I’ve got a new home, a new Doctor, a new Hair stylist, new favorite coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores, etc.   However, it’s mostly about the New Job.

It’s hard to describe.  Maybe I’ll start with a few generalities:

In general, I like it quite a bit.

In general, my job description is open to interpretation.  Which means I have to see what needs to be done, find out how, and then do it.

In general, I am responsible for my own training.  When I don’t know how to do something, I have to find out.  I also have to find out why it’s being done, who usually does it, when and how often it’s done, and even what are the attitudes about it?  I can’t sit around and expect someone to come up to me and say, “Look, you’re going to need to know this, so let me show you.”  I have to go out searching for the facts of the matter.

Some days all this fact-finding is very tiring.   I have an acronym for the time I spend doing this: FF for Fact Finding.  Usually it is just a discussion, with me asking questions of the other staff members, but it can take a bit of time out of my day.  Yet it’s a vital task.

And the reason for the acronym?  I’m keeping track of the time I spend on different tasks.  I want to have a good answer when someone asks what I do all day.  I’ll talk more about that next time, because I spent too much time on blogs tonight (other people’s) and it’s bedtime!

I received a card from my husband this morning, congratulating me on finishing the program.  I share this with you because without all of you, who:

listened to me complain,

listened again to the same complaints every three months,

listened again when I explained FRBR  or AJAX because I was excited about it,

put up with me not keeping up with my half of the blog,

forgave me forgetting some obvious obligations,

made dinner because I was too frustrated to do anything but glare at the computer,

bought me a drink,

gave me a Huskies hat,

asked how it was going,

acted as my mentor – gracefully,

were my staunchest supporters,

brought chocolate and cookies to work,

laughed and made jokes,

ignored my complaining some more (I hope),

and a host of other things that you did and accepted of me – this card is also for you.  I could probably have done it without you, but how lonely and disappointing it would have been not to share this with you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Raving About Books illustration by Evon Zerbetz Graphics

Love, Mary

Coursework had me evaluating other student’s sites, and that was an eye-opener. I believe I should go over my site the same way I combed through those three, because I looked through every page and picture and artifact…it was exhausting. Or maybe that’s the effect of 8 hours at the library on a day after a holiday – always plenty of books to process, and patrons with complex requests who had to wait an extra day to get their tasks done.

But first, I woke up and actually did something good – I went for a walk. Then I sat at the computer and edited the responses from last week’s “Guided Questions” for the group in the other class, and posted it, went through school email (must be done every morning without fail), printed out the slides from this week’s four lectures, and started saving the readings on my hard drive. Then it was time to go to work.

After work, I put my feet up for about ten minutes while I heard about my husband’s day, then I paid bills. And thankful I am to have the money to pay them (this month, anyway). I finished looking over the module for my other class, then started in on the evaluations I’ve been given on my portfolio.

I think I am writing this because I want to remember the full days I am putting in while I’m in grad school. I have learned so much about prioritizing my time – and I’m amazed at how much I can get done when I’m healthy.

Didn’t mention that I cooked two large bunches of asparagus – one for salads and another for soup. One of the things I’ve learned while in school is that if I don’t balance my life, I will hate it. So I don’t turn in a perfect paper – it’s more important that I cook a healthy meal for myself so that I don’t feel poorly. Which reminds me – it’s after 10 pm and I need to get to bed. So – goodnight!

A lot of it has to do with details.  For instance, I got tired of making each document into a PDF (and time was running out).  However, the Word docs embedded in the pages require a pop-up asking which program the document should be opened in.  What a pain!  So now I know, PDFs are the way to go.

Another detail: I prefer opening up items in a new tab, so I chose “open in a new window” for most of my links.  Well, that’s not everyone’s choice.  However, should one so desire, the option to right-click and choose “open in a new tab” is available.  So, that might be changed as well (but lower on the priority list than say, content).

I’m not yet satisfied with the flow of the website either.  In looking at another student’s website on Weebly, the tabs across the top of the page are simple and explanatory.  On my site, it’s difficult to know where to go first.  There is not a clear path.  So that means reorganizing the content in a different way.

I have an idea right now of which form this will take.  I think I will make Main pages out of a few categories which will then be linked along the top as the “Home” tab shows now.  The trouble before was that pages had long titles and the tabs stacked up on top of each other, crowding the graphic and looking stupid.  I think with short titles, the tabs will march along the margin and look organizing rather than messy.  I have had trouble deciding just what my categories will be….

I will insert here a Jing capture of my page as it looks now, so I can compare the differences as I go along.  Too bad I don’t have a picture of when it was really messy

Website as of 2/8/2010

FOR ASSIGNMENT #2:

The navigation column on the right of this page carries links to:

Job Postings of interest; and

All public pages of the online portfolio.

Typically, the crowd we have for SRP at the Whitefish Branch doesn’t get much older than 8, unless someone older comes with a younger sibling. The book I read to the older children last year was The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. We didn’t get all the way through it, but the kids engaged with the story even though it could easily have been for 10 -11 year olds, and the majority of the them were 5 to 7 years old. It was so enjoyable reading to them!

They were riveted by the adventure of Hugo, a young boy living on his own in a secret apartment between the walls of a Paris train station. It’s a great story, and worked well with the theme of Creativity. Some of the story is told by pictures – here’s one drawing from the book (Selznick did the drawings too):

This year, I will be reading to and doing crafts with the younger age group – 5 and under. I have three ideas to pitch: Pirates (a theme for which I’ve already contributed to one Story Time box), the water cycle (have a flannel board story that was done last year for a “snowflake” Story Time), and Tide Pools or Under the Sea – whatever we want to call it. That topic is inspired by Eric Carle’s book Mister Seahorse, which is pretty hilarious from my point of view. In the beginning pages, Mrs. Seahorse is seen depositing eggs on Mr. Seahorse, who then travels through the sea meeting all kinds of fishy dads who are also caring for eggs. Of course, Carle’s signature collage illustrations make it a beautiful book.

I have one craft designed for this – a seahorse shape onto which children can glue tissue paper strips to play with colors like Eric Carle does…but now I’m thinking about playing with water colors (SRP theme is water this year). All this will be brainstormed at the meeting, of course.

Serendipity – while looking for a picture of Mister Seahorse, I found out that Carle has another book called A House for Hermit Crab that would also fit the theme.

Other professional happenings: I sent off another job application / resume on Tuesday. Have yet to hear from the other position I interveiwed for – their last interview was a day ago….

My first thought was to have a front page consisting of only iconic photographs with a caption, each standing in for the section it would cover in the competencies.  For instance: Communication skills, Supervisory skills, Technology Skills, etc.  This still might be the way for me to go – even though the theme I’ve chosen doesn’t support that look very well.  As far as I can tell, each page will have to follow the same theme, in the version of WordPress I am using (not a hosted site).  That means I can’t have one blank page and put only pictures on it the way I envisioned.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t do almost the exact same thing.  I’ve got a start on page X right now.

I have three examples of competencies mapped with artifacts – which reminds me – I have to upload the updated competency forms. They changed slightly this week, because this class is pretty much an ongoing experiment. That makes it kind of exciting.

Tonight our group planned to have all our mapped competencies up so we could have two weeks to evaluate each others’ work. Oh boy, let’s go. I have a goal of working through two of them tomorrow, but of course, I have another class. We’ll see how far I get.

Looking at my “artifacts,” I find the ALA competencies are just too broad to really align with them, but the WebJunction Index really describes much of my experience.  Those are the competencies to which I will map my artifacts.

I’m excited to see how much of my experience really does match the competencies for a public librarian.  The difficult part will be to get it all in the WordPress format.  I believe some of the standing webpages are going to have to find a new host, because I won’t be able to use the UW option after I graduate.

I can make static pages here.  Hmmmm, perhaps I can just post the HTML….  I really don’t have enough experience there to know how that would work, and so the hosting option might be quicker and save me some angst.  And goodness knows, saving some angst during grad school is always the best way to go.

I’ve noticed though, when looking through only the relevant professional competencies, that they can be intimidating as well.  I recall browsing the WebJunction competencies on their website last year.  At first I felt panicked.  How can I possibly be up to date on ALL of this, I thought, especially considering the average workload and the real – life situation of constant interruptions and crisis intervention that occurs as part of any job bearing responsibility these days?

Then I decided to look at it in a different way.  I may not be up to snuff with every one of the items on the list, but at least I know about them.  This gives me two things: a way to measure myself against an ideal, and goals to strive for.

And another thing: where does that saying “up to snuff” come from?  How odd.  All I can think of is Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances where all the toffs walked around with their snuffboxes and took pinches off the ladies’ wrists and whatnot.  I’ll have to check on that. : )

Back to WebJunction’s Competency Index for the Library Field: it’s just that – an index.  It covers all possible tasks within various types of libraries and was aggregated and synthesized from at least 12 different library organizations, including WebJunction itself.

If I want to think a bit less comprehensively, I can go straight to ALA’s Core Competencies of Librarianship. These are going to get a much closer look during the course of MLIS 596, as they outline the professional competencies relating to my goal of becoming a public librarian.

It keeps snowing, so I must go shovel.