National Library Workers Day

Here is a really fun idea from Paula Popma and Dave Tyckoson from Fresno State:

National Library Workers Day

Does your library celebrate National Library Workers Day?  It is a day set aside during National Library Week to honor those who make libraries work.

At Madden Library, Fresno State, we have celebrated National Library Workers Day with a catered luncheon, paid for by the Library Administration.  Even though we have great potlucks, we decided to treat ourselves, and not have to do any cooking, setting up or cleaning up.  This gave us the opportunity to relax and catch up with our colleagues.

In 2008, we combined the luncheon with a fun event that we titled “Beige Day”.  We asked all employees to wear beige that day.  We had an appearance by the Beige Brothers.  Our library lyricist and one of the Beige Brothers (Associate Dean Dave Tyckoson) wrote lyrics to some old rock and roll tunes that celebrated our move from our old library into temporary quarters while our new library was constructed.  As you can imagine, being an old building, all of our walls were beige.  When we took a photo of the staff wearing beige against the beige wall, we blended right in.

At the luncheon in 2010, we honored our retired librarian volunteers.  These are librarians who have retired, but can’t seem to get working in a library out of their system.  They fill essential roles in our library, including cataloging special collections, working on the reference desk, and reviewing all gift books that are donated to the library.  We are very grateful for their service.

So, think about doing something special on National Library Workers Day

Celebrations - Personal

There can hardly been an easier way to have fun than to celebrate someone or something. This post will concentrate on the someone. Please note that there is a fine line between celebration and reward and recognition; I'll provide some examples of the latter in a subsequent post.

Birthdays - Someone usually maintains a birthday list; if not it is easy to construct one. Them, depending on the size of the organization, you can celebrate birthdays on a monthly or quarterly basis. No time for a food event? No problem. Pass around a birthday card and deliver it to the lucky person(s). Purchase party hats and put on a label with the celebrant's name and give it to them. If they are on a social networking site, encourage people to wish them a happy birthday there. Offer up a birthday balloon.  In any case,  a rousing chorus of happy birthday is optional. In every case think of your own way to take advantage of this easy way to have fun in the library.

Years of Service - How long have your colleagues been working in your organization? One year? 5? 10? Celebrate their longevity and dedication. One way is for the unit to a list of the ways in which this person has contributed to your department or organization and present it to them.  Another is for the supervisor to present a hand written note of thanks and acknowledgement; if the person celebrating IS a supervisor, how nice if he/she receives something similar from his/her reports. At one library, the University Librarian took all the years of service awardees out to lunch (I'm back to food - sigh). Again, this is a pretty easy thing to do and goes a piece towards building community.

Year of Hire - This is a little different from the first two and is primarily something for the supervisor to do. We acknowledge many things but often not the anniversary of a person's hire date. Well, this is an instance when a thoughtful handwritten note with specific examples of how the person has contributed is often greatly appreciated. It serves as another reminder that the recipient is valued by the organization and their supervisor knows it.

Professional accomplishment - Has someone achieved something noteworthy? An article published? A presentation given? A promotion achieved? A notable number of years of service? A project completed? A new idea for the organization implemented? Well, bring out the confetti (real or virtual) or, at the least, make an announcement at a staff meeting or departmental meeting, and give colleagues a chance to cheer and be cheered. You could even have little awards to commemorate the occasion: a light bulb (for bright idea); a giraffe (for sticking one's neck out); a copy of the article or of the program, signed by everyone in the organization  with a big Well Done! You get the idea.


There are lots and lots of easy ways to have fun in the library and celebrating a colleague's accomplishments is one of the very best. How do you do this? Inquiring minds want to know (and then use!).

Automated Retrieval Systems

This is for libraries that have Automated Retrieval Systems. There is a lot of fun to be had, here.

These systems come with robotic crane(s) that go to the specified bin and return it and the desired item to staff who send it to be checked-out. Have you named the crane(s)? Santa Clara University did. They had a school wide contest and the winning entry for the three cranes was Stephen, Hart and Ichabod!

How many items have your crane(s) retrieved? This could also be a school wide contest. Offer some parameters on the number of retrievals, i.e., no less than x, no more than y. If you have a viewing area for the crane(s) invite people in to watch them in action and gauge the numnber of retrievals in whatever period they are watching. Have a spot on your Web Page where people can easily learn about the contest and submit their entries via a web form. The winner is the person who comes closest to the actual number of retrievals without going over. The prize could be as simple as a picture with the crane(s) and the opportunity to operate them (under appropriate supervision, of course). In Santa Clara's case, I would also recommend copies of The Red Badge of Courage, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and/or a book of Hart Crane's poems.

National Days

Looking for something to celebrate but can think of what it should be? Here is a list that may or may not be the comprehensive list of "National Days" in the U.S.  (I found it on the Web; it must be true and reliable!)

http://www.louderbacks.com/home/dict/days.html

Now, if this doesn't suffice, there is probably a whole bunch of local to your community/library days you could celebrate (excluding obvious things like birthdays, years of service, anniversaries of start dates, etc., which I'll cover later). You could even create a web site form that asks your colleagues and patrons to submit nominations for "days to celebrate" and then create a list from this.

(The imaginative and colorful baseball owner, Bill Veeck, once staged a night for Joe Earley, after the fan protested that the Indians owner had honored everyone except the average "Joe.")

In any event, there is lots of opportunity to good and silly times from such an effort.

And there is often just as much fun in thinking about whether an event might be fun as there is in actually having the event!

What Was My Job?

This is something that can be played a large or small libraries.

We have all had a job - and maybe more - BEFORE we came to work in libraries. Perhaps these previous jobs are easily associated with us, but maybe, possible, probably, they are not.

So collect a list of former jobs - one per person - and then have the rest of the folks in the library try to match job and person. You might get a whole new perspective on your colleagues; or not.

If you are in a small library, you could do this as part of a meeting, maybe for the last 10 minutes or so, by having one person be identified as the "Mystery Guest" and have the rest of the team try to figure out his/her former job through a series of witty and probative questions.

(You could also see how many people remember the show "What's My Line" and the importance of the Mystery Guest.)

Picture Book Day

Here's a simple idea for libraries of any size that can go on for months and months or until people get bored.

At your next get together, have someone bring in their favorite picture book and read it to his/her colleagues. Provide appropriate dramatic and comedic emphasis. Then, when the story is over, have cookies and milk - just like when we were kids. To make the event more fun, encourage your colleagues to bring their favorite blankies. And when you're done, maybe a little nappie?

This could/should work for organizations of any size.

What's new or different

This can be played in large libraries and small ones and at a potluck, meeting, or as part of the day's work.

There is always something new or different about our library or the people in it. On a regular and rotating basis have someone announce - "What's changed in the building today?" - or "What's changed in the building in the last year?" - something equally lame. This forces everyone to focus of the familiar and search for the unfamiliar (or taken for granted). Maybe it is that a burned out light has been replaced; or someone with a beard has shaved; or a tile has been replaced with a tile of a different color; or there's a member of the library team; etc., etc., and so forth. In any event, the answer(s) are submitted to the person who raised the challenge and he/she announces the winner. (The mechanics of this might have to be worked out to ensure equity, etc.)

As always, there is as much fun in the planning as there is in the actual event.

So, check my Facebook page - can you figure out what's different this week?