Hide All Posts
A few weeks ago I talked about being a professional troublemaker. “…speak your truth in the room. How many times do we sit quiet, too afraid to speak, not wanting to feel discomforted and then leave the room disappointed in ourselves? Or do we let someone else do all the truth telling, do we wait for the “designated” troublemaker to take care of things?” Hmmm.
Today we were supposed to have 60 preschoolers come see us, an emergency at the school resulted in a cancellation of their field trip. Boo. I had not even thought about what I would write, because I knew I wouldn’t get to it until this afternoon, I was supposed to be giving tours and hanging out with 4 and 5 year olds. After they cancelled I decided to check the school’s Facebook page to see if they were going to have to send the kids home. Good grief, have you checked the comments, what the heck?! Talk about troublemakers. Actually, in my opinion, the comments were not just from troublemakers, but from what I would refer to as “@#&! Stirrers” or “poo stirrers,” if you prefer. There is a huge difference between speaking your truth and being ugly. So the professional troublemakers and the stirrers brought me back to my soapbox, you know, the place I spend most of my time and where I deliver a vast majority of my bookworms.
When I heard Luvvie Ajayi Jones talk at PLA, there was a Q&A afterwards. One person asked about how to speak your truth without offending the room. Words are powerful, speaking the truth is great, but use your words wisely. I will give you an example. “That car you loaned me wouldn’t start.” Vs. “I couldn’t get that car to start.” Do you see the difference? The first example lays blame, the second one states the problem without blame; truth without the tone of accusation.
I have complained multiple times about social media, texting, etc. Typing our thoughts is so much easier than face to face and not in a good way. Facebook is very important to the library and probably just as important to the school. We must use all methods to reach our patrons and students; newspaper, radio, signs, newsletters, website, and yep, social media. We are constantly watching our posts for reactions. A post that gets a lot of action is good for us, it shows what we are doing and is free publicity. Part of watching the posts is looking at the engagements, yep, we can see you. You, as in the people that react to a wonderful post with an abundance of kids at story time, with a “Hide post, hide all post, or even unlike page.” What!? I get when I write a scathing bookworm, but for kids at story time, come on! If it is you, no worries, we cannot see who it is, but boy I wish I could, only to ask why.
Today, the school was watching too, they reacted with poise and calm, unlike the few stirrers. I want to congratulate the troublemakers that commented, standing up for the school and their handling of the incident. You spoke your truth wisely. For that person that hides our “What are you reading?” posts or for some ungodly reason hide all our posts after a story time post, that is your right, but you do know that we are library, right? If you want to hide posts, hide the Bookworm, that troublemaker can’t keep her mouth shut.
Upcoming Events: 4/27 Story Time at 10am, Friends of the Library Book Sale Early Bird 4/28 from 5-7pm, 4/29 from 9am-7pm and 4/30 from 9am-1pm, Little House Reading Challenge continues.