Four HABITS

Dear Diary,

 Gilman, T. (2007). The four habits of highly effective librarians, (Chronicle Careers), The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 23.

I read this at 5:00 in the morning....I absolutely loved it!!!!!

Anyway, these are my thoughts.....I think what makes a TL's job overwhelming is that there is really a lot to absorb, a lot of information to take in and everyday more and more just come....Before, everytime I check the listserve it makes me feel like I AM NOT DOING ANYTHING compared to what the other TL's are doing...like settting up websites, blogs, etc....then I started to do blogging which ended up not being successful because I sort of forced my students in to it....then after awhile I realised that I do not have to do everything everyone is doing because my school make up is totally different from theirs....as the article says

Openness entails a willingness to listen to what the facts are telling us. - It is always good to listen but doesn't mean you have to absorb everything straight away! That is why I have LiveBinder...when I read about or discover something I put it in livebinder because I know one day, when the time is right, I will be able to use it...or share it with staff

Responsiveness means taking appropriate action based on careful listening. The action might not be immediate because some issues are important than the rest but if you postpone something for awhile it doesn't mean that you are ignoring it.

Collaboration desirability of working -- not in isolation! I am one who is guilty of always complaining about collaboration...lots of excuses such as teachers have no titme, I have no time , no one really knows how to implement collaboration....then I feel so upset that I am ignoring that part of my job!!! But then I realised Collaboration may not always mean sitting together and talking about the lesson but it could also mean, a TL sharing thoughts on how to contribute to a teacher's programming by giving handouts with a note saying that if there are any questions they are free to see you in the library; it could be asking the Head teacher how can I help implement the program of your stage level so instead of talking to different teachers you just talk to the head then she passes on the information; or it could be making everyone aware that you are there to help and that they can come to you anytime...you are still collaborating with out really taking
so much of each others time....

Communication if you make known that you exist then you will not be ignored!!! How..... by participating in non library activities.

Hoping I made sense at 5 in the morning...if not blame the coffee!!!