Nice People--A Library Supervisor

Over the weekend, I was challenged to "blog about nice people" in my community. I declared in an earlier post that the public library staff are "nice people" (or they should be!). This week I'm going to write about some of the nice library staff that have positively affected my life. First up: Carol.

Carol was my supervisor when I worked in the children's department of the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library (EVPL) in Indiana. She had a lot of experience as a children's librarian, and most impressive was the way she could whip up the title of a book with scarcely a clue at all. Those patrons who come into the library and say, "I read this book three years ago, and it had a horse in it, and the cover was green" were no problem for Carol. I never had a "stumper" that she couldn't solve.

One of the neat things about having Carol as a supervisor was that she always supported her staff's ideas. When I proposed doing a baby lapsit program at EVPL's Central Library, other people commented, "We've never done that at this location" or "Parents won't drive all the way downtown with their baby." Carol said, "Let's give it a try." And when I further proposed that we conduct those baby programs on Friday mornings, Carol said, "Well, it's an odd time for programming, but let's give it a try." We did. And it worked. Carol believed in her staff and allowed them the opportunity to use their talents in a way to benefit the library and its users.

Another great thing about having Carol as a supervisor was that she would often surprise staff with little goody bags--especially at holidays. On October 31, you could guarantee you'd have a pumpkin-decorated gift bag sitting on your desk filled with an assortment of candies, a holiday pencil and a few other surprises--just for fun.

When I entered managerial positions within my library career, I tried to immitate Carol's positive management behaviors: : Know your stuff, believe in your staff, and show your employees you care about them. Thanks for being so nice, Carol!