CONNECT Forum Announcement - December 2013

Date:  December 10, 2013
Time:  2:00-4:00 pm
Location:  Belle Isle Library

We’ve all been there. It’s your last day of work before vacation and you’ve just got to get through the next eight hours before embarking on your next great adventure. You take a sip of coffee, open your email, and the next great epidemic since the Swine Flu seems to unfold right before your eyes. Your manager and half the staff have called in sick. You’re the librarian-in-charge. Then the power goes out – you can’t pull up those emergency procedures now!

Situations like these will eventually happen to us all and we’ll be called upon to serve as librarian-in-charge – it’s in our standards. It doesn’t have to be a source of stress, though! Your colleagues are here to help! Come to the CONNECT Librarian Forum and share your tactics and techniques for handling the librarian-in-charge duties while picking up new ideas from your peers.

To sweeten the deal we’ll have a hot chocolate bar with loads of fabulous toppings to stir in as well as some holiday cookies.

So, you’re coming to CONNECT, right?! Like this page or drop a comment to let us know you’re coming!

Further Information

Having a handle on procedures in your library is imperative. You don’t want to behave like Alexander Haig on the evening President Reagan was shot in 1981. In case you’re wondering why Haig’s move was such a disaster, here’s the official list. One interesting thing I discovered – and it’s totally unrelated to librarianship – is that one-time Oklahoman and current Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, though 8th in line for the presidency, was born in the UK and is thus ineligible to serve as president.

I tried to find a clip of the time Dwight Schrute became acting manager of Dunder Mifflin-Scranton for a day on The Office, but they’ve been removed from YouTube and other legal sites. So, here’s a clip of the original British version of Dwight, Gareth Keenan, on the role of Team Leader. Don’t be a Gareth!

Although the stakes aren’t as high in the library world, we can draw inspiration from sports and the military for those times when we have to step up and take charge. There’s a great example in Band of Brothers when the inexperienced Ronald Speirs is called on to temporarily take charge when a leader has been incapacitated during an attack (not bloody, but there is war violence).

On the sidelines of a football game, the head coach is in charge, but on the field it’s the quarterback. When the million-dollar starter goes down it often means certain victory for the other team. But on Thanksgiving Day 1974 Clint Longley, third-string rookie backup to Roger Staubach, was standing on the sideline for the Dallas Cowboys holding a clipboard in a game against Washington. All of a sudden he hears a voice: "Longley, get your helmet." You can read the dramatic retailing from the Sports Illustrated Vault or if you want to see highlights and see the resulting cautionary tale (including a very Kenny Powers-esque Longley years later) check out this clip.

Finally, one of my favorite in-charge stories comes from The Godfather. Baby-of-the-family Michael Corleone has always been overlooked in the family business but as chaos ensues in the wake of his father’s shooting, Michael takes charge when he finds no protection at the hospital for the wounded don.