Where are you going? Semester Retrospective, Part II

Now we come to the portion of the show where we consider the future, and the struggle to get there successfully.

Issue the First: Manpower

Solo librarians, consider this your bat signal. Having only been a solo since mid October, I do not have any of the tricks up my sleeve that I think/hope/pray the more tenured solo librarians out there have. I am the only librarian, and beside myself I have an assistant available 10 hours a week. My on campus time has been limited this semester, and I think I’ll need to increase it where I can (allowing for the fact that I work 40 hours a week elsewhere and have family to raise). So, what’s a girl to do? We have to get this project motoring, but I need all the efficiency I can get.

Issue the Second: Catalog software you are not, Excel.

Bless the libraries who are able to keep their whole catalog on Excel. We are not a large school, but large enough that my computer slows to the point of nearly crashing trying to open the complete catalog when working on the shelf read. That’s problematic. Not to mention, the spreadsheet I inherited is something of a mess in terms of call numbers. We may have to push up the implementation of an OPAC. Poking into it, the initial thought to go open source may have to be given up– there’s just too much lack of technical know how, and there’s always the fear of a single point of failure. Then too, there is a monetary cost associated with a commercial product. The pros and cons on both sides are currently being evaluated; any word in favor of a particular system would be greatly appreciated.

Issue the Third: Tempus Fugit

Time does, indeed, fly. Our current pace will have us finishing the shelf read several decades from now. Our goal is to have it finished in the next 3-4 semesters. Clearly, something has to give. A portion of my work this semester has been spent drafting policy, getting schedules under control, and sorting through logistics. Winter and summer will see an increased presence on campus. Would I rather be at home in the evening after work? Sure, who wouldn’t. But this work is important to me too.

I was chatting with my brother and father a few nights ago about our respective lives and the stories we have to tell. So often, the three of us will make a passing remark about an experience we’ve had and people will marvel that we’ve had time. Dad said it best “It’s good to have stories, but you have to go DO to have them.” We’ve barely closed the first chapter on our story here.

Where have you been? Semester Retrospective, Part I

A semester is a natural break in the year, a time at which students flee home to be able to read at their leisure rather than under time constraints. Professors enjoy several weeks without quizzes and papers, weeks to do their own research and reading. And librarians? This librarian, at least, will seize the several weeks without students underfoot to make headway in the cataloging project.

Yes, the cataloging continues. I imagine my readers grow weary of it, but unfortunately it is the single largest challenges facing the library. Have we made progress? Certainly. A few highlights for you:

To date, we have checked 1,126 records. As we go, we have been updating status (here, missing, damaged), call number, bar code and noting condition
To check these records, one must first try to locate the subject of the record. This proved a challenge to the A section of our catalog, which was scattered to two primary locations, with small pieces here and there. This has been rectified.
176 books have been verified and shelved through natural circulation. There are certainly another 50 waiting for my return.
A borrowing policy has been implemented! Very simple, very analog, but it is exists and at least some of the students follow it.
Phase 1 of the music room has been completed, and the room can now hold several musicians at once, surely a boon to bands across campus as the rainy days of fall and winter sweep in.
The experience of attempting a shelf read using Excel as the cataloging weapon of choice has highlighted our need for a better tool, and there are several lessons learned from our slow but steady progress.

The best thing, for me, has been getting into a library again. I was outside the industry in another role that morphed into information professional, but a library is still different. I enjoy seeing plain covers give way to intricate title pages and fly paper. I love finding interesting volumes here and there, simply waiting to be discovered. I enjoy thinking of ways to reinvent the Scholar’s lounge into a true Lounge, not just a sitting room surrounded by a random section of the library collection.

Don’t just take my word for it…

We had enough boxes for the softcover periodicals. The hardback periodicals traveled in packs for safety.

The eclectic circulation of the library

Winter semester considerations and thoughts coming up on Thursday!

Saturday Librarian: Into the Breach

First, my apologies for the long time between updates. For about a week, we were afraid that the hard drive in my laptop had died, which puts quite the damper on any sort of digital activity, inclusive of blog entries and catalog updates. Thankfully, it appears the boot up issues I was experiencing (mainly, how it wasn’t booting up) were due more to the horrendous amount of garbage on the machine, so a clean install has so far *knock on wood* done the trick.

It was, however, certainly an issue last Saturday, so I had to find something productive to do with my campus time. You may recall some weeks ago when I glibly remarked that someday I would see my office and even be able to sit in the chair located there. Well, guess what? That day is now.

Boy was that office a mess. Again, I can’t hope to describe it. Observe:

Before…

Not stitched together for a true panorama, but surely gets the point across, no? It is worth mentioning that at this point I had already moved three book carts into the adjacent room, to be able to get behind the desk and survey my domain.

The day was about more than cleaning, though certainly there was enough of that. It was also about a cursory overview of the last section of donations that I had not been through. One of the collections was a bequest, so there is little doubt we’ll have all of them on the shelves soon enough. As for the rest, there were certainly some interesting finds. The Chesterton was one, various older books abound as well. Something I have found in the handful of weeks I have spent so far is that we are blessed with a number of books with interesting covers or title pages. The books are older but often in good repair, which certainly makes them both a delight and feasible to keep in the collection.

Once the room was cleared and vacuumed, I had to test the computer. I had used it several years ago, and knew it worked at that point. What remained to be seen was whether it would still work and whether I would remember the password. Amazingly, I did.

Notice the presence of the 3 1/2 inch floppy. BRB, getting all my old disks.

Does anyone even remember XP?

Needless to say, there was an update or two to be made, but the machine itself works, and its fairly zippy for all that. The marvelous thing for me is that I can stack my books and bring them into the office to log and sort before shelving. Much easier than what I have been doing, which is standing in the foyer for several hours every week.

In a few days I’ll have more formal thoughts on where we stand as we approach the end of the semester, and how things look for the road ahead. I have a few ideas, and the library itself is always a source of inspiration. One cannot help being inspired when surrounded by that many thoughts.

Wonderings: Card Catalogs

Throughout the discussion of work on the library, I have found that everyone has a basic opinion on the card catalog. There is no middle ground, no one who could take it or leave it. The first opinion is that they should have been gone yesterday or the day before, and onto a better, brighter, less handwriting intensive future. The second opinion is that computers and OPACs have their place, no question, but that’s no reason to also ditch the card catalog.

From what I can gather, the card catalog love stems from a few things. Some love the look and feel of the old oak, the heft of the drawers as they search among the cards. It adds a tangibility to the research and makes the researcher feel more integral to the process– they are fully in control of their search, and connections are made, or not, as part of their thought process. Others just love the look and nostalgia of the catalog, never mind the maintenance.

Unfortunately, we are a one person library with over 45,000 monographs in the collection. For those who have not run a card catalog, there is not just one card per book– there are cards for title, author, and any subject headings (or keywords) that you want the patron to be able to find tied to the work. Particularly with academic works, those subject headings lead to a vast number of cards. I could spend 80 hours a week for years bringing the card catalog back into form as a working, accurate, well oiled machine, by why do so?

Still, there is something very fitting about having the card catalog standing sentinel in the foyer of the library. One thought I had was to maintain a simply catalog for the special collections– title and author, no subject headings, and the collection is a non circulating collection, so nothing would be leaving the designated area anyway. It would allow us to keep the smaller catalog in use that would rarely have new additions and require minimal maintenance. It might be a good middle road between nothing digital and only digital. Is such an effort worthwhile? For those who love the old card catalogs, what about them do you love and miss? For those who prefer digital, would having the small card catalog for a small, non circulating collection be bothersome? The records could certainly be maintained in the OPAC as well. All thoughts are welcome!

Saturday Librarian: Breakless breaks

The College had a short autumnal break this week, Thursday through Monday. Not a lot of time but I’d seen postings in the caf about various places to go nearby and retreats happening and so forth. I assumed I’d have the library to myself and I could dive into the Ballroom– the beginning of the “P” section, easily the largest part of the documented catalog. As a student I appreciated being surrounded by literature and Latin grammars and Greek lexicons and so forth. It was comforting– if so many major and minor and utterly forgotten authors had been able to get their works published and purchased, surely I could muddle through my exams and essays.

As a librarian, such a set up is difficult. So much of the day takes place in the library, even on weekends. Every weekend so far, in fact, the rooms have been occupied with play practices. Finally, I thought, a morning to work as hard as humanly possible! I had left the day off my Year 1 roadmap initially, and added it back in relatively late, hoping to work ahead.

I forgot I was at TMC. Most of the students had, in fact stayed on campus for the break and were simply relaxing with their books and taking time to think leisurely. Whoops! So back to shelving I went.

Its the oddest set up; my assistant is methodically working his way through the catalog, starting with the “A” section, which is now complete. Once returning from break, he’ll be able to start on the “B” section. (For those needing a run down of what fits into what category, check it out here.) I, meanwhile, work through the returns. Its an odd ball bunch, to be sure. There’s been a trend toward all things Reformation in the last two weeks, with a large number of art books coming back in as well. Perhaps the best part of the shelf read for me, as a former student, is having dedicated time in my week to become reacquainted with the books of my youth. I certainly never got a chance to review the art and music part of the collection, so each book that comes back in is a treat that leads back to that little corner of the library.

Because of the need to review all pertinent book data for the shelf read as well as schlep and shelve, I find myself chaffing at the glacial pace we are stuck in. On average, I get 40-50 books a week done in my 4 hours Saturday shift, taking the data home to plug into the master spreadsheet and compare what was already on file. Anyone who has undertaken this type of project before and has a potentially better way, please share!

In the meantime, I leave you with some fun finds from Saturday:

Some Edward Gorey for Halloween morning!

IMG_20151031_113415703 — The History of Mathematics, a surprise for the collection. Also published in the 1950s, so I image there are some newer discoveries missing.

Semester Project: The Music Room, Phase 1

This week’s edition of Saturday librarian was slightly delayed, but worth it. Promise!

A few weeks ago, I wrote about our semester project. I did not get the head start that I wanted, so I wandered into the library Saturday morning woefully under-caffeinated but determined. My original plans were grand– too grand, as it turned out, for the small amount of space. First, you need to know what the room looked like:

I know. I KNOW. Clearly a basement, and that’s fine, but that was awful. It was wonderful they had carved out a corner, but you have to be a very dedicated musician to practice in such quarters, and most do not when the weather is nice.

The first thing to do was get the music instruments to a safe location for the duration. No pictures here, but suffice to say they hung out in a nice, sheltered corner of the library for a few hours. You can really only see a fraction of the music instruments, and you can barely make out the two pianos. Yes, there are TWO! Glorious– if you can rearrange things enough to pull out the bench.

First order of business? Those shelves in the middle had to go. They were chock a block full of periodicals.

Beginnings — a view into the room, boxes visible and work begun.

Music room side view — A better view of the room before beginning. Notice the periodicals hugging the ceiling, and the piano now visible behind the table.

If you’re going to unload four shelves’ worth of periodicals, there have to be boxes in which to store them. Believe it or not, we had stored two weeks worth of boxes from the various orders coming into the cafe. Surely that would be enough?

The short answer was no. There not nearly enough boxes for our work Saturday. My (naive) hope had been that we could start to pull books from the side shelves and get the music and art collection into the room. It became clear quickly that Saturday’s work would largely comprise making the room functional for a group of musicians to practice together.

The library is a wonderful building, but many libraries before ours have run into the question of how to store so many physical serial volumes. There are no compressed stacks in the building, no way to roll shelves up against each other to save space. As such, the periodicals are now in the basement of the library, boxed or resting on the table, waiting for faculty review.

I had mentally prepared myself to be working on this all day. Fortunately, quite simply, our students ROCK. We had more helpers than we could use when all was said and done. Phase 1 was complete by noon, a scant two and a half hours after we began. For the next half hour after, I had people coming into the room ready and willing to help, only to find nothing to do.

I wouldn’t say nothing, though. I asked all of the students who came to go in, sit down and play. To see whether we needed more chairs, whether the sound was better, whether the room felt better. The musicians I could get to try the refreshed space were ecstatic– they could breathe.

I go back and forth on whether to add a rug in the center of the floor– it would help warm the space (which is unfinished concrete) but would it negatively impact the sound? I told all those who entered to try it out, to add as needed. I was told not to worry; it never seemed to matter, furniture finds a way.

My hope is that as we gradually weed through the periodicals (and/or open up storage space), we’ll be able to get the art and music collections in. In the very back of the room, you can sneak a peek at some of our older volumes. They’ll be getting a new home too– just as soon as I replenish my box supply.

Another foray into digital resources

Today the University of California expands the reach of its research publications by issuing a Presidential Open Access Policy, allowing future scholarly articles authored by all UC employees to be freely shared with readers worldwide. Building on UC’s previously-adopted Academic Senate open access (OA) policies, this new policy enables the university system and associated national labs to provide unprecedented access to scholarly research authored by clinical faculty, lecturers, staff researchers, postdoctoral scholars, graduate students and librarians – just to name a few. Comprising ten campuses, five medical centers, three national laboratories and nearly 200,000 employees, the UC system is responsible for over 2% of the world’s total research publications. UC’s collective OA policies now cover more authors than any other institutional OA policy to date.

Source: » Groundbreaking University of California policy extends free access to all scholarly articles written by UC employees Office of Scholarly Communication

Not a lot of commentary for you guys on this one. Obviously, for people who don’t have access to a large array of databases, its nice to see a larger array of academia available, particularly to those who would normally not be able to access it. We are fortunate to have good internet access for our students, even if we don’t have a larger array of digital resources.

On that note, you will notice there is now a little Pinterest button on the sidebar. I am attempting to collect freely available, good digital resources to be able to present to students later this semester or early next semester. It is ever ongoing, but I’m happy to take any and all suggestions for additions!

“We few, we happy few…”: St Crispin’s Day resources

KING. What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.”
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say “These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.”
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

— The St. Crispin’s Day Speech, Henry V, William Shakespeare

Happy St. Crispin’s Day! We take a brief break from our library adventures to point you to a handful of digital resources for today, the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt.

First, check out Twitter, specifically the hashtag #Agincourt600. Many institutions in England, including the Royal Palaces, the British Museum, and the Royal Armouries are “tweeting the day.” Its a newer trend on Twitter for big anniversaries of historic events. Museums will ‘live tweet’ the event as though they were there, bring some of the immediacy of a modern newscast to historic events. I particularly loved the ‘live tweet’ of the anniversary of World War I, starting with the 100th anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There’s also a number of interesting articles out there too.

Second, check out this write up on a digital exhibit from the Royal Armouries. There are copies of important paintings, examples of historic armour, and even a Carol written specifically to commemorate the battle. To be honest, you should just go read their whole blog, right up to today. Lots of good information on the battle as well as how the commemoration is working for this museum.

Third, The Telegraph has a nice, short summary of Agincourt in culture. Helpful for those who want to go beyond Shakespeare.

Finally, I leave you with Sir Laurence Olivier’s take on the St. Crispin’s day speech.

Saturday Librarian: A day in the life

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of spending gallons of e-ink on trying to explain the volume of work ahead, it may be best to show you:

While I dearly love our current catalog:

It makes turning this:

Into this:

Much harder. My assistant, John, has started on the A’s (seen here). But there is still work to do, not least because as orderly as the shelves look, the catalog was far less so. It has taken close to a month to wrangle the catalog into shape. That, of course takes away time from being able to sort and process the books patiently waiting:

and waiting…

I consider us blessed by the great number of books that await us (my office has been overrun by them, though there is no picture for it. Someday I shall see my desk, I am sure of it.) There are clearly many who thought of us for books they no longer had space or need for, and for that I am grateful. Libraries everywhere struggle with cut budgets and making due with little, and to be so showered with gifts is a blessing. First, though, we must get the books we have back on the shelf. Books with great titles like this:

Even librarians take breaks though, and who can blame us when this is the view waiting just outside?

Happy fall!

A word about Card catalogs– digital and physical– and Pinterest?

I imagine that many of you have seen the news that came out today, where the appellate court upheld the ruling that Google’s Library Project is legal. What is the Google Library Project? In a nutshell, Google has partnered with a number of large libraries to scan their physical books and index them, allowing them to be searchable through Google. The favorite phrase to use about it is to say its like “a digital card catalog.” Well and good, you say, but we do have a physical card catalog. What is the purpose of something like this?

For a place like Thomas More, its a fabulous resource. We have a (relatively) small collection, and it is entirely possible that our students will need something we don’t possesses. There aren’t many libraries out there with a budget that allows them to simply purchase a book that may fulfill a researcher’s need. As I was reviewing my notes from pervious work with the library, there was repeated mention of the College’s digital resources, which seemed odd to me, as there are not currently any digital subscriptions. And then I realized that, at some point in the distant past, there was a word document that was put together and loaded on various desktops the school owned; the word document contained links to freely available resources on the internet that had been vetted in some capacity. Not a bad idea, but hard to maintain and hard to distribute when everyone owns a laptop.

The news today got me thinking about that old, out of date word document. There are resources such as the Google Library Project, Project Gutenberg, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Purdue OWL, and so many more that are good and useful, but not immediately accessible to a student if they have not previously heard of them. That is part of our job as librarians, to provide digital resources to our population, wherever they may be. Larger institutions have things like LibGuides and robust websites on which to showcase their findings. But what of small institutions with no OPAC, no public website? A word doc on a desktop is no longer sufficient. My initial inclination is start several Pinterest boards and have the links disseminated. Its free, its publically accessible, and it might even be a good resource for those outside our little community. You can create as many boards as you like, even to the point of creating boards for each spring’s junior projects and senior theses. Or is such an idea too far?

Should we go the Pinterest route or is there a better online collection option? Any and all suggestions are welcome!

A Library for All Seasons

The Warren Memorial Library at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts