Things have changed!

As you can see things have changed!  I've moved on from the Reference Desk to Youth Services.  My MLIS was in Youth Services and Administration/Management, so it's only natural that I return to my roots.

It's been a good four years since I've updated, but there will be fairly regular posts from now on, I hope!

We are not omniscient...

Yes, I can usually track down a city-person's phone number if you have the address (using the Polk directory & address lookup).  If you don't have an actually house number (just the street name), and only a first name?  That can make it nigh impossible.

Some addresses don't have any names listed.  Some are only initials.  Most aren't going to be what you're looking for.

Might a past directory help?  It might.  I went three years back, though, and it didn't help in this case.

Demonology

Books on demonology are much like demons themselves...very scarce.  They go missing, patrons hide them, pages go missing...

So, every time I'm in a certain section (that would be the 133s), I have to go through them (not just the demonology, but also ghosts, numerology and astrology) and see what ones aren't in, and which ones I need to replace.

Books on Machiavelli

I had a patron come in today asking for books written by Machiavelli.  Did more than a handful of searches, and only 3 books came up.  Two were already 'lost' (aka a patron still has them).  One said it was on the shelf.

So I wrote down the call number (320.1 Machiavelli for those interested) and sent the patron on his way.  A few minutes later, he comes back.  Not on the shelf.

So I go back there and look at not only the shelf it's supposed to be on, but on surrounding shelves.

Not on the shelf.

So I offer to order the book, but he laughs, thanks me but declines.

So I order the book for our collection.  And I gratefully note that I'm glad that I'm weeding the 300s so I can hopefully find it.

There's a special place in hell...

For people who write/draw in library books.  Especially in pen.

Like the book on Alzheimer's I found.  New book, just a year old.  Lots of pen underlining.  Or how about the math equation books with all the answers filled in?

Or the books on costumes with notes and everything written?

Thankfully I can erase most of it.  But the ink stuff won't erase out.  And in that case, the book has to go.

You have study rooms for rent?

We do...but not for instrument practice.  Now, if you were just learning how to read music, that'd be one thing.  But actually practicing an instrument (a flute, in this case) in a study room?  Nope, sorry.  The rooms, although they look it, aren't sound-proof.  And a lot of patrons would be very upset if the sounds of a flute started wafting around the library air.

(Now, I wouldn't mind personally, being a flautist myself, but that's just me.  I can't speak for any of the patrons who are studying etc in the library.)

Can I just take this?

I had a patron call about a needlepoint book she had out.  She wanted to know if she could just remove the patterns in the back of the book since the book was due back in a couple of days.

I had to politely tell her that no, she couldn't, but she could make copies of the pattern at the library.

She reworded the question, but it was the same thing: could she take the patterns from the book since she needed them?

I had to reaffirm what I said: no, she couldn't, but we did have copy machines here for her to make copies of the patterns.

Kid Snippets: The Library

Freshwater Fish

10 year old girl: Do you have any books on freshwater fish?
Me: like a freshwater aquarium?

Her: Yeah!

Me: *smiles* I do!  *writes down numbers as I look them up*  So are you getting an aquarium then?
Her dad: Yep!  30-50 gallons!

Me: so no pirannah, I hope?"

Her:  Oh no!

Her dad: *laughs then tells her about an uncle that had a pirannah*

Me: Good luck with your aquarium!  *tells them where the books are*

Audio Engineering

Well, another question and another topic I knew nothing about!  A patron came in asking for a book about 'audio engineering'.  When I asked about it for a bit more information, he said it was about the music-creating process, which can including mixing music.

While my husband is a musician, he'd never mentioned audio engineering to me. 

So I looked it up on Google for a bit more information, and when I found a few more keywords, I was able to put a few books up in our catalog for my patron.

When he came out of the stacks, he had a couple of books in hand.

Lightning Resistant

The question I got today was "is there some kind of lightning resistant coating that mountain climbers can use on their equipment?"

From my research, I found that no, there isn't one type of lightning resistant coating.  But there IS a paint that's lightning resistant.

Do you have...

Any resume or cover letter books for felons?  Because it's really hard to get a job, as I'm sure you know.

Well, I didn't find any specifically for felons, but I did tell him that several of the books we have to have sections on that.

Overdrive & the iPad

So you can get the Overdrive app with the iPad.  You (after making sure the wifi is turned on) go into the appstore, and just do a regular search for "Overdrive".

Once it's downloaded, authorize it through the settings (using an Adobe ID, which you can use on up to 5 devices).

From there, you add a library, and can go and check out books.

Really, it's no different than using the Overdrive app on an Android.  The big difference for me is the swiping motions and the back button.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.