I am still alive! (Final blog post)

Hello out there! For those of you who are still keeping an eye out on this blog for new posts, if there are any of you out there, I want to apologize for my unexpectedly long hiatus. I owe all of my colleagues and friends out there who have nurtured me professionally and personally (and blog-ally) a proper closing and final blog post.

When I left you in Februrary, I had all sorts of good intentions (as I always do). I figured with my new job that is fairly well confined to business hours I would have all kinds of time to blog and keep up with my emails. Well...it didn't quite work out as I planned.

Between February and June, I was adjusting to a new job in a new environment while planning for a wedding, which took and increasingly large amount of my time and energy as the date got closer. Both of these changes were good things, but demanded a heck of a lot more of my time than I imagined. I had a hard time with the idea of being on the computer all day and then coming home to respond to emails, Facebook requests, and all of that, especially as I got further and further behind. I needed a break. So I took one. And I'm glad I did. But I'm not glad the one of the results of that was that some of you didn't get responses from me and that the blog was left hanging. I owe you all out there a lot and am immensely grateful to each of you I met in creating this blog, little by little, everyday.

While on my little 'break,' I realized that I couldn't devote the kind of time I need to make this blog good while also giving my best effort to my home and work lives. In the quest for work-life balance, this blog and some related projects had to give. Ultimately, I think this blog served the purpose I had in mind for it. I was able to share some of the things I learned about marketing so that it might help others make their libraries a bit better. The content that is here is still useful, I think. And I will get back in touch with all of you who may have sent me an unanswered note as soon as I can.

I think I'll close this blog with an observation: Now that I'm doing library work in a new environment and meeting a new group of colleagues, I feel even more confident that the value we bring to our workplaces, our communities, and our world is greatly needed. So too is the need to prove that fact to our patrons everyday. That's what library marketing allows us to do. Directly, strategically, and passionately. Marketing helps us tell everyone else what we already know - that we information professionals can empower our communities to be better places. Marketing also challenges us to be better professionals by asking us to be accountable to patrons' needs. I hope this blog gave you a few extra tools to accomplish this. For me, I know each of you continually reaffirmed why I love this profession, and I sincerely thank you for the privilege and opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

Please be in touch, and be patient with me as I get reemerge from my time off. I wish you the best in all your endeavors!