Ask a Director | Q & A Column

Question: I’m feeling burned out, but I can’t take time off because I have too much to do. How can I take care of my burnout when I have so much to do? Answer: By Adrienne Pettinelli, Director of the Henrietta Public Library One of my favorite parts of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is the armor section. When you see people in movies wearing armor, they’re all jaunty, but real armor is a horror show. It’s a solution born of no better alternative. It’s heavy, it restricts the senses, and it’s hard to move. In middle age, I think…

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Question: A few of my staff members tell me they feel frightened working in a public building, and I don’t know how to make them feel safe. What should I do? Answer: By Adrienne Pettinelli, Director of the Henrietta Public Library I am going to channel my Inner Dad here: the world is not safe. It’s not unsafe, either. The world is a mix of safe and unsafe, and the ways we navigate and feel about that are highly personal. Let me share a list of some of the things I have felt some level of concern about at various…

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Question: I am taking on a role where I need to manage a multigenerational team, and I don’t know where to start. What should I do? Answer: By Chris Harris, Director of the Genesee Valley BOCES School Library System The question of leading multi-generational workforces is always challenging. As a society, we love bundling folks together into neat little groups that we can then label and treat as a set of similar entities. Naive for sure, but like other oddities, this seems to be deeply rooted in our brain’s attempt to make sense of the world around us. The problem…

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return to Ask a Director Column home page Question: I’ve been hired as a director at a library where the previous manager broke the staff’s trust. How do fix this situation? Answer: By John Cohen, Director of the Ogden Farmers’ Library “Being trustworthy requires: Doing the right thing. And doing things right.” – Don Peppers It’s a situation that anyone entering a new environment dreads: what happened before, and how will it affect what I need to do? Hopefully, all will be well. The previous supervisor will have set you up for great success interacting with a great staff, and…

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return to Ask a Director Column home page Question: I am a middle-aged library director, and I am tired of the time and expense it takes to color my hair, but I’m afraid that going grey will change how seriously people take me and could have a damaging effect on my career and the library I run. Am I overthinking this? Answer: By Adrienne Pettinelli, Director of the Henrietta Public Library I recently saw Nikole Hannah-Jones (age 46) speak at RIT, and she said something that made me want to stand and roar my agreement. Google tells me she says…

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