The 80/20 Librarian: Focusing on the 20% that matters

I’m focusing today’s post on the Entrepreneur from the E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber.

The Entrepreneur is the big-picture thinker, looking at projects on a macro scale. Often times the Entrepreneur will go against the grain by challenging existing ways of doing, operating, and thinking in the world. The Entrepreneur is often asking why not? A reluctance to readily accept the status quo is key here.

Gerber believes that the Entrepreneur in us is the visionary, the dreamer, the creative force, the innovator, and the grand strategist. The Entrepreneur is also a lover of the unknown and the untested.

According to Gerber, the Entrepreneur is the “Energy behind every human activity. The imagination that sparks the fire of the future, The catalyst for change. The Entrepreneur lives in the future, never in the past, rarely in the present. He’s happiest when left free to construct images of “what-if” and “if-when.”

How the Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician interact with each other will be the subjects of future in 2018. Happy New Year!

I am very grateful to Jenna Pontious, Branch Manager at La Sierra branch and literacy coordinator for the Riverside Public Library, for this guest column on the 2017 California Library Association Conference. Thank you Jenna!

This year, the 2017 California Library Association (CLA) Conference was held in my home turf of Riverside, CA from November 2-4. Since the event was held in the city with the library system I work in, I (along with 21 of my coworkers) was able to have my conference fees covered by our FOL group.  It was my first time attending CLA and it was a rewarding experience. I volunteered to work the registration desk for 4 hours for pre-conference, on Thurs. Nov. 1. I met a lot of fellow librarians and vendors, and was able to see a lot of old coworkers too. I ran in to these same people throughout the conference, so it was great way to network and see who made it in. I also volunteered to be a session monitor for 3 hours on Saturday, Nov. 4, where I was in charge of 6 rooms. Session monitoring consisted of checking in with the speakers, making sure their surveys got filled out, turning in the surveys, and contacting the building/tech services if the speakers encountered any problems. I got a nice sampling of the workshops that afternoon, like volunteering away your library fines, a reading ambassador program for kids, and I got to hear a bit of the State Librarian’s speech. In the exhibit hall, I spoke with our credit card system rep, Comprise, tried out Occulus, a virtual reality head set, and attempted to win a marshmallow catapult contest with my coworker. Sadly, only 4 out of 8 marshmallows connected with their target. The Headshot Truck generously donated their time to take free headshots, which I took advantage of. All in all, the conference was great for networking, professional development, new ideas for programs and services, and promoting issues like social justice and equality.