Blog June Post 8 - buildings, collections, ponderings

I'm struggling this morning about what to write about.  I'm working from Urunga branch today so I only have to walk down the road and I'm at work.  I sometimes wish it was like that everyday.  However, because Bellingen branch building is only 4 years old, I have to say I enjoy working in a new building.

Out of the three library branches I manage, Urunga is the oldest.  It desperately needs new carpet and some sort of face lift - perhaps a paint job as internally there is a lot of dark wood and tinted windows.  Unfortunately, funds are tight and there is not enough for new carpet.  So each year, since I've been here (coming up to my 4th), I use some of the equipment budget to purchase some new furniture that will lift the library.

So far I've purchase a new lounge, a large colourful mat for the children's area, a colourful activity table for the children's area and a large display pyramid.

We have a number of new collections coming to the branches over the next few months.  So I have warned my staff that we have to find room for these collections, as well as make room for our continually growing collections.

Already, our fiction shelves in all three branches are full - that is adult, junior and YA.  I have been desperately trying to weed when I can, but when there is only one person weeding three branches, you can understand that it is hard to make a dent.

The new collections are DVD's (yes we are only now having a DVD collection - long story) and HSC books - e.g. Excel guides.  Bellingen already has the DVD collection but we are going to start populating our smaller branches now.  That said, Bellingen is already starting to run out of room.  We also received the beginning of our HSC collection this week.  Yesterday I madly did some shelf shuffling and fit the collection on the end of the non-fiction collection - but this is temporary as I want it in a more prominent space.

Temporarily I would like to see the branches use the paper back spinners as a possible location for the DVD's.  Currently the paper back spinners have uncatalogued paper backs on them.  I do have an issue with having uncatalogued items in the library but at the same time, our area is a tourist destination so you often have people come into the library and want to take books without the worry of having to return them.  We do offer free reciprocal membership but as I said, they don't want to worry about returning them.  They are quite popular and we manually count them for statistics but it frustrates me that we aren't gaining these possible new memberships and we are relying on staff to see people walk out with the paper backs as not all people come to the desk to tell us they have taken some.

Does anyone know of other public libraries that have uncatalogued paper backs?  I know it is common up and down the New South Wales coast.

Grafton HQ has some older shelving available.  So I will be purchasing some of the shelving from them.  I am unsure how I will get it from Grafton to Bellingen/Dorrigo/Urunga but I imagine that I will have to take a work ute and do it myself.  I'm going to get a few shelves for Bellingen too, although it will mean we mix new shelves with old but I can put them in positions where it won't make it too obvious.  And in reality it will probably only bother me because our users don't really care as long as there are lots of books available!

That brings me to another ponder.  I remember back to my days working in a university library that was in a building with a number of levels.  On the entry level we had reduced our reference collection dramatically so it was really a few bays of reference, lots of seating areas and a 24 hour computer room, circulation desk and information desk.

I remember one day a student walked over to the information desk and asked where all the books had gone.  I said that there were two levels above us with books.  He replied saying that previously all levels had been full of books and where was his student fees being spent if we weren't spending them on books.  I did say that we also had a number of electronic resources.  But he got very disgruntled as he wanted the physical and he wanted the library to be full of physical books.  He was quite young too.

Now back to a more recent thing of when we relocated the Bellingen branch from the old building to the new.  The old building was very small and cramped so it was pack full of shelves and books.  We did weed a few items during the move but not a lot.  But the new building was three times the space of the old building so the collection spread out and there was lots of space and seating areas.  For months after the move heaps of users commented on where had all the books gone.  To which I replied that there was the same number of books they had just been spread out.  They would not believe me.  They felt that the only good library was one overflowing with books -- regardless of the age or condition of them.

So when we all move to ebooks (if that ever happens) - will we still have people asking where are all the books??!!  Will they devalue our library when they can't see the physical??  Will there be any point in having buildings??

Blog June Post 7 - Dismantling the Stack

So yesterday I was once again in Grafton at HQ.  I'm really over driving and am so glad that my commute is only 15mins each way and not an hour and half to two hours.

Anyway, my reason for being at HQ yesterday was to dismantle our stack collection.  You see our library service is made up of three councils and as from 30 June one of those member councils is leaving us.  Therefore, we have to ensure that the member council leaving us gets 23% of all collections - including stack.

What is stack?  Our stack collection is made up of fiction and non-fiction items that are so old but also so useful/valuable that instead of leaving them on the browsing shelves in the branches, they are housed in stack in HQ.  Library users can still access them via reservations.

So the process we followed is that we allowed the two staff from the leaving member council to go through stack and choose the items they would like for their branch libraries.  The staff from the remaining member council libraries then went through and made a decision on whether it was something that was not being used by our users or if it was something we wanted to negotiate with.

Most of the ones chosen for negotiation were things that would break up a book series, or there was no other copy in our branches.  If there was no other copy we applied the weeding concept - if it hasn't been used in the last two years then perhaps it's not going to be used again.  This is a hard rule to apply to stack because the lack of use could be because people don't know they are available because they are not in a browsing collection.  So there was some hard decisions made - but they had to be made.

I then go thinking about should or when a library only has ebooks - how do you create a stack?  Can you even create a stack collection?  What if formats and ereaders change and how then can you still access these resources?  Will licenses allow libraries to keep items "forever"?  Should we be keeping items "forever"?

So while this post is rather short compared to my previous posts - I do leave you to ponder the future of stack and the impact of ebooks on such collections.

Blog June Post #6 - weather it will, weather it won't

Weather is usually a topic of conversation that you resort to when you have nothing else to talk about, but not in this case.  What has prompted my discussion of weather is yesterday the East cost of NSW had an exciting (probably not the case for everyone) weather event happen.  A deep low came up the coast from the South.  It also affected some parts of Victoria with some serious flash flooding.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, by the time it reached us in the early hours of this morning, the rain part had disinergrated and we are now left with some strong gusts of wind.  It did cause the power to go off but I didn't notice because I was asleep and only know because the clocks are flashing - another good reason why I rely on my mobile phone alarm to wake me up!!

Weather has always struck me as an interesting topic.  I love watching shows about the tornadoes in the US and can totally understand a persons fascination with trying to understand weather and why such things as tornadoes happen.

Prior to moving down here, we lived in South East Qld (Ipswich) and it had been in drought for almost 10 years.  We felt much depression watching storm clouds brew only to pass to either side of where we lived or offer nothing but a light show and some noise.  Not to say we didn't get some bits of rain, but mostly it was disappointment.

Within the first year of moving here, it flooded around 12 times.  We had some ridiculous amount of rain - 3638 mm.  Now we have times when we crave the consistency that Qld weather used to provide - you would at least have a week of sun (maybe not so much at the moment).  For 3 years we have been cheated of a proper summer.  Lots of rain and not much heat.

So what does this have to do with libraries?  I will share with you a story that happened to my libraries.  In April 2009, we all headed down to Wagga Wagga for my graduation.  When we left we knew there was a weather event coming - the now famous East coast Low.  However, there is no way we could've predicted (well no one could) what happened.

I had my laptop with me and there was wireless internet available in the cabin we were staying in (at a cost).  So I was following the weather back home.  I also called my branches to make sure everything was running smoothly.

Now since I was not there, I was relying on my staff to tell me what was happening.  Dorrigo reported that yes it was wet but there was no flooding and nothing to be concerned about there.  Bellingen reported that it was wet and stormy and the river was coming up (it comes up often so not too much of a concern), and Urunga said that yes it was stormy and lots of wind but don't worry.

As time went on the radar on the BOM was sort of indicating that perhaps there is something to worry about because I had never seen black and red in so many places and it wasn't moving.  It was hovering over our area.  Of course, in Wagga Wagga there was not a drop of rain.

Another call to my staff.  Dorrigo was still ok, Bellingen the power was off so I suggested it was probably ok to go home and put a sign on the door.  Urunga well they mentioned that the bowling club across the road was about to get flooded - hmmm - my response - why are you still there????  Get out of the library now.  Their response - but what if someone needs the library? My response - I really don't think that they could possibly get to the library unless they had a floatation device!!

So they did leave but they had put themselves in danger.  One of the staff got their husband to drive through water to the front door of the library and get them out.  I won't mention that I had said to put anything we thought needed replacing on the floor in case the water did come in!! Shhhh!!

Now at this point I will mention that we don't have a disaster plan.  Yes we should have one.  I believe that at that stage council didn't have one in place either so I can't blame my staff for trying to go down with the ship.  I suppose in some sad way it did show an interesting aspect of customer service!!  And I do believe that in our communities there are probably some people that would come to the library in times like this and think that it should be service as normal!!

So now there is a task on my list - develop a disaster management plan and also a procedure to follow to indicate at what point you should be leaving the library and going home.

I suppose there were many libraries that, like us, didn't have a disaster management plan and now do, especially since the floods/fires in Victoria, NSW and Qld.

Do you have an interesting weather event that you would like to share?

I have more to write on this topic but I have run out of time - I have to head up to Grafton again today.  And I will report that the winds are now a little more than strong gusts - I would hate to be anyone camping/caravaning down at the caravan park on the foreshores at the moment.  I hope they have strong ropes and I hope my car doesn't get blown off the road.

Blog June Post 5 - life is as sweet as a baby's sigh

It is cold. Well not cold by some people's definitions but I hate the cold and being a true Queenslander, anything in single figures may as well be considered freezing. In fact, make that anything under 25'C. So my poor little fingers are freezing as I type this and I have only just realised that I have been a bad librarian and not tagged my other posts.

Yesterday's trip to Grafton went well. We are trying a new way of book selecting where we are provided with the descriptions and order list instead of the physical item. This allows us to purchase more pre-published books then previously. We still do get to look at physical items but the majority of decisions are made going by the descriptions (they do have a picture of the book cover so we do use that when making selection decisions too). Which brings me to ask - how do you judge a book worth selecting for your library? Is it all based on the description? The gap in the collection? The community need? The book cover? Combination of all of these?

Would you be comfortable making selection decisions purely by being emailed lists with blurbs, book jacket and cost? Do you prefer to look and feel the physical item? I suppose with ebooks you do select from blurbs and book jackets - or does your ebook supplier provide you with whatever titles are in the subscription rather than you having to make any decision? How do you feel about the decision being taken from you?

I know that there are a number of libraries (especially public libraries) that have outsourced their purchasing. They provide the book vendors with lists of authors that they believe their community will like, as well as popular genres and subjects. The vendors select and process on their behalf. I'd be interested to hear from anyone working in a library that uses this process and how they feel about it? Does it work? Do you think your community is satisfied with the collection? Do you feel it takes away from the traditional role of the librarian?

Personally, I feel privileged to make selection decisions. I like to think that I know my community well enough to be able to select items that I know they will read and enjoy. While our library service does have a large standing order list, I don't think you are doing your community justice just ordering the popular authors. Sometimes I find a gem of a book come through the selection process. It is usually a debut author that you know someone in your community will enjoy. These are missed in standing orders. But perhaps they are picked up in genre lists??

What about non-fiction? Does anyone work in a library where they have a standing order for non-fiction or the vendor does the selecting for this collection? Our non-fiction use is dropping, as I think most public libraries are finding. Not in all areas. Subject areas such as craft, cooking, travel, sustainability and local studies are still popular. But certainly school children use of the collection for assignments has dropped dramatically.

We get the odd few children coming through looking for books for assignments. Well actually it's mainly the parents coming in for the children. But usually it is only because it has been specified on the assignment that they must use at least a certain number of books. I find this very sad because there are some really good junior non-fiction books out there. Although now because they are not being used in the libraries, we don't purchase them so the production of such books has dropped. When selecting we get to look at maybe 10-12 junior non-fiction titles, of which we may choose 1-2. Just because they don't get used.

I have been slowly going through and weeding my branches where and when possible. It is a hard slog when you are the one person doing it. But we are all short on space and we have some exciting collections coming through so we need the room for them.

I notice when weeding, especially the junior non-fiction that some of these books that are over 10 years old have only ever been loaned once, or worse, they have never been loaned at all. Have others noticed this trend?

I do think it is sad that by the time my daughter reaches the age of doing assignments/projects she will be finding the majority, if not all of her information online. While I know that I will be assisting her and teaching her proper search skills - because I know that the teacher librarian often does not get this opportunity - I feel she will still be missing out on using those wonderful junior non-fiction resources that I used when going through school.

I personally think it is much easier to find a book dealing with a particular subject - let's face it most junior non-fiction were developed to fit the needs of the school curriculum so you were hard pressed if you couldn't find a book that was about your topic - then to troll through cyberspace looking for the same information. While my daughter will be loaded with the skills to do this, not all children will have that opportunity and I worry for them.

Anyway, I had planned that this post be about my love of music and discuss my music tastes etc. But instead I went off tangent. I'll leave the music post for another time.

PS I am off to Grafton again tomorrow to divide up the stack collection - long story that I hope to share tomorrow time permitting.

Blog June Day 4

I'm in a bit of a rush this morning as I have to leave to work early as I am heading up to Grafton HQ to do some book selecting.  I have mentioned previously how much I enjoy book selection so this won't be a chore.  After the book selection, the branch coordinators will have a catch up meeting.  It's good to catch up regularly face to face because sometimes when you are back working at the branches it is hard to sit down and think about where we are all going and if we are on track.

We will be reviewing our strategic plan/action plan this month to ensure we are on track and to make any changes, so it is a good time to meet.

I'm a bit stumped what to write about today.  It's foggy outside and I'm up slighly earlier than usual so perhaps my brain is foggy too.  I have some ideas in the my head but am not sure how to get them out onto the blog.  We all suffer writers block at some stage but I didn't think I'd be suffering it this early on.

Since #blogjune started I have been reading many more blogs then I usually do and I am always interested in learning more about colleagues and friends that I connect with via social media.  Some of these people I have not met face to face so it is nice to catch glimpses of their professional lives and sometimes personal tidbits.

Yesterday, Jo shared her usual breakfast routine.  I liked that Jo did this because it gave me a glimpse of her morning and it is usually that time of the day that I am catching up with her on social media.  Not that I imagine her in her night gown or anything - it just shares a little bit of Jo that I didn't know about.

My morning (during the week) starts at 6.30am (usually a bit earlier as I never let the alarm wake me up).  I drag myself out of bed (especially in winter) and make lunch for my daughter and I.  I keep telling myself I should make it the night before so I have more time to play on the computer in the morning, but no I always leave it till the morning.

Once lunch is ready, I get my cereal ready.  I love cereal and try to mix it up a bit.  I use a big bowl and cram it full.  Don't they say we should have a breakfast made for kings??!!  I follow this with a hot milo.

I head into the computer room (i.e. study) and start my morning catch up.  Emails, facebook, twitter and google reader.  I then do the weather, Coffs Coast Advocate and Queensland Times.  I sometimes sneek a peek at the real estate page because I just like looking at what's on the market around the place.

It's amazing what articles and websites you can pick up on when reading other's facebook, twitter and blog posts.  I usually find I do a lot of professional reading in the morning.  And I hope to find some articles/blog posts that I can share on twitter as well.

At some point - usually around 8am I have to get small one up and ready for school.  She takes after her dad and likes to sleep in, especially now it's winter.  On the weekends it's hard to get her up before 9am so I usually just let her sleep.  Gives me a bit more time to myself as hubby likes to sleep in too.

Getting small one up is fun.  I usually sing a little song - the words escape me at the moment - then sometimes if I'm feeling particularly cruel I put my cold hands on her or tickle her neck or ears until she wakes up.  Because it is winter I try and get her dressed while she is still in bed.  Then she likes for me to carry her out to the lounge room (I know she is getting a bit big for this at 6 but it is her routine) and put her on her favourite spot on the lounge - usually next to our cat, Sabine - and put a blanket over her.

Then I make her breakfast of a nutella sandwich and get the tv on to one of her favourite shows.  At the moment she likes watching Handy Manny.

Then I sneak back to the computer or do the dishes or run around like a mad woman getting ready to leave.

While I enjoy my computer time in the morning, what I'd really love to be doing is a nice brisk morning walk.  Pre child, every morning I would get up early and go for a walk.  It would freshen me up for the day.  I enjoy doing this when I'm away for zone meetings or conferences but would love to do it everyday.  So I'm hoping one day small one learns how to get her own breakfast and get the tv on so I can be out doing an early morning walk.

So that's my morning (and thanks Jo for the idea).  Now it's time to hit facebook, twitter, google reader etc to get my morning started.

Nothing gold can stay

As previously mentioned the little girl escaped through books.  Well at the age of 12, the not so little girl discovered a book that would stay with her forever.  The book was The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.

Why did this book appeal to the not so little girl so much?  Well I think it had something to do with the fact that the main character was around her age and he got bullied.  He couldn't really understand why the socs and the greasers hated each other, and he wanted everyone to realise that no matter if you were a soc or a greaser, everyone had a tough life.

The not so little girl fell hard for this book character and it wouldn't be the last time she fell in love with a book character.  Throughout her early teens, the not so little girl would take to dressing like a greaser in real life.  She would wear jeans, a black shirt and a flanolette shirt.  She would even slick her hair back (she had short hair).  I'm sure her family and friends did wonder about her and why she was dressing that way, but to her it made her feel so much closer to the characters in the book.  Her imagination would drift away and allow her to feel part of the gang and give her a bit of extra confidence.

Those of you that know and have read this book will also know that there is a movie based on this book.  You can find out more here.   Well you can imagine what finding the movie and watching it did to the not so little girl!!  You see she was at that age where her hormones were running wild and boys were starting to interest her.  So throw in a movie full of actor such as C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Esteveze and Tom Cruise, well you can only guess how the not so little girl felt!!  Yeeeehaaa!!  Now the not so little girl had always felt a connection with the main character, Ponyboy but now - hmmmm - they were all so good looking. 

So to cut out the finer details we will just say that the not so little girl has spent years (and continues to) swapping around which character she thinks is the hottest and in her imaginative world of being in The Outsiders (don't tell me you have never imagined that you were in the book/movie) which one would she want to date!!

Now not so many years back, the not so little girl found out about Fan Fiction.  Fan Fiction is where the fans of books, movies and TV shows rewrite or continue the story in their own words.  And much to her excitement she discovered The Outsiders Fan Fiction. 

Some of the stories are not that good.  But there are a few really enjoyable ones that have allowed the not so little girl to continue her love of the characters from The Outsiders.  If you are interested in discussing or discovering The Outsiders Fan Fiction, you may like to try the Wrong Side of the Tracks website.  They did have an awards site in the past but that seems to have been deleted.

The not so little girl went on to read all of S. E. Hinton's books and has most of the collection in her home library and also the movie versions as well.  It helps that Matt Dillon features in most of them which makes it all very easy on the eye.

I would love to hear from others that have developed such a love for a particular book or author that it stayed with them through their childhood, teens, adulthood.  Or maybe you love fan fiction.  And I'd especially love to hear from others that share the not so little girls obsession with The Outsiders.

PS my blog reader list has increased since #blogjune started and I am really enjoying reading others #blogjune posts!

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!!