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)

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