Happy (early) MLIS Graduation to Me!

So I finally bit the bullet and invested in a REAL camera.  Shout out to Miss Misfit for the advice.  I figured I might as well get myself a graduation gift, albeit a few months early but there was a deal to be had.  It was the trifecta of deals: instant discounts, rebates, and cash back, oh and reselling an item, so I guess that would make it the 4 Horsemen of the Purchase.

There is a lot to learn with DSLR's and I'm slowly wading through all of the settings and accessories.

Now I can join the battle:

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Back to School...

I could never understand the pure joy that the dad actor portrays in this commercial until SRP came around.

Despite the recent budget cuts, our youth librarians were able to book talk this year.  I really believe that this resulted in the huge surge in library card registrations, patrons visits, and circ numbers this summer.  It has been a rough summer on the branch.  It was nice seeing the twice a year patrons visit as well, they come in during the beginning of summer, stock up on as many books on all of the library cards their household has, and you see them for the last time when they come back to return everything.

This week was not any better, work on the roof resulted in the whole branch smelling like aisle 9 of Home Depot and the nonstop hammering didn't make it any better.  Then the earthquake happened and it made for an interesting day.  I was in the backroom working with a volunteer, she looked at me and I told her it was an earthquake, she thought it was a roof collapse from the workers.  I headed out to the desk and a manager made an announcement that we were evacuating.  Several patrons recognized the severity of the situation, the building is far from quake-proof, and they quickly hustled out the door.  I walked to the back of the stacks and started herding the lazies.  Several people wanted to check their items out and some had to be forcibly removed from the public internet stations --- don't worry you can update your Twitfacespace later.

Now they are talking about a hurricane for the weekend, fun.  Honestly, I would take whatever Mother Nature has to offer just as long as SRP comes to an end sooner.

My first Reference Interview...

Sorry for the bad play on words, this afternoon I had my first (and soon to be many) interviews for an info position.

I am undecided on how it went.  Everyone at the branch wished me good luck and told me I would do great, I really think they jinxed me.  One of my coworker-friends has her interview tomorrow, so there is a bit of personal competition involved.  I don't know if I would feel worse if I didn't get a position and she did or vice versa.  I should hear back sometime next week.

Rules of Circ #3 (RoC)

"Can You Hear Me Now?"

It's a cultural norm that libraries are relatively quiet zones, at least here in the States.  So I can forgive those who are new to public libraries, I have had to explain how the library works to several people who registered for their first library cards --- "No, it is for free (I know, I know, nothing is for free, but I don't have the time to give them the whole economics spiel)... You have to bring back the books..."  Most individuals know that it isn't "proper" to yell/talk loudly/carry a 20 minute conversation on your cell about what you had for breakfast.  Now libraries have adapted with the times; I'm sure back in the day there were signs that asked patrons to set their beepers to vibrate and now the signs ask to silence cell phones.  But who the hell am I kidding, who reads signs in the library anyways, not like any of them are into reading!??!

You still get the inconsiderate patrons who DON'T silence their ringers and who still hold loud conversations.  I will also give a temporary library pass to those not who are technologically challenged.  There are some patrons who do not know how to lower their ringer and you see them struggling with their phones pushing every single button BUT the right one.  Then when the call goes to voice mail, they look at you apologetically and mouth, "I'm sorry."  You also get those patrons who think they hit the button to lower their volume but they end up having a conversation through speakerphone for all the library to hear.


Taking your conversations to the stacks does not make the matter any better.  You cannot use the shelves as a form of sound deadening, they are not acoustically tuned to block out your incessant chattering.  It's even worse when they're blabbing on their phone while attempting to checking out.  They realize they have a fee and you're trying to explain to them what's overdue, how much is owed, when materials are due back, but they still insist on multitasking.  HANG UP THE DAMN PHONE.  A one minute transaction ends up taking 5 minutes.  Stop wasting everyone's time, I'm sure the other person on the line can live for a minute or two without the digital umbilical cord.

Ringtone context also does not matter.  I don't care if you have one of the latest "Top 50" crap they play back to back on the radio as your ringtone, no one wants to hear it in the library.  That goes the same for the "sophisticated" types with your classical ringtone in MIDI format.  No offense to Beethoven or his 5th Symphony, but your highly refined taste in music does not make it acceptable to have it blaring from the Blackberry on your hip.  Yeah, even nature ringtones are annoying, nobody enjoys the sounds of crickets... nobody.

The Library Shop is Now Open.

www.ShoptheLibrary.com

So I finally got around to creating a CafePress store for The Library image I created for one of my first MLIS courses. 

Pardon the complete plain and boring look of the store, I am still trying to figure my way around the site.

The site has been up for awhile but I wanted to wait until I saw the final product first.

This is most likely another one of my new hobbies and I have a few more designs in the work, who knows how long I'll keep up with it. 

Might as well rock it while I'm into it!

It's Summer Christmas...

I am a self-admitted: a. dork b. nerd. c. geek d. dweeb (do kids still use that term nowadays?) ?

What is all of the above Alec?

See, I just referenced Jeopardy, need I say more. 
Until I have the funds to experience Comic Con, the real one in San Diego, I have to live vicariously via the internet.  I guess one plus is that I didn't have to wait in ridiculously long lines for these exclusives... ahh the internet, I just had to deal with Hasbro's crappy servers.  I felt bad for the Fedex guy, that Sentinel is a BEAST.  I completely underestimated its size,  he was lucky that I was limited to ordering only one of them.

The Million Dollar Bookmark... Heee-Heeee...

I finally found the big money bookmark I've been looking for!
It states "In the King of Pop We Trust."  Now I can finally punch that patron (or two) in the face and walk out of work without any worries.  Unfortunately, it is only tenderable at Neverland Ranch.

MLIS Progress: 5/6 Complete...

DAMN these past two years flew by. Summer session has come to a close and I only have Fall before I can consider myself a full-fledged librarian.

Out of the 12 classes I have/will take, I will have a total of 11 different professors, I choose to only have 1 professor for two different classes. I had some bad professors and I had some really good ones. I had some interesting classes while others not so much but it's kind of hard for certain subjects/lessons/lecture overlap.

For example, I honestly cannot understand why Ranganathan's Five Laws of the Library Science was so important/emphasized. For one class we were supposed to do a paper and presentation on a famous library figure. Since this was one of the required courses, this was one of the first classes for a lot of students. The professor handed out a sheet with some pre-approved figures. I could only recognize the names of a few: Dewey, Cutter, Pearl, and Ranganathan.

I only recognized the last one because my friend mentioned him before.  During a break in lecture, I did a quick Google search and decided on Benjamin Franklin . When I told the professor who I chose, she gave me an incredulous look and said, "oookkkaaayyy," like I just chose to swim with Jaws instead of Flipper.  Maybe it's my going against the hype/traditional-route attitude but I felt Ben deserved to be acknowledged for his contributions to the institution *gasp* IN A LIBRARY SCHOOL PROGRAM.  Of course I titled my presentation, "It's All About the Benjamin's," and I used the following image.  This certain professor felt that Ranganathan was so important that he deserved two presentations by two different students.  Really??

I personally feel like the library school looks at other grad curriculum's with envy because of all the "cool" rules and what I can only call "lessons in an acronym."  There's the 5 P's in Marketing, in general there's the 80/20 rule, even boring Accounting has A.L.O.E., F.I.F.O. and L.I.F.O.  What does the Library have --- classification tables.  What I'm trying to say is that it really isn't needed and it comes off as trying too hard.

If there is one major lesson I learned from these past two years in library school, it would be the librarian's / library's never-ending struggle for proving one's worth and relevance, and longing for a sense of belonging and struggle for self-actualization --- Hello Maslow.  I feel like it's a reverse self-fulfilling prophecy with nonstop ALA-approved press releases about libraries being more important than ever.  It makes me wonder how much the debate and doubt of the library as a necessity vs. budget-cutting luxury is really self-inflicted. 

'Knitting with Balls'... The Only Knitting Book Approved by this Non-Hipster.

A slow clap for the play on words.  There are so many play on word titles out there I could probably start a blog just for them.  Anyways, I thought of this book when I saw this video, they go so well together:

'Bod 4 God' gets those Jesus Abs You've Always Prayed for....

Came across this book last night, it made me do a double take.
Did they really title it "Bod 4 God"!?!
The fact that it also has a blurb from Fox News on the cover also reinforces the ridiculousness of this title.  I didn't bother flipping through the book, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a chapter called 'Praying the Pounds Away.'

It also reminded me of this joke: