Happenstance*

Serendipity happens!

It is common knowledge that serendipity refers to the unexpected, often pleasant happening. For example, you're looking for your car keys in the morning, and you discover a $20 bill in the pocket of a pair of pants that's gone through the washer. My favorite definition of serendipity came from a professor of communications at the University of Michigan whose name has escaped my memory. He said:

"Serendipity is looking for the needle in the haystack and finding the farmer's daughter".

So I'm applying for jobs yet again and remember sage advice about customizing one's CV and cover letter to the particulars of the advertised position.  Did it, and had success!

You can't just blanket the world with one view of yourself. Be like the apostle Paul--"All things to all people" (1 Cor 9:22, NIV; www.biblegateway.com). I would be remiss if I didn't reprint the whole passage so you can see the context, so:

"I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some".

He's not saying that we should sway at the mere mention of a breeze, but rather keep yourself open to different ways of communicating your message. You never know what might trigger that conversation, for you OR your audience.

Onward...

*Grover Washington Jr., All My Tomorrows, 1994.

Alfie* part III

I was a fool for thinking I could make a difference.

It's been nearly four years since I graduated Clarion. Since then:

January 2014-September 2014--Paraprofessional, Chester County Library System

September 2014-June 2015--Adjunct Principal Music Library Assistant, Rowan University--a huge step up, and arguably the best job I've had in my library career.

June 2015-October 2016--unemployed

October 2016-October 2017--Librarian I, Free Library of Philadelphia. I was scheduled to go to the Business Resource and Innovation Center (BRIC) but the HR powers that be decided to not let me do that and put me in a place that was as far removed from my career goals as could be--but admittedly with nice co-workers--and if I'd known that the FLP HR was going to pull the bait and switch on me, I might have said no to the offer, but at the time my disability status was in question, and if I turned down work, even work which I didn't like, I didn't know how that would affect my ability to continue to collect. To add to my aggravation, City and Union rules require anyone with a FLP position to establish residency within 12 months.  I told the family about this and met with nearly unanimous opposition.

Meanwhile, I see friends and colleagues advancing in their careers, morphing into new ones, sending their kids to colleges and taking vacations I can't even dream of affording.  It's wrong to be jealous but...

SIDEBAR: my good friend and classmate Leigh Anne Yacovelli 
was just let go from her job in Hatboro PA.  If you want a top-notch librarian and archivist, you couldn't do better. Leave a comment if you can help her out.

In happier news, welcome Turkmenistan! that's 67 countries heard from. Feel free to register complaints or plaudits, slap me if I whine too much, etc.


*Burt Bacharach and Hal David, 1967; covered by numerous artists.

Jersey Thursday*

So I've completed my Bibz order and my DVD order for August. Nothing to do, really, till September and the next Bibz order--just be my usual brilliant self on the reference desk.

UPDATE: Finished the September Bibz order too. Sheesh. Lotta thumb-twiddling gonna happen between now and October 16.

UPDATE: Finished revisions on Midwest Tape order, and will start receiving about two dozen Chinese titles after I get off of the desk. In an hour. Go, Clock!!!

*--Donovan Leitch, fairytale, 1965.

One more river to cross* : Slugging it out till 10/17

It's going to be a little dull around here for a few weeks. I'm about half-way through a new order for DVDs, and as usual for non-awards season, I have to dig hard to fill that $8200 order every other month.

I did have an interesting end to last Wednesday. Three reference questions in rapid succession.
(phone) What was the first circus to play the Philadelphia Spectrum in 1967?
(desk) Where do I get a referral for "Eyes for the Needy"?
(desk, ninety seconds to close) Can I get a copy of the life and casualty insurance exam textbook right now?

Never a dull moment.

Onward.

*Daniel Moore, One More River to Cross, Canned Heat, 1973.

Hurray for Hollywood*: Weeding in the Secret Garden, part xi

So I'm working on weeding the DVD collection, and I must say, it's a well-circulated, well-used collection. Very few items have a last circulation longer than three months, and most, especially in the feature film category, circulate at least monthly. One of the least popular is Lolita. I guess modern sensibilities look askance at stories like that. Do I discard? I did discard it.

I'm also making sure that each item is in its proper area. Again, thanks to our Library Assistants, most everything is, so I'm glad to move whatever isn't in the right place.  Tedious, repetitive work, but necessary to keep patrons happy.

Finally, I'd like to welcome readers from Cambodia (country #66 heard from), or should I say,

ស្វាគមន៍?

Onward...

*--

End Of The Line*: Weeding in the Secret Garden, part x

Just finished the Chinese collection.  More of the usual titles--50 Shades, Harry Potter, Grisham, Danielle Steele, and a lot of non-descript books with what seems to be the same pretty, young woman on the cover. Always straight, jet-black hair, high cheekbones, a positive, smiling face.

Final total 217 out, 552 in, 8 dropped out of system and need to be put back in. About a 39% rate for discard--not as bad as Italian, but not as good as Russian.

Two more cases of Vietnamese lit and I am DONE with weeding the World Language collection. I have a feeling that that last group is going to shrink, rapidly. Stay tuned.

Not to say that the collection doesn't need maintenance--a lot of the Chinese titles were classified as hardback when they were clearly trade paperback.  It would have bogged me down to have to change all those while weeding.

After I finish weeding I can check and discharge our new Arabic titles and make room for new Chinese titles coming our way.

Onward.

*--The Traveling Wilburys, 1987.

UPDATE: Finished the last Vietnamese item at about 2:30.  Made the suggestion to my supervisor that we should find a new home for the roughly 300 V-language items, 78% of which hadn't circulated in over five years.  She concurred and is looking for a new home for them.

Ditto for the Chinese items we weeded.  The Chinese titles circulate far better than Vietnamese, but there's so many of them, including some listed in SIRSI (Integrated Library System) as "Chinese book". SMH.

Final totals for weeding World Language:

French		348		314		47.4
German		188		125		39.9
Italian		109		146		57.2
Spanish		636		412		39.3
Russian		512		87		14.5
Chinese		552		217		28.2
Japanese		1		0		n/a*
Vietnamese		64		223		77.7
Grand totals		2410		1524		38.7
*stray Japanese title, had fallen out of system.

EPILOGUE: There's still some maintenance to do in this area. Way too many of the titles (especially Chinese) used the default AHARDBACK (adult hardback) classification when they're clearly Trade Paperbacks.  Estimate that there are hundreds of titles like this. 

Onward again...till next time.

Na Gorushke, Na Gore*: Weeding in the Secret Garden, pt. ix

So I started weeding the Russian collection this week.

Ужас!!!

(Oh, the horror!)

I tapped a few colleagues for help and acquired a nice list of Cyrillic to English alphabets, as well as common library terms. Also found several links to the LOC website.

Plodding forward.

UPDATE: I guess popular literature can be found in any language. In addition to the Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitzyn, I'm finding Russian-language copies of titles by John Grisham and James Patterson, as well as Forrest Gump, and--wait for it--Fifty Shades of Grey!

Also doing some re-organizing.  People see 891.7 and think it can go right next to 891.73 just because the author is the same. NOT. The nice thing is that some of our multi-volume collections are looking a bit more whole again. Doing my bit for the FLP.

Onward.

*--Traditional Russian folk song

UPDATE: Just weeded the Russian translation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  That will be sacrilege to some, but it was in poor condition, and had only circulated seven times in 21 years (and not since 2005)
UPDATE II: Just finished the Russian collection. 14.6% weeded out (82 out of 590 titles), mostly condition issues. Asian next, then adding the new Arabic titles.

Onward.