Thinking BIG

A few things came together over the last week that made me start thinking about how we provide library services to teens in the BIG PICTURE. They all were kind of nagging at me and then I remembered an experience I'd had as an Executive Leadership Institute Fellow with Urban Libraries Council.

At each of our group sessions in Baltimore, we had a "Director in Residence" who would speak to us in small groups and as a large group about his/her experiences. One of the directors had started at her small urban library system within a year or so of our meeting and she had a couple of things she knew she wanted to do. The first was a public service focus. Many of you have heard me tell her story about polling her staff for their "dream jobs" only to find out most of them wanted to be catalogers; not the best way to start a push to extreme customer service (sorry, that's a phrase from my days working in retail).

The other thing she wanted, and this was what I've been thinking about, was a framework, something big that they could use as an organization to make sure they were on track. She and her staff tossed around ideas, some of which wouldn't have been realistic because of the size of their system or other logistical kinds of things. Finally, she hit on the idea of making the list of America's Most Literate Cities. With this as their long-term goal, every idea, initiative or decision could be held up to see if it help them reach that goal.

WE NEED THIS!! As teen librarians, we need something like that Top 10 list to keep us (or maybe even put us) on track. So it started me thinking.

What goal or outcome do we want for THE TEENS OF QUEENS 5 or 10 years from now?

Two immediately came to mind for me:

1. Every teen in Queens will have a Queens Library card.
2. Every teen in Queens will graduate from high school.

Now, obviously, there are MANY other factors that will impact those outcomes, things we may not be able to overcome or compensate for. BUT, what if we ignored those factors and started doing things as though those goals (or whichever outcomes we decided on) were inevitable results of what we do? How close do you think we could get in 5 or 10 years?

So here is your assignment for the October 13 YA In-Service:

Come up with a goal (or goals) you think we should be heading towards, our very own YA North Star. I like mine a lot, but I'm sure you all will have others that are even better. Start thinking about what it would look like if reaching that goal was always in the back of your mind as you selected materials or planned programs or did outreach. Would it change what you did or how you did things?

At the In-Service, I would like us to agree on 1 or 2 outcomes we can use as our framework. You can post your ideas in the comments, we can talk about it on QL Chat or via email. You can even keep your ideas quiet until the big day, just THINK BIG!!