2nd last day

Well, 2nd last day is done.  What can I tell you today......

My supervisor was away, I was supposed to help with Internet for seniors but the days were mixed up and its actually next week and I didn't have dinner with my friends tonight but this is what I did.

I scooted into work this morning.....well, I walked to work and had coffee to cool off before going in.  Once there, we realised all fo the above so I eagerly started on trying to conquer the lost ILLs but before that, I  searched for the requests that had come in overnight.

I was on front counter this morning until after lunch.  This was quite busy, doing WiFi registrations, replacement cards as well as reference questions.  In between answering ref questions, I was working on the unsuccessful ILLs.  

I'm not sure if I mentioned that this branch is extremely busy with WiFi.  It brings so many people into the library.  Its quite interesting that staff at this library talk about a council that likes to make a profit however they have recognised the fact that WiFi needs to be one part of their library collection.

Had some LMS problems today.  It was up and down and up and down.  Unlike my library, this only affects that LMS and not the Internet which is a blessing considering the number of public access computers and WiFi users. 

Great news.......This afternoon, I managed to complete all the unsuccessful ILLs.  Hopefully the ILL officer will be happy when she gets back from leave on Monday.  By completing the ILLs I mean, contacting the patron to see if they still require the item and then either cancelling the request or re requesting the item. 

Finished work and was planning  on going to this huge shopping centre but changed my mind.  The fact that I crossed the railway line and was about to head in the wrong direction helped change me mind about shopping.  You see, I would have to catch a train and then a bus to get there.  Changed my mind to come home and open up the house....hoping it would cool off....which it did :))))))  (thats me with a huge smile). 

Sis is doing jewelry making tonight so she'll be home later.  I'm watching a taped NCIS as I type and there's a cool breeze blowing through the window.  So all is great. 

I should fast forward the add and then go pack as its that time of the 3 weeks. 
One day to go and then back to the real world....nearly

Wednesday

Well another day down.  Only 2 to go and then back to the real world where we need to think about how we are doing things and ensure we are up to date.

Once again, today I worked on Library Link.  We managed to get the list down to 25 this afternoon.  I worked overtime today only finishing at 4.30.  Will have to keep an eye on the time tomorrow as I'm heading into the city for dinner with Civica staff tomorrow night.  I'm looking forward to that and hope there isn't any train dramas tomorrow. 

Bit of a drama on the line this morning (the one I would take into the city).  Luckily I'm doing foot power this week.  Its been mighty hot and I moan and groan about the sweat in my eyes all the way (most of the time to myself however I try to ring someone on my way so they can share in my pain.....thanks girls).   

The staff member I'm working with loves me at the moment as I'm helping her to catch up on this task and also train her on the system.  ILL's is a new role for her and she's working half time so she's pleased to have someone to work along with her while she learns.  She said this afternoon that she is feeling much more confident with what I've been showing her.

I was talking to a staff member who is encouraging me to continue with my cert IV so I can graduate next year.  I contacted Uni this week and I need to have my cert sent to them by mid Jan.  Realistically with band, work etc I don't think I can get it done but its worth trying I suppose.  It means 1 subject per week for the next few weeks.  Ohhhhh dearrrrr.

Tuesday.

Well, what can I tell you about today.

I had thought I would be completing the unallocated and available list but a new task was found for me.  This involved searching via Library Link for items that haven't been completed. 

Library Link is a live union catalogue that uses a rota (rotating) list to go through the libraries that have copies.  Each library can accept or reject the request which then sends the request to the next library.  However at this stage, when the request is at the bottom of the list, it goes nowhere.  This means that staff need to

Day 1, third week.

Well, it's nearly all over.  This is my last week on Prac and then back to the real world. 

I'm at a new branch.  This is the newest library in the service.  It has the most new registrations and Wi-Fi users in the entire service and has approx 62 500 items in the branch.  This branches collection is bigger than our entire library services so this is quite interesting.  It is also the 3rd busiest branch regarding loans and visitors however often comes close to being the 2nd. 

This morning, I participated in the reference co-op meeting.  This was the last meeting of this group due to a restructure.  At this stage, they aren't really sure what will happen and where it will all go.  

A few things from the meeting that I was very interested in was a discussion regarding the collection of reference stats.  eg.  What to collect, what to count and how is it done.  Many libraries do daily stats and many only do the 4 weeks as required for the annual return.  I've been able to collect the various forms that are used and will consider them when I get home.

Another discussion took place regarding online databases.  This was quite interesting as the statewide access, consortia arrangement etc are different to what we do.

After lunch, I had a meeting to discuss adult services and the responsibilities of adult team members.  I then ran an unallocated and available list and will continue on with that tomorrow.

As I had been told, this branch is different to the other branches but as we are aware, all branches have an individual feel. 

Friday, Week 2

Week 2 is nearly over.  Hasn't it all gone very quick.  Next thing you now, I'll be home annoying you all again. :)  

Today seemed quiet to me.  This morning only had 4 library staff on deck.  This was 2 Librarians (I'm counting myself as one) and 2 library staff.  One library staff consisted of the admin staff member (who is a library assistant however does the admin side of things for the branch).  My job next week, Sus this position out more. 

Luckily it was a steady but definately quieter morning to what I've experienced in the past.  My task was to finish researching the unallocated list from yesterday.  I had searched the shelf for these items but then had to research the system to see

• if there were additional copies
• If patrons has selected a particiular item (restricting the use of other holdings)
• If a new copy was required because the other copies were missing / being repaired or simply lost

After that, I searched the help screens for some hints and tips on searching the system.  This was for the youth librarian who was only new and had limited experience using the lms.

I also helped on the information desk.  i didn't join anybody up today....but was told to be prepared for it next week as the next branch joins 20 or so people each day.....but was required to search Choice online twice for patrons, help with some reference questions and help with the WiFi registrations. 

The WiFi seems to be the best thing the library can offer.  Very simple and means many more people using the library but not having to use library equipment.  A condition of the WiFi is membership so this means additional members (no temporary memberships like we have). 

I finished work a little later today and then caught the train into the city to meet up with sis.  Well I have an hour or so in the city so I had "Lord of the Fries" which are some brilliant chips that you can put different sauces on.......mayo, chilli, tomato, vinigar, cheese and gravy, salsa, salsa and cheese, satay and mayo and the list continues.  I then headed to Myer as the christmas windows were opened today.  This was great.  The theme......Olivia saves Christmas.  You know olivia....she's the little pig (I think she's a pig and not a mouse).  Anyhow its been created and the story is read.  Snuck inside for a while until Sis rang to say she was leaving work.  Then I walked......the very long way..... to the new DFO. 

What did I buy........
A DVD of Cats the Musical for my darling girls
Some bits and pieces from Kikki K (similar to smiggles)
and...thats it :(

Thursday

Today was a great day.  I spent the morning helping 2 staff members set up the 12 laptops, data projector, screen and printer for the final session of the seniors computer classes.  The go is.

There are 5 monthly sessions which have the following topics each month

• using the mouse, turning the computer on etc
• What is the web, basic internet searching, typing in web addresses
• Using web based email, moving files and saving to a usb
• Demonstartion and using addition hardware -- eg printer, digital camera, scanner and saving these items to a usb
• wrap up session -- go over anything the patron wants to follow up, show patrons the databases -- computer school net, explain to patrons that they can use the library computers, tell people about the additional session held at another branch. 

The additional session is not hands on and is a chance to tell the new users about additional computer classes etc that are available in the area.  This includes U3A, pc users group, tafe classes etc. 

After this class, I had lunch and then do an unallocated and available search.  This search includes no status which means I search for items that are missing etc.  After the search (of which I found 6 of the 35 or so items that had a status of missing), I then looked on the system to determine if we needed to purchase a replacement copy or if there are additional copies in the library service.

I caught a train... well this was  a little drama as I just missed the first so I had to wait for 20 mins for the next train.  Then I had to jump off this train and validate my ticket which meant I wasn't quick enough and had to wait for the next train.  During this time, I managed to lock my PUK on my phone so once I got into the city....Civica's office, I rang telstra to disarm this. 

I had a drink with some Civica staff -- Nikki, Bridie, Karen, Julie with Denise and Emerald popping in for a quick hello.  After this Julie and I headed to an italian restaurant in the Burke St Mall for dinner.  This was lovely so we have organised to do this all again next Thursday night.  Anyone is welcome if you guys would like to join us. (LOL).

Wednesday

What happened today...... Today was storytime day.  The youth librarian is the same guy who I helped with storytime last week.  He is legendary.  Plays his guitar and does a brilliant job. 

One thing that stood out at me were the number of kids / parents that attend.  Stats require us to count both the adults/parents and the kids.  I tried to count and believe we had approx 45 adults and 65 kids.  Imagine trying to do a storytime session with that. 

The first song we sang was Howdy dudey.  We also did so many others and I hope in the future we can share our prepared songs.... with them.  We read a total of 5 stories and sang 2 sets of songs.  We also finish with a book suggestion which is great.  He builds up suspense with that. 

I will also ask him to email us the goggle thing.  This is something like make a pair of goggles with you hands and remind parents that storytime is now over and they need to keep an eye on their kids. 

Then I had lunch and after lunch assisted the team leader (which is branch manager) to weed the reference collection. This is a different process to what we use and really need to justify what we delete, keep or reassign to borrowing.  I personally would have been more ruthless (as we were doing the 510's -- Maths) and would have kept 1 title -- a maths dictionary.  All others would have either been weeded (due to age -- pub date prior to 1990) and not really ready ref -- more something patrons need to take home. 

I was supposed to go to a ref collection meeting today however that was cancelled.  I had a convesation with one staff member regarding roles and responsibilities.  This was very interesting.

Week 2, Day 1

Who would have thought week 2 is here already.  Today I moved to a new branch.  My supervisor was somebody I worked with last week so it nice to have a familiar face.  I spent the morning on ref desk (or information desk) as its called down here.

I requested an item via librarylink which is a brilliant ILL union catalogue.  Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.  The patron can logon themselves and request an item.  I did this onbehalf of the patron.  It really is a live system that works really well. 

I also searched for items on the unallocated list.  This is the same as we do however this is only done weekly as the workflow manager sends through requests the moment they are placed.  I saw this in operation today and searched for some items from the workflow manager. 

After morning tea, I created a list of chinese items that needed to be weeded or at least moved to another branch.  This list was based on last returned date.  It was quite difficult to select items because obviously they were written in Chinese and was quite tricky not selecting series etc.

This kept me going until it was time to go home. 

Did I tell you I got off the bus a few stops early this morning.  Opps.  It wasn't until I got off that I realised my stop was near the train station which was 950m up the road.  Theres my extra walk today.   Ohh.  Did I tell you I got off the bus this afternoon 3 stops early.  Luckily I'll be at this site for this week so I should get it right by friday.  tomorrow is a public holiday here.  I'm not sure what we are doing but it may include a visit to Williamstown or maybe the rose gardens at Werribee Mansion.

Race day

Well, what can I say.....fashion, fashion, fashion.

Some were very successful, some were not.  I had a brilliant fastinator (as Phia would say) that Kathleen made for me.  I think sis and I were among to 1% of female race goers in pants but at least we were comfy.  The day was very hot however with some luck, we managed to score some shade for the entire day.  I didn't get sunburnt but Sis managed to get a little bit....her story, sacraficing the shade for her darling sister.  We took along a picnic of olives, sundried toms, dips and bread.  Lovely. 

I managed to come home even (well I was too lazy to put a bet on and each of the horses I picked are still coming home anyhow) but sis was up 75% of her total bets after 3 races so quite while she was ahead (total bets $10).  As you can see, we are extreme gamblers.

This is a Brett.  Meet him at the races. 

I will post a photo of Kathleen and I when I get them off Sis' camera....probably tomorrow as we're currently cooking up a roast.

Last day at Branch 1

Today was my last day at the first branch.  It was also like the start of a new branch because the people who I had worked with were either on RDO or lates (meaning they don't start until 1pm).  The new people will be at the branch I go to next week...and were also people I met at the Home Library Service meeting I attended. 

This was quite good as they gave me some new tasks.  This involved looking through an unallocated and available list -- cancelling reserves that couldn't be met or suggesting requests for purchases (after searching Books in print) to see if the items were available.

I also collected items from the stack location that had been reserved.  The stack location is 2 sides of a compactus.  Many of these items are old and in a MUSTIE condition. 

I also was one of the staff members on ref desk for the morning.  I only had a few questions which included helping with photocoping, searching for some new titles and also placing some requests for purchase.

After lunch, I continuted on ref desk (allowing a staff member to have some precious time at their desk).  Then I caught up with the Library Co-ordinator who explained her role.  In a way, position title are different down here.  My role at home as Branch Manager could be called Team Leader here (I think) however a team leader is not responsible for rosters, timesheets etc. 

Each branch has a team leader and an admin officer.  My plan next week is to try and crack these roles and compare them to the roles we have.

Among many other things, the Library co-ordinator is responible for

• Human resources (with support from Council's HR team)
• Staffing at each branch
• Attending team meetings
• Ensuring the library is operational

I also received a copy of the library's strategic plan.  One admin officer also gave me copies of the daily, weekly and monthly checklists that I think are great.  These help ensure that each branch is up to date and current.

I received my plan for the next two weeks.  So far, there is more Collection Management and Perfect Ordering which will keep me busy.  I'm looking forward to next week at a new branch.

Day 4

What happened today?????

After helping put the in transit items onto the trolleys, it was storytime.  Today's storytime was run by a different person.  This guys is really talented, playing the guitar and reading books.  If I didn't know better, it was just like a playschool episode.  Once again, we used the halloween theme and read the same books.  We had in excess of 26 kids and 22 parents (stats are kept on adults and kid participants).  We sang a fwe more songs, and then did the craft.

After storytime, I helped weed the adult cassette collection.  This involved selecting items based on their age, looking at the condition, no. of times issued and if the item is available in another format (eg CD).

After lunch, I attended a Youth Team meeting.  This was quite interesting and very informative.  Items discussed included

• Promotions -- visiting schools, maternity groups, having schools visit etc
• Storytime, baby time, toddler time
• Graphic novels for juniors and teenages
• Funding allocations
• Weeding -- using the CREW formula

Tomorrow is my last day at this branch.  Sis has picked up some muffins for me to take to morning tea. 
Not sure what is on my job list tomorrow.  I collected quite a few brochures today which I'll look through and bring back to show you all.

Day 3

Well, what exciting happened today........

This morning I arrived at work and got off the bus at the right stop in plenty of time for a coffee in a lovely coffee shop. 

After putting the courier boxes on the trolley and then some shelving I managed to have a chat to 2 librarians.  The first, explained why Librarians shelve

• to be out and about in the library -- roaming
• to check out the collections and take note of what needs attention or weeding

The second librarian talked about the homelibrary services offered.  These include

• a typical housebound service -- staff select books based on patron profiles and either a courier delivers or volunteers deliver
• the home library service bus which is driven by volunteers who go around and pick up patrons to come to the library.  They then select their own books and are taken back home
• One on one homelibrary service -- volunteers are matched with house bound patrons who select and deliver books
• Institutional borrowers -- Library staff select a bulk loan of items and a courier delivers to the institution

After that, I spent some time on the information desk.  I placed a few items on inter-branch reserve, helped a man print and showed a person how to photocopy.

I then searched the large print collection for westerns (this library service doesn't place any genre stickers on any times) while putting these in perfect order.

After lunch, I helped change the status of some items before attending the home library service team meeting.  Discussions took place re: borrower categories, promotion of this service, recognition of volunteers, statistics and procedures and policies.

Then it was home time.  I caught a different bus home today as I had to go via Aust Post.  I got there before closing time so this was also successful.

Additional services

This isn't so much a blog post but a details about the additional services

 

Craft Group

• Held an interest meeting with a library staff member moderating
• Group selected when and where to meet  eg days and times
• Talked about what the group will get out of the sessions
• Talked about what the library was prepared to do
• space
• additional resources books etc
• Promotion of the group
• Talked about mini-projects that may be suitable for the group
• No cost to patrons and no financial support by library
• Membership forms??

From this, the group meets twice a week, and have created some mini-projects.


One on One computer sessions

• Cost is $40 per hour session
• Bookings essential
• Librarians will provide one on one computer sessions taylored to the patrons needs
• Space is in main library???

Seniors Computer Classes

• 2 staff members involved -- one to present and the other as a roamer
• Two hour sessions including a morning tea break
• Use laptops set up in a dedicated room -- each laptop has a mouse
• Original plan was to use attendees as per mentors however this doesn't really happen
• 5 monthly sessions
• Files and folders
• Emails
• Attaching files etc to emails
• Cameras, scanners, photos etc (as requested)
• Follow up and Review
• Evaluate at the end of each session
• ***Be wary of assuming participants have existing knowledge  eg  some may be able to use mouse, others not.
• No cost to patrons
• Library prints and binds books
• Library provides coffee and tea
• Sessions are run with 12 laptops and are rotated between branches

Bookgroups

• There are multiple bookgroups in the library service
• Most are self-run
• Library provides tea and coffee
• Sessions run for 1 hour
• Library provide access to resouces eg Books
• Wish to create a list on the opac of items with more than 10 holdings.
• Groups select titles (mainly) on a monthly basis

Bookchats

• Looking at starting in 2010
• Based on what you are reading
• Discuss what you are reading or have read
• Readers advistory type sessions

  

Day 2

Well, where do I start today......

Firstly I caught the bus. Headed off early so I didn't have to rush and made it in plenty of time. I got off the bus right in front of the library today so I am proud of myself (did I tell you I was off 2 stops too early getting to work and walked for miles to catch it home). Anyhow after I got off the bus, I walked up to the next spot and guess what.....there is a bus interchange. Great. Now I know where to go to catch the bus home without having to walk for miles and without having to hail it. I was early so I stopped into a little cafe for a coffee. And a good one it was.

Anyhow, first up I helped unpack the boxes from the courier. Didn't seem as many today but then I saw the empty crates and realised I didn't see them all. After that I helped out with Story time. Today's theme.....Halloween. Personally I was reluctant when Court suggested Halloween as it is not something that is widely recognised in Australia and seems a little commercial for me. It went well. Similar to our story time with songs, stories and a colouring in. The main person who normally does story time is on leave so I will try to catch up with her to see if they share activities. I was surprised by the number of books read. In excess of 5 I would guess. The craft was also a colouring in with glitter. They had more than 25 kids and probably 15+ adults at the session. This was fairly full on. Many kids were there with their grandparents. They use a vinyl type pad for each of the kids. This means that the crayons (only crayons on offer) don't get pushed through the page. This worked well.

After story time, we had morning tea. We then talked about the online resources that are available to patrons. This includes resources that we have access to .... Tumbleweeds, novelist etc but also includes ancestry.com, books in print and also a local history page/portal that includes cemetery records.

We also discussed other services like book groups, book talks and a craft group they have in the library. I'll create a new post about this as it was quite interesting.

Day 1

Well, I managed to catch the bus and get the right one. Guaranteed I got off at least 2 stops early but at least I made it. Got in early so went for a walk around the "town". This area has a large Asian population based on the shops in the main street. I haven't made it as far as the shopping centre yet.

Well...what did I do and what did I learn.

I have a new idea.......Trace, don't moan as they are always a good idea.
Lets have a "Perfect Order" library. What I hear you say. Well really its a fancy name for shelf checking but each bay is numbered and each staff member has to check 1 bay per day. What do you think.......I love the idea and think that Perfect order is much more positive than shelf checking. I was excited to do it but I don't think I would be if it was called Shelf checking. Maybe we could change the name of this task every 12 months so we get excited to do it.

What else did I learn. The library I am going to (I won't use names as I don't want to) uses Spydus (same version as us). They use the workflow manager instead of placing reservations and using a pick list. Works for them but I feel it takes quite a bit of staff time doing this rather than printing a pick list and collecting it but now I think about it, maybe it takes the same time. It also means that items are collected rather than being on the list day in day out.

I also helped with the intransit items. Wow....2 deliveries per day and today we had around 8 crates each time. The intransit status is removed automatically so I guess that makes it easier. All staff shelve however shelvers come in to do the adult nons, adult fiction and junior fiction trolley. They have a paperback collection for each age group which is on spinners - no order but they also have a fiction collection for each.

This afternoon I watched a session on AskNow. This is quite interesting and a bit tricky as the 2 questions we had were by uni students. This wasn't the hard bit but their questions required database searching. It was difficult to know what databases they have access to as we aren't even sure what state they are in as to what access they have.

Looking forward to storytime tomorrow :)

Psyching up day

Well today has been a slow day compared to yesterday. I was woken at 6.30 by an alarm sis has set on her phone. From that we went back to bed and I only woke at 10.30. We've been watching the V8 supercars....go Murph....

We headed to the South Melbourne Markets and did our meat and vege shopping. We also had lunch at Q11 which is a lovely organic cafe located at South Melbourne. I had eggs bene with smoked salmon. The smoked salmon was the best I had ever eaten.

Anyhow, I'm actually on the net to look up the bus timetable and to work out how I'm getting to work tomorrow.

Must go and do that.

Getting there

Well its not really day 1 as Prac doesn't start until Monday but it is the start of the adventure.

Today I left Gatton at 3.40am......to catch my first of three flights for the day. I flew to Sydney for the Sign Expo. The expo was double headed with a point of purchase expo which I thought would be more library appropriate.....I'll explain more about that later when I'm not paying for internet access. Anyhow the sign expo was good. Saw a product similar to our multiscreen which I will get a quote on for comparision.

I'm in Brissy at the moment waiting for my 3rd flight. I might add more to this post soon if I can get a few more gold coins. If not, I'll take this opportunity to read my book. If only I didn't waste my laptop battery I could do some assignments.......Oh well