Goal Setting

I arrived at my current job seven years ago, newly certified as a brand new librarian. I was fortunate to have a supportive academic dean who served as my mentor and still does. We set up weekly meetings that first year and gradually shifted to bi-weekly meetings. I still meet with her once or twice a month. Our focus and content is extremely different now than it was in the beginning. In the beginning, the majority of our time was spent on procedures. “How do I do x?” “Who do I talk to about y?” Gradually I was able to consider longer-term goals. Every year I set goals for the year and then write a reflection on them at the end of the year and set the next year’s goals. The academic dean reviews my reflection and writes a formal statement/evaluation which is saved to my file. I appreciate the structure of this process. Even if it were not as formal, simply the act of sharing my goals with someone else would help me move towards achieving them. I have found these types of external motivators are easier for me than relying on self-motivation for goal-setting. It is easy for me to get caught up in responding to immediate needs and harder to find the time to focus on larger long-term goals. The impending move of my library is an example of an external force that drove my goals to weed the collection and genrify it before the move. Another example of an external force driving a goal was learning to edit Wikipedia. I was really interested in having students write Wikipedia biographies. I had never written an entry myself and was intimidated by the process but I felt strongly that it could be integrated into the curriculum and serve as authentic work with a social justice component. I spoke about it at a faculty meeting at the beginning of the school year, then sent an email to faculty in January asking if anyone would want to do a project with their class writing biographies of women for Women’s History Month. When I got responses from teachers willing to incorporate the work into their classes, I was on the hook. So in a way, I created my own external push to reach a goal. Once it’s out there, or on the calendar, you have to follow through.  

Self-reflection and data drive my goals. Initially, as I imagine is the case with new librarians in schools without scheduled classes, forming relationships with other teachers was one of my first goals. Increasing collaboration was a consistent goal of mine for the first few years. I have always felt like research is a weakness of mine so finding professional development opportunities to improve my research skills and knowledge has always been a goal. (Still on the lookout if people have recommendations). Using library statistics has been helpful in determining goals. The library collection had many aged titles, so weeding became a goal. Looking at usage statistics for databases can create a goal to increase usage or find a better database.    

Based on my own experience I will encourage my mentee to come up with both short-term and long-term goals. As part of our work together, I would have the mentee match the goals with due dates that correspond to our meetings. I think it will be helpful for the mentee to have these external drivers to guide them when they are likely to be overwhelmed with the newness of everything.