Work Impressions

Moving, working full time, and having a family make blogging a little more difficult then it used to be. Work has been going well. I've already set up a couple of programs and I'll start teaching computer classes in January. There are things I miss. There is not a lot of interest in science-fiction or fantasy, so the sci-fi/fantasy collection is very small. Unless its young adult, LPL simply doesn't buy the new books in those genres. No Brent Weeks, no Ken Scholes, no Brandon Sanderson. I feel extremely lucky that they do have Naomi Novik and Jim Butcher, even though they only buy the paperbacks and not the hardbacks. I also miss my fiction team. The librarian who is in charge of fiction isn't very excited about anything. She's one of those who thinks that anything new is a pain and a hindrance and she doesn't want to deal with it. So where I get excited about social media and graphic novels, she kind of deflates my enthusiasm with her negativity. I've almost stopped telling her about the things I'm working on.

There will be more changes coming though. The director is retiring in the summer and the Children's Manager is retiring in March. I hope we get someone excited about changes. There is another librarian I work with who has a lots of plans. Plans to change the layout, online services, and classes. I have plans for social media, reorganizing the DVDs, and Reader's Advisory. It'd be great if they find someone as excited about changing things around as we are.

A few thing still frustrate me. I don't like Horizon (the catalog system). There are some searches it just can't handle, like limiting by type of item and location. I can't make my own lists. And I can't place holds for patrons on more then one item at a time. Some administrative procedures frustrate me too because I can't get a clear answer on how to do it. I ask, and get told to ask someone else. And it just goes round and round.

And I also occasionally answer the phones "Central Library" instead of "LPL Reference Desk."