Got little sleep last night, between the lingering awful heat and the nagging concerns about some of the things my boss told me she had been told by others were concerns about me.
Went to work a little early, realized I hadn't asked my tech to prepare various PCs for the Handheld Librarian conference yesterday, so thought I might have to do the prep. Turned out the conference site was overwhelmed, and no-one could get in for the first 40 minutes or so, anyway. And the AS Senior had it under control, anyway. I found her the alternate link to get in, and off we all went.
Periodically listened to the conference over the course of the day. Tom Peters keynote was interesting, about the "extinction behaviour" he sees in the current surge in library use and gathering place - the physical "lugging of guts" - and that he believes we will soon swing back to being less physically mobile, as we can reach out more thoroughly in a virtual sense, and that this will lead to a "singularity of place", an identification with home, with locale that harkens back to pre-industrial society. The other note I made and bolded, as a good reminder, was that it's no longer about what or the quantity of books that we own, it's what we do with the information that will distinguish us as libraries and keep us relevant and used. Shared my notes with the Web Team.
We have a grant to develop mobile reference services for the coming year, so we are working to change the culture and expectations of the library staff, in preparation. I think this conference was a good tool.
Talked to several colleagues about the issues I'd lost sleep over, got better clarity, and talked to my boss about them. I think I made her feel a little better about them, too. Maybe. We also did a little prep for a conversation we'll be having with our parent department (Library, Recreation, and Cultural Services) about technology support. The library has made the commitment and has a pretty good structure in place to support the integral tech necessary to provide modern library service. The other divisions have not, and we need to help them understand how integral the tech really is to what we do.
Part of the prep is for me to do a snapshot of each tech project I'm currently and recently working on; budget, status, who's involved, dependencies, timelines, etc.. I will be surprised if I will be able to accomplish this in the next 2 weeks. Will do my best. I know that if I can figure out a way to use Sharepoint to do this documentation, it will be very helpful down the line in utilizing the information in a variety of ways, and make it retrievable, instead of tossing it into the black hole of the Shared File server.
Quick leftover gazpacho for lunch. MMMMmmmm. (but super garlic breath for the rest of the day.)
Talked to the marketing lady about an interaction she'd had with my junior tech, tried to soothe some ruffled feathers. He wants to have the Circ folks design the language for the new self-check software, and so when she tried to give feedback, he was a bit brusque, apparently. Will talk to him about it next week when next he works.
Attended a Circ Managers meeting to discuss the implementation schedule and needs for the new Self Checks, and for the back-room RFID interface, which is also changing. Got it pinned down. My job to contact the branch manager and see what she wants to do.
Need to talk to the branch manager anyway, to work out the next steps of the Gates Grant we have at one of the branches.
Worked on the schedule and set-up for the New Zealand librarian visit next week, who wants to hear about our green building efforts and designs, and our energy efficiencies. Sustainability is a big topic in Eugene these days, I'm proud to say. I serve on the City-wide internal Sustainability Board, actually, too.
Checked on prep for the two good bye parties that happen tomorrow. Filled out leave slip for going home to let in the DirectTV repair guy.
Let staff know that the regional server/network folks are doing back-up testing on Saturday morning, and that it shouldn't affect us, but just in case.
Discussed why we'd been told that the new design of the print patron notifications would be fine, and then 2 weeks in were told - by the same person - that we now no longer qualified for bulk rate because the new design. Arghh.
Left to pick up my son.
Took a nap, ate ribs the boys went out to pick up. Checked FB, PreCentral, GoogleNews, etc. Remembered about 9 that dear friends are coming in from out of town for dinner tomorrow night, ran around and tried to make the house less of a hazardous environment and cesspit.
Decided to post to Library Day in the Life for yesterday and today.
Realize it's now midnight...signing off.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Library Day in the Life, Day three as the week goes
Wednesday was 108 degrees. By the time I got home I was melted, and gazpacho and the slip n slide were as much as I got done.
What happened at work?
Hmm. Library Leadership Team, where we discussed how to distribute work that my colleague was doing, since her last day is Monday. I did not get anything new. Whew. Quite enough on my plate already. Did reconfirm that the Technology Plan REALLY needs to get done. So once we solve the patron notifications issue, and I get through my Tech Services Senior Librarian hiring (closes next Wednesday!), and arranging the visit of Bernie Hawke, head of the Dunedin Public Libraries of New Zealand...I'll get right on that.
Went to goodbye lunch for said colleague. We put together a fun basket of "necessities" for being a new Library Director, which included Rolaids, a magic wand, The Office Kama Sutra, her own "service" turkey (we have on-going conversations about what is permissible as a service animal in the library) etc. Well-received.
Walked in the high heat of the afternoon over to the City Council Chambers to attend a briefing by the City Attourney on public record and open meetings law. 52 people stuffed into a small room that I swear did not have air conditioning (hey, it's Oregon - who has air conditioning, this side of the state?). I did manage to take notes - which we were then told were now public record, and subject to retention policies, since I had altered the original document. I have a number of follow-up questions as to how these laws apply to libraries in particular, with our special privacy considerations. Logs of internet use, etc. - do we actually need to be retaining them? What about text messages in the line of work? How do we archive such things?
Melted back to the library, kvetched about the heat, closed up my million open email messages, and left to pick up my son from daycare to avoid extra charges for picking up after 5:30. I'm thinking I'm going to have to officially move my schedule back again, to start at 8 am. Sigh.
What happened at work?
Hmm. Library Leadership Team, where we discussed how to distribute work that my colleague was doing, since her last day is Monday. I did not get anything new. Whew. Quite enough on my plate already. Did reconfirm that the Technology Plan REALLY needs to get done. So once we solve the patron notifications issue, and I get through my Tech Services Senior Librarian hiring (closes next Wednesday!), and arranging the visit of Bernie Hawke, head of the Dunedin Public Libraries of New Zealand...I'll get right on that.
Went to goodbye lunch for said colleague. We put together a fun basket of "necessities" for being a new Library Director, which included Rolaids, a magic wand, The Office Kama Sutra, her own "service" turkey (we have on-going conversations about what is permissible as a service animal in the library) etc. Well-received.
Walked in the high heat of the afternoon over to the City Council Chambers to attend a briefing by the City Attourney on public record and open meetings law. 52 people stuffed into a small room that I swear did not have air conditioning (hey, it's Oregon - who has air conditioning, this side of the state?). I did manage to take notes - which we were then told were now public record, and subject to retention policies, since I had altered the original document. I have a number of follow-up questions as to how these laws apply to libraries in particular, with our special privacy considerations. Logs of internet use, etc. - do we actually need to be retaining them? What about text messages in the line of work? How do we archive such things?
Melted back to the library, kvetched about the heat, closed up my million open email messages, and left to pick up my son from daycare to avoid extra charges for picking up after 5:30. I'm thinking I'm going to have to officially move my schedule back again, to start at 8 am. Sigh.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Library day in the Life, Day 2 (but who's counting?)
So this is what finally prompts me to create a blog. Huh.
Anyway, alerted by David Lee King's FaceBook notes that he is participating in this project, and being in the midst of a potential job upheaval, here I am, sharing my own story for the cause.
My work week started today, Tuesday, as yesterday was my son's 4th birthday.
Hour One: Having been off almost all of last week because he was sick and then had tubes put in his ears, my first task this morning was to get through and delete enough email from my inbox to be able to send replies to some of the emails I received last week.
Hour Two: Attended a meeting of the Library, Recreation, and Cultural Services tech folks (our parent department) and the City IS folks who are assigned to help us with network, server, and large corporate apps (our ILS falls in that category, for one). Got updates on various projects, including the one last major issue from our ILS upgrade week before last, in which our phone notifications stopped working. Some hope for a fix by the end of the week. Discussed afterhours support issues, as we become a 24/7 service online, and as the City IS folks and County folks slowly figure out how to be there and be responsive. Some hope there, as well.
Hour Three: finished above meeting, and went back to office to do more catch up on email for half an hour.
Hour Four: went to lunch with my boss, the Director, in lieu of an evaluation, and to talk about what the heck we will do when my peer, the Public Services Manager, leaves for a new job next week. Was disappointed to hear about some issues that occurred last October which no-one had yet brought up to me. An administrative restructuring is likely, partially for budgetary reasons, but also to consider if there is a better division than Technology Manager/Public Services Manager, which isn't quite right. And where the Virtual Branch ends up, as it's recently been under the PS Manager. I am uncomfortable with some of the directions the discussions are taking, but don't have a good solution to offer. We finish lunch with the agreement that more discussion is needed.
Hour Five: meet with my two computer tech direct reports to catch up on what's happened while I've been gone, and what they need from me to move forward. I need to settle some licensing with two of our vendors. We need to discuss with Circ the new self-check interface design, and discuss with the marketing person how to introduce the concept of checking out one item at a time, after 6 years of 12+ at a time (RFID). We feel it will be understandable to patrons who also use grocery self-check, and will also increase accuracy.
Hour Six: meet with the other librarians and managers for the In Charge of Building assignment discussion of the drafts for locking down the building in an emergency, and what to do in an Amber Alert. Sobering stuff.
Hour Seven: stayed in same meeting room, met with the City statistical guru and several other city managers and leaders to learn how to help lead discussions around the city to learn how staff is feeling about this past year's approach to the drastic budget issues. The new City Manager pledged to not lay anyone off, to balance the budget, and to involve us all in coming up with how to do it. Amazingly, for the most part, it worked. Now we're trying to gather feedback for how to move forward from here.
Hour Eight: finished that meeting, then half an hour of more email catchup. Signed a goodbye card for my colleague. Considered a joke gift for her. Learned we are joining the Text a Librarian project (and raised an eyebrow in passing that my boss somehow got the credit for suggesting we do so. Oh well.) Scanned a thread on our starting to use Twitter, and how. Scanned a couple of questions that came into the Library Ask Us email. Answered questions about the pre-programmed RFID tags we are beginning to use. Scanned a (long!) conversation on my RFID_LIB list on whether the book jobbers and printers getting into RFID will be a help or hindrance to libraries, and the possible intellectual freedom implications. Congratulated our new Admin assistant on getting the job, and was genuinely pleased. Noted that I've had several nibbles on my posting for a Tech Services Senior Librarian. Noted the time and ran out the door.
Picked up my son from daycare, roasted in 106 degree weather. Went home to house where even now at 11 pm it is still in the high 80s inside. Ugh. No point trying to go to sleep yet.
Caught up on FB, scanned the librarydayinthelife posts that are out there, looking particularly for other job titles that seem somewhat analogous to my own.
Ate leftover cake and ice cream. Bed.
Anyway, alerted by David Lee King's FaceBook notes that he is participating in this project, and being in the midst of a potential job upheaval, here I am, sharing my own story for the cause.
My work week started today, Tuesday, as yesterday was my son's 4th birthday.
Hour One: Having been off almost all of last week because he was sick and then had tubes put in his ears, my first task this morning was to get through and delete enough email from my inbox to be able to send replies to some of the emails I received last week.
Hour Two: Attended a meeting of the Library, Recreation, and Cultural Services tech folks (our parent department) and the City IS folks who are assigned to help us with network, server, and large corporate apps (our ILS falls in that category, for one). Got updates on various projects, including the one last major issue from our ILS upgrade week before last, in which our phone notifications stopped working. Some hope for a fix by the end of the week. Discussed afterhours support issues, as we become a 24/7 service online, and as the City IS folks and County folks slowly figure out how to be there and be responsive. Some hope there, as well.
Hour Three: finished above meeting, and went back to office to do more catch up on email for half an hour.
Hour Four: went to lunch with my boss, the Director, in lieu of an evaluation, and to talk about what the heck we will do when my peer, the Public Services Manager, leaves for a new job next week. Was disappointed to hear about some issues that occurred last October which no-one had yet brought up to me. An administrative restructuring is likely, partially for budgetary reasons, but also to consider if there is a better division than Technology Manager/Public Services Manager, which isn't quite right. And where the Virtual Branch ends up, as it's recently been under the PS Manager. I am uncomfortable with some of the directions the discussions are taking, but don't have a good solution to offer. We finish lunch with the agreement that more discussion is needed.
Hour Five: meet with my two computer tech direct reports to catch up on what's happened while I've been gone, and what they need from me to move forward. I need to settle some licensing with two of our vendors. We need to discuss with Circ the new self-check interface design, and discuss with the marketing person how to introduce the concept of checking out one item at a time, after 6 years of 12+ at a time (RFID). We feel it will be understandable to patrons who also use grocery self-check, and will also increase accuracy.
Hour Six: meet with the other librarians and managers for the In Charge of Building assignment discussion of the drafts for locking down the building in an emergency, and what to do in an Amber Alert. Sobering stuff.
Hour Seven: stayed in same meeting room, met with the City statistical guru and several other city managers and leaders to learn how to help lead discussions around the city to learn how staff is feeling about this past year's approach to the drastic budget issues. The new City Manager pledged to not lay anyone off, to balance the budget, and to involve us all in coming up with how to do it. Amazingly, for the most part, it worked. Now we're trying to gather feedback for how to move forward from here.
Hour Eight: finished that meeting, then half an hour of more email catchup. Signed a goodbye card for my colleague. Considered a joke gift for her. Learned we are joining the Text a Librarian project (and raised an eyebrow in passing that my boss somehow got the credit for suggesting we do so. Oh well.) Scanned a thread on our starting to use Twitter, and how. Scanned a couple of questions that came into the Library Ask Us email. Answered questions about the pre-programmed RFID tags we are beginning to use. Scanned a (long!) conversation on my RFID_LIB list on whether the book jobbers and printers getting into RFID will be a help or hindrance to libraries, and the possible intellectual freedom implications. Congratulated our new Admin assistant on getting the job, and was genuinely pleased. Noted that I've had several nibbles on my posting for a Tech Services Senior Librarian. Noted the time and ran out the door.
Picked up my son from daycare, roasted in 106 degree weather. Went home to house where even now at 11 pm it is still in the high 80s inside. Ugh. No point trying to go to sleep yet.
Caught up on FB, scanned the librarydayinthelife posts that are out there, looking particularly for other job titles that seem somewhat analogous to my own.
Ate leftover cake and ice cream. Bed.
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