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.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
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!
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!
Friday, February 18, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
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!
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!
Monday, February 14, 2011
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!
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!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, February 7, 2011
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)!
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)!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
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.
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.
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