I'm Obsessed...

With the puppies!! Thanks a lot Tom! ;-) They are soooo freaking cute and I just can't stop watching them. All their little puppy noises and movements and puppy piles (the good kind where they pile on each other :-). They're just so silly and fun! I check on them several times a day and sometimes watch for a while. It's getting kinda ridiculous...but enjoyable!

And of course watching the puppies makes me think of Ika. When I look at the Shibas, I totally see Ika as a baby, but then I look over at her lying on the couch and it seems like a such a long time ago, even though it was only several months ago. They just grow so fast! Sometimes I want Ika to be that small again, and sometimes I'm very glad she's growing up. [Epiphany: maybe this is what it's like to have kids!] Ika still has that puppy energy (even if she is a lanky 60 pound dog now), and is still so super cute, but sometimes I miss being able to hold her in one hand. I also realize how much she missed out on by having all (but one) of her brothers and sisters taken away at 4 weeks. These puppies are having so much fun together!

Anyway, I'm wanting another puppy already! And I just might get one if our place wasn't so small. I just can't imagine two puppies bouncing around in our tiny apartment - mayhem! But when the time comes, a Shiba will for sure be on my list of puppies to consider.

Thank you for sharing your puppies, puppy parents!! This is the greatest internet fad in a long time!

Random Fun Stuff

Instead of a scanner, I have a laser pen! I remember the Tippecanoe County Library had these back in the day when I was a kid. I don't think I'd seen one since, until I came here.

My computer. We use SIRSI Symphony as our ILS. I think I like JAVA better. Symphony has some limitations and annoying quirks, and the online catalog for Symphony (Rooms) is way limited - it actually kinda sucks.

My laser pen. And the door to the library.

This is the cutest little homemade card/paper holder I've ever seen. It's things like this that make the Parkdale Library charming.

Other random things I love about my new library:

• Much less bureaucracy. It doesn't take approval from 5 different people to get things done/try new things. There is much less paperwork in general, and virtually none that we have to keep around for years for records (at least paperwork that I have to deal with).
• The flexibility we have in making decisions. When it comes to patron issues, it's basically up to us to decide what we want to do - cancel and work with patrons on fines, issue a limited checkout card for people with no ID, and lots more. We are allowed to check out to people by them just giving us their names. This is sometimes hard for me because I have strong feelings about privacy issues, and sometimes I'm uncomfortable doing this, but for the most part it is very convenient for both us and the patrons.
  

One bummer:

• The AV collection is lacking. We have no music cd collection at all, which kind of stinks. We do have downloadable audio books and movies, and I think if we did start a music collection, this would be a great way to go. Also, we don't really get very many new feature film type of movies, and coming from my libraries in FL, this is a huge change, and something I miss a lot because I used it all the time! In general the materials budget is very small, which kinda stinks, especially because it was so nice having a big budget in FL and getting all kinds of new stuff.

Overall I am really happy with and at my new library system. The main Hood River library is awesome (with some spectacualar views!), with that small town feeling - well, I guess because it is a small town. :-) And the Parkdale Library is so charming, and it's awesome to be able to "run" it and make decisions about the library for myself. It's fun! Now the only thing I can ask and hope for is a full time job with this wonderful library system.

The Organization

This is how much shelving I have to do in a typical week. Of course we're only open for 14 hours a week, so I couldn't acquire too much, but compared to the shelving I've had to do in previous libraries, this is shelving heaven!!! I probably spend 10-15 minutes a week shelving materials.

Now, we are presented with a paradox. Since the library is so small, it's very easy to keep everything in order. Not a lot of people come in and shuffle things around, and if they do it doesn't take much time to fix it. But, is it really necessary to keep everything in perfect order if you can find something relatively fast if it is misplaced because it's probably not very far away? It's just a shame that is has to be this way because I know how important it is to try and keep everything in order in a much bigger library, and also how much harder it is - almost impossible! Oh well.

One of the reasons it doesn't take long to shelve books, at least a lot of them, is because all the children's picture books, early readers, and paperbacks are shelved only by the first initial of the author's last name. It's sooo much easier than shelving those tiny books by the author's full last name. On the flip side though, it can be much tougher to find a specific book in these sections when you're looking for one. But usually it doesn't take that long, because even at the main branch there aren't a gazillion books to look through.

Another thing that makes shelving easy is the way we catalog non-fiction. Of course the book gets a dewey number, but it's usually not taken out to a really long decimal, which is nice, and then instead of the author's full last name it is only given the first inital of the author's last name. This makes it much easier to shelve because you can eyeball it pretty quickly. And again, since the collection isn't extremely huge, even at the main library, it doesn't take long to find the book you're looking for.

This is it!

The inside of my little library! And yes, it really is little! :-)

A look to the left as you walk in the door. Rotating collection that I bring from the Hood River Library, Fiction, Large Print, and Spanish books on the wall on the left. Magazines and Young Adult on the back wall to the left of the window, and public PCs.

Pan over a little to the right. The public PCs, the paperbacks on the middle shelf, and the Children's books on the wall under the windows and on the very back wall.

And this is the view looking straight ahead as you walk in the door. That's my desk straight ahead. Non-fiction on the wall to the right. Children's books are over by the windows.

The Old-School Book Drop

Peeking inside the front doors you can see a really old book drop on the wall to the right. For some reason it's really low - very close to the floor. I just think this is so interesting and novel and it's like a little piece of history.

The very low old-school book drop.

Close up of old book drop.

And this is where the old book drop goes - to a very small wooden box inside a very narrow closet in the library. Once in a while someone will drop something in there. If I'm there it scares the crap out of me. If I'm not, it could sit there for who knows how long cause I don't check it all that often.

My New Library!!

My library (Parkdale Branch) is located in the basement of the Parkdale Community Center. We have a bookdrop outside on the left, and the library is the windows on the bottom right of the building.

The Parkdale Library windows.

This is around the right side of the buliding, and that's our "Open" sign. The "Library" neon part is broken. :-(

Hooray America!!

Last night politics actually made me cry for the very first time. And surprisingly it was a good cry! My faith in America has been restored a little bit. I can see change on the horizon, and after the last eight years, it is long overdue. And I think that's what excites me the most...the fact that there is actually a chance that things might change...just having that hope...it's an amazing feeling. Lets hope Obama can accomplish great things in the next four years. Go America! I'm actually feeling a little bit of pride in America today. I feel that the people of this country have finally come to their senses and realized that it's time for a change. I have hope for the future and that's a great feeling!

Deeper Into Fall

Fall is progressing, and is as amazing and beautiful as ever. I can't believe I've forgotten how awesome fall is after not having it for seven years.

Most all of the leaves on the trees have changed. There are still a few green holdouts, but it adds to the colors, so it's kinda nice. A lot of the leaves are falling off the trees and color the ground with yellows and reds. They crunch when you walk through them.

I just had a quintessential Oregon Fall walk. The weather is cloudy and foggy. At times I almost feel that I am inside a cloud. It is wet outside because it has been raining, but no rain is actually falling. The temperature is prefect, probably in the 50s. The gray weather actually makes the fall colors more brilliant. It is a quiet Saturday evening with hardly any cars and very few people passing me on my walk. The sound of the leaves falling off the trees and landing on houses and yards and cars is almost like the sound of rain. The leaves don't crunch too much when Ika and I walk through them because they are wet, but they make a lovely sound nontheless. I can smell the smoke of wood burning fires coming through people's chimneys. When I walk by other houses I can smell the delicious sent of Saturday dinner.

It was so lovely and peaceful and put me in a beautiful calm state. I was loving it! To top it all off, Ika was being a very good girl - I think maybe she was soaking in the beauty and peacfulness of it too.