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.

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.

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...