April Showers to May Flowers...Now its June

After several months of planning, it's finally over, my first conference as a real presenter. I have participated in conferences and "Days" in the form of poster sessions in nursing and library schools, but this was my first conference as a panelist. From the initial invitation, I admit, I was honored/flattered, but the amount of direction I received was rather limited so I was unsure quite how to prepare. I made lists and timelines, printed out "talking points" based upon the last-minute outline I was provided, and reviewed issues of Professional Development that might come up in my session. The two other panelists and I discussed all sorts of things but I'm not sure that my preparation mattered. The audience was terrific. It's all a blur, however. I've been invited to participate again next year as well as in something else. I guess I was successful. Next time I'll try to pay better attention.

A Return to the Blog

I noticed that the date on my previous post was March. What happened to April? We've been plowing through the retrospective RFID conversion project. Everyone has been in good spirits about it and I've been doing some hard labor. The short goal is finish Youth Services before school lets out for the summer. I think we are on track.

Mid-April I went to WDW to celebrate my birthday. Now officially I have to say, "I'm in my 40s, not just I'm 40." That's okay, the 40s are better. Disney was fun, as usual, and I had a birthday button. I'll be heading back up in a couple of weeks to stay at the Wilderness Lodge with a couple of friends in a room that has bunk beds. How fun is that?! I already called top bunk.

I always joke that I don't seem to attend meetings or training unless I'm presenting; on Friday I was a presenter on a panel at a library conference. This was an interesting experience for me because I have not been very involved in the local library network so this was the first time I met certain people in that organization. My co-panelists on Professional Development were the director of the regional library network appropriate to our area of the state and the dean of library services (or whatever the appropriate title is) of the local university. I believe I was invited to participate because of the blog I write to promote the library system's Professional Collection. In any event, I was in impressive company. Our audience was attentive. The session was very informal. I hope to receive a little feedback from the event organizer. My favorite part was that one of the attendees in my session was a woman who had written an article some years back in Reference Librarian that, going through back issues, I recently found very useful. I noticed that she was right in front of me so I stopped and commented on her article. She said it made her day. My next favorite part is that now the conference is over and I don't have to ruminate over it; I can go back to my other tasks.

Book Discussion

Yesterday I held my March adult book discussion at the library. The book was Eric Lerner's Pinkerton's Secret. My group really enjoys books in which real historical figures show up in the novel and this book did not disappoint. In fact, I pulled a biography of Pinkerton from the shelf to bring with me to the meeting and as I was flipping through it, I was amazed by how many of the photographs depicted actual scenes from the book. Pinkerton met everyone from his era. The fun thing about my loyal group of attendees is that they like maps and background information as much as I do. When we learned that Pinkerton probably had an affair with Kate Warne, the first female detective he ever hired, and she was buried next to him, the question that came up was who paid for her grave. In some book discussions how characters feel is the main topic. Not in mine. Kay said she would visit the cemetery next time she was in Chicago and Harry wanted her to check on who paid for Kate Warne's grave. Then he speculated it might be online. We got into a little, "you email them, no you" battle about. Finally, I told Harry that I bet he couldn't find out. He's a genealogist so finding out information from cemeteries is old hat for them. I just wanted to egg him on. Later in the evening I checked my work email from home and Harry had emailed me. He had already emailed the cemetery and received a response with supplemental links to online articles about Kate Warne. I can't wait until next month to tell the group. That's why my book discussion group is so nifty...The burial plot was Pinkerton's, by the way.

What Were They Thinking?

One of my tasks is technology instruction for the patrons and to that end, I have created a series of workshops designed to introduce patrons to computers, the Internet, and searching the Web. As I taught my series, helped patrons from the desk, and offered other bibliographic and technology instruction in different formats I realized that I needed to write a new workshop that was even more simple. I've been writing the Seriously Simple Computer Skills class to cover the basics. So I sat looking at my keyboard attempting to place myself in the place of the truly misplaced...there is no "Any" key, "dot" is the period key, "at" is above the 2, you get to the above things by holding down the Shift key...But yesterday I encountered something that was truly astounding and represents a decided lack of understanding about Web sites. Not only that, how is it possible that this person had never, ever, heard or seen this (what I will share in a moment) ever before? My patron had been sent to the library by his employer to retrieve his own W2 online. Typical. The Web site he had written down (that was told to him) that he could not access was:
http cohen //wwww.2express.com
Get it? http cohen...how about semi-cohen or cohenoscopy, does that help? Jeepers. Patrons say the darnedest things. My next workshop may have to be on an Etch-A-Sketch or Magna Doodle.

Shopping and Shopping

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. I've been shopping up a storm but I have not been running myself ragged. As many of you know, I love amazon.com, but I also love other Internet shopping. Mostly I love the hunt. I love finding an item at the best possible price. Many times the best possible price happens because of the tremendous buying power of amazon.com combined with no tax and free shipping. At other Internet sites, I always look for coupon codes before I closed the deal. The other day I helped a friend buy a video game for her husband. I directed her to an electronics site I like because amazon.com did not have any copies available. The store was listed as an amazon.com alternative seller, but by going directly, shipping was cheaper and they had a deal that by paying through Google Checkout you saved $5.00 (and no tax). Tonight I was shopping on the company site for a product and did a quick Internet search for a coupon code and found one that saved me 30% (again, no tax and they offered free shipping). I was really surprised when the coupon worked. Finding the perfect gift is great and not paying full retail is even better! Tonight is my last chance to order from amazon.com for receipt before Christmas so I better finalize my purchases. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

This Really Happened-Just now

Patron: The machine wouldn't let me...like, I couldn't...you know...get on
Me: Let me check your card. What PIN were you using?
Patron: So the other lady what was here...
Me: What PIN did you try?
Patron: That other lady said I could get on a computer.
Me: What PIN did you try to use?
Patron: PIN?
Me: What is your phone number?
Patron: So the thing is that my sister's number might be it.
Me: What is your name?
Patron: I have alot of phone numbers.
Patron: [states name that matches card]
Me: What is the phone number?
Patron: [states number that is not in the record]
Me: What is Your number, I'll update your record.
Patron: [gives me last 4 numbers only]
Me: What is the beginning of the number?
Patron: 239
Me: [I chuckle] "hi, you're nice what's your number?... and you say?" [patron finally gets it and gives me a normal number in the proper order]

WAS THAT SOOOOO DIFFICULT?

Let Me Bend Your Ear About Mine

Final update...on Thanksgiving eve day I went to the ENT for my most recent appointment. I had another hearing test consisting of word recognition and pure tones. I thought I might have some additional improvement over the last test. This time I had 100% word recognition at 15 decibels. We had been testing at 65 dB. In the pure tones test I was in normal range in all but the last three tones. On the third highest frequency I was right on the line. On the 2nd highest, I gained back 15 dB that I had lost and in the highest frequency, I have finally gained back 5 dB. Small victories. Even if I never improved from this moment, my high frequency loss would be manageable. I can use a phone and listen to music. The loss is still in the moderate to severe range for those frequencies but I have gained back the ranges that are spoken word and that is most important. Rush Limbaugh had to have an implant to correct his loss. My ENT decided not to do the second treatment of steroids into my ear. Too bad, that made my knee feel great! I did tons of research and discovered that patients with my condition have an associated increase risk of stroke (150% increase). I have some things to work on. I don't go back to the ENT and audiologist for a year. I hope you all had plenty to be thankful for last week. You know I did.