Library Musings

My creation

2008-05-29T15:17:00.001-06:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by kristenrstewart

I was playing some more with Flickr and Warholized this picture I took a couple of summers ago. We look so cute!!

My photo mosaice

2008-05-15T12:19:00.001-06:00

My photo mosaice
Originally uploaded by kristenrstewart

I used the fd Flickr toys to create this photo mosaic for my blog. There are some other really cool toys out there to play with your Flickr pictures. I even made a librarian trading card last year that can be found in my Flickr photostream.

Flickr

2008-05-15T10:53:00.001-06:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Friday afternoon

2008-05-09T14:40:00.003-06:00

So, I've started yet another blog for a big project at work, based on Charlotte-Mecklinburg library's Web 2.0 thing. And now that blog is blocked because Google thought it was a spam blog. Never even heard of a spam blog! I submitted the form for it to be unlocked, so I can continue to use it! Crazy.

On the topic of Florida

2008-02-14T17:17:00.003-06:00

I've been a reference librarian down here in S. FL for about 3 months now. Weird. I can hardly believe it's been that long! I'm settling in. I'm finally legal with the driver's license and license plates and everything. And now I have a few patrons who ask for me. It's pretty nice to be appreciated. :)

I'm looking forward to moving with a new project myself and another ref. librarian were tossing around last week. We teach several lecture style computer classes that are mostly attended by seniors. We don't have a computer lab, so we make do with small group classes to do hands on with a mobile laptop lab. Our idea is to help some of our not seasonal people form a club in which they can set the agenda, use the library space and computers, and utilize a librarian to learn more about computers and the internet. We have observed how much they really want to learn, but it's hard to do so without hands on experience. And at the desk we can't really walk them through everything we'd like to because of staffing and time constraints. Plus they really enjoy the social aspects of teach and learning from each other. If they get to set their own agenda, then they learn specific things about Ebay or email, or even Facebook. There are a lot of proud grandparents that like to be able to see their grandchildren's accomplishments online. But anyway, we're still in the planning and research part of the project. Yay!

Service to seniors is something that I'm learning to love. Sometimes it can be frustrating for them and us, but it usually turns out to be very rewarding. :)

Happy Holidays!!

2007-12-20T16:55:00.000-06:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

Some thoughts about technology

2007-12-12T17:03:00.000-06:00

Well, today was an interesting day at the reference desk. I usually have computer questions and issues to sort out for patrons, especially because we have a PC Reservation system and it's not perfect. Today I had a lot of requests for in depth help for people who'd never used a computer before. I also learned that as our desk gets so busy, we can't sit next to people and teach them how to sign up for an email address. It just isn't feasible. This lack of computer experience seemed so strange to me when I first started this job a month ago, but I'm realizing that while there are many tech savvy seniors, there are many more not at all savvy ones. We do offer a basic computer instruction/intro class for patrons and it's filling up for the session next week. We try to offer it about once a month. This is all a new world to me and it's good to be reminded that many people don't know how to operate in an online environment.

Meanwhile I'm glad to report that I work tomorrow and then I have two days off in a row! Friday and Saturday I have to myself. I need to finish up Christmas shopping and take care of the marketing too. I also have plans to watch the next disc of the first season of Big Love. Fascinating show.

Not much

2007-12-10T17:12:00.001-06:00

I'm excited that I figured out how to link this lovely blog up to my Facebook account. That's really all I feel like saying for the moment. Today was an odd day at work. Usually we're bombarded more in the morning, but the afternoon was more busy. So now I'm tired and going to make some dinner. Tomorrow is my evening shift and Ringling Bros is coming to do a kids program. Should be fun!

Job Update

2007-12-09T12:46:00.000-06:00

Well, this is a long overdue update! I've been at my job for about a month now. I'm learning something new everyday! I work the reference desk for about half of my shift and when I'm off the desk my current duties include evaluating donated books that we put out for the Friends of the library for sale and doing ILLs. We do a lot of requesting of books between the 13 different branches of the Palm Beach Co. system, but we do a great deal of ILL within the SEFLIN system as well. A lot of our patrons enjoy doing research on all kinds of topics so I get a fair amount of obscure titles to order. :)

And that takes me to our lovely patrons! Right now we're in "season". This translates to the busiest time of the year. All of the snowbirds have come down to South Florida fleeing the snows and cold of winter. Here on the east coast, we primarily have people come down from NY and other New England locations. Subsequently this translates to a highly concentrated Jewish population too, which is new for me. Having lived in the Bible belt of TX for so long and then in River Forest, I got used to Catholics and Southern Baptists. So I'm learning alot about Judaism. I'm enjoying that. :) Sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed by older people though, I must say. Most of them are very nice, but some are on the needy side. I'm learning how to draw the line at what I can do for them because we are such a busy branch. I'm also learning that my RA skills are being put to the test! These guys read, read, and READ! :) Some of them are willing to branch out and try something that's not Patterson or Grisham, and some are not...

When I work my one evening a week I get to see the other side of Boca. They are a fair number of college students and hs students who come in to use our resources and study areas in the evening. I feel a bit more balanced when I see them. :)

So overall, the new job is going well. I miss seasonal weather. Not so much the crazy ice, etc. But the weather here is still a bit warm for me... I know I shouldn't complain though! I'll be going home to Houston for a few days at Christmas, so it'll be a bit cooler there than it is here.

I hope everyone is having a happy holiday time!!

Moving day is here

2007-10-31T15:33:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow morning I am starting my journey from Houston to Boca. It should take a couple of days or one really loong day. I'm opting for the two day route... :) So we should arrive Friday evening sometime and my PODS will be delivered Saturday sometime. My parents are coming along to help me with the drive and also help unload the PODS. Thank goodness for them! They've both been a great help to me. Always.

So I start the job November 13, day after Veteran's Day, which is a paid holiday! I have a few hours of on-boarding that morning, then off to the actual library. So I'll have a week to unpack and settle. Find things to do. I already know there's a gigantic mall down the road from my apartment. I'm going to have to look up the nearest Target too! And of course, one of the first orders of business- getting the internet all nice and set up. I'll update when that's done!

Finally

2007-10-05T13:15:00.000-06:00

Well, I have finally got a job. Well, it will be official official next week... I went to Boca Raton, FL this past Monday and Tuesday for a second interview at Palm Beach County PL. The position is a Reference Librarian I. I guess I made a really good impression, because by the end they offered me the job and I took it! Now I am going through the joy of county HR. I have had some difficulty with them verifying that I worked at Barnes and Noble as pretty much all the staff has changed in the two years since I left... Gr. The county HR people don't seem to understand the high turnover rate in retail. But that's all been figured out and now I have to get a physical and drug test taken care of. And then... I get my official start date. Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out where to live, getting my PODS down from IL and myself and stuff from TX to south Florida. :) Overall though, I'm pretty excited about my brand new job! The man who will be my supervisor already told me that he chose me because of my facility with new technology and that would help out the current staff. Yay!And almost everyone I met at the library is from the Midwest. Two U of I Urbana grads, and two Indiana grads too.

Long overdue update...

2007-09-11T13:19:00.000-06:00

Well, friends, it has indeed been too long since I posted to this. I've been busy and easily distracted from many things since graduation in May. I moved back home to Houston in early June and have been searching for that first job. I have had lots of interviews. Lots. But so far no offers as of yet. However, I am going for a second, all day intensive interview a week from today. This is for a YA position at a joint library in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. This library is a Broward County branch located at Nova Southeastern University. So I had a phone interview with them in late August and was selected to come in for this second interview. And... they're paying for everything! That's pretty fantastic. :)

As I wrote before, this interview is all day long and I'll pretty much meet everyone in the library. I also am making a 15 min. presentation at the end that is open to anyone... And this presentation is kind of getting to me. The premise is that I'm going to a high school English class in their own library to give a 45 minute program of my choice. Now, my actual presentation is my design of this program. Kind of like a pitch of the program. My current thinking is that I am going at the request of the teacher to talk about resources for a project they are doing concerning Shakespeare. This is a project that I had to do in my senior English class with Beowulf. The project is a creative response to their reading and can be multimedia. They do have to have a bibliography. My design of this program would of course include instruction on how to use applicable databases, the county's computer catalog as well as the University's catalog. I also have to include a book that I would booktalk, so I'm trying to find some sort of modern spin on a classic Shakespeare story.

I still have to make a Powerpoint I think, to keep me on track during the presentation and of course handouts. I will be doing this presentation for them in a computer lab. Any suggestions, critiques are welcome!

More interview news

2007-04-29T14:32:00.000-06:00

So, I have more news. Some is non-news, some good. Virginia has basic tabled me. That is to say that I interviewed and while not officially rejected, they have certainly not made me any offers. On the plus side, I got a call from a library in Texas on Friday. I'm doing a phone interview with them on Thursday. Sweet! I'm pretty psyched because it's a unique library, part public and part community college library. They have a really new building too. Here's the link.
Soooo... I really want this job I think. It'd be a great opportunity and I'd be close to my family. Think good thoughts for me around 3 on Thursday! :)

Job Interview

2007-03-30T11:02:00.000-06:00

So I'm back from Virginia and my interview seemed to go pretty well. It was a panel interview with three librarians, an HR person, and the library director. They each asked me a couple of questions and then I got to ask them questions. So, I think I did pretty well, but I'm not sure. I will hear from them in the next couple of weeks. We'll see... Sounds like it will be an interesting job- they did ask me about being flexible with where I am in the library. I could be doing reference as well as Children's stuff and even technical services stuff. It was a pretty small library. Here's the link for the library. We'll see...

Thoughts

2007-03-22T09:59:00.000-06:00

Well, I am at work right now. I should totally be doing something more useful, but I'm totally out of it today! This weather is doing a number on my allergies. I keep blowing my nose and my eyes are all watery!

Thank goodness we are taking a storytime break for three whole weeks! This is of course to the chagrin of our many nannies. I have overheard grumbling several times this morning. They don't seem to understand that a) our staff needs a break and b) we are vastly understaffed!! Half of the library is gone or leaving in the next two weeks. We literally have lost almost all our department heads and full time librarians in the past 6 weeks. It makes life frustrating.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to get ready for the job interview in Virginia. And my brother is going to be in town this weekend! Yay! He's flying in from Houston tonight and leaving Sunday. I'm excited to be able to hang out with him. He's also bringing the pan to make cheesecake... :)

Alrighty, back to productivity.

Blogpost 6

2007-03-18T10:07:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! I have a new webpage. How to Pick a Good Book!

free PDF maker

2007-03-18T08:47:00.001-06:00

Here's the link to a website that will convert documents to pdf format.
http://www.pdfonline.com/index.htm

Blog Post 5-Class Recap

2007-03-16T19:27:00.000-06:00

Well, I thought I'd spend this last post pondering the whole Blogger experience. As someone who has had a Blogspot in the past and also blogs via MySpace, this was not an alien concept to me, but keeping to a specific topic was. It has not been overly hard to concentrate on library and technology issues, which was somewhat surprising to me. I had of course thought about libraries and technology quite a bit, but being "forced" to write about it has brought a new light to my thinking. My group project is about blogging and now I can see how blogging can really be applied to a library service.

This has been productive for me because I will soon be an actual librarian. Graduation is in May and I am interviewing in about a week and half at a library in Virginia. The library said in its ad that they were looking for new graduates and for someone who could help them re-define reference services. Looking at their website now I can see a great deal of potential in helping them jump into new reference and reader's advisory services. I am excited that I will be able to talk about Web 2.0 technologies in my interview with knowledge and confidence. This class has helped me broaden my horizons.

In short, I have to celebrate my experience in this class and say thank you to everyone in our class for helping me in one way or another. It's been great!

Blogpost #4 Video technologies

2007-02-27T19:08:00.000-06:00

I just witnessed some kids using technology creatively today at work. They were totally filming themselves and Internet content via their video cell phones. I do wonder how kids half my age can have such items, but they were being creative. I wonder if by filming animations from the web onto their phones would considered copyright violation. I did not run up and reprimand them simply because I was interested in what they were doing. That's the great thing about technology today. It has the unique quality of empowering every day people to create things. I would not have even thought such things would be possible at the age that these kids are now.

As how to apply video technology to libraries, I wonder what patrons would think if their local library had videos of daily tasks online. I think our patrons would be interested to know how a new book is processed before it hits the library shelves. Or there could even be a video about how an interlibrary loan book gets to and from respective libraries. Or in our case, what the after school kids (ASK) program does each day. I think that these are interesting ideas and ones that could probably be implemented relatively cheaply. I mean if 13 year olds can create videos, why can't the library? :)

What think the rest of you?

Interesting Article

2007-02-24T13:45:00.000-06:00

This was an interesting article that I found the link to in a friend's MySpace blog.
http://www.slate.com/id/2159929 The article is all about turns of phrase and modern grammar, especially as related to instant messaging, blogging, etc.

Enjoy!

Last.fm

2007-02-21T12:13:00.000-06:00

So, I get an email from one of my best friends back at home (Houston) and it is inviting me to join this new social networking thing. But it is all about music! It's called Lastfm. So I take a look around and decide to download the business required. So it seems to work similarly to other social networking sites that are out there. You get friends and share your music with each other. You can send notes and recommendations to each other. You can post a picture of yourself on your profile or not. Another cool thing is that it "scrobbles" your music from your preferred player, ITunes, Window's Media Player, etc. So as you listen to your music on ITunes, there's another window from Last.fm and you can "heart" that song or tag it. There are so many other things that I haven't even explored yet, but it seems like a lot of fun, especially if you love music. Yay for music!

Blog Post 3

2007-02-17T15:20:00.000-06:00

In the readings for last weekend there was an article all about instant messaging in libraries. I know that this hasn't always been the most popular thing with libraries and librarians.
I personally think that IM is great way to attract some of the teens and tweens to the library. It makes the staff more approachable in that they can ask questions without the pressure of standing in front the reference desk where all their peers can see them. Some kids here at my library would probably like to IM me from home and have a conversation. IM could be a great marketing tool for just this demographic. We get the little kids and then the adults, but it sure is hard to hold onto those teens...

I found it interesting though that this articles specifically mentions the corporate world as well. From personal experience, I know that my mother (who works for Shell Oil in Houston) uses MSN messenger as a way to keep in easy contact with her co-workers in the company and with the help desk. She also uses it as an easy way to communicate with her various customers that are located within the state and as far away as the Netherlands. It is a cheaper way to talk than the telephone and a great way to conference with several people.

As for using instant messaging as a reference tool, many libraries are using it. Elmhurst College library has been using IM for a while. Last spring I had Susan Sword Steffens as an instructor in academic libraries and she told our class that though IMing would not replace traditional reference, it was a tool that her students did use.

Attention!

2007-02-13T17:11:00.000-06:00

Hello class,

Any of you who were interested in speaking with faculty about how to improve student experience at Dominican- the meeting has been postponed until 2/21 at 4:30. The room number will be 310 B in the library. Thanks for your interest! This will give you an extra week to ponder your questions/issues.

Blogpost 2- librarian trading card

2007-02-06T12:04:00.001-06:00

My librarian trading card
Originally uploaded by kristenrstewart.

Alrighty, this should work this time!! I was having some difficulty figuring out the best way to post my lovely creation. I think I have figured it out. I ended up creating a Flickr account, so I guess that's pretty cool. I do love photography and sharing it with others, so this seems to be a great way to do it. And I totally forgot that Yahoo and Flickr had merged, so setting up was a breeze due to my already having a Yahoo email address. Sweet!

Making the actual trading card was pretty fun. I have quite a few pictures of myself (somehow!) and it was hard to pick one that I liked. I think all libraries should use these for new people. I know I said that already, but they are fun and a good way to get to know people.

My library card

2007-02-03T18:30:00.000-06:00

This is my fabulous librarian trading card! I had a lot of fun creating it. I think that when librarians get new jobs that they should be required to create one to share with their new co-workers. That would be a fun and easy way to get to know one another. Or even create them and post them on your library's blog. Some librarians may not like that after all though.

Enjoy!

Technical blips

2007-01-28T14:28:00.001-06:00

Hmm. I'm a bit confused by the lack of ability to comment. So I'm going to attempt to post this and try to see if I can comment after it has been posted...

Blog Post #1

2007-01-20T13:39:00.000-06:00

I see from other blog postings that some in our class have reservations about MySpace. I must admit to some trepidation in recent months myself, though not for myself really. As I type this blog here at work I think about the kids that I know who are using Myspace. None of them are allowed to access the site in the Children's Room because legally you have to be 14 to have an account (haha) and we define children here at the library as age 0-13. So we tell them that they can't log on down here. If they are 14, then we tell them to get an adult card and do it upstairs in our adult section.

I know Myspace is a great tool and can be a lot of fun for adults, but I have huge concern for children who are logging on and are not very savvy about the dangers. The teen librarian here as well as one of my colleagues have attended a workshop about advising kids and teens about safety on the Internet. Because we do not filter anything on the computers here at the library, this was a very wise move on our administration's part.

The library can not be the responsible body for monitoring what children do on the Internet. I know that parents should be the ultimate authority for what their own children are and are not allowed to do, but I also see the kids that do not have supervision. So librarians must strike some kind of balance between these positions. This often is a difficult position to be in sometimes. I have been spoken strongly to by parents who do expect me to watch what their kids do on the computers. And then there are the ones who just don't seem to care all that much... It's a scary world sometimes.

First post of the semester!

2007-01-14T14:40:00.000-06:00

Yay! This not my first time blogging, but the first time doing so for a class. I'm really excited about being able to incorporate some of new emerging technologies that are important for libraries.

I also love Ahmad tea!