Library patrons - ya gotta love em. If you want there to be a library at all, that is. Reading some library blogs from the US here and, more confrontingly, here reminded of some of the crazies Ive met in public libraries over the years. The alien abduction survivor, the ordinary looking porn viewer, the "feel like a fight, lets go to the library" crowd, the conspiracy theorists, the mentally ill and the common or garden idiots....
Havent seen one for ages. I guess they come around about 1 in every 200 punters which could be every day in a public library but might take me a year in the government library. Hope so!
Yesterday at school, I listened to a year 9 student interrogate a staff member about loan conditions. "Yes I know its a 2 week loan but what about renewals, fines, borrowing blocks etc?" She asked in a nice way but you could tell that she was going to push the boundaries (you rarely get sugar coating from this generation). Good on her, I reckon, if youre going to be REAL library user, you need to know the fine print.
I spend a lot of time at DOT requesting ILLs from other libraries. Some books but mostly journal articles. These requests come and go by email and I havent met any of the requestors in person yet. At this stage, every request is as important and urgent as every other request, which probably isnt very efficient. But I suppose I'll learn as a go.
Dont get me started on the temptation to access information in ways that I shouldnt - if librarians weren't so law abiding, the journal aggregating business would be in the same position as the recorded music industry.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
A day in the life
Ive just finished week 3 of my new job at the Department of Transport library, so I thought Id update you about how its going. Im working Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays until Feb 2011.
I get up (much) earlier than Im accustomed to :-) and get out of the house as soon after 7 as pos. I park in the new north carpark at Berwick station (plenty of room) and catch either the 7.24 or the 7.37 train, both get me to work well before 9, unless there is major train stuff up. No big deal about being late - just make up the time. The trip in is not bad. I get a seat and bury my head in a book. Normal workday hours are 9 - 5.06 with a half hour lunch. If I start early enough, I try to catch the 5.19 train home from Parliament station which gets me home at 6.30ish.The trip home is very ordinary. No seat and any sort of train glitch means the carriages are PACKED. Already some trips have been pretty bad and Ive only gone 9 days!
So, settling into the city worker routine (mostly black clothes, walk briskly, head down), I arrive at 121 Exhibition St. They call it SX1 - apparently because it used to be the site of the Southern Cross hotel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_Tower
The DOT library is on the 5th floor. Its quite large with a collection that reflects various govt dept changes over the years (transport, infrastructure, planning and community development, and heritage). Its open to the public so theres a desk to be staffed all day. Lots of nice spaces (for sitting, meeting and studying), even free coffee (of the nasty brewed variety).
My work with Acquisitions and Interlibrary loans is quite interesting because I havent done much of it before, but it also includes a bewildering array of procedures, forms and databases to be filled in and updated. Theres a lot to learn and an element of being chucked in the deep end but its not brain surgery (nothing that cant be fixed!). Theres been a lot of talk about the amalgamating libraries thing but itll be a slow process - some changes have happened already but (for example) no new library system before next Feb...Stuck with DBTextworks til then :-(
I get up (much) earlier than Im accustomed to :-) and get out of the house as soon after 7 as pos. I park in the new north carpark at Berwick station (plenty of room) and catch either the 7.24 or the 7.37 train, both get me to work well before 9, unless there is major train stuff up. No big deal about being late - just make up the time. The trip in is not bad. I get a seat and bury my head in a book. Normal workday hours are 9 - 5.06 with a half hour lunch. If I start early enough, I try to catch the 5.19 train home from Parliament station which gets me home at 6.30ish.The trip home is very ordinary. No seat and any sort of train glitch means the carriages are PACKED. Already some trips have been pretty bad and Ive only gone 9 days!
So, settling into the city worker routine (mostly black clothes, walk briskly, head down), I arrive at 121 Exhibition St. They call it SX1 - apparently because it used to be the site of the Southern Cross hotel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_Tower
The DOT library is on the 5th floor. Its quite large with a collection that reflects various govt dept changes over the years (transport, infrastructure, planning and community development, and heritage). Its open to the public so theres a desk to be staffed all day. Lots of nice spaces (for sitting, meeting and studying), even free coffee (of the nasty brewed variety).
My work with Acquisitions and Interlibrary loans is quite interesting because I havent done much of it before, but it also includes a bewildering array of procedures, forms and databases to be filled in and updated. Theres a lot to learn and an element of being chucked in the deep end but its not brain surgery (nothing that cant be fixed!). Theres been a lot of talk about the amalgamating libraries thing but itll be a slow process - some changes have happened already but (for example) no new library system before next Feb...Stuck with DBTextworks til then :-(
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