too old for google maps but not too old to drive

Lately I’ve had several elderly patrons asking me to look up directions for them on mapquest or google maps.  I offer to help them learn how to do this themselves, but they say they are too old.   Okay, I’m happy to help them.  I print off the directions and then they take out their magnifying glasses and squint and adjust and squint some more while they try to read the directions.  Then they leave…all set to drive through city traffic to places they are unfamiliar with.   I really hope they are okay.

“but in the end, a lot of it’s about your outlook…”

This quote from Anne Kraemer’s book, Going Gray, caught my eye because it relates so perfectly to libraries.  Mark, a real-life Hollywood screenwriter says,

“You can dye your hair…and you can have all the plastic surgery you want until you look ridiculous, like morning talk show hosts who’ve had so much work done they almost look like they’ve been a burn victim, but in the end, a lot of it’s about your outlook, your mind-set. 

You simply can’t walk into a room complaining that movies aren’t as good as they used to be, or that  ‘kids today know nothing.’  It tags you as being out of touch the same way you’d be out of touch if you said you didn’t use e-mail, or you didn’t understand or weren’t interested in things like MySpace.com or blogging.  As a writer or director out here, it’s your job to stay current and youthful.  You may not like video games, but you’d better know about them and recognize their importance.”

This just drove home the point once again for me that staying current means staying relevant, both personally in terms of staying on any sort of career track, but perhaps more importantly, for the library as a whole, so that the community continues to realize that libraries have a lot to offer.

I’m a time traveler on the Information Highway

I love my job.  I love how no two days are alike at the library.  I learn something new every day.  I am so serious about that.   I love that the library is the perfect blend of old and new. 

When I’m weeding, like today, I sometimes come across a book that nobody has checked out in a zillion years and I realize that it might in fact be worth something, so I research it and sure enough…it IS.  It’s like finding an Easter egg or something.  So, I take it to the Powers That Be and they do something with it.  Who knows?  Maybe it is put in storage for posterity or maybe it gets sold and the profits go to the library.  At any rate, it just feels special to hold something like that.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, I also get to try out new databases and discover the power and information within each one.  In my job I get to bridge so many different worlds – information worlds past and present as well as the real-life worlds of patrons when they come to the reference desk for help.

What a life!

Obama’s popularity and an odd way that it impacts the library

I was just re-reading my post from June about a gentleman thinking he could just walk out of the library with the daily paper and keep it.   Well, he’s not the only one…the day after the election, all the papers had a great big picture of Obama along with the headline that he is our President Elect.

Within 24 hours, most of our papers from November 12 were stolen.  Why?  To save it for posterity?  That’ll be great.  Show the grandkids the paper in 30 years and they’ll wonder why it is stamped all over with the library stamp.  Well, kiddos, gramma and grampa stole the paper…  ugh.

meanwhile, back at the ranch…

It has been For. Ev. Er. since I posted, but I a couple of funny things happened recently at work that I thought I’d share:

• Last week an older gentleman walked up the the reference desk and asked me if we have yesterday’s newspaper.  I showed him where it was located and handed it to him.  15 minutes later or so, he came back to the desk to tell me what a huge help I’d been.  Okay, that was nice of him.  Then he turned around and walked out the front door with the newspaper.   I had to chase after him and explain that he couldn’t take the paper…that it is our only copy of it and it is for in-library use only.  He told me that he never should have told me I’d been helpful and then I wouldn’t have noticed him walking out.  ha.  That’ll teach him.
• Yesterday, a similar thing happened.  A young man with an intimidating appearance approached the desk and asked if I had white-out and a black marker.  I found the items, handed them to him and, you guessed it, he turned around and walked out the front door.  I didn’t chase after him and I’m so glad that I didn’t, because about an hour later, he came back in the library and returned the items.  I’d never seen him in the library before and it seemed like he wasn’t entirely familiar with how libraries work, but you know, I think he had a positive experience and I am so glad.

People before Policy

I asked one of the department managers today about the policy requiring a library card in order to use the computers.  The response was that libraries live and die by their numbers and if people do not get library cards, then our statistics will not reflect the accurate number of people using the library, which in turn impacts funding.  I understand the reasoning and I’m a true believer that everyone should have a library card, but I still don’t think that people should be turned away when they need help that we can easily provide.  People before policy, in my opinion.

Wow.  There have been lots of visitors to my humble little blog, thanks to Michael posting about my dilemma at work the other day.  One of the comments to his blog post indicated that many libraries have the same policy that my library does.  Other comments indicated that all people should be allowed access, even without a card.  So, why do libraries make these policies?  Ours is odd to me in other ways as well since anyone from our state must have a library card to use the computer, but out-of-staters can just show ID.  Huh?  I feel like I must be missing something that management understands, but I don’t.  I think I’ll ask tomorrow at work and report back.

 I suspect that if I suggested something like charging a fee for a temporary card, the powers that be might entertain that idea, and it would solve most of the problems.  I have issues with that too though, because I fundamentally believe that people should be able to walk into any public library and access information for free.  What if they can’t pay?  It just widens that gap between the haves and have nots.

In the summer we vacation near Manotowish Waters, WI and they have a great public library where anyone can walk in and use the computers, no questions asked.  The icing on the cake is that even people vacationing up there can check out books.  Talk about customer service!  That is the kind of library that makes me proud.

So, I was at work today, once again enforcing rules that I don’t agree with.  Three people are working in a conference room on their laptop.  They need to print.  They ask if they can use one of our patron computers and attach their thumb drive.  No problem so far.  Turns out that they don’t have a library card and we have a strictly enforced rule that you cannot, no way, no how use our computers without one.  I try to use mental telepathy to encourage them to tell me they are from out of state, but they tell me they are from another suburb.  Sigh.  I try to morse code my own library card number to them (okay, not really) but nothing is working.  There is nothing I can do.  I want to tell them I think it’s a dumb rule and if there was any way that I could help them and not get in trouble, I would.  I can’t say that though…because I’d get in trouble.  I’m not a fan of trouble, especially when it involves me. 

 So, these poor people cannot print what they have been working on all morning.  It’s okay, says my co-worker.  They aren’t from our library district.  She tells me not to feel bad.  I do though.  Really bad.  Not just for them, but for what it does for peoples’ perceptions of libraries.  Aren’t we supposed to help people??  There were empty computers.  It wouldn’t have hurt anything.  Will those people go back into a library if it doesn’t meet their needs?  I think that libraries are at such a critical juncture in terms of perception.  Why are we pushing people away?

I was held captive by Boondoggles

Boondoggles.  Now that’s a great word that I don’t get to use often enough, even though I experience them more than I’d like.  Sometimes life is just like that.  Now back to more meaningful pursuits…

I’m embarrassed that I’ve been gone so long.  We’ve had a lot of stuff going on at Casa Library Yarns, culminating with a rather traumatic incident this evening.   My daughter made the cutest snowman ever.  Seriously.  She worked so, so hard on it, and put a hat on it that she and my son had worn when they were tiny.  Precious stuff.  You know where this is going, don’t you??  Some wicked snowman killer came into our yard, beheaded the snowman, broke it’s arms and stole the hat.  Who would do that to a little kid’s snowman???  My daughter was devastated on multiple levels.  She couldn’t believe someone would be that mean and she mourns the hat.  All I could think of to tell her was that in memory of the snowman we must make it our mission to spread goodness in the world  so that the snowman killers and the evil that lurks in their icy hearts don’t have the last say.  She said she wants to bake cookies tomorrow and give them to somebody who needs to be happier.  So, we’ll start there.

Alrighty.  Now here’s something I thought was interesting.  In the March 2007 issue of Muse magazine, there is an article about Internet pictures and how their labels are often inaccurate.  A guy named Luis von Ahn came up with a way to give these Internet pictures more accurate names…using a rather addictive game.  It’s called the ESP Game.  Here’s a quote from Muse:  “To play von Ahn’s game, you sign in at his Web site and get paired with another visitor.  The two of you see the same image.  Each of you then types in a word or phrase that describes the image.  If the words match, both of you earn points.  If the words don’t agree, you can keep on trying or switch to a new image.  Your score is based on how many matches you get in 90 seconds.”  Google liked the idea and has their own version of the game.  The popularity of these is incredible and the games are helpful to the Internet community.   What a great idea!

Blogging and Books

 Today I was at a Peggy Sharp seminar listening to her book talk her favorite books for children from the last year.  As I expected, I left with a lot of good ideas for readers advisory.  Peggy geared much of her program towards school librarians.  One of her ideas which caught my attention was to have kids imagine themselves as the character in a book they are reading and then blog in character about what is happening to them in the book.  I thought that was such a creative idea that could connect kids with books in a way that is relevant to them.  I suppose that students could take that one step further and comment on each other’s character blogs while still staying in character.  For example, what would Hester Prin have to say to one of the characters from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?  Could be interesting.