LISNews: Librarian News

A friend of mine who works at a Broward County library, where employees had to read in the paper about huge budget cuts, tells a bummer of a story. A friend of hers had signed a contract with Broward, given notice at her old job, let go of her apartment and signed a lease on a new apartment. A week before she was scheduled to move, the job offer was rescinded, despite the contract. Her current position has already been filled, her current apartment has already been leased, and she can't break the lease on the new apartment. It appears that the cuts have not been finalized, but it sure doesn't look good.

I'm heading to WiLSWorld summer conference tomorrow in Madison. Any other Wisconsin librarians headed that way? I'm looking forward to meeting my new fellow cheesehead librarians!

I made post number 2000 today at LISNews. I've been pretty scarce the past several months, owing to too much stuff going on and a happy major life transition. But, I've given up all my freelance work and hope to be hanging out here a bit more than I have. Thanks, Blake! You're the best.

I put in my last Monday night on the reference desk last night. It was also my colleague's last night--she's retiring after 35 years. I don't know if it was the Darvocet (thanks to emergency root canal earlier in the day) or what, but it wasn't very milestoney or emotional or anything. I think I'm trying not to think, "This is the last time I'll ever answer a question for Walt," or "Should I let Jill know that I'm leaving?" I'm leaving in a really good way. It's time for me to leave, I'm leaving on good terms, and I'm going to a really great situation. I guess I'm feeling a little guilty for not feeling more emotional about leaving the place I've spent the past 11 years. Or, maybe I'm fooling myself and will be hit with a huge wave of sadness at some point.

Today is Rochelle Day and everyone will eat cake in my honor. (I requested white cake with choc frosting). My colleague, who is an extremely private person, wants no recognition of her exit, but I will still let her eat some cake. Will cake make me cry?

But, no time for reflection now...the drywall guy just got here.

Ah, but this relocation thing is stressy! Submitted our offer for a sweeeet house in La Crosse yesterday, and I think it's a go. Still have to sell my house, though. We've got financing set up that's not contingent on selling the Bloomington house and will make it so we're not paying two mortgages, but my stomach would hurt less if we could get an offer on this house soon. Admit it, you've always wanted to live in Bloomington, IL, right? Have I got the house for you...

Blake and I were IMing earlier this week and he mentioned that someone had asked where in the heck I've been. Things are all good, I'm happy to report--just frantic. I've got six weeks to sell my house, buy a house and move my family away from my home of 40 years. I've learned that if I gave over my life to housekeeping, I would have a damn fine looking house all the time. And, basically, that's what it takes to keep your house looking in show-able condition. Never before have my dishes been done with such regularity, my floors vaccumed so carefully and corners so thoroughly de-cobwebbed. If you know of anyone relocating to Bloomington, ILLINOIS, I've got a sweet bungalow available June 1.

I also haven't been blogging much about library issues at my other venues because a)I don't have much time; and b)I know that my professional life will change a great deal (and in a good way) with the new job, so I'm just waiting for the change to start blogging heavily again. It's good to know that LISNews can thrive even without my obsessive daily input. ;-) You guys are all swell!

I'm pleased to announce that on June 1 I will be joining the La Crosse Public Library as their Information Services Manager. Wonderful library, dynamic, awesome director and a lovely town! I never thought I'd leave my hometown before my girls were out of high school, but opportunity not only knocked, but kicked in the door. I'm sad to be leaving the only place I've ever known, but excited about the adventure and thrilled with the challenge. Any La Crossians out there?

5:30 Hear Olivia's alarm go off (how many 15 y.o.'s do you know who purposefully set their alarms for 5:30 am?)
6:08 Yell out "are you studying" since I know she has a latin/greek roots quiz
6:15 Get up to quiz Oliy to make sure that she has, in fact, studied.
6:30-7:00-Oatmeal, email, get dressed
7:10-Olivia to school (this is one of my favorite parts of the day, driving my soon to be 15 year old to school. We talk and listen to music and joke around. We have this dopey ritual: when we get to the school, I yell "Get the hell out of my car." She holds up her hand and responds. "Yeah, yeah. Okay. Now get the hell out of my parking lot." We've only had a couple mornings that we were so cranky that we didn't do it.
7:20 Back home. Feed outside cats (Bludger and Big Head Tom)
7:40 Claude and I leave and pick up her friend Anya for school delivery
7:50 Stop for a medium Americano at the Hound
8 Arrive at work. Sort of a gabby day in the work room. I announced that I'm applying for an out-of-state job, which I've always vowed I wouldn't do until my girls were out of high school. So, on top of the surprise, there were a lot of questions.
10 am--walk to PD to file report about stolen debit card. Officer still has not filed report from 2/12 incident and has been out on sick leave. Today, I learned that I have to talk to him and get that report before I can file theft/fraud report, all of which I need before I file a fraud report with the credit union. Glad it's not a more serious thing. Jeeze.
11 Web team meeting. Met about our new site design which I will be so proud to announce when it's done. Webdude is using Drupal.
12 Out to ref desk. It's very quiet today. Could be that we scared folks away with several days of the sounds of 12 inches of concrete being drilled. You couldn't see any dust, but I had a cough all the days they were drilling. But, they're done. Here's what happened in the two hours on the desk:

Books by Gordon Korman (children's)
email reference question about local support groups for GLBTQ people and their friends and family.
Email announcing that we now have a library catalog search app within NoveList. Yipee!(Thanks, Brian)
Printer out of paper
(25 minutes to Indian buffet!)
Jeeze..it's really dead today.

1-2ish. Indian Buffet with a colleague and former colleauge. Much kvetching ensued.
2:15. Pick up Olivia from school and took her home.
2:40 Left to pick up Claudia and Anya (Claude's friend). Felt sudden urge to urp. Thought I could maintain, but was wrong. Much retching ensued. Thank god for the unused biohazard bag sent home by the school nurse the last time I had to pick up Olivia when she was sick. Called work and requested someone to take over my 3-5 slot. Got girls and came home. Threw clothes in laundry, put on jams, called the Mr. and went to bed and started reading Princess in Pink.
3:30 Anya called and asked if Claude wanted to go to Arizona over spring break. Claude was quite sanguine and said she'd call Anya back. I told Claude she'd better get some details. When Anya said they'd be flying, I shook my head at Claude, but Anya's grandma is springing for tix. Claude, who has never been on an airplane, thought that'd be okay. So, I guess my 12 year old is getting the spring break trip I never had. Good for her! Now Olivia is asking me if I can take her to Gettysburg for spring break (because it's haunted).

6 Girls' dad came to get them for the evening.

7:30 Finished Princess in Pink. Feeling cheated that the first night I've had to myself in awhile, I'm feeling too crummy to get anything done. I guess lounging in bed and reading is something. Maybe a well-deserved something.

8 Started another book, this one grown-up chicklit, the title of which I can't even remember. Ate some salad. It stayed down.
9 Picked up girls from their dad's, then back to bed where I read until 11 or so. Lights out.

Testing testing.

I'm working on formatting a manuscript in Word, and am having problems. The doc is left justified with the margins equal on both sides, but the whole document is off-center to the left, leaving a big gutter on the right. I've been all over Word help, but am clearly missing something. I'm sure this is an easy fix, but I'm just not getting it. Please email me! lisrochelle at gmail dot com. Or, heck, call if you want. It's Sunday, almost 11 CST. I'll be fussing with this for the next hour.

We had our "first" Katrina patron last week, and I got all het up because we didn't have protocol in place to help someone out who had no ID. All he had was a signed form from the homeless shelter he was staying in, I told the guy I'd check stuff out for him if we couldn't get him a card. Well, they did figure out a policy, and the guy got a card. Today, after a sharp circ staffer supsected something fishy, it turned out the guy had a card or two at another library down the road, dated before Katrina was close to NOLA. As I replay my conversation with him, it makes sense. I thought I'd gotten much better at detecting manipulators and scammers, but I was had (as was everyone else). I'm still glad I gave this guy the benefit of the doubt, but I'm furious that someone would take advantage of others' misfortunes.

(Update, Sun evening: Generator has been spoken for!)

Someone emailed me and said he has been trying to find someone who needs a large generator, such as a school, clinic or other non-profit serving hurricane evacuees. They will transport from Illinois. More information here.

Hey all--

I have a writer friend who has some of his work saved in Word Pro. He asked if I knew how to convert it to Word. I don't. I have looked around online and found a few things, but trust youse guys above unknown forum posters. He's willing to pay for a conversion service, but if it's something relatively easy, I can give it a whirl (Please note that according to Blake's Library Geek post, I do not qualify. I do, however, have nunchuck and bowstaff skills.)

A gentleman approached the desk today and asked what our cell phone policy was. I don't think I've ever had anyone bother to ask. I explained that we prefer folks to turn their ringers off and have their conversations in the lobby. He said he was expecting a crucial call and I said that we understood situations like that, and didn't mind if he had his ringer on soft.

Truth be told, I'm almost used to the regular ringing of phones, and loud personal conversations . What I'm not used to yet, though, are the two-way radio phones with their loud beeps and very loud public conversations. C'mon people! Jeeze.

I just got a cell phone, and I don't know that it's worth having because I feel self-conscious about it being even on vibrate, and I refuse to pay it heed in the car. So, no one has been able to actually reach me on the phone except for once or twice. It makes a pretty decent mobile answering machine, though.

Since Blake didn't come out to play at ALA's annual conference, we enlisted my friend and mentee, Eric, to be Blake's stand-in. Steven "Zelig" Cohen slapped a "hello my name is" tag on Eric, and people were thrilled to their toes to meet The Blake Carver. Eric felt so bad about his deception that he took the badge off. Blake! The peeps love you!

It was great to meet others from the LISNews community--Bentley, Brian "Ha Ha" Smith, Aaron Schmidt and Christopher the 'Mudge, who distributed "Moot" buttons.

'Reeno Cohen was my partner in crime for much of the conference. I know there were more of you! It'll take me a good two weeks to sort through my memories. Amidst all the picture taking and blogger hijinks, there was great content and plenty of meaningful discussion.

I have a mentally ill friend in California who just had his van towed. He's on the street, and was not allowed to get his belongings before the van was towed. The van is in his dad's name, so his dad can fax permission for someone to pick up the belongings. We've got feelers out for help lots of places, so I thought I'd see if anyone is close by Santa Cruz, or is familiar with social/support services in the area.

Thanks--rochelle

We just had some guy snoring so loudly that he woke himself up before the guard could get to him. It was like sleep apnea snoring.

I had two patrons in today who had NO idea how to use a copy machine. One said she'd never used one before, and the other one seemed to think that it was a magical device wherein you stick a whole section of a book into it, and get your copies pronto. Then she was mad when circ didn't have change for a fifty. She was making copies of divorce forms and was very stressed-out, so I tried to be as kind as I could. But, no matter what I told her, it made her supremely unhappy.

It's good to realize that what we take for granted--coin boxes, card vending machines, copy machines, etc--are things of mystery to many people.

But, then there's supercreepguy who always has us override the filter for him, and then claims he forgets how to use the print management software. My theory is that he just gets a kick out of calling us over so we can see his naughty work. Today, as I walked him through the process, I stood a good distance from him and gave rather loud directions so I wouldn't have to look at his crap. I know...I'm supposed to be detached and professional and nonjudgmental, but he sets my creep detector off bigtime.

One of my daughters just mentioned that she thought she had a virus on her GameBoy Advance. Is that possible?

Ms. Librarian Action Figure is here for our Tale for Two Cities program. She's doing a reader's advisory session for librarians, a public program and a meet-and-greet. I plan on blogging her workshop. I tried to throw together a podcast interview with her, but as often happens, it was a brilliant last minute idea with no time to properly prepare.