Showing posts with label libraryland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label libraryland. Show all posts

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Oh, patrons.

A patron came in one morning right after we opened to return some DVDs. As I started checking them in I noticed that they were all a day late...

Me: Sir, these were due yesterday so there will be an overdue charge for them.

Patron: They aren't late. I was in the parking lot at 9:00am.

Me: We don't open until 10:00am though.

Patron: I know that, but since I was here before you opened, they aren't late.




Monday, August 12, 2013

113 vs. 9

If you follow this blog you have probably noticed one thing...the number of posts have significantly decreased.

Earlier tonight I was reading Adventures in Life, Love, Librarianship, a wonderful blog that provides not only delicious recipes, but helpful hints and tips for everyday life and lots of librarian stuff. As I was reading I started feeling guilty. I have seriously slacked off on the number of posts. According to Blogger, I posted 113 times last year. Even though this is only early August I have posted a total of 9 times in 2013. Yeah, serious slacking off.

Let me defend myself....or at least give you a bunch of excuses.

1. I changed jobs.
    At my last job I had a desk in the Circulation Workroom and I spent most of my day there. I only had interaction with patrons for a few hours a day and the rest of the time I could do my job in peace...away from those pesky patrons. Plenty of time to write reviews and blog. Now? I am right smack dab in the middle of the library...next to the computers....which brings every single question in the world. I can rarely sit for more than 3 minutes at a time before I am up showing a patron how to move the mouse around. Time to write a book review? Puuuhleeze.

2. My current job doesn't blog.
    Well, actually we don't do any form of social media at all. Facebook, twitter, blogging....nothing. This means that there is absolutely no reason for me to write a book review. At my last job, I could easily review and post a picture book review that had just come across my desk. I know I could review the books that I read on my own, but there isn't much incentive now. I bet you are thinking "Her library doesn't have Facebook? She should change that!" That's a whole 'nother post and a big ole bottle of wine.

3.  I have a crap phone.
     I do not have a smart phone. Let me repeat because I know most of you are like "What? Did I just read that right?" You did. I do not have a smart phone. Why? Because before this job I was on crap pay grade and I had other priorities besides having an expensive phone bill. I also didn't have cable for a long time, which I could probably do without now. I intend to get a smartphone but I need to get a few things paid off first and save some more. When people ask, "You don't have a smartphone?" I reply with "Oooh, my phone is vintage!". So what does this have to do with me blogging more? Well at my old job, I saw a lot of damaged materials and my coworkers would add quirky little notes to the materials. Well, my phone use not to be so crappy so I could upload pictures to my blog. I guess along with the way I lost that capability. Now if I want to upload a picture I have to find my digital camera..make sure the battery is charged (which it never is) try to find the memory card, take the picture, upload it to my computer, then to the blog. I am not a lazy person by nature, but typing that sentence exhausted me, which is why you don't get very many pictures on this blog.

4. I moved.
     Right across from my job. Our mailboxes are like 4 feet apart. Yeah, that close. Moving sucks. I wouldn't recommend it.

5. My computer tried to fly. It can't...but it is great at falling.
     Great part of moving? People give you stuff! Case in point? BF's parents bought us (technically him, but we are a joint package now) a new bedroom suite. It is beautiful and high. The bed is 4 feet high. No joke. I have to get a running start and jump onto the bed. Sometimes I don't make it. Best idea I ever had? Leaving my laptop on this crazily high bed. The first time the laptop fell from the bed it didn't work for 12 hours. Then it woke up from its coma and all was right in the world. You would think that this would make me realize that I should a) back everything up on my computer b) not leave my computer on the insanely high bed. I never said I was a smart cookie. The 2nd time it fell and continued to work, I thought my computer was made of steel. Well, the 3rd time was the charm. The 3rd time it got knocked off the screen was open. If I wasn't too lazy to get up and find my digital camera you could have a picture of how it looks. Surprisingly, it still works! Just the screen looks like an etch-a-sketch. Right now I am sitting on the living room floor as I transfer the files through the wifi from the etch-a-sketch made of steel laptop to my dad's netbook through the TV. I don't really know how I am doing this but BF did it for me, so I don't ask questions. Oh, and the 3rd fall took place over a month ago and I am now getting around to transferring files.

All these are great excuses to why I have slacked off blogging, but they aren't the real reason. The real reason why I haven't pretty much taken a big absence from everything social? My dad died.

Yeah, this post just took a big sad sharp turn. When I started typing this post I had no intention of mentioning my dad. I was just going to give the 5 excuses I did and try to start blogging more. I very rarely reveal personal information in this blog. I am not an insecure person or anything that would make me think people wouldn't want to read what I write, but I am a private person and very paranoid. I am always thinking that the patron that I am talking about will find my particular rant and demand I be fired. See, paranoid? So revealing personal information isn't really my M.O. (sidenote: do you know what M.O. stands for? Modus Operandi. Latin for mode/method of operation.) I think maybe mentioning it on my blog (where only a few of you know me personally) might help me handle and manage my grief.



I have very little experience with death and especially cancer. I had no idea the devastation cancer could deal out or the aftermath of it. Where I come from, you whisper the word cancer. I naively thought that "other" people get cancer. Not my family. My dad passed away over 5 months ago from a year and half battle with cancer and I am still dealing with the destruction that it did to him, my family and our lives. The amount of physical and emotional pain that I saw him go through could crumble any heart and my heart broke hundreds of times everyday. My dad was the nucleus of my family and we are struggling to handle life without him.

I have checked out several books on dealing with the loss of the parent. I even read 2 pages on one. I keep thinking, I need to check out a book to help me grieve. I help people all the time locate books on grief, but I have never actually read any. I usually pick up if they are looking for secular or something a little more spiritual. From there I can recommend a couple of selections, but I always let them do the rest. I wish I could say, "This book helped me so much", but I haven't even tried that hard. Although, I have to admit that BF handled the situation quite well when he noticed I was trying to read one of the grief books. When I mean handled I mean that for the next week he asked if I was okay every hour and followed me around the house waiting for a random emotional breakdown (he was caught off guard plenty of times).

I would really like to find a book to help me deal with this grief. Books have always helped me deal with plenty of emotions and situations in my life (boys, school, etc.) and I need them for this.  If anyone knows of any secular material that deals with death or particularly the loss of a parent, feel fee to recommend it to me.

I feel like I shouldn't end this post on such a down note, but I don't know where to go from here. I hope to try and post more. I'm working very hard on getting my life back to a routine. Hey, maybe I'll even get a smartphone one day...yeah, even I don't know if I believe that. Guess I will keep on rocking my vintage phone.



Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Newspapers? That's for old people!l

Oh the conversations you will hear when Story Time lets out and kids are extra loud in a small library....

Girl (about 3 years old) LOOK! Those are newspapers!

Brother (4 or 5 years old) Old people read newspapers.

Dad (very embarrassed because the whole library heard this): No, no no. Smart people read newspapers.

Brother: No, dad. Old people read newspapers



Boy has a point...

Monday, May 13, 2013

Who has time for that? Not me.

Part of my job as Reference Librarian is to scan documents for people with my simple desk scanner. It doesn't happen often. Maybe once or twice a week, so I really don't mind.

Soon after I started a woman called asking if I would scan a 22 page document for her. I promptly said no because that would take  me FOREVER. She was not happy, but this taught me a valuable lesson....to set a page limit. My staff knows I won't scan more that 5 pages, but I will do up to 7 if the person is nice.

The other day, I get a call from a woman and this is how the conversation went....

Patron: Hi,...um do you have a scan and could possibly scan something for me?

Me: Sure.

Patron: REALLY? (she was super happy which set off tons of alarms for me) Great!

Me: Wait! How many pages to you have (I have learned to usually ask this first but I forgot)

Patron: Just 67.

She wasn't too happy when I said no and directed her to Kinkos.



Monday, April 1, 2013

Just like twilight?

Earlier today I had a woman come up and asked me to put a few books on hold for her. It turned out that these books all belonged to different series and she was getting them all out of order. Luckily, I have a librarian's best friend ready to sort all this out: Goodreads

We were able to figure out which books she needed to read first. While looking at the series, I noticed that they were all paranormal romances with strong female characters. I decided this is the perfect opportunity to share my new found love of Jeaniene Frost, who is the insanely talented author of the Night Huntress series.

This series and Frost's other works have consumed my live since January. I have even started pre-ordering her books. Yup. That is how you know I love an author...spending money on them.

Anyways, I started booktalking the Night Huntress series, especially the first book Halfway to the Grave.

Here is how the story went....

Me: I don't think I can rave enough about Halfway to the Grave. Cat is such a badass (sidenote: I may not have used the term "badass" since I was at work, but you get the idea). She is half human half vampire, but her mission in life is to kill as many vampires as possible.

Patron: (very excited) Ooooh, so it is like Twilight?

Me: (shocked) What? No!

This totally caught me off because I sure don't remember saying anything about a spineless female character who decides to forgo everything she has in life to follow such a pathetic excuse for man/vampire as Edward.

Who knows if she will decide to read it, but after comparing it to Twilight, I don't know if she deserves the awesomeness of Cat/Bones and eventually...Vlad. *swoon*.

Also, for those who do read Jeaniene Frost, can we all just agree that Twice Tempted (Night Prince #2) is just beyond delicious? (sidenote #2, is delicious an okay term for a book?) I left a concert early because I couldn't wait to get home and read my just delivered copy of the second installment in the Vlad/Leila story. Don't judge me....look at this cover!

See? Delicious. 




Wednesday, January 23, 2013

People? Letters? Islam.....

It is paper season! Yup, I was bombarded with patrons today from 3rd graders to college students jump starting on their papers. While I was helping several patrons today, I noticed three girls plunk down in the Reference 900s and pretty much remodel it. I kid you not, they had books EVERYWHERE on the floor.

Normally this is awesome, but the Reference 900s is across from my 200's area, which is a pretty high traffic area in my library. A lot of people weren't able to get to what they needed because these girls were sitting in the floor. All in all though, I didn't say anything to them because I was proud of these students for jump starting on their papers.

I ended up asking one girl what she was working on and pulled several nonfiction books for her. A little while later another girl surfaced from under all the books that they had pulled. She looked a little lost as she browsed the Reference 800s (which is by my desk) so I asked if I could help her. Her response was as follows:

Girl (about 20 yrs. old): Um...I don't think you will be able to help me......*silence*

Me: Well, tell me what you are looking for?

Girl: Um......well......I"m.........looking.........for.......*silence*........*more silence*.......people.

Me (half asleep from the long silent pauses): Are you looking for a particular person?

Girl: No......more like.........uh.......things they have written?

*Sidenote: It took just about everything I had not to respond with, "oh you mean books?"
But here is what I said instead.....

Me: Autobiographies?

Girl: No...............letters?

Me: Correspondences?

Girl:....*silence* no......um, Islam I guess.........*crickets chirping*



I could tell this girl had no clue what she was looking for. To spare you the painful teeth pulling conversation, here is what she was really looking for: Religious artifacts before the Bible was written to help her prove that the Bible was real

When I was in Library School, we had an assignment to find a Reference Librarian and give them the vaguest topic and see if they could help the us narrow it down by asking us questions. The whole assignment was to teach us how to draw things out of students. I sometimes think that someone is pulling this assignment on me...but then I realize that some people have no skill at vocalizing what they want....or they are just dumb.



Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Why so sneaky?

My of the main parts of my job is to call patrons and let them know that they have forgotten to include a disc in the DVD case. I do this all the time and I'm the only person at my library who does it (because it is part of being the problem person).

I always explain to the patron that the item cannot be checked in until we have the missing part, therefore it will remain on the their account...but people want to be sneaky.

Patron (carrying a disc): Hi, I turned the case in for this yesterday and I got a call saying I forgot the disc.

Me: No problem, ma'am. Let me go get the case. (I always check it in while they are there so I can notify them of any late charges)....   Ok, so the DVD is 3 days late which means there is a $3 fine on your account.

Patron: Well, I talked to the girl yesterday who called me and she said she was gonna waive the fines.

Me: That was me you spoke with and I didn't say that.

Patron: Oh. (walks away)

Monday, October 22, 2012

Weekend Finds

Used book store finds from this weekend. I know I haven't been posting much, but I am just kinda swamped in life right now. Not so swamped that I didn't have time to run down to the used bookstore and use all my store credit.
Sadly, only one of these books is for me. The other three are Christmas presents. I picked up Full Bloom for $1 and the main reason that two friends on Goodreads gave it high ratings. I have never read anything by Jayne Ann Krentz/Stephanie Laurens, but I know she is popular. I am currently reading it and for it being over 20 years old, it isn't dated at all. Whether or not it is good remains to be seen.
Bitter is the New Black is a standby Christmas present for me. I really think one of the volunteers at my library will love it. I read Cutting for Stone for my book group and LOVED it. Love, love, love! So I thought my sister would appreciate it. Quest for Justice is for my dad, because he loves anything legal and this is a local author/lawyer.

I will try to get back to posting regularly. I have a couple of picture book reviews saved up that needed to be posted for the world to see.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Girl Who Played With The Dragon Tattoo



Patron: Yes, I want to place a hold on The Girl Who Played with Fire movie.
 
Me: No problem.

Patron: But I don’t want the foreign film.

Me: I am sorry but the foreign film is the only movie that is available.

Patron: What about the one with Daniel Craig?

Me: Oooh, you must mean The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was released on DVD earlier this year.

Patron: No, I already saw that. I want the next one.

Me: They haven’t made it yet. The only one available is the foreign film. 

Patron: But I just saw the Daniel Craig one….

Me: Yes, but they haven’t made the 2nd movie yet.

Patron: Why not?

Me: Because the 1st one was just released….Like I said the only one that is available is the foreign film.

Patron: But I don’t want that one.

Me: Well there you go.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

We gotta eat....

September is Food for Fines month at my library. We give patrons the option to bring in canned goods or nonperishable items and we will reduce their fines (up to $10). We have been really promoting this and trying to tell all the patrons about this. I guess some people aren't as excited as we are considering the phone call I just got....

Me: Circulation Department


Patron: Hey, I can't bring you any canned goods cause we gotta eat.

Me: Um. Ok. 

Friday, September 7, 2012

Money, Money, Money!

Patron (on the phone): Hi, I turned in Catching Fire on Wednesday and I left something in it so I was wondering if you could see if it is still in the book....um, it is $500 cash.





Sidenote: I want to be the level of rich where I can use $500 cash as a bookmark. 




Friday, March 9, 2012

Believe it or Not! Strange Library Interview Questions

So I decided to collect some strange Library Interview Questions. All these questions are true and have been asked on interviews. Thanks to everyone on Twitter who submitted their questions....especially to those who were scared this would make it back to their bosses. I hope you get a kick out of these or maybe some inspiration for your next round of interviews.




Make a flow chart of how to make a PB&J sandwich.

How would you decorate the teen department with no budget?

How are you with hamsters?

Do you have a library card?

What would do if the toilet overflowed in the library?


How would you use this in a program? (After being handed a flip camera)

Alabama or Auburn?  (It's a football thing...)

Have you ever been in a parade?

Do you like cats?

Why is a manhole cover round?

How does it feel to have worked for the library with the worst customer service

If money and time were no object what would you do?

What would you do if someone threw up?

What household appliance would you be?

How many ping pong balls do you think will fit in a 747? And how would you get them into a plane? Inside the passenger and cargo hold areas?

What creative things do you do?

If you were a magazine, which title would you be?

Would you mind hugging the patrons?

Monday, October 17, 2011

drumroll please.....

I AM NOW A FULL TIME LIBRARIAN





(yes....all caps was necessary). I was offered a full time Circulation position at my old library (I was previously in Children's). I am very excited about this move, even though I hate to leave my current library.



Also, I have signed up for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Plan, which is also quite exciting.

I will update more on everything later (I promise!), but Im not feel so great and I think a good douse of sleep is required.

Thanks to everyone who has been sending positive thoughts my way for the last few months. I truly appreciate everyone's help and encouragement.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Google+


Hello Libraryland Friends,
 Most of you have probably already heard about Google+. I had seen a few little tidbits about it, mostly facebook status saying "Oooooh love Google+." or "Not getting Google+". When I got to work on Tuesday, one of the other librarians was explaining it to some of us. She described it as Skype meets FB. My thoughts? "I don't need another social network to become addicted too." So I decided no Google+ for me.....until I got home and there was an invite waiting on me. Then I promptly joined and have been spending the last few days trying to understand conquer Google+. What have I learned? Not a whole lot, but I am still trying. I spend time today actually doing some research on Google+ from those who have been able to put some key points together.

What I like:
  • The Video Chat
  • The different circles
  • you can see how certain people view your profile
  • its not overwhelming
  • Its exclusive
Cons?
  • Like any new fad, it takes a minute to figure out.
  • Not a lot of people have joined so I haven't seen a lot of new information yet.
I did find a need little slideshow that gives you several highlights of Google+, 10 Google+ Tips

Random fact? over 80% of Google+ users, as of right now, are male....

Also, I have noticed that some websites allow for a +1 feature when wanting to share an article. I have added this feature to this blog. Any thoughts on Google+ ?

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

General Updates

Hi Blog World!
  I hope all is well with everyone. Things have been very hectic here lately. I started my new awesome job two months ago. Its a PT position in adult nonfiction at a really big and super awesome library. I love it! Going from a Children's department to Adult was definitely interesting.

So what do I do on a day to day basis? Processing. Just call me a processing fool. Once the Library Specialist (FT ppl) decide where a book goes (ie, Dewey Number, if it belongs in a particular collection) they send the book to me where I
1. Create a spine label
2. Kapco, Spine Tape, or Wrap...if need be.
3. Any other labels such as Reference, Includes Disc, No ILL, New, ....

I really enjoy this part because its easy for me to do and daydream.

I also help answer reference questions and anything else that needs to be done.

Currently I am at 19 hours, but I was just recently informed that starting with the new budget year I will be going to 29 hours and will have a retirement plan. Just after 2 months! Super excited!
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