A Reader for Life

Who made you a reader? For me it was my dad. A love of reading is one of the best gifts he has ever given me. Thanks Dad. I love you.

PS

PS I added a blogroll. It's not exhaustive. But. You should def check out Casual Decadence. Because the header is awesome.

Love
m

What is a Public Library?

One of my coworkers sent this cute parody around today.



I have to say that I am a little confused about how other libraries are "checking out" iPads and Kindles. I know we have are considering it, but have also had some concerns about how many books could be on a Kindle...I heard one person say we would have a Kindle with one book on it. (No clue how we would determine that title.) Then if someone was looking for that book, they would have an option of getting it in a regular book, audiobook, large print, or Kindle. That doesn't seem all too practical, but I guess they've run into some legal issues with loading hundreds of titles onto a Kindle and then sharing it with the public. I'm hazy on details (obvi) but if I ever find out I'll let you know.

Does anyone else know how other libraries are handling the Kindle/iPad situation?

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Technology Fail

Today at my library of employment*, there was an unexplained (at least to me) power surge that killed our network. We couldn't get online, we couldn't open the "behind the scenes" catalog system, we couldn't open the OPAC. This happened at about 8:58. We open at 9:00.

People were not happy.

Patrons were unhappy because they couldn't use the internet or figure out where a book was in the non-fiction stacks. Staff was not happy because we couldn't get any work done or provide many of our services to our patrons. Everyone was unhappy because it was pouring rain out and there was no internet to distract them from the gloom (or tell us how long it would be pouring. Answer: all freaking day.)

Anyways, this was a huge technology fail. The nets didn't get back up til a little after noon. Lots of things got pushed back. Lots of people didn't get the computer time they needed. It was a really annoying problem.

One man came up to the desk and asked my colleague if the old card catalog was still around. When we told him we no longer had the old card catalog, his face fell. It made me wish that the non-fiction collection was easier to browse (but more on that later...)

I'm not saying we should keep card catalogs for the few times the OPAC is unavailable. I'm not. But, it was a day when we had to do without technology, pretty much all together, for about 3 hours. It was a tough 3 hours. It reinforced, however, that the modern library is not just a book depository, but a hub for the internet and electronic resources. Take those away from us and the library becomes much less relevant for a large segment of the population.

One good thing: I managed to remember what Dewey section education stuff is in and help a patron find a book on homework strategies. That was exciting.

Having technology taken away from us was hard and alerted us to just how much we need it to do our jobs. It also worries me that I am so dependent on it. There are many situations where someone could need urgent information and I have no clue where to find it without the catalog or the internet. I hope that as I become more familiar with our collection, this problem will somewhat diminish. Until then, let's hope there are no more power surges.

*Even though about 3 people read this, and they all know me in "real life" and where I work, I'm keeping that off the internet in case someone I don't know ever
finds this blog.

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GEEKING OUT OVER GEEK.

I MADE THE SITE.

Check me out!!

Remember when I wrote about Geek the Library? Cause I did it yesterday? Well, I made the site.

I feel famous.

I'm a geek. Are you?

My internet still hasn't been hooked up, so I'm jacking some nets from an unsuspecting neighbor. This will have to be quick!

Basically, I love libraries. Obviously, I work in one. BUT. They are so much more than a workplace for me. They are also these amazing buildings full of ideas and creativity and fun new people, places, and things to learn about from books, movies, and music...

This awesome website, Geek the Library, is well worth checking out. I submitted my story...No clue if it will ever show up. If it does I'll report back!

Support your local library! Geek something!

Recording

Every January, I think to myself: geez, I should record every book I read this year. Then, at years end, I’ll have an idea of how much I’m reading, what I’m reading, etc.

Every March, I think to myself: geez, I really meant to do that. Too late.

This June, I thought to myself: geez, just do it.

So, since my birthday is coming up, I decided to celebrate this next year of my life by recording each book I read. At the end I’ll analyze it (to a certain extent) and see just what my literary consumption consists of (a literary audit of sorts). I’ll probably post a “year’s best” or “favorites” list, but that isn’t really the point. The point is to just figure out what it is I really read. As a librarian, people assume you read widely, but I am not sure that is always the case. Hopefully this project will allow me to identify some of the areas that I should explore more fully.

So, to help me start out the year with a bang, please send me (via a comment or an email) some reading suggestions!

Grrrr.

I love the New York Times, but sometimes their tendency to report "trends" months after the blogosphere just reinforces why most mainstream media is having trouble. Slate even has an ongoing series chronicling NYTimes' slow (and anecdotal) identification of "trends." In addition, the trends they take note of are really just trends amongst an elite set of urban, educated, young(ish) consumers.



For example, uhhh yeah, thanks Style section. The people who are into design stuff/house stuff were talking about terrariums about three months ago.

PS. No disrespect to the old gray lady. I love her, and newspapers in general. No one else does investigative or long form reporting better, but these fleeting, lifestyle type stories are just better suited to blogs and online only publications (such as Slate). To each his (or her) own, you know?


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