tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-290040412024-03-14T02:42:54.329-04:00LibrarinessCourtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08381130136674863891noreply@blogger.comBlogger99125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-27852957512649516322014-05-06T16:23:00.000-04:002014-05-06T16:23:17.731-04:00Progressively Responsible Work Managing Electronic ResourcesWell it's been almost two years since my last post. I was substituting at two library systems so I haven't disappeared, but I was also not really doing "librarian" stuff. Life changed, I had a great job helping a couple of musicians manage their catalog, careers, social media etc. that turned into a community manager job at a start up. Well, that job wasn't for me, and if I try to explain why I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-41570182728900803502012-05-17T04:02:00.002-04:002012-05-17T04:02:32.964-04:00BPA Is Found in Paper ReceiptsIf your library has a policy that the self-service checkouts have to print a receipt for each patron, here is another reason to reevaluate that policy or feature or however it works.
Check Your Receipt: It May Be Tainted
"BPA is an endocrine disrupter, mimicking the body’s hormones. Studies on animals have suggested that it can have harmful effects on the reproductive, developmental and other Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-2778860656113265372012-05-14T07:00:00.000-04:002012-05-17T03:56:13.675-04:00One Desk Model, Digital Versus Physical Staff and Patron Search NeedsI was floored when I went in for an interview recently when they asked me what I thought about the "one desk model". I'd never gotten that question in a library interview before.
I realize I spent years as an associate before I became a librarian, and worked in circulation after I became an associate, I know there are plenty of people like me out there who are perfectly capable of handling the Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08381130136674863891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-50394541570363822432011-08-15T06:00:00.000-04:002011-08-15T06:00:16.259-04:00101 Low Budget No Budget Teen ActivitiesI'm working on a book! Right now I'm calling it 101 Low Budget No Budget Teen Activities, but 101 Safe, Cheap and Sane Teen Programs is another idea. 101 arts and crafts, games and programs for teens that you can do with barely a budget. You'll raid the children's arts and crafts closet, learn how to score free supplies online, turn community events into goldmines of leftover materials, up and Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08381130136674863891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-67232575208238156462011-08-11T06:00:00.001-04:002011-08-11T06:00:04.587-04:00A Donation to the FriendsWhat do you do with the random money you find laying around the library? I'm sure some people think they are paying their fines by leaving dollar bills in their books, but they might as well be expensive bookmarks.
Although I keep eyeing these 3-D shark bookmarks that retail for about $6.50 at bookstores and Amazon. So who am I to say you shouldn't use a dollar for a bookmark?
So oddly, Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08381130136674863891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-26338427054719004512011-05-09T17:19:00.001-04:002011-05-09T17:19:00.147-04:00Nosy KidThe nosy little girl is back. She saw a list of companies I want to work for and picked up "TechSoup" for some reason."I know TechSoup, they make soup!" She said."Yes, they make good soup." I said. She's the talkative one, it's best not to engage her."My friend's mom works there!" She said. "My friend's mom is the MANAGER.""Well in that case, can she get me a job there?"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-58187850259545168892011-05-03T18:00:00.000-04:002011-05-03T18:00:00.293-04:00nice suggestionbut I'm not going to make any effort to tell anyone that you think the spines on the dvds should be read horizontally, with the items stacked flat, rather than vertically like books. Even if people agreed with you and made that a priority, I can promise the library will no longer have DVDs by the time it becomes feasible.Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08381130136674863891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-22480184299767026212011-05-02T08:00:00.001-04:002011-05-02T08:00:18.420-04:00Animals Don't Wear PantsI had a very talkative young patron today. I tried to enlist her help drawing books for a display today. It's a kid's display, so it doesn't have to be "good" (ah, yes, I am not a through and through children's librarian). She drew a stick figure of Mama Bear from the Berenstain Bears and asked if she had to draw clothes on her. All I could say is "not if it's an animal". The real lesson here is,Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-8619395440322855052011-04-30T18:31:00.001-04:002011-04-30T18:33:58.610-04:00Careers for Sports FansWould you weed a 20 year old career book called Careers for Sports Fans?
I'm watching a girl about 8 years old looking at It's Not the Stork. Wide-eyed. Oh boy. I just helped her mom find a classic series about horses. Oh boy.Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08381130136674863891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-86970551340199827252011-01-13T15:22:00.004-05:002011-01-13T15:24:26.214-05:00Candy StripperGiggle before it's fixed, but the fifteen year old Christian heroine in God Is In the Pancakes is a "candy striper", not a "candy stripper".Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-27275652551179092292011-01-06T19:45:00.003-05:002011-01-06T20:01:07.280-05:00Well, well, wellI know we're not using the same software as Amazon or Google, but must the library keyword search suggestions be that unhelpful? The most random queries kick back even randomer "did you mean" suggestions"baby names" brings back "did you mean ebay name's?""all saints" brings back "did you mean all antes"but if I accidentally type in"Guorious George"it can't suggest I want "Curious George".andtheUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-80550090515172544612011-01-03T18:43:00.004-05:002011-01-03T18:56:40.480-05:00New Years Resolutions In the Library1. To dress more professionally2. To not empathize unnecessarily with patrons who are confused by the library, for instance, they do not need to know how much I agree the print release station is confusing.3. To read some genre fiction4. To go out of my way to make great displays, including putting great books on display 5. To be quieterUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-47223675632964517802010-11-14T17:04:00.003-05:002010-11-14T17:15:09.049-05:00The civility of a library to it's employees can be measured by one standard: is the library willing to offer replacement blades for the staff tape dispensers. I was extremely happy to find a rubber banded stack of replacement blades at my current place of employment. My former place of employment would only allow staff to order office supplies from a very short list, claimed they never heard of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-7860537474401646032010-09-18T16:43:00.002-04:002010-09-18T16:49:49.502-04:00Blog Clean UpI'm culling my library blog RSS feeds. I'm not going to write for academic library journals nor am I interested in your blah blah blah research you're going to self publish and analyze your sales for the next six months. So I need suggestions, fun library stuff, book reviews, website reviews, working with urban populations, working with teens, creative outreach, arts and crafts, computer trainingUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-35165160967647339742010-05-14T20:39:00.001-04:002010-05-14T20:39:26.426-04:00Goodbye Brooklyn Public LibraryHello San Francisco. No job yet, but i will fix that soon.Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08381130136674863891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-42195684036423483382010-04-01T13:33:00.004-04:002010-04-01T14:00:50.634-04:00Kick Start (er....)hiiiiiiiiiiI tried watching some of Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars on the Disney Channel the other night but just couldn't do it. I was too stuck on making sure she was wearing the right shoes (the Uggs in one scene almost made me cry, but she did switch to Chuck Taylors later). How could they do this? How dated must Ms. Harriet seem to today's kids?As for dee library. Wells. Yah. I work at a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-7081503881822455382010-01-19T09:57:00.004-05:002010-01-19T10:27:10.305-05:00How the Referece Survey Should Be TalliedYes the LibCamp NYC 2009 unconference was a long time ago. What always strikes me is what I'm still talking about a year later. People are generally too cryptic in their immediate tweets (even though I presented about Twitter) and I don't like to mess up my Twitter account with too much non-personal stuff. Yes, I'm one of those Twitterers who thinks it should NOT be used for personal branding. InUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-91963433858476660882010-01-05T15:31:00.002-05:002010-01-05T15:35:06.847-05:00Overdrive for DroidThe Librarian in Black got all excited that the Ovedrive software is available for Droid. In beta, so you have to go into settings and allow it download apps not available in the app marketplace. Well, I played with it for a few minutes and gave up. You still need to instal software onto you computer and THEN transfer your audio book to your Droid. Boo. I wanted to just download audiobooks when Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-7719117137212212712009-12-30T23:55:00.004-05:002009-12-31T00:03:59.975-05:00For the past few years the theme song around my life has included the line "I'm going to make it through this year if it kills me". Bless you Mr. Darnielle. So now for New Years Resolutions. The stack of books I got for Christmas that promise I will get through php, mysql, cs3 (lost my connection to get cs4), and study for the lsat as a way out. Basically: I need to get a few flashier things on Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08381130136674863891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-66929347639950716782009-10-29T14:32:00.002-04:002009-10-29T14:47:36.492-04:00You The Online VersionSince I bought the domain name www.agentramona.com I've had a lot of angst. First of all, I didn't want to be limited by the title of librarian and my real name was taken in various other ways. So why end a brand? Because when I graduated from library school and sent out all my applications, I didn't realize Gmail was adding "sent on behalf of" and I worry my resumes that went into the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-67507150836232406832009-10-27T10:28:00.002-04:002009-10-27T10:34:35.062-04:00Dear mysterious force in charge of the internet,Please give Google more power so that Google Wave becomes VERY popular and forces our IT department to abandon Internet Explorer due to patron pressure. Right now I can't do anything in Wave, which sucks, because I'm sure that during the workday is when most of my pals are going to be on it. IE has crushed my dreams of using it to collaborate with Courtneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08381130136674863891noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-33092595492676571902009-10-26T16:30:00.002-04:002009-10-26T16:34:31.208-04:00POP3Really. I know it's a security issue. But can we please enable POP3 so we can forward our mail to a service that has more than the tiny little limit we're allowed in Outlook? I'm always missing important stuff because I have to go through major mail purges, I don't have much flexibility in making folders and rules for things like holds lists that I don't need and it just feels restrictive that I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-69111782889298317462009-09-22T13:33:00.001-04:002009-09-22T13:36:37.599-04:00Duke: Why We're Not Digitizing ZinesIs there a proper way to format posts that you write as a comment on another blog? Here are some thoughts on Beth Wooten's post on the Duke University Digital Collection's blog about Why We're Not Digitizing Zines:Thanks Beth. I’d like to add that there are zine sites that scan and archive zines without permission, although there are none I would endorse, and that I think it’s fine for a library Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-27159292619666019152009-08-07T15:48:00.001-04:002009-08-07T15:59:13.735-04:00Printing ImprovementsInstead of making people sign up for computer time to print from their flash drives, why not just let them plug in the flash drives at another computer and send the print job to the printer? If a patron is technically savvy enough to be prepaired with their flash drive ready to print, they won't take any longer at those stations than a patron who needs coaching just to make a reservation.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29004041.post-82543432334661682952009-08-01T23:30:00.000-04:002009-09-22T13:37:21.541-04:00Was A Me Meme, but is Now a Time Capsule and a RocketshipThis is the kind of draft I find that's over a year old and makes me say, wow, okay, yes, I still feel this way. Although now I've been through two Teen Tech Weeks, presented on Twitter twice, become a semi-official resume helper in our branch. I've angsted over the fact I'm not helping anyone with their website design or the UI on any of the systems we have here. What can I do now? Keep learningUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0