Channeling Opportunities...

This summer I hoped to build upon my existing relationships with the managers so I could contribute on a higher level to the critical development of our education programs. In the past most of the contributions I have made have been to Public Programs. For example, our manager would ask me to come up with art activities and/or art searches for our Art in the Dark programs. I have always thoroughly enjoyed creating these activities for our patrons, but my contributions in this area have been cut back due to the hiring of a new Public Programs Coordinator. She assists the Public Programs Manager and is basically second in command for that area. I still have responsibilities for public programs, but now there are two of us to split the prepping of materials and getting things ready for programs. The manager now splits the creative thinking of developing programs and activities during those programs with the coordinator. I knew this would happen at the time of the hiring, but instead of being frustrated about it, I chose to focus my goal of building relationships to this very scenario. Like Alli said in her comment on my first post, “one of the wonderful things about this field is its flexibility, and how necessary it is for us to be able to bend and adapt when asked to.” 

As the Public Programs Coordinator stepped into her new position, we worked closely together in prepping materials for Storytime. As she grew more comfortable, she took hold of the reins in overseeing that we had everything we needed for each art activity every week. We continued to prep and make the materials and then stuff bags for the patrons together. We found a good balance and I could still fit my administrative duties and Library responsibilities into the work day without being overwhelmed. If she had not been hired the majority of the preparation would have fallen on me and I now see how difficult it would have been to accomplish all of it! We also communicate very well, whether its updating the other person about something or solving a problem. If she had a question or issue, she felt comfortable coming to me and we would talk through it or come up with a solution. If I have a concern her door is always open as well. In doing so, I have still been able to contribute through my relationship building with her. We talked about ideas for an art activity for the upcoming Art in the Dark and I also gave her an art search I created for a previous program to help her with some ideas she was working through for Family Fun Week. 

In building better relationships with other managers, I have seized opportunities to learn something new so I can better help them in the future and even take on the responsibility completely. Our Interpretation Manager has come up with some wonderful in-gallery accessibility tools for people who are partially or completely blind and people with dyslexia. So they are able to access the object labels with ease, she placed booklets with large font labels, as well as, booklets with labels printed in dyslexic font with a gray background. These booklets are created in house. Our Exhibition Designer formats them and I print the pages and bind them together and also fix them when they come apart. However the formatting is very time consuming and our Exhibition Designer has a lot on his plate. Our Interpretation Manager’s plan was to learn how to format the labels herself. I asked what program is used for the formatting and she answered Adobe InDesign which I have on my computer! Right now my skills are limited to using it for one thing, but I told her that if she would like to train me once she learns we could split the work load because she also constantly has a lot on her plate. She was very excited and open to that idea so hopefully we can get the ball rolling! 

My goal of making contributions at a higher level is a slow one in that building better, more responsibility-driven relationships takes time and I am willing to be patient. I have seen the small results from this building trust and I like where they are going. I hope I can continue to work on them as I know my time in the office will be cut back once the fall semester starts. From here my goal is to channel more opportunities of learning because I want my collaboration with each person in the department to grow.