(no subject)

Some of you may remember the work-related computer issues that made my work-life hell around this time last year. The short version is: a massive network crash erased our backups (and everything else) and I had to reconstruct my entire library database: book cataloging records, patron records, everything. I was going to start doing my own backups, but I was assured that there was no need, that they had fixed everything that was wrong and nothing like that would ever happen again. Like a fool, I believed them. Fastforward to this December, when a tech team came in to make a "smooth," "seamless" transition from our old, overburdened server to a new server. Hah! The transition has been anything but. My book checkout software has been down before Xmas, and the tech person who was just working on it said that there is a possibility that I may lose my database _again_. Please send prayers or good thoughts or whatever that this won't happen, because I'm not sure I can deal with this again. I am never going to trust another word out of the mouths of a technician or administrator at this school, and if this happens again, they're going to have my resignation on the table at the end of this school year.

Sometimes It's The Little Things That Give You Hope

This afternoon I had a 7th grade girl, R., come into the library to do research on her science project. R. is a struggling reader, sometimes loud, and occasionally bullies other students. On the other hand, she sometimes shows a genuinely positive focus on her schoolwork. She was having trouble finding a site that would help her choose a topic, and asked for help, but was resistant to the site I suggested. Then I told her that she might want to try looking in one of the many science project idea books we have in the library--she didn't seem to think she could find anything useful by looking in a book. Then I had her go to Dogpile (which I've begun to prefer to Google, for working with this age group), but she was too impatient to sift through the multiple results on the results page. I suggested again that she try a book, and this time she was interested. I showed her the science project idea books, helped her pick a couple, and demonstrated how to use the Table of Contents--she did it!