Tuesday, October 16, 2012

October!

Still a beautiful fall in these parts, although today we're having quite a rain event designed to test the new Library roof, I'm sure. So far it's working well, and the sound of rain is much more pleasant compared to previous years and rain on the metal roof. Our staff retreat last week was a great experience. We learned a few things, and spent an afternoon involved in some long-range planning. Sometimes that seems like an exercise in fortune-telling but there were great ideas! I wonder how many we'll see, and how soon. Our Apple iPad was replaced and the new one is working much better! Next week we have training sessions for the public, and recently had a Headwaters Association meeting about e-readers as well. So we're getting much more familiar and comfortable with all this technology. Just in time for the Next Big Thing, whatever that might be! Book ordering has taken on a new procedure, which means I no longer add titles to the catalog when they are ordered. More time for other things, but I miss seeing the new fiction and being able to place holds early on!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

September!

Although it doesn't feel like fall - we're having a very warm time, complete with smoke from fires - the calendar says it is. Students are back, football is on, and classes have started. My new schedule is working nicely, although I have to keep it posted to remind me where I should be...Evenings are still quiet, and we've gotten a spine label printer working in the office. That will help keep us productive while working the desk. Now I want to spend some time playing with the gadgets, to become better familiar with library applications people will be asking about! I know how to download an eBook on my own Nook and tablet, but should be able to do that on all the library toys too. One of our iPads has had to go back to Apple a second time - it sometimes would randomly select whatever it felt like choosing, or zoom in and out on a map. Hopefully they can figure that out this time around. Next month we have an all-day staff training day - away from the Library! I'm looking forward to that...

Thursday, August 30, 2012

New Schedule

Fall often seems like a time of new beginnings, a habit formed from earliest school days. So this seemed like a good time to try out a new work schedule, thanks to the hiring of Jason at Computer Services. This is the first week, and so far it's been going well, although it hasn't been quite "normal" yet. One day I had a scheduled appointment that altered things, and another day we had to juggle to cover for a co-worker's absence. Even so, I think it will work well - 4 long days and 3 days off! Evenings - I've added 2 - seem to be relatively quiet, so there will be time to work on some projects, and offer extra help to people who might need it. I also will be working with an intern from MSU this semester. Our first staff barbecue is next Friday! Something new, and I think it will be a great time. We usually have a good time at this away-from-work gatherings. Next month there is an all day staff "retreat" too - another new experience! I've been busy helping plan the annual fall retreat at Chico Hot Springs for the ASLD and PLD groups of MLA. We're going with the "Be Prepared" theme - disasters, strange patrons, software are all planned sessions. It's close to Halloween so that seemed an appropriate theme! And, offers lots of decorating possibilities as well...

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Winding Down

Summer is fading, school is starting, and I've got a new work schedule. In addition, the roofing project is also finishing, skylights have been replaced (it's no longer dark and gloomy in my area!) and our new person will start this week. He spent yesterday afternoon manning the Computer Services desk - a trial-by-fire kind of day, since we'd been closed for 2 days and everyone came to the library! He handled the commotion very well, dealing calmly with the add situations that only seem to occur when things are crazy. It was a great learning experience, since I could show him how to handle what are rare problems; hopefully he'll be a bit more prepared next time they happen. My new schedule involves 4 longer days and 3 days off - a little experimental, but something I'm looking forward to trying to see how it works. Two evenings - it's been years since I've worked an evening. Fridays are already longer, with our 6 p.m. closing, so Tuesday will be a bit longer too. To adjust to a change in workflow, we've been adding some equipment to my office so both Kari and I can do more processing there, while we're at the desk. We added a scanner and hope to add a spine label printer. An older one started failing so we ordered 2 new ones, and I've spent the past week trying to get it working! Finally a phone call to the dealer's tech support was able to determine that the printer works, but why it wouldn't actually print labels remained a mystery. An additional call by the technician to the manufacturer brought the news that we were just wasting our time: the printer and software will never agree! So we're getting 2 different models that should work. Planning continues for the ASLD/PLD retreat at Chico Hot Springs in October. We've gone with a "Be Prepared - Scary Things Can Happen" theme, appropriate since it will be close to Halloween. My favorite holiday!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

August?

So we didn't melt over the summer but it was a close call - we saw a lot of 90+ degree days, which really is a little unusual. It's amazing how pleasant 85 degrees can feel after much warmer temperatures! The Library roof is being replaced, a 2-month project that started last month. The area of Computer Services was the starting point; sometimes it seemed we were the "testing ground" for the process. I'm not sure anyone realized how much dust and debris would filter through the metal ceiling (although plastic was laid out it often looked like a small snowstorm). When black clouds began building, I'm not sure they were taken seriously, with the result that the first rainstorm brought a nice rainfall into the library! But those issues have been resolved (and we haven't had much rain recently!). Things are moving along nicely now, and it's almost time to remove and replace the skylights. The smallest, which is over Computer Services, has already been taken out and the space covered with plywood, which means it's a bit dark and gloomy over here! Although the Library has been open all summer, we expect to be closed for 2 days during the skylight event. It would seem to be just a little too dangerous to have the public walking around - they can't be trusted to stay out of roped-off areas! We also started staying open until 6 p.m. Friday nights, a change suggested by a survey we did last year. So far that final hour hasn't really seen a big audience, but that could change when fall comes around. The few people who do stay are happy, I'm sure. We've hired a new person for the Computer Services desk! That will help with staffing, removing the Reference staff from the Monday schedule, and improving the service we provide by increasing the consistency. Even more exciting (to me!) is the revision of my schedule to a 4-day work week - longer days, but shorter week. I'm looking forward to trying this out. I don't work Sunday or Monday anyway, so this is just taking away Saturday (frankly, a very quiet day when it hasn't really been necessary for me to be here - no computer-related disasters come up, and Saturday staff is able to handle what does). Jason will begin working soon, and this new schedule might start next month. New staff, new schedule, new computers - what a summer! A small but wonderful change: when setting up 2 new catalog computers I realized I could set them (using the software that keeps people from accessing the hard drive) to turn off at closing! This seems like the best idea yet. Don't know why if took so long to figure this out. Now, if we could only get them to log themselves on...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

May!

What do April showers bring? In the library world it seems to be new gadgets! When I returned from vacation the new flatbed scanner had arrived and was out for the public, thanks to a co-worker who revised the instructions already posted. We've experimented a bit more and discovered a few new options that make it even better. Now we've received our library's Technology Petting Zoo (TPZ, to those of us talking about it!). What's in the zoo? A Nook tablet, Kindle, Kindle fire, and iPad, along with a few gift cards to the appropriate stores (Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Amazon) so we can actually add content. These are designed for staff to play with and become better able to help patrons when they have questions. Training is offered next month, so we haven't done much with them beside charging them up but it will be great fun! I hope staff who aren't normally curious about such things will be able to take this opportunity and get more comfortable with new technologies. Wireless printing is now available, to the adventurous at least! Our older B&W (a Dell we got when we first moved to the new building) doesn't play well with one part of the process, or newer fonts in Word 2007 - some documents come out as just wing-dings. But otherwise things work, as long as you have a Windows laptop. So far I haven't had anyone actually print, but we've got instructions ready. I'm curious if more summer visitors will be asking about this. We're planning on hiring 2 part-time desk positions, one at Computer Services. I'm not sure what the hours will end up being, but I'd like to see them work Saturdays so I could switch to Monday-Friday. Now that computers work so much better, and we are part of the shared catalog, it isn't as necessary for me to be at the library Saturdays. But we'll see how it all works out. Roof repairs this summer! The exact plans aren't announced yet; we may be opening later each day but details will be coming soon. Then we can look forward to rainy days without leaks!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

April Showers!

Another month, more time just flying by! And, unfortunately, April often brings showers inside the Library - a situation the hopefully will be repaired this summer with a new roof. The orange traffic cones we use to designate the drip-catching trash cans just don't project the classy image we'd like for the Library!

Another April, another MLA conference also. This year everyone headed to Big Sky. Since I've been going to multiple conferences for the past 3 years as MPLA rep I thought I should stay home and let other staff have fun. Next year Missoula will be the destination, and I'll plan to attend since I'll be Public Library Division chair.

Wireless printing for laptop users is closer to being ready but still not quite there. It might be, if we weren't so generous in offering 5 free pages every day - that little feature means the software needs some serious tweaking. So the vendor is working on that. I'll be on a short vacation and hope to have news of progress when I return.

This is the second consecutive Saturday where we didn't need to call police so we're feeling pretty good! Incidents have all been fairly mild, and perhaps even unnecessary, but it was becoming a regular occurrence and one we're happy to give up. We're having a staff meeting next month with a guest speaker from the local mental health center, which may help us deal more effectively with the various strange situations we experience.

Spring is here, weather is improving, and people can spend more time outside. That often helps the library environment!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

March Madness

"March Madness" takes on a whole different meaning around here - people seem to be just a bit crazier than usual, a higher number of "incidents" are reported - so it's hard to say if it's the month, the weather, the change to Daylight Savings, or a combination, but it does seem to be a recurring March event. Just when we were feeling positive about the longer daylight hours!

The Offline conference? A wonderful success! People have said it tends to plan itself, and it certainly came together very well. The final budget report hasn't come out yet, but I'm pretty sure we had a bit of a profit. Meals were tasty, speakers were good, about 70 people came - the only glitch was a bit of nasty weather that made some folks want to leave a little early the second day. Next year we're headed to Butte.

Since the conference ended, I've been catching up on the work I neglected before it. But that's about taken care of now too. We're seriously looking into a wireless printing option for laptop users, and I hope that can get up and running in the next week or so. We have so many people on their own laptops!

April brings the annual MLA conference, but I'm staying home this year. The Library roof will be replaced this summer so that will have some impact on our summer services - we're waiting to find out exactly how that will develop.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Happy February!

Apparently I missed the holidays, the new year, and January! Not only that, but we seem to be missing winter in our neighborhood - just a small amount of snow this week, after months of nothing. We do have a bit of cold, though, so I think we can say we've had winter.

Since the last post mentioned the Express group, I'll add this: everything is fine! Completely redoing a computer, and using the image to make all the others solved whatever problem that was there. One of the Unsolved Mysteries that will never be explained. The printer used by the downstairs computers finally seemed to be failing, so we purchased a new one. Instead of the Dell (which I've never been very happy with - cartridges can only be found at Dell, although we did try a few from our local supplier with some success - and printer drivers were also difficult to find and install) we went with HP. So far so good.

The biggest event of the new year was receiving 7 more laptops, for a total of 12 from the BTOP grant. They circulate for 2 hours in the library, with a valid card and and ID left while it's checked out. They are very popular. My goal is one day to get a wireless printing option, so people could print from any laptop instead of having to log on a library computers.

Bozeman is organizing the annual Offline conference, and we're just about set. Three weeks to go...