Old Familiar Feeling (COVID memories)

 So, the Internet and our library OPAC has been down since Monday morning; an entire week of listlessness unable to perform all but the most basic of tasks, everything in a holding pattern pending service restoration.  It's been a franky depressing way to spend time at work....do what I can but then I'm reduced to listening to podcasts, watching TikTok, watching YouTube, reposting the best of TikTok to Ex-Twitter, etc.  Not quite doom scrolling but not not that either.  Interacting with fellow weebs on Threads for awhile is diverting and fun.

I reflected that my anxious, depressed mood reminds me so much of how I felt during the lockdown phase of the early pandemic.  How directionless I felt, how my sense of self-worth took a major hit.  I wanted to get back in the office doing my job serving the public and couldn't.  The not knowing was the worst part then as now.  Having to take on faith things will be restored to (mostly) normal eventually, which is exceedingly difficult for one naturally inclined to personal pessimism.  

I know we'll be back eventually but the unknown makes it hard to get up in the morning.  I recognize that I'm a bit of a workaholic and like any junkie, going cold turkey like this is really rough.  I realized I actually feel GUILTY listening to podcast content if I'm not also actively doing something productive whether working with my hands affixing ILL book straps, printing and managing paperwork, etc, or even just commuting in my car or eating lunch.  It's hard to feel okay to just sit there and listen to a podcast without having something else to work on while I do.  I know it's all in my head but it's what my head has grown accustomed to and shifting that mindset isn't done on a dime.

I'm okay watching short-form TikToks or AMVs on YouTube but would feel wrong/naughty watching entire anime episodes, etc.  Which again is dumb and no one cares but...just can't shake those feelings.

I did flip through a graphic novel history book that I ordered, based on oral histories of the First Black Marines in WW2.  Interesting mix of visual storytelling and written narrative.  Look forward to processing this ILL and actually checking it out and bringing it home.  The book piles grow and grow in separate corners of my workspace, each pile awaiting the day services are fully restored to be processed, checked in, and properly routed as needed.

I know a handful will have to be sent back & re-requested because the original loans will have expired and renewal will not be possible in all cases.  Interlibrary Loans are always time-sensitive so this is excruciating for me.

Network Down Blues

 So the system is down at my Library system....the catalog, the internet, basically nearly everything, with no estimate when it will be back yet.  Apparently the fault of a malicious cyber attack; rumor has it some dunderhead in maintenance opened and email attachment they shouldn't have and....blam, hostile virus took everything down.  We literally just had cybersecurity training that drilled into our heads NOT to do this, but I guess some people have trouble transferring sample lesson into real life or whatever.

Only as strong as our weakest (dumbest) link, I guess.

Anyway, my options are extremely limited as far as workday activity.    I receive the incoming courier deliveries and open and sort them but I can't actually receive them in the ShareIt system because ShareIt is unable to communicate with the OPAC because it is down and thus it can't properly create temporary bibs, can't trigger automated holds, etc.  I also can't properly check-in returned materials yet, so those go in another pile. 

I did apply a lot of goo gone & elbow grease to remove a lot of sticky adhesive from many of the TAE courier delivery bags, and I do that with some of the incoming stock as well.

I can't even properly print TAE bag labels since they require the internet to produce a unique QR code before you can actually print them.  Can't check email, can't even work on existing patron requests because with the OPAC down, NCIP cannot verify patron eligibility at this time.

I did need to return a handful of non-ILL items accidentally returned to our library but needing to be returned to the actual owners, e.g. other area libraries nearby.  The bulk of which being from a neighboring county and a neighboring metropolis.  I tried to see if I could print directly from my phone (I could not)  and if I could use my phone as a "hotspot" to connect my work PC to the Internet via cellular data but this was also a #fail.   

I then happened to remember the Fax Zero web service.  I looked on our telephone list and saw that our business office upstairs has a fax number that's not an eFax; they have an old fashioned actual fax machine there.  I was able to generate a PDF file of the desired shipping labels and messaged a friend of mine in Seattle, Washington a link to Fax Zero and then a copy of the desired PDF and gave her the fax number of the business office.  Asked my friend to kindly fax the PDF back to me via the business office with a coversheet addressed to me in Interlibrary Loan.

And it worked!  I retrieved the fax printout from upstairs, used the paper cutter to properly size the TAE address labels and put them in the correct sized purple courier bags for tomorrow morning.  Crazy work around but that's my autistic specialty at work.

Got a friendly call from TSLAC inquiring about our status and I was able to tell them about our internet woes and that we're down for the immediate future.  The expressed their sympathies and asked if they could help.  I said I'd let them know and thanked for their concern.  They agreed roping in my PNW friend to help out via Fax was praiseworthy as an outside the box solution.  Low tech fix FTW!

I'm asking my boss if I can get some training on how to do "offline circulation" for regular FBCL materials and if I can shadow some circ people while they work while ILL is basically on hold for now.
She said she'd think about it and we can discuss the next workday.  I just wanna help out and not just be surfing TikTok all day.  

I was also able to do some ILL returns of already checked-in material by logging on to ShareIt via my Phone and processing three returns like that.  I will have to manually delete the hold record from each of these patron's accounts when the system is restored.  Luckily most of the items on my return shelf aren't due back until next month.

I really do hope we get the system restored by next week.  It will be disastrous for ILL and the library system as a whole if we're down for several weeks in a row.  Most of my borrowing requests are going to expire because they're very time sensitive and that is distressing. 
 

 

On being autistic in the Library Profession as pertains to Interlibrary Loan, some observations.

 So TSLAC offers online "Office Hours" over Zoom for Interlibrary loan professionals at Texas libraries on tips and tricks and troubleshooting covering the ShareIt platform by Autographics, Inc.  I do my best to attend these religiously because they're always insightful and helpful.  Librarians are able to exchange ideas, ask questions of our TSLAC hosts, report problems, commiserate over shared frustrations, etc.

One of the things I've learned out of these discussions is that Libraries do some weird damn things that make no sense to me as an autistic person.  Specifically because the ShareIt platform is uniquely integrated with participating libraries OPACs in real time, often through the NCIP protocol, what you see in ShareIt is an accurate reflection of their actual holdings in real time.  In contrast, apparently the search results in OCLC Worldshare and WorldCat are NOT as reliable and more often represent historical data that is not always up to date & current.

You would think as a logical person that as part of any cataloging department's book withdrawal procedure commonly called "weeding", which is a natural part of a book's life cycle, especially in public libraries where the collection must be refreshed yearly to stay relevant to the public, that deleting one's holdings from OCLC Worldshare/WorldCat would be the final step in the process.  Makes sense, right?  And to their credit most public libraries do include this as a final step in the weeding process.  But when it comes to the big academic lenders with the big legacy collections that change less often because of their bigger shelf real estate and because of the nature of academic research in general, this final step is often skipped.

Why?  Because those big collection numbers are a point of PRIDE for these academic lenders and they don't want to subtract from that number if they don't have to.  Even though it leads to increasingly inaccurate representations of holdings in WorldCat, which is very frustrating for us working in ILL who need accuracy in collection holdings when making borrowing requests.  Conversely, when I worked for TWU, I was slightly appalled at the number of works that were cataloged incompletely and seemingly on the fly and did NOT show up in OCLC Worldshare/Worldcat/Connexion.  One of my pet projects was recataloging such works to give them more robust cataloging in the OPAC on campus but also to increase the visibility of TWU's holdings in OCLC WorldCat, letting the world know that yes in fact we do own this work and can lend it to you via ILL if you need it.  Unfortunately my boss did not agree with my prioritizing this task over other responsibilities and I was ultimately made to resign which is a story for another time.

It's just a personal pet peeve of me that Academic libraries let such foolish considerations as PRIDE and bragging rights to get in the way of accuracy of their holdings information in OCLC Worldcat.  They would rather have big numbers even if some of that is fictional rather than a lower number that is based in factual reality.  Maybe they figure it all evens out in the wash since there are books on the shelves that aren't represented in OCLC Worldshare/WorldCat but if we don't remove holdings from books we've weeded those can stand in for the other and it's all good, right?  In the aggregate maybe but as an Interlibrary Loan professional it annoys me to no end this kind of lazy thinking and lazy collection management practice.

You would think that being autistic would be less of a hinderance in cataloging but office politics makes things complicated, especially if you're made head cataloger supervising two copy catalogers and reporting to the head Acquisitions Librarian.  If you're the one calling the shots then you can only use your best judgement in the end and that can be questioned by those higher up and if you can't explain yourself adequately or play the office politics game and read the room, pick up on unwritten rules, etc, you're walking into a mine field.  I failed as a cataloger because I never had a senior cataloger (outside of my practicum) willing to mentor me properly and show me the ropes, etc.  I was always on point as head cataloger, straight out of library school...which is insane but I was desperate to land ANY  professional position and took positions at TAMUG and TWU that were, let's say, less than ideal for my particular yet then undiagnosed neuroptype.  I had colleagues who were all smiles to my face yet positively LOATHED me behind my back in was that were utterly shocking to me when these antipathies surfaced openly near the end of my work periods at these institutions. 

I do tell myself that my Cataloger experience makes me that much better an Interlibrary Loan professional and I do still believe that is true.  It was probably even a good move to make because I was raised on AACR2r2 and MARC21 but RDA confused the shit out of me and I am just so far out of the cataloging game by this point there's no going back.  We no longer speak the same language.  I wouldn't even have the confidence to do copy-cataloging anymore....wild that it was originally part of my job responsibilities when I began to work for my present employer way back in 2010.  When my tyrannical bully of a manager had me within a week or so of firing me is when I reluctantly, against my will, disclosed my ASD diagnosis and ultimately saved my job, taking a demotion from Paraprofessional to Clerk II.  It took me a long, LONG time to claw my way back to Paraprofessional rank, too.  And I've always been turned down each and every time I applied for a Librarian I job within the system, so much and so often I eventually gave up trying and settled into my rut as an Interlibrary Loan professional, the job I know best.  I just wish my existing position could be upgraded to Librarian I.

Thank god for Decentralization (in ILL borrowing)!

 Texas recently shifted from an OCLC product called Navigator Resource Engine (NRE) to a new ILL request & management platform called ShareIt, a product of the firm Autographics, Inc.  It was a change implemented by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.  I was initially very concerned about this structural change because TSLAC positioned itself as the "borrower of last resort" for the entire State of Texas, creating effectively a chokepoint for information in ways that alarmed me.  While it certainly made my job measurably easier for a time, the thing is TSLAC eventually realized relatively quickly that they had shouldered a task far too monumental for a single agency in Austin to manage effectively.  In operational terms, TSLAC allowed the OCLC contract to expire, which effectively terminated a subsidy that allowed all Texas public libraries to access OCLC WorldShare at affordable prices.  Texas public libraries are at liberty to subscribe to OCLC Worldshare independently but it is cost prohibitive.  TSLAC in effect became the only state agency responsible for (public) libraries with unfettered access to OCLC Worldshare.  Texas academic lenders (read: college & university libraries), because they deal more often with out-of-state lending, all chose to maintain their OCLC Worldshare access uninterrupted.

TSLAC, realizing they were overwhelmed in their new role as borrower of last resort worked with AutoGraphics, Inc. to come up with a plan on how to devolve the borrowing process back to each individual public library and wash their hands of the responsibility of being that borrower of last resort.  Because of ongoing intransigence of Texas academic lenders to get on board with ShareIt, even in-state requests from public libraries to academic lenders had to run through TSLAC, adding to their burden and probably leading to the decision for devolution back to individual libraries.

It was a bit of a painful process and necessitated us local ILL librarians to learn a bit of coding in building up our lender strings by hand.  There's a specific protocol we had to learn when completing the Blank ILL Request form online in ShareIt.  Potential lenders have to be entered line by line, carriage return after each entry, etc.  There's an official spreadsheet and between free WorldCat access or in my case using our cataloger's ongoing access to OCLC FirstSearch, and lots of cutting and pasting between tabs, between the spreadsheet and the blank request form, I've improved my efficiency and building lender strings for new requests in circumstances where there's little to zero chance of a request being able to be filled using ShareIt alone.  But the most important part is that the responsibility for borrowing falls to each individual library; TSLAC has stepped back from that role as borrower of last resort and thus can't be targeted by malignant actors who might seek to control statewide access to information.  That control has been diffused back to the status quo ante, back into the hands of individual librarians at individual libraries answerable directly to their municipal our county-level authorities.  This decentralization lets me sleep better at night in these trying times.

So many spinning plates

 So our Interlibrary Loan operations these days is a one man show, for better or worse (it's worse)....it really is a job for 2 people, has been for a long time in a system our size.  There's so much to do just to keep daily operations running that it's exceedingly hard to find time to do more thoughtful maintenance work and tweaks on the system that would keep it in tip top shape.  Some days it feels like everything is held together with metaphorical duct tape and bailing wire.

I do what I can, but I know stuff slips through the cracks.

I faced a real Catch-22 when my former co-worker suddenly quit out of the blue and I applied for and had to fight to actually get her position.  My Director asked me point blank if I could keep operations running solo and I said YES.  In the short term I can keep daily operations running, no doubt.  It's not ideal but I can do that much.  If I had said NO, they would've hired someone from outside to be technically over me and I would've been required to train them.  So I said YES and got the promotion but the library steadfastly refuses to hire me a Clerk II to replace the position I vacated to accept the job as ILL Paraprofessional held by my former co-worker. (Sigh)

I love my job and yes, it's a long overdue promotion and STILL not a Librarian I position.  I should be a Librarian I for the massive responsibility I've been asked to shoulder.  Everyone I tell this to at the library agrees.  And yet it does not happen.  I'm still just a paraprofessional.  I call myself a librarian anyway because I have my ALA-accredited MLS degree and have been a professional Academic librarian earlier in my career.  I think my former cataloging experience makes me a superior ILL professional, actually, because I have a more intimate understanding of databases and searching.

It seems like Interlibrary Loan is very seldomly a professional position (Librarian) anymore.  It may be supervised by a Librarian, but the grunt work isn't done by one (and it should be).  In my system technically my manager is responsible for Cataloging and Processing as her primary role and on paper is responsible for ILL and I work for her department, Support Services (sometimes called by the older term Technical Services in other library systems), named thus to avoid any confusion with our actual technology (IT) folks.  But could she step into my role and process patron requests in my absence?  She could not.  I do need to retrain her in how to process requests in ShareIt but neither of us have the time at the moment and it sucks.  I need an assistant because I'm not getting any younger and though my  aim is to work at the library as long as I'm physically able, until they MAKE me retire, someone has to be waiting in the wings to take over Interlibrary Loan operations when that day finally comes.  I need a good circulation person in their 20s, say.  Somebody to at least help out with the lending side of things and maybe help with some of the filing of paperwork while I focus on the borrowing side and returns.  I've managed to do both for some time but it runs me ragged.  It is helpful to coordinate returns with out going lending whenever possible via TAE courier and I suppose one person doing both jobs can stay on top of that easier than two people but...my former co-worker and I did manage it at least some.  Even when it was two of us, she did lending AND returns too.  My focus then as now was on borrowing and processing the incoming stuff, and keeping up with renewals and the like.

I'm usually kept busy and active most days.  Very little down time, there's always something to do.  It does make the day go by faster but it keeps things tense and can get stressful at times, too.  We tried assigning me a summer intern but the poor girl couldn't alphabetize to save her life so we had to reassign her because she was creating more work for me not less and made things worse not better.  I learned that young people apparently aren't really taught how to alphabetize anything anymore since most computers do that for them.  Gah!  What a skills deficit!  Makes you crazy to contemplate.  Do they not sing the ABC song in school anymore, the one that goes to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?  Because I still sing that in my head at work when I'm filing paperwork.

His first time in office I was a little more subtle.



This time, I'll just come out and say it.

#antifascism #antifa #FreedomToRead #Librarians #Activism 

 

(Don't) Notice Me, Senpai...

 While I've often complained that Interlibrary Loan is the oft neglected, red-headed step-child of Library Services, in our new uncertain times I'm coming to accept that may have a silver lining.

A library director in a county I won't name but that lies some distance north of where I live was recently dismissed by their County Judge (e.g. county executive--Texas is weird, ya'll) because she apparently either slow-walked or balked at implementing his directive to censor LGBT+ material in the library.

Those plans are being (shamefully) implemented, apparently.

I'm just hoping the fascist junta there are just as neglectful of ILL as they always were and that their ILL personnel can fly under the radar.  

To quote from one of my favorite SciFi movies, Serenity....as Mr. Universe says "You Can't Stop The Signal."