A Day in the Life of a Public Librarian…Wednesday

Wednesdays are my late days.  My reference shift is 6-9pm and I have to lock up the library.  It is nice because I don’t have to get up at 6:15am, but odd in the fact that I get home after 10pm and eat dinner then (or a form of dinner).

When I got to work today, I was met by another huge pile of holds.  This week has been crazy with holds.  Here is a picture of the holds going out tomorrow.  This has just been since Monday afternoon – 6 boxes and 2 bags of materials to be sent out tomorrow morning.  It is certainly going to help ou circulation stats!

After doing my daily ritual of checking the social media sites and updating them, I started to review the Library Journal that was sitting in my mailbox.  There was an interesting article on the use of Google Wave in libraries.  I have Google Wave and think there are a lot of potential uses for this including e-mail/IM reference.  One of the best hints the article gave was a search string to find public waves dealing with libraries.  In the search box type (without the “” marks): “with:public title:library | title:libraries”.

I also ordered some books in that were listed in publication.  I just took over the Biography collection and I ordered quite a few biographies.  I also received some extra money this year to update our medical section and I ordered some new books for that section also.

Also in LJ there were some web sites that pertained to gaming.  I received the green light this year to start a gaming collection, so I started to review the web sites that had some free games on them.  I didn’t like quite a few of them, so it was good that I reviewed them before I put them up as recommended web sites (just because it is in LJ doesn’t always mean it is golden!)

While on the reference desk tonight my most interesting question was “how do I make gravy.”  My method usually involves opening a jar from the supermarket, but I had a feeling that was not what the patron want! 

Here is a picture of some of the brochures that I make (including The Lost Symbol one that I finished yesterday).

Today was also National Chocolate Cake day.  I made sure that all our Facebook and Twitter followers knew that.  I usually share any interesting holidays and facts with our followers as well as a word of the day.  Patrons seem to enjoy the word of the day quite a bit.

Well, I have to start again tomorrow at 9am, which means I have to get up at 6:15am.  My reference shift tomorrow is from 9-12:30pm and I have to receive the delivery, so I will have a busy morning.  I better get to bed!

My Presentation on February 7, 2010

A Day in the Life of a Public Librarian…Tuesday

Let me start this post by saying I blame Jame Patterson for my poor performance on the Jeopardy online test tonight.  There was a question on I, Alex Cross which is a popular book right now.  I could picture the cover of the book but not the author.  The Jeopardy test is 50 questions long and around question 45 I remembered James Patterson, but not only was it too late to answer the question – the fact that I was frustrated about that screwed up my concentration for the rest of the test.

On the way to work this morning I finished The Lost Symbol. I have to say it was not my favorite Dan Brown novel and I felt it was bit too long; however it does have the potential to spark people’s interest in some topics that maybe they have never thought about.

The first thing I did this morning was work on holds that were pulled last night.  Our hold shelf is getting full and we just sent out a shipment on Monday.  School is back and session and it is cold outside – I guess books are popular this week!

After holds I went back to my computer and updated our Facebook page and our Twitter page.  I also did my morning search of Twitter to see if anything had been said about the library.  I printed our the Wireless Access Policy Brochures I made yesterday and put them on display at the Reference Desk.  When I came back to my office there was a pile of material on my desk just waiting for me.

The pile on my desk represents the diversity of a public librarian’s life.  There is a book on 19th C. prostitution sitting next to “The Catholic Wold Report” on my desk.  After I went through the pile and made it more manageable, I decided to go on to my e-mail.

In my e-mail was a message from the director of a library in a neighboring town.  I am doing a presentation there on February 7th and she wanted to confirm some details with me and finalize her press release.

I then updated our library blog.  A neighboring county is going to host a traveling exhibit of replica artifacts from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.  Only 40 places throughout the US are going to host this exhibit and this town happens to be one of the lucky few!

We are looking at new a new Checkpoint system and today I went over some quotes for the different systems .

I was running in to some problems trying to find the exact subjects I wanted using our Sirsi system, so I decided to go into the 200s and look for books that would fit into my reading list for The Lost Symbol. I found exactly what I was looking for and some books I want to read just for myself!

I finished the reading list brochure this afternoon and left around 5:02pm.

On a side note, our Big Read materials came in.  This year we are doing My Antonia by Willa Cather.

A Day in the Life of a Public Librarian…Monday

This is my first year participating in Library Day in the Life.

I got to work at about 9:45am.  On Mondays my shift on the Reference Desk was from 3-6, so I start at 10.

When I walked in the door, I was greeted by books from the delivery.  Our library is co central in our system.  The truck comes on Mondays and Thursdays.  We send out boxes of books/dvds/audio books/CDs to other libraries in the system and we receive ones that our patrons have requested from other libraries in and out of our system.  I have to check the books in before the patrons are called to tell them they are in our library.

After  I was finished with that, I updated the library’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.  I also did a quick search on Twitter to see if there have been any mentions about the library.

I am the head of the Tech Committee and we have been working on a new Wireless Access Policy.  The policy was approved by the Board of Directors last week and I am now working on brochures that we can hand out to those using our wireless network.  Trying to make a policy brochure look appealing to the eye is easier than it sounds.

The librarian on the Reference Desk needed a break.  One of the most popular questions these days at the Reference Desk is “What tax form do I need for…”

After that I went to lunch. On lunch I tend to either read novels or articles.  Today I read an article on Windows 7.  I have offered classes in the past and I want to offer more this year on different computer topics.  I do not have Windows 7 and I am trying to see how different this new OS is from XP and Vista.  I have several computers at home (I am a techie geek) with XP, Vista, OSX (Snow Leopard), and Linux.  I do not have Windows 7 yet and I haven’t been able to play with it, other than at Best Buy while shooing salesmen away .

I have a long commute to work (1 hour and 15 mins).  I use this time to keep up with fiction by listening to audio books.  I am almost finished with The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.  I create read a likes and pathfinders for the library.  My latest idea was to create a list of non fiction resources we have that would pertain to what goes on in The Lost Symbol. When I came back from work, I started to work on that.  I found books on Freemasonry, Rosacrucians, secret societies, and symbology.  I put the list aside at about 2:30pm to go work on holds for about a 1/2 hour before I went on the Reference Desk.

The 3-6 shift on the Reference Desk is always a busy one.  We are near the high school and many students come to the library after school to do their homework, work on the computers, or get tutored.  One of the most interesting reference questions of the day was “What is the conversion rate of Malaysian Ringgit to US Dollar?”

I ended the day by reading an article on the uses of foursquare with the library and I updated the library’s information on Foursquare.

I left work at about 6:20pm.  Tomorrow at 9am it all starts again!

A Change Is Gonna Come: Emerging Technology Trends for Librarians

10/17/2009 – NYLA Conference – Niagara Falls, NY

LISHost – another Blake Carver site (He does LIS News)

Retro future blog – shows predictions from the 1950s

Top 5 things for 2009 (from Read, Write Web):

1. Structured data – XML tags define and describe the data – not OS or device dependent. Tags are created in English. Most website today are made in XHTML. Data is in XML and style is in CSS. Such things as APA and MARC records are structured data – not really a new thing to librarians. Structured data makes it that the whole web could eventually be treated as a database.

2. Real Time Web – Running a search and finding results from last 5 seconds, etc. (Check out Google flu: http://www.google.org/flutrends/).

3. Personalization – Syracuse University just made “Mybrary” (https://library.syr.edu/mybrary/). APML – take your interests and code. (Attention Profiling Markup Language http://apml.areyoupayingattention.com/).

4. Augmented Reality – GPS, Direction you are facing, picture recognition – tells you what that place is. (check out layar website: http://layar.com/) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b64_16K2e08&feature=player_embedded ) A tour guide is analog augmented reality.

5. Internet of things – Identifying image (such as a bar code) and bring back information about the thing. iPhone has an application that you can pick up a book at Barnes and Noble and take a picture of the cover and find out the different prices of the book at competitors. (Explanation of “Internet of Things”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things)

Elie Wiesel

On July 27, 2009, I attended Library Day at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, NY.  The main speaker for that day was Elie Wiesel.  I have admired this gentleman since I was in middle school.  This was an awesome honor for me to attend lectures by him and to meet him in person.  Bus loads of people came from all around (e.g. Cleveland) to hear Elie Wiesel speak.  Here are my notes from the day at Chautauqua.

In 1986 Mr. Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mr. Wiesel’s lecture focused on the question of “what makes us moral?”

• God has no explanations to give.  God gives the law – man tries to explain.
• What makes us immoral?  When I see someone hungry and do not feed them.  To be indifferent to someone else’s hunger (hunger is a metaphor).

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, is the number one Holocaust denier.  He states that the Holocaust never happened but said he wants it to happen with nuclear weapons.  He wants to wipe out Israel.

People suffer not only from what is inflicted on them but the feeling that they are alone.

Anti-semitism is the oldest group prejudice in history.  It preceded the Exile.  Roman philosophers have anti-semitic outbursts.

The world has not learned from Auschwitz.  If it had, there would have been no Cambodia, Bosnia, or Darfur.

Many Einzatsgruppen (SS Special units) had college degrees and some even had doctoral degrees in things such as Theology and Arts.

Ancient times when an Emperor was killed/died – all laws that Emperor enacted were abolished.  Jewish tradition that does not exist – the Law is the law.  The Law is above politics – the Law is above everything else.

Nazi Germany believed what they were doing was moral.  Doing what they were doing for the sake of humanity – not just Germany.

You need to always remain true to yourself.

President G.W. Bush asked Elie if he thought invading Iraq was moral before the invasion.  He told Bush it would not be a just war that negotiations and sanctions should be used.

To Mr. Wiesel the only just war was on the side of the Allies during World War II (this is something I always said when I studied just war theory).

A moral society takes care of its children and its elderly.  In the US we do not care enough for the elderly.  In other parts of the world children are the first victims.

In an immoral society the government rewrites history.

“Romeo & Juliet” is not a book about love.  It is about HATRED.  Two families hated each other so much that the children paid.

In an immoral society – your right to question is taken away.

*Whoever kills – kills his brother*

*God is in everything – even in atheism*

Job’s mistake was that he said he was good.  Only God can make that determination.

Job 38 – the book changes.  The problem up until that point was not God’s injustice, but his apparent indifference.  Once God speaks, Job knows God is not indifferent.

Morally we are obligated to respect the otherness of the other.  We must respect life – PERIOD.  Suffering inflicted by us or anyone else is immoral.

*Sign petitions to the government about what is going on in Darfur.  Let the people know that people are with them*

In Jewish tradition – forgiveness can be given only when someone asks.  If someone who beat him in the camps came up and asked him for forgiveness, he would probably give it.  He can speak only for himself and not anyone else.

Question about the “God on the Gallows” quotation in Night – When the killers killed the Jews – they also were trying to kill God.

Whatever you do in life, think higher and feel deeper.

• No human being is alone.  God alone is alone.
• Don’t relax – enjoy every moment of your life and be sensitive to others.
• Interfaith understanding is critical to us today.
• Religion is like money – you can do good with money or you can do bad with it.

The curse of the beginning of this century is suicide terrorism.

People who kill in the name of their god make their god and accomplice to murder.

To forget victims is to kill them a second time.

We don’t pay enough attention to hatred.  Hatred is like a contagious cancer.

“Trust more the enemies threats that the friends promises.”

Deep down Mr. Wiesel believes in the humanity of human beings.

Elie Wiesel did not want to live after his father died in the camp.  Does not know why he survived after that.  Didn’t have the will to live.

Mr. Wiesel never doubted God’s existence – just his presence.

A woman from Sri Lanka stood up and thanked Mr. Wiesel for speaking out about the problems in Sri Lanka.  She wakes up each day (she now lives in PA) wondering why she was spared the prison camps yet friends are in the camps.

Mr. Wiesel signed my copies of “Night” and “The Trial of God”.  I was so touched by the whole day, my soul feels as if it has been changed.  I believe what I felt after spending a day listening to him has to be similar to what one felt after listening to Ghandi.

Elie Wiesel and I

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (NY: Canongate, 2005. 199 pages)

This is a retelling of the myth of Penelope and Odysseus from Penelope’s point of view.  Atwood draws on other material (other than the Odyssey) to fill in the details of Penelope’s life we do not hear from Homer.  Atwood also includes a second story line regarding the 12 hanged maids and what lead to their hangings.

When this book opens we are joined by Penelope who is now in the realm of the dead.  She recounts what “really happened” while Odysseyus was gone – dispelling the rumors that have been spread for years.  She also tells how the twelve maids who were killed were in fact her co conspirators in warding off potential suitors. 

This book is good for those familiar with the Odyssey, but would be confusing for those who are not.

RSS Feeds for Libraries@ WNYLRC 6/09/2009

Jaclyn McKewan, MLS

Special Projects Libraran

• RSS – Really Simple Syndication – written in XML – just a format for the content.
• RSS can be used for anything that is frequently updated.
• Saves time – no need to check multiple sites.
• Ebay actually has a feed on your search results.
• Some sites, like Google News, will have an RSS feed on a certain topic.
• Online readers:  Google Reader & Bloglines.
• Desktop readers: Firefox Live Bookmarks, Thunderbird, FeedDemon.
• Use iGoogle or My Yahoo to get your RSS feeds.
• Applications on Facebook to incorporate RSS.
• Can import your blog postings to your Facebook page under Notes section.
• Can subscribe to Delicious feed as an RSS.
• Can also get updates for Flickr searches in RSS feed.
• Feeds for Webpages without RSS:  Page2RSS & Feedity – put a page in one of these and then past that feed into a reader.
• Mashups/Feedmixers – Yahoo Pipes & Feed Informer.

• Feed2JS – put RSS on your webpage.  Tell it what feed you want and it comes back with Javascript to paste into the webpage.
• Use Delicious account to update the recommended websites – then subscribe as an RSS feed.
• ???RSS feed from the catalog for new books and searches – Hennepin County Library example.
• Post the latest blog post on the library’s webpage through an RSS feed.  Use Feed2JS.
• Google calendars are capable of RSS feeds.  Go to calendar details, click on XML box next to calendar address.  Put “?orderby=starttime&sortorder=ascending&futureevents=true” at the end of the feed to show events in ascending order and all in the future.
• Desktop feedreader – Rainmeter from Google
• Podcast can be subscribed to with RSS feeders.  Right click on the source and save as an MP3 file.

Roundtable Discussion with NYLA President Josh Cohen on 6/9/2009 @WNYLRC

• Barnes and Noble offers training for libraries on displays and merchandising.

• 10% off coupons at Barnes and Nobles for library fund raisers

• Mount Laurel New Jersey Extreme Library Makeover – article with pictures: http://library.ucsc.edu/~machlis/feltonlibraryfriends/designarticles/bernstein.pdf

• Marketing!!!! Change displays with the news.

• How do we connect our value to the funding? Must market ourselves and our value.

• Information Literacy to promote databases. Patrons tend not to use databases. They would rather not use it over Google.

• Use the word journal instead of online databases – less intimidating – “Journal article” more used term in homework assignments.

• How do we show our value to the public? What can we do to make public aware that the “free” services are not really free? And promote the value of the time we are saving them by being trained professionals who know how to search and locate things? Perception that the library is free – need to show the value or money the patron saved by using the library.

• Devil Advocate’s Thought (not mine): Drop the Electronic databases for the public and just give access to the librarians. Would this save us money?

• We as a profession need a better definition of what we do.

• Need to do outreach – go out to other places and show what we have.

• $2.5 million spent by NYS on the NOVEL database

• No one wants to know how to find things – they just want it.

• Biggest growing customer bases in Public Libraries according to a Pew survey is 18-25 year olds.

• Do we have a link on our OPAC to DVDs? Is there anywhere that shows that we have DVDs and CDs other than the material designation? Patrons should be able to find those materials easily.

• NYLA Organizational membership

• Friends Group Organizational Membership

• Votes are won every day at the Reference and Circ desks.

• Target audience has to become not just our public but the administrators, etc.

• Education is not the magic bullet

• Must act like professionals for people to know we are professionals. Must constantly let people know that we are professionals.

• People must repeat something 7 times in order to learn things.

• With OPAC – what attracts your eye – what makes you go to a display? Make that work for the library. Gen X and Millenials have a different perception as to what design should look from Baby Boomers. Boomers want something that looks like a print copy but Gen X and Younger are used to web design. They do not like a lot of white space.

• Send out a consistent message across the board.

• There needs to be a consciousness to let people know the value of what we have just done for them. You need to be consistent in the way you put it out there. Constant repetition to your constituents.

• Look at patron expectations over the past year and a half and anticipate what will be needed in the next 6 months.

• Need to develop a pit bull mentality toward the budgets in NY.

• Part of our job as librarians is lobbying.

• Need to ask for release time to go lobby in Albany.

• Libraries getting 11% below what they are suppose to be getting. CCDA money cut by 8%.

•NYLA  just contracted with NYSUT for lobbying.

My Philosophy of Librarianship

In July of 2006, I was informed that my teaching position in a local parochial school was being cut. This event, while unfortunate, made me take a good look at my life. It was at this time that I started to assess what I liked and disliked about teaching and what I felt was in my future. After much assessment, I decided that a change of careers, although risky, might be the better path to take for my future happiness.

Why did I feel that a Master’s of Library and Information Science was part of my future? I felt that this degree was a good it for my interests, personality, and talents along with the skills and education I had already acquired. After reading the article entitled “Professional Character: The Personality of the Future Information Workforce” (Goulding 2000), I was convinced that I had made the right decision. I am intellectually curious, creative, and I love to learn. I also feel that I am an outgoing and service oriented person. I feel that I could excel at being a librarian because the opportunities presented me would feed my curiosity and allow my creativity to bloom. I enjoy helping others to learn new things and I believe that the freedom from grading would be liberating. As a librarian, I will be able to help people acquire the knowledge that they want and need without the traditional confines of classroom teaching.

One of the dimensions of teaching I liked was that every day was different. Unlike a factory job where I would know exactly what was going to be happening, there is always a sense of adventure in a job that brings new challenges and rewards each day. I felt that a job as a librarian would provide that same sense of adventure. I believe that libraries are very important. America today seems to be devaluing intellect and education. I value human knowledge and the advancement of society through that knowledge. I believe we must preserve that knowledge while researching new possibilities and embracing new ideas. We must also value opposing points of view, weighing each argument and making an informed decision on our own – not just following what popular opinion believes. I also believe in the First Amendment and protecting the freedoms provided by that amendment. In today’s society, I feel that these freedoms are being threatened and it is the responsibility of an educated public to fight against this and to also fight against the bigotry that comes along with opinions being given to us instead of making well-informed ones on our own. I feel that it is the librarian who should be the instrument by which people can connect to multiple viewpoints so the population can analyze these viewpoints for themselves.

The way that we look at libraries is changing. No longer is the library just the old building full of musty, dusty books. Current digital tools are enhancing the traditional modes of research and changing our ideas of libraries. I want to be a part of this change. Some critics say that these digital tools are going to make librarians obsolete. I disagree. In his article “10 Reasons Why the Internet is No Substitute for a Library,” Mark Herring (2001) makes some valid points that I agree with. He points out that the Internet is a vast wealth of information, but that information is “uncataloged” and people who are adept at sorting this information are still needed (Herring 2001). If one does not know how to look up the information on the Web correctly, one can become either discouraged or, I think even worse, misinformed about something because of the vast amount of information and opinions out there. Again, in his article, Herring points out that “quality control does not exist” on the Internet (2001). I would like to be one of the people who can help those doing research to use all of this technology to their benefit.

I feel that librarians not only need to embrace technology, but they should also start looking at libraries as though they were a traditional business. Much of the popularity of the internet is the fact that one can access it at any time. Barbara Baruth (2003) points out in her article “Missing Pieces that Fill in The Academic Library Puzzle: Cutting-Edge Technology Can Assure Our Place in the Big Picture,” librarians have to become more sensitive to the needs of the people they are serving. Most people’s schedules these days do not fit into the traditional hours that a library is open. Librarians need to recognize that and be more flexible in their hours. As Ms. Baruth states: “[Librarians] need to be more sensitive to the needs of young adult students, whose amazing biorhythms and underdeveloped project planning ability have always propelled them to crave reference help late at night or on the weekend (Baruth 2003).” She also goes on to point out the number of nontraditional students is on the increase and these students have unique needs between their job and family commitments (Baruth 2003). I feel that the years I have spent in various customer service oriented jobs will help me be responsive to patrons needs.

My career goal is to contribute to a literate worldwide society. I feel that the resources we are fortunate enough to have should be available to all, whether on the East Side of Buffalo or in East Timor. As stated in her article “Can Librarians Help to Overcome the Social Barriers to Access?” Barbara Hull (2001) states that the digitization of information is increasing the split between the upper and lower classes. I feel that it is the role of the modern librarian to help bridge this gap. I feel that today’s librarian must embrace technology in order to serve the public to the best of his or her ability. With the rising popularity of online degrees and research and the shrinking of the world through this same technology, I feel that it is the duty of the librarian to educate people in the resources available while providing services and resources for the public not only in the traditional library setting, but also in electronic form.

I believe that the librarian is an essential part of the future of the world and of the human race. I feel that I can bring passion, flexibility, and worldly experience to the librarian profession. I have traveled and experienced many different points of view. As a result of this, I fully understand the great gift that we have in our access to knowledge and our freedom to express ourselves and I want to protect this gift. I am excited about this new direction my life is taking and I am dedicated to being the best librarian I can be.

References

Baruth, B. (2003). Missing Pieces that Fill in the Academic Library Puzzle: Cutting-Edge Technology Can Assure Our Place in the Big Picture. American Libraries 33(6), 58-60, 62-63.

Goulding, A.; Bromham, B.; Hannabuss, S.; Cramer, D. (2000). Professional Characters: The Personality of the Future Information Workforce. Education for Information 18(1), 7-31.

Herring, M.Y. (2001). 10 Reasons the Internet is No Substitute for a Library. American Libraries 32(4), 76-78.

Hull, B. (2001). Can Librarians Help to Overcome the Social Barriers to Access? New Library World 102(10), 382-388.