June 7, 2016

 Today was the mini library conference at the university library. I got there at nine o'clock and waited for my supervisor to finish up a meeting before dropping off my lunch in my office and then heading up to the fifth floor. It was a really interesting day.

The first librarian worked in digital services and talked about a program she set up that helped people digitize their family photos. I don't think the original intent of the two workshops was to focus entirely on family photos but she said that was the main draw for people.

Next there was a librarian talking about reasons for taking a sabbatical, the application process, how to organize your time, and coming back to the office after five months off. Even if I had gotten a job at the campus library I wouldn't even be eligible for sabbatical for seven years, so I really wasn't the target audience, but it was still interesting learning more about the whole process because I didn't really know much of anything about it.

The third librarian was a tech guy and showed off a prototype image editor that is built into a browser. One of the main appeals was being able to crowdsource the annotating of archival images but when the editing options are expanded you could also crowdsource the editing and touching up of these old images. Again, interesting.

Following that was a panel discussion about submitting proposals to a conference. All of the librarians on the panel have served on proposal review boards and were able to give their insights into why proposals weren't accepted and why they were. Some of the big reasons were the basic things like not actually following all of the instructions for submission and grammatical errors. They also brought up that sometimes there were just too many similar submissions and they went with the one that sounded the most appealing. So there is a chance that in any other year your proposal might be accepted but you were just unlucky enough to pick that topic on a popular year.

For lunch everyone brought sack lunches and we arranged the tables in a square and one of the librarians talked about the utility of failure. He started out talking about the idea of failure and how we encourage taking risks (or at least encourage others to take risks) but we don't really talk about failing. He also brought up the idea of Imposter Syndrome and how it affects a lot of highly educated individuals and is particularly high in the librarian population. I can definitely relate to that, long before I decide to become a librarian. After his initial talk he opened it up to discussion and that's when it really got interesting. Several of the librarians admitted to experiencing Imposter Syndrome but it had different effects on their risk taking behavior. One said it empowered her to take risks because she figured it was already only a matter of time before people figured out she wasn't qualified for her job so she might as well go for it. The librarian who brought up the topic had the theory that feeling like an imposter would have the opposite effect and lead someone to avoid risk at all costs in order to avoid being found out. I've thought about the idea of Imposter Syndrome before but it is someone that I actually want to look into more now. The discussion also dipped into education and the idea of failure in terms of our culture. I think it was the most interesting topic of the day, not only because of the subject matter, but also because of the format of being a relaxed, intellectual discussion. I don't get to have good intellectual conversations that often so I appreciate them when they occur.

Also of note, all the librarians had these very adult looking lunches and I felt like I had stolen a child's lunch. I had my regular peanut butter & apple butter sandwich, Cheez-Its, and fruit snacks. It seemed like everyone else had salads, fruits, vegetables, or something they had cooked at home. I was with them intellectually but when it came to the food I definitely felt like I should have been sitting at the kids tables.

The first presentation after lunch was about how to make a poster for conferences. I only had one assignment in grad school that required making a poster and I definitely went about it like I would have a science fair poster, with words printed out on regular sized paper. For actual poster sessions it turns out people don't do it like that. Or they shouldn't. Posters are designed on one giant sheet and then printed out either on one giant sheet or divided up slightly and then put back together after printing. It was also mentioned that you could also get them printed on vinyl if you wanted them to last, or even on canvas, which makes them easy to travel with because you can just fold it up in your luggage. The librarian also talked about formatting and we looked at examples of posters by librarians in the room and they said what they liked about their posters and what they would have liked to change. One of the big things was putting your contact information at the top of the poster instead of the bottom, because if there were a lot of people around your poster than the people farther back wouldn't be able to see your contact information. At some point in my career I will probably need to make a poster for a conference so this will be useful information.

The next presentation was by the first librarian I interviewed in my first grad class. I actually got to meet him in person for the first time this morning. His presentation was over how to publish a book. His presentation featured his latest book heavily because I think it was adapted from a presentation about the book, which was cool with me because it was really educational. After I interviewed him the school librarian let me borrow his first book about wildflowers, which was meant to be a field guide to some of the more common wildflowers in Kansas. The new book is more of a scientific book about the wildflowers and weeds in Kansas and features off eleven hundred species and almost 750 color photos. The book initially started as an updated version of a similar book that was published in 1971 and didn't have any color pictures, but quickly grew to dwarf that book, not only in size but also information provided. The whole presentation was an interesting look at the behind-the-scenes of collaborating on a book project that took over five years. I can appreciate how well he said the experience worked out after having experienced so many bad group projects in school. Also, all the work paid off because the book just won an award yesterday.

The final presentation was divided between a marketing lady and a digital librarian responsible for adding scholarly work to the library's institutional repository. The marketing lady talked about how she went about getting information from the librarians about what they were working on so she could distribute that information. She also talked about how she decided the level at which that information would be distributed, whether it would just be within the library, at the campus level, state level, or even nationally. The digital librarian talked about why it was important for the librarians and professors to put their work in the institutional repository. One of the main benefits is that they retain all the rights to their work. Often times when getting an article published in a journal the author has to sign over all their rights to the article and are then unable to post the article anywhere else. This can be annoying when your article ends up behind a pay wall and people whose library doesn't have a subscription to that publication can't access it. Again, very important stuff to keep in mind.

In between sessions I got to talk to a few different librarians, including one who works with metadata. She said her specialty in school was music librarianship and her first job was actually as a music librarian. In that job, however, she worked with a lot of metadata and found out she really liked it so all over her jobs after that involved metadata. I also talked to a librarian who started in Florida and planned on coming to Kansas for a few years but ended up turning down a job three years into her job here and has stayed for twenty years. I also briefly talked to the librarian that I talked to several years ago when I first had the idea about going to library school. She heard that I got a job at the public library so she congratulated me on that and asked if there were any plans to move the reference desk back down to the first floor. I learned that her mom had been a reference librarian at the public library for over twenty years, and that was when the reference desk was on the first floor. I think it would make a lot more sense to have it on the first floor because everyone I have told about my job has asked me where the reference desk is. It really is kind of tucked out of the way on the second floor and would be easy to miss even if you made it up to the second floor.

The conference ended exactly at 3:15PM, just as advertised. Before leaving the library I went to the bathroom and while walking back through the shelves I glanced over and saw the book One Thousand Years of Manga by Brigitte Koyama-Richard. I only briefly flipped through it but at some point I need to go back and actually sit down with it because much like my day at the library so far, it was super interesting.

After leaving the library I went over to the student union to buy a t-shirt because I need to wear a university shirt while working at the orientation event. It seems like the whole building is being renovated at the moment and that turned it into a bit of a labyrinth. I new how I was going to get to the bookstore but then got confused when I got down there because so many things were blocked off and there were different stores where the bookstore used to be. Near the end of the building there was a opening for the store but I had second thoughts so I kept walking. I thought there would be an entrance to the parking garage but I hit a dead-end with an elevator. I tried taking the elevator up but it didn't move so I went down and ended up in the back of the arcade. I didn't even know there was an elevator in the back of the arcade. I tried to go out and to the left to exit the bowling alley but that was blocked off so I ended up going through Subway and up the stairs, almost back to where I started, so I said screw it and went back to the bookstore and browsed their shirts. I ended up getting two because they had a green one and it was a good green.

I forgot to bring my paystub that I printed out last night so I ran home real quick, grabbed it, and then headed to the bank. I wasn't sure exactly how much to request for my credit limit to be raised but they said I could just put down to raise it to whatever I qualified for. Hopefully that will be at least $500. The annoying thing is that it would probably be a lot easier to get it raised once I get a month or two into my new job because I'll be making actual money, but we'll see. I think regardless of how much I currently make, the fact that I have always paid my bill on time and in full should count for something.

I should have done school stuff tonight but I didn't. I was kind of burnt out after the day at the library and kind of overwhelmed by the idea of starting my new job tomorrow. Instead, I did not a lot. My yellow Jinhao 159 that I got yesterday wouldn't actually write so I messed with that for awhile. I pulled the nib and feed out and the ink was getting to the top of both but not actually making it down the feed and to the tip of the nib, so I decided the nib was just misaligned and blocking the feed. After twisting it back and forth a bit I finally got ink to flow. I don't know that it is perfect but at least it writes now. I also watched YouTube videos and ironed my clothes for tomorrow.

Now I think I am going to wrap up the bookmarks I want to give to the PR lady at the library as a thank you and then hold a hot towel on my eye for awhile before going to bed. I don't know that my eye is doing any better with the ointment and hot towels but it is only day two, so it is really too early to tell.

Tomorrow is the big day. I imagine it will mostly be filled with signing papers, introductions, and orientation type stuff. Nothing too overwhelming.