Welcome Back, Blogger

I don't know if it's ironic, or just an indication of how much of a procrastinator I am, but the post before this was my first post in a long time, so that seems to be the running theme...



Anyway, a few weeks ago I began working in a new library and with this new opportunity I have decided to resurrect my blog. I will be mostly chronicling my work as a reference librarian with my special projects, day to day activities, and also my work with professional organizations. This blog is not sponsored, or endorsed, by any libraries, or library associations as an FYI. It is solely to chronicle my work life and help illustrate the varied functions of a modern librarian and advocate for the importance of information professionals.



My first week on the job my supervisor oriented me with the layout of our branch, and I learned the various sections for non-fiction, reference, fiction, large print, etc. I also was introduced to my co-workers and am very lucky that everyone is very mellow and friendly. I attended county wide training on my second day and learned about the various benefits provided us and all about safe driving. I also conducted some online safe driving training, but apparently they updated the class and last week I had to take different training. Needless to say I am now very informed on how to safely drive both forward and backwards!



I have been tasked with sorting all newspapers for my branch, including the financial newsletters, and popular magazines. Unfortunately we have a magazine thief on our hands, so I am experimenting with various theft deterrent techniques. For now, we are keeping the magazines that go missing frequently behind the Information Desk. We are hoping this strategy works, so that more strict ones do not need to be implemented.



Since I have 6 years of collection development experience at 2 diverse libraries I have been asked to help with a new project of adding donated books that are lightly used to the collection. These donated books can be used to replace our more worn out copies. Most collection development in the system is centralized, so I look forward to this opportunity and hope to keep my skills sharp.



Finally, I am creating new end cap signs for all of the shelves in the library since the collection has been growing. I finished reference and non-fiction last week, and will be working on fiction, biography, large print, mystery, and science fiction this week. Yes, we have a sci-fi section! Something I find important in public libraries and was lacking at the last place I worked. What with all of the new sci-fi movies coming out, this section is being used a lot lately.

Been a Long Time

Well it certainly has been a long time since I posted anything on my blog. A lot has happened since last June not just in library land, but throughout the world. I'm not quite sure why it's taken me so long to write another post, but I'm back for now...

One of my former posts that garnered some attention was on Library Journal's Movers and Shakers winners. This year they have really outdone themselves with the winners. Two librarians from my state were selected for creating a zine collection and helping people with music recommendations. Now while I will say that this is unusual - possibly even cutting edge - I don't see the importance for public librarians to spend their time with pop culture when the economy is in such terrible shape. Our most common questions are for help with resumes, finding a job, learning computer and technology skills, and research help. Not what band sounds like U2 and Nirvana mixed together possibly infused with a bit of reggae. Or, do you have any zines on zombies or Sonic Youth? While it could be argued that the patrons will be moving and shaking to the music, the whole point of LJ's Mover and Shakers is to spotlight library professionals on the cutting edge. To top it off they have another winner who wrote a Dewey Decimal rap. Yes, you read that correctly. One day when libraries are still popular after all of the years of their predicted death it will turn out that the things that kept them alive were rapping librarians, zines, and music advisory. Better luck next year LJ.

Project Compass Adds Fuel To EZ Fire

About a month ago I attended a program called Project Compass at the Boynton Beach City Library. Below I will post a brief description of this program and some ideas I gathered there. One thing that I have decided to do for the future is more programming "sponsored" by the Empowerment Zone. Ted Kramer of the Small Business Development Center presented on his organizations programs and I subsequently contacted him to have them do several programs at our library. I also reached out to Austin who is spending the off season in Connecticut and New York. He agreed to do a series of events for the Empowerment Zone. So, as of now there are 6 future programs scheduled for the EZ!!! Two on small business development and entrepreneurship, and four on job searching/resume creation. I will post more briefly on Austin's and the SBDC programs.

Here are my abridged notes on Project Compass:

Project Compass

What are the program requirements?

* Participants will attend a face-to-face training session that covers job-seeker information, personal financial skills, and resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs. At the session, participants will exchange ideas, information, and resources. They will then share this information with their colleagues and library administration.

* Participants are required to take part in four evaluations: a pre-workshop assessment, follow-up assessments three weeks and then three months after the workshop, and a final evaluation upon completion of Project Compass.

• Participants will identify and implement at least one workforce recovery activity in their local communities by October 2011.

• Participants must also participate in an online follow-up session in July 2011 to discuss their progress on their workforce recovery activities.


Possible Project Compass Activities:

Job Fair at our library
Specific program or help for veterans

Other ideas:

Create a checklist with help for the recently unemployed
• File for unemployment
• Places with help for paying utilities, etc.
• Update your resume
• Workforce Alliance contact info

Create a special section/collection of all career guidance books, resume and CV books, and cover letter books. Place the collection near the reference desk.

Create a survey to evaluate our constituency – difference between class takers and EZ patrons.

Networking event at our library, or business card exchange.

Poster Session Display FLA 2011

Here are two pictures from my Poster Session presentation at the FLA Annual Conference a few weeks ago in Orlando. Enjoy!

FLA 2011

I got back from the Florida Library Association Annual Conference in Orlando Friday afternoon. I was busy taking advantage of the many great programs, exhibits and network opportunities and did not have much of an opportunity to blog while there.

So these are the highlights in no particular order for now:

I met many people including Roberta Stevens current President of the American Library Association. I was volunteering for the Leadership Voices Project and Gene, director from Palm Harbor, asked me to roam around and try to get people to come over and participate. I was talking to Betty Sammis from the North Palm Beach Library when I saw Roberta out of the corner of my eye talking to a few folks. I waited patiently for their conversation to end and then I asked her to participate in the Leadership Voices Project. While I was walking her over I made sure to tell her about my poster session on the Empowerment Zone that was scheduled for Friday. I also managed to tell her about the EZ, Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute, and the Palm Beach County Library Association (PBCLA). We exchanged cards and then she recorded her take on leadership.

After that I talked to David Lankes who gave the key note speech at the Opening Session. Check out his blog here. His speech was awesome and really re-engerized many in the audience including myself. He basically called for librarians to be more radical and I highly recommend listening to the speech on his blog. I asked him to participate in Leadership Voices and told him about PBCLA since he would be a great guest speaker for us.

On Thursday I bumped into Vickie Joslin Library Supervisor of the Lake Worth Public Library and she told me that the library is safe for now. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifI have been an advocate for the library lately (along with a lot of other librarians across the County and State) and the City Commission rejected the City Manager's proposal to gut the library budget. This was great news and followed the other great news that the State decided to fund libraries to the level requested plus 100K over what they gave libraries last year.

Friday was my poster session and I presented on the Empowerment Zone. I was directly next to Matthew Moyer who writes articles for Library Journal on music in libraries. He works for the Jacksonville Public Library and we talked about cool music like The Knife and Royal Trux. I had a little over twenty people visit my poster session and after an hour I was pretty talked out. I made sure to give everybody handouts in case they had any questions. A few people mentioned that they would pass the information on since their library could use a similar program. This was an excellent opportunity to talk about my program and represent my library in a positive way.

I was honored to be recognized at the Opening Session, along with the other hardworking members of the FLA Public Relations Committee. See what we accomplished! Snapshot Day 2011! We will be conducting another Snapshot Day this year and Salena Coller is our new chair.

Now getting back to work and catching up on emails, interlibrary loans, the EZ, and PBCLA has made me very busy, but I plan on posting another blog update soon about what I learned at the FLA Sessions last week.

Library Journal ILS Survey

Recently I was reading the last issue of Library Journal. As a reference librarian I have a decent amount of time that I can devote to library periodicals and while I will admit besides resident curmudgeon, and editor John Berry, I don't really care for LJ. But, this issue has a survey of librarians concerning their Integrated Library Systems - or ILS. I was very curious to see how Sirsi stacked up since I use it in my library and really can't stand the clunky, non-intuitive nature of it. I was not surprised to see it rank at the bottom of most of the surveys. I would really like to meet the 36% of librarians who would recommend SirsiDynix Symphony to a colleague and ask them "Why? Why would you submit anybody to the pure torture that is Symphony?" The advanced searching function is terrible, I have to double check every search since I don't trust the search mechanism, and it crashes on me constantly. Now some of this could be a library catalogers fault, and some could be blamed on the servers, but I have talked to other librarians and they agree that Symphony is terrible. Which is why Miami Dade recently switched to Polaris and Alachua County is considering a switch.

Here is the article...

One-on-One Career Help in EZ Blows Up

Yesterday was the third segment of what has turned out to be a very popular addition to the Empowerment Zone. About a month ago I wrote about how the EZ had partnered with a volunteer named Austin with 44 years of HR experience. Austin has been meeting with patrons one-on-one to offer resume, interview, and career advice. Unfortunately he will be headed back up North in a few weeks since he is a snowbird.

What really set off the one-on-one sessions was a Sunday article in the SunSentinel that appeared on the front page of the Community section. We have received at least 20 phone calls since the article was printed, and a handful of email inquiries. I have had to turn a few people down since there is not enough time slots available for Austin to meet with people. I have been reminding people that Austin is an unpaid volunteer, who is retired, in hopes that they will go easy on him. Since this partnership has been so well received we will be looking for a few more volunteers to offer the same service for the off season until Austin returns in the Fall. Here is a link to a previous article about this program http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/delray-beach/fl-drf-career-0319-20110316,0,2419985.story