In my previous post, I shared tips for starting a new job as a special librarian by emphasizing the importance of learning the organization. In this post, I want to consider the next step you might take. If you spent the first 30 days or so listening and learning, what do the next 30 days look like? My suggestion is to move from listening and learning to assessing and prioritizing.
After hearing from key stakeholders, your manager, and others, take time to identify your users’ most important information needs, how your work addresses them, and any gaps that might exist.
What Should You Assess in Your Second Month?
To assess and prioritize, you need to see the big picture. This includes getting a clear understanding of:
- Collections and subscriptions
- Databases and research tools
- Catalogs, repositories, and intranets
- Current services and workflows
- Budgets, licenses, and vendor relationships
- Usage data and feedback
- Policies and procedures
While getting a clear picture of all these areas may take more than 30 days, it is important that you dedicate time early in your role to learning about them. Without a strong foundation, it will be challenging to make fully informed decisions.
Additionally, you will want to understand your library’s users. Take time to observe how people actually:
- Search for information
- Share knowledge
- Store documents
- Reuse previous research
- Ask colleagues for expertise
These observations can reveal gaps that traditional library statistics may miss.
How Do You Choose Your First Priorities?
Once you have spent time learning the organization and assessing the library and its users, you will likely be ready to determine how to set priorities relevant to your role. This could be updating a guide or working with others to simplify a frequently used resource. What is important at this stage is to start small and choose something manageable.
Finding small ways to help the organization and its library users can help you start building credibility. You can think of these as the “easy wins.” In a new position, you want to get some easy wins to help build relationships and positive interactions with those you work with. Once those positive professional relationships are established, larger, more challenging projects can be addressed.
Clarify Expectations With Your Supervisor
Through all of this, you will want to clarify expectations with your supervisor and understand immediate priorities. Forgoing the immediate day-to-day responsibilities while you learn the organization or observe and analyze user behavior is unlikely to be a winning strategy. Instead, work with your supervisor to understand the day-to-day responsibilities and then communicate what you need to learn and observe to do your job most effectively. Clear, open communication that establishes expectations and explains why you are engaged in specific work will help foster a collegial work environment.
Lastly, sometime in the first 60 days, I encourage you to speak with your supervisor about how you will be evaluated. What specific criteria are used during your performance evaluation? Hopefully, that was clear during the interview process, but it is still useful to clarify and have a more open conversation to ensure your work aligns with expectations. This can also reveal whether your supervisor’s expectations differ in any way from the formal human resources evaluation.
Overall, the first 60 days of any new job can be overwhelming as you learn new things, but also a wonderful opportunity to establish productive professional relationships.
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