"Title duplications"
I just visited the Warrior Librarian's website and saw her comments about the 'false Warrior Librarian', moi (!). Anyone who happens to read both websites will clearly realize that the two have nothing to do with the other. The sites are two completely different blogs and have completely different goals, purposes, and reasons for chosing the title for each website. Warrior for me was chosen as it is the mascot of the institution for which I work. (Did I mention this before? Probably so, but it probably bears repeating.) This is an apt choice (for my college) for a mascot as we are in a spiritual warfare and we are to be soldiers for Christ and ready to fight His battles. We have been told that we will certainly have trials and tribulations. Satan does not like what we do and he will use any method to discredit the work of Christ, every way he can, including making an issue over a title even though our government has even stipulated titles cannot be copyrighted.

I chose this title because that is how our sports team is designated. If it had been the spartans, or the eagles, or the chipmunks as a mascot, then this librarian would be known as the "spartans, or eagles or chipmunks librarian". I had no idea that there was any other website by this name until after mine was established. The choice for me was a logical one. How many schools and colleges have the same mascot? Many! I have known of several called Tigers (my High School), but GFHS is not going after all other schools that have the same mascot title. I have know of several schools with the mascot of Bulldogs (my kids' HS mascot). Neither have they made an issue out of the duplication. It only makes the situation of making this an issue as being ridiculous.


"My state's library conference"
Changing subjects, in October I was able to attend the Missouri State Library conference, held in Kansas City this year. I found some very good workshops to attend, although it was hard to find those that would be helpful for an academic library. Most of the workshops are geared either to public libraries or a large library, of which we are neither. Those that I attended were:
......Marketing at the Point of Contact
......Nuts and Bolts of Friends Of the Library
......Getting involved in your profession
......Behaviorial Development to Staff Development
......Aquisitions 101
......Creating Community Partnerships

I would probably have to say that the first one listed was the most beneficial to me, but the others also had good ideas and suggestions. That first one is listed on the website given above. They all had good information but the next two that were most helpful to me in my present situation would have to be "Nuts and Bolts of Friends of the Library" and "Behaviorial Development to Staff Development." They had good ideas.

New Record - twice in one week
This has been twice in one week for me to blog - this must be a record. But this will probably be the last until after the new year. I wish you not only a Merry Christmas, but one that is a blessing to you as you celebrate this year. Focus on what Christmas is really about, or rather, I should say, Who Christmas is about. It is only in him that we will truely find peace in our hearts and have good will toward men. "It's NOT about 'me'!" It's giving "gifts" to the Christ Child - even if it's a 'cup of cold water' given in His name. What are you doing this Christmas to be a service to others?

"Registration? Next will be graduation"
December 5, 2005
We had registration just the other day. It was a hectic day, but we had a great bunch of new students that came this year. We are trying to get all the logistics of new ID's resolved. Our campus is actually on the same area of land as two military installations, although we have no connection with them. However, it means, that we get "military" id's, sorta. We will use the backs of these for the library barcode for patrons. But we are still waiting...(Sept)

New student workers are hired and we are in the midst of getting them trained. All of a sudden it's time for student orientation. We split the new class into two halves over two days. Then each section is divided in half again when they come in for training: databases (practice) and library holdings, services, rules, etc. (lecture and tour.) I have also hired a new cataloger who has never worked in a library before. (She actually started in Sept. and she is a fast learner.) So there are alot of challenges there. 'Course, everytime someone new comes on board, there's always the stirring up and re-settling of dynamics in a group of co-workers. We've already had our fall semester break. I don't know 'what from' - we just got started...(Oct)

Where is the time going? We basically have two weeks and two days for this month then it's break time for the Thanksgiving Holidays. Basically when everyone comes back we have two weeks left of classes before finals and the semester is over. Didn't we just start a couple of days, maybe weeks, ago??? At least the pace has let up some. I have been swamped with two big projects called "reports" to do this semester. They were a lot of work. The second one probably had 80 hours of work put into it, not to mention other associated faculty that had their part to add. Oh, one of my staff members resigned a few days ago, so, now, we are looking for someone new for her spot.(Nov)

We're talking Christmas vacation, and holiday hours and end of semester due dates, and holiday plans and parties, already. GOOD GRIEF! I'm just now ready to put that fall newsletter together for the students telling them about all the neat services we offer and all the little bells and whistles in our library catalog software, and new things we're doing this year, and new books we're getting, and - and - and... What Happen?? Did I catch a bit of "Van Winkle-itis" and miss part of the semester??? It can't be time for Christmas yet. Wow, next thing you know they'll be talking about graduation as if it is tomorrow!!! (Dec)

LOST TIME

Where DOES the time go???

I returned the end of July as noted in my earlier post, only to leave again 3 weeks later for a trip to Grand Rapids for books that we were to pick out and someone else to pay for them. Wasn't that wonderful?? It's always fun to spend someone else's money on one hand, but an awesome responsibility, too, so as to not be wasteful, on the other hand. Upon our return (a staff member went with me), we had 3 days to get ready for registration and the arrival of new and returning students. So we are now in full swing of a new school year.

In between trips I had my cataloger leaving and in the process trying to train temporary help. However we have not been able to make that help materialize since then because of retraints on hours for that staff member. :-(

In the mean time, my "new" room has been finished, items that were off site returned and shelves put together to be used for our back issues. Our current status is: we have half the shelves we need. So hopefully we will be able to use some of the insurance money to buy shelves to replace some of those that had to be thrown out.

We have a new problem, however. Where the new roof over this room (an addition) is attached to the original building, there are some new leaks. So we are back to putting out buckets and having roofers come and try patches. Some have been tried and failed. So I don't know at the moment what is going to be done about it. We will have to get this resolved before we put our back periodicals in there. The college is also in the process of getting bids for an A/C system as we will have to have air movement in there to prevent mold from returning.

Our Friends of the Library also bought some books for us - about 12 bags worth, and we are in the process of buying books to replace those lost in the storm damage to the back room. Add to that the addition of the books from Grand Rapids and you can see that we are quickly being covered up with books needing to be cataloged, not to mention those that are already in the pipeline. And no cataloger!! The "trainee" is not able to take on the additional tasks and hours to do so. But we do have a lady interested who lives in Colorado. She is interested in coming here to college and needing a job. So hopefully that will work out. It may be a few weeks before she will get here, though.

I work my 40 hours in 4 days a week with Wednesday off. (Consequently, last week I worked an average of 12.5 hours for each of the 4 days I worked! I'm glad I didn't have that 5th day in there last week!) This is because of my living 85 miles away from my job. It has its advantages and its disadvantages! But I have been so swamped the last couple of weeks that I am staying over tomorrow and putting in some extra hours to try to catch up. Too bad I'm salaried! :-) but that's okay, I love where I work and rather have an enjoyable environment then a stressful one and higher pay. Money isn't everything. I'll just get my rewards later...

Oh the interesting, ongoing saga of library life!

Contents have been returned to "new room".

I have been gone out of town for a vacation (Louisiana) and some personal time with family in Houston. Thus the delay in any posts. Parts had it's sad moments and some were quite enjoyable. Returning to my own bed was probably the best part.

But Monday, July 24th our restorer started bringing back the contents to our back room. When they got done Tuesday, I was surprised how much room we had left, because of what we had thrown out. My co-worker suggested that we put down some tape where we want to add a partition and see if that allows us enough room to use that area as a work/store room.

She is such a wise person and has the years of experience I don't, to fulfill my position as librarian. My academic dean told me one time (as well as others) to own my strengths and 'staff' my weaknesses. She certainly fits the bill. But I am digressing.

So as our items were returned I started playing with space. I wish I had this kind of space at home to sort through things, move, rearrange, and organize. It was exhausting, but I have been able to get a good idea of what space we need for storage and therefore how much of the original room will be left for something else. I am still looking for one book that I thought had been sent for mold treatment. But Tues. I made a trip to our 'restorer's' place of business. We went through every box that was in the mold holding space. I didn't find the book. I do have a picture of it. But I don't have a title. So, a word of advice from this aching and exhausted librarian - if you think something is of value = stop and take the time to get the details, in spite of the urgency of an emergancy situation. And 'document, document, document'.

Already I am finding that there is some mix up of what was taken to be cleaned and what's not returned. That still begs more investigation. Having been at the on-site location of the restorer's business, I can see the easiness of items "disapperaing." But I have "3 fingers pointing back at me" that I need to check out before any other thoughts are pursued.

Well, now it looks like we are at the point of wrapping up this situation and settling on the dollar amount of the loss. Next will be wisdom for the powers that be as to what will be done with the money that came from the library's situation. Hopefully we will be able to either purchase items to replace what we lost, or spend it on the facility in other ways - like putting in an A/C now for that back room. With it redone and now airtight, we are going to have to have some kind of air movement in there or we will be right back where we were with the mold. :-( However, another wise friend told me that it wouldn't be any good to have a wonderful library if there is not "the rest of the school". This is a private institution so it seems that money is always tight - a never ending theme. So, some of it may be put toward other needs.

In spite the "tragedy" of the situation I have found it satisfying if not almost enjoyable to be able to oversee this transformation. I didn't have to worry about the money (I've always lived on a tight income). That's not to mean I spent money left and right. There were perimeters. But for example, the insurance guy and the carpet business man came in with carpet samples and basically I said "I'll take that one." Well, actually I had a choice between 2. No actually I had the choice between several, but I wanted to come as close to what we already had as possible. So that narrowed it down to two shades of brown. But, hmpf, that's almost scary when you've got the "power" to say "I'll take that one" and it's done. Voila! -Something I can't do at home.

One thing I have been grateful for. When this tragedy happened, we had people orchestrated by the insurance agency that immediately stepped up and went to work dealing with the different needs. Many librarians are overwhelmed and at a loss as to what to do, how to do it and where to begin first and who to contact for help. I even have a former supervisor who has conducted workshops on disaster recovery and how to even prepare for it ahead of time, with plans already in place for actions to be implemented in such a situation. This is wise as you are able to calmly make such plans when you are not in an emotionally stressed situation. When the need presents itself, if you are not already prepared you are losing valuable time trying to decide first what to do. Having said that, I have not written such a plan, but fortunately our insurance agent was already prepared.

Well, now we are facing the beginning of another school year. Because of our "new room" we will have additional, and adequate room for registration. I'm even learning to plan ahead (not my strong suit) by preparing for our upcoming registration day. Our Registration Day meeting is tomorrow and we have plans in place of how we are going to handle the traffic flow in the library for registration day. The Dean's dept had made sounds last year of doing something different that our staff is not in favor of. So we'll see.

In the meantime, the Learning Center director and I have started meeting to figure out what each other is doing so as to NOT overlap or compete with what the other is doing, but instead work together in tandem. I can forsee though, that some dust is going to have to be settled before this is accomplished as having a "learning center" is something relatively new for our college. This institution is not used to the Librarian doing (traditionally) what they have been asking the LC to do. Any suggestions as to what the practice is in other locations would be helpful. I will need to be talking to the academic dean at some point about what is my role in this emerging situation, i.e. what should be the librarian's responsibility and what should be the learning center's responsibility.

I will be looking for your thoughts.

Ready for Carpet--
Because of where I live and where I work, I am off on Wednesdays. Thursday when I returned to work I learned that the day before my assistant, our VP of development, and "Shawn" -the point man overseeing all the renovation, and the insurance agent by phone had a meeting. Mostly it involved what the used books would cost to replace. We had thrown out 2315 books. To replace as new would cost an average of $28. The insurance agent was heard to take an audible gasp over the phone. (yes, that's alot of money.) But at used prices it would probably cost about $14 a book. Some were to be added yet to our collection, but the most were what were left over from the sale. So, we are still in the negotiating stage of what we are going to do with them.
The bound periodicals were covered in mold. The company here was going to send them to Texas to be treated. But in comparing the cost of treating the mold ($16,200) to what it would cost to replace them (about half), we have opted to take the cash and not get them treated. That will save that company time and expense and save the insurance company expense as well. I picked out a carpet sample yesturday that comes close to matching what we have. It will be installed next Thursda. The new wall paint also is similar to the rest of the library (light beige/magnolia). The lighting has been repaired with all new neon tubes and ballists (sp?) where needed. The room is looking SO much better. It is clean, bright and most of all dry, as proved by last night's storm that moved through the area again last night. What a BLESSING indeed.
This insurance company has really contradicted the reputation that most have. I have been very impressed with how quick they have responded to the needs of the campus as a whole. The boys' dorm roof is done, as well as 6 duplexes, the library storage room and the patio roof in front of the library. This will be close if not over $200,000 when all is said and done.
I have also been impressed with how quickly everything was put into action. I didn't have to go out looking for the recovery help that was needed. That is probably partly due to the library being part of a college and the college suffering damage on more than just the library. But the insurance agent and "Shawn" were here the next day after the strom hit and boom, people were here that afternoon beginning to help by putting on temporary roofs.
I will be gone now till next Thursday taking some extra days with celebrating Independence Day. Whatever you do over the weekend, be careful and safe.

Progress on our back room:
What a difference a roof can make on a room! The dehumidfier that a recovery company had in there certainly dried out the air. But after they got done "packing out" the room, they came the next day and took the dehumidfier. Now with the new roof on, the room is air tight - well at least 99% so. There are some 'leaks' but the flashing still needs to be put on. It's amazing what a difference it makes. Now we have a situation of no air flow which in turn can present its own set of problems. We have been leaving the doors into the back room open to help balance the air and get some airflow. I had a fan promised, but it hasn't shown up yet. Painters came today and have gotten all the old paint scraped off. Some of it was so bad I think you could have blown on it and it would have fallen off. The company that removed the contents had already sprayed with germocide and fungacide (which I didn't know till today). So at least now the painters won't have to.
I'm learning alot about 'disaster recovery'. One thing is that I am sometimes kept in the dark of what's going on. So today, I met with our maintenance dept. head and got some information. It was good because he needed information from me as well which he didn't realize he needed. (I still don't have a complete timeline of what the companies plan to do and when.) Between that and other things going on in my professional life, I am reminded once again the importance of communication, something we tend to forget to do. Painters will return tomorrow and put on a sealer (something like Kilz) and primer. By Wed. the room will probably be painted. I have carpet samples coming tomorrow to pick out.
As for my end, I have been spending a good part of the day trying to find companies on line that can provide back issues of periodicals and what they would cost. Last week I started researching other items that were tossed and looking up what they would cost to replace. I suspect we will end up not having our own periodicals treated for the mold - at least not the most of them. It is more expensive to treat them than it is to replace them, if you can find replacements. I am finding a harder time finding replacements for religious periodicals, especially those from specific organizations. In fact there doesn't seem to be too many "backorder" companies out there to begin with. Well, the saga will continue. The fat lady hasn't sung yet.

Disaster is spelled "b-l-e-s-s-i-n-g"

A coworker sent me this message today: "I wonder how many times in life we try to push through our own plans instead of asking God if He has a better way?"
We can be such dense people, not to mention blind, "un-trusting", stubborn and a few other adjectives. Her comment was in response to the following email I sent to our faculty and staff today:
As many, if not all of you know we (campus) were damaged from a wind and rain storm that blew thru' here a week ago last night.
As a result the roof on the Library's storage room was folded back like a blanket and damage was suffered in the contents below. Companies were quick to respond to our insurance agent and Friday [June 10th] plans were formed and put into action. Currently [June 17th] we now have an empty back room with a temporary roof covering. Contents are now all off site being stored, dried, cleaned and treated for mold. As soon as the Boys' Dorm roof is finished I am told they will begin putting down a permanent roof, here . [June 21st: we now have our new roof, too.]
What have we learned through all this? Plenty! God has a sense of humor for one thing. I was not anticipating putting the books back in there after the book sale this spring, but was unable to find any place else on campus to put them. Yet I knew that if they stayed in the back they would get ruined. Well I was right, ---they did get ruined. BUT, God wanted them ruined!!! Doesn't that sound strange to our human way of thinking??? We will now get more money for the loss of the books then if we had sold them. They are "just books" and God has His ways of providing.
--"His thoughts are higher than 'my' thoughts" ((that's for sure)),
--"All things work together for good...",
--"I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not for evil...", and more.
God is CERTAINLY in control. Now, we will have a finished, usable room because the Lord is providing the money through the insurance company. "God works in (AMAZING) ways, His wonders to perform...."

The timing for this lesson could not be missed for me personally. For the last two years our family has been going through a crisis with our older son. This resulted in him being imprisoned and he being divorced from his wife and losing his children. To me, losing the contents (some), was an "in your face" (to me) reminder that God IS in control. There's no two ways about it. Even when things are not going the way I would like for them to. But what a reminder that He knows the beginning from the end and what seems like a tragedy to us is in actuality a blessing in disguise.

Friends of the Library

We have tried to revive the FOL that had become inactive many years ago.
It has been an uphill struggle to get folks interested in it once again. I have, however, spent part of the last couple of weeks completely reviewing the files of the organization when it was active and what we have done in the last 4 years. It has been interesting to learn more about the activities of the past and what we might possibly be able to do now to get it going once again. This review wouldn't have happened if it weren't for the fact that I have had to find documentation for the business office as to what the practice, procedures and authority had been in the past for the FOL. This may be another one of the "blessings in disquise." Hopefully for the current efforts we will be able to get some ideas, be better organized, keep better records, and not give up.