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Boot Camp Day 3
I must be a little worn out because today was pretty much a blur. This evening we took a tour of the Nashville Public Library and I was able to take a few pictures before my batteries ran out (the ones in my camera and mine ;0) These photos certainly don’t do it justice – [...]
Results Boot Camp II: We get an R & R pass
Today was a slightly shorter day. I sense that we’ll all take good advantage of our time “off post”. Some of today looked at management styles. As a manager for most of my career, and as a recent participant in another immersion workshop on leadership a few months ago, much of this was a review. [...]
PLA Blog – Planning for Results Boot Camp
This morning is a self evaluation of individual management styles. Personally, I know that my style is to “get things done,” within a culture of “Country Club Management.” The conflict is difficult while at the same time stimulating.
Boot Camp Day 2
Today’s mantra was, “If you want something to change you have to do something different!” Sandra Nelson (Boot Camp Instructor) I came to the painful realization today that I have many misconceptions about what our library does and how effective it is in achieving our goals. But the good part was that I don’t think [...]
Results Boot Camp II: The Sargeants break us down
What a draining, stressful day! I think I can sum up my thoughts on day 2 of camp in a really great definition of how we provide a lot of our service, the brainchild of June Garcia’s working partner Ron Dubberly of Dubberly Garcia Associates, Inc.: irrelevant excellence = performing really well at something you [...]
PLA Blog – Planning for Results Boot Camp
Discussed that we must truly believe that the value of a public service is measured by use, not so much a feeling or what we learned in library school. How about your verticle file? Staff spend a great deal of time to make a excellent verticle file. Is it used? Or is the verticle file [...]
Day 1 of Boot Camp II
The first thing that became apparent during the morning lecture was that Planning for Results (PFR) could be an excellent way to approach the many changes that our Library will be going through as a result of becoming a District and receiving additional funding for capital improvements. PFR is a method used to determine how [...]
PLA Blog – Planning for Results Boot Camp
If you really want to plan to afford library service to your community in the future, it’s “pay me now or pay me later.” Learn to live within your means. We learned that we cannot afford to keep all the library services we do now since tax dollars have been tapped out, especially staff intensive [...]
November in Nashville: PLA Boot Camp
Fifty-four participants, including twelve from the Bucks County Free Library in Pennsylvania, gathered today in Nashville for the PLA Results Boot Camp. Each of us introduced ourselves and gave our goals for attending. I am one of four attending from the Pioneer Library System in central Oklahoma. We hope to develop a training program for [...]
Results Boot Camp II – The New Recruits Report
Taps are playing on day one of PLA’s Results Boot Camp II. We are quite a mixed bag of librarians, serving very different customers. We come from library systems, consulting agencies that are tax supported (I’m in that group), small libraries, big libraries, state libraries, and more. This is how I summed up our day [...]





