February at NWL

We’re finishing up reviews of IPPs that staff submitted to me last month. So far this is an easy task; we have a fine team here at NWL. This is a good place for me to be learning the basics of performance management.

Met again with Lisa White, my Constructivist Listening partner. I don’t think it breaks any confidences to say that we have worked very well together in the past, and our rapport continues. Even though we’re both pretty chatty, it turns out that we’re also good listeners. We try and mostly succeed at curtailing the questions and comments.

2.0 stuff is going fairly well. We have a few people less enthused than others, some citing time as the concern, while others wonder about actual relevance. Still, it is a learning opportunity that most are enjoying. I’m a bit behind, but hope to be current by week’s end.

Something I’m doing at home seems relevant to the 2.0 phenomena raging here at MCL. Last night, as part of a PBEM game (play-by-email), I wound up using Yahoo Instant Messenger to create a collaborative story with another game-player. We would write what our person was thinking and doing, and then ‘tag’ the other person to respond. The narrative flowed back and forth, with both of us sharing direction of the plotline. It’s like those things we did in High School where a person would write a sentence and then pass it to the next person, but way better because this was far less random. It’s a really great tool for seeing how characters will interact together. Somehow I think perhaps reader’s advisory or reference work could benefit from some of this, particularly in cases where the library person is in a small town or other remote location. Why not just call them? Because you can copy and paste from these IM sessions, generating an answer you can print.

Something to think about…

NWL Teen Councillor Lily came in for some help finding information for a project, and was proudly grinning to show off the lack of braces. She was kind enough to ask about if I got that job I wanted (presumably this one), and assured me that this is a tight-knit library. She’ll be involved in the Teen Council’s video shoot March 1st, she admitted with faux regret. She reminds me a bit of Hermione Granger (well, Emma Watson).

Executive Decisions

I try and model useful behaviors, sure, but I also try to learn them. I recall something Susan said about some issue I was going to ask everyone about. ‘Make an executive decision,’ she suggested.

Y’know, I can do that! I’m out of practice, but I do have pretty fair judgement. So today when we had the option of getting a new printer/copier/scanner/fax with lots of good features, and my first instinct was to discuss it with everyone at a staff meeting, I caught myself. Honestly, what’s to discuss? The other printers have to be replaced anyway, an entire workstation is used up with old machinery, and we both deserve and can afford a useful device. I made an executive decision, and it feels good.

Nice day

One person’s search for a missing disc expanded into a four-person task, and the patron was delighted with our efforts (fruitless though they were). After I had placed a hold on another copy of the item for her so that she could hear the last disc of her mystery audiobook and find out whodunnit, she inquired: “May I make a donation to your library?”

What fun! Naturally, I said ‘Move along lady, nothing to see here.’

It’s rewarding and refreshing to meet the people who really like what we do, and heck, it’s always nice to be appreciated. Kudos to Jan Chciuk-Celt, Kristine Dale and sub Robert Roehr for adding to this patron’s good mood, and to Susan Smallsreed for making sure that somebody was helping her.

Okay, I DIDN’T tell her to move along, but did the useful thing of directing her to the Friends or the Foundation. Turns out that she’s a member of the Friends already! She just wants her donation earmarked for this particular library.

I Spy… Northwest!

Based on a chat with Food Front’s Tom Mattox about doing something in and with the local community, AND an article about a nifty program in Spencerport, New York, the url for which is here… http://librarytrends.wordpress.com/2006/11/25/expanding-our-horizons/#comment-40 …I propose to do a partnership with local businesses in a similar fashion. They can donate some money for what I’m guessing will be the newest ‘I Spy’ book and put donor bookplates in them, and we will go out and have them do a scavenger hunt to find obscure things in the local Northwest Portland neighborhood. When they come back with all twelve facts (or whatever), they get their free book and maybe a prize from one of the businesses, depending on how generous they are. I told Tom about my idea and he was very excited, as this seems to fit right in with his own thoughts about neighborhood events. Since he’s now on the board of the Nob Hill Business Association, he said he’d be glad to start the ball rolling with those folks. Naturally, I need to have some support from within MCL… I presume I’d best pester Rita, Selections, Penny and probably a few other people to make this a reality. I think May would be a good time, or perhaps late summer - it has to be a time when people are happy to be walking around with their families looking for things. Ideas would certainly be appreciated!

NWL Teen Council

I very much enjoyed my time with the Teen Council during Susan’s absence. Lily, Kristen, Nick, Gina and Cara were very welcoming to the new guy, and obligingly played a get-to-know-you game with me. We played ‘I’ve Never…”, where each person starts with ten tokens of some kind (we used tickets), and people take turns saying things like “I’ve never broken a bone”, or “I’ve never been to Texas”, etc. The idea is to say things that you haven’t done but you think the others have, because if you’ve done that thing, you have to toss a ticket into the middle. Last one with a ticket wins the prize du jour, which was in this case a fancy chocolate bar I provided. The teens enjoyed ‘getting’ each other with questions like, “I’ve never shopped at Abercrombie and Fitch”, knowing full well that others of them had. I got some of them with “I’ve never set up a MySpace account”. We actually got our work done, too!

Wii at the Library

So, if I brought in my Wii for a library event, would that be acceptable? Only two at a time could do things, but that’s the case with DDR as well, and some of the games are short like that. Just a thought.

Astonishing Fun

This is where I will do undefined things that might be useful at some unspecified time somewhere in the galaxy.