A List of Dubious Accomplishments

There are definite ebbs and flows in the library schedule.  Last week, I met one-on-one with sophomores getting started on their big US History research papers.  This week's schedule has been sort of quiet. So, following the lead of the most amazing librarian I know, "when you don't know what to do, start cleaning."

It sounds, well, insipid, but holy kittycats!  When you start to clear out clutter, life begins to open up.  I've made major progress in clearing space in the workroom, toward meeting with my advisees every week in 'our' own area.  I've made several students and teachers happy with treasures found on the "free books" cart in the library and teachers lounge.  I've sold several paperbacks that I bought for high school book club borrowing -- once we've met to discuss the book, we don't need 4 copies of every book -- and I've sold some iPad accessories bought for the 1st generation that are no longer used.  All proceeds go back into the budget. Yippee!

Gave 20+ bubblewrap mailing envelopes (from DVD & paperback purchases) to a staff member who can use them to mail holiday gifts.  Passed on 2 bags of old binders to a parent who volunteers at a local elementary school, for whom our "old" binders are in better condition than the ones they have now. Plus a big passel of cardboard magazine file boxes in great shape.  And an old record player (if you're old enough, you'll remember the record player with its own lid, self-contained) that the recipient told me today has already, in one day, made a big bunch of elementary boys, and their mom, very happy.  Asia, 38 Special, Journey, 78 rpms . . . anybody remember???

Lest you begin to worry, never fear -- the week did have professional accomplishments as well.  Yesterday I helped a student who had gotten halfway on his own to checking out an ebook, but got stuck.  We sat down together and worked through the remaining steps to getting set up, and he got the book he wanted. We chatted about the book briefly today.  I also helped one of my most avid 7th grade customers find a couple of books for the weekend -- she's very sincere in looking for one book in her favorite genre (fantasy) and one book that's a stretch.  Since during the summer her parents require she read half her books in Chinese,  perhaps the 'stretch' books are easy as well --  I haven't heard that the Chinese publishers have jumped wholeheartedly into YA as of yet. And I helped a junior find resources on life as a Civil War soldier.  It's great to help a student who embarassedly confesses that he hasn't checked out a book in a while.  It's cool -- just glad to help. 

I created list of print materials in the library relevant to a JH teacher's teaching of The Invention of Wings  by Sue Monk Kidd.  As I wrote to her, I'm most thrilled to discover, in addition to  that we have in our collection a book with a several-page profile of the real-life Grimke sisters, the historical basis of the novel they're reading. Plus books on slavery in Charleston, Quakers, Lucretia Mott, Frederick Douglass and Denmark Vesey.  I'll pull everything onto a cart, and we've scheduled a day after Thanksgiving for her class to come in and check them out.

Next week is going to be even better for cleaning.  I'm sort of looking forward to that, and totally looking forward to what I can do with more room in the back room!

Happy Thanksgiving!

To Marietta By Way of Macon . . ., or:Little Things Can Make a Librarian Happy

So yeah, I'm a little proud of myself.  Yesterday was one of those days with nothing big on the calendar, so I'm taking care of desk business and being pretty much "on call" for anybody who needs something in the library -- computer help, copier help, checking out, finding a book, the usual.

Near the end of the day, a fellow came in, sent by JH teacher Tom Painting, to get the novel Bee Season by Myla Goldberg.   We own the book, I've read it and it's supposed to be in and on the shelf.  But -- every librarian's horror story -- it's not there!  We can't find it!  A customer might have to go away empty-handed -- NOOOOOOOO!

As it turns out, the fellow is a visiting teacher and friend of Tom, and he wanted to read the first couple of pages of the novel to Tom's writing students today in class. Knowing that, I start to think. How can we get hold of just the opening passages of the novel?  Google Books? Nah, too recent.  Maybe, just maybe, Amazon.com has a "Look Inside" feature for this one.  So I go to my computer and check.  Yes, they do on the paperback edition -- but for some reason, it wasn't apparent on my screen. I checked to see if the Kindle version offered a downloadable sample.  SCORE!  There it was.  Can I somehow send it to Tom?

Not so easy.  Tom doesn't exactly love technology, and while he has an iPad, he's not fond of it.    Alternate next step, send the sample to my iPad.  Alas, you can't print previews, either from the Amazon.com site or from the Kindle Reader sample file. Think think think.  Screen shot!  From the sample (usually the first chapter or so) displayed in the Kindle Reader app on my iPad, I took screen shots of the first two pages.  Now just to print them, and we're done.

Not so fast . . .  The Handiprint service that's supposed to allow iPads to print to the library laserjet hasn't been working this week, even after some troubleshooting and reboots.   I have to tell the students to email from the iPad to their FirstClass email and print from a iMac workstation.  I had to do the same thing.   Wait wait wait for the email to go from the Photos app through my  Yahoo email account, out into the 'internets,' where a simple file transfer from Atlanta to Atlanta could conceivably be routed through Pittsburg or San Diego, and into my school FirstClass email. 

Finally the emails arrive in my inbox, and I print out the .png photo files on the library printer.  Success!  Two sheets of paper and a mission accomplished.

And that's how I ended up metaphorically travelling from Atlanta to Marietta (normally a straightforward mission, 20 miles straight up I-75) via Macon, Savannah, Columbus, Albany and possibly even Birmingham.

Kind of geeky, maybe, but it sure did feel good to send that customer away with exactly what he needed when he walked in.

---

¡Lea!