Thursday, February 02, 2006

Extravagant Exuberance

You might not have known it, IAGers--I guess we did mention it in our Blogging 101 presentation post, back in August 2005--but my knee injury from soccer this summer was finally declared FULLY HEALED yesterday, by the orthopaedic surgeon.

How does this relate to libaries?

I guess to say that healing is not an overnight quick fix. And injuries can happen when you least expect (or want) them. When injuries do invariably happen--injuries like staff turnover, budget cuts, board member disagreements, technical snafus--give yourself and your staff time and space to acknowledge there was in fact an injury and plan a course of action to heal.

I know this all sounds new-agey, but when I look back at 5 months ago, I had no idea the amount of energy it would take to get from
>"I can't walk," to
>"I can run, jump and frolic normally."

The same amount of energy it took to rehabilitate my knee--2 expert consultants (a physical therapist and an orthopaedic surgeon), a technical, tactical plan (PT workouts) and a constant eye on the goal (getting back to the soccer field, safely)--goes into every project at your library, I would wager. The process is as transformative and important as the end result, and there are no shortcuts!

The title is a nod to Mr. Greenspan, who could be considered one of the great economic rehabilitators of our time...

*enough of this sermon: go forth and be healers*

I'm headed back to Connecticut tomorrow, to talk with a few ARL directors about branding and libraries. Eager to learn what is going on in their world.

1 comment:

Norma said...

Call it a sermon, if you will, but I was thinking as I read it, that if you substituted the word "church" for "library," the message would be just as meaningful.