Laurie N. Taylor, Librarian

We’re continuing to work on planning for strategic retreat sessions for this summer. We’re still in the research phase for Digital Partnerships & Strategies. For Library Technology Services, we are open to change, but we have a plan! The plan is to have 2 meetings, with the first to be unit-level and then the second with all four units together as a department. We’re planning to use BINGO as the structure, and details are below. I’m hoping that this is fun and effective in our zoom meeting world. It is always useful to share terminology, map to local (unit) practices, and then re-map and shareRead More →

With many virtual conferences and events this year, we’ve seen great successes thanks to the many folks working hard to wield a virtual format in support of event and communication goals. That said, I think we’ve been lucky: lucky with the tech and lucky with compassionate folks who have been generous and forgiving of technical issues. In my experience for technical changes over the past decades, at some point, we collectively normally run out of runway on the compassion and forgiveness for the technical, and people get frustrated. I am so thankful that this hasn’t happened yet, even though I would argue that the techRead More →

Yesterday and today, I was chatting with people, again, on past post on remembering being taught that as a kid in Jax that the “St. John’s River in Jacksonville was one of only 2 in the world that flow north” which is both false and so commonly held in Jax that there’s an article by a retired professor in Jacksonville to debunk this, based on the professor hearing this falsity so often. And, it turns out that this is not just taught in Jacksonville, but that folks from across Florida learn this! I’ve heard from folks in central and south Florida that they were alsoRead More →

I’m reading widely to help prepare for strategic planning sessions this summer with the Library Technology Services and Digital Partnerships & Strategies Departments. My notes below are on A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload by Cal Newport (Portfolio/Penguin, 2021). Early chapters are on email’s impact on business and communication practices with so much unplanned and un/understudied. Terms new modes of operating as “hyperactive hive mind”. Notes many studies of email as distracting and how often people check email/move off task. 36: email and stress levels 37: “predictable time off” as time blocked/off email that helped productivity/people 56: Getting ThingsRead More →

I’m in the first cohort of the new Next Level Library Leadership Institute (NLLLI), which is a statewide leadership program that builds on the also fantastic Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute (SSLLI). The program follows a graduate course sort of format (more on the format/operations), and just places us all in position to have great conversations and learnings with the cohort, NLLLI team, and our coaches. In one of the sessions with Linda Bruno (fantastic Institute Facilitator), I shared on some of my bigger picture/longer term needs, and she shared about scenario planning in libraries. I love learning new-to-me processes that position our larger groupsRead More →

I try to remember to share terms/concepts that I find helpful in illuminating and understanding the world. Two that I apparently haven’t shared and need to share are: Triangle of satisfaction Contributive justice The triangle of satisfaction is simply a way to explain how we get to satisfaction for something, acknowledging that it includes 3 parts: result (or outcome), emotion, and process. For tech work, we often talk about acceptance criteria (super important to agree on what the outcome is) and this also builds into the process (agile, iterative, how we get to the outcome), which also supports the emotion on how all of thisRead More →

The newest issue of SOURCE is out! This super exciting issue (they are all so awesome!) features the first articles in SOURCE‘s first series, on spaces in the Libraries! Full issue, and archives: https://journals.flvc.org/source/ Please read and enjoy this amazing issue!!!Read More →

I wrote the text below as a summary in support of another project. Posting here for my ease in case useful in the future. Communities of Practice (CoP) Benefit Sustainability A community of practice (CoP) is a group of active practitioners working in a shared domain as a community. CoP differ from project teams, which are focused on project goals and deliverables, and differ from communities of interest, which are focused on information sharing and where members are not necessarily practitioners and do not necessarily have expertise in the shared area. For a CoP, the community evolves practice together, with individual work developing as integratedRead More →

I’ve been thinking about discovery contracts, used in software when implementing/integrating software for others. This site succinctly explains them as “charging for a quote”. It’s also useful to communicate these as related to “demolition and discovery agreements” from construction, where the contract covers enough demolition work to figure out what’s really there: on an old building, taking down some walls allows for discovery, to clear some of the unknowns and to allow for accurate estimating and eventual successful work. As Library Technology at UF looks towards completing several major migrations, the next phase of work should include new systems/processes. For some of these, there areRead More →

Above the ==== is new text on March 31. After more reading and reflecting, we are treating skip-level meetings as managing by walking around (MBWA), so no questions, just twice a year scheduled drop-bys, like we would have done when everyone was onsite. We could start by saying “knock-knock” to remind that thsi is an informal, not directed, friendly check-in, like MBWA, but the knock-knock seems a bit silly, so we’ll just remind that this is MBWA. ==== In looking forward to regular skip-level meetings, I am considering these as initial standard questions: Questions to learn specifics and see if additional process or other supportsRead More →