Why do we fall?

I love "Batman Begins".  Not just because it brought Batman back to life in the movies, but because of a line that Alfred Peenyworth says to Bruce Wayne: "Why do we fall sir? So we might learn to pick ourselves up." 

I mean seriously, just how awesome is that line?  Ole Alfred isn't talking about the physical fall, but the mental fall as well.  And boy do I need to remember that line a lot these days.  I keep falling over broken promises, perceived slights from others, and goals that I set for myself.  I keep letting myself be overcome by the stupid and worrying over the things that I can't change.  And I've got to remember, to pick myself back up, dust off my clothes, and go back to being the kick ass person I know I am, both professionally and personally.

Asking questions and when to say when

Wow..OK I started this post back in October with every intention of getting up, yet somehow things got away. So trying again.

Back in October 2008 I had the opportunity to speak with a recent MLIS graduate who just landed her first professional job. She had interned at our library over the summer and somehow she came away with the impression that I knew what I was talking about (not quite sure why...) and I of course was honored that she wanted to talk to me. So we sat and talked for over 2 hours on what type of things I did as a reference and instruction librarian. I shared various bits of advice that I had picked up and learned along the way.

I tried to make sure she knew other people did things differently than I did (which is a good thing we need diversity!) and I explained how I handled certain situations, such as giving instruction at the desk. Since I'm ILL/Circulation I sometimes take a different view of things and highlight different areas. For example, I try to make sure that folks know how ILL works and that generally they won't get their items the next day and that it probably won't help them for that paper that's due in 2 hours. As such, I tend (or at least try) to show resources that we have locally or that can be found online that might still have what they need. I also talked about how I conducted a reference interview, how I interacted with faculty, how I explained the library, conducted classes, etc. It was a good wide ranging discussion on all types of experiences, questions, and thoughts on the future of the library.

I shared two things that I wanted to pass on that I think are important for any librarian starting out.

The first was ask your colleagues questions. Get to know them, find out what their skills are and learn from them. Don't be afraid to ask them questions, because they want to help you succeed (or should!). They know the resources, they know whose who on campus, and are your best bet for navigating those first few months. And more importantly it will help you find out who to go to when you have something that you need a specific skill set to answer, such as using a certain science database. While it would be nice to be an expert in everything, it's just not possible to do so. So learn about the people around you, so you can go to them when you have a question or when you have a patron that has a question.

And the 2nd, was knowing when to say when when helping someone, whether patron or co-worker. We all want to do everything humanly possible to help our patrons. We'll go to the ends of the earth to find the information that they want or need. However, it sometimes seems like we don't know when to step back and say I've helped you all that I can and we need to try a different approach or you need to someone else for assistance. For example, when to let the person know that your chatting with on IM that their multi part research question can really be answered best in person or a phone call when you're not on the desk so that you can give them the help that they need. Or when to walk away from the patron that just won't stop talking about his new conspiracy on the government controlling the aliens from Mars. Librarians love helping their patrons. It's why we're here. But you can't always do everything they want and we need to know when to say when.

So what words of wisdom would you offer to those just starting out in library science?

The locked effect

Over at Tame the Web there's a rather interesting blog post that I think will provoke a lot of discussion over aspects of social networking, this particular post looks at Twitter. A bit of background,Twitter, like many services, allows you the option of keeping your profile locked. This means that only those that you allow can follow you. This has both good and bad points like any service, but everyone chooses what works for them.

The post over on Tame the Web is simply an image from Flickr, the picture of a lock that you see on when someone has a locked profile on Twitter, and the description that was underneath the image. It's the words under the image that bother me:

"That is when I may consider following someone with protected updates.

Watchya hiding?

I don’t wanna know,

I ain’t interested.

Nope."

To me it implies that there is something wrong with people having locked profiles. That because, people have choosen to not share part of their life with everyone in the world, that they are in effect, creating a proglem. The responses by Lee and Kyle, while offering good opinions, seem to want to place everyone in the same boat. If x doesn't work then clearly y is the alternative and thus everyone is happy, (Y in this case being have two separte accounts.) But it doesn't always work that way. Y isn't always the option, sometimes its z or zx or zy or so on. Everyone has different experiences that lead them to participate in Twitter and how they choose to set up their account and who they allow to follow them. There is no right or wrong answer to how you set up your profile, or how you participate in the conversation as long as you enjoy how you are participating.

But, there is a problem with trying to put everyone in the same boat and saying if you have a locked account, you aren't participating in the discussion. Everyone has different experiences that lead to how they make decisions. You may not always agree with them, but should at least seek to understand where they are coming from and in the case of locked social networking profiles, respect them for their decision.

Barnes & Noble return policy

I'm surprised this didn't make more rounds amongst folks (at least as a head's up), but Barnes & Noble has changed their return policy.

There new return policy is now this: "All returns must be made within 14 days of purchase and accompanied with an original sales receipt. After 14 days or without an original sales receipt, returns will not be permitted (nor permitted to exchange)." (Link here.) Yes this is referencing a flyer that was passed out, but the same information is now on the back of the receipts. And here's the link to Barnes & Noble's return policy page (all the info is under B&N.com, but applies to store purchases as well.

They do give you longer if you have a gift receipt, but overall this seems to be a poor customer service policy. 14 days to return an item? What if you purchase it as a gift for someone, and didn't get a gift receipt? Some times I purchase books that sit for a few days before I put them away. Receipts get lost or misplaced. What if I get home and discover I already have the book (I've done that before), but don't get a chance to return it for a few days and the cats start playing with the receipts? To me this just strikes of poor customer service. There doesn't seem to be any give in the policy and in these touch economic times, why not give some leeway? Why not be a bit more lenient such as saying a month to return and if the book is in good condition taking it back without the receipt? Or just giving store credit? To me the policy seems to be poorly thought out and could have been made more customer friendly.

I still browse in Barnes & Nobles and do quick purchases from time to time, but frankly I prefer Amazon. Better prices, better customer service, and its easier to return and cancel orders.

Interviewing--the awkard question

As I've mentioned in a couple of posts I've been looking for a new position, the next step in my career as it were. I'm not going to go into details on where I've interviewed or specifics, but I thought I'd share some thoughts on things that I've picked up on regarding the interview process in general. I've had experiences from both sides of the table so I think I see things a bit differently than some folks do. I'm planning on doing this over several parts so today is just the first.

When interviewing there are all kinds of bad questions to be asked. Some of them are illegal--such as asking for information about your personal life, others are ones that don't really ask the true question they merely look at the surface and never probe deeper. There are also those questions that are awkward to answer, because you want to give them the answer the interviewer is looking for, but you don't really mean it, but you know that if you don't give the "right" answer you won't get the job. I've never been asked illegal questions (thankfully), but I have been asked those questions that are surface dwelling or are just awkward to answer. And I've spent a lot of time thinking, how do I answer this question? There are countless advice books out there that will give tell you the perfect way to phrase your question, but I've found many of them really aren't good for those that work in libraries or education, or basically anything outside of business.

One question that seems to be a favorite of a lot of places is "Where do you want to be in three (or five) years?" On the surface this wouldn't appear to be a bad question to ask. You get to find out what the person wants to do, what their career path is, and it shows that they have given thought to their future and where they want to go. But here's why I think it doesn't really work as a good question. Figuring out where you want to be in five years is dependent upon far to many variables that most of the time you have no control over, such as family matters. I know when I encounter that question I can only answer it in the broadest sense, such as "I plan to still be working in the public services area. Its what interests me and there is such a wide variety of topics to work on with it." Sure its not a bad answer, but it doesn't really answer the question does it? The truth is I have a vague notion of where I want my career path to take me, but its dependent upon so many different factors that I can't outline where I want to be in 3 or 5 years. I like taking it on the smaller scale, year by year. That way I can assess where I am and what fits me. I still think long term and know that I want to be a librarian in Public Services, but as far as specifics, that might change tomorrow or the next day. I dislike this question for other reasons as well.

We've all had situations where we were working in "stop gap" jobs, such as at the local grocery store. Both parties know that you aren't going to stay, but if you come out and say I'm planning on getting my master's degree in X, it seems to be a big ole' don't hire me sign, cause I'll leave first chance I get. I've had this experience. Right when I started my MLIS I was looking for any job. I had to be honest that I wasn't planning on staying a sales associate for the next 5 years, and tell them that I was going to start a Master's program so the schedule could be planned. I'm sure I could have answered the question in different ways, but as soon as they heard Master's, it seemed to close the door on me being hired.

Or if your career path is to become an administrator it can provide some tension if the person your interviewing with, is in the type of position you want to be in. Sure there are ways to answer the question, but you never really know what that person is thinking or has experienced that will influence how they view you and your answer.

To be honest I've not really come up with a good way to answer that question. Instead I much prefer the question "How does this position fit in the career path that you've set for yourself?" Sure it retains some of the same connotations and asks you to think about your future, but it allows the interviewee to answer the question in a different way. Let's go back to the "stop gap" job. If they were to ask you that, now you can answer something along the lines of "I see this position allowing me to increase my experience in public services and selling items. It will help me to think about how to approach a customer in a different way. Since I intend to remain in public services in my career this will help me take the next step in improving my skills." Sure it's still vague, but now your no longer saying directly, I'm planning on working in X field. You've shown how your going to use the skills that you've learned in that position in your career path, and who knows maybe you'll end up staying with that "stop gap" job. It's possible that you could use this answer the with the 3 or 5 year question, but you wouldn't really be answering the question they asked. To me this question speaks more to the heart of what the interviewer is asking, why this position? How does it meet what you want to do? You've still asked the person to think long range, but you're not asking for them to set "I want to be here in 3 years."

I'm sure you all have had a different experience than I have in answering this question? What are your thoughts? What do you think?

7 years ago today

I'm sure a number of people are writing posts like this today, but I wanted to add what I saw and experienced 7 years ago today, too add my own memory to the collective.

7 years ago today I was finishing up my last semester of undergraduate. In undergraduate I was an art education major and this last semester was spent doing my student teaching. I remember another teacher coming into the room and telling us to turn on the TV something had happened. Students were filing in and out of classes at the time and had no idea what had happened...ours didn't until they set foot into the classroom. And we watched in shock and horror as events unfolded.

An e-mail was sent to teachers/faculty not to tell students anything that was going on. They didn't want them to panic and worry. My school wasn't the only one that did this, many adopted that policy to varying degrees of success as parents pulled their children from school. I guess we were too afraid to turn off the TV, fear over what would happen next. The "mentor" teacher I was working with didn't want the students to do nothing in the classroom, so we left the TV on, volume turned low, and asked the students to keep working. Why we thought we could have a normal class after just the first plane flying into the tower I'll never know, but it didn't last long. I had to reassure students that Rock Hill, SC wasn't going to be attacked by terrorists, that they'd likely hit somewhere else first (yes, I did tell them that they'd go somewhere else first as a way to comfort them, strangely it worked for most). I remember calling friends to make sure they had the news on and that they were okay. I remember going back to campus and most of the campus felt almost unnaturally quiet. Friends gathered and prayed and hoped that all the people we knew were safe. Some of us had just been in NYC in the spring and couldn't imagine how it would be different.

I wish I could say that I had some life changing moment, like Colleen, but I can make no such claim. I did start thinking about things differently and viewing life and friends in a different way and eventually got into the librarian world. I've tried not to take my friends, virtual or real life, for granted (I'm sure I have and if I do just smack me all right?) and that's probably the greatest change that I've had in my way of thinking. (I've always been a liberal, thought deeper thoughts than most kids my age, and been different that everyone else--till I got into librarianship that is). This seems like a good stopping point for now.

The power of paper

We've heard it before. Paper will go the way of the dinosaurs, librarians will be out of jobs, and computers will rule the world! But paper is still around. Books are still printed. Paper hasn't left us and still seems to be going strong in some areas. Here are my reasons why paper, including paper books, won't ever completely leave us.

Why paper just won't go away.

• A love letter written or received from someone special. It's opened multiple times and carefully refolded to preserve the words written within. And if the day is just right, sometimes you can even catch a scent that reminds you of that person and of that time, even if the relationship is long gone.
  
• A letter from those that have left our lives for whatever reason. Friends, family, loved ones. With each tracing of the letters and words written, you feel that they are once again next to you. The letters slowly yellow with age, yet they still feel strong.
• The "feel" as you write a letter. The scratch of the pen or pencil on the paper. Thoughts and feelings poured into it for the world to read, by the way you write certain words.
  
• The A on that big project in school. We run in and show it off and its hung ever so carefully on the refrigerator a source of pride to show off to whoever comes in.
• Showing off how far you've gotten in a book, by where the bookmark is. A source of pride when you get to those first chapter books.
• Showing off your love for a book, not because of the pristine condition and how "new" the book looks, but because of how the cover has nearly fallen off from reading it so often
• The smell and feel of cracking open the binding of a new book for that first good read and wondering what adventure or knowledge lies ahead.
• Finding comfort in a book that has traveled the world with you. Its pages dogeared so often that they've almost fallen, but there's still comfort in the pages soft from so much use.
  

I'm not saying that e-books, e-paper, and e-mails don't have their purposes, but for me there's still comfort in holding that book. Or writing a letter with pen and paper. Sending a quick e-mail is great to catch up with someone, but e-mails never quite seem to carry the same weight as that written letter where you can tell who wrote it by the way they crossed their t's or dotted their i's or the fact that its virtually unreadable.

For over 2000 years we've put a writing instrument to paper to capture our thoughts and feelings for what happens around us. In over 2000 years paper has seen us through it all. It captures our imaginations and our lives. It may be lost to time when it gets wet or decays, but yet it still holds our fascination. Technology has taken the place of some of what paper once did, such as the spread of news and finding of resources, but paper still holds the soul of the writer.