A Librarian's Life

day in the life – day 2

Char — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:21:56 +0000

Day 2

I’m in the office at 7:30, flipped one switch but not the other to get the computer booted. I stared at it for a minute before thinking I did it again… It seems like it takes almost 10 minutes to get everything set for the day. Firefox takes forever to come up. (You know, if it’s longer than 10 seconds, that’s forever.)

Quick scan of email and the calendar. Two priorities for the day (so far): 1) send an email to my NPP journals editors about the upcoming downtime; and 2) work on my comments for the ballot from yesterday’s tenure/reappointment meetings. I volunteered to take a sick colleague’s IM Ref shift for the afternoon.

8am Reviewed draft of the email to NPP editors that I forgot to mention I started yesterday. It seems odd that as site admin I can’t click a button that will allow me to grab editors of all our journals and email them. (Maybe I’m missing something?) I can go to their individual journals and do this, but I don’t want to send 8 separate messages. I reviewed the user guide one more time just to ensure the option doesn’t exist. Nope, can’t do it. The message will get sent from my work email.

Of course, while I’m looking at the user guide, I spotted something else I plan to do. Scope creep could easily set in… Not today. Investigating the COUNTER stats plugin (and Google Analytics) is on my 2012 goals list.

The daily campus ‘bulletin’ arrived via email so I scanned the headlines and decided to read the university president’s monthly letter. He discusses welcome changes to the hiring processes, including a lift of the hiring freeze and streamlined procedures. It will be interesting to see how these impact our own searches.

9:00 Worked on my comments for the reappointment ballots.

9:40 Ballots delivered. Stopped by my old departments, grabbed another cup of coffee. Back to the office. I realized I haven’t added my name to the library day in the life wiki, so I logged in there but can’t edit because others are working on it.

9:45-11:30 Worked on the outline and started jotting notes down for my NASIG paper/presentation. Shared outline with co-writer/presenter. I realized I will be picking other co-workers brains when I need to describe organizational changes.

11:30 Checked some RSS feeds, including a couple of friends doing #libday8 here, here, and here. Reading about Apple’s Textbook Strategy (which has also been a hot topic for indie fiction writers),

we christened this 'the David' because David L always orders it

11:45 Weekly lunch at CocoBolos. Stacked enchiladas today. Yum.

1:05 Responded to a ‘how many FTE’ question from Casey in Content Development. Showed him how to find that answer for himself on the Intranet.

NPP troubleshooting. Email exchange with one of our journal editors. A missing PDF from a current table of contents has re-appeared. Last week, I’d sent the editor the resolution I found when I routed through the PKP support forums. Apparently, clicking on the file in the galley did the trick. She didn’t have to delete and reload the file. Nice. I like endings like that.

Gave up trying to edit the LibDay8 wiki. Will try again another day.

Started reviewing the last couple of hours of LibStats to prepare for my 2-4pm shift on IM.

2-4pm IM Ref shift. Read a few blog posts. Worked on reference DOIs from one of our journals. I’ve finished all the current issues. I’ll start tackling the archival volumes another day.

I learned that LexisNexis Statistical DataSets is now called Proquest Statistical DataSets when I had to answer an IM about demographics. Duh. Explained how to do a boolean search with phrases in quotation marks in AGRICOLA for another student. Pretty quiet IM shift overall.

I used the quiet time to search the PKP support forums for information on the citation markup assistant. I’m experimented with it on our test journal, and it isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do. Hrmph! I’ll take a look at that again tomorrow.

4:20 Time to close up shop. My head hurts.

library day in the life, round 8

Char — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:56:49 +0000

It’s time for the Library Day in the Life Project.

Background: I have 2 jobs: I’m the Library Data Coordinator and the Coordinator of Electronic Publishing, New Prairie Press (NPP), at a large academic library. The data coordinator position was created out of our reorganization in 2010. I’m consolidating reporting activities, creating a master query database & associated documentation, running the annual statistics, providing requested acquisitions, circulation, & accreditation reports, and completing external surveys such as the ACRL Academic Library Statistics.

As the site admin for NPP, I manage the back end of our library’s open access publishing initiative. I work with the editors of the 8 journals (with 2 more in the works) that we host. I troubleshoot, manage our CrossRef activities, suggest and/or provide enhancements to the journals, create documentation, consult as needed, and will have new goals for 2012 including preparing an MOA for new journals we may host.

Day 1

Lucky me. I woke up 5:45am, 30 minutes before my alarm was set to go off. Sigh. I decided to get to the office early, so I arrived just before 7am with my coffee in hand. Checked email, library rss feeds, tweets, and FB. Pushed a link from NASIG’s FB page to our LinkedIn group (one of my responsibilities as vice co-chair of NASIG’s Electronic Communications Committee (ECC)).

I also checked my calendar and task list to determine if anything needed to be pushed to a high priority. One email was a request for 2 Voyager reports, so that was added to the day’s to-do list. I prepped for my 8am IM Reference shift, which included reading through earlier shifts Q&As.

8-9 IM Ref. The 8am shift is usually quiet. Usually. Which means trying to find work that I can do with the potential for interruptions. That usually means reading. I scanned some of my RSS feeds and pulled up my notes for my 9am meeting and answered 1 reference question. My IM relief was online 10 minutes early so I wasn’t late for the 9am gathering.

9-10:30ish Tenure/Reappointment meeting. We reviewed 3 candidates who are in year 1 of the tenure process. I have to type up my ballots and turn those in by Wednesday afternoon.

10:30-12:15
Ran the 2 requested Voyager reports.

NASIG’s ECC manages the website, including announcements (What’s New on the home page), calendar updates, the NASIG Blog & Facebook pages. I am mainly in charge of webspinner activities but occasionally have listserv duty.

N&E co-chair emailed a document that needed to be replaced on the website. Finished that and gave a head’s up to our web folks about upcoming announcements concerning the election. There was another email about a typo on one of the conferences pages. I forwarded that to the program and conference planning co-chairs who are working on those pages.

12:15-1:15 Lunchtime. Worked on my novel.

1:30-4 Worked on email to 2 NPP editors regarding the works-cited DOIs I’ll be adding to articles they’ve published. I’d used a query form provided by CrossRef to search for the DOIs last week, but wanted to get the most recent issues of both journals done before I actually added the DOIs. I was preparing the email to one editor when I discovered they’d published a new issue in the last few days. So I had to pull the references from the newly-published PDF to run against CrossRef – it’s a highly convoluted process that I’m hoping to place in the editors’ production workflow in the near future, rather than as an afterthought that as site admin I need to do. Anyway…that done, I prepared and shipped out my emails to the editors. I’ll give them a couple of days before I edit the article metadata to add the references.

Speaking of NPP, our systems admin stopped by to discuss the upcoming OJS upgrade. We’re going from version 2.3.4 to 2.3.6 and hoping that downtime will be minimal and that nothing breaks.

Played with our Primo installation, which will be going live soon. Signed in and saved some articles & books to my ‘e-shelf.’ Emailed some citations to myself; exported a bunch to RefWorks (super-easy); set up an rss feed for one search I did (for my interest in the 3rd Crusade and related personalities).

Scooted out of the office shortly after 4pm and headed to Radina’s Coffeehouse to work on the novel. Making decent progress.

reading [email], writing, vacations, & inspiration…

Char — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:39:09 +0000

Remember this day. Well not today, but Saturday, January 21, 2012. I began the revisions on my novel, willing myself to complete them in 3 months. Oh my…what have I gotten myself in to?

A lot of my colleagues just returned from ALA Midwinter in Dallas. Conference rooms, meetings, and networking! Oh my!

I went to Savannah. For a vacation. : )

It was the first week of classes, so the emails and new meetings appointments started to fly. This was one trip where I didn’t attempt to check email regularly, so I spent the first couple of days back at work wading through and prioritizing hundreds of them.

I suppose one must suffer through this task after enjoying fried green tomatoes and chicken pot pie from Lady & Sons, and shrimp from Uncle Bubba’s.

And I can’t forget my friend’s wonderful cooking and Southern hospitality!

Nothing like walking on a beach in the middle of January and seeing the folks back home reporting temperatures well below freezing and snow…

Nothing like sleeping in late and not having to leave the house ’til lunchtime.

On that note, my stomach is starting to growl. It’s writers group night, which I almost always begin by heading out for supper, finding a WIFI spot, and working on my writing. Tonight, I am hoping to share the revisions I’ve made to the opening of my novel. It’s only about 500 words, but it’s drastically different than my first draft. Can’t wait to get their critiques!

Oh…inspiration…check out the post on my fiction blog: http://charlenenewcomb.com

strawberry nachos…

Char — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:07:31 +0000

Sounds intriguing…

Via Research Buzz, the California Strawberry Commission now has a recipes section. Oh my!

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder with Dried Strawberry Chipotle Chutney

Strawberry and Cucumber Salad - vinagrette with cumin, paprika, mint & more – yummie!

not one of their recipes, just my mid-morning snack

first work day of 2012…

Char — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:42:30 +0000

The spring semester doesn’t start for 2 more weeks so it’s still pretty quiet here in the library. I managed to complete my self-evaluation but I haven’t submitted it yet. I’ll give it one more read before the end of the week and then ship it off to my boss.

I spent a good bit of the day cleaning up some Access query documentation and running a few sample reports. Tomorrow I’ll work on CrossRef DOIs which I never managed to get to last Friday.

Here’s one to enjoy by way of Research Buzz:

go to maps.google.com

click on Get Directions & the Walking icon

from: the shire

to: Mordor

Check the cautionary note & enjoy

last working day of the year…

Char — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:47:14 +0000

All’s quiet. Two office mates on vacation today; the other working away quietly.

Remember that report I said I’d regret putting off until the new year? Well, I decided not to procrastinate. It’s finished and emailed off to the big boss.

Next on the list:

work on the self evaluation, always such a joy. NOT.
back to CrossRef and DOIs
investigate MOAs used by other open access publishers
wish everyone a Happy New Year!

the fun we had…

Char — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:41:41 +0000

Pictures by Jenny. Montage by me. (And I had nothing…absolutely nothing…to do with including Luke & Yoda in the photos, except for the pic of xmas gifts.)

semester breaks…

Char — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:30:13 +0000

Wouldn’t you think that things get quiet at an academic library during the holidays? Ha! Not so. I guess the best part is that we have fewer meetings. I’ve often been able to organize my desk, clean out old files (including on the hard drive), finish up a project or two, clean up the Inbox, and complete my self evaluation. I used to spend some of that time writing staff evaluations. It’s nice to have a break from that particular responsibility these days.

First day post-exams: I’d taken that Monday off. Did not even look at email over the long weekend until I got to the office Tuesday morning. Three different emails requesting new reports appeared. After months of very few requests other than the regularly scheduled monthly reports I run, there were three! YAY! I’d almost forgotten how to use Access – NOT!

One of the reports isn’t due until mid-January, so I will procrastinate and work on it after the holidays. (This is probably a very bad idea. It will come back to haunt me.) One report was for Circ staff to aid in a clean-up project during the semester break; the other from Content Development staff requesting a list of titles with expenditures for FY11 & FY12 (to date) for one specific department. One thing I’ve learned is to consult with the staff requesting reports before I embark on my own. Inevitably, they need either more or less information than I might provide. Always a good idea to clarify exactly what is the goal of the report. (Yes, the ‘reference interview’ is usually a must!) Both reports were out within 24 hours to grateful and happy recipients. Gotta love that feeling!

By mid week another request arrived – see, everyone has time to work on projects that have been bugging them for months and they’ve been too busy to request! And, I had one new issue crop up with New Prairie Press (NPP). I am anticipating a flood there as the journal editors, who have been busy with classes during the fall, now have a moment to push articles through the review and publishing process. Inevitably they discover that something is broken or they’ve forgotten a piece of the process.

Next time at this year, as well as in May as the spring semester ends, I think I’d better anticipate spending extra time with NPP and requests. I’ll have to plan better to get my own downtime projects taken care of.

Luke vs. the children…

Char — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:07:14 +0000

Conversation between sons #1 and #2 as they look at the china cabinet:

“How many more pictures do you think Mom has of Luke Skywalker than of us in this house?”

it got quiet around here…

Char — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:30:05 +0000

I’ve been sidetracked the last few weeks as I finished up the final edits on my novel and began thinking about web domains, the holidays, trips, weddings, copyediting, and work. My brain–and life-is going in a hundred different directions. All of them good, mind you. But I feel much less organized than in the ‘old’ days. Holiday decorations and Christmas cards would have been out Thanksgiving weekend back then. I just emailed my Christmas letter on Sunday. Stamps are purchased and the cards addressed to the dozen or so folks who will not admit that they have email addresses. I discovered that my printer is out of ink, hence no printing yet. Will. Do. Today.

The big news I want to share is the decision to set up my fiction website. I’ve thought long and hard about it, about whether to use this blog as that home. But, did you realize that until very recently, my name wasn’t even associated with this blog? Sure, you could figure out who I was if you really wanted to, if you weren’t already a friend or family member who followed my occasional posts here. But no where on the blog until a month or two ago did I mention my name. There was no list of the stories I wrote, just mentions now and then about the novel I’ve been writing for almost 3 years. A couple of months ago I finally decided to add the bibliography, My Fiction. But now that I’ve set up a separate site, that page is a link to my fiction home. And my name(s) are now on the About Char page! (Yes, names.)

Join me at charlenenewcomb.com for my writing adventures. I’ll have posts here occasionally reminding you I’m also over there if you want to bear with me through the next steps toward publication of my novel. I’ll continue to post on this site about work and other news. I have to use my limited free time judiciously and, to be honest, one of the places I want to spend most of that time is in the realms of fiction. In this day and age, that includes a lot of networking with other writers through social media and bringing a personality to readers beyond that blurb on the back cover of a book.