After Library School

50th anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time

2012-01-19T13:56:00.003-05:00

Aside from Amazon marketing the "5oth anniversary edition" of Madeleine L'Engle's Newbery award winner A Wrinkle in Time, there are several festivities in the publishing/library world. Most notably, see Betsy Bird's blog entry Fifty Years is Just a Wrinkle in Time.

Go reread this classic (or try it for the first time) in celebration!

And yes, I still have those other planned posts...maybe someday?

Yep....

2011-11-18T21:30:00.002-05:00

Totally didn't get around to a post this week. Hopefully early next week. Also just saw that the pictures for Pat the Bunny and Pat the Cat didn't come through, so I'll try to fix that next week, too.

Sigh.

Why Pat the Bunny is way better than Pat the Cat

2011-11-08T20:18:00.014-05:00

In an effort to get some blog posts going, I'm starting a series on my random literary opinions. I've got 3 literary opinions lined up (today's, one on Harry Potter characters, and one about school stories); hopefully I'll come up with 2 more to make it a decent-length series. It may go without saying that these are opinions about children's books, but now I've said it, so there should be no confusion. The hope is to write one a week, but it'll be a victory if that actually gets done.

Now on to today's topic...

I'm going to assume that most readers have at least heard of Pat the Bunny, by Dorothy Kunhardt. Here's what it looks like:

This is a classic kids' book (originally published in 1940) and it's the ancestor of today's board books. It's interactive, with a soft bunny, nice-smelling flowers, a peek-a-boo page, a mirror, and other activities on each page. The activities are perfect for older babies/younger toddlers--my older girl (M.) can do everything except read the little book that makes up one of the activities, but for that, she turns the pages, just like she does in real books. She especially loves to say "bye bye" at the end. My three year old son still likes the book, too. Most importantly, M. has not yet destroyed the book. This is saying something, as she is right in the "destroy everything" phase of wanting to be independent but not quite getting the hang of it, and she's a little rougher in this stage than N. was. The book is not as sturdy as today's board books, but it's sturdy enough to stand up to a one-and-a-half year old. This is pretty important.

Moving on to Pat the Cat. This one was made by Kunhardt's daughter, and it first came out in 1984.

I have to say that it was a nice idea, and some parts of it are downright nifty. My favorite (and N.'s) is a sequence activity over 2 pages. First, you get money (pretend of course) out of the ATM (which I didn't realize existed in 1984--so I did learn something!), then you put it in Daddy's wallet on the next page. The two pages are designed so that, by putting the money in Daddy's wallet, it's positioned back in the ATM for the next read-through. This is pretty clever (says the girl who never ever ever solves the mystery before the story detective). However, there are some serious problems with Pat the Cat:

The activities vary in difficulty, and some of them are too difficult even for a 3 year old. Most notably among these is the squeaky toy at the end--I even have trouble getting it to squeak (you have to push it just the right way), and none of the kids (well, the 3 month old hasn't tried yet) can do it. This wouldn't be quite such an issue if it wasn't following in the footsteps of a book specifically aimed at babies.
Not all of the activities are "real." This may not be quite fair--the flowers in Pat the Bunny aren't real, either, but there is a real smell. What I mean by real is that you actually manipulate something--you really smell or touch or see what you are doing. Pat the Cat has one where you just pretend to write (with a paper pencil--no marks can be made), and I'm guessing the smell activity (since it's scratch and sniff) is going to run out eventually, too.
As you probably guessed, my biggest problem is with durability. This was a baby gift for little L. and, sadly, M. has already ripped one of the pages to pieces (I hope to fix it with book tape--I'm getting quite a pile of "books to fix"--but she's had access to this one for a much shorter time than Pat the Bunny). She's also almost lost the pretend money several times. Additionally, the hard-t0-squeak squeaky bear at the back bends the back cover when it finally does squeak.

Overall, while I don't hit 30 until early next year, I have to summon my inner geezer for these two books: they just don't make them like they used to! If you are looking for a fun interactive book for babies, go with the original Pat the Bunny. I'd say browse the others in the bookstore, but they tend to come shrink wrapped, so you'll have to find a friend who's kids have already ripped them! (You are welcome to come read mine, as long as you don't lose the fake money.)

I should mention that there are, of course, a whole host of good books for babies these days, in the form of board books or cloth books, but most of them aren't designed to be interactive (at least beyond the chewing on books that is necessary to the baby-book experience).

That's all for this week's literary opinion (my, isn't this high-brow)! We'll see if I make it back next week!

Where I've been...

2011-10-07T14:01:00.006-04:00

Well, if anyone was reading this before, I don't blame you for givingit up recently, since there hasn't been a post since April!

Since then, I've put my house on the market, bought another house, moved (these three really happened due more to my husband's efforts than mine, especially the actual moving!), had a baby, bought a new car, and quit my job. It's been a busy summer.

I can't make excuses about not posting--mostly it was due to lack of effort and energy. However, since our life changes required a little bit more discretion this time around (I wasn't sure about going back to my job, as I was with the last baby), I couldn't post about work-life issues and maternity leave in the same way as I had in the past. I did indeed decide to quit, and with my husband starting a doctoral program, it seems to be the right decision. I'm enjoying being a full-time mom for now, although there's definitely an all-new balancing act to learn with a third baby in the mix.

I don't want to entirely get out of touch with the library world, of course, and I'm toying with the idea of trying a more kid-lit focused blog in the near future. While I play around with the idea and read up in the current kid-lit blogosphere, here are a couple recent reviews from my Goodreads account:

The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I spent over half of The Mostly True Story of Jack waiting to find out when I was going to learn out what was really going on in Hazelwood, and once I got to the climax of the book, I still wasn't sure. I think Barnhill has a good sense of the rules of her magic, but I never got that same sense. This would be my main criticism of the book. For example, I never understood quite what the Avery men got out of making deals with the evil

"Lady"--even those callous enough not to care about the price they had to pay didn't seem to gain enough to make it worthwhile. They gained the same kind of power in the town that Potter had in the town from It's a Wonderful Life, but it didn't seem like the kind of power that would be enhanced by magic.

My other criticism is with the emotional ties--while the reader (who has the benefit of seeing scenes with other characters where Jack is not present) can tell that Clive, Anders, and Wendy are good guys, it seems to take Jack over half the book to come to that conclusion. Once he does, the action is going full-steam, and I find it hard to believe that he has as much time to get to know and love them as he does at the end.
Despite those criticisms, the book was an enjoyable read. I particularly like that even the bad guy has a sympathetic side. I would have liked to learn more about what happens to Mr. Perkins (a crony of the Avery's)--he seemed poised to make a moral turnaround.
Finally, the book ended well but not completely happily--this was impressively done, even more so given that it's a children's book (which I think makes such an ending harder).

Madeline's Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually don't like the pictures in this one quite as well as in the first Madeline, but this is the one that won the Caldecott. Some of the line drawings aren't as beautiful as the Parisian landscapes Bemelmans usually does, although the story (a dog rescues Madeline and then comes to live at the school) is just as charming. One "problem" I've noticed is the difficulty of identifying Madeline (in all his books) in pictures of the whole group--her hair does not always appear as red (because not all the pictures are full color) and it's sometimes straight, sometimes wavy. Even her bed seems to change positions occasionally! Doe

sn't detract from the fun of the books for the most part, but it does make it hard to point her out to an inquisitive 3 year old when he asks which one she is.

View all my reviews

Hope everyone is having a great fall!

Late, late, late POC update

2011-04-20T00:05:00.006-04:00

Yes, this is an update on the Person of Color Challenge 2010. I'm very, very late. Blog updating has just completely fallen off my radar recently, so I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things.

This challenge involved coming up with a list of books that focused on characters of color and trying to read all of them last year. I pretty much failed miserably. Here's my original post at the start of the challenge. Below are the links to the rest of the posts from the challenge:

Out of my original list of 12 books to read, I read 4 and a half. That's not so good. I did get an additional POC book out of The Red Pyramid, which was not on my initial list, and I also read the sequel to Chains, Forge, which I loved. Oh, and I started La femme sans sépulture, which I have enjoyed so far, but put aside for easier reading in English.

As I predicted, the "adult" books took me quite a lot longer to read than my normal YA/children's fare, and I have basically abandoned All Aunt Hagar's Children, which was super depressing. I still intend to pick it up and finish it, but who knows.

A lot of the books on my list fell into my personal "serious" reading category (adult, often classics, anything in French falls into this category), which I can usually only tackle one at a time, often with long breaks in between, and I think this contributed to not getting further through my list. I picked up several non-POC "serious" books throughout the year (a couple theology books, since my husband is in divinity school, and an Anthony Trollope novel, which took from late November to early January to plow through). While many of the books on the list remain on my "to read" list, I'm not going to try to finish the list this year--especially not with it being already April, yeep! However, I will try, as I browse children's and YA books, to try to make more effort to choose books with POC protagonists.

Some recent picture book reviews

2011-02-07T00:46:00.003-05:00

Inspired by Katie over at Sharing Soda, I thought I'd put in some picture book reviews. (It gives me an easy blog post, since I'm copying and pasting from Goodreads!) I don't do storytimes regularly in my current job (sigh), but it's been fun to look at picture books based on how our 2 year old son enjoys them.

(These are in reverse reading order, FYI):

Mrs. O'Leary's Cow by Mary Ann Hoberman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't know enough about the song/spin-off that this is based on to really appreciate it, but N. really likes it--there's a cow AND firefighters, so what's not to like?!

Arthur's Underwear: An Arthur Adventure by Marc Brown

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I think it's nice that Brown did an underwear book just because lots of kids asked for one (see the dedication), but I'm not that impressed with the story--although, I guess I wouldn't find it that easy to write a whole story about underwear!
N. thinks it's hilarious, although he doesn't get the dream sequences or the amoeba. The book did inspire the realization of a truism about kids: the difference between a 2 year old and an 8 year old is their opinion on going without pants.

Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Oh, my. I'm not a huge trickster-tale fan, but this was a good one. The original premise (a magic rock that knocks out anyone who comes along and says, "Isn't this a strange moss-covered rock?") takes some getting used to, but both Anansi's tricks on others, and the trick that finally gets him (for now) are really funny. So is the sound effect (KPOM!) with which everyone is knocked out and Janet Stevens' illustrations of huge jungle animals on their backs. Finally, this is a good book for learning attention to detail, as my 2 year old started to notice that Little Bush Deer (who comes into the story about half-way through) was appearing in the pictures all along.
But the real reason I now love this book: I walked in to said 2-year-old's room a little over a week ago, watched him walk around in a circle, look on the floor, say, "Oh, what a strange rock!" then yell "KPOM!" and "fall" down on his back. It was absolutely HILARIOUS.

Arthur's Nose : 25th Anniversary Limited Edition by Marc Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I always thought it a little ironic that the hero of the series that started with Arthur's Nose has had a shrinking nose throughout the years. Still, the classic is good, and most of the immediate characters are recognizable, even to a 2 year old.

Terrific (New York Times Best Illustrated Books by Jon Agee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jon Agee books tend to be hit-or-miss with me, and this one was a hit! A tall tale about a man whose numerous misfortunes (winning a trip to Bermuda, being shipwrecked, finding a talking parrot...) lead to a friendship with the above-mentioned parrot. The title comes from the man's (usually sarcastic) exclamation at each new development.

And to Think That We Thought That We'd Never Be Friends by Mary Ann Hoberman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was of two minds on this one--I liked the verse, and the first couple scenarios (siblings fighting, solved when they decide to share a soda or do something different) had nice messages. As the book went on, though, it got a little too New Age-y for me: if everyone just walks around the world together making lots of noise, we'll all be friends! Or maybe I'm just overly cynical about books that N. is not yet old enough to sit through...

Time to Sleep, Sheep the Sheep! by Mo Willems

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another "Cat the Cat" book, which N. received for Christmas. I especially love this one because of the cute getting-ready-for-bed scenes and the clever line about using the potty. N. especially loves to go around asking, "Checkers, anyone?" (at random intervals).

View all my reviews

2011 Books Waiting to be Read

2011-01-24T12:00:00.001-05:00

Some of the books that I'm most looking forward to reading this year (these are in no particular order):

The Pale Assassin by Patricia Elliott (reading right now)
Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson (reading right now)
The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle by Madeleine L'Engle (have dipped into, and will dip into again soon)
Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde
A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Navigator by Eoin McNamee
The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food and Love by Kristin Kimball
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (2011 Newbery winner)
A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip and Erin Stead (2010 Caldecott winner)
A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters

Some of these were Christmas gifts to me, a few I ordered with a Christmas Amazon gift card, and others are just ones I want to read.

I also hope to continue reading POC books. My next post will sum up my 2010 POC challenge and plans for the future in terms of the POC challenge and other "personal edification" reading projects.

Getting by and The Way We Live Now

2011-01-23T21:33:00.009-05:00

So, it's been almost two months since I last posted. Going back to work has definitely been hectic, so a lot of days are still devoted to getting the bare necessities for keeping the household together done. Paired with Christmas (we mailed our last Christmas cards somewhere between the 7th and 10th of January!) and a cold going around, blogging has fallen by the wayside.

One excuse is that I've spent most of the last two months reading one book: The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. I got interested in reading something by Trollope after reading Stanley Hauerwas' memoir, Hannah's Child, where he mentions being a Trollope fan. Since in my experience, professional theologians who still regularly read fiction are rare, I thought I'd try Trollope out. I'm not sure I quite realized what I was getting into (he's a Victorian novelist--that means long novels!), but I really enjoyed the book and am posting my review at the end of this post.

I'm also about to update my blog list to include two blogs I've decided need to be there:

Shannon Hale's blog Squeetus
The children's lit blog Secrets and Sharing Soda, by the friend of a library school friend

Please check them out!

Ok, here's the review now (which I forgot to include the first time around--hooray for post-posting editing options!):

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Inspired to try out Anthony Trollope by Stanley Hauerwas (who describes himself as a big fan of Trollope in his memoir).

1/6/11 Have just gotten past the 400 page mark and am now sufficiently drawn into the story that I'm eager to read every new chapter, not just the ones that deal with my favorite characters.

1/18/11 Almost there....almost there...

1/23/11 Whew. The Way We Live Now definitely embodies the stereotype of the Victorian novel...it's LONG!! However, when I finished it's 824 pages, I felt like I had spent the time well and enjoyably.

As noted above, I had to get about half-way through before I could really enjoy the full story. I didn't know on starting, but was unsurprised to learn, that the book was published serially, so it makes sense that the story would follow a character for a few chapters, then skip to another character. Once half-way through, however, the different storylines started to weave together more and that made even those chapters that just followed Melmotte (the villain of the story) around interesting.

I liked that Trollope portrayed realistic characters who had plenty of faults--several of them more faults than virtues--but he still managed to make most of them sympathetic. Even Melmotte had some sympathetic moments, but I feel that he richly got what he deserved. I also feel that Trollope didn't cheat by letting characters have sudden changes of heart and character--he would describe their motivations and their feelings, and they stayed true to those.

Most of the characters got happy endings--even a few who didn't quite deserve them. Paul Montague and Hetta Carbury were the central romantic couple, John Crumb and Ruby Ruggles had a somewhat more exciting, yet less tortured happy ending, Roger Carbury did not get the ending he desired but rose to the occasion quite well--only Mrs. Hurtle's fate left me sad. I found the marriage of Georgiana Longstaffe to be too precipitous to be really interesting. Felix Carbury didn't quite get what he deserved (in my opinion, a swift kick in the pants), but was at least prevented from dishonoring any more young ladies or ruining his mother financially. Lady Carbury's happy ending was perhaps not deserved, but satisfying nonetheless. Since I'm a happy ending kind of girl, this is largely what made the novel enjoyable for me!

View all my reviews

Maternity Leave Lessons

2010-11-29T20:35:00.002-05:00

My maternity leave comes to an end tomorrow, so I just want to share a few of the things I learned:

How to darn a sock.
How to hide collard greens in a variety of dishes: lasagna, tacos, stir-fry. For Thanksgiving, Mark actually learned how to cook them in such a way that they are palatable on their own, but I think I'll need another spring/summer of CSA produce before I can say I've learned to "like" collards.
How to make gnocchi.
Baking really is worth the time invested.
The only way not to burn the bottoms of cookies in my oven is to put the top rack on the VERY top and bake them there.
My house is never going to be completely clean. I still have to keep trying, but I need to accept this fact.
Doing one or two loads of laundry every couple of days is more likely to keep the laundry mountain at bay than trying to do it all once a week. This also keeps bibs with baby food from developing mildew.
Washing diapers twice a week is better because you can talk yourself out of washing the covers by hand more often.
Every baby is different.
If your first child sleeps like a champ, don't expect the same with the second child!
The Durham County Public Library is awesome. So is the Durham Life and Science Museum and the free indoor playground at Southpoint Mall.
Checking out a book you didn't plan on is just as satisfying as buying a book you didn't plan to, and a lot cheaper!
Staying home with my kids is super fun and should be taken advantage of whenever possible!

My October Shannon Hale kick

2010-11-07T19:30:00.000-05:00

I had read a couple books by Shannon Hale before now (Princess Academy and Austenland) and enjoyed them both, but didn't really think too much more about them. This month (party inspired by reading Shannon's amazing blog here), I went on a real Shannon Hale kick.

First, I reread Princess Academy.

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Really liked the main character and enjoyed the book, but didn't find it to be life-changing.

Rereading 9/10--enjoying it more after reading some of the author's blog/online information about the writing of the book (and other books!)

10/8/10--Liked it a lot more this time--especially the idea of quarry speech, Miri learning her place in the village, and the relationship between Miri and Katar.

***

Then, I read The Actor and the Housewife.

The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I went into The Actor and the Housewife expecting a fluffy read, and it took me a little while to connect with the characters (I've never been good at the kind of breezy banter that Becky and Felix excel at, so I was a little taken aback at first), but I was surprised by the depth of the book. I spent several days afterwards thinking about friendships, family, and how the two interplay. An excellent read, even if it's more likely to appeal to women than men.

***

Next up, Enna Burning. (Which should really be preceded by The Goose Girl, but this one was in at the library, and the other was not, c'est la vie.)

Enna Burning by Shannon Hale

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a great book, but it took me awhile to get into. I didn't like Enna's brother from the first, so I had a hard time sympathizing with Enna when he started acting weird and then put himself in danger (yes, I know it was her brother, but still), plus I haven't yet read The Goose Girl, so I didn't have the background on Enna's friendship with Isi. I also found Isi's behavior vis-a-vis the wind a little strange and disturbing (wasn't she supposed to have been "happily-ever-after'd in the first book?). I was also prey to the outsider's trap where I could see danger that Enna could not (of COURSE you shouldn't read that parchment that tells you how to make fire, what are you THINKING?), so I was getting pretty annoyed with her by midway through the book.

Then she got captured by enemy forces and I really felt like the book picked up and got more interesting--and I could feel for Enna more. I am happy to say that the ending was more than satisfying and that it is well worth getting through the first part of the book. I also think the first part of the book would feel a little less slow if I had read the first book in the series first!

***

Now, I'm reading Calamity Jack, a graphic novel co-written by Hale's husband, Dean, and illustrated by Nathan Hale, who is of no relation, but it's fun to see "Hale - Hale - Hale" on the book spine. This one should actually be preceded by Rapunzel's Revenge, but I had the same issue at the library. (I should mention that libraries allow you to put books on hold so you can avoid this and read books in the correct order, but it didn't bother me too much in this case, and I was reveling in the spontaneity of finding something I wanted to read and taking it home then and there.)

Calamity Jack by Shannon Hale

If you like YA books and fantasy (although Actor and the Housewife does not fall into this category), consider getting on your own Shannon Hale kick this month!

POC Book #5: Children of the New World

2010-11-04T21:30:00.001-04:00

There's no way I'm going to get to my goal of 10-15 books by the end of the year, but hopefully I'll get one or two more under my belt after this one...

Children of the New World by Assia Djebar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel, by a Francophone literary giant, describes a day in the Algerian war from the perspective of a number of women (and some men) in a small town that is not far from front-line fighting. I did read it in translation, so I probably missed some of the lyricism that characterizes Djebar's writing, but it was a very good translation. It read pretty quickly (it just took me awhile to finish because I kept getting distracted by other books!), and I thought Djebar did a good job of describing the point of view of different people without necessarily judging. (I say necessarily, because it's hard for me to conclude that Lila--until the very end--is anything but a self-centered ditz, Touma a self-centered jerk, and Hakim a man with a weak conscience, to name some of my least-favorite characters.)

The afterword made a big deal about Djebar adhering to all the Aristotelian unities (time, place, and action)--I could see place and action easily, but I found it hard to realize that the whole novel took place in one day--if, in fact, it did--because the characters reminisce and recount so much else. I don't think this at all takes away from the story, but it's something that struck me.

The Algerian war is often considered France's Vietnam, so reading about it from the point of view of Algerians (mostly--there are a few European characters, but certainly the author is Algerian, although she is now an exile) is definitely worthwhile. Djebar's storytelling, however, makes it an enjoyable as well as a worthwhile read.

View all my reviews

Hunger Games Book #3

2010-09-13T14:28:00.002-04:00

Finally finished one of my most anticipated books for this year:

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My first ever Amazon pre-order...can't wait!

9/1/10 FINALLY received it yesterday and am reading now!

9/13/10 I just finished reading it for the second time. I whipped right through it the first time, and really enjoyed it, but I realized that not taking the time to reread the first two had left me forgetting several details that became more important this time around (Buttercup, who Annie was, Johanna's relationship w/ Katniss in the second book). So I immediately went back and reread the first two Hunger Games books, then reread Mockingjay.

I think this book VERY nicely finishes up the trilogy and Collins continues her gift for showing how awful and heart-breaking war is. She also continues her flair for writing in verse--the songs in The Hunger Games and Mockingjay are as haunting as the riddles in her Underland Chronicles.

I felt the romance question ended the way I felt it should, but I was completely surprised by some of the other details of how the story ended.

View all my reviews

An unexpected POC Book: #4

2010-08-30T15:32:00.004-04:00

My POC reading has not kept pace as it should, both due to having several "fun" books I couldn't wait to read, and getting my husband to give me a "serious" summer reading assignment, separate from the POC challenge.

However, one of my "fun" books turned out to have two characters who are mixed-race teenagers. Now, the author Rick Riordan is white, so I feel like his portrayal of non-white characters should be viewed with that in mind, but I (who am also white, so take my opinion with the grain of salt it needs) think he did a pretty good job overall. He definitely knows middle school kids well, and some of the issues that Carter, in particular, encounters, ring true: his dad making him dress in button down shirts and khakis instead of jeans and sweatshirts because he can't just look normal, he needs to look better than normal; getting immediately followed by an airport guard, etc.

In any case, I think it's nice that a book that has gotten and will continue to get so much attention in YA circles featured mixed-race characters. Here's my Goodreads review of the book:

The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this was an excellent new work from Riordan. I have always found Egyptian mythology more confusing than Greco-Roman mythology (and I read The Egypt Game several times over as a kid), and I think Riordan did an admirable job of taking the many different stories about Egyptian gods and letting them work together.

I also liked both of the Kanes, although it took me time to get into the split-narration. (I was thankful that the publisher put the name of the narrator instead of the chapter title at the top of each page--once I got into the chapter, the voice of the character came through, but with some of the action and dialogue heavy openings, it took me a few minutes to tell who was telling the story at that point.

Overall, I'm looking forward to more of the Kane chronicles.

View all my reviews

A few reviews

2010-07-28T16:15:00.003-04:00

These days, I get online to

Read/respond to e-mail.
Briefly read snippets from my favorite blogs or the NY Times.
Update books on Goodreads.

So, here are a few reviews from recently read books. First, though, if you like Robin McKinley (or would like to try her out), go to this post on her blog to see a contest to win a new copy of her novel Sunshine. I'm just now rereading this (I liked it but didn't love it the first time), and that I enjoy it much more on the reread, especially after all the Twilight books and look-alikes. Good luck, and you have to enter the contest by Saturday!

Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born by Tina Cassidy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thoughtful history of childbirth/obstetrics--organized by theme (where women give birth, pain management, doctors vs. midwives, etc.). Made good points about death rate for mothers not spiking until women started going to hospitals, but it's not a political treatise for natural birth advocates. Very interesting, but I would not recommend reading while pregnant (I waited until just after my second was born)!

My two favorite facts: first recorded woman to receive chloroform during labor was so thrilled when she woke up that she named her daughter Anesthesia, and wet nurses from one culture (I don't remember which) would suckle piglets in between having babies to nurse to keep their milk supply up!

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Told in alternating chapters by two high school guys from the Chicago area named Will Grayson. Follows the two as they have a chance meeting and then end up having more to do with each other over the course of the book. I liked both Wills, although it took me longer to like the second Will (once I realized that he was actually depressed and not just teenage-angsty, it was easier to give him more credit). Had some laugh-out-loud moments and at least one chapter that I read with a goofy grin on my face the whole time. I liked that the parents were good parents--not perfect, but good, and there when their kids needed them. The major (in several ways!) character of Tiny Cooper I liked less--I definitely feel like he was the most self-centered character in the book--but at the same time, I think the authors painted him in such a way that we could see he, too, was a person with his own problems who needed to be appreciated just like we all do.I could possibly give this a 4, but I feel like my reviews suffer from star inflation, so I'm trying to work on that. DEFINITELY need to find more John Green to read, possibly also more David Levithan.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Follows Miranda through both ordinary school and family issues (an old friend grows apart, new friends made, conflict with her mom, the difficulties of not being rich) and a mystery provoked by odd notes she begins receiving. Mostly realistic (set in 1970's New York), with a science fiction twist near the end--both Miranda and author love Madeleine L'Engle. Given this fact, I thought I would like the book more than I did. It's VERY well done, and I can understand why it won the Newbery, but I just don't feel like it's a book I will come back to again and again, which I do with the books I love most.

Owly Volume 2: Just A Little Blue by Andy Runton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I heard about Owly from Unshelved's book club comic strips, so when I passed this at the library, I picked it up. Super cute! It takes me awhile to get into reading a graphic novel, but this one was great.

Simms Taback's Safari Animals by Simms Taback

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Great fun for toddlers but (sadly) easily ripped by same toddlers!

Feed by M.T. Anderson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Good message, inelegant packaging, and I didn't like the main character. But it's won lots of awards, so what do I know? :-)

View all my reviews >>

June 2010

2010-07-07T14:18:00.004-04:00

Phew, it's been awhile.

Our little girl arrived on June 5, so I've been out of the loop for awhile. We've had family visiting, a family wedding to attend, and just regular getting to know our new daughter and figuring out how to parent 2 children instead of one.

I've found it surprisingly easy to "unplug" most of the time, but this is mainly accomplished by not going on the computer at all when the kids are up--I'll check my e-mail once in the morning if I have a specific reason to, but I've been trying to confine my online time to naptime and after bedtime. Once I do sit down at the computer, it's very easy for me to be too distracted, as a recently destroyed library book can attest to.

(I was also inspired to try to be more unplugged by this article in the NY Times, which came out just after our daughter arrived.)

In any case, I will probably be on here a little less during the 5 months remaining in my leave (a month down already, ahh!). However, I will try to get some book reviews up, if nothing else.

Cheers!

POC Book #3: Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

2010-05-28T14:59:00.001-04:00

Another book from my list that is not written by a person of color, although the protagonist is African American. Still, it was a great book and "easy" enough that I am ready to return to adult fiction (or nonfiction) for my next POC book.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Very excellent.

Follows Isabel, a young slave girl, and her sister Ruth, from their home in Rhode Island just after the death of their mistress to New York City as the American Revolution is in the process of breaking out. Unashamedly shows the whims to which slaves were subjected, whether owned by rebels or Tories.

I liked Isabel, especially her concern for Ruth and her loyalty to those who were friendly to her, even when that loyalty involved risk to herself.

I enjoy historical novels, especially those aimed at young people, that talk about the "truth behind the story" at the end, which this one did, but I would have been interested to hear more about views on epilepsy at the time (Ruth seems to have this condition).

View all my reviews >>

POC Challenge Book #2.5: All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones

2010-05-10T16:09:00.004-04:00

I realize that I haven't posted any book reviews in over a month, and definitely not a POC book. I really have been reading, but I gave up on the POC book I was currently working on (and it sure felt like work!). Still, I wanted to post what I thought of it so far. For the next POC book, I'm going to read one of the children's/YA books on my list (Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson), which should get me over my current reading hump.

All Aunt Hagar's Children: Stories by Edward P. Jones

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I want to go ahead and review this so I can post it, even though I'm not done--and won't be for awhile.

I just don't like this collection of stories very much. I feel bad about this, because it has gotten rave reviews and won awards, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

I got through 5 and 1/2 of the 14 stories, and of those, the one I've only read half of is the one I liked the best (it was just so depressing that I didn't finish it). ALL of the stories have been depressing, and in most of them, I didn't like the characters very much. Finally, there is much more emphasis on characterization and description than on plot, and I still really like plot. I like characterization, but I have to like the characters to appreciate good characterization (what can I say, I have low brow tastes). Sigh.

I don't intend to give up on this book. It's still on my nightstand. However, I have found that pregnancy makes me even less tolerant of depressing books than I normally am, so I think I need to wait until the new baby arrives to try to finish.

Finally, one note about my use of the word "depressing." I don't necessarily mean books where bad things happen or that don't end happily (although I will admit to being partial to happy endings). I know that in real life, bad things happen and endings are not always happy, and it makes sense that literature often reflects this. However, that doesn't mean that people/characters can't and don't rise above the awful-ness that life often throws at them, and I just didn't feel like any of these characters did.

I'll revisit my opinion when I revisit the book.

View all my reviews >>

How to throw a surprise (library) baby shower

2010-04-19T18:10:00.000-04:00

1. Hire a particularly gullible young librarian, and wait for her to get pregnant.

2. Make sure you schedule the shower during a week where the evening staff schedule is weird because of a state holiday the previous weekend.

3. Get the librarian to come in on what she's sure is a day off by asking her to come to an important (last minute) meeting--only after other staff attempts to get her in by more reasonable means fail due to stubbornness and third trimester fatigue.

4. Have her husband offer to accompany her to campus at the last minute on the day of the "meeting," then ask her to show him where she will be meeting.

5. Yell "Surprise!" and shower her with delicious food and thoughtful baby gifts.

6. NEVER let her forget how difficult it was to make her come to her own shower.

7. Using a book cart to store the gifts is optional.

Another book to reread (or read for the first time!)

2010-03-28T21:37:00.002-04:00

Sometimes, I intentionally go to the shelf and pull off the book that I want to reread. Sometimes, I go and browse until a book that suits my mood pops out. And sometimes, a book that I didn't necessarily intend to reread gets into my thoughts and bugs me until I pick it up again (in this case, after having put it on hold at the library--I may have to buy my own copy after all!):

The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Intriguing quest-story about a thief who's loud proclamation of his skills gets him in serious trouble. As his ticket out, he agrees to steal something for the King's Magus...

(March 2010) Need to reread...
(March 24, 2010) Rereading and remembering why I enjoyed it so much.
(March 28, 2010) Read it again (finished it Wednesday night, the 24th, before going to bed, which I definitely should NOT have done), loved it again.

More about why this book is great: there is a serious twist near the end of the story, but if you know to look for it (on a second reading), you can find clues of it. Also, all of the plot's loose ends tie up, and they MAKE sense in the world of the story.

There is an incursion of the supernatural, but again, it fits into the world of the book.

Gen is an awesome protagonist. He's even more awesome because he has no compunction about complaining when he's hungry, tired, hurt, or required to mount a horse. I also like the minor characters of Sophos and Pol--even the magus grows on me.

The setting is almost a character in itself.

Definitely one to read and reread. Now I've caught myself up to speed enough to read the second in the series (The Queen of Attolia).

View all my reviews >>

POC challenge book #2: Zorro by Isabel Allende

2010-03-23T17:53:00.003-04:00

Zorro by Isabel Allende

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was my first Isabel Allende novel (read in translation, as I sadly do not read Spanish), and I enjoyed it very much. It took me two tries to really get into it, but once Zorro (actually named Diego de la Vega) is born, the story picked up for me. The narrator (who we find out is one of the book's supporting characters) follows Diego and his "milk brother" (nursed together) Bernardo through childhood in Alta California, to Barcelona, Spain during the reign of Napoleon, and eventually back to California. The book is meant to examine Zorro before his legendary exploits truly take-off and show some of his formative experiences.

I liked that there was pretty constant action throughout the story, and that Diego could not carry out his adventures without the help of Bernardo and others. I also liked that the women in the story had more spine in them than "damsels in distress" (even Diego's principle love interest) and that Diego stayed connected to his Indian family (through his mother) while taking on the role of his Spanish father's heir.

I was sometimes surprised by events that were first mentioned briefly (for example, the pirate attack on the de la Vega hacienda) as if they were unimportant, then expounded on until we see that they were actually formative. I don't know if this story-telling style is relevant to it being told originally in Spanish, but it made for interesting reading.

I give it 4 stars instead of 5 only because I didn't feel it was a "life changing" book--I enjoyed it, and I felt that the historical details were well done, but I didn't feel when it was over that I needed to go convince everyone I know to read it immediately.

View all my reviews >>

Maternity leave, redux

2010-03-15T21:25:00.003-04:00

I am happy to share that I have been given the ok to taken extended leave without pay after our new baby arrives! The due date is May 30th (and here's hoping baby is more patient than her older brother, who came 4 weeks early), and I will be out until December 1. I have sick and vacation leave saved up that will last for about the first 6 weeks, then I'll be on leave without pay--but I will be allowed to come back afterward. I should probably say that, until my last form is turned it, nothing is 100% certain. Still, I have an acknowledgment in writing, and my director announced how long I will be out to the rest of the staff, so my general feeling is: HOORAY!

A few more notes/observations about maternity leave:

I still need to figure out if I (and our kids) can stay on the state health insurance plan, even if we have to pay the full cost out of pocket. Health insurance adds an extra layer of complication to taking off time or staying home altogether, because you both aren't making money and have to pay for health insurance--ah, for a socialist health system!
A LOT of it has to do with your relationship with your supervisor(s). I have a good relationship with mine and I think they like my work, so I feel like they were more willing to make my case to the HR department.
In the public sector, at least, even supportive supervisors have to work within the framework of policy. I looked up information on extended leave without pay before I asked.
Family and Medical Leave has (in my opinion) some issues beyond lasting only 12 weeks. You have to get a doctor to sign off on your time--even though the "caring for a newborn child" provision of family and medical leave has nothing to do with a medical issue! I don't want to take time off to "recover" from giving birth (yes, that is necessary, but for a normal birth, 2-4 weeks would be plenty for that). I want to take time off to spend time with a new human being in my life!
There's something to "ask and you shall receive." Maybe not always. But when I dutifully followed "What to Expect's" guidelines and met with an HR rep to "find out my options" last fall, the option of taking 6 months off was definitely not presented. My husband and I figured it couldn't hurt to ask--the worst they could say was no.
It probably doesn't hurt that I work a shift that (most) people aren't dying to work. In some ways, this complicated things--the library had to present how they were going to cover those hours--but, on the other hand, my continued interest in working this shift probably contributed to my value as an employee.

There were some really interesting and helpful comments on my last post about maternity leave, so if you have more to share, please do!

Jonah's auction update

2010-02-28T17:59:00.003-05:00

I've changed my button back to the regular "Jonah" button (for those of you who have been following)--his birthday auction ended last night at midnight. I didn't win any items (sigh), but at last count, they made over $6500 to go to EB research, which they probably wouldn't have done had bidding stayed within my price range!

Thanks to those of you who checked it out and/or bid on items!

First POC challenge book: One Day the Soldiers Came

2010-02-25T22:10:00.001-05:00

Finished just in time to link as a February read.

One Day the Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War by Charles London

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The first book I'm reading for the 2010 "Person of Color Reading Challenge." The author is white, so I somewhat feel like I'm cheating, but most of the book is based on interviews with children and teens from Rwanda, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burma/Myanmar, and the Balkans, so it gives voice to people from around the world.

I read it in ARC format, so I should allow some leniency in any critiques. I felt that it was very, very good, but a little jumpy--some children's stories were followed in some depth and returned to several times, while others were only mentioned once and briefly. This may be due to the reality of how interviewing and being able to keep up with subjects works. I also found it hard to remember who was who when stories were revisited.

Still, it does a powerful job of telling the stories of older children and adolescents who have been through war, and an especially good job of respecting these children--I think the author mentions several times that children are "the protagonists in their own stories," a fact that adults forget. So while these children have been caught in situations that render them powerless, they were still active agents in making their own decisions, figuring out how to survive etc.

Well done.

View all my reviews >>

Book notes

2010-02-23T23:37:00.002-05:00

I don't have much to blog about right now, but here are some books worth sharing:

The Crochet Answer Book: Solutions to Every Problem You'll Ever Face; Answers to Every Question You'll Ever Ask by Edie Eckman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reading to help with the basics needed to make some crochet motifs...

I'm moving this to "read," even though I'll keep going back to it--it's a great reference book--small enough to fit in a work bag, and so far successful at answering several of my crochet questions!

I have successfully completed one "motif" from the other crochet book that I need to photograph and post here. I need to play with photographing it, and I also want to see if I can get a decent photo of the page example for comparison. Stay tuned...

The Third Day, The Frost by John Marsden

Already read the American paperback version (title changed to A Killing Frost) when I made my way through the series--purchased the audiobook from iTunes store as my first purchase for a Christmas iPod and am currently enjoying listening to it--the narrator is Australian, and I like hearing the flavor of the language!

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My first ever Amazon pre-order...can't wait!

View all my reviews >>

The thin blue line

2010-02-16T00:13:00.002-05:00

"Librarians--the thin blue line between you and the FBI."

I have no idea where this quote comes from (a quick Google search didn't reveal it, and I am too lazy at this point in the evening--just after midnight--to do a more thorough search--I will put it on my homework list!), but I love it. This evening, however, I have another thin blue line in mind--between students and faculty.

I love working with students. But I don't love everything about it, and here are a few of those:

Trying to help a student with an assignment that is poorly designed.
Trying to help a student find information that we don't have in our collection.
Helping a student who only wants to blow off steam about the unfairness of their professors and hopes you will do their work for them.

All of these issues arise when librarians are caught between students and faculty. On the one hand, we want to show great customer service and send students away full of useful resources and knowledge about how to use them. On the other hand, our students aren't customers in the traditional sense--we are definitely not supposed to do everything for them. The same issue comes up with professors--we want to make it easier for them to teach, but we can't do that if they have unrealistic expectations.

Some of the burden of fixing these issues fall with librarians and the library: we need to make clear which services we do provide and which we don't. We also have to present this information to both students and faculty. Still, students and faculty need to take on some responsibility, too.

If you are a faculty member, here's what you can do:

Try out your assignments before you assign them! If you can't find the information needed, it may be that our collection doesn't have it--how successful do you think your students will be?
Talk to/e-mail your librarians. We want to hear from you! If you have a question about the library or our collection scope, ask us! And a heads' up when you are going to send 30 students looking for information on a Biblical parable would be a nice gesture, too.
Plan ahead. You tell your students this, and we would like to politely request it of you as well. If you need library instruction or collaboration, a 2-3 week notice is good. Letting us know at the beginning of the semester that you'd like to work with us is worth brownie points.

If you are a student, here's what you can do:

Get to know the library BEFORE the week your assignment is due. This will make your life easier, and it will also give you a better picture of how we can and can't help you. We don't have everything on a database, and we probably can't get a book we don't own by tomorrow.
Bring writing utensils to the library. We really can't afford to provide pens and pencils to the entire campus.
Ask your professor for details about the assignment if you don't understand it. Librarians are not omniscient, and your question may well be the first time we've heard about the assignment.
Be prepared to do the work yourself--we are here to help you and teach you--not to do your research for you.

Comments? Do you have requests you'd like to make of librarians in return? Please share!

Jonah's EB Auction

2010-02-10T00:00:00.002-05:00

I've mentioned Jonah once before here, and you've probably grown accustomed to seeing a button about him on the sidebar.

I found out about Jonah through a mutual friend of his mom's. He was born with a rare genetic disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa or EB. EB causes his skin to blister very easily, and it also affects his mucous membranes (so, for example, swallowing can be hard and/or painful when his esophagus flares up). Most of his body has to be wrapped up in bandages all the time, and his parents have to change his bandages once a day (more often when normal baby things like spitting up or a crazy diaper interfere!). EB is not pleasant for any of the people who have it, and many babies die within their first year of life from it.

Jonah will turn one on February 27. Hooray!!

To celebrate, while also helping raise money to research and spread awareness about the disease, some friends of Jonah's family are holding an online auction (hence the new button that's been up recently). From February 23-27, the auction site will have around a hundred items to bid on, and all the money goes to DEBRA, which is an organization devoted to researching and raising awareness about EB. The auction-sponsors aren't even collecting the money themselves--you pay it directly to DEBRA if you win an item.

All the information can be found her e.

Please consider bidding on an item, and please pass the information along to others you know who might be interested!

Maternity leave

2010-02-03T18:00:00.000-05:00

My husband and I are expecting our second child (a girl!) at the end of May. We are very excited. I told my library director and immediate supervisor 2 weeks before our library closed for Christmas, when I had completely given up on my regular pants and had broken my maternity clothes out of the closet. So far, I've only heard supportive things from both of them.

I'm hoping to wait a few weeks before I officially request the amount of time I'm going to take for maternity leave, balancing the time I know I will need to do all the paperwork and learn all the ins and outs of benefits, etc. with the time needed to figure out what will be best for our family--financially, time-wise, and sanity-wise.

In the meantime, I'm going to get back up on my soapbox about U.S. family-friendly practices (or lack thereof). I do understand that a woman going out on maternity leave results in a gap in the employer's workforce. Still, I think that children are good for society as a whole and that it is also good for society when parents get to spend extended time raising their children. I don't think it's necessarily more important for a mother to stay home than a father, but if the couple chooses to breastfeed, it's a whole lot simpler! In any case, while I would argue for parental leave for either parent, there is the medical need for women have some time at home. Even for those women who would prefer to go back to work sooner rather than later, the childcare infrastructure in our country isn't great. It's really expensive for parents while still not being well-paying for most child-care workers. It's also not always easy to find.

I don't have a perfect solution to offer, but I do think it's an extension of our country prioritizing security (and all that money spent works so well, as this past Christmas shows) far above education--teachers and childcare workers are given lip-service, but not the pay to go with it. Sigh. If one of you has that perfect solution, please let your law-makers know, pronto!

I also want to take the chance to highlight Motherlode, which is the New York Times' parenting blog, run by Lisa Belkin. Ms. Belkin highlights issues such as this all the time (she recently featured a pair of posts about working w/ baby vs. quitting to be w/ baby), and the discussion gets quite vivid! She just had a post about maternity leave in the US, and touches on the topic with some regularity. If you are interested in this sort of thing (as well as a smorgasbord of other issues related to parenting), go visit!

POC Reading Challenge

2010-02-02T22:45:00.000-05:00

I found out about the POC (persons of color) reading challenge after recent Twitter/blogging furor over Bloomsbury's "whitewashing" of a character in a new YA/children's book. Between this and (looking over my Goodreads list from the last year) my own appalling lack of reading books featuring non-white protagonists lately, this seems like a good reading project for 2010.

I compiled a list of books I've been wanting to read that fit the category, and if I get to them all, I'll easily fulfill the requirements for Level 4 (10-15 books) this year. This is a bit ambitious for me, both because I know there are many other books I want to read and because many of these are (gasp) adult books, which take me longer to get through than kids'/YA books. Still, it's do-able and I intend to do it!

Here's my list, in no particular order:

Children of the New World by Assia Djebar

I translated part of a memoir/reflection on her writing for my honors French project in college, so I want to read some more by Djebar. This particular work was given to me by my sister-in-law and has been sitting on my nightstand for too long.

La femme sans sépulture by Assia Djebar

I bought this in France on our honeymoon--5 and a half years ago! Plus, I need to practice my French.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Seems to important not to have read.

Zorro by Isabel Allende

I hope this counts; I started reading it but have temporarily set it aside. From what I started, I believe that Zorro is going to be the son of a Spanish man and an American Indian woman.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation. Vol. I: The Pox Party and Vol. II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M. T. Anderson

YA historical fiction set in the American revolution period.

All Aunt Hagar's Children: Stories by Edward P. Jones

Probably bought this about two years ago--I was interested that it was stories set in Washington, D.C. Need to pick it up off the nightstand and read it!

Up at the College by Michele Andrea Bowen

A local Durham author who came to speak at our library (I missed it since it was at noon)--it sounds like a fun, light read.

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

I didn't really like the other Morrison books I've read--Sula and Beloved (I can never hear the hymn "Shall We Gather at the River" without thinking of National Suicide Day and consequently don't like that hymn!)--but I definitely found them interesting, and I'm curious as to how this one ties in with the story of Beloved.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

A story about slavery during the American revolution by a YA author I really like.

The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevara

I've wanted to read this since I saw the movie (yes, I saw the movie first!).

One Day the Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War by Charles London

I don't know if the author is white or not, but my understanding is that the focus of this book is children in Africa, so I am still going to count it in my total. I'll be reading an ARC version that I got at the American Library Association annual conference in 2007, so I have to keep in mind that I have an unfinished version.

I think I'm actually going to start with the last book, once I finish the book I'm currently reading (Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott--a fascinating blend of historical fiction and fantasy, plus it's told in 2nd person!), and I will add updates as I proceed.

New book on my shelf...

2010-01-25T23:34:00.001-05:00

I don't know if I'll really get any crocheting in this spring, but this book is full of tantalizing possibilities!

Beyond-the-Square Crochet Motifs by Edie Eckman

A new book that I got with a Christmas gift card--so excited to have some quick/small crochet projects to try! Astra, this is all because of you!

Advanced Twitter

2010-01-25T21:45:00.001-05:00

I am hoping to teach a workshop on using Twitter later this semester--which means I need to learn more about Twitter myself (my ulterior motive!).

I have a Twitter account and I have TwitterFox installed on the computer I use most at work so I can see pop-up updates throughout the evening. We just got a new computer at home, and I will be using Safari there (my husband and I have learned that one thing we can not share amicably is a web browser--I don't like that he never signs out of e-mail and he doesn't like my bookmarks!), so I will find a plug-in to install with Safari. I know how to tweet in the technical sense, although I certainly don't have the art of tweeting effectively down. I also tweet rarely, so I linked my GoodReads account up to make automatic updates when I review books.

I know how to find and follow people, and I've done a few trials with looking up a topic and reading tweets on it.

Here are some facets of Twitter that I'd love advice on, if you have it:

Lists--I have not explored these at all.
The art of tweeting--I've seen some tips on this that I will rely on, but feel free to give me more!
Monitoring Twitter in a way that's useful to you.
Using all those mobile/texting options. This is one area where I am sure to be behind the times for awhile--I don't think our (family) cell phone has a texting plan, and I'm too cheap to invest in one, especially since I don't see using it a lot except to play around with!

Your own experiences or great resources you've come across are all welcome!

Rereading

2010-01-19T21:37:00.000-05:00

For a librarian, I read remarkably slowly, especially if the book doesn't jump up and grab me. This may be why I spend so much leisure time on kids' and YA books.

I also love to reread, which significantly limits the number of new books I read at any given time. Still, I think if a good book is a good friend, you need to keep up the relationship! I have favorites from elementary and middle school that I still go back and reread. In the interests of including pictures (because I like them!), here are my GoodReads links to a few:

Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Possibly my favorite book of all time.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wonderful book about a young woman who moves from Barbados to Puritan Connecticut after her Grandfather's death, the adjustments she has to make, the lessons she learns, and the friendships she creates. Includes themes of intolerance and understanding.

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
LOVED this book growing up and still love to reread it.

I've been doing a fair amount of rereading this fall, including:

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was one of my three assigned books for my Jan Term course, junior year of college, called "Fantasy, Myth, and Spirit," about the Inklings. Probably most fun I've had in a college course. Reread several times, most recently December, 2009.

Miles in Love by Lois McMaster Bujold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rereading some favs from the Vorkosigan series (Komarr, A Civil Campaign, and a novella). A Civil Campaign was the first one I read, back in June, 2004.

Just as much fun as the first time around!

and the Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor--I read many of these as a kid, but never straight through, as I'm trying to do now. The one I most recently finished is:

The Grooming of Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Over the summer, Alice and her friends try to get in shape, Elizabeth takes losing weight a little too far, Lester gets a new girlfriend, Pamela has more trouble with her parents, and Alice's dad goes to visit Miss Summers in Englad. A bit more issue-packed than some previous, but still very enjoyable.

Do you like to reread (or rewatch movies--that could be another post, including the story of why Lilo and Stitch is now banned from our household), or do prefer something new each time? What type of book do you like to reread?

Effective Blog Reading

2010-01-08T00:12:00.000-05:00

In December, I had a 2 week break from work (hooray!) which also meant a 2 week break from blogging (not that I am the most regular of bloggers during regular work days...). It also largely meant a break in blog reading. I checked up on some of my favorites, but I didn't read any professional blogs, and I didn't read most blogs that take longer than 5 minutes to read an entry. When I did dash online for a few minutes, I started thinking about being a good blog reader, which I think might be a prerequisite for being a good blog writer.

I'm not the most effective user of RSS or other blog feeds, because I get a little bit obsessed with "checking off" feeds as "already read" whether I read them or not. Also, most of my favorite blogs include pictures, which the feeds don't show, so I'd just as soon check the actual blog as read a feed. Still, I think a blog reader needs to be able to dip into and out of conversations, unless they are only going to focus on one or two blogs. Like the news, blogs change frequently, and it's not always worthwhile to go back and catch up on all missed entries (although sometimes it is; Doug Johnson published an excellent series on library budgeting that I missed during December).

What really baffles me is how to comment effectively. I often think of comments as I read a blog entry, but the best comments I've read are those that take part in the conversation of other commenters--which means you have to take the time to read those comments instead of just throwing your idea up on the wall and leaving. This significantly increases time needed to participate in a blog community, especially if there's a lot of conversation around a post.

Do any of you have suggestions on how you managing your blog reading and commenting time? How does it affect your own blogging?

Life is more exciting when you work with other people

2009-12-16T14:52:00.000-05:00

This week is my week to work during the day at the library. Hooray for dinner at home! Hooray for going to bed before midnight!

And hooray for interaction with co-workers!

Things I have learned since Monday:

Mergent Online (business database) is releasing a new version of their database starting in January, with all sorts of cool new features. We had our representative from Mergent come to teach us about the new site, so I also learned more about using Mergent in general and (frequent reference question topic that I had no clue about) that there are two kinds of bonds: corporate and municipal.
I will be working with 138 first year students who are in a pilot program as a result of the SACS review and our college's new QEP (quality enhancement plan). Basically, the program is exploring ways to help our students become better speakers and writers during their four years here. One way they are doing that is by offering special resources and programs, first to a small group of students and eventually (the italics are important) to all. With the pilot students, they are tying in QEP programs with their English and History required courses this semester, and I am going to get to do three workshops with them over the course of the semester! I'm very excited to work with a group over the whole semester and hopefully get them to become regular library users.
I'm also going to get to work with a task group for the consortium we are a part of on designing online tutorials that can be used at all consortium schools. (OK, I knew about this last week, but our group had a conference call to get started, so I know a little more about what we'll be doing.)
Our online catalog is getting a facelift (actually via a project from the consortium) that will make it more user-friendly!

It's kind of amazing what working at the same time as everyone else can teach you.

Predicting busy-ness (extremely boring post!)

2009-12-03T23:00:00.000-05:00

There is some pattern about how library use goes. The end of the semester tends to be busier than the beginning; Sunday and Monday nights tend to be busier than Thursdays.

Still, there's no real predicting how busy any given night will be. The Thursday night with all the Public Health students was super busy for me, more so than most Sundays. This week seems to be defying end-of-semester normalcy. Saturday is the last day of classes, yet the library is very quiet tonight, and was last night as well.

I guess most of the major projects have already come due...

Silent screaming

2009-11-18T22:42:00.000-05:00

The rest of this post will be in all CAPS. You have been warned.

I DON'T CARE IF YOU TALK ON YOUR CELL PHONE, BUT IT'S POLICY AND I HAVE TO ENFORCE IT, SO PLEASE JUST DO US ALL A FAVOR AND TOE THE LINE.

WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, DON'T INSULT MY INTELLIGENCE BY HIDING YOUR PHONE BEHIND YOUR HAND OR A BOOKSHELF, ESPECIALLY IF YOU TALK AT NORMAL VOLUME.

AND PUSH YOUR CHAIRS IN!!

Ah, I feel better now.

First chat reference session!

2009-11-12T18:47:00.000-05:00

This past Tuesday, I had the chance to sub for a shift on our statewide chat reference service. This was my first "live" experience of providing virtual reference. It went quite well.

I manned the computer from 6-8, sitting in my office (a mostly-transparent cubicle adjacent to the reference desk) while our student worker manned the reference desk. She sent reference questions on to me, but this allowed me to pay the most attention to any incoming chats, and to explain to students who came in that I might have to shift gears at a moment's notice.

I had 3 chat questions over the two hour period, which was good for a first shift (not trying to balance several questions at once, for example). They were all fairly simple to answer; the most nerve-wracking part was accessing the patron's home library information (each patron that signs in comes from a particular library's portal--the librarian staffing the service can get information about that library, including how to access the catalog, how to get the patron access to databases, etc.). It went very smoothly, but I was nervous about messing that part up. All 3 patrons were community college students, so their questions were similar to the questions my regular students have (I need articles/books to do a paper on x, I need to cite x source in MLA/APA style).

I was also happy not to have any "emergency" questions. On a fairly regular basis, (public) librarians will get medical or legal questions, to which we can offer sources or referrals, but not advice. Every now and then, one of these questions will be more urgent--I brushed up on some state emergency referral services/hotlines just in case, and was happy not to have to use them!

Overall, it was a good experience, that I hope will help pave the way for offering our own virtual reference. One challenge will really be staffing levels--when there aren't any incoming chat questions, I can help in-person patrons just fine, but once the computer dings, I have to give it all my attention. This means we may often need "double coverage" for the chat reference and the reference desk--maybe a good chance to pull in library students?

Nights that make me love my job

2009-11-09T22:49:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday was one of them.

I had about 10 public administration grad students, who all had papers due Friday, in the reference area. Now, it would have been BETTER if they had not waited until Thursday to do their research. But that did not stop me from reveling in finding articles and books for them, helping them use their sources as support for their arguments, and teaching them APA style. And giving them peppermints and encouragement. I was definitely on a high at the end of Thursday evening (but was out of time to blog, and didn't get around to it until now).

Part of what made this experience so satisfying for me was that the students didn't have unrealistic expectations. They KNEW they were late, and they were ready to make due with whatever information we could find in a limited time. They also understood that they were all in the same boat, and were very patient as I went back and forth between them to help.

Hooray for 11th hour reference triumphs! :-)

Library H3lp is back! (maybe)

2009-10-21T22:39:00.000-04:00

I scheduled a LibraryH3lp practice Monday, and actually had 3 participants who had not used it before (yea!). It went fairly well--we actually spent most of the time practicing adding buddies and chatting across the librarian interfaces rather than fielding practice questions. However, it was very useful for giving the staff practice to how chatting works.

Unfortunately, we've just had a few major projects come up, and I think virtual reference is going to be placed on a burner that's even further back than the one it was already on. Part of the problem is that it's just hard to coordinate schedules enough (especially among public service people, who are the ones who will be on the front lines chatting!) to get in practice. And it's pretty clear that we all need more chatting practice. The other part is that I'm just not sure how many people are really interested in offering the service, at least to the point of helping to make it happen. Our best bet may be taking a staged approach--offering a couple hours a week of the service until it catches on.

An additional update is that the coordinator of the state virtual reference program has created LibraryH3lp accounts for us so that it will be easier for us to integrate with the program when and if we are ready. This is great both for that reason and because it gives me an automatic back-up person who I can call for help.

I'm trying to keep this more on my personal front burner than I have before (another reason why it's so far back!), and I will try to continue to update!

Student workers

2009-10-21T01:37:00.000-04:00

I've personally experienced 4 student workers at this point in my academic library career. There are several more who have worked when I work, but if they are stationed downstairs, I don't get to know them as well.

It's kind of rough for the students, because they are stuck in a fairly quiet--as in less frequented--part of the library (serials), often without any particular assignment except to be present at the desk. I think this led to some students being unreliable in showing up to work on a regular basis, which created trouble for them both in terms of how much they were paid and in being re-hired.

We have more work assignments for our evening students this semester, but not enough to fill a four hour shift. Over the past week, I had a student filling out book order cards, which is tedious, but still doesn't last very long (I think she spent 3-4 hours total to go through a whole review journals worth of orders). I think if we had a more standardized, comprehensive training program for students, we could assign more work to them (which would be great considering how short staffed we are!). As it is, we train them as we have assignments for them, but it seems that finding work for the students almost creates more work.

Ideas for student worker projects? Did any of you spend work-study or just plain student employment time at a library desk?

"Leaving the Ego" vs. "Pride in Your Work"

2009-10-12T23:18:00.000-04:00

Egos definitely play a bigger role in the world of work than I would have guessed in my innocent (that's actually pretty much true) high school days. Even in college, the ~~few~~ one crazy job experiences I had, I chalked up to the fact that summer jobs are supposed to be crazy.

Really, though, I think the American workplace has set itself up for failure in this regard. You're supposed to "check your ego at the door," and be a team player, but there's also an ideal of self-made business-men and -women clawing their ways to the top. On a less dramatic note, part of the quality of our work is supposed to come from taking pride in our work--it's not very far from pride to ego.

Generally, I feel like I am pretty good at working in groups and putting the good of the library above my own ego. Still, there are times when I catch myself on an ego trip--such as when a project I've been working on suddenly has a portion replaced with work from someone else.

I have experience jobs where egos seem to be a non-issue, and jobs where they are the elephant in the closet, and I'm trying to figure out how this happens. I'm sure that ego-less workplaces partially arise due to how an organization is managed, but I think there's also a concerted effort from the hoi polloi to be nice and make sure everyone else is nice, too!

Do any of you have insight into how this works?

Two amazing recent reads

2009-09-27T20:24:00.001-04:00

Two YA books that I got to read this week. The first is the last (really the last one!) in John Marsden's Tomorrow, When the War Began/Ellie Chronicles series, the second is the sequel (with I believe just one more to come) to Suzanne Collins' fabulous The Hunger Games. Both of these titles were high on action and emotional investment!

Circle of Flight by John Marsden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazing end to the series--ends on a much more hopeful note than "The Other Side of Dawn," so while I would love to continue to read about Ellie and company, I can accept this as the last book in the series.

Ellie almost loses foster-brother Gavin, first to terrorist kidnappers, then to social services. As always, she relies on her friends as she makes her way through impossibly tough situations and struggles with figuring out the right thing to do.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I thought this second installment in the Hunger Games series was amazing--Katniss moves from having battled other tributes, technologically created hazards, and her feelings for her co-tribute, Peeta, to battling the Capital's machinations and use of her and her loved ones as a pawn.

She tries to sort out the relationships that have grown with Peeta and their mentor, Haymitch, as a result of the Hunger Games with those from her childhood--with her mother, her sister, and her best friend, Gale. At the same time, she has to try to convince the Capital that she's not organizing a rebellion while she wonders if she should be trying to rebel.

Then, she finds out that she's not even safe from the Games...

View all my reviews >>

I realize that I use the word "amazing" in each review, as well as in the title. Obviously, I liked the books, but I'll try to vary my vocabulary a bit the next time I post book reviews!

In the library, with the lead pipe...

2009-09-16T23:28:00.001-04:00

I think it's no coincidence that the library was considered a possible setting for murder in the game "Clue." Libraries can be downright creepy, sometimes.

Especially at 1 in the morning.

The library I work in is fairly small, for an academic library. Still, we have two floors worth of mostly bookshelves, with tables and carrels interspersed along the walls. Each night, before we close, we have to check to make sure everyone is out. I usually check the second and third floors, both because I work up on the second floor, while my coworkers work on the first floor, and because they usually have more last-minute things to do ("encouraging" students to leave the computer lab on time, handling last minute book check-outs, etc.).

Usually this is not a problem. I try to walk around upstairs a couple times during the evening, to get an idea of who's in the library and what's going on. One more walk-around at 12:30/12:45 is no big deal, until my imagination gets the better of me.

The rows of shelves and nooks and crannies inherent to a library make it very easy to imagine someone hiding in said nooks and crannies. From there, it doesn't take long to jump to the person hiding jumping out and scaring you, kidnapping you, or murdering you. The first semester I was here, I was still haunted from having gone to see "The Dark Knight" in theaters, and was sure I would one evening meet the Joker waiting behind a shelf. The other night, while gathering up books to place on shelving carts, I saw that one book was about photographing ghosts. I didn't go up to the third floor that night, relying on the fact that no one had been up there on my last walk-around.

Somewhat amusingly, I become much less nervous when I actually run into students on my last walk-around. I guess I figure that if an evil being is waiting to attack, I will now have back-up.

When my imagination really gets going, I can actually feel my heart start to beat faster. If I could bottle my flights of terror into workable stories, I could be the next Stephen King.

Luckily, no bad guys have actually been lurking in the shelves to date. Still, I'm happy that a side job ala Batgirl is not an actual requirement for being a librarian. I would never make it.

Busy students, busy library

2009-09-13T16:48:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't update as quickly as I thought I would.

Here are some current goings-on in the library:

Students are here! They've been on campus for awhile, but there has been a definite increase in library use since coming back from Labor Day: assignments have started to be due, students are settling into their study patterns, and computers continue to be in short supply. The reference desk seems busier to me than it did at the beginning of last semester, but I can't make a complete comparison, since I wasn't here at the beginning of the last school year.
Classes have been coming to the library. I've taught two sessions for professors, and given one open workshop (only one student; sigh). Our daytime information literacy/instruction librarian has been even busier with classes. These are great chances to form a more direct connection with students.
Everyone who's interested, or just part of the Reference Department, has been trained in our state's virtual reference system. Now we have to practice and start answering chat questions! Hopefully this is a step towards offering our own virtual reference service.

All in all, it's business as usual, but I like it when business is really busy-ness around here!

A few reviews

2009-09-08T22:21:00.000-04:00

I spent a lovely 4-day Labor Day weekend (don't worry, I'll pay for it this coming weekend--getting up to be at work at 8:00 on Friday after having worked until 1:00 Friday morning, then only having Saturday off before returning to my usual Sunday-Thursday night schedule--the joys and sorrows of working a different shift!), and finished 2 books! Granted, 1 of them was a young adult book, but this is still quite an accomplishment for me. Here are those two reviews, plus one extra that I finished late last week. I'll update with a real post tomorrow.

Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
For the first few chapters, I wasn't sure I was going to buy the premise (kid wakes up invisible, adventures ensue), but once Bobby met Alicia, everything seemed to both pick up and become more thoughtful. Loved it!

Things Hoped For by Andrew Clements

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An excellent companion to Things Not Seen. I liked the music element, and was completely taken surprise by the whereabouts of Gwen's grandfather. In the course of reading these two books (and from my previous Clements' experiences, such as Frindle, The School Story, and The Landry News), I realized that he has a gift for focusing a story on kids/teens without removing them from the routine adult world.

The Other Side of the Sun by Madeleine L'Engle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. The same feeling and emphases that characterize all her books are here (importance of love, trust that good will triumph even in the darkest times, good vs. evil battle that stretches beyond humans). Naivete seems to be both an element in the story and part of the storytelling. At points, I feel like L'Engle sometimes treats the issue of racism with too much naivete (particularly in the idea of Nyssa--a plantation run by a white family, still worked largely by its freed slaves), but she describes lynchings with unflinching realism and a decision related to lynching is made with full understanding. I do feel like many characters are stereotypes. Still, I like the book and I like that L'Engle was wrestling with the issues that make up the story.

View all my reviews >>

Excused

2009-08-27T23:56:00.000-04:00

I was excused from serving on a 3 week jury because of childcare issues. Whew! It would have been very interesting, but finding someone to watch Nathaniel all day would not have been fun.

I hope to be excused in another way, too: I had a serious reference desk blooper last night.

A very nice patron came in trying to find out if we had a book by a specific author (we didn't). I was able to find out that the local public library had 1 copy of the particular book she cited, and gave her instructions on getting a card (as a university student) and requesting the book from a branch that was a little further out. Then I found out that she just wanted something fun (preferably a western romance) to read that night.

Well, if I were at a public library, I would have shown her the romance section, shown her the western section, and let her have at it. I am not at a public library, and I have to say that our collection is very light on the genre fiction books.

I tried searching for the author. I tried searching for a couple other authors that popped into my head. I tried to find one western book and then copy the LC subject headings from its catalog record. I tried to find some suggestions on Novelist (this link just goes to their advertising site--see if your local library subscribes to this super database!). None of these worked.

I had a brainwave about halfway through and sent her upstairs to the library school's library, where they have an actual fiction collection. However, I don't know whether or not she found anything.

The most frustrating part? These are the kinds of questions I LOVE! I love it when people come it to a library looking for something good to read. This is why I'm a librarian, for crying out loud!

Today, in order to try to learn from my mistake, I did two things. First, I went and played with Novelist some more to get a few more of their features under my belt (I used to rely mostly on the "read-alike" feature, but you need a specific book for that to work). I've learned both about their genre search and the really fabulous "feature articles" that highlight a genre and/or topic. There was one on western/frontier romance, too!

Next, I got on ACRL's "collib" (college libraries) listserv and asked for advice on doing RA (reader's advisory--the fiction side of reference) in an academic library. One librarian sent a list of official subject headings for some genres, which I have duly printed off and highlighted, to be ready to grab next time.

I just hope the same patron comes back...

Praying and Jury Duty

2009-08-25T00:30:00.000-04:00

Two notes:

I'm off to jury duty tomorrow, with mixed feelings. On the up side, I believe in serving as a juror (I always figure that if I were on trial, I'd want someone like me in the jury!), it's a change of pace from the usual schedule, I will likely have lots of time to work on getting through my huge Australia book, and I will be even more likely to get to see my husband tomorrow evening. On the downside, child care could get hairy if I have to serve for more than a couple of days (we have a retired friend from church helping us out tomorrow), I suddenly (as of this afternoon) have 3 instruction sessions scheduled for next Tuesday that need planning, and I will have to get up around 7 AM after going home at 1 AM. I think this works out to hoping for either non-selection or a 1-2 day trial.

I spend most of my blogging time discussing library-related matters, and so it may seem a little out of place to have a "praying for" button on the blog. While I use this blog to discuss professional life, it is my own personal blog and represents my opinions and nobody else's. My opinion is that I am a Christian and a mom before I am a librarian, and that Jonah and his family can use all the prayers they can get (He has a rare genetic disease that makes his skin blister very easily. It also affects his mucous membranes, so things like eating can get quite painful for him). Discussions about the personal/professional divide came up in my public library class during library school, too. Maybe I'll post more about it in the future...

Madeleine L'Engle again

2009-08-21T02:59:00.000-04:00

As some may already know, Madeleine L'Engle is my all-time favorite writer. (Because I'm sure you're dying of curiosity, some others are Robin McKinley, Sharon Creech, J. K. Rowling, Orson Scott Card, Tolkien, Austen, and often any author I happen to be reading).

Anyway, Ms. L'Engle passed away in the fall of 2007, but I haven't read all of her books yet, so I still get to have new encounters with her. Toward the end of the summer (and to provide a break from an interesting, but long, book about Australia), I started The Other Side of the Sun, which I found at a used bookstore sometime in the last 3 years.

I always find it interesting to see how Madeleine L'Engle's books fit together. Even though there are defined series (The Time Quartet/Quintet, the Austin family), even her stand-alone books often fit in with other books she had written. Several characters (Zachary Gray, Adam Eddington, Polly O'Keefe) appear in different storylines, and it seems like almost all of her books have a similar feel to them. L'Engle always recognizes the presence of evil in the world, but affirms the greater presence of good. Many of her characters are much too innocent for the "real world" (although, having found myself being embarrassingly naive many times during my life, I find them real), but she creates situations that include all the nasty messiness of reality.

The Other Side of the Sun takes place on the southeast coast of the U.S. (something of a departure from her frequent New England settings), and it's not a contemporary novel--it takes place in 1910. Still, it has the same feel as the other books I've read and loved, and some of the characters are delightfully quirky. One thing I'll be interested in is seeing how L'Engle handles the issues of race and racism, which are prominent in the book.

I'll post my review once I've finished!

Making haste slowly

2009-08-14T14:30:00.001-04:00

We have some progress on the virtual reference front!

As I mentioned after our big presentation meeting, our library director would like us to get our feet wet in the virtual reference world by working through our statewide, co-op like virtual reference service. We now have two training sessions set up with the NC Knows coordinator, so all the reference librarians will get trained. This involved a little bit of eating crow on my part, as our group originally set up a date for those of us who presented the idea to begin with. Our idea is now "out there," and we have to remember to work with everyone! Thankfully, it was a relatively easy situation to solve.

Once we're all trained, we'll be able to take on some hours of monitoring the service. After that, who knows...

Yikes, need to update...

2009-08-04T21:22:00.001-04:00

The "yikes" is because my last post was so completely devoted to tooting my own horn, and then I LEFT it there for over a week.

There is not very much to report in library land. The summer lull continues, even though it's the last week of summer classes (apparently the computer lab downstairs is slightly fuller, but that's the only sign we've had).

There's also very little news on the chat reference service. We will hopefully have a conference call with the coordinator of our state chat reference service, which our director would like us to work with before completely setting out on our own. I haven't played with LibraryH3lp much recently, due in equal parts to other work, lack of motivation and diligence, and lack of possible further steps until we are ready to actually try out some chatting with more staff, if not with patrons.

Otherwise, all is quiet on the reference desk front. Students begin their fall semester in two weeks, and hopefully more stories will abound!

Vanity, vanity...

2009-07-26T21:28:00.000-04:00

Yep, that's what this post is about. Mostly.

I follow the Blue Skunk Blog, which is an awesome technology/school library/education blog. I especially like keeping in touch with the K-12 world, since I hope to work there again someday. Additionally, the blog's author, Doug Johnson, often touches on issues that are just as relevant to higher ed as to K-12. I find that Mr. Johnson is adept at balancing an exploratory mindset toward how technology can help students with healthy skepticism about "the next big thing."

I have occasionally commented on his posts, and I sent an e-mail to him about a recent series of posts that imagined the school library of the future. He shared my e-mail (with permission!) on a recent post and I have a thrill of excitement over this.

So I am being vain and sharing that fact here.

Reflection

2009-07-20T20:02:00.000-04:00

Having a little more distance on my Skype conference call class, here are some points I noticed for making possible future distance classes (just now noticing that the first use of "distance" could have been a clever pun; unfortunately, it wasn't!) better.

Things that went well:

The technology worked!

At least, mostly. There were a few technological glitches. Various callers were inexplicably put on hold at times (including me)--but that's better than a total cut-off. Several people didn't have microphones, so mostly had to listen, but the messaging aspect of Skype minimized the difficulty that caused. Finally, toward the end, sound kept cutting out a lot--I eventually reverted to messaging. Still, for my first ever use of Skype, and the additional complications of doing a conference call, I think the technology side of things went quite well.

I did remember to keep pausing (and waiting) for questions and student input.

I could have waited even longer and figured out where I was going to do this more, but I was able to get some input, and definitely questions when we were walking through a database.

I successfully attended to both spoken and typed comments.

I was able to answer questions coming in both ways, although I think this made my talking a bit disjointed (more so than it was already with nervousness).

Things that didn't go well:

I tried to do too much. I do this often with face to face classes, too, but the mechanics of doing it via Skype amplified the effect.
I relied too much on students being able to access databases from their computers.

I knew some were having trouble getting in, but didn't really have other options. I don't think this is something where anyone was at fault (we didn't know exactly what platform we'd be using until last week), but I need to learn more about tools that allow for co-browsing. Or prepare slides and load those (blah!).

I didn't get someone to cover the desk!! Bad!

In my defense, Sunday nights in the summer have been very quiet. When I mentioned this excuse to my husband however, he reminded me of Murphy's Law with nothing more than an eyebrow raise.
I must remember to treat online classes like in-person classes in this case.

I'm sure I spoke too fast. I was quite nervous.

Other observations:

I was WAY more nervous than I usually am in face to face classes. This was partly because of the technology, but also because of the subject matter.
I should have geared more of my information toward public librarians.

For this, I take no blame, because based on the syllabus and information I had, it was a class centered on science research in academia. I did notice that many students were working in/interested in public libraries when I read their class introductions on Blackboard, but it didn't also occur to me that the class was being tailored toward those interests. Still, it's a good reminder about knowing my audience.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased that I got through the class semi-successfully. I would really appreciate any input from those who teach or otherwise work with distance ed.

My last reflection is that I am able to reflect. During my undergrad study, I minored in elementary education at McDaniel College, and the first part of the education department's mission was to develop "knowledgeable, caring, and reflective practitioners." I was definitely taught how to reflect there, but working in libraries gives me the time and space to use reflection in practice.

New tech OVERLOAD

2009-07-19T21:28:00.000-04:00

Hi Laura! Hi Astra! Hi Ellen!

This has to be a super-short post, but WHOA, I just had a major tech learning experience. My science and technology resources class visit was this evening. We used Skype (oh, and I just signed up for a Skype account for the very first time this afternoon, thank you!) and, for the most part, it went ok. I had bought a brand-new, shiny (but cheap) microphone for the occasion, and it worked well. I relied on my computer speakers, which was fine for me, but not so good for all the students using the reference room (I closed my office door, but since our offices are mostly glorified cubicles, I'm sure they could all hear). I spoke a lot and then listened to long silences, then some peeps of talking with lots of static in between. I posted a "please interrupt me" sign on my door, and someone DID. I ended up reverting to Skype's chat function near the end because the talk was breaking up so much. It was exciting and terrifying and, mostly in retrospect, fun. My stomach is still churning a little.

Reflection for another day, since I have to get ready to close the library!

Motivation

2009-07-15T21:04:00.000-04:00

Obviously, I haven't been motivated to post recently. Partly because there hasn't been much to post recently...because I haven't been motivated very much at work.

Issues with motivation I've noticed lately (because a list always helps me feel slightly more motivated):

Boring work.

This is really the least of the issues--most of my work is not boring (occasionally not having work to do is boring, but that is also less of an issue as I get better acquainted with the job). Even tasks that are in themselves boring (barcoding items, shelving reference books, coming up with a list of books to weed) can be fulfilling in small doses ("I did a shelf today!"), and, since they are rarely tasks that can be completed in one go, often naturally lend themselves to being split up into bits.

Assignments that are over my head.

I don't think of librarianship as a particularly difficult field. Yes, there are things you have to know and skills you have to have to do it well, but most of these are easy to learn the basics of, and fall into place with practice. But recently, I've had two assignments that really are hard to me: preparing to present to a library class on science and technology resources (eek!) and getting a clear picture of southern American collections (in all different disciplines) at my library. The problem with these is not just their difficulty but my difficulty in figuring out where to start. The first is, thankfully, done (I "chat" with the class on Sunday evening, so I am crossing my fingers and will report back--unfortunately, I am not chatting with them in LibraryH3lp). For the second, I luckily have a team of people from other libraries gathering the same data (people who know what they are doing with collections) and have helpfully suggested sources of information.

Lack of external motivators.

I know, I know, internal motivation is supposed to be better. I'm not even talking pats on the back, though (but I do like them). I'm talking deadlines. In both of the cases above, deadlines have been nebulous up until this week. I like hard deadlines.

My own tendency to procrastination.

This is probably the big one that tips all the others from lack of motivation to lack of productivity. Lists help, to some extent, as do self-proclaimed deadlines. It's getting myself to believe those deadlines that is difficult.

Anyway, the last few days seem to have improved, but I'm not quite sure what I can do to keep it up. For those few of you who are reading, do you have any motivation-inspiring tips?

Busy day!

2009-06-30T21:06:00.000-04:00

What I've done today:

Attended a "webinar" (online FREE seminar) about using web 2.0 tools (like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) in academic libraries. It was excellent, and it was co-led by one of my classmates/Christian fellowship colleagues from library school!
Responded to e-mails from psychology professors and a patron looking for a bit of history/biography about {My university} (patron was directed to the university archives department).
Read a really informative e-mail from a library school colleague who is also a science librarian. I am NOT a science librarian but am going to be helping with a class period for an online Science and Technology Resources course because I am somewhat familiar with online/distance ed. resources. I am excited but nervous! I know next to nothing about helping with science questions!
Typed up the information I have gathered thus far about what we collect related to the American South for a meeting with a consortium group I'm working with. Discovered areas that I still need to investigate.
Helped some patrons (mostly visiting high school students).
E-mailed a few other people I know who are either scientists or science librarians to ask for help on above-mentioned assignment.
Read some blogs and am updating this one.

I feel like a real librarian today!

Quiet week

2009-06-25T21:09:00.001-04:00

It's been a full week since my last post, and there's not too much going on in {my academic} library land.

Here are a few tidbits:

As the liaison to the history department, I've been working on updating various history guides on the website. I was dismayed to find out that I would have to get them all reapproved by my supervisor before sending them to our systems librarian for posting, which is a very lengthy process. Luckily, I found out yesterday that this is not the case (only for new pages or pages that are not just my responsibility), so that makes the update work more worthwhile to do. Does anyone know of research on the basics of how effective library websites work--specifically how regularly they need to be updated?
I got a bit.ly account for use while Tweeting--because I had a long url I wanted to send someone. It only took 5 minutes, but felt like a major "techie" step.
Gave some freshman a tour of the library. I need to spruce up my tour presentation, but it really seems that "short and to the point" is the best way to go with 20-30 freshman at 5:00 PM, just before dinner.
Despite a quiet reference week (it's the last week of the first summer session, and it seems like exams are the norm rather than projects), I had a doozy of a ref question today--finding detailed literary criticism on Maya Angelou's poetry. It seemed like it should be a snap but most criticism is on I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and her other prose. Finally found a few short (but specifically critical and analytical) articles on specific poems and two dissertations (thank you, Proquest!). The patron then had to create a new free online e-mail account, as his first e-mail account couldn't hold the huge files (he was from a cooperating institution, so couldn't access the dissertations online from home). Phew!

No new LibraryH3lp testing, but I will hopefully get back on that bandwagon next week.

Sweet success

2009-06-18T21:28:00.000-04:00

The {My Local} Public Library is going to purchase the Marsden books! Hooray!!

In celebration (and because I like to have book covers on my blog, since I don't really post pictures), I am posting my review of the first book in the Ellie Chronicles:

While I Live by John Marsden

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazing continuation of Ellie's story after the Tomorrow series--good balance of the day-to-day struggles and adrenaline-pumping action. Definitely made me cry. Waiting for the next one on ILL and feeling inspired to read about Australian history just to know more about Ellie's home country!

Also, I WON a free book from Goodreads:

Smart Mama's Green Guide: Simple Steps to Reduce Your Child's Toxic Chemical Exposure by Jennifer Taggart

And finally, here are two upcoming books to look forward to:

Coming out September 2009.

Coming out August 2009.

Happy reading! Happy weekend!

When the library fails...

2009-06-17T17:28:00.000-04:00

I asked my husband last week if I was melodramatic. Ok, I actually said something like, "I'm not that melodramatic, am I?" Obviously, the answer should have been no. It was more like, "sometimes." So I followed up by saying, "I'm not as melodramatic as N!" (our son). My husband replied, "You're also not 1 year old."

This is all to say...the title to this post may have been a little melodramatic.

As you may recall, once I finished the John Marsden Tomorrow series, I decided that I absolutely had to read the follow-up trilogy, the Ellie Chronicles. I checked the first in the series, While I Live, out from my local library and devoured it in two days. For me, this is very fast, even with a YA novel. I knew going into this that our local library had no copies of the second two books in the series. No problem--I would just ILL them (order them through InterLibrary Loan, for those of you who don't speak librarian) through work. Our ILL person can get ANYTHING!

Except, unfortunately, she can't. I requested the series' second book, Incurable, and today was told that she couldn't get it. (I hadn't ordered the third book yet--I wanted to wait until I had the second in my hot little hands, since I know that sometimes later books in series arrive sooner than earlier books--and you don't get an extended loan to wait for the earlier book to arrive.) Apparently, of all the libraries in the world (or at least the U.S.) that own the book (and there aren't that many of them), only 2 of them are possible lenders to us, and neither would fill the request! Boo, hiss!

After despairing for about a minute, then thinking that I'd better go order them on Amazon (and actually looking them up; $7.50 each, which isn't bad, but I'd want to buy the first one, too, and would also be tempted by the first seven books--and we're buying an organ soon, so I need to cut back on book buying to make some room!), I decided to try one other library option. I filled out a suggestion form to ask my local public library to buy these two books.

Keep your fingers crossed...and tell your local legislators to support funding for libraries!

Today is a good day to work!

2009-06-15T21:53:00.000-04:00

Why?

I had enough work to keep me busy for the whole day, but not so much that I couldn't steal a few minutes to read.
I resolved a scheduling conundrum without making anyone mad (ok, so it turns out that in the end there was no real conflict of interests, but still!).
I got the librarian who I least expected to have any interest in LibraryH3lp to practice chat with me, simply by providing her with log-in information and the information that I'd be online for several hours...AND she said it was FUN!!

And if you like the Star Trek reference, you should totally buy this shirt from www.unshelved.com.

(I am putting it on my Christmas list--which I start compiling not long after my birthday in March...it's scary how materialistic I sometimes am.)

Annual Goals

2009-06-14T21:24:00.001-04:00

I meant to post today and couldn't think of anything post-worthy until now, when I have about 5 minutes before I need to start herding patrons out of the building (ok, I only actually herd when it's ALREADY closing time and they are doing "one more thing" on their computers).

My post-worthy thought: I had to complete an annual report (this sounds very official, but the actual drafting of the report felt much less official, since I don't have to provide statistics or fill out a specific form), and as part of that, had to set goals for the next year. Here they are (mostly verbatim, although I changed them from a narrative paragraph--admittedly not a very good one--to a numbered list, because I think lists are more readable on blogs):

Increase program offerings during evening hours, by planning, marketing, and implementing at least three open workshops each semester, including introduction to such tools as databases, RefWorks, and InterLibrary Loan.
Continue learning LibraryH3lp and assist with the possible implementation of this service at {My} Library.
Find additional ways to work with psychology faculty; thus far, I have found offering services that are helpful to history faculty quite easy but learning what the psychology faculty needs to be more of a challenge.
Continue keeping up with trends in academic librarianship through both reading and trying out new technologies.

I will also use this opportunity to list some of the steps I see arising for the next stage of getting virtual reference here:

Give other staff members accounts and get them to start chatting, just to get used to the feel of chat conversation.
Receive training for, and begin working with, NC Knows chat service (this is at the request of our supervisor, who wants us to have this training before we strike out on our own--actually a pretty good idea since few of us have really done chat reference before. My own chat reference experience involves 1 reference class--thanks, Pam and Tommy!--and conversations with myself when testing LibraryH3lp).
Have as many test conversations as possible to figure out "bugs" in our use of LibraryH3lp.

Admittedly, these steps are not very nice and concrete, so it will take some creativity on my part. Any ideas for getting regular chats going? Any ideas for other goals I should pursue in the next fiscal/academic year?

Family Friendly Libraries

2009-06-08T00:32:00.000-04:00

... and I don't mean this group, whose website I am linking to ONLY out of a librarian's decision not to censor a viewpoint I disagree with. I feel that the organization Family Friendly Libraries has shown by its actions that it would like to set standards not only for the families of members but for other people's families, too, and that they don't take into account needs of minority (in all senses) groups in the community.

But back to my original post.

I am stepping away from my tech learning focus for a post in order to talk about an issue that is now by default an interest of mine. When I talk about family friendly libraries, I mean libraries that are family friendly for employees. This is important to me, first of all, because I have a 1 year old and hope to have more children at some point. While my current job has been great, it's not perfect. I would rather work part-time than full, but part-time professional positions are few and far between. I was able to pump milk with support from both my supervisors when I started my position with a 6 month old...but the place I could find to pump was behind some shelves in our closed reference stacks area. Plus, I had to ask one of my (male) coworkers from downstairs to cover the reference desk each time I pumped, which wasn't always easy for them, since the first floor of our library is always busier than the second.

I certainly understand that the balance between work and family involves certain choices. We chose for my husband to pursue a graduate degree, and so, for the time being, I have to work. We chose to find a way to raise our son as much as possible ourselves, and so I chose I job that is not in the area of librarianship that is my first interest (children's/school librarianship), and I also chose a job in which spending time with my husband is difficult. And yes, we chose to have a child, although I find myself repelled by those who say that having children is a choice and so, therefore, all parents should be left alone to the consequences of childbearing. (Full disclosure: I am pro-life. I am also pro-available/affordable birth control, anti-war, and pro-socialized--or at least more-socialized--healthcare. I am not a political activist, but these are my opinions on these select few subjects. I still question what I would do when presented with logical-extreme scenarios for many of these issues.)

Anyway, the reason I mention LIBRARIES in particular is that librarianship has traditionally been, and still in many ways is, a female-dominated profession. And, yes, family issues affect fathers, too (as my husband can attribute), but when it comes down to it, women have the babies. And if you want to feed babies breastmilk for the first six months-year of their lives (which I believe is recommended by the American Association of Pediatrics, but I couldn't find the actual recommendation, so I'll update if/when I do), a women is necessary. I am all for women having the right to work, but I don't think we can, or should, completely ignore biology.

Since so much of child-raising from the prenatal period through infancy has to do with women, then, I would like to think that women-dominated professions would make child-bearing easier on careers, with such benefits as paid maternity leave, or at least longer unpaid maternity leave, that allows for a guaranteed position upon return. Alas, it is not so. Teachers, another female-dominated profession, have rotten maternity options, and while I don't feel like libraries are especially unfriendly to employees having children, they certainly don't win any family-friendly awards.

I'm now treading on shaky ground, having not done extensive research on this subject. However, at my own institution, I would be eligible for Family and Medical Leave (the twelve-week unpaid leave mandated by the government, see here for more information--and I am shocked--as a pro-life, anti-war person--to see that they have added twenty-six weeks to care for a military family member!! But only twelve for a new baby or non-military ill family member!!), and I could ask to take a longer leave of absence. But my understanding is that this would all be unpaid. Not optimal. Less optimal for those who are single mothers.

Then there is the child-care juggle once maternity leave ends. Staffing a library desk is inherently harder to be flexible about than creating online presentations, making sales calls, or many other types of work. But libraries do have to be open at odd hours--evenings, weekends--so why aren't there more positions created to try to accommodate parents who'd like to work those odd hours? (And in that case, those employees who like to work the M-F daytime shift would win, too, with fewer evenings and weekends to cover.) And why aren't their more part-time professional positions, or positions that are shared?

My final word on the subject for now (since I've realized that I need to do more research before I speak more extensively) is that, however women chose to do their child-bearing, there seems to be a professional cost. Even if a woman could afford to take several years off, have kids, nurse them all, send them to kindergarten, she would then face the challenge of re-entering the workforce with a gap in her employment history. Why can't raising kids go on the resume?

The meeting...

2009-06-07T20:54:00.000-04:00

...went fairly well.

On the downside, our chat "demonstration" didn't go so well--partly because LibraryH3lp was having an emergency fix-it day, but also because I don't think we practiced quite enough. And I think I should have left off the gateways and just shown the service with the widget. We were also presenting information about doing coursepages, and got more bogged down than we expected explaining the purpose and mechanics of these.

On the upside, it seems like there is agreement that we need these services. I think implementation will be slow--our director indicated an interest in starting by fall, but also wanted us to start by using the state-wide service. This will really slow things down, because we'd all have to get state training and sign up for question-answering time, which will take more time away from learning the LibraryH3lp system.

But it's a start.

I don't know exactly what my next LibraryH3lp steps will be. I think I'll need to create some more accounts and set up some practice chats--first just keep it librarian to librarian to get people used to chatting at all, then introduce some "patron" chats. I've also realized that I very much need a GoogleTalk gateway, since our students' e-mail accounts have recently been converted to Google Apps.

I've been remiss in posting lately, but will make up for it by adding 2 posts tonight--I have one that's been in draft format for awhile and just needs to be finished and posted!

Fun series finales

2009-05-31T19:29:00.001-04:00

Last week, I was on vacation, and I got to read two books that finished young adult series I've been going through. The first is from a series that's been around awhile (I actually read the first book when I was in high school and didn't manage to track down the rest of the series), the Tomorrow series by John Marsden. Beginning with Tomorrow, When the War Began, it follows a group of Australian teenagers who go camping in the bush for a week and come back to find that their country has been invaded. I have found some of these books to be more compelling than others (for the first five, I like the odd numbered ones best, but the last two were both great), but they all have heavy action sequences and lots of blowing things up, interspersed with teenage romance and reflections on life, particularly ethics during war.

I spent the rest of the evening that I finished this book, and much of the next morning, moping in my head about how life was not "happily ever after" for Ellie and her friends. I also decided that, contrary to my earlier beliefs, I could not stop with this series and needed to track down the continuing trilogy that focuses on Ellie's life after the war.

The Other Side Of Dawn by John Marsden

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was an amazing end to the series,particularly in the realistic portrayal of how life can't go back to how it was before the war. My only criticism is that some of the close-knit friendships and relationships got cut off too quickly, which may be realistic but was still disappointing. I definitely need to track down the three books in the Ellie Chronicles to read, too.

The other series finisher (we think...) was the newly published The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. Continues in the fun, action-filled Percy Jackson and the Olympians series that I particularly like for Percy's self-deprecatory heroism and the Greek mythology references flying left and right.

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Awesome end to the series; does an especially nice job of bringing Percy back together with Annabeth and Grover in a way that hasn't been the same since The Lightning Thief. Probably (but unsurprisingly) the most action packed of the books, less running into gods in out-of-the-way places. Nicely concluded, but there could definitely be more on the way...

View all my reviews.

Gearing up and gateways

2009-05-21T21:09:00.000-04:00

Well, we have a date to present LibraryH3lp (and other project ideas) to our library director...June 4, 2009 at 2:30. Exciting! Of course, this now means I need to hurry up and get what I know about LibraryH3lp organized into presentable format (especially since I'm going on vacation all next week).

So, today, I created a handout detailing what LibraryH3lp is, how cheap it is (I figure given our current budget status, this needs to be a big point), how it works, what the challenges of implementing it are (best lesson of my 9th grade English class was that when making a persuasive argument, concede the opposition's best point and then go from there), and why we should do it. Next up is to figure out the best way to demonstrate the service during our meeting.

In line with demonstrating, I set up two new gateways today--Yahoo! Messenger and Meebo. They both seem to work fine (especially after I belatedly read the instructions to toggle your queue's online/offline status once setting up a gateway before continuing), except for one thing. From the "librarian side" of chatting, I can't see the patron going offline when I sign out of the "patron" account. I need to find out if this is because I'm exclusively using web-based chat widgets for testing, because I'm testing on just one computer, or what. Obviously, more testing is needed. I don't think I'm going to set up many more gateways before the meeting (maybe MSN if someone has an MSN account to test with--I'm slightly weary of setting up extraneous accounts for testing purposes), but this should give a picture of the range.

That's all the news for now! I will probably post again tomorrow, but after that I will be silent for a week as I travel to Maryland to visit family. Hooray! (And Astra Libris, this last line was just for you, my dear audience of 1!)

Last week, I crashed a system...

2009-05-19T18:26:00.000-04:00

Ok, I actually think I only crashed a couple user accounts on the part of the LibraryH3lp system that our school is using, but it's still an impressive accomplishment, n'est-ce pas?

Luckily, Pam and Eric, LibraryH3lp developers extraordinaire, had fixed the damage I'd done within a day and fixed the underlying issue that caused the crash over the weekend. So if you are a librarian who's thinking about switching VR services, I recommend LibraryH3lp even more!!

Otherwise, there is not a whole lot else to report. Testing so far has gone well, but we (that would be my fellow reference librarians/virtual reference enthusiasts) haven't taken it to another level yet. I am trying to read through documentation because we are hoping to present the service to our reference head and library director in early June, and I want to have done as much background research as possible by then. I should also mention that we are going to present a couple other service ideas, headed up by my colleagues. We are excited, but still unsure if we have enough staff to make it work. Keep your fingers crossed!

If we have any more exciting test situations, I'll let you know! (This means you, A.L.; that is, after you return from all your traveling and if you have time with your exhausting job.)

Testing with a REAL person!

2009-05-12T15:05:00.001-04:00

Today, for the first time, I was able to do some practice chats with someone ELSE on the other end of the chat. It went quite well! I first set up two of my fellow reference librarians with accounts, and then one of them and I practiced chatting back and forth. We both took a turn as the patron (using the handy-dandy, school spirited widget!), and also practiced sending files and web pages.

I hope to do some tests with someone off-campus at some point, because I want to see how accessing protected materials (i.e. databases) will go. Will the librarian be able to send a patron directly to an article? Will they have to describe the process of remote access (shivers run down my spine--it's already complex enough via phone!!)?

Also, I'd like to try to figure out if the librarian chat client has any allowances for increasing text size--we don't want to make all our librarians go blind!!

I've started systematically reading through the documentation on the Google Group, and that has been interesting and informative. Hopefully the time expended doing this will both prevent me from repeating questions and give me some background knowledge to apply as needed.

On an unrelated note, another piece of "technology" (really it's content, but quintessentially online) that I've decided I need to explore more is Wikipedia. I came across an awesome blog post about an assignment to write and follow a Wikipedia article that makes me realize how little I understand Wikipedia myself. It may take a few weeks to get around to looking at it, so I wanted to record the intention as a reminder to myself (I have to write down everything in order to remember it).

Back to chatting

2009-05-06T22:26:00.000-04:00

I worked with LibraryH3lp again today, and was able to do the following things:

Use the customized widgets (the chat boxes with school colors) on a different computer, so the "patron" was chatting directly through the widgets instead of through AIM or another chat service.
Send files using that function.
Successfully transfer a patron from one librarian to another.

Here are some things I'm still confused about:

Sending webpages/links.
How the different web browsers affect the LibraryH3lp functions.

Tomorrow (end of semester crunch is basically over, now that we are in exams week, and students need to study, but not so much to research). I need to spend more time with documentation--less exciting, but important for getting up to speed.

If your fancy is different, you can try this:

2009-05-05T22:45:00.000-04:00

Thanks for telling me about this, Karen!

In the spring, a librarian's fancy lightly turns to Jane Austen...

2009-05-05T22:42:00.000-04:00

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
First read this in my senior year of high school for English class and LOVED it. Rereading 5/09 because it's spring, which for some reason makes me want to read this book. I've loved it since I read it, and am especially partial to the use of letters both as regular communication and as a way to correct mistaken understandings about personal character and motives. I also like that the good guys are definitely good and the bad guys definitely bad (unlike Sense and Sensibility).

View all my reviews.

Ten Ways to Make a Reference Librarian Cringe

2009-04-29T17:29:00.001-04:00

It's the end of the semester...

All of the suggestions below have actually happened, and amuse me enough in retrospect to post. I'm sure there are much more exciting ways to make librarians shudder, but I haven't been on the job all that long. They are listed from activities that prompt an internal head shake to those that elicit an irrepressible cringe:

Shush your friends more loudly than they were speaking.
Try to check out books without your student ID.
Bring no writing utensils or paper to the library--when you are coming to do research for a 5 (or 1o or 20) page paper.
Hide behind a reference shelf to talk on your cell phone in the "cell phones prohibited" area.
Save your work only on the library computer desktop. Walk away from the computer for a longer period (at least half an hour). Freak out when you return and someone has taken your computer and lost your work.
Nod when the librarian asks you to turn down the volume on your iPod. Fiddle with the dials without actually changing any settings.
Say, "This is my first time at the library," at the end of the semester.
Take a brand new reference book that you've just been shown, thank the librarian for helping you find the information, then dog-ear your page as you close the book.
Say, "This is my first time at the library," at the end of your senior year.
Say, "I've already written the paper, now I just need 3 sources to cite.

On the other hand, here are 5 ways to make librarians smile that happened just in the past week:

Ask for help with a research project.
Come back to tell the librarian about the project she (or he) helped you with.
Tell the librarian about your life outside school.
Give a hoarse librarian suggestions for curing sore throats.
Come up to the librarian, after having been asked to turn your music down, and ask for forgiveness for getting an attitude about it.

Documentation, Test Chat, and Excuses

2009-04-21T19:18:00.000-04:00

I'm going to go with the excuses first (as in, excuses for why I have neither posted to this blog nor Twitter'ed nor really played with LibraryH3lp for 2 weeks). My excuses are:

3. Accreditation--our school had our on-site accreditation visit last week, so everyone's
attention was focused on that.

2. End of semester workshop! I planned and gave a workshop on research tips for the end of
the semester, along with someone from our writing center. We had 2 participants, which I say
is better than 0, and I learned a little bit about marketing on campus (and that I need to learn
MORE about it for next semester).

AND...

1. End of semester CRUNCH. This is actually the real excuse, and I think it's a pretty good one. With the end of the semester looming near, students are coming in droves (well, at least in much higher numbers than they were before) to use the reference desk. Hooray! This is what I especially like about my job, so I am not sorry that it leaves me less time for playing with technology. However, it does, so I will be playing a lot less for the next 2-3 weeks. Just so all you pretend readers out there won't be worried.

Ok, now onto the other two topics.

I found a wealth of documentation on using LibraryH3lp, at both the LibraryH3lp blog (http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/) and at the LibraryH3lp Google group (http://groups.google.com/group/libraryh3lp). They each have different strengths--the blog comes straight from the developers, and is also the place where new features are announced. The Google group is great because it consists of librarians from all over, many of whom are actively using LibraryH3lp. They also have archives, although I haven't figured out if the search feature works well (yes, it's Google, but then again, it's Google). I will likely be consulting the group soon, because...

I conducted my first multi-computer test chat today! Overall, it went pretty well. I did not use the LibraryH3lp widget for the patron end (I will try that next time), but the AIM gateway worked fine (now that there is an AIM account to link to the gateway...). I did encounter a couple problems/question areas:

I was able to send a link from one of our databases to the "patron," but I don't know if this would work to an off-campus computer. I also don't know if this is the same as "pushing" pages, and if LibraryH3lp does the latter. The other problem with this is that, when I sent a second link and then (as the patron) clicked on that link, the new address took the place of the old one in the pop-up window. A new window didn't pop up, and I couldn't open a new tab even manually, I was using Internet Explorer to access AIM online, if this makes any difference.

I had trouble with the librarian on Firefox (my set up was two "librarians" on Firefox and Internet Explorer on one computer, with the "patron" on a second computer, also on Internet Explorer) getting booted out of the webchat client. I don't know if it was because this computer does not have Adobe Flash installed in Firefox (and I can't get it installed without going through our systems librarian, and maybe the IT department) or for some other reason. It happened whenever I left the computer, or even just that tab in Firefox, for any length of time.

The next time I have "technology exploration" time, I will contact the Google group with these issues, unless I figure out how to resolve them on my own. I've already shown LibraryH3lp to one of my fellow reference librarians, and hopefully I'll show it to another later this week or early next. In the meantime, I will play and post as much as the end of semester crunch will allow!

I learned something important today...

2009-04-07T22:43:00.001-04:00

...to create a gateway to an IM provider from LibraryH3lp, you first have to create an IM account in that provider, under the name you want shown. Otherwise there's nothing to link up to.

I realize that that should be fairly obvious, but since we don't already have IM chat, I didn't think about that. So, with this major breakthrough, I'm going to call it a day in the virtual reference world. Tomorrow I will be back to learn enough to make it a comprehensible explanation for my fellow reference librarians.

The Graveyard Book

2009-04-07T00:42:00.001-04:00

Because I still love books more than technology:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wonderful! Described as "The Jungle Book" set in a graveyard, and that's pretty accurate, but it also has a lot of lovely thoughts on life, death, friendship, and growing up. You know it's a good book when you rush through it and are then sad when you finish.

View all my reviews.

Library H3lp Take 2

2009-04-06T23:14:00.001-04:00

I am very excited. I have learned several things this evening:

I figured out how to customize a "skin" for an embedded chat widget. Here's what I made (with school colors!):
I learned how to save said widget for future use. This was, for me, more complicated than it probably needed to be.

I was stumped with how to practice the code, since I don't have access to any web servers. Thankfully, a library school friend responded to my Twitter/Facebook plea for help by pointing out that I could save the html document on my local computer, then just open it with a browser to see how it looks. Brilliant!

At that point, I generated the document, but only got the html "Chat is offline" message, and was thinking, "But I'm signed in! A librarian is available! What's wrong?" Due to this conundrum, I also finally learned that

You have to sign into the webchat client to be online as a librarian--not just the administrative functions. I now have a better understanding of the different "faces" of Library H3lp.

My next goal is to figure out how to set up the different "roll-over" service possibilities so that, after we (hopefully) get the service up, no patrons will see the "Chat is offline" message.

I'm meeting with some of the other librarians later this week; hopefully what I've learned so far will help convince them of the feasibility of this service!

Off to a start!!

2009-03-31T23:44:00.001-04:00

I've spent my first night trying out LibraryH3lp, and I'm very excited! I was able to create 2 users, a queue, an AIM gateway (although I'm not sure how to make that work yet) AND use the LibraryH3lp webchat feature to have a practice chat with myself:

My main problem is that my "30 minutes" easily turned into 45-50. I'm glad I waited until I finished other work, and I think that will have to be my M.O. until this becomes an "official" project.

New attempt...learning 2.0 technologies!

2009-03-30T19:12:00.000-04:00

Well, I am going to try blogging once more, as I've come up with a way that it might possibly be useful in my work life. I'm currently working as an evening librarian at a medium-sized state university, and like everyone else, we are facing budget cuts. Our website and electronic access in general could use some updating, and the only way I think that can realistically happen is using open source/2.0 technologies.

I am NOT a techie, and I am not good at learning new technologies on my own. However, I think I need to get a basic working knowledge with many of these technologies before I present them to the rest of the library staff as ideas for our use. I'm therefore going to try to spend a short amount of time each evening trying to learn some of the 2.0 tools that I think we can use and both chronicle my attempts and ask for help here. I've already gotten some ideas from friends using Facebook and Twitter on how to better use Twitter, so we'll see where I can go from there.

My first two priorities will be Twitter, which seems to be in use all over library circles and non-library circles, and LibraryH3lp, a virtual reference open source software for libraries.

I'll try to update every few days on how my experimentation with these tools is going.

Not a blogger...

2008-07-12T14:25:00.000-04:00

Ok, I've decided that, aside from not being particularly good at it, I'm not cut out to blog--at least not without a work-related reason. Especially considering how my life runs right now, it takes too much time away from other things I'd rather do. So I'm going to stop blogging for now--if I decide to come back to it in a few months or so, I'll need to have a better purpose in mind. It was a good idea for giving updates to those interested in my library school career and for classes, but now is basically defunct. Still, it was a fun chance to learn how blogging works! Now back to real life!

Job Searching and Gregor

2008-07-11T22:27:00.000-04:00

Only have time for a quick post. Job searching for part-time jobs is a little complicated since I want to work part-time at certain hours. Still, I've turned in several applications and had a good (I think) interview this week...I'll try to write more later.

I just read the second book in the Gregor the Overlander series--it's been over a year since I read the first, and I forgot how much I enjoyed that world:

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love Gregor as a low-key hero and I love his love for Boots (his sister) and his determination to do the right thing--now I want to go back and read the original.

View all my reviews.

Book Review trial

2008-07-03T16:28:00.000-04:00

Attempting to include my most recent Goodreads review--of Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlitz:

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Excellent portrayal of the Middle Ages--made me cry at some parts even though I don't think that's her aim. I think nerdy kids like me would like it and a lot of kids would like it if they got to play the parts, but not one of those that most kids will pick up from the shelves on their own.

View all my reviews.

Graduation and Other News from the Last 6 Months

2008-07-03T16:13:00.000-04:00

So, I haven't posted in 6 months (doesn't truly matter, since I don't think I have any readers!). I've now graduated from library school. I am currently not employed (more in a minute). I don't have any glorious revelations about either libraries or life. However...I don't want to give up on this blog just yet, partly because I like playing around on the computer when I should be doing other things, partly because I like the idea of blogs well done--and practice makes perfect.

My last semester was good but busy, especially considering I was only taking two classes along with my master's paper. The biggest recent news, though, is not from library school, but the fact that my husband and I welcomed our first child into the world. We've decided that he doesn't need any sort of Internet life until he's old enough to do it himself (probably with arguments over what he's allowed to do himself), so I won't be sharing any pictures of him here. He's exceedingly adorable, and you'll just have to take my word for it! So, with his arrival in late April, the most notable aspect of the end of my library school career was finishing!

N decided to start making his appearance on the day of my last class, and did so in an amusingly library-related way. I had attended my very last class (YA Lit), then went to the library where I was working part-time to do my last desk-shift, with my last storytime scheduled for the following day. While at the desk, my water broke (several weeks before it was expected to)! My friend/colleague/fellow student had the presence of mind to call 911 before our branch manager (my first concern was that she couldn't staff the place alone--aren't I committed?--or maybe I should be!). Apparently, I gave the branch the most excitement it's had in months by going to the hospital via ambulance. Luckily, everything proceeded smoothly after that, and baby's early arrival made it possible for both him and his mother to attend SILS graduation two weeks later!

Now it's July and I am in the job search process. It's a little more complicated than my previous job searches, because I need to earn a decent amount of money (as in, more than minimum wage), but need to work at hours when my husband is not. We are not willing or able to do regular daycare, so we are trying to figure out how to pass the baby between our two schedules. I actually have an interview for next week, and several more applications out. In the meantime, I've gotten to be (and will be until employed) a stay-at-home mom, which is awesome and frightening at the same time. Awesome because I get to be with N all the time and frightening for the same reason--especially when I can't calm him down, as happened yesterday. Also frightening because I don't get much housework done, I'm not contributing economically the household, and the days just seem to slip by before my eyes (of course, wasting time online probably doesn't help...). Overall, though, I like that our son is always with either me or my husband in his first months of life.

One of the things I do a surprising amount of is reading, since there's not a lot else I can do while nursing, and this kid can eat a lot!! For my next post, I'm going to try to import on of my book reviews from my Goodreads account--so there will still be some library-related stuff in this blog after all!

Personality Tests (for Management)

2007-11-28T14:28:00.000-05:00

Well, when I first went to take these, my laptop's internet browsers (yes, browsers plural!) kept telling me that both sites "timed out" every time. Turns out it was something with the on-campus wireless. I don't know if my frustration with this reflects something about my personality, but there it is!

While I was trying unsuccessfully to get to the Myers-Briggs type test, I found another Myers-Briggs type that I took instead. It was interesting in that it didn't just give me one type. It said I shared 77% of the profile for both ISFP and ESFP, 76% with ESFJ, and 75% with ISFJ. One thing that doesn't surprise me about this is that I tend to be right on the line for I/E. I see this in my life: sometimes I just want to be left alone to read my book, but sometimes I don't want to be alone at all, even if the other person and I are just going to sit next to each other engaged in "parallel play" with occasional comments to each other. Apparently, this shows that I'm on the line for P/J, too, which is weird, because when I finally got to the "official" practice test for class, I came off as a very strong "J." I'm not sure what really defines the judger vs. the perceiver; however, when speaking about my overall type, ISFJ according to this test, it talked a lot about being concerned with propriety, and that definitely defines me.

Both the information from the Myers-Briggs and from the Enneagram, where I got the highest score in the "helper" type, talked about liking to help others, but more in a low-key, from the sidelines way. That is definitely true. I don't think I want to be the CEO. I don't mind the idea of being a branch manager, but I don't ever want to be the library director. This is partly because of the weight of responsibility, but also because I like to be a "big fish in a little pond." I like to help people in my little universe, fixing things that can actually be fixed.

One somewhat funny result, considering this is Management class and we're talking about Leadership this week, is that I got a 0 for the "Leader" type on the Enneagram. Granted, the description looks like it's talking about a more high-profile leader than some of what we've discussed in class, but I thought it was funny.

Overall, since I've taken personality tests before, I was unsurprised by the results. Still, it's nice to see that I tend to be consistent in different personality tests given at different times--seems like there may actually be something to them! :-)

Ethical Principles (for Management)

2007-11-15T11:38:00.000-05:00

1. As the community library, we treat each patron with the same respect and committment to high service.
-This means that each patron's request is just as important as every other; do not show partiality.
-Show respect and helpfulness even to patrons who are difficult to get along with.
-Children are patrons, too, and should have their information needs treated with the same respect as adults.

2. Be honest.
-This seems self-explanatory, but is important to remember, and includes some of the situations below.
-Do not use library supplies for personal reasons.
-If you can not help a patron, explain why and seek another solution rather than trying to hide a difficulty.
-Give reasonable estimates on when broken machinery will be fixed.
-Seek help when needed.
-If you encounter a dilemma, consider which option will allow you to uphold the highest standard of honesty.

3. Keep patron records confidential.
-This directly supports ALA Code of Ethics, Article III. Maintaining confidentiality is becoming increasingly important in a society in which the Internet makes confidentiality less certain.
-Confidentiality can not always be extended to children under 18, but parents and guardians must have a reason for requesting information and be able to show their identification.

4. Show support for the library's mission and policies.
-When asked for an opinion on a policy change by a member of the public, give a neutral answer.
-Report concerns and complaints through proper employee channels, not to patrons.
-Maintain an understanding of current library policy and apply it to your work life.

5. Give patrons and staff the benefit of the doubt.
-Realize that everyone has a bad day and that you may also need the benefit of the doubt sometime.
-Help your co-workers when you can.
-Recognize when exceptions should and should not be applied.

The last principle was an actual part of the code of ethics at one of my jobs, and I really liked this. It reminds us that we are all humans and need a break sometimes, and, I think, led to a smoother and happier work environment. It also made "problem patrons" easier to shake off!

Elevator Speech (for Management)

2007-11-07T18:41:00.000-05:00

I gave an elevator speech aimed at showing my qualifications for a part-time media specialist permission at a nearby elementary school that serves as a magnet school with an IB-Primary Years Programme. I spoke to one of my library school friends, who is also interested in school libraries and had her provide feedback. Here's the written text of the speech that I prepared beforehand:

"I think I would be an excellent match for the part-time media specialist position at Covington Farms (name changed)Elementary. I have a great deal of experience working with elementary school age children, most notably from a year as a
third grade teacher, but also from earlier jobs and volunteer opportunities. I have specific school library experience
through an internship in a middle school media center. I enjoyed getting to know the middle schoolers, but I truly love the
elementary school setting. I am comfortable working with students of all ability levels and would welcome the
academically rigorous environment of an IB program. I especially like working with other media specialists and teachers,
so I know I will enjoy the collaborative atmosphere of Covington Farms."

When I actually delivered the speech, I didn't read it, since I would never do that in real life, so it didn't come out exactly as written. I felt very weird giving this speech in an entirely unrelated context, and I explained the setting for my friend, which was also a little weird. I think it was good practice, but I definitely get the most out of practicing for an actual upcoming interview or speaking requirement.

I was very glad to have read over the text several times before delivering it, because some of my initial drafts just sounded ridiculous to me out loud. The idea of "selling myself" is still hard for me, and I think it was even harder in a straight speech from me, without the usual give and take of an interview. I actually think that, in real work situations, I would be better able to deliver an elevator speech about a project or a goal that I supported, because I could focus on the external "thing" that I wanted to accomplish, instead of squarely on myself.

The main feedback given was that I need to speak slower (I had "one minute" ingrained in my head and seemed to think a buzzer would go off) and that I should also have mentioned volunteering at another elementary school's media center regularly last year, since that would tie together my elementary school and library experience.

Fire Plan (for Management)

2007-10-13T13:47:00.000-04:00

I chose to write a plan for fire prevention and management, partly because fires are disasters that can happen anywhere at anytime, and partly because they are a disaster that is very easy to plan for if you invest the time and effort!

Fire Prevention (at all locations):

1. Install smoke detectors and fire alarms that are equipped to automatically call the fire department. This should be done every time a new branch is built, and is the joint responsibility of the branch manager, the branch coordinator, and the builders.

2. Check smoke detectors and fire alarms every six months to ensure they are working properly. It is the responsibility of the branch manager to schedule this check with maintenance, and the responsibility of the branch coordinator to check in with branch managers to ensure adhereence to schedule.

3. Review the library's fire insurance policy once a year. This is the responsibility of the library director, in consultation with the library's legal counselors.

4. Train all new employees in the following procedures:
-Turning off the fire alarm (in case of false alarm)
-Evacuating the building
-Contacting headquarters after evacuation of a building
-Referring media to the appropriate person for comment
-Assisting in emergency room delivery/pick-up of co-workers and the public
-Contacting materials management for initiation of material recovery procedures
This training is the responsibility of the employee's immediate supervisor, in conjunction with other managers (such as Librarian 1s) as needed.

5. Hold a fire drill at each branch during open hours every six months. At least 2 days prior to the drill, review above procedures with all employees and inform them of the date of the drill (but not the time). Refer to evacuation procedures below for the order of drill procedures. Schedule drills so that they occur at different times of the day, to allow for employees who work different shifts to be part of the drills. Scheduling and organization of these drills are the joint responsibility of each branch's management team (branch manager, assistant branch manager, 2 Librarian 1s).

6. Back up data on HQ servers once a week. Backed up data will be stored at county headquarters, possibly also (in small amounts) on branch servers. This is the responsibility of the IT team.

7. Copies of all personnel files should be kept in fire-safe storage provided by the county. This is the responsibility of the HR department.

Fire Management (at a branch other than Headquarters):

1. If the fire alarm sounds, determine whether or not it is a false alarm. If it is a false alarm, follow the instructions for turning off the fire alarm and call the fire department to alert them (any branch employee). If the fire alarm has been pulled, determine who has pulled it and speak to them (branch manager).

2. The following are signs that the alarm is NOT false:
-any smell of smoke
-any sight of smoke or flames
-unusual heat coming from any part of the branch
-patrons/staff coughing uncontrollably or quickly exiting a portion of the library
If any of these signs are noted, the building MUST be evacuated.

3. Make an announcement that everyone must exit the building, instructing all parties to meet at the branch's entrance sign (or another designated spot that is better suited for that branch). If conducting a drill, announce that it is a mandatory drill. If not a drill, announce that fact. Assign one staff member each to check the bathrooms and the children's area, and adult area, and assist patrons who need help exiting.

4. If your branch holds a special collection in the workroom, assign one employee who is already in the workroom to cover this collection with a fire blanket, then exit the building (assuming the collection is not the source of the fire).

5. Assign another 1-2 employees who are in the workroom to retrieve the first aid kit, and any employee belongings (keys, purses) that are easily accessible (assuming these items are not near the source of the fire, and ONLY if sufficient time exists for employees to complete these duties and exit the building quickly).

6. When the branch manager exits the building, they should attempt to bring the fire plan, current schedule, and cell phone with them.

7. Meet employees and patrons at designated spot. Determine that all employees and patrons have exited safely. (If conducting a drill, allow all to re-enter the building at this point.) If anyone is hurt, call 911. If the fire department does not arrive in 10 minutes, call 911 or the fire department.

8. Call Headquarters to appraise them of the situation. Request that a branch coordinator and public relations manager come to the scene.

9. Assist the firefighters with any information that might be helpful when they arrived. Allow unharmed patrons to leave once the fire department has arrived.

10. If media arrive on the scene, all staff should direct questions to either the library public relations manager (if present) or the branch manager. All that should be given is a description of what happened (the alarm sounded, smoke was sighted, etc.), the evacuation steps that were taken, and the information that all people are safe.

11. The branch will remain closed for the rest of the day. If the fire is contained with a relatively small amount of damage, staff should stay for the end of their shifts, helping to clean up the branch. If there is extensive building damage, library staff (except for the management team) will be sent home.

12. Books that are damaged will be sent to Headquarters to determine whether they should be preserved or discarded. If a large number of items must be discarded, multiple titles can be floated to the branch from other branches once the building is cleared for operation.

13. The branch management team, the branch coordinator, and the fire marshall will determine what repairs need to be made to the building and when it is ready to be reopened. Funds for relatively minor repairs (new shelving, new carpet) will come from the library emergency budget line item. Funds for major repairs will be diverted from funding for new branch construction. If the branch has to close for an extended period of time (longer than 3 days), the staff will be reassigned to other branches in the interim.

Fire Management at Headquarters:

1. Evacuation should proceed as it would at any branch, with the following changes: staff working in materials processing should each carry one box of new materials out with them, as they are able and only if there is adequate time. IT staff should be sure to close the fire safe door to the servers, assuming the fire has not already spread to this part. Additionally, they should initiate an emergency back-up sequence as they leave the building.

2. If there is major building damage, the materials processing staff will be relocated to one of the branches with meeting rooms. All other staff will be relocated to other branches as space is available. Executive staff may be relocated to the county government building.

3. The branch coordinators will call the branch managers, using the phone tree, to determine if ILS service has been disrupted at the branches. If so, IT staff will be sent to both the county headquarters and to branches to attempt to use back-up servers to re-initiate the system.

4. Major building repair funds will be diverted from funding for new branches. Other repair/replacement funds will come from the library's emergency budget line item (necessary server space, reorder of new books that were destroyed).

Termination Checklist (for Management)

2007-09-27T11:56:00.000-04:00

Before Termination Decision:
1.) If for unsatisfactory job performance, ensure that the employee has received the following performance warnings (and there is a record in the employee's file)
-3 verbal warnings (including at least one in-depth meeting to discuss problem)
-Written employee improvement plan
-Written notice of failure to meet specified goals, with timeline in which they must be met
2.) If for misconduct, ensure that the employee has received the following warnings (and there is a record in the employee's file)
-3 verbal warnings and a written warning with behavior-change due date if for minor misconduct
-unacceptable conduct letter/suspension notice if for major misconduct
3.) Meet with Human Resources to show evidence of termination cause, and arrange for an HR representative to attend the actual termination meeting.

Before Termination Meeting:
1.) Obtain employee's final paycheck, termination notice, and explanation of separation packet from HR.
2.) Schedule termination meeting on a Monday or Tuesday morning.

During Termination Meeting:
1.) Request that employee come to your office, make sure to close door.
2.) Explain, succinctly, the decision to terminate, reason(s) for termination, and next steps to the employee. Make sure to emphasize that the decision is final. Advise them of what will be said if GCPL is called for a reference (position and dates of employment only).
3.) Allow employee to respond, ask questions--do not allow employee to draw out an argument or plea to keep job.
4.) Offer the employee the option to complete an exit interview at the present time (you will leave the office for this) or to come to Headquarters at a date later in the week.
5.) Have employee sign necessary forms--answer any questions they may have about the forms.
6.) Request employee's keys and nametag, advise them that their e-mail account will be cancelled at the end of the day. Allow them to forward e-mails in their work account to their personal account (supervised).
7.) Step out for exit interview if employee chooses this option.
8.) Wish former employee the best of luck. Give him or her time to clean out locker and mailbox and to say good-bye to co-workers, if desired.

After Termination Meeting:
1.) Hand-deliver employee's file to HR, making sure all the termination forms are properly filled out and signed.
2.) Meet with assistant branch manager and librarians (librarian I position) to explain the situation, have them give the explanation to the rest of the staff.
3.) Answer staff questions without providing specifics into the performance problem or misconduct incident.
4.) Determine whether the position will be replaced, if so meet with HR to fill out position request forms.
5.) Report any unauthorized or unusual returns to the building of the former employee to HR and, if safety seems threatened, the local police.

Madeleine L'Engle

2007-09-08T21:53:00.000-04:00

My favorite author, Madeleine L'Engle, died on Thursday, September 6, 2007. You can read more information about Madeleine at her official website, http://www.madeleinelengle.com/.

I loved her books because she seamlessly wove the "real world" and the wider spiritual world, because Christianity and science were not contradictory to her, because her characters seemed to share both my background and my fears/hopes, because God was obviously present to her in her writing, and because Madeleine herself seemed so real and human.

Some of my favorites among her books (I am purposefully not listing A Wrinkle in Time because, although I loved it too, it was not one I reread for "comfort reading," and everyone knows it anyway:

Many Waters
A Ring of Endless Light
A House Like a Lotus
Meet the Austins
The Moon By Night
The Arm of the Starfish

Some that I read for the first time this summer, and loved:

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art
A Circle of Quiet
The Summer of the Great-Grandmother
Certain Women

If you have not yet read any of her books, do!

Branch Librarian Position (for Management)

2007-09-07T16:01:00.000-04:00

Branch Librarian

Responsibilities:
Works with the branch manager and assistant branch manager to ensure smooth daily branch operation. Individual tasks may include working at the reference desk, assisting with collection development, maintaining branch displays, organizing branch programs, organizing special projects, training employees, and assigning work among staff.

Requirements:
Education: MLS from an ALA accredited program.
Experience: One to two years work in a library setting. No prior management experience needed, but prior teamwork experience is a must.
Skills: Strong reference and reader's advisory skills, extremely strong interpersonal skills, initiative, and a love for libraries and people.

Opportunities:
"GCPL" will provide management training as well as matching the successful candidate with a mentor to encourage personal career growth. The selected candidate will have the chance to work with his/her branch manager and assistant branch manager to match the librarian's interests and strengths with needed tasks. Opportunities exist to work on system level projects and we encourage employee advancement in our library system.

Compensation and Benefits:
Salary Range: $41,900-$47,500, depending on previous experience
Benefits: Health, dental, vision, life, accident, and disability insurance; vacation days and sick leave, sick leave bank, employee assistance program (counseling)

Outstanding candidates should send a resume and cover letter to hiring manager Wanda Job via

a) Standard post: Wanda Job
Hiring Manager
"GCPL"
1234 Fake Address
Sometown, SS 98765

OR

b) E-mail: wjob (at) fakeemail (dot) org.

Applications will be accepted until 5:00 PM, Friday, September 21, 2007.

Interviewing Practice with Stacey (for Management)

2007-08-29T22:25:00.001-04:00

I wasn't sure how useful this exercise would be, since I knew it was "pretend." But once we got started (Stacey L interviewed me first), I realized that I had the same small butterfly knot in my stomach that I get when I interview for real! This surprised me, but it help me make the most of the practice. I feel like I interview reasonably well, so the butterfly knot is more of a "put me on my toes" thing than a "I'm so nervous I'm going to crack" thing.

I definitely think I should go through my past and choose examples to pull out, especially from my recent work, and especially of overcoming challenges. This question always directs my mind to teaching first, which so far has probably been the most challenging experience of my entire life. However, I'd rather choose examples from work experiences that were positive overall, and I'd like to be a little more prepared with a "ready-to-tell" example.

That said, the "describe a challenge you've overcome" question didn't unnerve me as much as a question about where else I'm applying (which I basically deflected instead of answering directly) and Stacey responding to many of my responses by saying, "Good." This last made me nervous because she didn't say it every time, so I wondered if the silences meant what I had said was not good.

Overall, though, I felt positive about the interview, and Stacey said she would have hired me, so that makes me happy! :-)

It took me a few minutes to get into being the interviewer--I was at first just as nervous about that, but then I started to have fun with it. It must be neat to learn about all the different people if you've got a good pool of applicants, and Stacey was an awesome applicant! Her answers and examples were great (one example of her helping get a little kid to go off the diving board by realizing that the kid was afraid of getting up on the board, not jumping off made me want to hire her right there and then!).

I found myself conscious of wanting to be as friendly and encouraging as possible while still asking the questions I needed to ask, and at one point, I was relieved when Stacey elaborated on an original answer without prompting. The question was about overcoming a challenge, and she mentioned working with a variety of people to get information she needed from each of them for her clients. I would have asked her to elaborate simply because I was interested, but I always feel a bit more on the spot when asked to elaborate, so I was glad I didn't have to do that.

I think it was a good, and even fun experience, and it was especially nice to get "out of character" and talk about what worked and what could be improved upon at the end (and to hear Stacey's other stories!).

Introducing My Organization (for Management)

2007-08-22T15:24:00.000-04:00

Our first assignment is to introduce the organization (of our choice or creation) of which we are the new head. I have decided to work on the premise of managing the Gwinnett County Public Library system, which is located in Gwinnett County, GA, northeast of Atlanta. Before I start, I figure I should include some disclaimers. I used to work for GCPL, and I had a great experience there, which is why I'm choosing to use it. However, I no longer work there, and my comments have no endorsement from anyone who does currently work there. Another reason I chose the system is that I was able to witness changes and problems that arose, so I may include some criticisms of the system. Again, they are mine alone. Overall, I think it's a great library system and a great place to work!

So, Gwinnett County is a very large county outside of Atlanta, and a good deal of the population commutes to Atlanta (I had the good fortune of commuting FROM Atlanta, and the difference in traffic problems is enormous!). I would say that it is a fairly affluent county overall, although there are certainly parts of the county that are more affluent than others. The population also leans somewhat to the conservative side of the political viewpoint scale. The county truly values its library system: much of the library's funding comes from local taxes, which the citizens have regularly voted to levy. The library is well-funded and growing. It currently has 14 branches, one of these has been opened in the last year and another was opened a year and a half ago. A fifteenth branch is currently under construction.

The library has no main branch; each branch offers the same hours and basically the same services. The library headquarters offices are located at a centrally located branch, in the county seat of Lawrenceville. I would estimate that the library has about 300 employees (I am not a great estimator, so this could be wildly off!). The structure of work at the branch level has changed somewhat since I left, but I believe the branch level management structure is basically the same. Each branch has a management team that consists of a branch manager, an assistant branch manager, and two librarians, all of whom hold an MLS degree (this would be the position that I would really be more likely to aim for, especially in such a large library system--but it will be fun to pretend to be the big boss for a semester!). Most of the other branch employees are either library associates (who must have a bachelor's degree) or library assistants. Associates are trained to do all of the branch functions, including responding to reference and reader's advisory questions, the many circulation tasks (checking books out and in, shelving books, pulling books for holds, monitoring holds for expiration dates), serving on branch or system-wide teams, helping with special branch projects, and holding branch tours and storytimes. Assistants are officially trained to do circulation tasks, although many of them know how to do, and help with, other tasks.

Because the system is so large, many jobs are taken care of at headquarters for the whole system. These include collection development work, cataloging and processing, information technology, staff training, human resources, public relations, and events and outreach. Headquarters also houses a couple managers who work with all the branch managers and assistant branch managers, and, of course, the library director. Centralizing this work has advantages and disadvantages. As a former branch employee, I'm VERY glad that we didn't have to process all the new books that came in, because there were always large numbers. A disadvantage was that, if a patron/customer (we used customer; I have heard that there are raging debates over which one is best, but I feel that it is not an extremely important controversy) wished to request a book be added to the collection, the process took longer.

One organizational choice GCPL has made is to use teams to achieve some of the work of the library. These include permanent teams for ongoing decision-making, and temporary teams that formed to examine or take care of specific questions that came up. I served on a team for part of my time, and found that it was a very good experience. I felt a greater unity of purpose from the members of the team than I have on almost any other group or committee that I have served on, but the process was fairly time consuming. One of the best things about the team was that our members included some people who had been with the system for a very long time, some (like me) who were pretty new, and we came from all different branches. This helped me get a better picture of the system as a whole, of its history, and of some of the challenges that go along with making decisions for such a large library system.

Another important feature of GCPL is that it has an extensive list of policies and procedures, but that within the policies, front-line employees are given a certain amount of discretion. This particularly comes into play when customers wanted to contest their fines, check out more items than the limit, challenge a book, etc. I found this to be great--I loved having policies, because once I learned them, I could use them to explain the reasoning behind our rules and to back up my decisions. However, I was also allowed to make exceptions where I judged them to be worthwhile. I think the organization shows a fair amount of faith in its employees, and that was one thing that makes it strong. I think the robust policies are both a result of the system being so large and a necessity for keeping the large system going--there are enough employees to devote time to creating policies, and it allows consistency across the system.

For me, keeping the well-being of an entire large system in mind would be one of the most challenging things about being a library director in Gwinnett County. This is another reason why I have chosen this county--managing such a large system is not a job I expect to seek out, but I think it will help me stretch my thinking about management over the course of the semester.

New School Year, Back to Blogging

2007-08-21T11:51:00.000-04:00

Well, I haven't written all summer, but I've been too busy doing other things. Now it's a new school year, and I have library school related things to share. The most important is that this semester, I'm taking an online management class that will involve blog posts--a ready made way to keep using this blog! Many, if not most of my future posts this semester will therefore have to do with management.

Before I start with management posts, however, here are some fun summer pictures:

In July, we were hardly in NC at all. We first traveled to Montreal, where Mark took an organ class and I explored and practiced my French. Here's a pretty picture of the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) and a picture of me in front of the public library!

In between trips, I made my sister come down for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Release. We made a whole weekend of it, getting our books, reading all day, and then going to the newest HP movie. Here we are at the Borders waiting around with all the other crazy people.

Our final trip was to London and Edinburgh, courtesy of my parents, who were celebrating my dad's retirement. Mark took a postcard perfect picture of the Edinburgh castle, as seen from Princes' Street Gardens.

And now, back to library school...

ALA Rocks!

2007-06-27T23:08:00.000-04:00

Ok, I haven't been in class for about 2 months now, and, as my husband points out, I don't really have much to say that is worth adding to the vast informational morass. So I'm at least going to try to keep posts library-related. But now I have a library related topic to write about!

I went to ALA this past weekend with my mother--a school librarian--and we had a super time. Here were some highlights for me:
-Getting to see and talk to Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughter, Charlotte Jones Voiklis

(This was definitely THE highlight for me.)

-Running into a bunch of people from UNC

-Seeing other authors, including Judy Blume, Jack Gantos, Mo Willems, Jon Scieszka, John Green, Lois Lowry, and others.

-Lots of free stuff at the Exhibits (and buying cool T-shirts at the Unshelved booth!)

-Hanging out with my mom.

-Hearing the Caldecott and Newbery winners speak at the dinner in their honor.

I definitely feel like this conference was more "fun" than "serious learning" for me, at least in terms of librarianship. I do always feel that I learn a great deal when I hear authors whom I admire speak, but it's not necessarily related to being a librarian. However, I got something out of just seeing all these librarians come together and navigating through the conference.

High-speed Internet coming to our household...

2007-05-10T13:44:00.000-04:00

Well, we've finally taken the leap and decided to pay for high-speed Internet. And we're going to make it wireless, which will be fun for me on my Mac. I put in the order today, and we're supposed to receive the "stuff" in 5 business days. Then the real test will begin: how long will it take us to figure out how to install the modem, etc., and actually get up and running?

Stay tuned...

(P.S. I'm at UNC right now, using their wireless network--our dial up was too slow to go through with ordering something!)

Harry Potter fun.

2007-05-05T15:19:00.000-04:00

A Harry Potter quiz (you can take it too!):

I'm DONE

2007-04-29T21:53:00.000-04:00

Hooray! I've finished all my work for the semester, and survived an incredibly busy weekend. Tomorrow, I spend one last day at my field experience (which is very sad!) and then start my summer projects:
-Spring cleaning (scary but necessary)
-Get some photos printed and scrapbooking
-Reading as many kids' and YA books as possible
-Brainstorming and deciding on a topic for my master's paper
I'm sure others will crop up as well.

To celebrate I'm going to put a picture or two in. :-)

My favorite recent picture of Mark and me (on Easter).

A cute Rosie the cat picture.

PBwiki and Grrr towards G-mail

2007-04-23T22:21:00.000-04:00

Apparently we can now get more free space from PBwiki if we post information about it on our blogs, so here goes nothing:

It also spices up the blog a bit, n'est-ce pas? Basically, this is a wiki I created as part of a project on capital punishment for my Humanities and Social Science Reference class. Our group created a whole page of resources to go with UNC's Summer Reading program, at http://www.unc.edu/~lynmarie/summerreadingprogram/. Feel free to check it out, but it's not a happy topic.

The "Grrr" directed at G-mail has to do with SLOOOOOOW service today. I thought it might be my browser/computer, but both Safari and Firefox have given me trouble, on this and on another computer. I hope it's solved soon--I didn't realize how deeply I rely on Gmail!

Almost there...

2007-04-18T21:47:00.000-04:00

The semester doesn't end for another week and a half (classes) to three weeks (when last assignments are do). I don't have any final exams, and have just realized that if I put in good solid work tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday, I can FINISH all my work. This would be especially good because there are special end-of-semester activities going on next week that I am supposed to help with, plus stuff at church and the public library.

So I need to stop procrastinating (which is technically what this is) and get to work.. wish me luck!

To Do Lists

2007-04-10T15:17:00.000-04:00

I'm a big fan of To-Do lists, and now I've just learned how to make them better. RP, my fabulous field experience supervisor at Culbreth Middle School (at least for a little while longer) shared the following advice. She got it from somewhere else, and I'll have to find where that is and add it.

-Separate to-do lists by place (so, one for at the computer, one for at a computer that prints, one for in the library stacks, one for on the reference desk, etc.)--this makes it easy to make the most of your time wherever you are

-Break tasks down so you don't have any item on your list that takes more than 20 minutes to complete (not always possible with graduate school work, but seems to fit in nicely with a lot of library work and lesson or story time planning)--this lets you get more "things" done, but also streamlines your work because you know what each step is that needs to be done.

I've tried it some this week and it seems to work very well!

Picture Now Mysteriously Works

2007-04-08T00:04:00.000-04:00

Ok, I tried to rotate the picture in iPhoto and that didn't work, but just uploading the original photo from the "Modifed" folder instead of the "Originals" photo seems to have done the trick. Hooray. So here is the beautiful Davis Library in all its glory.

Let's try to put some news from this week in:

-Went to an "RTP 2.0" gathering on Wednesday VERY briefly. Had no fun. It was mainly business people and total techies; only one other SILS student that I ran into, and he was IS (Information Science rather than Library Science track). Also, it was in a bar (not my scene) and I came out smelling smoky. Yuck! Conclusion: I will monitor their blog for a bit, but I'm not going to run out to any other events.

-Had Friday off and slept in. Hooray!

-Got significant work done on my Humanities and Social Science Reference group project. We are researching capital punishment to create a website for UNC freshman. Their summer reading assignment is The Death of Innocents by Sister Helen Prejean. I'll put in a link when it's finished. For part of my contribution, I created a wiki! It of course has no discussion but can be found at http://deathofinnocents.pbwiki.com.

-Finished my readings and consideration papers for my Public Library class this evening after dying eggs at a friend's house. Now it's time to go to bed in preparation for tomorrow.

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

Picture attempts

2007-04-04T22:34:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm attempting to put my first pictures, but I have the issue of one of the pictures being turned. On iPhoto, it shows up the correct direction, so I'm not sure how to change it for Internet posting. I'll play with it for another post, but if anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.

So, the first, rotated picture is Davis Library on the UNC campus, which has a beautiful reference room in which I spend a fair amount of time. The second building (and it was a beautiful day--I should get SILS to use this as an advertising picture and pay me! :-) is Manning Hall, where SILS is located. I spend most of my on-campus time here.

That's all for this post. More actual information to come!

Library 2.0

2007-04-02T09:35:00.000-04:00

I would have to wait until I'm nearly half-way finished with library school before starting a blog of my time here.

However, in my Public Library Seminar class, I choose to lead discussion on, and therefore research Library 2.0, which is where I've finally learned about all this blogging hype.

So, for now, I'll look at this as a way to update my Gwinnett County Public Library friends and other select few who I don't think will laugh too much at me of my library school experience.

I actually have my digital camera with me today, so maybe I'll post pictures soon! :-)

P.S. If this ever does reach a larger audience, I should tell you where I'm going to library school: School of Information and Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill.