la neuvième semaine - 22e chose. [overdrive at pbclibrary: downloadable audiobooks]

well, i finally got around to perusing our own system's available e-books online. and noodled around a bit with the titles available through overdrive, and i'm glad i did...as i hadn't really explored much of what was available.

i wasn't able to download or listen to any titles on my pc, but it was curious to see that certain titles whose physical print copies were once in high demand are available online.

one thing that wasn't too clear to me [as a novice browser] on our system was, is there a waiting list for e-books? are there an indefinite number of copies for the audiobooks available? or do you have to wait, just like for hardcopies in the branches, for the digital copy to be returned by another patron?? [i noticed there were e-holds]...did i miss an online explanation for these issues?

lastly, i thought it was interesting [and this would pique my interest, because A} i'm geeky, and B} i work with a lot of activities directors at various nursing homes who are always looking for materials like this] that a lot of the old radio shows are available for download through overdrive's services.

so, if like me, family hour growing up meant gathering around for the latest episode of "The Shadow"...check out Lux's collection of "Fibber McGee and Molly"...or "The Best of Jack Benny" and spend an hour or so getting lost revisiting a simpler time.

a sweet, sweet duty, indeed.

photo by philip borges

"so what is it that you do?" you know that question that follows those moments of pregnant silence — making small talk at parties, sitting next to strangers on the plane, meeting your other's parents for the first time — how can you really quantify what comprises your day? it is not enough really to say, "i work for the library." people get the wrong idea about shushing, and tend to wrongly envision the whole 'librarian' thing. to explain sometimes that i am — not — a librarian is a confusing, moot point for some…rather, i like to say that what i do is something like social work…but for the library. how much easier it is to explain that i spend my days bringing and sending books to the people who need them most: the people who can't get to the library…the people who otherwise have virtually no contact with the outside world…and spend their days with the television for company…living such an interior world in their heads, that i can tell when they call me…and our conversations will take at times 12 minutes…in spite my very best seasoned efforts at prompting a direction towards some resolution i can foster...because they don't even know what books are out there to be read…and they are so used to silence…and all they know is they want to escape into some idea of a world that is not their lonely own. i do everything…from talking down the sometimes irate, often intelligible who can't understand why they don't have the book they ordered yesterday…when it takes time sometimes to order it…wait for the courier…process it…bag it and run it through the postage machine…send it out with the postman…and wait for that indecipherable mystery to deliver it to their door — to — the ordering and processing and shelving and pulling of books and the unbagging of mail and rebagging of mail and the writing and mass-mailing of newsletters and the loading up of crates and the planning of routes and the driving to deliver huge collections of books for people at nursing homes and jails and treatment centers and veteran's hospitals and rehab facilities and alternative schools and everywhere else people require a slice of free thought with which to broaden the otherwise limited horizon of their minds.

and days when, every patron may call yelling…and not just because, on the other end of the line, even i can hear the feedback on their hearing aides, i remind myself that i do what i do by reading this:


Alphabet

One by one
the old people
of our neighborhood
are going up
into the air

their yards
still wear
small white narcissus
sweetening winter

their stones
glisten
under the sun
but one by one
we are losing
their housecoats
their formal phrasings
their cupcakes

When I string their names
on the long cord
when I think how
there is almost no one left
who remembers
what stood in that
brushy spot
ninety years ago

when I pass their yards
and the bare peach tree
bends a little

when I see their rusted chairs
sitting in the same spots

what will be forgotten
falls over me
like the sky
over our whole neighborhood

or the time my plane
circled high above our street
the roof of our house
dotting the tiniest
"i"


- naomi shihab nye

la septième semaine - 17e chose. PBCLS sandbox wiki.

well then, i've been to the PBCLSwiki sandbox, and left my footprints firmly planted there. it was interesting to see what all of my co-workers favorite favorites were...as instructed, i posted my blog. and found the other 2 easiest sections to post in were favorite restaurants [i love to eat] and animals. *a disclaimer: if i had attempted favorite music, i fear i would have derailed the whole train...my list would have been ex-ten-sive.*

feel free to take a visit and see what i - and my coworkers - are up to when we are not at work. people who know me will automatically know which favorites are mine. care to take a guess?

la cinquième semaine - 11e chose. library thing.

warning all bibliophiles: full-scale addiction possible!

i have long been a member of this social service for those whose castle includes turrets and towers of books, but i must admit, my extremely obsessive-compulsive behaviors soon made the task of cataloguing my own library of titles an overwhelming undertaking that i quickly abandoned. [the last time i moved it took me 45 boxes...what else can you expect from a girl who's made a lifetime of working with books]...

... for those of you who know me…and have seen how books skirt the rafters [literally] in my home…you know i have each library arranged according to order. not. by dewey decimal...but by my own intrinsic set of order: ie. Native American studies...Anthropology...World Religions...Meditation...Music Theory...Linguistics...Buddhist Studies...Cooking...Natural and Alternative Health...History...Art Technique...Art Monograph...Fiction...Poetry...Poetry Technique...Math and Science.

Sadly, my free membership reached the 200th volume max before i had even finished the downstairs collection. and some of my favorite books, natch, are upstairs!

guess i'm going to have to join and purchase a cuecat!

semaine, deux - 4ème chose - blog nombre deux.

per prompting for assignment number 2, i have given some thought to how blogs can be used in libraries. i think it's only a matter of time before professionally utilizing such tools of pop culture is not just an innovative concept, but a necessary function for doing business. looking ahead, how could this kind of progress not be an evolutional track for our industry? we have always been in the business of information technology...from the era in which library pages carved out their living by sleeping in the stacks of the monolithic Great library at Alexandria to the construction of the high-speed information superhighway of today.

what's unique about blogs is they demand a kind of personal investment. all around the globe...it is understood that the thoughts/blogs/twitter that are blossoming daily

broadcasting people's current pontifications...all arise from a set of hands typing away at some keyboard/somewhere.

it's precisely that tête-à-tête reality that makes the medium an important consideration for libraries. let's face it. the simple wonders of technology put the miraculous power of learning into anyone's hands. sure, there is the age-old argument that given the proliferation of detritus, the responsible average Joe researcher should appreciate assistance from the learned librarian professionally trained to sift through and separate the chaff from the wheat. but in reality, how do we continue to build these relationships with the seeking public? i envision the library of the future, much less a simple repository for information [whatever the format], and more a hub for the community.

the realization of need for community is only now dawning with the mass appeal of virtual alterna-realities like Second Life. how exciting would the opportunity be for someone in the library to be so passionate about her interests, that the mere expression of her own discoveries would reach out and draw the public to interact and be inspired toward the same. it's not impossible that, say a love of reading, could ignite a spur of the populace to pursue titles a blogger has reviewed. [the music world sees this all the time with a groundswell of music blogs] and if said blogger were a hip, connected library employee, what a perfect introduction to draw potential traffic to the services the library could provide. it's a formula that's been known to work. In our own system, in fact. i've seen it myself, having worked at Southwest County Regional Library with Stacy Alesi, whose personal blog and website has long been a mainstay of local readers and those beyond [thanks to the universal audience of the internet] looking for a trusted voice and champion of reader's advisory. i have witnessed new patrons wander into the library after having made a connection with Stacy online, and established patrons ramble in waiting to ply Stacy with suggestions for the latest greatest read. she is obviously someone whose own passion has helped to ignite enthusiasm in others. and she regularly bridges the gap between the publishing world and authors and the reading public in one forum. what a community relations powerhouse she could be.

sadly, she remains a cloaked, [not always be-spectacled] library worker by day, blogging powerhouse superdiva by night, as the verbage in her long-held web persona doesn't fly with an [aherm] stodgier set of library system guidelines.



lastly, I've perused some of the following librarian blogs. here's just a start:

the shifted librarian [one of the more renowned]
librarians index
"shift happened."
"play more video games."