Task 7: Reader Resources

Okay, so I took a peek at the different sites and here's what I have to say: Goodreads, Shelfari, and LitLovers were all a little too "social networky" for me. Honestly, reviewing books and having book discussions is a little too much like school for me--I know, that's a horrible thing to say. But seriously, I'm a lit major and right now I am reading things that I don't necessarily want to and I am being forced to analyze them and write about them. I don't really want to do that very same thing in my leisure time at this point. Plus, I'm not really into social networking sites in the first place. So none of these would be my choice.

LibraryThing looks really neat (although, it has a strange name). I like the idea of being able to catalog your own personal library. This is one that I would seriously consider signing up for.

I could see myself actually using AllReaders to track down a book with a forgotten author and title. That could really come in quite handy. So, despite the garish look of the site and not technically having to sign up for it (that I could tell), this is the one I have chosen. It's practical and has a real use.

As far as the Boulder Public Library's Goodreads goes, I thought it was pretty cool--although I couldn't view very much of it since I didn't have an account. From what I could tell it's more like a social network than a blog. As far as the question of our library having one goes, I'm not sure. I mean, we already have a facebook and a book blog, so isn't that the equivalent of having a Goodreads account? The more accounts we have, the less interesting they will become because someone around here has to keep adding to them.

Sorry, I'm not trying to sound pessimistic. I think that's all I have to say for now. Have a great day!

Task 6: Tutorials

I thought it was interesting that the Ohio Library Council had tutorial for new staff. I think that that sort of orientation is a really good idea. I enjoyed browsing the part about cataloging. I had a pretty good handle on the Dewey Decimal System before I started working here, but I didn't get too much information on it when I started (of course, I think we can all say that we got great training in shelving). I think it's good for us to have somewhat of an understanding of those sorts of behind the scenes things when we work in the library. I also liked the part that talked about how everyone contributes to the mission of the library. It puts a different spin on your job when you put it in the context of "how do I fulfill the mission of the library?"

I shall now move on to Customer Service 123. I thought it was really interesting that it said that 68% of customers who quit using a certain business do so "because of indifference by sales and service personnel." I guess I didn't realize that the number was that high. Bottom line: we should make it so that people would rather wait in line to be helped by us than to use self check-out. I think the question "How would the last 3 customers you worked with rate you?" is a really good question to ask ourselves periodically. Last night (literally last night) my grandmother told me that there was a girl who helped her at the grocery store and while she did she asked my grandma simple, pleasant questions and just seemed like she cared. My grandma said that it made her feel really good and that I should make people feel like that in my job.

The part that I liked the most and really agreed with was the part in Customer Service 123 where it talked about how every position in the library--including behind the scenes--is a customer service position. I have always felt strongly that good customer service in the library extends past smiling and being pleasant while helping someone face-to-face. Properly checking in someone's books for them is good customer service. In contrast, not paying attention to the screen and accidentally not checking in someone's books for them before they get put on the shelf is really poor customer service. Just think about it--patrons can get pretty upset or at least anxious when they see that a book they are sure they returned is still checked out to them. Making people upset or anxious is not good customer service (it doesn't matter that they don't know it was you). I could go on and on about how all kinds of behind the scenes tasks are in fact customer service, but this particular one is my soap box. So watch the screen!!!

Task 5: OPAC

I usually place holds for multiple items using method number 2--the "Add to Book bag" method--and after trying it the other way, I've decided that I'm going to continue to do what I've been doing. When you log into the account initially to place holds, you have to pick hold-thru dates every single time. I did notice, however, that the "My Library Account" method did allow me to change my requested pick-up location even though it sounded like a drawback of that method was supposed to be that you couldn't do that--well, it seemed to do it for me, and that just turned into another thing you had to do every single time you requested something.

The "Add to Book bag" method is my method of choice. You can just add things to the book bag as you find them and then when you decide you are finished, you can place them all on hold at once--that means picking a date and pick-up location only once. And it also gives you a list of everything showing whether the hold did or did not go through.

I would also have to agree that, in general, Millennium is bad news when it comes to placing holds. It's confusing and doesn't have pictures or anything. The only time I ever use Millennium to place holds is when I'm purposefully doing an item level hold. Otherwise, I try to steer clear.

So put my vote down for the "Add to Book bag" method!

Task 4: Facebook

Okay, so I took a little tour of some Facebook pages. How exciting! There's only so much you can do with your Facebook to make it intriguing. I actually looked at all of them suggested by webolution (why not?) and found that the National Portrait Gallery one was pretty cool (because it had portraits).
I don't have a Facebook, and I was relieved that I wasn't going to be forced to make one for this task. I can see the appeal of reconnecting with old friends and networking with current friends, but I think it's kind of strange to "make new friends" on facebook or any other social networking site for that matter. It's hard enough staying in touch with actual friends without trying to befriend people that are out in the ether. Maybe I'm being overly critical, though.

Again, my aversion to Facebook goes back to my aversion to blogging and having everyone see what I post. I don't have that need to acquaint everyone I know with everything I am thinking and/or doing (but I guess that's what I'm doing right this second). I generally just write long emails to my sister or cousin about what's going on in my life, but I kind of figure that no one else really cares (to the degree that my sister and cousin do).

I'll go back to talking about the Facebook pages I visited and finish off by saying why I think everyone, including the President, have them. I liked that Josh Penry had a picture of his son's first day back to school. There were a lot of pictures of Obama on his page--a lot (at least when I looked at it). Coca~cola's page was unimpressive. I guess I just thought that the fans' comments were lame--"tastes great!"--what kind of comment is that? Oh well.

I think that the reason that everyone is getting on board with Facebook is the same reason that everyone was starting to get a website a decade or so ago. Facebook is just the next thing--it's a lot like advertising for companies like coca~cola, except it's more personal. Does coca~cola have a Facebook because they want to make friends? No, of course not. They want people to continue to buy and drink (rather than pouring it out in the gutter--but then again, they probably don't care what you do with it after you've bought it) their product. It's advertising.

Okay, I think this post has gone on for long enough.

Task 3: The Quiz

Well, I got a 93.333333333333333% on the quiz (I am haunted by the 3's). I missed one and it was the one about the different ways to contact librarians. I guess I didn't realize "Chat/IM a Librarian" and "24/7 Live Chat" were different options. Oh well. I did the quiz as a scavenger hunt rather than an actual "closed-book" quiz. I hope that's okay. The questions just seemed way too obscure for us to have been expected to do it without looking. Plus, I think it worked better to do it as a scavenger hunt--I learned more than I would have if I were just guessing.

One thing I learned in my tour was that KDL's What's Next can not only be accessed through the "For Readers" page, but also has a link on the "Research Page". That's cool. Another thing I learned was that we have a website--okay, I already knew that, but I'm racking my brain to figure out what I learned. It's not like there weren't pages that I hadn't explored before, though. I guess in general I found that there is often more than one way to get to a particular link--for instance, the KDL's What's Next. I use that all the time by the way.

I really like how the Community Directory page is set up--with elected officials listed and such. It's good to be familiar with the website so that we can actually utilize all of the handy features that it has.

Task 2: Pandora

Hi again. I've been using Pandora for a little while now and I like it. It's nice to be able to type in an artist or song that you like and get a bunch of similar sounding music. Sometimes, however, I wish they would play more of the actual artist that I have chosen. But, I suppose that would be too much like listening to a CD and would defeat the purpose of exposing the listener to new artists.

I've found that my favorite band, Remedy Drive, which is lessor known and up til last year was independent, does not yield very many comparable results. For one thing, Pandora does not seem to have any of their music from their independent days (they had three albums out before they went to a label and only one since). For another thing, they're a Christian band, which limits the matches to that particular genre, rather than opening it up to all of the music world. As a result, Remedy Drive is the only band that sounds like Remedy Drive that pops up when I type them in--and even then, Pandora only has about four songs of theirs. This makes me want to pull out my CD's and just listen to what I already know I want to listen to. But I suppose this isn't Pandora's fault. As far as I can tell, Remedy Drive's old CD's aren't even available on their own website.

I really like the feature of being able to "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" particular songs. I'm worried, however, about other people (particularly my beloved co-workers) using this feature while my account is logged on. I suppose I have no reason to think that anyone would do that, but it would be too bad if a song that I enjoy was randomly nixed by someone who didn't share my taste. At least if someone were to "thumbs-up" a selection I didn't like, I could just change it when it came up again. I must admit that I did go and delete all of the random play-lists that have been added to my account by persons other than myself--sorry guys. I just was having trouble locating my own lists and I was kind of amazed by how many random lists had accumulated in so short a time.

One thing that I found to be slightly annoying was when Pandora told me that I had skipped as many songs as I was allowed for the hour. But I suppose they don't want you skipping all of the new artists that they are trying to expose you to, so I can understand that.

I noticed that two different lists I have have overlapping artists, which I think is more of a reflection of my taste in music than any flaw that Pandora may have. This brings me to something that I think would be really cool. What if we were able to enter two or three or even more artists and have all of them come up in one play list? Yes, I think that would be very cool.

Okay, I think that's about it for me and my experiences with Pandora. Thanks for reading.

I'm blogging

Okay, I have set up my blog. It took me awhile to come up with a name that I liked. I'm not a blogger at all. I'm not into social networking. Email and text-messaging are as advanced as I get. I'm not that excited about the idea of putting something out there for everyone to read, but I'll give it a shot. I think it will be fun, actually--right?