I had a meeting in Regina this morning so took the rest of the afternoon off to do various “only doable during a weekday” errands in the city. One of the things we did which isn't necessarily a weekday-only activity was to stop at the Cornwall Centre which is Regina's downtown shopping mall.
During the course of our shopping, we had occasion to use their family change room which is, I am pleasantly surprised to say, nicer than some hotel rooms I've stayed in in my life. (Seriously!)
You gain access via a security buzzer so the great Mall Security Gods know that you're a legit user of this service. Once the door opens, there's a main room that has a change table, a sink, and two leather chairs. Beyond that through another door, there's an ante-room that has another sink, a toilet and what, on first glance appeared to be a bidet (“how continental!”) but upon closer inspection (but not too close) turns out to be a miniature toilet for kids! How fricking cool is that?
Loyal reader Jill B. trained her wee bairn to do his business within like two weeks of being born but Pace isn't quite that advanced. Still, I'm pretty sure that the Cornwall is going to be a destination of choice when he is potty-trained, simply to use that cute little toilet. Who knew that investing in toilet facilities would have such a positive impact on the mall's bottom line? (er, no pun intended.)
Actually, that's a pet theory of mine – I think any business can improve its bottom line by having very clean, accommodating facilities. Gas stations tend to be society's default “away from home” rest rooms but to bring this around to libraries, I think we, as libraries, also have a role (again, no pun intended – god, it's hard to be serious about this topic. But I really am!) in providing these types of amenities to those who want to use them. In fact, I think it's a natural extension of our position as a public institution where information flows freely for all (okay, I give up!)
I was HUGELY disappointed to go into the new Montreal central (?) public library last year which, if I remember correctly, had recently undergone a grand redesign – except it appears that they completely forgot to redo the bathrooms as part of this upgrade. Each floor had very small, hard-to-find facilities with walls painted institutional (aka “puke”) green and none of the features of today's modern bathrooms – touchless faucets, paper and soap dispensers, bright lighting, unique colours and designs throughout. I mean, I'm not saying libraries should suddenly dedicate 95% of their budgets to the cans. But they shouldn't dedicate 0% either.
The link to “Great Tits” a couple days ago was something I saw on Reddit and found quite funny. But, inspired by this entry, here's one I came up with myself that's actually pretty informative.
Before stuffing ourselves with turkey yesterday, Shea, Pace, my parents and I took a drive to Katepwa Lake which is about fifteen minutes north of my hometown of Indian Head.
I've probably mentioned before that our family has a farm on the edge of the Qu'Appelle Valley and my dad had told me that a developer is putting in a bunch of lots on land he owns on the hillside just below our farm so I wanted to go out and see the spot for myself before the work begins in earnest.
Dad and I took a walk up the hillside and saw maybe half a dozen deer including this brave Bambi who came within probably 100 feet of us before deciding to veer off across one of our fields.
I'm still in a turkey coma so I'm calling a “choose your own” Head Tale post of the day.
If you haven't noticed, the sad reality is that 90% of the content on this site basically comes from my visits to three sites: Reddit, MetaFilter or TechCrunch (the other 10% comes from treating Pace like a Cabbage Patch Doll).
So why not visit one of those sites and pick out a link that you think is the type that I would post here then post it as a comment? (Or don't – I know I never get a good response when I do “reader participation” threads.)
Or what might be even more fun is to post the type of link I never post on my blog. You get to define what type of blog Head Tale is for one day!
For example, I would never normally post this myself but Reddit has informed me that Wikipedia apparently has multiple photos of Great Tits. See? Easy.
To be a complete lazy bastard, I'm not even going to assign any categories or keywords to this post. Okay, time for bed. Good night.
Yet another reason that our son will be seeking psychotherapy in about twenty years…
On a completely unrelated note, I'm bringing back “Classmate of the Day” except, since I've now convocated, I'm calling it “Colleague of the Day” and it will probably be a less of a regular feature then the former iteration was. But anyhow, congrats to Barb J. for being the first ever (and a very appropriate) Colleague of the Day!
Wikirage gives you a snapshot of
which Wikipedia articles have had the most edits during a certain
timeframe – a very useful way to see what’s happening in the world and
on people’s minds (well, what’s on the minds of people who take the
time to edit Wikipedia that is. So expect lots of pop culture items
when you click that link!)
The Calgary Flames start their season tonight. Pace is wearing an orange off-red outfit in this picture but I'm sure his loyalties are clear.
My predictions for the final this year are Flames over Tampa Bay in a re-match of 2004 with the right team winning this time.
Pace is picking the Ducks repeating as Cup champs, this time over Boston, mostly because he likes both team logos (especially the bear that's on Boston's third jersey).
Reading History Backwards – a blogger decides to read history, one year at a time, starting with the current year and working his way back by reading the one defining book of each year's major news event. This column covers the 1990's.
[Edit: compare and contrast the Top 25 list with another list of “Favourite Library Bloggers” – that subtle distinction creates a quite different list.]
Other bands and artists have hinted at this model but nobody on the level of Radiohead has gone this far. Their new album, “In Rainbows” will be released on October 10 using a “Pay What You Want” model for those who download it digitally.
Says one commentator on Reddit:
“I can't stand Radiohead's music, but I'm going to drop $15 on this
album just to provide incentive for the rest of the industry to adopt
this model. Even though I don't like their music itself, it's hard to
dispute that taking on a risk like this is a HUGE contribution to music
in general.”
In semi-related news, Amazon has started a new service called AmazonMP3 which is similar to iTunes except that they're selling DRM-free music. Their selection is pretty decent so far and although I haven't tried it yet, it's almost enough to make a guy start paying for music again!
Today marks the six month anniversary of me starting at Southeast Regional Library. It's hard to believe how time is flying – I think any job tends to go faster, the longer you're there and the more comfortable you get but this one, mixed with the new baby which also helps to make time pretty much meaningless, is really flying.
I had my six month performance review on Thursday and I didn't get fired so that's good! In all seriousness, they're pretty happy with me which is always nice to hear. Like anyone, I have my weaknesses and if you knew me at FIMS, I'm sure you can guess what a couple of those areas for improvement are!
It's amazing to think of how much I've learned in the last six months. Someday (maybe when I'm done this contract), I'm ruminate on this further.
One thing that's been in my head the last few weeks – my letter of offer mentioned that I would be spending 2-3 days on the road but the first few months saw me thinking “really?” But the last few weeks have more than made up for that – I've probably traveled 1500 km in the last two weeks alone.
What else? I was trying to think of a list to commemorate this special occasion and I was able to come up with two:
The Five Most Helpful Things I Learned In Library School That Actually Help in the “Real” World 1. How to Juggle Multiple Assignments and Tasks Successfully
2. Advocacy Class
3. Collection Development Class
4. I'm really glad I got at least a little exposure to library layout and design in the “Management of Special Libraries” class, especially since I ended up in a rural system with 48 branches that are in all shapes and sizes of buildings including everything from stand-alone buildings to one that's connected to the town laundromat! Since I started, three branches have undergone or are undergoing a move to new space so this training has come in very handy!
5. Who to ask to get the answers I need (and not to be afraid to ask people for those answers.)
Five Things I Wish I Had Learned 1. It's always hard to admit when you're wrong but I wish I'd taken more management classes and not poo-pooed the idea of “management theory” as strongly as I did (although if you were in 506 with me, you know why I was so resistant!)
2. On a related note, it would've been good to get more training about the different aspects of working in a unionized library environment – both pro and con.
3. How To Make Tough Decisions. This is probably something that comes with experience more than being taught but I wish, even in a theoretical framework, we did more scenarios about some of the tough decisions you'll face as a working librarian. For me, in six short months, this has covered everything from the possibility of branch closures to handling patron suspensions to staff discipline to navigating municipal politics and even bigger issues than any of the examples I listed.
4. This doesn't directly apply to me (right now) since I did end up finding work eventually. But recent conversations with a variety of classmates have illustrated just how tight the job market is for new grads. I don't think that would've changed my decision to take an 18-month contract over a full-time permanent position I was offered but I admit that I did buy into the “old boomer librarians will be retiring in droves” line and the knowledge that this isn't necessarily so does have me thinking about where I might end up next earlier than I thought I would.
5. Librarians don't sit in an office somewhere reading the latest bestsellers for eight hours a day and mulling over their potential significance to society. I really wish somebody had told me that!
