Category Archives: In The Field

Two awesome things happened at work yesterday

Parking is limited at the library. The “staff parking” consists of four spots for at least 15 people at any given time. Street parking is a nightmare. Luckily my shifts overlap with the “dead” time in the parking lot so parking hasn’t been a big problem. During orientation with the HR Manager today, she gaveContinue reading “Two awesome things happened at work yesterday”

National Novel Writing Month 6.0

This is entirely Kim the Librarian’s fault. She introduced me to National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, in 2007 and I haven’t looked back since. What the heck is NaNoWriMo? Is that a disease? Is it contagious? Well, a little. NaNoWriMo is an annual writing project that occurs in November. For 30 days people fromContinue reading “National Novel Writing Month 6.0”

Incremently Productive Thursday

No, I did not read 20+ books in the last week and write reviews for them. I published them on a previous incarnation of this blog and I did not want them to go to waste. The process was long and tedious, but I am happy with the choice to post them. The process alsoContinue reading “Incremently Productive Thursday”

FAQs for the State Library of Pennsylvania

One time, I had an internship in the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of Policy & Planning , but I sought out projects from the State Library.This produced a lot of stress from trying to balance the different work loads. 15 weeks later, I had an FAQs document on the State Library website. Always follow your heart.

Top 25 Largest Libraries in North America

Excerpt from The Librarian’s Book of Lists, in terms of volumes. Library of Congress Harvard University Boston Public Library Yale University University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Toronto University of California, Berkeley Columbia University University of Texas at Austin Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County University of Michigan New York Public Library IndianaContinue reading “Top 25 Largest Libraries in North America”

90 Percent of US Doesn’t Know CTRL+F

An older co-worker taught me keyboard short cuts, and drilled me on them. At my previous position, I developed the habit of using our system-specific ones for circulation functions but when I moved, it was a new game. She taught me the universal ones and I picked up the new system’s. I also learned thatContinue reading “90 Percent of US Doesn’t Know CTRL+F”

The reality of a small town

Originally published: August 2, 2011 I could tell something was up with the children’s librarian when we changed guards for the evening shift. (She wasn’t as chatty as she was usually is.) One of our patrons, a teen, almost drowned Monday night. He and his family are avid library patrons. They maybe very local, butContinue reading “The reality of a small town”