Blog June Day 2

As you can see from my blog title I'm not feeling in the most creative mood this morning. No catchy title today!!!

So today brings me to day 2 of #blogjune. I forgot to mention the concept of Blog Every Day of June in yesterday's post but if you are interested you can find more here.

This post I will share with you a proud moment that occurred last week. Some weeks before one of my branch library's staff computer - they only have one that has the library email, library management system, print management etc on it - died.

After a diagnosis from our IT staff member it was determined that the hard drive had failed. Apparently hard drives only live for so long and various things can make it live longer or shorter. Since this hard drive was only 3 and half years old, and everyone one of our library computers are the same age, I'm not a bit concerned this may happen again. However, our IT guy said that it was most likely caused by somebody downloading something they shouldn't have a few too many times and from turning it on and off a lot. Regardless of how it died, it died.

MPOW is responsible for providing IT hardware and some software not including the library management system. The regional library is responsible for the library management system maintenance. So our one IT guy - yes we only have one person in MPOW IT team and an IT and Records Manager - was set the task of getting a new hard drive and reloading everything onto the computer.

Unfortunately, he got sick so the whole process took a lot longer than it usually would have. We had many library users in that branch complaining because there was no printing available during this period. And since it is a small rural town, the library is the only place in town that has printing facilities.

Finally, the computer was ready to go, albeit the library management system was not loaded, nor were the printer drivers, and the email was not set up. Alas, our IT guy was once again unable to get into work so I volunteered in taking on the task of delivering and setting up the computer.

Not so long ago, I discussed with the IT guy and IT/Records Manager about taking on some of the library IT maintenance to save them an extra workload, and because it made sense to me since I visit the branches regularly that I could do basic things like virus checks and updates. And some simple troubleshooting where I could. Anything else I would log a job for.

So installing a computer and setting up internet access and printer drivers and email access and installing the library management system and then getting all the public machines to talk to the main computer to get the printer to work, was something I would probably normally log a job for. But the community of the branch where the computer broke down needed this as soon as possible. So I took on the task!!

Many of you are probably thinking that this task is really not that hard. Well in reality it probably isn't, but for someone who has not done anything like this before it was mammoth. After about 4 hours of work I got it up and going. And do you know the one thing that helped me the most?? My wonderful library assistant in charge at this branch keeps every bit of paperwork known to mankind - often makes weeding a difficult task - but for something like this it was a lifesaver. She had kept all the email settings and instructions on where to download the printer drivers from. We had to play around a bit to get the correct IP settings when connecting to the internet but we made it.

I felt so mentally drained following on from this that I didn't go near a computer for many hours following but I also felt so proud that I had managed to do this pretty much on my own. Even the IT guy was impressed.

So I suppose the moral to this story - if there has to be one - is that you should really think hard about any documentation you may be considering disposing of because it may come in handy one day when you hard drive fails, and you should never underestimate your ability to take on a task you have never done before! Even when the little girl from the past keeps telling you in your head that you probably can't do it because you may not be good enough - you can tell her to be quiet and get on with the job!!

PS let me know if you would like to hear more stories about the little girl or the not so little girl as I'm sure I can pull something together.  And anyone doing any quizzes for #blogjune please pass them on as I don't know if I will be able to think of something to write every day!!