Thinking about district consultants…
Posted in Carrie's Musings on August 03, 2011 by CarrieComments
I was asked to answer these questions and present them to my colleagues at a meeting at State College:
1. How you understand and define, for yourself, the role of the district consultant
2. How has that role changed for you over the years?
3. What have been your most significant challenges and achievements as a district consultant?
4. What are your goals over the next 6 months?
5. What else would you like to say about being a district consultant?
Faced with these questions, I turned to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the answer: 42
Here are links to a few supporting source documents:
-Job Description for District Consultant
-District Promo 2011,
-Wordle: Word Cloud.
Sense of humor is critical.
Here are the slides/outline I used for the presentation.
DistrictConsultant2011hmmmSlideShow
After returning from the meeting, inspired by the words of friends, colleagues, and staff and leadership of the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, I scribbled down this Communication Plan to help me to be most organized to promote the “Getting on Board” materials that we were shown at the meeting. Communication Plan Draft.
I also wanted to give a shout out to WebJunction and wordpress. Technology tools are as good as the time and energy you put into using them. Make a valuable impact.
Let me know if you want to get involved in any of the projects that the Capital Area Library District has been working on.
3 Responses to “Thinking about district consultants…“ 
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August 05, 2011
Just returned from an excellent meeting at State College with the best group of people.
The goal of this district consultant is to improve communication with all library leaders.
I’m so excited for Getting on Board!
August 12, 2011
Idea?: I heard that some district consultants spend more time helping a local library or doing tasks other than that of the traditional district consultant. Could a solution to that conflict be scheduled use of “office space”?
Could a district consultant move “home offices” every 6 months, allowing special focus on one library location each period?
September 26, 2011
I reviewed my notes from the consultant’s meeting and added this:
-Communication is the hallmark of district consultants.
-Good ideas can sit on the shelf longer than 10 years! :) Lowell A. Martin said that no PA resident should be more than 20 minutes from a library, 1 hour from a district and 24 hours to a state resource center. Beasley said that libraries were identified for their potential but that district designations are not irreversible. Nelson reminded us “don’t ever expect the districts to be equal.”