Work is usually work, and I rarely write about it in any social media anymore. However, the past week or so has had me working with some old materials. We're building or matching together bibliographical records for thousands of materials that have insufficient records, making them very hard to find in the catalog. Some of what I have to look for is pretty easy, others a moderate challenge, still others make me bang my head on the desk - in a good way of course. I do enjoy the work, the search process, the matching of records and organization.
This is what 1849 looks like.
A simple math primer. I get a weird charge working with items that were printed when Zachary Taylor was president. The materials I've been working on are very diverse, tax laws, midwifery, a treatise on infidelity that had the date of purchase inscribed, hand written by the owner of the book - a certain Mr. Orton, in 1853.
Then there was this, from 1869. I liked the cover.
There is a lot to go through, in many different languages. It makes me think about preservation and storage, a major issue in libraries that have depositories. What do we do with the stuff? Even in the digital age not everything is available online, nor can it be found at the Gutenberg Project or Google Books. Space is becoming tighter and tighter though. Decisions have to be made. May those wiser than me be making the correct ones.
To say it has been a relief working behind the scenes instead of the front lines is an understatement. Twenty five years of direct customer contact left me more than a bit shell shocked and defensive.
It's been a different experience, first sharing an interior, windowless room, with three diverse people, now in a bit more of an open space with occasional explosions of activity around me.
But when I turn right, there is light, a western exposure, a parking lot I'll happily look at every day instead of a circulation desk.
Spent six and a half years here, the longest I've ever worked anywhere to date.
Not going to recap it much. That all went into my live journal, probably a bit too much of it went there. The great difficulty of the last few years were scarily detailed, when I tried getting ahead in the system and his the glass ceiling repeatedly.
Saw so much theft and lying, and people getting away with it on a daily basis. Learned too late it's not what you do wrong there, but who you are doing it. The place was crazy. A corporate culture of fear became predominant, and that came from management. A lot of people with serious problems would come in, and expect us to heal their woes. Many of the librarians were more like social workers who were skilled in calming down people who acted out continually.
I think this little rant summed up this experience best of all. We got this memo from the boss.
"Hi Staff,
I want your quick feedback on this...What is [workplace's] personality? What does it feel like? What does it look like? How would you describe it?
Please have your feedback to me..."
Naturally, being the obedient drone, I responded
"[workplace] is like the cool college professor you had. The one who would encourage open discussion on many topics without bias, but kept the conversation flowing and made the class safe and interesting. Everyone wanted to attend his classes. There were waiting lists every semester.
Until, seemingly overnight, the professor changed. Discussion was no longer encouraged. Busy work was assigned during class time that took away from the now infrequent open discussion of topics and ideas. Dissent of any kind was frowned upon. Class attendance dropped. Grades were now given by taking tests on opscan sheets instead of creative essays. Then, one semester, the professor disappeared, and no one knew where he went."
And I wondered why I never got that promotion, nor a reply.
The last straw was when HR spelled my name wrong on the memo they sent that told me I was not even going to be considered for an interview for a specific position.
Getting on the escape committee was hard though. In the end, it was a relief. I no longer wanted to be there. I'm sure my attitude was not great. It was best for everyone: myself, my coworkers and the customers. I rarely go in there anymore. The last few times there were people screaming at each other in the parking lot. A child was raped in the bathroom. Another kid was followed out of the building then robbed of his laptop at the nearby bus stop. It's not a safe place. I worry about the people who continue to work there.
On Tuesday afternoon a 10 year old boy was sexually assaulted in the mens room of the library where I used to work. I still go here several times a week to do my library business.
I hope the young man recovers from this horrific crime and gets the treatment he deserves.
When I stopped by yesterday to pick up my stuff, all three of the local news trucks were there, and had filmed or were about to film for their evening newscasts. Attention the library does not need. Last week a teenager was followed out of the library then beaten and robbed as he waited for a bus a couple of hundred yards from the branch.
When I worked there, I was always worried about a crime happening that was more violent, and not hidden in a bathroom stall. A lot of people acted out in public areas back then, and may still do.
The staff I spoke to understandably had a rough day, and I am sorry they had to go through this. Obviously it is not something you want to happen. This hits close to home for me, being the parent of an eight year old. But it's not something the library staff are trained to fix, or even prevent. How can you stop a monster?
The progress bar is still as the Disk Warrior does its thing. It has not moved for about thirty six hours now. The number of broken files increases while the likelihood of replacing the hard drive by this weekend goes up. Accepting losing three plus years of work is not easy.
Off to a culture shaping retreat for work today and tomorrow. It's not something I'm being cynical about attending. I'm just anxious as being around a group of strangers and discussing anything with them face to face scares the crap out of me. I do not think we'll end up holding hands and singing Kumbaya or getting Block O tattoos on our biceps, but I'm optimistic for positive results.
As a bitter and disgruntled ex-employee, I grumble when I see a lawn sign, billboard or see other propaganda regarding Issue 4. Let me state here that I am not against it in the least. In fact I will be voting for it, and if you live in Columbus, you should too. If you want reasons, ask me and I'll go off as to why. If you want me to put a sign on my lawn or change my Facebook profile picture go elsewhere. I'm putting as much effort into their campaign as their efforts into my career advancement when I worked there. Yes, there are issues.
My son's IEP meeting is next week. Having a special needs kid is hard when it comes to educational expectations. At this point, limited conversation is seen as a big step. Pooping in the toilet would be nice. Slowly, he's beginning to sleep thought the night regularly - that is massive progress.
Got to love the Wexner Center. Last night they brought in Joe Dante to introduce Matinee. It's a fun movie that was very overlooked about Sci-Fi movies of the fifties and the Cuban Missile Crisis. And Mant, the film within the film about a half man - half ant, was much funnier than I remember. Dante was very gracious and had some important things to say about the state of horror films and today's film in general. He spoke like Scorcese's calmer cousin. Very entertaining.
One of my poems is included in the Language of the Art exhibit now on display at the main branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Poets were assigned works of art from local photographers and artists and asked to write an ekphratic poem.
I received a photograph called Bloodless Beasts and wrote this poem about it.
It was very cool to meet the photographer, Ed Elberfeld, to discuss the photograph and poem.
We hit it off very well. My assessment of what the picture was of matched where he had taken it. I worried about that. Soon, I'm going to send him one of my poems and he's going to send me an image. I like this type of collaborative effort and find it odd that I have not explored this in my own work.
The reading that coincided with the exhibit was wonderful. Many of the poets read their work and got to meet the artists involved.
Kudos to the German Village Art League, Scott Woods and all the collaborators for this exhibit, which runs through October 22nd.
After an exhausting effort that took no less than two mobile phone companies and being unable to activate a phone online to having it take an hour to do in an actual store with an actual person helping - we now have a cell phone.
My lovely wife is currently painting the dining room. I'm proud of her.
When is this country, as a whole, going to have the resolve to heal itself after 9/11/01? Yes, I understand it was a horrible day and the lives of many were changed, forever. I'm wondering if the victims would like it if we had their memories battered over our heads. Thing is, it's not just on the anniversary, but the other 364 days too. How can anyone move forward from that?
I'm starting to resent being told I have to be patriotic today (of all days) and being reminded to "never forget."
How can anyone forget?
I love the stories, the memories. We all have them to share and I honor those.
Anyway, here's a picture of the kid with his hair cut.
Been quite the week. Weirdness with cell phones, and other store transactions that went awry, being snubbed by someone you have not seen in thirteen years. I said hello, was definitely seen but walked right by, to forgetting to bring my son's swim trunks to his lesson this morning. It's said that Mercury is in retrograde. How does that explain my coming in third at the Upper Arlington slam or Everton scoring two goals in extra time to tie Manchester United?
What I remember more than the sangria we drank was the arm wrestling. It got very Hemingway during the first Sangria Throw Down, and the competition was not what you would ordinarily think.
I'm not going to reveal the result, but the match went on so long, it wore out my batteries.
After the throw down, it was time to head up the avenue to the Gala opening of the Thompson Library. The special collections gallery was open, and while my Scottish Wife was introducing herself to old people, I was looking for the Nina in the Hirshfeld drawing.
We headed up to the 11th floor, which has been lovingly turned into a beautiful reading area with a fabulous view of campus.
We walked around a bit more and mingled. I found the former Library Director and said that his daughters were at the Sangria Throw Down. Ok, I did not say that, but they were there.
It was a hectic but fun Saturday, and I did not realize my favorite sangria had a bottle of cognac it it. No wonder it made me feel so shadowy.
My wife has been painting the kitchen this weekend. All I've had to do is move a few appliances. It looks great, but not as great as she did at the place that had some nasty burnt coffee.
Did my civic duty and went to vote today. The city is having a special election to raise the tax from 2% to 2.5%. It's a rather heated issue in a state that is, with the rest of the world, in a serious economic crisis.
That's not the subject though.
When I got to my polling station there was a young man working the machines for the county. He looked vaguely familiar.
"Long time no see." He said as I handed him the card telling me where to vote.
It was Kevin, one of my old volunteens from my days at the library. One of my duties was to supervise some teenagers who volunteered at the branch. They'd be assigned some small tasks, like clearing out the book drop or pulling reserves for customers off the shelves. Kevin was one of the more responsible volunteers. He took his role seriously, but, like any kid, you had to watch him.
He comes from a large family, and sometimes getting enough sleep or food was hard. One year he actually gave me a Christmas card. He was one of the positives I got from my six plus years of hell at CML, and I am very happy to see the young man grow up and serve his community in an important and often thankless job, and get paid a few bucks too.
Got to look around the Thompson Hall renovation this morning. There's still some work that needs to be done but it's a stunning renovation that may be a great example of what the 21st century academic library should be.
A worry I have is that people will not respect the building. A lot of money was spent to modernize the library. Obviously the students and patrons should feel more than welcome to use the facilities, but there are so many nooks and crannies - and so much to keep clean.
That said, I'm very proud to be a part of this library. While I'm not going to be working in it, there will be many opportunities to be a part of it. I was only in the old library a couple of times before it was fixed up and I never went upstairs in the stacks. The view from the tenth floor is rather stunning.
My favorite part of the building that I have seen is the Main Reading Room, which is pictured above. After that the floating staircase is very cool.
The building opens to the public on Monday. The official gala is later in August.
Today my former employer, the Columbus Metropolitan Library was forced to cut pay for its workers and reduce staff hours because of a loss in funding from the State of Ohio of over thirty percent. This move has directly impacted the lives of many of my friends, colleagues and enemies.
I worked there for six and a half years and that collage of my son was created over my desk. I hated tearing that collage down, but not as much as I came to hate working there. I may still have bitter feelings about working for CML but I am not happy with today's developments.
Thanks to a poor national economy, and an even more screwed up state economy that Ted Strickland inherited from Bob "Governor Doofus" Taft - who did his best to turn Ohio into Mississippi - the library board was given a crap sandwich to work with and, frankly, they did a better job than I thought at dealing with the budget cuts. Yet, it's very unsettling to read Facebook status updates that cheer five percent pay cuts and that people would not be losing their jobs. Yes, it's a relief, but a giant backslide that is not the fault of libraries. But is it time to be grateful that the messed up economy of this world has finally trickled down to you?
Celebrating losses of pay and services is a giant mistake. What are we going to do to prevent social lifelines and cultural enriching institutions from falling apart? Will we soon be thanking our maker that only thirty people got laid off instead of a hundred? This is not growth. This is a depression.
Are we going to continue heaving sighs of relief that things could always be worse when Ohio's libraries, which are consistently the highest rated in the country, are gutted? What's next? Food pantries? Health services? The park system? Police? Fire?
Keep breathing, when is that going to be taken away from us because of a lack of funding?
In better news on the home front the gas company has been overestimating my bill for some time. We were finally able to coordinate an actual reading last week and today's bill was a substantial credit. Might not have to pay them until November.
My birthday was yesterday. I am now the age of a certain number of revolutions per minute.
My friend Stephanie was recently profiled about her wonderful artwork, which we own four pieces of, including this one of my anatomy.
Got to take the boy to a local park where he used some of the play equipment appropriately!
Emma's been working hard on her garden, and if any more squirrels get into her seedlings again, there is going to be war. This has brought some long repressed feelings back to the surface. Back when I used to have bird feeders. I say used to because those &%^$ing squirrels ATE my bird feeders. It was not enough that they'd knock the seed to the ground. No, they had to eat the plastic or metal parts to sate their lazy appetites. So, yes, there is squirrel hate.
No hate at a lovely wedding we attended in Marysville today. Got there just in time to see the vows, here's how we looked in the heat.
In potentially bad news, Ohio's libraries are under siege. Horrible budget cuts are potentially losing government support. I wrote this and sent similar letters to my state representative and Governor Strickland
"I understand that economic times are tough and that difficult choices must be made but cutting 227 million dollars from libraries in Ohio is not the right decision to make.
Is forcing libraries to close if they do not have local support, or those with the privilege of having community backing through local tax levies to cut programs and services the answer? These days libraries are more than places you can check out a book. Libraries have become the backbone of a community, providing services to the poor and helping to bridge a huge technology gap that is happening in society by offering the extensive use of computers and other forms of technology so that citizens can educate and market themselves.
Senator Miller you have to know that your constituents rely heavily on the Hilltop Library to provide their educative and entertainment needs. Many people in your district are using the library to apply for jobs, learn how to build a resume or simply to set up an email account.
Denying Ohio's and your voters the use of their public libraries is not going to bring them up to speed with the challenges in today's economy. I would like you to vote against this budget cut and wish you well in providing an alternative to balancing the state budget."
Times are tough, and I think they're going to get worse because we're too cheap to save ourselves.
Tomorrow night I'm on the radio. Internet radio, talking poetry. Starts at six at www.talktainmentradio.com
