CPD23 Thing 10

Talkin' about my education...

I've been lucky enough to have had an international (albeit Anglophone) education. I went to school in Melbourne, Australia (which means my US history and geography are spotty and I use British or Australian words at times). I returned to the US for college at a true liberal arts school which provided me with a very broad background. I then went to Canada for graduate school. I started with history -- Victorian British history and after it became clear that I was not going to be a history professor I began investigating archives.

I went to library school at the University of Toronto and specialized in archives. Along the way I learned that I had an aptitude for cataloging so I began to take cataloging courses too. The U of T program is a 2-year, accredited degree. When I was finishing we were able to choose between getting a Masters of Library Information Science or just plain MLS degree (I chose the latter).

... and my career
When I was doing my degree I was also able to work a few library jobs in other university departments. First I worked at a job I created in the philosophy department (where my husband was a graduate student) -- setting up their departmental library using bibliographic software, Endnote, as a kind of catalog. I did lots wrong but I got things started there. Then I was a graduate library assistant at the Criminology Library. I learned so much here -- from shelf reading (which I love to do), how to tattle-tape and how to be a great boss from the library director. I even got to do a bit of reference work.

After that I started working full time. I was lucky enough to get a cataloging job right out of library school. In fact I never attended my library school graduation because I was working. I worked for an outsourcing outfit in Kitchner, Ontario : Library Services Center (which was then called the Ontario Library Services Center). I couldn't believe that anyone would pay me to catalog when I knew so little.

I learned so much. How to work as part of a team, what cataloging for an audience meant, what a corporate author really meant, how to catalog a wide variety of materials, how to cope when you have to start working 40 hours a week for the same pay of 35 because the company is in dire financial straits, how to catalog in an online system (which was the new Horizon which made my life easier years later) and how to work in an open office environment. I also managed to screw up my right hand with RSI (thank goodness for the Canadian health care system which made it possible to treat that even when poor) so I have learned to be very careful with ergonomics and how to mouse with my left hand.

We left Ontario for Omaha in the mid-90s when my husband was hired as a professor at Creighton University. I struggled to find work when we first moved here. I did interviews for the few job openings I found -- my lack of a car or a drivers license hampered my search a bit. After 6 months out of work I turned to temp work. I temped for about a year and eventually was offered a job as an archivist at the Union Pacific Museum.

This was a contract position but it was archives. The museum at that time was located in the Durham Museum in downtown Omaha -- a restored Art Deco train station. While I was there Union Pacific completed it's takeover of Southern Pacific which meant a huge amount of material for the UP Museum. I worked extensively with SP archives. And I learned that working with photographic materials is very different than print but wonderful.

I dealt with a wide variety of materials from corporate memos and records to silver tea sets and publicity stills and station plans and blueprints. I worked with train fans who wanted to plans or photos of all the SP stations, those who wanted to know what colors to paint their trains; researchers who knew something about history and trains and those who knew nothing (do you have an aerial, color shot of the Golden Spike?, Uh, no.). At this early stage of online commerce I saw first hand how putting a buy online with a credit card increased our photo sales incredibly. I also learned how to put together displays, something I had never, ever done before.

But this was a contract position -- no benefits and little chance of anything changing so I was still looking for a permanent job. I found one at the Douglas County Historical Society as the Librarian/Archivist. Here I learned so much about Omaha history and genealogical work. I didn't do as much cataloging as I would have liked but I did manage to help the society to a new membership/cataloging database, PastPresent.

I left for a variety of reasons, including low pay and few benefits. I interviewed 3 times with the Omaha Public Library -- for a serials cataloger position , an adult reference librarian position and finally a cataloger and reference librarian position. After the city had a job hiring freeze I eventually started in January of 2002.

The split position, 20 hours reference and 20 hours cataloging, was a new one for OPL. I rather enjoyed it. I worked the main reference desk -- handling calls of all types most mornings and came downstairs to the oasis of quiet in the afternoon. I cataloged adult nonfiction. I worked evenings and weekends but it wasn't bad. When the cataloging department manager retired I became first the interim manger and eventually the manager of the new Technical Services department. It was a combination of the acquisitions and cataloging departments which have shared spaced in the basement of the downtown library for many years but didn't become one department until more recently.

Since I have been manager the department has gone through not only the merger but also the building of shared facility with our local community college, Metro Community College. This meant a shared ILS which has been a challenging experience at times (sharing catalog records has been the easiest part). We also have worked to meet the challenge of 48 hours turnaround (that means 48 hours from when we receive the materials until they get out to our patrons) and preparing an opening day collection for a renovated library branch in under 2 months. We also worked on an opening collection for a brand new library branch in another shared facility with Omaha Public Schools. Now we are working on changing from the Horizon ILS (by Sirsi-Dynix) to Millennium (by III) -- hoping to go live by the end of month.

But I really I love my job. I greatly enjoy the work I do. I enjoy the challenges I encounter. Sure, it is not all wonderful all the time but I generally have a high rate of job satisfaction. I don't know what the future will bring but I always trust that things work out eventually.

CPD23 Thing 9

Evernote

I had never heard of this program before CPD23 but it looks very promising. I had fun playing around with it and can see how I can use it to feed my recipe addiction.

One aspect I like is how easy it is to copy from a webpage -- something that I do (especially with recipes; why is it so hard to print from a blog -- love the recipe blogs which allow you to print just the recipe) -- and to then have a nicely formatted and printable page (and findable too).

I can also see how I can use it for cataloging. Just yesterday I had to find a PDF online to catalog. I was able to find it, use Evernote to copy the first page and then have the link saved and know what it was about so if I wasn't able to finish my catalog record I could go back and find it later. This is better than bookmarking, in my opinion.

I can also see how it could be fabulous to use with a tablet device. One of the criticisms I have heard about such devices is that it is hard to take notes and sometimes if you lose rights to a digital book then you loose your notes. I presume that you could use Evernote to store your notes instead. It might be a bit of a pain to have to use a secondary system but it is better than losing your notes!

This will be a program that I'll continue to make use of and probably find new and different ways to use. I know I'll use to when updating and working on LibGuides too.

CPD23 Thing 8

Getting Organized

I have used Google Calendar for my family calendar for a few months now. I have known about it longer and wanted something online that both my husband I could get to. I try to keep it up-to-date although have been a bit behind lately. But it is a great way to put in recurring meetings and kids' activities.

Only problem is husband doesn't really use it. Sigh.

But I like it. I like that it will send me email reminders about things if i set them up. I would like to be able to do a bit more as a family calendar (or any kind of shared calendar) where you could perhaps color code entries based on who was doing them.

I would also like to be able to set up different calendars for different things. I'd love to have a project management calendar in Google. In fact just last week I went looking on the web for different kinds of project management calendars and was disappointed in what I found. I haven't seen a way I can have different Google calendars going at the same time so I keep my Outlook calendar at work for my things at work (and if it ain't on my Outlook calendar it ain't happening) and my personal life on Google.

I want to keep them separate as there is no need for work to know about my personal life and although I enter some stuff on my Outlook calendar and mark them private I am seeing some sense to just keeping two different calendars. I am also considering whether I can change my PDA (yes I have one, old-fashioned as I am) to the Google Calendar rather than Outlook.

The thing that was new for me in this activity was iGoogle. I have seen and used similar personalized pages with gadgets and add-ons (NetVibes is one) but I must admit that I rather like iGoogle. The only problem seems to be that if I don't set it as my homepage then it doesn't save the settings. At work I don't want it as my homepage. At home that's different and I will set it as my homepage and can hopefully save some settings and gadgets.

Yet again Google has a good product but it is not quite perfect.

CPD23 Thing 7

Networking and Professional Organizations

I hate networking. I am an introvert. I am cataloger (at heart). I am terrible at small talk and schmoozing at parties. I am dreading next week when I have 3 full days of training followed by a wedding on Friday night. Don't expect much of me on Saturday.

I do, however, quite like Professional Organizations and am pretty involved with them on a state and national level. Even if the meetings and conferences take a lot out of me.

At the state level I am involved with the Nebraska Library Association and more particularly, the Technical Services Round Table of NLA. I am currently Past Chair of TSRT which means I served as Chair last year and the Vice-Chair/Chair elect the year before. After two years of duties I am enjoying this year where all I had to do was find candidates to run for office (although that was a bit of a task). Previously, I edited the newsletter, when we had one, and then became the Communications Director for a while (but didn't do much).

This has been a lovely little niche for me in NLA. I have made excellent contacts with catalogers across Nebraska. At the state level it often matters less whether we are in academic, public or special libraries but we can have a common dialogue about cataloging issues. This has been particularly true with all RDA.

Although it is not a professional organization, participating in the 2nd Nebraska Library Leadership Institute way back in 2005, was a great way as a new professional to get to know library staff across Nebraska. When I served on the NLA board as TSRT chair last year it was a lot easier for me as I knew people from my NLLI experience. I have kept in contact with many of my NLLI cohorts and enjoy seeing who else has gone through this wonderful program. Thanks to our Regional Library Systems for having this every two years.

I am also active in ALA in ALCTS. This came about by accident. A few years ago I was able to attend one of the Library of Congress's Working Group on Bibliographic Control sessions that was held in Chicago (only a hour away by plane so I could fly in and out the same day). I was angered by the lack of input from and consideration give to public libraries. So I posted on the AUTOCAT listserv. To my surprise the ALCTS president elect, Pamela Bluh, contacted me and asked if I would be willing to serve on the ALCTS Membership Committee, specifically to see what ways ALCTS could be doing more with public librarians in technical services. I served a two-year term.

Now I am on the ALCTS Planning Committee (as a virtual member) which means I am working on long-term planning for ALCTS. As a virtual member I have not attended ALA Annual or Mid-Winter since being on this committee but I make sure to keep on email, ALA Connect and try to attend the virtual meetings when at all possible. I know that public libraries are not well represented in this part of ALA so I try to do what I can. I have not made many personal contacts at this level but that is okay.

All in all I have found the professional organizations have helped me to network in a less painful fashion. I have made valuable contacts that have helped me in my job. I know people I can call to ask for help with a variety of issues. And there are people who contact me for help with a variety of issues. This is particularly important in Technical Services where so often you are the only one in your institution who understands or cares about certain things so it is good to have others who speak a common language.

CPD23 Thing 6

Virtual Networks

I am a regular Facebook user. I like it; I can use it on my terms (in other words ignore it for days or weeks and check in when I like, as often as I like). I can just read what others post or post constantly myself. I have used it to connect to my far-flung family and friends. And reconnected with some friends from high school and college.

Although I did start using Facebook because of a library colleague and originally had mainly library land friends it soon became a way for me to share life with my family and then my friends. I regard my FB account as largely personal, although I will often post things that are library and work related.

I do not really use it to network professionally. I did like the CPD23 fan page. My library uses Facebook to promote the library (with separate pages for kids, teens and general library).

I do not use LinkedIn and have been thinking about why don't. First of all, it would another online presence to maintain (with another user name and password to remember!). Second, it just isn't fun. At this stage if I am going to be doing things beyond my regular job duties it needs to have some element of fun and LinkedIn does not appear to have that. If I were job seeking I would have a different feeling about it and I can see that it has real utility in the job world and professionally.

I would rather continue to use Twitter and perhaps this blog to promote my professional face. I am considering posting non-library cont ed posts, such as about what we are going through to change ILSes.

I use ALA Connect (the ALA version of CLIP communities) sporadically. I am a virtual member of an ALA committee (ALCTS Planning) and we use ALA Connect to work on documents (our new chair has been posting documents for us to review for the past week!) and share information. I don't use ALA Connect as much as I could or should. Although there are networking capabilities set up in ALA Connect I haven't found many people use it that way (or I do not know the people using it that way).

I have been interested to hear about Google+ and took a quick look at it the other day -- but that it is by invitation only (the same way that Google has done with other things it has started) so I was only able to look at the demo pages. It could be interesting to use. I do like how it seems to enable you to separate out family, friends and work people. It seems to have gotten fairly positive reviews and I'll watch it with interest.

I am all in favor of online, virtual networking but it needs to have fun mixed in with it to get people using it. And we need to find ways to balance personal with professional.

CPD23 Thing 5

Reflective Practice

When I first read this thing I thought, hey, no problem, I am pretty reflective. But, on further reading and reflection, I realized that most of my reflection comes before I start. Such as before beginning this task. I read Thing 5 yesterday and reread it again today, going a little deeper, looking at links. In between I have been thinking about what I first read and how I would respond. And that has changed after rereading.

I do reflect on what I have dome, especially when I feel I have done something wrong or could have done it better. But that reflection is usually not that productive as it tends to be negative rather than thinking about how to do it better. Although I try to learn from my mistakes I tend to be hard on myself about my mistakes.

Learning from what we have done well or rather, stopping to realize that we have done it well and recording that for the future is also important. For instance, we have had to close 3 branches in the past 5 years for renovations but we have not stopped to write down what has gone well, or not gone so well, with those procedures. So each time it feels like a new thing we are doing and we forget what steps we need to take.

Or we are in the midst of changing to a new ILS and I would love to have a checklist somewhere of what you need to do as a library to prepare for this. I will try and take some time after we are done to work out went well and what didn't go well. A colleague at another library did this for a presentation at a conference and I found it helpful as a listener, I wonder if she found it helpful herself.

Taking the time after a project has been completed to say what worked and what didn't work is very hard to do. After all you've put in all this time and worked hard for months and are just glad to be done. But it is important to stop and take the time, while it is still fresh in your mind, to be reflective.

I don't know if I'll be able to do that but if I could spend some of the time after as well as before a project reflecting I believe it would be a benefit to me and my work.

CPD23 Thing 4

How Do I Keep Up?

Keeping up to date and on top of things always seems so hard to do, particularly since the advent of the Internet, Google and instant knowledge. I have used Twitter for a while and partly use it as news source. I follow various Twitter accounts of things that interest me from professional to personal, although few of my friends or colleagues use Twitter. I follow some mainstream media, some Library news sources and some fun news sources. I have often found Twitter to be a good way to keep very current and check it once a day at work. I rarely check it at home.

RSS Feeds have been more problematic. I have learned about them a few years ago and have used RSS Feeds on and off. My problem is the having to check in part. I do like the Google Reader better than other I have used. One because it is not yet another username/password to forget; and two because it only keeps things as unread for a short while so when you do check in months later you are not overwhelmed by the quantity of what you haven't read.

I did set up a Pushnote account but have yet to see a lot of utility here. The main stumbling blocks seems to be that there aren't that many people using it. And you can only search for people by username or email address. I tried searching for CPD23 and got nothing. I'll experiment and try rating some sites and see how it goes but so far I am not seeing how useful it is.

A service I find useful for keeping up is Tabbloid which allows you to have a RSS Feeds in a PDF document deliver to email once a week. I have in that RSS Feed a bunch of library (okay, cataloging) related blogs. I can scan through them quickly, click on those that I want to read more about and I am done. I find this easier to do than remembering to check into Google Reader. You can even print out the PDF if you need to take it off line to read.

As I am US based I also find useful the email enewsletters from Library Journal and the Wednesday afternoon email from American Libraries Direct -- both are good ways to keep up on what is going in US libraries at least, and often offer a bit of humor. Which is always a good thing!

And I do still use Listserv -- AUTOCAT is very active and can be draining to use at times but also a good source of information (I do a digest so I get only one message a day and can scan through it and then delete or follow up as need be). A few others a a bit less active and easier to keep up with.

Lastly, conversing with others is always a good way to learn new things and has the added advantage of the personal touch.