January 4, 2013
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Some days just suck...
Ever have a half & half day? You know the kind...half of the day is ok/great and the other half falls apart so badly that you need a crying towel.
Case in point-today.
The morning went well, got a lot of work done, some issues settled and was making great progress. Even the school lunch was great.
The after lunch? Not so much.
We use computer programs in our library that handle our catalog of materials and our circulation. Most of what's in that catalog is pretty well done, but there are always changes in subject headings and sometimes missing information that would help our patrons find things easier. To make the catalog work better, we use another program that "fixes" a lot of issues without us having to look at them individually.
Today I was attempting to check and fix lexiles (reading levels) in our geography and history section. I exported the files, sent them to the program, which "packages" them and sends them on to a company with nifty super computers who compare and fix the records. Then the records come back, we "unload" them and upload them back into our program where they fix things and complete missing information.
Usually this works like a charm.
Usually.
Today, during the re-upload, there was a glitch. The upload stopped, then restarted. This sometimes happens and is not usually a big problem.
Usually.
Today, when we printed out the upload report of the records, we discovered to our dismay, that it had not only done the fixes, it had also duplicated every copy of every book in that section. This meant we had about 5800 duplicate records. They were easy to spot since they had seven digit numbers instead of the four, five or six digit numbers the books should have.
Another easy fix, I thought. I set the program to delete the duplicate records in the range of seven digit numbers. This should not have deleted anything else.
But it did.
Each and every book record in the 900's is gone. Every one of them......
I did not swear. I tried to keep a cheerful attitude and told my aide that I was just glad she hadn't done this and I had, because I would have felt terrible for her.
So we had to tape off the entire 56 shelves of books to keep the kids from trying to sign them out and driving us nuts. Then I began shelf by shelf to fix.
The lemonade part of this major lemon is that we really needed to weed the shelves anyway. This gave us a perfect excuse and the "disaster" actually helped in the weeding because now we didn't have to hunt down every record and delete them individually. Ok, it was a tankerful of lemonade, but we'll take it.
So, we have a heck of a job ahead of us. Ironically, this section was the last one to have the lexiles updated. If it had happened at first? I wouldn't have bothered.....
If this were the only incident it would have been bad enough. But it wasn't....before the day had ended, I had smashed my finger in a door, spilled a Dunkin coffee in my car and then discovered that, when I tried to drink what was left of it, that the dingbat who made my caramel cappuccino had put in the coffee and the foam, but nothing else. No wonder it felt lighter than I thought it should have!
Ok, I'm home now and I intend to attempt nothing at all this evening. Hopefully, I can manage to not fall off the couch!
Comments (5)
I just read that being a librarian is one of the least stressful jobs of 2013.
@doahsdeer - Well, it's not always an adrenaline rush, but there can be a lot of stress, especially if you work in a school library!
OMG! and Wow, you have 56 shelves just in that one section? I have library envy now.
I had a parent help me code my classroom library by Lextile and Guided Reading levels. I still have three boxes of books to do, one full of books she couldn't find any levels for. I hope it is worth all the effort.
@DMMeyer - Our school district has always been huge supporters of libraries. We are reasonably funded and the libraries are points where a lot of "public" types of things happen. Our middle school library is being combined half/half with our high school library and elementary libraries. Thus the weeding and splitting must soon begin. Be envious....our new library will have as much shelving as it has now for the high school section and an almost equal amount for the middle school part which will house materials suitable for grades 7& 8. It will be functional, beautiful, and I believe, well used. Getting to "there" has a lot of work in it, but it can be done. Wish us luck!
@brokenbindings2 - My school doesn't even have a library! Built to house a maximum of 60 students in six grades in the 1950s, the original building had two classrooms, bathrooms, and a cafeteria/gym with kitchen. A room that is now our computer lab and an office were added, and we have several outbuildings, one that now houses K-1, but no library. Oh, our principal thinks we have a library because she had some book shelves added to the stage. Occasionally we have a parent come in who "does library" for the kids, but it is all show as far as I'm concerned. Which is why my classroom library is so important to me - it is really the one constant sorce of books for my kids.
The 4/5 class was working on their social studies fair projects on Friday. Had we not had the internet it would have been difficult for them to do any research whatsoever. Every year I feel it is my duty to scrounge up the old set of encyclopidias just to show the kids what research used to be like. So you can see why I'm envious!
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