And So a Project Begins

I sincerely wish I could describe this tagging project in a manner that makes sense, but I suppose it wouldn't make for good blog fodder if it made all that much sense.  Or at least, it would be a far different kind of blog fodder.  So this journey must embark with the original intent and action of my library.  Here goes.

To begin with, the tagging project was slated to begin just prior to construction beginning in the lobby.  Renovations included more self-checkout machines that would use this new technology.  As such, we had to have all the books in the million+ item collection tagged before we could go live.  Tagging began in late March, early April and march along at a slow, but surprisingly brisk pace.  Construction was supposed to begin in early June and finish by late July.  Not major renovations, but a full two months worth.  Tagging was expected to finish around mid to late July so that everything would fall nicely into place at the same time.

As construction usually goes, it failed to go according to plan.  For reasons unknown to me, we did absolutely nothing to begin construction until last week, the second to last week of July, only to discover that the wiring in the wall to which the new self-checkout machine would be affixed did not have sufficient cabling to provide the necessary power.  To add insult to injury, the wall isn't even a supporting wall!  One would think this would have been discovered in the initial planning so as best to make use of the already limited space.  One would think many things.

No worries!  We aren't finished tagging anyhow.  And I must say, it by no fault of those hired to tag books.  We have done our darndest to get those stickers stuck and staying, but many books were checked out when we made out wide sweeps to tag large swathes of the collection at a time.  Those untagged are collected as they are returned to be matched with the tags left over from our first sweep.

Now, this is not actually the most inefficient way to go about things.  What with the library being a continually functioning entity, it is necessary that some lag occur.  What is not necessary is for the project manager to not realize before matching commences that she and one other person cannot do the whole thing on their own.  Since I pointed out that I could tag while checking books in (too some extent, as we tagged more, it got more complicated), we have had at least eight people whose primary job was to match books.  In addition to the original two.

But!  To match, the tags must be organized.  And that does not simply happen on the good faith of those tagging.  Since we were often spread out, multiple sections would come back at once and it would be the job of two to five additional pages to organize the incoming tags so that the matchers could actually do their job.  Knowing this is required did not stop people from poorly labeling the tiny bags we were given, or simply mislabeling or not labeling at all as it suited.  

From the ground up, matching was more difficult than necessary.  Not until at least three to five weeks in did anyone take the initiative to start writing nasty notes in an effort to get people to label consistently.  To no avail.  Or minimal at best.

Regardless, organization began to emerge and matching pushed on and we developed new ways to match and use slightly fewer carts stolen from the circulation pool, though we still fight for them graspingly everyday.  

At one point 200 tags went missing.  For two weeks no one had any idea where they were, so we wrote new tags for those books only to find the bundle of them.  Down the drain went an extra $46 at least right there.

Months later, we have settled into a system of organization and matching that at least passably limps along.  We're getting by, but certainly not deserving of any organizational awards.

New Again!

As a circulation page, particularly as a runner*, I hear all sorts of chat around the library.  The name is a fairly accurate reflection of the fact that I cover most of the library over the course of a shift, though I do my fair share of sitting as well.  Yesterday I learned a new tidbit about the new technology project that has become very much the opposite of near and dear to me.  But, perhaps I should start at the beginning.

Everyone is familiar with the standard checkout system just about every library in the country has, or has used until recently.  Take your book from the shelves, take them to the Circulation Desk or Self-Checkout machine, scan the barcode, magnetically desensitize the book, and be on your way.  This is a magical security system as VERY FEW people actually know what the security device in the book looks like.

Here they are!  We hide them in the spines, most of the time.
Please don't use this info to go ripping through library books...

They are cut to size, obviously, and snuggled in differently for paperbacks, but that's the general idea.  Unless you want a mangled book, it's hard to desensitize the book or remove the magnetic strip yourself and still sneak out of the library without arousing suspicion.  That being said, it is a more time consuming processes, humans have to manually re-sensitive the books every time they come back in, but it is quite secure, save for when people just don't return the books.  "Lost" books are generally books we have given up trying to get back from a patron, so we send the fines to a collection agency who then hunts them down for us.  Yes, WE WILL GET YOUR MONEY.  We're poor, seriously, we need it.

Well, despite this tried and true security system with the only major flaw of being a bit time consuming having provided quite well for, let's see, at least twenty, thirty years, perhaps longer, my library has decided it's time to move into the big leagues!  We're going to use these things!

Each one of these is a sticker to be affixed to the back cover of a book.
It takes three seconds to place, guess how long to remove?

Yup!  Stickers!  But wait!  They're FANCY stickers!  Oh yes, these stickers come at an individual cost of 10-26 cents PER STICKER!  Because they have been imbued with MAGIC!  Also known as being sensitive to radio frequencies that allow the information embedded in the tag to be read without contact to the actual reader.

I will grant you, yes, it is a nice idea to have the barcode and security scanned at the same time.  That does cut down on time.  Yes, it is nice to not have to open a book to scan it.  Yes, if all the things that my library wants this new technology to do happen, it will be excellent.  But, at every turn I encounter more ridiculous frustration and misunderstanding about why this new system, when it goes live, is going to be a foul disaster that they just aren't anticipating.



I am seeing a lot of text here.  It's making me self conscious.  Here, have a puppy.  I'll expand on this project another time.

Way too adorable...  

*The Runner, at least at my library, is responsible for carrying the stupidest looking phone I have encountered lately while executing any number of tasks.  The phone's purpose is to make the runner immediately available should someone need a cart, more AV to check in, or some question answered.  Unfortunately, the phone generally doesn't work, or when it does, I have no carts to give or AV to be checked in, making the whole exercise a bit protracted and silly.

Besides that, I empty the book drop, so I take all the books that have been hastily shoved into the small slot in the wall out of the bin they fall into and organize them by floor onto an insufficient number of carts in an oven of a closet at the front of the library.  Humid days are particularly uncomfortable.  My organization is generally undone by the runners later in the day, leaving me with a mess of a cart to check in the next morning, since it doesn't take me four hours to empty book drop.  In between checks, I check in books in the basement, after dragging all the carts across the lobby, through a too narrow door, into a hasty elevator, back across a basement and around two corners only to put them into an Out going lane to be dragged back to somewhere near where they came from.  (Talk about efficiency, eh?)

The Road Goes Ever On

Well, I am in for a ride.


As of March of this year, I've been working at the main branch of a public library.  By the time I started getting paid to show up all the time, I'd made friends with quite a few of the librarians and wrestled through what I would consider a good chunk of the collection, considering I am a social young person living in a surprisingly affordable urban city.

That being said, I don't get paid much and I only work part-time.  Regardless, the four hours a day on various shifts and extra hours on a technology implementation project have given me a surprisingly good inside view of the benefits, challenges, and excitements of working in a library.

I'm heading off to graduate school in about a month to mingle with other librarian hopefuls and it will certainly be a fascinating spectrum of insight.  I came to the decision to pursue my MLS independent of the arguments of current librarians but have since listened to their stories of experiences of frustrations and exultations.  I have witnessed the floundering attempts of my library to implement new technologies and marveled at the surprising redundancies that employees who have been here a long time accept as part and parcel of the job.

I want to change that.  Yes, I want to host story times and short story competitions.  Teach computer skills classes and help kids with research projects.  But I also want to change the way that many libraries function.  Originally, libraries worked because the patrons were trustworthy and empowered to return the books they borrowed for the benefit of neighbors that they saw frequently.  Today libraries serve a transformed clientele and must anticipate their needs and actions accordingly.

Libraries are not money-making institutions.  But they don't have to be money-losing businesses.  

We'll see how I do on that score.  Long time out, but the journey has to begin somewhere.