Born, like other comic book characters, out of an otherwise trivial but life-changing animal bite, the Rabid Librarian seeks out strange, useless facts, raves about real and perceived injustices, and seeks to meet her greatest challenge of all--her own life.
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Showing posts with label Public Libraries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Public Libraries. Show all posts
It was All Saints' Day, a national holiday, and the library traffic was light, but still well-used.
Unbeknownst to the staff, a door had been left unlocked the previous evening. Throughout the day, 446 visitors entered the library, unaware it was officially closed. Families gathered in the children’s section, individuals browsed the shelves, and others perused newspapers—all behaving as they would on any regular day. Some patrons even borrowed books using the self-service system. By day’s end, 246 books had been checked out, and remarkably, every single one was returned on time.
and Lexington Public Library only has Season Three, inexplicably. Two copies.
In case you didn't know, anyone in a contiguous county (including Fayette) can get a library card at the Jessamine County Public Library and have full borrowing rights if they're an adult. Unlike the Lexington Public Library, they still have physical CDs, older books in series, Hoopla, and Freegal music, which I miss. It fills in some of the gaps. They're at 600 South Main Street in Nicholasville, so not far away, and they also have a studio and a Library of Things, where you can check out practical things like birding backpacks and telescopes. All you need is an ID with your address on it. Their website with full details is: https://jesspublib.org/
The library, as you exit
I also found the first book in the Amelia Peabody mystery series, which I dearly love. So, unlike LPL, they keep older books in series. We've had to request books from interlibrary loan because LPL no longer has the earlier books for the series we want to get into.
Also, JCPL has access to Freegal Music, which LPL used to have. You can download a limited number of songs a week to keep. For as long as you want. Period. I managed to get several albums that way when I used it before. So that is nice.
I'm also really excited because they have Hoopla, which allows you to check out five items per month--books, audiobooks, movies, or TV series. I plan on checking out Life is Beautiful, a 1997 movie that is very highly acclaimed that will apparently make me cry, and the dramatised audio version of Crocodile on the Sandbank once I am finished re-reading the book.
Also, some time ago, LPS got rid of all their CDs, and they had some Shinedown ones I got to listen to. I know, I can stream them. It's not quite the same. 😊 So between the two libraries, a lot of service gaps get filled.
The library card is kind of spiffy
'The Gilded Age' Season 1 (written by the same person who wrote for 'Downton Abbey'
At the Lorain Public Library in Ohio, 19 bookshelves holding 50,000+ books collapsed in domino style after the first shelf gave way. The library was closed for a day to clean up the mess, 1971.
I loved that scene in the 1999 film 'The Mummy' with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, and I saw it at the drive-in that used to be right outside Winchester, so I shook the entire car laughing, but this...
Oh, I'm so glad I wasn't the librarian working there that day. This is why I hate metal shelving.
I guess the bright thing here is that books deemed against board policy are not being removed from the whole library collection, but merely being relocated to the adult section, where they can still be checked out by teens. But, the sheer amount of money and staff time involved ($114,000-$300,000 in terms of financial costs, a year and over 8,000 estimated staff hours in terms of time) will detract from the acquisition of new materials and presenting library programmes, and that's a shame. All because of the current cultural war on libraries. I was a medical librarian, not a public librarian. But this is all very disheartening and against the training of most librarians. I do wonder if fewer of us want to work in libraries, especially in red states. While censorship comes from both the right and the left, this sort of thing seems to be the latter. Teens are learning about life and will deal with all sorts of decisions regarding sex, relationships, menstruation, drinking/drug use, reckless behaviours and the like. Why can't we have books to start a discussion on those topics so they can think and be prepared for what happens in real life rather than keeping them in the dark till they're 18 and then letting them loose in the world?
Because I fell asleep at 7:30 and couldn't keep my eyes open any further. I woke back up at midnight. I have that interview tomorrow, so I figured I might as well get everything ready for it, rather than try to do anything early in the morning when I'm usually rushed.
I:
Updated my curriculum vitae to reflect my work with Doody's Core Titles this spring and the upcoming publication of a book review that has been accepted and for which I just finished the proofs.
Assembled everything together in a portfolio, put a paper pad in it, and put some of my business cards in the portfolio, along with a pen.
Got all the essential stuff into a small(ish) black purse to match the portfolio and my shoes.
Plugged in the computer to let it charge. It's got a great battery and had 6 more hours of charge, but I wanted to top it off.
Found my Spanx and the box of nude pantyhose I'd bought for the occasion and laid them out.
Steam ironed my suit, took off the tags, cut open the slits, and put the extra button somewhere safe, then hung it back up.
Put all that away, or in the case of the iron, let it cool in the bathroom.
Took my night meds, checked my blood sugar (which has run really high all day, no matter what I tried). Took my long-acting insulin and a little of the short-acting as well, as I was in the 300s. This morning I was over 400. I can't afford to have it up tomorrow when I really have to be at my best cognitively.
I've been listening to music the whole time, and so it hasn't been too bad. Tomorrow's plan is to go to work in the morning until noon, come home, get in my suit, and then head to Owenton via the Interstate so that I can be there by 2 pm. Wish me luck! Now I'm getting sleepy again, so it's time to get back in bed and try to sleep. Good night!
Note to self: Get gas in the morning before work, so that you don't smell like gasoline for your interview. :)
So Friday wasn't too bad, really. Work was much calmer than the rest of the week, and we worked at a steady but relaxed pace. I left at 5 pm and went and got a friend who had taken a bus to an appointment that didn't happen (but I was more annoyed at that than he was), and we went and got another one, and I dropped them off and came on home, and I stayed up till (get this) almost 11 pm (although I was just heavy-lidded and falling asleep quickly). The rest of the days this week have mostly been about 8:30 pm as far as bedtime, I've been exhausted (to the point that while I met my goals the other day on Habitica, I fell asleep before checking off the boxes, and woke up 10 minutes after the start of a new 'day' (which I've got set at 2 am), so my little avatar took damage--and so did everyone else I game with. I felt so bad. It's just been hard to get everything done that needed to be done lately.
This morning I called A at 6:30 am, picked him up at 7:30, took him to work, got a couple of cheese and egg biscuits and a parfait at McDonald's, and came back intending to go back to sleep. But I laid in bed from about the time I got home (8:30 am) till about 9:30, and decided to go ahead and get my day going. I went to Costco, intending to get some light bulbs and a couple of other things, and spent more than I meant to, but everything I got was quite useful. Well, maybe not the cheese bagels and tomatoes, but they're yummy nonetheless. Then I went to the library, where I sheepishly turned in most of the books I had (most of which were overdue, including one of two interlibrary loans I'd gotten for a friend, who'd taken off the papers that have all the information on them that the ILL department uses. I had most of it to give them. It so embarrasses me that he does that, and I know they're not happy with me. He wants to see the covers. I tell him not to do it. He almost ripped the cover off one, because they changed how they do it, so instead of having two sticky labels, they wrapped the cover in a piece of paper that was carefully taped. I am beginning to think that should they ever let me borrow again, I should remove them myself, carefully. The man mangles anything he tries to remove (paper from a notebook, or my favourite, the DVD envelopes from Netflix, which we just leave to me now). Anyway, I apologised, left the other books in the book drop, and slinked away without mentioning in any way that I am, indeed, a librarian. And with all the overdues, I checked later after everything got checked in, and I owe $6.30, which is actually less than I expected. The interlibrary loans are $1.00 a day. One was still before the deadline, but one was due the 25th. :( I got it from him on the 26th or 27th, but I literally was just too wiped out to take them back during the library hours, and didn't just want to dump them in with the papers just sitting inside the books. Also, they had a 'read off your fines' thing going on through the 31st, and while I planned to do that, I just decided I was too tired. So I'll happily pay the fine.
Speaking of public libraries, I have an interview about an hour's away up the interstate on Friday afternoon, and got permission to leave work at noon so I can get there before 2 pm. I'll probably come home, change clothes, and go straight up there. It's Owen county. My dad's family, the Duncans and the Cobbs, have lived in the Owenton area for generations. I'm interested to know more about the library. I never visited the library there as a child; I don't know much about it, actually, and I should educate myself on it before I go. I also need to e-mail a confirmation that I will be coming.
I went to the grocery a little while and got some veggies for a tray for the game, some cheese, some crackers, and some dill dip, so I'm good for the game tomorrow. And I spent four hours today doing the notes. I came back and collected the trash and recyclables from various containers and some horizontal surfaces, and I now have quite a load to take out. I had to take a break, though, before actually taking the bags outside, as my back was bothering me. Mainly I've been doing better with my back, although that workout on Thursday made muscles in my lower back and buttocks scream, because they apparently didn't know they were supposed to do anything. I didn't make it to the gym at the complex today (there was a pool party going on early afternoon that was intriguing, but too many people for me, I think, being a shy introvert who would have stood around, not eaten hamburgers or hot dogs, would have had to slather on a ton of sunscreen, and gee, talk to people). It's not my thing. I am glad the complex did that sort of activity, though. I wish they'd have a yard sale. They did that every year for several years while I was at Speedway and working on Saturdays. Now I could participate, and I have plenty of stuff that needs to go, if I can part with it.
Okay, as much as I hate to admit it, those bags of trash and recyclables are not going to take themselves out. I should get up and do that, so they're taken care of and I can tick that off my busy day list.
I got my first interview. The job hasn't actually closed yet, but we've got the interview set up for almost two weeks away, so I think that's a good sign. It's a public library about an hour's drive away, but it's the county my dad's family is from, so I have great memories and a fondness for the area. Here's hoping! I have a good feeling about it. Wish me luck!
after my dental cleaning tonight, because something more important came up, but I plan to go very soon and see the new branch now that it is open. The dental appointment went really well; no cavities or any other issues, which is amazing for me. I guess using the Habitica application on my phone to remind me to floss was well worth it (I’m up to 53rd level now). Because I have a fairly small mouth, my old hygienist had noted that I did better with a small toothbrush, so my little baggie of goodies actually has a sparkly pink Disney princess toothbrush for ages 5-7 in it. Yeah, I know. But hey, it really does help. I think the last was one with the Cars movie characters on it.
I’m home now and eating some hazelnut spread directly out of the jar as I have no bread to put it on, and I didn’t feel up to macaroni and cheese. I should have had a sandwich at my friends’ house, as A did offer. I was really hungry until I got home, and it’s like it evaporated after I had a couple of spoonsful of the spread, which isn’t particularly bad, I suppose.
I met my new next-door neighbour, Nathan, tonight. He has a little brown 7-week-old puppy that looks like it might grow up into a chocolate Labrador, or at least some sort of Lab cross. He was adorable. And Nathan seemed nice, too.
Last night I tried to put some very old software on my desktop, which YKWIA has borrowed for a little while. I managed to get one game on, but the other two were too old to run on the 64-bit Windows 10 system I have. I did figure out that I might be able to put on a virtual machine if I can get a full copy of Windows 95 or 98 on eBay or something [I have a Windows 95 disc, but it’s an upgrade one]. I asked the IT guys at work about it. They thought that was way too much trouble for a couple of games, but it would probably work if I could pull it all together. One of them suggested looking at the Internet Archive to see if those games are archived there, and could run in a simulator built into the website. I’ll check that out. He’s like me; he has a collection of old gaming systems at home [although he has modern ones as well, and I don’t].
A second bloom has opened up on the orchid. Yay! And my aunt sent me pictures of hers, which are over a decade old and bloom every year. They were a beautiful purple.
I'm thinking of applying for a position at a local public library (in a neighbouring county). It would mean a pay cut, but it's still decent pay. I have aspects of my background, both educational and practical, that would work for it, but not a lot of actual actual experience reading to children, which would be one of the main duties. But I've taken classes in children's lit and storytelling, am familiar with children's and young adult books and programming, and have run an early literacy project for about 16 years. It's an assistant children's librarian, so I could learn from someone else with more experience. We'll see.
I’m looking around and there is so much stuff I should be doing on the house, but I’m already kind of pooped from the rest of the day (which was gorgeous, sunny, with temps in the 70s), and so I think I’m going to do a little reading and turn in early. A couple of my eBooks from the library are coming due and while I don’t have to return them in any way, they do expire, so I want to do what I can to finish them, as I think tomorrow and the next day they go poof. Well, in theory. Actually, if you don’t connect a Kindle to either WiFi or 3G Wireless, it doesn’t pull them off as expired until you do so. It’s a glitch in the system, I guess, and one that I’m sure gets exploited at least a little bit. But I’m going to try to finish tonight, as one book has holds on it and can’t be renewed.
To that end, I think I’ll get off the computer, turn off the radio (Passenger’s ‘Let Her Go’ is playing}, and curl up on the couch with the Kindle, as I have the fan in the living room because I’m warm, and I don’t want to pack it back to the bedroom just now, and besides, I’d just fall on to sleep and skip the reading if I try to read in bed. (I read best when I’m out and about, rather than at home, which is rather sad, being the introverted person who has always felt comfortable with a book in my own little space before. But even as a kid, I didn’t really read in bed.)
Oh, one more thing. We saw the trailer for Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children today. So apparently Emma has air powers in the movie rather than fire, Miss Peregrine doesn’t look anything like I imagined her, and the evil antagonist is suddenly female. I don’t understand why directors have to muck with books, especially ones as delightful as this one. I will say Jacob seemed a good casting choice. I’ll probably watch it, but I really am afraid of what they’re doing to it. I like a couple of things Tim Burton has done (mainly Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas). But I was a little wary of him doing the adaptation to film. Still, at least Johnny Depp doesn’t appear to have found his way into it. I’m not a fan of him, and he’s in so many Burton movies.
Okay, that’s enough for tonight. I hope you’re having a good week. Good night!
In 2010 the federal government set forth an ambitious goal to end chronic homelessness by 2015. Numbers have declined, but according to a 2014 HUD report, more than 570,000 people are still without homes in America—and 20 percent of those are in California. Urban libraries fill the void, sheltering the homeless by day.
Cities have responded to homelessness with new codes of public conduct and trespassing ordinances enforced on persons deemed to be disorderly, unkempt, or of foul smell. The San Francisco Public Library has directly addressed the situation—it was the first in the country to add a full-time social worker to its staff. Leah Esguerra reaches out to homeless patrons in the main branch of the library. “Libraries are the last bastion of democracy,” she says.
The couple says they were moved by the "individual acts of heroism" of library staffers who kept the doors open to the public even as protests raged over police brutality and the deaths of young black men.
"Libraries became in essence the heart of Ferguson and Baltimore amidst a time of immense darkness for so many," Arrillaga-Andreessen told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview. "So we felt this calling to help the libraries in a way that we felt we could uniquely do."
The donation is part of a growing effort in some quarters of Silicon Valley to address the digital divide that persists throughout the rest of the country, especially in poor or underserved neighborhoods.
I started my day oversleeping and with my morning blood sugar through the roof. All sorts of little things irritated me, from the drive in to work, to the inexplicable difficulty in peeling my hard-boiled egg for breakfast. Things got a little better as my day went, and I just decided I was having a Monday on a Wednesday. After work I took some medicine up to the vet for a friend and exchanged it for something else, and was visiting when I did something he hates (I was overly helpful), he barked at me about it, it hurt my feelings, and generally brought lots of emotions up, and when it all came down to it, and we talked, I realised I was being a little labile, probably because my cycle is about to start. So I went on home, ate something, listened to the radio, found the cards, and generally feel a little better. Tomorrow I am off from work. I think I need a break from everything. It's not that I have a particularly hard job. I love my co-workers and place of business. I enjoy what I do, and I'm good at it. But every now and then you have to get away from the normal schedule, and the last day off I had, on my birthday, was mostly spent getting the brakes worked on. So tomorrow, here's the plan:
Get my car registration renewed.
Straighten up the house.
Watch a movie, either at home or with my free movie tickets from work, depending on what's in the cinema.
Go eat at Newk's Eatery. I won a $10 gift card from them today from a contest at work to re-name the motion lab. (I was the runner-up, with the MAGIC (Motion and Gait in Children) Laboratory.)
Do some actual reading.
Stop by the library.
Work on a job application. Submitted!!!
So it's a mix of fun and important stuff to do. :) Okay, I think I'm going to sign off for now and go try to do something relaxing.
You can find more than books at the Baltimore public library today, as all branches remain open and fully staffed in the wake of protests and riots that have rocked the city.
With a state of emergency declared and schools closed citywide Tuesday morning, the Enoch Pratt Free Library has chosen to stay open, providing a hub of comfort and community to all Baltimore neighborhoods, including the ones most affected by the mayhem.
“It’s at times like this that the community needs us,” library Director of Communications Roswell Encina told MTV News. “That’s what the library has always been there for, from crises like this to a recession to the aftermath of severe weather. The library has been there. It happened in Ferguson; it’s happening here.”
I took my books in this morning on the way to work, had a very productive day at work, then went to a doctor's appointment and he was happy to see that the increase in medicine dosage had helped. I see him again in six weeks. Right as I went to leave a friend called and asked for a ride home from work, so I stopped by there and got him. It took me ten minutes just to get out of the Beaumont area, another few minutes to go through the double crossover, and then finally I got to him, took him home, and then had to take an alternative route home because of major backups, a way I don't use often and I got a little lost, but it was still probably quicker than in would have been if I'd sat in traffic. Now I'm home, with the evening news on, and it's kind of nice to have a free Wednesday for now. If my application is accepted and I go through the training, I may be helping teach the same class I took this the last three months or more during the summer. (At least we won't have to worry about snow days). There are eleven sessions, once a week. I'm excited by the possibility. It's a volunteer position, but that's fine. I think it's a very helpful class and I think it can be a godsend for the students who take it.
I've also recently applied for a job at a neighbouring county's public library. Wish me luck! The application window closed Friday, so hopefully I'll hear something soon.
Wow. I just saw a video on the news of a man calmly describing the F-4 tornado that was bearing down on him while he was out driving. He was totally unflappable. He wasn't a storm chaser, I don't think, just someone out driving, and I must admit he was much calmer than I would have been, I'm sure.
Okay, I think it's time to get away from the computer for a bit. I may write later, but it not, have a good night.
It doesn't look like libraries in Kentucky will have to close after all.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals in a 3-0 decision handed down on Friday reversed two circuit court decisions in Kenton and Campbell counties that declared the library districts in those counties had improperly raised taxes for decades.
The appeals court found the libraries can raise their tax without having to gather a petition—so long as the amount doesn't bring in four percent more revenue than the year before, just like other taxing districts. It means library budgets won't get slashed and library branches won't get closed as some had feared.
The court case garnered national attention, and library associations across the country rejoiced at the news.
"More than just a vital resource, we know that libraries are vital to democracy in the great state of Kentucky and everywhere," American Library Association President Courtney Young and Public Library Association President Larry Neal said in a joint statement on Friday.
If the Tea Party plaintiffs had had their way--
...the lawsuit would have rolled library taxes back to their rates in the 1970s and decimated library revenues, likely causing the closure of branches and other cutbacks. It would have affected more than 80 libraries around the state.
So glad that didn't happen. Technically, they can appeal to the US Supreme Court, though. But hopefully they're satisfied with the unanimous decision, and will drop the cases.
"I think there are still a lot of punitive policies and a lot of barriers ... rules about the size of baggage you can bring in or policies about odor or no-sleeping policies," said librarian Julie Ann Winklestein, who co-wrote an ALA pamphlet to help librarians better serve people who have already been turned away by other institutions.
The single most important thing libraries can help people do online is find a job, the ALA found. Even fast food restaurants require online applications now. But many libraries still require patrons to have an address and photo identification to get a library card, and then limit the time patrons can spend online.
Librarian Liz Coleman, who serves on a new Homelessness Advisory Committee at the Nashville Public Library, says her co-workers are frustrated they can't help everyone. One regular patron died of exposure; another was hit by a car and died shortly before he was to receive housing.
"It was a feeling of kind of helplessness," she said. "You see these folks every day, so you can't help but care about them. But what are you going to do? You can't take them home with you."
But this is my absolute favourite quote, by Julie Ann Winklestein:
Librarians can't solve people's problems, but we can provide them the resources to solve their own problems.
I recently had an interview at the local public library and asked about how they approached the homeless. I was interested in services and outreach, but instead I think they thought I was afraid for my security, as the adjacent park is full of people on any given day who have no home. I guess I took them aback, or maybe I didn't ask specifically enough to elicit the answer I was looking for. I know the subject is a tricky one for public libraries, as they balance the needs of all patrons and want to provide a welcoming atmosphere for everyone, and some people are afraid of those who live on the streets. But those who are homeless--for whatever reason--are actually much more vulnerable of a population, and if we can partner with agencies and work together to provide the resources needed--whether it's getting a job, getting help applying for affordable housing, getting mental health treatment, or any of the other things that can transform a person's life, then I say, more power to the librarians.
As we’ve been crisscrossing the country visiting towns and cities for our American Futures project, I always look forward to stopping in the town's public library. Every town has one. They’re often lovely buildings. (Thank you, Andrew Carnegie!) They offer a first pulse of the town. (Are they vibrant and bustling?) The librarians are as knowledgeable as the newspaper editors and as welcoming as the Chamber of Commerce. Who wouldn’t love a library?
Amazon's new unlimited book-borrowing service may bring in $1 billion a year in sales for the company. Don't be one of the suckers.
Kindle Unlimited charges $9.99 a month for an all-you-can-read buffet. For roughly the same cost of unlimited movies on Netflix or unlimited music on Spotify, you can download all the books you’ll never have time to read.
But there’s a competing service already available for compulsive book downloaders, and it’s available for free. It comes with a massive selection of books including new bestsellers, and a great app that lets you download to any of your devices: Kindle, iPhone, iPad, laptop, Android devices, Nook, Mac, PC, whatever. This miracle service is available -- get this -- at your public library.
The disruption continues, and it’s hard not to see the announcement of the new Kindle Unlimited Service as a significant challenge to libraries.
Let’s review how things stand with libraries right now. Most public library budgets took a hit during the recession, meaning they had less money to provide new content. At the same time, some of our patrons developed a preference for ebooks over print. Meanwhile, the Big Five publishers and ebook distributors together jacked up the price of new ebooks by as much as nine times, or restricted their use in various ways, while still preserving the legacy model of one user at a time. That, in turn forces libraries to buy multiple copies, and forces patron to wait—often for months—for popular titles.
Bottom line: that’s a setup that strikes at the public libraries’ primary business—loaning new materials. Still, few libraries in the United States assess taxes of as much as $100 a year per household. So if you read a lot, a library still saves you money, even if most library checkout systems are not only expensive, but cumbersome to use.
I love my Kindle, I love Amazon, and I have Amazon Prime and enjoy the perks of that. But I see no reason to spend additional money for Kindle Unlimited when I don't have time to read enough to make it worth my while and even if I did, I have access to a public library that doesn't charge me to read books, both in regular and electronic format. What worries me is that Kindle Unlimited could interfere with my library's ability to provide those services.
Librarian mohawks – makes you do a double take, right? Those are two words that usually do NOT go together.
But thanks to Vista, now they do, as five good-natured librarians made good on their promise this spring and got mohawks because the community pushed them to a big milestone – Vista was the first county library to make it over the 1-million check-out mark.
That means the community checked out more than 1 million books, DVD’s and CDs over the course of the fiscal year, which ended June 30.
