(Not So) Bad Girl Librarian

I'm not as old as dirt, even if I look it

2008-05-06T15:33:00.001-07:00

I was working with a student today who's writing a paper about hippies in the 60s. I'm not really sure why she chose the topic--she's definitely not a hippie and half way through the term she doesn't know enough about her topic (Was it a reaction to the drugs or to the 50s?) to seem like she's really interested. She asked me a lot of questions (Can one really get to their sophomore year in college in California and not know that Haight-Ashbury is in San Francisco?) and finally I admitted that I wasn't exactly sure what all the Summer of Love entailed, since it wasn't like I'd lived through it. She looked surprised. I'm under 30. The Summer of Love was about 40 years ago. Ouch.

Hmph

2008-05-06T14:10:00.001-07:00

The public library won't renew my books that are due tomorrow a second time. Somehow, that doesn't seem like great customer service to me, but I guess it's been a long time since I worked in a public library, and we didn't bother with fines because it cost more than we were bringing in.

GTD email?

2008-05-06T13:43:00.001-07:00

It feels like all I do all day is process email--read then respond if I can in under 2 minutes, flag for follow up and dump into the deferred folder, hold, or delete. I empty the inbox and start working on the deferred items, then go to the bathroom and it's full when I come back... Today I actually had a follow-up question from a prof who got the ILL materials he needed, but using the microform reader makes him seasick. I didn't know what to say. Pity Google didn't want to embark on digitizing all our microforms.

Green without Green?

2008-04-30T14:00:00.001-07:00

Am I the only one who looks at the green (environmental) and green (frugal) sites that suggest replacing air conditioners, heaters, and hot water heaters with energy efficient models and laughs and laughs at the thought of even having that conversation with my landlord? Renters get screwed by old appliances; landlords have no incentives to upgrade since they're not seeing the lower bills. My landlord won't even replace our garbage disposal or address our ant problem. We got a new thermostat only because the repairman who came out said the old one with burn marks inside it was dangerous (and was so difficult to understand they probably didn't know what he was telling them until they got the invoice).

Info Search Bloopers...

2008-04-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

Still feeling a bit stupid because I totally biffed a search for a manual to our Freecycled Little Green Carpet Machine. It's an older model (I never even knew they used to be little cubes instead of the spheres they are now...) and nothing came up when I Googled. Hubby asked if I'd looked at the Bissell sit--I had, but I'd started my search in the Little Green Machine section, which only gave me the current model. After half an hour, I went to the main Bissell site out of frustration, sure that I'd already been there. What did a find? A search box where I could enter a model number. Typed it in and got a picture of the unit and a pdf of the manual. D'oh.

Faculty

2008-04-24T12:44:00.001-07:00

I wonder a lot about my faculty and what they think of me and the library. (Well, except for the faculty member who sent the library an angry message about the lack of phone number on the front page of the web site. She was pretty explicit about what she thinks.) I keep thinking of surveying them, but I'm not sure I'm ready to go through the IRB process to ask them if they think I'm irrelevant, especially when I'm not sure they'd bother answering.

ILL

2008-04-22T14:42:00.001-07:00

I get a lot of faculty ILL requests, which would be ok if I had anything to do with ILL whatsoever, but as I'm a reference librarian, I have no access to patron service records of any type--which means the patrons themselves actually have more control than I do. We've got a handy all-in-one electronic form that checks for electronic access and print holdings in our collection before linking to the ILL form. However, because we only link directly to it from the ILL page (the links in article databases fill in the fields based on the citation automatically thanks to the magic of SFX), I forget that it does extra things, which means that I forget to warn people about it. Which means they write me back and complain that they couldn't get the online access, when all I wanted was for them to submit a request for the microfilm. Sigh...

Another case of librarians over-complicating things.

Vanpool

2008-04-21T19:19:00.001-07:00

I'd finally resigned myself to the idea that with $4/gallon gas on the immediate horizon, I need to find a better way to work. I finally accepted that maybe I could handle being somewhere at 6:45... And all three vanpools near me are full. (They could start a new one if I could find at least six people interested. But if I could find even one person interested, I could carpool and not worry about vanning it.) So nobody wants to drive to work with me. Not even the perverts on Craigslist. :(

Tweet! Tweet!

2008-04-21T14:21:00.001-07:00

Does anyone else have the urge to Twitter out all their secrets?

CMSing

2008-04-21T12:50:00.001-07:00

I have this dorky rendition of Public Enemy's "911 is a Joke" in my head with "CMS" replacing "911." Stupid, but c'mon. At your library, how many non-web group librarians have access to the web pages for which they are responsible for the content? And how many of those libraries bought very expensive CMSes because of the promise that we'd all be able to edit our pages as soon as it was installed? And how many of us are finding created web 2.0 ways to circumvent the lockdown on our own web servers by hosting our timely and/or experimental content elsewhere where we don't have to run it by our IT departments until it's a success? How absolutely stupid is that?

Fantasy Alternate Career #1

2008-04-20T21:36:00.001-07:00

You know, I bet Penelope Garcia on Criminal Minds has an MSLS. Or probably an MSIS. Regardless, I wish I could be like her and cyberstalk anyone to solve crimes. And have hot cateye glasses.

Second Life

2008-04-15T11:43:00.001-07:00

Second Life just inherently annoys me as a potential forum for library services. Sure, it looks pretty entertaining, but I really have a hard time believing that very many of my patrons are actually hanging out there looking for an information mediator. My patrons are primarily either a) college kids who are too busy experimenting with their first life in a county away from their parents or b) the tech un-savvy who are overwhelmed with the use of the term "blog" in a sentence. And perhaps most obnoxious: my work computer and our patron computers are heavily locked down--so no downloading the software except onto my own machine. If SL were web-based, I'd probably sing it's praises. Client software, though? So 2004.

I feel bad

2008-04-08T15:00:00.001-07:00

Had a patron ask me if I could let him make a long distance call to call the state cosmetology board about transferring his license from another state. It took me by surprise so I sent him to our Info desk to see if they could help him. I haven't seen him again, so I hope they did, but I feel like a right c***, especially as it could be construed as a state government information question and that is supposedly my area of expertise. Maybe I should memorize my long distance code (yeah right). I probably would have let him use my free long distance on my cell phone if I had it out at the desk...

Update: He passed by again. I brought out my cell phone and he's making the call. Either I'm doing my good deed for the day or I'm going to have my phone stolen.

Freebies!

2008-03-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

The exhibition hall is basically just the adult version of trick or treat. Bring on the tote bags, water bottles, and pens!!!

Frugality Requires Information Literacy

2008-03-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

As I've started to accept the fact that I'm going to be our sole supporter and I make a really rotten salary for where I live, I've become obsessed with bargain hunting and frugality as of late. One of those practical research projects and all.

I've discovered couponing (or cou-porning as my obsessive poring over weekly circulars makes it seem). Online coupons are disappointing since they require the installation of a coupon printer (the concept of which bothers me in the first place but which is made more obnoxious by my not being able to use it with the printer at work). Turns out that Walmart sells a weekend edition of the local newspaper for a buck, though, and the coupons usually pay for the paper pretty quickly.

The one good thing about living in Southern California is that Ralphs and Vons double coupons up to a dollar, so $1 off is really $2 off, which makes for a pretty good deal when combined with a sale. There's a post at the Simple Dollar that suggests holding the coupons for a month and then everything will be on sale. I find it easier just to hit Hot Coupon World (or, as I've Freudian-slipped a few too many times, Hot Cou-porn World) and check out the forums.

And then there's CVS... CVS has this Extra Bucks program where you get instant rebates on the bottom of your receipts for certain items on sale every week/month. Once you have that initial pile (I usually have $6 to $10 myself), you can flip them over for other items with Extra Bucks in a never-ending loop. (The Money-Saving Mom has a great CVS 101 guide.) If you only buy items with ECB (and preferably the ones that are free after ECB and/or coupons), you can get out of CVS spending under a dollar at a time. Which maybe isn't as good of a thing if you go there several times a week like I do, but it's still very little actual money out of pocket, at least until you actually *need* something you haven't had a chance to find on sale yet. (Then it's straight to Walmart--CVS's regular prices are atrocious, even on their generic brand items, even with their standard $3 off $10 of CVS brand merchandise coupon.) There are whole sites devoted to the deals you can get each week. I love the use of wikis at Slickdeals where users collaborate to match coupons with the sales.

So thanks to my new-found frugal information literacy, I have toothbrushes, mouthwash, shampoo, lipstick, eyeshadow, and razors that I got for free over the last month. My husband wants to ban me from CVS, though he does enjoy his collection of Gillette Fusions. Every day I get a little more middle aged/suburban, but at least I haven't started scrapbooking. (Not only would hubby leave me, I'd leave myself.)

Chuck

2007-11-05T20:30:00.001-08:00

Much to my hubby's, well, I don't know what the right emotion is--disgust? disappointment?--I'm enamored by the new series Chuck.Tonight? Chuck realizes that the secret number he can't remember is a call number in the Stanford library that corresponds to a hiding place his old roommate Bryce Larkin (a late CIA agent) had.

Fires and Floods and....

2007-11-03T19:41:00.001-07:00

Being smoked out of work for a week because of wildfires was oddly reminiscent of being smoked out of work for three months due to the library being set on fire (even down to having left my PDA at work that weekend this time and my print planner at work that weekend the last time), except that when it was over I didn't have to worry about doing reference work with missing collections.

The old place of employment was gearing up to reopen the revamped post-fire basement but has now been set back by a flood--caused by a pipe bursting in the new fire suppression system. In all honesty, I felt like I should have been there to help rescue my government documents collection, even thought it's not mine anymore (and technically, really still belongs to the government, but, ya know). On the other hand, since this is that organization's second flood in, what, three or four years? (the other happened in another library building on campus one Christmas Eve), I'm honestly still waiting to see if the plague of locusts that's obviously coming decides to manifest itself as termites or rabid cicadas. And bugs really aren't something I want to be a part of.

I guess it's a good thing they have plenty of people with experience dealing with these disasters now...

Fire

2007-10-23T21:24:00.001-07:00

Yes, the city is on fire. No, I haven't had to evacuate. Amazing to watch on tv. Hard to breathe. Glad to be alive and, so far, safe and sound.

Wanna Get Hiiigghhh?

2007-10-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

We put up a library display featuring a surfing book that says "check me out." Aside from being a little cheesy in general, the problem with the book is that it looks suspiciously like Towelie, the dope-smoking towel from South Park. So I sort of expect the book to offer me drugs. Hey, whatever appeals to the kids...

2007-09-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

I've worked at my job now for about nine months. Today, it finally occurred to me (after sitting in someone else's chair) that I could adjust my chair back so I can lean back. Hm... wonder what new amazing discovery I'll find tomorrow...

2007-09-25T14:52:00.001-07:00

Yesterday on the shuttle the two guys across from me started talking about libraries. (I'm guessing they either noticed the public library we passed or one of our old ads for Summer Reading flashed across the bus's light-up advertising marquee.) Since I can't actually write anything intelligible while riding on the bus, here's my brain-fuddled, day-later rendition.

One guy said he'd forgotten about libraries and found himself thinking that if he wanted a book, he'd have to buy it. The other started saying how great libraries were. The first mentioned that it was strange to him that in college everyone went to the library--he didn't and was sort of afraid of the library. The second said that he'd used the library a lot in college. The first said he'd like the library when he was in elementary school. They both concluded that libraries are actually kind of cool. The second said, "More people should go to libraries."

It would have made a great library promotional YouTube video.

2007-09-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

You know, there's just something plain wrong about cute Asian college students playing bad folk music for Christ. Especially when it involves a violin. Especially, especially when they're being drowned out by the Asian drum troupe.

2007-09-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to figure out the most politically appropriate way to respond to a faculty member who's asked about a database I've procrastinated on investigating. I want to say "After reading an email from the colleague you also contacted about this purchase, I felt like punching said colleague, so I decided not to pursue it." Since that makes me look like a sullen, spoiled, reckless teenager (even more so than I do in general, that is), I guess I have to say something like, "I forgot about it," which just makes me seem like an incompetent teenager instead.

2007-09-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

Ugg....
So this chick posted that she "would NEVER represent my organization and profession at a conference, meeting, or in a library wearing a hoodie sweatshirt." Hmmm... So many snarky comments, I don't know where to start. I chose academic librarianship partly because I wanted a job where I could dress comfortably. If I wanted to dress up like a corporate hack, I would have taken a job as a corporate hack--and been paid enough to have regular dry cleaning bills.

But seriously, who really cares how we look? Does it really surprise anyone that "nerdy hipster" is the young librarian stereotype? Or that middle aged woman with tote bags and sensible shoes is the middle-aged stereotype? The public doesn't care. They just want their Yu-gi-oh price guides and Everybody Poops videos. The public behaves either like me (self-service everything I can because I hate interacting with people when I'm not the superior know-it-all reference librarian) or like my husband does (walk in, ask first available person where books by Harry Turtledove are without looking at the catalog--or really knowing that there is a catalog he can use--or just wandering over to the fictin section and looking for the T's). They don't care whether the person they talk to has a masters degree or barely an 8th grade education.

Yes, older patrons sometimes had trouble believing I wasn't a student up until this year or so when I suddenly went from looking like a teenager to looking middle aged. (Though I do still get carded at the beer store where I have a frequent shoppers card...) Maybe I could have fooled them into thinking I was older with some sort of elaborate clothing ruse of a button up shirt and tasteful skirt. Or they might have just thought I was wearing a uniform for one of the local middle schools and just volunteering my time.

Seriously, though, who really cares how we look? Who really has the time to obsess over this all the time? Has reference service dropped off so drastically that librarians are sitting around with nothing better to do? Do you want some of my work to keep you busy?

2007-09-11T14:32:00.001-07:00

I missed the shuttle this morning by literally about a minute. (I probably could have run after it, but I just didn't feel like the indignity.) This is what I get for taking that extra second to blow good-bye kisses at the cats and water my basil. The extended-cab truck that had to drive extra-slowly (small up and down ramps) in the parking garage in front of me and the woman on the stairs in precariously high high-heels probably didn't help. I'd feel worse about being late (most of the time) if I didn't carry lots of work with me to read over on the ride...