"CBCTS Warriors'" Librarian

I'm looking for a book that starts with "S"

2011-04-03T17:53:00.003-05:00

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No kidding, someone came to the reference desk the other day looking for a book. He didn't remember the title; said it started with S and that it was a new book. My coworker had been looking at the New York Times bestsellers list and had it pulled up on her computer. The patron said it was nonfiction. She went to that section and started reading the titles. She found one that the second word started with an "S". That's it, the patron exclaimed!!! I looked it up in our catalog, we had and it was on the shelf to boot! He went home a satisfied patron!

Reference Desk

2011-01-21T17:39:00.003-06:00

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Working the Reference Desk is a unique position in a library. Where our desk sits, you get to see everyone that walks in the library (except those who go in the children's library). If you ever like people-watching, this is the place to be. I sometimes wish I was a quick sketch artist. You see people from all walks of life, all ages, all cultures and levels of education and station in life.

Someone has said, 'decide what you love to do then figure out a way to make money doing it.' This reference position I now have offers me that very situation. I am the one that takes all the genealogy queries that come into the library - something that I love to do. When a query comes in, I'll go to town lots of times finding more than what folks had asked for finding extra news they often did not know. It's a lot of fun providing customer service in this way.

Job update

2010-09-23T19:37:00.001-05:00

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As per the comments in my last post on this blog, I thought it was time to update that post.

It's interesting how things sometimes work out. The last two libraries, where I had applied hired other people. I received the obligatory letter of: 'thank you for applying but we choose someone else.' In other words, we choose someone better than you, so to speak. They were both to my liking, however the second one would have put me back on the road again for commuting. But I didn't get either one.

When we came back from vacation in July, I learned that one of my coworkers had announced her retirement. She worked the reference desk. I was already doing this, on a part time basis, once a week, along with my 'then-current' position. Well, that gives it away. So, yes, I applied and yes I was offered the position. This was two months ago, at this writing.

I am thrilled to be at the 'front desk.' It has been a good move all the way around. The person who took my place in cataloging, has a quick mind for that type of work and has done quite well, even though he had never done that kind of work before. [Cataloging does take a certain type mindset, or maybe I should say, works better when one does.]

As for yours truly, this move is also a better fit for me, my strengths and people skills. Having worked the reference desk, once a week already, gave me a head start on learning what I need to know for this position. Not that, I knew 'everything.' In fact, I am sure I will be continually learning new things in this position. Reference librarians can be asked any multitude of questions on a multitude of subject areas. For the Ref librarian, it is knowing where to look for the answer.

Now that I am at the reference desk, I have opportunity to explore all kinds of subjects as one never knows when that bit of information will come to good use. Here is an example. A patron came in one day asking if we had any good books with photos in them that showed country scenes, especially with hills and roads. We went to the travel books, and to some on various states, but none of them worked. Then I remembered a book I had looked at just the week before. It was a book of photos on Amish life and some of those pictures were some every day country type pictures. We found the book and skimmed through it together. It turned out to be just what she wanted. Nice how what you know can generalize, or cross over to meet other situations or someone else's needs.

You get to meet quite a variety of people as well. We won't go into all the 'good, bad and ugly' of people you meet. You find that in any public situation. But invariably, I will meet a lot of friendly people, and, extrovert that I am, enjoy visiting with them on one topic or other - some serious, some not-so-serious. -All in the day of a Reference Librarian.

So, from time to time, I think I will begin posting various things that I find interesting: either something of a newsworthy note for librarianship, and/or stories from my day on the job.

Job Satisfaction

2010-05-31T14:28:00.001-05:00

It has been a year and a half now since I accepted my current job as a cataloger. Previously I had been an administrator where I did a little bit of everything. Yet, when a move become evident, I was encouraged by one of my staff members to pursue a cataloging position. So partly based on that prompting I accepted this position as cataloger.

I have finally decided that I do not like working as a cataloger, at least not in my current situation. It has come at the expense of many unhappy situations that have taken place. Not wanting to be disparaging of others, this is largely due to personality conflicts, and their past experiences that color their every opinion no matter what training or experience you may have had. This results in a stressful atmosphere which in turn makes the job itself even more difficult.

I recognize that God does not put you in situations with which you cannot deal, without his help. But that is the key. Too often we (or at least I) react before stopping to ask for His help and wisdom. So, I have used this as an opportunity to grow. At the same time, my best strengths are not being used in this situation.

As a result, I have been casting my net to see what might be 'out there' for other opportunities. I am also beginning more and more to embrace my own natural skills and talents, even though I have had no formal training for the most part in these areas.

The Internet has even provided opportunities to evaluate my skills and personality and what would be the best type work where these can be put to use. At this point, nothing has become evident for me to pursue. There have been a couple of library positions that have opened up that would give me the chance to change the work that I do, within the profession.

I find myself becoming more weary of the challenge and the pursuit. At 60 years of age, this does give one pause to consider what would be the best thing to do. People are living longer in general, but that does not mean in particular this will happen to me. So any decision needs to be made with care.

Ted Kennedy's seat

2010-01-19T21:51:00.001-06:00

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HALLELUJAH!!!! The republican, Scott Brown, won the election in Mass.!!!!
Watch out, Obama. You haven't pulled off your health care bomb yet.

Putting into remembrance

2010-01-10T23:58:00.001-06:00

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I have been intrigued for some time about the topic of "the development and history of knowledge". How, over time, even centuries, did this progress, starting first with early civilization, even before alphabets were created, (much less reading and writing)? These are "technologies" that have been part of the history of man. Adam, especially before the fall, was a very intelligent person. How could he not be? We know he had a language as he fellowshiped with God and he named the animals and woman. Language is a technology, putting thoughts and ideas into words. But the written language was still a long time to come.

Oral traditions were held high and valuable by many cultures. As these technologies, (e.g. alphabets and languages), were developed, they were decried as detrimental by others. The more man depended on these technologies, the less the brain was used, or not used as much, so they claimed. This cry has been a re-ocurring theme for centuries. It was posited when the Gutenburg press was created. The concept has been revived again in the last decades as the technologies of the computer have 'exploded'.

(The development and use of the brain is one road we could travel. The development of knowledge is another, seperate road, yet they run parrallel through out man's history. They go hand in hand, but it is this latter topic my mind dwells on.)

Keeping track and documenting the various tidbits that I come across on this subject have been difficult, at best, with no single means of gathering all these in one place. However, just today in church I was intrigued by a verse in the bible that plays into this thesis. So I made note of it.

Peter was writing to the church, "his children." Given that, we must realize that the NT was not complete at this point, as what he was writing later became part of that holy collection. This is one of the reasons he even wrote them. They needed to be reminded of the the things they had been taught. II Peter 1:12-15 discusses the concept that in their day and culture, they had to "keep in remembrance," i.e. memorize, what they were taught in order to keep track of it, make it a part of their lives, and pass it on to the next generation. Yes, they were holding in their hand something he had committed to writing. But this was still not yet a common occurance - having something in writing.

So here, even in scripture, we have evidence that knowledge - even as late as the early A.D. centuries the written word was rare and held only by presumably the privledged and the rich. Everyone else even yet, still had to commit to memory whatever they would need to learn. They still actively used and depended upon what they memorized. They didn't 'need' to put into writing what they needed to know because memorizing was such a part of their way of life. It wasn't part of their mindset at this point. It hadn't become a need, yet. On the other hand, the where-with-all to put knowledge into writing is still a long way off, in being part of every man's daily life, and common at the grassroots level of everyday life.

What difference does this make to you??? Maybe nothing. But in this world of secularism, and disciplines taught from a humanistic and secular world view, it is important the Christians maintain a biblical worldview, even in, or especially in, their professions.

Timelines from these opposing "camps" are probably the biggest and most obvious difference, as 'everything' else hangs on when they happened. Consequently along this line, I have been interested in collecting, collating, sifting, composing and in general, mulling over the development and history of knowledge from a biblical worldview and perspective. My profession, being librarianship, deals with records of knowledge and is what librarianship is all about.

Here, in this passage in II Peter, we see evidence in scripture, in New Testament times, how knowledge and learning was recorded, so to speak, by committing it to memory. Yes, language was already reduced to alphabets, and there are records of history that were put in writing. But yet at this point, memory was still the more common way of learning the knowledge of the day and passing it on to the next generation. Here in the days of the Romans, memory still played a vital role in the history of knowledge and how it was developed over the centuries. Here we have, in our bibles, a time and place of how knowledge was handled. Here we can peek into a portion of world history and see a portion of the history of knowledge itself, recorded in our very own bible - the "history of knowledge" not only presented from a biblical worldview, but recorded in the bible, itself. This realization was an "Ah-ha" moment for yours truely.

Hopefully as I continue to study and read I will find even more instances that can be culled from the scriptures. I would most gladly be interested in your input and discussion. You may email me directly at swguinn at gmail dot com.

This is also posted at www.arkansaspilgrim.blogspot.com

Moved - left "forwarding" address

2009-05-31T13:51:00.004-05:00

Here is my new blog.
The URL is: http://www.arkansaspilgrim.blogspot.com/

As I am no longer at the college where I used to work, I have changed to a new blog that will be more incompassing to my life and what I do. This one will not be effected by change of vocation, only my "location".

When the time comes that I can no longer be located on earth, I will no longer be blogging. :-)
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change name?

2008-10-16T11:02:00.001-05:00

Now that I am no longer at CBCTS, I am wondering if I should change the name of my blog. The down side is I can't change the URL and keep the same blog - I don't think.
If you have any ideas, suggestions, or help - let me know.

New Job

2008-10-16T10:54:00.002-05:00

After three months of unemployment and about eight months of looking for a new job, I finally have received a job as a cataloger at the Rogers (AR) Public Library. It is only 2 minutes from where I live and pays more than I was expecting to get. So I am excited. After a background check is done by the City of Rogers, I will be able to start work. Probably it will be on the 27th.

I am excited to be able to continue in the library profession and not have to take "just anything that came along."

So - any of you that are looking or "still looking" - take heart and hang in there.

Networking is what did it for me. I also tried job sites like CareerBuilder.com and Monstorjob.com and looking in the newspaper's want ads. But in the end it was word of mouth and networking that found me the job I received.

Job Interview

2008-10-13T10:42:00.002-05:00

I have a job interview Tuesday, Oct. 14th, at 3:00 pm, in the local library. Actually two positions are being offered. I also saw where there's one at the museum. But I haven't checked that one out yet. Hopefully I'll get one of these. I have been putting out applications like crazy. Last week I submitted 10. Three of them are for library positions. The rest for non-library ones. Hopefully something will open up soon.

Fireproof!

2008-09-19T12:48:00.003-05:00

Do you remember the movie Facing the Giants? The producers have come out with a new movie called Fireproof. I hear it's a great movie! It's rated PG and christian reviewers give it a "two thumbs up" (so to speak). I would like to say more about it - but I don't want to get something wrong and my memory fails me. I do know it has helped a lot of previewers already especially in areas of marriage. Want to see a good movie this weekend? This is the one!!! And safe for everyone in your family to see.

PS - Guess I have the date wrong. Release should be next weekend: 26h.

Remembering September 11th

2008-09-10T18:34:00.002-05:00

It has been 7 years (tomorrow) when tragedy struck our land, on our soil! We forget too quickly. Stop to remember about this when you vote this year in November. I truely expect that if we elect the wrong person, what inroads that may give terrorist that we won't even know about.

Here's a poem I received by email and thought you would enjoy it.

'MEET ME IN THE STAIRWELL'

You say you will never forget where you were when you heard the news On September 11, 2001. Neither will I.
I was on the 110th floor in a smoke filled room with a man who called his wife to say 'Good-Bye.'
I held his fingers steady as he dialed. I gave him the peace to say, 'Honey, I am not going to make it, but it is OK..I am ready to go.'
I was with his wife when he called as she fed breakfast to their children. I held her up as she tried to understand his words and as she realized he wasn't coming home that night.
I was in the stairwell of the 23rd floor when a woman cried out to Me for help. 'I have been knocking on the door of your heart for 50 years!' I said.
'Of course I will show you the way home - only believe in Me now.'
I was at the base of the building with the Priest ministering to the injured and devastated souls.
I took him home to tend to his Flock in Heaven. He heard my voice and answered.
I was on all four of those planes, in every seat, with every prayer. I was with the crew as they were overtaken.
I was in the very hearts of the believers there, comforting and assuring them that their faith has saved them.
I was in Texas, Virginia, California, Michigan, Afghanistan.
I was standing next to you when you heard the terrible news.
Did you sense Me?
I want you to know that I saw every face. I knew every name - though not all know Me. Some met Me for the first time on the 86th floor...
Some sought Me with their last breath.
Some couldn't hear Me calling to them through the smoke and flames;
'Come to Me... This way. Take my hand.'
Some chose, for the final time, to ignore Me.
But, I was there.
I did not place you in the Tower that day. You may not know why, but I do. However, if you were there in that explosive moment in time, would you have reached for Me?
Sept. 11, 2001, was not the end of the journey for you. But someday your journey will end. And I will be there for you as well. Seek Me now while I may
be found. Then, at any moment, you know you are 'ready to go.' I will be in the stairwell of your final moments.
God

Results

2008-09-04T00:04:00.003-05:00

I got the job interview a week ago last Friday, Aug. 22nd. It went well, - I could see how well suited I am for the position. Tuesday I received a letter being turned for the job. So, now its back to "square one" to see how the Lord is going to provide the income we need to live in Arkansas. We were really depending on my getting a job in order to make the new house payments. So we'll see.

I have applied!

2008-08-19T17:36:00.003-05:00

News was finally received regarding the position's announcement at the library in Arkansas. I have sent my application by fax and my vita and cover letter by email. (How nice this digital age can be.) So now it's back to waiting again. The library director was also on vacation for the first 2 weeks of August. She was to return back to work yesterday (Monday, Aug. 18th). Hopefully I will be hearing soon from her asking for an interview.

In the meantime, it has been beneficial to have this summer off because of the transition from Kansas to Arkansas. We have a house, finally. We are now painting, cleaning in Ark. and packing and cleaning in KS. What an overwhelming chore. Now if we could just figure out a move date and actually follow through with it. This has not been the case so far, for a variety of reason, one was my husband's bout with pneumonia! The most recent obstacle has been M's change in his schedule at work.

There have been a plethera of problems to deal with to make this happen: money (always!), timing, help, injuries (I fell) and sickness (M's), bills, and new bills, and some circumstances completely out of our control. There have been blessings as well: God's provisions like a loaned trailer, money from unexpected sources and waiver of other expenses; also help from family and friends with packing, loading, running the stairs, cleaning and painting.

But we're not done yet - not till 'this' fat lady sings. And I ain't singing yet.
:-)

dog days of summer

2008-07-16T21:53:00.002-05:00

time is dragging along - in some ways, at least. I'm still waiting to hear about the job opening I was told was coming. However, in the mean time, my husband has started a new job in Arkansas and we have a contract on a house. So, there is progress. He is staying with friends so he can work, and I am in Kansas at our home there.

At the moment as I write, my dog is staring at me and keeps putting his paw on my arm, trying to tell me he wants something. Guess I'll sign off for today and see if I can figure out what he wants. I'll post more later, as life develops. I do know that I've got to start packing, now. Ugh.

job hunting

2008-06-22T23:25:00.002-05:00

I have been seriously job hunting now since April, and watching even before that. I have applied to I-don't-know-how-many-jobs and have come up with nothing. There have been 3-4 really serious attempts to some positions I found, even spent some money on transcripts for one job. None of them have reaped anything - most of them didn't even bother to send a response they had received my application. A couple of positions got filled just as I was applying - day late and a dollar short.

Now I have, as of last week, been interviewed for a museum job. I would love to work in a museum and this would get my foot in the door. I probably would have a hard time getting a professional position unless I had some sort of history degree. If I could get into archival/preservation I may not, however.

After the above interview took place I learned of a professional position that will be open in a couple of months to which will be in the town we are moving. It will probably pay twice as much if not more than the museum job. So, what do I do??? take the fun job and get paid less, or the professional job and get paid more. I would really enjoy either one.

I thought I wanted the museum job - really bad; even called them twice about it. But that was when I didn't think there was any chance I would get a library position. If I turn down the museum position, there would be no guarentee that I would get the library one. So, it's "ifey". I"m not sure yet what I'll do. I'm hoping the Lord will take care of the delimma for me.

I'm not a perfect match for the museum job, but as I've said before, it would get my foot in the door. The other one I am perfectly suited for, but it isn't a shoe-in.

librarianship - the foundation job to all others

2008-06-14T11:16:00.005-05:00

I've been thinking... (alright, dangerous, I know.) Just what is librarianship all about - the basic "about", the underlying reason of all other reasons...?

Well, organization of information, of course! - ALL information! What are other jobs about? Well, construction jobs are about constructing buildings, roads, furniture, - putting things together. But they aren't about medicine. Medicine is about illnesses, anatomy, cures, drugs, procedures. But medicine isn't about farming. Farming is about growing food and animals, producing a product for human consumption and getting rid of anything that inhibits a good end result.
Do you see what I'm getting at?

You go to a farmer to ask what's the best weed killer in wheat fields in Kansas, or what keeps insects out of orchards in New York. But you don't go to a medical doctor for that information. You also don't ask a corporate CEO in the auto industry how to make a dress without a pattern. They will know a little bit about patterns because they design cars. But they don't design dresses.

But who is the one person, or where is the one place you can always get the answer to, for any question? Your information specialist, the Librarian, or Library! Your One Source Information Provider!!! Want to know about Stocks and Bonds? Go to the library and look up the Standards and Poors report. Want to know what's the best camera to buy? Look it up at the library in Consumer Reports. Want to know when is the best time to plant potatoes? Go to the Library and check out books on vegetable gardens.

Now you could track down the experts round about town and find these answers. Or you could go to one place and get all these answers!!! [Another bonus, its all free!]

Left to our own devices we all would live in a house with some level of chaos. But down deep we as a society have a desire to organize - whether its our thoughts, our things or our lives. We want some kind of order, so we can derive some kind of meaning out of life.

Even very primitive tribal man had a desire for this. And, by the way, the two most important things they organized were religion and family lines, whether they organized anything else or not. They coded their lives with rules. They created what information they knew into organized segments. It is within our nature to do so.

Okay. So what? What difference does that make to me? Well, I'm glad you ---at least wondered. Librarians are the ultimate organizers of information. Pure and Simple. Just think about it for a minute. Each discipline is organized within its own world - astronomy, physics, mechanics, music, medicine, philosophy and so on. But what do the librarians do? They take all these disciplines and organize all the small individual categories into one great big total.

To a librarian that is called classification. There are several different methods used. The most common in the United States are Dewey Decimal System and Library of Congress Classification System. But they all do the same thing. Its the ultimate grouping of groups, a system of systems. It is the Library!

So the next time you want to know where to find a good Italian restaurant, or how to improve your picture taking, or what types of clothes go together - stop and think what you are doing. You are looking for information. You may ask a friend, or you make check the internet, or you may ask a specialist. But ultimately, its your librarian that helps keep this available, keeps this organized and keeps your world still turning. They are the gatekeepers of gatekeepers. And they've got the best job in the world! I'd even go so far as to say, if it weren't for librarians, the rest of society just might fall apart.

Want the best job on the world? Become a librarian. You can learn a little (or a lot) about anything and everything and help someone else do the same.

Neither Will Be The Same - a mini short story

2008-06-07T17:20:00.009-05:00

She sat at her desk, finishing up the last of her duties, checking her email just before leaving for the day. There the thought struck her, "I really am leaving this place. I really am leaving." It was 6:30 in the evening, on Friday the 23rd. School had been over for a week and a half now, and graduation the weekend before.

She gathered her things, pulled out her car keys and work keys, and shut the office door one last time. When she turned off all the lights, and walked out the front door, she noticed how deserted the campus was. Not only were the students all gone, but it was 2 hours after all staff leave for the day, as well. The wind picked at her hair, and cooled the wet lines on her face. The quiet campus was deafening. The goodbyes, the recognitions, the gifts - they had all been said and done. They echoed in her ears.

What had she done, she second-guessed to herself. It was suppose to be timed like a neat little package to have something to move on to. A new job, a new home, a new life. But none of that had transpired as planned. Tears streamed down her face as her feet propelled her numb mind towards the car. What lay ahead the Lord was yet to reveal.

One thing was certain, she did have some loose ends to tie up. She figured it would be at least a couple more trips back to the city to get it all done. But, it just won't be the same. Yet - will anything be different? It will be so natural to walk in and catch up on the day.

How you can walk away from something you have invested yourself in for the last several years? Thoughts raced through her head. It's not possible to just let go, no longer care, no longer call and check on things, no longer give advice on what should be done. There will be a time gap in leadership. how could she do this?

She really should have stayed a little longer, she chastised herself. But plans had been "put into stone." After much prayer and bestowed advice, the decision had been made. This was what she and her husband thought the Lord's leading was.

Besides, who said it would be any easier to just put off the inevitable? It wouldn't. She drove up the one-way past the library, and past the campus apartments where she had shared an apartment for the first 3 years with her son, past the cafeteria where many lunches had been shared with coworkers in joy and in sorrow, in laughter and in stress; past the dorms and the athletic field where different kinds of battles had been won or lost.

The car turned right at the stop sign, and for one more time headed out for that 90 minute drive home. She felt in her purse for a kleenex. Where would she go from here? She didn't know. Down deep inside, she knew the Lord did. What she knew was a part of herself was being left behind. Life goes on, (it always does) both for those she left behind and for her as well. Hopefully, neither will be the same again.
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New Link

2008-05-16T09:56:00.001-05:00

I lied. : - ) Here’s a link I just found: Citizendium. So I had to list one more post.

It is an online encyclopedia that requires editors to use their real names when adding or changing information. This site was established because Wikipedia does not require identification and they’re an unreliable source. Therefore they cannot be used/cited in research papers.

Citizendium is in Beta format.

Another school year comes to an end.

2008-05-15T18:46:00.006-05:00

Sometimes, life happens very slooooooooooooowlllllyyyyyyyyyyyy......... Then, there are times that life happens so fast you don’t have time to catch your breath.

At the moment, - in some ways, my life is whirling by me so fast I can’t keep up with everything, especially the peripherals like blogging. There have been a variety of things I have wanted to post – links and other information helpful to the library world. But this will not be the case, at least for a while.

Graduation and all its flurry of activity was this past week culminating with the graduation ceremonies on Saturday morning and yes that is Mother’s Day weekend to boot. (see what I mean?) So it has been hectic to get all the year end tasks done, the year end parties and events attended (of course), and good byes said. This year takes on an even more significance as this will be my last time to participate in the academic pageantry of graduation. And I love pageantry! But I don’t like goodbyes.

Life does not stand still. It may seem to stall sometimes, or at least stop in one place. But inevitably it does change. So I am facing a change in my personal life that will take me away from this wonderful place. [I don’t have rosy glasses on. No place is perfect and this employment has had its trials to endure but it has still been the best place I have every worked.]

In the next month or so my family will be moving to another state and another life. I am not sure if I will even be able to stay in the “Library World,” at least from an employment stand point. Time will tell. So after today, I may not be posting for a while. For some reason I am not able to write and publish any blogs from my computer at home. It is temperamental.

I will post three new links here I just recently came across regarding typos in library catalogs. Make that one. Others were in the same blog.

Well – here are a few more I recently learned about.

Library vocabulary: - something you always wanted to know, I’m sure!

I’ve had this one a while. Wish I would remember about this one: bible subject headings

Lot’s of helps here.

Here’s one for some humor.

This one really is a standard but I just recently bookmarked it. You probably already know about it.

Enjoy! And “Carry On”!

End of Year Party!!

2008-05-05T18:01:00.002-05:00

We had our last student staff meeting today. So it was party time. The gals had succeeded in shifting the entire collection in just this semester. It was a big push but they got it done!! So we celebrated today with Pizza and Pop while we had we our regular meeting. It was a fun time of taking pictures, eating food, telling of plans for the summer. Another year is (virtually) over and next year will be different than this one.

Another chapter has been written!

NCA Visit

2008-04-24T17:56:00.000-05:00

There was a huge gust of wind that originated from the Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base where Calvary Bible College and Theological Seminary’s campus is located. We had our 2 year focus visit from the Higher Learning Commission, a Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools – or NCA for short.

The team was here Monday through Wednesday, April 21-23. At the end of their visit they reported to the institution’s cabinet that they will recommend that NCA does not need to come back for a visit for seven years! It could have been 5, 7, or 10.

Given that the property issue is still unresolved but in the hands of the city of Kansas City, MO and not ours, was somewhat to our advantage. They realize that this issue is unsettled because of circumstances beyond our control. When that is resolved, our financial condition should also improve.

They also noted that strides that have been taken to improve the institution from retention, to library holdings, to mission content and it’s application to curriculum, and more.

That gust of wind mentioned at the top? It was the huge sigh of relief from the top down. Preparations for these visits are exhausting, even though they are enlightening and beneficial. We are much relieved!

National Library Week 2008

2008-04-22T15:57:00.000-05:00

We had a low key celebration this year, but here were our plans.

Monday: Balloons, cookies and a handout of staff’s favorite cookie recipes.
Tuesday: T-N-N-T Day: Tuesday-NO-“no-talking”-Day.
Wednesday: Amnesty Day
Thursday: Funny Hat Day
Friday: Jelly Bean and Quiz contest deadlines.

Monday, it turned out, I was being discharged from a weekend visit to the hospital. That put some work and planning behind. But the cookies and balloons did get put out. (Thanks to AE and EB). The advertisement for T-N-N-T day was late in coming. We did get a poster up that afternoon and games out on a table. But no one used them. Thursday was fun. Friday we had two winners who received Gift Certificates to our Coffee Shop.

One prize was for the best guess in how many jelly beans in the jar and the other for the highest score on the quiz we put together. We also got a nice bulletin board put up, thanks to JT. She did a great job. Now if I could only figure out how to post pictures!

Reposting April First's list

2008-04-03T21:48:00.002-05:00

For your reading pleasure this April Fools’ Day:

Hoaxes

Pranks

Ranking Google

Dangers

Practical Jokes

More Pranks

Fools

Website joke (Don't over do this one. It'll freeze your browser.)

Office pranks

Enjoy
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Beware! Barbarians at the Gate!

2008-03-31T17:19:00.010-05:00

Someone has once said ‘the only thing that is constant is change’. We get comfortable with the status quo and don’t like it when something comes along the shakes up our comfort zone of what we know. What we don’t know presents the possibility of something fearful, largely because we don’t know what it is. We want to stay where it is safe, in a world with which we are familiar.

But our present world has had more change in the last 18-25 years than mankind has ever faced. This change has been brought on by the explosion of high technology on the scene of grassroots life. It burst out of the doors of the elite few, if you will, and onto the main stage of life as a whole, pouring into the cracks and crevices of the ordinary man’s life and business.

As it applies to the world of librarianship, someone once told of visiting the Library of Congress. They were guided by a veteran librarian. The LC was experimenting with automation of cataloging records and was experiencing some difficulties. The tour guide commented on the venture that was being attempted, as the visitors passed the door where this was taking place. In essence her comment was that it would fail. They will never change the way librarianship is being done. It has stood the test of time. Need I say more?

A couple of weeks ago there was a discussion on the results of the LC’s Working Group report. Following is the thread of that discussion and the changes that are coming. As discussions often go, various sub-themes would pop up. Linear thinking that we western-world people are, this may be a bit disconcerting as the conversation became circular*, but the attempt has been made to put the comments in relative order, so that one may be able to follow the comments that were made and references to previous comments. (*Example: the discussion of copyright that spun off but not included here.) I have not tried to summarize the comments. They are “cut and pasted” as originally written. A line of three asterics, ***, were used to indicate separation of authored comments. There have been only minor editing done, e.g. putting in an apostrophe that got left out, etc.

Those contributing to this topic are: JSH, GAS, JGM, AK, JFM, TM, AM, SG, TG, NR, JA, JH, IF, DG. If you want complete names please send an email with contact information. My thanks to all who had a part in this mind-stretching exercise.

Please note, this is a lengthy post.

***

We have many choices available to us as we attempt to provide bibliographic access to information resources while operating in today's setting.

We can have a tantrum, and drum our heels on the floor, demanding to get our way. It may be momentarily satisfying, but it's ultimately exhausting and it rarely has the result we'd like. We probably don't get our way. We may get slapped. We may get put in our room. Or we may just get ignored.

We can throw up our hands and declare that it's all going to hell in a handbasket anyway, so why are we bothering to care. Learning not to care is at least not exhausting, but it's also not satisfying. And if things
really ARE going to hell in a handbasket, we're helping make it happen.

We can stand our ground, continuing with what we've learned, what we are familiar with, what has always worked up to now. And we'll do much good that way, but we can't block the whole path, and eventually people will walk around us.

We can remind ourselves of the real purpose of what we are working on, figure out which of the things we do are ENDS, and which are only MEANS, and try to see what parts of what we are doing contribute the most to our desired outcome, and fight for those.

We can remind ourselves of the real purpose of what we are working on, and try to see if some of what others are suggesting might help us achieve it ... even if it's stuff we don't know how to do yet, or even if it's stuff we are less than thrilled about as yet.

We can continue to believe that all things either are, or ought to be possible, and that if we just say something loudly enough, often enough, clearly enough, or with enough passion, eventually people will believe us and cave in, finding the money for it somewhere. But, if we do this, we will be disappointed, because it's not that we haven't been convincing enough, and it's not that we are not RIGHT in what we are asking for, it's that there really aren't enough resources to do everything.

We can continue to be proud of all we have achieved, proud of the efforts we are making to maintain our principles in the face of less than ideal circumstances, and proud of all we WILL achieve. We can try to make use of new technologies, and can experiment with new approaches without betraying what we are about. We have NEVER been able to do everything that there is to be done, and we never will, but we can reassess what part of everything most warrants our attention now, and by doing so, we can continue to contribute immeasurably to the ideals of access to information and contributing to the growth and dissemination of knowledge and to a civilized society.

We can be realistic about which are the immovable objects and which are not, and we can stop wasting our energy on trying to move the cliff and concentrate our efforts on the boulders. The Library of Congress SHOULD BE all things to all people. It should be funded at a level that would allow it to assume and continue the role of mothership to us all. But it's not going to happen. If that be the case, we need to incorporate that reality into our situational construct, and move forward.

The recommendations of the LC Working Group were unanimous among the Working Group. They reflected much discussion, much consideration of community input, and many changes of opinion along the way. They also reflected some reluctant acceptance of unpalatable realities, some reluctant dismissal of things that some initially thought would be cool, groovy, and/or inevitable, some assessment of what recommendations might be doomed from the start, and lots of compromise. Some of our recommendations made us happy. Some made us sad. The Working Group is under no illusion that all of its recommendations will be followed or their promise fulfilled. We know that some things will probably take so long to do that something better will have come along in the meantime. The Working Group is under no illusion that everyone will like what we had to say. But we do believe firmly that it all needs to be considered carefully. And if recommendation X or observation Y is rejected, we want it to be rejected for good reasons, and not just because it represents change.

***

I absolutely agree with this (above statement)! This will be a short reply! There will always be change. Some of it good and some bad. At this juncture there are many choices and we can either do something to elevate what our concerns are in a way that is respectful to all sides and know and understand that we will not always agree 100 per cent but hopefully that we can agree to an extent that the road to change, innovation can begin and in many cases continue. I'll be honest and say that I am not interested in one side or another, but I am most interested in what I can do to improve, and enhance access to information, no matter the format for my users!

***

The question becomes whether both "sides" (only 2?) can be equally respectful and openly communicative while being driven by different interests (e.g., serving the individual vs. serving the public?).

So long as that is the dominant paradigm for both "sides", we do not have a problem, do we?

***

The Barbarians are offering the option of metadata (that's really just a cool name for cataloging, see my article on TSLL newsletter several years ago) that can be produced by well trained monkeys armed with scanners who are willing to work for bananas. Retrieval is by keyword based on the terminology used by the author. Access if "good enough".

We members of the aging priesthood of the dying scholar civilization, offer metadata based on professionals analyzing the work and providing authority control for the author and title, and professional assignment of subject terms based on controlled vocabulary as well as classification. I question the value of any cataloging (metadata) system that doesn't provide authority control, controlled vocabulary, and subject analysis by someone who is well versed in the subject. Regardless of what rules and tools we use, if it doesn't provide good cataloging (metadata), is it really any better than switching to monkeys with scanners.

Some test questions to ask:

Does the system enable one to find the linkage of Arthur Clarke's "The sentinel" and "2001"? Does the system indicate the "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" is NOT a prequel to "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone". Will it find all the books by Harry Turtledove regardless of in which universe they are written, or under which version of his name? Does the subject analysis bring together books on the "pro-choice" movement with books on the "pro-abortion" movement (not to mention the "pro-life" and the "anti-abortion" movement)? Does it provide access to materials regardless of language or script?

If we can answer "yes" to these, and the similar questions we can all think of, we can justify our jobs to even the most savage of the barbarians (who in the final analysis want a way to find materials based on author, title or subject). If we simplify cataloging so that the answer is "no", then it probably is reasonable to replace us with monkeys (who hopefully will share their bananas with us). In looking at proposed changes, the criterion we should use it whether it reduces our ability to meet the venerable Cutter standard (author, title or subject) - if it doesn't we should support it, if it does then we should oppose it.

***
Thank you (JH) for your passage… I still am not entirely convinced of the premises, conclusions, and recommendations of "On the record", but the passage (above)lends far more credibility to the WG's efforts and product than could ever be conveyed by reports of unanimity. The loss of nuanced positions is perhaps inevitable in this age of hard-sell sound bites, but I gladly would have read a larger report to learn of such things and the awareness of such realities on the process that brought about the unanimity in the WG's report.

FWIW, to pick up on the issue of change which has permeated follow-on postings, I am not against change in and of itself. I know that we have used a model and system that has worked exceedingly well for a long time, but which is falling behind the power curve of technological and societal changes. My point is that Mann and the LCWG are both in error for failing to acknowledge or adequately address the complexity of the issues that underlie their positions on status quo or change. At the risk of making overly broad generalizations: Mann goes too far in arguing solely from a benefit point of view and the LCWG report goes too far in arguing solely from a cost point of view; Mann presses the case of the highest denominator and the LCWG report goes for the lowest denominator. There are some hard choices to make ahead of us in the face of expanding information resources, technological changes, diminishing personnel resources, and limited financial resources. We are not going to find the solutions in the extreme poles of the arguments.

An economist herself, my dean recently called me a "closet economist". One of my favorite quotes is by Burke, "Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part of true economy. Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no power of combination, no comparison, no judgment." Parsimony led our forebears to institute superimposition when AACR1 was issued. Economy drove them to undertake the great expense to revisit that course when AACR2 was issued. We will need all our powers of sagacity and judgment to avoid similar mistakes and to plot a wise course in selecting for our future.

***
A lot surely depends on what you want catalogued and are there enough priests to catalogue it all. If you think of the web, you'll be lucky to get simian-level metadata for a fraction of the pages. However, a few baboons adding tags for a lot of pages are still arguably better than some archbishops producing illuminated catalogue records for a few. If we do want to enlist some help from the nerds and the monkeys to at least get some things described and accessible beyond simple keywords, I think there is a strong case for making new rules that are compatible with both hieratic and demotic metadata needs, in other words some kind of standard.

I also think it not unlikely that the Nerds will gradually overtake the priests in any case. Even if they are a long way off, I see them driving the pace of change and in control of the technological tools we also need to make progress.

***
RE: We members of the aging priesthood of the dying scholar civilization,

I wonder if those who were 100 years before us thought the same thing.... "every" older generation thinks the younger ones are going to hell in a handbasket... same principle here... hmmm?

***
Their biggest problems were that some librarians couldn't manage the switch from "library hand" to typewriters, and that LC selling catalog cards would result in all other libraries outsourcing all their cataloging to LC.

But at the time, literacy was rising, America was growing and for the first time getting involved in what was happening overseas, so things worked out (though penmanship has never recovered).

(Blogger's editorial comment: it was once thought that Library Hand penmanship would never give way to typewriters. We know what the outcome of that was.)

***
That would have been a real tough transition for me, too, because I could never get comfortable using a typewriter. It was such a great thing when the personal computer came in, because you got to fix errors before they were on paper. Some of my worst memories in adolescence are of trying to use a typewriter and being embarrassed by it. My last grade in high school was a D in typing, and I was usually an A or B student.

(AK), I think you bring up another point that may be relevant to these discussions. At that earlier time of transition, America was growing and literacy was rising. What I worry about this period is that we may not be in that sort of growth stage. While the discussion is claimed to be about new technologies and "openness to change," in many cases it really seems to be more about having less money. As "M" pointed out, we increase funding for armies and prisons and cut it for educational institutions like libraries. "J's" statement yesterday seemed to imply that this is just an inevitability we have to accept.

I think that when the online catalog came in the 80's, Thomas Mann probably thought it was the greatest development in libraries ever. It allowed us to do many things we couldn't do before. I don't think it was until sometime in the 90's that he began to see evidence computerization was beginning to be used as an excuse for dismantling our library systems. I think his position needs to be put in that sort of context.

***
From my perspective, there do appear to be some "Priest-Nerds" but they seem to be few and far between. :)

***
This reminds me of those 'gatekeepers' that think the library is their personal territory. I have also found this in the genealogy world when you want information (like at a court house) and some little ole lady will not let you have access to it, no matter what the law says!

***
I know exactly what you are talking about! (I've heard of this happening in archives around here - actually at a Christian seminary). So, let me be clear: what's good about the "priests" is that they are "good elitists": good elitists are eager to serve their clientele, and always eager to encourage inquiry and learning.

***
It goes way back:

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." -- Socrates

***

Didn't Cutter say 100 years ago, "I cannot help thinking that the golden age of cataloging is over, and the difficulties and discussions which have furnished an innocent pleasure to so many will interest them no more." (bottom of the page).

***
I was thinking about this the other day. I'd say we're just now entering the Iron Age of Cataloguing. But, hey, there's still pleasures to be had, innocent or otherwise.

***
I thought the Nerds would become the Priests.

Have you ever read “The Integral Trees” by Larry Niven? The high priest in the society is called the Prof and his acolyte is called the Grad.

***
End of thread. There was no conclusion to this conversation, but maybe you should draw your own conclusions? Besides, who’s to say who the correct prophet will be? There was a lengthy discussion first regarding the Library of Congress Working Group’s report and the response by Thomas Mann.

LCWG's report and Mann’s response to the report gives background information to the above discussion thread.If you are interested in reading more about this topic, visit the links given above.
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March Madness - of a different kind

2008-03-22T09:14:00.001-05:00

March Madness for this librarian means one week of a book sale, one week of illness and one week of spring break. Get this all behind me and I'll get something posted again. I've got something really good lined up. Come back in a few days and hopefully I'll have it up.

Busy week

2008-03-03T22:47:00.001-06:00

I've got a busy week this week. Friends of the Library dinner Tuesday night, Book Sale that starts Tuesday and goes all week and a Work Day on Thursday. If I survive the week I've got some library humor I want to post. "I'll be 'bach'!"

New Cousin

2008-02-25T18:36:00.006-06:00

Reading my friend's Genealogy Blog reminded me that a new "cousin" found me a couple of weeks ago.

The phone rang and the caller said "Are you (so-in-so) from Barber County, Kansas.?" Uh, well no, not really. I don't live there. "I found your name on a genealogy post regarding NG." Oh - yes, well, he's my husband's grandfather... BB, the caller did find who he was looking for. As it turned out he tried an old email address of mine that I don't have any more, so he went Internet searching and found my phone number.

It turns out we are not really related at all. He's not even related to my husband. Not technically, but he is connected. I hope you can follow this: Norman was married three times. His second wife is my husband's great-grandmother. Norman's first wife was Alice. Alice later married a Hart. Hart's grandfather had a brother, who was the ancestor (great-grandfather?) to my caller. Did you get that? Basically, the tree forked; went up and came back down again on the other side and rooted. Turns out he had information I didn't and vice versa. I also put him in touch with a half cousin of our's who would be connected to my caller, because she connects to Norman through the first wife, Alice.

I haven't heard from BB now for a week or more. We were emailing and mailing there quite heavy for a couple of weeks, but life has calmed back down to normal. It showed me, though, that I need to get my home computer situation turned around and upgraded. But I won't have time for that till later this summer. (See: "Announcement," my last post.) Boy - I miss doing my genealogy!!!

Announcement

2008-02-23T21:03:00.003-06:00

At our last Faculty meeting, which was February 12th, Dr. J. C. (academic dean) read my resignation to the faculty. This is about a month earlier than when these are usually done, but it was prompted by a pre-mature announcement from another organization about my husband being called as pastor to a church in Arkansas. Well obviously it would be next to impossible (on this salary anyway) to live in Arkansas and work in Kansas City, MO. So I will be leaving the end of the school year, probably around the end of May to mid-June. My last working day will probably be the last Friday of the month, then I'll have tacked on what vacation days are left.

We are both looking forward to this move, but it will be an emotional departure to leave CBCTS. It's been a good 7 years for me, and hopefully for them as well. I have probably learned more than I have given. At least I feel like I have. But I hope I have helped this institution in some small way to further the education of students and therefore their future ministry.

Already we are spending every other weekend in Arkansas at the church where he has been called to pastor. I am even writing this tonight from the hotel where we are staying. We came down early Saturday to look at houses. So the transition is already in the works.

I know the Lord already has in place who is going to follow in my footsteps. He also already knows where He will lead me next in looking for employment in our new area of residence and ministry.

What will be the future of this blog? I haven't decided as it is named after the mascot of CBCTS. I may see if I can successfully change the name, or continue under the same, or leave it and start another. Time WILL tell! Stay tuned.

New website for christian devotions

2008-02-19T07:28:00.001-06:00

Christianity.com has a neat website for studying the bible online. I just came across this today on Facebook.

Loren Jewitt Adams

2008-02-18T17:04:00.004-06:00

It is a fact of life that everyone at some point and time will leave this earth for eternity. It’s the nature of life as we move through it to make friends and as events come and go, lose touch with those same friends.

This is the case with our friend, Loren. Once I left for graduate school 8 years ago we did not keep in contact with him like we once had. I was thinking of him again recently off and on and decided to see if I could track down his phone number. I once had it memorized but I’ve not only “slept since then” – I’ve had long nights of doing homework when I didn’t sleep. So that bit of information escaped. I could find nothing.

I finally contacted the local library in the town where he lived and where I also worked before going to grad school. On Valentine’s Day I had a response. Loren had passed away a year and a half ago. This has really hit me rather hard. I was sad to hear of his passing but probably just as sad for not knowing about it at the time.

I was “there” when his mother died; we were “there” when he had to go to a VA hospital and home again; I was “there” when he remarried his 2d wife, and divorced her again. I saw him go through struggles with his boys and his step daughter and grandchildren. But we weren’t “there” when he died. My heart ached for him as I knew his burdens and heartache could be carried by our Lord, but yet he was “too educated” to need a saviour. He could not accept things by faith, he had to have an explanation for everything. I couldn’t outwit his academia.

He was a widower and a divorcee; retired military; and lived alone. He had two errant sons and a brother who didn’t know me. So I figured the only way I would hear about his passing would be if anyone at the library would think of me at the time. Understandably, they didn’t. I mused more than once whether or not I would ever hear about his passing whenever he would die. I was afraid I wouldn’t. I didn’t.

Loren had a huge wealth of knowledge when it came to genealogy and computers – both of which were a big help to me. He was influential in my getting our first computer. It took me 3 mos. to get my genealogy on. There were many a call to Loren for help – both over the phone and hands-on as well.

He was very involved in the genealogy community. He volunteered at the LDS church; he was a member of the local genealogy society as well as our state organization. He sponsored the local county website for the USGenWeb project. He taught classes both locally and statewide as well. He qualified and joined many other genealogical organizations as well. He was proud of his contribution in the military and witnessed some significant history during the 50’s and 60’s. But I think he was most proud of his Kentucky Colonel certificate he received as he used that in his email address: "kycollja".

The saddest part of this story is that he has probably passed into eternity without knowing the Lord Jesus as his saviour. And, I don’t think I was a very good witness in sharing with him the Good News he needed to hear.

Loren Jewitt Adams, born 5 September 1936, died 4 July 2006.

Leadership Now Website

2008-02-14T16:28:00.002-06:00

Found another website from a friend's blog. (Thanks, JR.) Good Stuff! I also added it to my misc. links.

New-to-me Blog Website

2008-02-14T11:18:00.001-06:00

Found a new library blog. Take a look!
It has lots of good stuff.

Unshelved - 100th Posting

2008-02-12T09:02:00.003-06:00

I have heard of this a long time ago, but once again came across the webpage for it. So here it is. I have also added it to my misc. links.

Information Responsibility

2008-02-11T19:00:00.000-06:00

In a world of high tech, librarians today have an even heavier responsibility in carrying out their duties. Besides providing unimpeded, uncensored information, we need to be accurate as well. It was once said ‘the pen is mightier than the sword.’ When we read something in print we tend to believe it as being true. There is a proverb that says something to the effect of, whoever tells the story first tends to be believed as telling the truth – whether they are or not. Wars and historical events have risen and fallen based on what someone has written.

In teaching college students, I have included how one can determine if a webpage is accurate in making them internet-savvy. A good example of this is the IRS refund emails that are circulating, with website attached. The real IRS symbols are used as well as legitimate words that should take you to government links. But in just a few short minutes of investigation one can tell this is not a true government site. “…be wise as serpents, harmless as doves.”

All this to say: – last week I posted the article on Starbucks. Well, I found out that at least two people read my blog. Maybe you are one of the two. If you’re not, did you believe what was posted? Did you forward it on to someone else without verifying it? Do you know if it is true or not? Two people commented on the story as being false, as substantiated by Snopes.com. No one else commented one way or the other. This story is being circulated by email forwards by well meaning citizens who themselves took what they read as gospel. “Why would someone write something like that if it weren’t true,” you might think. That’s a very good question. And as librarians it behooves us to make sure that we not only provided uncensored, timely information but also accurate information.

This little experiment proves that we all sometimes fall down on the job one time or another. If it’s not this situation, it may be another. Some were on top of their game and checked things out for themselves. But others I suspect either believed it or at least don't bother to see what was true and what wasn't. Beware, Be Accurate, Be Professional.

The ever popular Starbucks did this?

2008-02-04T18:43:00.000-06:00

*Recently, Marines in Iraq wrote to Starbucks because they wanted to let them know how much they liked their coffees and to request that they send some of it to the troops there. Starbucks replied, telling the Marines thank you for their support of their business, but that Starbucks does not support the war, nor anyone in it, and that they would not send the troops their brand of coffee.

So as not to offend Starbucks, maybe we should not support them by buying any of their products! I feel we should get this out in the open. I know this war might not be very popular with some folks, but that doesn't mean we don't support the boys on the ground fighting street-to-street and house-to-house.

And if that isn’t bad enough, when the Twin Trade Towers were hit, the firefighters and rescue workers went to Starbucks because it was close by, for water for the survivors and workers, and Starbucks charged them! ! !

*(from the Kansas City Star)

My opinion: example of capitalism taking advantage of the hand that feeds it, the shooting it. If it weren't for those boys "over there" and all the ones before, Starbucks wouldn't have the privilege it has to operate in this country with all its freedoms.

winds of change

2008-01-28T11:14:00.000-06:00

The winds of change are a-blowin'! I'm dying to "tell you" but I do need to put it off a little while longer. But we're excited (my husband and I). We spent some time last week on this mystery. We got in a nice little bit of rest and relaxation at the same time in a beautiful setting. With it always comes worrying (oops, "be anxious for nothing") about timeline and dovetailing. Good things are happening and beginning to happen.

Stay tuned. :-)

Depersonalize

2008-01-10T17:05:00.000-06:00

It is so easy to let our emotions get in our way of making wise decisions and directing our reactions. But one must strive to maintain objectivity when reaching for a goal.

I have steadfastly, for some time now, contended that a cataloger, even without a degree or previous experience needs to be paid more than any other entry level staff position in this institution.

I have researched, compared, and reported my findings to my A. D. He even agreed with me that they should start out at a higher level. The business manager shot it done because it’s not the current policy.

However, policies should serve the people not dictate/rule over them. Today I was encouraged to learn that the administration is going to review how the wage rates are determined. Hopefully this will end up with “this” entry level job getting paid more then “that” entry level job. It’s not always apples to apples. In fact, hardly ever is.

…Sometimes it’s a fruit salad!  (whatever that means!)

Policies, politics and frustrations!

2008-01-07T16:59:00.000-06:00

In “Library World” especially in the academic realm, it is well known how we continually struggle with ‘the powers that be’ in trying to get accomplished what we see as a need in the library – whether it is who has the final say in what is bought for the collection, to the need for changes in facilities, to recognizing the level of work library staff people do (whether professional or paraprofessional) compared to other office workers in other departments.

Such was the case recently here. I lost my cataloger of over 2 years to a better paying job. She was finally worth her salt but, alas she was gone! She is a divorcee and is therefore the only source of income for her household-of-one. In preparing to hire a replacement, I was attempting to convince folks the need to pay a cataloger more than just an entry level amount. On top of the convincing task I had, we are also a private, small institution therefore our pay scale is low anyway. When I discussed this with my academic dean, he asked me to do some research with other like institutions and report back to him. This was also broadened to include my need to replace my circulation supervisor that quit last August. The research was done and handed in.

In the meantime, the dean has had his own world events to deal with which ended up increasing his load this semester, not to mention the stress. Now throw Christmas vacation in the mix.

I found someone to hire last week and went back to him for a decision. We came up with a dollar amount and I then was given the task of talking to our business manager. I contacted him, gave him the information and was greeted immediately with “but that’s not our policy” – end of sentence! I told him I did not like being the ‘middle man’ and suggested that he get with the academic dean and discuss it with him. Two minutes later the phone rang and the b. m. said “it is $X.” Okay – I told him. That was such a quick response that I would be willing to “bet” there was no discussing about it between the two individuals. It was probably more of a one way conversation of this is how it’s going to be. Period.

Well, I tried. Life is too short. But I have an appointment with the a.d. later this week, and I know I will have his full attention. So, I am going to pursue this one more time. I don’t die easily. I know there are times you’ve got to buck the system. Policies are made to serve the people, not dictate. Me-thinks we have a dictator here.

cataloger

2008-01-07T14:36:00.001-06:00

Got a new cataloger hired! She started today. Yeah!

Will e-books put old books out of business?

2008-01-04T16:25:00.000-06:00

I just read an article (see URL) that talks about e-books and the coming and improving technology of having books online and downloadable, and what that will do to future authors – both those with narrow audience appeal and those bigger authors who like the idea of not having to share the wealth generated by their success.

The author’s point all came down to e-books eventually becoming successful and books as we have known them in the past as becoming obsolete. I think I would disagree with that point. Being a librarian and “keeper of the books” doesn’t completely have anything to do with my opinion. It’s more of realizing the nature of high technology today and what it’s going to do in the future.

Think about it for a moment. With every new invention, innovation, or change in technology it is always toted as the newest, biggest and of course the best. Information will last forever on this new “whatever.” Then within in a decade or sometimes even less another new form of digitization comes out. Look at the history of technology. We have gone from transistor radios, LP and single records, reel to reel cassette tapes, & 8 tracks (which were short lived), to audio cassettes, compact discs (“CD’s”) iPods and MP3 players, with many others and many variations in between.

Every time a new technology is introduced, a whole new industry has to be invented to support it. But not with books. A book is a book is a book. Now, I don’t deny the various qualities of books over the years, (and centuries). Books produced on pulp paper in this last century don’t hold a candle to the one’s from previous centuries. But all in all, book technology is a much more stable technology than “hi tech” is. We have books that go back for centuries and are still discernable and readable. Even cave writings are ‘readable’. How many people can still listen to their 8-track, (provided they even own one)? Every time a format changes in technology, you have to transfer your information over to the new technology or you lose it; it becomes useless in its former state.

Okay, on the aside here, I do sometimes think “they” purposely try to make something obsolete to force the creation of new jobs, or the generation of making more money. But that’s another issue.

Then we are dealing with lost information.

Hopefully, we will not get so taken up with technology that we – in our hurry to stay up with the times – don’t throw out all those books, because they take up too much room, or they cost too much money to maintain, or… whatever, only to discover that when they did and the ‘new’ technology has become unstable and is upgraded, we discover we have lost information that will never again be regained - unless we want to repeat history and go through the Dark Ages and out again.

It scares me when I think of all the union catalogs are thrown out because we have it on-line now. (Okay – that’s a librarian’s thing.) What if the OCLC WorldCat database crashes? They have now reached over a billion records. How long did it take to get to that many the first time? How long do you think it would take to do it all again? It wouldn’t be done overnight, that’s for sure. Okay, so they have backups. But it’s all the same technology. What if – for some reason, not too unreasonable – something goes wrong with that technology? What then? You can’t look a CD and ‘see’ what information is stored on it. You can a book.

Hopefully we’ve learned that lesson not to do that. Let’s not get carried away here and throw away the baby with the bath water (baby being the Information and bath water being the technology it’s sitting in.) Our new technology is a wonderful thing and it has done things for our world, cultures, economies, governments etc that even the inventors never dreamed of. But as wonderful as that is, we need to step back, take a look at all of the history of information and analyze the statistics of it all, it’s impact and it’s potential for disaster. Now, I’m not meaning to sound all “doom and gloom” about technology. I love it. But let’s not get in a big hurry here.

So will books with pages you can turn be completely replaced by the e-books technology? E-books may become very popular and more accepted by the grassroots populace, but doing away with old books completely? I don’t think so.

You never know what you're going to find

2008-01-03T22:03:00.000-06:00

Well, our holidays are over and so is my vacation. I really like my job, but it was nice to have a couple of weeks off.

Before we closed down for our semester break we had an unusual visitor at the library that I thought I would tell you about. EB in acquisitions was helping SS go through boxes of donated books. She opened a box and gasped. "Is that a real snake?"

Well you know that got everyone's attention real quick! We all got up to look and sure enough, stuck to the outside of the box on some of the tape was a small dead and dried baby snake!!! Believe or not, I took the little critter and put him through our small laminator so I could "preserve him forever." Thus he is laying here on my desk in front of me as I type.

Well, one of the ladies commented, "Wouldn't it be something if we found the mother snake in here!" The mind-picture and the thought of that got me laughing. But it was preceeded with an intake of air. One of my staff ladies thought that gasp of air meant I saw Mama! She sorted of shrieked and jumped back. "What!? Did you see it!?" she asked. Then I really did laugh! Finally everyone calmed down when we all realized the "gasp" was from the THOUGHT of seeing a Mama snake, not because I really did see one.

You know, not everyone that comes in the library is there to read a book. Some just like to be next to one - up close and personal. Hopefully we won't get another one like that for a while - not even a dead one.

What unusual visitor have you had?

Christmas Blessings

2007-12-28T14:32:00.000-06:00

What blessing did you receive this Christmas? What was the center of your focus?

This year our Christmas was quiet and low key. We had a white Christmas here in Kansas, USA. The day after we even got an additional snowfall. It was so beautiful as it quietly came down and blanketed our world. Christmas evening we attended our Christmas Eve service, opening our gifts before leaving for the service. Christmas day was spent with our daughter while my husband slept (during the day) or worked (that night). Our "big" Chrismas day with our sons and families will be on New Year's Day.

When something is so familiar as the Christmas story, it is hard to see it from a fresh point of view. This year I heard a song on the radio that gave me that "fpv". I don't even know the name of it, but it talked about the Magi's expectations and what they actually found. They were looking for a King (ruler?), and a grown man. What did they find? A child, yet God, Himself! They came away with much more of a blessing they ever dreamed. Their encounter with God was way beyond what they ever dreamed or expected. It gives a new meaning to "Emmanuel = God,...with US!"

What has been your encounter with God this Christmas?

Let it snow!

2007-12-17T10:02:00.001-06:00

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the picture outside the window is delightful!!!! (to "pare a phrase.")

We had some ice last week through about Wed. The temps rose just enough to melt most of it. The roads were all cleared. Now, today, Saturday we have woken up to a little bit of snow. We didn't get as much as predicted (3-5 inches), but I'd say there's at least an inch out there. Glad I'm home!

I did have a student worker ask me Monday of last week – when the ice storm was still being anticipated: "if classes are canceled, will we still be open?" I told her, sure, I was here (I stay over night twice a week on campus) and the students were here, of course we would. Somebody might want the chance to get some extra studying done. The look on her face told me how she felt about that! But fortunately we didn't have to test her commitment to her job.

Have you ever looked at an individual snowflake? Did you know it is always made up of 6 sections and there are never any two alike? And there's been a LOT of snowflakes dropped on this ole world! What an imaginative Creator we have.

This definition, "White ice crystals that have combined in a complex branched hexagonal form" was found here.

More Advent Calendars

2007-12-13T18:56:00.000-06:00

Snowflakes - Here’s a cute advent calendar for teachers to use with their kids.

Okay here’s one with ideas, but is a rather boring presentation.

Here’s a Wallpaper Advent Calendar.

Most appropriate of all I found is this one.

I haven’t had a lot time to just hunt, but I like the last one given above I think the best. I'm sure there can be more found like it. If you know of one, let me know.

Christmas online Advent Calendar

2007-12-07T09:27:00.000-06:00

Another blog mentioned this advent calendar. I thought it was rather interesting, so I'm sharing it here as well. This one shares library books that have to do with Christmas. Here's another one but of a different kind. It deals with the art work that depicts different parts of the christmas story.

I'll have to look for some more. I think this a neat idea!! If you know of one let me know.

One thing they both do that I don't care for is the numbers are not sequintial. You have to hunt for the number. In the second one the numbers are a little hard to see. But it also messes with my penchant for wanting things neat and in order. It gives me the feeling of chaos. (AAAGGGHHHHHHH).

oh, by the way, Merry Christmas. :-)

VISITORS

2007-11-26T16:40:00.001-06:00

Last week I had two very interesting visitors come by the library – but totally different situations.

The first visitor was a gentleman that came in, dressed in army camouflage fatigs, accompanied by our admissions counselor, CE. The visitor was in the army reserve (which is “next door”). So since he was “in the area” he wanted to stop by. I was confused at first. Why would someone in the army reserve want to visit a bible college/seminary library?

He talked about wanting to do whatever he could to help us. (the army???) He was glad to be able to meet the library director (Okaaaaay. Ego stroking, but still puzzled). He handed me his business card. It wasn’t “army”. It said “Bxxxx Seminary”. He’s in the army and also attends Bxxxx seminary??? How does he think he can help us with anything? Then I read “library director”. Ahhhhhhhhhh! He’s the librarian from Bxxxx seminary visiting his colleague in our college/seminary library - moi!!!!

Oh, NOW I get it!! Duh! When it finally clicked I finally managed to have a descent conversation with him – I think. I hope, anyway!!!

Visitor #2. CE also brought this gentleman. They wanted to know if the library had a certain book. I said I didn’t know but we could find out. We went over to the OPAC and looked it up. Yup we had it. The visitor said it was probably a spiral bound copy and he had a better bound copy he would give us. We located it and found it was indeed spiral. He had also written a second book so he ended up giving us a copy of each.

But you need some background information. When grandpa died, mom found information her mother had recorded regarding her family tree. She had all her great grandparents except her paternal line, the Trasks. Within one generation the information had been lost as to who her great-grandparents were. So I decided to find out for myself. I had always been interested in our family and family tree. As a result (“long story short”) it led to library jobs and eventually my MLS degree and present position.

Back to the present moment: I had been given the title of the book and that it was by Paul Trask. Hmmm. Trask, huh? I made a mental note of that, while we talked. As we stood at the OPAC looking up the title, this gentleman, who still had not been introduced to me said, oh by the way, I’m Paul Trask!!! Well THEN the floor just about pulled out from under me! Of course they saw my reaction and wondered (I'm sure) why that was so striking to me.

Well, after I pulled my jaw up off the floor, I gave him a very short explanation. He had another appointment, but later came back to my office where we did a little bit of family-information-swapping. AND, he lives in the metro area where I work! How cool is that! I don’t think we’re related, but then again I have a preconceived idea where my Trasks came from, but NO I have not been able to find the missing names, either, so I can’t prove my presupposition either. But – you never know which turned over stone will tell! (Be still my heart!)

My cataloger

2007-11-15T21:11:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is my cataloger's last day. She gave me her notice two weeks ago. I am not surprised at her leaving as she has finally another job that pays more than here. She did try at three other positions on campus and didn't get them. This one is off campus. She has been here just over 2 years. So now that I have her to the point of being a valuable employee, she is gone. Until my institution comes to the place of understanding the hard work, the learning curve and the value of the library staff, this is going to be a common place thing. We are shooting ourselves in the foot and the people that can change that do not understand. So now I have to go back to square one of finding, hiring and training yet another cataloger who is willing to accept what we pay, but do the job that we need to do. Where is that balance between stepping out in faith to trust the Lord to meet our needs (financially) and being fiscally responsible. Or is it that, in the name of being fiscally responsible, we are too tight with the money? If that is the case where is our faith? Are we not instructed to do our very best for the Lord? How can we when we are held back by others over us from doing so? I want to be a part of an organization that wants the very best, steps up to the plate to provide it and trust the Lord to do his part.

Fall Fun Facts - Pumpkins

2007-11-08T15:00:00.000-06:00

Pumpkins are a fruit.
Pumpkins are 90% water.
Pumpkins originated in Central America.
Pumpkins range in size for under 1 pound to over 1000 pounds.
Pumpkins available in October in the United States are 80% of the crop.
Pumpkins were once recommneded for removing freckles and curing snake bites.
Pumpkins, in colonial times, were used as an ingredient for the pie crust not the filling.

source: Emery-Pratt newsletter, Oct/Nov 2007

Eleanor Alice Bluford Hibbert

2007-10-18T19:39:00.000-05:00

I have always wanted to keep track of all the pseudynoms she wrote under, but didn't know how I could keep track of them. SO, I am sticking them here.

Victoria Holt, 32 novels, romantic suspense
Philippa Carr, 19 novels, family saga
Jean Plaidy, 90+ novels, historical fiction (this does include a few non-fiction history books.)

Some lesser known pseudo's:
Elbur Ford - a corruption of her maiden name, Eleanor Bluford.
Kathleen Kellow
Ellalice Tate

secret of being organized:

2007-10-18T19:21:00.000-05:00

"The secret of being organized under any circumstances and in any situation is taking charge of your organizational styles rather than letting them take charge of you."

-Wish I had noted where I got that, but I didn't. It's not original with me. Someone else said it.

One rule of thumb for weeding

2007-10-18T19:20:00.000-05:00

MUSTY

Misleading
Ugly
Superceded
Trival
You no longer need it

embedded teaching

2007-10-17T12:33:00.000-05:00

Well Monday was the last day of my embedded teaching for this semester. I think it went well in a way for my first time - as far as the pedagogy part went. The first class the students had an assignment to do and turn in. That seemed to go well. I am disappointed that some students didn't put forth much effort on such an easy assignment. I guess it was considered unimportant. hmph. How would they get a book if they don't know how to use the OPAC!

I'll admit that databases are a little more difficult to understand. Maybe I should just go straight to teaching the students how to use the databases and not bother with explaining the way they work. For that class I gave them a quiz. Without a couple of bonus questions, the majority of the class flunked the quiz. I required them to take notes and would specifically point out things they needed to take note of. I was disappointed to see such poor results on the quiz. So we'll see. I did ask the English teacher to also do an assessment of my teaching - since I am new at doing this and have not had formal training on how to teach! So we'll see. This year was definitely a guinea-pig experience.

Celebrating 75 years!

2007-10-08T17:28:00.000-05:00

Calvary Bible College and Theological Seminary celebrates 75th anniversary.

Last week we celebrated 75 years of training and educating young people for ministerial service. Special highlights were the chapel services and a workshop with Don Wyrtzen, President’s Dinner with Gracia Burnham as speaker, and special guest, Don Wyrtzen as he accompanied the choir singing his music (on Thursday) and a concert by Don Wyrtzen on Friday night.

Mr. Wyrtzen has a good grasp of a biblical approach to music: Beauty and Love (of God) based on Truth. What has happened in the past is that the evangelical, fundamental churches were so concerned about truth and about being right that love and beauty were ignored. The liberal churches took up the championing of beauty and love and would ignore truth. You need all of these to be the most effective in using music to worship and glorify God.

He also explained the importance of involving the whole person in music – a holistic approach, but don’t let the word holistic scare you. Music needs to involve mind, body and soul. He illustrated how playing the piano does just that.

The eye gate reads and interprets the dots and lines, & sends a message to the brain. The brain then tells the hands what to play, (feet what to pedal). The ear hears what the hands are playing. The entire body and mind are involved. This in turns ministers to the soul as you hear the music played: mind, body and soul.

I Samuel 16:23 demonstrates this thesis. “…when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.”

1. David took the harp and played with his hand – mind and body
2. Saul was refreshed and was well – mind and soul

When asked what he thought the future held for Christian music, he stated that the piano is not going away, (as some have thought,) as the keyboard is the basis of all other music and instruments. He also mentioned that, with a global society, we will see more Asian and Hispanic influences in future Christian music. It will not be limited, in essence, to the white American style of music. Music will become more global. Already the Praise and Worship style of music has swept the world. He shared an experience of being in the Philippines when the electricity went out. In the dark, he started playing Praise and Worship music and the local people immediately recognized the music and joined in with singing.

All in all, it was a good time of celebrating the years God has given us here. It was refreshing to hear the ministry of others and of God’s word. These insights gave me something new to chew on. Maybe they will you, too.

Information Literacy and Library Orientation

2007-09-28T11:36:00.000-05:00

Today was Library Orientation and we did something different today. In the past the group was divided in half as well as the time. Each group was led by a staff member. One gave a tour and the other (usually the librarian) gave lessons on using the online catalog and the online databases. Then they switched groups (halves).

We are now doing ‘embedded teaching’ in the English class to teach how to use the catalog and databases. So today we had the obligatory tour, a short explanation of the call number configuration; 15 minutes to read the handbook and review special points. We ended with a game they really enjoyed.

The group was divided into four teams. Each team was given a list of various areas in the library with a color to look for. Each team had to go down their list and find a colored sheet of paper that was their color. (Blue team looked for blue paper.) After all their sheets were found they came to the front desk, picked up their quiz and left.

It was a full, packed class hour but they seemed to enjoy the game. Oh yes, one other thing – they had to hold on to each other’s wrist (or sleeve if they objected!) and had 2 ½ minutes to complete it. They seemed to really have fun with this. One student questioned “holding wrists.” I told them that holding hands was against the rules, not wrists, ;-). They wanted to know what to do. I told them “enjoy it!” They got a kick out of that. Interestingly enough a few of these college students felt squeamish about holding someone else’s wrist! I didn’t think anyone at this age would object to that!!! But allowances were made! The goal was accomplished. That was the point. And it was fun.

Embedded teaching

2007-09-24T17:45:00.000-05:00

Today I taught the second section of the English class about our online catalog. I really enjoyed it. I hope the students weren't totally bored. Although I did try to involve them as much as possible and as much as I know how - given I really have had no teacher training, well not for this setting anyhow. This is a lot different than teaching children in Sunday School! I like the idea of having the class in two sections. The only problem is the first section probably doesn't get the level of quality the second section does. The first ones are the guinea pigs. The second group gets the improved edition! Next time around we will be learning about databases - but that is next month.

For now, I'll go back to my ordering supplies, training new help, going to or holding meetings, watching the budget, answering questions, overseeing acquisitions and cataloging, freshmen orientation, and getting pictures painted on the office walls - yea, you know, some of that really stressful stuff! - Like tomorrow - a birthday party at our student workers' meeting. But somebody's got to do it. I've got a couple weeks yet to worry about the next English class opportunity.

New school year, New approaches, New ideas

2007-09-20T18:41:00.000-05:00

The new school year is well under way. Where DOES the time go. Registration went the best this year since I’ve been here I think, although our numbers are down by 30 this year from last year.

“We” are trying a new approach this year to Information Literacy. Instead of trying to cram (!) it all in at library orientation, we are trying “embedded instruction” in the English class. This does miss some who elect to take their G.E. classes somewhere else, but hopefully this will catch most. I have two class hours with the class to teach them how to use the online catalog and the online databases. We’ll still have orientation but it will be more “shallow” shall we say concentrating more on the library handbook and the tour.

Here are some websites I found on Information Literacy:

Information Literacy Curriculum

Colorado Standards for Information Literacy

Library Media Learning Outcomes

More sites can be found in this list: Resources for School Librarians

Here’s one in library instruction outcomes from FIU.

Here’s a blog by an Information Literacy Librarian.

Another idea we are pursuing is meeting with the faculty one on one for their book ideas, requests, favorite authors, and what they need for the classes they teach. I have met with four so far. Then I go researching what they want and report back to them what we have and what I have found that we can get if they are interested. Obviously this will take more of my time but I really think that this will improve communication and support between the library and the teaching faculty.

An ALA phone poll

2007-08-20T20:47:00.000-05:00

...of one thousand people revealed that:

• 91% believe libraries are changing and dynamic places with a variety of activities for the whole family.
• 90% believe libraries are places of opportunity for education, self-help and offer free access for all.
• 88% agreed that libraries are unique because they offer access to nearly everything on the Web or in print, as well as personal service and assistance in finding it.
• 83% believe libraries and librarians play an essential role in our democracy and are needed now more than ever.

Emery-Pratt Newsletter, Issue 4, 2007

Harry Potter strikes again.

2007-08-10T13:49:00.001-05:00

The newest and apparently last book of the Harry Potter series is now in the hands of thirsty readers.

I hesitate to get into the foray about the discussion. But here are some links that were passed around on one of my listservs. The first one you may not be able to get into, but I put it here anyway in case you can.

1. Looking for God in Harry Potter, John Granger

2. Critique of Granger’s book.

3. Here is an apologeticist’s point of view regarding the Potter phenomenon. It is written in two parts by James White. You’ll need to go to the Archives and find July 21, 2007. You'll have to scroll down a bit to find them. Harry Potter meets Cornelius Van Til

4. Now this is a different point of view: Straight talk on Harry Potter

5. The Lantern also weighs in on the conversation.

If you wish to find more go to your favorite search engine and type in Harry Potter, book reviews, christian, anti-christian and you will get numerous more articles to raise points for you to consider. I pulled up 632 listings with all the above words. Bon appetit!

Progress

2007-07-17T17:52:00.000-05:00

One day a week (Tuesday) we take off from regular work and have a 'workday' on campus. We have used that in the library this summer to get our Bound Periodicals moved to a new room. We finished moving all the periodicals today and have now started taking down the shelves and moving them to the storeage room for other use (Book sale and cataloging of donations). It is exciting to see some actual progress.

When we get the old periodical area emptied we have plans of putting up partitions for some much needed office space for the library director and for staff. It will be an exciting day when that happens. To date, the library director is the only department head on campus that does not have a private and much needed office. Our current office will be turned over to the student workers for book processing and book repair. Woo Hoo!!!!

Oh yes - I'm back from vacation. I returned to work Monday (yesturday) for a much needed rest. :-) Not sure I got one today, though with all the moving we did.

Happy Fourth

2007-07-03T16:02:00.000-05:00

Happy Independence Day to all

I will be going on vacation starting tomorrow and will be gone for a week and a half. So there's not apt to be anything posted till I get back. I'm going to Arkansas to help do crafts at camp for Junior age kids.

Acquisitions and Budgets

2007-06-29T13:52:00.000-05:00

For the first time in the 6+ years that I have been here, I feel like I have finally been able to achieve what I have always wanted to do in dividing the budget. This institution has struggled financially in the past quite severely. When I first came I only spent 1/6 of the amount that I spent this year. So we have improved significantly.

About 4 years ago we were working on accreditation. The acquisitions budget was divided (into percentages) by the Accreditation Steering subcommittee. I am on that committee so I did have some input. With 4 years behind us I have been able to catch up in areas that we were lacking. Yet there is always the drive for balance. I did not feel we really had acheived that balance.

I have now written up a proposal, and received approval from two key faculty members to adjust those percentages. This will now go to the appropriate Accreditation Steering subcommittee. Furthermore, I have divided each of three major areas into "areas of study" so that within these three areas, each professor gets the same amount of money spent on them as the others.

Balance can be looked at in several ways. In General Education vs theology we have improved. Where we are still unbalanced is within these categories. Some Gen Ed professors did very well in submitting requests. So we are now heavy in two areas of Gen Ed, but still lacking in others. The same can be said for Bible and Theology.

I'm sure we all have similar difficulties. Some faculty members are very dutiful in giving you requests/lists of books to order. Others do not. This year I am going to meet with each faculty member and do the looking for them. This should help with the disparity of requests.

When it came to deciding how to subdivide the major sections of the budget, I was in quandry for some time how to do this. Do I divide it by number of majors we offer? Do I divide it by number of professors? Do I divide it by ratio of students to a class/subject? What to do, what to do.

I finally came up with looking at "areas of study." This was an easier handle. We are a small school so we don't have full fledge deparments in some cases. Those are called "programs" with program directors. Others are big enough (with more than one professor) to be called departments. Most of our teachers are full time, but some are part time. But they all teach classes that are necessary. So how do I divide and be equitable to all.

In these areas of study I have mixed in the faculty with them. Most cases have one, maybe two professors to each area. This is particularly true in our General Education "section." I came up with 12 "areas of study" for Gen Ed. They get about a third of the budget. So that is divided by 12 and I now know how much will be spent for each of those "areas of study" for Gen Ed.

Within Professional Education/College (PEC) there are 3 major areas. These are subdivided into a total of 14 "areas of study" with the appropriate faculty assigned to each. I gave them all equal weight, however two areas have two faculty assigned to one area. (They get one "bite" so to speak.) PEC also gets about 1/3 of the acquisitions budget. Their third is divided by 14.

Professional Education/Seminary (PES) has 4 faculty and areas of study. They, too, get about 1/3 of the pie. Divided by 4 they do get bigger individual servings. But given that Seminary resources are so lacking, and given that most of their resources are also usable by the upperclassmen of college, this is still worth the pieces being divided this way.

We do have 10% of our budget that is devoted to reference and non-curriculum subjects. Once that 10% is taken off the top the rest is more easily divided into the thirds mentioned above, (give or take 5%).

Even though we are required to purchase one copy of all textbooks, they can still be assigned to each of the three areas mentioned. Overall, this plan will give us a much better sense of what we are purchasing for what area and not be heavy in one area and lean-to-nothing in another. This gives me great relief. Time will tell this time next year if this worked like I am hoping it will.

Library Surveys

2007-06-28T17:30:00.000-05:00

This spring’s surveys in some ways told us nothing new – mostly satisfied with resources, staffing and services. There are always those who complain about it being too loud or too quiet, or never any new books, even though they walk by a New Books display every time they come into the library. But this year, about half noted that the New Books display was found helpful. I think it is becoming slightly more noticed. But you do wonder if some even realize the new books that you do buy. We send the faculty a list of new books every month. Maybe we should send this to students as well. Another thought I have is posting it on the library’s webpage each month – anything to raise awareness.

It turns out that the Textbook display is a big hit, even though we weren’t able to get all of them. Hopefully we will be able to add to it, this fall. This is very helpful to those who haven’t gotten theirs in yet or don’t have the money to buy them. Money is always tight, no matter what decade you live in I have discovered.

Surprising was how many actual do pay attention to our Special Books display on a 4-tier cart; and to the bulletin board. The fact that anybody notices them is thrilling for me.

We had 2-3 students this year that were challenging in following the no-talking rules this year. Correspondingly we had 2-3 surveys that complained about the no-talking rules. (Hmmmm!) I have noticed this is almost always freshmen. We will see if they return this fall and if they continue the same point of view. But someone else will take their place.

We have a huge disparity of those not using the services of requesting books from other libraries in our consortium. It looks like that will be our focus this next year. Besides the regular one-shot orientation, we are going to try “embedded instruction” to also help students to connect the need to knowing how to use the library in a timely manner with actually using it to their best advantage in fulfilling their assignments.

ACL 2007-Signs of a good conference:

2007-06-21T20:05:00.000-05:00

Finding others in similar situations as yours
Aching feet and bleary eyes on the first night
Handouts you read again when you get home
Social engagements scheduled for afterwards
Not enough exercise and too tired to get any
Keeping in touch with your roommate
Answers to nagging questions
New ideas swapped over lunch
Getting your pick of door prizes
New books purchased or ordered
Positive feedback from your workshop
Someone remembered you from last year
Using suggestions from a fellow colleague
168 pictures uploaded to an online photo service
Being glad to be back in your own comfortable bed
(Figure out what the outline of this list looks like)
Renewing friendships face to face
Changing methods you held dear
Getting to visit new places
Discovery of new resources
New thoughts shared in workshops
Making plans now for next year
Hint*
Left home
Good turnout
Missed friends
New inside jokes
List of new emails
Gaining four pounds
Winning a door prize
Freebies you will use
High rating on surveys
Professional networking
Finding a fellow hobbyist
Following up on contacts
New board game learned
Smooth-running schedule
Pages and pages of notes
Pile of new business cards

*(squint your eyes)
I would have suggested you cut and paste this into a word processor. But when I did this the length of lines changed in the bottom part. You can try it and see if it helps you or not. Be sure and reduce the image to about 25%. That gives you the best overall view of what the list looks like. Have Fun!

Traits of Catalogers...

2007-06-07T18:55:00.000-05:00

-compiled from a recent listserv (UNscientific survey)

(Love of) team sports
Card games
Forest ranger/lumber jack
Create order out of chaos
Diagram sentences
Puzzle solver (all kinds) (in ink)
Large personal library
Service oriented
Dog lover
Orderly desk
Interest in preservation
Law enforcement officer
Word games
Sort M&M’s by color (or Skittles)
Sort out mixed nuts
Create own mazes or puzzles
Cat lover
Eat food in certain order
Messy desks
Separate food, so it doesn’t touch
Rule-based games (not strategy)
Paper arts
Needle work (e.g. counted cross stitch)
Beading? – No, just bead sorting!
Read encyclopedia, dictionaries and atlases for fun
List maker
Familiar with a foreign language
Learning about something new every day
Alter sewing patterns
Buy less fabric then required for above patterns
Creative
Visual
Oh yeah, and a love for books

PS: someone once said - When Hinkley tried to assassinate President Reagan, a news broadcaster interviewed a psychiatrist who described Hinkley as having a mental disorder that was "common to" librarians and forest rangers. Honest.

Original source unknown: They can test for that now (the above mentioned disorder). During a tour of a local mental hospital that acted as a library, a visitor asked what the criteria were which defined whether an applicant should be institutionalized and which duties they should be assigned.

"Well", said the tour-guide, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a fork, a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to each applicant and ask that they empty the bathtub."

"Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would ignore the fork and use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup."

"No," said the tour-guide, "a normal person would pull the plug and get out of here."

"As for qualified applicants, patrons demand everything in a bucket, reference librarians want to serve in a cup, catalogers would analyze every spoonful, and administrators are puzzled as to why so much falls through the tines."

************

I am off again next week as I will be attending the ACL annual conference, this year in Grand Rapids, MI then spending the weekend at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, IN (a genealogist's dream).

Proud of my staff

2007-05-14T20:56:00.000-05:00

Since my last post we had graduation (Sat., 5th) and finals the next week for the rest of the students. They were all officially gone by 2 p.m. last Thursday and the army moved in at 4! - Yes, the Army.

There is an Army Reserve post down the road from us and they needed lodging for their unit getting ready to go to Iraq. So they are staying on campus for 30 days. It was an awesome task to get everything ready, but we 'got 'er done'!!!

Last Sat. (12th) my husband was in a motorcycle accident and ended up with broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung. So my staff has stepped up to the bat for me and will 'carry on.' I know they will do a fine job. They're a great bunch. Fortunately, the semester is over and I have nothing on my schedule for this week.

I may not be posting for a while, but as soon as "things and husbands" are back on their feet I will be back.

Sunflower houses

2007-05-03T21:11:00.000-05:00

I found some (4) websites that give information on how to plant a playhouse for your kids. I also finally figured out they are called Sunflower houses. I have added the info about the links in my entry below in: Last Day in April. Have a look.

Oh, and by the way (btw), I went through my postings for the last several months and saw where some of you folks have left comments that I didn't catch before. Thanks for visiting and leaving your thoughts. Please do so any time.

Graduation is upon us

2007-04-30T19:52:00.000-05:00

Second blog entry of the night, (see next entry):

History of Graduation sites found here and here and here.

This is an interesting site on traditions.

Here’s a blog that tells about regalia being based on ancient traditions.

This website talks about the school Mace and the President’s Chain of office, something we don’t do here at CBCTS.

Last Day of April

2007-04-30T19:07:00.000-05:00

“We” worked in our flower bed this weekend, guess that got this writer in the mood. Saturday was a beautiful day, so I “staked out” 2 of my dogs and got all the dead weeds and grass pulled out and new bark bedding put in. It is not one of my “top loves” but it is for a lot of people. Maybe it’s too late to begin planting a flower garden or any kind of garden for that matter (you can see how much I know about gardening) but here are some websites I found that might be helpful or enjoyable. “Forward, Hoe!” (Yeah, that was an intended pun! Sorry friend. Well, no not really.)

Kids Page: “Sow what? Plant a flower or vegetable garden”

Flower Garden design – list of links. It co-incidentally lists a Kansas City website, work "home" of this writer.

Play house for children made from live plants:
Sunflowers, Sweet pea and other climbers are planted to form the walls of your play house – leave a doorway-space. Poles and strings can train the climbers so that you even have a roof over the top. You can make this as simple or as elaborate as you wish. A friend did this years ago. You could probably find plans on line, although we didn't look for any. (Additional note: found this on another website. Look for "Living Playhouse". Here is a different idea for a living playhouse. Ah-ha, I found another site when searching for 'sunflower houses'. This one actually gives you plans. Earlier I found a similar sight that mentioned adding morning glories. O.k. this site is probably the best given as far as instructions are concerned, but she still didn't mention adding the morning glories I found elsewhere.)

Flower Garden help with tools, plans, seeds, plants appropriate for you area and more.

Don’t forget Amazon.com for any book on garden you can imagine.

Here are some other options:
Raised beds here,
Container gardens here; and here;
one more from Better Homes and Gardens website;
Water garden here and here, (a “How-to” );
and vegetable garden options.

This gives Cooperative Extension Service links for every US state.

If you ever watched “Ground Force” on TV, (Miss) Charlie Dimmick has several books on water features. Alan Titchmarsh has also published books on gardening. There were over 200 hits on Amazon.com but I am not sure they are all by the same “Alan Titchmarsh.” Tommy Walsh has published about 16 books it looks like. Check out “Ground Force” with any of the above named authors in google and there should be links to Amazon. Or go directly to Amazon and look. I couldn’t pull up anything with just author’s names, but I didn’t play around with it to find books by them.

VT Memorials (more)

2007-04-23T14:49:00.000-05:00

Students are returning to classes at VT and the student government has asked the media to leave by 5 a.m. this morning so that life at VT can return to somewhat a more normal life. It will be interesting if they do.

Here are some memorials websites I have found.

Virginia Tech has put together a beautiful memorial page.

CNN has also done a nice page of short memorials on each of the victims at VT.

Niagra Falls was bathed in VT colors Sunday night. Picture on Fox News website.

Here’s a new website called the Va. Tech Angels, and another one.

Here is a citizens' tribute page.

BBN Radio has a page of how to pray for the tragedy.

Cho Family's response

2007-04-21T17:52:00.000-05:00

On behalf of our family, we are so deeply sorry for the devastation my brother has caused. No words can express our sadness that 32 innocent people lost their lives this week in such a terrible, senseless tragedy. We are heartbroken.

We grieve alongside the families, the Virginia Tech community, our State of Virginia, and the rest of the nation. And, the world.

Every day since April 16, my father, mother and I pray for students Ross Abdallah Alameddine, Brian Roy Bluhm, Ryan Christopher Clark, Austin Michelle Cloyd, Matthew Gregory Gwaltney, Caitlin Millar Hammaren, Jeremy Michael Herbstritt, Rachael Elizabeth Hill, Emily Jane Hilscher, Jarrett Lee Lane, Matthew Joseph La Porte, Henry J. Lee, Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, Lauren Ashley McCain, Daniel Patrick O'Neil, J. Ortiz-Ortiz, Minal Hiralal Panchal, Daniel Alejandro Perez, Erin Nicole Peterson, Michael Steven Pohle, Jr., Julia Kathleen Pryde, Mary Karen Read, Reema Joseph Samaha, Waleed Mohamed Shaalan, Leslie Geraldine Sherman, Maxine Shelly Turner, Nicole White, Instructor Christopher James Bishop, and Professors Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, Kevin P. Granata, Liviu Librescu and G.V. Loganathan.

We pray for their families and loved ones who are experiencing so much excruciating grief. And we pray for those who were injured and for those whose lives are changed forever because of what they witnessed and experienced.

Each of these people had so much love, talent and gifts to offer, and their lives were cut short by a horrible and senseless act.

We are humbled by this darkness. We feel hopeless, helpless and lost. This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn't know this person.

We have always been a close, peaceful and loving family. My brother was quiet and reserved, yet struggled to fit in. We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence.

He has made the world weep. We are living a nightmare.

There is much justified anger and disbelief at what my brother did, and a lot of questions are left unanswered. Our family will continue to cooperate fully and do whatever we can to help authorities understand why these senseless acts happened. We have many unanswered questions as well.

Our family is so very sorry for my brother's unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for all of us.

Blaming others doesn't help

2007-04-20T16:56:00.000-05:00

This has nothing to do with libraries, but here are some of my feelings of recent days and I'm a librarian...

Hind sight is always 20/20 – but we don’t have the benefits ahead of time by its very nature. It is hind sight.
-Blaming others after the fact isn’t going to undo what was done at VT.
-Blaming others isn’t going to stop rampages in the future, either.

Evil is evil – and like it or not – it resides in all of us. The sooner we realize this is the real problem, the sooner we can address real issues and real solutions.

Every person has within him/herself the potential for violence. Fortunately, most of us don’t act upon it. Yet, we, as a culture, are so paranoid about privacy that it also contributed to what happened Monday. Had the counseling center and the police department and the faculty of the university been able to share what each other knew – it would have put up a bigger red flag. Instead they each had a piece of one and each one on its own didn’t look that damning.

Blaming the President of VT or the university police doesn’t help anything, either – not really. They just become targets of our grief and anger over what has happened. This is not constructive, proactive solutions. There were people who tried to reach out to Seung-hui. But, according to news reports, no one could break through, – not even his mother. There comes a point in time where people have to decide they want help or they want to change. No one else is to blame for what Seung-hui did. Stop the blame-shifting.

On the other hand each of us needs to take responsibility ourselves in how we treat others and how we allow our children to threat others. If you want to blame “someone else" – blame those who picked on and teased Seung-hui as he was growing up. We should examine ourselves and ask what are we doing to contribute to the breakdown of another person. Ultimately, I think, this goes back to the breakdown of the family unit, in this country and in this world.

If you will look at the crime rate since the 60’s you will see how it has sky-rocketed. Psychologists were so afraid that if we discipline our children we would warp their little psyche. Now we are reaping the seeds we have sown. Better to warp their little bottoms then to worry about their little psyche. And don’t tell me about those who use this abusively. I know that happens. But the percentage of that is very low compared to the populace. Don’t throw out the whole bushel of apples because one apple is rotten. Throw out the rotten apple. Deal with the abuser, but don’t stop the discipline. You can preserve the rest of the bushel this way.

Another thing, people, like a certain “pastor” (and I use that word reluctantly) in Topeka, KS don’t help the situation any. That does nothing to minister to those who are hurting. His actions don’t advance the kingdom of God. Whether I agree with his message or not, I am disgusted by his actions and those of his followers. I am not even going to name him because the more the media reports on him the more attention he gets. Media needs to ignore him. Scripture tells us to teach truth in love. There is no love in this man for the sinner. He shows just as much hatred as those “on the other side of evil.” What good does that do? NONE. He’s no better than a commentator on TV news I heard that was name- calling, labeling Seung-hui a maniac among other things. That doesn’t help anyone either. What good does that accomplish? That just stirs up more hatred.

Yes, what Seung-hui did was awful and upsetting and wrong, but what this “preacher” and that “commentator” are saying is just as upsetting. And, it’s disgusting.

Yes, each person in this world is responsible for his or her own actions. But blaming others solves nothing.

Right now, friends and families are hurting and grieving, including the Cho family. What an opportunity to reach out and minister to all those people in love. WOW! Let’s stop the blame game.

Virginia Tech tragedy

2007-04-19T14:04:00.000-05:00

We here at Calvary Bible College and Theological Seminary are touched and saddened by the events at Va. Tech. Chapel time and dorm devotions have been used to pray for the families of the victims. This has helped students to stop and realize how petty our lives become and how concerned we got over trivial things, when there are much more serious, life-threatening needs in the world and amongst those around us.

My heart goes out to the family of the victims but also to the family of Cho Seung-Hui. They are caring the grief of the students that were killed, the death of their own son as well as the anguish of the entire situation. People and ‘the public’ – in their anger about a crime and desire to vilify the person that commits that crime don’t stop to think what it is doing to that person’s family. Sometimes they are the ones needing the most support because they are the ones that are ignored at the very least, or shunned and condemned as “guilty by association.” I know from personal experience this is not always the case.

National Library Week

2007-04-16T19:54:00.000-05:00

We are celebrating National Library Week this week with "thankyou" gifts of book marks for the faculty and staff - if they come by. :-) And hopefully we plan to have candy available on Friday for anyone who stops in. This is also Amnesty Week this week and we are doing 3 skits in chapel. Today was the first one of "Erkleline and Ernestine" - talking about all the neat resources "at the library." It went well, if I do say so myself. It was taken off the idea of the character Erkle in Family matters. (I didn't know thaaaaaaaaaaat.) Erkleline was kind of a cross between Erkle and a clumsy hillbilly. Even the unplanned dropping of the canvas, and hitting the mike with the easel (Did I do thaaaaaaaaaat?) went well with the skit. We have two more planned for this week: stewardship and (Not) loaning your library card.

We also put a bulletin board together. Being a Christian college/academic library - I try to take the theme ALA comes up with and see how I can adapt it to our situation. So this year, we cut out a sillouette and cut it into puzzle pieces. Each piece is labeled with a Godly characteristic. It is fastened to the board, with the theme above and a statement that "Hilda Kroeker Library is committed to helping godly characteristics come together in your life." i.e. When all these pieces "come together" they will make you into the person God wants you to be.

Here is the Ye Old Library Blog that tells their plans. What are you doing? Leave me a note and let me know you visited my site.

If I have time to find others I'll post them here.

libraries vs. the internet argument

2007-04-16T19:21:00.000-05:00

There has been a debate that is becoming a long held discussion on whether the Internet and digitization would replace libraries. You may have seen this list before, but here you can read it again. Their conclusion contained this comment that says it well:

librarians are the most suited professionals to guide scholars and citizens toward a better understanding of how to find valuable information online.

Here is another list from ACRL that is along the same vein: Top Ten Assumptions for the Future of Libraries. That is from Bailey Library Staff Blog.

Here is a podcast on libraries and cataloging of the future. This is with the patron in mind and the young ones at that. There were a few comments on AUTOCAT (listserv) recently and one person pointed out (basically) that as important as it is to reach our youth, they will not be "millenial students" (my quotes) forever. We need to teach them how to be serious researchers and to have the resources available for that research.

Have you seen “Facing the Giants”?

2007-04-12T21:04:00.000-05:00

...I have not seen the whole movie but I did see a clip from it the other day.
Here is a review from Christianity Today:

“A variation on the standard football movie plot, Facing the Giants takes place in a southern Christian high school, where coach Grant Taylor (Alex Kendrick, who also wrote and directed the film) is struggling to keep the school's football program alive. The team isn't winning, the players are apathetic, and some of the parents are trying to have Grant replaced. When we first see him go home to his wife, Brooke (Shannen Fields), we learn that Grant's also having problems off the field; in fact, the film begins stacking the odds so high against Grant that it flirts with outright melodrama—his car won't start, his home is in a state of disrepair, he and Brooke can't conceive, money is running out, and most folks just plain don't like him.

“Then, just when things seem like they can't get any worse, a stranger shows up in Grant's office and shares a Scripture verse, saying that the Lord sent him there. Suddenly, it's a whole new ballgame! Grant prays, gets inspired, and revamps his entire philosophy of coaching. His enthusiasm spreads to the whole team, and then the whole school, and suddenly, as Grant notes, it's ‘like a whole new team.’”

Plugged’N gave even a better one. Click there to read their comments.

There’s a lot of positive and negative reactions to the movie. Here's just one. What I want to concentrate on here is not how well it was made, or how good was the acting, etc. It’s the message of the film that is important.

In particular I wanted to comment on a scene of the coach challenging his star football player to demonstrate what his very best was. Without giving too much away, the footballer had to carry another player on his back, crawl on his hands and knees to the 50 yard line, and do it blindfolded. The coach got right down on the ground with him, encouraging him all the way, challenging him to give just a little bit more, pushing, pushing, pushing, not letting the player stop until he couldn’t move another step. Did he make it to the 50?

I’ll not tell you how it ended – you’ll have to watch the movie yourself. But it certainly challenged me to think: do I really give my very best in everything I do? Not even close! Yet that is what Christ wants me, and you, to do. Wow! What a challenge! What a powerful message.

Want to find other blogs?

2007-04-12T15:11:00.000-05:00

I didn't know about this until the other day - just one of those tidbits that you pick up from someplace else: a blog searcher.
You may already know about this - but I didn't and hadn't even given it much thought.

Easter like I’ve not done before.

2007-04-09T19:11:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday was Easter. But this year I wasn’t in the worship service. In fact originally I wasn’t even going to be in my church at all. Now before you start throwing all those left over beginning-to-spoil Easter Eggs, hold on a minute. My High School has their Annual Alumni Banquet every year on Easter weekend. This year my own class was even planning a get together. (More on that later, …maybe) :-) So I didn’t originally plan to be home for Easter Sunday. I made arrangements for others to handle children’s church in my absence. (It was my turn to have the class.) But the more I thought about it and the closer it came the more I “rebelled” at the idea of being “there” instead of “here.”

So at the last minute I decided to come back home Saturday night after our class get together and not stay for the banquet. Sunday morning came and Liz had done a wonderful job preparing for the class. The really young ones (2’s and 3’s) stayed in another class; the 4’s, 5’s and 6’s didn’t come in until the offering was being taken up in “big church.” Liz had a story to read – the Easter story, from a children’s book. Then there were the cookies to take home (after play time) that told the Easter story. When it was time to go home and all the toys were put away, I called all the children over to the story time corner. I thought maybe I could get them to quiet down while waiting for their parents. I had brought some plastic Easter eggs in case I needed to come with something myself. I had an idea.

I took one of these eggs to tell them a story. I had read this in an email forward and maybe you have too. I couldn’t remember all the details and some of the details I left out. (How much can a 5 year old understand about a child who is “slow” or “different” not to mention “mentally handicapped”?) But it was interesting to see how quiet they got.

The story was about a teacher who had asked her students to each bring something to school in an Easter egg that represented something special to them. Some brought the expected figures of their favorite pet or favorite toy. Some even brought things that represented Easter (bunny, candy…) to them. But one little boy did something different.

When it came time for “Peter” to show what he brought, all the eyes in the room were turned to him. When he opened his egg, the teacher, trying not to be shocked, wasn’t sure if he understood the assignment. You see, Peter’s egg was empty. Peter didn’t bring anything in his egg.

I asked the children what having an empty egg meant. One of the little darlings shot his arm in the air and said, “I know, because Jesus was risen, and ‘that place’ was empty.” But he wanted to know what a tomb was. I explained that it was like a cave, where they buried people like we do in graves today. Peter understood better than any one else what was the most important thing to him: an empty tomb (grave) on Easter morning. To Peter it was important that his egg be empty because the tomb was empty.

It was such a delight to see the eyes of these little ones light up as they put together the empty egg with the empty tomb.

I told them that later that day when they’ve emptied all their Easter eggs to remember what an empty egg stands for. If it wasn’t for the empty tomb we would be celebrating Easter. It’s not always what we have or are given but sometimes what we don’t have that is the most important. We don’t have a saviour who is still in the grave. It is empty. I think the children went home that day with a new understanding of Easter.

The lesson on the empty Easter egg, and the children’s looks on their faces, was probably a better sermon than what I “missed” in Big Church. This is one Easter I won’t forget.

My job as a Librarian is like...

2007-04-05T21:09:00.000-05:00

Thanks to contributions from friends, here is the response:

My job as a librarian is like - a Detective - I hunt for information.

My job as a librarian is like - a Photographer - I develop collections.

My job as a librarian is like - an astronaut – I go in orbit from time to time.

My job as a librarian is like - a Handyman - I fix things.

My job as a librarian is like - a Detective - I find lost things.

My job as a librarian is like … a zookeeper – I try to keep the herd (of students) under control.

Shhh… my job as a librarian is like - a spy - I classify information.

My job as a librarian is like … an employment counselor - I help students with their references.

My job as a librarian is like - Jury or Judge – Evaluate evidence

My job as a librarian is like - a gourmet chef – Use choice ingredients (aka information) and presentation is important.

My job as a librarian is like - a Marketing expert – Devise plans to get people excited about our services

My job as a librarian is like - a Funeral director – Bury old practices (like card catalogs)

My job as a librarian is like - a Budget analyst – Decide if we have enough money based on usefulness for that new database

And too realistically sometimes - My job as a librarian is like - a Pothole Filler – Patch the carpet and other things so that they can be patched again the next year and the year after that and the year after that until someone finally gives us funding for the needed replacement

My job as a librarian is like - a lover … I am a novel lover.

My job as a librarian is like - a bookie - I am the happy booker.

My job as a librarian is like - a checkout clerk – I’m constantly scanning barcodes
Also like a James 5:16 Employment Agency - I hire student workers and pray fervently………

My job as a librarian is like - an Obstetrician - I set Due Dates and Assist with Deliveries

My job as a librarian is like - a computer - I organize and collect information that get stored for an unlimited amount of time.

My job as a librarian is like - a family physician - I prescribe things and make referrals.

My job as a librarian is like - a fast food worker in a drive-thru - students run in looking for a few articles, print off the first five that pop up and run back out the door

My job as a librarian is like - a chiropractor - I make adjustments all day long

My job as a librarian is like - a linguist - I speak MARC fluently

My job as a librarian is like - the needle of a compass - I keep trying to point researchers in the right direction.

My job as a librarian is like - a matchmaker - I match patrons to information.

(Working in a Bible college setting, sometimes I assist in matching patrons to patrons.)

Enough humor; let's get serious. My job as a librarian is like - a stable hand - I shovel....

That means librarians are very stable people, right? :)

My job as a librarian is like MapQuest, (ed.: travel agent) - I (occasionally) help students to get from point A to point B; sometimes literally.

My job as a library director is like - a rancher - only what I'm trying to herd are cats.

My job as a library director is like - a stapler - We are very good at keeping things all together.

Variations on a theme:
I’ve been waiting on all the circulation folks out there to say that their job is like a meter maid because they issue fines

In the same vein I’ve always said that God’s first job was as librarian.
In the beginning He found chaos and brought perfect order to it in only six days. Now Ray—And on the seventh day He rested.

The official librarian's hymn: "When I can read my title clear."

And here is what I came up with last night:
My job as a librarian is like -- A Gardener - I weed (books),

My job as a librarian is like -- A Seamstress - I sew (signatures together) and work with material

My job as a librarian is like -- A Chef – I cook (a book in the microwave to soften glued spines)

My job as a librarian is like -- A Mother – I mentor and nurture (my staff under me)

My job as a librarian is like -- A Diplomat – I work with an academic administration that is sometimes foreign to Library thinking.

My job as a librarian is like -- An Ambassador – I promote the library in the community

My job as a librarian is like -- A Curator – I care for old books (and old maid librarians!)

My job as a librarian is like -- A Mediator – I mediate conflicts between staff members, or staff and patrons.

My job as a librarian is like -- A Facilitator – I help bring people and the information they are looking for, together

My job as a librarian is like -- A Miner – I mine for information in metadata

My job as a librarian is like -- A Doctor – I mend (books); deal with cuts (in budgets,) breaks (in pipes), and diagnose (people’s information needs)

My job as a librarian is like -- An Opera Singer – I’m not done until this fat lady sings

My job as a librarian is like -- A Fortune Teller –I (try) to look into the future with my 5 year plan

My job as a librarian is like -- A Lawmaker –I write new policies

My job as a librarian is like -- A CIA Detective –I do reference interviews, trying to get information “covertly”

My job as a librarian is like -- A Rubber Band – I try to make my money stretch through the end of the year

My job as a librarian is like -- A Sears’ employee – I catalog material

My job as a librarian is like -- A Preacher – I try to get to the soul of the matter

My job as a librarian is like -- A Fireman – I am always ‘putting out fires’

My job as a librarian is like -- An architect/Artist – I draw up plans for library expansion

My job as a librarian is like -- A Doorman – I help people thru’ the door of knowledge to a whole new world of info.

My job as a librarian is like -- A Bridge builder – I help people cross the information gap

My job as a librarian is like -- A Music Conductor – I have to bring harmony back when there’s discord; I orchestrate meetings, staffing, events, duties, etc.

My job as a librarian is like -- A Juggler – I have to balance my budget

My job as a librarian is like -- An Explorer – I help people discover new worlds

My job as a librarian is like -- A Fruit picker – I got some information from here, and from here, and some from over here and bring it all together

My job as a librarian is like -- A Thief – I break in (books)

Me? Forget? Of Course!

2007-03-22T21:40:00.000-05:00

I have never said I was perfect. In fact, I am the first person to admit that I am not. This has even been developed into my "style" of leadership. Even though I am fifty-!@#$ (something) I do not have the experience of those who have been a librarian "all their lives." So I have always looked for and/or invited other people's input on a given issue or decision-making process. I admire those, on the other hand, who seem to "have it all together." I have done this long enough now, though, to discover that this is sometimes a cultivated talent, not necessarily a natural one in others.

I have learned much since taking this position - I am to claim my strengths and staff my weaknesses (so I am told); use tools of organization - like calendars, day planners and schedules (etc.), pace myself, put different tasks into my weekly or monthly calendar that seem to never get done, delegate jobs and responsibilities to others (you DON'T have to do it all yourself.), check your email, voice mail and schedule every morning and more.

However, inspite of the best attempts to use these organizational tools, there invariably comes a situation that reminds me once again that inspite of my best efforts, I still fail the system. (not vice versa) One of the issues of getting older (!) is that of remembering verses forgetfulness. Some folks have said to me 'oh, you just have too much on your mind,' or 'you're under a lot of stress.' They are kind folks as they use these remarks in attempt to console me and maybe even themselves when I fail.

I was reminded again just this morning of this human fraility of 'older age' called forgetfulness. We are in the midst of spring break. Students are gone and the faculty and staff are also taking various amounts of time off. One of my own staff ladies arranged to take today and tomorrow off. That would work just fine, I figured. I was taking off Monday and Tuesday, have Wednesday off already. I would be back for Thursday and Friday. Everything was settled.

This morning when I got up at 7 I realized, LL won't be there to open today at 8 am, I had a meeting elsewhere and would not even arrive in the office until after lunch and AdJ doesn't start work until 8:30. GREAT! I didn't have AdJ's phone number as she has a cell phone with a long distance number (Puerto Rico, no less). What was I going to do? Well - the students are all gone. Even my boss is gone. (That may be a good thing!) What could I do? I decided that I would have to just let it ride and find out when I got to work what happened. Good, bad or indifferent that is what I did. Hopefully given the week, the fallout wouldn't be too bad.

After my meeting, I called in and found out that AdJ had come in (unaware of the need) 15 minutes early which helped. So we opened at 8:15 instead of 8:30 like I expected. And, the only person waiting to get in was an on-campus student who is in and out of the library all day, anyway (with "nothing" to do). At least it wasn't someone who had driven across town to get in and then couldn't. Fortunately the fallout was very little and quite forgiving. AdJ was apologetic that she didn't think to come in earlier because she had known that LL was going to be gone. She just didn't put the two together. (Another kind soul) I told her that I was the one to carry the blame, I was the library director, it should have been me to have seen to it that someone was here. She had no reason to be apologetic. It was I who should apologize!!! And did!

Well, not to sound like I am beating myself up, unmercifully tho' well-deserved, it would be encouraging if these reoccuring occasions would help to eliminate these from happening again, or to educate oneself to know better next time. But for some of us, is there any hope??? Hmph! I doubt it.

*****************

btw, my husband and I were out driving yesterday. On our way we saw some buffalo. These were domesticated ones, but you still don't see them very often. (Yes, we live in Kansas.) - See post for March 15th: a year of beauty.

A Year of Beauty

2007-03-15T11:41:00.000-05:00

I had a dear friend, who started out being my English teacher in High School. She was such an inspiration. The 50th year of her and her husband’s marriage she wrote down something every day that she saw that was beautiful. I’m sure there were a few days that that was a struggle. But the rest of the time there was at least something to many things to choose from.

I was reminded of this the other day when I saw my first robin! And I noticed that my tulips and grape hyacinths are sprouting and my daffodils are up and some are blooming.

I even get quite fascinated looking at clouds and have been known to take a few pictures of them, stopping along the road on my way to somewhere. So even when it is a cloudy or stormy day you can still find something beautiful. That seems to be so true of life, even.

What have you seen today that is beautiful?

It's beginning to look alot like - SPRING!!!!

2007-03-08T15:05:00.000-06:00

Yeah! Springtime! It couldn't come soon enough. For this area we had a lot of snow this year, maybe not in inches, but in frequency!

But I can tell Spring must be just around the corner because already activity is picking up. I have hired JM's replacement (see last post), and gotten her started on her training. (JM has also come back 2 times to train DS and she will come one more time.) Then the end of February we had our annual booksale. We did all the usual advertising, but we had very poor results this year - the least since I started working here. Now this weekend is "Campus Preview" (where highschoolers come and look us over) and our annual play. (This year it's Pirates of Penzance.)

I had my bi-monthly library committee meeting last week. We are working on our department manual - or I should say - I am. Then I take it to the committee for review, discussion and/or approval. I was hoping I had it all done, but alas, no - I need to take our objectives and plug them into the feedback and assessment procedure page.

I have been trying since I came to get the Friends of the Library revived. It has been to no avail. I'm not good at marketing and really don't know what I can do or do differently that would solve the problem. This institution being a private, christian school (Bible College) really limits me as to who I can go out to and bring in. The booksale is technically an FOL project to raise money. If I disband FOL, and continue the sale - what will happen to the money? Will the library be able to keep using it for special projects? Or will the administration step in and say (in essence) 'hand it over.'? If that happens it will be put in the Big Black Hole called the Pot and disappear! It won't stay compartmentalized.

Now, on top of that, I have a buyer who wants to buy the inventory I have left over from the sale. He wants to purchse it for 10 cents a book! We normally hold over the books from one year to the next as we do not get enough in, in one year to really make it worth having a book sale. We have about 7000 books, so I need to decide: do I want "this" or do I want "that." I have been picking the brains of fellow Christian librarians to see what is done in other colleges. It pretty much runs the gamit.

I just finished a meeting with our current (for one more day) webmaster. Our whole method of updating content is being totally overhauled and is becoming much more managable. For me that means I need to do some thinking of what I want on the library's page - what is most useful to our students today. I love computer/internet/website/technology. So I am looking forward to working on this task.

I have also gotten my budget for next year worked on and done. Procrastinator that I usually am, I have it already turned in - 9 days ahead of time. That must be a first. I also have an IPEDS report to finish. It is a report we make every 2-3 years to the government's Department of Education. It's due by the end of the month. I would have it finished but I am waiting on one bit of information on our Reserves transactions. When I get that I can go back into the IPEDS page put that in and another tidbit and, Voila!!, I'M DONE!

On a personal note, I did get to go to Anthony, Kansas last Saturday with my family to attend the Kansas wedding reception of a friend and fellow librarian. It was wonderful to see CG now CM and meet her new husband JM. They are into clogging and basically that's how their romance got its start. They were able to do a little demo for us with a third friend of theirs. It was really fun to watch. Only disappointment - CM didn't clog in her wedding dress like she did at the the reception following the wedding. She did have it on to start with, and she made a lovely looking bride. I hope to see her again at our annual Association of Christian Librarian's annual conference in Grand Rapids, MI in June.

From Retirement to Replacement

2007-02-15T19:17:00.000-06:00

January 4th I returned to work after a nice long Christmas break. I soon learned that my acquisitions clerk had decided to retire the first of February. This was quite a blow as she hast not only done well in her position and in helping the library but she had also become a good friend and, in a roundabout way, become a mentor to me in many ways, even though she has worked for me. She has been in the business world and in management for many years. Her experience was very beneficial.

The last week of the month was very busy getting ready for her Open House Retirement. Although she had not work here 'many, many' years, she had work all her life and at this institution for about 4, 3 of them in the library. However, I valued her contribution to this department. She and her family had experienced some negative situations from the job place and I wanted to show her that she was appreciated, validated and valued - as an employee and a friend.

The color theme was pink and silver with flowers and punch to match. The cake was a white "straw hat" with a pink ribbon to match. It was beautiful and many friends, coworkers and family came by. It turned out to be a wonderful day.

The next day was her actual last day at work. That afternoon I walked her to her car helping her to carry the last of her things and told her goodbye. I turned and went to the faculty mailboxes and picked up an application that had just recently come in for her position. The following Monday the applicant came in for an interview and I virtually hired her on the spot. She came back in for another interview with the academic dean. He gave his approval and today - two weeks to the day of the Open House JM's replacement began.

In the midst of these last two weeks I have been absent for half a week with my husband's out-patient surgery. This was a needful and good thing for him, but certainly puts me behind on the job-side of life.

It has been a whirlwind of activity and the wind isn't through blowing yet, as now the training will start tomorrow in earnest. And the timing, of course, is never ever "just right." We have our annual book sale in two weeks that we are also getting ready for, on top of training a new employee.

But the library is still here and life goes on.

New Title!

2007-01-22T21:33:00.000-06:00

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:
Imperial Majesty Suzanne the Excited of Molton St Anywhere
Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Check it out! I heard about it from my *newlywed* friend in Virginia.

Job Announcement

2007-01-18T19:35:00.000-06:00

Library Acquisitions Clerk, LAI, for 20 hours a week/five days a week.
Starting pay $6.00 to $7.00/hour depending on experience.
For more information go to www.Calvary.edu or
Contact the library director: “librarian at calvary.edu”
(Kansas City, MO. USA)

Requirements:
1. Born again Christian, living a dedicated, separated Christian life
2. Agreement with the institution’s doctrinal statement, its educational philosophy, and the library’s mission statement.
3. Have an strong aptitude for detail work
4. Have an interest in libraries and a desire to learn
5. Maintain confidentiality of records
6. Preferred: college degree
7. Preferred: computer experience
8. Preferred: knowledge of library terminology
9. Preferred: library experience

Responsibilities:
Assist the librarian:
1. with registration and new student orientation as needed
2. with circulation procedures
3. with maintaining the Library of Congress classification and descriptive cataloging systems.
4. with overseeing the maintenance and use of the library equipment and facilities.
5. with maintaining a study atmosphere and supports the dress code of the library
6. with handling of monies
7. with supervising student workers
8. by supporting the policies and regulations of the library handbook
9. by carrying out other duties as assigned.

Work Tasks – Acquisitions:
1. maintain list(s) for faculty requests
2. maintain list of textbooks and recommended-reading books to purchase
3. research books and prices, submit proposals to vendors, submit PO’s for approval, place orders, track and list books on order, books received, etc., in databases, based on the collection development policy and accreditation requirements.
4. prepare reports and statistics as needed

Christmas is Done

2007-01-11T17:06:00.000-06:00

The presents are all put away
Guests have been sent on their way
The carols were sung
The stockings all hung
New memories were made Christmas Day

Now our days of Christmas are done
And the New Year, `07’s, begun
The trimmings are packed
The lights are all blacked
We’ve honored the birth of God’s son

A new year before us, we see
Each day our new history
Let’s write them with care
So others will bear
Christ’s witness in you and me

10 January 2007
sg

overdue book! (I'll say!)

2007-01-08T18:09:00.000-06:00

I can't copy or rewrite this story. And, I don't know how long CNN will have this available but here's a story of a many who returned a book due in 1960.

Timing/automation/speed

2006-12-22T16:17:00.000-06:00

We received word last week that on Tuesday our automation software from the consortium was going to be shut down for a couple of hours for an upgrade. That afternoon, an email was sent out that there was a glitch but that the company was working on it, on their end. Hopefully it would be up and running soon. So my cataloger was learning how to do book processing since she couldn't do any cataloging.

Late Tues. we received an update - still have some glitches - maybe tomorrow. Well, I have Wed.'s off so I called into the office to get an update. The software was still down. So ADJ did some more book processing, and did some work on putting her cataloging manual together (good time to do that!).

Now I'm on vacation for Christmas so Thursday I call again and ...it's still down. Well now we're scratching our heads for something to do... Good thing we're shutting down for Christmas break.

Computers! Software! it's the old Love/Hate relationship! We've become so dependant on them that we can't do anything without them. Then we wonder why the "late-adopters" or the "non-adopters" hang back from taking on new technology when the 'low-tech' can be so much more dependable.

Makes me think that the constant push for getting the latest technology in order to keep up with the rest of the world is nothing more than the ole' "keeping up with the Jones" on a global scale. What do you think? Does technology really improve the QUALITY of life or just increase the speed?

Puns

2006-12-14T11:57:00.000-06:00

I love puns and saw a new one that played on the word "snow". For those of you who like crafts or sewing you'll love this. It was a snowman with a cloth measuring tape for a scarf, a pincushion, spool, etc. at his feet. The caption read; "LET IT SEW."

Too Much?

2006-12-12T08:53:00.000-06:00

Following the article at this blog here is a follow up to that thought. I received it from a friend:

I Corinthians 13, Christmas Version

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on those I love the most, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.

Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can't.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust. But the gift of love will endure.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Book Repair

2006-12-07T20:00:00.003-06:00

Sometimes this website actually needs to talk about library "stuff" (technical term, there). So even though I did just post a Christmas Carol quiz, I thought I would also post some info about book repair. I just did a workshop on Book Repair earlier this week. So here is some information I put together for those who attended. Maybe the list of resources would be helpful to you, as well.

Library supplies websites (this is not an endorsement for any of these businesses.)
Gaylord Brothers: www.gaylord.com
Demco: www.demco.com
Kapco: www.kapco.com
The Library Store: www.thelibrarystore.com
Highsmith: www.highsmith.com
Brodart: http://www.shopbrodart.com/default.us.aspx
Vernon Library Supplies: http://www.vernonlibrarysupplies.com

Used and Rare Book websites:
...Can be used in evaluating books worth repairing or not; or give repair info.

ACGWeb’s http://acqweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/acqweb/pubr/rare.html
Gowan’s Books http://www.gowanbooks.com/book_search/
Enoch Pratt Free Library http://www.epfl.net/slrc/hum/oldbook.html
Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com
BIP http://www.booksinprint.com/bip/
Half.com http://half.ebay.com/index.jsp
Making of America Books http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moa.new/
Theologybooks.com http://www.theologybooks.com/site/index.cfm
Alibris http://www.alibris.com/home.cfm
Advance Book Exchange http://www.abebooks.com/

Book Repair websites
Simple Book Repair Manual
Procedures and treatments
Book Repair (Mid. Tenn. State Univ.)
Book repair bibliography
Book Care and Repair Resources
Care, handling and storage
SULAIR preservation department
More at Sulair
“Perfect Binding”
Extensive illustration of how to repair

Supplies for doing your book repair:
CLEANING SUPPLIES:
Bleach, diluted ½ and ½
Cloth bag with cleaning powder inside
Oil Flow
“Pink Stuff”*
Triple Crown leather cleaner

LIBRARY/REPAIR SUPPLIES:
“bone” folder (white or orange)
Book jacket covers
Book pockets/“flippies,” clear pockets
(due date slips)
Book press
Buckram (cloth not plastic) tape
Butterflies
Corners and Spine Corners
Cutting Board, trimmer
Double stitch tape
Easy Bind
“H” rubber bands
Hard Laminate, & h.l. scraps
Japanese Paper
Large Book tape Dispenser
Micro fiber tape
Norbond glue
Single stitch tape
Soft Laminate
White gloves

MISC. SUPPLIES
(scrounge your kitchen, garage, sewing & craft room, etc.):
Cheese cloths (for supers)
Covered brick
Clean, lint free rags
Disposable dust cloths (for supers)
Grocery sack paper (finer than sand paper)
Knitting needles (for gluing, shaping)
Paper towels
Q-tips
Quilters’ cutting board (self healing)
Quilting thread
Sand paper, (extra fine)
Scrapbooking papers – acid free
Small cheap (art) brush
Small box for spraying
Sponge
Spray Adhesive
String (various weights)
Un-do
Wax paper/ backs of soft laminate sheets
“Yogurt cup” (for water)

OFFICE SUPPLIES:
Gold ink calligraphy pen
“Kraft” paper (or acid free paper)
Rotary cutter
Rulers
Scotch tape
Scissors/shears
Silver ink calligraphy pen
White ink pen
X-acto Knife

TOOLS:
Awl
Cutting board, trimmer
Dowel rods (for shaping)
Drill, small drill bits
Hack saw
Needles
Paring knife

Christmas Carols

2006-12-07T19:36:00.000-06:00

The semester is all but over. Where did the time go - we just started 3-4 days ago. Oh, no I guess that was 3-4 months ago. Time goes so fast months seem like days. So Christmas is as good as here. To put you into the mood - check this list of disguised Christmas songs and see how many you can get. This is a compilation from some other lists I found plus a few I added myself:

1. Approach everyone who is steadfast
2. Ecstasy toward the orb
3. Listen! The Foretelling spirits harmonize
4. Seraphim from the area above the universe
5. Hey, Minuscule urban area southeast of Jerusalem
6. Quiescent Nocturnal period
7. The primary carol
8. Embellish the corridors
9. I'm fantasizing concerning a blanched yuletide
10. I apprehended my maternal parent osculating with a corpulent unshaven male in crimson disguise
11. During the time caretakers supervised their wooly charges past midnight
12. The coniferous nativity
13. The slight percussionist lad
14. Father Christmas approaches the metropolis
15. Seraphim we aurally detected in the stratosphere
16. The hallowed ebony atmosphere
17. Bleached Yule
18. Singular Yearning for the Twin Anterior Incisors
19. Far Off in a Bovine Feeder
20. Jehovah subdues jovial gentry
21. Frozen Precipitation Commence
22. Proceed and Enlighten on the Pinnacle
23. Query Regarding Identity of Descendant
24. The Dozen Festive 24 Hour Yule Intervals
25. Ancient jovial benevolent despot
26. Monarchial trio
27. Shiny chrome-like carillons
28. Homo sapien of crystallized vapor
29. Perambulating through a December solstice fantasy
30. Aloft on the acme of the abode
31. Auto received chime sounds on date of Nativity
32. Continuously through the dark space
33. Tinkling carillons
34. Equine vehicle produce melodious sounds
35. Bridging the moving water and piercing the timberland
36. Befell during the transparent hour of 2400
37. Joshua - happiness of human longing

Merry Christmas!
And for my Jewish friend in KC, MO - Happy Hannakuh

Organizational Behavior and Culture

2006-11-27T17:58:00.001-06:00

One of my favorite classes in library school was regarding the culture and unique behavior within an organization. I have always had an interest in personalities and their categories. We all have an innate desire to know more about ourselves, how we tick and why. This undoubtedly motivated Jung, Briggs, Myers and others to delve into the world of the mind and how each one is different in some ways and the same in others.

So when you take a small collection of people and put them into an organization, their cumulative personality combination creates the personality or culture of a given organization. And every time one person leaves or arrives, it all shifts a little. We don’t always stop to think that our characteristics or personalities or even styles of leadership impact the rest of those around us whether in the workplace or any other group.

Case in point:
This recently was brought to mind when talking to a co-worker who has been struggling with stress and its effects on that person. She was able to identify three areas where stress had come from. One of them was the workplace.

At the beginning of the school year we were unexpectedly given the recorded course materials for several classes. These are used by our Non-Traditional Studies (NTS) department for students who check out the c.d.’s or tapes for a particular course. (It’s kinda like a correspondence course in an audio format.)

This was probably bad timing, in retrospect. They needed to be cataloged and readied in time for the beginning of the new year. This was probably partly my fault for agreeing to the change. Students were already requesting various titles. It was a scramble. Parts were missing; and courses were found stored in various places. There was not a complete list. School was starting soon.

This was just as new books were coming in, including textbooks which really needed to be available just as quickly as our student workers could get them out. We were not even fully staffed at this point; applicants were being interviewed, hired and trained. Supplies weren’t even fully stocked. You get the picture-not quite chaos but crazy.

Having been down this road before, I knew that the beginning of every school year is always a little chaotic. But you have to go with the flow, take one day at a time and deal with it as it comes. Worrying about it doesn’t help or change anything. You do what you can, go home, get your rest, and come back the next day, picking up where you left off. Now if you haven’t done your best that’s another story. But if you have – don’t sweat it.

However, not everyone takes that approach to their job, including my friend. She was stewing over getting the “NTS” dumped in our laps just as we were in the process of getting underway for the new year. I understood her stress but I did not successfully communicate to her that I understood her situation or validated her feelings regarding the situation. I knew where she was coming from. But I also knew that everything would work out in time. On the other hand, she did not feel like I ‘heard’ what she was saying. Thus in the end my actions (or lack thereof) had in part contributed to her stressful situation and how she was able to handle them (or not).

As mentioned this wasn’t the whole situation. There were two other situations in her life that also were contributing factors to her mental state. But my actions did have an effect on her. This in turn impacted her job performance – missed days, difficulty in concentration, or the mood she was in on a given day. Fortunately, I have had some of the same experiences she has been having, but from a different source. This allowed me to be understanding of what she's been going through. Consequently I have given her wide berth, in how she wants to deal with it. Already she is improving and over the last few months we have also talked about it a little bit more each time. This has also helped her work through the stress, which in turn helps her, period.

But it hit me today, as I walked across the parking lot to get my lunch – that – my actions had contributed to her health. How often does it become obvious to us that what we do affects someone else? Probably not often enough. Yet this domino affect could probably be traced – like the rings on the surface of water when an object is dropped into a body of water. It keeps reaching out further and further until it finally has covered the entire surface of that “organization”.

Thus the behavior of one affects the behavior of all in an organization, a community, a nation …and dare I say the world?

Giving of our Thanks

2006-11-23T16:11:00.000-06:00

We're thankful for our food, our health, our clothes, and home
But also for our Savior from whom our blessings come.

May this Thanksgiving Season find us before His throne
To give our praise and gratitude that's due to Him alone.

swg 11-2-2006

...to think that stores are going to be open on Thanksgiving Day to 'help customers beat the crowds' makes me disgusted and shows the total opposite of Thankfulness - that of Greed!!! Where is the gratitude for what we already have? "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil."

Cataloging

2006-11-13T21:05:00.000-06:00

Now that the new semester is well underway, new help is hired and well on the way of being fully trained, I have finally reached the point that I feel I can catch up on checking the cataloging. Items that were faculty requested and/or textbooks have been pushed to the "head of the class" all along, but other cataloging has consequently been put in waiting. Starting about a month ago, I began getting the backlog checked. I have a "new" cataloger that I have had to train, so I have checked her work. She has been here a year now. So I told her the other day, that after I get this backlog caught up that I would no longer be checking her work. She is a fast learner and knows enough about it as I do - maybe more in some respects. She is good at asking questions of something she is not sure about. She has done a phenominal job.

With the introduction of automation and computer technology in the Library world, it has turned cataloging upside down. The majority of cataloging done by small libraries such as ours (59,000 volumes), is "copy-cataloging" - finding the record either in our consortium database, or on the Library of Congress website, or through WorldCat. At this stage we probably do about 1% original cataloging. That really spoils us when situations arise when we have to deal with that 1%!

Some of the helps that enable us to do this are:
Bibliographics and Standards
Library of Congress catalog
Library of Congress Classification help (although a more detailed list is available through membership or purchase of the books,
and WorldCat (Temporarily down as of this writing.)
There are many other tools beyond these basics that are also out there that comes with experience, networking with your colleagues.
From there, if we still do not find a catalog record, we do look at similar, online catalogs - particularly theological academic libraries. By the time we have made these rounds, our problems usually are solved. Very seldom do we have to go beyond that.
However one listserv that has been helpful to us is Autocat. These "guys" are most helpful to give you answers when you can't find them anywhere else! Thanks, Autocat!

Tuesday - Election Day!

2006-11-06T18:56:00.000-06:00

Get out and vote. Don't complain about the outcome if you don't.
But if you live in this beautiful country and benefit from our civil laws and society, then it is your responsibility to vote. There is power in just one vote. Many elections have been determined by the narrowest of margins.

Here are some examples:
One vote revisited

Durango Herald

Clean Air bill

ABC news

Hallowed Evening

2006-11-05T22:42:00.000-06:00

Ok, this has nothing to do with libraries. Have you noticed how holidays that started out being anywhere from sacred to very sacred holidays are gradually more and more loosing their sacred-ness and becoming more and more secular? Probably the one thing we think of as the most obvious is Christmas as that has been the biggest holiday of the year. As I was growing up Easter was still held sacred. But schools can no longer have Easter Breaks, they're spring breaks. Then people started hanging Eggs on their trees in their front yard! That, besides looking stupid, is really -- what's the word I want? -- degrading to the meaning of Easter even more. (That wasn't the word I was looking for, but the statement is true.) 'Course, when it comes right down to it what do eggs and bunnies have to do with each other? However, since I grew up with that, it does seem more normal! (right or wrong).
Now, Nov. 1st is All Saints Day. It was nearly 500 years ago (minus 11 years) that Luther nailed his theses to the "door of the reformation" -so to speak. I guess what got me thinking about this is the fact that my mother was born the year of the 400th anniversay. We've come "a long way..." as they say. Boy haven't we! But I'm not sure the direction is at all wonderful. I think Luther needs to come back and shake up the world again. I heard several mention that it is expected that families will spend, I think, 5 BILLION dollars on Halloween this year. It is fast catching up with what is spent on Christmas. In Christmas' secular version even, Halloween still doesn't come close to anything good that Christmas does. And Now! Halloween decorations in the trees! "Dumb and Dumber" How stupid can you get? Don't tell me. I don't want to know!

PS - Oh, here's a couple more: St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day - originally celebrated something that was of Christian value. Now it's an excuse for chocolate and beer. ...Well, I'll take the chocolate, but forget the beer!

Nothing profound

2006-10-20T20:46:00.000-05:00

As I have scanned other blogs today, someone else made the statement that they had nothing profound to say. That's kinda the way I feel. Since my last post, I have had the flu! I guess you could say that was profound. It hit full force last Thursday night and lasted till last Sat. morning. I had nothing to eat or drink in the duration. Then Sunday morning I woke up and felt like nothing had ever been wrong. (weird)

Monday and Tuesday my husband and I attend the KNCSB convention in Salina, KS. We got to hear some good speakers, including H. B. London from Focus on the Family.

Another pastor, Andy Aldis, spoke about Judas in the story of Mary and Martha when Mary poured the perfume on Jesus' feet. Judas, the money keeper, objected to her doing this. Christ rebuked him. AA mentioned that we may be a leeeeetle bit like Judas. Judas also robbed God. AA mentioned that we may be a leeeeetle bit like Judas. Judas was two-faced: acting one way when he really felt the other way. AA mentioned that we may be a leeeeetle bit like Judas. Judas was stingy. AA mentioned that we may be a leeeeetle bit like Judas. Judas was defensive and didn't take constructive criticism. AA mentioned that we may be a leeeeetle bit like Judas. AA's falcetto voice when talking about our being a leeeetle bit like Judas will make it hard to forget this for a while!

I returned to work Thursday to attend a committee meeting on our new self study for accreditation; catch up on 478 message in my email; stepped into a conversation about how to properly destroy a bible after it is no longer useable; deleted the ongoing discussion (?) (after reading some comments) about whether or not to preserve Autocat listserv; had to "hold down the fort" alone this morning as one staff member took the day off to be home with her kids for fall break, another called in sick, and the third didn't come in until noon. Our college is also on fall break, so there was very little activity in the library. It did give my cataloger and I time to visit the seminary and photocopy more title pages of books housed there. She will catalog them, and we will return to put spine labels, and barcodes on the books, adding them to our collection. Interestingly enough we are adding back into our collection books that had been withdrawn and 'given' to the seminary. Now the thought has changed to make the seminary collection part of the library's holdings. This looks better for accreditation, too.

Since yesterday was my first day back to work since last week, I realized I was thinking it was Monday. But it took me till in the afternoon for it to hit that it was Thursday, even though I 'knew' it was. But I had planned my meals as though it was Mon/Tues, instead of Thurs/Fri.

I have done some scouting around to see what kind of set up, agreements, or consortiums are in eastern Europe to help libraries. I have contacted people from 3 organizations with some interesting feedback. We'll see where this will lead. I am debating about doing a presentation of my trip to Bulgaria at ACL next year. That may lead into what can be done for librarians in eastern Europe. But I'll have to admit, I'm a little trepidatious about doing that as I never have before. The deadline to let ACL know is next week. I think I need to get some questions answered before I decide.

Someone asked on the ACL listserv as to what help your hobbies have had in your profession. So I started putting a list together. I'll have to post it later as now I am not at the same computer. Also check out some earlier blogs about things I have learned from my hobbies that can help my profession. I may end up helping on a round table at our next ACL conference regarding this topic.

The Kroeker Mouse

2006-10-12T19:20:00.000-05:00

It was late at night, several hours after the library had closed. Because of summer hours the librarian had stayed late to paint flowers on the bathroom wall. Taking a break she sat at her desk checking her email. A soft sound of paper crinkling caught her ear. The staff had suspected some uninvited guests in the desk drawers because of the pile of torn paper that had been found.

Taking the chance of being heard she tiptoed as quietly as possible to the source of the sound. She pulled open the suspected desk drawer. Suddenly, one of God’s little creatures looked up with shiny black marble looking eyes – with a surprised look that seemed to say, “OH! Hello! Who are you?” Well, Miss Librarian wanted to ask him the same thing, thank you!

Before she could ask, her new found friend did an about-face and headed for the back of the drawer as fast as lightening, leaving behind a dime sized puddle. The muffled rattle indicated he was headed down. Below the drawer was not another drawer, but an open shelf like space with books of various sizes stacked inside. Because of the configuration with the books, the little brown mouse found a little space. He stuck his head out and lo-and-behold, that “strange woman” was still there. (“OH! You’re still here!”) Or, so his face seemed to say. – “Well, - humph, so are you!” she thought. Once again he headed for the back of the desk and this time he managed to escape without running into the big scary woman of a librarian, again. The next day she reported her encounter to her staff with the unwanted patron, culprit of disappearing cookies and candy, but leaving the wrappers behind.

A few days later, one of her friends was working at another desk. She heard a noise! She looked down into her trash can and let out a loud yet subdued, “WHOA!” There was our new friend. He had apparently fallen into the trash can and couldn’t get out. Stunned by the unexpected encounter with a four legged, black eyed, furry looking creature, she was stunned into a frozen response.

Another staff lady came to her rescue – and the mouse’s – gathered the top of the trash bag in her hand and headed out the door. Once outside and away from the front door of the library, she opened the bag and set the creature loose.

That mouse lived to tell the tale of getting caught in Kroeker Library and being set free. How differently his biography could have been written as his life could have ended right there. Instead, he had been set free upon the rest of the unsuspecting world!

There's a tradition in many libraries to have a library pet, usually a cat. Here are some websites for such examples:
Library pets
Library Pet-Gecko
Library Pets - Frogs

Then there's virtual pets and information on pets at libraries. And elementary virtual pets, and traditional library pets, a discussion of pets, a story of a library cat, and of course, another library as a source of information on pets.

What more could you want?

SOFIA 2006

2006-10-04T21:13:00.000-05:00

In November 2000 I had the privilege of attending the Sofia 2000 conference in Sofia, Bulgaria. I was still in Library School at that time and was able to get involved in staffing this conference. It was an experience I will never forget although I don't think I contibuted that much to it. Ever since I have always wondered what can I do to make use of that experience.

Sofia 2006 is coming up again soon and I wish I could go, but not being a student, I do not qualify for the grants I got the first time. But I did do some looking around to the current website for this year's conference. One thing led to another and I found some interesting sights. I got to thinking about what is available in Bulgaria and even Eastern Europe for libraries and even more than that for academic libraries of seminaries and institutes.

I'm going to do some more research but watch my blog to see what I come up with and what I decide to do with that information. I've got some ideas "boiling." Eastern Europe is involved in "rapids of change". Our theme for our ACL conference next year is also along the same line. So we shall see what develops.