Wherein I Network.

Today was a good day folks of mine.

Ok, so today one of my temp co-workers and I got the collection arranged by theme.  It's not shelving by call number, but at least all the Edu 01's through SP 74's are grouped together as they should be (with enough room on the end of the shelf to accommodate any that have fallen through the cracks) and I must say the collection looks a helluva lot neater.  I pulled a few from the shelves to fix cat n' class errors (All my fault, yes) but today's real shining accomplishment was going to the College Library today to meet with the librarian there (you may have noticed - No Names.  Yes, well, people should expect a little privacy in other people's blogs methinks).  It was really cool, she wanted me to show her the finer points of LibraryWorld.  She isn't fond of manuals I learned, and like many in our craft, finds little time to spare for it.  If you show me a underworked librarian, they aren't doing their job or are doing it really really well.  There is no middle ground.

Anyway, back to the LibraryWorld.  I really enjoy this ILS, but I enjoyed showing the finer points of it and talking up the craft even more.  Being able to really talk to a fellow professional about what we do is such a break from the usual.  I also showed the Delimited Text Translator on MARCEdit, which is made by p. Reese from Oregon State University Libraries (check it out, even if you aren't a cataloguer or in tech services, it's good to know, and makes things easy).  We had a very productive meeting, I got to show off my skills and I just enjoyed talking about MARC and having people understand what the hell I'm talking about. I really hope they get it online, she seemed very interested in having an ILS in place before she retires so there is something for her successor to hit the ground running with.

Also, GREAT NEWS, as I was cataloguing DVD's today, I stumbled upon a DVD with over 600 photos on it from the Climate Conference I worked out... which meant, pictures, of me, doing my thing and looking all suited up.  This should make up for me not taking any pictures of it.  Won't the family be pleased?

haha.  I must say, I am really pleased with the way things worked out today.  I think... I think I've gotten over the hump.

The main collection room will be rearranged according to the floor plan I drew up this month too!  Mostly, it's just to make more room in the centre of the room to make getting to the printer/copier easier, but still... I feel pretty chuffed about it.

That's about it for now though.

Wherein I Network.

Today was a good day folks of mine.

Ok, so today one of my temp co-workers and I got the collection arranged by theme.  It's not shelving by call number, but at least all the Edu 01's through SP 74's are grouped together as they should be (with enough room on the end of the shelf to accommodate any that have fallen through the cracks) and I must say the collection looks a helluva lot neater.  I pulled a few from the shelves to fix cat n' class errors (All my fault, yes) but today's real shining accomplishment was going to the College Library today to meet with the librarian there (you may have noticed - No Names.  Yes, well, people should expect a little privacy in other people's blogs methinks).  It was really cool, she wanted me to show her the finer points of LibraryWorld.  She isn't fond of manuals I learned, and like many in our craft, finds little time to spare for it.  If you show me a underworked librarian, they aren't doing their job or are doing it really really well.  There is no middle ground.

Anyway, back to the LibraryWorld.  I really enjoy this ILS, but I enjoyed showing the finer points of it and talking up the craft even more.  Being able to really talk to a fellow professional about what we do is such a break from the usual.  I also showed the Delimited Text Translator on MARCEdit, which is made by p. Reese from Oregon State University Libraries (check it out, even if you aren't a cataloguer or in tech services, it's good to know, and makes things easy).  We had a very productive meeting, I got to show off my skills and I just enjoyed talking about MARC and having people understand what the hell I'm talking about. I really hope they get it online, she seemed very interested in having an ILS in place before she retires so there is something for her successor to hit the ground running with.

Also, GREAT NEWS, as I was cataloguing DVD's today, I stumbled upon a DVD with over 600 photos on it from the Climate Conference I worked out... which meant, pictures, of me, doing my thing and looking all suited up.  This should make up for me not taking any pictures of it.  Won't the family be pleased?

haha.  I must say, I am really pleased with the way things worked out today.  I think... I think I've gotten over the hump.

The main collection room will be rearranged according to the floor plan I drew up this month too!  Mostly, it's just to make more room in the centre of the room to make getting to the printer/copier easier, but still... I feel pretty chuffed about it.

That's about it for now though.

Ok, back online

A very brief one tonight folks.

So I am finally back online, my internet was out for two weeks and since I use WebDewey and LibraryWorld to work from home...

*Screams of Anger*

... ok, better now.  This was a real pain in the ass that I medicated by going to the public library to read more often, and that was just to deal with entertainment issues.  I finally got it back online from the lazy bones internet company, who apparently have no idea of the concept of "speedy service" and not "3 days after you tell use about it", after letting my landlord know... about 9 days after it was already out.  Why the delay, well she was out of the country and her phone doesn't get service off the island and the staff at her office didn't know who to get in touch with (though they should have).

I am somewhat mollified by her decision to knock $50 USD off my rent, but still, the lost productivity meant I had to go into work earlier and stay later (my tummy was a rumbling some early evenings) to keep up and still my workload suffered... somewhat badly.

It's boiling hot down here all the time and I gave my fan to one of the new workers (she's middle-aged and dresses conservatively... I bet she's boiling too), so I'm covered in sweat everytime I get home, it's really taking a toll on my good shirts, plus... its HURRICANE SEASON!!!!

Ok, that was a *little* overwrought, but it's going to be raining a lot more these days and I don't like that, mostly because I brought no rain clothes with me (it didn't occur to me at the time).

On the work side of things... they are actually chugging along quite well.  The data entry staff are working out alright, I have to fix a lot of mistakes they make and go over some stuff again and again, but it still saves me time on rather time consuming tasks, so I am very down with that and I got the floor plan worked out (presenting on it tomorrow).

I've also started working on the CD's, DVD's, VHS and microfiche (our books and serials were way more numerous) and I hope to have those done soon, hopefully in two weeks.

My processing supplies arrive in two and 1/2 weeks, so then we can start in on the labeling work and barcoding, always fun.  In a Zen sort of way, I'm actually quite serious, you can get into a nice groove in labeling books and it is a very good way to break up the monotony in Tech Services.  I spent some time in Tech Services as a Student Assistant and I like to think of getting a little back to where I 'came up' as it were.

I also have to start training whoever is going to be the main circulation staff member...  One of our secretaries is overworked in my opinion and another doesn't exactly have the self-motivational qualities to be effective in that role.  *sigh* Decisions, decisions.  I may advise for one of the data entry clerks to be taken on in that capacity, but I don't think that is an ideal situation either.

Oh well, when you're the johnny on the spot (contractually) you've got to make the decisions in this regard.  I'll think of something.

For now, I'm focusing on getting those last few books and serials in, and then getting the CD's and DVD's ready for data entry.

I'm very happy with things now.  Yes, things are super busy, but that is adventures in library science for you.

Quick one

Hey folks,

So, yes, it's been last week since I put anything up, but I have a little bit of news.

I'm nearly finished classifying the entire collection and soon, I'll be rolling to getting it catalogued by some assistants next week, on Monday or Tuesday.  I got some more barcodes ordered from Gaylord and they are on their way (phew) and generally, I'm just enjoying the job a bit more.  April was not exactly the most productive month as I got bogged down in cat n' classing, but with the extra help, I can now move onto doing some layout planning for the room we'll be housing the collection in.

I've also taken the time to write some policy docs on internet and media use and food and drink.  Basically, at the request of the boss, no facebook.  No food/drink either.

I sure do like how everything is working out.  I've got 2 months, 2.5 weeks to go.

It's May Day all.

Hi all,

Well who says Socialism doesn't pay?  May Day is an observed holiday here on the Island.  In fact, I read about it in the training materials I got before coming here, but I forgot that if 1 May falls on a weekend, they carry it over to the Monday, so I showed up to work to find the gate locked.

I should have twigged onto the fact that something was up as the streets were basically deserted (for now) and that I had heard lots of partying the night before.  It's about 10 AM here and the music for the May Day Parade has already started.  This has actually turned out to be a blessing for me as I'm somewhat exhausted and I still have some cataloguing to do that I had brought home on the weekend.  

I'm starting to lag a little bit behind on my cataloguing activity and there is so much more to do here, like start reorganizing the physical layout of the library, staff training, getting the physical processing of materials started, getting new computers, drawing up internal forms, membership procedures, assorted policies...  

The good thing about policy writing though is that last month I wrote up a collection management policy that essentially is like the main policy document and it was approved and put in place.  A bunch of smaller policies need to be written for specific things, like no facebook in the library (I personally don't like that, but it was an order from my boss, so I'm putting it in there), but I'm confidant that they won't present any trouble at all. 

So, for today's agenda, I intend to finish this missive, have another cup of coffee, make some pancakes (I don't eat breakfast as soon as I wake up, I prefer to drink some coffee and then eat an apple at work at around 9:30 followed by a larger lunch), do some cataloguing, enter the records onto the online Catalogue, maybe a quick nap, and then back to work to follow up on my order tracking.  Then, it's time for some quick emails and hopefully, around 3 pm or so, I can knock off and listen to all the going's on in town from my couch on the porch.  That way I'll be able to hear all the bally-hooing for the Labour Party in general peace.

The kind of labour party-ism here (if such a term is applicable) is similar to what existed in the 1930's in France.  Now, please recall that many parties of the left were active at that time and that political unity was not present in a way we would generally expect these days, so don't go thinking I am living in some kind of anarcho-syndicalist Che Guerava Urban Commando hellhole.  In France at that time, the Socialist party essentially liked to present itself as a party of economic and political progressivism while maintaining strict cultural, moral and religious values.  Their youth and women's meetings were chaperoned for instance and the local party chairs would arrange for young women, men and children to be escorted to and from the political activities of the party after dark, they forbade alcohol (except wine, of course, this is France we're talking about), the party chairs would personally write letters to parents assuring them that while in their care they would prevent their children (usually in the 16-24 year age range) from engaging in licentious activity and they often encouraged members to go to Church.

Another example would be the early CCF, which was essentially a coalition between the Christian Left and socialists in Canada when it got started.

St Kitts is a little strange to me that way.  They have an exceptionally diverse Protestant community, a small but extremely active Roman Catholic community and pretty much everyone here fully expects religion to play a day to day role in government, far more than even the most rabid tea partiers in the the US could possibly dream.  The other side of the coin to that is there is extremely visible public shaming of people who have broken the law (sometimes they put their pictures up in public places, though never near the tourist areas), even for minor civil violations, like failing to fill a proper tax form (even accidentally).  

I don't intend to go out to any of the parades or such today for two reasons: 1. I got a total of 3 hours sleep last night, so I'm in no condition to head out and 2. I find that I enjoy the music just as much when I hear it at an appropriate level from my house rather than walking 6 blocks down the road where I can be deafened by it.

Getting some help

Pals, colleagues, family members who may or may not be cyber stalking me,

Two big things.

First, great news.  The orders with LibraryWorld and Gaylord were finalized after much hoop jumping here in SKN.  Yippie!  Now we're really rolling.

Second - DAMN! It is time consuming to get those records into the ILS.  What I am doing is using MARCedit to convert tab delimited spreadsheets I am making into MARC records I can upload onto LibraryWorld in large blocks because I find data entry is easier on a spreadsheet than in the LibraryWorld interface.  That's not a knock on LibraryWorld, it's just an admission of Excel's very, very simple interface, combined with MARCedit making it easy for me to upload a lot of records in one go.

Anyhoo, long story short, my boss is going to see about getting me some help for Data Entry.  I've got spreadsheet templates for Books and Serials made in excel that I can quickly convert into MARC and upload in a second to LibraryWorld, so right now my main focus is on getting the remaining unclassified material classified. I actually have about half the collection (2000 items give or take 100) classified, but only about 200 Title records fully catalogued.  With the expected two assistants I'll have filling in the 245$ 300$ 830$ 500$ (etc.) fields, all I'll have to do is get them to put the right info into the right Excel field and then I'll fill in the 650$'s and 090$'s and then I can upload them all and add the copy records.

Bing Bang Boom - It's a good plan and I think it will greatly increase our productivity.  Then, once the Gaylord Brothers order comes in, I can put the assistants on task for labelling our material.

At this point, I'll have to raise the issue of shelving and a circulation desk, getting the right kind of signage, call number ranges, etc etc.

In personal news, since my trip to Brimstone, I've been staying home on the weekends and avoiding going out to build up a little capital to do another big trip, like zip lining or something fun like that.

I've also been taking work home with me in larger amounts to get the lead out getting the records made.  I'm around 2 months and 2.5 weeks into my contract.  Nearly halfway there.  Where does the time go?

A short one tonight

Hey folks, a short one tonight because I am beyond tired.

I'm as beyond tired as the X-Men are beyond humanity.  And unlike them, I have no desire to co-exist peacefully, merely to co-exist sleepily.

So itemized things.

1.  Still getting the ILS.  Mr. Maynard and I have to go to Central Purchasing on Monday to request purchase of my processing supplies and ILS in person and then we have to walk the staff through the ordering process.  I would have preferred it if we could move faster on this, but patience is a virtue, and I've waited this long, I can wait a little longer.  Besides, still some cat n' classing to do.

2.  We were supposed to go visit the secondary school libraries on Tuesday, but my boss called me before work that day and told me it got scotched.  Apparently there was some thing that needed his attention elsewhere, so it's been postponed indefinitely.  Boo.

3.  I'm following @jambina on twitter now.  I like her take on libraries, in that she humourously phrases things.

4  Started blocking out my draft for the CLA paper that UNESCO asked me to write.  Marsh looked over my outline and gave it a high five with a few comments.  Marsh is a PhD so in a way it felt like being back in school.

5.  Congrats to all the new SIM graduates to be, incidentally.  This week was their last week.  Sigh, has it been a year already?

6.  Remember how I said I like MARCEdit?  Yup, still do.  I love that thing.

7.  Talked to Fred at LibraryWorld on the phone this week, he gave me a follow up call after all our email correspondence just to make sure I was on board, head above water and if I felt 100% on it.  Yeah.  I am pretty much.  I've been trying to get this ILS for a while, so I'm just glad I'm getting it.

8.  Going to the beach on Sunday.  Love that beach man.

9.  Bought some souvenirs for friends at Brimstone Fortress when I was there last Saturday.

10.  I've made a decision, no alcohol at home for 2 weeks.  That trip to Brimstone actually cost me a pretty penny because I had to secure a cabbie for the drive up and back, plus museum admission and it takes a little while to get there as well, so the fare was bigger.  Plus, with some of the souvenirs I bought, I must have spent like $100 US up there.  I went there with the express purpose of doing the tourist thing, but after awhile I felt... you know what, I like to have a beer at every dinner, but it's not essential and I should save a little bit of money while I am here.

11.  I don't miss the Green Atlantic, but I am starting to miss my crew from 'Fax and the extended SIM 08-10 crowd.

I'll post more exact details on what is going on workwise later.

Lot of stuff and Good News

Yup it's been awhile, but I've been quite busy.

This past week has perhaps the most productive one I've had so far.

1.  I've almost got my ILS.  I've got a guarantee that we're getting the system I want.  Yes!
2.  We've got the Secondary School Libraries on board to share it with us.
3.  My request for processing supplies will be approved, I'm submitting it on Monday and just have to wait on the paperwork.
4.  I was able to get a opensource MARC software to convert all the excel files and all the Secondary School Libraries excel files converted and compiled into MARC files for quick upload into the ILS.  There were a lot of excel files.  Thank goodness that Geoff Brown, head of tech services at Dalhousie, introduced me to MARCEdit and I'm very thankful for youtube tutorials!  Days of work converted to under an hour!
5.  Got some Classifying done, not a lot, but some.
6.  We're getting some synergy done with the local libraries to help them get furniture, shelving, processing supplies and for one library, BOOKS!  I know!  I know!  It's a collection without items!  The library infrastructure here is so overloaded with the amount of work it has to do and what is expected of it.  The fact that they've been able to achieve as much as they have has been due in no small part to the extreme work ethic and energy they have piled into their libraries.  It is extremely inspiring.

It was a good week.  A busy week.  Now we need to sustain this level of activity and keep on going and getting these partnerships formalized and worked out.  I also need to stay on task and remember that my collection is the priority which my contract states I need to finish.  That could be a tough one seeing as how I'm one of the few library professionals here and I'm sure they'll all want a piece of my time.

Never thought I'd spend this much time writing policy and cataloguing.

Things to do this week:  Go visit all the partnering libraries on Tuesday and see what they need that we can provide.  Continue to Classify!  Get my processing supplies ordered and hopefully a copy of Dewey Decimal Classification.  Get the ILS integrated.  This last point is most vital.

See you later pals.

Values

A person who works in the Education Annex where I work as well reprimanded her son in front of me for not saying good afternoon to me when he walked past.  That's one thing I've noticed here, that, likely due to the large involvement of religion and its values in this country, there is a big emphasis on good manners and respectful behaviour.

It's somewhat refreshing and odd at the same time.  I'm used to the cold Canadian politeness where you don't greet anyone or even let on you have emotions as you wait silently for the bus in waist deep snow.  You might throw out a "you doing alright there buddy?" if the person next to you is being eaten alive by a polar bear, but otherwise you keep yer trap shut.

Quick Update

Hi pals,

Know it's been awhile since I wrote anything in here, but to tell the truth, I've lacked a little bit of the motivation to do it because, honestly, I'm tired from work.

So, the steering committee is going to meet next Tuesday and it consists mostly of people who are, are pursuing education as or are filling in for librarians.  This means I have to rewrite the brief I wrote.  Also, no word yet on whether or not their will be a powerpoint capability, so I'm trying to get up the motivation to write a new powerpoint as well.

There's going to be a postmortem of sorts for the climate change conference on Thursday.  I am looking forward to a pleasant meeting where I stay quiet pretty much.  I learn a lot in these situations, but I find that I have nothing to contribute.  The conference was a good experience for me, and I'm hoping that I'll be able to glean some important lessons from this meeting.

Got taken to the launch of SKN Math Olympiad for the public school system.  I must say... Chief Education Officer knows how to give a fiery, podium banging speech.  Also, I'd like to mention this is a country where they invoke the name of god in these sorts of things as a matter of course... as well as meaning it and believing in it.  It got a little uncomfortable, but not overmuch I suppose.  I'm used to a much more secularized and quiet version of christianity in Canada.  In the end, it doesn't bother me much, though I contributed nothing, sat there and watched.

I would have much rather been cataloguing, or better yet, finish writing my policy docs that I want done before the end of the week.

In other news, I went to Nevis, but they don't let you in Alexander Hamilton's house, which was a bummer.  It's really quite beautiful in Nevis, but I didn't get to see a lot of it because I had to go back to St. Kitts before it got too dark.  I ate a bloody good meal in a local cafe and they had TBS on the TV.  Figures.  I'll definitely go back once more while I'm here, but much earlier in the morning I think.  That way, hopefully, I will avoid all the panhandlers, who are really persistent.

Speaking of TV, I don't actually have a functioning TV down here, and I must say... I ain't missing it.  I can download the one or two shows I actually do like and I find I'm watching a lot more documentaries and podcasts.  Also, my skill in strategy games has increased.  Excellent.

I think I'll go to bloody point this weekend.  It's the site where the French and the English teamed up to wipe out the Caribs.  They say there are some cave paintings there.  I would like to see them very much.

I'll write more later.

Climate Change Conference

Hi Pals!

Wow, what a week.

So I participated as part of the Conference Secretariat for the UNESCO Conference on Climate Change and Ethics at the Marriott Hotel in St. Kitts.  SIDENOTE:  If you want to see a place that is really La-Tee-Da, I would suggest staying at the Marriott.  There is marble everywhere - it is also beach, golf, tennis and restaurant adjacent (always a nice plus).

So, I'm afraid I didn't have much time to take any pictures.  In fact.... I have two.  Just two.  I know, I know, boo you Hewy.  But wait, just wait a second... don't you think it's a much better idea to blame someone else?  Perhaps someone who does a lot of knitting?  I mean, what are they trying to hide beneath all that wool?  If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm taking a playful jab at my friend Ali.

Anyways, the pictures themselves aren't much to speak of, so here are some highlights of the conference:

1. Great spread.  I mean, absolutely delicious food.
2. I was very impressed by the ministerial round tables and the level of commitment that came with the governments involved.  The Minister from Antigua-Barbados was particularly impressive, not only for his deep and intimidating voice and large stature, but by the fact that he constantly called for action.  He was very upset about how there seemed to be research from years and years and years ago that had been done, saying the same thing and nothing had been done.  He emphatically stated he didn't want to get involved in a situation where experts and consultants just got together and talked shop.  
3. Many ministers actually echoed the minister from #2 by contributing that foreign consultants essentially sucked out about 90% of the funds and grants provided to do something about climate change for years without really providing any tangible benefits.  There was a real sense that local knowledge systems and local experts would have to be vigourously harnessed and trained in order to deliver a truly Caribbean solution.
4. There was some blame-gaming.  The Cuban delegation made the obligatory reference to Imperialist Economic Policies, poisoning the Earth etc.  The good thing is, after the first morning, the blame gaming ceased and what began in earnest was a frank and honest discussion on the issues at hand.
5. To get back to #3 a little, Dr. Jacobs (if you google him and the conference name I'm sure you'll get a good picture of what he does) was emphatic in the need to get more funding, more linkages with UNESCO and more local grad students and Ph.D Candidates because the basic knowledge is there, it's really a matter of getting the properly trained people in the right places.  He said that in the next few years he'd like to have two masters of Ph.D level practitioners on each caribbean island.  A daunting feat if you ask me, but definitely a goal to strive for.  He's an expert in Remote sensing and did a presentation on land availability, desertification (yes, islands surrounded by water in the Carib are turning into deserts), and the damage that improper infrastructure planning has done.  It was a daunting task, I'm sure, because they live right next to Haiti which as we all know is just one disaster after another.
6. I found the Cuban delegation very charming, especially the President of Cuba's Science Agency.  She was a very kindly, sweet lady who always smiled and although her English was a little imprecise, I found myself very charmed by her.  It's times like this when you just start to think, "Whoa, Kindly old Grandmother, or Communist?  Or Both?"  Cuba has actually done quite a bit to arrest some of the environmental damage to it's island, but... well, this is the Westerner in me, they've probably been able to do more because they have an authoritarian government.  When you can compel people to be environmentally minded, you get results.  If that doesn't make you uncomfortable, I don't know what will.  Fidel was highly praised in the Science Agency's presentation.  That made me a little sad, but it also made sense.  The former president of Cuba has always liked to be seen on the progressive side of history, despite his iron grip on power.
7. The delegation from the Dominican Republic was really cool, despite only having one fluent English speaker as they had a series of very impressive images images and whatnot detailing the damage that water rising and hurricanes were doing to destroy all their infrastructure.  These weather extremes are caused by, you guessed it, climate change.
8. Dr. Owen Day from CARIBSAVE showed a really awesome film that he produced and directed.  He and I spoke a little and he was very charismatic, good sense of humour.  CARIBSAVE has actually done a lot in the past few years to set up no-go areas for the fish population to replenish.  When this happens, fish get larger and live longer, thus producing greater quantities of eggs, thus producing more diverisification, thus adding to the vibrancy of the eco-system, thus reaping environmental and economic rewards.  Conservation was one of the highlights, but so was a lot of proactive public awareness education, eco-tourism and private-public partnerships.  It was, overall, a fantastic presentation.
9. What I did was I was part of the secretariat, so I spent a lot of time running around, printing copies, saving files, transferring files, setting up presentations and running the powerpoints.  I must say, the few tech snafus which occurred nearly gave me heart attacks at some points as I was scrambling to get things set up when there are 8 cabinet ministers from different nations all looking at me.  My most nervous time was when I had to amend, on a large screen in front of everyone, a draft communique that would be issued to the press in a few hours while it was still in a word doc.  I had to listen to all the points made and at time had to stroke out and write completely new paragraphs while everyone was talking.  And not everyone agreed on what could be written, so I sometimes had to erase what I just wrote because one country could not commit to this point or that point.  The most difficult point for me was that I still find it very difficult to parse through the accents and dialects of the various people here in the Islands.  I know, I know, around here I am the one with the funny way of talking, but that didn't make it any easier on me.  Let's just say, it was a difficult process and I'm glad it's over.  Everyone seemed pleased with how the draft turned out, so... yeah!  Go Captain Planet!
10. I was so flattered when Dr. David Doyle of UNESCO came up to me today and thanked me, and congratulated me, on the work I did at the conference.  I didn't think I had really done much, but I must say I was thrilled when he specifically mentioned he was pleased at how I had made amendments to the draft.  He said something about me knowing when and when not to add something and wait for something to be hashed out or to cut off debate by putting it in right away.  Little did he know that I was just trying to figure out what had been said in some cases.  However, I very gratefully and humbly accepted his praise.  It made my day.
11. On the first night of the conference, I got to go the Governor General's Residence for a reception.  It was really really cool.  I got to smooze with academics, talk to my boss's boss's boss, eat some cool food, drink a few rum's with very little coke in them (they were very rummy, I don't think the gentleman behind the bar even heard me when I said "and coke".) and there was some entertainment that consisted of some dancers, some in masquerade and others on these huge stilts with long, long, long, long pants on.  I was very impressed/had a great time.

So now that the conference is over, I got back to work at the collection.  I catalogued a lot today, and not much yesterday (I was exhausted from the previous two days activity) and Dr. Doyle came by again to give me and Mr. Maynard some instructions on what he wants to see develop vis a vis our Web Capacity.  I thought he'd want me to design a new website from scratch, so I was scrambling to get some Drupal stuff together to teach myself, but it turns out he mostly wants me to link and provide material already published on the website as it exists.  *Phew!*  Still, learning Drupal is a good idea... thinking of getting started this weekend actually on Sunday while I wait for my laundry to finish.  On Saturday, I'm going to see Alexander Hamilton's birthplace in Nevis.

Just in case you don't know, he was an American Founding Father who started the Bank of America and opposed Thomas Jefferson bitterly in his lifetime.  Fascinating guy.

Hey pals

Hi friends,

Ok, I'm breaking down on this one.  I will post photos of me being out n' about and I will describe some of my extra-curricular activities.

Right, so work stuff outta the way first and then into fun stuff.

XX - If you want to skim through, just go down to the next XX to get into the fun stuff.

Alright, so here's the deal folks, I've been cat'ing n' Class'ing my butt off at work.  I've got... well, I've got at least 1000 items (some of the same titles in series) done.  I'm tackling journal serials and monographic serials first because all I have to do is assign one number and then a volume, issue or number # after that.  Really makes me feel like I've done alot with out doing a ridiculous amount.  It sure does get repetitive though.

Ok, next big thing.  There is one more meeting of the secretariat subcommittee of the steering committee for the UNESCO climate change conference on Monday and then BAM! right into the conference on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I'm a little chuffed with myself because I got an invitation to the Governor-General's residence for Tuesday (just a little chuffed, I mean, it's not a huge thing, but I'm still pleased with it).  I'm quite honoured, even though it's just a formality.  I mean, it's my first vice-regal invitation, so I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can.

I've had my funding request deferred until the end of the conference on Wednesday, which means I'll finally have a sit down with my supervisor on Thursday about it.  I really hope I get the ILS I want to use.  I know that this is a developing country and all and that I have to work within the confines of their resources, but darnit, I think my recommendation is the best option on a renewable basis and will stand the test of time.  Plus, if they want to migrate onto a new system after I leave, well then the option is there because they'll still own all their data... it just means that I won't have to be in the position of creating this big thing that needs to be maintained by someone with an MLIS (very few of those on the ground here) and I won't have to spend a lot of time drafting how-to's and training documentation.

Speaking of that, I'm a little put off about how my supervisor mentioned off hand to me how he'd like to create some training docs on how to cat and class new material so that he can do it.  Now, here's the thing, yes, I get it: Librarians are expensive.  But it took me months to learn cataloguing (include a few months after Library School ended) and I had a desire and necessity to learn how to do it because it's one of the underpinning concepts of my profession.  And now suddenly I'm just supposed to write up a few documents on how to do it and let the secretarial staff get to it?  Look, I know they are smart and competent (I see how effective they are in all sorts of administrative and office matters everyday!) but I had to do a masters in information management - and I'm an intern!  I'm... just supposed to teach this stuff now?  And how are they going to do it?  I've been working off a copy of webdewey which I, personally, purchased with my own money! grr.  I don't like that.  It totally trivializes what I do, especially since I mentioned in my timeline document (which was approved by the way) that there would need to be a transition from me to a library tech/paraprofessional or a full time, local librarian.  We need someone certified in certain skill sets to take over from me in July, not just a few things typed up by me to act as a guide for the permanent staff.

I'm really going to have to make the case for that, on a continuing basis, over the next little while.

XX

Ok, so here's the deal.  I don't want to have to post every single  thing I've done (mostly it's been drinkin' and going to the beach), but here's a little bit of the deal I've been doing.

I live in a fairly nice, approx. middle class neighbourhood in Basseterre, which is the captial city here in the Federation.  I haven't really had very many problems except for children/young tweens making rude remarks and the odd drunk spouting expletives at me, I suppose in the case of holding me responsible for Christopher Columbus.  Seriously, the language was incredibly slurred, but I picked out Christopher Columbus, as well as a few f bombs and mofo bombs directed at me personally by some guy drinking on the side of the road.  It was slightly awkward, but I've only seen that particular person once more so I think it might be a limited thing.  The kids I don't mind so much.  They're effin' kids.  Kids are morons.

I've had a hard time making friends, mostly because most people seem to think I'm a tourist and I don't feel safe going out at night as there has been some violence in the city when it gets dark.  I guess you could say the same about Halifax, but I'm a Haligonian... I'm not a Kittian, so I feel more vulnerable.

The food here is very nice.  There is even chinese food (not as good as Jean's) and Indian food (BORING HISTORICAL SIDENOTE:  Most former British colonies have a professional class of Hong Kong Chinese and Indians as the British liked to export these kinds of people as stewards, cooks, butlers and majordomos. If you go to any former British Colony, chances are you will see a professional class of Asian business owners, land owners and doctors).  The local food is very nice, but I sometimes get dirty looks from the locals when I go into places that aren't frequented by people of European descent.  I have made it a policy to avoid certain parts of town, not because they are dangerous, but mostly because I want to avoid being made to feel like a piece of crap by everyone there.

I suppose it won't matter how long I live here, I'll just be an outsider.  That is why I have changed my friend finding strategy to focus on finding our where Canadians, American and/or Europeans hang out.  It might be a little pricey, but at least I'll be around people I have something vaguely in common with (if not the fact that they own lots of property down here).

With all that said however, I really really enjoy living alone.  I don't have to share the bathroom, I clean on my schedule, I don't have to worry about hogging shelf or refrigerator space, If the place is a mess I know who to blame and there is never a wait for the shower in the morning.  I don't know how it could get better than this really.

I mentioned drinking in passing recently.  It's so cheap down here to drink that I went a little overboard.  For the past week I completely eschewed alcohol of any kind in order to detox and feel better and it worked.  From now on, it's a disciplined, planned approach to enjoying myself with alcohol and I've made a deal with myself to never go beyond a personal limit of three drinks over 3 hours.

I know that sounds a little too tight assed... but seriously alcohol is VERY cheap down here and it's allure is strong.  Better I show discipline and be a little on the tough side with myself than take 50 cc of Charlie Sheen directly into my Tiger Blood stream.

I miss having someone to talk to about Canadian and American history/politics.  For some crazy reason, I thought I'd always have someone to hash it out over a beer with.

I went to and Indian restaurant on the weekend.  They were playing Rambo, the one where he goes to Afghanistan on TV.  Awesome.

Ok, how about some pictures?  Well, I tried uploading them and for some reason blogger won't take 'em.  Damnation.  Check my facebook and they'll be up there.

Best,

your pal - O

Second Subcommittee meeting - the harrowing

Hi pals.

Well, I attended my second subcommittee meeting for the conference secretariat today.   It was about 3 hours of me sitting down and listening politely, briefly speaking up to offer a minor correction here or there in a very respectful manner - it was more or less appreciated I think.  Also, I was able to insert two well timed one liners to break the tension at appropriate moments, making me a more or less successful peacemaker.  Not that things got heated (they are all very professional here) byt there were times though that it looked like the volume was going to get a little louder without getting anything done.

One thing I've noticed about working down here is that people laugh at work a lot.  It might be because something is genuinely funny, or it might be too cover up embarrassment or out of nervousness.  I find that it's usually one of those three in equal measure.  I'm not used to that kind of 'work laughter', I don't think I'll come to adopt it, but it no longer surprises me as much as it did when I first started noticing it.

I got a little cataloguing done today, but that is about it really.  I took a lot of notes at the meeting and I'll be there at the Marriot in exactly 13 days to take part in the climate change conference.  If I can remain occasionally funny, good on details and stick to my job (which will be taking pictures and then making them ready to put online), I should have a fun time methinks.

Before the meeting, I spent a little time putting the final touches on my funding request.  I had Brian take a look at it since it was a request for a system he himself had purchased for his library (LibraryWorld) and I submitted it today.

I hope the national commission is permitted to get it as I think it's the best ILS for our purposes.  I also learned a little something about my boss today.  His job is very inundated with emails, in fact I would guess that he spends at least half of his time writing, reading and answering them.

*sigh*  A sign of the times methinks.  I'm not overly fond of email, it's just a necessity that I accept as part of modern working life and one day I'll be out of the Cat n' Class trenches and in that position myself.

Hopefully I'll be able to do more than type out memos when that time comes.  Oh well, we'll see I suppose.

Not much new there Pals

Hey everyone,

Nothing else really new to report this week, but it's only Monday, so give it some time.  Cat'nClass is getting easier with each passing day as I find I'm making much less mistakes and I'm up to correctly Cat'ing about 5 titles every hour so long as I take my time and concentrate on proper building.

Also, I'm working on writing a very good funding request as part of my overall ILS proposal.  I hope to have it accepted by the end of the week.

On 7-8 March, I'll be attending a climate change conference at the Marriot here on St Kitts and I'll be in charge of some of the AV recording and also responsible for getting that stuff up online after we're done.  Exciting stuff, exciting stuff!

Ugh, thank goodness the week is over

Hey pals,

I was researching a digital camera for my boss so he could request a purchase of one when my graphics card decided to throw up.

It's happened before and I was extra angry because I had my computer checked before I left and everything was a-ok.

After spending several hours, I was able to hunt down a number of fixes for it and one of them actually worked, however since I'm not the most wonkish fellow when it comes to our soon to be robot overlords, it took me a bit longer to get it done.

Needless to say, this retarded my progress a little.

But I was still able to get a little cataloguing done and I think the computer is now fixed for the time being.  And oh yes, I was able to get the report on cameras done so my supervisor can request a purchase of one from the Central Procurement Unit (CPU).

Tomorrow I'll be going to see a sports day in celebration of the island radio stations 50th anniversary.  I'll post pictures if I take any good ones.

The Meeting yesterday and more cat n' class

First off, let me just say that now that I have had some practice, I'm finding cat n' classing the collection much easier and that the WebDewey tool is much easier for me to use than the standard DDC volumes.  I've gone through a bit of the collection and hope to have assigned a call no. to roughly 1/20 of the collection by next week.

It's all the non-serialized reports and brochure like newsletters that I'm having trouble with, or was until today that is.  Most of it I'm finding quite normal now.  UNESCO also has it's own classification scheme, so on top of the DDC number I have to put the UNESCO code on top as well so the collection will be broken up by UNESCO code, then each section organized by DDC instead of just DDC.

This presents a rather sticky situation as many of UNESCO's materials are interdisciplinary and separating out which UNESCO code to apply to each one is difficult to say the least as they like to include a lot of approaches to a lot of different subjects in one book or journal series and yet still insist that the collection be organized by their code which is organized by having materials fall into one code and one code only.  I'm also finding their organization method a little... well, broad for my tastes.  Some codes are ridiculously specific such as efforts to use education to uplift youth from poverty, while there are separate codes for youth, poverty and education as well - encompassing a rather broad take.  So which of those four do I use?  I can put all of them down, but I can only put it in one area.

Ok, but on to red meat - The meeting. First off, I must say I was really impressed with what they do at the library here in Basseterre, they do a lot of the stuff that HPL does but with much much less.  They are still using a card catalogue and typewriters, though they are waiting on more computers and are investigating some ILS solutions.

I got the informatin  I wanted on policies, processing materials and a lot of other good stuff I needed to know (we both fall under the purview of the Ministry of Education, so operational compatibility is highly desired).  The big big thing I want to talk about though is that they need an ILS... we need an ILS...  we both work for the MOE...

It's collaboration time.  I've spoke of the need for an ILS already and personally, I'm leaning towards LibraryWorld and not BookCat.  The great thing about LibraryWorld... If the MOE buys a license... we can organize BOTH collections on the same account for the same price.  Whereas if we use BookCat, or the much more expensive ILS purchased by the public library in Nevis (the sister island to St Kitts)... well, we'd have to pay for each instance we downloaded onto each computer, effectively doubling our costs.

This would allow us to share costs, have an extremely easy to learn/use ILS that really takes the misery out of cataloguing, we'd have a common system that volunteers and paraprofessionals could be trained to use AND a built in OPAC!

I stupidly did not think of this at the meeting with the librarian, but I sent her an email as soon as I did think of it a few hours later with a basic proposal and a desire to meet again for consultation.  I hope we can put together a joint proposal to my boss and her boss and maybe include the Minister and really push hard to get.

We also compared some notes at the meeting RE: library procedures.  She got her MLIS in 2007 and before that she was a principal.  She is also a late learning in most ICT and computer tech, so I found myself actually explaining a few things while I was there.  All in all, it was an extremely productive, and refreshing, collegial exchange.

It was probably the best work experience I've had insofar!

Meetings and cat and class

Hey all,

So I got my WebDewey all sorted out and I took it for a spin today.  I must say, I was quite pleased with how it worked.  I got into some good ol' cat and class and before I knew it the day was over.  Now...  the thing is I haven't done any cat and class for about a year now, and it took a while for me to get back into the swing of things.  I catalogued maybe 2 items correctly and I have to go back and fix about 12 of them.

It took you all day to do that, you say?  Well, I DID have to train on my new DDC tool and figure out where everything was and to make mistakes etc etc etc.

I did the math and I need to get my throughput up on a daily basis if I hope to get the majority of items done.

I also had two things to do as well.  I had to write an official letter of introduction... in the voice of my superviser for me to hand to a librarian at a public library for a meeting I set up last week, so he could sign it and make it official for records and such.  That was a little silly I think, me writing something so someone else could sign it in their name - but it didn't take too long and its too cover bases and just get everything in order so I didn't mind.

I also had a meeting today at around 2:30 where I met some of the people who would be forming the secretariat for the climate change conference at the Marriot in March.  I didn't have anything to contribute, but I took notes anyway just to keep up.  I'm excited about this conference - I'm not 100% on what I'll be responsible for, I was mostly there to be introduced and get acquainted with it but I'm sure I'll be able to rock it.

Tomorrow, I'll be meeting with one of my colleagues tomorrow and finding out how they do Library Science here on the sister islands.  Sounds fun!

My first day of the blues

Well, today was a wash.

I wasn't sad, or depressed or whathaveyou - it was just a day where I wasn't motivated to work hard.  I was able to get a few tasks done, but not a lot in direct contrast to my previous week and a half where I was going a mile a minute.

Naturally - it came when I started assessing software.  There's a part of me that just enters lockup mode when I get into the nit n' gritty of how software works.  Especially when I'm the one who has to set it up.

I am assessing two ILS's for use.  One is LibraryWorld, which was recommended by my good friend Brian (who is also a Dalhousie Alum), which is completely web-based and BookCat which is downloadable software. Right now, I'm leaning towards LibraryWorld.  I've been moving back and forth, but right now the thing I like about LibraryWorld because it has an OPAC built in.  I'm not going to get into the price differences and the layout differences - long story short is LibraryWorld is simplified, more expensive and easier to use, BookCat is a bit more complex, cheaper but you can design your own forms/templates which can help you out if you're looking for a local build.

The main issue right now, is that my choice probably won't mean much because I think that the boss is going to go with what is cheapest.  I know, I know, it's a developing country and longrunning costs (LibraryWorld has an annual fee) as well as initial upfront payments (LibraryWorld costs a little bit more) mean a lot.  I had my request for a year's subscription to WebDewey Abridged ($75 USD, about $202.50 Eastern Caribbean) turned down until I exhaust all other options - i.e. asking the local libraries if they have a DDC we can borrow.  Ok, I can see why he's doing this - it makes total sense and I'm not saying he's crazy, or doesn't understand the situation (he understands it way better than me, he's lived here all his life), but I need a Classification Manual and if we don't have any local partners who are willing to share, I'll need to buy access to something I can use right away because I'm not really keen on waiting for DDC 21 to ship to the islands (also bear in mind that DDC 22 is coming out soon).

*sigh*

On the plus side, I've gotten a pretty good handle on both ILS's, I was even able to design a Serials database in BookCat which doesn't come with one.  The downside to that is that we have to maintain a different database for Serials than we do for Books.  Now, that isn't much of a problem for most libraries, in fact it is a matter of course!  It's just that the collection is small and the fact that it doesn't really grow that fast tells me that it wouldn't necessarily need separate database for the foreseeable future.

The ILS's aren't hard to use, it's just the task of cataloguing the items, processing them and then shelving them that is one of the daunting tasks.  There is also the need of getting labels, barcodes and stamps which we will need to buy - I'm hoping I won't be asked to undertake a detailed justification of why we need to purchase those.

In order to get some back up for my position, I'm trying to arrange meetings with local librarians to see where they procure those processing supplies so I can present the best case scenario for pricing and whatnot.

In the meantime, I think I'll buy my own version of WebDewey and just get the DD numbers from my wireless laptop into our items.  It's just going to make things a lot quicker.

Down in the Weeds

Well, to start let me just say that there comes a time when you see the light at the end of the tunnel, you know you are ALMOST there and whereas every cell in your body could just leap for joy at the completion of a job well done, you are naturally thinking; "Oh gee, then I'll have to write a report about this."  And that just sucks the wind our of your sails a little bit.

The task I am referring to is weeding.  Tomorrow I will finish weeding the collection and we are also having an outside worker come in on that day to do some cleaning of the collection.  Boy do we need it.  I've never seen so much dust and dirt on a collection.

To be fair, it is absolutely BOILING down here sometimes, so the staff open the windows to let the breeze in.  It's a smart move and one I wholeheartedly endorse having experienced Caribbean weather at its muggiest, but the down side is that near limitless amounts of dust and particulate blow into the collection.   It's the reason we put plastic covers over our PC's, printers, photocopiers and other office equipment when they are not in use.

But back to the weeding I was just describing.  I've been going full on to the wall with weeding pretty much all day, every day since I got here, minus a few hours each day to write policy, memos, reports or read those of others.  This is NOT recommended as the more library inclined of you are well aware as after about an hour, your mind goes off into a bit of a lock-up and you start making 'questionable' decisions regarding what stays in the collection and what gets sent to the rubbish bin.  That's why I kept my weeding policy handy at my desk to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Now that the weeding is almost done and the cleaning is about to commence, I can begin downloading trial versions of the prospective ILS's I want to try.  Right now it's kind of a toss up between BookCat and LibraryWorld.  Now, both are pretty good in what they do, but I think I'm going to have to give an early nod to BookCat for the following reasons:

1.  It's cheaper overall, even with paying for upgrades - whereas LibraryWorld has an annual renewal fee of $395.  It's a developing country, so we have to husband our resources wisely so we can spend big on the things that really matter.
2.  Our UNESCO partners in other Caribbean countries already use BookCat meaning that the company is familiar with the needs of Caribbean clients who work for UNESCO and this would probably make facilitating information sharing and perhaps even ILL in the future a bit easier.
3. From what I've seen so far, I just like the training materials from BookCat more.  Nothing personal, I just find I learn more from them.

That being said, LibraryWorld is still a really good option - mostly because it's operating on the Cloud.  BookCat's big downside for me is that I have to download and configure all the software whereas with LibraryWorld it's mostly already set up for me.  That will also make training staff a bit more difficult when it comes time for my position here to close - I'd rather they not have to deal with maintaining things on our end as much as possible, mostly for convenience sake.

One of my other big problems right now is that I have a lot of duplicate periodicals I want to put into storage, but none such capacity exists at where I work right now or off-site.  Right now, I've just got a few cardboard boxes in a dark room holding undamaged, nearly pristine condition mags and journals which I know would be a good idea to keep.  Right now I'm exploring whether or not I can get some kind of alternative option because I really don't want to have to discard all this material when it could be useful for ILL or backup copies, but shelf space is an issue.

Also, here's a few photos of where I work (and also one of me enjoying a rum and coke at my house)!

Where the Minister Meets

A few items today.

I've been going through and weeding the collection some more.  I do one hour on, one hour on something else.  I find if I spend more than 60 consecutive minutes on weeding, I start to second guess my choices and start saving things that should not be saved.

At  11:30 my supervisor informs me that I'll be meeting the Minister for Education at 1:30.  Yippie.  Seriously, I nearly skipped a beat there.  With only two hours to prepare myself, I began writing briefing notes, a summary of the timeline I had submitted yesterday and my thoughts on an ILS.

When we actually met the minister though, I was asked to give a 2 minute summary of what I was planning to do to the collection and its status.

And... well, I think I did a good job.  At first, I went in thinking "It's the Principal's Office all over again!", but the Minister himself was actually not a crusty, bitter old Mandarin, but a very affable, charming fellow.  All my tension just melted away and I found myself declaiming very well and, out of character for me, being very succinct.  Those who know me know that there is nothing I like to do more than speak, long and loudly if possible.

I was made to feel very welcome and once more, the tasks that had seemed really big got a lot smaller for me.  Positive reinforcement - seems to work.

I think it's also important to note that while I am down here I also feel that I am somewhat of a representative of Canada and as a result, I have done my best to embody all that is fine, decent and just about our society.  As I was leaving the Ministers office, he stopped to ask me if I was enjoying myself (I was), had a gotten a chance to meet people and get to know Basseterre (I had) and if I was going to enjoy myself on the weekend, maybe at the Strip (Yes, I was).  Good, he asked, did I drink?  To which I so elegantly responded:  "Well sir, I'm Canadian."

I took his laughing to indicate that I was indeed, a good example of Canada... or at least our sense of humour.

Finally,  many of us are observing what's going on in Egypt right now and much of the tension seems to be coming from young men and women, educated in all the latest arts, sciences and technologies venting their frustration at how their country can't provide them any opportunity.

While I was weeding the collection, I found a book donated from the Egyptian office of UNESCO from 1994.  It was basically a rundown of what they were doing to update and modernize the educational system of their country.  I won't bother going into it, because it was so dated and half of it was propaganda, but there was a lengthy foreword from our good friend President Hosni Mubarak who is currently in some hot water.  It read:  "Today we are faced with a world where competition between nations will not be with weapons of war, but with the weapons of education."

Yes, President Mubarak, in that you were correct.  And it cost you your presidency.

Note for the future

I've learned something today.

Don't wear a white shirt when you begin weeding your collection - you may end up looking foolish and/or looking like you have emerged from a dust storm.

My First Day

Hello fellow professionals and blog followers!

PLEASE NOTE:  I will mention people by their position relative to mine and not their name as I feel that it's not appropriate for me to name them specifically unless I have their permission first.  Also, I apologize for the sheer length of this post, future installments will be much shorter, but I feel it's necessary to frame the proper understanding of what I am doing here.

So, this entry will provide you with a little background knowledge to my position.  Now, the mission of the National Commission for St. Kitt's and Nevis is pretty important - however if you just click on that little hyperlink there you should be redirected to their website which will give you the low down on what they do and why they do it.  I'm more focused on the tasks at hand that I am going to be dealing with right now.

When I accepted this position through the intermediaries at Conley International I accepted the following contractual obligations:

• To help organise, and arrange the physical and digital collection of materials, and other important footage and information in the centre;
• To assist in designing and recommending policies and procedures for selecting, processing, circulating and weeding of the physical and digital materials;
• To help capture, organise, and arrange the digital footage and information to be placed on the website of the National Commission;
• To assist in the collection, storage and dissemination of footage, both digitally and via hard copy version from the activities of the National Commission for UNESCO;
• To design a checklist for evaluating the Centre’s programme;
• To design appropriate forms for use in the Centre: membership forms, overdue forms, etc.;
• To organise, and help recommend a range of services that can be provided by the Centre;
• To introduce a logical pre-established scheme for organising items in the collection;
• To conduct document processing – prepare bibliographic items for the shelves using library science standards;
• To plan for/advise on the computerisation of the collection, and other related information;
• To design and to post visual symbols and devices to direct users to specific resources in the Centre.

This seemed, at the same time, to be a lot of work and yet also so little.  I had some appreciation of the scale of my task, but was suspecting that I would encounter a "Iceberg" moment when what I had signed on for revealed to be a much bigger undertaking.  So far, it hasn't worked out that way, though I am still holding my breath for when the other shoe drops.

Today was my first day actually working at the National Commission and after getting the tour from my supervisor I was assigned my work space.  I was given a report compiled about 4 years prior by another MLIS professional which gave a run down of what the National Commission had to do in order to develop an accessible collection available to the people of St. Kitt's and Nevis.  It was short, but extremely well written and I found myself wondering why many of its recommendations hadn't already been implemented in the interim at first.  

It's important for me to remember that St. Kitt's is still a developing nation and that it doesn't always have the correct expertise or personnel available on hand to rapidly advance their objectives - after all, that is what I am here for.  With that in mind, I put my focus on how I could best implement the recommendations in the report towards my contractual obligations while also remaining grounded in what the status of the collection was in the present and not back in 2007.  

The contents of report itself mentioned the layout of the collection, it's recommendation to use the Dewey Decimal system to organize it, signage, the need for a ILS system and Z39.50 protocol as well as proper facilities, policies and procedures to facilitate loaning, fining, returns and other sundry library tasks.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but it actually does entail quite a bit of work when taking into consideration the limited space the collection has to be stored in as well as the fact that the collection is still rather haphazardly arranged and will need to be completely reshelved in the future once a cataloguing system is in place and ready to use.

There was also a follow up report that had been filed a little while after the main report from 2007 that reiterated many of the points in the main report.  What I found particularly interesting is that appended to it was a quote from a vendor who had sold an ILS system, along with Z39.50 software, scanners and processing materials to the public libraries on St. Kitt's sister island of Nevis.  Now, I don't believe it is ethical for me to get into the nature of that particular deal as it was probably a confidential deal (the reason it was appended in the first place is a little weird), but let me say this much, it was from a major vendor from the Western Hemisphere (which includes Europe and the Americas, so try guessing - though you will most likely not be able to guess correctly) and it quoted what I thought was a reasonable price for a public library system throughout 2 or 3 locations.  I won't say exactly what it was, but upon further reflection, it occurred to me that it may be more than the people who do the budget would be willing to spend.

I was actually a little impressed with it and it had clearly been appended to the report by someone who thought that they were getting a good deal and thought we may be interested. I did a little investigating of it online through it's website and through searching on the internet for libraries which used it and were satisfied with it's performance.  I decided to raise the issue with my supervisor as we were scheduled to meet at 1:15.

In the meantime, I took notes from the main report as well as physically inspecting the materials that had been placed on the stacks and drew the following conclusions:

The collection lacks;

1. Access to up-to-date information
2. Fast, easy, retrieval through multiple access points
3. Efficient inventory and storage

Also there were no policies officially in place for Collection Management, lending or any other regulations or policies instrumental in the functioning a special collection like the one at the National Commission.  Now, as you may have noticed, these were all spelled out in the contractual obligations above, but I still came in expecting something.  Prior to obtaining my MLIS I did a year long internship at Dalhousie University's Killam Memorial Library and I think the experience spoiled me as an established library can seem much more comfortable than getting a special collection off the ground.

It was at this point that I was starting to feel a little out of my depth - it was temporary for reasons which shall become apparent in a little while.

I spent my time making notes on the report and the contract in preparation for my meeting with my supervisor and was pleased to know that the original librarian who drew up the report would be joining us to put our heads together and come up with recommendations.

I'll be brief, we discussed the collection and I also raised the issue of the appended price quote for the ILS system above.  I also mentioned that if money were an issue that there were opensource options to elect, but that as they were often made by volunteers that they could stop being updated and we'd be stuck with an obsolete system in a few years.  It was at this time that my library colleague suggested a completely web based platform known as LibraryWorld, which fulfill all of our needs for a modest cost of only about $395 (USD).  We also discussed the present state of the collection and how it would be organized.  UNESCO has very exact specifications of how it wanted the information to be organized in the collection - which is not exactly Dewey Decimal or LC standard.  Finally, me and my fellow library professional agreed, that before any policy was written, regulation formed or catalogue put up, the collection had to be weeded.  I was very pleased to find we agreed on this issue.  There is no sense cataloguing an item that will need to be discarded, and there is no sense taking up valuable shelf space in a very limited space with duplicate copies of materials.

The meeting went on for a little bit with my supervisor getting the idea to contact their contemporaries in other National Commissions in the Caribbean to see what ILS software they may be using to guide us, however, upon researching LibraryWorld, as well as receiving some advice from my fellow DAL SIM grad Brian Dewar who used it to get his library collection in Regina up and running, I must say that I plan to recommend it's adoption by the National Commission if a more suitable option doesn't present itself.

After our meeting, I began writing a Weeding policy to begin tackling the collection.  It felt really good to be working on it, employing the knowledge I had learned from Joyline Makani in the Collection Management Class at DAL SIM.  I felt like I was on fire, writing my first policy regarding a concrete, tactile task I could start doing to immediately benefit the collection.  CREW, MUSTIE and community assessment all came rushing back to me, though I still needed a little help from this helpful webpage - however it's only because I knew CREW and MUSTIE existed in the first place that I knew to check those terms on the web.  An official booya to my colleague Joyline Makani for teaching me this valuable skill.

When I was working on this policy, the fear, doubt and unreadiness for this task began melting away.  An immediate, identifiable need was just what the doctor ordered and really shook me out of my fear of the job.  This I would like to point out was an important observation and piece of advice my professional mentor Linda Bedwell, also of Dalhousie university, gave to me before I took up this position.

So, I had a good first day, wrote my first policy, have a concrete task to begin tomorrow, have an ILS I'm recommending for purchase and have used and/or received great advice given to me by Joyline, Linda, Brian and my colleague Mike Steeleworthy.  

All in all, a good first day.

First post

I've just started in St. Kitt's and Nevis at the National Commission through UNESCO.  This blog is an experiment I'm trying.  I've never been much of a blogger - I tried to do an improv blog once to promote my College team, but I didn't stick with it when I graduated from my Alma Mater.

Anyways, the point of this blog is to provide my colleagues and old school chums from Dalhousie University's SIM program a place to come together to observe and track my progress at the Documentalist Coordinator for the National Commission.  I'll post my contract terms, my work so far as well my plans for the future in this position.  Please feel free to post questions, suggestions and comments as I will also be using this blog to reach out to you and exchange information, techniques and best practices.

A note on the future of this particular blog - I intend it to be fully about my work at the National Commission, not to provide hilarious anecdotes about my goings-on or post little webcartoons I find interesting.  Accordingly, I will refrain from posting work and career related material on my facebook page and twitter as I find that these work best pertaining only to my social life and pander to my most ridiculous tendencies.  In short, this blog is all business and won't contain any information regarding my leisure or social activity in St. Kitt's and Nevis as I am already writing a print journal of those experiences.

Anyways, please expect to see a blogpost on my first day very soon.  I haven't decided whether or not I will try to do a daily or weekly update schedule, so I'll play it by ear for the first few posts and if I find that I'm over my head I'll scale back the scope.

On the one personal note I'm going to allow on this blog, I'd like to extend my warmest thanks to my friends and colleagues for their indefatigable support and best wishes, especially Michael Steeleworthy, Linda Bedwell, and Joyline Makani at Dalhousie's Killam Memorial Library as well as my good friend C. E. Matthews at the UPEI Library.  I would also like to thank Conley International and UNESCO for this opportunity to assist the National Commission in their mission to provide the best information services to the good people of St. Kitt's and Nevis.