silveradept | Things I have Learned on the Job

Yet more things I have learned on the job:

1) There is no such thing as cheating when your own knowledge is insufficient or runs dry. There is only consultation of additional resources, including pulling potential reading suggestions by using a bookseller’s “Recommended” feature.

2) If you know a few things about a book, and one of them is either the author, the title, or the name of the series, there is a high probability that I can find it. Even on occasion, if you don’t know any of those things, I can find it. This is not magic, but it sure looks like it, especially when you pull the book that someone’s been looking for on nothing more than a title and one element of the story.

3) No matter how bright, large, flashing, neon, or other manner of attracting attention to itself the sign is, I will still be asked many times where someone can find X section.

3b) As a corollary, even if I were to deploy a large sign in front of my desk that said “Interrupt me!” or “Ask me questions!” in any sort of attention-grabbing manner, the average person would still likely pass my desk three times before finally mustering the courage to say something.

4) There are no such things as stupid questions. There are, however, newbie questions for which policies have already been evaluated and put in place. However, it takes asking the question to find out that something has already been determined. Thus, I will not feel stupid asking newbie questions. (This leads into #11 of volume 2 of this series, as well.)

5a) The Cataloging System Is Precise. Zero results generally means that I have input something incorrectly and the system is taking me at my word. This is particularly annoying after I have found material with a more forgiving system and am trying to see if we have it.

5b) The Cataloging System Is Error-Prone. Likely due to the nature of outsourcing cataloging data to other services that do so (or due to the variances of persons at those services), one cannot be assured that the various books in a series will be cataloged in a uniform manner, nor can we assure that they will all be found in the same general area from one branch to another. (This is particularly apparent in book series in paperback.)

6) I will accept my additional duties as a sort of first-responder technology troubleshooter/instructor with grace. By virtue of this, I also reserve the right to speak technobabble at any point I choose, and additionally reserve the right to perform “unofficial solutions” in the course of my day to achieve appropriate results.

7) The Weather is Variable. Just because one day started as a day where I could walk to work in a light jacket and feel good with a little breeze does not mean that the weather will not turn into cold, windy, and rainy that would probably have better warranted the heavier coat. (This is a modification and supplement to #1 of the first entry in this series.)

8) Throwaway ideas are often winners. No matter how cheesy, corny, or otherwise bad it sounds, put it out there - it may be perfect, or it may be the right foundation for modification.

9) The phone may be silent all day, but there will be voicemail when I first come into work, and when I get back from lunch, no matter when either of those occasions are.

10) Getting “lost” in a town/city on foot is far more rewarding than getting “lost” in the same town/city in a car. By the first method, one discovers a bowling alley, movie theater, laser tag/arcade/play area and an indoor paintball arena are all proximal. By the second method, one discovers which streets do not actually run all the way north/south or east/west.

11) Getting children to do what you would like them to do is akin to herding felines. This task is far easier when Mamma Cat is around.

12) Herding children is easier than getting more information out of someone attempting to deny interest in the subject that they are asking a reference question about.

13) For most people, 1 hour/day of Internet time is not enough.

14) There is such a thing as collaborative coloring sheet work. I never thought that such things could be so group-oriented.

15) Children are vicious to each other. They will also forge temporary alliances against the adults if it is in their interest to do so. It is still a toss-up whether young children or teenage children are more vicious and incisive to their peers. This is technically something I already knew, but am getting significant amounts of firsthand experience and anecdotes about.

16) Nothing encourages better behavior than being in the line of sight or the range of hearing of a librarian.

17) After a while, one gets enough of a feel for the library such that one can go from person to person, dropping off a querant in the proper zone for their answer and picking up another that needs to go elsewhere. When I do this, I feel like I’m playing some sort of train game. Now that I think about it, I think it would make a pretty awesome train-style game.

Perhaps more to come in the month yet arriving. I somehow doubt that I’ll ever know everything all at once.