Paging

I started my job in the Paging Department at the library yesterday, and I think this will be my favorite place to work. American librarianship is quite advanced, and we have a system called Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Interlibrary Loan works much like video hire, where you borrow items from another library. If you want to use an item that your Local Friendly Library doesn't have, but another library does, you can request to borrow the item through your LFL. The LFL sends a request to the Other Library, and if the item is available, the item is sent through the mail, and you can borrow the item and use it.

I remember when ILL used to be done by paper, and the ILL request was mailed to libraries. Now, everything is done by computer. You use a program called WorldCat to locate the item you want, fill in your information, and hit "submit request". It's really cool! It used to be that journal articles were sent by mail, but now they are scanned and sent as e-files to the borrowing library, and then the borrower can either print them out or read them. ILL, and Document Delivery, have made the library world quite accessible. If I don't want to go to the library, or I can't go to the library, I can request items from the U of A Main Library, and they will be scanned and e-mailed to me, free of charge.

My job in Paging is to locate the items which are requested by other libraries. We are given sheets with the ILL requests, and they are split by library (main, fine arts, science, ccp, etc.). If I'm paging in the main library, I take my papers and an empty truck, and go to the proper location to find books or journal articles. If the item isn't available, I mark on the sheet, or if a journal article is cited improperly, I mark that as well. Then the items I found are taken to the processing station on the First Floor. Paging, as one can expect, is a lot of exercise. You're doing a lot of walking around the libraries (particularly if you're paging Fine Arts, which is on the other end of campus), and you're moving quickly to finish within a 2-hour shift. Yesterday we had 120 requests for the Main Library, which is quite a lot. We got through everything but the 4th floor, which is always the toughest floor to page since there is a LOT of materials.

I like paging because you have to rely on your research skills, and sometimes instinct, to find items at times. If someone doesn't give you the correct information for a journal article, you can sometimes manage to find the article quickly by using deductive thinking or sheer luck. We aren't closely supervised, so I like the fact that I'm left alone to work.

People might not realize what a dynamic environment the library really is. We have committed ourselves to holding a 95% accuracy rate for shelving, and there is always a lot of work, so shelvers and pagers must move fairly quickly at times to finish the work. At the same time, as workers of the library, our primary job is to help patrons. So if I'm paging or shelving, even with a full load, and someone needs help, my job is to stop and help them--mostly locating items, even if they are on a different floor.

I really like working at the library. I have very little money for my efforts, but I love the environment. I'm so much happier here than when I was working as an ALT. While the money was great as an ALT, I didn't have much of a chance to use my brain, or my skills. Here, I get to interact with a lot of different people, and I have fun with my co-workers and the people on the MAT (Materials Access Team). I truly feel like I'm a member of a team, not just the Token Foreigner. I'm now excited to go to work every day, as I know there will be new challenges waiting.

Midterms are around the corner, and I had a lot of work this week. In fact, I couldn't even go to kendo last night, since I had to get some Linguistics homework ready for today :( But I'm hoping I can go tomorrow.

So this week has been fairly busy. I finished my training on Wednesday, so I started working for shelving on Wednesday night. I'm working there and for Hitoshi Kamada in the Japanese Collection. I will start paging next week, and be going 30 hours a week.

I am trying to keep in touch with Japan as much as possible. I am working in the Japanese collection, I read manga, I talk to my roommate, I cook Japanese food, and I practice kendo. I want to start practicing iaido again, but I have to find a place.

I am studying the Maori (indigenious people of New Zealand) for my museum course, and find them very interesting. I would like to go to New Zealand or Australia to work.

For my photos of the day, I present some shots from tonight's kendo practice. I wanted a few pictures of me wearing my Do, so that I can write a letter to my dojo in Japan.

Work

So this is where I spend most of my week at school--the Main Library. When my training is done, I will work for 30 hours a week here, in shelving, paging, and Japanese collections. There are three other libraries on campus--Fine Arts, Science/Engineering, and Law.
The Main Library has 5 floors, with the ground floor going to the Information Commons. You enter the library on the first floor, and then go up 3 floors to get to the 5th.
The Main Library just got Wireless installed, so I've worked there twice with a laptop. I naturally bought a security lock for my laptop, which is basically an expensive bike chain you can use to lock your laptop to a table. That way I can go get materials I need.


In Japanese collections, I am responsible for placing orders and receiving them when the books come. I don't do any cataloging, and the job mostly requires the ability to read Japanese (readings are given for the kanji) and to transcribe it into roman letters. However, as long as I can locate and know ISBN numbers, I'm fine.
So, yes, I am working with materials written in Japanese.
Here are a few of the books I received the other day.

Missing Stuffed Cat

I couldn't resist. Here's the latest scandal at U of A, as seen in Thursday's student newspaper.

Kendo and such

Well, today's theme was studying and Kendo. I got up at 8.30, and worked on my project for Linguistics for a few hours. I am going to study Japanese dialect, or 方言. I'm not sure if I will focus on 3 prefectures and the differences, or if I will focus on two Kyushu prefectures (for instance, Oita vs. Kagoshima), or if I will focus on a region such as the Tohoku (northern Honshu). I am still thinking about it.
So I spent a few hours today in the study room.


Then tonight I had Kendo, and I had a shinai splinter really badly. You have to keep shinai oiled, because they're made of bamboo and they dry out. It wasn't so bad in Oita, but here the desert air is really dry. So I can tell I will have to oil them a lot more often lest I spend tons of money on shinai. I disassembled the splintered shinai (I had two which were splintered, ironically enough), and was able to repair one with some sandpaper. the other shinai, though, was too bad. But I can save the shinai pieces, and when another shinai breaks I can take a slat and make another shinai.

So since I had the shinai apart, I took a new one apart, sandpapered the edges so they were smooth, and oiled all the slats. It's best to do them really well the first time, and then perform routine maintenance. This may be a familiar site to my friends at Shobukan. My sempai was telling me today that he oils his shinai about every 2 weeks so that it doesn't dry out and splinter. I just wish we had the spray can oil like they do in Japan.



Here's a photo of me, afterwards, fixing the himo on my men. They had become twisted, so I had to fix them. I take my men and kote out of my bag after every practice and air them out in the living room. Once a week I put them outside to dry for about 20 minutes. That's all it takes here. That's how warm it is. No mold growing here on bogu, that's for sure!

Apartment

I haven't posted in a coupla weeks. ごめんなあああああああ。
So here are some photos of the apartment. More updates to follow later.
There's the living room, kitchen, view of my room from the door, my bookcase which I constructed from milk crates and boards, my desk.
*shrug* It works, I guess. The price isn't bad. $495 a month, don't drive to campus but instead walk or bike, includes laundry and utilities.