2019-11-08 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 4, Issue 5
Featured Story
Turn That Smile Upside Down
I can’t cheer up – I don’t want to cheer up. It’s nicer to be miserable!
As a kid, this particular quote from Anne of Green Gables stuck in my head, and caused some serious cognitive dissonance. How could Anne, the free-spirited, imaginative, eternal optimist embrace being miserable? What I couldn’t piece together at the time was how Anne was demonstrating the incredibly valuable skill of embracing the whole range of human emotion. When I first read Anne of Green Gables, I’d already learned that happy is a better emotion than all of the other ones, and that positive thinking was more valuable than any other type. I’m still trying to unlearn that lesson, and let myself be miserable when the occasion arises. Now, I feel like I should add in a disclaimer here that I have been accused of being bubbly more than once in my life, so it might be a bit weird that I’m advocating for grouchiness, but stick with me here.
When we work with people, there are all sorts of expectations to be smile and look at the bright side. In public libraries, we might be the only human interaction in a day for some of our patrons, so it’s pretty important to get it right, and that’s a lot of pressure. This can lead to an expectation to paint a smile on, even when we aren’t feeling it. Studies have shown that people who are required to fake smiles and optimism in their jobs report higher rates of depression and alcoholism.
There’s this new term floating about the interwebs that describes this phenomenon nicely – toxic positivity – when the pressure to perform as a happy individual becomes unhealthy and toxic. It occasionally surfaces as seemingly innocuous phrases like no bad days and good vibes only. While the intention behind these statements is usually pretty good, the impact can be well, bad. Yup, I said the word bad. When only good vibes are allowed this can prevent valid criticisms from ever being voiced, and that whole paradox where the harder you try to be happy the less you experience happiness.
On the flip side, it looks like embracing grumpiness leads to better decision making, more creative problem solving, and better critical thinking skills. Yup, all this time we’ve all had a secret superpower that makes us smarter, and it’s as easy as embracing your bad moods as they come.
I’ve always enjoyed rainy days, and I think a lot of us who end up in libraries feel the same way because what’s better than a rainy day, a good cup of tea, and your favorite book? Of course, we can stay inside and read books when it’s sunny, but it doesn’t have the same appeal. The pressure to always be happy is like only having sunny days. Let yourself have rainy days too.
So what do we do about it?
- Listen to the grumps without discounting their opinions because they’re grumpy.
- Let yourself feel all of your emotions. Even the bad ones. Even when you’re at work.
- Find someone you can safely confide your grievances too. Voicing the bad stuff helps you gain perspective and see if there is a larger issue that needs addressed.
- Stop telling people to smile.
- Take a day off for your mental health when you need to.
- Remember that you can be polite without being nice or faking happiness.
- Like Anne, choose to be miserable every now and then.
– Alex Johnatakis, Caldwell Public Library
Fail Forward
We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.
Surviving Summer
It has been an incredibly tough summer at my library. For a variety of reasons, we found ourselves short staffed most days. It made for some difficult shifts dealing with unruly teens, getting things shelved, working on projects, etc. I know that we have all been there, especially in the summer. I just wanted to take a minute to share how we got through it at our library. It has been great to have people from other departments willing to jump in and help where they can. I work the circulation desk, and I always know that I can call on any supervisor to come down and help or even someone from the children’s office. We have also been told by our supervisors that our attitudes at the desk have made all the difference. We all kept a smile on our face and leaned on each other to get through this tough summer. I think that if we could all build a great team at our libraries where we truly felt like we can support and uplift one another then we can get through anything.
– Jackie Wood, Marshall Public Library
Bottle Rocket Bust
This year, a local library was lucky enough to receive funding for a state reimbursed summer internship program. I, along with other individuals, was lucky enough to participate in this program. This internship required the lucky few to somehow edify and improve the library atmosphere, which could be accomplished through filing decade old resources, categorizing text and pictures fundamental towards our town’s history, assisting staff positions, and the job I chose to accept, creating and presenting library programs. The soon-to-be designed programs had to be created with a young audience (about 6 to 11 years old) in mind, so the proposed project would be a simple bottle rocket creation and launch. I created several pictures guiding the step for creating the rockets, typed a detailed document with instructions, and watched different videos to prepare myself, but little did I know that wouldn’t be enough to prevent future mishaps.
The first of my troubles started with getting a materials list ready. Upon asking staff about available resources at the library, it was discovered that half of the materials already resided at the library, thus it wasn’t required to purchase them; however, examining them probably was a good idea as on the day of the program, it was discovered that only bicycle pump at the library was a small hand pump, meaning that I’d have to get close to the rockets and forcefully pump them. In addition, while preparing the bottles to be launched at the program, it was discovered that certain soda container lids were too wide to hold the corks used to prevent water from escaping, forcing me to improvise and use extra play-doh as a protector. By the time these faults were discovered, there was nothing to prevent any more mistakes as the hour drew near and kids grew eager to launch their rockets. Needless to say, most children were surprised when none of the rockets flew from the ground, only leaving behind an immense track of water on the sidewalk and grass. The program coordinator and I quickly changed the atmosphere’s tone by encouraging children to ponder what went wrong during the experiment and to retest their hypothesis at their own home, leaving them with smiling faces and elaborate soda rockets.
This program has taught me that one shouldn’t solely prepare for the primary and desired outcomes of any program, but to also find loopholes and faults in one’s thinking and appropriately plan for them, possibly by watching other people preform the scenario in similar environments or by constructing a prototype.
– Fabian Bautista, Caldwell Public Library
Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!
Open Educational Resources
I went to a great panel on Open Educational Resources (OER) at Futures Camp earlier this year, put on by Jonathan Lashley from Boise State University and SPLAT’s own Jessica Martinez (of the University of Idaho). They presented some information on how the Creative Commons copyright system works, the growth of OER in academic settings, and how the principles of collaboration and free access inherent in OER dovetails with the information mission of libraries. While this presentation was oriented toward academic librarianship, as a public librarian I loved the exposure to these free, reputable, and curated knowledge sources.
– Tyler McLane, Coeur d’Alene Public Library
SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org
SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-00-19-0013-19). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.