Blog June Post 11 - Mud Poo and Cows

Today's mantra: Live the life you have imagined.

Thanks to @geocachinglibn for writing a responding blog post to my post concerning libraries and communities.

He writes: There are certainly a range of different communities on a university campus, such as the research community, teaching and learning community, and the internationalisation community, and the library is usually represented in them all.

This got me thinking - do public libraries have a research community, teaching and learning community and internationalisation community?  I think they do, and I think they have more - the reading for relaxation community, the education community, the hobby community, the book club community, the student requiring a space community - and I use the word community instead of individual as there are many and often the come together in the library or network through the library.  But I suppose we could just call them the public library community!

I will be interested to read/learn more about how @geocachinglibn feels the health library he is now working in builds community.  But there are other's that follow my blog that already work in health libraries and they may be able to discuss this as well.  The floor is open to you.....

Today was a good day in the library.  I had a query for an item that turned out to be not what it was first thought to be.  I love it when I have to do a bit of sleuthing to work out just what the customer is wanting - especially when only provided with a snippet of information.  I miss using these skills as the role I am currently in calls for more people massaging (management) then the fun "using library skills" stuff!

This morning was also fun.  I ran 21km with my running friends.  We left at around 5am in the dark and went out along one of the road that passes a few dairy farms.  Unfortunately, for us we had some rain last night which caused parts of the road to be slippery with mud and cow poo.  It was a case of yelling out "puddle" "pot hole" "mud" "cow" - yes cow!!  A cow was outside the paddock and due to the lack of light it was a bit of a shock to look up from concentrating on the ground so as not to fall over and see a huge beast in front of you.  I think the cow was more scared of us - as you would be with numerous bobbing head lamps coming towards you looking somewhat like UFO's - and ran off to find the gap in the fence and return to the safety of the paddock.

Blog June Post 6 &7

I was almost at the point of giving up #blogjune this afternoon due to lack of inspiration and motivation and wondering if what I'm writing is actually interesting to anyone.  Then I found some of my fellow bloggers had discussed one of my earlier posts about whether library users need to know what we do to find information.

@geocachinglibrarian shared these thoughts.  Then @seanfish suggested that librarians offer a "box with windows."  So be a place that shows those wanting to know how to find information and be a "black box" that provides information without revealing how it is done.  I like the box with windows idea!

Yesterday was a busy day with the odd start of no run.  Off I went to Coffs Harbour Library to pick up a magazine I had on reserve that my own library doesn't subscribe to.  I was pleasantly surprised last week when Coffs Library weeded their Runners World magazines and offered me the weeded issues free of charge!  I then discovered they had also done this for a friend with their Triathlon mags.  Aren't library staff thoughtful!
Then to do the rounds of Woolworths.

Home again and it was a rainy dreary day so I sat around not doing much and then went for a walk when a break in the rain appeared.  Miss A joined me so of course it poured when we were half way around.  Home again and a quiet evening followed.
This morning, up at stupid o'clock (4am) to get picked up at 5am to head to South West Rocks for the Macleay River Marathon.  I was joining 5 friends to run the half marathon as a training run for the Gold Coast Marathon.  The goal was to go slower than usual and stick with the girls.  Lyndee did a great job keeping me to task except where I got carried away atthe end where I made us do a 1km effort to the finish line.  We pulled Iin at under 2 hours which was good.  I was supposed to go and run another 8km but as soon as they made me sit down to take the timing chip off, my hip flexor said no.

I did enjoy a massage and a late breakfast. Then home and an afternoon walk ofm8k and I'm suitably stuffed.

To finish I have 2 mantras: When life hands you a wave, grab your board and enjoy the ride And There are seven days in a week and someday isn't one of them.

Blog June Post 3

Sorry this post is a bit late but last night I was lucky enough to attend Sirens of the Seaboard - a special women's only dinner where local health professionals (women) spoke to us about women's health issues - specifically for those over 30.

The mantra for this post is: Life will (at times) knock you down.  It's okay to take a breather.

Last night that was one of the messages shared.  It is okay to be stressed out, emotional, and at times feel like you need to step off the world and take time to breathe.  It is normal.  Life is full of ups and downs.

While it may seem like every second person is being diagnosed with depression or anxiety - have these increased any since when our parents were younger.  They just didn't talk about it back then or diagnose it as depression etc.  Everything was fine.

So while today it seems like time is moving faster and things are changing quickly - is this causing us to be more stressed, depressed and anxious?

Those that fought for women to have equal employment and be able to go out and work full time - is working full time helping us to feel less stressed, depressed and/or anxious??  If you are feeling stressed, depressed and/or anxious - it might be a good time to look at your work situation and see if you can work part time to allow time for you to do more enjoyable pursuits (happiness helps you feel less stressed, depressed and anxious).  You might have to make some minor sacrifices but perhaps it's something to consider.  I know if my financial situation was different, I'd certainly love to be working part time - just to be more present for my family instead of rushing from one thing to the next.

The evening also talked about menopause, mental health and sexual health but I won't go into these other than to say all the information was very informative, and it was particularly good of the professional who spoke about sexual health to mention erotic fiction and that the local library has a good collection - I did then have to yell out "look for the lips" as in the lip sticker!!

It makes me think of how good it is in small communities for women to come together in forums like this and share serious information in a fun and enjoyable way!

Hopefully it will be a double post day and Ill have another post for you this evening!

Blog June Post 2 - Be the Bomb!!

Ok today's mantra is Be the Bomb!!

Now if my hip flexor was feeling great I would be feeling the bomb because I would have participated in the 3 x 1km efforts this morning with my running friends.  Instead I toddled off on my own to do 8km.  I did get to see a gorgeous pre sun rise at the headland but I love the feeling of pushing myself through efforts - not while I'm doing them - just at the end so I feel I missed out a bit.

Anyway, back to Be the Bomb!!  I have been doing some recruitment for some casual positions recently and for me the big thing that resonated is that for a small town we have a lot of library qualified and experienced people out there.  The other thing is that most people don't know what we do as library staff.

So since I don't want to go into too much detail about applications received and quality of applications - because that is not something to share in the public sphere - I will just say that perhaps as a profession we don't do a very good job at letting people know or illustrating just what we do in our jobs in libraries - or perhaps we do such a good job, we make it look easy!!

Predominately, in our library it is all about customer service - knowing your customers, knowing your community, knowing what they want and knowing about the books they like to read and how to find the information they want - or even going as far to pre-empt their information needs so you have the access to the information they want.  So lots of professions have customer service as their main skill set (if that's what you can call it, but you get what I mean).  So lots of people have experience in customer service and this can be transferred to a library service.

Lots of people know how to know their customers and their community because we are not the only industry that does this.

But what about books and information.  What industry combines all of this and knows what information their community needs and when they need it??

Back to the part about people not knowing what we do.  Do they need to know what we do?  Or do they only need to get the end product - really how many of us care how that packet of chips got on the shelf and into the trolley - we just want to eat the chips??

Should we be like the farmers and start educating people about the process of getting the information to them?  What does it involve?  How do we go about it?  What skills are needed?  What hurdles do we jump to get the information?  Or do they really need/want to know?

So perhaps it is about being the bomb - get the right information to the right person at the right time - but let's not get hung up on whether the person cares about how you got the information.

What do you think?

I'm back - well sort of!

It's been a while since my last post and that's because I have been preoccupied with other things.

Some of you that follow me on Facebook and Twitter would know that since my last post I have become somewhat obsessed with running.  Yes you read right.  Running!

It's been a while since I've had this sort of relationship with exercise.  Prior to this obsession, I was doing boot camp (since February 2013), prior to that I was walking very regularly.  But in my past life (pre-child), I did actually run a bit.  In my past, past life I taught aerobics, ran, rode and swam regularly.  So exercise and I have had a bit of an on and off relationship.

Back when I was in my mid-teens, exercise and I did not have a healthy relationship.  Obsession overtook and I won't go into it in this blog post (maybe at a later date I'll be comfortable to write about it), but exercise became the be all and end all - and not the healthy thing it should've been.  And now I'm older and wiser, it is a bit easier not to let exercise become the focus of life - it's pretty high up but family is still the highest!!

So now exercise is "on" again in my life, I'm a bit excited to have a "hobby" as such that does not revolve around libraries.  Although since my obsession also includes reading as much as I can about running and exercise, the library is still a focus to obtain all the information!!

The people I exercise with are outside libraries and my place of work, so it is broadening my social circle and allowing me to focus on things that aren't necessarily to do with libraries.  And this is probably why the blogging stopped.

You note from my previous posts, libraries and anything related to libraries is pretty much what this blog is about - ok weather slipped in there sometimes!  Therefore, since focusing on exercise I didn't feel I had anything to share about libraries.  I wanted to write about running but then I didn't want to bore readers.

Now don't be concerned, as I am still just as passionate about libraries.  I think perhaps I'm now a more rounded individual because I have a focus that is not only related to my work.  But I must admit that I was getting overwhelmed with living, eating, breathing libraries.  So I think exercise has come back at a good time.

On a side note, there is a library conference coming up in a few weeks which I will be attending, and I must admit, that while I'm excited about what I will learn from the presentations and networking, I'm also excited planning my morning runs around Sydney!

I promise to blog about my conference learnings in early December.

#blogjune Post 28 - Lunchtime Conversations

Today I had lunch with some council colleagues from another department.  As a librarian in local government, within the council teams I consider myself to be Canada - the safe colleague who gets along with the majority of the staff in the organisation.

Anyway, I'm not here to post about me.  Conversation drifted to one of the colleagues mentioning they had recently seen a Catalyst episode on ABC TV about Information Overload. 

They must have repeated the episode because I could only find one that was aired in 2012.  But regardless, the topic is still relevant.

What struck my colleague is the impact of information consumption on children.  On how our children are part of the "born digital" generation who will know no different then to using technology for everyday things and learning.  These quotes from the show illustrate that:

"Prof David NicholasWe're all plugged in to the big, fat information pipe now. We can contact a massive library. Information is on tap.

Baroness Susan Greenfield
They're a side issue of salad, you know? In restaurants, everyone has their mobiles. You only have to see people incessantly using their thumbs while they're talking to someone else. You only have to see people with those white wires in their heads, not communicating or connecting with the outside world, let alone each other.

Anja Taylor
The virtual revolution is transforming the way we shop, manage our health, entertain ourselves and even how we make friends.

Prof Jean Twenge
Websites like Facebook and Twitter and YouTube really allow people to seek attention for themselves.

Prof Jeremy Bailenson
I can do things we can never do in the physical world. The rules, the physics, of how social interactions work get completely changed.

Baroness Susan Greenfield
I think the question of the impact of technology on young brains is as broad a question as that, let's say, of climate change. It's unprecedented, it's highly controversial - some people think we're doomed.

NARRATION
Whatever you think of digital technology, one thing is certain - there's no going back.

Anja Taylor
Digital technology is now so pervasive that there's an app that shows me what's in front of my phone so I don't run into things. If I lose connection, I feel anxious and thirsty for information. So if I'm feeling so ill at ease without it, what is all this constant stimulation actually doing to my brain?

Dr Bahador Bahrami
If you practise juggling for a week, then your brain is going to change. Now imagine for the past ten years, you have been sitting at your computer a few hours a day and using internet - of course it has changed you. There is no way that it shouldn't."

In previous posts, I have discussed children and technology, and what is a good age to have children using technology etc.  The discussion I had with colleagues over lunch centred on how children look for information in a totally different way to what we do.

I am possibly making broad assumptions when I say this but during our discussion we did say that the majority of children (and I'm referring to those in primary school) will look to "Google" prior to looking to anywhere else when seeking information.

My colleagues and I reflected on how we would always go to a book first - most regularly the encyclopedia.  We also reflected on the "finding information skills" that we were taught by the school librarian as part of our weekly library sessions.  I have also blogged about the lack of this happening in schools these days.

I then mentioned how some studies have shown that university students do not absorb as much information when reading from a screen - computer or tablet - then when reading from a physical book.  However, I said that we should do studies on our own children, who are born digital, when they are older to see if they also do not absorb as much information, because I believe the tide will have turned.  Mainly because they will be so used to receiving information on a screen that, like is mentioned in the narration from Catalyst, their brain will change.  Their method of learning will be much different to ours and those of university students today.

Insert Catalyst Narration:
"NARRATIONDigital natives - users born after 1993 - are less focused or engaged with each site. But is that a concern?

Dr Bahador Bahrami
Your brain is not there to give you education. Your brain is part of a biological organism that tries to maximise, uh, things, such as, for example, how easily you can get on with life without having to spend much energy, much time, or much effort. And if this maximises your gain without putting much effort in it, you brain is, of course, going to do this. This is very, very rational. If you take your child away from internet and just tell them, 'You have to go to the encyclopaedia in paper and find the answer, write it down in your notebook and take it to your teacher,' yes, she will be able to focus greatly. But 20 years from now, that is not what's going to get her in front of everybody else. Because everybody else does that in a second."

What do you think?

Just Google It - Continued

I had to do a follow up post to my last post because I think it is important to share what has happened since gaining approval to run sessions with the students as Miss A's school.

The school had organised library visits for the year 2/3, 3/4 and 5/6 classes.  However, the weather had other ideas and due to the extreme conditions, I said that I could visit the classes at the school rather than have the students walk to the library in the horizontal rain and wind.

At these visits, I had the students divide into their project questions/topics.  I provided each group some butchers paper and different covered felt pens (textas).  I then asked the students to label the paper with their project topic and write all the words and questions they could think of when it came to their topic.  E.g. for those doing shipwrecks they put ship, boat, rocks, storm, where did the boat/ship come from?, what was the boat/ship carrying?, where was the ship/boat going? etc.

I then handed out a kids guide to Dewey Decimal Classification that I had modified to be more Australian.

We went through how the Dewey Decimal Classification worked using a comparision with supermarket shopping and how all the fruit and vegetables are together and all the meat is together and all the bread is together, etc.

I then asked them to look at their words on their butchers paper and go through the Dewey Decimal Classification handout and write down any Dewey Decimal numbers that they thought matched their words.

By this time, I had run out of time with them - I only had half an hour with each class.  But the end product was butchers paper full of keywords and possible Dewey Decimal numbers they could go to when visiting the library.

Luckily for me, the teachers arranged for library visits once the weather had cleared.

During the library visit, I gave a quick tour of the library.  We then sat down and I asked what parts of a book they could look at to find out if the book would have anything about their topic.  The students were really cluey about this and all could answer - the blurb at the back, the contents page and the index.

I had put aside books to do with their topics and made sure they couldn't be loaned to allow all students equal access to the resources.  We all know what can happen if you have one student or parent of a student who is quick of the mark and borrows all the books about a particular topic resulting in the other students having access to nothing.

The students were then allowed to look through the books and photocopy (for free) any pages they thought that would help then with their projects - with a limit of 10 pages!

All in all it has been a success.  The teachers were really impressed and have already talked to me about making this a regular thing.

The principal even put a small article in the school newsletter talking about the partnership with the school and local library and how wonderful it was for the students to learn about how they can access learning resources from a place within their community outside of school.

Now all I have to do is continue working on the other 6 primary schools and 2 high schools in our region - which I have been hammering away at since I started in this job 5 years ago.

Just Google It

Last week, Miss A came home with her first project.  Miss A is in year 2 this year but has been put in a year 2/3 class so instead of continuing stage 1 work (Kindy-2), she is now doing stage 2 work (yrs 3-4).  I'm in mixed minds about this but I'm not focusing on this in today's blog post.

Back to the project.  So this is the project:

During each Term this year you will be given an outline for a project to work on at home.  The projects will be linked to that Term's theme in HSIE.  While not compulsory, we hope you will take these opportunities to further develop valuable skills in research and presentation.

Our theme in Term 1 is early Australian history: sea exploration, reasons for colonisation, and first settlement.

For this Term's project you should choose one of the following:

• A biography of a convict.  This can be any convict who became well-known, e.g. Francis Greenway, James Ruse, John Cadman.  If you know you have a convict as an ancestor, you can do your project on him or her.
• A famous shipwreck, e.g. Batavia, Vergulde Draeck, Zuytdorp or Trial (there are two - one in WA and another at South West Rocks)
• This year is the bicentenary of the crossing of the Blue Mountains by Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson in 1813.  Explain why it took 35 years to find a way over the mountains west of Sydney, and why it was so important for the colony of NSW.

And it goes on to explain how the project is to be presented.

Imagine my shock when Miss A told me that the teacher (not her teacher) explaining the project told them to use Google.  I asked - did they mention books, the school library, the public library??  She said no.

So like any good mother, I visited her teacher and mentioned that I wasn't very happy that the students were told to use Google and I'd happily offer the students a session on how to find information in the public library - which is just down the road from the school.

This week I'm providing "how to find information" sessions for the year 2/3's, 3/4's and 5/6's from my daughter's school.

Now I don't dismiss having students use Google to find information.  But I do get disappointed when there is no explanation on how to define what they should be looking for, no discussion of keywords, no discussion of how to evaluate the information found, and no discussion of the other research tools and resources that could be used.

I also find it disappointing that the school librarian is not insisting on offering "how to find information" sessions to the students.  

I understand that there can be many reasons why this doesn't happen - lack of funds, lack of support by the teachers, lack of time etc etc.  But what if I my daughter was not at this school? Who else would jump in and ask that the students be given the opportunity to be taught these skills?  Especially since the project states that it is allowing the students to further develop their research skills - well how about giving them research skills to develop instead of giving a project without the basic support to get them started?

Even if the school had not agreed to allow the students to come to the library, Miss A would still be provided with a lesson in finding information from me - but what about the other students?

And I'm trying very hard not to think about the other schools in our area that are also not providing their students with the basic start in finding information.

What are your thoughts on this?

PLNSW Imagine Conference Final Thoughts - I Promise!

On the way to the conference, my colleague and I visited 3 libraries:

1. Port Macquarie Library
2. Laurieton Library
3. Raymond Terrace Library

And on the way home we visited Tomaree Library and Community Centre, and Tea Gardens Library.  I took heaps of photos but am yet to load them to Picasa.  Once I have, I will share them on this blog.

The library visits were great.  It is always exciting visiting libraries and getting ideas to take back to your own branches - well I think so.

 The conference was well worth attending.  The theme of reading brought me back to our roots - well what I believe a library's roots to be.  Although, Marcus Bauber did get us thinking more about the role a librar has of developing wisdom.  The bottom line, I think, is that we are about reading - be it for gaining information or for leisure, it is what we provide.

I think sometimes we get lost trying to be too many things for our community.  I do believe we have a roll to play in providing access to and instruction on how to use new technology.  I really think we have to focus on what new technology we are going to be good at - what new technology our community will be wanting to use.  Because that is what it comes down to - what our community wants and sometimes I think we all get carried away focusing on what we want.

What I would love to see at a conference is more of someone telling us what we are doing wrong.  It's great to have speakers from outside our industry but often they spend all the time tellings us how good we are.  I don't really want to hear that - although it is nice.  I want to hear where we are going wrong and how we can change that to going right!

Having a chance to talk to the trade exhibitors is also a great thing at a conference but I felt rushed.  I love that many conferences I have attended have the exhibitor passbook to get stamped to go into the draw to win prizes - it does get delegates out there visiting the trade.  But it also gets delegates to the trade without having any questions to ask other than "please stamp my book."

In a past life I was involved in a conference committee and I realised then the importance of making the trade feel that it has been worth while attending the conference.  I don't think they want delegates just asking to stamp a book and then running off.  They want to have a conversation about their products - what's new, what's working, what isn't working.

While some delegates believe that they shouldn't talk to trade because they don't make purchasing decisions - they are often the end users of the product or the one's showing our users how to use the product.  Therefore, they are the most important person, apart from our users, that can talk to the trade about any issues we might be having at the end user end.  They are also the staff member who is hearing what our users want.  So again, they should be talking to the trade about those things!!

On a social note, I have found that the last few conferences I have been sticking to the people I know - which is very unlike me but I think I'm going through a few confidence issues at present, and really have been since moving to a different state.  So I don't feel as outgoing as I used to be and as confident to go up to people I don't know and introduce myself.  It's something I will be working on at future conferences.

The venue was excellent - who can complain about staying at a resort.  The costs of registration and accommodation was very economical.  I would have loved more time to explore the area but it did get me out and about at early hours of the morning to take it all in.

Well that should be all the PLNSW conference blog posts I have.  Till the next blog challenge or till the urge hits me again...

Blog June Post 29 - Community Information

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and thank goodness because I'm running out of ideas to blog about!

Today my focus is on community information.  Recently our library service surveyed our users and non users.  A telephone survey method was used and while we realise this is not the best method, we had to use this method to provide a proper comparison with our last user and non user survey which was performed in the same way.

It was interesting to note that both users and non users said they would use the library more if the library provided access to community information.  Of course, the survey did not allow those survey to ellaborate on what community information they wanted, so we may have to do a little more digging.  But I'd be interested to hear what community information other libraries offer/collect for their users?

Our council did have an up-to-date community directory but I believe due to the time consuming nature of keeping up to date this has fallen by the wayside.  And due to our limited staff resources, I wouldn't be putting our hand up to take on this role.  But perhaps that's what the community thinks we should be doing.

Our libraries do have small notice boards to put up community events but I find that our communities are often doing so much that the notice board gets over crowded and people don't often read everything that is on it - information overload.

So how do we determine what community information our users/potential users need when our library service spans across many different communities?

I did a quick search on Google to find different ways Councils/Libraries have been collecting and making accessible community information, here are a few examples:

• Parramatta City Council - Community Information Index
• State Library of Western Australia - Government and Community Information
• Wollongong City Libraries - Community Information
• Alexdrina Council - Connecting Up
• Ku-ring-gai Library - Community Information Database

And here is what our library service currently has - Local Community Information

How do you look for community information?

I've moved to a few different places in my lifetime and direction to where I could community information would've been helpful.  Probably more important now I have a family but in the past I would look to see if the town had a gym, pool, parks, community groups, etc.

I had this idea that we should team up with the local real estate agents and put together a library/town information pack that can be distributed to new tenants and home buyers in the area.  I'm still working on what to put in the pack and where to get all the "community information" from.  Do any other libraries already do this?  What do you include?

Anyway, a few things to think about and work on.