03 October 2008

Doing a lot with a little

I love when other librarians blog conferences. It lets me feel like I am included without having to be present. With such a heavy teaching load these last few weeks and having just returned from a conference, I decided to skip Dartmouth Biomedical Library's October Conference. I know. This is a great conference. Believe me, I hear you. And great conference less than two hours away is a real rarity in Vermont.

Even though I wasn't able to make it, I was excited to see the Multitasking Librarian blogging away about it. Amanda seems to have interest in a lot of the same topics as I do because she hit all the presentations I would have checked out. Her posts really gave me a sense of the presentation: the issues, the questions, the opportunities, the obstacles. Great job!

Even though The Sheck couldn't make it to Dartmouth, I was excited that my director, Janet Cottrell, was slotted to speak, and even more excited to see Amanda's description of the presentation. Champlain has done an awful lot from within in a short period of time to make the library the epicenter of campus events and an essential part of the intellectual fabric of the college. Between our Events and Displays, our cool use of technology, especially photo sharing, we might be small but we are mighty!

In a way, it's much like blogging. As I said about Amanda's posts, they are informative albeit informal. It might take only a little to post but it offers others quite a lot.

And it brings me back to Champlain. I happen to be at one of those libraries where every one on staff is putting in 110% and doing it creatively, passionately, and collaboratively. So while we often can't do everything on our wish list, the real point is that our wish list is long with awesome ideas. So as I sat here on a Friday, getting ready for a much needed weekend, and I saw a post about Janet's presentation, it reminded me that even though I am busy and sometimes struggling to keep up...I have a great team around me. Small but mighty. Doing a lot with a little. But making an impact in big ways. Happy Friday.

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