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Sunday, December 20, 2009

Saying No

In the Library with the Lead Pipe recently posted an entry about how to say no. It's a timely piece I think. With budgets growing tighter and workloads increasing it does seem impossible to say no these days.

In my case, my problem is that I so greatly enjoy what I'm doing, it's easy for me to end up taking on too much. Opening our new branch has actually worn me out a bit more than I anticipated. I'm doing a weekly storytime, a weekly craft project for older kids, visiting schools and hosting school visits, computer classes for grade schoolers, writing professional book reviews. I'm also selecting new books to purchase, and soliciting book donations to try and keep our shelves from looking so empty. There's nothing on my list of things to do that I'd want to eliminate, it's simply that there aren't enough hours in the day!

I recently found out that I haven't been selected for any committees in ALA this year. On one hand, I'm bummed. But, perhaps it is a blessing in disguise. Right now, I'm working at max capacity. My only fear is that my current numbers will be seen as some kind of "baseline" that should be increased. As tired as I am, the idea of doing still more is tempting. If I could, I'd add a second weekly storytime, so I could do one exclusively for babies, and another for toddlers. I'd add a monthly book club for 3rd through 5th graders. I'd review even more books than I already am and I'd blog more. I worry though, about conserving my energy for the long haul. If training for marathons has taught me anything, it's the wisdom of pacing oneself. For now, I'm sticking with my current already-busy schedule.

By the end of the day, with shortened hours of daylight, it's already dark out and I find myself ready to just hibernate. Consequently, I've been doing a lot of reading and not as much blogging this past week. There's nothing that passes a winter evening so well, as reading in a comfy chair, in front of a crackling fire. I've raced through the whole Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray. Read the entire Babymouse series (why did I put this off? They are so wonderful!) Read Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, Dragonbreath by Ursula Vernon, Ever and Blue Moon by Alyson Noel and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. Friday after work, I was feeling completely wiped, but after a weekend of solid R&R I'm feeling ready to (cautiously) jump back in the fray.

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