Professional Development

Be Opportunity Minded: Start Growing Your Career Now by Caitlin Williams

This was a great book for thinking about how to expand in a library career. I especially liked the emphasis of a career lattice-able to expand in multiple directions-rather than just a career ladder. Working through the exercises gave me a good idea of what I can do now and in the future to grow as a librarian.

224 pages





The CREW Method: Expanded guidelines for collection evaluation and weeding for small and medium-sized libraries revised by Belinda Boon

I'm pretty sure I read this in library school, but I wanted to read it again as a quick refresher. Unfortunately, I grabbed the copy we had in the library instead of reading the online pdf. The basic concepts are solid, but man is this 1995 copy outdated, discussing things like vinyl records and art prints, and the "new shift" to CD's and DVD's. Is it bad I want to weed a book on weeding from our collection? (No, the answer is no...)

65 pages




The Weeding Handbook: A shelf-by-shelf guide by Rebecca Vnuk

This book was great! Vnuk really does break down section by section how to decide what items should stay and which should go. This book is a lot more detailed than the CREW manual, so I may refer back to this one in any weeding projects for the future.

196 pages

Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person

 Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person
by Barrie Jaeger
Pages: 238
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This title builds on Elaine Aron's bestseller, The Highly Sensitive Person and includes a foreword by her.

People who are highly sensitive are often creative, intelligent and dedicated workers. But to be successful, they need to have work that they are passionate about and develop skills to build confidence, combat stress and the over-stimulation that comes with many workplaces.

This book can help anyone who is a highly sensitive person find out if their job is the right one for them, learn how to make their opinions heard and valued, protect themselves from bullies. It could also be a useful tool for managers and others in leadership roles. Currently experts estimate that 20% of the population is a highly sensitive person. They are often introverts but there are some extroverted highly sensitive people too.

After a co-worker loaned me her copy of Elaine Aron's book, I realized that I am a highly sensitive person and that can be a good thing. I picked up this title, from the State Library collection to see what insights and tips it could provide me. I knew that library work has given me great opportunities to help others find information and resources they needed as well as a new favorite author. This book helped me realize why, though I loved helping people and working at the public library, I needed a change. The quieter atmosphere and the great reference staff team at the State Library has reduced my stress and made me look forward to going to work each day again.