NSLS Blogs
The Book’s The Thing
July 29, 2009
The Good Old Summertime in Recessionary Times
Last summer my supervisor started putting me on the reference desk, as I’d completed at least one reference course working toward my MLIS. She figured it was time to initiate me in the wonder that is working with the public. And sometimes they really do make me wonder.
At first I was limited to a couple hours a week, but now I’m up to two or three shifts some weeks. But still, it can be an intimidating proposition. Thank goodness I’m never out there alone.
Summer, at least around here, can usually be counted on to be pretty quiet. There are summer reading sign ups for adults and young adults, and prizes to be handed out; books and other materials to locate and/or put on hold, etc. You know the basics. Aside from that, it’s usually quiet enough to get other work done in between patron questions and phone calls. Working the reference desk in the summer used to be a relaxing proposition, something to look forward to.
Not so this summer. I was on the desk yesterday, for the first time since my vacation, and never have I seen it so swamped. For the first half hour or so it wasn’t bad. There were questions, but nothing exceptional. And then it took off, continuing rapid fire for the rest of my shift. I and the other librarian were running the whole time, searching for materials or answering questions one after the other. Occasionally lines formed at the desk – something I’ve hardly ever seen - and the phone was rang off the hook.
There are loads of articles on the topic of libraries booming in this economic downturn, and I have seen the increase. But it’s never been like yesterday. I don’t work the desk every day, but I see how packed it is when I’m out in the library(normally I’m tucked safely away in the uber-quiet staff room). Some patrons are here to save money on books and other forms of entertainment, but others are seeking specific information on job searching, interviewing and resume writing.
We keep job ads from the local newspapers behind the reference desk, to lessen the chance they’ll be stolen. It’s a shame, but that’s how it must be. Patrons requesting these papers look more and more harried all the time, more defeated and forlorn. You have to feel for them, wishing you could do more.
Many days our parking lot’s so full I have to circle around a while to find a spot. It’s more than at-home moms making use of the library, unlike the old days when they and the retirees made up most of our daytime traffic. Now you see patrons from all age groups. While that is, theoretically, a good thing, it’s too bad it must come at such a price.
I wonder how many of these patrons currently making use of our services will continue coming once the economy turns up again, and they’re able to secure jobs? Surely a percentage will, but somehow I have the sinking feeling most won’t. Maybe I’m a pessimist (maybe?!), but once life returns to normal I don’t know what impact this current activity will have on the importance of the library in general.
Our county has been hit hard by unemployment. The current rate hovers around 10 %, which is huge. It will be a while before things start looking up again. In that time, what can we do to communicate to the public how willing we are to serve them, that we’re professionals in the information-seeking business?
In my own position, adult programming, I’ve scheduled job search program after job search program. But it’s not like people are knocking at the doors to get in. So far none of them have been full. What seems more popular are programs about saving money on groceries and essentials. Even a program on tips for winning sweepstakes was well-attended. But job search programs? So far not so much.
Why? One reason may be the perception of embarrassment attached to meeting other people who are also out of work. There may be misplaced shame attached to losing a job which is stronger than being seen asking for help. I honestly don’t know, but I am surprised.
Meanwhile, we’ll keep doing what we do, helping our patrons as much as we’re able. It’s a catch-22 seeing the library being utilized while people are struggling to make ends meet, knowing once things are better we’ll slow down again. We can’t wish them ill, but …
There’s only so much we can do; we have to face reality. In the interim, we can hope those who deal with new digital technology will keep us on the cutting edge, and that libraries won’t be seen as outdated institutions. Hopefully what we’re doing right now will raise our profile within the community. Chin up!
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Lisa at
10:23 am
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More Kindle Bashing. You Can Never Have Too Much.
“Kindle” is synonymous with “the death of enjoyable reading” — here’s why.
July 28, 1:40 PM · Michaela Zamloot – SF Young Adult Literature Examiner
You’ve heard it all before: we are running, not walking, into an age built upon the immediate exchange of information. Emphasis on the immediacy – the instantaneous is swiftly becoming the norm, and it’s rolling over to influence our expectations in other walks of life as well. Just as quickly, to the tune of closing bookstores and dying newspapers, it’s become apparent that the world of literature had better hike up its pages and join the race.
The savior of the readers’ universe, our Superman, calls itself the Kindle. Actually, that’s what Amazon dubs it – and the concept is only slightly less ridiculous than the name. Acting as a a kind of adult-oriented Leapster, the device is a computer gadget about the size of a hardcover novel, though much thinner. It displays the text of your desired reading material on a gray (not harsh white, like those nasty desktops) screen in a page-free environment that safeguards you from the hazards of windy days and paper cuts. The Kindle provides you the opportunity to read it yourself, with the option of reference material for words you might not understand at the touch of a button. Or, if you’re feeling less motivated, your trusty library-on-the-go will read to you, in a polite but halting tone described by Nicholson Baker of The New Yorker as similar to Tom Hanks’ character in The Terminal, though more prone to mistaken auto-correcting. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos proudly explains, “we think reading is an important enough activity that it deserves a purpose-built device.”
Don’t make me laugh, Amazon.
The purpose of the Kindle is not to usher novels and newspapers into the age of technology. Nor is it to inspire legions of new readers. No no. The Kindle is a wolf cleverly designed in futuristic packaging that will take the first opportunity to huff, puff, and blow your library down. Despite the intensity of the publicity (ads thwarting your every click on Amazon.com, testimonials from average and celebrity readers alike) surrounding this innovation, it is in many ways a step backwards. To begin with, the device itself isn’t entirely streamlined. In the poignant words of Baker, “some engineer, tasked with keyboard design, has again been struck by a divine retro-futurist fire: the result is a squashed array of pill-shaped keys that combine the number row with the top QWERTY row in a peculiar tea party of un-ergonomicism.” As for the sophisticated screen, it achieves its advertised optical mildness through a color palate of gray upon gray upon gray. Medical texts are robbed of their colorful diagrams. Illustrations are an afterthought, small and squished – if they’re included at all. Newspapers suffer the most at the hands of this eco-friendly imposter, completely restructuring the careful page layouts, removing ads and illustrations, and occasionally even neglecting certain articles altogether.
As Baker once again so caustically summarizes, “Amazon is very good at selling things, but, to date, it hasn’t been as good at making things.” The Kindle may lessen environmental damage and possibly boost readership in its portable convenience, it’s true. But what is it that we receive in exchange? The careful formatting (which forms the basis of many jobs, I might add) of the newspaper is lost. The painstaking illustrations that accompany novels and nonfiction alike appear in low-quality grayscale, if they’re remembered at all. Worst of all, the investment in the Kindle is actually a temporary limitation of the quality of your library: titles of such prominence as The World According to Garp, Love in the Time of Cholera, A Clockwork Orange, and Jasmine are conspicuously absent from the list of available titles. Granted, they will be added eventually, but at a high cost, often much more expensive than the physical books themselves.
Those with the desire to read should research their alternatives first: there’s the Sony Reader, which has a better page-turning control and can handle PDF documents without conversion. Or better yet, save your money and download the Kindle application for your iPhone or iPod touch (yes, I know you have one, and yes, it’s ok) – the same portability with a more familiar whiteness to your pages. The other choices are worth looking into, if for no other reason than the fact that Kindle books are not transferrable. Whatever you purchase goes to your Kindle and stays there, trapped within the thin little plastic and protruding keys.
So I implore you, the readers of the 21st century and beyond, not to abandon your bookshelves. There is something so immaculate about the sight of the neatly arrayed titles, waiting to be displaced and perused, something so alluring in the smell of an old book, something so provocative in the crackling of a library cover. These things may not be widely appreciated, but they are the small mementos left in the consciousness of one who has read and enjoyed it. Array yourself in Blackberrys and iPods, have a field day in Best Buy. But for goodness sake, remember that it’s ok to pick up a book every once in a while – and a real one at that.
Still not convinced? Check out Nicholson Baker’s review.
Copyright 2009 Examiner.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Lisa at
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July 24, 2009
A librarian’s nightmare, or, Oopsies
From The Washington Post:
Current Patrons Caught in Purge Of Library Files
By Emma Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 24, 2009
The accounts of hundreds of D.C. public library card holders were accidentally deleted during a purge of inactive and duplicate accounts, library officials said Thursday. Those affected cannot check out books or use most of the library’s online services without visiting a branch to reactivate their accounts.
The records of about 147,000 patrons who had not used their cards to check out books or DVDs since March 1, 2007, were deleted June 18, IT Director Chris Tonjes said. But along with the targeted accounts, the records of at least several hundred active patrons who don’t check out books but do use the library’s online resources were eliminated.
The purge was meant to eliminate inactive and duplicate accounts as well as inaccurate information, Tonjes said, in part because the cost of the library’s electronic resources is based on the number of active patrons.
“We learned a lot,” Tonjes said. “We didn’t really think we would have a segregated population of people who only use the library for one set of activities rather than a whole set of activities. That was a surprise that came out of this.”
Also deleted were the records of a small group of library users whose cards were incorrectly registered, he said.
The District has been a leader among library systems in providing online resources, including downloadable videos and audio books and searchable databases. But data on their use are kept separately from the databases that track physical use of the library’s materials. Now, Tonjes said, those data sets will be merged.
In the first three days after the purge, about 270 people complained that they had lost access to their accounts. The library is not keeping track of the total number of patrons affected, Tonjes said, but he guessed that it was fewer than 1,000.
Library users can reactivate their cards by bringing identification to any of the city’s 25 library branches.
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July 23, 2008
Libraries on the cutting edge of architecture and technology.
By Christina Laun
” Libraries aren’t just musty places to store books with librarians shushing anyone who makes a peep. They’ve become much more than that and the modern library is often home to sleek architecture and the latest technology. These 25 libraries, in no particular order, demonstrate how libraries have become part of the cutting edge of information management, design and Web technology, and all of them can help you get some ideas on how to bring your library into the future.”
Read more …
From Best Colleges Online.
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Lisa at
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Do you want the good news first or the bad news?
| 07/23/2008 |
| At 100, librarian’s life is an open book |
| By Rachael Scarborough King , Register Staff |
| GUILFORD — Surrounded by friends, family and colleagues, Edith Nettleton celebrated her 100th birthday Tuesday at the place where she has spent much of her adult life — the Guilford Free Library.
Read more …
From The New Zealand Herald:
Delving into the darkness within
5:00AM Tuesday July 22, 2008
In the new series The Librarians, Australian comedian Robyn Butler has written a lead role for herself that is among the most unflattering of recent times. She plays Frances O’Brien, head librarian of Middleton Interactive Centre and a middle-class “passive-aggressive control freak” extraordinaire.
Not only is Frances (pictured) intolerant of her Muslim, Asian and gay patrons but, as revealed in the first episode this Friday, she is also capable of causing extreme bodily harm to employees through her casual cruelty. Her life unravels when she is forced to employ her ex-best friend, Christine Grimwood (Roz Hammond) – now a drug dealer – as the children’s librarian.
Read more … |
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Lisa at
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June 26, 2008
Referential treatment
Who knew the reference desk was so much fun? Seasoned librarians are probably laughing their heads off thinking “You are SUCH a virgin!” But to me, the neophyte who’s only been on the desk a handful of times, it’s really an interesting change from working in the staff room. Back there it’s a rare thing seeing a non-librarian. When they occasionally do wander in we figure they’re aliens – or terrorists – and taser them. Then we check their i.d.s
Another big change working on the reference desk is the temperature. The staff room at our library could be used as a meat storage locker in the summer. I think the temperature in there hangs out at around 34 F – at least that’s how it feels. There are people who bring in quilts to keep warm, if that tells you something. Out in the library it’s comfortable and sometimes even a little warm. I come out to the library to defrost sometimes, trailing a puddle of melting ice behind me.
For the past almost three years I’ve worked at the library I’ve heard stories about patrons, some good, some a little weird. Now I’m getting to meet these people. As time goes on I’m sure I’ll grow to recognize them and tell the nice from the scary. For now they’re all a blur of non-librarian humanity, but these I can’t taser – as much as I may find I yearn to.
A big minus of sitting at the desk is how loud the lobby/foyer area is, and how children’s screams can be multiplied by about a thousand when you put them in an acoustically perfect environment. Through it all you gotta smile. Smile and look ready to help, pretending there isn’t blood trickling out your ears from your broken eardrums.
Today I was so happy I got to use my RA skills to help a patron. She was a sweet elderly woman who said she was looking for either fiction set in WW II or something about Henry VIII, but without so much of that head-chopping stuff. Now there’s a request you don’t get every day. I sent her home with one book she wanted, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, and one I recommended, The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George, a book I’ve read and enjoyed. It’s inevitable she’ll get to the head-chopping part eventually, but maybe it won’t be so upsetting from Henry’s point of view. But she left smiling, and that’s the point.
Ask me in a few months if I’m still feeling cheery about the reference desk. Or better yet, I’ll just tell you. That’ll save you the trouble.
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Lisa at
11:17 pm
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June 24, 2008
Summer reading challenges for border line ADD sufferers
Okay, I’ve signed up for summer reading and not just because I lust after the book bag that’s the final prize for turning in my completed form. I’ve also felt like such a loser not signing up before, especially since I work here.
Now, what the heck do I read? A burning question that’s driving me near madness. I refuse to watch DVDs, count CD books or magazines, all allowable materials that count toward the six total items required to finish. That goes against my grain. Why call it “Summer Reading Program” if you aren’t required to actually read? Sorry, but that irritates me.
I know the point is to get people into the library, partly so they’ll look around in shock and see, “Wow they do have books here!” Dear uninformed patrons, “DUH.”
Six books in eleven weeks. But WHICH SIX BOOKS?!
The practical side of me says I should break out of my literary fiction, bio/auto bio, nonfiction and memoir mold and read popular mysteries, romance and other genre fiction. The vain/uptight part of me would be embarrassed in the worst way to list six romances as the books I’ve read over the summer. You can see my dilemma.
Ah, the heck with it. I’m reading what I want to read. I’ll just read six authors I’ve never read before. That’s counts as breaking out of my mold.
Time to do some serious catalog and soul searching. When I pick number one I’ll let you know how it goes and what I think about it, too. You’re welcome!
If anyone else out there wants to share what you’re reading for your own Summer Reading Programs leave me a comment. If you have suggestions for what I could read I’d love to know those, too. Believe me, I can use all the help I can get.
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Lisa at
11:55 am
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June 23, 2008
Guybrarians: Check ‘em Out!
Loved this article about the new generation of male librarians trying desperately to break out of the traditional librarian mold. I’m not sure what the male equivalent of “frumpy” is, maybe “geeky” or “nerdy”?
Whatever you call it, these guys are sick of it. And about time, too. These guybrarians are fighting back. I say, more power to them!
From http://www.theledger.com/:
” These are exactly the stereotypes today’s librarians would like to get rid of, especially one new class of librarians – “guybrarians,” or male librarians who are daring to take their careers where previous generations of men rarely did. Using 1990 and 2000 Census data (the most current available), an American Library Association study found that men make up 18 percent of all credentialed librarians. There was a 4.6 percent decrease in male librarians between 1990 and 2000. But as the library profession becomes more and more high-tech, those numbers may be changing. Meet some younger, hipper male librarians. ”
Read more …
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Lisa at
4:37 pm
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June 13, 2008
Ironically, I was just looking at the glorious catalogues sent by Harper …
Personally, I love the smell of all the book catalogs publishers send me. It gives me a better high than sniffing modelling glue (not that I’ve ever DONE that, mind you). Like the smell of books, mostly new but a few old ones that aren’t too disgustingly moldy, I find it one of my favorite things.
I get most of them at home, for the purposes of requesting books for review, but ironically I just received a load of them from Harper and its subsidiaries this morning. That was before I saw this post on the blog Kash’s Book Corner:
“Buying new books for the store, the crux of my job, can be an exercise in absurdity and futility. It’s an antiquated, inefficient system that hardly takes into account the invention of the personal computer and completely ignores the existence of the internet. ”
Read more …
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Lisa at
12:55 pm
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Summer Reading!, or, Pimp My Library
Our library looks positively kick butt after all the staff spent the morning decorating it with various and sundry “Get in the Game” graphics. I wish I could show the actual motif but I was too lazy (Read: forgetful) to bring in my camera this morning. Just trust me on this one. It looks totally awesome (I can’t believe I just used that phrase, my children are wearing off on me – please send HELP).
So, are we all psyched? Everyone ready for the deluge? I thought so.
Maybe I’ll sign up for the staff version of summer reading this year. I never have before. I always say to myself, “Oh, I’ll do it next week,” or “It’s not really fair to everyone else considering how quickly I read…”
Lame, I know.
My two boys signed up last year. They got through the first couple prize levels before my youngest got all bummed out one of the prizes (a pen or something?) didn’t work. Since mom’s too scatter-brained to have remembered to bring it back and exchange it for him (NOTE: I work upstairs, and the Children’s Dept. is all the way downstairs) he promptly lost interest. Plus, we went on vacation around that time. I’m sure that’s what really did it, not the cool, flashing and very dead pen (or whatever thingie it was).
Enjoy pimping your libraries, gearing up for the festivities. Just don’t get jealous when I report completing my summer reading requirements the first week. That’s just not the librarian spirit, now, is it?
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Lisa at
12:40 pm
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