loans, video duplication and production, installation and maintenance of various equipment, facilitate video conferencing needs, budgeting and planning equipment needs, supervise student work force.

Position: Project Manager – Digital Resource Center and Training Center
Duties: Provides assistance with high-level presentation preparation, web page creation, video digitizing and streaming and graphic, slide and text scanning, as well as other technologies to enhance the institute’s ability to provide the best learning and teaching experience possible.

As you can see by my position the library director’s position alone, we both juggle various jobs throughout the day.  Individually, each duty may not get the level of attention we would like it.  Flexibility is key in doing the job well as a whole.  I may set an agenda for the day, week, month, or longer, but that agenda can be sidetracked very easily.  The shorter amount of time (such as a day) I set to accomplish something, the less likely it will be accomplished in that amount of time depending on what it is.  For instance, I may decide on a particular day that I would like to finish updateing X number of EBSCO AtoZ records.  During that day, I may have unexpected heavy reference demand, I may get called by several vendors wanting to chat, I may have to conduct a bibliographic instruction class, I may have to attend to computer issues that need to be remedied, I may be alerted to electronic resources that are not accessible for some reason, and I often have to spend some time during the day working with my Digital Archives project student workers who need help or need to have work checked over.

Lets break this down into major groupings.
1)  Reference and information literacy
2)  Information resources awareness.
3)  Information resources management
4)  Digital Archives Project
5)  Library technology management
6)  Professional development activities

It’s a juggling act, one that must be done carefully in order to do the whole well even if each component is not done to the fullest capacity I would like.  At Rose-Hulman, our departing seniors conduct a survey about their four years here and the library always gets high rankings.  They are most satisfied with our service and least satisfied with the facility and immediately available resources.  The former is being addressed and the latter continues to be a struggle.  In my next installment, I will discuss multitasking – the good, the bad, and the necessary.

The Small College Librarian – Part 1 – Introduction

http://thisthatotherthing.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/the-small-college-librarian-%E2%80%93-part-1-%E2%80%93-introduction/

The Small College Librarian – Part 2 – So Many Jobs, So Little Time

The Small College Librarian – Part 3 – Multitasking/

This is a first of a series of sections I plan to write regarding the balance librarians of small college libraries must strike between service to their user population and other activities regarding professional development.  These activities include many of the traditional activities that librarians in tenured track positions must be involved in to gain tenure.  They are also important to those desiring to remain at a small college for reasons I will explain later.  These include research and publishing, involvement in professional organizations and committee work, service to the university or college or perhaps even community service.  Librarians of small colleges with few staff members, operate in a very different world than those of larger universities.  First, many of these positions are not tenured track, thus there is little if any institutional incentive to publish or be engaged in professional activities outside of their library.  This librarian must be more self motivated and see the long-term benefit for their career in doing so.  But simply being motivated to do so does not make it easier.  Small college librarians often must wear multiple hats and carry on the duties that are done by many librarians and staff members at larger Universities.  Multitasking becomes the norm, both over the course of a stretch of time and within a short amount such as within the hour.  For example, that last sentence was interrupted by a student requesting virtual reference assistance.  Seriously! I kid you not!  I had to switch gears while writing a sentence on multitasking.  How is that for irony?  We have two librarians that provide reference assistance in addition to many other duties and so “reference time” in whenever someone needs help, not necessarily during our scheduled desk time.   I will expand upon the multiple roles we have at Logan Library in my next installment.  While I fully understand the drawbacks of multitasking, I have learned that multitasking can be managed in a way that minimizes the negatives and allows one to control their multitasking rather than having their multitasking control them.   Of course, there are exceptions.

Working in a small college library can be rewarding and fulfilling.  But whether you plan to move onto a tenure track position or remain a small college librarian, there is still a juggling act that one must contend with.  In the middle of this juggling act, service to our users should always come before personal gain.  What time there is for professional development, self education, and service is often fragmented and fitted in when time allows.  Therefore, transitioning from a small academic library to a University can be challenging for those who so desire.  Small college librarians must learn balance in serving their users and staying involved in the library profession to avoid staleness.  This series shall touch upon such topics as performing regular job duties, librarian scholarly publishing, multitasking, keeping up with the latest innovations and avoiding burnout.