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.