@ the Oscars

Hey, did anyone just notice that gifted children's book author Shaun Tan (just get off yer couch and read The Arrival already...) just won an Oscar? How cool is that? I actually clapped out loud.

More news from me coming soon, promise. It's just sometimes a girl needs a night off watching some TV.

5 qualities someone interested in my job should have

The final post relating to my talk at the University of Ottawa....
(Part One: 5 best things about my job; Part Two: 5 most challenging things about my job)

1. Patience
: Not just with the public, although that is certainly important in reference and readers' advisory work! Perhaps I put this quality first because I feel it is the one I most struggle with every day. You must have patience with yourself (ha!), with projects that fail and ideas that grow slowly, with staff dealing with change, with the system itself (your library, your city, your province, your country, your profession!).
2. A genuine interest in people: Sounds obvious, but think about this a bit more deeply. Librarians in general tend to be curious about the world, but someone in a job similar to mine has to also be innately very curious about his or her neighbourhood, employees and colleagues. Who they are, what they are interested in, how they use the library (or don't use it), what they can contribute to the organisation, what they want to learn, what they have already learned that can be shared (expertise!), and so on. I was in the middle of writing this post when I saw a comment one of my colleagues had written after the 5 best things post, with respect to professionals and paraprofessionals, and I think it's applicable here: "The library and librarians would be well-served to remember that they have a wealth of knowledge within their own four walls and institutions." Indeed!

3. An awareness of boundaries, and the ability to draw them: Man, if I could give every library school student a piece of advice, it would be to master this. I'm referring here to both personal boundaries (what is the level of personal information you are willing to share with a colleague? With a patron? How will you establish these norms so that everyone is comfortable and no one feels threatened / slighted? Will you make friends with your colleagues? Your employees?) and professional boundaries (what kind of an organisation can you work for? What are your workplace boundaries? How can you establish a kind of balance?)
4. Sympathy across boundaries: ... And I phrase it that way not simply in homage to my thesis, or because of the name of this blog. Directly related to #3 above. You need to be interested in the people in your communitIES, and you also need to feel compassion and sympathy for them. That means everyone from the local city councillor to the resident of the local shelter.
   
5. A strong set of your own personal and professional values
: Again, this one is applicable to anyone, but especially important if you are going to be working in an environment in which you might be the only professional. Articulating your values will help you when your boundaries are challenged at work, and also help you set the standard in your workplace (hopefully), and exhibit true leadership. So, decide now how you feel about, say, gaming in libraries, or whether your small community branch should carry all the classics, even if you are a 15-minute walk from the Central library...? Now explain your position on this, as it relates to your values, to an employee.
   

Here are some other words of advice, especially as a new professional, and if working in a branch setting or in a large system:

• Learn to advocate for yourself: This was difficult for me to learn, but I realised that when I moved to Ottawa, to work in a somewhat isolated job in a big system, I would have to learn to speak up for myself or I would risk getting lost in the crowd. So, never waste an opportunity to share information with colleagues or other profesionals! Ask questions: about your organisation, about other people's jobs, about the jobs you want, about what's going on in the community. Share stories: about your workplace, your accomplishments, your organisation, your community. If you don't, who will?
• Work for a terrible boss: Well, not deliberately, unless you have a very strong spirit. But you will learn a lot from a terrible boss, perhaps even more than you might from an excellent one.
• Time spent "chatting" ≠ time wasted: Don't ever think that time spent chatting (I don't mean a half hour of gossip! More like a few minutes of personal time with a patron or colleague - however much you are comfortable with) is time you have wasted in your day. Schedule that time into your day! Soft skills are important, and in a profession with a reputation for not being terribly outgoing, we need to sometimes remind ourselves to go the extra mile to foster an environment that is friendly, approachable, and genuinely caring.
  

Many more words of wisdom are here, courtesy of a spectacular talk given by Wendy Newman for CLA-CASLIS Ottawa in 2009.

Kindness Week

This is just to say that I will not be celebrating Kindness Week.

Kindness Week rankles me a little bit.... First of all, as with lots of things that get a "week," shouldn't every week be Kindness Week? Are we really such brutes that we need a week to raise awareness about a concept as basic to humanity as kindness?

Secondly, many of the activities I have heard people mention that they are doing to observe Kindness Week seem to be charitable activities. There is a difference between kindness and charity, you know!

What are you doing?

Hey! It's Freedom to Read Week! Here's what I did (documents here; previous display pics here).

What are you doing? Tell me in the comments.....

5 most challenging things about my job

If you read closely, you will notice that these 5 are more or less each the flip side of their companion number from the previous post.

1. Isolation
: So, here's the thing. In a community branch, or anywhere where you work alone-ish, it can be fun for awhile but it will get lonely pretty quickly. I was really fortunate to realise this before I even moved to Ottawa. A mentor of mine, from my pre-Ottawa life, observed that I would have to work to make sure I don't get isolated in my new job, and she was right. The best antidotes I can find are to stay connected to colleagues in other physical locations but in the same system (sit on local committees, attend library board meetings, visit other branches on the weekend, chat during breaks at meetings), get involved in library associations (local, regional, and/or national), and actively seek out professional development opportunities, even if you have to do them on your own time and with your own money. The investment will be well worth it in many, many ways, some of which you probably can't even imagine at first, and, as a bonus, you won't feel so alone.
   
2. De-professionalisation
: Big word about feeling "little." When it sometimes feels like you spend your day fixing printer jams, it can be hard to remember that you're a librarian. As a community librarian, you probably will spend a lot of time “on the floor” at your branch; that helps make you that trustworthy community contact, but it also helps continue to confuse the public about what a librarian does (everything? Anything?). Spending all this time on non-professional tasks is also an Express lane straight to burn-out. I don't have any easy answers here, kids: the most I can suggest is that anyone in this position use every opportunity to promote the library's services and collections like the professional they are. Every request for help is an invitation to have a more meaningful interaction with someone visiting the library. That being said, it can be tough. I sometimes spend a few seconds explaining what a librarian is, in certain situations (eg. "Anyone sitting at this desk can help you with homework questions, research, or recommend a good book. Over there is where you can check out the stuff you want to borrow, and they can also check your account for you.") It all depends on the patron, and the situation, and you have to use your judgment about that. If you find you are getting frustrated, or under-stimulated, on the floor, look at everything from schedules (can you break up your Reference desk time?) to architecture (can the printer be moved any further away from your desk, to cut down on the crazy traffic and incessant questions?) to staffing. This is also a great time to take on a special project that will stimulate you, and revive your passion for public librarianship, in all its shapes and forms.
   
3. Lack of resources
: In a big system, like the one in which I work, you have a lot available to help you (colleagues, best practices, policies, tools, reference material, and even a shared collection of puppets!), but you can also get cut off from central departments if you are working in a branch. Sometimes, in any large organisation, it's easy to feel like one octopus leg, and every leg seems to be acting independently... Why are you re-inventing the wheel, only to find out that last month Librarian X at a neighbouring branch is piloting a Wheel Study? Similarly, if you are the only librarian somewhere (anywhere!), you might find that the person who had your position previously wasn’t great at succession planning, leaving you to wonder what on earth he/she did with their time and what you should be doing. The best piece of advice I can give about dealing with this is: if you don’t speak up, you can get lost. The more you share about what's going on chez toi, the more you will hear about what's going on alentours (especially if you, um, ask). Make friends: stay in touch with them, if even just to say, "Is anyone having problems with..." or "Has anyone created a guide to..." There's "working from the ground up," and then there's Sisyphean labour.
   

4. Feeling overwhelmed: with the diversity of experiences/opportunities/tasks on your plate, you might find yourself spending a lot of time “putting out fires." It's easy (ha! Relatively speaking, that is) to move from crisis to crisis; harder to take a step back and analyse the direction in which you and/or your library should be heading. Essentially, you need to stay calm, and be organised: you might even want to set aside time (monthly? Quarterly?) for looking at and thinking about higher-level issues, if your institution doesn't have any regular set of checks and balances in place.
 You might find that you need to work in an environment that has goals for the year that are measurable and are followed up on, or else you might want to spend time doing this yourself. In my experience, neglecting this neglects your own professional development, and affects the contribution you are able to make to your institution.
   
5. Balance: With everyone clamouring for your attention, and all the responsibilities you face, it can be difficult even to prioritise the needs of each group. You have to judge pretty quickly what can wait until later, what should be a priority this year, next year, this month, this week, depending on your responsibilities to each group you interact with. Sometimes, you just have to accept that you have enough responsibility at the moment, and you have to refer to your friends "No" (he and I aren't that close these days...) and "Can I delegate this?" You just can't do everything, or, at least, you can't do everything well.
   

5 best things about my job

I recently gave a talk to students in the University of Ottawa's School of Information Studies about being a public librarian. They were a pleasure to talk to, and I only wish I had more time to stay for additional questions and discussion. They did have some wonderful ideas, questions and comments.

I thought I would share some of the thoughts I prepared for them. After giving them a bit of background (Rideau Branch statistics, OPL statistics, my career path), I decided to structure my talk as:

• The 5 best things about my job
• The 5 most challenging things about my job
• The 5 qualities someone interested in my job should have
  

I'll be blogging these in the next few days, starting with the 5 best things about my job today.

1. Autonomy
: My job has a certain degree of autonomy by virtue of the fact that I am the most senior person in the building at most times. Another degree of autonomy comes from specifics of my own circumstances: I have a great manager, who works with me to give me the freedom to pursue or create projects that I am passionate about. All this autonomy results in great conference presentations, a shelf-talkers pilot, outreach
 initiatives, and fun programs. Furthermore, as senior person at the branch, I get to "set the tone" of the branch in some ways: decide what's going to happen and how they are going to work.
   
2. Bond of trust with the community
: In any community branch, the branch librarian is fortunate to get to know regular patrons, community groups, program partners, local book clubs, and other kindred spirits. Building and maintaining these relationships, often over the course of several years, is incredibly fulfilling for me. On a more subtle level, simply being seen working (well, I hope) in the community on a daily basis fosters a certain sense of trust for some more reticent members of the community, and gives me "social capital" in the community, which can sometimes prove (in the short or long term) to be pretty valuable.
   
3. Working from the ground up:
 In a community library, the world can be your oyster sometimes: you may implement new initiatives, new programs, new partnerships: so many things haven't been done before in many cases that you have a lot of fertile ground to work with.
   
4. Variety / diversity of experiences/opportunities/tasks:
 I can unequivocally say that in the past week I have answered both reference and readers’ advisory questions, as well as questions about homework help, and computer/Internet training (today, a woman argued with me about why she couldn't type in www.goo to get to Google. "Are you sure?" she asked...). It's also possible that I prepared children's programs, acted as a part social worker, broke up an altercation or two, set up a display, helped at the circulation desk, picked up garbage on the floor, removed expired posters from the community bulletin board, and yes, to cite the cliché, dealt with something sketchy in the washroom (or, frankly, elsewhere). No two days are the same!
   
5. Responsibility:
 A community librarian might supervise staff
, either directly (as I do) or indirectly, and be responsible for training, guiding and overseeing their work, as well as offering feedback on their performance. Of course, I also interact with many other groups, from building and city maintenance staff to library senior managers, from the library board to the general public, and from colleagues at OPL to librarians across Canada. I have the privilege of watching people I have trained learn and grow
; I have had the privilege to represent Rideau Branch or OPL or professional librarians as a whole within the community. The responsibilities of a community librarian are all interwoven, in a weird and wonderful way.
   

Library Day in the Life Round 6 wordle

I'm sad that "time" and "work" are so big, but happy that "patron" and "book" are pretty big, too!

McSweeney's: The State of Publishing

McSweeney's has a great series of articles (thanks for the link, Lorie!) about the state of publishing, including some good news from the world of books, as well as separate pieces about the state of libraries, the state of book production, and the state of global literacy. While the statistics are very U.S.-based, they are interesting, and, in many cases, hopeful. More articles on this topic will appear on McSweeney's in the coming days and weeks, so stay tuned.

*Frieze at right from the Westmount Public Library newspaper room.

Penguins

Since these have safely travelled to (and now arrived) at their new home, I think it is safe to post a picture of the penguins custom-made for the winner of the *first-ever* Felt Friday contest! Congratulations again, Sonia!

As you can see, one of the colony was eager to meet his new mistress...

[even more] Coming up at Rideau Library...

Talk About Art
Saturday, February 12, 12 p.m. (120 mins.)

Art can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be! Using works by Ottawa artists on display at the Rideau Branch as a starting point, this discussion will focus on different ways to look at and interpret visual art.

Hosted by the Ottawa Art Gallery. Presentation in English with bilingual facilitator / Présentation en anglais avec animateur bilingue.

Library day in the life, Round 6, Day 5

Friday!

Today I had someone job shadowing me. She is a teacher considering a library degree. I thought a Friday would be a good day for her to shadow, since it is usually pretty busy. See, now that I said that, it was quiet. Sigh. Oh well, I am not complaining. She left at 4 pm, so I had some time to catch up and finish some work before closing at 6 pm.

In the morning, a technician from the city came to replace a defective floppy drive on one of the public PCs. I worked on another draft of my OLA presentation for awhile, and caught up with e-mail and newsfeeds, and other random tasks.

My job shadow and I went to a local playgroup for a French storytime (outreach) at 11 am. The group is a short walk from Rideau Branch, and I must say it was nice to get out. The kids in the group are 2-5, and they were adorable. They enjoyed the stories and songs, and the teachers seemed to get a kick out of the activity, especially when I screwed up "Le bonhomme de neige," which is set to the tune of "Alouette" (Of course, I sang "Alouette" once by accident). They also loved the stick story I brought, something I photocopied from Main Library's collection, entitled "Les chats d'Ottawa." Remind me, I'll tell you about the chats another time. As we were packing up, a little girl in the group called out to me something I thought was "Madame, votre sandale!" (and all of us were like, what?) which was actually "Madame, votre chandail!" - turns out I left my jacket on the chair. Cuteness overload. Also, I totally would have been halfway back to the library before I remembered.

On the walk back to the library, we stopped off at Maison communautaire du bon voisinage de la Basse-Ville to drop off a flyer for our next legal aid workshop. This group is on my e-mail distribution list for monthly program flyers. The staff there were very welcoming, introduced us to everyone, showed the monthly flyer prominently displayed on their bulletin board, and enthusiastically brainstormed with me about outreach and program possibilities. It was really worthwhile to drop in. These types of visits involve using the people skills and the outgoing-ness (sorry, that is so not a word) that aren't traditionally regarded as librarian traits. They are skills I really have to work hard to cultivate (it's scary to walk into a random building where you don't know anyone! Less so when you have a job shadow person with you, thankfully, and don't think that didn't cross my mind strategically...) but they are essential.

Since I was working with some full-time staff I don't usually work with (I swapped my Friday), we all went out to lunch at Culinary Conspiracy together, including my shadow and my boss! It was really fun. We ran into teachers from a local school, who have a PD Day, so it was getting pretty crowded in CC. I love that place.

On they way back to work, I picked up pastries from the bakery for our Coffee with a police officer. They kindly gave us much more than we expected, and I was touched and surprised.

Coffee with police officer went well; about 12-15 people showed up (so less than last time, probably because it was in the program room and not on the main floor like last time). A few seniors, some families, and a smattering of other regulars. The police officer also toured around the exterior of the branch and chatted with us about library security, which was great.

1-6: Info desk duty, with time for other related tasks such as polishing off the monthly report and statistics, endless e-mail, and program prep for next week. I also prepared some speaking notes for a talk I am giving at Ottawa U on Monday. We also discovered a budding philosopher (patron) in our midst has perhaps taken a page out of my book with the shelftalkers, and left a number of philosophical quotes on Post-its around the library. Thoughts included "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do," "If you have never failed, then you have never tried," "Being defeated is often temporary; giving up makes it more permanent." Today's Info questions / queries included but were not restricted to...

• Patron requests for various titles and authors....
• Subject search = dissent in the Arab world
• Patron complained about barcodes on books covering summaries on the back cover. We make an effort to avoid covering text, but sometimes we have no choice, and the barcodes have to be in a standard place because of ergonomics and the high volume of material we scan and process in a given day. Did you know that in an average month, in material (books, DVDs, etc) OPL "moves" between branches the equivalent of the weight of a baby beluga whale ... and its mother? Ya, try having the barcodes on that material all over the place. Fun.
• A woman from Coffee event came upstairs to say it was a great event and they should have it at Main. Also, she is retired and has some time to come to programs like this so thank you. I gave her bookmark and highlighted the art program...
• Leftover coffee ... offered to girl sitting on stairs to staffroom. She was very grateful. Random act of kindness.
• "Nora Roberts?"
• "I put a book on hold, but it expired ... Is it still here?"
• Patron complained the newspaper wasn't stapled.
• "I'm looking for my holds, but they are not on the shelf..."
• Chit-chat with local young boy who is a regular during the summer, but less so during the school year.
• 
  

Library day in the life, Round 6, Day 4

Ah, overwhelming Thursday. See, the way I do Library Day in the Life is I make notes all day, and then try to compile them into coherent blog posts over breaks/lunch/dinner/after work. Today just went to Hell in a handbasket, so it's 8:49, and I'm still at work, and I don't want to do this when I get home, because when I get home I have to edit a PPT, so you are getting a slapdash post today.

9 am over coffee: Read outstanding Pullman article
9:55: Got to work 2.5 hours early because I had arranged a meeting with an Algonquin rep. in charge of the program I am developing a course for. I am excited, but also panicky that I have to get the ball rolling big-time on this during Feb.
10:40: Re-organised program room for Coffee with police officer tomorrow - made notes re. display, signage on door and staircase, etc. Realised I should let it go, since I haven't started work yet. My plan was, since I was here but not on shift yet, I would sit in my basement office and work on next Monday's lecture for Acquisitions. Ha! I should know myself well enough to know it is almost impossible for me to be at work and not "fiddle" with work tasks!
10:45: Open Outlook, see something icky about upcoming LANCR event planning. Begin small panic. Get sucked into work e-mail .... good things: City Librarian Barbara Clubb's CBC interview and the resulting editorial in the Ottawa Citizen!
Then upstairs to get coffee machine for tomorrow and returned to basement lair office. Pass toddler in 700s with mum saying "No, please don't walk on the books!" as child teeters on pile of decorating books. Hee hee.
Colleague returns from outreach, de-briefs with me.
11:33: started work on Acquisitions. Closed e-mail.
11:50: Distracted by "Lessons For Grown-Ups From Story Time." Your Ottawa Region (thanks to Kstari Wolfman for the link)
12:20: Got through lecture prep, just have to tweak weekly exercise. Went upstairs to eat muffin and salad.

12:30-1:30: On Info desk

• Books about dyslexia... Patron managed to use the F word and call me "honey" so we had a little chat about whether or not he should perhaps come back when he is able to have a conversation in a respectful manner. He backed down, and we continued the search.
• "I got a call about a book ready to pick up...."
• "Can I reserve that new book by Doug Saunders?"
  
• Colleague has several questions about searching and readers' advisory
• "It is working?" (gestures to photocopier; turns out it is off!)
• Jacob Two-Two - I want to read the series to my children. Which is the first? (discussion with this mum, who is a storytime regular, about how my dad sent these Richler books over for my cousins as children - their intro to Canlit...)
  
• Puis-je avoir un résumé du livre Le pouvoir thérapeutique de nos vies antérieures par Bibiane Bouchard?
• Réservations: Piliers de la terre; Coeur d'Istanbul
  
• Can I reserve the Gatineau ski pass?
  

1:30-3:40: Off-desk.... Don't ask. It's a blur of tasks. Sorry.

3:40-4: Covering break at the Info desk:

• "Is my request here yet?"
• "Do you have to use dimes for the photocopier?"
• "Do you have Invincible vol 2?"
• "I printed 3 pages but ripped up two because I didn't need them. I paid for one ... ok?" Sigh. Showed him how to print 1-1, and other printer preferences options, for future reference.
• "I got a call that my request was here...." Explained to him how to check items on holds shelf (first 4 letters of family name; last 4 digits of card #) and that he could just come in and grab them (and check them out!) next time.
• Public printer has a gremlin. It is extracted and sent to the Humane society.....
  

4: Attempted to make an escape. Was foiled by my own OCD desire to fax timesheets immediately. Decided to sort items that came in for me on hold while waiting for fax. Got into a conversation with colleague. Found problem with one of the books on hold for me (incorrect copy) so asked other colleague to replace copy-specific request. While doing that, got involved in 2nd conversation with (the first) colleague. Forgot what I was doing (right - waiting for the fax machine). Filed away completed fax in filing cabinet. Put up sign thanking bakery for donating snacks for tomorrow's program. Discussed confidential matter with manager (he asked, are you on dinner? and I said yes, but ask away! It only took a minute...). Quickly skimmed choices for booktalk next week.... + sent personal e-mail.

4:30: Dinner!

5: Cuteness alert on the way through the annex: mother and daughter sharing laptop (free wifi!) and a chair :) Now I am on the Info desk again:

• books by Aboulela, Leila?
  
• A biography of Cleopatra by someone named Margaret
• rowdy girls but I am not going to talk to them because they are in and out quickly
• "Do you have the city recreation guide?"
• "Avez-vous le Guide Officiel de L'automobiliste?"
• Turns out city rec. person actually wants directions to Centre Routhier. Easy enough!
• Insane amount of pick up in the annex, which I noticed on the way to 629s.
  
• Very quiet voice: "Do you have the book We All Fall Down by Eric Walters?" Poor girl needs it for a class presentation tomorrow....
• "Is there a washroom here?"
• [ordered some of my own requests]
• Had to ask someone who has been on the Express PC for too long to leave....
  
• Gentleman is yelling at the computer... I go over and ask him to lower his voice just a little bit.

6 pm: Job shadow student arrives. We get 3 questions between 6-8 pm - argh! See above - I swear it was busy!!!!!

8:56: Leaving. I swear. But coming in early to prep tomorrow before 2nd job shadow (unrelated) arrives, since I need to give her my full attention. It's my own fault for telling her to start at 9:30. I should have scheduled her later, but I wanted her to get some time to settle in before we go to outreach at 11, and I definitely wanted her to come on outreach ... an adventure!

Stay tuned if you dare. One more day!

Library day in the life, Round 6, Day 3

Wheeee! Halfway through the week.

So last night I looked up who else - that I actually personally know - is doing Library Day in the Life this round. Here is my shout-out to friends, colleagues, etc. I'm in such good company!

• Jennifer Cyr, Information Literacy & Liason Librarian, Seneca College
• Leigh Cunningham, Collections and Instruction Librarian, Medicine Hat College, Alberta, Canada
• Bonus people I think are super cool but I don't know personally: Phil Bradley, Internet Consultant, Essex, UK, Megan Garza, Children's Librarian Angus Glen Branch, Markham Public Library in Markham, ON (we have a common friend!), and Laura Carter, Branch Librarian, Kingston Frontenac Public Library, Kingston, Ontario Canada (tweeting @laura_carter).

Wednesday, Wednesday... Today is our first legal aid clinic, and I am nervous. During the 20-minute walk to work (it has warmed up, but not enough to stop wearing gloves under mittens) I think about the clinics, and the programs for the rest of the week. I have to find some time to prep my class for next Monday, also... Then there's the weekend - what to eat, what to do...

Arrive at work 8:45 am. Phone is ringing, but I can't get it in time. The first thing I do is take down the 77th birthday stuff before I forget. Before we open, I try to knock off the tasks I am avoiding, or those which require me to be physically away from the Info desk. This includes analysing and withdrawing some damaged material, dismantling and re-filling displays, and making notes about upcoming programs and preparations required (why does February's schedule already look like something threw up on it?). I also synched my Outlook schedule with the (shared, paper) Info desk schedule up until the end of March. Things will still change, but this way it's mostly up to date. Finally, I called a local bakery to arrange for a donation of day-old pastries for Coffee with a police officer on Friday. Asking the bakery was a suggestion made by a community partner - and I thought it was great. We're lucky to have such good neighbours...

Oh, and I read the news and laughed at this: What books will do with all their free time when libraries close. I also printed it out and stuck it on our withdrawals shelf - hee hee.

10:05-10:45: Storytime for a local Kindergarten class. I love this class; their teacher is brilliant and the kids, many of whom come from low-income families or are new Canadians, are a great group. I always make sure I take a little extra time with them, because they are a chatty group who really benefit from dialogic reading; they are also well-trained enough (that sounds demeaning, but I use the phrase in the kindest sense; also, literally, their wonderful teacher *has* trained them how to behave on class visits and during storytimes. You can tell they are read to in class, even if not at home in many cases) to listen and answer questions. I also gave them plenty of opportunities to shake their sillies out, which kept the chaos to a minimum. This morning, I read three of my favourite winter books: Red sled, Penguins, and No. I know this group well enough to know they would have plenty to talk about in these stories, even if they are very simple, and I knew they would already have learned about hibernation, so No would be fun for them. Interestingly (disturbingly?), one child observed there was no mother in Red sled - "Where's the Mom?" he asked. I suggested a few scenarios (she's at work, she's out getting groceries - more marshmallows for the hot chocolate!) and then asked them what they thought. It was an interesting discussion. One child (joker in the class) suggested she was dead in the snow, and I was so taken aback it took me a second to figure out how to address it. I decided to be reassuring, but now I wonder if maybe I should have dug a little deeper there (acknowledging that the mum could be dead, asking if anyone knows someone who has died - something along those lines). Partly, I was thinking the teacher might address this later in the day (as I have said probably too many times now, she's quite good), and partly I was simply thinking I didn't want to get too side-tracked (that's so petty! Sorry! But I was conscious of the time, and the empty Info desk...). Hmm. See? Doing Library Day in the Life makes us all more reflective, and gives others examples of the strange and interesting things we deal with every day. Anyone else have insight into this situation? Comment away.

After storytime, I re-filled the winter-themed display in the children's dept. with books I have finished with for winter programming, and I ensured the stories I used this morning are catalogued in my LibraryThing account for future winter picture book needs.

11-11:05: Review plans for outreach storytime on Friday to a local French preschool. Here is the gameplan, in case you are interested in seeing what an entirely organised contes en francais looks like (I'm not always this organised, but esp. in French I sometimes like to have a script).

11 - 12:30: Info desk duty! Seen, heard and responded to:

• "I can't seem to get to this website..." (needed to press "enter")
• "I'm trying to reach the Friends of Library and Archives Canada, and I called LAC, but the recording gave me 8 options, none of which applied." Found this, called it for the patron to check it was a human on the other end. It was! (and a friendly human, too!)
• "I want to know more about this movie... it's called Broadcast news? I want some critical opinions and stuff." (database search...)
• Chit-chat with manager re. job shadow opportunity for a student here (this will be my 3rd shadow - one coming on Friday, too - more on that later), and various admin issues at Rideau and (mostly) Rockcliffe Park.
• Flagged down the page to ask their opinion about the new pick up signs.
• Stressed about a potential Freedom to read week event for LANCR that is having some growing pains...
• E-mail....
• Added "The Firestone Story" to the events database.
• Why do I have the Hiroshima peace song in my head? Flashback to SSCC 1990. Actually, I get this in my head a lot. I guess it's catchy?
• Walked a patron through the process of accessing back issues of the Globe and Mail using the databases, over the phone.
  
• Garfield en français?
• Various requests placed for patron who has just walked over from Chapters (that happens a lot).
• Job shadow student replies to our e-mail already - "how about tomorrow?" Eeek!
• Finished adding the Firestone event.

12:30ish - 1:30ish: Lunch!

1:30ish - 2:45: I worked in my basement office on the January monthly report and statistics for programs at the library this month. So far, 187 people have attended programs in January 2011 (and we're not done yet!). That's a slow month for us, frankly.

2:30: My boss says two people have already showed up for the legal aid clinic - hooray!!!!!

2:45-3:00: Covered my colleague's break at Info. To be honest, I didn't even sit down during the 15 minutes. First, someone wanted a list of all our Wii games (we compromised on a print-out of the first few pages of results, since we have over 200). During the time I was working on that, the patron was chatting about various things and I ended up giving her a list of programs at Rideau Branch, which she was quite interested in. "Oh, I can come here!" she exclaimed, "instead of being lonely at home!" While I was talking to her, I could see our partner for the legal aid clinics had arrived (man in suit carrying briefcase = dead giveaway at 3 pm in the library!) but he escaped again before I could catch him. I guessed (correctly) he went downstairs and discovered the program room door locked. He came back up, I introduced myself, and we went downstairs. I quickly introduced myself to the 10 people (!!!!) who were waiting outside the door, or who trailed us downstairs, and explained the building basics (washroom, etc). Then I came back upstairs and had a totally frustrating conversation with a patron about the Internet computers. Let's just not re-live that, OK?

3 - 4 pm: More office work. Made a list of who I need to stalk by phone tomorrow for that Freedom to read week event, made a sign thanking the bakery for the snacks for Friday's event, answered some more e-mail, including a request for a class visit at Rockcliffe Park Branch (which I am temporarily also supervising), e-mailed various possible community partners re. more adult programming ideas, delegated some of the "grunt work" for another Children's collection replacement list, and quickly reviewed notes and questions for a meeting tomorrow morning regarding an online General education course I might be teaching this summer at Algonquin (since that's not work, let's call that my "break" that I didn't take, K? Sometimes a girl is just too tired to climb two sets of stairs to the staffroom...).

4-5 pm: On-desk again! Taught a patron how to make a computer reservation, received congratulations on a successful legal aid clinic (!), discussed ESL reference question with colleague, put finishing touches on the monthly report, assigned some shifts at Rideau and Rockcliffe Park Branch, "have any books come in for me yet?," "where are my holds? [...] Do I still have to check them out?," wrapped-up/debriefed with legal aid clinic partner, changed the posters to next week's legal aid clinic topic, locked the program room up, busted someone on a cell, pulled some fiction for a Black History Month display (and re-used sign I made last year for St Laurent Library!), and done!

Coming up at Rideau Library...

I finally organised those legal aid clinics, and they are starting tomorrow! I am slightly nervous about attendance.... Here's a run-down of what's happening, and printable posters for each clinic are here.

Wednesday, Jan. 26th @ 3 pm: Tenants’ rights
This session will provide an overview of the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords. With Community Legal Services.

mercredi, 2 fév. à 15h: Droit des locataires
Cet atelier fera le survol des droits et des recours des locataires en Ontario et traitera en particulier des évictions, des réparations et des hausses de loyer. Avec la clinique juridique francophone de l'Est d'Ottawa.

Wednesday, Feb. 16th @ 3 pm: Workers’ rights
Please join the University of Ottawa Community Legal Clinic for an information session on your rights in the workplace. The presentation will look at Ontario’s Employment Standards Act and discuss some of the rights to which people are entitled as workers in Ontario. The areas addressed in this presentation include hours of work, rest periods, overtime, wages,
public holidays and termination.

Wednesday, March 23rd @ 3 pm: Income maintenance for the elderly
This session will provide an overview of income maintenance programs for seniors. With Community Legal Services.

mercredi, 6 avril à 15h: Successions & testaments
Quelle est l’importance d’avoir un testament? Qu’arrive t-il lorsqu’une personne décède sans en
avoir? Peut-on faire un testament soi-même sans l’aide d’un avocat? Avec la clinique juridique
francophone de l'Est d'Ottawa.

Wednesday, May 18th @ 3 pm: Human rights
This presentation will look at the law in Ontario on discrimination and discuss some of the rights to which people are entitled in settings such as employment, renting a house or apartment, or when receiving other types of services. With the University of Ottawa Community Legal Clinic.

Library day in the life, Round 6, Day 2

Happy Virginia Woolf's birthday (seen via) and also Robert Burns Day!

On this day in 1934, Rideau Branch had its formal opening ceremony, which included the singing of a Scottish song (since it was Burns Day).

In honour of Woolf, I present an unedited, stream-of-consciousness day...

• Mmmmm, coffee and newsfeeds.....
• Drat I forgot to choose all my books for storytime this morning.
• OLA presentation - added images, edited speaking notes, sent some e-mails to colleagues asking for specific help with stats or images.
• And we're open! First question: "Do you have this chicklit book translated in French?"
• Canada411 search for patron.
• "What is the newest book by Peter Victor?"
• Storytime! Winter theme this week. I was going to take a picture of the hilarious way the felt snowman was assembled by the kids but one of the parents tidied it by the time I got back downstairs with the camera.
  
• Back to working on OLA presentation while on Info desk...
  
• Request for Led Zeppelin CD.
• "How can I find an article from the 1993 Fredericton Gleaner?" - showed patron how to fill out online ILL form
• I nipped downstairs to clean up storytime and fetch two balloons to put up with a sign celebrating our birthday (also a laminated copy of French and English newspaper articles about the opening of the library, both from January 1934). It's been years since I blew up a balloon.....
  
• A patron stopped by to ask for two more copies of our poster about the legal aid clinic tomorrow. He has kindly been posting them around the neighbourhood for me!
• Next, I used my Vanna White skills to do a kind of charades version of how to pick up a request from the holds shelf for a patron who speaks very little English.
• Sent e-mails with shifts available at Rideau Branch Info desk...
  
• Floppy drive on one of our public PCs isn't working.... Logged with the service desk....
• Dude on cellphone talking loudly = busted.
• Girl who played with fire DVD request... "Aren't those books great?" I mmm'd non-commitally....
  
• My colleague welcomed a Grade 5-6 Francophone class from a local school for a visit and booktalk at 12:40; I continued to hold down the Info desk, working on my OLA presentation all the while...
  
• Taught a patron how to suspend holds while on vacation.
• "Do you have any big tables to use for group work?" Um, no. Suggested they are welcome to use children's tables. Space at Rideau = at a premium.
  
• Admitted defeat in trying to decipher intricacies of cataloguing of multilingual material at OPL and e-mailed Collection management for help...
• Aaaand you can't use your phone in here....! x3. It's an epidemic.
• 1:30 pm - lunch. Salad with dried cranberries and walnuts; lunchtime book for CLA BOYCA prize (about Lebensborn - interesting)
• Set-up local Kindergarten class's storytime for tomorrow AM (one less thing to do tomorrow!)
  
• 3 pm: Back up at Info...
• Time to replace defective headphones on one of the public PCs.... Snip, snap, zip tie.
  
• "I know I'm #8 on hold for a book but how long will it take? How many copies do you have?"
• Checked out my own holds for programs, including ducks, stories that are songs, and spring (soon, my pretties!)
  
• Back downstairs again to my desk for some "quiet time:" completed a reference letter for one of my former students, responded to e-mails, wrote reviews for BOYCA books, proofed the latest draft of the OLA presentation. I did the last task with stocking feet on my desk (very inappropriate while wearing a skirt, but no one was around). I have this mental picture of my dad reviewing sermons in his office at All Saints, Verdun, with feet on desk - I try to channel that feeling when I can.
  
• 3:59ish - Back on Info so my colleague can eat her dinner.
  
• "I'm looking for this book and it says it's here but I can't find it...."
• Put up signs re. pick up... We're trying this pilot (mentioned yesterday) because so much material is ending up on the floor and radiators: we are putting up 3 signs (one on each radiator) in the annex asking people not to put books on the radiator, and 3 in children's (random shelves) asking people to put books on the tables. People don't really read signs, but we hope that in light of recent more-chaos-than-usual, it might help a bit for a finite period. While doing this, I cannot restrain myself from doing the pick-up at the same time. NEVER-ENDING.
  
• Teenager: "Can I do my volunteer hours here?"
• "Is my book ready yet? I can't remember the title, but I placed a request awhile ago."
• Someone's parked in our driveway, blocking anyone from getting in or out. I go out with keys and a Post-it to write down the plates and make a general announcement; the family is right there, getting in the car, so I explain we have a parking lot with close to a dozen spaces but they can't park there!
• Shelf check in the basement for Costa Rica travel books - found 4!
  
• Filled the knitting display (nod to my librarian knitting friends: Thing 1 and Thing 2!)
• MUST START MONTHLY REPORT AAAAHHHH!!! No more time!
  
• 5 pm. Home! Picked up pizza at Bottega on the way, and cut through 2 buildings to stay warm(-ish). The temperature is finally rising, but it's still plenty damp.
  

Library day in the life, Round 6, Day 1

Welcome to Round 6! I don't know if I'll keep this up all week, but here you go.... Welcome to any newcomers. You may stalk more formally here. Also, previous "Library Day In The Life" posts are here.

This was one of those mornings when I really had to peel myself off the bedsheets. Oh, wait, that's almost every Monday morning. I love my job, truly, I do. It's just January in Canada and -36 degrees celcius with windchill and I have school today....Really? I have to get up now? Fine. Kissed husband goodbye and whined, "But I don't want to school today!" like a petulant child. Forthwith, the rest of the day, in bullet points.

• Went outside and choked on my first breath of outdoor air. MINUS 36! SERIOUSLY. Not cool.
• Taught my Acquisitions class at Algonquin College. Today's class was about verification sources for orders; checking not only vendor, bookstore and publisher websites, but also using Amicus, Amicus New Book Service, CISTI, Depository Services catalogue, etc. We went over last week's readings as a discussion, we talked about last week's discussion topic (censorship! I had them read this, this, this and this), then I lectured for about 45 minutes and we did an in-class exercise after that.
  
• Checked work e-mail while students were working on the in-class assignments. Hooray - today I am senior person in our cluster (Rideau-Rockcliffe Park-Vanier-Cumberland)!
• OMG it's noon. Must run!
  
• Crap. Forgot my granola bar. Purchased crappy egg sandwich from school cafeteria and ate it on the bus on the way to work. I never eat white bread... sinful!
• 1 pm - got to work late. Sat down at Info desk (that's what we call Reference); sent colleague on lunch. Immediately felt tired.
• Discussed indoor temperature with branch staff - because our front doors are opening all the time, it gets cold in the library pretty quickly. We do have double doors, but because of the placement of our security gates we can't close the internal doors. I joked that we need some City of Ottawa legwarmers. I would so wear them...
• Opened Outlook; 7 reminders popped up. Considered running in the other direction.
• Sorted e-mail... Responded to H&S question, approved overtime, and various other admin tasks.
• 243 items in Google Reader. Crap. Interesting newsy nuggets for the day: "How far can you get ... digitally?" and "Supply and demand and book awards" (and this for laughs). Bonus post I actually read yesterday and *starred* because I am going to use it in my Acquisitions class here.
• Explained computer booking system to patron.
• Worked on our Picture book replacement list - this comes once a year to every branch. Based on the size of our branch, we can select a certain number of titles to replace "classic" picture books. Usually, I pull what we already have to examine condition and decide accordingly what old material circulates well but needs replacing, and what new material we might want to consider. x2 this time around, since I am doing Rockcliffe Park Branch's replacement list also while I am temporarily supervising the branch.
• Conversation with staff about patron involved in incident in the library last week.
• Reference question: books and articles from the database for a project about dealing with Oppositional Defiant Disorder in the classroom.
• Filled in incident report for something minor that happened on Saturday, but which nevertheless should be documented
• Question: Where's the babytime? Luckily, I know St Laurent Branch has their babytime 1:30 on Mondays... Sorry, you are in the wrong branch! But we have storytime Tuesdays at 10:30!
• Patron inquired about a book on hold that they have been waiting a long time for (more than a week). Detective Alex investigates.... This ended up being really weird. Short version: various copies checked in, so I called one branch with a copy and they tried to transfer it but since another copy was in transit for the patron since last week (which I didn't notice at first...) it wouldn't work. Finally, with the help of colleagues, it was sorted out. I think. I made a note of the patron's name so I can check in a few days.
  
• Several reference questions based on reviews from a print magazine in Polish...
• Books about reading body language.
• The sun hit my eyeball at 2:13 pm. Gah. We need blinds.
• Books about Germany: specifically, the Baedeker, Insight, and Fodors' travel guides. Oh, and some big photography books (why, sir, do you mean subject heading "Pictorial works?"). And some DVDs. Please.
• Read the CLA's open letter to LAC regarding Iranium screening
• Replaced vandalised headphones on public PC
• Printed bestseller lists. Did you know they are also here?
• 2:45 pm - went downstairs for off-desk time. Meant to work on OLA presentation; ended up spending majority of 1/2 hour sorting requests, building display for legal aid workshop this week, and other things I already forget.
• Approved timesheets for Rideau, Rockcliffe Park and Vanier. It's tough being Queen of the World senior person in the cluster.
• "Please don't Skype in the library!" en français
• Made bilingue sign for legal aid display
• Books about Poland - what we have at Rideau is all WW2-related. Politely suggested a children's nonfic from National Geographic. (That's twice today for Poland! Are you paying attention, Iwona?)
• Surprised a child running around in the children's section (she gasped) She was following our alphabet carpet squares...
• 4 pm - dinner!!
• During dinner: convo about putting up signage regarding putting books on the tables rather than leaving books on the floor or the radiator.
• 5 pm - back on Info. Made those signs re. pick up. Translation ... what are radiators en français? Oh yeah, radiateurs. Duh.
• Returned several e-mails - everyone seems to be in the mood to talk teen services today, perhaps as a result of inspiration from this event!
• French non-fiction book NOS; search on one of seven trucks to put away in basement - found!
• Ooooh request for a SM@RT card! en français
• Question about reserving a computer en français
• Question about reserving a computer - again; different person, obvs.
• Printer issues - re-filling, jamming, people pushing buttons on the printer that they shouldn't, thereby pausing the printer, people choosing coloured paper as an option when we don't have colour paper... etc.
• "I need to call my answering machine - can I use your phone?" en français
• Requests: Mao's last dancer (DVD) - we don't have - suggested to Collection development - ordered the book instead; Small wars by Sadie Jones; L'immeuble yacoubian par ʻAlāʼ Aswānī.
• FINALLY working on my OLA presentation! Hey, it's only 6:45. GAH.
• Histoires d'Anansi...
• postal code look up...
• OMG could the world wide internets take longer to load pages tonight? I have a presentation to finish!
• Sometimes I wonder if my "I'm working on a presentation" face is showing.. Ha! Just when I formulated that thought, someone asked me where the Danielle Steel novels are.
• Sitting-in-the-same-chair resting-the-eyes break: looked at photos of beautiful Res-ling baby Leyla.
• A short interlude in which it takes me several shameful minutes to log into Delicious (I'm tired!)
• Colleague tries to convince me to take an actual break - thank you!
• More OLA work....
• We had a minor incident involving someone who appeared to be in distress; we administered some help and called for more help. The cold is pretty vicious for anyone who spends a lot of time on the street these days...
• Crap it's 8:25.
  
• 8:30 go home......
  

5 February 2011: "carnival of resistance" to library closures in the UK

A "coordinated protest" over library closures in the UK will take place on February 5th, with over forty library "read-ins" (involving balloons and ... famous authors!) scheduled in some of the over 450 libraries slated to close.

2 years old today

Happy blogiversary to me!

Original post

Treading water

Life has been a bit funny recently; not "ha ha" funny, but more "odd" funny. Not crappy, just funny. I thought I would steal a literary conceit from Ms. Bird and Mr. Charlip, and tell you a bit about things here.

Fortunately, my second term of teaching ILLs went pretty well. The students did OK, and I felt OK about the course. I don't love teaching it as much as Acquisitions (this semester), but I am getting more comfortable. And, you know, not all of my students hated me.

Unfortunately, several certainly don't think much of me, and wrote some pretty personally hurtful things on their student evaluations.

Fortunately, careful discussions with my mum and other colleagues at the College helped put some of the information in perspective.

Unfortunately, I first read the evals on Christmas Eve.

Fortunately, I went home for Christmas and my mother was *not* working, meaning she could sit in the pew with my husband and I, and it didn't even snow too badly so the driving was great.

Unfortunately, our family cat has to be put down on Boxing Day, leaving this Yarrow family branch cat-less for the first time since 1984.

Fortunately, it was rather quiet over the holidays at work, and I didn't mind working because it meant I could get through some of the oft-postponed tasks on my to-do list.

Unfortunately, it was hard not to be slightly resentful and cranky to be at work (when everyone else was at home) upon learning that several local media outlets incorrectly reported that the public libraries in Ottawa were closed during the week between Christmas and New Year's. Sigh. What was the point?

Fortunately, I got to sleep and watch movies through New Year's, which is way more fun than being out on the town (something I haven't done since 2001).

Unfortunately, coming back to Ottawa so quickly meant I missed Rez Christmas.

Fortunately, I got to go back to Montreal for extra family time last weekend.

Unfortunately, it was for a funeral of a close family friend, and someone who died far too young.

Fortunately, I am carrying on with my plans for more outreach and programs for the adult library community this winter and spring. A local group of HIV-positive patrons are visiting soon, for one thing.

Unfortunately, a colleague told me she had met someone in our community who told her "oh, yeah, Rideau Library doesn't seem to want to come and do outreach here," which is not really the impression I was hoping to get out... I think this must be a case of "broken telephone," and I know it's easily fixed, but it's January and it doesn't seem to take much to make me self-critical. How can I be doing all this work, and trying so hard, and still groups either already have or have somehow gotten the wrong impression about the library?

So I'm just pulling up my socks (um, tights?) and hanging in there right now, treading water and hoping for spring.

100% circulation rate

I was staying away from blogging too much about the UK library crisis, for fear of sounding angry and vengeful (just look at this map... angry now?) but this story today caught my eye as a moment of levity - and a quiet revolution of sorts:

Library emptied in bid to fight closure
"A town has emptied its library in a bid to fight plans to close it down. People in Stony Stratford, near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, have spent the week withdrawing their maximum allowance of books in protest against council plans to close it as part of budget cuts."