End of School and Decisions

Well, I head off to yet another place in search of work. Only now, I don’t really feel that jazzed about the process. I think it really is a combination of things.

I felt I have done okay in the job hunting process, but to be honest I feel that I have some gaps in job/work skills that become apparent when I am called to explain them.

I just really wish there were some kind of supervisory positions available somewhere.
You either start at the very bottom, or you are the director with today’s public library job market.

Add to this the fact that I have been steaming along full-steam for the past two years and feel I am in serious need of a break. Would like to fix up house, hang with family, do some reading (for pleasure!!!), and explore opportunities that I have put on hold since I started graduate school.

I can’t tell if I am afraid of the change, or if I just want to enjoy what I got for awhile. Either or, gotta pack up the family and hit the road for the next stop on the Royce Kitts Most Awesomest Librarian Tour.

 

Sweet "Fox on the Run"

 

Gaming in Chicago

Getting excited about the gaming conference in Chicago. Gonna try and go to this if I can.

 

learning stuff

I am always amazed how trusting I am of people. You think at some point I would have learned.
Whether some view me as direct, curt, or blunt,…I rarely stray from being completely honest with people.

At 37, I still enjoy the feeling of being a kid. It stinks when people force me to start acting like a grown up.

Hmmm…I guess that’s a big boo hoo.

Shake it off.

 

Colby, KS Library, post interview reflection

The Colby Library board is awesome. Sure, I am applying for a job there, but these people did a good job of turning a job interview into a job conversation.

We met across the street from the library in one of the local banks. Very nice, and we sat around drank coffee as they went over the basic behavioral questions.

I was as honest as possible. I made no claims to know something I didn’t know, rather I expressed my willingness to look for answers and solutions.

I felt it went well. They were very positive about what they were hoping for in a new person. Which was mainly that they wanted to get more of the middle school crowd actively involved in the library. They mentioned how they bought a new screen and projector for gaming, and there library currently has 103 gaming titles available for checkout.

And the new youth room they built in the basement of the building was awesome. Cafe tables and chairs, all kinds of comfy chairs, laptops, etc…..basically a dream room for a librarian, only in need of programming to bring it to life…..the ideas are already flowing.

I should find out about this job within about a week. Maybe by next monday. By that time I will have two other interviews under my belt.

I called Burlington again about the position they have open, and it looks like maybe a couple more weeks. That is definitely a job I am keeping my eyes on. It would be a nice way to enter administration at the system level.

But back to Colby, nice town, nice people, and a really nice library. I met some of the staff, and on the way home fantasized about how cool it would be to work there.

I heart choices.

 

putting yourself out there

Well, I had my first job interview over the phone. It was for a library director job. I am probably horribly under-qualified, but thought to try anyway.

Job interviews are so funny, and phone ones are just cosmic on the weird scale.

It was your typical “Work your way through these scenarios that rarely happens” questions.

Where do these questions come from? The runaway library board, the disgruntled coworker, policies you follow but don’t like, difficult patrons, smelly patrons….

To be honest, my library board is pretty cool. My library is pretty cool. I love working there.
They support gaming. We have had tourneys, and taken the wii to retirement communities. That is a lot by Kansas standards. Of course, they could have more, but that’s just me pushing the edges. They have all kinds of cool stuff. So working there hasn’t prepared me for some of the questions.

The questions about budgeting, I felt I answered okay. My main experiences with budgets are working with a vestry at church, home life, and paying attention at work. I am a reference librarian, other than getting money to help support a program, I don’t work with budgets. There is no way for me to do this. It is no ones fault, it is just that way.

The questions about policy I felt I nailed. No bragging, but I actually enjoy crafting policy. I have helped create a couple of them at my library, and yes they are official policy. I have taught two workshops on creating policy.

I had hoped I would have gotten some technology questions, but didn’t. That was kind of a red flag. I feel technology is pretty important to the sustainability of all libraries, from rural to academic, so that put me aback.

That was that, no time for me to ask questions back, or for there to be any dialog between me and the interview committee. It was ten questions, done one at a time.

I just wish I had questions like: How did you deal with the patron that always wants to talk to you about football? Why do you wave or say hello to every patron? How does it feel when a coworker asks you to help them out? Why do you let veterans tell old war stories? What does the term Third Place mean to you? 2.0?

Because the answers to those questions are why I enjoy being a librarian.

Oh well, sigh a couple of times. Figure out the answers to the questions I didn’t answer all that well. Get ready for the next one.

 

First Annual Gold Coin winners announced!

In honor of today being “Gaming @ Your Library” Day, I announce the first recipients of the coveted ‘Gold Coin’ award for the sponsorship of gaming in libraries.

Since this is the first year of the award, we will start with two “Gold Coin” award winners:

Eli Neiburger of the Ann Arbor District Library
(And I am hoping my library gets me “Gamers….in the library?!”)

Jenny Levine, the Shifted Librarian
(She could win based solely on her authorship of the Library Technology Reports that focused on gaming. I wore the first edition out. Well, I didn’t, but I did spill a sloppy joe on it.) But she ALSO speaks nationally on the topic and runs a pretty awesome blog. (theShiftedLibrarian)

It has to be these two, anybody else and it is a sham.

I personally want to thank both of them for providing me with the “tools, weapons, and extra clips” of knowledge I needed to get gaming going in my library.

Eli, has provided great blueprints for success on creating a gaming culture in a library, and Jenny continues to raise the level of discourse on the topic.

In the end, they both brought some fun and enjoyment into the Library.

Kudos to the both of you. You inspire me to be better.
You both get extra lives.

 

Gaming at the Kansas Library Conference!

Whew! The KLA conference is over and I am still recovering. All in all it was a pretty good time down in DuDa (apparently this is the nickname for Wichita.)

My first presentation of the conference was on gaming and boy was it fun. We had three giant screens set up, with stations for Guitar Hero, Wii Sports and Halo. With the help of pals like Diana Hyle and Eric Gustafson we were able to put on quite a little show.

The first thing I did was let everyone know we had handouts on gaming available. When those ran out I started handing out business cards with the address for the LibraryCampKS wiki page where my gaming handouts are currently stored. At first I was a little disappointed that some people got up and left when I mentioned that there was not going to be a presentation portion to the event. But then I realized that if you are not new to gaming, then you probably wanted a little bit more than what I offered. (We can’t all be Jenny Levine!)

Luckily for kids in Kansas, there were quite a few librarians interested in bringing gaming programs to libraries. Probably the most asked question was “What kind of system do I buy?”
My standard response was that you need to find out what kind of games you want to play first, and then find the system that will support as many of those games as possible.

In the end it was awesome.

I want to thank the following people and organizations who made this possible:

Jenny Levine, aka the Shifted Librarian, without her help and inspiration I would never had have the guts to bring this up at my library and then eventually present on our success at the KLA conference.

Ron Brown, the AV contractor for the conference. Through many emails we were able to coordinate getting most of the equipment set up. All I had to do was unpack the consoles and play.

The person at KLA who told Ron Brown to “give Royce whatever he wants.”

Diana Hyle and Eric Gustafson for being there to help answer questions and play.

And last but not least, the Manhattan Public Library for creating an environment for staff to create programs that speak to the needs of our patrons, and for allowing me to borrow some of the equipment needed for the games. MPL rules!

 

Ask Mr. Biggs!

Ah, the internets. Always something fun just around the corner. Where do you find this cool stuff? Well if you are like me, you count on the good people at BoingBoing.net to do the hard work for you. They seem to scratch that knowledge itch that I have. For some, probably not anything they would be into at all, and yes, even sometimes the Royce finds some of the schtuff gross! And it is for adults, and yeah it crosses the line from time to time, so don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

BUT!!!!!!

They introduced me to Ask Mr. Biggs! An Internet radio show that mixes in clips from other real radio shows. Its hard to describe, but once you hear it…..my god, its genius.

I would start with Show #0017 – Mr. Biggs simplifies Digital TV.

I am a big fan of comedy albums and this episode is pretty close to being in my top ten. It is that good.