Libraries in Crisis

It's like there's a theme...

via blogwithoutalibrary

Huffington Post on Library Woes

Art Brodsky's article is titled "Our Public Library Lifeline Is Fraying. We'll Be Sorry When it Snaps" and I couldn't agree more. And yes, I'm very biased towards this as I have an eminent stake in the future of libraries.

Five years ago I was at a crossroads. I had left publishing, a career I loved, to work as a computer programmer. This decision was purely financial. In 2000, my wife as a high school teacher made almost double what I made as an editor. We would never have a home, or a family, or savings, or all sorts of things if I continued working in publishing. Needless to say, but I made good money as a programmer.

But I hated it.

Many people like programming. There are many who even have a passion for it. I'm not one of them. I needed to get out. This put me at my crossroad.

Moving to a different programming job wouldn't be sufficient. It wasn't the work, it was the career. It and I did not match. Going back to publishing was an option, but there was the financial concern. So, I needed to find a career where I could have passion AND make a decent wage. I chose librarianship.

I love books. I love reading. Yes, a library is more than that, but I don't know if you can dislike books and make it as a librarian. More than liking books, I had worked on books. I knew that side of the business which is something many (if not most) librarians don't have. I also had a background in programming, which in these days, is a great benefit to have as a librarian as more and more things become electronic/digital/online/etc. these days. Plus, the pay was pretty good.

Don't laugh. My first job as a full-time librarian earned almost double what my last job as an editor did. Whether that says more for the dire state of publishing salaries or the implied lucrativeness of being a librarian, I don't know. Regardless, once the decision was made, it was time to go back to school, earn my Master's in Library Science (no matter what my alma mater thinks about the word 'library'), and move onto a new career.

I didn't come to libraries by accident. I didn't come to libraries because I had previous experience working in one (in fact, that lack of experience may be a benefit for me in the long run). I didn't come to libraries because I went to library school straight out of college. I chose to be a librarian. It's who I am. No matter what accolades I may earn (that's not me in the photo), I will always think of myself as a librarian first, everything else second.

That's why I think this article is great. Of course, being on the Huffington Post means that only a certain group of people will see it. And it's also written because this is National Library Week. On any other week I doubt that Mr. Brodsky--no matter his love and devotion to libraries--would write this. Even if he did, would Huffington Post run it on a different week? Probably not.

One of the big reasons is the prevailing mentality that everything is online. Even pro-library people (and librarians) have this opinion that everything is online. Brodsky writes (emphasis mine):

But it would be a mistake to say that the Internet replaces libraries. It doesn't. It's an adjunct. More than one budget officer has said that people don't need libraries because they can go online. First, many people can't go online due to their economic circumstances. Second, librarians help to guide research. A simple online search will not always achieve desired results, as anyone who does this well knows. And libraries still have those quaint old things called books, many of which aren't online. The printed medium still has a lot of attraction for many, from the youngest readers whose parents check out armloads of picture books, to the serious readers and researchers who realize there is more to find than what's online.

Just as important, just because you can go online and use Google, doesn't mean you can actually write a good search query, or interpret your search results with any alacrity. That's where we come in. Sure, I still get people calling for phone numbers and hours of businesses, but more often the reference questions are more complicated and require someone with some searching skill and tenacity to find the answer.

I'll close the same way the article does (again, emphasis mine):

No less an authority than Keith Richards put it best in his forthcoming autobiography: "When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is a great equaliser."

Salem Press Blog Awards

Salem Press is sponsoring an award for library blogs. I heard about this through receiving a nomination e-mail over the weekend. Now, while I am flattered, doubly so since the nomination has to come from a reader, I've withdrawn myself from consideration as I don't feel my work lives up to the standard set by other library blogs.

There are some who feel there are too many awards, and others who feel this is a disingenuous attempt from Salem Press to gather marketing data. Regardless, it's not something for which I feel I qualify. For one, my blog which updates regularly is about science fiction and my magazine Electric Velocipede. This blog, has upated (including this post you're reading) seven times in the past THREE YEARS. Not exactly setting the library blog world on fire, eh?

Still, I'm flattered that someone felt what I've written worth nominating, and for that, I thank you.

Steampunk!

Recently I wrote an article on steampunk for Library Journal's Booksmack online column/e-mail newsletter (yes, that's my ugly mug on the LJ site). My editor told me that it was their most accessed page on the entire Library Journal website the weekend it went up. It was also mentioned by Tor.com and listed in the American Libraries newsletter from ALA.

Go me!

PS - I'm hoping that I can update this site a bit more as I'm trying to take control of my passion for librarianship and remember why I got into the field in the first place.

What Will You Do?

What happens if you find yourself in a field you love, but working in places that don't let you do the things you love about the field? It might not be the institution's fault; what you love to do might not be relevant for its constituency. The things you love to do just might not be needed where you work.

What do you do about this?

In a related note, Seth Godin posted recently about the future of libraries. He says:

They can't survive as community-funded repositories for books that individuals don't want to own (or for reference books we can't afford to own.) More librarians are telling me (unhappily) that the number one thing they deliver to their patrons is free DVD rentals. That's not a long-term strategy, nor is it particularly an uplifting use of our tax dollars.

Here's my proposal: train people to take intellectual initiative.

Once again, the net turns things upside down. The information is free now. No need to pool tax money to buy reference books. What we need to spend the money on are leaders, sherpas and teachers who will push everyone from kids to seniors to get very aggressive in finding and using information and in connecting with and leading others.

This is why I got into the field. Perhaps some day I'll work somewhere they'll let me do it.

So...

What are your plans for keeping patron interest when the economy comes back?

Passion Quilt Meme: There is Only One You

I've seen this lots of places, but it was Lauren's post that actually motivated me to do something. I've been thinking about this for a while. I don't really instruct students. Not in an extended format. So I thought about what was the best lesson I've ever learned; what would I want my daughter to carry with her into the future.

I doubt my parents realized the impact it would have on me, but from a young age, they stressed to me how every person is unique. My father especially. I really took this to heart. It's shaped who I am today.

Whenever I've felt doubtful about myself, I think, there's NO ONE else on the planet like you. There is no one else who puts ideas together, places one foot in front of the other, chews food, in the same manner that I do. So even when I question what I'm doing, what I'm thinking, I take solace in the fact I am unique and no one can take that away from me.

Here's the magic of this. I am not confined in thinking that I need to be like everyone else, think like everyone else, or act like everyone else. I can't be. We're all unique. And being unique means that none of us are alike. You couldn't follow the crowd if you wanted to.

So how is this helpful? Why would you want to tell this to students? For me, it removed my inhibitions, it removed my fear of failure. No matter how awful things might feel in the moment, you can know deep down that you bring something to any situation you get into because you are unique. You might whiff on today's project, but tomorrow's project might be that big home run. You can achieve some truly amazing things if you aren't afraid to make a few mistakes (or even a lot of mistakes).

The library world sometimes feels very safe. Very tried and true. This has been frustrating for me coming into this field. Sometimes you can butt your head up against so many obstacles just trying to get the simplest things done. And other times the things you sweated the most sail through without problems.

Just always remember, "There is only one you."

Original photo by Irina Souiki

Let's Start a Fire

You may have noticed that the URL for this blog is 'books to burn.' When I created this blog, I wasn't sure what that meant. I just liked the way it rolled off the tongue. I liked how it was a little controversial. But I liked how it didn't mean anything and still carried a lot of imagery.

You see, fire is a powerful thing. It was something that separated us from the rest of the animals on this planet. It provides warmth and security, yet it still carries a destructive, terrifying power. What else can both comfort and destroy?

It also makes me think of two of my favorite cities: Chicago and New York. While there are a lot of ways in which the two cities are different, but there's one way in which they will always be separated in my mind.

For those of you who have been there, what happens in New York City on garbage day? All the garbage is piled up on the curbs as New York has no alleyways. One garbage day, you have to wade through trash to get to where you're going. For such an amazing, exciting city, it stinks--literally--to have to walk through garbage.

You know what happens in Chicago on garbage day? All the trash is behind the buildings and out of sight. The public doesn't have to see it nor do they have to walk through it.

Do you know why Chicago is able to put its trash in the alleys behind the buildings?

Because in 1871 Chicago burned to the ground and they were able to rebuild the city with a better plan so that people didn't have to walk through garbage.

There are days when I'd like to start a fire to burn everything to the ground so we could start over with a new plan and not have to walk through garbage any more.

I'm just saying.

Hey, We're Still Alive Over Here!

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've been busy with two library jobs, trying to get the next issue of the zine ready, and preparing for the World Fantasy Convention that this hasn't been my top priority. There's been a lot of stuff going on that I have thoughts on. Of course, at this point the time has passed for me to make relevant posts about it (the whole librarian as a calling thing is dead in the water now...), but today I read something from one of my favorite blogs, The Annoyed Librarian, that has prompted me to write.

Now, the AL (as she calls herself) tends to annoy/anger me as I read her posts, but I think I need that. Just like how Library Revolution makes me mad some times, the AL writes some things that get my hackles up. She calls things as they are. And I think librarians need someone to stand up and call their bullshit "bullshit" now and again. (I don't believe she'd curse, that's my own failing)

From today (she's discussing outsourcing library services):

This debate is similar to all the guff about how we have to bend over and grab our ankles to make libraries "relevant" to people. Libraries are relevant or they're not. The people care, or they don't. If people don't want what libraries provide, then libraries will go away, but that's more of a problem for the librarians than it is for the people. What if all "information" was available for free online, search engines had perfected search, "information literacy" was universal, and computers and Internet access were available to all? If that happens, public libraries will probably be unnecessary for the most part. Is that a problem for the people, or for the librarians? Even now it's true for many people. Access to information is cheap. We talk about the "digital divide," but I wonder how many people on the other side of the digital divide can afford televisions and cable.

and:

If librarians were interested only in user satisfaction, they wouldn't complain about library outsourcing in such a knee-jerk manner. Librarians are interested in librarians, except, of course, when they're not.

I mean, how great is that? But I want you to go back and think about this statement again:

Libraries are relevant or they're not.

Yes, there are things you can do to make the library more prominent in the community, there are things you can do to enhance the user experience (my library now has downloadable movies, sweet!), but there's little you can do to make the library more relevant.

There's only so much control you have over what someone else thinks is relevant. At one point in my life guitars and music shops were the only relevant thing. At another point it was skateboarding. I think most people who know me now would laugh a little to hear those two statements. More pertinent to this discussion, even though I work in a library now, and would feel comfortable to say that librarianship is a calling for me, from when I left high school to when I started my MLIS coursework (a span of 1989 - 2004) I entered a library fewer than ten times. The library was not relevant to me.

These days, I could not live without the library. If for nothing more than the fact that I no longer buy hundreds of books a year. And again, for that alone I love being part of a big consortium. There are few books that I am looking for that I cannot get through the consortium. I am not able to use much of the library's programming. This is equal parts my lack of time and the lack of convenience of getting to the library. But is the library relevant to me? As an employee, of course. As a patron...I don't know. If I wasn't in the library a few times a month (I'm part-time at the public gig) I don't know how much I'd use it. Certainly not the branch I work at; there are two closer to me.

I do think that libraries should do a better job of marketing their services to their community. And perhaps they need to hire someone to do that for them. I'm not convinced that librarians know what their community wants, or where their community goes/is, to be able to market properly. Will better marketing make libraries relevant? That's up to the patron. Not to us.

ALA Website Broken?

UPDATE: Working now, at 10:50 AM CST. Weird.

As of 10:30 AM CST, I get this message when I click on the Events & Conferences link in the main navigation bar at ALA:

ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved
While trying to retrieve the URL: http://www.ala.org/error/HTTP_FORBIDDEN.cfm
The following error was encountered:
Read Error
The system returned: (104) Connection reset by peer
An error condition occurred while reading data from the network. Please retry your request.
Your cache administrator is webmaster.

When I try to click on the Midwinter icon that's on the right-hand side of the site I get this:

The page you requested is not on our new Web site at this Web address: /errordocs/300.cfm. The American Library Association has redesigned and reorganized its Web site. Try these steps to find this resource:
Search our site.The resource you are looking for may have a new URL (Web address).

If you are unable to find a specific piece of content, please contact library@ala.org for assistance. We will get back to you within one week. Alternately, you can browse the site archive at http://archive.ala.org/, which includes the entirety of the site as it existed prior to April of 2003. Please note that content in our archive may be outdated or functioning incorrectly.
Thank you for visiting ALA's new Web site!

So, anyone else having this problem? I've e-mailed ALA, but since I've never done that before, I don't have any idea how responsive they are.

Am I the only one having trouble? I'm using IE7 to view the page. I've deleted the cache on this machine (I'm on a chared computer at the reference desk; I've never gone to ALA from this machine before today) to try and see if there was something stored in memory, burt that hasn't fixed anything.

I Work With the Web, Not On It

This is me. (And my daughter [she's using me as a chalkboard]) Unlike so many others, I don't work on the Web.

I work with the Web.

I live and work in Davenport, IA. Both libraries I work at are behind the times in adding technology to their libraries. I work at a college without a proxy server so we have to hand out user name/password sheets to students and hope they don't lose them. I work at a public library that doesn't see the need to learn social software. In both cases I believe we are doing a disservice to our patrons/users. I also run a small publishing company that would not exist without the Web.

I use the Web everyday in my work: in addition to the ubiquitous e-mail and IM for communication, I use the Web through databases to assist students in finding articles for class; I've posted photos on Flickr of library events; I've used LibraryThing to create online reader's advisories; I attend webinars to learn more about database features and ILS features; I have a website for my magazine; I also have FaceBook, MySpace, Blogspot (since 2001), Twitter, and etc. accounts which I use to promote my publishing/librarianship and reach a wider audience; I sell magazines, etc. online so that people can read what I publish; I belong to Google Groups so I can have discussions with people who don't live anywhere near me; I read LOTS of library and publishing oriented blogs so I can keep abreast of what's happening in those respective fields; and I generally am online all the time at work, doing something.

I use the Web everyday in my life: I post photos on Flickr and Videos on YouTube of my daughter for family in Denver and Arizona and elsewhere; from looking up who's that actor to finding recipes to getting driving directions to weather forecasts to sports scores to buying foodstuffs I can't find where I live, there's a lot of information I get online that, while available through other means, is not as convenient through other means.

I use not-the-Web everyday in my work: I talk to my staff every day, face to face; I answer questions from students at the reference desk; I walk patrons to the stacks and help them find their books (I never point); I attend conferences to learn more about specific aspects of librarianship and to network with other library professionals; I attend conventions (science fiction) to meet authors, editors, fans, etc. and to promote what I publish; I meet with colleagues and staff to talk about concerns and plans for the library; I mail out lots and lots of magazines, etc. to people who purchase what I publish; and I do mundane things like check out and check in books, send faxes, make photocopies, accept fine payments, place books on hold for patrons, sign time sheets, and so many other things I don't keep track of.

I use not-the-Web everyday in my life: as evidenced by the photo above, the most important thing I do everyday is spend time with my family; I love to cook; I sit on a couch and read a book; I take care of my house; I watch tv with my wife; and so many other things that don't involve the Web.

I don't know that I could work without the web (i.e., this morning I sent a story collection to a writer in Serbia so he can write the introduction and also sent it to an artist in MA so he can create interior artwork; pre-Web days this would have been impossible), but there is work I do that does not and cannot involve the web. They are not exclusive of each other, but I do not do only one or the other. I feel that the Web enhances the most important thing I do: provide service to my patrons.

(inspired by Michael and the Annoyed Librarian)

Hi Seth, They're Called Librarians

From Seth Godin (this is actually the entire post, but the blog is SO informative you must go there):

It's easy to be wowed by what a magical job the search engines do in finding you just the right needle in the haystack.

The fact is that search engines are very good at fairly simple searches, and very good at finding information about single products, services, people and ideas.

But they're terrible at connections, at rankings, at horizontal results. They can't help me find the 25 most important up and coming artists in the United States. They can't help me find six products that are viable alternatives to something that was just discontinued. They can't help me rank the service of four accounting firms.

There's a giant opportunity. (Many opportunities, actually). It's to collate and slice and dice and rank domain-specific knowledge and surface it. There are some areas where this is done extremely well (restaurants, for example), but in most cases, it's not done at all.

Organizing the world's information is a laudable goal. But we're only an inch down the road.

Um, isn't that what we do every day with reader's advisories, displays, handouts, and other whatnot?

So, what are you doing to let your community (aw heck, the world) know that you've organized some information in a particular way? Are you optimizing your website so that people will find it in their searches?

Twitter Revisited

After Sarah's (aka, The Librarian in Black) recent post about Twitter, it got me thinking again. Since I last railed against Twitter, I've become a casual user. I know, I know. I was SO against it. And a lot of me is still against it.

I'm against Twitter as another THING for librarians to jump on, sign up for, start using, end up only 'talking' and following other librarians, and then proclaim "I Twitter!" The problem with all these new technologies is that you actually need to use them, not just sign up for them, explore them, force them to fit into the library. You need to see how they're being used and then see if there's a way the library can use it that works within the confines of the technological construct.

Take Twitter for example. I follow a weird, small selection of people. (the link takes you to my profile) Very few are library people. OK, four out of eleven is approaching half, but I know there are a LOT more librarians 'using' Twitter out there. I chose to not follow them. Instead I chose to follow people like Henry Rollins, Wil Wheaton, Warren Ellis, Merlin Mann, Xeni Jardin, Gina Trapini, and Cory Doctorow (not many updates Cory!).

These people don't care about libraries like librarians do. Their passions lie elsewhere. When I approach new technologies like this, I try to explore as wide a variety of things as possible. How are people using it?

Henry Rollins posts about upcoming gigs. Great use for this service. Get your fans locked onto your account and let them know when unannounced events show up. Libraries could use the concept to announce hours change (for events or for the library), send reminders for upcoming events, changes to upcoming events, etc. Most likely, this would be in addition to every other way you announce such changes. It's doubtful that all your patrons will embrace Twitter as the only source for updates.

Everyone else? They just post random things they are doing. It's very voyeuristic, which is creepy and interesting at the same time. My latest post (as I write this): finishing my morning travel mug of coffee...wishing it would magically refill itself, wishing I lived near somewhere that sold good beans..." says something about me and my current mental state. You only have 140 characters, so it's tough to say anything substantial (unlike here where I go on and on and on).

I had another thought recently on how libraries could implement Twitter. This was an internal use. If you work at a big library, where librarians are constantly working in different places, you could use Twitter to help keep track of each other. For example, you might think Carol is at her desk, but when you check Twitter, she's updated to say that she's working on the historical map display. You could update to say that you're working at the reference desk (in case someone forgets the schedule). This would be particularly useful for people AT the reference desk who would have a one-stop check when receiving phone calls. "No I'm sorry, Pam isn't at her desk right now, can I take a message?" And Pam's Twitter could say 'working on displays' or 'no phone-calls.'

Of course, like anything, you need to get people participating, and participating regularly. It doesn't help if four weeks from Carol is still working on the historical map display (in Twitter) but in reality that display now showcases the library's Hello Kitty collection and Carol is working at a different library. And this problem isn't unique to technology. Leaving a clipboard with memos that need to be initialed fails the first time someone doesn't look at it.

The 'trick' is to make it something that people want to use. One of my bosses when I worked for Barnes & Noble used to hide $1 and $2 gift certificates on the book carts. Then, as you shelved the books, you might find a little surprise. Sure, it's not much, but it's more than you had when you started. You could do something similar with Twitter: "The first person to mention this notice to me can leave fifteen minutes early" or "I'll buy a cup of coffee to the first person who mentions avocados to me" or something else.

And while people should want to work hard and do well of their own accord, I find giving little rewards never hurts anyone.

Library Book Card Pockets

I have a little crafty project I was thinking of doing where I needed library book cards (the ones you used to find in the back of every library book). OK, so now I have about 10,000 library book cards, but I don't have any pockets. Coming to the library world only a few years ago, I didn't think about the fact that these are separate things and that I really needed both to complete my project.

So, is there anyone out there at a library who has leftover book card pockets that they'd be willing to donate to me? I'll pay for shipping.

Anyone?

LibraryThing on My Mind

This weekend at my parents' house, I had several people ask me if there was some sort of service (I think they asked for software) available that would allow them to catalog their books. I'm paraphrasing, obviously, since I don't think my father or my aunt or any of others who were there would actually call this process cataloging. They wanted something that was easier than typing everything in a file.

I pointed them to LibraryThing as a way to create a catalog of their books. If they didn't have a lot of books (e.g., my father has about 100 - 150 golfing books) they would type them in the search box and add them to their online catalog easily.

If they had a lot of books (my aunt is friends with Michael Joncas--yes, "On Eagle's Wings", etc.--and he has hundreds or more of academic religious books) I recommended a life time membership to LibraryThing (on average $25) and a CueCat (available for $15 from LibraryThing) to scan barcodes off books and upload the file to LibraryThing, who then does all the work of creating the catalog. In fact, I'm thinking that now I'm going to do just that myself.

It was a lot of fun, showing this technology to my family. I went a little overboard in showing them what LibraryThing could do. But it really is an amazing service. I've used it in the past to create reader's advisories (like the left-hand-side of this blog if you're not reading this as a feed) on websites. I think it's great to see another service come along that starts with current technology and a help-people-first mentality. I'm curious to see how the LibraryThing for Libraries works out. If I knew more about programming I'd try to work for them!

Terms

Can we stop using 'blogosphere' and GOD FORBID 'biblioblogosphere'? When I'm reading something (it could be a blog post, an article, whatever) and I hit one of these terms, I just stop reading. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who feels compelled to use these terms doesn't have anything to say to me that could matter.

These terms are not inclusive. They do not work to make people feel comfortable. They do not help people understand. They exclude. They discriminate. They make people feel stupid. They make people be dismissive of what you have to say.

'Oh, what should we call it then?'

How about 'online community'? How about 'librarians online' or 'people online'? How about none of these? How about nothing? It's not a term that intuitively describes anything.

Why not blgoworld, or blogplanet, or bippityboppityblogplace?

It's just stupid. Stop.

Off My Soap Box

I read a fair amount of library blogs. Of the 270 or so blogs I read, about a third of them are library-oriented (if you're curious, about half are publishing/writing focusing on science fiction, and then a good chunk of marketing blogs, and a nice smattering of art blogs) and I came across this just a moment ago. The main thrust of the post is summed up here:

We can’t rely on our experiences as patrons (or even as a customer) when deciding on policy, collection development, program development, or marketing, simply because we’re not the average consumer of library services.

I see a lot of that. Part of it, IMO, is that there are a lot of people who have worked in the field for more than 15 years. That much time in one profession makes it hard to see how it looks like from the outside. I have less than two years in the profession and I continually see the profession (and the people and the buildings) from the outside.

Another thing that helps me is that at my last non-library job one of my responsibilities was business analysis. I worked primarily as a programmer, but it was also my job to assess the software and see how it could be enhanced, fixed, changed, etc. There was a constant need to wear two hats and try to use the software as a non-programmer would. There were things I knew about the software that people who had been using the software for years longer than I had been working on it didn't know. Often, the business analysis became a training exercise where I could teach someone something about the software that would enhance their job and then there was no need to go into the code and change anything.

Same thing in the library. My current library has a confusing website. There are things I'd like to change about it. (There's time before this needs to/can happen) But I know that what I would change about the website doesn't necessarily reflect what my patrons want or need. Before I can begin making changes, I need to understand how my patrons hope the use the website. What sort of things are important to them. It does not matter what I think is important. It's important that my patrons can find what they want.

Talking to the public is scary, but vital. You need to understand your customer before you can begin to think about serving them.

I May be the Only Librarian Who Doesn't Like Stephen Colbert

Because of things like this:

Actually, I'd buy it first. And then I'd read it. No libraries, okay? Libraries are for cowards. No free rides. The book is for heroes, and the heroes are the people who buy the book. Don't lend the book.

To me, and maybe I'm over-reacting, this reads like the words of an irresponsible ass. Perhaps he's being sarcastic, or being ironic, or being something. I don't buy it. I don't find it funny. I have a hard time enjoying the commentary of someone who says things that directly attack my chosen way of life.

I came to the library field the long way around. I hadn't worked in libraries until I was almost done with my MLIS. For the first time in my life, I found a career I could be passionate about. A career that I actually cared about. And then someone with a big forum (Comedy Central, Entertainment Weekly) comes along and says bad things about my passion. Even if he's joking, his words can be used by others as justification for getting rid of library services. It's very irresponsible.

I've not blogged about him before because I didn't want to link to anything he's done, or give him any additional traffic (whether through positive or negative commentary).

And before people fill up the comments with "he's just kidding, calm down," would it be as funny if he said "black people can't be trusted"?

Staffing

At my new job I'm slowly becoming a master of scheduling. Well, not a master. And not really anything I set out to do. It's more of a dragged kicking and screaming type thing.

You see, we're essentially open 7am to 11pm most days. I have people who work Mon-Fri, Tues-Sat, and Sun-Thur. If everyone's here, then everything is great. However, since we like people to be able to take vacation (and come back refreshed and rejuvenated etc.) or feel like when they're sick they can stay home and get better, there are times when we need to find coverage.

I'm extra on the coverage front. If we're one person short, I can fill in (it's actually part of my job description, so while technically I have to fill in, it's better when it feels like a choice) and again, no problem.

However, sometimes we have more than one person out.

Take today for example. There are six employees plus me to run the circulation desks. (yes desks, one on the third floor--where my office is--and one on the second floor) Today, four of those employees are out.

Yes. Four.

The good thing is that this is the first day of summer break. There are no classes. There are no faculty in the building. As I type, it's 9:15am. I've been here for more than two hours and I've seen one patron. He came in, checked his e-mail, and left.

So, we're not exactly bustling with activity. Still, there are breaks and lunches to cover, so with three of us here (one only in until 3:30pm, and one not in until 9:30am; and I'm working a split shift...oh it's too complicated to explain quickly) it will be quite the juggling act.

Which means most likely we'll be pulling someone out of collection development to cover breaks and lunches.

Not ideal, but not the end of the world. It's not something that I like to do a lot of, since the collection development people have their own job duties (and breaks and lunches) and interrupting them is not the best.

Normally we don't have this many people out at once. But having two out (particularly when it's night shift people) can be a major pain. If it wasn't summer break we would have never approved so many people being off. We can run a little thin since we won't have as many people needing our services.

The next two weeks are a little sketchy. This is the end of the fiscal year, so everyone's trying to use up their vacation before they lose it. They can carry over some to next fiscal year, but then they have to use it in July or lose it.

I don't feel that I'm very good at managing schedules and time. It's a constant battle to keep myself on top of what's going on. All the departments have to coordinate together so that we know who's covering what and that we have enough coverage for the desks. We only cover internally, i.e., we don't have substitute librarians or temp workers. We have student workers, but they're quite limited in what they can do (e.g., they can't watch a desk).

What does your library do?

More Technology

Today we'll talk about Google Reader. I was very reluctant to use Google Reader as I don't like putting all my eggs in one basket. I feel very uncomfortable whenever a company wants to be my everything. IMO, it's impossible for one company to provide every service I could want to the same level of quality.

Sure, Google is a great search engine. Yes, I use Google Maps over other map services. Yes, I'm using Google's website analytics (but I'm also using two other company's web statistics tools, and from the three of them I feel I get a nice view of what's happening with my website). But, I do not like Google's calendar feature. I have a gmail account, but I don't use it since I have something like six or seven other e-mail accounts (some of which I've had for more than 8 years and I'm reluctant to give them up since there are some people who only use that account to contact me).

So, whenever I read about how Google has word processing, or spreadsheets, or an RSS reader, or what have you, I just don't buy that their product is as good as a company who's spent their life making a word processor. Sure, this may be short-sightedness on my part. I try lots of things that Google puts out there, and I use the ones that I feel are well made, and I discard (like Google calendar) the ones that are awkward to use and implement.

I do not like Google Reader. There are a few things about it that I really dislike. There are some functions that Bloglines provides that Google Reader does not that I wish it had. And yet...

About a month ago, none of my LiveJournal feeds were updating in Bloglines. This is a huge problem as I read scores of author feeds, and a lot of them are on LJ. There is some problem with how Bloglines retrieves information that violates LJ's terms of use. So, I decided to try Google Reader since many people recommended it and Google was updating LJ feeds.

First, what I like about Google Reader.

One of the big things is that I use folders to organize my feeds. In Bloglines, when I click on a folder, everything in it is marked as read. If I get interrupted or I accidently click another folder/feed, I cannot retrieve those messages. Google doesn't do this. I have to actually get to the feed's post before it's marked as read.

Also, I like the keyboard navigation functionality. I like being able to use the space bar to scroll slowly through a long post, and I like using the 'j' and 'k' keys to move back and forth through posts (although this sometimes doesn't work; anyone know why?).

I like the starring function of saving posts better than Bloglines version of saving posts as Bloglines keeps them in the feed list (which can be problematic when you 'save' as many posts as I do for later reading or later posting). Google moves them to their own area that I can access easily.

Hey, look at that. Google keeps track of trends in my feed reading. Cool! And kind of invasive at the same time. Hmmm. It does give me a sense of who's posting the most and what I'm reading a lot of. But it seems to only confirm what I already knew.

Second, things I dislike.

I hate...HATE HATE HATE...that Google caps the feed count at 100+. This is asinine. You know how many posts I have to read. And 101 versus 500 is a huge difference. If I have ten minutes, I might be able to look at 101 posts; but I doubt I can look at 500. This is just bad programming. Lazy. Bad. Awful. Stupid. Fix it.

I also hate that the posts aren't dated. They get timestamps like '10 minutes ago' and crap like that. Again, you know when you accessed the feed and retrieved the post, give me the date. Sometimes, people update an old post, and it shows up as '10 minutes ago.' If I had a date, too, I could see that: yes it was posted 10 minutes ago, but it was originally posted four weeks ago. Sheesh.

Um, blogroll options? Yeah, not there. I use the blogroll function from Bloglines, since I like to have a list of other read-worthy blogs out there, and I'm too lazy to input several hundred feeds by hand. And I don't feel it's worth the effort to select just a few and ignore the rest that I read. I want my blogroll to represent what I'm reading. I can share individual items, which doesn't seem as helpful.

Built-in weather function? Also not there. This is one of the great features of Bloglines. Put in your zip code, and get a nice, constantly updating5-day weather forecast. Simple. Effective. Handy.

Package tracking? Not there either. I cannot tell you how often I've used this. I'll keep my Bloglines account for this alone, even if I drop all my other feeds.

If not for the LJ problem, I would drop Google Reader and never look back. Its strengths don't outweigh its problems. Since I started using Google Reader about three weeks ago, I've read almost 6,000 posts. I've starred only a few dozen items for further reading.

Contrast this to my Bloglines account. In the same amount of time, it says that I have just 3,300 unread posts. That's about only 55% of the posts that I saw through Google Reader. Where did those other 2,500 or so posts go? That's a lot of stuff I would have missed.

Of course, the reality may be that I'm reading too much, right?