My Libraries

Everyone has bookmarks in their life - mile posts that help keep their memories in order.  Marriage, births, jobs, deaths, moves - all are reference points for remembering when other life events happened.  I recently posted a review of The Wilder Life, in which I mentioned the library that I loved as a child, and it occurred to me that, along with the usual milestones, there are a few libraries that have become bookmarks in my reading life.

My earliest library memories are of the Jewell City Library, in Jewell, Kansas, where I grew up.  The library was housed in the basement of the bank - accessed by the outside stairwell in the picture.  I remember it as two dark, dank rooms that, frankly, gave me a bit of the creeps; governed by a frightening, ancient woman who probably devoured children.  I later discovered that Mrs. Kelly was a perfectly pleasant, middle-aged woman, so I'm not sure where those childish visions came from.  But the part of my memory about the rooms being dark and dank was true and the library later moved into a narrow strip of a room carved out of the new fire house.  That is the library of my teens, where I discovered Stephen King and other things that go bump in the night.  Maybe my reading choices had something to do with my vivid imagination about the librarian?

But, the dream library of my childhood was the Port Library in Beloit, Kansas, about fifteen miles from home.  The Port Library is housed in an old two-story house.  The children's section is on the second floor.  The stairway was a magic carpet that opened into my fantasy land.  

Former bedrooms have been knocked down to create one large space with multiple closets.  Each closet is lined with bookshelves on a perfect level for children, and usually a beanbag chair - creating enchanted hide-aways where a little girl could get lost in a fairy-tale world for hours.  In spite of the fact that my mom's not a reader herself, she was amazingly supportive of my love of books (except when they distracted me from my Saturday cleaning chores).  Although we never made special trips to Beloit just for library visits, when we were in town for piano lessons or other outings, she was usually willing to drop me at the library to roam the magical kingdom on the second floor while she ran errands.  

Part II tomorrow: Libraries that have changed my adult reading choices.  Where are your favorite libraries, and what makes them special?

My New Library

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photo from www.fallscitylibrary.org

This is my new library home, the Falls City Library and Arts Center, in Falls City, NE - a beautiful new building staffed by an efficient and friendly staff.  After my whine lament about the lack of the new Sarah Addison Allen book, The Peach Keeper, in my life, I visited the library and asked the front-desk staff if they would be receiving the book in the future.  Their response?  "I'm ordering it right now.  I'll call you when it's available."  I love these people!


One of my favorite parts of my previous job was being able to provide that kind of service to patrons, but not all libraries have the funds or freedom to be so accommodating.   What a blessing that this library doesn't fall in that category.  Now, I don't expect them to order every book I request, but my library withdrawal symptoms seem more manageable today.

Library Withdrawals

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or [library books].  - Carl Jung (as modified by me)

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen, one of my top-five all-time fav authors, was released yesterday and I'm struggling with withdrawals today...withdrawals from instant access to pretty much any book I wanted to read.  While working at the library, I added Ms. Allen to the "automatic order"  list, a list of authors whose new releases are automatically sent to the library prior to publication so that they can be cataloged and on the shelf by release date.  This meant that, as the person responsible for cataloging, if I got my work done promptly there was time to read the books I liked before they became available to the general public.  It also means that this book is sitting in my former office wondering where I am.

No such luck today.  The book is not yet available at my new library, and even if it was I wouldn't necessarily get to have it first.  Waiting my turn??  This could be a problem!  I have been fighting with myself all day - denying my urge to drive twenty-seven miles to the nearest Wal-Mart to purchase a copy.  That would simply be a temporary "fix".  I'm going to have to learn to live without the privilege of ordering any book I want to read and paying for it with library funds...without receiving books prior to publication...live with waiting my turn as *gasp* just another library patron...

Well, that just sucks!

To add insult to injury, the only way around this devastating loss is to get a...a...a job!!  Don't tell, but I really don't want to do that.  I will never replace the wonderful spot I just left, and I am sooo over schedules and rules.  There has to be a way to earn money working from home, preferably reading books and writing snarky commentary.  Doesn't seem to be an abundance of those jobs listed in the Want Ads.  Until I find a way to fund my book addiction, is there a twelve-step program for ex-librarians?

Hello, my name is Tami and I'm a bookaholic...

Super Librarian!

Sometimes the questions are strange, and sometimes the questions are incomprehensible, and sometimes the questions are vague - but when I can come up with the correct solution, I feel like Super Librarian!

In larger libraries, they have specially trained staff for reference work, but in a small library like ours, you take your chances.  As it works out, we each have areas where we are most familiar - Marilyn knows children's literature, Joyce knows non-fiction titles, and most of the fiction questions come to me.  Here are a couple reference mysteries I've solved lately:

Patron:  I want a new book I saw in the bookstore the other day, but I can't remember the title.

Me:  Do you know the author's name?
Patron:  No.
Me:  Ok, can you tell me what the story is about?
Patron:  No
Me:  Do you remember what the cover looked like?
Patron:  No, but the author's picture was on the back and he was wearing a cowboy hat.
Me:  Oh, that would be James Lee Burke.
Patron:  That's it!

Patron2: I want a certain book, but I can't remember the title.
Me: Do you know the author's name?
Patron2: It's Ely something.
Me:  Could it be "Night" by Elie Weisel?
Patron2:  That's it! 
Patron2's Husband:  I told you someone here would know!

Matching someone up with just the book they're looking for is one of the best parts of being a librarian.  Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  Faster than a card catalog...
More powerful than a speeding computer....  Able to leap to conclusions with a single clue...  

Life Lessons, or Where do these people come from?

Today's Life Lesons from the Library:
1. It is innappropriate to set up your office at a public access computer and conduct personal or professional business all day, especially when said business involves both phone conversations and chatting between you and your business partner/spouse.

2. Adults are in charge - not children.  Please do not whine at your child/grandchild in an attempt to persuade them to obey.  Take a stand and leave the library as quickly as possible if it is unsuccessful.

3. Grown men with bawdy-lyricked hip-hop songs as their ring tones are just wrong.

4. Librarians do not now, nor have they ever, worked for the IRS, H&R Block, or any other tax-related entity.  We can not figure your taxable income, recommend a tax preparation site, or tell you if those ratty National Geographics you donated can be written off.  Nor can we advise you on UN-filing your taxes, but that's another story.

Just thought you should know.

The Librarian Life

I read several blogs written by fellow librarians who document the bizarre and comical antics of library patrons.  I'm not talking about the average citizen who comes in to check out a bestseller or the students using the computers for homework, although they can be pretty entertaining at times.  I'm talking about the transients, the unstable, the (dare I say it?) crazies who equate the words "public library" with "free answer to all life's problems".  Even in a little bitty town in the far corner of Kansas, an amazing parade of humanity comes through those doors. 

Laughing at others' encounters with patrons made me decide to share about one of my favorites:  The man who wanted to UN-file his income tax.  During March and April the public access computers are continually busy with folks filing taxes and we face a deluge of questions - most of which we can't answer for legal reasons as we're not trained tax preparers.  But, my favorite is the young man who had completed and submitted his tax return, waited approximately two days and then returned to the library to ask for assistance in UN-filing.  Seems his girlfriend had filed her return using a different on-line filing site and had received her refund within a couple days.  Since his had not arrived yet, he had determined that the best course of action was to UN-file on the site he used and RE-file on the site his girl had chosen, thus ensuring him a speedier refund.

No amount of explaining would convince him that a.) you can not UN-file or b.) all returns go to the same IRS and they will process your refund as they receive it.  He finally left in a snit, convinced that we were hiding the secret for instant tax refunds, and hasn't been back since. 

If you are a librarian or just want to get an inside glimpse of the job, you might want to look at these blogs, among others:

A Librarian's Guide to Ettiquette
Comma, You Idiot
Tales From Library Land

23 Things Kansas - Fail

For those of you who were following my "amazing" progress in the 23 Things Kansas program - I flunked.  It worked well for the first few weeks when the topics were things like blogging and twitter that I already knew about.  I was able to complete the lessons in under an hour and go along my merry way.  Then we got into some topics with which I was not so familiar...not so merry.  While I don't deny that the topics of these lessons were useful and the lessons were well presented, due to my complete unfamiliarity with the subject matter, many of them were going to require several hours to research and complete. I realize this was the point - to spend some time learning new skills - but the time just wasn't there.

Many of the topics, while interesting, do not pertain directly to my job duties.  Therefore, I felt guilty using too many office hours on the lessons and kept pushing them to the bottom of my "to do" list in favor of the actual work I get paid to do.  Also, the reward for completing the project - other than the knowledge gained and the satisfaction of a job well done - is 30 hours of continuing education credit. My library discontinued raises based on CE credits shortly after I started working here (I suspect for just this reason - too much work time spent earning CE credits that don't pertain), so there is no longer a financial incentive.  Maybe if there was chocolate involved?

At this point, the twenty-three weeks are nearly up and I am so far behind that finishing is not feasable.  My apologies to the organizers of this fantastic program.  They put in a lot of hours to provide a great learning opportunity. 

The website - http://www.23thingskansas.org/ - is still available so I (and you) can still complete any lessons we wish.  Be sure and check it out.

Read 'Em Before We Weed 'Em

Ocassionally, weeding is one of my duties at the library, and it's a tough one for me.  I find it hard to select which books to get rid of, but at the moment our shelves are overflowing and new books keep arriving, so it's a necessary evil.  I am interested in hearing from other librarians, or those of you with large home libraries, about how you make these difficult cuts.  Below is an article I wrote for the local newspaper, asking for input from our patrons and now I'm asking for your recommendations as well.  What criteria do you use or would you like your library to use for doling out that precious shelf space?

Naturally, we here at the library love books….mysteries, westerns, romances, science fiction (ok, maybe not so much on the science fiction, but we’re trying), self-help, how-to, biographies, poetry , suspense... we love them all. We get excited about new releases from bestselling authors. We can’t wait to get the books you request. We inspect the bestseller lists in search of hot trends and interesting new authors. We wander the aisles of Barnes and Noble to make sure we haven’t missed anything, and we read as fast as we can so we can give you informed recommendations.

Unfortunately, though our love of books is limitless, our space is not. So on occasion it becomes necessary to part with some of our old friends to make a place for the new. Seems simple, right? Just pull off the books that are outdated, worn, stained, ripped or just plain bad – and at times it IS that simple. A book on computer programming from 1987 is an obvious candidate for weeding, but most choices are much more complicated.

Is that book worn and stained because it has been read frequently? Is it part of a series? Do we need all the early works of an author – before they became popular? Is the novel that hasn’t been checked out since 1974 trash or a hidden treasure? What about the classics? Does anyone read them anymore? Am I weeding this novel just because it’s not my personal cup of tea? (If so, the Science Fiction section truly is in danger of extinction.) How about non-fiction works which voice an opinion contrary to my personal beliefs? There are lots of tough calls in the weeding business.

Over the next few months, we will be weeding various sections of the library and we need your help. As they say on ESPN, “YOU make the call.” A cart of books destined for the book sale or the budget shop will be displayed near the front desk. We want you to look them over and tell us if you agree with our selections or if we’re overlooking a gem. These items were all purchased with your tax dollars, so your ideas matter. The books displayed will change approximately every other week, so keep watching to make sure we’re not weeding your favorites. This is your chance to “ read ‘em before we weed ‘em.”*

* - Not my original line, so feel free to use it in your own library if you choose.

Week 7: Microblogging

I am all over this week's lesson.  I've been a Twit.....uh, Tweeter?....Twitterer, maybe?....whatever - I've had a Twitter account for quite a while.  Microblogging is exactly what it sounds like, blogging on a smaller scale - 140 characters per entry or "tweet", to be exact. 

There are many uses for microblogging.  I have to be honest and say that my favorite use is entertainment.  When I was a pre-teen/teenager there were ads in the back of teen magazines where you could send away for the name of a pen-pal.  I loved having pen-pals, especially those from other countries - sending and receiveing letters, learning about their life and their culture.  Twitter allows me to have cyber-penpals.  I "follow" and am "followed" by (which just means we can view each others' tweets) an up-and-coming fashion designer in New York, a YA book author in England, a radio d.j. who's only an hour away, and the publisher of the premier K-State sports magazine, among others - all people I would not communicate with otherwise.

Twitter is also useful for making contact with fellow librarians and book-related types.  I follow a variety of publishers, authors, book stores and book bloggers who send out information on and reviews of soon-to-be-released books, which helps with collection development.  I also follow librarians from across the nation and share ideas, tips, and web sites pertaining to the library world.

The third category of my Twitter use is celebrity "cyber-stalking" (Dave's term).  I follow them, but due to their huge number of followers, they do not follow me - so basically I receive mini-messages from them, but I can not respond.  For the most part I find celebrities pointless and annoying, and many are actually just self-promotion tweets sent out by an assistant, so I don't follow many.  However, there are a few - like country singer Blake Shelton - who are just hilarious and I can always use another laugh in my day.

Microblogging is a handy tool for communicating in small doses but, like many networking tools, it can also be addicting and time-consuming.  It's all a matter of balance.

Weeks 6: Tagging and Social Bookmarking

Week six's lesson is on Delicious.  I'm a big fan of Rachael Ray - De-Lish!!! - but I had no clue about social bookmarking.  Ok, bad pun, I know, but it was the best I could do.

If you are also among the social bookmarking clueless, it is basically the same as adding sites to your "favorites" list on your browser except it stores your bookmarks online, allowing you to have access to your bookmarks from any computer with internet access.  Puts an end to that frustration of bookmarking a site at work, then trying to find it from home, only to discover that my brain really is over 40.

Tagging is a method of organizing and sharing your bookmarked sites.  By adding a "tag" when you bookmark a site, you can then group similar sites together and search for them by the tag.  For example, I can bookmark other library home pages and tag them "libraries", or something equally as creative, and then access my list of favorite library sites by searching for "libraries".

Tagging also allows me to share my favorite sites with others of similar interests.  For example, if I have a group of friends who are all interested in cooking, we can create the tag "cool recipes" (cause we're dorks and that's how we roll) and tag any sites that we want to remember and that we think others might like also.  Then I just search for the "cool recipes" tag and find out what discoveries my cooking friends have been making.

So far I haven't actually accomplished any of this except creating a Delicious account and looking around a bit, but I get the gist and can see numerous possibilities for work and home. 

23 Things Kansas: Week 5 - RSS Feeds

Domino effect:  a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then causes another change, and so on in linear sequence.

It began with Book Blogger Appreciation Week last September.  As a non-blogger, I volunteered to serve on a panel judging one of the blogging awards.  The research necessary for that assignment exposed me to a list of wonderful book blogs, which lead to an extensive "favorites" list on Internet Explorer in an attempt to keep up with them all.  Reading all the wonderful book reviews and posts triggered a desire to have our own blog.  Amazingly, a few people actually read what we wrote and left responses so, because it's only polite, I added their sites to my list of favs to keep up with.  It soon became evident that this was an impossible dream.  There just aren't enough hours in the day to visit each blog individually and check for new content.  Which brings us to the point....finally.  I needed to investigate RSS feeds.

I chose Google Reader because I already had a Google account and it was simple to set up.  Now I go to one site and find out what's new on all my favorite book blogs.  The only problem I've encountered as that it's too simple - so I end up adding every fun site I find and it has gotten a bit out of control.  I was away from my computer for a three-day weekend and this morning there were over 250 new items in my reader.  Fortunately, I don't actually have to read every one of them.  It's a few simple clicks to pare it down to the one's I really want to catch up on and delete the rest.  My next project is to sort through my subscriptions and discontinue those I don't read regularly so that I keep the numbers at a more managable level. 

If you aren't familiar with RSS, I suggest you check out the instructional material at http://www.23thingskansas.org/ and give it a try.  Here are a few of my favorite book blogs that you might want to add to your own RSS feed.

http://joyfullyretired.com/

http://mycozybooknook.blogspot.com/

http://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com/ 

http://www.findyournextbookhere.com/

http://www.readingwithtequila.com/

http://thebumblesblog.blogspot.com/

http://potsandplots.wordpress.com/

23 Things Kansas - Week Four - Photo Sharing

reading
Originally uploaded by mrschupa

Photosharing is something every grandma should learn. I know 23 Things Kansas is supposed to be geared for library use, but pictures of grandsons are so much nicer than pictures of books. But what could be better than a picture of a grandson AND a book? This photo is our oldest daughter and her oldest son sharing a favorite Christmas book.

I chose to explore flikr on my first adventure in photosharing. I already had a Yahoo account so it was super simple to set up. Once I had my account open, it walked me through the steps of uploading pictures I already had on my computer. Flikr has good organizational helps that make it easy to group pictures into albums or "tag" them for easy reference later. 

Flikr also has a cool "blog" feature.  I selected this picture and clicked on "blog this" and after a brief set up to connect my flikr account and my blog account, I was able to blog this entry directly from the flikr site.  I love it when technologies work together.

Although I'm sure there are lots of library applications for this technology - summer reading, children's programs, promoting adult programs - it's a treasure for grandmas whose grandkids live seven hours away. Our daughter can upload photos straight from her camera and keep us up to date with everything they are doing. Good lesson!

23 Things Kansas - Week Three - Online Meetings

Week three of my 23 Things Kansas training featured On-Line Meetings.  What a great invention for folks like us who live far from what passes as civilization.  Travel to Dodge City for a System-wide meeting requires nearly four hours of road time - four hours of non-productive, paid time per employee - plus mileage reimbursement for the driver.  And that's just to go to Dodge.  Training in Wichita, Topeka or other parts east requires overnight lodging and meals, so "webinars" are an abundant savings in both dollars and time for small libraries. 

I have done library training on Verso, Overdrive, and other topics using both Wimba and Opel.  The technology is great - allowing each participant to not only hear the instructor and view the presentation, but also to interact with the leader and each other by voice or text.  Archiving also allows for more flixibility in timing as participants who can't join in live can still view/hear the demonstration at a more convenient time.

Webinars aren't just for libraries.  Dave is able to attend a baseball/softball umpires rule meeting from home, rather than traveling to Dodge or Hays.  This is definitely a trend for the future that connects rural areas with the world.

23 Things Kansas: Week 2 - Online Communities

This week's assignment for 23ThingsKansas was to "sign up for your online community of choice" - Facebook, Web Junction, Ning, etc. I am vaguely familiar with Facebook through my kids so I decided to try out something completely new to me - Ning. Also, I knew that if I created a Facebook page my kids would refuse to be my friends and that would be heartbreaking. After just one day of use, I can't really say I'm getting the big picture yet, but I can see the benefits for business use as well as personal. I'm not totally sold on the idea of a library Ning or Facebook page as a way to connect with patrons. I think that would be better accomplished by something like Twitter that works in smaller portions. But since Ning and Twitter interact there is certainly potential there. I can definitely see the value of a Ning community, such as the 23ThingsKansas group, for sharing ideas and resources with other librarians.

I have been told that there is a Ning community for book bloggers. If anyone out there has information on that, please let me know. You can check out my Ning page at www.23thingskansas.ning.com/profile/TamiErwin

UPDATE: I found this community - http://bookblogs.ning.com Looks like lots of great info for bloggers.

23 Things Kansas - Week 1: Blogging

I am participating in the 23 Things Kansas program for Kansas library employees, trustees, volunteers and friends. 23 Things Kansas is described as "a fun way to learn about and practice with online tools for community, sharing and productivity." Over the next 23 weeks you will see a weekly (hopefully) post concerning the assignment I'm working on that week. Completion of all 23 assignments is worth 30 hours of continuing education credit and, more importantly, a chance at winning a fLip video camera. The first assignment is to begin a blog - so I'm ahead of the game. However, down the road when we get to such things as screencasting, presentation sharing and cloud computing (I don't even know what that is!) I may not be so glib. You will likely be reading posts filled with angst, frustration and a few bleeps, but the worst I can do is make a total fool of myself on YouTube and, seriously, how many people actually view that stuff? If you happen to be a member of the Kansas Library Community and want to join in, check out the web site at http://www.23thingskansas.org/. It's too late to get in on the CE credit, but there's still a lot to learn.