It's been two months since I posted that I wouldn't post just then bc it had been one of those days. Well, apparently it's been two months' worth of those days. Work has kept me really busy. Our library director left a few months ago and they haven't hired a new one yet. Many of us are doing things that the director used to do. E.g., I order the DVDs now which isn't difficult, but it is more time-consuming than I expected. I figured I'd just go down a list and go boom, boom, boom I want to order those movies. There are always so many new releases. And there are a lot of things to consider when selecting movies:
- We have very limited space; I can't just order one of each. It has to be something that will circulate and not just take up space.
- We have a small budget so, again, I can't order everything out there; I have to prioritize.
- But we also have some glaring omissions in our movie collection, e.g., none of The Godfather movies?!? Well, okay, that last one was just mezzo mezzo, but still! We're talking about The Godfather!
- We also have a diverse population in town, e.g., a lot of Pakistani, a fair number of Indians, what appears (from my anecdotal observations) to be a growing Latino presence, even a few Poles! So I ordered a few films that might appeal to those groups, e.g., some Bollywood love story/comedy that sounded fun, a Spanish movie that got good reviews, etc. I'll see if patrons like them and take it from there.
- One of our trustees noted that our movie collection is pretty heavy on the light stuff, i.e., fluff, and straight out entertainment and suggested we add some educational and informational movies. So what did I order? Some nature stuff, e.g., a documentary on the North American grey wolf; a documentary on Alzheimer's (I saw an installment on it on TV and thought it very interesting; I also thought that, with people living longer and the baby boomers starting to retire, some of our patrons might find it useful)...I already forget what I ordered. Maybe I oughta watch that Alzheimer's documentary.
And that's just some of the things to take into account when selecting movies.
And then there's the technical stuff. Somehow I am now the technical contact for the library. And the webmaster. *snort* I know, I know! With the movies, at least I know what kinds of movies we've had in the past, we order them from one source, I can spend $X per month on movies, yadda yadda yadda. With the technical stuff I usually have very little or no idea what I'm doing. And with the webmaster stuff, I'm starting at ground zero wrt simply editing the website, forget about doing new stuff. I've spent some frustrating hours trying to figure out stuff. One thing I have learned to do before submitting a help ticket to the tech staff at the county library: check the on and power buttons first. And when a computer goes down - unless it's something really obvious (again with the on buttons...and let's not forget plugs...okay, maybe I'm not that bad at it) - I usually end up opening a help ticket.
I could go on - and I am tempted to settle down for a good chin wag with the internet here - but a) I'm sure you get the picture and b) I gotta get ready for another day at work.
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