Anyway, I figured the issue would be resolved right away once IT-Man (hardware) and J-Clone who is in charge of all front-facing public technology (e.g. public software) knew about the issue.  Apparently no.  It turns out that we as in TPL are not authorized to download either software, which were not appropriate for in-library use.  Huh?  I’m assuming that the Media Console is only authorized for personal use so the easy solution would be to buy institutional access.  As for Adobe, supposedly Overdrive won’t allow us to download it.  That latter part makes no sense to me since Digital Editions belongs to Adobe and not Overdrive.  Of course, AV Lead doesn’t understand this and basically didn’t argue this point with the Overdrive rep.  Being in a confrontational mood and frankly, sick and tired of IT’ s growing incompetency to deal with even the most basic computer issues, I asked for further clarification from IT-Man with regards to us not being able to download the software.  That last email apparently set IT-Man off and next thing I knew, I got an email from No. 2 stating that she was meeting with IT-Man and J-Clone to discuss the issue and that if I had any further issues, I was take them up with her privately.  Wow, didn’t realize my desire to get further clarification resulted in “hurting” IT-Man’s feelings that he had to go running to “Mommy” to put a stop all the “other kids from picking on” him.   When did TPL turn into a school playground all of a sudden?  Sadly, whatever shred of respect I once had for IT-Man has now evaporated when he actually admitted to a staff member that they knew about the issue months ago and purposely went ahead with the concept because of the massive library promotion.  He even tried to convince this staff member that you can simply download the audiobook to a MP3 player without the Media Console software but could not demonstrate this point when the staff member challenged him.

To top off matters, the latest email now involves C-Man who has weighed in on the matter by issuing this statement:

The problems outlined in recent emails concerning Overdrive and the downloading of audio books and eBooks have been noted. A committee consisting of [J-Clone] and [IT-Man] and led by [AV-Lead] will be looking at the immediate situation and possible responses. The same committee will also begin the process of developing a long term strategy for downloadable services. This strategy will include identification of the services offered and the functional structure required to support the services and insure the delivery of a positive customer experience to library users.

All I can say is really?  That’s your idea of how to solve the problem?  Strike a committee of the same three people who knew about the problem months ago and have done nothing about it?  Once again, a really simple solution–either buy the institutional access or take out all of the download stations.  This is not rocket science here, folks.  Sadly, this whole incident is just a painful reminder of why and how TPL is sinking further into the murky depths of obsolesce.

Unfortunately not all the sessions were good. Pretty bored at the IRRT-sponsored local history presentation. I even some anger this morning when I checked my work email and discovered 2 emails from Mr. Payband 10 and 1 from Scooter Man asking for a preliminary schedule of genealogy (forget local history) workshops for P-Man before he goes on vacation in July. Hello? I’m on vacation so if it’s not an emergency, why do I need to deal with work when TPL refused to pay for me to attend he conference & I’m using my vacation time? Worst than that was the guilt factor for not sending the information because I’m taking my anger out on Mr. Payband 10 and Scooter Man instead of P-Man. As Jam Tart once remarked, I must have been Catholic in a previous life.

Anyway, my foul mood greatly improved when I attended two inspirational sessions. Stephen Abram’s talk always cheers me up while Eppo van Nispen tot Sevenaer’s talk motivated & challenged me to be even more creative. In short, those two sessions were what I absolutely needed. Time will only tell if those talks will carry me through til the end of this year but for now, those sessions have made it worthwhile.

Please note that effective immediately, PS-Man is no longer employed at TPL. On an interim basis, units/staff reporting to the PS-Man will now report to No. 2.

Wow! Just when I think I can’t be shocked by TPL’ s management anymore. Tons of speculations about what happened but suffice it to say, the email does not imply that PS-Man left for personal reasons and that management wished PS-Man all the best. No, rather this email implies that PS-Man was fired. At the time of the BIG Switcheroo, some staff though PS-Man was being set-up to fail. I’m not sure that was the case but of all the managers, I didn’t think PS-Man would be the first one to leave. Mrs. Reader’s Advisory was overjoyed as usual. No love lost there with management but at the same time, I am kinda sad to see PS-Man go. I liked PS-Man as a person but I do agree, that as a manger, PS-Man was ineffective at times and tended to hem and haw before making (if any) decisions. Mind you, I think it’s usal the corporate mind set for managers at TPL. Anyway, not sure what will happen next. Although I have a sneaky suspicion that PS-Man’s sudden departure will not be the last one this year in the management group.

Grrr!!!! Mr. Payband 10 is driving me insane! First, I get this email from him this morning to thank me for submitting my staff entries for the summer reading contest via the online form. However, I am asked to fill out the paper ballots instead because he is too busy to sort out the online public entries from the staff ones. In other words, the online form sends all the information to his personal email address and doesn’t go to a master spreadsheet allowing him to keep track of the # entries or sort it by staff, adult, teen, etc. Gosh, what year is this, 2000???? Seriously, why should I as a staff member be forced to fill out the ballot by hand when the public has the option of filling out a paper ballot or doing it online? I’m seriously pissed that I am denied the option of submitting my entries online that I am not participating in this year’s summer reading contest. Call it childish but seriously, I don’t need the staff prizes and we are no longer keeping track of the titles for any purposes so I’m not sure why I should bother to participate. I use GoodReads to keep track all of the books I have read or want to read so the summer reading contest at TPL means absolutely nothing to me. Original M volunteered to write at the ballots for me but I graciously declined. I told her it’s the principle of the matter and I don’t just don’t understand why we are taking a step back when last year, I was able to submit my entries online.

Second, Mr. Payband 10 wants an update on genealogy programming for Sept-Oct. I wanted to write back to say F*** off because unlike some librarians who sit at his desk and rubber stamps program authorizations all day long, I have a full slate of duties including working with the public at two main service points, sit on various external committees and have my own frigging project (Web 2.0) project to work on. If he wants genealogy programming, why can’t he organize the classes himself? Oh wait, it’s not in his job description. F*** job descriptions! I’m sick and tired of hearing that as the excuse all the time. By the way, I talked to my contact the local genealogical society and she was relieved when I said I was thinking of taking a break from the classes in the fall. Turns out that she has a number of projects herself and her chief instructor is unavailable. Just as I expected so the only person who could give genealogy courses is moi and I’m far too busy to give a course so it looks good for Mr. Payband 10 and P-Man who is probably shaking his boots after the incident with PS-Man.

Good thing I’m going on a long trip north for a couple of days. I need the break from TPL. Even better is the planned vacation for next week. Just 7 more days before the blessed trip to ALA. Hooray!

Has life at TPL improved in the last week and a half since I blogged?  You be the judge:

• Ms. Napoleon from the Gallery is leaving at the end of August to pursue yet another Masters degree.  That means that TPL will have to hire yet another gallery director.  If you think the branch head position at CO is a revolving door, try the gallery. According to the former clerk who worked there, TPL has made some pretty bad hiring decisions over the past several years, ranging from the “psycho bitch” and the “autistic one”.  Ouch! Also, the clerk let slip that when they hired Ms. Napoleon, at least one member of the hiring committee did not think she had the right qualifications to lead the gallery.  Apparently Ms. Napoleon lacked the management experience.  However, The Director was so gung-ho about hiring from within that the decision was made to promote her from her curatorial position to the director of the gallery.  While noble, I admit that I was less than fond of Ms. Napoleon, especially when she thought the local history collection was her own personal research library and took all of the books on a popular research subject out of the room without my consent and my staff spent an entire week running around trying to locate them.  With Ms. Napoleon’s pending departure, speculation is whether or not the current curator or the gallery programmer will apply.  Most likely although the jury is still out with regards to the gallery programmer. After all, this is the infamous individual who put the plinth (display of knick knacks) in the fiction area and split up the  Popular Picks displays without consulting the collection leads.  Yes, I can see management wanting to promote the gallery programmer.  After all, she has the right “attitude” where she sees the library supporting an art gallery as opposed to a public library that has a gallery housed within it.

• Hot on the heels of HR posting Ms. Napoleon’s job, came the news that PW’s branch head has decided to retire at the end of this month.  Good for her.  After 40 years, I think the woman is entitled to retire in peace.  However, it was kinda sickening to read the letter where she was so sweet and gushed about the leadership qualities of No. 2 and CEO-Wannabe.  I sometimes wonder what she would really say if I plied her with enough margaritas so her guard comes down.  I have this sneaky suspicion she would have some choice words to say about management given that she has gone through it all in her 40 year career at TPL.

• Summer reading programs start up next week.  In the past couple of weeks, my inbox has been flooded with emails from  Mr. Payband 10 discussing what should be done with regards to the paper ballots.  What are we, frigging 1980?  For God’s sake, push the online form.  According to the instructions and buried under some useless information about the color of the paper ballots and the terminology differentiating the adult from the teen ballots, is the mere mention of an online form.  Well at least there is some hope.  After all, the 3 Luddites that make up the programming department actually remember that people like to submit what they have read online.  Mind you, somehow I don’t think they remember to tell the Marketing department this fact because all of the promos I have seen so far, don’t indicate the url to the online form.  Oops…

• Grouchy Pants from the IT unit just sent out an email to say that the call-in listserve has been finally fixed.  Apparently it had been broken for sometime and after finally looking into the situation, they discovered that truly indeed the listserve had been broken.  What got me was the last paragraph in Grouchy Pants‘ email that read:  “Please stop bothering “all staff” and please use the call-in list.   AND use whatever means necessary to let me know that I have to apply lead pipe #3 to the appropriate non working system the next time it stops working J .” Hmm…I wonder which manager complained about the “all staff” address being misused.  And honestly, do you think any staff member would make the effort to let you or your colleagues in the IT dept know what else is broken when it takes weeks…no, in some cases, months before the technical issue is resolved.  “Any mean” by ass.  Good internal customer service is really hard to come by these days.
  

So what has me in such great spirits?  I talked to my brother last night and I have made the decision to go to New York City after the ALA conference.  He’s trying to find us a cheap hotel room but it looks like I will be spending at least 2 days in NYC.  So much to see and do that I don’t know where to start.  The trip to NYC is just the tip of the iceberg.  I’m started to get really excited about the ALA conference.  I received my name and exhibits badge last week and having booked my flight a couple of weeks back, I am all set. I’m trying not to think how much this trip will hurt my pocket book but I figure that this trip will certainly help ease the pain of working at TPL for the past several months!

Trained two staff members how to set up their own wikis for the subject guides they created.  Why is this such a positive?  I got such a huge kick from one of them who was simply ecstatic that she got to create and publish her own web page.  Funny how I never seem impressed by my own accomplishments but when it comes to others, I’m so happy.  When I had my student, I really enjoyed the experience even though it was time consuming.  Who knows?  Maybe in 10 years or so, I may end up teaching at a library school. 

I helped to peer review an article several weeks back.   While talking to the editor of the magazine, she was encouraging me to write my own article.  Not a bad idea.  In the meantime, I will have to settle for being the “Editor-in-Chief” of the Council’s newsletter.  Never really saw myself in that role until a fellow archivist pointed out that out.  After all, I am the head of the committee that oversees the production of the newsletter so why can’t I call myself “Editor-in-Chief”? Ah, the power…

I was singled out a couple of weeks back by C-Man at the Readers’ Advisory workshop for my “Too Hot to Handle” display.  Seriously, how wrong can one go by showing front facing paperback novels with shirtless men on them?  Nice to get the recognition.  Not sure about my rep though.

My 2 1/2 year old nephew came for a visit last Sunday.  He had a huge smile when he said my name.  Granted, my actual name is one syllable and it’s probably very easy for him to say as opposed to my other sister’s name which is actually 3 syllables long.  Still, my name is the only name my nephew can say without any hesitation and without any problems.  That kid is definitely getting something special from NYC!

I received and read the latest Lisa Kleypas’ novel Married by Morning.  It was awesome!  I’m such a romantic.

Today, I spent much of my off desk day cleaning.  Now that may not sound anything special but it was very cathartic.

Earlier this evening, I finally finished writing my treasurer’s report for the upcoming AGM which means I have the entire evening to myself.  Hooray!  Think I will spend it on my new sofa in my newly renovated basement watching a fave movie on my big screen plasma TV.  Can life get more relaxed than this?

Workshop aside, I spent the entire long weekend not doing much except for stuff around the house.  I finally got around to putting the 2nd coat of paint on my bedroom wall which looks so much better now. I moved my sister’s dresser into my room and I can’t believe that most of my clothes are no longer in plastic totes!  I also took the opportunity to repaint my kitchen door which looked really gungy.  At least a fresh coat of paint does the trick! I went shopping with my sister on the Sunday and bought some stuff for the house and babysit my nephew the night before. I wouldn’t say it was a relaxing weekend but at least it took my mind off work.

Unfortunately, the long weekend has come to an end.  Miserable day–cold and wet.  Even my shift doesn’t start until the afternoon, I had to get up early for the annual water heater maintenance.  Luckily, guy showed up around 8:20 am and it only took about 10 minutes.  Now, I’m just killing time before heading to work.  There are tons of work-related stuff I could do but I’m still in vacation mode.  At least for the next several hours!

• Systems Librarian: She sent an email to Eager Beaver and myself with instructions on how to create permanent links to the new catalog. Oh thank-you so much. You’re only frigging 3 months late with the instructions! I think the bloggers figured it out since the blogs are still being maintained with no help from anyone in IT or VS!
  

• Mrs. Former Union President: When I asked what she knew about the problems associated with the photocopier on the main floor, she started ranting how the clerks used to take of these things…blah, blah… Instead of ignoring her, I would love to say that just because LAs have a bachelor degree does not mean you are above helping a patron fix a photocopier, or better yet, know what’s wrong with the photocopier so I can relay the message to the repair guy! Note: I phoned the company for a service call and I had no qualms about doing it even though I have a frigging Masters!

• Mrs. Bohemian: She handed out a guest pass to a well-known trouble-making patron who forgot her library card at home. Set a bad precedent which led to a nasty encounter between the patron and Scooter Man this weekend. To Mrs. Bohemian, I know you miss your sister terribly and I realize that you still have kids in high school but maybe do us all a favour and consider retirement. You hate public services and you volunteer to take on extra assignments or training. In fact, we know you’re only here to pick up a pay cheque by doing as little work as possible. Only at TPL would we allow such mediocre work performance. It’s fair that the rest of us have to compensate for you. Next time, suck it up Mrs. Bohemian and be “bitched” at by a patron. God knows, you have a Bachelor degree so you can take it like us librarians who end up as the punching bag every time you LAs can’t handle the slight hint of a dissatisfaction.

• Former Page: Left me a note saying that Linda from the Genealogical Society called. She then told me later on that day that I was suppose to Linda back. Linda, who? There are 2 Lindas that actually work at the Genealogical Society. No offense here but if you were in my place, would you be thrilled if you were left a cryptic note under your computer mouse the name Linda on it? Could you at least get a last name and perhaps a phone number?
  

• Ms. Gallery Programmer: The Gallery had a contest or something and decided to put some items on display. Once again, the Gallery parked it in the fiction area on the main floor. They moved one of the Popular Picks shelving units to the self-serve holds area beside the gardening display unit to make room for the Gallery’s unit. Ms. Gallery Programmer was told explicitly to check with Mr. Fiction before moving the display unit to that area but apparently, she couldn’t track him down. The Gallery went ahead and Mr. Fiction was livid. To Ms. Gallery Programmer, this is a library that happens to have a gallery within it. It is not a Gallery with a library surrounding it. Kindly remember that our bread & butter are our circulating materials not your crappy modern art pieces that no one can touch or read because your labels are a) not present or b) too small for anyone to read unless they press themselves up against the plexi. Since you don’t want your displays near the gallery, let me suggest where you can put it. How about we mount some wheels on the unit and roll it down the ramp outside? Then you call it a “traveling display”.
  

• Original: Received an email wondering if it was acceptable that a genealogy researcher who logged onto the computers at 5 pm, used her designated 2 hours, and then logged back in for another 2 hours. I realize that you are a stickler for rules but it’s not like this 2-4 hours of online genealogy research in the local history room is new to you. Did you really need to spend the 5 minutes writing me an email to ask me about it?
  

• PW: Nice of you to provide some positive feedback regarding the new catalog to Eager Beaver and the rest of us that came to your branch for a visit. Seriously though, you can complain about it. It’s not like we haven’t heard it before. No need to be all positive and cheerful for our benefit. Better yet, just stay away from that purple kool-aid.
  

• J-Clone: After spending weeks struggling to get this Web 2.0 project off the ground and putting in overtime, I had a meeting with J-Clone on Friday afternoon. She is concerned that the project is getting out of hand and wants me to scale back. Essentially she wants me to write a research summary (something already noted in the project charter) trying to convince her, the project sponsor, why we need to provide Web 2.0 training to all staff. As I was envisioning my fingers tightening its hold on her neck, I wanted to shout, “I’m not your bitch, BITCH! Fuck you and No. 2! I didn’t ask for this project This project was shoved down my throat and I was told that I had to do it. Personally I think you should have been the project leader not me. This is your area of “expertise”. Remember I didn’t get hired as the Virtual Services Manager. You did, so frigging show me why you deserved to get the job besides “delegating” responsibilities? In other words, show some leadership skills already!!!
  

I highly recommend it.  I signed up for free membership mainly   because it has  a tremendous variety of training opportunities.  They also made the virtual conference seem like a total breeze and it made me wonder why our own librarians or archival associations don’t use a model like this to deliver their professional development courses?

As for the information itself, it was great.  I have decided that if I can, I would love to work for Alliance Library System but only if Helene Blowers and Richard Harwood don’t ask me first. It was very cool to listen to them talk, especially Helene.  I found all of the conversations about innovation to be very interesting especially in the context of change management.  When Kendal Orrison described the process to switch over to a new ILS system, I wanted so desperately to fire off an email to our HR department and beg them to hire this guy.  The guy not only knows what he is doing, but he knows how to communicate change to his staff.  One of the biggest issues about the new ILS and this consortium business at TPL was no one in management was ever able to explain properly why this new arrangement was needed.  Yes, you can blame the government for forcing our hand but as I have said before, if this idea was so great 15 years ago, why is it so great now?  Yes, this new arrangement will “equalize” all of the library systems in our region but honestly, why such the huge disparity to begin with?  Especially between TPL and Luddite Public Library (LPL)?  In fact, why haven’t heads rolled at LPL for keeping with the same ILS system for the past 15 years  and running the danger of it simply malfunctioning one day and poof, there goes the entire system up in smoke?  I simply don’t get it.

We are obviously afraid within our organization to admit our own mistakes/failures so everything needs to be analyzed to death before a decision can be made.  And yet, to be truly innovative as each of these presenters pointed out, you need to create an environment where failure is to expected. As Sarah Houghton-Jan pointed out, “discontinuing a service is failing but persisting in the failed effort is [also] failing”.  How many ill-conceived library programs or ideas do we still try to prop up after all of these years?  BTW, Sarah had the best line in the entire conference when she remarked that marketing is not just bookmarks.  Ha, I would also argue that marketing is more 81/2 x 11 posters or little pamphlets either.

Simply put, it was a good day full of great ideas and much to think about.

Blogging

We have published a total of 5352 blog posts since April 2007 which works out to 1145 days from April 1, 2007 to May 8, 2010.  I have published 1200 of those blog posts and account for 22% of the blogging productivity.  My closest rival is the administrator which is the combination of the ex-ex-webmaster and her successor the ex-webmaster, clocking in at 17%.  The AV Lead is 3rd with 12.5%, Jam Tart is fourth at 9.5% while Mrs. Scaredy/Bossy Pants sits in fifth with 7.7%.  The entire admin group clocks in at 0.006% which coincidentally is the same percentage as the entire PR & Marketing Dept.  More startling is Mrs. Reader’s Advisory whose output is 0 .005%–lower than the entire admin group!

AskaLibrarian Message Board

Taking out 54 questions that were Mrs. Reader’s Advisory’s training questions and testing of the message boards, there has been a total of 304 questions submitted through the service when it was introduced last Fall.  Of the 304 questions, I have answered 103 of them while Scooter Man has answered 102.  Jam Tart is third at 32 questions answered but Rookie Librarian is catching up with 25 questions.  So what’s the percentage?  I am sitting at 33.8%, Scooter Man is 33.5%, Jam Tart is 10.5% while Rookie Librarian is 8%.  And where is our fearless Ref & RA Lead?  Well, Mrs. Reader’s Advisory is sitting at a measly 14 (I subtracted 40 questions as training/testing)  which means she is contributing 4.6%.

Conclusion

Well I guess I know why Mrs. Reader’s Advisory is so bored.  I guess that saying that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people is correct.  I account for 55% of both the blogging and email reference done at TPL while the person in charge of blogging (RA) and virtual reference only accounts for 4.5%.  Good god I’m such a doormat!  The sad thing is that my numbers will not change all that significantly until I put my foot down. The only way that will happen is a) I quit or b) hell has frozen over and TPL’s management is entirely forced out.  I think I will have better luck looking for a job elsewhere.

• Started off the week with touring the new library tech student who is doing a work placement at TPL for 2 1/2 weeks.  Thankfully, her placement is with me and for the most part, it’s really working out well.  She’s highly intelligent and willing to blog, wiki, IM and even willing to work on the info services desk.  Hallelujah!  In fact, I was complaining to Scooter Man that at the rate the student is going, I’m quickly running out of things for her do.  If only some of our LAs could take a page from her book.  Particularly Show Dog LA who managed to book off every Friday shift between now and I think next month so she can enjoy extra long weekends.  Granted Show Dog LA has worked at TPL for several years and is owed all of this vacation time but it makes me wonder if Original M or Scooter Man have even noticed that she’s isn’t pulling her own weight.

• Monday was also the day of a huge kerfuffle with J-Clone.  She sent an email to Eager Beaver & myself and essentially ordered us to stop from publishing our Wigglesworth blurbs in our internal newsletter.  Luckily  I stopped Eager Beaver from sending out an email questioning her decision.  From what Eager Beaver said, it sounded like she is not willing to have anyone question her authority and was quite dismissive of him earlier that day when she ordered him to make sure PR didn’t run the Wigglesworth bits.  Anyway,  later on that day, I was “summoned” to appear in J-Clone’s office the next day to discuss matters.   I admit that I was very tempted to hand in my resignation notice, not for just this project but for my job as well.  I would have loved nothing more that to show the notice in her face and watch her sputter as she tried to fix the “problem.” Needless to say, nothing really happened at the meeting except I’m doing all of this work, I have to involve PR (useless waste of time I say) more and I have not only a project sponsor (J-Clone) but I also have Über-project sponsors (Dynamic Duo).  In other words, I have project management within a project management.  Lovely.  Can we just say that this project is totally fucked up!

• Monday was the start of a week long arbitration meeting.  Our union protested the process leading up to and during the Big Switcheroo.  We finally had our day in court and Scooter Man was involved on the first day.  He was called to provide testimony on a number of things.  I don’t think I’m allowed to ask what happened but he did say that a summation will be made on May 28th.  Keeping my fingers crossed.  Personally my feeling is that the Union will win the minor stuff but management will win the major stuff.  Yes, I know it’s pessimistic-sounding but nothing from this whole situation will honestly surprise me anymore.

• Spent Thursday afternoon with friends J & A who work at Luddite Public Library and are in town to present at the annual library’s conference.  Nice to catch up with J.  He revealed that LPL which went first in the ILS changeover, is experiencing huge issues.  No kidding.  Apparently LPL staff can’t log in rightaway.  At one point, it took a LPL 94 times to try before she was able to get into the system.  Wow, and I thought TPL had ILS issues.  Still, I don’t it’s fair to let LPL off the hook.  If I said it before and  I’ll keep saying it until I’m blue in the face, heads should have rolled at LPL.  There is no way management at LPL should not have been held more responsible for the situation that they found themselves in with a non-supported ILS system that should have dumped a decade ago. Yes, I’m cold-hearted but let’s face it, it’s survival of the fittest not the slowest, the most conservative or the most traditional.

• Since my student expressed interest in doing a short stint in cataloging, I talked to the cataloging head this morning who had been away all week for the arbitration hearing.  Turns out that the cataloging head is bitter that they didn’t get a student.  I was wondering about that. I was surprised when I saw the list that TPL only got one work placement student from the library tech program.  According to the head of the unit, J-Clone put her foot down and didn’t want to give them an extra pair of hands even for a 2 1/2 week period.  In fact, at any given point, one or more catalogers will complain bitterly about J-Clone‘s micro-management style.  They are extremely worried that J-Clone will not post the upcoming mat leave position.  Now is the time to do it since there is no one internally at TPL that will apply and we will need to find an external candidate.  The funny thing is that Celine was trying to convince me to dissuade my student from applying for that position when it becomes available.  What does that say about our organization?  We are understaffed and desperately need a new pair of hands but yet, we don’t want them to enter a hornets’ nest.  Yes, I agree.  We definitely like to send mixed signals.