Thursday, July 23, 2009

Summer is heating up now - 90 degrees more or less for a few days. Just enough to remind everyone why we like it here the rest of the time, and don't want to go to warmer places like Arizona or Florida just yet.

At the Library we have a fair amount of tourists, which is fun. I know I appreciate being able to access the internet when I've been other places, and these guests are no different. Lots of boarding passes being printed, and many digital photos being uploaded! Also an increased number of patrons who show up without their library card. I'm always tempted to make them do some kind of song and dance in return for me looking up their number, but in the end I ask for their ID (which is only available about 50% of the time - those are the people I really want to make work for it!) or name, and some kind of verifying information (for those anonymous ones) and write down their number. We have the first part already prepared - we quickly got tired of writing the same thing down repeatedly. We try to be agreeable...

The next phase of our "imaging" project has begun. We're testing the automatic imaging process where the server wakes up each computer, sends the image to it, and restarts. Two of them should go through this tonight. We're not sure how many the server can handle, and if we'll be able to eventually have all 27 machines do this every night. But this is a great start!

Quick trip to Denver Saturday for the MPLA board meeting. I was able to get an early flight down and a not-too-late flight back so it's just one day. Woohoo!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Drill Team Time!

Sweet Pea Festival is the next big thing and the Library is going to reprise our Drill Team after a few years' hiatus. But we won't be pushing book carts this time; instead, we're thinking of something more like an actual drill team - marching in formations but we want to add books (of course!). Probably some variety of stomping, rhythm group. To make it effective we need a few more than our usual 8 bodies; hopefully we interest some new participants. I love the parade - the crowd always cheers!

Friday, July 3, 2009

It's almost summer here

Once again, a month has disappeared - there is no good explanation other than busy busy busy! July 4th always sounds like summer should be half over, but we're only just beginning to see warm temperatures. We are getting the usual influx of tourists, so that verifies the calendar, even if the weather doesn't.

The big project? Imaging! And the first round is done! Of course, as soon as I did one group, I realized I'd forgotten something. So I fixed that in the next group, but the power settings didn't get done as I'd thought. The third group had that done correctly, but there didn't seem to be an Java installed. The final group was just done this week, but it was the Children's group, and has it's own unique issues. People are suggesting that there is a Flash update, which is strange, because they should all have the latest. But soon we'll probably redo the image, and I'll take care of all the little things on my list! Eventually we should be able to push the image out to all computers frequently, possibly each week. I'm not in charge of that, and understand there are difficulties in getting that to work. But it is a nice goal.

The end of the fiscal year brought great shopping opportunities when extra money was anticipated. So we've purchased a netbook, Kindle, flip camera, 2 digital cameras, a Wii system and a TV or two. I'd like to arrange a few staff "playtime" sessions so everyone can try out the new stuff. There are people who can't wait, and others who are intimidated by any technology.

Happy Summer!