Friday

7:15 am – bike to work, clean up, boot computer, start making jasmine tea

7:30 am – launched tweetdeck, Pandora, read gmail, feeds, and other things.  Minions either on vacation or at work

7:35 am – the computer is very slow today

7:40 am – started tea consumption. Minion letting me know that there’s another 250 or so books coming our way for receipt cataloging

7:48 am – checked and backed up wiki

7:54 am – checked work email and calendar

8:08 am – time to start on the monthly report

8:27 am – finished monthly report. Time for blueberry muffins

8:43 am – successfully invaded Information Services department and acquired blueberry muffins. Also had the chance to look over the second edition of Who’s Who in Hell. Back to emails

9:09 am – Worked on OhioLINK errors report

9:13 am – EGL-IUG proposal due today. Need to start refining program proposal

9:23 am – the interwebz are slow today. Checked to see if there are any system outages or problems that the dept should know about

9:37 am – looks like IT is updating Windows stuff. Probably why things are slow right now. Sent proposal to EGL –IUG. Look over weekly stats…

9:41 am – Need to figure out a way to rework stats SQL queries. Previous databases are not updating and current databases are not displaying the correct information. Crack open Filezilla, phpMyAdmin and notepad++

9:54 am – w00t! I have one major SQL query pulling the right information. Now to work on the other 15 or so

10:00 am – banana and 15 min mandatory break

10:15 am – back from break. Checked feeds and then back to SQL hacking

10:15 am – printer refused to print. Smacked printer, now works

11:44 am – have the first php stats page fixed. Cleaning up records that have missing CAT DATE dates

12:00 pm – lunch!

12:57 pm – back early from lunch. Futzing with re-tooled stats and SQL

2:23 pm – almost done with the futzing. Switched Pandora to “Tek-no” radio

2:30 pm – employee has mysterious pop-up asking for her password. Trying to figure out what’s going on…

2:49 pm – login to another database is broken. Fun times on a Friday afternoon…

3:05 pm – fixed stats problem the best I could. 15 min mandatory break

3:17 pm – back from break. Checked feeds and email

3:43 pm – last challenge for the day – broken logins. Switch Pandora to Power Metal station

3:56 pm – requested access to former co-worker’s server space. The file that is causing the login problem lives there, and I need access to it. Going back to emails to clean out the inbox before I go home for the weekend

4:25 pm – Oh look a book… going through professional lit books piled high on my shelf…

4:50 pm –get items around for next week

5:00 pm – out to dinner with some library peeps :c)

~fin~

Thursday

7:15 am – bike to work, clean up, boot computer, start making genmai-cha

7:25 am – launched tweetdeck, Pandora, read gmail, feeds, and other things

7:30 am – Minions come back to work

7:42 am – planet toc updated. Going through the various toc feeds

7:48 am – checked wiki and wiki calendar

7:53 am – checked work email and calendar

7:54 am – email from minion suggesting workflow change in receiving dups from circulation and stacks maintenance. Signed off on my end, waiting for others to do the same

7:57 am – worked on duplicates report… which turned out to be a repeat from yesterday’s report

8:02 am – checked work calendar again. Meeting at 10, otherwise free for the rest of the day….

8:03 am – spoke too soon. Receipt cataloging procedure needs changing on the wiki.

8:10 am – started going through inbox, cleaning, rearranging, and catch any possible backburner issues

8:16 am – read department meeting notes from earlier this week

8:19 am – one email away from Inbox 0. Last email dealing with Butler County’s adoption of Nixle, a community information service. Signing up to receive notices

8:25 am – signed up for Nixle notices. Dept. head signed off on workflow change. Inbox 0

8:26 am – went to MARC proposals page to look at 542 and 260 proposals

8:38 am – emailed dept. head and catalog librarian about 542 field

8:43 am – now to look at the 260 proposal more closely… if I can find it first

8:57 am – failed horribly to find anything relating to the 260 change… Ohhhh, it’s a 2001 proposal. That’s an old one. Why has it taken this long to implement the change, OCLC?

9:09 am – secretly feeling sorry for our future ER/S librarian who has to deal with the OCLC-MARC changes while they are in full swing

9:18 am – enough with 260 changes. Started work on evaluation forms for new faculty orientation next month

9:30 am –sent email asking for titles of breakout session at orientation. Started preparation for training employee in AutoIt. Selecting Macro Express script to convert during the first training session. Baby steps, Becky, baby steps

9:40 am – checked in with new faculty orientation head about getting those evaluation forms online. Topic has been placed on agenda for next meeting

10:00 am – AutoIt training session

11:22 am – Back from training session #1. Lots of emails to catch up with

11:33 am – inbox 0 did not last for long. Reading DMS agenda for Monday, testing out survey tools before sending them off to the IRB process

12:00 pm – lunch!

1:00 pm – back from lunch. (yet again spent at the computer). Emailed news about Elsevier selling off LJ, SLJ, and PW to other librarians. Waiting for riot to ensue

1:10 pm – W00t! Free afternoon. Now what is on my to-do list…

1:20 pm – switched Pandora to “I miss the 80s” station. Started work on super secret project (well, super secret to you folks)

2:15 pm – Sent some reading material to employee learning AutoIt. Safari_books_online++

3:00 pm – mandatory 15 min break

3:15 pm – back from break. Time to schedule meetings, lucky me…

3:25 pm – call for help from employee learning AutoIt. Going to her rescue

3:50 pm – back from call of help. Employee built her first AutoIt script! W00t!

4:19 pm – impromptu meeting with dept. head

4:24 – look more emails to respond to. Joy

4:40 – Prepare stuff to work on tomorrow

5:00 – bike home, dodging rain showers on the way

Wednesday

7:15 am – bike to work, clean up, start making jasmine tea, boot up computer

7:30 am – minions invade department

7:33 am – launched Pandora client on new age radio, open and check tweetdeck, check gmail, feeds, other things, start tea consumption

7:44 am – the tea isn’t working. Moving slower than usual today

7:49 am – checked work email and calendar

7:51 am – received feedback from Dean about epic email part 2. Will have to converse with dept. head about feedback and next steps

8:02 am – check wiki and wiki calendar

8:03 am – wiki is still intact. That is a good sign

8:09 am – meeting with dept. head

8:26 am – end meeting with dept. head.

8:27 am – ACK! Forgot to put seat cover on bike! Run outside before it’s too late

8:31 am – bike seat covered. Composing email to update members of a library working group

8:34 am – email sent to working group. Responding to questions about the beta planet toc feed email sent yesterday. (We are just experimenting with this, we don’t have the staff time to devote to the level of routing that we used to do, do you really want to receive C&RL News five months after the publication date?)

9:03 am – feedback email sent. Still very groggy. Off now to the copier to copy several documents and mail them to the lucky people who get to read them

9:22 am – commented on one of my minion’s sudden quietness. Shared stories about small children being too quiet in the next room…

9:25 am – started revising section on video podcasting in the international student outreach article. Office too bright, shut window blinds to convert office into cave. I’m happier with this arrangement

9:30 am – writer’s block. Switched to duplicate records report

9:35 am – sent out email to catalogers notifying them about the upcoming OCLC-MARC changes. Back to duplicates

9:42 am – sent gov pub duplicate to gov pub cataloger. Received holy quest from dept. head to construct report on how OCLC-MARC changes would significantly mess with workflow and local procedures. Also realized that I have a meeting at 10, and should probably get back to work on the article

9:55 am – email flood. Need to take care of them before meeting

10:00 am – meeting #1

10:35 am – meeting #1 done. Lots of email to respond to

10:42 am – check RSS feeds

10:51 am – time to start the report on OCLC-MARC changes

11:03 am – does anyone have any aspirin? Change Pandora station to symphonic radio

11:22 am – trying to stay focused on OCLC-MARC changes report

11:58 am – made OCLC-MARC changes report pretty, sent off to Catalog Librarian to add her changes.

12:00 pm – lunch!

1:00 pm – back from lunch. Check slideshare and linkedin accounts for any updates. Switch Pandora to “I miss the 80s” radio

1:05 pm – dismayed to hear that one of my librarian friends in WI is walking away from the profession. Tweet-ranted for a bit, clearly need to read things over before hitting send

1:19 pm – email time

1:29 pm – email dealt with. Now for morbid curiosity time: How much are we spending on the print version of the journals that I have on the beta planet toc service?

2:09 pm – done collecting prices from our catalog. I forgot how expensive Haworth titles are.

2:15 pm – sent price list to dept. head. Also sent OCLC-MARC changes report to dept. head, after the Catalog Librarian gave her ok

2:19 pm – started email to interested AUTOCAT folks who want to help with organizing the information in the listserv in an easily accessible format.

2:38 pm – email sent. Sent another email to employee asking her availability to get together for AutoIt training

2:44 pm – scheduled first AutoIt training session with employee for tomorrow

2:45 pm – double-checked with Catalog Librarian about OCLC-MARC changes report before we make the report final.

2:49 pm – finalized draft, sent to dept. head. Also posted to wiki.

2:57 pm – still trying to wrap head around new 542 field. Tweeted for help. Responded to emails from AUTOCAT wiki folks

3:00 pm – 15 min mandatory break

3:15 pm – back to work. Emails yet again

3:23 pm – I have officially crashed. Read tweets and feeds

3:34 pm – researched requirements for presentation proposal. Let’s see if I wake up enough to write something

4:00 pm – it’s slow going, but I have something in the works

4:27 pm – sent draft presentation for proofreading. Trying to decide if the presentation should be geared towards newbies or ppl with some programming experience. Checked feeds… yeah, I’m pretty much going to catch up on feeds and tweets for the rest of the day

4:40 pm – prepare items to work on tomorrow

5:00 pm – (hopefully) bike home

Tuesday

7:15 am – bike to work, clean up, start making genmai-cha, boot up computer

7:25 am – launch Pandora client on new age radio, open and check tweetdeck, check gmail, feeds, other things

7:30 am – minions come in wide awake

7:40 am – check work email and calendar, start tea consumption

7:43 am – check wiki

7:47 am – fix entries on the wiki calendar

7:53 am – start email to dept head with the news that III is going to compete with OCLC’s cataloging bib utility. In addition, ask head for help with epic email part 2.

8:00 am – minion update

8:02 am – back to poking dept. head with news and email composition

8:06 am – answer from yesterday regarding mystery duplicate code. Deleted dup code (yay easy fix)

8:14 am – back to poking dept. head with news and email composition

8:20 am – Employee lost password for wiki. Reset password. Back yet again to epic email part 2

8:56 am – minion interruption: gave the supply order form a new home on the wiki

9:05 am – half way done with epic email part 2. Yes, a very long, detailed email requires lots of research

9:39 am – sent off draft of epic email part 2 to dept. head. Couple of minutes to recover, and then check email

9:46 am – respond back to a statewide working group regarding training in a new ILS module

9:47 am – panic call from employee who can’t get into dept Google calendar. Resolved problem

9:59 am – bad email address for one of the working group folks. Grrr

10:04 am – bad email address solved, also resolved another panic call from employee about Google calendar. Banana and 15 min mandatory break

10:15 am – break done. Received feedback on draft of epic email part 2. Revising and sending another draft

10:20 am – draft #2 sent. Prepare for meeting #1 and reading OLE Project Final Report

10:30 am – meeting #1

11:30 am – meeting #1 done. Lots and lots of email to check

11:35 am – add HR contact information on wiki per meeting #1

11:38 am – respond back to statewide working group with more questions about ILS training

11:42 am – checked in with the Google doc copy of an article I am collaborating on about outreach to international students. Note to self – touch up section about tech specs on video podcasting

11:55 am – checked RSS feeds, sneaked in a lolcat or two

12:00 pm – lunch!

1:00 pm – officially back to work (even though I’ve been reading emails and tweets for a while).  Make the routing list all pretty like to give to dept. head to get the okay to send out planet toc beta feed to librarians list

1:09 pm – got the revised draft back. Sent epic email part 2 to Dean. Crossing fingers

1:30 pm – meeting #2

2:05 pm – meeting #2 done. Continued work on routing list and email. Fished some information about hidden routed journals.

2:14 pm – Why are we paying for something that we can get free online? Researching more and building argument to drop subscription

2:30 pm – training session for receipt cataloging for employee

2:57 pm – training session done. Mandatory 15 min break

3:13 pm – back from “break.” Gave a “sure, go ahead” to co-worker looking at newer PURL service

3:15 pm – back to researching more and building argument to drop subscription

3:37 pm – yeah, we really don’t need to subscribe to that anymore. Sent email with evidence to dept. head

3:48 pm – sent off routing list and email to dept. head for distribution to other librarians. W00t! Trying to find to-do list for next thing to do

3:52 pm – deal with an issue that has been set on the back burner for a while. The XML file used to help catalog ETDs is broken in several ways. Time to go and try to fix as much as possible

4:03 pm – XML problem one sent off to OhioLINK. Now to deal with problem two, which deals with file sizes

4:07 pm – XML problem one solved!

4:08 pm – got the go ahead from dept. head to send out planet toc beta feed and routing list to librarians. Send yet another email…

4:14 pm – started dealing with XML problem two

4:28 pm – turned out that XML problem two was fixed before I got to it. It is fixed, but that doesn’t tell me much about how to fix it in the future. Minion who catalogs ETD is now happy again

4:30 pm – began playing around with III URL Checker to see if we can get better use out of it than we do now

4:45 pm – wind down for the day, set up things to work on tomorrow

5:00 pm – bike home

Just another manic Monday…

7:09 am – arrived early at work via bike (I blame my sister), clean self up, start making jasmine tea
7:20 am – boot the computer, go through twitter, gmail, and rss feeds, fire up the Pandora client to new age radio
7:24 am – Hmmmm…. Day in the life of a librarian. Let’s try this out
7:30 am – tea consumption, minions dutifully come into work bright eyed and bushy tailed
7:40 am – Check dept wiki and calendar
7:43 am – Check work email and calendar
7:43:15 am – It’s going to be a long morning
7:44 am – adjust calendar alarms for meetings today
7:46 am – mental note to self – write conference presentation proposal
7:50 am – checked in with minions, continue with email reading and responding
8:07 am – checked out presentations posted online at http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mbmaurer/TEDSIG2009_000.html
8:10 am – too early in the morning to see raw marc records
8:13 am – checked to see if planet toc cronjob ran. Yep :c) Google Reader and Outlook both updated. Bloglines didn’t update – again. Grrr
8:14 am –worked on dup reports – still too early in the morning to work with marc records…
8:22 am – sent email to serials person to determine mystery code that is causing some trouble
8:24 am – reset due dates for article proposal reminders, send in monthly leave report
8:30 am – worked on planet toc RSS list. Trying to find out which print serials route to which librarian
8:36 am – III refused to print routing lists. Grrr. Bypassing problem by alt+print scrn
8:53 am – finished with print screens. Prepare for meeting #1
9:00 am – meeting #1
9:51 am – meeting #1 done. Checked email. Found OhioLINK Error report. Time to fix more records…
9:57 am – stomach growling. Banana and mandated 15 min break
10:14 am – back from break. Checked twitter, rss feeds, emails
10:21 am – time to approve timesheets
10:30 am – meeting #2
10:46 am – meeting #2 done. Checked email. Emailed employee to set up receipt cataloging training time for today or tomorrow
10:51 am – time to start working on the epic email assigned at meeting #1, switched Pandora to Chant radio
11:37 am – sent draft of epic email. Catching up on emails sent during drafting. Confirmed training time with employee. Helped co-worker test out a voting system (still buggy)
11:42 am – opened and read new classified staff employment manual from the Dean.
12:00 pm – Lunch!
1:00 pm – officially back to work (even though I’ve been reading emails/feeds/tweets during the break). Received edited draft of epic email back from dept. head. Fixing it up to send to the Dean of Libraries
1:06 pm – Sent epic email to the Dean. Now to tabulate the routing list to see if any of the routed journals that do not have RSS feeds available have a substantial following. Screenshots away!
1:07 pm – interruption: minion database maintenance update. 500 in a list of 4000 problem MARC records completed. Progress report: records are messy, but not hopeless
1:22 pm – Turned out that the routing list from III does not match the one we keep separately. Added additional RSS feeds to planet toc and ran python file for update
1:35 pm – W00t! No 503 errors during the update! Prepare for meeting #3
2:00 – meeting #3
2:15 – meeting #3 done. Found full text access to a journal previously thought not to have FT access. Time to fix that one. Switched Pandora to “I miss the 80s” radio.
2:27 pm – searching for more hidden FT access…
2:31 pm – Receipt cataloging problem: book had incorrect bib record attached to order record. Forwarded to Acquisitions Librarian to address order record issue
2:37 pm – checked email. Begged and pleaded for an OLINK staff login, which I have been requesting for about a year now through various venues
2:52 pm – back to searching for more hidden FT access… only to be interrupted by another email with an update on the new library website
3:00 pm – mandatory 15 min break
3:10 pm – snuck in email to usability study principle investigator about the possibility of getting a help page up for the new OPAC
3:17 pm – off to help a co-worker set up her PBWorks and Google Calendar accounts to access the work wiki and calendar
3:38 pm – done with set up. Now back to RSS feeds. Found another one!
3:51 pm – I have an OLINK login! YAY!
4:15 pm – redid routing list that lists what we have available for RSS and FT
4:25 pm – talked to dept. head about revised routing list
4:40 pm – answered the last emails for the day. Set up items to work on for tomorrow
5:00 pm – bike home

A thread about cataloging and cataloger training in library school stated after someone offered their opinion about the ALA Task Force on Library Education report. This thread went down the very worn path of the theory v. practice argument until a paraprofessional added a (very) underrepresented perspective in the current cataloging skills and training debate. She has the experience, does professional development, enjoys what she does, and (the most important point) she is training the MLS Librarian in cataloging.

I guarantee you that the paraprofessionals training MLS folk situations happen more than most MLS folk like to admit. I have gone through some cataloging training with a very knowledgeable paraprofessional at my current position. She has been cataloging and doing authority work for years, while I have only cataloged for about a year when I was hired. I’m a better cataloger because I had a knowledgeable teacher who didn’t mind teaching a librarian.

Back to the AUTOCAT post. Here are some of the comments regarding this paraprofessional who took the time to make sure that the paraprofessional side of the story was heard:

“Why are you refusing to earn an MLIS? There are several online programs available, and Emory probably has some kind of tuition reimbursement available for job related courses. We really do teach things that you don’t learn on the job.” – Library School Professor

There is a better way of asking this question, and it does not involve the word “refuse.” Do every paraprofessional want to be a professional librarian? The paraprofessional who helped me didn’t even want to be called a librarian. People have their reasons: financial, professional, or they may be content as to where they are in their careers.

While the above statement raised an eyebrow, the following statements from a particular cataloger raised both at the same time:

“I wonder how many degreed catalogers don’t have a job because non-degreed catalogers are in the positions. Don’t we want degreed catalogers occupying positions because we know they are not just “catalogers” they are librarians.”

“However, all to often institutions, library executives, etc. believe that professional catalogers are not needed because paraprofessionals can be hired or the service can be outsourced.  Either way, the graduate specializing in technical services loses out.  If professional catalogers don’t take a stand for the future of the profession and the specialization of cataloging who will?”

If you want to alienate the part of your library staff that run the place, repeat the above. The library field has been in the throes of questioning the professionalism of librarianship for a long time. The movement of paraprofessionals taking over duties previously done by librarians in Technical Services added fuel to the professionalism fire. The above cataloger indicates a worldview of us v. them (Librarians v. “catalogers”). If the degreed librarians don’t stand up against paraprofessionals taking their duties, the future for Librarians in TS is dim.

Then again, what makes a librarian a librarian? Is it the day to day duties she performs? If librarians were librarians based on those duties, then it would serve us right to be booted out the door. Paraprofessionals are cheaper for these duties, and I have no problem with that. Do ideas and the drive to innovate make a librarian? Sure, but then again, does this mean that paraprofessionals do not have ideas and a desire for innovation themselves? Heck, where would that leave all the non-library techies who build new discovery platforms?

If administrators are not looking at expensive degreed librarians for positions, then the degreed librarians need to take it upon themselves to prove to the admins that they are valuable. Saying that you can catalog is one thing – anyone can catalog, given a few training sessions. You are not your duties. You are your ideas, your spirit of innovation, your aspirations. Why should they hire you?

Electronic Resources and Serials Librarian
Catalog Librarian

Both positions start reviewing applications July 6th. Good luck, everyone!