the strange librarian

Roger Ebert and the importance of living

Julie — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 02:06:53 +0000

Two days ago Rodger Ebert wrote “A Leave of Presence” announcing that he was going to change some things about how he worked (and how often).

“What in the world is a leave of presence? It means I am not going away. My intent is to continue to write selected reviews but to leave the rest to a talented team of writers handpicked and greatly admired by me. What’s more, I’ll be able at last to do what I’ve always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review.”

He wrote that he is going to be focusing on what’s important to him. He talks about his new web presence and it’s “exciting new features” that will launch “April 9th.” He mentions things will happen that “will enable me to continue as a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, and roll out other projects under the Ebert brand in the coming year.”

The man had plans.

Today, he is also dead. (NYT article)

lesson #1

DO IT NOW. No, seriously- NOW.

Make plans and dream like you’ll get 150 years on this earth. But do it knowing that you might not even get tomorrow. (but remember to sleep, and don’t panic that you won’t get the time you want. a hard balance, i know.)

lesson #2

SPEND NO TIME ON THINGS THAT DON’T MAKE YOUR HEART CRY OUT IN HAPPINESS.

and I mean WEEP WITH JOY. Think INTERNAL CONFETTI CANNONS OF GLEE. Like, I want your insides to be as happy as this kid (vid) or as awesome as this kid (vid) or as smile-y as this little fuzzy dude (pic).

Go, live. I love you all.

(ps – read his tweets. hilarious. and his New Yorker Caption Contest Entries.)

a love story (reminders of life while spring cleaning)

Julie — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 16:42:26 +0000

In 2007 a man contacted the library and asked for our help in finding a lost love. The man was in his 70s and was looking to track down a woman whom he had met in his elementary school days in Syracuse, NY. The man lost track of his love when her family moved to Towson, MD but found each other again and were in and out of each others lives until the mid 1950s. Through various circumstances, however, they were never together, despite their desire to be.

And then she fell off the radar completely. And for decades. And later in life, having had this woman in his head for so long – this woman for whom he had written poetry, a song, and had many recurring dreams of for years- he wanted to find her again.

He reached out to the local library in the community where he last knew his love to reside.

I don’t remember how but somewhere along the line, I was pulled in to the process and was given his story.

I have a file folder with photocopies of his letters to us, looking for help in his search. They are polite retellings of a man’s life filled with hope that he will find his life long love. I have a copy of her 1952 yearbook photo and a photo of this handsome man in uniform in 1933 and again in 2006.

I have the notes i scribbled to myself while i was on the hunt for this woman who had no known married name or whereabouts. Trails kept going cold.

I have the original newspaper article about this search that piqued the interest of the county records office that got them in on the hunt.

I also have the follow-up article that was published in the local newspaper when we found her. She had died suddenly in 2000. Not the end to the love story you’d hope for, but closure nonetheless.

“I can go forward now with much peace inside,” he wrote. “[Her] passing has only made heaven a more beautiful place for we who will one day follow.”

“I feel a bit of sadness in learning that she and I can’t for a day or two set and reminisce our lives. But I have been blessed many times over in knowing and loving her.”

And I am sad myself to say that I now also have in my file the obituary of this man who carried such love in his heart his whole life and died himself in May 2012.

His obituary tells the story of a man dedicated to his country, his family, and who knew that the people in your life were what was important. This obituary that tells only a small part of the story of a man who I knew only another small part of.

We learn though, that the woman’s daughter knew of the man and her mother’s love for him. And because we share what is important to us by the stories we tell, we know that while they were never able to be together, their love was real and something that maybe sustained them both throughout their lives.

And now, each survived by children from their own, separate lives, their love continues to take the only path it could through time and now lives on in me- who will never forget their story while I continue to tell my own.

there’s an illegal market in the deep web. and they’re selling books.

Julie — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:38:57 +0000

So I’m reading this article from Fast Company in January. It’s called Inside The Underweb: Home To Stolen Credit Cards, Pedophiles, Hitmen, Drug Dealers–And Free Speech.

Most of us librarians understand the deep web - that layer of things existing on the Internet that aren’t indexed, are behind paywalls or other authentication barriers, and otherwise unavailable through, say, everyone’s favorite search engine.

The article linked above speaks about the web under the deep web – encrypted networks and huge chunks of underweb traffic that is mostly made up of free speech communication and democracy activists.

And then there’s the flip side. (because every positive thing for free speech, openness, and access will inevitably also attract those who would be doing less-than-savory things. Illegal, even.

The article talks about Tor, the underweb network that comes with it’s own software you can easily download (i haven’t tried but FastCo’s sidebar explained it nicely) and worked it’s way to the Silk Road and discussion of bitcoin (which, incidentally , i had just heard about recently on NPR one morning on the way to work.

The Silk Road is the ebay-esque “anonymous marketplace” where you can buy all sorts of illegal things – drugs, weapons. Crazy shit. And, because FastCo likes it’s data, and i’m fairly sure Silk Road isn’t publishing any quarterly profit reports, FastCo noted this academic paper by a guy at Carnegie Mellon University about the Silk Road. Which of course I checked out.

The pdf of which i’d actually like to draw your attention to. Check out page 9. It has a chart that lays out the categories of items being sold on the Silk Road (TSR) and how much each of those categories represents the whole of business happening on TSR. Here, i’ll paste in the graph so you can see maybe what popped out at me:

"Proportion of items in the marketplace as a function of the number of sellers. We observe fairly high diversity, with each seller selling at most 1.5% of the total number of items in Silk Road."

You may notice the fifth item on the list. Books. Right below and in a list of illegal items is “books.”

Books.

Now, unfortunately the paper doesn’t go into any detail as to what kinds of books might fall into this category (as it is not the point of the paper) other than the Hacking for Beginners he calls out for an example of how an item page looks (and which looks a bit on the self-published side to me based on the cover pictured).

Almost more fascinating is the fact that almost 44% of shipping sites originate in the US. And 35% of the shipping destinations is the US. Which makes me wonder – where are the books going? And while it might not be illegal in the originating location, maybe it is at the destination (49.70% of destinations were “worldwide).

So while you can also buy drugs and money, you can also buy information. in the container of a book.

You’ll have to excuse me, I’m just completely fascinated by this.

It’s fascinating that there’s an underground anonymous network (Tor, etc). Fascinating that there’s something like the Silk Road. Fascinating – and most intriguing to me – that there’s a whole category of “books” being sold in an illicit market.

I am totally resisting the urge to find this site and see what they’ve got under “books.” What kind of books would you want that you couldn’t get though less shady means? Further proof that knowledge is indeed power – and sometimes not always power for good. (Not that that is ANY reason to EVER prohibit someone’s access to information!)

My proximity to some serious government agencies and my most profound desire to not accidentally (and most innocently) end up on a list somewhere, curbs my desire to go poking around the shadier things on the internet.

But still, fascinating, right?

Update: According to Wikipedia the owner of the Silk Road is “the Dread Pirate Roberts.” Illegal merch pushers and hackers who still have a soft spot in their hearts for The Princess Bride. Gotta love it.

celebrating 6 years with a little communication

Julie — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:07:24 +0000

On February 22, 2007 I launched this site. I can’t believe it’s been six years already – and yet, it feels like it’s not been that long.

The year this blog launched:

I would turn 25 years old (holy what now?)
Only a few months prior I had moved out of NJ and down to MD to start the first FT job of my new career (that’d be librarianship)
my car was only 5 years old (and made less noise)
President Obama announced his candidacy for president
& lots of other things

Now although strangelibrarian.org launched Feb 2007, I’ve had a web presence since about 1995 or 1996. Geocities, anyone?

It’s crazy to think i’ve been doing things online for almost twenty years. But if you think about it, while the mode was different and audience potentially wider than ever before, the base idea has always been the same – communication. And it’s not as crazy to think that I’ve been doing THAT for twenty years – because, really, i’ve been doing for as long as I’ve been able to make sense of the world and have had autonomous control of my own hands. And once I could speak – watch out!

It seems to me that it always comes back to communication. Errors, fights, misunderstandings, success, love, decisions… everything. It all comes back to communication (or a lack thereof).

Being able to communicate with others, get them interested in your story, or explain something complicated in easy to understand concepts and language is not easy. It’s not something everyone can do. I feel blessed that I’ve been able to do this for a long time – and hopefully for a long time coming.

I am glad that I’ve been among the privileged enough to have a website, the ability and desire to communicate, and, hopefully, interesting things to say that people care about (at least some of the time).

So thank you, dear readers, for visiting and contributing your thoughts. I hope the next six years is as awesome as the last.

Best,

6 daily self care rituals you will want to try

Julie — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 03:52:54 +0000

Last week I talked about how sometimes your body knows more than you do. Do you pay attention to when you’re tired or hungry (and actually stop to rest or eat?). If you’re like me, not always.

Listening to your body – and taking some serious time daily to provide care for YOURSELF is über important. Self care is usually the first thing to go out the window when you’re busy or stressed – but it is the FIRST thing that will keep you balanced and able to meet all your responsibilities well. If you haven’t been taking care of yourself, there’s less hope in you being able to take care of others.

To that end, FastCompany has a lovely article you should read. I’ve brought the main points over here for your convenience:

1. Drink a glass of water when you wake up

Your body loses water while you sleep, so you’re naturally dehydrated in the morning. A glass of water when you wake helps start your day fresh. When do you drink your first glass of water each day?

2. Define your top 3

Every morning Mike asks himself, “What are the top three most important tasks that I will complete today?” He prioritizes his day accordingly and doesn’t sleep until the Top 3 are complete. What’s your “Top 3″ today?

3. The 50/10 Rule

Solo-task and do more faster by working in 50/10 increments. Use a timer to work for 50 minutes on only one important task with 10 minute breaks in between. Mike spends his 10 minutes getting away from his desk, going outside, calling friends, meditating, or grabbing a glass of water. What’s your most important task for the next 50 minutes?

4. Move and sweat daily

Regular movement keeps us healthy and alert. It boosts energy and mood, and relieves stress. Most mornings you’ll find Mike in a CrossFit or a yoga class. How will you sweat today?

5. Express gratitude

Gratitude fosters happiness, which is why Mike keeps a gratitude journal. Every morning, he writes out at least five things he’s thankful for. In times of stress, he’ll pause and reflect on 10 things he’s grateful for. What are you grateful for today?

6. Reflect daily

Bring closure to your day through 10 minutes of reflection. Mike asks himself, “What went well?” and “What needs improvement?” So… what went well today? How can you do more of it?

I personally think these are easily doable even in the busiest day – and things that will ensure that you’re at the top of your game. And being at the top of your physical, mental, and emotional game is the best way to tackle all your things and make it happen.

Take good care of yourself!

sometimes your body knows something you don’t

Julie — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:00:42 +0000

Yesterday, i wrote about balance after a Fast Company article got me to thinking (always dangerous).

I like writing things like that in clear, easy-to-put-into-practice chunks (which i at least started off doing) and I ended with a challenge – to take today, Valentines Day, to show YOURSELF some love and to spend some time figuring our your intentions.

Yogi’s do it before practice – they set their intention.

I try to start my day “as if it was on purpose” but I at least do it before I knowingly enter into situations that make me nervous – like big meetings with important people or unknown situations. What is my intention for this? What do I want the end result to be? What am I willing to do (or not do) to achieve it?

But as much as your mind can help you set intentions, your body knows intention, too. And sometimes it has it’s own agenda.

While I am currently living according to the plan I’ve set for myself (mind you, that’s the daily plan, I have no ultimate plan at the moment), I fall off the horse sometimes. I know that if i spend 30 minutes staring out the window daydreaming when I was scheduled to work on a project (and i left no time in the day for daydreaming), there will be consequences. Things will have to shift to accommodate the new plan. But that it is OKAY – my body’s intention took priority.

My point is this – Your body has the answers. Your body understands things, sometimes more than you do.

Here’s what I mean – you’ve set your goals, or your TDL and you’ve scheduled the time and you have the tools you need to complete the thing. But you don’t.

Why?

I suspect, it’s because your body knows something you don’t about where you want to be spending your time and attention.

I’m currently dealing with this myself and with a good friend of mine. We both understand everything as far intention and scheduling and balance and getting the work done. and for the most part, we embrace it and do it. But there’s pieces missing. And i think it’s because our body knows what our head won’t yet accept.

That what we’re doing, might not be exactly what we want to be doing.

And i think it has something to do with the big picture. There comes a point in your life, (maybe a few points, if you’re like me) when you start to question your purpose. And when you haven’t figured that out, or when you need to figure it out again, everything changes. You can’t seem to keep to your intentions – because you didn’t listen to your body, your insides, your all-knowing self when you set them. Maybe you set them according to what you thought you should be doing, or you didn’t realize you did. Or maybe it’s as simple as the intentions you set rang true at some point, but they just don’t anymore. And that’s okay. But it needs to be fixed.

How do you fix it? Well, i’m working that one out at the moment but I think it comes down to time and attention (like all things do).

I have questions. Questions that need answering. The kinds of questions that can only be answered by listening. Listening to yourself. Trying to figure out which voice isn’t yours and muting them. Oh, and time.

I think the thing to do is to spend time (or allow time to happen in it’s own.. uh, time) in order for these questions to arise and be answered.

There might be more going on with my friend as to why he seems to be… unhappy, overburdened & like he has a bad motivator. But I think for me, I need to:

sit with myself and start spending some serious intention (Oh i see what you did there) on figuring things out
break out of the routine once in a while
inject fun when it’s most needed. (nts: buy more confetti cannons)

Here’s to listening,

perhaps a few too many words on “balance”

Julie — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:00:59 +0000

Wow, so apparently it was over two years ago when I wrote the very well-recieved 10 Tips for Finding Your Groove & Getting Sh*t Done.

Well, team – i think it’s time to reprise it.

Over on Fast Company, there’s 5 Insanely Simple Work-Life Balance Shortcuts From People Who “Have It All“. And while you might think “oh yeah, sure okay, whatever,” it isn’t unachievable (as long as we define “have it all” as “have everything YOU want in YOUR life” and not use some external, imposed “keeping up with the Joneses” definition). The article hits on exactly the (frankly, one) thing that will make your life less crazypants “busy” and more “balanced.”

That thing is… drum roll, please…

INTENTION.

I talked about the importance of attention in How to be successful back in May. Basically, success comes from love and love is shown through attention. But intention is just as important.

The FC article talks about things you can do to make “balance” happen (have one calendar, review your goals, etc) but the main idea is that

YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE.

(shocking, i know) and that YOU and YOU ALONE are the one who can determine your priorities and DO THE WORK YOU NEED TO DO (see #4). YOU GET TO DECIDE WHERE IT IS IMPORTANT TO SPEND YOUR TIME.

I can already hear the critics – “But my job is too demanding! I don’t have time to do the things I want to in life!”

Okay, first off – What the hell is that bullshit? Take some responsibility, will you please? NO ONE is making you DO ANYTHING! (yeah okay you have a mortgage to support, but REALLY, if you didn’t want to pay it, you don’t have to. you just have to understand the choice you’re making.)

Secondly, define for me “too demanding.” Then, tell me – do you like your job? No? Then go find one that has the demand level you prefer – and then make all those other things in life that you want to happen, happen. Oh, you like your job? Then maybe you should either a) get help/delegate because you truly are being overworked b) try a better time management strategy or c) stop complaining and take control over your life anyway. [oh, or option d) stop watching TV and spending time sharing cat videos on the internet]

Sure, you’re not going to roll out of bed tomorrow and be living your perfect life. But if you figure out what that perfect life looks like, and start making DELIBERATE steps towards that end, you’re already ahead of the game. (See also: Go, Live your Dreams.)

Can’t spend the time you’d like with your partner? Well, it’s not an all or nothing game, is it? Spend what you can. Do as much as you can until you can do more. Then do more. (Unless it’s not a priority for you, in which case, don’t do it at all.)

Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

YOU CAN LIVE A LIFE OF WHATEVER BALANCE YOU’D LIKE. You just have to be INTENTIONAL, DO THE WORK, MAKE THE TIME, and REFOCUS when needed.

Look, life is busy. Life is crazypants sometimes, but you make time for what you deem important. Don’t feel guilty not making someone else’s priority a priority of yours if it’s NOT a priority for you. Learn to say NO.

AND LEARN TO LET YOURSELF OFF THE HOOK. Sometimes we say no to too many things, we get away from our intentions and goals and plans and we get down on ourselves. DON’T! Take a breath and refocus – get back on that horse!

Trust me, I know a little something about balance and not-balance. My days are so crazy I schedule SLEEP and DUDE, DON’T FORGET TO EAT appointments with myself. But for me, that’s what balance looks like right now- nutsoid, but happening.

In 2012, i chose five main areas I wanted to focus on. If it didn’t fall into those main areas (or into the sub-goals in each) it wasn’t going to happen. It was a no-brainer to say NO. And, because i’m crazy visual & i created color-coded calendars to help me manage it (and corresponding gmail labels), it was easy to see in a second that I wasn’t spending enough time in one of my stated goal areas because there wasn’t enough of that color showing up on my calendar. Or, too much of another color.

Don’t get me wrong – i’m not at my “perfect” state yet – there isn’t NEARLY enough Orange or Green on my calendar and WAY TO MUCH BLUE. I’d like to reduce my commute to give me an additional SIX WHOLE HOURS a week to do something other than drive to and from the office I technically don’t need to be in. I’d also love to figure out a way to delegate more at work (it’s hard to delegate when one and a half of you are doing the work of five people). But that will come. And in the meantime, i will let myself off the hook, remind myself i’m human (as painful as that is to admit sometimes), that i can only do so much, and continue on.

Also remember that “balance” comes in waves – maybe you don’t have a day-to-day sense of balance right now, but you know that while work is crazy-busy right now, it calms down in a month and that’s the month you’re going to refocus on those things you can’t get to now. That is balance, too! TOTALLY COOL.

Oh hey look, that crazy pink and red holiday is coming up – Why don’t you take some time in honor of the day of love to show YOURSELF some love – spend some time getting intentional with yourself. Make a date with yourself (and don’t stand yourself up!) Or, at the very least, let yourself off the hook – find YOUR balance. And don’t let anyone tell you you’re doing it wrong. If you’re doing it the way you want to do it, rock on. Intention ftw.

Good luck. I’d love to hear how you do.

Google Hangouts: so much gold

Julie — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:25:49 +0000

In a Fast Company article yesterday about the soon-to-be social media domination of Google Plus, they note that a loan company uses Hangouts to “educate veterans about how to use their VA benefit to get a home loan over Hangouts.”

But here’s where it gets interesting… That same loan company

“also partners with a nonprofit to use Hangouts for “virtual walks”–using able-bodied citizens to visit locations and be the virtual eyes and ears for disabled vets over Hangouts.”

Brilliant.

So – people of the public service sector, community management teams, and folks who want to do good and awesome things in the world – are you using Google Hangouts?

What magic can you create with the device you already have in your pocket/bag, a little bit of love, and some awesomeness?

Virtual reference desks via hangout? On-Air programs (Storytimes?)? Hosted events? Author talks?

Make it happen, team. Make it happen. There’s so much awesome stuff here. For libraries, this is a no-brainer extension of your physical brand and virtual “place.”

If I ran a library…

Julie — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:55:20 +0000

If i ran a library I wouldn’t have ILL.

Calm down, kids, hear me out.

I walked past our ILL department the other day and one of our awesome ILL staff was asking a customer, “was it an ILL or a direct loan?”

For us, a “direct loan” is where you can have an item brought from one library to another for pickup.

The customer doesn’t know where a book is coming from, only that they want an item and they want you to provide it.

Hidden procedures.

Your customers don’t need to know the ins and outs of the backside of things. They ask for a book, just produce it, as if by magic.

(See: The Best Customer Service Experience, Ever.)

Transparency.

Of course we still want people to know exactly how awesome we are and how we work with others, so the book tag should say:

“This book is being loaned to you from LIBRARYA through the LIBRARYB because sharing is awesome. Please return this book to LIBRARYB by [due date].”

Note that the tag for the customer doesn’t have all the crazy library jargon business on it – NO NEED! Improve the experience for the customer, focus on their needs, NOT yours.

In short: Move the Question, Not the Customer. Make it happen as if by magic and don’t bog them down in your process. Just make it happen. Awesomely.

on building relationships

Julie — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:24:07 +0000

I received a bill in the mail last week; an early termination fee for something I had not terminated early. I made a phone call tonight to the company and surprisingly, a familiar voice was waiting for me when I was done rocking out to the hold music. But why was the voice familiar?

I explained my situation and was put on hold while my rep looked into the situation.

When he came back on the phone with my answer (error, I don’t need to pay anything, sorry about that) he also told me that he’s helped me every time I’ve called since September 2011. By the tone of his voice I think he was as amused by the coincidence as I was. Clearly this wasn’t company policy (how could it be, i dialed a general number!) I should have asked how many people work there, but seriously, what are the odds?

So this got me thinking – How much more valuable would a company be to me if I was assigned a specific rep that I would deal with throughout my whole experience with that company? (Short answer? A LOT more valuable.)

I felt confident that he could help because he sounded familiar. In other areas of life and business, familiarity usually helps my confidence in a company or service. I know that my financial guy is going to take good care of me because we’ve built a rapport, I know my questions will get answered, and we know how the other one works. My loyalty is also given more freely to businesses where I am not just a number because the people I deal with aren’t just numbers.

Imagine, if you will, what your opinion of, or experience with Verizon (or Comcast, etc) would be if you had a specific person assigned to your “case” – your business, your relationship for the time you were with that company?

You’d have reps who knew your case, understood the nuances of your issue(s), and had a more vested interest in getting things right. Alternatively, I would feel less stressed, annoyed, and less like I was wasting my money when I am passed around to different reps, never to speak to the same one twice, some even giving differing information.

Now, when we talk libraries – this is easy when you are at a local branch, say, and you see the same folks working when you go in. But what kind of member loyalty things do you experience? Does the librarian say, “hey, how’d your project go?” or do they treat you like they’ve never seen you before? (Are they trained to try to remember their customers and make a personal connection? What kinds of other customer loyalty things do they do, if anything?)

With virtual services this is a whole other ball of wax. We have repeat customers, sure – and some come in multiple times in the same hour so the same librarians help them – but there’s really no option for relationship building. Even fake relationship building – our software doesn’t show you the questions previously asked by that customer (if they’re not anonymous) so you can’t pretend like you’ve seen this customer before (“I see that you asked about a paper last week – did you get your grade back yet?”).

It is super important to build relationships with your customers. I, for one, would LOVE IT if I knew that every time I had to call Verizon for billing I could talk to Jen (names made up), or if I needed tech support I’d call Rick. I’d know that I wouldn’t have to explain my situation over and over again (sometimes multiple times to multiple people on the same call) and that they’d pay attention to the notes in my file and remember they had spoken with me before, “Hi Julie! Let’s see if we can fix this for you.”

Another benefit (in the long run) is that if your assigned rep sucked or you had a bad rapport with them, in theory, you’d request a new rep. This would make it VERY EASY for a company to weed out the worst of their folks and make sure that all their reps were providing phenomenal service. Sure, takes some time, requires good hiring and good training, but I think in the long run, we’d all benefit. (And it might go a long way in fixing some seriously damaged corporate customer service images. I’m looking at you, Verizon and Comcast.)

Now, at this rate, I’d be amused but not surprised if when I call this particular company again at renewal time that I get the same rep I’ve been getting since Sept 2011, but if I did, I know I’d get quality service and a good laugh or two.

So… relationship building and “assigned” reps – what’s your take?