Friday, May 6, 2011

May Already?

Time flies when you're away from the library! First there was the fun MLA conference in Billings (3 days, and what should be my last event as MPLA representative). Then a quick week to prepare for my 2-week spring vacation. I had a morning of mild panic my last Saturday: all the public computers began restarting themselves, installing updates. That was supposed to have been scheduled a few days earlier, during the night, so this was a shock. Now that we're using DeepFreeze, the restart just wiped out the updates, so it was a never-ending cycle. I spent a few hours taking care of that - I realized this had been the first week of available updates since we'd put the new machines out. So I left for vacation optimistic things were OK, since the next round would come up after my return. Things seemed to be fine - whew! We'll see how things go next week...

Although the BTOP computers are out, there is still more to be done. We've also received 2 ADA workstations (just the software) so I'll be getting familiar with JAWS, MAGic, some magnifying software, etc. We plan to have one station downstairs (converting a catalog station - I can't believe we've gone all this time without one!) and a second on an hour computer in the lab. There probably will be some training on using this software too - I'm anxious to try it out.

Rumor has it the library roof will have to be completely replaced this summer. Staff might be able to work, but we would have to be closed to the public. I wonder if 2 weeks off without pay would be an option? I can think of lots of ways to use that kind of time!