Inventory

Regardless of what library setting you were working, you will at some point, inevitably, have to check to make sure that what you had the last time you counted, is still what you have today.
This is that dreaded process called:

Inventory

Inventory has several levels.
First you have to determine how much of your collection will get counted at one time. This means choosing between doing a FULL INVENTORY and doing a CYCLE COUNT. Tips for Inventory counts has a lot of helpful suggestions to get you started, but the actual work is up to you.

Second you have to realize that the process of Inventory, no matter which type you choose, will be messy. The tidy books on your shelves will likely need to be moved around. You WILL find books out of place and need to note them for statistics. There is also the possibility that books will have appeared on your shelves that you did not put there. Uncatalogued in your system, refugees from other libraries, subtle donations by your patrons, or perhaps randomly materialized from the ether of L-space, they will need to be dealt with. You will find books that are damaged, books that are faded, books that are on shelves they do not belong on, and books that you thought lost years ago.
Thankfully there are books to help with these issues. Making a Collection Count: A Holistic Approach to Library Collection Management is one, but there are many others.

Third you have to work at it. Inventory counts, full or cycle, don't just happen. They take planning and effort. Sheets, like the one displayed here can be found on sites like Inventory Templates and are a big help in planning and executing a pain-free inventory.

Cheer up!

Inventory isn't the end of the world!

You'll find that once your count is finished you'll be able to handle whatever comes with renewed confidence. And your library will glow with the polish of well loved and happily tidied books, attracting Patron and Management support as never before!

Reader's Advisory: Who Wants What?

Visitors to the library may arrive knowing, more or less, what they want to read but not exactly where to find it. For example: a curious individual may be interested in discovering how and why murders happen. This may seem like a straight-forward question for the 'Psychiatry' shelves except that he or she is headed for 'Fiction' instead. A few simple questions may lead to sending them to 'Psychological Profiles' and similar studies or over to Agatha Christie.

What do you ask? If you have already established the requirement of murder, how and why, then you still need to know where to find literature that satisfies.

Well, try: 'What kind of book do you want?'

This might be answered with 'Don't know', a reply that requires more digging.

A better question might be: 'What do you want from the book?'

Options such as 'Entertainment' leads to fiction while 'Education' leads to non-fiction.

Once you have established where in the library to look, you still have to narrow the field.

Open-ended questions such as 'Do you have a preferred time (year/date/era) in mind?' or 'What kind of murders are you interested in?' tell you if it's 'Victorian Jack-the-Ripper analyzed' or 'Ghost Detective series' that fill the need.

Closed questions such as 'Is this what you needed?' will tell you if you are headed in the right direction.

Be polite and keep trying until you succeed. A happy visitor is one that will come back again and again.

Why good readers advisory matters is a lovely site that explains in detail what kind of questions are effective, helpful, legal and kind. The writer speaks from personal experience with humor and compassion. There are links to other advisory lists as well.

Readers advisor online is another helpful site that, while not so focused on the questions to ask side of things, does cover the theory behind areas to ask about in depth. Put out by Libraries Unlimited, this site is a good one for reference and training.

Events and Displays

 When planning Events you must consider what kind of Displays will enhance them.
This is a picture of a display I put together for an event at the Galt Museum and Archive for an event focused on the history of sports in the Lethbridge area.
Events at the Galt is a quick link to see what events are upcoming at that institution and thus determine if you are interested in attending them.

Displays for events need to be tidy and well presented, but they also may need to be made of items that can be handled by the attendees. Books that can be opened and read, reproductions of pictures that can be picked up and passed around, properly packaged or protected items that can be examined without needing to worry about damage. That way the people who come to the event can literally 'get a feel' for the history, or topic, without making you cringe as your collection is ruined by curious fingers.

Libraries of all types have events. The points they have in common are:

Advertising. You have to let people know there is an event happening. This doesn't have to be expensive, it could be no more than an announcement on your library's web page or poster hanging in the main hall, but you do have to let people know what-when-where for any event you host.

 

Crowds. People attending the event are one way to determine if you actually reached anyone with your advertising. Besides, it's pointless and boring to try to host an event where you are the only person there... not much clean-up, but no fun either.




Chairs. People will need somewhere to sit. Regardless of what your event is about, whether you are showing a movie or publicizing a new book, there will need to be chairs for the weary at the very least. Lots of chairs if you are showing a movie, rather less if your guests are going to stand or walk around a lot.

Tables. The displays will occupy table space. If there will be refreshments you need tables for that as well. Regardless of the event, some tables will be needed. Tables come in many shapes and sizes. There are nesting tables, like the ones shown here, and many others. Each type of table has its own specific uses. End-tables are small and intended to hold displays or single trays of food. Banquet tables are large and intended to seat dozens of people at one time. Choose your tables to suit your event and you will find everything flows more smoothly.

Room. Indoors or out, no event takes place in no-space-at-all. You will need a three-dimensional-space large enough to hold all the chairs, all the tables, and the expected crowd without being too full for people to move and breathe.

Otherwise your guests will miss the point of the event in the crush. They will either be unable to attend because the room is full, or succumb to the pressure and faint. Medical emergencies put a real damper on any event... avoid them.

Displays, on the other hand, vary by event and are limited by two things - your imagination and your budget.

Some ideas can be found on Window Display Tips and Tabletop Display Tips. Although these are aimed at retail, these are applicable in library settings.

Have fun. Be imaginative. It will be work, but very much worth it.

Cataloguing and Archiving: The same, yet different.

Cataloguing is the process of taking note of the defining characteristics of a book, piece of music, sound recording, or other stored information source ('stored' as in captured in some medium or other and capable of being retrieved at a later date) so that it can be shelved securely and RETRIEVED at a future point in time with minimum extra effort.

In Libraries this process is focused on books, sound recordings, movies, and digital files with the intent of making them easily searchable - by staff and patron alike - and retrievable for the use and enjoyment of those who want them.
This is accomplished using information that the publisher, manufacturer, Recording Artist, or other bodies involved in making the item have already placed on it. Useful things like copyright numbers, ISBN and their equivalents are what make this type of cataloguing possible. No matter how confusing RDA and AACR2 sound, they depend on the item being at least partially catalogued before it gets to the library. Library of Congress, Dewey, private company cataloguing setups, they all depend on that too.


Archiving does not.

When materials arrive in the archives they rarely come with clearly defined titles or even clearly defined authors. Sometimes they don't even arrive with clearly defined material types. A donation to the Archive (any archive) may arrive with post-it notes, till-tapes, sales slips, hand-written letters, random scribbles, photographs (that may-or-may-not have the names of what is shown in them noted), slides, film reels, video tapes, audio cassettes, long (or short) play records, train tickets, undeveloped film, negatives, handkerchiefs, maps, fake flowers, pressed real flowers, etc... all jumbled up in a box or set of boxes that are shoved into the Archivist's arms with a "Thanks for taking this, I hope it finds a good home here" from the donor.
Then the fun begins.
The Archive, like any library, has a set of standards for the materials that it contains. This policy defines what is and is not going to remain on the shelves.
As an example, the archive may have a defined region that it covers. This region may be as small as a single company or as large as an entire country, but the defining region dictates that the donated materials must be sorted and anything that falls outside those boundaries be returned to the donor or disposed of properly.
If the policy defines the age of materials, then a donation may be too old or too new to remain.
The policy may even define types of materials that the archive will accept. Music perhaps, in sheet or recording. Photographs, as either print or negatives. Text, as either typed or hand-written.

Two-dimensional materials only, or three, or none because it's archiving only digital forms.
Whatever the policy reads, the donation still needs to be sorted. Often there is no instantly apparent link between materials - this link must be determined by the archivist doing the sorting.

This link is referred to as a "FONDS". In modern archival practice, the fonds is generally the highest level of arrangement, and is usually used to describe the whole of the archives of an organization or the papers of an individual. It may be divided into sub-fonds, generally the records of different branches of an organization or major themes within the papers of an individual. The sub-fonds will, in turn, contain files and sub-files that divide down to the individual photo or letter level. This range of division is dependent on the archivist's need for to search the files later.


Interestingly enough all this work really means that in the end the materials are filed in much the same way in both library types. 
It would not be inaccurate to compare a FONDS to a subject type, with sub-fonds being books in that subject and the files inside them as chapters in the books. All arranged by the archivist instead of the author and identified by the archive instead of the publisher and finally catalogued by the archivist as Librarian.
The result is that the archives can be searched and used like any library, there's just a LOT more work by the archive involved in accomplishing this.



Kudos to the Archivist! The most hands-on of all Librarians!

 The Library and the Family

Believe it or not, there is something for every age at the library.

At Calgary Public Library there's even a page that allows you to choose which ones interest you. Events and Programs at CPL is divided into dates, locations, audience, and program types so even if you don't know what you are looking for, you still might find something worth trying out.


There are book clubs if you want to discuss what you read, classes on subjects ranging from business to job applications to English lessons, and readings by published authors.
And that's just for the Adults!

 


Teens have programs especially for them too. Book clubs, writing seminars, employment skills, and more. CPL knows that Teen is hard. They want to help.

School age children have programs designed for their special skills set. There are classes on juggling and making toys. Homework help and math tips. Savings and Science. Come and learn at the Library.


Babies and parents looking for a way to spend a few hours out of the house can come to the Library for a break. Baby Bookworm, Baby Rhyme Time, Drop-in Family Story-time and many more are openings in the day when library staff and community families can get together for laughter and support. If you're at the end of your rope, try it. it's fun.

 

And seniors have a special place as well. The 50+ Lecture series is an ongoing program that rotates through the branches talking about things that concern Seniors. It's not the only program geared for Seniors, but the others are one-time things where this is not.

So, come and participate! The library staff will be happy to see you!



Other libraries have similar offerings.

 Vancouver Island Regional Library Events and Programs are also searchable by audience, branch, and date.
Taber Public Library Events and Programs are good to browse.
Lethbridge Public Library Home Page lists their events in a calendar that's easy to view.
Dallas Public Library Events and Programs is organized with the types of events at the top of the page.

Enjoy.

What to Read? Writers and Library Events

Having a guest speaker in is a great excuse to bring the community together at the local branch of the library. No matter what genre the speaking writers have written, if the library already have copies, there will be a run on their books. This looks great in the report on Circulation Statistics for your library. (And my help you wring a few more dollars out of the Budgeting Committee for next year's event planning.)
That said, it's not all cake and flowers.
There's a lot that goes into planning an event of this type.
First Question: Do you have the MONEY? Events aren't cheap.
Some authors will come and talk for 'free' [read: shameless self-promotion] but most have to be paid. For most, it's a pittance compared to a regular salary but enough to justify their time away from their word processors. For others, their required fee may prohibit you even asking. Another consideration: You may want your favorite author to visit, but what if he's dead? Who will you ask?

Then there's the refreshments. A library doesn't have a kitchen big enough to feed more than the staff and municipal regulations (and federal law) dictates that anyone making food for public consumption must pass the health inspections on their kitchens. Libraries don't have that kind of documentation and don't want it - they aren't in the restaurant business. That means you will have to cater the event if you want food there. Catering costs.

Next item requiring funds is decorations. What kind? Pictures in the windows? Streamers from the ceiling? Displays for the guest speaker's books? Whatever you choose to use to dress up your facility for the event, it will cost. And once the event is over, do you store the decorations for another event? Are they re-usable?
After you think that through there's the issue of promotional advertising costs. One-time event or is this going to be a regular thing where the names of the authors change but not the timing or day of the week/month? Which leads to asking whatever other things might be desired to promote your library.
 I'm sure you get the picture.

Don't despair!

There is help for this!

American Library Association Event Planning lists money in third place after Strategies and Timetable as does Library Support Event Tips. The School of Library and Information Studies Event Planning Course is available for $125... for those who think they need the education to face this with confidence. Event Planner Resource Library is another place to look for instructions and coping plans.  

I brought up the money issue first because all the Strategies in the Universe won't get your event off the ground if you have no way to pay for it, and knowing how much you have to spend will determine which strategies you choose when you do go ahead with this kind of thing.
Shoestring strategies are VERY DIFFERENT from money-is-no-problem strategies.
They may both turn out to bring in equal amounts of patrons, so what's the best bang-for-your-buck?

That's up to YOU. 

Have fun with it.

Records, Reports, and Repercussions

Libraries are filled with records - that is, after all, what books, journals, newspapers, and e-files in all their varying types are. However Libraries also generate records.

Financial records - the library budget, budget receipts, building maintenance costs, as well as employee pay records.
Facility records - repairs, upgrades, tools, outsourced maintenance (for example: landscaping or snow removal contracts), and floor plan.
Meeting records - committees and board membership, municipal or provincial oversight, even the meetings of the librarians to discuss programs and other such planning.

These records have nothing to do with MARC or Cataloging Materials. They have to do with running a business. That the business of Libraries is non-profit and solely concerned with bettering their community is irrelevant. The Library generates many of the same type of records as any other business.
Toronto Public Library Record Management Policy is a clearly written example of the type of policy needed to deal with this fact of Library life. A somewhat longer version is the UBC Library Records Management Policy which deals with the records of the entire University as well as donations. It's a much longer document but has a lot of practical advice in it.

Reports are a fact of life. The rational for reports is that they are used to reduce large amounts of data to their most basic and using that to render judgement. As may become obvious very soon (if it isn't already) the biggest question is not 'what to put in' the report, it's 'what NOT to put in' the report. If all the relevant information was put into every report, the text would take as long, or longer, to read as the events being reported on took to happen. This is not a good thing. If you bore your audience they will ignore you - and you won't get the [funding, assistance, job, etc...] that you want for the work you put into the report in the first place.
There are many helps out there for generating reports.
Library Technology ILS Marketshare Migrations, American Libraries Magazine Systems Report, Library of Congress Collections Report and others show how it can be done and offer hints for how to do it yourself.

As a result it's important to keep good records so that you can write good (succinct!) reports which in turn will help you build your Library and Community.

Repercussions of not doing this... well, it makes life difficult. Then compounds the difficulty until the job becomes intolerable.

We can make the choices we want to. The repercussions - good and bad - are attached to those decisions and arrive whether we want them or not.