Hooray! Temporary quarters!

Thanks to Karen Marcus, the Commissioner for northern Palm Beach County, space has been found for the NCR branch when it closes for expansion.

Personally, I like the arrangement. It is utilizing space vacated by another county department, at the end of a hall on the second floor of the North County Courthouse. Second floor, with a spiral staircase to climb, or a small elevator to ride in. At the end of the hall, a long walk from the stairs/elevator, even longer from the parking lot. North County Courthouse, with the virtual equivalent of airport security (it has been pointed out to me that people don't have to remove their shoes) at the entrance of the building.

Now this particular branch is pretty surburban, with a fairly upscale patron base. But we do get a healthy mix of the socio-economic strata, including immigrants, non-English speakers, homeless, mental/emotional cases, visitors/tourists, and kids. Occasionally we have patrons who require some reminders about appropriate social behavior, but genereally they are not a problem.

Obviously in our new quarters the noise level will go down (no more story time, with loud toddlers and preschoolers), which will make some of our patrons very happy. With much more limited space we can only stock the most popular books/cds/dvds, which will satisfy many of our patrons. And with the location at the end of a long hall on the second floor of a government building with "airport security" we probably won't have to worry any more about accommodating certain handicaps. With the high security, we probably also won't have to worry about anyone who doesn't like, or is afraid of, police, such as immigrants and the homeless. But since we will only be stocking the most popular items, we probably won't have what they're looking for anyway. And with limited computers likely to be available, their absence will mean less competition for those resources.

So it's looking more and more like it will be a nice, small, corporate library (read: limited user base) that happens to be part of a public library system.

Tropical Storm magnet

Jeff Rice observed that he went to Texas and a tropical storm hit. He came back here, and another tropical storm is bearing down on us. He recommends we send him on extended administrative leave somewhere else, far away. Like Greenland?

Goodbye del.icio.us!

Aargh! They did it! Yahoo has stepped in and begun the process of ruining del.icio.us! I guess it was beyond hope that they'd leave it alone after buying it.

It's no longer del.icio.us, it's delicious.com. And color coded text based results just aren't good enough for Yahoo, so they are changing the structure and layout as well.

Time to find another bookmarker.

What's in a name?

Holey Moley

We've got problems with our class names: Beginning Computers, Getting Started, Windows Basics. People don't seem to want to read the descriptions, and are trying to guess what to sign up for based on how the name fits where they think they are in the computer skills picture. The Getting Started series of classes probably needs to be renamed to something like "This is what you take if you have never seen a computer before or you are afraid you're going to destroy the world if you touch one," but better minds have told me this is too long for a class name.

I suppose if the names were less descriptive it would force people to at least look at the descriptions. I'm thinking something like "Step 1, Step 2, Step 3," etc. A lot of the people who take these classes seem to want the classes numbered anyway. So, along those lines:

Step 0: [for lack of a more condensed name] This is what you take if you have never seen a computer before or you are afraid you're going to destroy the world if you touch one
Step 1: Learn to use a Mouse
Step 2: Learn how to turn the computer on and off
Step 3: Learn about programs, windows, and saving files
Step 4: Learn about the World Wide Web
Step 5: Learn the basics of using a Browser
Step 6: Learn how to use a web-based e-mail program
Step 7: Learn more advanced things about the World Wide Web
Step 8: Learn how to stay safe in Cyberspace
Step 9: Learn what you can do with digital pictures

Unfortunately, this ignores the word processing classes we have. This also makes it look like one has to start at Step 0 or 1, and progress through all the steps. Maybe we should group the classes by level:

Level 0: Getting Started Classes, Mousing class
Level 1: Beginning Computers, Windows Basics, World Wide Web Basics
Level 2: Browser Basics, Basic Word Processing
Level 3: Webmail, Search Tools, More World Wide Web, Cybersecurity, Savvy Online Shopping, Intermediate Word Processing
Level 4: Pictures, Computers & You, Portable Software, Online Genealogy Research

Experience tells me, however, that this will only confuse them more. So here I sit and ponder naming schemes, waiting for divine revelation.

Letter to Confused in Libraryland

Dear Mr. Dewey,

I am thinking of seeking housing somewhere more affordable, like outside the United States, and someone suggested there might be helpful books available in the library. However, I found it a bit difficult to browse the shelves and was hoping you could explain the way books on living and working in other countries are given their special numbers for finding them:

Working and Living: France, 005.446
Living and Working in Britain, 914.1
Living and Working in Italy, 945
Live Better South of the Border in Mexico, 917.2
When in Rome: Living and Working in a Foreign Country, 648.9

Signed,
Confused in Libraryland

Dear Confused:

You seek the kabbalistic and occult. Consult a librarian.

Signed,
Mr. Dewey's Minion

Signs of times to come?

I'm just sayin'

When you tell people in Palm Beach Gardens they'll have to drive 10 miles further up the road, but there's another library about 1 mile away...

iPod rules

Query from patron: Can I download music from library computers to my iPod?

Short answer: No

Long answer: Since the library computers don't have the iTunes program loaded on them, you can't download music from them onto your iPod and listen to it. However, you could theoretically download music to your iPod, using it as a USB memory device. (Theoretically, because since the library computers have Windows XP on them, if you typically connect your iPod to iTunes on an Apple Mac then connect it to a library computer, Windows will try to reformat the iPod for you; but if you typically connect to iTunes on a Windows PC, you should be O.K.) You would then have to upload the music files from the iPod to a computer with iTunes, import them into iTunes, and then download to your iPod from that iTunes to be able to listen to the music.

Confusing Ancillary: If you have an iPod Touch, you can download music to your iPod from the iTunes store using the library's WiFi connection.

Unfreezing the Print Release Station

Face it: it happens. Sometimes it takes a few tries to figure out how to unfreeze the LPTOne print release station without losing the jobs waiting to be printed. If you haven't figured it out already, here's the
cheatsheet:

Usually all you need to do to unfreeze the print release station is stop the Microsoft C++ Runtime Library:

1. Press the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys, which will pull up the Task Manager.
2. You should see two things listed in the Task Manager: LPTOne and the C++ Runtime Library
3. Press the C++ Runtime Library to highlight it, then press the "Stop" button at the bottom of the Task Manager window.
4. If the Task Manager window doesn't close by itself at that point, close it by pressing the "x" in the upper right corner of the Task Manager window.

Everything should work fine after that. The C++ Runtime Library typically just restarts itself when it is needed. However, if a job still won't print (and gives a cryptic error message), stop and restart LPTOne:

1. Press on the Administration button at the top of the screen.
2. Enter the password (it's the same as the Override password)
3. Press on the button on the right to "Stop LPTOne"
4. IMPORTANT! when it asks whether to save the existing print jobs, press the YES button!
5. Once LPTOne closes, press on its icon on the desktop, then press the "Enter" key (on the keyboard) to open it.

Job Exchange

I always liked cataloging.  I've done my share of copy cataloging; I've done my share of original cataloging (law materials of all things!), and I still like it.  To me, cataloging is at the very essence of Ranganathan's "Save the time of the User" law.  Along that line, I seem to be laboring under the delusion that cataloging (and classification) should make it easier for the user to find materials.

For instance, one would think if an item is catalogued as, say, a Made for Television Movie, and shelved in (Dewey classification) 791.45, subsequent sequels produced for broadcast, would be shelved next to (or at least near) the original in 791.45.  Silly me.  If the sequels were not broadcast as television programs they obviously don't belong in 791.45.  That would be too easy.  They must now be shelved with feature movies in 791.43, which, in most of the branches, including ours, is in a different part of the library.

Of course, this gives us an opportunity to interact more with those users laboring under the same delusions about cataloging making it easier to find materials, and to teach them how they can achieve Ranganathan's goals by thinking like a cataloguer.  Except that I've done cataloging, and this doesn't make sense to me, so it's looking like  an uphill battle.  But heck, running up those statistics is our whole purpose out here in the branches, right?

I would like a job exchange where we really exchange jobs.  I'd like to trade jobs with a cataloguer for a week.  I'd get a change of scenery, and maybe learn a little more about cataloging; and a lucky cataloguer could get to repeatedly listen to befuddled patrons asking the same questions about where materials are, and maybe get a better picture of the real world and how their work affects patrons, staff and work flow.  

Any takers?

Why?

I could be wrong (wouldn't be the first time, and certainly not the last), but it seems to me the 23Things concept is a way to update knowledge of technology within the Library community. But why?

Not that I don't think it's laudable. But what is the goal? I know why I keep up with technology, but this set of exercises was not conceived for me. These exercises, in this setting, targeted all library employees, asking them to try out various web technologies, think about them in a library context, and report on them in a now old (by web standards) medium: blogs. Why?

Is anybody even reading the blogs (besides a few friends and coworkers)? I get a picture of someone somewhere checking 249 feeds...for what? That they were written? Why?

What possible relevance will this have in their jobs for those who have (or haven't) participated? From what I've seen and heard, it's been diverting, it's been strange, it's been stressful. It has not been useful for work.

Where is the culture of Web 2.0 in this library? Where are the leaders that will join the dialog?

Technology is only a tool. 23Things is about learning the tools. The architecture of Web 2.0 requires new and different tools. But the architecture itself is so radically different that the new tools are useless without a paradigm shift. What these exercises have done is teach the tools, show the blueprints, and withheld the permits necessary to build.

Why?