Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Tracking down a year

So I got a call from a state librarian.  She had a pamphlet from our city about a Lumberman Days event that had been held.  It had the dates (October 17-20), but not the year.  She had a guess as to what decades, but she really wanted a concrete decade, if not year.

Using our past year indexes (which are indexed by subject, and since this was held by a historical society, there was a subject for that), we were able to track down one of the years the event had been held (1976).  From there, using the dates the event said, we knew that it wasn't the right year for this event.

So, using a perpetual calendar, we were able to find out what days those dates were.  So Thurs-Sunday, and from there, we were able to pinpoint a year.

Once we had a year from the perpetual calendar (1974), we were able to go back to our indexes for 1974, go to the historical society subject and find the articles that pertained to the Lumberman Days.  When we found the articles, we were able to confirm the dates, and therefore the year.

All in all, it took just over an hour, between helping other patrons, tracking down the info and using the indexes, which are paper.  Our digital indexes don't start until 1994, although I'd really like to index the indexes.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Kickstarter: Not a Reference Request

A movie theatre local to me has started a kickstarter project to save the theatre.  It's trying to go digital, which is extremely expensive for a small-town theatre.

Help save this theater by pledging or/and sharing the link with your friends, family and network.

Become a Movie Hero for the Vassar Theatre

Friday, May 17, 2013

Advice vs Information

As a librarian, I'm prohibited from giving out legal advice.  I can understand why.  A person could get into a lot of trouble if they were given incorrect advice.

As a librarian, I can give out information.

The line between advice and information can be quite fuzzy.

A question like "I'm getting a divorce, and I need a lawyer.  Do you know a good one?" can be both informative and include advice.  As a librarian, I would answer this question one way.  With the information.  Such as, "here's a list of local lawyers, a legal help group and the web address to a great legal help website, Michigan Legal Help".

The advice is the part where you say "oh, I've heard Gary Doe is a great lawyer".  Don't do that.  As a librarian, you can't give advice.

You stick to information, which is something that you can tell everyone, no matter what side of the question they ask.  Such as where legal help books would be, how to find a statute, a list of lawyers, help finding a certain form for court that the judge has requested.  Those are all information that we can give out.

A tip to knowing whether something is advice or information is this: if it starts with 'should I...' or 'is this a good idea'...those are both advice.  You might be able to move those around, flip around the question to turn it from advice to information by rephrasing the question posed, though.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Nook & Overdrive: Authorization

I had a patron come in yesterday with her Nook and laptop.  She couldn't get a book to transfer from her laptop to the Nook.  She'd had her brother look at it, and according to him, whatever was wrong was our fault.

It too me, quite literally, less than a minute to figure out what was wrong.

Simple fix: she hadn't authorized her Adobe Digital Editions.  I got it authorized, and easily transferred a book from laptop to Nook.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Overdrive: returning audio books early

So, I figured out that now, with the new updates, you can return audio books early.

If they're MP3, you can either return them through your account if you haven't downloaded them, or through the OMC if you've already downloaded them.

If they're WMA, you can only return them early if you haven't downloaded them through your account.  If you've already downloaded them, then you're out of luck, unfortunately.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Overdrive Error: Kindle book showing up in 'pending delivery'

I had a patron come inside today with a weird problem with her Kindle Fire.  She'd tried to download a book, and it wouldn't show up on her Fire.

I walked myself through it, but nothing I tried worked.  Turning off the wifi, syncing the Fire, nothing.  No matter what I did, the book sat in the 'pending delivery' part of the 'manage your kindle' section.

I had to hand it over to my co-worker, who works with Overdrive much more than I, but even he couldn't figure it out.  Seems like an e-mail to Overdrive is in order if our searches come up empty.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Currently Reading

Listening to: Pale Demon by Kim Harrison.  It's the 8th book in the Rachel Morgan series, read by Marguerite Gavin.  I've read the series (multiple times!), but it's my first time listening to it all the way through.  In this book, Rachel has to get from Cincinnati to LA in three days to get her shunning removed.

Reading: Below Stairs by Margaret Powell (if you like the show 'Upstairs, Downstairs', this is the book for you!

Also reading: Women of the Frontier by Brandon Marie Miller.  I love her books.  Even though they're geared towards YA/J age groups, they are well written.  And despite me having read a wide range of non-fiction books about the 'wild west', she's popping in with new facts and tidbits that I just adore.

Playing: going between Mass Effect 3 (I'm a Kaidan and Garrus fan all the way!) and Fallout New Vegas.