Bentebing's Weblog

helt ukatalogisert

My friend Thomas, the right honourable Miromurr, has once again shown the way to enjoy the various ways of the libraries!

Bente Bing Kleiva’s Dewey Decimal Section:
027 General libraries

Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works

Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.

What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You’re working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Last Sunday my husband, eldest son and I went for a walk. I decided not to bring my camera, but my husband did. We went down to the river and had to do some climbing because the path is quite rough. My husband soon got very occupied with his camera, he tried different angles, saw some interesting stones and then there was this bird and so on. My son and I went on for a while, but then we had to stop and wait for him but he did not show up. Then we went to look for him and there he was still pondering how to take the best picture of the waterfall. We turned around again and continued, but much slower this time, but still we had to wait for him. I started to regret I had gone out at all, but then I realized that if we all had brought our cameras we´d had a great time all of us.

This made me think about how some of us have the need to participate, when we want to. I have noticed at the library more people asks for services where they can get what they want by doing most of the ordering themselves. Some sends the links for the books they want to borrow and some want the material sent by email or at least get the message by their mobile or email. The services must offer a kind of interaction, preferably on the internet or at least via some electronic devises. I think this is interesting because it challenges the way of thinking and makes it necessary to create more easy accessible  library services for all. This has of course been on the agenda for many years but in a small library you tend to notice these trends a bit later. People are not expecting us to deliver the same services and when they actually discover that we do, they are quite pleased. I don´t think this should be an excuse for not being able to make a good library service, but I have to admit it takes a bit longer to reach the goals because – and I hate to say it – the resources are limited.

The very last day in October ended rather discouraging: my boss sent me an e-mail saying we will have to stop buying stuff for the rest of the year! That is really too bad! In these days we should have the opportunity to buy all the books we wanted to and furbish our borrowers with new and exiting books, but alas – no more new books. I try to tell myself, this is only a job, do the best you can, you have to adjust – but it does not work. I get frustrated! I think the libraries should be spared for cutbacks and recessions they are made to serve the people, to tighten the gap between those who can afford to buy the books and stuff they want and the ones who can´t.  But in the organization of the Meland kommune everyone have to make some sacrifices! Well, we will have to make some interesting exhibitions of our old books. Perhaps we can make the borrowers forget about the newest books for a while? LOL

Last Wednesday my colleague and I went to Sarpsborg to attend a conference on e-citizenship and e-libraries initiated by the NLA/Østfold. The State secretary Wenche Lyngholm(SV) from the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform was quite surprised of all the librarians at the conference had their own profile on Facebook! Little did she know that the librarians had attended the course 23Things!! She did not reveal anything we did not know before. When asked of the plans how to initiate the e-citizenship in all the municipalities, she pointed to the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. This should of course not be a surprise to anyone attending, but it would certainly be refreshing once to experience a politician on a governmental level say: This is our task, we will deal with it! Lyngholm said that the libraries are almost the only noncommercial meeting point in our society and suitable for giving people training in using the PC and the internet. Lyngholm left in a hurry after giving her speech and never got the opportunity to hear the question Tord Høivik put to the panel discussion: Did we think the government understand what they are asking the libraries to do to take on the task of educating the people with no ICT competence? I think the government are not interested in understanding the consequences if the libraries should embark on this journey. They want the job done, they don´t ask how.

The host of the panel debate, Tord Høivik  transformed the rather dull and traditional discussion to a slightly confusing but very engaging conversation making everyone attend in some way or other. Well done, Tord!

I have been an Ønskebok reader for one and a half year and I have learned a lot during this period. Ønskebok is a Norwegian internet site for finding books, a good read in a new way. Our tutor is Rachel Van Riel who first made the Whichbook.net the site is for mainly adult books, while Ønskebok has juveniles as their main target group. 

What have I learned? To read books I normally would not have chosen, to reflect while reading and not as I usually do read to be entertained. I notice that I am more sensible to the main atmosphere of the book and not that eager to look for the more dramatic parts of the story. I find that this way of reading is quite rewarding and it helps me when people coming to the library asks for help to find a nice book. One day at the library a boy in his teens asked for Dan Brown: The Da Vinci code, I showed him where he could find it but a few minutes later he came and asked for another book more suitable for his age. Later I saw he had used Ønskebok to make his choice! I hope he enjoyed the book as much as the young man sitting in Byparken did.

These days the library is showing paintings of Rolf Monsen a painter living in Bergen and partly in Sevilla, Spain. His paintings are large, color full and filled with all kind of statements. I love the smell of these paintings and the mixture of books, paper and the paintings creates an unique atmosphere. Since the paintings are so large (120×120) we had to take down all our pictures, the children drawings, the paper stand and some of the magazines. The regular people coming in to read the papers had to move to the back of the library to have some peace and quiet and the children cannot, for a while pin their drawings directly on the wall. The pictures are quite overwhelming by their size and bright colors and I start to wonder can the intrusion of these paintings make the library visitors more aware of their surroundings? More open to read books that they usually would choose? Will the subordination of some of the library functions suffer or find new ways to express themselves? Its an experiment, a nice one I hope!

I dag var det Knarvikmil og «alle» var ute og løp, gikk eller så på folk som tok seg ut på ulike måter. Etter et visst press fra min kjære kom også jeg meg ut, gjennomførte naturløypa, den lengste varianten og er nå litt støl, men veldig fornøyd med meg selv! Overgangen fra ferie til jobb var enkelt sagt brutal. Det gikk et par uker før jeg skjønte at det som ringte midt på natten faktisk var vekkerklokka! Men nå er jeg herdet og står opp uten å tenke etter om jeg er trøtt eller ikke.

Bibliotekhverdagen ble innledet med illsinte meldinger på Biblioteknorge om sein utsending av K-fond bøker. Jeg synes disse bøkene stort sett har vært seine, så sånn sett er ikke dette noe nytt. Det som mange bibliotek føler på er at de populære/haipa bøkene kommer så seint at før K-fondet er i hus så har paperbacken kommet i butikken og da kan man nesten be låneren kjøpe boka selv. Det gjør snille bibliotekarer selvsagt ikke, vi skraper sammen penger til å kjøpe ett eksemplar slik at boka er i samlingen og så venter vi mer eller mindre tennerskjærende på K-fondet. 
K-fondet har vi fått høre er ikke en støtte for bibliotekene, men for litteraturen, språket og for å spre den norske litteraturen ut til alt folket. Det skal gjøres gjennom bibliotekene, om man får vente høst, vinter og langt ut på våren så er det jo så mange andre gamle bøker man kan lese i mellomtiden.
Som styrer på et lite bibliotek, med et puslete budsjett er selvsagt tilførselen av K-fondet viktig, men det hender at jeg spør meg: Hva får biblioteket igjen for denne pålagte oppgaven å ta imot, gjøre tiltgjengelig, formidle disse bøkene som kommer et halvt år etter at man har sluttet å snakke om dem? Eg berre spyr.

It´s like a decease. The long hours reading the morning paper, drinking tea and very slowly planing what to do. I have gotten so used to doing nothing during the three weeks of my vacation, getting back to «normal» life has been like recovering from a serious illness. And so it seems the borrowers at the library are suffering from the same lack of energy to go to the library, search for a good read and give us something to do. Well, I am not exactly complaining, but it seems a little odd, because my notion is that we usually are quite busy at this time.  Today it is the Seniorsurf- day and hopefully some of the elderly can be persuaded to try our PC´s and spend some time surfing on the internet. I´m off to do my duties to the public!

Some days ago I dug up the courage to write a message to the library discussion list about the inter library lending system. I got some answers, first one indicating that this stupid woman should have made some more enquires and another quite impolite.  This made me wonder why are librarians so eager to put each other down? And then how does experiences like these influence the wish to take part in the debates? To the first question – I really have no idea! The second: I think its necessary to have a bit more self confidence, believe in your message and realize that people are in their right to disagree. Well, this can be a challenge for my autumn activities: take part in the debates?

To day I went to the neighbour library to drop off some books since our transport system is not working during the summer. I missed the opening hours, of course, but I stood outside waving until they came to the rescue and we could make the exchange of books and news. On my way back to the car I saw some yarn with a beautiful colour. I stepped into the shop and some minutes later I came out with all I need to knit a jacket. This is madness, my husband will tell me, but this evening I was sitting on our terrace knitting the sun, the warm evening, the song from the birds into this jacket and I am going to enjoy every moment of the process.

This morning going to work I saw mother Great Tit and all her kids eagerly exercise in the art of acrobatic flying. They were buzzing in and out of the branches of the trees along the road. I was thinking about reading: how to become a better and more reflected reader? That will also demand some exercise and some effort in taking the time to read different kind of books and not always for the purpose to relax. When I come home from work I am usually not in the mood to read heavy stuff, but to understand my craft I will have to get beyond this obstacle and try. Perhaps make an agreement with myself? Ten pages on work related nonfiction and then one episode of C.S.I.?