Chalk notes as a valid communication format September 22, 2009
Posted by Jenica Rogers in I amuse myself, Libraries, Users.26 comments
Days like today provide one of the reasons I’ve always wanted to be a library director. I want to be part of the library’s outreach efforts, to direct them toward goals that make sense to me, and to have the chance to make meaningful connections with users. I didn’t expect that chance to come from sidewalk chalk, but I’ve been having fun, even so.
I came in Monday morning to see these messages all over our sidewalks. Every approach to Crumb Library had been tagged:
A very public complaint, and a very clear one. I don’t feel comfortable ignoring or responding privately to public complaints. So, later in the day, I replied:
While I was writing my replies, I was stopped by a few students. One said, “More chalk?” And I grinned, said, “The libraries’ response.” He was flabbergasted that we were replying to chalk notes. I said, “Hey, you want to talk to me in chalk, I’ll respond in chalk.”
Except I really responded with a poster.
The poster, as a .jpg on Flickr (click through for larger version):
So there it is. People have been complimenting me on the response all day. We’re working up a similar poster for the Crane Library to respond to concerns from the music school students. I was aiming for fast, transparent, and public, and I think I hit all three goals. I realize, as I type this, that I was also aiming for personable and approachable, and I hope I hit that one, too. I spent half an hour talking to people and soliciting opinions about approaches, and a few hours fiddling with a poster design… and maybe, just maybe, as a result of my decision to take those few hours last night to respond, the people who’re frustrated that we close at 6 on Fridays will understand why that is. And maybe we’ll get some suggestions about what they’d prefer we do.
Either way, it was fun. C’mon, who doesn’t like sidewalk chalk?
Don’t wanna August 10, 2009
Posted by Jenica Rogers in I amuse myself, Libraries, Management.add a comment
I’ve been on vacation for ten days, in the south of France. And now I’m back, and have to go back to work, because, well, that’s what one does.
As I walked across campus this morning, my path intersected with another library staff member’s, and as i walked toward him, I whined playfully, “I don’t wanna go to work today.”
He laughed, and said, “I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear you say that.”
Hey, we’re all human. Even the bosses wanna play hooky sometimes…
Jenica October 27, 2008
Posted by Jenica Rogers in I amuse myself.2 comments
The catch-phrase most heard amongst my social network at Internet Librarian was “managing your online identity”, both in seriousness and a series of increasingly absurd jokes. Jason Griffey** and I were talking about Google searches, and his intention to keep himself in the first page of results for a search for “Griffey”. We didn’t have wifi at that moment, but I said I hadn’t searched plain vanilla “Jenica” in a while, so I didn’t know where I would fall. I have wifi right now, and am procrastinating, so I checked.
Top 5, apparently. Color me impressed. You too could be this world-reknowned, if only you had an obsure Romanian name. (No, I’m not Romanian; WASP/Italian, married Polish. My mom liked the name. Drew and I say that “Jenica Urbanek” is a Romanian spy. YOU NEVER KNOW.)
And that is all. Vanity searching FTW.
**At this very moment, this link takes you to pictures of Eliza wearing a bat costume. This is awesome.
A cranky list September 29, 2008
Posted by Jenica Rogers in Growly, I amuse myself, Libraries.add a comment
Things With Which I Am Running Out Of Patience:
- Careless illiteracy on the internet from people whom I know to be better educated and more capable than they are portraying themselves as. It just feels like they’re not trying.
- Lengthy listserv screeds purporting to be an apology or an argument but which are simply a new way to avoid the validity of the criticisms leveled. Librarians are particularly bad about this, and it’s one of the reasons I unsubscribed from NewLib and NexGenLib without remorse.
- Quibbling about the right of a campus administrative body to do its own job. Were it your job, you could quibble. Tis not your job, therefore…
- My own ability to procrastinate around boring tasks. I have now scheduled my days from here to mid-October with tasks in one hour blocks, since I seem to be currently incapable of doing the boring bits without extra prodding.
- Being afraid of our constituents. We have limited time, staff, and funding, and we do damn good work with what we have. The fact that we cannot do more is something I refuse to be ashamed of, and I will happily explain it to whoever asks. What I will not do is hide from reality.
- Reference desk shifts, at least, the boring ones. In two hours and 13 minutes, I’ve answered 3 questions. There must be a better way to either market this service, or to use my time.
- Campus construction projects. ‘Nuff said.
- VHS. Vendors need to stop producing VHS, like, yesterday, so that I may stop needing to decline to buy them, like, now.
- Email. My inbox is up to 600+ messages, and that makes me a sad panda. I had weeded down to 460 on Friday, but for some reason people keep trying to communicate with me. Crazy talk, that.
- The slowness of the arrival of my new office chair. A) I want my new chair because Yay! New Chair! but B) my shoulder really hurts and the PT says the adjustability of the new chair will help. In sum, plz deliver my chair now, kthanxbye.
- Mondays. I do not approve of Mondays.
- The failure of campus food service to stock my favorite kind of tortilla chips at the nacho bar. I do not like Frito-esque yellow corn chips. Please see to this.
As you can see, I am totally rational about all of these things. This has been a very rough semester start, for a plethora of reasons, and today? Today I think I just need a nap. And some nachos. And maybe to unsubscribe from some more listservs.
a Right Now meme September 20, 2008
Posted by Jenica Rogers in I amuse myself, Libraries.4 comments
I ran into this meme on LiveJournal and I’m sort of cheating by putting it on my librarian blog on a non-standard working day — I don’t usually do library-type-stuff while bathed in sunlight in a red velvet armchair, you see. But I know what my not-library friends look like, so I don’t need to post this elsewhere. What I want to know is this — what do you look like, yes you, library-affiliated people, reading this post right now? Share!
Instructions:
Take a picture of yourself right now.
Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair…just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with your picture.
Jenica Rogers
