I recently read this article in the Sailing Magazine blog and I was thinking about this post from the past when I wrote this.  Basically, I’ve been thinking about how being a sailing captain metaphorically relates to my work as a library manager.  I’ve been thinking about writing a longer and better article about this so, to better organize my thoughts I put together this top ten list.

1)      There are far more scary things than e-books.  For example, being caught in 30-35 knot winds with a following sea and a heading that will take you either into a safe harbor or into a rocky breakwater with only 40 feet being the difference.

2)      Being a ship captain is a lot like being a library manager and there’s room for improvement in both.

3)      Keep a ship’s log of both the library and the ship.

4)      Navigation is just as important in sailing as it is in management, the destinations are just a little different.

5)      Communication is important.

6)      A misplaced matchbox once sank a sailboat. (I need to clean my office)

7)      Rum is even more delicious after a storm.

8)      DON’T PANIC!!

9)      On long trips at sea or long days at the library, it’s important to keep yourself and your crew busy.

10)   Things change quickly and you can’t always control the weather when it does.  Sometimes you just have to ride out the storm and hope you make it out on the other side. “They come ya fast and they leave ya fast” – Captain Ron