Library Rearranging 2.22

Greetings and welcome to another edition of "Pat Yourself and the Other Staff Members on the Back Jacob"

When Paula started at the library in November, she pointed out to Sharon and me (fairly early on) that the library was fairly dark.  We've got a decent amount of windows to let natural light in, but many of the shelves, the carpet, and the ceiling were all dark colours.  Painting the ceiling would be a huge job that would probably require the library to shut down for a few days.  Replacing the carpet (which hopefully will happen in the future) is another huge undertaking.  That left the shelves.

Paula asked a friend of hers to paint the library's green shelves a lighter colour to brighten up the library.  In the process of doing that, we rearranged a few things, and discussed rearranging more.  Ultimately, we removed one shelf section from the adult paperbacks, added more shelves to the remaining sections, and spaced out the remaining paperback shelves so they aren't as cramped.  When the paint dried on the first set of paperback shelves, we prepared to move the shelf to its new home against the front wall of the library.

To move that shelf, however, we needed to move the final shelf of junior paperback.  The discussion of how to move the shelves resulted in a plan to completely rearrange the left side of the library.  So last Friday (January 21st), Paula, Chris, Sharon, and I spent pretty much the entire day moving shelves.

As long as I've been here, we've had shelves in the children's section that stuck out from the wall and left a series of dead end aisles.  We changed it, and now we've got two long aisles of children's books running down the left side of the library.  There are still two shelves sticking out from the wall holding the junior fiction and most of the junior paperback, but they're spaced out better.

We moved the study carrel to the blank wall opposite the magazines, and it fits much better there.


So here's the view of the children's section along the front wall of the library.  The picture books run along the back wall and wrap around on the front left, the junior non-fiction run along both interior shelves, and junior paperback series run along the outside right shelves.

These shelves are the end of the children's books and hold the non-series junior paperback and the rest of the junior fiction.

All the rearranging opened up the left corner of the library further,  giving us room for a larger reading area and a new place for our sale books.

The library is brighter, more spacious, and no staff members suffered noticeable injuries in the process (though Sharon did complain of a broken nail).

We're still in the process of doing inventory, so I doubt we'll be doing much more rearranging in the short term.  But anything is possible, so stay tuned!

My Plant

In mid-April 2010, I bought an African violet.  The woman who was selling them as part of a fundraiser had spoken up on the library's behalf a few nights before at an open meeting with town council.  At the time, I wasn't in a position to speak up (I had only been interim head librarian for about a month at that point), and really appreciated her arguing on our behalf.  As a result, when I saw her selling the violets as a fundraiser, I bought one.

Now, I don't have a particularly green thumb.  I have absolutely no plants in my condo, and do not rent a plot at the community garden.  I improvised a water catch tray from a weird lid, and watered the violet daily from a plastic cup.  Somehow (I'm not sure how), I managed to keep it healthy enough for it to bloom again.  At the same time, I fought a never-ending battle against other library staff members who couldn't walk by the violet without stroking its leaves.

So now the violet sits on the second tier of my desk out front.  A few months back, the woman who sold me the violet came in to the library and asked if it was the same one she had sold me.  I said that it was, and she was amazed that it was looking so good.

This violet has gone through a few rough stretches though.  I'm pretty sure I was overwatering it at first, and I damaged a few leaves when I smacked my pen down on them to prove a point to one of the other staff members here.  So I've had to do some pruning of leaves that are in bad shape.  But the violet is still here, still alive, and still looking pretty good.  I've even placed a small origami crane in the violet because I thought it was funny to have a bird "nesting" in the violet.

...now if only I could get it to bloom again.

Clash of Ideals

Greetings folks!

I thought I'd kick off my (real) blogging in 2011 with something nonsensical:  a discussion of the ongoing Cola War in the library.

A few weeks back, I wrote about the nature of caffeine usage in the library.  I didn't go into much detail at the time, but the majority of caffeine consumed in the library comes in one of two isotopes:  Pepsi or Coca-Cola -- and therein lies the conflict.

The library is in the midst of a Cola War, and has been for some time.  In many superficial ways, it's like any other ongoing war.  There are a few gung-ho combatants on either side, separated by many people who are indifferent (or have a mild preference for one side).  Civilians are often drawn into the war regardless of their wishes.  There are often silly battles fought for dubious goals, and the likelihood of having a clear winner is low.

==The Battle==

In the early days of the war (August 2008), a prominent member of the Red Army quit the war.  Her loss was mourned, as the ranks of the Red Army were depleted.

The newcomer on the battlefield officially pledged allegiance to neither side, and indeed, patronized both.  However, it quickly became clear he was sympathetic toward the goals of the Blue Army.  In the weeks and months that followed, this new entrant stepped up the Blue campaign through the use of extensive propaganda.

In March 2010, the neutral head of the peacekeeping force between the warring sides retired.  Unaware of the newcomer's sympathy towards the Blue Army, the committee named him as the interim commander of the peacekeeping force.  This act set the stage for the final defeat of the Red Army.  However, a combination of apathy and budgetary constraints limited the commander to brief skirmishes against the Red Army combined with an ongoing propaganda campaign.

This state of affairs continued unaltered until November 2010.  At that time, the interim commander joined the ranks of the Blue Army and stepped down to make way for a new commander.  She quickly professed her total support for the Red Army.  The forces of the south have risen again, and the battle continues on.....

==Reality Goggles On==

When I started working at the library in 2008, I was replacing a Coke fan.  Originally I was a Pepsi fan, but then switched to Coca-Cola when Vanilla Coke was released.  When Vanilla Coke was taken off the market (truly a sad day), my preference drifted until I ended up consuming both brands roughly equally.  Even though I still drink both, I'm officially a Pepsi fan while working at the library.

When I started at the library, Rebekah was an ardent Coke fan, and it was fun to bug her about it.  The high point was when Michelle (one of our pages at the time) and I placed a skeleton in Rebekah's chair before Halloween.  The skeleton had a can of Pepsi taped to its hand and a sign around its neck that said "Even the undead prefer Pepsi".  I continued making signs in this style for a variety of objects (a mummy, a roll of bubble wrap, and a stick horse).

As interim head librarian, I made a number of jokes about making Pepsi the official cola of the library or approaching Pepsi for sponsorship (after which we'd have to ban Coca-Cola from the library).  Of course, none of these jokes even came close to coming true.

Paula was hired as head librarian in November 2010, and last week I learned that she's also a Coca-Cola fan.  She joked that when she's at restaurants and they ask if Pepsi is okay, she says "Well, it's not okay, but that's how things are."

So I guess what I'm saying is that we *won't* be painting the library in Pepsi colours any time soon.

Still Alive...

Hi folks, and welcome to 2011.

At the moment, I'm very glad I never officially made a resolution to post on this blog more often in 2011.  We've been very busy the past few weeks with inventory, preparation for our winter carnival activities, moving books around so shelves can be painted, and sending in our grant-in-aid application.

Once things settle down again I plan to be on here more often, keeping everyone up to date with what's happening in the library (or at the very least, writing about unimportant, but amusing things).

Have faith readers -- I'll be back here with a *real* blog post and cake in the next few weeks.

...The blog post is the truth.  The cake is a lie.

(sorry folks -- couldn't resist the reference)