National Work and Family Month is celebrated during October. Started in 2003 by U.S. Senate Resolution 210, it focuses on addressing challenges for working families, providing workplace flexibility, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

An American Institute of Stress study highlights job stress as far and away the major source of stress for American adults (http://www.stress.org/workplace-stress). According to the Better Life Index from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranks 30th  out of 38 developed countries in the world for a positive work-life balance.

You’re at Madison College with the goal of obtaining a good job, and the Madison College Libraries are here to support that goal. But the libraries also offer resources to help you try and maintain a healthy work-life balance. When searching our catalog and databases, use the subject terms quality of work life, time management, work and family, and work-life balance.

One of the books in our library collection you might want to check out is Overwhelmed: how to work, love, and play when no one has the time. It addresses the forces in modern life that have cut into our family and leisure time, and offers strategies for creating a healthier balance.

An e-book you can read right online offering advice for developing work-life balance utilizing a concept called flexstyles is CEO of Me: Creating Life That Works in the Flexible Job Age.

A July 8, Chronicle of Higher Education article titled “Take your time” examines the increasing difficulties of maintaining a healthy work-life balance for both faculty and students in the current sped-up college environment. You can read the full-text of the article through the library’s EBSCO subscription database.

If you’d rather watch than read, the library’s streaming video database Films on Demand includes the title Work-Life Balance: Success and Happiness in an Always-Connected World. It covers work-life balance, school-life balance, taking control of situations as much as allowed, time management, and maintaining focus. It’s well worth 30 minutes of your life to view.

Finally, a common strategy for achieving balance and reducing stress is to develop hobbies to tune your mind away from work, and the Madison College Libraries can help. Our collections include lifelong learning and personal enrichment material.

In October we are launching a new Creator Studio space for you to explore new technologies and interests. Also in October you can join the libraries in a Book Club discussion of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower http://libguides.madisoncollege.edu/bookclub.