SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About TLT
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • A to Z Book Lists
    • Book Review Policy
  • Teen Issues
  • Middle Grade Mondays
  • Programs
    • TPiB
    • Tech Talk
  • Professional
    • Teen Services 101
    • Things We Didn’t Learn in Library School
  • MakerSpace
  • Projects
    • #SVYALit
    • #FSYALit
    • #MHYALit
    • #Poverty in YA Lit

September 29, 2013 by Karen Jensen, MLS

Sunday Reflections: Finding your mirror

September 29, 2013 by Karen Jensen, MLS   Leave a Comment

We all have our days.

You know what I mean.

The days you find out you’re overbudget and then realize that someone used your last package of microwave popcorn that you’d been saving for a teen program snack, so you go out and buy some more instead of taking a lunch break and then no one shows up for your program after all.  The days you have to bust one of your favorite kids for doing something stupid enough that you can’t overlook it.  The days you’re bogged down at the reference desk dealing with grouchy folks who don’t really want to be there using the computers for whatever they need to use the computers for and you can’t get away to gush with the teens you see hanging out in the corner mooning over the new fiction.

And then we have the other days.

The ones you when a teen comes back to the library to tell you how much she loved the book you suggested to her.  The days a mom asks for your help again because you were so right the last time you pulled books for her overbooked son.  The days when you need to pull more chairs out of the storage closet because your teens actually did what you asked and each brought a friend to book club this week.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Do these days stick with you the way they stick with me?  As you make your way home in the evening, do you mull over the grouchy interaction, or the beaming teen?  I’d like to be able to say that I shrug off the folks who clearly got up on the wrong side of the bed and focus on the positive, but wow it is hard!

I was recently in a meeting with several other teen librarians.  One was relating the difficulty of a string of those days.  She talked about how disheartening it all was and how it made her doubt whether or not she was doing the right things in her program.  As we listened, it became apparent to us that her program sounded great – she was doing everything right – but that those small comments and negative interactions, piled one on another, had really done a number on the librarian’s feelings about her program, as well as her perception of her own success.

It’s important, when this happens, to find your mirror.  You’ve got to find a way to see what you’re doing reflected back at you.  Just like we are so much more kind and forgiving to a friend’s appearance than we might be to our own, we need to be easier on ourselves when it comes to believing the good and accepting the not so good as part of the deal – a part that we can feed and let fester or a part that we treat with a critical or creative eye and shift it into a hidden asset.  Your mirror can be a friend that you can vent to, a Twitter rant that elicits a few interactions, a journal you revisit periodically, a blog, or more.

See yourself and your programs as others see you, and you will develop a better sense of how to accurately see your success.  It’s there, I’m sure of it.  Why else would you be reading a librarianship blog on a Sunday but because you care deeply about your career?  Like those NPR pledge drives when Ira Glass points out that if you’re listening to the pledge drive, you really are a die-hard listener who owes it to yourself to call in, we know that those of you who are reading TLT on Sunday morning in your robe while nursing a coffee on the couch care enough and are dedicated enough to their job that there’s no way you could fail.  Craft fails, bad RA interactions, reference questions from hell, breaking up the make out session in the dark corner – yeah, they’re going to happen.  But they don’t define your service any more than a little lipstick on your teeth defines your appearance.

Find a good mirror, listen to it, learn from it, and then move away from it and off in the direction you know you need to head.

Filed under: Sunday Reflections

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

July 2022

Sunday Reflections: What Do We Mean Both Sides of the Holocaust?

by Karen Jensen, MLS

June 2022

Sunday Reflections: On being a Librarian and a Christian parent to an LGBTQ kid with a uterus in 2022

by Karen Jensen, MLS

August 2021

Sunday Reflections: Endings and Beginnings

by Karen Jensen, MLS

July 2021

Sunday Reflections: In Which TLT Turns 10 and I Reflect

by Karen Jensen, MLS

November 2020

Sunday Reflections: We Promised Them Democracy

by Karen Jensen, MLS

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Sydney Taylor Blog Tour: THE TOWER OF LIFE by Chana Stiefel and Susan Gal

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Abecedarian Movement and Dance: A Q&A with Corinna Luyken About ABC and You and Me!

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Haley Newsome on Unfamiliar | Interview

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Heavy Medal

What’s Coming in 2023, A Feedback Poll, and Goodbye for Now…

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Writing Trans Joy in Spite of Everything, a guest post by Edward Underhill

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

A Book 25 Years in the Making: Marla Frazee Visits The Yarn

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

The Human Rainbow | Dr. Ibram X. Kendi on Antiracism

Pronouncing Kids’ Names Correctly Matters. Here’s How to Get it Right.

Board Book Evolution: No Longer 'Just for Babies'

37 Kidlit and YA Titles in Honor of Hispanic Heritage Month

21 Books About Children and their Names

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023