by Cecily on July 28, 2008
About two years ago, I somehow convinced myself that I really needed a pair of roller skates.
Not roller blades, mind you, but the old-style quad skates with a wheel in each corner. My fitness routine had gotten stuck, and I wasn’t able to run anymore because of a knee injury, so I somehow convinced myself that getting a pair of roller skates would not only be a fun way to work out, but would also strengthen my quads and knees to the point that this activity might actually make my knee better. Faulty logic, I know, but I can talk myself into almost any purchase if I rationalize hard enough.
Two summers passed. Today I found myself with a little extra free time and a bit of extra cash. I visited rollergirl.ca, ordered a pair of black short-boot skates with orange wheels and orange laces. About an hour after I placed my order, I got a call from a clerk who informed me that since they’re a local company, I could save myself the shipping charges if I swung by to pick up the skates in person. Now that’s the kind of customer service you don’t see too much of these days.
While I was there, the clerk (whose name I’ve forgotten) tried to talk me into joining Terminal City Roller Girls, the local roller derby league. I’m not new to skating but I had a sneaking suspicion that I couldn’t keep up with these women. She said the league needed referees, and the refs don’t need to be able to skate as well. I took down the web address and promised to check out the site, and to try to make it to a few training sessions just to observe.
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by Cecily on March 17, 2008
If I’m writing this post, it must mean I survived my first day on the reference desk.
Making the shift from usability/user experience to life as a public librarian was more complicated than I thought it would be. It isn’t so much that I expected to instantly adapt to my new surroundings with a minimum of effort, but I didn’t realize how far removed from the fundamental tenets of librarianship I’d become in the last four years. Library school taught me how to organize information, how to classify content, and how to study people. I learned how to listen to customers (patrons) as they asked questions, and I learned to take their language and match it to the subject headings that would result in a successful reference interview.
Library school never prepared me for an in-depth conversation with a parent about the movies Howl’s Moving Castle and The Princess Bride and whether they were suitable for her two wonderfully precocious sons, each of whom asked a reference question that very nearly stumped me.
Library school never prepared me to deal with a little girl who is in such desperate need to use the girls’ washroom (which was closed for cleaning) that I ended up giving her the key to the boys’ room* and, after seeing the questioning look on her face, telling her sotto voce that I wouldn’t let anyone know that she used the “wrong” bathroom.
Library school never prepared me for the overwhelming emotional experience of seeing such a wide cross-section of Vancouver’s population. Currently, the racial makeup of Vancouver’s librarians isn’t on par with the population; I can only imagine it’s worse in areas where ethnic minorities make up a majority of public library users.
Library school never prepared me for getting flop sweats when a ten-year-old girl asked me to help her find french language books for beginners to help her finish her social studies project, especially when said student hasn’t fully decided on a topic.
Library school never really taught me how wonderful public libraries could be. That could be my own fault; after all, I was one of those “information professionals” who thought she’d only darken the door of a library as a patron. I don’t mean to suggest that I looked down on public librarians, it’s just that I thought my fortunes lay elsewhere. It wasn’t until I sought out those fortunes that I realized how bereft of real-world experience they really were. There’s a reason that contextual observations and user testing were my favorite parts of usability work.
The people made all the difference.
*(The washrooms in the children’s area are kept locked. Only one person can enter the washrooms at a time, and adults aren’t allowed to use washrooms in the children’s area. The little girl was perfectly safe.)
by Cecily on March 13, 2008
One of the many highlights of my trip to Austin was my photoshoot with Rannie Turingan of Photojunkie.ca. I don’t like being photographed (that’s why I’m usually the one behind the big black camera), but Rannie did an excellent job given the lump of clay he had to work with.
by Cecily on February 28, 2008
by Cecily on February 18, 2008
I was filling out the profile form at WorldCat the other day when I had a moment:
Check out what it says next to “My Occupation”. After three and a half years (the amount of time passed since I got my degree) it feels so good to finally call myself a librarian and mean it.
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