Look 2020 was hard for everyone and for their own reason, myself included. No one was left unscathed. However, while 2020 did not go as planned, that doesn't mean the reading resolutions and professional goals we set for 2020 aren't worth assessing.
Each year I encourage all of you to look back on the resolutions you made and goals you set at the beginning of a year before you even think about doing the same thing for the next year. I do it for myself, honestly and in full public view, to encourage you. But, I have already heard from some of you that since 2020 was, well, 2020 you should get a pass.
NO. Absolutely not. In fact, precisely because 2020 did not go as planned, it is even more imperative that we look back on our wishes for the year and think about what we did accomplish and what we didn't, assess why, and then decide if the things we didn't get done need to be revisited. Sometimes they do and other times they do not. Sometimes our goals were misguided even before we set out to accomplish them, even in a "normal" year. Learning from what we plan vs what we do is so important.
In January I will tackle assessing my 2020 resolutions before moving on to setting 2021 goals. Click here to see that exercise from January 2020 re 2019's goals.
But to get things started, and to get you thinking about this exercise for yourself, Alissa Williams, the Director of Morton Public Library District, a small library near Peoria, IL, returns to her reading resolutions she publicly proclaimed here on RA for All and looks back at her 2020 from a reading perspective.
If like Ms Williams you want to post your reading resolutions here on the blog to inspire others, contact me.
Reading Resolutions Update By Alissa Williams
[Click here for Ms Williams' post from January where she lays out her reading resolutions.]
In early January I was inspired by Becky’s Reading Resolutions post to craft my own resolutions to guide my reading in 2020. Of course I did this not knowing what 2020 would turn out to be. I’m a very goal oriented person and included my reading resolutions on my 20 in 20 list, a set of things I wanted to accomplish in 2020 inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s “Happier” podcast.
I wanted to provide an update on my reading resolutions since many of you may be thinking about how you want to move forward in 2021. Having reading goals helped me in the early spring focus on something positive that was not cancelled by the pandemic. I had a goal of reading 12 YA novels and met that challenge early when those novels provided a nice distraction from the daily news reports.
A few of my reading resolutions were impacted by the pandemic. The most notable was my goal of reading 8 books in my presidential reading project. With libraries closed and interlibrary loan halted across Illinois I didn’t have the biography I needed in my own library to read the next president (I’m reading them in order). I did get four books finished toward this goal. Getting 8 books read was a stretch goal and I prefer progress over perfection.
The next resolution was geared towards readers’ advisory as I wanted to read 50 advanced copies of books, have an annotation on the LibraryReads list, and produce a summer reading guide of new release titles for my patrons (because I read 50 prepubs). I’ve only read 20 or so preubs and I had an annotation on the Feb. 2020 LibraryReads list. Despite our building being closed throughout the summer, I was able to produce a summer reading guide for patrons, focusing on backlist and titles that were available in our e-book catalog.
The final two goals I have achieved, along with my young adult resolution.
My daughters and I have completed 11 read alouds which feels just right, averaging about one per month and it was nice to have this routine during the shelter in place orders as we read some longer titles together.
What I found from these resolutions was that I really enjoyed having a focus for my reading - whether it be a theme or a topic. Upon reflection I’ve realized that my pre-pub reading occurs in cycles. I usually read a lot of them in the early half of the year as we prepare for the summer reading season and then some more in late fall as we prepare for other new releases and I take a big break during June - September. And that’s ok. Also having my own reading resolutions made me break out of my normal reading routines and ask other staff for book recommendations as well as hearing about some of their reading resolutions after discussing mine. I’m working on my 2021 reading resolutions and appreciate Becky for last year’s push to make my reading life more enjoyable and interesting.
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