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Today was a surprisingly good training. It gave me more confidence in my skills and some good pointers for fleshing out our regular curriculum. I had to fight off my inner teen, though. The presenter used a lot of tools to get us warmed up and at first it was really annoying (making us stand up if we’d ever had a really boring meeting, etc., ringing a bell at the end of each timed task, and she kept calling my manager by the wrong name) I was holding back the eye-rolls. By the end we were all enjoying ourselves and got through a 5 minute presentation to a small group for critique. It was a 7 hour training, which is a long time to be in one room listening mostly to one person. We made it through and I have some really nice pipe cleaner art to show for it.
The Mister has gotten his residency assignment. He will be in Las Vegas for a year for prelim surgery, starting in June. Since it is only a year, I am staying here and going to visit when I can. He will be really busy though. My first visit will be in August during the furlough and I thank the airline gods that Vegas has cheap flights and hotel packages. I am going to miss having him around so much. Oh, my best friend has also gotten her residency in Sacramento, so my boyfriend and my best friend are moving away at the same time. It hasn’t really hit me yet, but I can tell that June is going to suck.
What am I reading? My new iPod doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge that there is an audio book on it right now, so I haven’t finished The Curse of the Blue Tattoo yet, but I was really enjoying it before that. If I Stay was stellar and set in Oregon, so I recognized a lot of places described. The story itself was engaging and beautiful. The emotions felt very real to me. Links and a little more info later.
I have been a flurry of activity the last few weeks. Work has been hella busy, with the added responsibilities of being a Teaching Center Lead. Things are finally falling into place though, and we are finding that we can do more than we thought possible. I will be teaching a couple of times a month, and that ought to help me get over the big bad jitters I get whenever I speak in front of a group.
Finding out that I would be the instruction Lead at my branch, I decided to look again at my PLA schedule and see if there were any instruction related topics I could go to. My best effort didn’t turn anything up, though. I am already attending a few “management” sessions–things like how to deal with difficult situations and people and strategic planning–and I suppose those will have to do.
I saw a bit of the news today and it really worried me to see that some states are withholding tax refunds in order to keep money in their own accounts. Not forever, but from anywhere to a week, to months. California did that last year, but promise not to this year. This made me think about the budget here and how we are already in the hole $10 million (5 from last year and 5 from this year) and how much worse 2011 is probably going to be. There was another news program that told of schools cutting budgets already, taking money from sports, libraries and academic programs. It makes me sad.
I learned about the city’s budget numbers last night at the union meeting I attended. It was the nomination meeting for our next union executive board and I was nominated for treasurer to run against a long time position holder. There is a lot of change coming to our union and I think it is seriously a good thing. If nothing else has come from this bad budget and all the changes, it has forced us all to be more involved.
What am I reading? I am listening to The Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady by L.A. Meyers. It is a wonderful story that kind of reminds me of The Little Princess, in that Mary “Jacky” Faber is sent to a high falutin’ girls school to receive an education, she is demoted to downstairs help while her money is kept in “safe keeping” by the mistress of the house. She even sleeps in the attic! That is where the resemblence ends. Jacky Faber has so much life to her, everything is an adventure. This is the second book in the series. I listened to Bloody Jack with the boys during our trip to Cali a couple of months ago. I can’t wait for the third one.
What happened to The Man Who Ate the World? Well, I forgot it in the car for a couple of days and I plan to get back to it. I will let you know. I also picked up If I Stay by Gayle Forman and am enjoying it quite a bit so far.
The library is super busy lately. Storytime started back up this week and there have been tons of cute preschoolers and older children (as opposed to the not so cute ones) in asking for all sorts of fun books–trains, spies, and flowers. The children that come into my new branch seem so much better behaved and happy than those at other branches I’ve worked at. I want to know the parent’s secrets. There are still screamers, but not as many and the parents seem to have a clue that screaming children don’t mix very well with the library.
I am interviewing for new teen volunteers. The girl that I interviewed yesterday (girl! thrilling! I could only get boys at my old branch–parents wouldn’t let girls volunteer there because it was a “bad” neighborhood), is super responsible and seems like a good fit. I hope she doesn’t overwhelm herself, since she is a senior, working on her senior project and working. I have added a few things to the volunteer list, like monthly blog posts and a monthly group meeting. My old volunteers balked at doing these things, but it is interesting how if that is the initial expectation, they don’t bat an eyelash. I am pretty flexible on schedules, since I know how busy high school can be.
I have also been handed a new opportunity at my branch. I will be the Teaching Center Lead–we are one of the branches that have a computer lab and will be teaching computer classes. It will be my job to schedule those classes and oversee the instructors. The only downside to this is it makes me feel that I should relinquish my position on the blog board. I am part time and with this added responsibility, I don’t think I will have the time to give enough attention to Push to Talk and still be able to do programming.
What am I reading? The Man Who Ate the World by Jay Rayner that was recommended by my friend. I just started though, so I don’t have anything for you yet.
I just finished Secret Son by Laila Lalami, which I really enjoyed. This is the upcoming Seattle Reads book and I read it so that I can introduce the book and our related programs to the book group. I don’t always like the Seattle Reads titles, but this one I did. Youssef is a nineteen year old boy who has been fed on dreams of a father that never was. His life changes dramatically when his mother finally tells him truth of his past. With that secret bursting in his chest, knowing that Moroccan society will not forgive him for his bastard birth, Youssef attempts to find out who he is and what he should do with his life. There is an unexpected twist at the end that really makes it worth reading.
I have been at my new branch for a week now and at first it was kicking my ass. I am not the only one who is new there, but sometimes it feels like it. Here are some of my observations/revelations:
I am not the go-to person anymore, in any situation.
I must learn names if I want my coworkers to take me seriously. And I have a terrible memory for names, but I am trying REALLY hard. I look at the photos on our intranet page every day that I am there and match names to faces. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated with the new people.
One coworker started out by trying to get things her way by using the royal “we”–“we” do it this way… I found out the truth soon after and just pretended like the first day didn’t happen that way. But wow, annoying.
I have a huge collection and I really haven’t read much of it. I didn’t realize how many excellent books I got at my old branches. I feel like there is a lot of filler here. I had better get reading, but I kind of dread it.
I am trying out a survey to find out what magazines the teens at our branch like or want. I have gotten one answer so far. Maybe I need to threaten to take away any that don’t get voted for? ;) Oh, and I really have teens. So far my interactions have been homework related, but I plan to engage one group that comes in to do homework every day to see if they are interested in an anime club.
Well, I am off to the microsoft campus for a usability study. Wish me cool software!
Today was day 2 back in libraryland. Day 1 started with the booktalking webinar. I did well until I got to the actual booktalking portion. I always get nervous the first time I do book talks at the schools, but by the second time I am a pro. This time I didn’t have to see the faces looking back at me, but in a way I think that was worse. It was probably good to let those listening know that I still get nervous, so they shouldn’t feel bad if they do, too.
Next I had a four hour meeting where we mostly discussed programming for the coming year and how we will now be working together as a region to make sure we are covering teen services for our library branches. There are two branches that do not have teen services librarians and another that is a maybe, depending on how they hire for the position that will open up there. I currently work at one of those branches and I had a teacher come in today to ask about bringing his students in to work on a project for his class. I have developed a relationship with this teacher, his school and the librarian there. I worry about what will happen when I am not at that branch anymore. But then, I know that because I care what happens, I will make sure that they continue to receive good service from us. I hope that our new model will allow me time for outreach. According to what we heard at the meeting yesterday, that is what management hopes for as well.
I made it through all my email yesterday. There were 125 of them, which isn’t as bad as usual for a 2 week vacation. I can thank our new intranet for that, because many things that used to be sent out as emails are just being posted and saved there. In many ways our system is getting more organized and efficient, which seriously helps me do so as well.
Tonight I went to a YALSA happy hour and saw some acquaintances and my friend Jackie, who presented at the webinar with me. She inspires me to want to take a speed reading class, because she reads several books a week, where I am lucky to get through 1 or 2. I worry that the enjoyment might go out of it if I do cheapen my relationship with the written word by unnaturally speeding my ability. I don’t really have time to learn anyway, because I am too busy reading and crocheting and watching Torchwood. Anyhow, the happy hour was fun. I forget that I love to geek out about libraries and books because things at work are kind of stressed right now for everyone.
What am I reading? Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. I have been saving this as a treat–supposedly over my vacation–but had to pre-empt it to read Very LeFreak for work. Wasn’t I sad when I got there yesterday and found out we weren’t presenting our books? Yes, I was. Because Leviathan is just as exciting and fun and interesting as I thought it was going to be. It is steampunk and darwinist and sort of, not really, princes being chased across the country side by armies that want to eliminate his possible claim to the throne and girls pretending to be boys so that they can fly in the big living balloons that are zeppelins*. I wish I could have just stayed in bed for a day and read it straight through. Instead, I have to pick at it in the evenings before bed and on breaks from work.
*I am so excited I am speaking in run ons. Bad English major!
Put the last of the visiting family on a plane today. Now I will have some more time to work on my booktalks for the First Tuesday webinar. That is happening this Tuesday morning at 10am and is a live broadcast. Here’s hoping nothing goes wrong–it is really only the second time I have been recorded for longevity. The first time was at the ALA conference in 2008 when I talked about zines for YALSA. That one wasn’t practiced at all though. It is good practice for the iYouth conference at the iSchool that I am participating in later in the month (talking about teens, technology and blogs).
A good internet friend of mine had an album release today over on his band blog. They are Starfish Stories: The Band and they release their music under a creative commons license, which allows you to use their music in, say, a YouTube video and all you have to do is attribute the music to them in the way they have asked. I got a chance to preview the release and was quite impressed. It isn’t going to be a top 40 success, but I don’t think it was meant to be that anyway. This music has a lot of creative uses and is very well executed. I especially liked “Goodnight Not Goodbye v2.2”, which I believe is the only one with lyrics. You can download these songs by going to the blog link above–there is a place to donate if you like the music, but you should feel free to listen first.
In Libraryland: More information is coming out, although it is hard to tell what is official (and therefor blogable). There is a lot of talk about writing letters to the union and admin, but nothing is happening yet that is visible to me. There might be some behind the scenes work going on, though. I am not unhappy with my post, so it is hard to get riled up about things, but I do understand other’s consternation over changes made, some supposedly based on “skills and abilities”, that have taken people out of their specialty. Others are happy for the chance to do something different and stirring the pot more could mess up their opportunity for that experience.
What am I reading? Still LaFreak…I am going very slowly right now. We will leave it at that. I hope I finish it in time for the work meeting on Tuesday. I should have more time to read now that I am not staying up late visiting with family.
There are many changes going on in libraryland right now, and for the most part, I don’t know what they are. I wouldn’t be allowed to blog about it if I did, at least not yet. I can tell you that I am moving to a different location. I know that others are as well, but we aren’t even allowed to talk about this amongst ourselves yet. I have been on vacation for a week and have another to go, so I don’t know anything beyond the basics and what I have pried out of coworkers that are also friends. In a way, I am happy with the ignorance.
Tonight is dinner with friends, and maybe a birthday drink or two with other friends. Tomorrow and the next day family comes into town. I am going to do some supplemental baking, including a new recipe for orange salted caramels from Craftzine.com.
About this blog: I will be changing the header when I get enough time to touch up a photo I have in mind. I plan to post 3 times a week, the internet and organizational gods willing, and will include a “what am I reading?” section (see below) that will include a thought or two about the book at that point. Unfortunately I don’t think I read 3 books every week, but my opinion of books change throughout a reading, so that at least will change.
What am I reading? I put Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld on the back burner to read Very LeFreak by Francesca Block in time for my teen services meeting when I get back. I can’t wait to get back to it, though. It has a lot of promise. Very LeFreak is, well, very freakish. A couple pages in, I find myself hoping that girl grows up quick (think maturity level).
Living in Color 