Friday, January 25, 2008

7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learning

Since I work in LibraryLand, I feel that everyday I am a lifelong learner. So I would have to say that the habit of "Accept responsibility for your own learning" is definitely the habit that I find easiest. Every time I work at the information desk, I am greeted with various questions from a diverse range of people. Some are as simple as placing a reserve on a best-selling book. Some are asking whether we have a book on how to write a letter to a friend who has a terminal illness.

Just a few days ago, for almost every question I was asked our library did not have exactly what the customer was looking for. Some people I helped didn't have the time to go into more thorough searches for their queries. I find that in these instances my hardest habit of lifelong learning is "View problems as challenges." I know I am challenged with some questions but sometimes I view them as problems instead. For example, when the library does not have the exact type of item they are looking for, I am frustrated that we don't have a book on that subject! However, I was able to suggest to our non-fiction selector some subjects that we could look for to order for the library system. So I do try to take the lemons and make them into lemonade, if you will.

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