Stress Busters Week

Tis’ the season when the two-word phrase that college students often dread more than any other is Finals Week. Students rush to get last minute projects in, study like crazy and get ready for the seemingly never ending exams.  I clearly remember when I was in college the craziness and the emotional stress a student goes through at this time of year. Throw the holidays on top of it and well you have quite the lethal combination of meltdown and insanity. The difference  from when I was in college vs. now is the role libraries are playing to help assuage the anxiety many students feel this time of year. College libraries across  the country are now throwing what some fondly call “Stress Buster Week”.  Depending on the library activities  these can range from coloring pages (a big hit in my library), legos,  and Play dough to rock climbing walls and Xbox gaming. These are things students can do that require no cerebral thinking or analyzing. The library has not only become a place to study but a  place to go to  just simply exist and not to have to think to hard. Many libraries also offer tea, coffee and hot chocolate with snacks to fuel those all nighters.  This year I am re-branding  my library beverage table as  the Sheldon Cooper’s Hot Beverage Station. If I could play ‘Soft Kitty”  gently in the background I would.

Some libraries are lucky enough to bring in therapy dogs  into the library. I have spoken to several librarians who do this on their campuses and this is a HUGE hit with the students.  Another cool feature I have seen some libraries do is the silent dance party. This is where you can have a DJ come in with his set up using head phones for all the participants. This way they only hear the music via  wifi and doesn’t disturb other patrons (unless they all start signing really loudly).  My library for the past two semesters has been lucky enough to offer free yoga and meditation for the students which has been slowly catching on.

Libraries have come along way in such a short period of time and I am happy to be a part of this tradition of supporting our students during a time filled with deadlines, cramming, endless cups of coffee and sleepless nights. What does your library do for finals week?

Work Drama

My husband works at a male dominated company (Dock worker) and he has only been there a year but he deals with an amazing amount of work drama. Working in Academia isn’t any different. I have been at my two year college over 11 years and I jokingly refer to it as  “Game of Thrones” (For those who won’t get that reference the show is all about power plays, backstabbing and politicking).   After a particularly hard day of drama I sat at my computer emotionally drained and amazingly found this quote on the internet:

“You will only be remembered for two things: the problems you solve or the ones you create.”

Working in an environment with many different personalities can be a challenge. But I found some good advice that I try to follow as best as I can.

Personal life: Sometimes it feels  that  I am at work more than I am at home. I used to be so eager to make friends when I first started working and quickly found out that over sharing personal stuff can actually be bad.  Keep it copacetic.  Whether it’s happy news or sad news make sure you have boundaries.

This also goes both ways. Sometimes a co worker may want to also over share with you.  If you feel the topic has crossed the line  or is heading that way steer the conversation back to a work related topic.

When your colleagues want to vent about another fellow worker be careful of taking sides. They say there are three versions to every story: his side, her side, and the truth, so consider multiple perspectives.  try to steer the conversation to conflict resolution if you can. And don’t give advice if you are not asked.

Avoid being one of the 4c’s: complainer, controller, cynic, or caretaker. According to Kaley Klemp and Jim Warner, authors of “The Drama-Free Office: A Guide to Healthy Collaboration with Your Team, Coworkers, and Boss,” taking on one of these roles drains the energy from your team, promotes dysfunction, and hinders collaboration and synergy.

Don’t let others antagonize you. You give them power when you fall into that trap.   Not everyone is going to get along 100% and you may have a co worker who can be passive aggressive.  Rise above it and refer to that quote.  I now have it  over my desk and refer to it whenever “office drama” becomes a “thing”.

 

Happy Fourth and all that….

As the country gears up for Fourth of July my little corner of the world is bracing for a possible category 1 hurricane. While hurricanes are nothing new in my neck of the woods (We usually have parties at neighbors’ houses when these hit and beer is probably the number one staple purchased when New Englanders here the word “Hurricane”) it is rather odd how early the season seems to be starting. Does not bode well for us. We are certainly due for the “Big one”

Speaking of “Big ones” I’d like to touch  several things today: The Cephalonian Method I tried the other day and dealing with patrons.

I had a mini session focused on database searching which will have a  follow up on citation in a few weeks. I also tried for the first time introducing these flash cards that had questions on them for the students  I created 8 cards (which at the time I didn’t realize I only had 8 students so it worked out well)  focused on databases. You can find them by reading about them here.  I passed them out in no particular order but they were numbered 1-8. As I did my “spiel” I would say, who has number 1? And the student asked the question to which I gave an answer. It was interactive and broke up the monotony of me just droning on about the wonder of databases and how Wikipedia is bad, mmmmkay.

Overall, I will definitely do this again as I felt it went over very well with the students and the instructor.  As I left the class feeling pretty good about myself  and walked back in to the library my mood changed in a heartbeat.  One of my staff was in an altercation with a former student. What the argument was about is neither here not there but what scared me a bit was he was clearly on something.  Working in an urban environment I have had to deal with a few drunks from time to time but clearly this was something a bit stronger. But his looks didn’t disarm me as much as the fact as we got him out of the library and closed up for the day he proceeded to follow the staff member and myself to the parking garage. This is where it gets a bit scary. Thankfully  nothing happened but it does make one pause and think of this is where I work. I work in an environment that you need to be on your toes. Aware of your surroundings at all times. Hopefully, we will not see this character again.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun filled Fourth of July and here is my suggested book of the day: