It's June?

May disappeared - I don't know where it went. There was Mother's Day, of course. I picked out a new MP3 player (instead of waiting for Jon-Erik to sell me his used cast-off when he buys a new one!). The library has subscribed to a new program allowing people to download audiobooks, so I felt it was my duty to try it too! I figure it will come in handy when I travel to meetings for MPLA, and well as providing the incentive to spend more time on the treadmill.

Also for Mother's Day Jon-Erik gave me Animal Crossing:City Folk for the Wii, accompanied by the WiiSpeak - a microphone that works in conjunction with some Wii games. We'd thought it might work with some other online Wii titles we like (Tetris Party and Dr. Mario) but sadly there are only a few specific games it goes along with. This works just fine for us - we can visit each other's towns in Animal Crossing. It's hilarious to see Jon-Erik show up in my town: one day his "character" was wearing a diving helmet; yesterday he changed to a wrestling mask. It's quite the entertaining experience.

Jon-Erik had a birthday too - the first one where we weren't actually with him! Hard to believe it took 26 years for that to happen.

Tom and I went to Las Vegas early this month (who goes there in June? That explains why we got a good deal). Yes, things are air conditioned, but 95 degrees is still hot, even in a dry heat! We had fun, although the hotel charged $15 each day for internet access (so I just pretended to disappear for the week!) and didn't have very generous slot machines.

Sadly, we decided to euthanize our cats last month too. They were 15 and 11; one was rapidly declining, the other seemed to be developing problems (limping, digestive issues). I had discussed this with our vet several months ago, and she was very understanding and supportive. She explained it isn't illegal in Montana to shoot a pet (sometimes there are horror stories in the paper about people doing this badly), and offered to supply the sedative we'd need. The local ranch supply business also suggested a sedative, and Tom was able to handle the rest (although actually finding his pistol was the biggest challenge!). They are resting peacefully in a nice spot near the creek in our backyard. They had a fun life with us, and we still miss them (but honestly, the cat hair and litter box are not missed!).

One of these days we will actually get summer weather - June has been cold and rainy. Good for knitting, though - I'm working on knitted helmet liners for troops in Afghanistan as part of a project a local Marine mom started. And reading...

Ah, Graduation

If not graduation, at least the end of the semester! Fewer and fewer students were present as the week went on, and today they've disappeared. The gorgeous sunshine is a factor too, I'm sure.

We know it's just the calm before the storm, but at least I have a chance to catch up, and prepare. Two groups have the CybraryN update - the reservation groups will go next week. Things have been working nicely. The express image has been completed, although I've thought of a few tweaks that should be done. Circulation has survived the news that each person will log on with their own name, and not the generic one we've been using. It required some setup from each, but they are doing OK, and it's a good learning process! Not necessarily happy: one person complained "I came to work at the library to shelve books!" That made me smile; was the good old days, I guess.

Waiting for the crowds of tourists...

Happy May!

If it's May, spring has to be around soon - I just know it.

The Kalispell conference was great although I came home feeling like my brain was fried, and I was grateful to have 2 days to recover! Chrystie Hill from WebJunction and I had a fun visit, and she presented a great program on on-line community building. I'd been a frequent WebJunction user from its early days but faded away with the move to the new library and the subsequent drain on my time. But now I'm ready to get back!

Coming back from a conference always means catch-up, and this week was no exception! The catalog wanted to update, and that didn't go well on the first computer so I expected trouble. But others were successful, and with a little work all were updated. Then the City brought over 6 new computers for staff (more to come) - a nice surprise but not one I really wanted this week when I was trying to finish a few other projects. Thankfully Gaby took charge of swapping those, and things went smoothly. The biggest problem is the new Office 2007 - staff hasn't seen it and there is a learning curve there. But people will manage...

CybraryN was my big project: we wanted to change the way patrons authenticate with the catalog system in Helena. It took a phone call, and a day to get set, but when I changed over everything worked. At the same time, I've been getting a machine ready to give back to the City for setting up imaging software. I've got it set the way we want it but then realized each group has different settings. So this will be an Express machine (once the upgrade file is added). Then I'll have to do an adult machine, teen, and children's. A lot of work at first, but in the long run it should make things so much easier for all Computer Services staff.

We know we're coming up on Tourist Season - we need all the help we can get!

Preparing for MLA

Wednesday we're off to Kalispell for a fun conference. So that means a little preparation here, to make sure things run smoothtly in Computer Services while Lois and I are gone - something I'm not as confident about as I used to be, given the current circumstances.

There still is no explanation for why Internet Explorer on some computers just won't open a web page, but Firefox will. Why it will stop working, if it worked earlier. Our City IT department (the whole crew - we felt so special!) spend a morning last week looking at this. I was relieved that they could at least see there was a problem, even though they haven't come up with a solution. They've recommended a few things to clean up the machines (checking Scheduled Tasks, deleting ALL the temp files, defragging) as a start. Those probably are useful, but haven't fixed things.

IT is also very close to having an imaging program that should be able to return everything to an original state each night - something we've wanted to have but haven't had the time to do. I know there are options for this out there, but having the City work on it is helpful - that way they know what's going on with our computers.

There are so many factors involved: each machine, the CybraryN software, the City's network, the connection to the Montana Shared Catalog - any or all of these can cause a problem, and sometimes they do! So it's very difficult to pinpoint an exact reason.

I keep telling myself that's what makes life interesting....

Back to Work

Vacations and conferences are fun, but now it's back to work (until the next conference, MLA in Kalispell in 2 weeks!).

There were a few glitches while I was gone, but hopefully I'll be able to fix those in the morning. People managed very well, in spite of the little problems. They are a resourceful bunch!

More staff are working on the Web 2.0 course now, too. Some of the newer staff are moving right along.

Networks are funny things

We've still been working through some unusual network problems, and haven't really figured out what is coincidence and what isn't. It probably doesn't matter as long as everything works!

But consider:

1. The anti-virus program hasn't updated on the public computers since the new website went live.

2. The problem of a computer not accessing any webpage (although it still had an internet connection, and was resolved by restarting) disappeared with the launch of the new website.

Now that #1 is fixed, we have #2 back again. Coincidence? I'm starting to think not.

But we can always blame Daylight Savings Time: many of our radio-frequency clocks forgot to change, and the phone system didn't go along, either.

Important things

We're still working on a few glitches with our new website, mostly database access and how to send newsletters, etc. Minor things. Especially since this morning there was an incredible explosion and the power went out. It wasn't the library (although it felt like it could have been!) but a building several blocks away. The structure is just gone. Not much news is available yet but it's a mess and is still burning.

So our website issues are not so critical just now.