In the Northern Hemisphere, we’ve reached that in-between stretch between summer holidays and the start of a new academic year. We’re trying to squeeze in the last hurrah before class schedules and after-school activities resume.
Summer in libraries is a season all of its own. There are usually a few conferences providing librarians an opportunity to travel and gather. Public libraries are home to the wonderful chaos of summer reading programs. Academic libraries, on the other hand, typically embrace the quieter time on campus to try and tackle a few projects.
No matter your particular context, it’s likely that you set some goals for the summer months. Or maybe your goals have been with you since January, or the start of the previous academic year.
As one meteorological season winds down to make way for another, imagine a quiet voice in the wind asking about those goals: Are they still relevant? Do they still fit?
My musings on adjusting expectation have led me to these questions about goals, and I want to invite you into a dialogue about them.
Are these still relevant goals?
Now that we’re past the midpoint of the year, at the close of a season, and on the edge of a new one, it’s worth asking: Are our goals still relevant? Are they still the right goals for where we are right now, where our libraries or organizations are? Are we making progress? Or has life happened, and somewhere along the way, did we quietly shelve our goals without actually deciding or intending to?
This is a question I’ve come back to often in my work in Integrated Library Planning. Proactive and responsive planning isn’t a once-and-done event. It’s a frequent, cyclical, inquiry-driven process. We don’t set goals once and keep them forever. We check-in, ask questions, and adjust—again and again—because that’s what keeps our plan alive instead of letting it become a document that sits untouched until the next planning retreat.
The same is true for the goals we set for ourselves personally and professionally, outside of any collaborative strategic planning process. And experience has revealed to me that many of us are much better at setting goals than we are a revising them.
Join the conversation
I’d love for you to bring this question into a shared space instead of sitting with it alone. On Wednesday, August 26, I’m hosting an Open Table Conversation in the Fosgail Community called Revisiting Goals. It’s a facilitated conversation, not a presentation—no slides, no passive webinar structure. Just a space to think out loud together about where our goals actually stand right now, and where they came from in the first place.
No pressure to arrive with answers. Just come ready to ask the questions.
Learn More and RSVPThis week’s one thing
Before August 26, here’s a single question to sit with, on your own terms: Think of one goal you set earlier this year. Where does it actually stand today: on track, quietly abandoned, transformed into something else, or something you honestly haven’t thought about until just now?
You don’t need to do anything with the answer yet. Just notice it without judgment. That noticing with open curiosity is the first step.
Interested in What’s Happening?
This Open Table Conversation is just one of the events coming up this quarter. You can now quickly browse all our events without a Fosgail Community login on our new events page!