{"id":83806,"date":"2014-11-04T09:30:22","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T15:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=83806"},"modified":"2014-11-04T19:39:46","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T01:39:46","slug":"the-top-four-ways-to-deal-with-new-administration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=83806","title":{"rendered":"The Top 4 Ways to deal with new administration"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jennifer Stevenson, Assistant, INALJ Illinois<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Top 4 Ways to deal with new administration<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"jennifer_stevenson\"<\/a>I have been a librarian for ten and a half years, during this time I have worked in both public\u00a0and school library settings. I have devoted a decent amount of time tomy chosen field. During\u00a0my career, I have encountered many things: from moving the children\u2019s room collection, to a\u00a0new building, performing a number of inventories (under less than favorable circumstances)\u00a0and event planning for various literacy events.<\/p>\n

I have been working in the school library field for about 7 years. This is my second year in a\u00a0high school library setting. The first year was something sent from the gods. I thought,\u201cI have\u00a0finally found my niche, this is a place where I am supported, people value my expertise and\u00a0there is room for growth!\u201d Fast forward to this year, and enter our new administration…I found\u00a0myself asking what I had done to anger the gods. Why was I the target? Was I really as good as\u00a0I thought I was?<\/p>\n

There are four things that are getting me through this transition:<\/p>\n

1. Know that everything that you did previously is subject to change.<\/strong> The new\u00a0administrator\/manager (admin) will want to make drastic changes. The changes may be\u00a0for the best but there is a chance that many won\u2019t be. However, if you want to continue\u00a0to keep your job, you have to just to your best.\u00a0Important side note: none of these changes are personal. So even though it may feel\u00a0personal, know that this is all about the bottom line.<\/p>\n

2. Know when to keep quiet.<\/strong> I have been guilty of being too honest, being too\u00a0forthcoming with deadlines and handing reality to those who supervise me. My new\u00a0admin doesn\u2019t like this style. She would prefer to hear yes, even if it is impossible. I\u00a0have learned to pick and choose my battles.<\/p>\n

3. Get to know your new admin\u2019s managerial style.<\/strong> I have found out that my new admin\u00a0is a micromanager. She wants access to library software, records, schedules etc. even\u00a0though she isn\u2019t sure what she is doing with this data or even how to access it. She\u00a0checks in frequently, asks for daily updates and doesn\u2019t like to deal with challenges. If\u00a0everything is running smoothly, you will get a response, but if it isn\u2019t you get greeted\u00a0with silence. Again, do not take this personally. This is all about the bottom line.<\/p>\n

4. Learn what the bigger picture is.<\/strong> When you do this you will be able to anticipate what\u00a0may be asked for before your admin asks for it. This makes you proactive. It also shows\u00a0that you have leadership skills and are being a cooperative member of the team. This\u00a0has also helped me not take things personally. The bottom line may be that you have\u00a0to show why you need a bigger book or periodical budget or you have to increase\u00a0collaboration. These things don\u2019t mean that you aren\u2019t doing a wonderful job…it just\u00a0means that you have a new administrator and he or she wants to put his or her stamp\u00a0on the program.<\/p>\n

Take heart and be flexible. I\u2019m learning and affirming these lessons everyday.<\/p>\n

Jennifer has been an assistant editor for INALJ since 2011. She holds a Bachelors of\u00a0Arts in English with a concentration in Literature and Language Arts from Bowie State\u00a0University (Bowie, MD) and an MLIS from Rutgers State University (New Brunswick, NJ).\u00a0She has worked as a librarian for ten and a half years (with seven years experience in\u00a0school libraries!). Jennifer ENJOYS being a librarian! Her versatile degree has allowed\u00a0her to work and volunteer in many different settings including the Somerset County Court\u00a0House, Rutgers School of Labor Relations Archives, the Plainsboro Public Library and New\u00a0Brunswick Public Library. She has been active in NJLA, and NJASL and currently works\u00a0in a high school media center. In addition to her high school experience, she’s had\u00a0the opportunity to work in a pre-K-8 and a K-4 environment. She loves interacting\u00a0with students from all over and in all walks of life. She credits her students with being an\u00a0inspiration for her many works. Jennifer is working on publishing her book of poetry and\u00a0blogs at Jennifer S Stevenson’s Random Thoughts<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jennifer Stevenson, Assistant, INALJ Illinois The Top 4 Ways to deal with new administration I have been a librarian for ten and a half years, during this time I have worked in both public\u00a0and school library settings. I have devoted a decent amount of time tomy chosen field. During\u00a0my career, I have encountered many…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":83856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[146,69,3592,6433,6654,3609,6652,6653,111],"class_list":["post-83806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-advice","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-change","tag-dealing-with-change","tag-inalj-illinois","tag-jennifer-stevenson","tag-new-administration","tag-tips"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/jennifer-stevenson.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-lNI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}