Busy as a Bee

As expected, another month or two has passed since my last blog update. I appropriately hang my head in shame.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic at work. A week from last Sunday I almost didn't make it down to a planned trip to the Denver Museum because I had to stop in to the library to help diagnose a network problem. The city IT team had recently switched the all departments over to a new Internet service provider, which ended up playing havoc with any communications from the outside world to us. I ended up spending most of the afternoon at work (with Kate, Tessa, and my buddy Bill just milling about waiting for me) before the City IT guy I was working with said he was giving up for the day. Fortunately, we were able to blaze down the interstate and rendezvous with the rest of the gang at the Museum in time to catch the last showing of the Pirates exhibit (which was stellar cool!) as well as make it to Cinzetti's for a much needed dinner.

I'm still dealing with some of the communication fallout from the ISP switchover. For example, remote access to our subscribed databases don't seem to be working. Also a program used by our interlibrary loan staff is having trouble. I have theories on what's going wrong but I lack the skills or security access to make the changes. It results in a bit of sit around and wait for help on my part.

I did have a few successes. I was able to diagnose a network drop issue that was keeping one of our self-check machines down. A call to a specific network specialist later and it was up and running. I also installed a new color printer for use in the public computer labs. This wasn't as tricky as I was expecting it to be...once the city IT gents installed a couple of new network drops in my computer lab. Now all library patrons can print in color, which has already proven to be very, very popular. This did involve some rearranging of the lab, moving two printers, shifting the position of the copier, and installing a second self-service reservation station.

To top it all off, the library is in a hiring frenzy. I was recently on the interview team for a new cataloging technician that will also work under me in the computer lab a few hours a week. I did some training with the intern working the Childrens & Teen department, who was interested in helping us out in the computer lab. I'm also hiring a new hourly lab monitor position to replace one of my gals whose second job just bumped her up to full-time. Thankfully, she's been good enough to stick around for nights and weekends until I get this new person hired on. I currently have somewhere around ninety applications to filter through over the weekend. All this also means I'm having to revamp the lab rotation schedule to accommodate new availabilities.

I've also been getting pressure to update my section of the library web page, namely the computer lab section. It sounds like I may get tapped to help with the Circulation side as well. And the head of Adult Services/Reference wants my expertise in redesigning our Library 24/7 page. Didn't anyone tell these folks that it's my sister who's the web design expert? :-)

Tack this on to the usual PC maintenance and minor disasters that crop up every other day as well as juggling my scheduled time in the computer lab...and you have before you a severely run ragged library tech.

Still, I can't complain too much. I like being kept busy. I like being challenged. I like that my co-workers consider me an local expert and trust my judgment and ability. I like how I always have something new to work on or try out. It really is a pretty good job that I have.

But that doesn't mean I'm not looking for a nice vacation. :-)

Congrats from Co-Workers

My 'new' co-workers at the Longmont Library got the news this week that Kate is expecting our first baby. As such, they decorated by desk with some balloons and left a dozen different w00t-style messages on my whiteboard (which I dubbed a 'low-tech Twitter board).

Take a look...




It was great to get this outpouring of excitement and support from my Longmont team. A big thank you to all of them!

Just wanted to share the warm fuzzies... :-)

Thanks for reading! Hope you're having a great day!

Toughing it Out

Ugh! I've spent this entire week thus far with a darn-near crippling back pain. It was so bad the first part of the week that I couldn't even sleep - I'd doze off for a little while but my back would stiffen and hurt, forcing me to wake up and struggle to shift to a comparatively comfortable position ... before doing it all over again in about 30 minutes.

Fortunately, the pain is slowly going away. I started making myself walk around the library or do my back stretching exercises over the last couple of days. One of my co-workers suggested taking Aleve to help with the pain - which worked great since last night was the first night I was able to sleep most of the way through the night! Today, I'm still a bit stiff and sore, but it's nowhere near the pain I was in earlier this week. Kate even said I'd been moving sort of weird.

Yeah, I was even tempted to call out from work earlier this week since I was so sore it hurt to move certain ways. But I have a ton of work that needs to be done pretty quickly - and more keeps piling up! So instead I decided to cowboy up and push on through - which I'm glad I did, since I'd just be back-logged with tasks by this point if I had stayed home.

The Longmont library is going through a "re-alignment," which means an analysis of our services and workflows to see how we can adjust, shift, change, or otherwise re-work our processes to streamline our day-to-day duties. Naturally, this is call from on high to make us (among other departments) more efficient and effective - especially with current budget concerns. It's a huge project with a lot of details and brainstorming to handle. I know it's consuming a lot of Judith's (our director) time, and there's a lot that other managers are shouldering as well.

(Side note - I continue to be impressed with Judith and the other department heads. I applaud their non-department-centric attitudes - they see no issues with different staff working and circulating between departments. There's no "Reference staff don't work the Childrens Desk" or "That staff member works Circulation; they can't handle the other Desks." It's so very much a "We're all Library staff; we all help each other out." It's an work philosophy I don't see often so I'm glad we have it here.)

I've also got a number of modifications and updates to make to the computer lab. I have hardware issues, mostly shortages - like a lack of headphones and CD-RW drives. There's also the summer schedule to re-work - though I recently finished that. I just got tagged as a 'local expert' on Library 2.0 and online social media by a city committee, and I was asked for my ideas on how to incorporate such tech into the library. Plus, I needed to finish (or mostly finish) reading the documentation for new Envisionware self-service software products that we're going to be installing soon - all in time for a meeting with city IT folk to discuss server options.

And, of course, all this is in addition to the usual day-after-day troubleshooting that crops up all the time. :-)

So - compared to the amount of work that needs to be done - what's a little back pain? A minor annoyance to be ignored.

'Sides, it makes me took tough and dedicated and nets me plenty of sympathy. ;-)

Thanks as always for reading. Hope you're having a great day!