That's it for 2010...

Before you start protesting, I know we're still officially three weeks away from 2011.  Ideally I would've waited until the last week of 2010 to write this post, but that week will be extremely busy.  Sharon will be away, we'll be knee-deep in inventory preparations, and I'm sure we'll have a horde of patrons coming in to use our wireless access to try out the gadgets they received for Christmas.  As a result, I'm wrapping up 2010 today.

So what major things happened around the library in 2010?

1. Changes in command -- we had three different people heading the library in 2010, a record that will hopefully not be surpassed.
2. Rearranging -- this time last year, we still had a reference U at the front of the library and a closed off mess of an archives area.
3. Fundraising -- Sharon raised a record amount of money for the Summer Reading Club, and we've branched out into other fundraising efforts such as our White Elephant Sale in June and our cakewalks the last two months.
4. Whiteboard -- the rec centre staff kindly hung the library's unused whiteboard, and I'm having tons of fun drawing random stuff on it and naming a new phobia-of-the-week every Friday.

2011 will be a fantastic year for the Tumbler Ridge Public Library, and will be better than 2010.  Why, you ask?

1. We will have a fantastic, knowledgeable head librarian who will be in place all year.  I did my best from March to November, and I don't think I did a bad job by any stretch of the imagination.  However, it'll be good for the library (and me!) to have an experienced hand at the helm.  Paula has only been here a month, and it's already weird thinking back to before she came.
2. We'll be completing inventory *much* faster in 2011 because we know what we're doing this time around, and we've fixed a number of issues that slowed down the inventory process in 2010.
3. More rearranging is on the horizon.  Paula, Sharon, and I have talked about the library and its setup, and Paula has noted quite a few odd things that we've never paid attention to.  For instance, how many people have ever noticed that almost all of the library's shelves run perpendicular to the banks of lights?

In short folks, 2011 should be a good year for the Tumbler Ridge Public Library, and we're all anxious to get started ... once the holidays are over.

On that note, I'm signing off of this blog for 2010.  I'll see you in the new year!

Caffeine: the fuel of our library

When you think about businesses that run on caffeine, your mind probably sticks to a few common ones like long haul trucking, computer programming, and 24-hour convenience stores.  Libraries probably don't come to mind.  I certainly never thought about libraries being caffeine-fueled -- at least not until I started working at one as a full-time staff member.

Over the past two-plus years, I've seen that the library runs on caffeine just as much as other businesses do.  Now, we don't have a coffee pot plugged in at all times and in fact, coffee is *not* the caffeine isotope of choice.  But if you take a quick look around the library at any given time, you'll see our caffeine-delivery systems.  Cups of tea, cans of Pepsi and Coke (the cola war is still going strong in our library) and energy drinks litter our desks and fill up our recycling bin far too quickly.

Does our caffeine consumption affect anything around the library?  Not really.  There have been a few days when one staff member or another has expressed a *need* for caffeine, and then has taken steps to fulfill that need, but that's about it.  Do caffeine buzzes affect our work?  I doubt it.  I don't think I'm any more or less productive when I've had a few cans of pop.

Over the past few years, I've tried to cut down my caffeine consumption somewhat.  If you take a look at the Wikipedia entry for caffeine, you'll see a picture taken of a spiderweb that was spun after the spider consumed a quantity of caffeine.  The picture is undeniably creepy.  While caffeine doesn't affect humans the same way it does spiders, it did make me think about how much caffeine I consume.

When I was working on my bachelor's degree, I used to think that 4-5 hours of sleep a night was plenty.  But then I'd have 3-4 cans of pop each day to stay awake, and would often crash in the afternoon anyway.  I don't do that anymore.  Most days I have a single can of pop.  Though I have an occasional latte when I pass a Starbucks if I have a long drive ahead of me, I'm not a coffee drinker by any stretch.

Anyway, in the past month or two, I've thought about trying for a caffeine-free week.  I'd pick a week, announce it on this blog and my Twitter feed, try to recruit some sympathetic co-workers, and go without caffeine.  Given that I'm on the low end of the caffeine consumption scale, I imagine I'd mostly be okay, but I still think it would be an interesting week, especially if I keep everyone up to date on my progress.

So that was the plan.  Then last night I had trouble getting to sleep, then woke up at 4 and didn't get back to sleep until five.  Today will not be a caffeine-free day.  In fact, today will probably be a 3 CU day.  (I wrote on my Twitter feed last week that CU stands for "Caffeine Unit" and is defined as the amount of caffeine in a standard, 355mL can of Pepsi or the equivalent).

Well, I'll try a caffeine-free week at some point, and you'll hear about it on here and through my Twitter feed.  Stay tuned!

(All-)Star Tech

Yesterday was a fantastic day.  We had a five hour visit from one of the techs who works for IT North (the library's tech support company), and he fixed a ridiculous amount of technical issues in that time.

First off, our patron printer is working again.  The tech resolved the issue that kept the printer from working at all over the past few weeks and also dealt with a long existing issue that required library staff members to find the printer on the patron computers every time they were restarted.

Second, our patron wireless access is available again.  It went down a few weeks ago with an error I could not correct.  The tech reconfigured the wireless router, and it's up and running.  So all of our patrons with their own notebooks, iPads, etc. can use the Internet at the library again.

Third, the library has been without a staff wireless router (necessary for our notebooks to sync with the network) for around a year.  The tech installed our new one, and it's a pretty spiffy looking piece of white and black equipment.

Finally, the tech looked into the trouble we've had over the last two weeks with the Internet access on our staff network.  He wasn't able to identify the problem, but did tell me what I should do the next time it goes down so that the people monitoring our network can find the problem and deal with it.

The library's technology is working again, and working technology makes Jacob a happy camper!

Explanation of attempted pun in post title
The tech from IT North who visited did an incredible job, making him an all-star, and "tech" sounds reasonably close to "trek."  The post title is a really bad attempt at a Star Trek pun.

Two weeks...

Well folks, here we are at the end of my second week back at my tech desk, and I think you deserve an update.

Am I happier back in my old job?  Well, yes, but it's a little more complicated than that.

On the plus side, I've spent the last two weeks handling ILLs, which I really enjoy, and sitting back at my tech desk in the front of the library.

I've also spent time working on Wall Scrabble (an activity we'll be doing at the library during the winter carnival), planning my future storytimes, and doing other things such as starting to give our whiteboard a thorough and overdue cleaning which still isn't complete, talking with Paula and Sharon about plans for the library, and generally keeping very busy.

On the down side of things, we're having a *lot* of technical problems, and because I'm the most technically proficient staff member, everyone turns to me to get them fixed.  I can't even guess at why a few of these problems have popped up, and in one case, had no idea who I should be contacting to fix it.  I've also had to deal with an upset patron (to be fair, if I was billed for long overdue books that I was sure I had returned, I'd be upset too), and try to sort out an interesting bill from the library's insurance provider.

In short, my new (old) job isn't all peaches and cream.

But guess what folks...  I'm having fun again.

For the past eight months, I've been dragging myself out of bed at the last minute, running out the door of my condo at five to nine, and making it to the library just in time.  There were a few high points in my tenure as interim head librarian, but most of the time I didn't enjoy the job.  I remember one day in particular when I was putting my shoes on in the morning and already thinking "I can't wait to get home tonight."  I didn't have anything special planned for after work and there wasn't anything particularly bad on the schedule for that day at work, but I already wanted the day to be over.

To put it simply, things have changed.  In the past two weeks, there were a few mornings I had to stop myself from leaving for work at twenty to nine.  During my first weekend back at my tech job I was hanging out in my condo, playing a video game and thinking "I can't wait for work on Tuesday."

I've been bouncing around the library like I'm hooked up to a caffeine IV and coming up with tons of ideas for storytime, funny things to write on the whiteboard, and probably annoying most of my co-workers in the process.

I'm hoping that in the coming weeks and months I'll have more to talk about on this blog, so stay tuned!

Changing of the Guard

As some of you have probably heard, the Tumbler Ridge Public Library has hired a new head librarian.  I could write a lengthy blog post to talk about it, but I thought I'd keep it simple and stick to the 5 Ws.  (As it turns out, this blog post ended up being incredibly long anyway -- my apologies folks!)

Who:

Our new head librarian is Paula Coutts.  She's worked in different kinds of libraries (public and medical among them) and is coming off a three year stint at a library in Ontario.

What:

The head librarian position at the library (alternatively referred to as the library manager, library director, etc.) supervises the library staff and works with the library board to establish policies and procedures.  She/He also coordinates events with other community groups and applies for funding for the library.  There's much more to the job than that, but a *lot* of tasks fall under those broad duties.

Where:

Paula is moving to Tumbler Ridge from Alliston, Ontario.  She made a trip out to Tumbler Ridge in September to see the town and library in person, and apparently we didn't disappoint her.

When:

Paula will be officially starting as head librarian on November 15th.  Due to when my weekend falls, my final working day as interim head librarian will be Saturday, November 13th.

Why:

This is the biggie, and many people have asked about it.  "Why aren't you staying on as head librarian Jacob?  Why isn't Sharon taking over?  Why won't Peggy come back to the library to run it?"  Now, I can't speak for Sharon or Peggy, but based on talking with them, I believe that they are basically happy with their current jobs and how those jobs fit into their lives.  (As a side note, I told each of them that the head librarian job would be easy for them because they'd have the world's greatest head of technical services working for them, but neither of them took me up on the offer.)

So why am I leaving the job behind?  Well...

I was offered the position as interim head librarian shortly after the previous manager resigned.  Brenda (our board chair) told me that we'd sign a three month contract to try things out and that we'd decide what to do from there.  I assume the three month contract term served as a safety precaution for the board.  If I turned out to be an absolutely terrible head librarian, they could simply not renew my contract.

Because I wasn't sure if I was really cut out for the job (or that the job was really cut out for me), I insisted that my contract include a clause that allowed me to return to my position as head of technical services at the end of it.  I felt I was taking a huge risk, and that it didn't seem right that I might be out of a job at the end of my contract simply because I was in over my head as head librarian.  The board agreed, and we eventually wrote and signed a contract in early April.  It called for a three month term ending in early July and a requirement that I give six weeks notice if I intended to return to my position as head of technical services.

The first two months were miserable.  The library's grant-in-aid was cut (note:  this is *not* a shot at town council.  They have been extremely supportive of and patient with library during my tenure as head librarian and I can't thank them enough for it), our inventory and audit were still works-in-progress, I learned that the library had missed the deadline (1-2 weeks before I received the position) for applying for a grant for summer student funding, and I had to submit a number of major reports that I had never heard of.

In March and April I basically felt like I was jumping from crisis to crisis and really not accomplishing all that much.  So as we entered May and my decision date (six weeks prior to the end of my contract) came closer I started looking at what I liked and didn't like about my job.  Just before a week of vacation in late May, I told Brenda that I'd almost certainly be giving my notice to return to my tech job when I returned from holidays.  She asked me to think about it and talk to her about it when I returned.  I did, and we did, and I formally gave my six weeks notice at our June board meeting.  A few weeks later I signed a contract extension that would end as of September 4th or upon the hiring of a new head librarian, and we started advertising the position.

We received about a dozen resumes, all of them (but one) from people with excellent library qualifications.  The personnel committee on the board narrowed the field down, interviewed the remaining applicants via Skype, and decided to offer the job to Paula.

But I guess all I just typed is more of a history rather than an explanation.  I'm giving up the head librarian job because even now I feel like I'm in over my head.  Have any of you heard of the Peter Principle?  It's an idea that if people are good at their jobs, they tend to get promoted.  As a result, people end up stuck with a job they can't be good at.  In short, people are promoted to their level of incompetence.

Now, I don't think I've been an incompetent head librarian.  However, I've found the job extremely stressful, and I've lost a lot of sleep and gained a fair amount of weight since March.  Staff members, board members, and patrons expect me to have all the answers, and a lot of the time I simply don't.  It almost seems like they forget that I've only been working as a library technician for a little over two years, all of it in this library.

Over the past few months, I've joked (mostly with Sharon) about who I am in the grand scheme of things.  I've laid claim to a few different personas, such as the library's Obama -- the new guy trying to change things.  I've also claimed to be a participant on "Flip this Library" -- the guy who rearranges and cleans up the library (with a great deal of help) just in time to turn it over to someone else.

To close out this chapter in the library's history, I'd like to list a few things we (not the royal "we") have accomplished during my tenure as head librarian as well as thank everyone involved.

1)  Successfully rearranged the library

•  Converted the library's back room back into the library's office
•  Converted the previous manager's office into a reference room
•  Moved the archives into the reference room
•  Shifted the first paperback shelf so that the library's corner is wide open
•  Created reading areas in the corner where the archives were and near the fire exit
•  Moved spare couches near the magazines to create a better reading area
•  Moved the final shelves of adult fiction adjacent to the rest of the adult fiction shelves
•  Shifted the computer desks so the second staff desk in the area doesn't block patrons         
•  Created a new easy-to-use display of the library's audiobooks

First off, thanks to Brian Bray for all his help with the rearranging.  He went *way* above and beyond in helping me move shelves and desks, and I can't thank him enough.  This wouldn't have happened without him.

Second, ever since we made these changes, I've begun to hear a litany from tourists and newcomers that is very similar to what I remember hearing in my youth:  "This is such a wonderful library!"

2)  Raised more money than ever for Summer Reading Club

This was all due to Sharon's efforts, but I'm going to claim partial credit simply because I happened to be head librarian while she did it.  This year Summer Reading Club was entirely funded by sponsor donations, and we had enough money left over to spend nearly $6,000 on children's books.  Given that our book buying budget for 2010 was $10,000, this represents a *sizable* amount.

3)  Started a youth audiobook collection with a grant from Telus

I sent in a grant application to Telus in early May, and they replied with a donation of $1,000 in June to put towards establishing a youth audiobook collection.  The library has spent a little over half of the money so far, and the youth audiobook collection now contains everything from classics (Charlotte's Web, The Chronicles of Narnia) to modern fiction (The Alchemyst by Michael Scott).

And now, a big thank you to the following people:

The staff of the Tumbler Ridge Public Library -- Sharon Bray, Bintang Howard, Rebekah Perry, Melissa St. Claire, Mackenzie Newhook, Vickie Davis, Ellyanne Spinney (who joined us recently, and is doing an excellent job) and Michelle Schribar (who left us early in the summer -- we miss you Michelle!).  I've said it before, but I'll repeat it here:  you folks have really gone above and beyond for me.

The board members (of this board and the previous board) of the Tumbler Ridge Public Library -- Brenda Holmlund, Peggy Holden, Jodi Penner, Hank Boere, Bob Mandeville, Rose Colledge, Jerrilynn Schembri, David Falcon, Donna Mandeville, Rich McCrea, and Lisa Buckley.  You've all supported me and my decisions.  Above all else, you trusted me to do the right thing even when I was desperately trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing.

The mayor and council of Tumbler Ridge for asking the tough (but fair) questions that kept us on track and for giving us their support.

Certain unnamed patrons (who I hope realize I'm talking about them) who believed in me and supported both me and the changes that took place in the library.

Brian Bray for his enthusiastic support of me and the *ridiculous* amount of help he gave me in moving things.

And last, but certainly not least, my family.  They supported my decision to give the job a try in the first place, encouraged me when things were rough, and supported my decision to leave the job in the end.

Finally, I'd like to wrap this post up with a quote from someone in a similar situation of giving up a command for someone else -- Captain Christopher Pike in last year's Star Trek movie:

"I am relieved."

Crusading against the homogenization of language

Please note this blog post has very little to do with the library, but is more a rant about the use of language.

The homogenization of language in our culture drives me absolutely nuts.  English is a fluid, dynamic language that has a multitude of terms to describe variants of the same idea.  So why is it that many of these terms are falling by the wayside?

My favourite example of this relates to hockey.  Years ago it had its own jargon to describe specifics, but these terms have gradually given way to terms borrowed from other sports or other things altogether


Yesteryear --> Today
hockey sweaters --> hockey jerseys
team crest --> team logo (from something descriptive to a generic marketing term)
center ice --> neutral zone (a Star Trek reference of all things!)

So why do we do it?  Why do we replace colourful, descriptive terms with boring, less descriptive ones that can apply to anything?  Is it because we can't appreciate anything on its own merits, but have to always look at it in the context of something else?

I can't believe that.  I refuse to.

Even a hockey neophyte should realize what the term "hockey sweater" refers to.

I find it disturbing that we're moving closer and closer to the Big Brother ideal where words that express certain ideas simply do not exist.  So I implore you:  use specialized, traditional, cultural language!  Use colourful (though not obscene) language to describe things!  If it causes a little confusion, that's okay!  Your listeners will survive!

Now, I'll give you an example to prove that I practice what I preach.  In a town the size of Tumbler Ridge, it seems sort of silly to refer to "downtown".  If you've got long legs, you can walk downtown from any part of Tumbler Ridge in less than fifteen minutes.  As a result, I've started calling it the shopping district, and I encourage you to do likewise!  It's colourful, it's descriptive, and it differentiates Tumbler Ridge from other towns of a similar size.

We've got a neat language to work with folks.  Use it or lose it.

Thanks, but no thanks...

My apologies for the long delay between blog posts everyone.  I've had a few ideas in the back of my head for a while, but haven't been able to get them out by typing...

I'd like to talk about book donations today.

In the past few weeks, we've had four large donations made by patrons, only one of which provided the library with good books that were added to our collection.  The one good donation consisted of a handful of recently published hardcovers and trade paperbacks and nothing else.  The other three donations each had two or three books we considered keeping, but the majority of the books included were exactly the sort of books we're trying to remove from the library -- extensively damaged books, outdated non-fiction, and old books.

I suppose people are reluctant to discard books and assume that they can always be put to good use in the library.  But that's not how it works.

First, non-fiction becomes outdated extremely quickly.  Books about current events are often obsolete less than a year after publication, and even books written about long-past events such as World War I lose their relevance as new information is uncovered and our morals and beliefs evolve.  Don't believe me?  Try looking at old books about the early days of British Columbia.  I'll bet that most of those books, even those that were highly regarded at the time of their publication, use a number of offensive racial slurs to describe Chinese immigrants.

Second, fiction also becomes dated.  True, there are books that defy the odds and eventually become timeless classics while some others become interesting historical artifacts that reveal the zeitgeist of the publication year to readers.  She'll never get off the ground by Robert J. Serling, a novel about the training and career of an airline's first female pilot, is an example of the latter.  However, the majority of fiction simply becomes old.  How many library patrons really want to read a story about a child whose friends are jealous because he has a brand new Commodore 64?

Third, we don't need any more old books because we've already got enough of them in our collection that we're trying to get rid of.  Our collection still has a *lot* of books from the 1970s and 1980s in spite of our efforts at weeding.  Last year we weeded over 1000 books from the adult fiction section that hadn't been borrowed in at least 2 1/2 years and were published earlier than 1998.  This summer we weeded the adult paperback section in a similar manner and removed books that hadn't been borrowed in at least 3 years and were similarly old.

Finally, despite what people think, libraries do not have a special way to dispose of old books.  We place books on our sale cart and recycle them after they've been there for a few months.

I suppose what this rambling post comes down to is this request:

Please folks, don't drop off your unwanted books at the library unless they are in good condition and published within the last five years.  If you're donating anything else, you're really just passing off the burden of disposal to library staff members.

End of the Summer

We're getting closer and closer to the end of the summer folks.  A few days ago (on the 11th, to be exact) our receipt printer started giving us date due slips with the phrase "September 1" on them.

So what happens around here at the end of the summer?

Summer Reading Club Closing Ceremonies

Friday, August 20th, at 3pm

We'll be handing out medals and prizes and serving cake to celebrate the end of another successful summer!

Please note:  Children must return their reading records by Wednesday, August 18th to receive a prize!

Here's a photo of the prizes available:

We've got board games, science kits, Lego, Mega Bloks, Nerf blasters, a giant water gun, fishing poles, crafts, and more!

So, turn in your reading record and come to the Closing Ceremonies to have some cake and choose a prize!


With that, I'd like to thank all the sponsors who have made Summer Reading Club 2010 possible:

Western Coal - $6000.00
Spectra Energy - $2500.00
Peace River Coal - $2000.00
Capital Power - $1000.00
Lakeview Credit Union - $500.00
Lion's Club - $500.00 and held a barbecue at our Opening Ceremonies in June
Encana - $500.00
Shell Canada - $500.00
Grizzly Crane - $200.00
Hub International - $50.00
K.C.'s Dollar Store and More - door prizes and a generous discount
TR Community Centre - 14 swim passes
Northern Toybox (Dawson Creek) - a generous discount

We couldn't have done it alone folks.

Thank you.

New Youth Audiobooks

A while back I wrote a post about the youth audiobooks we were ordering thanks to a grant from Telus.  (big thanks to the fine folks at Telus, by the way).  Anyway, yesterday the first large batch of them showed up.  Sharon and I were *thrilled* and we got to work processing them right away.  They've been labelled and put away, and we've just put up the laminated cards for them.  So here's the list of what has arrived -- come and borrow some!


The Alchemyst - Michael Scott
Anne of Green Gables - Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Bunnicula collection - Deborah and James Howe
Charlotte's web - E.B. White
Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Geronimo Stilton books, 1-3 - Geronimo Stilton
Geronimo Stilton books, 4-6 - Geronimo Stilton
Green eggs and ham and other servings of Dr. Seuss
Hatchet - Gary Paulsen
The Hardy Boys:  the tower treasure - Franklin W. Wilson
I miss you, Stinky Face - Lisa McCourt
James Herriot's treasury for children
The Lightning thief - Rick Riordan
Magic tree house, books 1-8 - Mary Pope Osborne
Nancy Drew:  the secret of the old clock - Carolyn Keene
The Outsiders - S. E. Hinton
Ramona the brave / Ramona Quimby, age 8 - Beverly Cleary
Ramona the pest / Ramona forever - Beverly Cleary
The Roald Dahl audio collection
The Spiderwick chronicles, books 1-5 - Tony DiTerlizzi

New Display for Audiobooks

The audiobook collection in our library hasn't been displayed very well in the past.  The laminated cards were held in a small box on the same piece of furniture that held the video and DVD cards.  When the audiobook cards were kept there, they looked ugly and were hard to browse.

I've been thinking about a better way to display them, and think I've come up with one.

To the left of the circulation desk we have a corkboard hung over top of an old doorway that dates back to the early days of the Rec Centre.  As of last week, this corkboard was just used to hold old pieces of paper like a thank you certificate from 2001.

I cleaned it off yesterday, and started printing smaller copies of the laminated cards for the audiobooks.  Now patrons can come in to the library, easily browse our audiobook collection, and pull the card off the wall for the audiobook they want to borrow.

Now, the impetus behind this project is our incoming youth audiobook collection (which I blogged about previously).  When the youth audiobooks come in, they'll be arranged on the lower half of this corkboard.

"But Jacob," you're thinking "there isn't enough room for many more audiobooks on that corkboard!"

You're right.

This corkboard is being used as a test audiobook display.  If it works well, helps audiobooks to circulate, and is liked by patrons, my plan is to buy a roll of cork and use the cork to cover one (or more) of the wall panels on the outside of the reference room, opposite the magazine racks.  Then we'll have a wall to display all of the library's audiobooks in an easy-to-browse way that doesn't take up much space.

But before we make that investment, I want to make sure that a corkboard display of audiobook cards will work.

So where do you come in?  Easy!  Borrow some audiobooks!

More Library Rearranging

If you haven't been to the library in the past few weeks, you haven't seen the results of our last round of rearranging.

First, we moved the plants, round table, and bank counter (I'm still not sure why we have this thing in the library, and I'd be happy to give it away to anyone who wants it) away from their place next to the fire exit.  With the extra room in that area, we moved the final two shelves of adult fiction from their old location (up against the walls near the magazines) and placed them back-to-back, butting up against the adult fiction shelves closest to the back door.

A day later, I was in the library while it was closed, and I thought "Hey!  There's room for some seating here!"

So I grabbed a few of the green wedge-shaped chairs from around the library and made a small curved couch out of them.  Now instead of a cluttered area with tables and bank counters and plants, we've got a nice little reading area.

It looks better, works better, and unifies the library's adult fiction section again.

But it wasn't good enough.  When we first started moving the archives into the reference room, my ultimate plan was to clean out the corner of the library where the archives had been to make another reading area.  I was a little bit bored last Saturday and started moving things.  Sharon joined in, and her husband Brian gave me a *lot* of help moving the archive filing cabinet and rotating the first adult paperback shelf.

The end result?

Another nice, bright reading area instead of a closed off corner that was essentially wasted space.

A side benefit to this rearranging is that the light coming in from the end window is no longer limited to a dusty corner.  The whole left side of the library is brighter and looks better than ever.

So, what's next for the library's layout?  Who knows!  Stay tuned!

Youth Audiobook Collection Underway!

When Sharon and I talked about our plans for 2010 last fall, we decided that we'd like to spend some money on creating a youth audiobook on CD collection.  However, when budget time came around this spring, it was seen as a fairly low priority compared to other things and we put the project aside.

In mid-April, I came across a note on the back of the library's Telus bill that said something like "Do you know what Telus does for communities?" with a URL.  I visited the site, and found that Telus has grants available for various projects in Canada.  So I filled out the application, ran it by our community grant writer for suggestions, and sent it off in early May.

On June 9th, I received a phone call from a Telus representative who told me that they thought our plan to create a youth audiobook collection was great and that it was the exact sort of project that Telus likes to fund.  When he told me Telus would be giving the library $1000 for this purpose, I had a hard time responding to him and thanking him.  I thought my grant application had been pretty decent, but really didn't expect such a positive response.

A few weeks later, the cheque arrived in the mail, and Sharon and I started to make plans.  We researched audiobooks we thought would be good for the library, and asked children who were participating in Wednesday Club to suggest audiobooks they'd like the library to order.  Unfortunately, the suggestions we've received to this point are not available in audiobook format, but we'd like to encourage everyone to keep trying!

Yesterday, Sharon and I went through the list of audiobooks we had researched and selected a group of them to purchase.  Here's what we ended up ordering:

A.A. Milne's Pooh classics boxed set
Akimbo and the elephants
The Alchemyst
Anne of Green Gables
The Bunicula collection
Charlotte's web
The Chronicles of Narnia
Coraline
French for children
Geronimo Stilton books, 1-6
Green eggs and ham and other servings of Dr. Seuss
Hardy boys #1:  the tower treasure
Hatchet
I miss you, stinky face
James Herriot's treasury for children
The Lightning thief
Magic tree house books, 1-8
Nancy Drew #1:  the secret of the old clock
The Outsiders
Ramona the brave / Ramona Quimby, age 8
Ramona the pest / Ramona forever
The Roald Dahl CD collection
The Spiderwick chronicles, books 1-5
Tunnels

We still have nearly half (about $450) of the Telus grant left for more audiobooks.  Sharon and I have ideas, but we really want to know what our patrons want.

If you can think of youth audiobooks you'd like the library to order, please let us know!

(That being said, there are two sets of books we will not be ordering at this time:  Harry Potter and Twilight.  Both series, while extremely popular, are incredible expensive in audiobook form.)

Summer Reading Club 2010 - Reading Rocks!

I thought I'd take a moment to discuss the Tumbler Ridge Public Library's
"Won't Ask, Won't Tell" policy.

"Your children won't ask if Summer Reading Club is educational,
and we certainly won't tell them!"

The Summer Reading Club is a sneaky way to keep your children's minds active over the summer.  They'll be too busy enjoying the stories, crafts, and other activities to realize they're learning things at the same time.

Registration for the Summer Reading Club will take place at the Opening Ceremonies on June 19th, and programming will run from Tuesday to Friday weekly from July 6th to August 20th.

Summer Reading Club Schedule

Saturday, June 19th at 1pm -- Opening Ceremonies
      Registration
      Lion's Club BBQ
      White Elephant Sale (fundraiser for library)
      Music
      Facepainting
      Popcorn and cotton candy
      Door prizes

Weekly Schedule (starting July 6th)
      Every Tuesday and Thursday at 3pm -- Storytime and a craft
      Every Wednesday and Friday at 3pm -- Storytime

Wednesday, August 18th -- Reading Records Due

Friday, August 20th -- Closing Ceremonies

Weekly Themes

Week 1:  July 6-9:  Readers Roar!
Week 2:  July 13-16:  Rock 'n' Roll Reading
Week 3:  July 20-23:  Riddled Readers
Week 4:  July 27-30:  A Rocky Read
Week 5:  Aug. 3-6:  Read a Ruckus!
Week 6:  Aug. 10-13:  Rise Up Readers!
Week 7:  Aug. 17-20:  Risky Reads

Before I wrap this blog post up, I'd like to thank all the sponsors who have made donations so far:

Western Canadian Coal - $6,000.00
Spectra Energy - $2,500.00
Peace River Coal - $1,000.00
Lion's Club - $500.00 + holding a BBQ at the Opening Ceremonies
Lakeview Credit Union - $500.00
Shell Canada - $500.00
Grizzly Crane - $200.00

Thanks folks!  We couldn't run this program without your support!

Pax Bibliotheca

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use"
--Soren Kierkegaard

If you're a regular visitor to the library, you've probably heard me say something like "Excuse me!  I'd like you to watch your language in the library!" or "LANGUAGE, PLEASE!" (which isn't grammatically correct, but certainly gets my point across).

I don't enjoy censoring people.  Throughout history, librarians have stood against censorship, and I believe very strongly that we should continue to do so.  Recently I noted in a grant application that "The Tumbler Ridge Public Library's mission is to improve and promote literacy, intellectual freedom, and free access to information for all residents of and visitors to Tumbler Ridge."

So why do I ask people to watch their language in the library?

I do it for three reasons.

First, I still believe in the concept of "serving the greater good," in spite of the abuses perpetrated under that banner in recent years.  I believe the library should be a place where parents can bring their children without worrying about what they'll see or hear during their visit.  A library should be a place to find good books to read, not a place to hear people complaining about "f***ing this" and "f***ing that".

Second, I don't believe it's necessary to use offensive language in the library unless a heavy book falls on your toes.

Third, I ask people to watch their language in the library as a matter of courtesy.  The vast majority of people don't swear (at least not to excess) around their parents, teachers, or religious leaders.  I'm just asking you to extend the same courtesy to library staff members and patrons.

English is an incredibly fluid and versatile language.  There are plenty of intriguing and descriptive words out there, and it astounds me that people choose to limit themselves to such a small, offensive, subset of them.

Keep it clean in the library folks.

Thank you.

Reference Room and Library Rearranging

Well folks, things progressed faster than I expected.  Thanks to a *major* volunteer effort from Brian Bray and tons of sweat from myself (and somewhat less sweat from Sharon, who was busy with storytime for the first part of the day), we've got the reference section moved into the new reference room.

Now, we haven't finished moving stuff (including the bookkeeper's desk and computer) *out* of the reference room, so any patrons going into the reference room will have to be accompanied by a staff member for now.  I'm hopeful we'll get the bookkeeper installed in the library's back room early next week, and the reference room will be open after that.

Photos:

The start of the library's ANF section.

The left side of the U is gone (moved into the reference room), which has really opened things up.

One wall of the reference room, which has the vertical files and the start of the reference collection.

The reference section continues along the second wall, and ends in a shelf on the right side of the door (not shown)

Of Revelations and Reference Rooms...

Over the next few weeks, you'll notice some changes to the reference section.  Tomorrow we'll be removing one of the shelves in that area, and another will hopefully follow in the next week or so.  They'll be going into what will become the library's reference room.

A few weeks after I became interim head librarian, I installed myself (and a computer to work on) in the library's back room which was the library's office many years ago.  The library staff have since worked to clean up and rearrange the back room so that the library's bookkeeper can take up residence there again as well.  These changes will free up the library's office to become a reference room.

In the short term, the reference room will house the library's reference collection and a few small tables and chairs for patron use.  In the long term, I hope to move the archives into the reference room as well which will free up more space in the library's main area.

The creation of a reference room should have a few major benefits to the library as a whole:

1)  It'll give us more shelf space for our adult non-fiction collection

• We're using emptied shelves from the library's back room as part of the shelving in the reference room, which should leave us with one large shelf to expand ANF into.

2)  It'll open up the library somewhat

• The left side of the reference U will be gone, which should make the front of the library feel more open.
• If we are able to move the archives into the reference room as well, rotating the first set of shelves in the paperback section will give us a small open reading area and light from the end windows will be able to reach the rest of the library.

3)  It'll give us a quiet space

• At times (especially during storytime or Wednesday Club), the library can be fairly noisy.  This reference room will give the library a quiet reading and study area.

Please have patience with us while we're making this change.  We'll try to make it as painless as possible, and the end result should be well worth it.

Thoughts on Paperwork

Today I spent a few hours working on paperwork.  Why is this significant?  The paperwork didn't involve the use of my computer.

As a registered charity, the Tumbler Ridge Public Library has to submit an annual return to Canada Revenue Agency.  [As a brief aside, I think it was a stupid decision to change the agency's title from "Revenue Canada" to "Canada Revenue Agency."  I had to walk out to the front of the library to ask library staff members if the word "the" was required in front of "Canada Revenue Agency".  Their response?  "No."]

I started working on the forms, printing everything in block capitals to keep my writing legible, and things went smoothly for a minute or two.  Then disaster struck!  I was writing "Tumbler Ridge" when it happened.  I wrote the T and, thinking about the U next, ended up writing a backwards J.

I swore quietly to myself (this is a library after all -- nobody needs to hear me using that kind of language), and walked out front to retrieve a bottle of white-out.  After a brief waiting period while the white-out dried (during which I amused myself with a hockey puck I keep on my desk), I carried on.

I started filling out a description of the programs conducted by the library, and decided to split them into two categories:  children's programs and adult/family programs.  I wrote out the children's programs, then started writing the adult/family programs on the next line.  A moment later, I remembered another children's program.  I squeezed it in with small writing and congratulated myself on making it fit, until a few seconds later when I thought of another.

Muttered swear.  Big sigh.  Globs of white-out.  More time with the puck while the white-out dried.

And I carried on until I reached an area where I had to fill in the details of the library's board members in 2009.  This area required the addresses of every board member (including the town name), so I had to write "Tumbler Ridge" multiple times and........

I did it again.  Another backwards J.

More muttered swearing.  Even bigger sigh.  More white-out.

Later on when I ranted to Sharon about how stupid I was, she stopped working for a moment, looked up at me, and said "That's why I use pencils for paperwork Jacob."

And in writing this, and re-reading it, I finally have a response for her.

"That's why I use computers for everything Sharon."

A big thank you and AGM news

It's time for a two-for-one sale.  Two topics in one blog post!


The Big Thank You

To everyone who took the time to sign a letter to town council supporting the library,

Thank you.

Because of your efforts over the past three days, we were able to submit over one hundred letters to town council requesting that they do not proceed with the final cut to the library's budget.

The library staff and board have been overwhelmed by the support from the residents of Tumbler Ridge, and the knowledge of this support will help us carry on regardless of the final outcome.


Once the town's budget has been finalized, the library will be posting notices regarding any changes to library hours and programming.

Please keep watching for posters around town and on the library's website:  http://tumblerridge.bclibrary.ca


AGM News

It's taken a little longer than we had hoped, but we're ready to have our AGM.

Tumbler Ridge Public Library

Annual General Meeting

Wednesday, April 14th

7pm at the library

Agenda

• 2009 in review
• 2010 and the year ahead
• Trustee nominations

Of Books and Budget Cuts...

If you haven't already heard, the library's budget is going to be cut again.  Without going into too many details, our grant-in-aid has been cut twice now (first our budget for capital expenses was cut entirely and then our operating expenses were cut), and is slated to be cut again.  The total amount of the cuts to our operating expenses is around 17%.

If this final budget cut is made official, the library *will* have to make changes to its operating hours, staff hours, and programming to balance the budget.  There is a very real chance that the library will no longer be open on Sundays, Saturday mornings, or after 6pm Tuesday-Thursday.

Nothing is official yet.  However, if the final cut remains when budget numbers are set in stone, we will have to make some very hard decisions.

So what can you do about it?

Let town council know.  Be polite, but let them know that the library is an important part of Tumbler Ridge, and that its budget shouldn't be cut any further than it already has been.  If you're ambitious, feel free to write a letter to town council in the next few days.  Otherwise, we have pre-written letters available at the library for this purpose.  Just drop by, sign one of them, and the library will deliver all of the letters to town council.

Thank you,

Jacob Fehr
Interim head librarian

Chris Walker is coming -- mark your calendars!

As many of you probably know, CBC personality Chris Walker was interested in doing an Itchy Feet presentation at the library.  Some of you have also probably heard that I nixed the idea.  It's partly true.

On my first day as interim head librarian, I was asked about scheduling an Itchy Feet presentation for him this season.  At that point, I was completely overwhelmed, desperately did not want to take on any extra obligations for myself or the library, and it never occurred to me just how many people would be disappointed (WNMS members, library patrons, other members of the community, and even Chris Walker himself).  So I had a staff member send him our regrets by e-mail.

Later that day, a member of WNMS called me, and very kindly connected the dots for me.  She expressed how disappointed everyone would be if Chris didn't get to make an Itchy Feet presentation, and showed an amazing willingness to help if logistics were a problem.  In response, I had the same staff member e-mail Chris back and re-open the conversation.

Since then, I've heard from many different members of the community, and it's been unanimous.  Everyone wants to see Chris Walker's presentation.  There are people who I'd never expect to see excited who are absolutely thrilled he's coming.  In short, there was no way we could turn him down.  So we've been in touch with Chris, and agreed on a date for his presentation.


Mark your calendars!

"Building Blocks:  Architecture and Religion in the Middle East"

with Chris Walker

Friday, May 7th

Interim Head Librarian: Week One

It occurred to me that today is the final day of my first week as interim head librarian of the Tumbler Ridge Public Library.  In recognition of this, I thought I'd give everyone a little bit of insight into what has happened in my first week on the job.  If this seems somewhat egotistical to you (and to be fair, it probably is), please feel free to continue on to my older blog posts.

Before I go on, I'd like to clarify my first sentence.  I am still a library technician, and I've become the library manager at the Tumbler Ridge Public Library.  I refer to my position as "head librarian" because I like what the term implies.  It harkens back to the days before I knew the differences between library clerks, community librarians, library technicians, and librarians (people who hold a master's degree in library science).  I really think there's something to be said for a child's belief that everyone who works in a library is a librarian...

Tuesday, March 2nd

• Spent a fair bit of time talking with the library's board chair about the job
• Had a mini-staff meeting with all the library employees to inform them about my new role
• Was invited to a Success by Six meeting (had very little to contribute)
• Attended a library board meeting (had very little to contribute)
• Requested an interlibrary loan of Managing for Dummies

Main thought:  "Wow...  How in the world did my life change so much between Friday at 4:30 and now?"

Wednesday, March 3rd

• Finished inventory of junior paperbacks with Sharon
• Divided up the tasks from my old position as head of technical services
• Started training staff members on their new tasks
• Had Melissa and Rebekah start working on the next phase of inventory (computer work)

Main thought:  "We're just about done the inventory!  I can see the finish line!"

Thursday, March 4th

• Had another meeting with the library's board chair to get me up to speed on the budget and its status
• Created a farewell card (with a verse I wrote) for the outgoing library manager
• Discussed my weekly schedule with the library staff
• Enjoyed Sarah Gamble's Itchy Feet presentation

Main thought:  "Am I going to need to take an accounting course?  I hope not..."

Friday, March 5th

• Worked on the library's budget
• Finished the inventory of the audiobook cassettes
• Received my interlibrary loan copy of Managing for Dummies

Main thought:  "Should I assume the fast delivery of Managing for Dummies is some kind of a sign?"

Saturday, March 6th (today)

• Continued working on the budget
• Wrote this blog post
• Hoping to work on my origami (in preparation for the second week of Spring Break and my origami workshop)

Main thought:  "I really should blog all this stuff..."


So that's sort of what happened in my first week as interim head librarian.  I'm still sitting at the same desk I've been using for the past eighteen months, but the view has changed drastically in the last five days.

I'm working hard to learn the ropes of this new position, but it's going to take some time before I've got everything figured out.

In Japan, there's a phrase used when meeting people:  "doozo yoroshiku."  It roughly translates as "Please be kind."

Minna-san [everyone], doozo yoroshiku.



Endnote:  For those of you wondering, the title of this blog post *is* a reference to the fantastic graphic novel (which just happens to be available at the Tumbler Ridge Public Library), Batman Year One.  However, as you've read, this blog post did not tell the story of a masked vigilante, a police detective, and the formation of their odd friendship/working relationship.

In Memory...

In memory of Robert Felonious Sharkington,

aka. "Fireball Bob"

Library Mascot

Summer 2008 -- February 23, 2010

May you swim eternally in a tank free of algae and

far from children who insist on tapping the glass.

Sometimes plans change...

Apologies folks.

We've been plugging away doing inventory, but it hasn't been going as fast as we'd like.  As a result,

the library will be closed Tuesday, February 2nd.

Here's the full story:
This morning, the board chair, library manager, Sharon and I had a meeting to discuss how the inventory is going.  Sharon and I reported that the AF (adult fiction) inventory is done, and that the ANF (adult non-fiction) is underway.  I should mention that those two collections comprise around 40% of the library's materials.

Our original goal was to finish inventory by the end of January, but unfortunately that's not possible.  So we had a conversation about how we should proceed from here.

The first option was to continue with the status quo:  staff members working on inventory in their spare time between important day-to-day tasks.  We considered this option, but as a practical matter the inventory wouldn't be completed for a few months.

The second option was to have library staff come in on Monday (when the library is closed) to have an uninterrupted day of working on inventory.  This option had a fair share of problems.  The library would have to spend a great deal of money on overtime, and some staff members would be unavailable due to prior commitments.

The final option was to close the library on Tuesday.  Because all members of the library staff are already scheduled to work Tuesdays, this option wouldn't cost the library much money (a little bit so that part-time staff members will be here all day).  The major downside, of course, is that patrons won't have access to the library on Tuesday.

We weighed the pros and cons and in the end decided that closing the library on Tuesday will give us the best chance of getting a *lot* of the inventory done in a short period of time at the lowest possible cost.

Sorry for the inconvenience folks...

Knee deep in ....inventory

If you've been to the library in the past few days, you've probably seen a few staff members (or a few volunteers) in the stacks with a booklet of papers, some writing implements, and blue-stained hands.  Those are the tell-tale signs of an inventory in progress.

What does that mean?

Well, to most patrons it really won't change much.  We're not planning on closing the library or cancelling programs to make time to do inventory.  We won't be blocking off any aisles or performing book recalls.  While we're doing inventory, library staff will be busier (and very likely crankier), and service may be somewhat slower (if we're all in the stacks doing inventory, it may take a minute or two for us to notice someone at the circulation desk, etc.).

Just bear with us for a few weeks, and hopefully things will be back to normal in no time.

WE'RE BACK!

We're back!  The holiday closures gave the library's hard-working staff some much-needed time to spend with family recharging for the year ahead, and now we're back to our normal schedule.

As I said in my last blog post before the holidays, we've all got a lot to look forward to at the library in 2010, and some of those things are already happening.

New Books
The new books we've ordered over the past month or so have started to pour in.  Since Christmas, we've received 139 new books, and there are many more to come.  We've received most of the graphic novels we ordered (including two volumes of Mouse Guard, which Sharon ordered and I'd never heard of but looks really neat), some fantastic fiction (including Michael Crichton's first book published after his death, a compilation of Naomi Novik's first three Temeraire novels, the final novel in the Star Wars Darth Bane trilogy, and Stephen King's newest), and some compelling non-fiction (autobiographies by Theoren Fleury and Howie Mandel among other titles).

New Computers
The library's new public computers were installed between Christmas and New Year's.  They're faster and more reliable than the old ones, and as an added benefit, have headphone jack in the front (no more reaching around to plug headphones into the rear jacks).

Children's Programs
The library's children's programs will resume starting next week (except for Wednesday Club, which will start the week after).  Here's the breakdown:

Lapsit

• Starts January 14th
• Every Thursday at 10:30am
  
• Rhymes and songs for children 0-2 and their parents
• Drop-ins welcome
  

Storytime

• Starts January 15th
• Every Friday at 10:30am
• Stories, songs, and crafts for children 3-5 years old
• Pre-registration is required

Wednesday Club

• Starts January 20th
• Every 2nd Wednesday at 3:00pm
• Stories and crafts for school-age children
• Drop-ins welcome

Itchy Feet
We haven't finalized the schedule yet, but the Itchy Feet season will begin before the end of January.  We've got some great presentations lined up that will take us from Taiwan to Nigeria and many points in-between.


As you can see, there's lots of great stuff happening at the library so far in 2010, and there's much more to come.  Stay tuned!