Cross your fingers

and maybe your toes! I've applied for a new job at:

The library 

In our previous episode (which you might have missed):  I work for Denver Public Library-- A job I got two years ago (April 2009) after my boss at Denver Public Schools told me that my position at the Middle school would be cut (slashed, chopped, reduced- you get the picture) to a para position which would mean both a pay cut and loss of benefits and fewer hours per week to top all of that off as well. It was simply not a tenable situation. So, I had already begun checking into positions at DPL but began to apply with more urgency. In March I had an interview and by April I began my training in this building: 

It was quite intimidating at the time and the massive amount of marble and cool stone never felt warm or inviting and there is a great deal too much echo but the flashiness appeals to the hip and happening set in Denver. 

Nevertheless, I trained here for what wound up being 6 months before I moved on to Hampden as the sole full time circulation clerk. Hampden had begun an extensive remodel job in February and we were supposed to reopen in June. But as often happens with city jobs that are contracted out to private contracts, June turned to July turned to August wound up in September. 

Hampden is one of 22 branches (at least for the moment) and is the furthest south and east branch which means that when Aurora voted down funding for their libraries and closed all but three branches, we drastically increased our DVD circulation (and everybody thinks I exaggerate about that but I really don't- one day I am going to count the number of books to DVD just to prove it.) At any rate:This is the work room where we begin our day, sorting through crates of delivery. They are delivered by the library elves who work through the night sorting the books that belong to us but have been returned to other branches (a service we offer) and the holds that have been processed during the day. They put them in crates and then stack them up by our back door.

These are what the crates look like full from the top usually stacked four high. We generally get about 32 crates a day give or take 4 or 5... and it takes me an hour by myself to unpack them (which I do on Tuesday, Wednesday and every other Friday)

Not nearly as picturesqueness (nor as much fun) as a Christmas tree on Christmas morning but there it is.  We pile two trucks (carts such as you see pictured here are properly called trucks at DPL)- one full of holds to be processed immediately, the other with our returned items that are marked "in transit" and need to be returned so the computer shows them "On Shelf".  As you can see there are quite a lot of DVDs on the second shelf. The books are only on the top shelf and it can take 3-4 DVDs to make one book.

Just saying....

THEN they get sorted onto the trucks to get shelved by this lady (below) who is a shelver. This is also the mysterious back room where all the returns are dropped onto a bin. One of us, the same people who work the outside desks, picks them up out of the bins and checks them in. The same thing we do out on the desk, it's just that no one can see us back here!

After we get all the books that have been ordered by our customers processed, we shelve them. Hopefully we are done with this before opening. Otherwise we're multitasking, running holds, returning stuff (for people who just refuse to put it in the drop box because they think we have a personal vendetta against them and don't want to check their stuff in for them, checking out stuff, taking money for fines, etc) Meanwhile shelvers are looking for the stuff people have ordered during the night and if we have time we try to help by running them through to see which branch they are to be sent to, unless one of our customers wants them. Generally, however, we are multi-tasking all day anyway, because we have DVDs to shelve and holds to shelve. We are  often making new cards for the people who move into the neighborhood and the surrounding Aurora population who now find themselves without a neighborhood library. 

SHEW! 

It can make for a very busy day! 

So NOW! The position of Lead which is a supervisory position at my branch is opening up. It's essentially doing everything I am doing now for more money- (YAY!!! Yipee!! WooHOO!!! ) And I applied today. It was a little stressful as I had some difficulty, for some reason, with the online application process (too long of a story to explain at the moment) so I leave for a long weekend vacation (a real vacation- not a blog vacation!!! pictures when I get back!) with my fingers crossed that the application process went well. 

In addition to that! I submitted the first chapter of 'Death and Politics at the End of the World' to Quiddity International Literary Journal. I have submitted it before and been rejected but for some reason I have high hopes for this one... 

SO!!! Keep your fingers crossed and hopefully good things will be happening! I'll keep you posted on the good (or not so good... boo! hiss!) news.

And in case your curious, my hopefully non-stressful weekend will be full of swimming, writing and reading and sunning while we are camping in the Sunflower state (that would be Kansas). 

What are your plans for the weekend??? 

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY!

Elana at Wordsmithing has been blogging on library closings in the U.K. and brought to my attention that February 5th is "Visit a Library Day".  And though the particular day she is promoting is for patrons of libraries in the U.K., I believe it is important for Americans to realize that their libraries are also in jeopardy as city budgets all over the county continue to be slashed and city representatives look around for easy places to cut. Last year, Aurora, Colorado closed three libraries and this last fall Denver closed several of their branches extra days (although how this saved money is still beyond me...that is a blog for another day). The unfortunate fact of the closing is that many of our customers didn't pay attention to the closings until it inconvenienced them and then were unhappy about the closing. Unfortunately at that point, it was too late and all we could say was that they should call their local city representative. But again it was too late and they are not going to change it back. Particularly now as we approach yet another round of cuts for 2012! The city budget is projected at 100 million shortfall in collected tax revenue so again we have to slash a budget that has been stripped to the bare bone for the past 4 or 5 years!The library will inevitably have to cut far more this year and no one knows what is left frankly. Employees already take 2% pay-cut each year (furlough days), no pay increase at all, and the cost of healthcare continues to increase. Positions are not refilled when a person quits, in most cases, and libraries are often understaffed. Where do you make additional cuts?  

But Denver isn't the only city looking at the library as one of the places to trim. In fact Denver is in FAR better shape than most cities. Denver is at least solvent! Earlier this year I blogged about a New York Times article  I'd read about libraries being privatized in order to save money! The drastic change this will have for those cities is potentially devastating because with privatization comes increased charges, fewer resources, and less professional help (no librarians in buildings).

So it's not just a concern for the libraries in the U.K. and it is definitely NOT something that any of us should wait to protest until the deed is done and the doors are closed. After all it's much easier to keep the doors open and the books on the shelves than it is to hire employees, get the doors open, and buy new books to put back on the cobweb strewn shelves that collected while the building sat empty!!! And maybe all it takes is to...

VISIT YOU LOCAL LIBRARY AND CHECK OUT A BOOK! 

http://follow-the-spiders.tumblr.com/post/2837557201

Library clears its shelves in protest at closure threat

Users urged to take out full allowance of library books in campaign to keep Stony Stratford branch open

• Maev Kennedy
• guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 January 2011 17.47 GMT
• Article history
  
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• Stony Stratford library is one of two branches being considered for closure by Milton Keynes council. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
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• The library at Stony Stratford, on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, looks like the aftermath of a crime, its shell-shocked staff presiding over an expanse of emptied shelves. Only a few days ago they held 16,000 volumes.
  Now, after a campaign on Facebook, there are none. Every library user was urged to pick their full entitlement of 15 books, take them away and keep them for a week. The idea was to empty the shelves by closing time on Saturday: in fact with 24 hours to go, the last sad bundle of self-help and practical mechanics books was stamped out. Robert Gifford, chair of Stony Stratford town council, planned to collect his books when he got home from work in London, but left it too late.
  The empty shelves, as the library users want to demonstrate, represent the gaping void in their community if Milton Keynes council gets its way. Stony Stratford, an ancient Buckinghamshire market town famous only for its claim that the two pubs, the Cock and the Bull, are the origin of the phrase "a cock and bull story", was one of the communities incorporated in the new town in 1967. The Liberal Democrat council, made a unitary authority in 1997, now faces budget cuts of £25m and is consulting on closing at least two of 10 outlying branch libraries.
  Stony Stratford council got wind in December and wrote to all 6,000 residents – not entirely disinterestedly, as the council meets in the library, like many other groups in the town. "In theory the closure is only out for consultation," Gifford said, "but if we sit back it will be too late. One man stopped me in the street and said, 'The library is the one place where you find five-year-olds and 90-year-olds together, and it's where young people learn to be proper citizens'. It's crazy even to consider closing it."
  – they should be finding ways to expand its services and bring even more people in."
  Emily Malleson, of the Friends of Stony Stratford Library, said: "I was lucky, I got in early, so I got some nice children's books – and my children came along and took out all their books too. I had to bring the car to get them all home.The late-comers just had to take whatever was left."

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• http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/14/stony-stratford-library-shelves-protest