Caring hands

It displeases me to see people not caring or taking care of our books.

Book of the Week: Effective Teamwork 10 steps for technical professions By:David L. Goetsch

Frankly I couldn't find the energy to keep my mind focused on this book. I skimmed it and that's all.

Teamworking = good

Give it a read, it would be very helpful to those places that rely on the work of teams to get things done. Since I rely on student staff this really was of no help.

What does work for student staff?

Please remember

Snow does not kill, you will not die if it touches you or if you are coated in it. And you do not have to completely lose your mind when it does snow.

Think of it as just super cold rain.

Book of the Week:A Long Way Down By: Nick Hornby

To the point:
Four people meet by accident on the roof of a building known as Toppers' House. All have one goal, to plummet to their death. Think of this book as a grown-up version of The Breakfast Club, minus that grouchy dope Principal. Through the course of the night the characters narrate the story detailing their personal traumas in turn. There are moments of irritation as they get on each others' nerves, this add excitement and drama. They part the following morning, aware of having formed a peculiar sort of gang, but unlikely to see each other passing in the halls.

Now only if there was some kickin' 80s music to go along with this book....

What the?

Please tell me how you can possibly mis-shelve a LC classified book in a Dewey library? Wouldn't you notice something DIFFERENT? Shouldn't you?

A friend of mine at a nearby library uses the Dewey system and recently found another library's LC book on their shelf. It originally had been an ILL requested item that must have been mis-placed and then shelved at the library. Still I ask: Wouldn't you notice something DIFFERENT about the call number?

I shan't worry, as this is not, and will not be the only time that ever happened.

ArticleFinder

Looky what can be so very handy for library users. Infotrieve has a nice database, ArticleFinder, that will certainly help those patrons without access to extensive scientific collections. The articles are not free, you will pay for those you want, but it may be much easier to buy online rather than relying on the inter-library loan option. This is a nice contrast to the NLM's PubMed. This has been public for a bit, too bad I've just gotten the time to test this out.

Book of the Week:Work would be great if it weren't for the people: making office politics work for you By: Ronna Lichtenberg with Gene Stone

Have you ever felt like you would love your job if it there wasn't Bossy Bertha or Smelly Dave working there too? If you say yes then you should read this book.

Office politics is a part of the working life. You cannot always avoid the conflict, even those of you hiding in that closet every time a Big Meany comes along. Jerks are everywhere, despite what people may say, even in the most cheerful of places there can be some dark moments had. Nothing like a bunch of un-related tense people to be around in stressful situations for 8+ hours to make your day go swell huh?

After reading this book I have realized that not everyone is capable of getting along with co-workers. Get over it. There will always be someone that you cannot stand for some reason. Because you are working with monkeys and jackasses it is good to know how to cope.

Reading this book may enlighten you to the ways of the office battle-dome. I have been able to notice more about myself and those around me that will make my day go better. At least I can use that as my armor to keep me safe/sane.

Ask for the Short

What Starbucks doesn't want you to know is that they can serve you a short cappuccino, only if you're brave enough to ask. In fact there are all sorts of things you can order, you just need the know.

Read the article Starbucks Economics: Solving the mystery of the elusive "short" cappuccino on Slate.

It certainly will make you think, if and when, that is, you choose to order at the coffee chain.

Cochlear Implants, good news

The FDA has lowered its age restriction on the Cochlear implants. Now children as young as one year may be elgible to recieve the implants. Finally research can move on and society can catch up.

Cleaning time

I cleaned out my desk today. Now don't think it was because I needed to start the year fresh with a tidy work area. Oh no, that would have been a more relaxing reason. I lost a password to get into a database to complete this blasted document I need to work on. (And coveniently I cleaned my computer of all cookies and junk so there went the passwords, all of them.) It has been a long time since I worked on this and darn it I went ahead and lost that little scrap of paper. What am I to do?

On the positive side I found all sorts of office supplies I was running low on, look out here come the Post-its, and paper clips, I never seem to have enough of those. Ooooh a fresh pack of highlighters, come here little bright markers and let me start reading those articles holding up my plant.

Bah! Read?! This week? I don't think so. I have way too much junk to toss out. Why on earth did I feel the need to save so much stupid stuff?

Beauty Queen quote

I came across this quote and like it very much.

"There's a fine line between being sweet and innocent and being a tough broad."
-Phyllis George, Miss America 1971

Now who says beauty queens are boring? Not me!

Book of the Week:A Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow By: Tim Brookes

For humor, photos and perspective, this is a good fun read. I recommend this to read if you are interested in people and parts of America you would never see. There are some illuminating pictures of very unusual places, which I found to help visualize some of the sites he sees.

In 1973, Brookes spent three months hitchhiking across America with a girl from Iowa he had met at Oxford. Twenty five years later, he decides to recreate his adventure, hitchhiking with a humorous cynical photographer. Brookes is not entirely recreating his past experience. He periodically takes trains or buses and carries a cell phone, a standard safety net. Not only does the phone provide him with security so does his wallet. In this experience he has the funding that he lacked years before.

<>His goal is to focus on the hitchhiking experience; interacting with people and seeing the sights America has to offer. By returning to the same places again he wants to find out why things may or may not have changed. Throughout the book he recounts conversations with the people who pick him up and he discovers kindness and gratitude along the way. The unexpected kindness has reaffirmed his belief in the good hearts of people.

The moments where he captures the reality of hitchhiking are eye opening. While resting at a truck stop, hoping for a ride, he remembers the sometimes-desperation and tiredness of hitchhiking; how glorious a ride offer can feel when on one's last leg. He doesn't spend himself enough to allow many saving graces, though. Instead, he reverts to his cell phone and bank card. One brings the roving photographer to him for rides, the other gets him bus tickets over long and tired stretches.

Many may see this book as a man attempting to recapture his youth. You may like to know that the author comes to the conclusion that he got caught up in the easy hype and romance of hitching rides in the sixties. He also realizes that he’s not as far from his past as he thought. Perhaps we all are.

How do your pieces move?

The work environment should be a reasonably nice place but it can't be the Land of Love and Trust. We are, after all, competitive animals.

As a manager there are many factors involved with co-worker interaction. Much like chess you need to know who works best with who and coordinate that the best you can without being too accommodating. Trying to get your employees to work well together is a remarkable task. Everything can become complicated in an instant and perfect the next. As people leave and new employees arrive the real games begin. Who's going to seek territory? Who's going to blab?

Now only if there wasn't so much stress involved.