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!

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!

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.

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...

Busy times

Laptops in the library are hugely popular - who knew? The 5 we got set up last month are used every day, and there haven't been any problems with them (except not having enough!). We could have another 5 or 10, and I bet they would be used constantly too. Sometimes it's people who want more computer time than the 1 hour in the lab, other times it's people just wanting to sit in a more comfortable area or curious about how laptops are different from PCs. Whatever the reason, it seems to be a much-appreciated addition to our library services.

No one has figured out the bizarre update problem in the Express group, so next week it's time to start from scratch: re-install Windows and proceed from there. Maybe this will help pinpoint the issue, or just solve the problem; at this point, it doesn't really matter to me, I just want it to stop. All the other groups updated last week and are still working just fine, which is something I am extremely grateful for!

It's getting close to Finals Week: I can tell by the number of students working in the library all day. Only a few weeks until days start getting longer again - if we can make it through the "dark time" everything will be OK!

Back to work

September disappeared (well, not really - I was on vacation and removed from constant internet access!) but now it's fall and time to get back to work.

We'll have our new director soon (Susan Gregory from Oklahoma), and some staff members have moved on to new positions in Helena with the State library, so there are lots of changes!

We also have 5 new laptops we'll set up and have available for the public to check out and use in the library. We haven't decided if we need some security software on it, in case it "walks away" but we might try something - I've found an affordable option.

One express computer insists on installing updates, even after I've un-installed them, and told it to NOT check for updates. These cause some problems, and I can't figure out how they are installing since DeepFreeze should ignore any changes that occur. I have to conclude it's being haunted by gremlins.

August Already!

The Library was present in the Sweet Pea Parade after all - a "Get On Board" train, with members wearing different "costumes" to represent a variety of countries. Two book carts were converted to engine and caboose, and I got to be Engineer with cap and bandanna, while others had train whistles. We just meandered down the street, looping around when the bus behind us was WAY BEHIND and leaving a gap. It was a fun morning.

Back to other issues: the computer with hardware problems took 3 tries, but finally ended up working (the processor was finally determined to be the culprit). Windows Updates had messed up the entire Express group last month, which I forgot about once I restored them all to before the update. So this month's updates did the same thing! Since I'll be gone next month, it would be a good idea to get this solved, so Mike from the City has started looking at it. All the other machines are fine, and they all started with the Express image when we set them up, so it's quite a quandary.
Our donated scanner has been getting a lot of use, and I have a second one to try. This one might even print, which would be very convenient - people seem to always ask about printing after they scan. I'll see how it works.

This week the 3 Director candidates will visit. We can have meals with them just for some social time, but they will also have time to wander around the library and visit with staff between interviews. There is also a public session later where they will introduce themselves. It will be an exciting day, and (possibly!) my final director search experience!

We've had 2 staff members depart: retirement and relocation. So people are filling in while these positions are advertised - a busy time! We've been looking at reorganizing schedules and staffing, but this might be something the new director could look at as well.

Next month I'll be away but I think things are set to run fairly smoothly without me!