Libraries are turning to blogging more and more, as the medium of connecting with users becomes mainstream. What is one of the benefits of blogging for your library? Your presence in Google, and other search engines. The more content that you write the more likely a patron will be able to find you in Google. Whether its hawking library services or programming, or giving tutorials that will help users, the more you update your blog the better the chance you will reach an audience. And when you get a new person to your site, it will be easier to convert them to a patron. So if your library doesn’t blog yet, what are you waiting for?

Believe it or not, these kind of questions come up pretty frequently.  So how do you figure it out?  The fastest and easiest way to do so is to go to timeanddate.com/calendar.  You can get a calendar for ANY YEAR there. Just type in the year and select your country (the US is the default), and you’ll be able to find out what day any date fell on in any given year.

By the way, the answer to the question is: in 1959, March 1 fell on a Sunday.

I got my undergraduate degree in in Visual Communications in 2004. Specifically, I focused on digital design such as graphic design and web design. While such a degree doesn’t typically come in mind for those seeking library-related careers, it shouldn’t be something you overlook.

I’ve found it to be a great help, as many managers have found the skills I learned in that degree to be something that they would like to utilize within their own departments and branches. The graphic and web design skills that I learned have helped me to create cool flyers for various programs I have put on, as well as help to have a hand in some of our regional library system’s website endeavors. And in a field that is right now dominated by aging boomers who might not be hip to the current and emerging technologies, these skills aren’t too common and are valued very much.

At my library, we use the old school method of keeping track of time worked - we use time cards that we fill out by hand. When I first started working at the library, I was somewhat taken aback that this method was used. I had worked other places before (not libraries), and most of them used computerized time tracking. We’d swipe a card, or type in our employee ID number and the computer would handle it. But writing it down, you have to remember what days you worked, had vacation, used sick time, and so on and so forth. Plus, it is really depending on the honesty of the individual filling out the time card, as well as their supervisor. I’m not so sure this is the most efficient method of keeping tracking of employees.

Recently, we were told that we would soon be moving to a more automated system, which will likely be some kind of online employee time tracking software. I think its about time. Other people may disagree with me. With any system, there are its downsides. The automated system has the potential to be exploited as well, just as anything does, but I think it will cut down on a lot of unnecessary paperwork and headaches in the long run.

What have your libraries used to keep track of employees? I would be interested in hearing other people’s experiences with automated time keeping in a library setting.

Where I work, we use various methods to try to prevent our books, DVDs, CDs, and other materials from being stolen. For books, we put those security strips down the spine, and for DVDs and CDs we have these “donut” clear stickers with security strips built-in that we slap on the top of each disc. Then, at the entrances we have the security gates that everyone passes through as they walk in and out of the library. Things still get stolen, but we do catch some in the act.

All in all, putting in all the security tags and those things on the CDs and DVDs is a pretty time consuming tasks, especially when you consider that we have to do several other things to prep the materials for circulation. Those security measures are actually quite costly, and we have to buy security tags all the time too. The security donuts for the CDs and DVDs, last time I checked, came out to be $0.90 a piece, and when you get hundreds of them in over the course of a month or two, that can really add up.

Apparently, however, there is new RFID technology that is supposed to make our lives easier now. You just put this tiny little chip thing in each piece of material, and it makes checking books in and out basically an automated task. As well, with the electromagnetic sensors that guard library exits, a book that is not signed out that has a hidden RFID security tag in it will trigger sensors and alarm will sound to alert librarians of a possible theft.

This RFID technology has not yet made it to my library, although it is a big urban library. I imagine, however, that this technology will soon become a regular part of library life. That’s nice and all, but I wonder what kind of effect it would have on library staffing.

Working with the public, librarians encounter people from all walks of life, and various cultures and backgrounds. It is inevitable that at some point during your career as a librarian that you will encounter a patron that does not speak your native language. Where I currently work, I have run into a number of people who speak only Russian, Polish, or Spanish. Thankfully I studied Spanish for four years while I was in school, and much of it has stuck with me, so I have been able to help those who speak Spanish. And when the Russian and Polish speaking patrons came to our library, although I could not help them personally, I was able to direct them to another member of our staff that did speak those languages.

I have often thought about taking up learning another language or two, although I’ve not yet gotten around to it. Nevertheless, I think language learning is an important thing for those of us who work with diverse populations. And if possible, libraries should encourage their employees to learn a new language, and place those who are competent in speaking a foreign language in a position that could best utilize that skill. That could mean hiring bilingual English/Spanish speakers in a heavily Hispanic area, or someone who speaks Russian in a heavily Russian populated area. This is something that I think my library system has done well so far, and I would like to see this practice continue within our system, as well as in other library systems around the world.