I have a project...

... and when I have a project I'm happy!  We're keeping busy here at work - term has started again, and with the beginning of a new academic year comes many *very* busy days of new students, a rearranged library (where even we get a bit lost in the shelves sometimes...), and inductions: both class sized, and individual.  But now we are heading towards our October holidays (a whole week off: hurrah!) and things are starting to calm down, as students get used to where things are and what they are doing.  So, it was time for a new project!  Many moons ago I posted about one of my analytical cataloguing projects - adding all of our music scores to stock individually so they were searchable on the catalogue by song title.  I had also done the same with the play compilations.  Now, I've started on a new job: tackling the monologues, duologues and poetry compilations.  Monologues and duologues will be catalogued by the play title, subtitled as whichever it is, and listed as a chapter of a book.  Also listed will be if it is for one man, one woman, one of each etc.  This should help the students to narrow down a choice of speeches.  The poems will be treated in mostly the same way, as we do have people asking sometimes if we have a particular poem, or something by a specific poet.  This should keep me occupied for a while!

And now, the end is near...

...of the college summer holidays, anyway!  We are coming ever closer to the start of the new academic year.  Teaching staff are back next week, and the students will then follow.  As usual, our main site has been open throughout the holidays, to allow for those on continuing courses (such as distance learning) access to computing facilities and study space.  The books have been available for reference for all (though not always on the shelves, as we've been busy this summer!)

All the usual jobs are complete - or almost there: we've done our stock check, which was actually almost fun thanks to our new mini scanner, which has made the job a lot easier!  Originally, we thought we *might* be going to have the first summer in a long time where we didn't have to make a major change / move / change of site, but it was not to be: our main summer job this year was to integrate our oversize book section into the main stock.  Of course, this then meant that we needed to take the books off the shelves, re-rack the shelving bays to fit the larger books, and then integrate and reshelve the books.  Also, while we were at it, we took the chance to have a good clean (picture this - me, armed with bucket, microfibre cloth and brillo pads, scrubbing the shelves before we put the books back on them!).  They do look really good though, and the move was definitely worth it.  The collection looks great spaced out, and it will hopefully mean the oversized books will be used a lot more, as most students didn't seem to look for anything that wasn't on the main shelves.  We also got some lovely new journal shelving, which has some also lovely new display shelving beside it which hosts a smaller reference collection.

So now, as the holidays draw to a close, we are gearing up for the new year: presentations ready to go on the plasma screen (I'm still loving prezi, which I learnt to use when completing the cpd23 scheme), inductions are already being booked, and all the little finishing jobs are being done.  We're looking nicely freshened up, and just about ready to go!  Time to enjoy the last days of (relative) peace before the hectic start of year begins.  Good luck to all preparing for the return of their students (and staff!) as it's about to get a lot busier for us all!

The digital age!

So, a 'paperless' library:  Digital Libraries

I can definitely see the advantages.  As someone who loves 'proper' paper books, but also loves her kindle (and kindle app for iPad!) it's great to see how many people with no access to a public library can get something to improve reading at home - whether it be for pleasure, or as an aid to literacy, it's bound to be worth it.  I don't think I could see public libraries based in towns / villages etc. going paperless though, as that's a whole different style of service.

In my opinion, anything that gets people reading has got to be good!  What does everyone else think?

I do hope they have enough shelf space!

I was really interested to read this article about the items reclaimed by Lambeth Palace Library.  The sheer amount of stolen volumes that were recovered was incredible!  It's good to hear that they have been able to restore some of them enough to be added back into the Library catalogue, and I hope they can continue the good work and restore as many as possible.  It's bound to be a positive treasure trove for information that hasn't been seen for years.

Onwards we go...

So, as one project draws to a close (I finished the music score cataloguing!) another arises to take its place. This time: more labeling.  We need to match our DVD and CD cases on the shelves with the discs which we keep in media cabinets.  So, we need to make up labels to match the barcodes and stick them onto the boxes.  I won't be doing this one all by myself though, as one of the other staff will be helping.  It'll keep me occupied over the easter holidays anyway!

Personal / work milestone...

So yesterday, I hit a personal milestone in work - I catalogued my 7000th music score!

This was part of a project which has taken place over a number of years.  In our library, we bring in books which are a compilation of different musical scores.  Students often would come in and ask if we had had the score for a particular song they were looking at, and we would have to send them to the shelves to look through all these compilations.  So, in a moment of madness (and trying to be helpful!) I suggested that we catalogue each score individually so the title would come up in a simple search, telling us which book we had it in.

The majority of the scores were completed years ago, except for those in one book - the complete mission praise - a book which contained over 1000 scores all by itself!  I've been keeping this on as an ongoing project - something to do when other projects got a bit quiet.  I'm almost finished it now (only about 100 scores left to go!) and yesterday we hit the heady heights of over 7000 scores on catalogue.  So, a personal milestone, but it makes me happy in a little library geeky way  :)

Looking for a book?

Fancy something to read, but not sure what?  Want some recommendations?  Or do you just like a good book review?  Well, why not try out this site:  Nerdy Book Club

With a huge archive of book reviews, this is certainly one enjoyable way to find something you may like to read!

Hooray!

My blog has had over 1000 page views  :)  This may not seem like a lot to some people, but is an achievement for me.  So thank you to everyone who reads this  :D

A life of Crime?

Well, the polls are in: and it seems that Crime is the topic of choice in the public library world!

Get Borrowing!

Looking through the list of the most borrowed books of 2012, it's interesting to see so many crime novels in the top 20.  James Patterson has certainly been very busy!

(I also love that the most borrowed childrens fiction book is the Gruffalo.  A brilliant book).  Its nice to see that the classics are still popular, with Roald Dahl still featuring heavily on the borrowing figures.

What does anyone else think of the list?  Anything you think should be there but isn't?