Category Archives: library

13.04.25 [Thursday]
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campbell river, library, winnipeg

my friend makes rings

Last night I was invited to a beach bonfire with libraryfolk and it occurs to me I am learning more about what it might be like to be a north islander. Saturday past some high school students were talking about their beach fires and how that’s what you do since it’s all there is to do in Campbell River. The bits of beachfire-making knowledge those teens shared with me (a prairie-dweller and terrible fire maker) had all these echoes out in the evening with people who were talking about their grandkids.

I don’t know what the Winnipeg-centric equivalents to that shared intergenerational but local experience would be. I guess if I was a person who’d had a tradition of beach-going I’d have more connection to this, but it’s still a bit different having to drive for an hour compared to riding you bike for 15 minutes down to a suitable beachy spot.

I had my first ever performance review last week and with that I’m now officially a permanent employee. I understand that’s supposed to be a good thing, but man, I think in my head the word permanent is only ever linked with disability and death. “Permanent employee” is a term that screams its own lying nature. Almost all those old hand library workers on the beach last night eventually stopped being employees, and the ones that haven’t yet will someday.

But the beach and a fire and enjoying the fact that our winter was negligible (though dark) were all fine things to experience temporarily on a Wednesday night.

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13.03.11 [Monday]
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books, campbell river, library, travel, vancouver

the ol’ walk’n'talk

The other day I went out walking. It’s spring now, so the sun comes out sometimes and then it’s pleasant to see what there is to see. And for the first time in a long time – maybe even ever when I’ve been out by myself without a more talkative companion – I chatted with a busker for something like ten minutes. I see him at the library all the time so it’s not like he was a complete stranger or anything. We talked about Stalingrad and the shittiness that was WW2′s Eastern Front, topics we knew through History Channel documentaries, wargames and Hollywood movies.

Last week I went to Gold River, and before we started work we stopped for coffee. In the coffeeshop there was another table of four who were talking about someone they all knew who’d hit some ice and then the ditch just last week. It’s weird having a conversation in a small place where you know whatever you say will be clear to everyone around you and that they aren’t anonymous strangers but know who you are, or can find out. This was the day after Hugo Chavez died but I couldn’t draw my coworker into a discussion of South American politics, possibly for that reason. More likely because we didn’t have much interesting to say about Chavez. Though I did try to talk a bit about Chavez’s love of baseball.

I’m looking forward to the BCLA conference this year. I’m going to be on a couple of panels talking about things I find cool (breaking digital locks and indie comics), and interesting people are going to be talking ’bout cool shit on others. I’ve been going to Vancouver more recently, and I think it’s important for me to keep doing it. Just talking with friends and colleagues puts me in a much different (better) mindset for being here. Reading a lot just isn’t the same.

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13.01.24 [Thursday]
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books, campbell river, comics, library, teaching, travel, vancouver

hanging up a coat in an empty town on literacy day

The other day I wore my Tibetan coat inside the library and was told I looked very urban. Which was funny because I was only wearing the coat inside because I was waiting to go up to Sayward with my boss to see the branch there, which is very rural.

Sayward is about an hour north of Campbell River, and it is a tiny place. It was a foggy drive so I wasn’t able to see as much of the countryside as I would have liked, but there were mountains that appeared when the fog had gaps. And mossy forests that I saw one deer/elk trying to escape the highway into.

But the town itself doesn’t even have a grocery store. If people want more than general store milk and eggs they’ve got to drive an hour down to Campbell River. That seems crazy to me. It seemed crazy to a non-librarian friend of mine that the library branch was in a strip mall, but I had no strong feeling about that.

I’ve had a bit of a tense week because today was Family Literacy Day and it was the first event I’d done to sort of integrate with other community development projects in town. That one of the literacy coordinators was there to help made me that much more aware that I didn’t really take classes in early literacy type things at school. I feel fine doing storytimes and stuff, but really focusing on what kinds of words they’re learning gets a bit wonky for me. My sleep this week was interrupted with lots of inadequacy thoughts I remember from teaching in China. I definitely see myself as a librarian not an “educator” or “literacy expert” though I guess if I keep doing this kind of thing I’ll learn.

But it all worked out. We read some stories, I talked about community and we made “comics.” Nobody decried my event as being terrible and built a rail line to run me out of town on. Now I can relax secure in what I’m doing until my gaming for kids events start up.

On Saturday I’m heading into Vancouver, where one of my awesome librarian colleagues is visiting from Calgary. It means I miss our library’s post-holiday potluck party here, but it’s been almost 3 months since I was in the Lower Mainland. ‘Tis time.

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12.12.19 [Wednesday]
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campbell river, library

methadone for my mother

I woke this morning to howling wind and rain. Which wasn’t quite as impressive as Tuesday’s snow (which is gone now). On both days I was happy to not have to drive to work. Driving the car still feels like a special occasion sort of thing. But a dental appointment without anything really bad happening kind of special occasion.
snow
Last week I left the lights on in the car when I was at the branch I have to take the ferry to. Happily my coworker noticed before too many hours had passed, so I could get the thing started before I had to drive back to the ferry to get home.

I like taking the ferry and working over at our branch on the other side. There’s no separate information desk over there so I get to check books out to people. I like that part of the job. Tomorrow I’m going to a high-school to talk about the wonderful resources of the library, and that’s another part of the job I like. I guess I just like going places for work. That was my favourite part of the job in Australia too. Not being in the office but being out somewhere, for a reason.

It’s like I want to be a journalist or something. But if I were one of those I’d probably have to blog a bit more often.

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12.11.03 [Saturday]
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campbell river, library, movies, photography

the secret russians

Is it strange for the cashier at the liquor store to ask you questions about what you’re going to use your purchases for? I mean, if I’m just going to go home and drink a bottle of vodka chased with a bottle of kahlua, maybe I don’t want to tell her. I understood the part where she was interested in the beer she hadn’t tried yet, but found the question about the colour of my Russians a bit invasive.

My neighbour here is an inventor/handyman and it’s kind of interesting. He’s very secretive about his invention which has the potential to “take down an industry” but not a big one like automotives. He borrowed my camera to take some pictures yesterday but didn’t want any help getting good ones and even bought his own SD card to put them on. Which makes me curious. He’s got a patent lawyer doing some searches for him. I don’t know at what stage it gets to pass out of the veil of secrecy. As soon as it does I will let you know.

I was terribly disappointed that Cloud Atlas didn’t make it to Campbell River. I hope that doesn’t bode ill for Django Unchained. Because they’re very similar movies, I understand. (I am not at all worried about the new Bond movie getting here.)

Oh hey, do you want to see what I look like without a beard? And without a hat? Boom.I was trying to figure out the last time I was that clean-shaven and I think it would have been spring of 2004. Of course, this was for a Halloween costume, which I don’t have any pictures of. I think they took a couple of me in costume doing storytime on Wednesday but I didn’t get a copy.

And thus concludes my blogging about whatever random things I thought of before making dinner.

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12.10.31 [Wednesday]
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campbell river, games, library, sports, vancouver

come on grab your friends

I believe this is the first time I’ve been the most-elaborately costumed person in my workplace. For Halloween at least. I went as Finn the Human and brought along an episode to show people who’d never heard of the show Adventure Time. Which was most people.

One thing I really like about wearing a costume at work – as opposed to at a party – is the extra layer of ridiculousness layered into every interaction. I find those are even better when both people are in costume and there is no acknowledgement of the fact. I chatted with one of the bookstore women about their author signing last week, and she was in angel regalia and I was a radical adventurer and it was no big thing.

On the weekend I went into Vancouver and played D&D in costume with library school friends and that was pretty fun. I’m really glad that Vancouver isn’t a completely onerous distance from here, since well, that’s where my friends are.

We were talking over the weekend about how I can get a bit more of a social circle here and it seems that being the kind of person who could go somewhere and play rec-league sportball with strangers is the ticket. I am still not sure what I’ll do instead. It’s a good thing I have the internet to keep me company till I get meatspace pals sorted out.

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12.09.30 [Sunday]
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library, sports

relaxing thoughts of baseball

I’ve been getting settled in Campbell River the last week. It seems pretty good so far. I love the view from my apartment even when it’s cloudy. I’ve talked more with my neighbour in the last five days than I have with any neighbour I’ve ever had before.
morning
My internet is installed and I’m glad to have it as the MLB postseason looms. This year I won’t have to watch playoff games the day after to fit in with my sleep schedule. Though I guess being out in Pacific Time means most games’ll start when I’m at work. That’s too bad. I guess the Giants games’ll be at a more suitable time, and those are the ones I have a more vested interest in. It’s only been a few years since I adopted the Giants as my NL team, and I’m very obviously not a lifelong fan as I’m kind of cheering for the Dodgers to get into the postseason too. I like the sparks that would fly if they met for the NLCS. I really want an all black and orange World Series.

Last night I met a bunch of the library community at the retirement party for my predecessor and it was pretty fun. I was introduced to a storytime puppet and there was food I could eat, and we talked about how you can date novels by the technology inside. Library people are people I can get along with. The assorted librarians’ husbands were also very welcoming. One guy makes really detailed sculptures of fish!

And tomorrow I start work. Which is weird. But I’ll be at an information desk, which is where I do well so it should be fine. I’m sure there’ll be a few “Ack! It’s my first Baby Time!” posts as the month progresses. And Halloween. Oh man, I’ve got to figure out a costume.

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12.08.31 [Friday]
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games, library, school, travel, vancouver, winnipeg

i have a new job (on vancouver island)

Today I finish up my last bit of work for my MLIS degree (my professional experience moderating TeenRC.ca) and a couple of hours ago I got a phone call offering me a job as a librarian in Campbell River BC, out on Vancouver Island. It’s been a good day.

So Campbell River is a small town on the eastern side of the island. The branch there is a hub for five surrounding very small libraries whose collections we also manage. My job is as a Children’s/Youth librarian and they really want to develop their teen programming and services so I’m being given an almost blank slate to be working with. They already have a Teen Advisory Council set up, and my boss is really proud of the teens up there. So it should be a good time.

The branch is small and I’ll get on-desk time covering both Adult and Children’s services, which is great. I know that another library in the library system does D&D nights so there’s precedent for me to get some gaming into this library if the members are into that.

Morning ferry

I’ve never lived in a small town before so we’ll see how that part of everything works, but it’ll be somewhere new and hopefully means I’ll have more to write about. It’s going to be so nice to unsubscribe from all my jobfeeds.

Thank you everyone who’s been nice to me while I’ve been kind of down this summer. I’ve complained a lot about the soul-grinding nature of jobhunting, but I have been lucky enough to get interviews, and now I’m going into full-time work. Which is weird. My plan is to save money for doing the Trans-Siberian trip in the next couple of years since I’ll be making money and won’t be in a big city to spend it.

A week from today I’m going to go to Winnipeg for a week. It’s been a year and a half since I was there for my grandma’s funeral. I planned this a while ago as a break from the accursed hunt, but now it’ll be much more fun without my lack of income to pay October’s rent looming.

I’ll also try to write more now that I’m no longer wasting all my energy on cover-letters.

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12.07.30 [Monday]
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library, school, vancouver, whining

job hunting (or: a quarter of my waking life)

I have not been posting much this month because I have become crazy busy with my last bit of school and with trying unsuccessfully to find a job. Last year I got a co-op job really easily so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining too much yet.

But man, there were 50 applicants for a Casual Children’s Librarian position. Casual. No guaranteed hours. I got an interview for that job, my only one so far in Vancouver, and I kind of sort of knew the head of Youth Services there. The job went to someone with much more experience than me. Because there are so many librarians out there looking for work.

I knew this would suck, but I thought I was pretty good at this librarian thing and I’d be okay. I still hope that. In 2006 it was four months before I got my job at the library, which wasn’t so bad. But my rent then was a third of what I pay now.

Since I don’t actually have to live anywhere specific, it’s going to be increasingly stupid for me to stay in Vancouver with no income. I wish I’d been able to live here as an employed person. It probably would have been more fun. Though it’s not like anywhere else is some librarian promised land. (I have applied in Calgary.)

I figure that once this month of too much work is done I guess I’ll start looking at jobs in the land of no healthcare and shittier wages. I have enough airmiles to do two North American return flights so I could even do a couple of non-Skype interviews before traversing the continent. Hooray.

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12.07.07 [Saturday]
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journalism, library

actual war stories

One of the most interesting parts of going out east to interview librarians was talking to someone who had actual war stories to tell. As in from World War 2. They weren’t really relevant to the purpose of why I was in his home, but there was no way I was going to try to get him back on track. He told me about getting rides on military planes and politely bluffing an army dentist from removing his bad teeth so he could get his paratrooper training. His stories were a little self-aggrandizing, sure, but when you’ve had 60 years to get them where you want them to be, they’re also really good tales. Tales that will probably be left out of the book we’re working on because the world has no justice.

Holly had a notion to get into doing oral histories, and I can definitely see the appeal. Just letting people talk to you is kind of amazing. Even if doing all the transcribing is terrible tedious work. The interviews I did are definitely not the most focused things in the world. But I’m learning a lot more about how association work goes, which is kind of a nice use of these final credits.

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