Day 6
Today is my first day working with my BLM...Branch manager... He has been great. I have mostly been doing the right things, I just need to work on being more observant. Most of the things he noticed this morning were things I would have noticed had I done a walk through--which I will make sure is part of my morning routine from now on. I have also gotten to watch him a bit with patrons and it is very interesting to see another librarian at work.
I have been happily surprised with my ability to find information for patrons. I have even been able to use the databases for some fairly specific finds. One patron was looking for an article in the Wall Street Journal on welding. He actually had a copy but it was badly mangled. Our databases did not list the Wall Street Journal specifically, but I found that Proquest had it. So I found the article, as well as two amendments that were published later. The patron was very happy and came in to get it the next day. Then he asked me about a piece of sheet music, which I was able to find in the system and put on hold for him. That will be a return customer.
I haven't had any bad experiences yet, although I am sure they will come up. I just hope that by then I will have the experience to deal with them patiently and without too much anxiety.
The system policies are very different between here and Sno-Isle. Sno-Isle does not have a union, so are not bound by the same rules that apply to Seattle Public. Sno-Isle has children's liaison's which allows paraprofessionals to conduct story time and make school visits. At Seattle Public that would take away from the duties of a children's librarian, so the union won't allow it. However, it is unlikely that SPL will hire additional librarians to fill in, as they make a lot more money. The results are less story time and fewer kids getting exposed to what the library has to offer.
Sno-Isle also has much more patron friendly policies. They do not have fines and only charge for books that do not come back or are damaged. Seattle public does charge fines. I have heard that this actually brings in revenue for the library, but I do wonder if it offsets the cost of collecting on that money. It probably also causes many people not to use the library for some time due to fines and blocked cards. How much does the library lose in circulation due to this policy?
I have been happily surprised with my ability to find information for patrons. I have even been able to use the databases for some fairly specific finds. One patron was looking for an article in the Wall Street Journal on welding. He actually had a copy but it was badly mangled. Our databases did not list the Wall Street Journal specifically, but I found that Proquest had it. So I found the article, as well as two amendments that were published later. The patron was very happy and came in to get it the next day. Then he asked me about a piece of sheet music, which I was able to find in the system and put on hold for him. That will be a return customer.
I haven't had any bad experiences yet, although I am sure they will come up. I just hope that by then I will have the experience to deal with them patiently and without too much anxiety.
The system policies are very different between here and Sno-Isle. Sno-Isle does not have a union, so are not bound by the same rules that apply to Seattle Public. Sno-Isle has children's liaison's which allows paraprofessionals to conduct story time and make school visits. At Seattle Public that would take away from the duties of a children's librarian, so the union won't allow it. However, it is unlikely that SPL will hire additional librarians to fill in, as they make a lot more money. The results are less story time and fewer kids getting exposed to what the library has to offer.
Sno-Isle also has much more patron friendly policies. They do not have fines and only charge for books that do not come back or are damaged. Seattle public does charge fines. I have heard that this actually brings in revenue for the library, but I do wonder if it offsets the cost of collecting on that money. It probably also causes many people not to use the library for some time due to fines and blocked cards. How much does the library lose in circulation due to this policy?
posted by srcsmgrl at
2:56 PM
1 Comments:
Argh, another reason to feel even more conflicted than I already do about my natural and historical appreciation of the value of unions in our society. Oh God help me! I am not getting old and conservative. I am not getting old and conservative. I am not getting old and conservative. Unions are good, in the end.
By
microcog, at 2:13 PM
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