Where I Work

Since many people have asked, here is a quick photo of the library where I work. If you click on the photo, it will take you to a Flickr set where you can see more photos of my current place of work.



My follow Angsters need not feel that they make a similar post, but no one is stopping you if you so wish.

S-E-R-R-E-F-I-N-E

serrefine - n. - A small spring forceps used for approximating the edges of a wound, or for temporarily closing an artery during surgery.

Another word that I don't think I'll be able to use in every day conversation. Other than today, when I can say things like, "Did you see Even O'Dorney win the Scripps National Spelling Bee last night with the word 'serrefine'?" Ah, the spelling bee. The inspiration for my anthology Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories. It's now become a standard at the end of May for my household to watch the bee.

My wife and I shout at the kids who keep asking for definitions and alternate pronounciations. Sometimes I feel bad for the kids, though. You can tell they're trying to suss out the spelling, and they're just asking questions without thinking about them so they don't feel the pressure of silence. Like the one boy, Prateek Kohli, who got a word (oberek) for which the definition was "a Polish folk dance" and then he asked the country of origin. Not surprisingly it was Polish. Without the pressure of the spelling bee, I suspect that Mr. Kohli doesn't ask that question.

Nice things said about Logorrhea:

"Delightful.... A treat for dictionary hounds and vocabulary-challenged word lovers everywhere."—Booklist

"This book is a logophile's dream—a left-field collection of stories inspired by winning words from the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Anyone who has ever spent an hour or two happily browsing the pages of a dictionary will find something to love here."—Kevin Brockmeier, author of A Brief History of the Dead

"Your book pays a beautiful tribute to the beauty, potential, versatility and history that lie within so many words and the English language as a whole. In other words, it encapsulates what it was that drove my competition in spelling bees and what drives my passion for language today."-Nupur Lala, winner of the 1999 National Spelling Bee (winning word: logorrhea)

"Buy it immediately."-The Agony Column

New Technology: Twitter

I'm a pretty fast adopter. And I like to try new things. I learn quickly. (these are fairly standard traits of the modern librarian I think) These traits are what lead to a podcast for School Library Journal last year.

There's been a lot of talk recently about Twitter. I've tried it. I don't like it.

I particularly don't like Twitter, but that's only because I can't see a use for it in my life. Maybe if I did more texting on my phone. I don't know. I don't see the point of using Twitter if you're tied to a machine. Sure, some people have used it for a 'what I'm reading type thing' like I used LibraryThing. That's pretty cool. But I like what I'm using for that same concept. Some people use it to coordinate themselves at a conference. That's really cool. But I'd have to be using some sort of web-enabled handheld device that I don't own to do that. And go to a conference. And have everyone I was trying to meet also doing the same thing I was doing.

Hey, I like being in touch with people. I just 1200 miles away from all the people I've known for the past ten years. Twitter isn't going to help them connect to me. And I can't imagine why anyone would care what I'm doing from minute to minute. If Twitter could watch me and post its own updates every five minutes or so, that would be way cool. I think I hate how much extra work something like Twitter makes for me. It's tough enough getting everything I need to get done without also telling people what I'm doing while I do it. That's what this (and the other blogs I write for) is for. For big events.

I also like my privacy. I have a 14-month old baby girl. There are a lot of things that I talk about online. I'm a fairly open person. At the same time, there are parts of my life that are private. That I don't share. If I'm not travelling (physically moving) my cel phone is off. There are very few people who need to get in touch with me at ANY moment. The list consists of my wife. Everyone else can wait until I get their message.

So basically, Twitter is too intrusive for what I like about technology.

So You Want to Start a Revolution?

Emily Clasper is, among other things, the creator of Library Revolution, a well-needed shot in the arm to the library field. Emily pulls no punches, writing about everything from librarian's fashion sense (or lack thereof) and how you can't complain about the public's image of a librarian if you don't promote a positive image to how she doesn't feel (in general) that the library is very convenient and that she'll use other services that are convenient even if she has to pay. It's great stuff. She makes me angry almost every day.

And that's a good thing. She presents an attitude, an opinion of the library that's very honest and probably directly in line with how many patrons and potential patrons think. Her basic premise is: this is my life (points to space around her), what is the library going to do to make a presence for itself in my life?

Yes, what can the library do to make a presence in the patron's life? Be open 24 hours? Extend checkout times? Get rid of due dates (a la Netflix)? Provide easier and multiple ways to sign up for events? (why do we insist people come INTO the library to sign up for an event? What if the patron has the time during the event free, but really doesn't have any time leading up to it free?)

The library is about the patron. The librarian is not better than the patron. The patron is not some evil thing out to destroy the library.

The patron may cause the destruction of the current library model, and that's ok. Libraries mostly exist in a 19th century frame of thought. Times have changed.

Today, Emily makes an important point that I've tried to make in the past. It's not enough to keep up with library blogs and journals. You need to read outside the field. And you need to make time to do this. This is true of any profession you're in. You cannot be successful, you cannot be revolutionary (and maybe many of you are content to put in your time and retire some point in the future...I'm not) if you subsist only on your field.

Think about it. Do you listen to only one type of music? Do you watch only one type of movie? Do you read only one type of book? And by one, I mean one. By one I mean you watch sports television and NOTHING else. No news, no sitcoms, no dramas, no DIY, no cooking, nothing. Just sports. Who does this? No one. There is no librarian who is so singular in focus that they do nothing but one thing in their time outside of work. If you're like that outside work, why not during work?

Branding Librarians

No, I'm not talking about a scene out of City Slickers 3: Cataloging on the Range, I'm talking about the image of the librarian. Andrea Mercado posted on the PLA blog about this very issue. She poins us toward a survey from the Emerging Leaders Initiative member Brendan Gallagher. The survey lead me to this LONG comment on the PLA Blog:

As strange as it may sound, I really enjoyed taking the survey. It reminded of the reasons why I changed careers from computer programming to librarianship back in 2004. It gave my batteries a nice recharge to think about the questions--and my answers--in the survey.

I never worked in a library until 2005 (at the young age of 34), so of course my ideas of what should happen in a library are very different from many of the people that I work with. I'm always thinking of things in a more business-oriented way, and I think that's beneficial to the current state of affairs in libraries.

I think that at one point libraries were at the forefront of people's consciousness when it came to information, but we've fallen WAY behind the rest of the world in the past decade or two.

I know a lot of people don't like to think about marketing (or don't think we need marketing) but there are so many things going on at the library that public don't know about. They have other things consuming their attention.

It's even gotten to the point when I would tell people that we could get them a book we didn't have in the catalog that they were amazed. Isn't this the most basic thing we do as librarians? Provide books for people? And they were amazed that I would do this 'just for them.'

It's not good that people are unaware of our most basic functionality. It only drives home the idea that the public will even less of a clue that we offer MP3 audio books, online databases, book club in a bag, movies, live music, cafes, etc.

I think there are three areas every librarian can improve on no matter how good they already are:

Marketing
Customer Service
Passion for the field

At the same time, there is a lot I'm learning from people who have been in the field as long as I've been alive. These people know so much about the community they're in, the field they're in, the specific area they work in, it's something for me to aspire to. I look forward to the day when I can be an expert, a role model, for a new librarian.

We need to get the public to see us the way we see us.

What about the rest of you? Are you tired of librarians ranting about this issue? Or are you tired of librarians claiming that things are just fine?

Logorrhea in stores now!

Tomorrow (May 1) will see the publication of the anthology that I edited for Bantam Books. The book is called Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories. Every story in the anthology is based on a spelling-bee winning word. Here is the full table of contents:

Hal Duncan - “The Chiaroscurist”
Liz Williams - “Lyceum”
David Prill - “Vivisepulture”
Clare Dudman - “Eczema”
Alex Irvine - “Semaphore”
Marly Youmans - “The Smaragdine Knot”
Michael Moorcock - “A Portrait in Ivory”
Daniel Abraham - “The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics”
Michelle Richmond - “Logorrhea”
Anna Tambour - “Pococurante”
Tim Pratt - “From Around Here”
Elizabeth Hand - “Vignette”
Alan DeNiro - “Plight of the Sycophant”
Matthew Cheney - “The Last Elegy”
Jay Caselberg - “Eudaemonic”
Paolo Bacigalupi - “Softer”
Jay Lake - “Crossing the Seven”
Leslie What - “Tsuris”
Neil Williamson - “The Euonymist”
Theodora Goss - “Singing of Mount Abora”
Jeff VanderMeer - “Appoggiatura”

I'm very excited about this book. It's been a lot of work in a short amount of time. I sold the book in January of 2006. There were only two out of 21 stories written at that time. To get more than 100,000 words written, edited, and pushed through the publishing process in just over a year took a great amount of effort. I've gotten the chance to work with a lot of authors that I admire.

Those of you that know me better also know that during that course of time I completed my MLIS, my wife gave birth to our first child, I took a full-time job at a great public library in NJ, changed to a full-time job in IA, and moved halfway across the country from NJ to IA. I'm not sure what I'll do with my free time now that the work on the book is essentially done.

The link above takes you to the Amazon page for the book. It's currently $11.05 on Amazon. Not bad for so much great fiction! Go out and buy! Get some for your friends!

If you're in the Quad City area of Iowa, I have events set up on May 19 in the Borders in Davenport and on May 20 at the Barnes & Noble in North Park Mall. Hope to see you there!

John Klima
Editor

Note to self....

It would be a good idea when one of your employees goes home sick to make a backup plan for desk coverage for the next day. That way, when you get into work and realize you forgot one of your other employees had the day off you aren't totally screwed and forced to cover the desk yourself all day.

Take This Idea and Run With It

Book Club in a Bag

I had never seen this before (probably many of you have), but it was first brought to my attention by science fiction writer and all-around great guy, Robert Sawyer. The Kitchener Public Library has started offering book clubs in a bag, where you get a set of ten copies of the same book, plus a book-club discussion guide and everything checks out as one item.

When I read Robert's post, I thought that's a great idea! Then, when I finally got a library card at my local library, guess what they have? Yep! DIBs or Discussions In Boxes. From their website:

A selection of challenging and entertaining discussion books plus a binder full of reviews and information about the authors is available for a checkout period of 6 weeks.

And here's a PDF explaining the service at Bettendorf.

How cool is that? Is this something your library could do?

(cross-posted at Pop Goes the Library)

So, it's been about a month-and-a-half...

since I moved to IA to take the job as Access Services Librarian at Palmer College of Chiropractic. So what's happening with me, you might ask?

I have to say the transition from public to academic library has been (and will be) a little rough. Things are very different from one type of library to the other.

In the public library, there were people coming in the library all the time. True, there were fewer people who used the library than paid for it with their taxes, but all the same, when you were on the reference desk, you had questions. Here, I can sit an entire shift on the reference desk (which entails three hours at the desk and the remainder of the day on call...yes, your reference shift technically lasts for the ENTIRE work day) and not get any questions. Even sitting at the circulation desk I go an entire work day without interacting with a patron.

It goes without saying, but there's a different focus on collection development. I bring it up since here at Palmer, we're concerned with health care and specifically (predominantly) with chiropractic. I do not have a health care background, nor do I know much about chiropractic. It's a steep curve I have to take to learn enough to be able to help someone should they decide to ask me a question. Here, if it's not healthcare...and I should really just say if it's not chiropractic...interest, we don't order it. Instead of getting dozens of books each week, we might get a dozen a month. We do order McNaughton books (remember those from collection development classes? The bestselling books that you keep for a limited time?) so that we have some popular reading; but those books don't circulate very much. I'm not involved in collection development at Palmer, whereas all the librarians at the public library were involved. I do see the McNaughton list and can recommend up to two titles, but that's a lot different from the vast amount of ordering I used to do. At the public library, I did collection development for: fiction, the 000s, healthcare (ah, you lied! you do have a background in healthcare! not really, not when I order books based on reviews and Amazon rankings), parenting, science fiction & fantasy, and young adult books.

I did a lot of marketing and creative planning at the public library. There were easy places to make signs, and create website stuff, have interesting programming items, etc. that just don't exist here. At least, they aren't as obvious here. It's not even like we're a more comprehensive college/university with lots of majors and departments. We're very focused here, and it's something I don't have a background in. The website is set. There's no need/way for me to create cute links, or reader's advisories, or Web 2.0 stuff. I can update content, but I can't change the way things look or feel. There's no programming. I could certainly make signs, but I believe signs should be a minimum and once I have the few done I think we need...then what? It's not like the YA stuff at the last library where I could create a new wacky sign every week.

Like I said, it's been rough. Everything is different. Everyone has been here longer than I have so I feel a lot of pressure (all personal, it's not pressure from my bosses) to do better at my job. So I've been trying to think of ways to take what I do well at a library and apply it here. I could create new signs (i.e., for the new books, for our hours, etc.). I could work on getting some sort of programming going here...have chiropractors come into the library to talk to students about being a professional, or about a book they've written. Maybe even see if anyone would be interested in having in 'fun' authors in to talk about books (sort of a diversion from studies). Maybe I could create some internal wikis or blogs to help set a home for policies/procedures.

It took me until last week to start thinking this way again. I've been so overwhelmed by what I don't know, that I was forgetting what I do know.

Non Library Blogs

From The Liminal Librarian (Rachel Singer Gordon): a list of five non-library blogs that I read regularly. This idea came up when people mentioned that they felt library blogs were suffering from nepotism (they should check out the science fiction world!).

While I'm no Steven Cohen, I have somewhere around 230 feeds in my reader. There are some 60 library feeds, around 80 feeds from science fiction & fantasy writers, some 30 or so publishing blogs (editors, publishers, etc.), about 10 feeds that are searches on different formats for my zine and feeds from my zine, and the rest are a bunch of misc things...five of which will be highlighted below:

BoingBoing - I met Cory Doctorow many years ago when he was an aspiring (and already talented) science fiction author. I worked for his publisher, Tor Books, for a number of years. When I found BoingBoing online through Cory, I knew I had found a place that would collect all sorts of things of interest to me: from science fiction to copyright to movies & television to weird weird weird stuff, BoingBoing has it all. Plus it updates all the time, so there's always something new to read.

Lifehacker - One of the most useful website I have ever encountered. This gives me tips on software and organization and shopping and everything else. There are a ton of great things I've learned from here. This website is indispensable to me. Plus, I'm an approved commenter!

Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch - My daily (who am I kidding, multiple times a daily) fix of Entertainment Weekly Magazine. Updates on movies, music, television, and all things pop culture (not so mcuh books...sniff). I love getting their instant reviews on last night's television. It's like they're inside my head watching what I watch.

Best Week Ever - Covering much of the same types of material as Popwatch, but with attitude. They don't pretend to be nice to the stars and what the stars are doing. If you've seen the TV show, you know what I mean. Often rude, often caustic, but again, often what I'm thinking anyway. They have a great feature called 'Listen Up' where they post links to mp3s of new music, both from established bands and up-and-coming artists. A great way to hear some stuff before it comes out. This makes you sound like you're in the know. :)

I read a dozen or so marketing blogs (what's good for small business is good for the library) but Creating Passionate Users is my favorite. Librarians are already passionate users of the library, and Kathy Sierra (even though she's talking about software) gives great insight to make your users (patrons) passionate users, too. She's creates these great (kind of ugly) charts and graphs to illustrate her points. They show that you don't need to have the perfect design and art to get your point across. Definitely worth checking out. Don't tell Kathy, but I print out her posts so I can refer to them later!

Reaching out to my fellow library workers

Being the Access Services Librarian gives me job duties that I have no experience with in the library. They include such things as: ILL, document delivery, copyright & royalty fees [as they pertain to document delivery], circulation, staff management, access services in general.

Does anyone have any suggestions of some good sources for information on any of these topics? I am getting a lot of great information from my co-workers and staff, but I like to see what other people use/know.

We use OCLC for ILL and Docline for document delivery. We run on a Horizon system. We are an academic institution, but we are also a chiropractic college, so our collection is fairly specialized.

I've subscribed to a number of list servs, and I'm looking into journal articles as well. Anyone have something that would help focus my energy?

Where have you've gone, Johnny Klima?

I've been in IA for a few weeks now. I keep forgetting to bring in a camera to take pictures of my new library digs, but I'll have some soon. Our college runs in trimesters and today's graduation. That means that next week is an interim week with no students and I'll have some freedom to come in and snap away.

There have been two questions I've been getting from everyone: what do you think of IA? and How's the new job? These are both fair questions. Honestly, what else are people going to ask me about? My feelings are those of general happiness and contentment. It's very interesting to go from a large public library, to a small college. I know that I've come in right at finals so I'm not seeing how the students use the library normally, AND I haven't worked on the second floor where the students can check out bones (yes, containers of skulls and spines in pieces that students have to assemble) which is busier than the third floor where my office [wait until you see pictures] is. The new trimester starts in two weeks and I'm excited to see how things work.

However, it's only been a few weeks and I don't know that I can give a fair assessment of what I think. There is a lot of unknown in my life right now (i.e., this is the first time I've worked in circulation and then I'm the manager on top of that, this is the first time I've worked in an academic environment [my time at Rutgers digital libraries does not count as we had no patrons], and this is my first experience with chiropractic medicine). This unknown makes things difficult since I'm spending most of my time reading and learning. I feel little behind the eight ball to get caught up, but that's all self-imposed behind the eight-ballness.

On top of that, at this job I have faculty status, which means I am required to do professional development and service to the college/chiropractic community. Well, I'm required only in the way since it's tied directly to promotion and advancement. So I'll have to do scholarship. Which is fine; I kind of like the idea of writing papers, or editing a journal, or overseeing a committee, or who knows what I'll get into. At my last job, while outside work like that was not discouraged, it wasn't actively encouraged. And it did little to help me as far as performance reviews came. No one would be upset if I published something in School Library Journal, but no one would necessarily laud it either. [that's probably unfair and it sounds a little bitter towards my last job; I guess I'm just trying to say that the public library had no requirements like this, and therefore doing stuff like this was more for personal edification than anything else]

Then there's the whole IA thing. I'd never been to IA before I came out here in Feb 2006 to interview for this job the first time. There's a lot to learn. We're trying to find: grocery stores, fish markets, meat markets, restaurants, doctors, dentists, bookstores, libraries, craft places, printers, etc. that we like. We've moved far enough that most of the stores (particularly when it comes to food shopping; and this is important because we REALLY like to cook) are not the same as the East Coast.

My point is, we're happy, but we're not settled yet. There's a lot to learn.

Moving to Iowa

Yes, I'm moving to Iowa. Here's the story in a nutshell:

At the end of this month, my family and I will be moving to Iowa. I'll be working at the Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport as their Access Services Librarian. I start on Feb 5. We'll be driving out on Jan 26.

I had interviewed with Palmer in February of last year, before I was full-time at Franklin Township. They picked a candidate who was more local to them. He lived in Iowa City, which is about an hour drive from Davenport. However, the University of Iowa restructured their libraries and he was able to get a job at the University in Iowa City so he no longer needed to commute.

Palmer re-contacted me to see if I was still interested in the job. I was. They flew me back out in December. I was the only candidate.

The money is about the same as I was making at Franklin. But, that money will go a lot further in Iowa than it does in NJ. Also, we'll be only a few hours drive from family. It'll be tough moving away from the library family that I've grown up in (even though I haven't been a member for very long), but hopefully we'll be able to stay in touch!

I'll still post here and on Pop Goes the Library. You will continue to see me doing things in the library field.

John Klima

Eye Candy

True story:
I was wrapping up a reader's advisory session with a patron who remarked, "I've never seen a male librarian before." In a nonchalant manner I replied, "Yeah, we make up roughly 20% of the profession." She seemed fascinated by my presence in the library. I was a curiosity, a novelty. The reference interaction ended and she made her way up to the circulation desk to check-out her books. I overheard her say to the circulation assistant, "I see you have a male librarian working here now. It's nice to have some eye candy around here." The circulation assistant said nothing.

Tags: libraries

Kathy Sierra is Smart

It's been a while since I've posted about Kathy and the blog she is a part of: Creating Passionate Users. The blog is mostly geared towards software development and making products that people are passionate about instead of just users of (i.e., the iPod).

Toady Kathy makes a great point:

Things I learned from my horse trainers #42: practice saying, "Hmmmm... how interesting." Say it when you're frustrated. Say it when you're mad. Most importantly, say it before you say or do anything else (including hit the "send" or "post" button).

It should be the first thing out of your mouth when things go wrong--or don't meet your expectations--because:

1) It inserts a pause and gives you a moment to think before you react.

2) It keeps you from taking things too personally

Think about it, this might be a way to deal with a difficult patron, or when you run up against library policy that you don't agree with but need to enforce.

Tags: libraries

censors in civilization

Senator Robert Byrd makes no secret of the fact that he walks around with a pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution in his pocket. I suppose it serves as a constant reminder of the ideology that governs our Legislature.
At times, I consider carrying around a copy of the American Library Association's "Library Bill of Rights" (and its Rule Interpretations) with me. Say what you like about the ALA, I am a proud member and fully support the organization. As corny as it may sound, the text of the "Library Bill of Rights" inspires me.
I've always been a bit of an ideologue, a trait which can sometime be a liability if you habitually let it cloud your ability to render practical solutions. However, there are times when my tendency for the abstract is steadfast, like when library materials are met with challenges from the censors.
We've all heard: "I don't want my tax dollars to be used towards the purchase of materials that I (or anyone in my family) might find objectionable." This is the argument that the censors make and it's a troubling one because that logic does not hold up when you extend it to other areas. For instance: "I don't want my tax dollars to be used to fund the school system because I don't have children so why should I pay to educate someone else's child according to a curriculum that I didn't write (or even approve) in the first place."
If you don't want your tax dollars to be used in a manner that you do not deem appropriate then your best option is to move to a part of the planet where a taxpayer-funded government does not exist. This will likely be a very remote location where other human beings do not currently reside and will thereby accomplish the secondary objective of never having to be offended again since you will be in a position to avoid human contact entirely. Those of us that remain in civilization will feel pretty good about the arrangement too.

Tags: libraries

Felling Groovy (but not like Simon & Garfunkel)

So I've been away from the reference desk for a few weeks. We're finalizing our move, and I've been needed elsewhere. However, with the end of the year crushing down on us quickly, there are a lot of us trying to use up floating holidays. Story short, I was on the reference desk yesterday afternoon.

And I saw a gentleman who I'd helped in the past who was trying to get custody of his step-children. Not to get too specific (and not that I know a lot of specifics), but he's trying to get these kids away from a bad situation.

I and the head of reference helped find all the forms he needed to fill out so that the courts could do what they needed to do. Since he's not a blood relative, he needs to make sure that he cross all his 't's and dots all his 'i's.

So yesterday I found out that he's been able to get weekend custody of the young man involved (he already has the twin teenage girls [who are just awesome kids]) and if that goes well he may be able to get more.

It felt so good to hear from him and know that the information I gave him was helping him and his situation.

It's always nice to know that what you're doing matters, isn't it?

Tags: libraries

do libraries make you hungry?

I have to get something that's been troubling me off my chest.

Am I the only one who is shocked by the library staff's complete preoccupation with food. It's probably just me, but it seems like food creeps into conversations among co-workers a lot around here. I never knew it was possible to have a conversation about what you plan to have for dinner--or, even worse, what you had for dinner the night before--until I began working at a public library. Staff get so worked up over these discussions that you'd think they were discussing a solution to the war in Iraq. And judging from their conversations, it seems that I'm the only who considers half a can of Pringles and some grape soda as a proper dinner. My nutrients come from multi vitamins.

Tags: libraries

Filter the Fear

The Internet filtering policy at the North Central Regional Library (WA) is being challenged by the ACLU. Read the story at "American Libraries" online.

In the article, the Director of NCRL, Dean Marney, is quoted as saying: "The internet is so huge, and we carefully choose the books for our libraries. Shouldn't we try to be as careful with the internet?"

Wait a second...! Did I read that right? Employing filtering software does not make your library as careful as it is with regard to its collection development because individual libraries aren't writing their own filtering software. Their making their own decisions regarding which books to buy, but not the website to which they deny access.

Look, I have no problem with filters as long as they work. The problem is that they don't work. The bigger problem is that legislators and parents think that they do. Until filters become as smart as human beings, they'll always be problematic. Sorry, parents; I think your job is only going to get harder.

What really worries me, however, is the danger in associating collection development practices with internet filtering. Apart from the fact that they both fall under the heading of "access," the two have very little in common beyond that.

Perhaps we should also let software do all of our collection development for us. All we'd have to do is write an algorithm and fire all the librarians. (Google can handle all of the reference questions.) While we're at it, we could fire the circulation staff and install a dozen self checkout kiosks.

The solution to all this? There isn't an easy one. All we can do is challenge programmers to write better software. Of course, we could also push for legislation that would abolish the Internet.


Tags: libraries

Pat Wagner of Pattern Research

Last week, my library brought in Pat Wagner of Pattern Research to talk to the staff about customer service. I saw Pat just about a year ago when I was an intern at the Princeton Public Library finishing up my Master's degree.

Pat is just great. She really re-energizes you about working with the public. I'd been feeling kind of down in the past month. We're getting ready to complete our construction and I've been busy with the anthology and the zine, and really just taking too much work on. I was driving myself nuts trying to stay on top of everything.

While I haven't learned to take on less work, something that Pat said stuck with me: "I can only do what I have time to do." What Pat meant by this wasn't that you should not do work, nor that you should try to do as little as possible, but rather to realize your limitations as far as time constraints, and do the best job you can in the time you have. It doesn't matter if you could do an awesome job on a reference question if you had four hours when you really have fifteen minutes (or two!). Take the time you have and give the person the most complete answer you can in that time. Don't give them fifteen minutes of a four-hour answer, give them a fifteen minute answer.

This is not an easy thing to do, but it is important to keep in mind. And, if the patron needs more from you, let them know that it will take more time and you will get back to them later. If they aren't willing to wait, then they will have to take your fifteen-minute answer.

Tags: libraries