The bookstore is dead. Long live the bookstore.

The fate of independent booksellers continues to weigh heavily on my mind. This article by Mike Shatzkin presents an interesting idea: what if bookstores offered a variation on the concept of "retail display allowance” in which a discount is offered for any placement in a display, not necessarily a favoured spot.

Shatzkin caught my eye because he rightly points to Codex Group data which underlines "the critical role bookstores play in consumer discovery of new books and authors." Codex Group representative Peter Hildick-Smith "demonstrates with data and logic that SEO and social media are totally inadequate substitutes. Hildick-Smith thinks a future without bookstores will be very different than the present. He makes the case that author brands established in the bookstore era will be largely unchallenged when the bookstore ladder gets pulled up and future authors can’t climb it. And he believes that publishers don’t appreciate that all measures, even desperate measures, are called for to preserve the brick store base as long as possible."

This is the greatest tragedy of the Nicholas Hoare phenomenon: the loss of that discovery of a new title or author that a reader might never have made his or her way towards had it not been spotted in Nicholas's stores. I can't say I agree with every business decision ever made by the stores, but I always applauded their ability to be a space for those "ladders" (the virtual kind... You already know what I thought about the physical kind!)

News round-up: the eAnxiety edition

• The Books That Read You: new publisher on the Kindle, Coliloquy, works as a sort of Choose your own adventure, except that "once you make a choice in the story, Coliloquy's books read you back. They send anonymized data about your decision, as well as about how often you have read a particular chapter, and which characters you have followed the most. They are the first third-party publisher to receive such data from Amazon. They surely won't be the last." Eeep.
• This is not really a bad thing, just interesting: The Potential of Social Media in Driving Book Sales: "One-in-three consumers bought a product or service due to recommendations made via social media, as reported by an analysis of US and Canadian consumer consumption habits."
• Making Library e-Books on the e-Book Reader Visible: I am equal parts interested in this idea and worried it makes the eBook collection concrete in a totally redundant way... Might work at Carlingwood Branch, though, where at least one patron has asked us on which floor they can find out ebook collection.
  

Seen reading on OC Transpo

• Anges et demons by Dan Brown
  
• 2 Kobos
• Le nom de la rose by Umberto Eco
  
• Reversible errors by Scott Turow
• La Rêveuse d'Ostende by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
  
• something by John Grisham
• A book in Chinese
• Aside: read a great article about Seen Reading's Julie Wilson in this month's Quill and Quire!
  

Upcoming local events of interest

I won't be able to make it to all of these myself, but I wish I could!

• Saturday, March 25th: Concerto Della Donna in a concert entitled: "Of Love and Nature." My friend Kaya used to be in this choir, and my first choir director (age 5) was Iwan, so I will be there with bells on!
  
• Friday, March 30th: Ultramarathon Runner & Adventurer Ray Zahab at the Library: I'm really sorry I won't be able to make this, but I am giving a tour to a community partner at 1:30 at Carlingwood... boo!
  
• Saturday, March 31st and Sunday, April 1st: Unity for Action presents Wonderland, an urban musical: a fundraiser to support scholarships for secondary school students from the Mathare slum of Nairobi (via the Canada-Mathare Education Trust). The musical promises to incorporate various artistic styles including modern dance, hip hop, Bollywood, boogie, dub step, slam poetry, beatboxing, stomping, and singing.
  

That's all for now, kids! More news from me later.... Don't forget to go buy some books at Nicholas Hoare before everyone else gets the good stuff!

Two profound losses to make me sad; many things for which I should be glad

It's been a roller-coaster week, not the least of which because it's March Break. The feeling at Carlingwood this week alternated between wondering where everyone was at some points when it was dead, and then suddenly realising everyone had converged on the library at the same time. Madness!

All week, if I have had my iPhone's volume turned up (which, as some of you know from missed calls and texts, I don't always...) and I have heard it ping with new mail, I have dropped everything and checked it with a heavy heart. My friend Nancy has been in palliative care for awhile, and I knew the next email I received would be notifying me of her death. That email arrived yesterday evening, but thankfully after my bestie had already called me at work to break the news, and another of my lovely friends had left me a voicemail. Nancy was a fellow librarian, a former colleague, a passionate mystery writer, a kindred spirit in epic walks around Montreal, and a good friend. She put up with me when I was a newly-minted librarian, making mistakes, trampling on people, and generally trying to find my way. Her dry humour, her exacting work, her kindness - they will all be missed.

As if that wasn't enough, I was surprised at how vehemently angry, and desperately sad, I was about the news about Nicholas Hoare. I heard about the impending closure of the Greene Ave. and Sussex Dr. stores on Tuesday evening, via the Globe. Then there was this from the Post, and then this quoting from Nicholas's no-holds-barred (and rightly so) letter back to the Post. Not to mention two articles in the Citizen, more or less corroborating the above, and the phone interview with Nicholas on CBC today, and this article in the Post. I won't dwell on the news, other than to say I'm really angry with the NCC. All the furor over the future of bookselling notwithstanding, I would think it's in everyone's best interest to have this Canadian-owned cultural icon across the street from the National Gallery of Canada.

Nicholas Hoare, Front St., Toronto, November 2011

So, to end on a happier note, here are ten things I love about Nicholas Hoare, the brand and the individual:

1. His committment to face-out display of merchandise, and his unfailingly sharp eye for beauty and quality, from his support of Quebec cabinetmakers (3,400 dentals in the Ottawa store, to quote Nicholas's interview on CBC today) to build his magnificent shelving to his acquisition of the most outstanding books about art, architecture, and gardening.
2. That I can walk into his stores now, a long-past employee, and always feel at home.
3. ThatI can also walk in, a mid-career librarian who reads almost every book review source humanly possible, and see something new that I must have every time (last time: Brideshead Abbreviated: The Digested Read of the Twentieth Century byJohn Crace).
4. How the Ottawa store is a refuge from the mixed nature of buildings on Sussex Ave. As Heather Mallick once wisely phrased it, she was so depressed at the sight of the then-new American embassy that she simply had to go into Nicholas Hoare and spend several hundred dollars to console herself.
   
5. The fact that working there introduced me to (among other things): successful handselling without a computer to use as a crutch, Elizabeth Smart, Ahdaf Soueif, Zadie Smith, reading the TLS cover-to-cover, Joni Mitchell (yes, yes, deprived childhood. Get over it), Dusty Springfield, and Heywood Hill - better yet, read this, not to mention my wonderful colleagues Myriam, David, Dan, Luca, and Sarah.
6. That he and his store managers let their staff read (I read the first chapter of Harry Potter the day it came out, fresh out of the shipping box, after someone had propositioned a colleague the night before, outside the washrooms no less, to sell him a copy before the release date), and that Nicholas himself brings (and pours) them champagne on Christmas Eve.
7. For really teaching me how to use microfiche (good for my street cred).
   
8. For teaching me that the enchantment of having a staff room behind a false bookshelf NEVER WEARS OFF.
9. For teaching me that the novelty of having a ladder to climb to reach the art books most certainly does.
10. For his unwavering support of local authors and librarians, from organising book launches (above image: the Ottawa launch for The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery, by Alan Bradley - read about it here) to speaking at, and sponsoring, library conferences (at right, above, with Ron Perowne, me, and my fellow members of the ABQLA Conference organising committee in 2006).

Seen reading on OC Transpo

Streetcar 696, via.

• Mystery by Jonathan Kellerman
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
  
• something by Nora Roberts
• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
  
• People Of Darkness by Tony Hillerman
• Anna's tears by Nathalie M. Holmes
  
• Where's Waldo
• A Devil is Waiting by Jack Higgins
• Spotted by one of my former students, GK: An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor and The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
  
• Spotted by another of my former students, HK: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (well, obvs) and Tom Clancy
  
• Spotted on the TTC subway (seriously, dudes, when are we getting a freaking subway?): Death Masks: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
  
• Me: The Journey Prize Stories 23 (my first ever ebook!) and Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch (published with a way better title and cover in England)
  

Mini news round-up

How long has it been since I've done one of these? Sorry, kids!

• Eek! I spoke too soon in that post last week. Rushdie is speaking in India this week; so far no death threats.
• Our new CEO is profiled by David at the Citizen
• the BAnQ has a new website for local history p0rn
• I'm reading the Orange prize longlist - what are you reading?
• Battledecks (here - pick your poison) - I'm doing it in Montreal in May (scroll down and check sidebar under special events) - am I crazy? Don't answer that.
  

Blast from the (recent) past: IFOA round table - Individual in Society

One of the best things about RA in a Day is that it usually coincides with the International Festival of Authors in Toronto in October. I was fortunate to be able to attend a round table about the Individual in Society with authors Lauren B. Davis, Johan Harstad and Bharati Mukherjee (swoon!) and the CBC's Carol Off. I also unfortunately saved this blog post as a draft months ago and forgot about it. Surprise!

This was one of those rare and wonderful round tables in which every speaker is equally erudite, interesting, and charming: Lauren B. Davis shared some deep thoughts about the idea of "us and them:" "There are two kinds of people – those of us who think there are just two kinds of people and those who don’t." Speaking about the craft of writing, she observed "no one thinks about the gardener; you just think about the flowers."

Bharati Mukherjee was a great speaker, although onstage and later at the signing I found her more aloof than I was hoping she would be. She spoke with great passion about uncovering the idea for her latest novel, The New Miss India. She was on the phone with a telemarketing agent, who she realised was Indian but who denied her nationality, providing Mukherjee with a fake biography, when she realised the “real” story she needed to give a voice to in her book was the young women who come from third- or fourth- tier cities in India to work in the new metropolis cities in places such as call centres. These women, she explained, "overthrew the tyrannical social models and demanded money and power. They broke with India's traditional fatalism” to become the new Miss Indias (as a complement to this observation, check out this recent article in the Globe and Mail by Stephanie Nolen, "You can unlock the potential of India’s most oppressed girls, but where are they going to use it?")

Carol Off then inquired if men had it easier in Indian society, but Mukherjee pointed out that either gender was "metaphorically murdering [their] past" in the new India. Farmers, for instance, were losing their farms due to IT growth, these “campuses of glass and steel towers,” as Mukherjee described them. Underlining the incredibly rapid development of Indian society and economy, Mukherjee reminded the audience that “women one generation before this wouldn’t have even dreamed the word ‘empowerment’.”

Johan Harstad was the only panelist I didn't know anything about. He has written a novel set in Norway about Bosnian refugees (apparently there are many in his home country). Describing the Bosnian wars as "the Vietnam of my generation," Harstad spoke movingly about empathy, perspective as a writer, and the development of a thesis in a novel. When asked by Off what questions his novel was intended to answer, Harstad replied that novels don’t answer the questions: “If I answer the question, that is an essay.” He and Lauren Davis then continued by observing that the reader must bring something to a novel. When he/she does this, it is a good sign: "it means we wrote something larger than ourselves!"

Many of the discussions during the round table centred around the idea of the novel helping to "teach" empathy. The Husband was getting twitchy, because his opinion is that it is engrained in us as human beings, not learnt; I would argue this is true in most cases (it's not ingrained in a sociopath, for instance), but to different degrees. This is a question explored in the works of Dr. Keith Oatley, Dr. Raymond Mar, and others.

What do you think?

Freedom of expression: Riots, banjos, fiction becoming truth, bad jokes, Lululemon headbands, and more...

I was incredibly proud of everyone's hard work to make Censored out loud 2012 an overwhelming success.

I was sitting there, surrounded by such good friends (Barb, Mary, MC) and my husband, watching each performer take the stage, and thinking (selfishly?) how wonderful it was that, after almost 6 years in Ottawa, I have these people around me. It was such a joy to see a lot of our hard work come together in a truly outstanding event with speakers, readers and performers of tremendous quality and passion. Now I have new friends in Bob, Kerry, Cheryl and Teri, also. I am very lucky to have such wonderful connections in this city.

Some of my favourite moments from CoL 2012 included: chatting with (and listening to) our special guest Zaganar(a Burmese actor, writer, comedian, opposition activist and honorary member of PEN - visiting North America for the first time!), being reminded of the power of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak as it was read by Nichole McGill (the school that tried to ban it later were accused of also covering up rapes within the student population - truly despicable), being bewilderingly charmed by Max Middle's recitation from Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate, being just plain charmed by Andrea Simms-Karp's banjo-accompanied slow singing (joined by the audience) of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire,” killing myself laughing at Marc Nelson (above at right) and his deadpan delivery of Olivia Newton John’s “Physical,” complete with found (at least, that's his story and he's sticking to it) headband, excitement and pride at OPL's own taking the stage (Sarah Campbell getting us all to roar for the tigers in The Story of Little Black Sambo, Dorothy Jeffreys reminding us how lucky we are to live in a country where authors are not perseculted, Barb putting some numbers on self-censorship by school librarians in the U.S.) , Jenn Farr choking up over And Tango Makes Three (there are some books I can't read in storytime for precisely this reason), and MC's totally spot-on reading ofJimmy Pritchard’s (terrible) New York City Bartender’s Joke Book, reminding us that some things should perhaps be left banned.

You can see almost all the performers in my photos here, or get a full recap with the performer's own descriptions of their chosen pieces here.

In related news, one instance of muzzling of freedom of expression that I have been following with interest recently is the cancellation of Rushdie's talk at the Jaipur Literary Festival in January 2012. This is a tough one: would you censor a reading (by cancelling it) if you felt the lives of the listeners were in jeapordy? Extremist groups in India were prepared to use "any amount of violence" in order to stop Rushdie's voice from being heard at the Festival. Some of these individuals went to the press: one told a reporter from the Times of India that "rivers of blood will flow here if they show Rushdie," (incidentally, this story was even picked up by my favourite Guyanese paper) while the Muslim Manch representative Abdul Salim Sankhla was quoted as saying: "We will not allow Rushdie to speak here in any form. There will be violent protests if he speaks." While all this was happening, some of the other activists were turfing school children out of their seats and intimidating festival guests, and Rushdie's appearance in person at the Festival was cancelled. William Dalrymple gave a rousing defense of the decision in an article for the Guardian: they had a Plan B, as previously arranged, and went ahead with TV interview of Rushdie, and "what we could not show to our audience of 10,000 was seen instead that evening by millions."

Seen reading on OC Transpo

• In Search of Empire: The French in the Americas, 1670-1730 by James Pritchard
  
• A Clash of Kings: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two by George R.R. Martin
  
• The World According to Garp by John Irving
  
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
  
• Wife for Hire by Janet Evanovich
  
• Novel in Chinese
  
• Ottawa Citizen (just thank God it wasn't those free papers - journalistic equivalent of vermin!)
• Quilting magazine
• The Economist (maybe our most popular title of this project?)
  
• Une question de chance by Christine Arnothy (OPL copy!)
• Me: The March 2012 issue of Quill and Quire and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (made tears leak out of my eyes while the bus stopped at Westboro Station today)
  

What I've been up to lately

I am currently listening to Basia Bulat singing "I'm forgetting everyone," but don't worry, interwebs peeps, I haven't forgotten you! I definitely owe you an update, though. It's just been a madhouse, especially with the lead-up to this past week's Freedom to read week event. Now that that is over (a recap post forthcoming, too), I can turn my attention to other projects, like CLA Conference, reading for pleasure again (the BOYCA shortlist is out!), waiting for the roads to clear enough to run outside again, catching up with friends over coffee, visiting Montreal at the end of the month for a friend's seemantham (super excited!), and writing shelftalkers at work.

So, here's what's been on my plate at work recently. There are some really exciting initiatives starting to get off the ground. When I'm not doing this stuff, I have been lying on the hallway floor while the Husband makes dinner, frolicking with my bestie around town, at LANCR meetings or out with friends for drinks, at VerseFest, or reading books for BOYCA (done!) and IMPAC (almost done) consideration. I AM SO SICK OF CAN LIT (poetry of Dennis Lee, Paul Tyler and Suzanne Buffam excepted. Sorry, rest of Canada).

So, what's up at Carlingwood? I'm glad you asked!

• Our Reading Buddies program is building steadily, with help from two volunteers who are my former students
  
• I got to do a Family (Evening) Storytime when several Children's staff were off work! I might be losing my edge, though. I had a great time, but underplanned and ran out of material right before the end. I also have forgotten parts of several basic songs. #fail.
  
• I am tackling epic ongoing projects: getting better sound in the program room, weeding adult nonfic to shift some collections around, and trying to deal with our pigeon friends (DON'T ASK)
  
• I have been reaching out and meeting with community partners in the 'hood.
• I have also been supporting my incredibly talented team as they present at Children's team meetings, get training to be eReader champions, and help me develop our seniors' services.
• We've been working on pushing through some security upgrades (card readers rather than keys, a better front door) and smaller security issues have been solved (we have a phone in the program room now, and quickly discovered we had to disconnect it from the speakers when I interrupted a colleague's storytime with my "We're closing in 15 mins" notice. Sorry, A.S.!)
• Most importantly, we're doing SHELFTALKERS! Hooray! So far, the teens have been outpacing me, but I will catch up.
  

Seen reading on OC Transpo

Mirror, mirror, on the post / When is the O-Train coming? *

• Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick (in YALSA's Teens' Top Ten)
  
• The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James
• The Jewish Book of Why by Alfred J. Kolatch
  
• I, Alex Cross by James Patterson (best trailer ever!)
  
• Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power by Tom Flanagan
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
  
• Sovereign by C. J. Sansom
• 1984 by George Orwell (O-Train read!)
• Me: The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay and Requiem by Frances Itani
  

* yeah, that doesn't scan, does it?

Seen reading on OC Transpo

One of my usual spots: pine tree, parking garage, and patience.

• Robert Ludlum en français
• Made to be Broken by Kelley Armstrong
• something... by J. D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts)
• King: William Lyon Mackenzie King, A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny by Allan Levine
• A children's book in Russian
• The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

FUNDRAISER: Censored Out Loud! *

Wednesday, February 29, 2012, 10 p.m. to midnight
Tickets: $10 at the door (or pay what you can)

I'm finally ready to announce the details of this pet project!

Part of Freedom to Read Week and a fundraiser for PEN Canada, Censored out loud 2012 will consist of readings from censored/banned/challenged writing, musical performances of censored/banned/challenged songs and scenes from censored/banned/challenged plays. This event builds on four years of local events for Freedom to Read Week, including “Censored Out Loud 2011,” a “Freedom to Read Week debate,” “Dangerous Words,” and a “Freedom to read trivia night.” Organisers of this year's event include librarians, writers, media, and local arts patrons.

Confirmed participants include local writers and poets Nichole McGill, Brendan McNally, Alan Cumyn, and Max Middle, Ottawa Public Library children's programmer extraordinaire Sarah Campbell, librarian Dorothy Jeffreys and former City Librarian Barbara Clubb, Don Monet from the CUBE Gallery and Marie-Camille Lalande from the Ottawa Art Gallery, a variety of actors, and musicians Andrea Simms-Karp, Colin Wylie, Marc Nelson, and Brian Simms - plus many more local celebrities and special guests (stay tuned!)

The event is presented by Ottawa Tonite in collaboration with the Library Association of the National Capital Region, Ottawa Public Library staff (thanks, guys!), local writers, singer-songwriters, VerseFest Ottawa, The Gladstone Theatre and the Ottawa theatre community.

*This will be a night of variety and potential profanity, so bring your open mind and prepare to exercise your FREEDOM.

Library day in the life, Round 8 wordle

I'm really happy that "staff" is largest: they are most important. I'm pleasantly surprised by the size of "book," and not surprised at all by "email."

See my previous #libday wordles here.

Library day in the life, Round 8, Friday

Friday! Hooray! I have a massage scheduled tomorrow that I am desperately looking forward to!

• Google Reader on the bus (favourite items: "On my best (greatest) skirt," by the lovely Jean, and "day four of #libday8," by Amy.
• Random tasks when I first arrived, pre-actual-workday, including posting the Seen reading on OC Transpo entry here, managing my own holds and loans, etc.
• OK, an explanation of the pic at right. If you blow it up, you can see that we name our cat every day. This (and the cat calendar itself) is a long-standing tradition dating back to a colleague at Carlingwood, now gone, but fondly remembered. I think of it as our daily laugh now: one day, my colleague named the two cats pictured as William and Kate, and I practically died laughing. Yesterday's cat (at right) was Haughty McGee, named by me for her demeanour.
  
• Approved leave for colleague.
• Printed out some performance appraisals (we call them Individual Contribution Agreements) that I have to review.
• Printed out some "If you like" bookmarks to cut and display.
• Work on next week's Person in Charge schedule.
• Email external colleague for info-gathering about best practices....
• Registered four people for our February Cuba lecture (events database FINALLY back up)
• Made some displays look pretty.
• Checked the Info voicemail.
• Consultation about moving collections with circulation supervisor and a page.
• Maintenance staff check in re. finishing a task I asked them to do!
• Meeting with Corporate Security and two supervisors regarding branch safety.
• Approved the minutes from Monday's staff meeting and sent to all staff.
• Responded to slightly rude email from external partner - have you heard of putting a greeting at the beginning and end of a message? Jeesh.
• Belatedly skim request from colleague in another city to scan a translation (sorry!)
• Photocopy a chapter of a marketing book that I have had checked out for far too long.....
  
• Close email. Work offline for the rest of the morning (which is really only about 30 mins). In order to do this, physically remove myself from computer desk to small table in my office.
• Aaaand we're open!
  
• Two French suggestions to purchase from one of our regulars
• Do you have any books about Glee?
• I think my holds expired... Can you check and re-order?
• It says a copy of Bossypants is here but I can't find it? (turns out it's on Express, but the patron has never heard of Express, so I take her downstairs. Only it's not there. Hasn't been out since Dec 23. Probably lost. I order it for her. Her card is expired. I rope in a circulation person to renew for her.... etc!)
  
• Patron having problems logging in to wireless on his Playbook. Long story short, it's an issue with clicking on the words "I accept" when he logs into our wireless page, instead of the radio button beside the words "I accept." GAH! Stupid small buttons! I taught him that motion that is the opposite of pinching, to zoom into the page and click carefully.
• Mystery involving people waiting for an item that we don't seem to have any copies of... until we discover they are "hidden" in the catalogue because they are at Hazeldean, which is closed! We email the HA Coordinator to "liberate."
• Do you have a book about interpreting blood test results? (no, but there is this and this. Also mentioned that normal ranges can vary greatly, and the best thing to do is consult your doctor...)
• On my break, I read about a seminary librarian whose library has a large collection of puppets!
• Email, email....
• I brokez the OLA website. I also threatened homicide and started talking to myself... so my colleague let me leave.

The end.

• 
  

Seen reading on OC Transpo

Even if in the Beaudelaire / Benjamin sense?

• Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
• Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub
• An Enemy of the State by F. Paul Wilson
• The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon
• Administrative Law for Paralegals
• Chapter title, "Artist into Commando" (Good luck finding that. I tried.)
  
• Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir by Dave Mustaine
  
• The Last Oracle: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins
  
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (review; info about the planned trilogy; BBC adaptation)
  
• It's Kind of a Funny Story (movie tie-in edition) by Ned Vizzini
  
• Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
• Me: Love is a Four-Letter Word by Vikki VanSickle and The Suite Life: The Magic and Mystery of Hotel Living by Christopher Heard (the kind words about Josh on page 112 and onwards are entirely accurate. He is one of the best things about The Royal York).
  

Library day in the life, Round 8, Thursday

• This morning, I had training on our new City-wide eRecruitment process. The training was 9-1 at 100 Constellation, so off I went on the packed #95 bus.
• But first, I checked email from home and forwarded a message from an employee cancelling a shift today to someone who’s actually at Carlingwood to deal with it... On the bus, I scanned Google Reader news.
• I am allowed an extra coffee if I am going to a meeting. Unfortunately, I had a thermos + milk fail (at right). Meh. Black is OK.
• The training was really interesting (basically, the eRecruitment tool will allow us to manage and modify competitions online from start to finish – I’ll spare you the details).
  
• Here’s the thing with me: I hate, hate, HATE webinars in general, so I made sure I signed up for the in-person version of this training because I know webinars this long about finicky tools like this bore me to tears, and as a consequence, left to my own devices in the office, I will get distracted by real work and forget to follow along. At least with others around me, I am generally embarrassed enough to stay off email and ignore my to-do list.
  
• That being said (you knew there was a “but” coming here, didn’t you?), I did manage to send out the monthly report (completed), sign up for some training http://www.ala.org/pla/onlinelearning/webinars/dynamic (I know, a webinar, but it looks so interesting! And I’m going to get a group involved to keep me on track), sent a quick email about FTRW planning, scheduled a few 1-on-1 meetings with my team, set up a few reminders in Outlook, and put in a Grand and Toy order. I did all this either during the break or when everyone was working on exercises during training (I always finish first).
• I also received an email saying the day-long workshop I was presenting at on Saturday has been cancelled. Oh well, I was starting to get stressed about not finishing my presentation, anyway, so one less worry this week!
• Meeting with colleague upon arrival to branch
• We’re screwed for the schedule tonight so I called around for a replacement. The lovely JC stepped in (shout-out!) She will also soon be appearing in an article for Feliciter with me.... Mwha haha!
• Faxed some timesheets and met with circulation supervisor
• Followed up on a few things that came up in conversation with my team.....
• Hacked away at the to-do list.
• Had to call a patron about program registration and ended up having a great, if somewhat depressing, conversation about patron privacy and ease of use of library cards by spouses. Basically, in order to pick up your spouse/partner's holds, you must have their library card. Which is kind of inconvenient, but intended to protect people's privacy. There is no other option as yet to assign someone permission to access your account... Anyway, we debated a bit, and I promised to pass on the patron's feedback.
• More hacking. Several draft messages from earlier this week were sent!
• Wrote some quick reviews for our CLA BOYCA shortlist
• Sorted some more email, made some lists.....
• wandered over to Info desk to drop something off and got sucked into elaborate ebook download question. I'm a bit worried about that patron .... His eyes glazed over with confusion.... I kept asking if he was following ok, and he kept saying yes.... I sent him home with some handouts, too, because Ididn't think he was totally with me
• Clarified some more policy
• Succeeded in completing very few tasks to my satisfaction today. GRR.
  

Library day in the life, Round 8, Wednesday

Another out-of-the-ordinary thing about this week is that one of my team is off right now. I've managed to replace some of her hours, but I am alone on Info this morning until lunch-time. And so, here we go....

• Read Google Reader items while waiting for bus. Very slippery in my 'hood this morning....
• I get in, check voicemail (x3 - two phones at Info and two messages on my phone), have to empty my entire handbag to find my office door key (sigh).
• A member of my team left me a note about my article in Access: "Cool, awesome and sick!" I love my peeps.
  
• Boot up laptop and check network connection on the third floor. We are planning to put a spare office up there, and we need to know what kind of access there is already. Verdict: none.
• Email galore.
• Finish the monthly report. Am temporarily foiled trying to look something up in our programs because our events database is down.
• Run our Position Incumbent Report for the branch so I can check all the full-time and part-time staff have alarm codes for the branch security alarm. Submit names and codes to Corporate Security.
  
• Send out an emergency email to fill a shift at circ tonight as someone there is sick. If I don't get a reply from someone in an hour or so, I will have to bite the bullet and start calling around.
• Packed up some sign holders for another branch that needs them (we have extra)
• Called IT about a frequent crash we're experiencing on one PC when opening Outlook.
• Can I reserve that Nixon book by Conrad Black?
• More email
• Realise the Bolshoi Ballet falls on the same weekend as Race Weekend, making it all a few days before CLA Conference. Too much on at the same time! Argh!
• Have to re-schedule some shifts because employee who has most seniority and accepted them now has shifts elsewhere.
• Found someone to work this evening but not this afternoon.....
• I can't log in to the Express computer... (turns out the issue was the Numbers Lock button being off)
• I can't download my ebook (I think it's because our website is down right now...)
• I want to sign up for the Cuba program on February 13th....
• Long-winded person with ebook
  
• First book by Louise Rennison
• I'm on hold for Emily the Strange : piece of mind... How long will it take?
• Do you think the Library's ebook collection will be compatible with a Kindle one day?
• Do you have this book by Erica Spindler?
• Do you have The Devil's Footprints by Amanda Stevens?
• Am I still on hold for this book?
• Do you have any books by C. J Box here? Two in HC mystery, 1 in HC Fic, and 2 in mystery PBs. Sometimes, our collection drives me BATTY. Also, I want to integrate the paperbacks but they take up almost half the third floor and I don't know how I'm going to ever do it. Patron and I divide and conquer and retrieve all the Boxes.
• Meanwhile, the phone is ringing off the hook with three new messages and I have seven new emails just while I was serving those people.
  
• Triage email
  
• Respond to one of the voicemails, which is from a colleague. The other two are ebook and events-database related, so I can't do anything right now while the website is down.
• Went on a massive treasure hunt for a book that says it is on display at Carlingwood.... Ended up not finding it. It's a last copy, so I emailed all Info staff to have a look around for it. Drat.
• Finally get around to re-assigning those shifts.
  
• I want to use the Internet (I explain how it works). OK, so where on the computer do I put in my library card? (Oh, I love seniors....).
• So, I hear you are the boss here? Turns out this man heard me serve the previous patron (who wanted to put her library card in the CD drive), thought I was great, and wanted to tell the boss, so he asked who that was at circ. Then he realised it was me. We had a chuckle. I offered to tell my boss! He says we are undervalued and that all the staff at CA are great. I had to agree, obvs.
• Enlisted a page to check the thermostat because it's super hot near the public PCs.
• Question from staff about the Person in Charge policy at OPL
• I have totally lost my train of thought re. tasks I wanted to do this morning. It is now about 11 am and I think I need to just write this morning off.
• Call Digital Services to inquire about how to return an ebook early. The helpful staff member explains that if it's a Kobo 1st generation or similar, the return is done through Adobe Digital Editions; if the book was downloaded through an app, click on the title, hold it down, and wait for the - button to appear to remove it. I have to call back the patron to ask, but it turns out it's a digital audiobook. Another call to Digital Services confirms that these cannot be returned early. Good to know!
  
• Do you have Caine's Reckoning by Sarah McCarty? (little old lady patron + ripped dude on the book cover = awesome)
  
• Staff bring me a copy of Secret Wife Of Louis XIV by Veronica Buckley with missing pages. Only one remaining copy, so I emailed Collections to order more if possible, and advised staff to withdraw this copy.
• Question from one of the pages regarding shelving we are shifting.
• Where is your photocopier? (We've moved it recently in anticipation of getting a massive new fancypants print management device)
• Little old lady returns. She found her book on the shelf. I missed seeing it in the catalogue search. She pursed her lips at me. Ouch. I appologise and smile and say, good thing this had a happy ending! She's not having any of it, though.
  
• I forgot my library card at home but I want to use the computers? (I look up his accout after he provides photo ID; his card has expired, so I direct him to the circulation desk to renew it first)
• Opened a service desk call....
• Holy s%&$ I have 16 messages saved as draft. AAAAHHHH!
• ... and now it's 17.
• Help patron with photocopier.
• Faxed my old boss something that might be helpful when training a new employee. Talked to maintenance staff while waiting for fax to go through re. hanging a banner promoting the Foundation.
• Request for a Harlan Coben book; patron is also having trouble accessing our new catalogue online, so I give her some tips.
• Timesheets!
• Can I request The Book of Negroes?
• Can I request the two previous volumes in this series? (en français!)
  
• I run a book club and I need to order multiple copies of these books.....
• Staff report ice falling from roof. I ask maintenance staff to take a look. Kind of a fact of life, but sometimes maintenance staff go up and knock the biggest pieces off.
• Clarification of policy regarding reporting absences with staff at all levels
• Phone call with staff member regarding request for IT to install speakers in our program room.
• Another phone call from a patron wishing to register for a program online, but the events database is still down (website is back up, though!), so I take down his information.
  
• I lost my pen! (I explain lost and found). No, can I borrow one?
• Do you have books that are, like, based on movies? Where would these be shelved?
  
• One of my former students stops by and inquires if I know of anywhere in Ottawa offering language courses for a certain language. I offer to investigate with our Newcomer librarian....
• More email......
• And that was just the morning. Insert lunchbreak here. Pizza was involved.
• After lunch, I passed on instructions to the casual employee I had working, went downstairs to check in with circ and children's staff, and then tackled my to-do list until I went back on Info at 4 pm. The to-do list included a debate with various levels of OPL staff regarding social media policy, following up with patron complaint from Monday, and all those emails.
• Can I reserve these three books? (points haphazardly on a sheet with at least 40 book titles)
• Do you have La boheme with soprano Anna Netrebko on DVD? Can I get it via ILL? Can you ask Collections to purchase it? After all, if it's out there, it's in here, right?
• Any other books by the author of The Kite Runner? What do you mean, you can't find it on the shelf? Where is it? (people's righteous indignation, and their absolute faith in us, amuses me....)
• A bunch of Algonquin students looking for the documentary called 3rd world Canada by Ottawa filmmaker Andrée Cazabon.
• 12 new emails during those last four bullet points... GAH!
• Question in French: Avez-vous Les mots de ma vie?
• Next question is re. picking up a hold (can't find it on the shelf). Also in French!
  
• Do you have The Social Animal The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement?
  
• Is this DVD part of a series? (not really, but I can find some others....)
• Same patron: Stever Irwin is in this DVD, and he mentions he also went on a trip to save the elephants? (had to break it to her that he's dead, but the ship in her movie was named after him, and his work is continued by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and no, we don't have any DVDs about them working with elephants, but we have one about their Antarctic expedition)
• Same patron: two most recent Jude Devereaux in large print.
  

Library day in the life, Round 8, Tuesday

• This week I seem to have lots of training going on. Today, I have Mental Health In The Workplace Management Training, at the bizarre time of 12:30 pm, at Nepean Centrepointe Branch. I can tell this is going to result in me eating my sandwich on the bus ride there (seriously? What's with the 12:30 start time? I guess it means we finish by 4, but still....). Given that I am wearing the Cursed Skirt (marked down from over $200 to $40, back when I worked at Ogilvy's, and has since managed to attract every spill in creation and paid for itself perhaps several times over in dry cleaning bills), this may not end well.
  
• Every 2nd week, The Husband and I get to walk to Rideau Centre together to wait for our buses, but this is not one of those weeks. Alas. Instead, I strategise about a Freedom to read week event all through the walk. I had a partner in crime for this event, but he has backed out, so now I'm scrambling to get something together on short notice. I think I have decided what is feasible (versus what I really want, which involves a debating team and a Banned Bookmobile).
• Read through Google Reader while waiting for the bus. Especially enjoy day one of #libday8 by amy.
  
• Arrive at work. Discover maintenance staff have vacuumed (shoe collection is moved; it's a dead give-away). Hooray! Discover bird has pooped on my window. Merde (literally). Also discover sweater is backwards. Sigh.
• Survey to-do lists made yesterday after the staff meeting. Decide that first order of business is to triage email, then hunt down said maintenance staff and ask him about steam-cleaning some repurposed chairs, washing windows, and dusting shelves. I know. I bet you NEVER thought the life of a branch coordinator was so glamourous. Jealous?
• Email, email, more email.... including emailing all Rideau contacts (book clubbers, schools, daycares, and community partners) about the new Supervising Librarian they are getting soon! Here's a sad paragraph to write first thing in the AM, though: "It has been an absolute honour to work with all of you in the Lowertown and Sandy Hill communities for the past five years. Thank you for all your support of the Library, enthusiasm about our programs and services, and for graciously opening the doors of your organisation or group to me many times. Connecting with all of you make this profession meaningful for me." Good job done (and postponed several times)
  
• OPLA Readers' Advisory Committee work, Freedom to read week, and CLA Local Arrangements Committee work, for a few minutes....
• Travelled downstairs to visit Children's staff and maintenance staff. Wanted to also visit circ but realised we were open when I saw members of the public stream in, so beat a path back to Info before they worried about me. On the bright side, I am getting a lift to training because my colleague is also attending!
  
• Reference question about Great Courses
• Help with the stupid, ancient, effing photocopier
• Re-open email at Info Desk - how the heck can I have 14 emails from the past 10 mins when I was downstairs? Argh!
• Can I borrow some headphones?
• I see Pidge has left...? (my predecessor)
  
• Email, email.... including replying to a message forwarded via our Feedback account on the website. This one is from a patron who returned items in our book drop, but they still appear on his card. I check the account, and confer with our circulation supervisor.
  
• Volunteer brings me a book with a very disgusting call # label (shudder)
  
• The dreaded ebook reference question! I always feel terrible that the whole getting started process is so complicated.
• I'm going away... If I want to renew this book while I am away, can I do that or are there other patrons waiting?
• Working with casual employee, triage Spanish-language items that came up on a zero-circ list (items that haven't circulated in x years or more.... In our case, more than one year). Some we keep, some we give a last chance on our multilingual display, and some go off to greener pastures.
• I would like to use a computer....
  
• Dealt with a very difficult client who demanded the manager
• Cross off seven items on the to-do list, easily solve-able via email.
• Page inquiring if we want to keep these multiple copies of a title?
• I need help finding a hold... (hypenated last name, so she wasn't sure where it was. Also, she was about 13, and her mum was in the background. Super cute to see parents letting their kids ask their own questions!)
• Informal meeting with circulation supervisor. Also found out one of our managers talked about our Digital media program tonight on CBC Radio this morning, so we are going to have a full house! 51 people registered, and our room capacity is 60, so this means I need to tell staff how many chairs to set up, and let the people working at Info tonight know they will have to take attendance to only admit registrants if we get close to the fire regulation limits.
  
• Do you have this book?
• My complementary copy of OLA's Access magazine has arrived, with my article in it! Fame and fortune is mine!
• Travel guides for Florida?
• Reason to love my team #1,468: Because they put Sylvia Plath books on display.
• 11:48 am: Srsly have to eat lunch before this workshop. Snarf this down, help colleague clean snow off car, depart.
• 12:30-4:30: Mental Health In The Workplace Management Training. For supervisors, coordinators and managers, this excellent session focused on when and how to intervene if you feel someone on your team is dealing with a mental health issue, what to do in the case of an issue that affects workplace performance or one that doesn't, and what options are available to individuals dealing with an issue. Great training; sad topic.
• Took the bus home with a former colleague from Rideau who I miss very much, and The Husband was waiting when I walked in the doors to Rideau Centre. Serendipity!
• Managed to only check my email twice during the afternoon; 37 messages waiting for me tomorrow (some deleted already; some replied to during break at training).
• Browsed through this great set of photos from Saturday's Human Library project in five of our branches.