Barre with Justine

I recently listened to a podcast episode that really made me pause and reflect on the way I engaged with Instagram. As a fitness instructor, around 2/3 of my feed is other fitness instructors and I adore watching their posts, reels, and stories for ideas. The inspiration comes at a price, however, because it’s difficult to avoid falling into the trap of comparison. Suddenly the work that I’m doing doesn’t feel quite so unique or valuable and feelings of insecurity can creep in.

Tara Stiles’ podcast “How to Create Not Copy” addresses the challenges of looking outward for inspiration and grappling with our human nature to make comparisons. Social media is a minefield for social comparisons….we often fret about numbers (followers, likes, etc.) as though that is somehow connected with the value of what we share. When we think of why we may have joined a platform like Instagram, however, the motivation is to make connections not comparisons.

The podcast also got me thinking about the way we approach projects in libraries. How many projects have you started when one of the first, often time-consuming tasks is to do intelligence gathering on every other comparable library – have they done this before? what are they doing to address this issue? what can we learn from them?

This is not to say that keeping a pulse on what is happening in other libraries is a negative. We attend conferences and read papers to discover what new and innovative ideas are happening in the profession. We contact colleagues at other institutions to find out if they have had similar issues and how they navigated through difficult times. Librarianship is known to be a profession that shares generously in ideas and time.

I’d love for us to reflect on the opportunities that we may be losing when we immediately jump to other libraries before doing some inner reflection and brainstorming in our own spaces. When our perspective is always looking to the library down the road, we may lose sight of what our students need and the unique ideas and talents of staff within our own library.

This is of particular importance for wellness initiatives. The program that is incredibly successful at the downtown university campus library may fall flat in the primarily undergraduate university library in a smaller town. Evening library yoga workshops may be well-attended at a college that has many students living on campus, but be wasted at a commuter campus. These are obvious examples but, in the excitement and pressure that we may feel to add wellness to our offerings, any wellness offering should be created thoughtfully and with our own campus in mind.

Taking the time to generate ideas internally, from library staff and students, can be valuable for discovering what wellness programs and collections would truly address what students need. Front desk staff may be able to share what they hear from students at stressful times of the year and, for timing, know when the library is buzzing with activity. Staff members may have talents such as cooking or knitting that could form the basis for a wellness workshop.

We can also connect with campus partners such as Student Wellness departments and Recreation departments to discover the programs that have been popular with students on campus – everything from workshops to fitness offerings. These departments may also be able to share their own observations of what students have been expressing about stress and other health challenges.

Asking students directly about what wellness offerings they would like to see the library offer can provide valuable insights. I like to include a simple question “What other wellness initiatives would you like to see us offer?” into feedback forms, on social media, and any other opportunity to gather ideas and get a better sense of what students are dealing with and how we might help.

Finally, always looking to other libraries for wellness ideas can lead us into the comparison trap. When we see libraries who have created meditation rooms or have treadmill desks, we might feel that we don’t have enough of a budget to make a difference in the wellness of our students. When we see that a library is offering many workshops on meditation, yoga, and time-management, we may feel that we simply don’t have the staff or time to do anything comparable!

I feel strongly that there are always small things we can do to support our students’ wellness, even if we have a smaller budget and limited time. Even taking the time to put a sign up at the Library Help Desk during exams saying “We are here for you – you can do this!” may be the small sign (ha!) that a student needs to feel cared for.

So let’s do less comparing and more creating – I’m so excited to see new ideas coming into the library wellness space!