Jonathan Swift Promoted the Eating of Children...

...to solve the famine woes of Ireland. I have an equally intriguing solution to for library budgets. Like many libraries across the nation and around the world, my system has had one shortfall after another since the economic meltdown under Bush.
Last week we learned that in the next FY our system has an anticipated budget gap of $8 million dollars. Our fearless leader explained that they have to either find the money somewhere or they have to cut out of the budget. In libraries 80% of our budget is generally allocated to salaries. We are a labor intensive organization because basically we are a service organization. Books although expensive do not add up to the cost of someone processing them, retrieving them, checking them back in and putting them back on the shelf. The cost of each book is a one time fee, the cost of the people touching that book is a recurring fee for the life of that book. That is assuming that the item is something that people want and not something that languishes on the shelf for an indefinite period of time.
So what to do? The first step happened several months ago when 40 part-time people were laid off. That was black day for me because I lost a good employee. Our materials budget has been trimmed about as lean as it can really get. Once again this isn't where the bulk of the budget is anyhow. The next step is probably cutting service hours. But I have run a business before and I know that there is no real savings in just closing the building some hours a week. You are still paying rent and there has to be some climate control because there are computers that require a degree of comfort. And since we do not live in Alaska but in a Mediterranean climate that requires cooling for a significant part of the year. No real savings there. So once again we are back to people. By cutting hours you can start enacting more aggressive lay-offs. I am not looking forward to this next FY at all.
Here is my solution to meet the budget short falls that library systems in general are experiencing to prevent further lay-offs. Libraries like to have people leave them $ when they pass on. The Waikiki Library in Honolulu unexpectedly received $2 million dollars when snowbird who used the library on his trips to Hawaii passed away. What a windfall. So libraries do pursue donations of this type and try to make people aware that you can will your money to libraries in much the same way you might to an animal shelter.
So here is where we get creative. Library Systems can develop a crack teams with two prongs. The first prong would be the business suited smooth talkers. They identify people in their service area that have substantial resources and are library users. They approach these people and convince them to sign their trusts over to the library upon their demise. Once a reasonable amount of time has passed to lower suspicions, then the second team is activated. The purpose of this unit would be to make sure that the donors met an untimely accident. The library system become the beneficiary and hence valuable jobs are saved. Budget problems solved, end of story.

Libraries Never Have Enough

There is never enough space, time, staff to do what we really want to do or have what we really want to have. We are limited in so many ways and with this economy we are becoming even more limited at a time when people really want and need more from us.
This past week I have been shifting collections. I shifted the adult audio book collection, our books on CD have outgrown their space and the books on tape are shrinking due to collection priorities. We are no longer collecting audio books on cassette nor are we collecting VHS tapes. Our children's audio visual collection also needed shifting for the same reason. Throughout the year there are times when people return more items than are taken out, our collections swell and we need to find space for those items us. Between the end of summer and the beginning of fall is one of those times. It is a delicate dance with the only constant being that our physical space only changes when there is a renovation of some sort.
But the big move this week was expanding the space for holds. These are items that customers have requested from other libraries. Last year, I moved the hold shelf from 3 ranges (a range of shelves) to 6 ranges. Then on Thursday morning, I shifted the hold shelf to teen area giving the holds an additional 3 ranges. We moved the teen area to the hold area and part of the classic section. The classic section moved down and around into the reference section. The reference section is being weeded to either get the books into the regular circulating collection or removed from the library. Friday afternoon, I saw a packed hold shelf and got a major headache. Less than 24 hours later and it seemed to have already outgrown its space.
So needless to say, this took a lot of work and right now my reference section is a total disaster. We have a lot of books to absorb into the regular collection
I told the teen librarian that worked with me on this project to not worry about the reference collection because no one really wants to use it anyhow. We can help the few people who might need something out of in the next month find what they need.
Today, I need to work on my classic collection. First I back shifted and then I forward shifted with the unfortunate result that Dickens does not have a home. Dickens was a prolific writer so now I either have to tighten the shelves up on the gamble that more stuff will go out than come in or I can weed the collection down. The classic section is in pretty dismal condition so weeding would theoretical be easy--I could pare it down by at least half but then students often come in needing the book today because they have to read it tonight for the project due tomorrow. My head is already hurting but I can't leave Dickens homeless so I will probably do a combination of both tactics to hedge my bets.

Overworked, Vegas, IQ, EQ and more...

Summer has sped by at a lightening pace. At work we are over worked and understaffed. I have 4 people--that is almost 25% of my staff--on limited duties. We have had record days of circulation. As a busy medium sized library we have a daily circ on our long days of about 1200 items. However, we had two days over 1900 in a row and almost every Monday and Tuesday this past month has been at more than 1500. So we are definitely doing more with less. And the sometimes short tempers show. So I spend most of my day trying to get items back on the shelf so that people can take them and we don't have to hunt around the library looking for them for them--the item that is for the patrons. Last night I had my niece go around the library picking up stray books off the tables and the floor because the one lonely page I had for the eight hours could not work below her knees or above her head or bend very much, or squat, or lift, ect, ect, ect. It could be worse and certainly may get worse with the economy. I only hope that I am a high enough librarian number to withstand the storm that we still haven't found the brunt of yet.
As you may have heard, California has yet to balance the budget and is issuing IOU's. One resource they have up their sleeves is to invoke a proposition passed in the 2004 that would allow the state to borrow money from the cities and counties for 3 years. The money has to be paid back but in the mean time the cities and counties are in trouble. Yes, we live in fear of invocation. The cities and counties are of course up in arms about this. I live in Santa Clarita which although has been hard hit has practiced budgetary restraint apparently since incorporation in the 80's so they are justifiably angry that big Pork fat Sacramento wants to take their hard earned dollars. The county is also angry. I have a big sign in my library urging people to call their legislators today. One patron did, and the legislators office told her that he didn't know why she was calling because the proposition had failed in the last election. This years Prop 1 failed, yes. But not 2004's. Very heartening that a reps office doesn't know what is going on. Yes, I am sure that that call was passed on.
This last weekend was Vegas, me and my $40 cups of coffee. The Starbucks that I usually like to go to outside the casino was closed. So that meant I had to get my morning fix with all the pretty tempting blinking flashy lights. The machines without exception ate my money in the morning. And I know better because I have determined that the machines never never pay out in the mornings. So why do I do it?
I think it is a little thing called Emotional Intelligence and delayed gratification.
Recently I have read--actually I am still reading two of them, ok three of them--books on Emotional Intelligence. It's an interesting concept and supposedly has more impact on your future success or lack there of than intelligence--of which I possess at least an average amount--according to the IQ quiz I took while waiting for the baby to wake up from his nap this weekend. Not my baby mind you. Nope, my genes are out of the pool. Back to EQ. Anyway, once upon a time there was a study that began with 4 year olds and followed them through to adulthood. The 4 year olds in a room with a researcher were given the option when the researcher was called away. "Here is a cookie for you, you can have it but if you wait to eat it until I come back then you can have two cookies." What a dirty trick to play on 4 year olds was my first thought. Well, it turns out that the 4 year olds that were able to delay their gratification for the bigger reward had more EQ and turned out to do much better overall in life than the greedy gobbly 4 year olds that snarfed the cookie as soon as the researcher left the room. As I sat feeding my slot machine early in the morning, I had no doubt which category I would have fallen into as a young child. But there is hope although IQ cannot be alter, EQ on the other hand can be. That I tell myself is why I only spent $15 on Monday on the slots and not because that was all the cash I had in my wallet. Well, I choose to call it an improvement!
And finally, yesterday I had my ultrasound. Much to my regret--I think--the most likely suspect, my thyroid is innocent of all charges. So it is something else. The ultrasound this week and the biopsy next week should sort things out. The entire procedure took about 30 minutes and the technician took a lot of photos. This made me nervous. I asked if she was going to do the vaginal one. Her response "I think so to give a better picture." Crap, I would have preferred--I think--"No, I don't see a need for that." So once I emptied my bladder from the tummy side view, I disrobed and came out to meet the vaginal insertion for the inside look around. All I have to say is not fun. This part of the procedure lasted at least 15 years and although she said she was only going to insert the device--that appeared to be condom covered and well lubricated--just about 3 inches, I think it was the entire 10. Once again a lot of photos. I tried my best to disengage my mind from the lower half of my body. When it was over and I had dressed, she said that the images would be sent to the dr by the end of the week. He's on vacation until next week when I go back for the oh so fun--this is really going to hurt bad, so stick this pill as far up you as you can 4 hours before you come and be sure to take a big dose of ibuprofen beforehand--biopsy. GREAT!!! All I can say is that I definitely did not use my quota of luck in Vegas so maybe I still have some left. I can only hope.

Reference Questions I Love

I like those questions that make me think--hmmm...I don't know, let me see if I can find out. For example last year someone asked for a book on the Grim Reaper--you know, Death, right. I thought that there would be no problem and that there would probably be several books in our system about the Grim Reaper at least. A quick search determined that there actually wasn't. What?!? How can that be. He's a pretty important guy right. Someone had to write something about THE GRIM REAPer some where. So I went out into cyberspace to see what books might show up. By this point, I am completely psyched to figure out this mystery. I couldn't find any non-fiction books that dealt with the grim reaper. I would think that there would have been at least a book of collected stories or something. I did find out that the Grim Reaper is known as a Psychopomp--I love the sound of this word--apparently a psycopomp is a spirit, angel or demon whose role is to guide the deceased soul to the afterlife. Pretty cool, Huh?
OK, so I wasn't able to give the guy much more than some copies from Wikipedia but hey why hasn't there been a load of books written on the Grim Reaper. I mean seriously, if any subject deserves some attention, I would think that our hooded, scythe carrying friend would rank up there. Don't you?
I also enjoy questions where people express, thanks and end the interaction with--You save me a lot of time or I would never have been able to find this on my own or thanks so much for taking the time to show me how to find stuff on my own. Or you can get them to fax that information here for me, really? That is so cool! or How did you find that? I have been looking for hours. Even a simple Thank you, works. It is nice to be appreciated and it builds good karma.
Thankfully, I get a lot more questions that I like or questions that generate no emotional response than I get questions that I hate.

Reference Questions I hate

1) Children's science project questions. OK, not too bad if they are just looking for a science project but when they are looking for the supporting books--and they must be books--I just want to run out of the library screaming. Here are the questions that I got this past week in this category:
"I need a book on how tap water, distilled water and bottle water effects the growth of plants." My comment...in my head "Uhmm, I don't think anyone has written a book on that...EVER!" My response..."Well, why don't we find you a book on water...maybe that will help you."
"I need a book on the burning points of different kinds of woods." Internal--"Do we have a future pyromaniac on our hands or what?" Response..."Hmmm, let's go look in the wood working section and see if we can get some descriptions of different kinds of wood."
"I need a book on the nutritional value of gummy worms" Internal--"You have got to be joking, you look on the back on the package." External--"It sounds like a book on sugar or junk food might help you out with this project, why don't I find a couple of those for you?"

Yeah, I know they are kids and they don't know that there is a difference. However, every single one of these kids were accompanied by an adult and they are just as likely to ask very similar if actually not the same question.

2) Do you have the xth edition of x textbook? Internal: You do not want to buy the textbook because it costs $150 and you won't be able to sell it back at the end of the semester because the next edition is going to be out. The library doesn't have a lot of funds to buy 15 copies for you and your classmates for the same reason X 15 X 150 for the number of classes that we get asked about. External: You might want to check with your college library to see if they have a copy in the library--textbooks are expensive, change editions frequently, and our funds are limited, so it is difficult for us to collect them. But I will check my catalog just in case someone donated the edition that you need."

3)A string of reference questions that makes me feel that I have just had information vomited on me. They come one after the other. I barely have time to finish an answer before the next question comes. Totally different topics, totally random associations. I just wait for the onslaught to stop. I am left feeling like I need a shower.

4) The teacher says that I need a book, periodical, and an encyclopedia article on x with X inevitably being and obscure subject that even Wikipedia has only compiled two sentences on. Internal: "What was this teacher thinking...I know she has this nifty little book that is probably out of print and has all the information that she wants them to find but has failed to inform the library or anyone else of the title. I could just strangle her." External.."Hmmm...it looks like I can't really find much on this subject except for a few sentences in Wikipedia...what I can do is fill out this card for you to give to your teacher letting her know that you (and your 30 classmates) have come to the library looking for the information but we can't locate anything more than what I have for you here."

Tomorrow, questions that I love to get...