Rank: Newbie
Groups: Member
Joined: 9/26/2008
Posts: 2
Points: 6
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Hello,
I am brand new to this forum and am very excited to have found it. I would like to pick your collective brains. I've just finished reading Rachel's book, "What's the Alternative" and find it to be very useful and inspirational. I have been thinking about starting my own business doing contract library programming and thought it was probably a crazy idea until I read about it in Rachel's book. I would love to hear from librarians who have actually made this type of transition.
First a little background info about me (please bear with me).I am a professional librarian with the MLIS. I am 38 years old and have worked in private and public high school libraries, a special library, and two different public libraries. From 2002-2006 I had the best job I've ever had as a Teen Services Librarian. I had so much fun planning and implementing teen programs (one of which was a VOYA Most Valuable Program award recipient in 2006) and of course managing the teen collection. The only reason I left that job is because I had a very long commute. A job in my home town and state opened up and I jumped at it. The position was for an Adult Services Librarian at a public library. I applied, interviewed for and got the job. But I didn't do enough research about it before accepting the job. I just spent the last 2 1/2 years in that job and it's been a nightmare for several reasons. Firstly, there was no separate reference desk. All reference was done at the circ. desk by anyone who happended to be scheduled to be on the desk at any given hour. So lots of untrained paraprofessionals doing reference work instead of me. I was scheduled to be on the desk anywhere from 3-6 hours per day and most of that time was spent checking items out/in, patron registrations, and signing people up for computers. There were many abusive, mentally ill, homeless, and drunk patrons which added to the stress. I supervised 7 people and had to cover their backs when they had problem patrons as well. I spoke with my director about my concerns: proposed a separate reference desk, a security officer, time/print managament software for the public PCS but none of it went anywhere. Long story short I became very burnt out and resentful very quickly. I tried to hang on as long as I could and look for another position. But there are not many full time professional positions in my state right now.
I had been very frank about my concerns with my director and she knew I was looking elsewhere. But she still gave me a raving annual evaluation this June. I told her I felt I didn't deserve it because I felt my mood was so terrible. Then about a month ago, she called me into her office and was clearly upset. She told me "we have to talk" and that my attitude had to change and I was always so negative and that I needed to be more professional and a role model for my staff. I didn't argue because I knew everything she was saying I had been trying to tell her for a year and half! Needless to say, it was a very emotional conservation and day. I left early and the next day I handed in my resignation letter (with a one month notice). My last day was 9/22.
So I've done a very scary thing and am now ponding the proverbial pavement and looking for temp jobs. But what I really want to do is start two businesses: 1) an indexing business (have already started the networking for that and 2) a contract programming business.
With regards to the contract programming business idea:
* I would like to specialize in teen programs and adult book groups. I can count on one hand the number of public libraries that have dedicated YA librarians in this state. Towns just can't afford them. Several cities want one but can't convince their stakeholders to add the position. I would like to offer contract teen programs to libraries that don't have a YA librarian and/or programs for teens.
I have also been planning and running book groups for teen and/or adults for over six years. I see that many smaller libraries don't have any kind of book groups and would try to offer my services in that area.
I would love to hear what you all think? Is there anyone out there that has any experience in contract programming?
I'll be more specific with my questions if I get any initial responses. I look forward to any and all feedback.
Thank you in advance,
Aldea Quirion
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Rank: Member
Groups: Member
Joined: 1/3/2008
Posts: 10
Points: 30
Location: Illinois
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Hi Aldea,
So sorry to hear about your troubles, and really sorry that you left a good position because of the commute. I understand how that gets old fast though. I did it for three years and luckily we were able to move closer.
I have a little experience with doing contract work. I worked as a young adult librarian for about 8 1/2 years and then I left to have our little girl. I was lucky to have one of our former board members become the director of a small library close to where I live. She remembered me and the programs I did with the teens in our library, and she contacted me to provide young adult programs since they didn't have a young adult department.
Here are some suggestions I would do if you are interested in this.
Make sure what you want to do is spelled out clearly. For example, we discussed me doing young adult programs, but not how many a year, and how much money they would commit for each year. I know some of the problem was things weren't settled since the director had only come into that position recently when we began talking. Still, if you want to work at earning a living, you need to know how much money they can hire you for or it might not be worth your time.
Have a formal contract listing the services you will provide. Will you provide all the things for a craft program, a program write-up, flyer, etc. Tell what your prices are up front and make sure you can live with them. I wasn't going to charge as much as I ended up charging at first until I talked to my friends. It can be hard when you know the library doesn't have a lot of money, but it is your time too.
Have something in place in the contract that if they no longer require your services to give you notice (whatever amount of time you agree to) so you will be able to know if you will be out of job soon and need to plan ahead.
Also, charge for planning the programs and giving them choices. I found that I would plan programs and suggest them, only to have the children's staff take the ideas and do them themselves. Well, that's fine, but I got no money for my ideas and plus I was out the time I'd spent planning out all the options for them. Perhaps have that in the contract that any ideas you bring you will give them for a fee.
You could try to market yourself around with the programs you can provide to local libraries, because many won't have teen services. Make sure you mention that you won an award for one of your programs, and tell them some of the services you can provide. I think the more comprehensive you are in your package to them the better off.
If you are good with web design, or even creating myspace pages, you could say that is something you will do for a monthly fee to maintain and add content to it. This was something I thought about offering but once I realized how much time and effort would go into it, I changed my mind.
In any case, good luck and let me know if you have any other questions. I hope what I wrote helps.
Tasha
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