One important aspect of anyone interested in Library Management is being able to communicate about your institution with people, especially stakeholders. In smaller libraries, you are often responsible for communicating with far more than just stakeholders though, and knowing your library is crucial. Still, you need to be able to talk from experience. My mentor, Stephanie, gave me the chance to put these types of skills to the test late in my time at NTK.
A large group from the Librarian Club of Dresden visited NTK for a tour late in July to tour the facility during a short visit to Prague. With 60 people in the group, it was too large to be tackled by just one person, so my mentor asked if I’d be interested in leading about half of them on my own tour. This allowed for two groups to tour the facility at the same time, and the librarians were capable of deciding to hear the tour in English or in German (a language my mentor is fluent in).
Like many people, I am not always comfortable speaking to a crowd and I wasn’t overly confident in my knowledge about the library, even two months after beginning work, but I agreed, thinking that this opportunity was going to be helpful for me later in life. Another member of the support staff, Olga, joined me in support, but Stephanie left me to my own devices to make the tour my own. She provided me with a sample tour but encouraged me to make it my own, which allowed me to talk on the projects I had been working on throughout the summer. She also provided a fact sheet about the library for each of the Dresden librarians in German.
The logistics of the tours was addressed in a short meeting those involved had just a few days before the tour. With two tours going at the same time, we had to discuss how we would move the groups throughout the building and not cause too much disturbance to our patrons. It was agreed that Stephanie would do an introduction to the entire group in German and then let them split into groups. Then, my group would make our way to the top floor and work our way down, while her group worked their way up. Wanting to finish in the Atrium (on the second floor), I had to figure out how to include the first floor offerings as well. In this meeting, I addressed a few clarifications that I wanted, such as to ensure I knew which of the floors in the library were silent and what not.
On the day of the tour, along with the librarians from Dresden, my family also joined us, as they were in town visiting at the time. We made our way to the library early that morning and they followed the tour as went along.
After Stephanie’s introduction, our groups split up. I made a few clarifications about how we would take the tour upstairs with some brief comments about the first floor. Noting that the top floor of the library is a silent floor, we allowed time for everyone to make it upstairs and look around before moving to the fifth floor, where we could speak more openly. I made the decision to fully walk around the fifth and the fourth floor to give us more time to talk about what the library offered. When we made our way to the third floor, another silent floor, we went to an instructional room to speak briefly before we made our way through our office spaces, past our periodical room, and down into the atrium. The atrium allowed me to make my final comments, make a few more mentions of the first floor, and inform the librarians about exiting procedures from the library.
By ending in the Atrium, the group was given access to a unique offering at NTK, the freestanding video game kiosks, and were provided relaxed seating so they could wait on others or engage. During this time, I was capable of talking with some of the librarians about my experiences and we waited for the other group. Once the other group joined us, I was capable of speaking with a few of them as well.
While it was an overwhelming experience, I learned a lot about communicating effectively and learned a lot about the library. This was also helpful in preparing me to discuss the projects I worked on upon my return to the United States, a requirement for some of the funding I received for the opportunity.
Raven K 