You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Grrrr’ category.
This morning I sat down to finally chronicle our two week sailing excursion to Canada and the San Juan Islands. But…my computer was freezing and being annoying. This has been happening a lot over the last few weeks. So, I restarted again and limped online and bought a Toshiba 13″ Chromebook which will be here tomorrow.
And now my computer is working beautifully. It has something to do with Windows Updates, and possibly a bad hard disk. I think I forstalled the problem my manually stopping the updates from processing, but that will only last so long.
I still want to post on sailing, but I’ll do that another day when I’m feeling it a bit more. In the mean time, I’m thinking about saying goodbye to Lucille. I put her on CL today for $900. We’ll see what happens.
Literally. It is raining right now and I was planning on spending my day off riding to Woodinville on the Burke-Gilman Trail. Somehow I can’t make myself take a recreational ride on such a crumby day. And I found out that all the hoses on my car need to be replaced. Sad face.
But also figuratively. The day after my happy post, we got more budget news, and it isn’t good. We are going $1.4 million, although not all of those cuts will be necessary. The Mayor said to find 3% to cut so that we would have some choices. I don’t see that we have a lot of choices left. The libraries can run on fewer bodies than we currently have. We will have to cut hours (possibly Sundays) and/or have another furlough, which would likely be the week after xmas (another low usage time). Possibly also a materials budget cut. This is just me guessing, though, so don’t run out and tell the papers. I’ll be interested to see if there is anything more creative that comes out of this round of cuts.
On the upside, I signed up for zipcar, which has a discount for City of Seattle employees. That will be a great back up for the car if anything else goes wrong. And everything is paid for in the fee–gas, insurance, maintenance. I just wish there was one closer to my house. There used to be, but they’re gone now. Now I will have to take a bus to get to it, but luckily that goes from right outside my house to the car. Ah well, hopefully I won’t need it (oh, but they have trucks too, so that will come in handy some day). Some days I think I should just sell my car and commit to a car-less lifestyle. That would only work here, though.
What am I reading?
A coworker recommended Soulless by Gail Carriger and I am liking it more than I expected. I got it on EPUB from the library and am reading it on my Ipod touch. It is historical fiction, set in Victorian London with the premise that there are supernatural creatures that have “come out” (similarly to True Blood, but further back in time) to natural society and live among them. There is a fiery character, Alexia, who is a preternatural and can nullify supernatural powers. Super fun so far.
I finished listening to The Wake of the Lorelei Lee by LA Meyer after getting the download from the library. This one is almost as good as the others, and as always Kathleen doesn’t disappoint as the reader.
However! The themes in this book are definitely older teen and adult. I am looking back at all the tweens and parents that I recommended the series to and I am worried they will get to this one and say “how could that librarian think this book was appropriate for my 11 year old?!?” Oops.
A couple of examples: a ship full of prostitutes, Jackie becoming a “pet” for a female pirate with lots of innuendos about what goes on behind closed doors, and a boy who is almost harmed in an ungodly way. All of these are fine with me, but I can imagine a parent and child listening to or reading this without being ready and I just cringe. Now I know and I can warn the parent that the theme gets older as the series progresses, until it falls into utter wantonness.
PS. There are no April Fool’s jokes included in this post, not even the budget info.
Tomorrow’s the big day. Budget announcements. I probably won’t find out about my specific job for a couple more weeks after that, but we will have a much better idea of where we stand tomorrow. The City Librarian told us on Thursday that the cuts have decreased to 8% and managers tell us that at their meeting on Friday, they were told 7%. That is certainly good news, but still a lot more than the budget cuts we have faced over the last couple of years. Most of those were 1.5% and could be answered by eliminating empty positions and a week long furlough. This is definitely not that.
One of the fear making issues during this budget cut time is the secrecy that the Mayor’s office puts around the decision making process. I am not sure what the reasoning is behind this, but McGinn is not the only one. Nickels really started the whole thing. I found out recently that not only do the plans have to be secret, but our library council is not even allowed to talk to each other about it. What? Really? These are the people who have to approve a final budget. Is the Mayor hoping that by keeping them from talking to one another…trying hard to pull this out…that they will make better choices? Or won’t have time to be informed enough to make different choices than the Mayor laid in front of them? Can he really care that much about what cuts the library makes? His comments up to now show he really doesn’t care about the library much at all, although he does like to use it himself occasionally.
In Libraryland, I keep on trucking. Teen Advisory went great and we are well underway planning our first event. I hosted Danger: Books at the middle school in my area recently and as usual, it totally rocked and inspired me. The actors are so great and I love hearing my favorite books acted out. I taught my first computer class in over a month and it went really well, with a full house.
What am I reading? I finally finished The Broken Teaglass a few days ago and found it a nice change in scenery. The writing is dry and the characters are shallowly defined. The only person you really get to know is the main character and at first he is one of the biggest mysteries of all. Billy is new to Samuelson, a company that compiles dictionaries. He feels lucky to have a job, being a newly graduated, but isn’t sure that being a lexicographer is for him. He is also a reluctant mystery solver when a strange citation falls into his lap and it appears that someone has been murdered, but his new friend Mona talks him into taking the plunge.
I am almost done with The Eternal Ones by Kirsten Miller. I was looking forward to this because I really liked both Kiki Strike books. Don’t get me wrong, I do like this book…mostly. I like the strong female protagonist, I like the story line: people who are born again and again because something is drawing them back, I liked the characters. Sigh, I don’t like that the main character, Haven, can’t seem to tell when the others are lying to her. Ever. She is tricked time and time again by the same people. Haven needs a big gong rung that says “trick me once, shame on you, trick me twice, shame on me.”
I have been working on what librarians do best. Research. We have two people (George and Joan) coming to facilitate our librarian “forum” in two weeks and I wanted to know more about them. It is pretty much what you’d expect from two long time administrators that haven’t been on a reference desk for 20+ years. They are definitely library advocates, but they are part of the “budget cuts are a great time for big changes” school. They don’t out and out say that librarians are outmoded, but what I have heard so far, they don’t make any statements about what librarians bring to the library.
Like that we are the ones that develop and test the programs they are going to continue without us. That we can find the information you are looking for, even if you don’t know for sure what it is when you come to us. As libraries crowd out librarians, patrons will get less of what they want, but they might not even know it. Eventually the library won’t be known for the place to get answers, it will just be a place to pick up your materials and use wifi, which will edge out the young and the poor. Seattle will no longer be known for its smart population, its excellence in literacy. I won’t go so far to say that our poor will drop into wrack and ruin, but lower test scores for under-served populations and all that means for their future…that I will predict. There is a direct correlation between summer reading programs and maintaining literacy levels into the next school year.
I hate the fact that I am developing an advisory board for someone else now. But I have to make the best of it. This is great experience and I have a lot of support from my manager and former managers. I will have great references when I am looking for a job. My biggest question is whether I would take one of those clerk positions when the lay-offs come. According to our contract they have to allow a laid off person to take the lowest level of whatever other position they qualify for (I think I got that right). I would have a really hard time doing the LAIV job, basically my job, for much less pay, but not being able to do real reference or readers advisory. How do you explain to a patron, “well, I could help you, but I am not supposed to. Let me call someone who is allowed to.” ???
On a lighter note, The Mister is coming home today! I am meeting him at the airport at around 6 and we are going to go to Georgetown on the way home. I know it has only been a week, but I have missed him. I also have the week off, partially to spend time with him, and partially to help with my sister’s wedding. She gets married on Saturday :) I am so happy for her.
Ah, the sh** is coming down now. There was a notification yesterday about our new service model. It seems as if we don’t need as many librarians as we currently have. Isn’t that good timing with the budget cuts coming? There can be a bunch of librarian lay offs because hey, we don’t need them and they get paid more, so we can just replace them with lower paid clerks. Clerks can answer questions at the reference desk and the few librarians left can do outreach and programming. Two birds and all that.
I am feeling pretty dark right now. It isn’t just the cuts and lack of respect for the profession (although that would be enough). Things are building up with the Offspring as well. We always want to think the best of our children, but they do screw up sometimes. Let’s just say that OS seems to be piling up the screw ups lately.
Gotta run off and talk some smack with some library ladies. Maybe this will help.
Funny how you can be going along, all sunny and happy and one person can burst your bubble.
I was helping an elderly person at the computers, she was fairly tech savvy, but was having a hard time with forwarding an attachment on WebPine (totally archaic program…). I got shushed by a patron a bit further down and was told that I was being rude.
Now, rude to me is going to someone’s work place and telling them how to do their job, and interrupting someone else’s customer service experience to make your own me time (in a public place, no less) a little more pleasant. But I guess that is just me. My response, after swallowing the negative reply I wanted to give was, “I’m sorry you feel I was being too loud.” and resumed helping the person in a lower tone of voice. The lady had a harder time hearing me, but that is just too bad, I suppose.
Ok, venting done.
It is bike to work month and I am captain of my team. I have been a little disheartened that the log in capability on their website has been down yesterday and today–the first two days of the challenge. No one can log in or join a team. I added my email of concern to the undoubtedly huge pile they will find tomorrow.
I usually ride to work 1-3 days a week, taking the bus the other days and driving only when I pick up the Offspring and take him to school–so every two weeks I drive twice. My challenge to myself it to bike every day in May except when I bring the Offspring to school–because I would be late if I drove home first to ride. My commute is between 6 and 10 miles, depending on my route. The longer one is more scenic but has just as many hills and takes a bit longer. I usually leave those for later shifts and Sundays.
The hardest part of this will be when I have meetings at other places in the system. I think most of these will be at Central and I haven’t come up with a good route there yet. I can probably get there faster on my bike than on the bus because of timing and meandering routes. I might end up doing a combo bike and bus, though.
What am I reading? I took a break from everything else to read Isabelle Allende’s new book The Island Beneath the Sea. I highly recommend this historical fiction of the long war to liberate Haiti during and after the French occupation. The story is set around the life of a female mulatta slave and the families around her. A good portion of the story is set in New Orleans and the details are well turned.
And just when I think that things are going well and that I am doing useful work, I get a reminder that our City Librarian thinks I am less useful than Google. I know she would be appalled that her words were used this way, but the fact that she said them at all is just awful. And the article is true, there is not anything in there I would disagree with, except the part that says that the folks overseeing the community conversations were librarians. While they might hold the degree, many of them have not worked with the public for many years and some never in the library world. They do not represent me or my position.
This article just made me sad. Sad for our future. Librarians are not only the people that find you that dvd you were looking for, we are the ones that protect your right to privacy, make sure you have access to information and provide a gateway to technology for those who haven’t had the exposure. This article makes it clear that librarians are slowly being specialized, dumbed down and minimized until someday people will say “what is a librarian?” We have already lost several library positions to clerical positions that do our “basic” duties, and all of the new hires into that position have librarian degrees.
I love my job and will continue to do it cheerfully and to the best of my ability. I was starting to feel warm and cozy here again, reluctant to ever leave because I feel that I have a bright future in my system. This article reminds me that I am just a number to be moved or eliminated and while I might get warm fuzzies from above occasionally, this is the bottom line.
Nothing like a jolt of reality to sharpen the mind.
Lately I find myself railing against things I cannot change. It isn’t up to me and all I can do is complain. I am complaining too much and I am even annoying myself. And now I will stop.
Scheduling computer classes is moving ahead and today I went to training put on by my own Instruction Committee head. It was pretty informative and even though I should know most of it, it cleared up some questions.
This morning I learned on Facebook that Corey Haim died. After doing a google news search I found out it was from a drug overdose, accidental, with his mother in the same apartment. As a parent struggling with teenager issues at the moment, it seriously scares me to hear this. Either she doesn’t know her son is doing drugs in another room, or she knows. Which is worse? Maybe she was doing them, too.
Tonight we are watching Lost Boys on VHS. Yes on VHS. And I own this cheezy bit of media. But I loved Lost Boys growing up, mostly for Kiefer Sutherland. And the vampires. Kind of explains why I like Buffy so much. I love cheesy horror, but hate the real thing.
I will update on what I am reading later. I have been seriously tired lately between my frustrations and exercising like a mad person. Well, not really. I went running a couple of days this week, but that is a couple more days than usual. So yeah, later.
Living in Color 