How to Thrive as a Library Professional

Book excerpt: Whether you are planning to enter the field of librarianship or are a seasoned veteran, your success requires conscious planning. With its big picture approach, this guide shows you how to manage your career to optimize professional fulfillment. This book is a practical and straightforward approach to finessing your practice, with easy-to-implement takeaways. Covering topics that range from determining a career vision and cultivating relationships to using narrative to make connections and employing mindfulness, compassion, and self-forgiveness; this book will help librarians at all stages of their careers to take charge and forge their own way in the vast and shifting landscape of information science. You will discover new perspectives, gain knowledge, and prepare to take decisive action to further your professional practice. You also will be prompted to consider new ways of thinking about your current practice as well as where you want to go. By developing a deliberative approach to building a practice, you will come away ready for action and with a new perspective—on yourself, your work, your organization, and the community your serve.