Britta Krabill

I’m still here, still getting my library on.  As everyone in the library world knows, late Spring and all Summer are the busiest seasons for public service librarians.  We’re planning for the Summer Reading Programs and serving school-age patrons all day long.

I will return as soon as I have something of substance to say (or complain about).

Yes, it’s been awhile. What can I say? The life Of a librarian is hectic.

I’m posting on location from the On the Front Lines conference in Springfield. Three days of fantastic programs and speakers, and the best food I’ve ever had at one of these things…and all for $15, thanks to a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. It’s more worthwhile than the ALA and FLA conferences I’ve attended. I also received a scholarship for the cost of the hotel, so coming here was a no-brainer.

Beyond the educational stuff and the networking, conferences are a grea opportunity to observe the librarian in the wild. I’ve observed a few things which, while not surprising to me, are amusing.

1) Librarians will cut you for a free brownie. Don’t get in their way. You will be injured.

2) Librarians really love to talk about themselves, whether anyone is interested or not.

3) There is a hierarchy here. Those with iPads are at the top. Those who look like cat ladies are not. Cat ladies with iPads? No one knows what to make of them.

In all seriousness, I love in person trainings. I love meeting professionals doing exciting things, and hearing speakers who inspire me. Most times I return to my library refreshed and ready to attack projects that gave me the blahs.

While I’d like to avoid this blog becoming a gripe-fest, I feel the need to address this particular topic because it’s a perennial problem that I happen to be dealing with at the moment.

Yes, it’s term paper season again.

I actually like helping teens research their term papers.  I usually find that I learn something new, even if I’ve researched the topic in the past.  I like interacting with young patrons who don’t visit the library on a regular basis.  It’s my opportunity to sell them on all that the library has to offer.

Here’s the problem.

Roughly half of the term paper topics I look up are for high school students, but are done with parents or grandparents.  (I really should start keeping statistics.  I would not be surprised if that number has been creeping higher every year.)   Here’s a sample interaction.  See if you can spot the problem.

Librarian: Hi! How can I help you today?

Parent: My son is doing a paper on Japanese gardens and I told him I’d pick up some books for him.

L: Okay. What grade is your child in?

P: He’s a junior.

L: What class is this for.

P: I don’t know. English, I think.

L: Can he use magazines or journals? What about electronic resources?

P: I don’t know.

L: Okay, well, we’ve got some really great reference books that talk specifically about Japanese gardens. I can pull them and you can make copies of the pertinent information, or take some notes.  Shall we start there?

P: Don’t you have anything I can check out?

L: I’d be happy to check our catalog and go to the shelf with you.  How many resources does he need?

P: I don’t know.  I’ll just take whatever you have.

L: Okay.  *checking catalog*  It looks like that’s been a popular topic and a lot of our books that cover it are checked out.  Would you like me to bring some over from other libraries?  I can have them here in 2-3 business days.

P: *long, annoyed sigh* Fine. But can you give me something to take home today? Just give me something on gardening or Japan.

L: Let’s go to the shelf and see if there’s anything around 712.609, the Dewey number for Japanese gardens.  If not, we’ll see if we can’t find something else that will get your son started.  Also, know that if your son would like to come in, I’d be happy to look through the reference books or show him how to access our electronic journals.  He can do that from home.

P: He plays sports.  He doesn’t have time to come to the library.

Yep.  This is an interaction I’m currently having several times a day.  It’s a no-win situation.  The parent is frustrated, the child isn’t getting the best information (or sometimes any information, if the parent gets frustrated enough) for his paper, and I’m so disgusted that I want to spit.

I’m not going to tell anyone how to parent.  I think sports and other extra-curricular activities are important for a child’s development.  However, when a parent puts sports (or drama or Spanish Club) above schoolwork, there is a problem.  It’s not just about the assignment.  Yes, it’s good to learn about Japanese gardens and yes, it’s important to learn to write in proper English, but more than that, these assignments teach students how to research and how to ask for help with their research.  It’s a tool they’ll need if they go to college.  (Unless the parent plans to go to their college library and do their research for them.  Don’t laugh, because I know academic librarians who swear that it happens.)

It’s also about learning to balance what one wants to do with what one has to do.  Work-life balance is an absolutely vital skill for success.  More employers are starting to realize this, and are starting to include benefits to help their employees have a successful work-life balance, like flex time, the ability to work remotely, and extended paid leave for family issues like illnesses or births.

If you must come to the library to get research materials with your child, for the love of Pete, have any and all details of the assignment written down so I can get you the most, best information possible.  And don’t be in such a hurry.  Research takes time.  Also, if you’re not sure about something, no librarian worth their salt is going to mind you stepping out of the building for a few minutes to call your kid and ask about issues you didn’t anticipate.

Here’s my plea in a nutshell: make your kids do their own work.  You’re not doing them any favors by encouraging them to trade academics for extra-curricular activities.  You’ll thank me when your son, now a college freshman, doesn’t have a breakdown mid-year because he can’t manage to effectively research and write papers on Japanese gardens by himself and is failing his classes.

Photo attribution:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gollygeedamn/54335576/in/photostream/

There’s an interesting column today on Stephen Bell’s “From the Book Tower” blog about academic librarianship.  I don’t read Bell’s column often (as I am not an academic librarian), but Library Journal posted it on their home page today and I’m a sucker for anything that discusses librarianship as career.

He’s pretty realistic about the field, and it’s nice to get a point of view I don’t hear very often.

I think I’d be a good academic librarian, but not a great one.  I like research, but I’m very ADD and wouldn’t be the best at having to focus on one topic for more than a couple of hours.  I’m a “people person,” but I certainly wouldn’t want to deal with some of the nightmare faculty-patrons I’ve heard about from friends in academia.  I enjoy teaching, but I don’t have a lot of patience for anyone over the age of 18 who has the means to attend college, but refuses to use any source that’s not electronic.

For the most part, I enjoy helping the public.  I once helped a very cranky elderly gentleman find some resources about computer hardware.  He came back about six months later thanking me for my help, and telling me that because of those resources, he was able to learn enough to start his own small computer repair business.  On another instance, I spent over 45 minutes on the phone with a terrified elderly woman who had cognitive problems, giving her the same contacts for senior assistance over and over until she had them written down and felt calm enough to call.  Sure, I have a lot of bad stories I use to shock my friends (Ever had someone whip out their junk and pee on the reference desk while you were sitting at it? I have.), but the good stories keep me coming back to the library every morning.

Bell says, “Academic librarianship is not better or nobler than any other sector, but it attracts a certain kind of person…”  I agree.  In the same way that librarianship is not for everyone, not all types of librarianship are for all librarians.  It’s important to really sit down and think about your strengths, your weaknesses, and your ultimate career goals.  Library school flies by!  By determining a path for yourself early on, you’ll save yourself a lot of stress and frustration later.

Photo attribution:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/uniinnsbruck/3723226694/in/photostream/

Cell phones have become the bane of my existence.  I’m not overly bothered when someone forgets to turn off their ringer, as long as they exhibit the appropriate amount of shock and shame, and then silence their phone.  Sadly, this happens less and less.

I believe there are five categories of annoying cell phone users in libraries:

1. the person who checks the caller ID and decides he or she doesn’t want to talk, but lets the phone ring and ring and ring…

2. the person who answers their call, then proceeds to have a loud conversation with their friend about herpes/a hot chick/a hot guy/beer

3. the person who answers their call, then tries to hide the fact that they’re on their phone by cupping it in their other hand, talking in a loud whisper, and looking around like an 8-year-old shoplifter

4. the person with the heavy metal/rap ringtone literally consisting of nothing but screeches and curse words

5. the person who doesn’t get a phone call, but is texting and doesn’t turn the ringer off, so every alert and push of a button makes an annoying beep, making him or her sound like R2-D2

Whenever I encounter one of these offenders, I think back to a 2003 graduate school discussion about putting nanotubes in paint.  You see, by now, this wasn’t supposed to be a problem.  All libraries (and movie theaters and concert halls and Off-off-off Broadway theaters) were going to coat their insides with a paint infused with nanotubes to block all cell phone signals, and our problems with those infernal devices would be over.  The minute you entered the library the cell signal would be dead.  It would be kind of like that Stephen King book, Under the Dome. Or The Simpsons Movie.

But, alas, it was never to be.  Whether the nanotube paint never actually materialized or a powerful cell phone lobby group stormed Washington, it seems that the annoyance of noisy electronic devices are here to stay.

Even when you have your ringer off, it’s not cool to talk on the phone in the library.  It’s annoying and distracting.  No, really.  Some library patrons (and employees) are actually trying to concentrate.

Whenever someone says, “The library must be such a quiet, peaceful place to work” I roll my eyes and wonder how much time they’ve spent in libraries lately.

I love my cell phone.  I think cell phones are wonderful.  But if you use your cell phone in the library, you’re a jerk.  Don’t get mad at me when I come ask you to turn your ringer off and take your phone calls outside.  Yes, I know that the teens are playing their music so loud through their headphones that you can hear it. They’re jerks too. Don’t get me started on the library patrons who have no concept of the volume of their voice, or the ones that fart, or the ones that fall asleep and snore.  But seriously, turn off the phone for 30 minutes and pick up a book or read with your kid.

Photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahhyeah/2322501428/

Referencing: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/12/opinion/rushkoff-write-code/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

I’ve always enjoyed coding HTML.  In fact, in high school (way back in the mid-90′s) I bought myself a little HTML quick guide with my allowance and taught myself to create basic websites.  I remember when </br> was simply <br>.  Ah, those were the days.

Unfortunately, when I got to graduate school and tried to learn UNIX, I could only master the basics, none of which I remember.  Codeacademy is a free tool to help those with little or no coding experience learn Javascript through interactive lessons, one step at a time.  There are even badges to be earned for those who need their little gold stars.

While you probably won’t land a job with Google solely though your Codeacademy education, it’s always good to be able to tell a potential employer that you’ve got experience with programming.  I’m hoping that I can pick up a few tricks to use on our new library website!

It appears that Library Journal has transitioned their main page over to the new design they’ve slowly been implementing over the past couple of months.  It’s more of a blog-type format, which I don’t generally like, but they’ve done a good job.  It’s much less cluttered and at first glance, seems to be more user-friendly than the old site.

Kudos, LJ.  I may start visiting to do more than read the AL (which for some reason has not yet been transitioned to the new format)  and browse reviews.