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Public Service v. The Bottom Line

LPL recently, and without much fanfare, switched from sending out overdue notices a week (!) after a book came due to sending a notice two days in advance of your books coming due.  It's a small change, very easy to do with ILS software these days apparently, but one that shows that even in a library that seems as corporate-minded as pretty much any I've visited (this includes many libraries in Alberta), sometimes serving your public wins out over the bottom line.  (Of course, I was at the LPL board meeting where they discussed this change and someone mentioned that there are studies which show that revenue from fines don't drop signficantly even with advance warnings.  So maybe this wasn't a completely magnanimous gesture.  But as someone who's racked up my share of fines over the year, not to mention someone who thinks you should always put the patron first, I appreciate the change.)

Posted 26 October 2006 § Library § Main Page ‡ Comments (2) °

And We're Back…

After a bit of a glitch (or a glit of a bitch if you're dyslexic), we're back.  Got through to Customer Support at NetIdentity very quickly today and my good friend Gregory doubled my transfer limit per month from here on with no extra charge.  Yay!

To celebrate, let's blow some bandwidth by linking to a few photos (just kidding – I don't think linked Flickr images count since I'm not loading them directly from my site – I should've checked though)

Here is the grad photo we took at noon today of students who are finishing the MLIS program this semester…

(This photo helps make it hit home that I'm almost done the program.  But what really made it hit home was when I was at Zellers last weekend to buy toilet paper and I was like “uhm, how much toilet paper do we need for two months?”  TP's one of those things, like salt or paperclips or Jack Daniels,  that you just use until it's gone then you buy more without much thought of how much that usage actually is or may be in the future.  (I ended up buying 20 rolls by the way.))


Doing UWO's MLIS program straight through in three semesters of five classes per semester with no breaks or co-op or terms with fewer classes is known as doing the “Suicide Five”.  Below is a photo of the “Suicide Six” that I started with way back in January 2006 – Margie, Lara, Sian, me, Ian, Lindsay.  (It should've been the “Suicide Eight” but Nigel, who was in the other photo, got away before I could grab him for this one and Fiacre who's also done, had a meeting and couldn't make the photo day.  Actually, I just got an e-mail that the “real” photographer's memory card screwed up so we're doing it again tomorrow.  So maybe I can get a better shot with everybody then!)

Finally, here's a shot of Art Slade and Maggie Wood from the Lunch Bucket on Monday.  We didn't get as big of crowd as I hoped but they sold tons of book so that was good.  (Art: “I should speak to adults more often – they have more than their allowance to buy stuff!”)

Posted 25 October 2006 § Blog § LibrarySchool § Main Page § Photo ‡ Comments (1) °

I Can Still Post Entries (Even if Nobody Can See Them) and They Show Up in the Sidebar so click on Read This! above to see this entry…

…I might as well sit here and talk to myself until I get this bandwidth issue resolved or the end of the month comes and it gets reset. 

Since I can still manipulate the layout of the site, I think people should be able to find me so that's good.  I put up a “Read This” element on the left navigation bar that leads to a plain text file where I posted an explanation (and also just realised I can copy my “behind-the-wall” updates there for the time being.)

So what else should I say at this point?  For the most part, I've been extremely happy with NetIdentity who provide my personalized e-mail (jason@hammond.net), web site (https://headtale.com) since 2001 and blog (https://headtale.com) since February of this year.  I'd seen them before (I think they were called NameBank.com) and at the time, I was like “who would ever pay for that when you get a free e-mail address and web space from your ISP?  But when we were moving to Calgary (and knowing we'd be moving back to Saskatchewan eventually), I realised that there was an enormous hassle in updating e-mail subscriptions, address books and so on everytime you got a new e-mail address. 

To get around this, I looked into registering my own domain but I wanted something brief and memorable and relevant to me but unfortunately, hammond.com, hammond.net, hammond.org and all types of similar variations were already gone.  So I answered my own question by becoming someone who would use the NameBank (which had become NetIdentity.com) service.  For about $50 USD/year, I got my own e-mail and web domain.  These services are a bit limited in some ways (I can't run databases and other advanced features on my web page) but for the most part, they're easy to use and exactly what I needed.  It also gave me an e-mail address that travelled with me (and possibly will travel with me for the rest of my life – assuming I don't get all PO'ed by this outage and switch over to something else!)  In this day and age, I really think that's worth its weight in gold. 

The ready-made blog software they've offered for the last few years is a similar story – fairly robust while still lacking a few major features and not having the ability to tweak these types of things as you can with WordPress or other services which can be frustrating.  But again, for maybe $50/year more, it's worth it…at least for me, at least for right now. 

Web hosting prices have dropped since I first looked at my own domain – I think back then, it was a minimum of $8.95/month to host a basic site but now you can literally get web hosting for a couple bucks a month.  So NetIdentity is probably a lot more expensive than it needs to be.  But again, the convenience is a big selling feature is the personalized domain. 

Uhm, this wasn't meant to be a commercial message but I
think I'm still a member of NetIdentity's affiliate program so if the idea of having your own personalized e-mail address for the rest of your life (you can buy only the e-mail service for $24.95 USD/year) appeals, contact me and if you sign up for me, I get a big $20 credit to my own account.    Whoo-hoo!

Posted 24 October 2006 § Blog § Internet § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

Oops…

Just trying to get through to my hosting company to resolve the bandwidth issue…but since they shut me off with no warning and no “cushion room” plus they have no way to manually add room to my bandwidth limit (without renewing all my services – e-mail, webhosting, etc – for a full year), I can't give them money even though I want to (nor will anybody be able to see this message until I get it fixed so I feel like I'm talking to myself here.) 

I've got to dig a bit deeper and see what's taking up so much bandwidth.  My first thought was “maybe that Digg link I posted got re-discovered?” but I don't think that's it.  I'm streaming a few images/photos from Flickr onto the site but I don't think those count against my limit (or they shouldn't anyhow).  A quick look at my stats shows that a person (or people) on MySpace are leeching an image I host on my own server space which takes up a fair chunk of my bandwidth allotment so I'll have to move that to Flickr or change the filename or something. 

But otherwise, no idea why I got shut down.  I guess I'm transferring a lot of data without even realising it.  I know from my stats there are quite a few people reading this page but I never realised it was pushing my limit this much (I was pretty close last month too apparently – like if five more people had looked at the page, I probably would've been over then.) 

Posted 23 October 2006 § Blog § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

(Imagine a "Big Event Is Coming To Town" Commerical Voice) One Day Only! Tomorrow! Tomorrow! TOMORROW!

Posted 22 October 2006 § Main Page ‡ Comments (2) °

Ego-a-go-go

Renee S., who graduated last term, is now in China setting up a brand-new school library from scratch.  Her blog ruminations on her experiences and struggles are always well-written and often hilarious.   I'm not sure if I should take issue with this recent post though – I think she's comparing me to Paris Hilton!

“For Canadian Library Month, the CLA is suggesting that one possible Special Topic Day activities could be Celebrity Librarian's Day…where celebrity librarians greet the public.

I've
been working in libraries for quite awhile now, and I have to say that,
outside of the rather insular library world, I can't think of too many
librarians who I would classify as 'celebrity'. Actually, even within
the library world, aside from maybe Jason Hammond, no one really stands out as Paris Hilton-esque.  Is there something I've been missing?”

My referrer logs also led me to a mention on another site from a library student who's just started at McGill:
“anyway – i realise that it’s almost de rigeur for MLIS students to have
a blog, so i appreciate that my little old blog is hardly
ground-breaking. along with interesting links to stuff i find, i’ll
also be detailing the nitty-gritty of library school, which i found
sorely lacking (except for Jason Hammond’s blog which is brilliant) when i was looking for the truth about what the experience would be like.”

Finally, I had an IM chat with a classmate recently who made this observation: “It's interesting because you've become a bit mythic for some people, 'jason, the man about library school', i've heard some people talk about reading your blog but being too nervous or intimidated to talk with you.” 

I guess that's one-part flattering and about six-parts  extremely disturbing.  Why?  Well, I tried to make a big effort in the first weeks of both the summer and fall terms (and I guess in my own first term too) to get to know lots of people and, for the summer and fall terms, help answer the questions of the “new kids” and make them feel comfortable.  So to hear that some people would be reluctant to talk to me because I…what's a way to put this without sounding like an egomaniac?…have a big profile at FIMS is quite unfortunate.  

So if anyone out there is secretly reading this, be aware that I don't bite and if you want to chat about library school or your classes or your professors or pretty much anything, I'm happy to chat anytime about anything.  I'm not around the school as much this semester but you can also e-mail me, IM me (jason@hammond.net on MSN), drop by (#804-1231 Richmond St.), call me (519-435-1948) or beer me (Grad Club, anytime.)

Although they weren't nearly the egomaniacs that I am , a lot of how I act around here is modelled on Sabina and David and others I knew who were ahead of me when I started and who always made an effort to say 'hello' or share their wisdom or whatever.  I'm sure there's a direct line right back to the start of the program of people who fill this role and I'm sure that there will be people who come after me who continue to fill this role of being friendly, outgoing and helpful wherever possible.  Beyond what you  learn in the classroom, to me, this is the real essence of what a librarian should be. 

Posted 22 October 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page ‡ Comments (5) °

Friday Fun Link – 100 Year Old Is Poster Boy For Literacy (October 20, 2006)

A 100-year man from Huntsville, Ontario, who only learned to read at age 93, is being called a “poster boy for literacy.”

“In
an emotional acceptance speech, after which he received a standing
ovation, Brazier said he decided to learn to read after his wife of 64
years died. She had read everything to him.”

The man was one of many winners in this year’s annual Canada Post Literacy Awards.

(Thanks to Karina for the tip.)

Posted 20 October 2006 § Canada § FridayFunLink § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

Return of the MLIS Coffee House

Got this from Iona Henderson and wanted to pass it along as a way to encourage people to participate.  The Coffee House was a lot of fun last semester (the picture of Linda from my “Rock Star Librarian” post was taken at the Coffee House) plus your attendance helps support Student Council financially.  

—

Hey everybody!

 

Student Council is pleased to announce that the Coffee House is back.

 

This is an event where you get to show off those “special talents” you’ve been hiding behind tons of schoolwork.

 

Ideas
include singing, playing an instrument, reading poetry or jokes, air
band or simply air guitar, interpretive dance, … basically anything you
feel comfortable doing in front of other people. Not to worry, there is
a licensed bar, so plenty of liquid courage to make you do things you
may regret.

 

This
event will be taking place in mid-November at the London Music Club,
and this is notification to get you thinking about fun stuff to do.

 

If you have any questions or would like to submit your name as one of the performers, please email me at ihender@uwo.ca

 

Thanks! Iona
Posted 19 October 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

Rock Star Librarian



The Library Association of Alberta did a calendar a few years back featuring photos of librarians doing their non-work hobbies – riding motorcycles, belly-dancing, mountain climbing, etc.  We had some brief chats about doing something similar here – either for my cohort or for the whole program via Student Council.  I don't think anything ever came of it but if we did, I think Linda could be Ms. October (October 26 to be precise.)  Here's an e-mail from her:

Hey all,

I'm ditching the boys in my band for a
night & playing a solo spot at the London Music Club on Thursday,
October 26th.  Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the show starts at 8:30
p.m.  I'm opening for Sarah Metzner, who's from B.C. and Tiiu
Millistver, from Ottawa (originally from Guelph).  The cover is $5.


It
isn't very often I get to play on my own, so I'm actually looking
forward the challenge.  I've got a few newer songs I'll be sneaking in
for the 30 min. set.

The
London Music Club is where MLIS hosted a talent/variety show last
semester, and is a cozy venue.  It's at 470 Colborne St. (between
Dufferin and Queen's Ave).  You can find out more about how to get
there etc. at: http://www.londonmusicclub.com

And you can check out the indie-pop, jazz, spoken word stylings of the two other performers at: http://www.sarahmetzner.com and   http://www.tiiumillistver

If
you want more info about me I'm not all .com'd up. So to hear me, you
gotta phone me and I'll sing to you over the phone.  Or come out &
hear the live version.  Thanks.

Linda B.
Posted 18 October 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page § Photo § PopCulture ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged:

Ways That Little London Is Like Big London

It rains all the time.  (Sorry, but that's all I've got here…)

Posted 17 October 2006 § Canada § Main Page ‡ Comments (8) ° Tagged: