Making a Little Decision Can Help with a Bigger One

As you can probably imagine, when you make a change from one job to the other, there are many, many new decisions to be made. I'm still in the process of making m y way through some of these decisions as I continue through my first year as a school librarian.

Some of these decisions are little ones, and some are a bit grander in scope. One decision I made early on was probably little AND big: shelf-markers. I use these in my school library to help students remember where books belong as they browse through titles on the shelves.

I asked a lot of my librarian friends where they got them and how they were stored.  I followed their advice for the most part, but added my own little twist. The idea came to me as some ideas come to us: when we least expect them.

I decided to cover the shelf markers in decorative duct tape. The kids love using them because they're fun-looking, and that makes they use them more. I know it has helped keep in our efforts to keep books in the right place which helps everyone find what they need. That is super important!

Most of my decisions aren't this easy, but these help me make the bigger ones. Also, it helped me see that taking in everyone's input is helpful because it leads me to my own answer. Can this help with bigger decisions? Yes. As we make our way through easy or tough decisions, listening to what others have done is helpful. It gives us a model of what is possible. Applying the possibility to our own world requires time and reflection and stepping away.

If you are a librarian, do you use shelf-markers?