Monday, August 27, 2007

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I'm so relieved that summer is over. Since I'm not a children's librarian, summer is not my busiest time. Not only didn't I have any programs in August (the one program that I had scheduled - a monthly foreign film - was canceled because our meeting room was painted, and, wouldn't you know it, the slight "audience" of two people who normally attend the film became what would have been twenty! It was a rainy day. But I digress.).

Although my school days ended years ago, I've never stemmed the yearly circle of slowing down in July and August and renewing a commitment to hard work in September. So now that Labor Day is around the corner, I'm excited about my upcoming programs. A quilting demonstration, a Jewish Book Discussion series that was made possible through the first grant I've ever received, a Business Expo, the rebirth of our new Writer's Group after its summer hiatus (I hope that it does well!!!!!!!!), the smaller regular Great Books Discussion Group and foreign film (yes, the film that was supposed to be showed in August!). I'm also busy preparing a display of resources for writers. And I'm just finished a bibliography - "Teach Yourself" Resources - that will go "on the stands" next week.

It feels good to be busy again. Being occupied - and happy with what you're doing - is as refreshing as jumping into a pool on a sweltering day in mid-July.

I love my job.

Friday, July 27, 2007

One More Quick One.....

Not one person has read this blog. At one time I thought that would have been a good thing. Now I'm not so sure. I think that I'm ready to share my thoughts about librarianship (although at the beginning I would have been relieved to have no readers).....Am I doing something wrong, that I'm not attracting attention? Or are there already too many other library-related blogs for mine to get special attention?

When a Reference Librarian is NOT a Reference Librarian!

Normally, I believe that I'm a good Reference Librarian. No, not the best, just GOOD. I have a desire to help people, a love of research, and a passion for knowledge.

But this afternoon my passion, my skills, failed me - so much so that I'm certain that the patron I was assisting (who was really very patient) had the impression that I'm an extremely incompetent librarian. I tried to make up for my blunders (which were rather obvious to me, if not to the patron) with consistent apologies and regular updates on the status of his inquiry, but in the end was embarrassed at the way that I had handled the entire question.

Have a really been a librarian for ____ years?!

It was a simple request, actually. The patron was an actor who needed the sheet music to two relatively known songs - what he called "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Wherever We Go." He came to the library for the information in the late morning, needing the sheet music for a 6:30 p.m. audition.

What I didn't do at the time was verify that these were indeed the names of the songs (mistake number one, something that any good librarian would have done). Instead, I focused on the brief amount of time that I had to get him the information. After a quick search in our catalog showed that our branch doesn't have the sheet music for these songs, I called our main branch to have the songs faxed to us.

There's more to this story, but I won't get bogged down in the details (i.e.- the aisle in which our fake books are shelved was blocked off because of a leak from the ceiling, our fax machine jammed and then decided that it needed a new black ink cartridge.). Suffice it to say that the patron did not receive his information - his fax from the main library - until 3:30 p.m. (When will someone invent a fax machine that can operate as fast as the Internet?). There had been serious miscommunications among myself, the staff members who took over my shift at the desk, and the librarians at the main library. But it all began with my failure to take that extra, simple step: "Let me just verify that those are the actual names of the songs." Because they weren't. And they were both available in fake books that happened to be in the circulating collection - in our branch.

Sigh. It's Friday afternoon. I'm going home. But I'll be back tomorrow.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

A Quick One....

I've been too busy at the library to jot down my thoughts. I suppose that, in a way, that's a great thing. It's terrific to see so many people using the library, to be answering reference questions and checking out materials and to rarely have the opportunity to ask "How can we get even more people to use the library?"

But I'm going to be leaving this life for a week. I'm going to be moving from a townhouse to a single-family house, and I know that will occupy all of my time and my thoughts. I won't have a moment to think about the library.

Which makes me think that, having been away from it, doing something completely different, I'll return as a better, stronger librarian, more than ready to work with the public again.

Monday, June 25, 2007

One of Those Times.....

We all have those moments in which we feel the need to go "above and beyond" for a patron. These transactions usually result in self-satisfaction, in knowing that you did your job well. Sometimes they also result in a remarkable amount of gratitude from a patron, and that adds to your own sense of pleasure at having been able to help him.

Late last week, I had just such a patron. I'll call him Joe.

On Friday, Joe, a man who was probably in his early seventies, came in to use one of our computers. It was not long before closing, and it was obvious that he'd need some assistance in sending an e-mail.

Ordinarily, I'd have explained to Joe that he would need to make an appointment with one of our student volunteers, who could spend an hour assisting him one-on-one.

Ordinarily, I'd have looked at the clock and shaken my head politely but firmly, explaining to Joe that we just didn't have the staff at that particular time to assist him. He would need to come back.

But it was not an "ordinary" situation. Joe was typing his wife's obituary, and wanted to e-mail it to a local newspaper for publication in the Sunday edition.

The staff who worked at the Desk before me had told me about Joe. They had set him up on the local newspaper's website, showed him how to click the link to send the obituary, and let him type. He was typing the document when my shift began.

But Joe didn't have an e-mail account. And that is where the problem was. He had spent a great deal of time typing the obituary, and came to get me when he needed assistance sending the document. When I went to him, I discovered two issues: first, that he had typed the obituary as a standard e-mail (rather than as a form, which can sometimes allow a person to contact a business electronically even if he doesn't have an e-mail account) and second, that the obituary contained grammatical errors.

With Joe's permission, I corrected the grammatical mistakes. Then, I tried to send it. Sure enough, it asked for the sender's e-mail address.

Joe tried unsuccessfully to call a friend to ask permission to use his e-mail account. Then, thinking quickly, I typed my own work e-mail address. But when I tried to send it, a window that asked for details about the server appeared - questions I could not answer.

Because it was growing ever closer to five o'clock, I told Joe that I would retype the document using my own e-mail address early on Saturday morning. I would send it, print a copy for him, and notify him that it had been sent. I also cautioned him that I couldn't be certain that it would appear in Sunday's edition.

So that's what I did.

Later that morning, I looked up from my computer to see Joe standing before me. I gave him the copy of obituary, now sent (and confirmed, thanks to a question that I had received from the newspaper staff about the billing address. I didn't know, nor was it stated on the paper's website, that obituaries have to be paid for). Joe asked me to type in his address, which I did.

Then he thanked me. And the thank-you was a big thank-you, filled with heartfelt emotion. He told me that, without the service I had given him, he would have driven to the newspaper office himself - and that office is a long drive away.

It was one of those times when I was glad that I was the librarian at the Desk.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Why Here, Today?

I love my job - usually. But today, when the sun is shining and there is not a cloud in the sky, the humidity is low and the trees are blowing gently....today, the perfect summer day, I don't want to be here.

And why on Earth are patrons here? If I were free, I'd be at a park, a pool, a beach. Not in a building, even a building filled with books and magazines and DVDs and computers.

Those who want or need something quick (like an item on hold) are a bit easier to understand than those who are determined to spend the hours typing away on the computer, surfing the Web rather than the waves, as if the beauty outside doesn't exist.

Why?

Friday, June 22, 2007

Now Every Library Blog is About 2.0!

What was the subject of my first posting? A fascination with Web 2.0?!

It's true that I do love 2.0. But there are other aspects of librarianship that are equally fascinating, and sometimes I get tired of reading library-related blogs in which every posting seems to be describing a new social networking site. Let's talk about something else.

What, then? The wonderfully-fulfilling aspects of librarianship (like finding that elusive piece of information that your patron has just been dying for, or finding him the book that his mother read to him thirty-some-odd years ago whose title and author he's forgotten)? Or those moments in which you wish that you had done anything with your life other than work with the public (like breaking up fights over who gets to use a computer or who has been annoying whom with his cell phone conversations)?

How about both? Because everyone experiences both the glories and the pitfalls of professional life (if you only experience the highs, you haven't been in the field long, and if you have only experienced the frustrations, chances are that you're no longer working in a library). Together, they give us so much food for thought. So, despite the fact that 2.0 is exciting and immense and sometimes overwhelming (and so in itself gives us a lot to talk about!), we have the potential to discuss so many different things. Let's add some variety to our conversations!

Monday, June 4, 2007

Nice and Steady, Too Busy, or Not Busy Enough

Like many librarians (I think), I prefer a nice, steady pace at the Reference Desk. This way I feel needed, am comfortable working for a time to ensure that every patron receives the information that he needs, and am not pressured to move on to the next person. A "nice, steady pace" gives me a chance to breathe between customers without the long stretches that pass patron-less, in which case I look up from my work and wonder why people are not at the library (and hence, wonder what we staff members are doing wrong).

I have to admit that, although I love being at the Desk and believe that I have strong customer service skills, there are times when I'm just as glad when my shift ends and I can do some work "behind the scenes." And these moments of relief occur when it is either "too busy" at the Desk (the line of impatient people who shift their books from one arm to the other, stamp their feet, frown, glance at their watches, and complain to the person behind them) or when it's not busy enough (I need to escape so that I can feel useful again).

Fortunately, most of my shifts are "nice and steady!"

Friday, June 1, 2007

Using Web 2.0

I'm fascinated by Web 2.0. I want to learn everything that I can about this awesome method of socializing, interacting, and conducting research. I think that it's vital that we learn to use tools like del.icio.us and LibraryThing so that we can communicate with many of our patrons (and keep them using the library, in their way).

That being said, I don't have much of a chance to actually use Web 2.0 at my library. Our township has a large senior population. Many of our patrons want to learn basic Mouse, Internet, and E-mail skills, but the concepts of del.icio.us, flickr, and other networking sites remain foreign, seemingly unobtainable. In fact, most of our patrons probably haven't even heard of most of them.

Admittedly, our small branch library (which, by the way, has limited computer access) does not offer "Web 2.0" classes (it would be interesting to know how many do). Is it that we are unable to teach the classes because we don't have the skills necessary to do so? Or is it that we are short-staffed? Or perhaps even we - who have worked with seniors for so long, and who would like to believe that we don't adhere to any stereotypes about seniors - are playing into the stereotype that seniors aren't interested and won't need to learn these things? Most likely, a bit of all.

Yet, every once in a while, the teenagers who use our computers will ask me something. How to save flickr photos. How to download items from their cell phones. Even how to elegantly crop and scan documents. And so, even in an environment in which I don't use 2.0 every day, I still need to be familiar with technological advances.

So - that's the reason that I'm trying to teach myself. I attend classes (Robert Lackie's were great!), I read articles, I practice. Sometimes it's overwhelming, because there is so much to know (and so little time to learn it, considering the amount of time that day-to-day library tasks consume). But at the same time, it's so satisfying to learn something new. And that, after all, is the reason that I entered the library profession to begin with - to have the chance to learn something new every day.