Tuesday 11/25/08. 2 hours. Although this was my first face-to-face meeting with Mary Jane Santos, director of the Delaware County District Library (DCDL), I knew her name because I looked it up to send her an email 18 months ago. I saw a small sign to the effect of “coming soon: new branch library” in a development near North Orange Park in Lewis Center, Ohio. I inquired about the new branch and Mary Jane responded that plans were tentative at that time but thanked me for my interest. Little did I know that modest networking would play a role in completing my practicum.
Mary Jane agreed to be my supervisor and during our first meeting we discussed my goals for the practicum. I work at Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML), a large urban system, so I understand something about the administration of a big system. I wanted to learn about directing a small system and, living in the DCDL service area, my “hometown” library seemed a good fit.
We talked about shadowing her daily work and attending meetings with the community, the board, department heads, and others. I was especially interested to learn that a building site in North Orange Park had been selected and plans were being drawn up for a 35,000 square foot branch there. Understanding the property management and government aspects of libraries is a missing piece of my education/experience and I’m excited to learn about them.
Mary Jane proposed working with her to edit and revise DCDL’s personnel policies manual as a practicum project. I’ve written a few manuals over the years (mostly technical or business procedures) and knowing CML’s policies is a job expectation. My wife is an expert in the area of FMLA administration and I gave a presentation and wrote a paper on the subject for a Law Librarianship class; since FMLA laws/regs changed in 2008 I suggested this was an area where I could make a strong contribution.
All told, we had a great meeting and I’m looking forward to working with Mary Jane to learn what she does and how she does it.
