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NickB are you at this very minute burgling my flat by the magic of book hods, and merrily posting pix of yr swag as it leaves?

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 12 January 2004 14:33 (twenty years ago) link

Got any Agaton Sax? If so, I soon will be...

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 12 January 2004 14:35 (twenty years ago) link

Heh. My new Gresswell catalogue arrived this morning.

Wait... suss3x.ac.uk. Do you work in the Suss3x library Nick?

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 12 January 2004 14:45 (twenty years ago) link

Hey, hi there! Yep, I'm at sussex, but in i.t., not in the library. Yourself?

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 12 January 2004 14:52 (twenty years ago) link

crikey, there'll be an I Love Brighton board at this rate.....

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 12 January 2004 14:54 (twenty years ago) link

Haha. I'm in the Language Learning Centre.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:02 (twenty years ago) link

Just a short walk away from the best coffee on campus then. Nice one! ;o)

― NickB (NickB), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:13 (twenty years ago) link

Awwww!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Monday, 12 January 2004 15:36 (twenty years ago) link

Oh, I looked in the new Gresswell's catalogue on Friday, I was looking for something on wheels, dunno why I coulda sworn Mark mentioned a V-shaped trolley, but I got distracted by the hi-tech security scanners that they have. Oh, and this totally rad fold-up trolley.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 12 January 2004 17:34 (twenty years ago) link

I am totally turned on by the security systems too jel. Mainly because we will NEVER be allowed one and I will continue to be blamed for missing stock FOREVER. *wistful stroking of shiny pictures*

We just got one of these:
http://www.gresswell.com/webprd_gress/product_block/D11/000002110.jpg

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 12 January 2004 17:41 (twenty years ago) link

eleven months pass...

OMG!

http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/ISBN.html

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 16:42 (nineteen years ago) link

The response of my girlfriend (in Library school in Mississippi!!):

"holy shit!
It's like the monks compliing the billion names of buddha or whatever
It's Armageddon!"

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 16:48 (nineteen years ago) link

I can't say I'm shocked or anything, just seems like something that was going to happen anyway.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 16:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Whoa. They turned it up to 13.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link

For when you need that little extra push unto the the shelf.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 16:55 (nineteen years ago) link

(Humbly submit that typo form might be better than correctly spelled version. At least without the extra fcuking "the')

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 16:57 (nineteen years ago) link

oh my God! Think of the impact on AACR2!!!!!

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:10 (nineteen years ago) link

Grrr. This will be nothing but a big headache.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:12 (nineteen years ago) link

OTM.

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:13 (nineteen years ago) link

But it will be a great boon to- who, COBOL programmers?

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:14 (nineteen years ago) link

I never search by ISBN number anyway - give me an author or a title, and I'll find you damn book.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:19 (nineteen years ago) link

They needed to do it. Publishers ran out of numbers they could assign to new books.

― youn, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:21 (nineteen years ago) link

B-b-but:
It's fun to search by the I-S-B-N!

(xpost)

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:22 (nineteen years ago) link

They needed to do it. Publishers ran out of numbers they could assign to new books.

This was my thought. Sorta like new area codes post-cell phone population explosion.

I really don't deal much with ISBNs at all unless I'm sending in an order to our acquisitions department, so the change will be a bit abstract.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:27 (nineteen years ago) link

Just because something is necessary doesn't mean I can't grouch and bitch about it!

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:28 (nineteen years ago) link

I've spent all day learning how to catalogue to AACR2 level 2 standard. I'm struck by the realisation that I'll probably never need to use it in my job.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:29 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm all for that. (xpost)

― youn, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Great. My brain is wired to visualizing those ten-digit numbers. It will be awkward. Typing in those extra numbers will no doubt add about another half an hour or so of labor to my day. Kiss ilxing goodbye, then...

― k3rry (dymaxia), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:33 (nineteen years ago) link

This may affect acquisitions a little bit. I sometimes search for books to purchase using the ISBN. Three numbers, no big deal.

― Trip Maker (Sean Witzman), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:33 (nineteen years ago) link

they should make the extras letters with acsents!

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:34 (nineteen years ago) link

I can just imagine the glitches in various catalogues, databases and pacs though. They are all glitchy enough without the extra numbers.

― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:35 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh, it's not until 2007 at least. But yeah, knowing what I know about library database glitches, it will take another two or so years for all of the problems to be cleared up.

― k3rry (dymaxia), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:41 (nineteen years ago) link

I am heartened that ILX is so up in arms about this.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:43 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, it's really sad. I've heard that because the market for library systems is so small, they don't have very good programmers working on them. Yet they are so useful and necessary. (xpost)

― youn, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:44 (nineteen years ago) link

I've yet to hear anything from anyone else here at UCI but I suspect a few of my friends here will be venting soon enough.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Imagine the OCLC upgrades...jesus.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:46 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh, it's not until 2007 at least. But yeah, knowing what I know about library database glitches, it will take another two or so years for all of the problems to be cleared up

Imagine the OCLC upgrades...jesus.

It's not like it was for Y2K I don't think. Most of our newer systems are written in Java/Oracle and the fix is pretty simple. I don't know how many cobol (or whatever) systems still exist. (Around here, I mean.) The bigger institutions hopefully have switched to new technology and the smaller ones hopefully never installed much in the first place.

That's my guess.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:49 (nineteen years ago) link

dave225, you work for OCLC?! Note, my comment was about vendor programmers and may no longer be true.

― youn, Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link

I do, but I am not speaking for them officially. I am a lowly employee.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Heh, nice to have some inside word. So you guys actually control the world, though, right?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:54 (nineteen years ago) link

damn straight.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link

Not meaning to insult OCLC directly, just thinking more of how my library just seems to have major problems whenever we try to upgrade anything, mostly because we have student CT staff who really don't know what they are doing most of the time and forget to relink things. Our Unicode upgrade took three times as long as it should have last week.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:58 (nineteen years ago) link

I do use WorldCat for my orders. I was amused to note that when you upgraded the web interface and other such things a couple of years ago that the UC had to hop to and revamp the CDL in accordance with that.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 17:58 (nineteen years ago) link

You guys could probably tell me more about the way things work than I can tell you, actually. ...Since you actually use the products.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 18:03 (nineteen years ago) link

I can tell you though that we have some top-notch developers, and OCLC is actually a pretty coveted gig, if you're a developer in Ohio. And our testing and processes are all pretty together too. In case your impression was otherwise...

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 18:06 (nineteen years ago) link

I use CatME in my work. The problems I'm worried about are not OCLC-connected, though, I've had very few OCLC-related problems. We have link-ups to vendor websites, where they send us MARC records and order confirmations and things, and there are already enough glitches, where the ISBN doesn't match the title, or they send us the wrong title with a similar ISBN and so forth.

― k3rry (dymaxia), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 18:14 (nineteen years ago) link

xpost:
'Tis the nature of computer system to be fuxx0red. Especially when new releases occur. The programmer is always greater on the other side of the firewall.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 18:17 (nineteen years ago) link

Meanwhile, shifting subjects a touch but still talking about librarians, this story is very cool (LA Times story, registration needed I think). One large reason I am uninterested in pursuing a librarian career full on is that I absolutely know I would not have the patience with that kind of job, I am much more a behind-the-scenes person and already feel deeply frustrated with what I (probably but not *entirely* unfairly) regard as lazy undergrads who want to be spoonfed, so it's nice to see someone who does have the ability to reach out the right way for far more difficult patrons to be recognized for it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 18:26 (nineteen years ago) link

Interesting timing on that story. I'm on the board of a Settlement House (we work with needy/homeless people & senior citizens) and we're looking for ways to tie-in with the local libraries so people know where to go for help.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 11 January 2005 18:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Librarian-types and library fans might be interested in this:

Florida study finds that public libraries return $6.54 for every $1.00 invested.

The comprehensive study to assess taxpayer return-on-investment in Florida’s public libraries used a variety of data collection and analysis methods, including the public library annual data reports to the State Library and Archives of Florida, a statewide household telephone survey of adults, in-library surveys of adults, a follow-up survey of the libraries, surveys of organizations, such as businesses and schools, and an input-output econometric model. Key findings:

Overall, Florida’s public libraries return $6.54 for every $1.00 invested from all sources.

For every $6,448 spent on public libraries from public funding sources in Florida, one job is created.

For every dollar of public support spent on public libraries in Florida, gross regional product increases by $9.08.

For every dollar of public support spent on public libraries in Florida, income (wages) increases by $12.66.

The full, boring article.

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 18 January 2005 16:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Skipping 84 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

the honest truth is that all graduate school and possibly all undergrad is a shakedown scam. if anyone asks me about graduate school (and no one does), i will tell them not to go, or to drop out if they're currently enrolled.

― Linda and Jodie Rocco (map), Monday, 26 July 2021 15:13 (two years ago) link

I can see her point there. I've been happily able to live without an MLIS in the field -- and arguably I feel better all around because of it -- but then again my pay increases over time are the reasons why, thanks to both hanging in there and whatever quality and skill I have that's been recognized (including a full reclass in 2008 -- just before the recession, thankfully). And I've been working in it for almost a quarter of a century. Current entry level? *shakes head*

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 26 July 2021 15:20 (two years ago) link

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