Deb Smith-Cohen, President
Fairfax County Public Library Employee Association
Statement to Library Board of Trustees March 8, 2017
I had a really packed
hour on the information desk the other
day. A computer user was having trouble printing from
Google Docs. A
parent needed books on eclipses for
a second grader. A student was doing a report on the Navajo code talkers of WWII. A
civic
group representative came in to pick up the key to use our meeting room after
hours. And that
was just what I did. My colleague at the desk was kept hopping too. Her questions
included help finding tax assistance, registering someone for our 1:1 English conversation program, locating a multi-author
children’s series,
and instructing someone searching our catalog for historical novels
set
in a specific time period. Everyone waiting
was eager but
patient. It was the best kind of
busy you can dream of.
On a quieter
day, I was able to spend more time with someone looking for books on handling bereavement, someone
doing research on
Internet security issues,
a preschooler looking for
books about “cavemen,” and an avid mystery reader in need
of a new detective. Each of
these had a
slower pace and required more fine-tuned listening. It was also a
great way to be busy.
In each case, I felt the uncertainty that comes with
facing questions you didn’t get in advance, but no sense of disorder or
anxiety. Each person, staff
or patron, was patient
and present in the
process.
My dream for staff and for our system as a whole is to continue to build a culture that sees uncertainty as opportunity, not as chaos or as frightening. Uncertainty can
be
the best kind of motivator and the best laboratory for creativity.
And really, it’s just the way things are: permanence and certainty are illusions
and yearning for them inevitably disappoints
and
creates unhappiness.
It takes work to build the resilience, operational
and
experiential agility, and mutual trust that enable us to function at
our
best in the midst of
uncertainty. If you’ve ever had that kind of work experience, you will
always remember it and
yearn to reach it
again.
When public movements face high odds
but,
undaunted by uncertainty,
achieve small,
substantive, and decisive
progress toward their
goals, they are succeeding. Some will encourage the false choice that we should either define the
new
“reality” as sufficient victory and stop fighting or reject it as insufficient and
refuse to celebrate. Neither
attitude serves us well.
That our situation is uncertain is neither new nor news. Our
budget is flat at best. Users’ expectations
are growing.
Our competition (by various definitions) is expanding. What we need is not so much
to reverse those changes as to reverse their outcomes by leaning into uncertainty with shared confidence, fierce determination, and
unity of purpose.
Let’s embrace uncertainty with
the sense that there is no known
limit to our
potential, not merely that nothing is guaranteed. When
you meet with our Supervisors
and
other stakeholders, please remind them that
every success counts and that
a track record of small,
consistent
successes has
always been the hallmark of real progress.
Thank you.
