Friday, November 05, 2010

instead of work dribble

I've been swamped, things not too good...
instead of listening to me whine, much better spend your time listening to this:





they are the best, they are my friends and they always make me feel good.

Monday, August 02, 2010

big disasters and small miracles

ok, ok, maybe miracles is pushing it. ;)


but really,
1st off; all this could have been so much worst. Given that the entire truss assembly has been compromised, a couple main truss girders have failed, yaddi yaddi yadda. We are so very lucky that no people was hurt, no material or equipment was lost. so sigh!

Then, this is where being lil' admin in a smaller library system serves me (and therefore my employer) well. That is how we were able to do this (start serving the community again in their own neighborhood) inside 72 hours, thank you very much! Thanks to our friends at the local tax collector's office.

a lot of the credit should go to some beautiful features of the unicorn (ahem, symphony) software. I know, I know, I am the 1st one in line to complain about it every other day; but here is what knowing the software well, and having access to simple but powerful report allowed me to do. (forgive me for the sirsi speak)

globally editing to MAIN LIB / CLOSED-STORAGE LOCATION (hidden, not available, non-holdable) all that branch's collection...in small batches (never more than 10000) by item type, excluding floating item types

then run rebuild text to make all the indexes OK and have all the item easy to find again where they are. big plus: rebuilding our entire text database only takes 23 minutes here. (see what I mean about being small helping a lot)

edited closed dates, close days, for that branch to have the new little outpost service hours reflected and to eliminated fines accruing on materials while everyone looked for us...
edited all the notice text files (separating the ones for/from that branch) and created new notice text to inform patrons of situation (that for both automated phone and email notices.)
we are also adding a copy of press release announcing re-location to final notices

edit branch name to show CLOSED and customize holds pick up choice list to reflect temporary outpost choice.


created some daily maintenance report to catch what would have/will fall thru the cracks (by item type./loc/branch)

In the 1st 2 weeks after this event, we made sure to:
hold update meetings 2x day
email update to all staff daily.


finally, we were also able to pluck a couple of public cpus and re-purpose as extra public computers at nearest branch which is seeing most of the re-routed traffic.

Ill be glad to discuss this with anyone interested. It was (still is) a learning experience.

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Friday, July 09, 2010

mythbusters

via LISNews
doing a good job of debunking some silly but persistent foolishness.

watch for the sexy librarian pinup captioned: "sorry if you were expecting this"





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Friday, March 19, 2010

old crumbs

been missing a lot, out, personal reasons.

here were a few things I had noted before :

nice bookcase, birthday, IKEA
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1247694/Bondi-beach-IKEA-bookcase-offers-ultimate-holiday-reading.html


social works
http://scanblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/using-social-media-v-building-online.html

still love seth:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/when-i-want-your-opinion-ill-ask-for-it.html

via signal vs noise (http://37signals.com/svn/)
embrace life (I love good ads)





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Friday, February 12, 2010

Jamie Oliver and Public Libraries ???

Cure Food Ignorance!!!
I say PLA or ALA should totally get involved and join forces with Jamie Oliver in this effort. We are in a fantastic position to deliver the message, the assistance and all the resources that go with that. IT BREAKS MY HEART TO SEE A KID CALL AN AUBERGINE A PEAR. We are such a big part of that triangle of influence.

why not have (or market in a themed series):
-kids (and YA!) programs on food (invite community farmers)
-cook book clubs
-shopping "classes" (healthy choices, money saving options)
-experts on heath and nutrition programs (focus on solving the problem)
-cooking demos? (can we use a webcam to show live details on the big screen?)
-gardening programs
-website focus on Food
-any other fun family food things...


We have connections in our communities who would LOVE to help us do this.
I know it.
When do we start?



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Friday, January 29, 2010

friday finds

this week for you: raw urls ;)
(no, well, yes, but raw urls to cool stuff.)

http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/01/24/bigger-libraries-are-not-better-if-they-are-closed/

neither would be more libraries...

jessamyn at boingboing (1 week only)
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/24/welcome-guestblogger.html

ipad lust:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/
and ipad cons
http://i.gizmodo.com/5458382/8-things-that-suck-about-the-ipad
and ipad opinions
http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/01/29/get-real-geeks-the-ipad-is-the-apple-for-mum-not-you/

and last, because I feel for you my friends:
http://closedstacks.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/tax-season-who-needs-it/

oh and yes, the smartest thing I read so far this year:
"Books should only be catalogued once. Currently the public purse pays for having the same book catalogued over and over again..."

-- Jens Vigen, Head of the CERN Library, who just made their entire catalog dataset available to anyone.


any comments? anyone?

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Friday, January 22, 2010

best of the week

fravorite links from the interwebs:

aaron on the user experience

5 things innovators do.
(thanks bobbi newman)

open source marketplace:PTFS acquire liblime

Rober B Parker dies
I am very sad. he was like a friend to me.
so many say: "he's one of the reasons I do what I do." I am part of that group also.

Just for fun: computer engineer barbie anyone?

Richard turned me on to this, then LifeHacker features:Firefox portable

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Tuesday, January 12, 2010

getting caught up.

sorry this list goes on and on. many brilliant finds in the last few weeks.
start with my 3 absolute favorites:

what makes a person satisfied...
IT'S ABOUT PROGRESS...

-for those who think the internet is killing social interactions:
how the internet enables intimacy.


and taming the paper dragon (love lifehacker)


then there is so much more:

FUN: over the years, social networks have allowed me to meet with
library people with whom I share all kinds of common personnal interest.
be it dogs, tattoos, motorcycles and of course food...
geeky foodie


Have you heard the library 2.0 gang? here is a good one to listen to

literacy, what does it mean:


free holiday ebooks


oh, oh, let's try this:
5_universal_truths_all_librarians_can_agree_upon_right_now


10 new librarian blog
s for you to discover

... last but not least: I love mashable







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