{"id":85302,"date":"2014-12-04T08:00:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-04T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=85302"},"modified":"2014-12-03T19:26:15","modified_gmt":"2014-12-04T01:26:15","slug":"the-social-librarian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=85302","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cSocial\u201d Librarian"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Heidi Greathouse, Senior Assistant, INALJ New Mexico<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The \u201cSocial\u201d Librarian<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Heidi<\/a>I\u2019ve been working as a cataloger at a university since March of this year. In the last 8 months,\u00a0I have learned how important it is to be a \u201csocial librarian\u201d. This basically means forming\u00a0important relationships with the faculty, students, and other employees. The benefit of forming\u00a0good relationships is that you will know more of what their needs are and they can learn to\u00a0trust you as a librarian. Here are some suggestions in how to become a \u201csocial librarian\u201d:<\/p>\n

1) Smile and say hi to the students and other patrons as they walk by. By doing this, they\u00a0will recognize you and maybe in the future they will come to you for help. Be aware\u00a0that they are there!<\/p>\n

2) If you are a liaison for a certain department, attend some of the department\u2019s functions.\u00a0For example, if you are a liaison for the music department, attend some of the concerts!\u00a0This shows that you are supportive of that department and it shows that you care\u00a0what goes on. Plus, it will give you something more to talk about with the faculty and\u00a0students. You might even run into other students and faculty at the performances who\u00a0you already know or may get to know in the future!<\/p>\n

3) Carry conversations with the student workers. By developing communication with\u00a0them, workflow may go a lot more smoothly because they and you are already\u00a0developing communication skills with each other. Communication is important in the\u00a0workplace!<\/p>\n

4) Go to general events that the university puts on. I have gone to football games and\u00a0plays. Other students see this and they will recognize that you support the university.\u00a0The more effort that you put in trying to show your support and loyalty to the school,\u00a0the more likely that other faculty and students will see it, which brings on a good light\u00a0for the library.<\/p>\n

5) Attend commencements if you are invited to go. I was able to go to a commencement\u00a0last spring and it was an awesome experience! I got to feel a part of the university and\u00a0even had the opportunity to say congratulate some of the graduates before anyone else\u00a0did since I was sitting where the faculty was sitting. I will have this opportunity every\u00a0semester!<\/p>\n

There are many other ways that someone can be a \u201csocial\u201d librarian. It is important for a\u00a0librarian to be involved and develop relationships with others because it will help them become\u00a0more of a \u201cpeople person\u201d and they will be able to use these experiences to be an influence for\u00a0good. The more people you associate with, the more of a chance that you will make an impact\u00a0on others. If you show support for others, then they will be able to feel it from you. You may\u00a0even feel good about what you have done for them as well.<\/p>\n

If being a \u201csocial\u201d librarian seems hard for you, you can still become one. It starts with baby\u00a0steps. You can start out by just attending an event and talk to the performers afterwards.\u00a0Decide what is best for you in your situation. The best thing you can do right now is to decide\u00a0to become a \u201csocial\u201d librarian. If you are already one, strive to become a better one! There\u00a0is always room for improvement! Good luck on your efforts! The better \u201csocial\u201d librarian you\u00a0are, the more likely that others will see how great the library already is because of the librarians\u00a0there. You are a library representative! Be a good one in order to spread the goodness of the\u00a0library!<\/p>\n

Hello there!! My name is Heidi Greathouse and I am currently the Senior Assistant for the New Mexico\u00a0INALJ page. I currently work as a cataloger at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales. It is a smaller\u00a0town of 17,000 or so. I grew up in parts of California and Utah so being in New Mexico is a change for\u00a0me! I moved here this last March and I am learning a lot. In my free time, I like to watch movies, read,\u00a0and hang out with friends and family. I did my undergrad at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho in history\u00a0with a minor in humanities. I graduated there in 2008. In 2012, I graduated with my MA in Information\u00a0Resources and Library Science at the University of Arizona. I am really enjoying being in the library field\u00a0and I hope to help others in their pursuit of this field because I know that this website helped me to find\u00a0my current position!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Heidi Greathouse, Senior Assistant, INALJ New Mexico The \u201cSocial\u201d Librarian I\u2019ve been working as a cataloger at a university since March of this year. In the last 8 months,\u00a0I have learned how important it is to be a \u201csocial librarian\u201d. This basically means forming\u00a0important relationships with the faculty, students, and other employees. The benefit…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":85303,"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":[69,3592,5584,5906,3635,6256,6010,6696],"class_list":["post-85302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-communication","tag-heidi-greathouse","tag-inalj-new-mexico","tag-relationships","tag-social-interaction","tag-social-librarian"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Heidi-Greathouse.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-mbQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85302","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=85302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}