Just an average guy trying to make sense of his life in the library and beyond.....
JF has resigned her position as a computer lab associate. She's a recent KSU grad who has been looking for full-time work ever since she started. I am just surprised that she lasted one year with the library. She found full-time work with UMKC.
I want to extend a simple thank you to friends, family, and workmates who made my 40th birthday celebration simple but memorable.
Despite the explosive increase in gas prices, I have decided to travel to Omaha with C and family over the labor day holiday weekend. I have driven through Omaha on numerous occasions, but I have never seen the city itself. I plan to see the zoo and perhaps the market area downtown.
LL is on vacation to area that's close by to the hurricane-ravaged Louisiana area. I hope she does not experience much of the fallout from this disaster while she travels. But she may encounter road and highway closures, flooding, and either high gas prices or gas shortages. I write about LL because I do not know anyone who lives in the Louisiana-Mississippi-Alabama areas.
I will miss the collection development meeting tomorrow morning as I will be substituting for LL who will be on vacation. However, LC will lead the meeting so that staff members can decide which sections of the collection they want to be responsible for. I have made it known that I would like to continue with the sections that I have plus I would not mind taking over the sports section of the 700s. I will find out what exactly my accountabilities will be when I report to work tomorrow afternoon.
JG starts work with our department tomorrow, September 1 succeeding for AT who moved with her husband to North Carolina. JG is a MLS candidate at the University of Missouri library school and has worked at our library since 2002 in the audio visual department. He will be a perfect fit for our department especially with his love of art house movies and poetry writing. Welcome aboard.
JG and I met with TG (the Assistant Library Director) this morning about using blogging on our website. We didn't get approval....yet. Instead we opened up a conversation of how blogging would benefit our library as well as the public it serves. Also, we agreed that if we do start blogging, it would have to be done by people who specialize in their respective subject areas and who can be dedicated enough to update their blogs on a frequent basis. JG and I plan to start with CL, our community services librarian, to see if she would be interested in blogging.
Dad's estate was officially closed on Wednesday. JB, as executor, met with the lawyer in Pontiac, IL to settle all of Dad's affairs. Distributions in accordance to Dad's wishes will begin soon.
Today, our branch began an internal bake sale. Most of the staff members contributed with something from their recipe book. I made my chocolate peppermint bars. The proceeds from the bake sale will go to help fund the staff Christmas party this year. The library's social fund has been dwindling recently and the social committee (which I'm part of) have been looking for ways to increase the monies in that fund.
MS/PS and friends received free tickets to the Chiefs preseason game this past Saturday. MS expressed to me his disgust of having to pay $20 for parking, having to park about three-quarters of a mile away from Arrowhead Stadium, and having to park in a muddy field. I think what MS fails to realize is that a Chief game, whether preseason or regular season, is now a colossal six-to-seven-hour event in Kansas City. Fans flood the parking lot, fire up their barbecues, and socialize for two to three hours prior to game time. If a fan even arrives an hour before game time, chances are their parking choices are limited and not exactly ideal. Now I will grant MS that perhaps a caretaker had to be arranged for DrB thus forcing their late arrival. But MS needs to remember that fans do tailgate and the tailgaters do take up most of the parking lot. Another friend actually gave up his Chiefs season tickets because he discovered that a Chiefs Sunday took up too much of his time and money.
I implemented the pager system today at the library. I passed out instruction to 20 fellow coworkers who frequently help out in the lab. DF, our computer tech guru, thinks that the pagers will not be enough. He thinks the library needs to offer more computers for the general public. And I think he's right.
School has started for the Kansas City, KS school district this week. This means that on Wednesday schools let out at 1PM so that teachers can work on training and education issues. This also means that the middle school students come to the library at 1PM instead of 3PM and try to have their run of the place. Thank goodness for BJ our security guard. She really knows how to put those kids in their place.
I have just bookmarked JL blog onto my computer. JL was the keynote speaker at NEKLS Tech Day on August 9 and her use of web site technology to enhance a library's website is very versatile. Check out her blog at http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/
Last night my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew went to Jazz-Louisiana restaurant in North Kansas City--the first time I had Cajun food in the KC area. I had the Louisiana shrimp with dirty rice and cole slaw. Here's their website:
Today, I showed JG the Santa Fe Public Library website. I am suggesting the we create a link to a KCKPL blog so that we can get more viewers to our website.
I think tomorrow at work, I'll focus on the notes provided by today's keynote speaker. Specifically, I'm going to concentrate on blogging and instant messaging and see how it may work for my library system.
Rumblings from computer services indicates that our library system may adopt wireless in the Spring 2006. Is it my imagination, or does my library system always seem to be the last kid on the block with the technology toys? I felt kind of awkward that other libraries, small and large, were talking about their wireless technology......
I think overall I enjoyed the NEKLS Tech Day in Topeka. Our breakout group got into an animated discussion about wireless technology with its implication for patron users and library policy. As I see it, we may have to create a separate policy for wireless at KCKPL. Our current wire policy may not be applicable. The powers that be may have to work with the lawyers on this one.
I will have to get up early Tuesday morning for NEKLS Tech Day in Topeka. The hot topic: the use of wireless Internet in Public Libraries. More postings on this to come......
Our computer lab recently obtained restaurant buzzers to page patrons waiting to use the computer lab. I sent an email to LL to let her know that I plan to install the paging system this coming Thursday. A fellow coworker will help me with this on Thursday.
JS from work recommended through hearsay a German restaurant in Cole Camp, MO. I Googled Cole Camp and discovered that this little community might be a treasure. I may just have to drive the 130 miles to see this town.
After work today, I went to MS and PS and we joined another couple and went to Paola, KS for some German food at Beethoven's. I had the Jaeger Schnitzel and a Warsteiner beer.
My printer of eight and half years has gone kablooey. Bought a new one today. Will install tonight when I get home.
I was cleaning up after having my garlic chicken and pasta dinner when the phone rang. It was AN calling to see how I was doing. It had been quite some time since we last talked. I believe in my last post about AN, I said she had made a decision to remain where she was at for all the right reasons. During tonight's conversation she elaborated on some of her reasons. I also talked a little bit about my trip to Vermont, Cooperstown, and Washington DC. We also talked about some of the challenges and adjustments that life sometimes presents us. One of the best 40 minute conversations I've ever had.
