Today the library is open to the public - so more interaction and less time to get down and get the background things done.
I started the day in the usual way - cranking the airconditioner to 21'C - it was at least 33'C outside with 100% humidity. Yes the rain has gone (well it has since come back but more about that later), so the humidity turns on.
I then turned on all the lights, computers and photocopier machine, logged into our LMS and ran the overdue and reservation notices. I then ran the reservations report and found those books on the shelf, returned them on the system and put them in their correct pidgeon hole to go to the branch who requested it. Our library service has 10 branches with about 300km being the longest distance between the two furthest apart. Once a week a courier picks up the boxes and delivers them to the other branches. Although I deliver to the branch that is just down the road from my house, and a Council town planner delivers to our other shire branch when they visit the branch once a week.
I then emptied the return shute, walked up the road to buy the newspaper from the local newsagent and started on the shelving. I managed to have a cup of tea and catch up on some emails prior to opening our doors at 10.30am.
The morning was fairly busy with a number of people desperate for books after being cut off last week due to the floods. We had a number of people ask for log ins to use our free wifi and a few who booked public computers to access the internet. One of our local schools hasn't yet started for the year due to the floods so we had a couple of school age kids play games on the computers.
I had a concerned regular comment on our leaking gutter - we were hit by a tree branch during the floods and it has dislodged one of our gutters causing it to drip close to one of our front windows. It is not a big concern and it has been reported - unfortunately there will be bigger priorities to deal with first (due to the floods).
Our Summer Reading Club is almost at a close, so my colleague spent some of the morning judging the colouring in and book review competitions that we had run and making certificates to give to the winners. I emailed the branches to ask for some feedback to collate for the feedback form to be sent back to the organisers of SRC. This can be a complex process with 10 branches to contact and everyone had done something different with keeping statistics.
I was then alerted to the fact our dog water bowl had been moved - so I jumped puddles and mud to retrieve it from the garden beside the library. We appreciate that many of our users have canine company and have a tether outside our library so that people can tie their dogs up while using the library. Having a bowl of water for the dogs is a necessity, especially in the heat we had today.
As my colleague was heading to lunch, the 6 boxes from our other branches arrived for unpacking, returning and sorting. The boxes contained reservations for our borrowers, books that belong to our branch that had been loaned from other branches borrowers, and new items. It's like Christmas unpacking the boxes. A magazine I had reserved from another branch had arrived as well as some brand new books!! They went straight out on our new books display and subsequently were borrowed by the end of the day.
I only managed to get 3 boxes unpacked by the time my colleague returned from lunch as I also had to assist a user get connected to our wifi on her laptop (twice), assist someone doing some photocopying and process two library membership requests.
My turn for lunch and I stepped out into the sauna and headed to the local pool. It started raining while I was doing my laps. It didn't cool things down, instead steam started coming off the pool and the cement and the heat went straight back into the air to assist the humidity. 50 laps later I returned to work and ate lunch at my desk.
I then went next door to Council administration and delivered two books that had arrived for some fellow Council staff. I find the reaction if I take the effort to deliver the books face to face, rather than make them come over to the library to pick them up, quite satsifying. It also prompts other Council staff who are yet to be library members to feel left out and want some of the action - hence more memberships. It also gets me out of the library and gives me an excuse to catch up with what is happening in the different Council departments.
More shelving ensured, as well as catching up on the gossip around town. The word on the street was that to stock up and prepare for another flood. This lead me to check out the Bureau of Meterology page and read the weather warnings and radar. Yes, a there is 70% chance of moderate to major flooding tonight and tomorrow. I'm supposed to be driving to our HQ (where the purchasing, cataloguing, ILL's extra are processed) to assist with some book selecting tomorrow. It is about 150km away and there are a couple of low lying areas on the highway that may cause a hazard should we get enough rain. Weather and road conditions will be high on my list before I leave tomorrow morning.
I picked up the keys for the Council car that I'm using to go to HQ and loaded up boxes to deliver to the library branch near my house and to HQ. Then took off in the rain. I dropped off a box of books at my home town branch and picked up some boxes from them to take to HQ. Day done and off home.
Can't wait for tomorrow (except for the rain and possible floods) as I love book selection but more about that tomorrow!!
How was your day??
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Social vs Private
I came across an interesting "tweet" concerning how I had revealed where I work in my previous blog post and whether this requires permission from my organisation/employer and whether this is something that should be done.
I'd like to hear other's comments on this topic.
Most people know where I work - it's not hard to find out if you do a google search.
When I blog I realise that this is going out to the world to see - so I'm careful with what I post.
I just feel that to participate in the Library Day in the Life it would be better if I set the scene of where I worked to assist in explaining some of the tasks I may be doing.
However, I am interested in hearing others views on this topic.
I'd like to hear other's comments on this topic.
Most people know where I work - it's not hard to find out if you do a google search.
When I blog I realise that this is going out to the world to see - so I'm careful with what I post.
I just feel that to participate in the Library Day in the Life it would be better if I set the scene of where I worked to assist in explaining some of the tasks I may be doing.
However, I am interested in hearing others views on this topic.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Library Day in the Life - Post #1
This year I have decided to participate in the Library Day in the Life Round 8 project. Twice a year librarians, library staff and library students from all over the globe share a day (or week) in their life through blog posts, photos, video and Twitter updates. I'm working on Blog updates and possibly some twitter ones too.
So to start with I should give you a bit of background (for those that don't already know me). Today is my birthday!! Yes it really is so what better time to start a blog project.
I work in a regional public library service on the mid-North coast of New South Wales, Australia. I manage three branch libraries. Our Shire (the three branch libraries sit in) has a population of around 13,369.
All of our Shire library branches are closed on Monday's so this is a day I use to catch up with the tasks I can't complete when I'm doing circulation/shelving duties. Today was the first day I have had to catch up since returning from 3 weeks holiday I took over Christmas. On top of that our Shire was inundated with floods last week so it is making catch up a little bit harder. Add to that we are now on a Flood Watch with possible minor to moderate flooding from tomorrow onwards. However, we are very much used to rain and floods here - it is a way of life!!
Today started with me walking into the library and realising that a numbe of people must have returned their books on Saturday and my staff member did not have time to shelve them all. Three trolley loads of shelving ready to be shelved and a full return chute. I'm still trawling through the shelving and using it as a break from the computer.
I then caught up on some emails and printed out the papers for our next Library Committee meeting. I have read through them briefly and plan to read through them in more depth later today and make notes to raise during the meeting.
Our IT guy came over to look at some of our public computers to see why Internet Explorer wouldn't open. We went through the process of how to update the computers and lock them back down so that each time they restart they are "cleaned." I am taking over the role of maintaining our public computers as we only limited IT support to support the whole of Council. I visit my branches every month so will do the updates during that time.
I answered some telephone calls concerning borrowers wanting renewals and when our opening hours are. I returned and shelved some more books. I took the mail to Council administration, next door, for posting and said "hello" to all the staff in the Council administration building. I also checked in on a staff member whom I had assisted finding some books to read last week to see if they enjoyed them - they did!!
Lunch time came around and I took off to our local swimming pool to do some laps. Very proud to say I managed to do 50 laps of the 25 meter pool. The water was a bit cool but it makes you swim faster.
I returned from lunch and now I am here updating my blog and thinking about what I have to get through this afternoon. I have some professional reading to catch up on, more returns and shelving, running the allocations list to pick reserves from the shelves, and getting to the meeting papers.
What did you get up to today??
So to start with I should give you a bit of background (for those that don't already know me). Today is my birthday!! Yes it really is so what better time to start a blog project.
I work in a regional public library service on the mid-North coast of New South Wales, Australia. I manage three branch libraries. Our Shire (the three branch libraries sit in) has a population of around 13,369.
All of our Shire library branches are closed on Monday's so this is a day I use to catch up with the tasks I can't complete when I'm doing circulation/shelving duties. Today was the first day I have had to catch up since returning from 3 weeks holiday I took over Christmas. On top of that our Shire was inundated with floods last week so it is making catch up a little bit harder. Add to that we are now on a Flood Watch with possible minor to moderate flooding from tomorrow onwards. However, we are very much used to rain and floods here - it is a way of life!!
Today started with me walking into the library and realising that a numbe of people must have returned their books on Saturday and my staff member did not have time to shelve them all. Three trolley loads of shelving ready to be shelved and a full return chute. I'm still trawling through the shelving and using it as a break from the computer.
I then caught up on some emails and printed out the papers for our next Library Committee meeting. I have read through them briefly and plan to read through them in more depth later today and make notes to raise during the meeting.
Our IT guy came over to look at some of our public computers to see why Internet Explorer wouldn't open. We went through the process of how to update the computers and lock them back down so that each time they restart they are "cleaned." I am taking over the role of maintaining our public computers as we only limited IT support to support the whole of Council. I visit my branches every month so will do the updates during that time.
I answered some telephone calls concerning borrowers wanting renewals and when our opening hours are. I returned and shelved some more books. I took the mail to Council administration, next door, for posting and said "hello" to all the staff in the Council administration building. I also checked in on a staff member whom I had assisted finding some books to read last week to see if they enjoyed them - they did!!
Lunch time came around and I took off to our local swimming pool to do some laps. Very proud to say I managed to do 50 laps of the 25 meter pool. The water was a bit cool but it makes you swim faster.
I returned from lunch and now I am here updating my blog and thinking about what I have to get through this afternoon. I have some professional reading to catch up on, more returns and shelving, running the allocations list to pick reserves from the shelves, and getting to the meeting papers.
What did you get up to today??
Friday, January 13, 2012
Have you read this book?
Working in a public library I get asked that question all the time. Unfortunately, the majority of the time I have to answer "no." I'm not sure if our library members think that I have read every book in the library - actually every book that has ever been written. Or, as I suspect, I just don't read the type of books my members read - should I?
While it is impossible to have read every book every written - I do try to keep up with books that are coming out and are popular. I do this by reading Good Reading magazine, looking at the book reviews in the newspapers, subscribing to ABC Book Show and Tuesday Book Club emails, following what people are reading via social networking tools etc etc. I should probably buy the Saturday Sydney Morning Herald - but sometimes it's a matter of finding the time. How do you keep up with what books are coming out and are popular?
The next most popular question I get asked is "I don't know what to read next. Can you recommend a book?" I then go through the process of asking what books they have read in the past and what they liked about those books - sometimes this is hard to extract. Most respond with nice book, thick book, mystery etc. I think our members have difficulty in describing what they liked. Then you can use tools like Who writes like..., Novelist, etc etc. What tools do you use to recommend books?
I think what people read can reveal a lot about themselves. I often find myself checking out people's book cases to see what books they have. Unfortunately, with the introduction of ebooks this will no longer be able to happen. How will people share their book cases??
However, sometimes people read things that you would never suspect they would read. I suppose that's why I always feel that reading is such a personal hobby. I sometimes feel uncomfortable recommending books to someone because I am sharing something that I really enjoyed and I may even be very upset and disappointed if they don't enjoy it. I always say that reading is very personalised and even if I enjoyed it they may not.
For me reading is in phases. When I was a child I loved all the Enid Blyton, Fear Street, Babysitters Club, SE Hinton (still enjoy and will always love), etc. Then I moved on to reading a lot of murder mystery like Jeffrey Deaver and James Patterson. I went through a stage of reading the Stephanie Plum series. I'm now stuck on romance - I love Australian rural romance but also love Nora Roberts, and have just discovered Linda Lael Miller. I also love and will always love Nick Earls.
I have ventured away from fiction but not really as often as I should. I have read a number of biographies - Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Michael J Fox, Richard Hammond, etc. I have read some travel bios "Sleeping around: a couch surfing tour of the globe."
What do you like to read? Do you go through phases? Do you find it hard to venture away from a genre you like?
Since this year is the National Year of Reading - I am going to try going out of my comfort zone when it comes to reading. What are you doing that's special for NYR2012?
While it is impossible to have read every book every written - I do try to keep up with books that are coming out and are popular. I do this by reading Good Reading magazine, looking at the book reviews in the newspapers, subscribing to ABC Book Show and Tuesday Book Club emails, following what people are reading via social networking tools etc etc. I should probably buy the Saturday Sydney Morning Herald - but sometimes it's a matter of finding the time. How do you keep up with what books are coming out and are popular?
The next most popular question I get asked is "I don't know what to read next. Can you recommend a book?" I then go through the process of asking what books they have read in the past and what they liked about those books - sometimes this is hard to extract. Most respond with nice book, thick book, mystery etc. I think our members have difficulty in describing what they liked. Then you can use tools like Who writes like..., Novelist, etc etc. What tools do you use to recommend books?
I think what people read can reveal a lot about themselves. I often find myself checking out people's book cases to see what books they have. Unfortunately, with the introduction of ebooks this will no longer be able to happen. How will people share their book cases??
However, sometimes people read things that you would never suspect they would read. I suppose that's why I always feel that reading is such a personal hobby. I sometimes feel uncomfortable recommending books to someone because I am sharing something that I really enjoyed and I may even be very upset and disappointed if they don't enjoy it. I always say that reading is very personalised and even if I enjoyed it they may not.
For me reading is in phases. When I was a child I loved all the Enid Blyton, Fear Street, Babysitters Club, SE Hinton (still enjoy and will always love), etc. Then I moved on to reading a lot of murder mystery like Jeffrey Deaver and James Patterson. I went through a stage of reading the Stephanie Plum series. I'm now stuck on romance - I love Australian rural romance but also love Nora Roberts, and have just discovered Linda Lael Miller. I also love and will always love Nick Earls.
I have ventured away from fiction but not really as often as I should. I have read a number of biographies - Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Michael J Fox, Richard Hammond, etc. I have read some travel bios "Sleeping around: a couch surfing tour of the globe."
What do you like to read? Do you go through phases? Do you find it hard to venture away from a genre you like?
Since this year is the National Year of Reading - I am going to try going out of my comfort zone when it comes to reading. What are you doing that's special for NYR2012?
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Appreciation
Finally, the final installment of the #blog12daysxmas has finally arrived. Sorry for the delay but I have been in Qld for the last week and my tablet would not let me type in blogger - will have to sort that out.
In this post I'm going to focus on appreciation because most of my other posts have been focusing on negatives, so now for some positives.
After visiting Qld and experiencing the wonderful 35-42'C temperatures - I appreciate being home where today brings us a top of 25'C. It didn't take me long to appreciate where I live after being in Qld a week. I know that there had been some nice cooler temperatures before I arrived but it didn't take long for me to remember the constant sweat of the Qld summer. I used to love it but I must be climatising!! 8-)
It was great to catch up with my family and good friends and I appreciate that they took the time out from their regular routines to make time for me. I wish they could all relocate here but seeing them so few times a year makes me appreciate them more!!
This time last year I was in Qld and I was "stuck" due to the floods. I remember feeling helpless as I wasn't able to assist anyone and I was more concerned with getting home to my husband then hanging around during the clean up. Watching people talking about how their homes and loved ones were washed away made me appreciate my family and friends even more. While it floods often here, the flooding in Qld was much different.
You may have heard about the terrible accident that happened in Urunga while I was in Qld. A B double truck ran into a ute and some houses and killed 2 people, one of them an 11 yr old boy who was on holidays from Sydney. I can not begin to fatham how their loved ones feel but again it makes me appreciate what I've got.
Those of you who are mums/dads will understand when I say that you can spend a lot of time imagining the worst things that could happen to your child(ren). It tears you up and you want to lock them inside and not let them do anything. The fear grips you. But you must let go and let them experience life - including the times where they may experience hurt and pain. I appreciate that so far life has been kind to me and has not let anything bad happen to my child nor my family.
There are many many other things that I appreciate but I will finish by saying that I appreciate those that have taken the time to read my #blog12daysxmas and I hope that my motivation continues throughout the year to continue to blog.
In this post I'm going to focus on appreciation because most of my other posts have been focusing on negatives, so now for some positives.
After visiting Qld and experiencing the wonderful 35-42'C temperatures - I appreciate being home where today brings us a top of 25'C. It didn't take me long to appreciate where I live after being in Qld a week. I know that there had been some nice cooler temperatures before I arrived but it didn't take long for me to remember the constant sweat of the Qld summer. I used to love it but I must be climatising!! 8-)
It was great to catch up with my family and good friends and I appreciate that they took the time out from their regular routines to make time for me. I wish they could all relocate here but seeing them so few times a year makes me appreciate them more!!
This time last year I was in Qld and I was "stuck" due to the floods. I remember feeling helpless as I wasn't able to assist anyone and I was more concerned with getting home to my husband then hanging around during the clean up. Watching people talking about how their homes and loved ones were washed away made me appreciate my family and friends even more. While it floods often here, the flooding in Qld was much different.
You may have heard about the terrible accident that happened in Urunga while I was in Qld. A B double truck ran into a ute and some houses and killed 2 people, one of them an 11 yr old boy who was on holidays from Sydney. I can not begin to fatham how their loved ones feel but again it makes me appreciate what I've got.
Those of you who are mums/dads will understand when I say that you can spend a lot of time imagining the worst things that could happen to your child(ren). It tears you up and you want to lock them inside and not let them do anything. The fear grips you. But you must let go and let them experience life - including the times where they may experience hurt and pain. I appreciate that so far life has been kind to me and has not let anything bad happen to my child nor my family.
There are many many other things that I appreciate but I will finish by saying that I appreciate those that have taken the time to read my #blog12daysxmas and I hope that my motivation continues throughout the year to continue to blog.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
What brought you here?
I get asked this question a lot - especially when I mention that I'm originally from Qld. Well today I will share the story.
Ok back in 2006, I took 12 months maternity leave. After that was finished I didn't return to my previous POW and managed to pick up some casual work which lead into a relieving position for a staff member on leave. This was to be for 12mths.
While I really enjoyed working there, I realised that there was a high possibility of there being no full time, permanent position for me once the 12mths were up so I continued to scan the job market. Also, on the home front things were not going well. We had some neighbours that were intent on making life not too comfortable. This was resulting in a lot of stress and the realisation that perhaps this wasn't the place we'd like to raise a child.
Low and behold an add for my current position appeared in my work email inbox. It is quite funny because I recall it was on an elist that I have no recollection of subscribing to. Perhaps it was meant to be.
The position was a manager/supervisor role and I had not yet graduated from my BALIS - however I did have my LT quals and 15 years library experience. So I thought I'll give it a go. Let it be known that I had no idea where Bellingen was. My husband and I did a bit of research and discovered that it wasn't far South of Iluka - we had frequently spent holidays at Iluka and also had our honeymoon there. We always wanted to live there. So I thought it would probably be a nice place.
Well I got an interview, which I did over the phone and thought I'd totally stuffed it up. But then got asked to come and meet face to face. They organised for this to be done at Grafton so we wouldn't have to travel so far. We only had the Friday and Saturday as I had to work on Sunday so we decided that regardless of the outcome we would travel to Bellingen after the interview and stay overnight - just to check it out.
I got offered the job and we had a very surreal overnight stay in Bellingen. Reality hit when we got home and realised we had only 6 weeks to relocate interstate and put our house on the market.
Rental accommodation in Bellingen is hard to come by so it wasn't until the week before moving that we had secured a house. Talk about stressful!! But if it is meant to be then it will work out.
We have been living down here for just over 3 years now. We bought a house in Urunga which we are currently doing minor renovations to and I'm really enjoying it here. This is not to say I don't miss my family and friends back in Qld.
The hardest thing I have found down here is making good friends. In Qld I had a really supportive mother's group and some library professionals that are good friends. I miss my regular interaction with these people and am yet to find the same network here.
I don't miss the traffic, pollution, dodgy neighbours, constant road works (although with any luck we will be having some road works in the near future to relocate the highway from our town), shopping (ok I miss it a little bit) and crowds.
So this is how I got to be where I am. I am heading up to Qld, with my daughter for a holiday today - which is why I am up at 5am. I will emerse myself in city life and enjoy it while I'm there. I have a packed schedule to ensure I catch up with family and friends - especially those I missed last year due to the floods - yes I was in Qld during the floods last year but that's a whole other story. And then I will return to my haven here and think how lucky I am to live here.
So how did you get to where you are now?
PS I will be entering into a place where I will have limited internet access so will try to post the final post for #blog12daysxmas tomorrow.
Ok back in 2006, I took 12 months maternity leave. After that was finished I didn't return to my previous POW and managed to pick up some casual work which lead into a relieving position for a staff member on leave. This was to be for 12mths.
While I really enjoyed working there, I realised that there was a high possibility of there being no full time, permanent position for me once the 12mths were up so I continued to scan the job market. Also, on the home front things were not going well. We had some neighbours that were intent on making life not too comfortable. This was resulting in a lot of stress and the realisation that perhaps this wasn't the place we'd like to raise a child.
Low and behold an add for my current position appeared in my work email inbox. It is quite funny because I recall it was on an elist that I have no recollection of subscribing to. Perhaps it was meant to be.
The position was a manager/supervisor role and I had not yet graduated from my BALIS - however I did have my LT quals and 15 years library experience. So I thought I'll give it a go. Let it be known that I had no idea where Bellingen was. My husband and I did a bit of research and discovered that it wasn't far South of Iluka - we had frequently spent holidays at Iluka and also had our honeymoon there. We always wanted to live there. So I thought it would probably be a nice place.
Well I got an interview, which I did over the phone and thought I'd totally stuffed it up. But then got asked to come and meet face to face. They organised for this to be done at Grafton so we wouldn't have to travel so far. We only had the Friday and Saturday as I had to work on Sunday so we decided that regardless of the outcome we would travel to Bellingen after the interview and stay overnight - just to check it out.
I got offered the job and we had a very surreal overnight stay in Bellingen. Reality hit when we got home and realised we had only 6 weeks to relocate interstate and put our house on the market.
Rental accommodation in Bellingen is hard to come by so it wasn't until the week before moving that we had secured a house. Talk about stressful!! But if it is meant to be then it will work out.
We have been living down here for just over 3 years now. We bought a house in Urunga which we are currently doing minor renovations to and I'm really enjoying it here. This is not to say I don't miss my family and friends back in Qld.
The hardest thing I have found down here is making good friends. In Qld I had a really supportive mother's group and some library professionals that are good friends. I miss my regular interaction with these people and am yet to find the same network here.
I don't miss the traffic, pollution, dodgy neighbours, constant road works (although with any luck we will be having some road works in the near future to relocate the highway from our town), shopping (ok I miss it a little bit) and crowds.
So this is how I got to be where I am. I am heading up to Qld, with my daughter for a holiday today - which is why I am up at 5am. I will emerse myself in city life and enjoy it while I'm there. I have a packed schedule to ensure I catch up with family and friends - especially those I missed last year due to the floods - yes I was in Qld during the floods last year but that's a whole other story. And then I will return to my haven here and think how lucky I am to live here.
So how did you get to where you are now?
PS I will be entering into a place where I will have limited internet access so will try to post the final post for #blog12daysxmas tomorrow.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Library Politics
Since moving from Qld to NSW I have been struggling with the close relationship with Council councillors and libraries. The Public Libraries NSW association is divided into Zones - our library service is part of the North East Zone. Our Zone has a full Zone meeting twice a year and a managers meeting twice a year. I attend the full Zone meetings and the Regional Librarian attends the managers meeting. The meetings are held in May and October - one on the coast and one inland - usually inland in May (cold) and coast in October (so we can swim!!).
My Council has a councillor who is nominated to be the library representative. The councillor attends the Zone meeting with me. This is the same in all the member Councils of Public Libraries NSW association. The same councillor also attends the association conferences with me.
This was very new to me. I am unsure if the same happens in other states but I believe the reasoning behind this is so that the other Council councillors are aware of what is going on in the library world and they can lobby for us. Councillors have better access to local members of parliament and are used to speaking the speak. So does this happen in other states?
Now I mentioned before that there are two public library associations in NSW - Public Libraries NSW (formerly Public Libraries NSW - Country) and Public Libraries NSW Metropolitan (my linking is not working correctly so http://www.nswmpla.org.au/). For many many years there as been negotiation back and forth between the two associations to merge and become one voice. I am not fully aware of the history so I can't comment too much - although I do believe that there are less councillors involved in the metropolitan assocation then in the country association.
Since the negotiations continue to fail - Public Libraries NSW decided to open membership beyond country libraries and invite all public libraries in NSW to join. Apparently there has been some movement of metro libraries from their association to ours.
The other thing I found interesting after moving here is the attitude towards ALIA. I noted that even though some of the country librarians are members they don't necessarily think that ALIA supports public libraries enough.
I have noted that ALIA has done some pretty good lobbying on behalf of public libraries in the past few years. It did help that there was a public librarian as the President but I feel that this has continued. When prompted I can't get a list of what they think ALIA should be doing - just that they don't feel they are doing enough.
Personally I think ALIA has been doing quite a lot for public libraries - especially in getting our representation on the table for things like the NBN, NYR2012, and the Library Initiative to name a few. There has been some successful lobbying for library funding in other states - not sure why NSW has not been tackled, especially when our state funding is the lowest in Australia. Maybe we, as a state, haven't put our hand up to ALIA for assistance - again I'm not sure son can't comment.
There was a comment made recently at our association AGM concerning the represenation of public libraries in the recently published Book Industry Strategy Group final report http://www.innovation.gov.au/Industry/BooksandPrinting/BookIndustryStrategyGroup/Documents/BISGFinalReport.pdf
Especially when it came to this quote from the report:
"But the very concept of a public library is currently under threat and may appear to some readers as remote as the medieval monastery, especially when they can access the contents of the Library of Congress from their iPads. The Fisher Library of the University of Sydney plans to eliminate 500,000 books from its collection. The University of New South Wales Library is converting library space to lounges, which are more friendly to people using ereaders. It is difficult to imagine any government in 2011 committing large sums to the construction of new libraries."
It was asked why this quote, especially the last sentence was included in the report and why the representatives of public libraries did not disagree with this statement. As many of the NSW public libraries apply for building funding via the State Library Development Grants - having this quote circulating around probably doesn't assist the case in getting funding for new libraries.
The reply was that there was an opportunity for public libraries to respond to the draft report but there were few submissions received. There was then the comment that many people didn't see the call for submissions - so really who is to know who is at fault?!? Often the call for submissions allows little time to put one together. Do others agree?
Anyway, these are the political things I struggle with since moving to NSW but I am interested to learn about what happens in other states - even in other industries.
Do you think it is a good idea having councillors involved? Do you think we should have less associations and one that speaks for all? Do you think ALIA does a good job in speaking for all?
My Council has a councillor who is nominated to be the library representative. The councillor attends the Zone meeting with me. This is the same in all the member Councils of Public Libraries NSW association. The same councillor also attends the association conferences with me.
This was very new to me. I am unsure if the same happens in other states but I believe the reasoning behind this is so that the other Council councillors are aware of what is going on in the library world and they can lobby for us. Councillors have better access to local members of parliament and are used to speaking the speak. So does this happen in other states?
Now I mentioned before that there are two public library associations in NSW - Public Libraries NSW (formerly Public Libraries NSW - Country) and Public Libraries NSW Metropolitan (my linking is not working correctly so http://www.nswmpla.org.au/). For many many years there as been negotiation back and forth between the two associations to merge and become one voice. I am not fully aware of the history so I can't comment too much - although I do believe that there are less councillors involved in the metropolitan assocation then in the country association.
Since the negotiations continue to fail - Public Libraries NSW decided to open membership beyond country libraries and invite all public libraries in NSW to join. Apparently there has been some movement of metro libraries from their association to ours.
The other thing I found interesting after moving here is the attitude towards ALIA. I noted that even though some of the country librarians are members they don't necessarily think that ALIA supports public libraries enough.
I have noted that ALIA has done some pretty good lobbying on behalf of public libraries in the past few years. It did help that there was a public librarian as the President but I feel that this has continued. When prompted I can't get a list of what they think ALIA should be doing - just that they don't feel they are doing enough.
Personally I think ALIA has been doing quite a lot for public libraries - especially in getting our representation on the table for things like the NBN, NYR2012, and the Library Initiative to name a few. There has been some successful lobbying for library funding in other states - not sure why NSW has not been tackled, especially when our state funding is the lowest in Australia. Maybe we, as a state, haven't put our hand up to ALIA for assistance - again I'm not sure son can't comment.
There was a comment made recently at our association AGM concerning the represenation of public libraries in the recently published Book Industry Strategy Group final report http://www.innovation.gov.au/Industry/BooksandPrinting/BookIndustryStrategyGroup/Documents/BISGFinalReport.pdf
Especially when it came to this quote from the report:
"But the very concept of a public library is currently under threat and may appear to some readers as remote as the medieval monastery, especially when they can access the contents of the Library of Congress from their iPads. The Fisher Library of the University of Sydney plans to eliminate 500,000 books from its collection. The University of New South Wales Library is converting library space to lounges, which are more friendly to people using ereaders. It is difficult to imagine any government in 2011 committing large sums to the construction of new libraries."
It was asked why this quote, especially the last sentence was included in the report and why the representatives of public libraries did not disagree with this statement. As many of the NSW public libraries apply for building funding via the State Library Development Grants - having this quote circulating around probably doesn't assist the case in getting funding for new libraries.
The reply was that there was an opportunity for public libraries to respond to the draft report but there were few submissions received. There was then the comment that many people didn't see the call for submissions - so really who is to know who is at fault?!? Often the call for submissions allows little time to put one together. Do others agree?
Anyway, these are the political things I struggle with since moving to NSW but I am interested to learn about what happens in other states - even in other industries.
Do you think it is a good idea having councillors involved? Do you think we should have less associations and one that speaks for all? Do you think ALIA does a good job in speaking for all?
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Consistency
Here I go again and I hope my blog posts aren't coming across as whinging gripes but I suppose I'm more interested in if there are others out there that feel the same or even better have advice/solutions to offer!
I have mentioned before that we are a single income family. I knew the pay rate of this position prior to accepting it - and I successfully negotiated for a little bit higher starting point and have since negotiated to be paid at the top of my scale. It wasn't that hard once I sat down with my director and discussed everything that I had been doing (which was a fair bit beyond my original job description and what the libraries had achieved since starting in my role - note I don't take credit for everything but I was focusing on the things a manager should be assisting in making her staff achieve).
So now I sit at the top of my scale - hmmm!! I have mentioned in a past post that in a metropolitan area, an equivalent position to mine would be getting paid at least $20,000 more. But I can't really compare metro with country because our Council is only small so doesn't have a large budget. And if you really look at things - most of the people working there are not earning what they could elsewhere - it is the lifestyle (yeah right)!! Did I mention that in the country we pay more for electricity, groceries, internet access, petrol, etc etc?! But yes it is a beautiful place to live.
What frustrates me is that when I have seen positions advertised in my workplace there appears to be some inconsistency in pay scales. I've been forever lost in why engineers and town planners get paid more than librarians - although I'm sure they would come up with some valid reasons. We all went to university and got our degress, we all work the same hours etc etc. So why are librarians not taking seriously?? What do we have to do as a profession to ensure we are felt to be as necessary and worthy as other senior roles in our organisation?? I realise these are questions that have been asked before - in fact I think they are asked at every conference I've attended. I have always thought that we really need to be attending conferences of different professions and telling them what we are doing well. We already know what we do so why keep telling ourselves - get outside of the box and tell other professions.
My other frustration is that we are a part of a regional library - that is not really the frustration but I'll explain. The regional library is made up of 3 Councils. We are not employed by the regional library we are employed by the Council. Therefore, we are all paid different rates of pay. So we are all working as a "team" but someone doing the same job as someone else - with the same job description, hours etc - is paid differently. You can imagine how we all feel about this. But I don't see that changing in the near future. And if mentioned to the directors of the Councils they will say we are all different sizes with different budgets. So we have to pay different rates.
It is not only pay rates that differ. I have a different budget than the coordinator of the other Councils. So when we are trying to show consistency across the regional library - it can be difficult to do depending on where the money comes from. Regional library will cover some things but infrastructure, furniture, computers etc are covered at council level. So some branches are really very nice looking and others require a bit of a face lift.
Then if you want to bring the issue of consistency into an even broader sense - should we be consistent in services across all the public libraries? Should we all be offering the same thing? Should a person travelling between states be able to walk into a public library and see almost the same layout?? I suppose that would make the world a really boring place. But would it make our impact stronger??
Anyway, enough rambling for one morning. There is a topic I want to blog about that I hope to do in the coming days but I'm unsure how to approach it or explain it so I will think about it a little longer but it has to do with politics and libraries.
I have mentioned before that we are a single income family. I knew the pay rate of this position prior to accepting it - and I successfully negotiated for a little bit higher starting point and have since negotiated to be paid at the top of my scale. It wasn't that hard once I sat down with my director and discussed everything that I had been doing (which was a fair bit beyond my original job description and what the libraries had achieved since starting in my role - note I don't take credit for everything but I was focusing on the things a manager should be assisting in making her staff achieve).
So now I sit at the top of my scale - hmmm!! I have mentioned in a past post that in a metropolitan area, an equivalent position to mine would be getting paid at least $20,000 more. But I can't really compare metro with country because our Council is only small so doesn't have a large budget. And if you really look at things - most of the people working there are not earning what they could elsewhere - it is the lifestyle (yeah right)!! Did I mention that in the country we pay more for electricity, groceries, internet access, petrol, etc etc?! But yes it is a beautiful place to live.
What frustrates me is that when I have seen positions advertised in my workplace there appears to be some inconsistency in pay scales. I've been forever lost in why engineers and town planners get paid more than librarians - although I'm sure they would come up with some valid reasons. We all went to university and got our degress, we all work the same hours etc etc. So why are librarians not taking seriously?? What do we have to do as a profession to ensure we are felt to be as necessary and worthy as other senior roles in our organisation?? I realise these are questions that have been asked before - in fact I think they are asked at every conference I've attended. I have always thought that we really need to be attending conferences of different professions and telling them what we are doing well. We already know what we do so why keep telling ourselves - get outside of the box and tell other professions.
My other frustration is that we are a part of a regional library - that is not really the frustration but I'll explain. The regional library is made up of 3 Councils. We are not employed by the regional library we are employed by the Council. Therefore, we are all paid different rates of pay. So we are all working as a "team" but someone doing the same job as someone else - with the same job description, hours etc - is paid differently. You can imagine how we all feel about this. But I don't see that changing in the near future. And if mentioned to the directors of the Councils they will say we are all different sizes with different budgets. So we have to pay different rates.
It is not only pay rates that differ. I have a different budget than the coordinator of the other Councils. So when we are trying to show consistency across the regional library - it can be difficult to do depending on where the money comes from. Regional library will cover some things but infrastructure, furniture, computers etc are covered at council level. So some branches are really very nice looking and others require a bit of a face lift.
Then if you want to bring the issue of consistency into an even broader sense - should we be consistent in services across all the public libraries? Should we all be offering the same thing? Should a person travelling between states be able to walk into a public library and see almost the same layout?? I suppose that would make the world a really boring place. But would it make our impact stronger??
Anyway, enough rambling for one morning. There is a topic I want to blog about that I hope to do in the coming days but I'm unsure how to approach it or explain it so I will think about it a little longer but it has to do with politics and libraries.
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