Librarians' Forum

Today Paul and I had lunch at Silvio's, where we talked about a wide range of subjects related to our work, our careers, and our backgrounds. I've already gotten answers to some of my nitty gritty questions (such as "How is it that someone who was able to check books out yesterday is suddenly having problems with her account today?"), and I'm very excited to spend some time behind the circ desk learning about all the tools and processes that keep the library running smoothly.

One great thing about our lunchtime discussion today was hearing Paul's perspective on the library. He has worked here for 12 years and knows a lot of the context behind why we do things the way we do them. As a relative newcomer, I'm looking forward to learning more about Paul's views on the library and how it all works.

I continue to be impressed by Molly's depth of knowledge. Her insights into Reserves last Wednesday are still hitting me. She fits the pieces of the puzzle together so neatly based on her experience with Reference and Copyright.
Her skills on the Reference desk are wonderful. In general, I find that I am too focused on what we don't have. Even when we don't have something, Molly is very skilled at saying, "Yes, we do not have that." Very nicely done.

Last week I spent an hour behind the Circulation desk with Paul. He was disappointed that no problems came up while I was there, since he thinks problems are the interesting part. Just checking out books is pretty straightforward, although I still find Aleph to be a bit overwhelming. There's so much circ information in Aleph that we don't have access to when we're at the reference desk and using Mirlyn. Paul commented at the ref desk that whenever someone comes up and says there is a book that is supposed to be on the shelf that isn't there, he immediately wants to check the circ history in Aleph, and he would be totally frustrated if he were limited only to the information in Mirlyn. Before I spent my hour on the Circ desk, I didn't really understand what he was talking about, but now I do. You can get a much clearer picture of where the book might be if you can see when it was last checked out, returned, etc. Paul has this impressive ability to look at the data in Aleph and see the story behind it; that story informs what he does next. I was just seeing dates and numbers. It may be easy to check out a book, but all the other work that's required to keep things flowing smoothly in and out of the library is really complicated, even when nothing goes wrong.

Today, I had another hour at the Information desk. It was a bit slow, but still, a learning experience. Most of the interaction was with library staff, which was valuable. It turns out that the Chicago Manual of Style is on its 15th edition. (I won't mention the last edition that I purchased.)

Molly returned from a visit to the Copyright center. I could feel the excitement radiating from her. It dawned on me that I had the same excitement in visiting the Information desk--thought not quite as pronounced. Perhaps that excitement was from a underlying sense of professional development.

So the skill that I observed today was patience. Specifically, Shevon's patience. About half an hour on the phone with someone in Canada that couldn't access an electronic article. After exhausting every angle, the caller finally released Shevon. I admired her kindness through the excursion! And, as you could expect, this call was immediately followed by the one about the Chicago Manual of Style. Again, Shevon demonstrated the patience of Job. I get the feeling that it's not about the answer, it's about the journey to that answer.