Productivity for Librarians
How to Get More Done in Less Time
- 1st Edition - March 15, 2010
- Latest edition
- Author: Samantha Hines
- Language: English
Productivity for Librarians provides tips and tools for organizing, prioritizing and managing time along with reducing stress. The book presents a resources guide for continued… Read more
Productivity for Librarians provides tips and tools for organizing, prioritizing and managing time along with reducing stress. The book presents a resources guide for continued learning about and exploration of productivity in relation to individual circumstances featuring motivation, procrastination and time management guidelines. Addressing the unique challenges faced by librarians, the author supplies a balanced view of a variety of tools and techniques for dealing with overwork and stress.
- There are many books on productivity, but none specifically targeted at library workers. We face unique challenges in our profession and this book will address these
- This book will not espouse a single approach to dealing with overwork and stress, but will instead present a balanced view of several tools and techniques that are of assistance
- This book provides a resource guide for continued learning about and exploration of productivity as applied to the reader’s individual circumstances. The author has also created an online community for readers to share information and continue their work
Practicing librarians and library workers, especially those in management or with aspirations to manage
List of tables
About the author
Acknowledgments
Preface
Chapter 1: What is productivity?
History of productivity
What productivity is not
Why librarians? Why libraries?
Why you?
Chapter 2: Motivation
The big picture and setting goals
SMART goals
What if I have no goals?
Achieving balance
How to achieve balance at work
Keeping balance outside the workplace
Burnout and setting limits
Improving communication
How to say no
Making your workspace work
Finding the fun
A focus on the future
Rewards
Questions to consider
Chapter 3: Procrastination
Procrastination and perfectionism
Procrastination as avoidance
Procrastination as poor impulse control
How to minimise procrastination
Dealing with e-mail
Dealing with other distractions
The Pomodoro Technique
Procrastination as motivation?
The to-do list
To-do lists and organisation
Tools to help organise to-do lists
Getting started with to-do lists
To-do list as tool, not lifestyle
Questions to consider
Chapter 4: Time management
Time management quiz
Identifying peak productivity times
How to get out the door at the end of the day
Defending your time
Multitasking
Dealing with meetings
Smart multitasking
Office hours
Setting priorities
Delegating
Calendar tools
Not just the tools
Questions to consider
Chapter 5: Systems of productivity
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Getting Things Done
Never Check E-Mail in the Morning
Bit Literacy
The Four-Hour Workweek
Zen to Done
One Year to an Organized Work Life
Systems quiz
A cautionary note
Questions to consider
Chapter 6: Managing for productivity
First take the mote from your own eye
Trust is the key
Avoiding micromanagement
Communication is everything
Availability
Breaking the cycle of crisis management
Burnout and the organisation
Anticipate the future and plan for it now
Questions to consider
Chapter 7: Sticking with productivity
Take your time
Visualise the change
Accountability is a virtue
Creating focus
The media diet
The review process
The mind dump
Flexibility
Trust your system
Rewards revisited
Don’t break the chain
Resistance to change
Should I quit?
Is that all there is?
Questions to consider
Chapter 8: Resource guide
General online resources
Motivation
Procrastination
Time management
Systems
Others that might be of interest:
Articles on the application of Seven Habits
General articles and books of interest
The final word
Chapter 9: Wrapping up
Bibliography
Index
"...an engaging, easy-to-read style. The real value of the book is its practicality; useful tips and strategies are provided that can be used immediately as well as integrated more thoughtfully in the longer term. […] [This will] put any librarian who spends time with this book on the path to productivity."—Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association
- Edition: 1
- Latest edition
- Published: March 15, 2010
- Language: English
SH
Samantha Hines
Samantha Schmehl Hines received her MS in Library and Information Science from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2003. She has worked as a cataloguer for the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids and as a reference librarian at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa City. In 2004 she was hired by Mansfield Library at the University of Montana-Missoula and is currently the Distance Education Coordinator/Social Science Librarian/Reference Desk Manager.
Affiliations and expertise
University of Montana-Missoula, USARead Productivity for Librarians on ScienceDirect