Sunday, June 24, 2012

News from the other side

The Library starship Heart of Gold has set down in it's new port of call and it is good.

With the exception of a few boxes and small items still left in my trunk, I've finished moving. The aforementioned moving party/book sale of greatness/birthday madness/medical fun has now ended and I can finally breathe a bit. It being the end of the month, and a moving month at that, my checkbook cannot say the same. But c'est la vie.

It seems like forever since I've worked at my library. I only get one day a week there, working at the reference desk. But it is always the highlight of my work week. Today I helped patrons with computer problems and quandaries accessing the library's Special Collection room.

My favorite part was trying to find a book for a patron about the Lincoln County War that is not all about Billie the Kid. She originally approached the Information desk requesting the location of a biography of Billie the Kid, because sadly our library does not seem to own the only book I could find on the war itself. Our Biographies are shelved as an item type rather than within Dewey. So, all the call numbers start with B and then the name of the subject of the biography (i.e. B Newton, Sir Isaac or B Mercury, Freddy). The patron did not know this. But the interesting part was that this biography was listed under B Billy the Kid, prompting a discussion of both taxonomy and aliases.

It turns out that the patron is a voracious reader, but like many of us she had little in the way of resources for Suggested Reading. I offered to show her some book lists, but she had already seen most of them. NoveList was new to her though. So I had a fun time showing her, and her father the Read-Alikes section and Sort By options. They were both thrilled. But a stern discussion over home internet access ensued. I offered them passes for the library computers, but it seemed to be the principle of the thing.

I was also able to introduce her to both LibraryThing and Goodreads. I told her that for her purposes these services could act like Facebook for book lovers. She asked if the members of the sites were snooty. She was nervous they would make fun of her for her taste in books. I told her that, while there are snooty people everywhere, the sites work to link readers with similar tastes in literature. They provide book suggestions based on what members are reading and what other members reading the same books also like, among other services. So, snootiness should be kept to a minimum. I really liked this patron. It was one of those interactions that makes up for every patron complaining about too little time on the computers, or wanting others to be quiet.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Local Promotion in the Library

I've been seeing some really interesting things around the blogosphere lately about how public libraries promote local artists. My favorite example of this was this post on librarian.net regarding Iowa City Public Library's Local Music Project. This seems to me like an awesome idea for promoting local musicians and I will be suggesting it to the higher-ups at my library. There has been a renewed push for programs that foster community ties. And what better way for the library to show it's support for the arts and the public than to connect the two through public music licensing?

I minored in film production and film studies in college and I'm personally acquainted with a lot of local film makers in my city. Note: this is a "Toot their horn, not my own" comment. I know that sounds dirty... but go with me on this one. I also work at the Central branch of a good-sized public library system, and Central has a special collection dedicated to city-county history. Ah, the plot thickens.

They accept books and films from artists who either are local, or published/filmed locally. I'm trying to get several of my friends to donate DVDs and print copies of their work to the library. I'm attempting to find out from the selectors, if they donate to the special collection, if it would enable them to donate to the circulating collection. Thus, they would hopefully be able to do some promotion through the library. I have visions of themed displays of local movies and books dancing through my head. But, that involves a little bit of coordination, so we'll see how things shake out. Local horror movies, anyone?

Thursday, June 7, 2012

3 Cool New-to-Me Library Technologies

I've been trolling the library blogs lately, in an attempt to make my Google Reader account into something other than a way to pass time in between tech support calls. I now have the better part of 100 subscriptions, most of which are job search feeds, and library blogs.

This endeavor has yielded the following results that made me curious to really excited.

1) Mousercise - A tool for teaching basic mouse skills. Excellent for introductory computer classes taught in libraries. (Found on: librarian.net) Rating ~ Wicked useful...and surprisingly fun.

2) Evernote - A personal content management tool. It allows you to collect articles, clips, photos, etc. for later reference or use. (Found on: Librarian by Day) Rating ~ I just downloaded it. More reviews to come.

3) unglue.it - A Crowd funding campaign site with a mission of crowd-sourcing funds to reimburse publishers and authors in an effort to provide free public licenses to E-books. (Found on: No Shelf Required)
Rating ~ Intriguing, and a wonderful idea. But it's new, so I look forward to watching its development.


I love bedlam in June... how about you?

Okay, I may have overextended myself this month...just a little.

My birthday is coming up, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it coincides with my city's annual LGBT pride festival/parade. Here I am thinking "Awesome! I've been out-of-town at Library School for two years. I haven't been able to go. Now it's on my birthday." Sweet! So I started making plans to go, which immediately conflicted with my partner J's grand plan to surprise me with an extravagant theme park vacation.

Number 1, I love J. So I felt bad that I had to turn him down. Because, hey, it is an awesome gesture! But I have not been able to go to this event that I love in years. Number 2, I am incredibly cheap. So the idea of anybody spending that kind of money to take me on a getaway, romantic or not, practically makes me break-out in hives.

And while he is the most supportive, wonderful man you will ever meet, J is also a straight man in the mid-west. So his perspective on the LGBT community is, in Obama-esque terms, evolving. I invited him to come, but told him I understood if he did not want to. He made work plans that will net him a good paycheck, but leave him out of most of the day's festivities. We compromised and he took the day before off so we can do romantic things, like go to a drive-in movie, and eat at my favorite Indian restaurant that is too spicy for his taste.

I also offered to work the booth that my library has setup at the pride festival. Mixing 2 things that I love. This will leave the friend that I offered a ride to, who has never attended before, alone with either my mother or friends that I'm meeting there for about 2 hours. But they are all adults, so let them figure it out, right?

Because J is the most wonderful man you will ever meet, I naturally decided to move in with him. This will be just a week after my birthday. So, a little over a week from today. I have not packed a thing. My sister is in the same boat. though. So I don't feel so bad. She is moving on my birthday, while my moving day falls on hers. Then, J's sister will be moving the week after. Fun with moving vans all month.

There is also a library booksale and a secondhand bookstore clearance extravaganza at the State Fairgrounds to look forward to. My moving month pocketbook tells me I should not even walk through the doors for either event. But my book lust is so rampant, that I am budgeting money and boxes for both.

Top that off with my quest to expand the hours I work at the library (shrinking my hours at my "pays the bills" job), and I'm losing hope of ever completing my summer reading list. I also have a minor medical proceedure scheduled somewhere in the middle that I am trying not to think about. But, c'est la vie. Life is too hectic for regrets right now.


Introduction ...of sorts.

I will be up front in saying that my past attempts at blogging have been...less than successful. I started an online diary once, but I was never very good at writing in my own physical diary. Another time, I tried to start one of those "Hey look at all the people writing blogs. I should write a blog!" blogs. And of course, those never workout well.

Those were a while ago. So, I figure I should give it another shot. I've got to get back on the horse, right? This time, I hope to treat it as a writing exercise peppered with some interesting library tidbits, and occasional life events interspersed. We'll see how that works.

I am trying to make an effort at a web presence. But I warn anybody with the urge to read this thing, that my web presence is probably a lot like my in-person presence...goofy with a partial chance of "oh look...a chicken." So..good then...you've been warned.