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Category: Libraries and Librarians

Being a Patron

Published by Iris on Saturday, July 22nd, 2006

Note: If the title sounds an awful lot like titles of much more thoughtful and useful articles you’ve read in the last couple of days, it is purely … um … thievery. But the title fits.

I went to my local public library this week, as I do quite often. It’s a small library, but they have a decent collection of books and quite a good collection of videos, dvds, and audio books (good for those long drives to other towns, through corn fields, which still mess with this city girl’s head). I had just gotten back from the wedding and family reunion week, and I knew I had a book on tape checked out (Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, part 2 of 3), but I thought it was due the next week. It wasn’t. It was already three days overdue.

“Did you bring back “Atlas Shrugged” today?” asked the circulation lady.

“No,” I replied, still wondering why she’d want me to bring back a book that was due next week.

“Oh, because its a little overdue, but let me just renew it for you,” the circulation lady say, without any hesitation at all.

Just like that, she renewed my overdue book. It made my day. Kudos to the Northfield Public Library for putting customer service over ILS messages. (And btw, she did the same thing for the three overdue videos of the family in front of me.)

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Overheard in a Library

Published by Iris on Tuesday, July 18th, 2006

Our college is hosting almost 50 high school students this week, all working on an intensive writing/thinking/debating/research project (the one my whole department taught yesterday afternoon). While shepherding them through exercises to give them practice with print and online resources, one of my coworkers overheard a student saying, “I hate books. They’re so dirty.”

Really? Wow. More dirty than the keyboards on which you’re all typing merrily away? Personally, I’d take a little dust over a bunch of microbes any day, but that’s just me.

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Immersion ’06

Published by Iris on Thursday, June 29th, 2006

[Update: It seems that the people who’d gotten their assignments already are the ones going to regional programs rather than the national program. So I’m feeling distinctly less lost now… still not happy about the tone of some of the answers to people’s questions early on, but definitely less lost.]

I just realized that The Gypsy Librarian is going to Immersion this year. I am too. Who else will be there?

I’m also getting a little bit frustrated. Even with two major communication channels (email and WebCT), I’m feeling distinctly out of the loop. Apparently some people know what they’re supposed to be reading for the jigsaw readings already, but I haven’t gotten my assignment. In fact, I haven’t gotten any official communication in a few weeks. Does anyone know what cohort they’re in? I don’t.

I should probably ask these question on the WebCT discussion board, but to be honest, I’m scared to. The tone of some of the responses seems to suggest that we should know better than to ask these questions since the answers were posted elsewhere. I’m sorry, but I’ve downloaded every Word Document on that site (Why can’t they just be viewable? Why do I have to download the document?), I’ve read the posts, I’ve read the emails, and I’m still confused. All the information is too compartmentalized for easy navigation. I shouldn’t have to refer back to an email we got months ago telling us how to access WebCT in order to find out about what I should be reading. That should be posted in the “Readings” section of the site, or the “Assignments” portion.

Ok, ok. I know I shouldn’t get worked up about this. I just hate feeling like I don’t know where to find information. That’s why I became a librarian.

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