Blog December Post 13 - Sincerity

I got a set of Destiny Cards from my work Secret Santa and my word for today from the Destiny Cards is Sincerity!!

I thought I might use these cards as a prompt for what to post about.  But since the meaning of Sincerity is: The quality or condition of being sincere; genuineness, honesty, and freedom from duplicity. It may be a little deep for a morning post.  I'll try another word tomorrow.

Some of you may have read my "half post" from last night about the passing of one of my dear readers/borrowers.  Yesterday did have some fun moments to make up for that awfully sad one.

We had work Secret Santa - which I mentioned above.  With our Secret Santa you nominate to particpate and you draw a name out of a hat of a fellow worker - as we a small organisation it is organisation wide not just libraries - and I am the only library staff member that participates.  So I often pick people that I don't know very well which can make the gift buying difficult.

The rules of gift buying are simple - a limit of $10.

Usually if you know the person well you can find something fun or buy something and then make it fun.  For example, one year my car kept breaking down so my Secret Santa bought me a car care kit with screw driver, sponge, and car washing detergent.  Another example was from last year when some clever Secret Santa re-wrote a Dr Suess book for me - I may share this on a later post.

Needless to say, yesterday afternoon had a lot of laughter as our "Santa" handed gifts out and each participant has to read the card/poem/instructions out to everyone.

It was a nice way to finish up an otherwise sad day!

Blog December Post 12 and a half - Sometimes we cry

I had to share this short post as I'm sure a lot of you have been in this situation before.

Today an elderly gentleman came into the library to purchase honey - we sell pots of local honey in our library.

He was looking a bit more fragile than usual and no smile.

I told him we we were out of honey. He then handed me his wife's library card - I had been wondering where she was as she is usualy with him - and informed me that she had passed away last week.

I imediately came around the desk and gave him a hug and expressed my sympathy through tears.  His wife was such a warm soul and I always enjoyed her visits.

He griped my hand and let me know when the memorial is being held for her.

You see it is not only the books and our library we have a relationship with but our readers as well.

Blog December Post 12 - It's one of those days

I must admit, I'm a bit stumped about what to write today.

I could ask those that read this blog - what would you like to see me write about?

Anyway, instead I will bore you with how frustrating my day was yesterday.  You may remember that I predicted that this week would be stressful.  It makes me wonder why I take leave, as when I return there is so much work to do.  And I had only 3 days off this time!!

So yesterday was frustrating for a number of reasons but I suppose I really can't go into them because some are political, and some regard the lack of space on the shelves for books which is causing me no end of frustration as I have weeded and weeded and weeded - so I may just have to purchase new shelves which is not an easy task at this time of year.

I also ended the day with another one of our public computers going stupid.  And due to our limited IT staff, I know we will most likely have to wait a while before it is fixed - with school holidays coming up it will cause extra stress filling bookings - can't wait to get a computer booking system.

Then I got home and found that we have only received one calendar that my daughter had made at school (the students draw a picture and then they put it on a calendar) when I had ordered 3.  So today I have to chase up the school about it.

They had the school presentation "night" on yesterday "afternoon" at 5.30pm.  My bug bear about that is what about parents that work - I don't get home till around 6pm so never get to go to school functions.  Yes I could have tried to leave early but as mentioned above, yesterday was one of those days where that wasn't going to happen - unfortunately, most days are like that.

Then my last bug bear of the day was when I ordered some books from a particular online ebook shop and they are in ePub format.  However, they won't load onto Bluefire Reader on my tablet.  All other ePub books from other online shops do but not from this shop - the files come across as ACSM (I think that is the file format).  I am stumped and I can add that to another ebook frustration of mine!

So let's all toast our coffees, teas or milos to a better day today!!

Blog December Post 11 - Back to work

I'm heading back to work today after an extended weekend - I  had Thursday and Friday off last week, and yesterday off this week as my parents were down from Qld.

Due to the connected nature of the world today, I incidently read work emails while on leave.  This has enlightened me to the fact that this week may turn into a particularly stressful week.

There is some library politics going on, I have a staff member on sick leave and there may be issues around their return to work, and I may have to do some IT stuff that I really don't have time to do.

I've seen a few comments on Twitter about how the days leading up to Christmas always end up stressing people out - well it looks like it will be true in my case.

That said the positives about the coming weeks are:

• I only have 9 working days left until I'm on leave for 2 and half weeks
• The work Secret Santa party is on this week
• The work Christmas party is on next week
• I will have a Monday to catch up on everything
• I will have half hour with the teachers from a local school to share information about their local library and how it can assist them with teaching and leisure
• I will have a last day of work before Christmas - which is always a lot of fun!!

Blog December Post 10 - Making the invisible visible

It seems the week to discover interesting posts/articles - well for me anyway.

This morning I stumbled across this: Patience (and Marketing) Makes the Audience Grow Fonder

This article discusses how to market libraries most invisible resources - our online databases.

Database usage is something my library is about to investigate quite deeply - now that we have someone in the position to do it.  So it is fitting for me to read the above article with interest.

However, while the article does offer some good ideas, I've always wondered why, especially with journal databases, libraries are not supplied with catalogue records for all the journals that are contained within the database.

I realise that many will want to search a database by subject and get articles from a number of journals, but many of the databases we subscribe to have many lifestyle/scientific etc journals that some people may be interested in only looking at that particular title.

Also, if a library user searches the library catalogue for a particular journal title, then at least they know we hold it, rather than having to search both the library catalogue and try to find a list of journal titles on a database page.

Our library does have a federated search option - to search across all the databases and the library catalogue - but it is a bit clunky.

So what can we do to make our databases more visible to our library users?

Blog December Post 9 - It's all about me

I find it funny how both of these blog posts appeared within days of each other - wonder if the authors of the post had read the same article that prompted them to share their thoughts on this topic.

The first post is Me 2.0: Branding yourself online.
The second post is In the new world of work, modesty is no longer a virtue.

I'm not going to write much about both of these posts as I do think they are an interesting read and this is one way of sharing them.

However, I do remember when I was applying for my first job I got my mum to read the application.  She said it sounded like I was up myself.  I replied saying that you had to be that way and sell yourself to the employer.

As the Me 2.0 article says "My parents said to me, 'if you work hard enough the world will recognize what you do,' but we know that doesn't work.

"I tell my children, 'If you work hard enough to make yourself good at what you do, then you have to tell people about it.' Take command of the situation, know what you're good at and shout it from the rafters."

It seems perhaps that this trend has only been around since generation X - please correct me if I'm wrong - because prior to that I don't think people did have to sell themselves to get a job.

Or maybe it's just that as Australian's we find it uncomfortable to sell ourselves or talk about ourselves in that manner because of the tall poppy syndrome.

Now another article I came across this morning is not exactly about the "me" topic but it does delve into the social media and online presence topic.

It reminds us: It’s a sad reminder we live our lives almost like goldfish in a giant glass bowl consisting of billions of computer screens all around the world. In a rush of tweets a comment or an incident goes viral and its impact is exponential.

So while it is important to blow your own trumpet - be mindful of how you do it.

Blog December Post 8 - Born to Read

Yesterday I visited my parents down at their caravan and dad was in the van, on the bed reading a book.  This prompted me to think about how, growing up as a kid, I saw my parents read a lot.  My dad would sit in the lounge and read a book often, mum would wait till she was going to bed.

There was a period of time where I don't remember seeing mum read books, but she now reads more frequently then when I was growing up.

The point being is that I grew up in a family of readers.  My brother and sister read a lot and of course, that meant that I ended up a reader.  Although I have heard of cases where everyone reads in the family but one member doesn't so perhaps reading doesn't automatically flow on from having a family of readers - but I'm sure it helps.

As any reader, I have fond memories of books.  I remember when I was very little we went into Brisbane - which was a big thing for us as we didn't go there much as kids.  And it must have been around Christmas time as I remember lots of decorations hanging across the road. 

We went into a book store and all of us kids were allowed to buy a book.  I bought The Clock Book about how to tell the time.  I believe my sister bought Amelia Bedelia - I really love that book!!

Later I remember Tiki Tiki Tembo.

And Meg and Mog.

At school we had book club and mum allowed us to purchase a book each time.  They were all Penguin books and would come in a plastic bag with a Penguin logo on it - I loved getting book club!!

Now I love sharing the joy of reading with my daughter - who apparently could read before starting school but would never read to me - just to everyone else!!

I have already shared with her some of my favourite childhood books but Tiki Tiki Tembo I haven't been able to locate and buy yet, nor the original Amelia Bedelia.

Anyway, it seems apt to put some reading memory post in as the National Year of Reading comes to a close.

What are your reading memories?