Weekly inspiration ~ 3-7 June

Hope everyone had a safe and relaxing Queen's Birthday weekend- I heard there were no deaths on the road so that is awesome news. I headed up to Christchurch to catch up with my sister and had a great time. We went to Lyttleton, the mall ( if you know me, that's no surprise!) and the Botanical Gardens which was gorgeous. Here's a crazy photo I took in the really, really strong wind in Lyttleton- literally thought I was going to get blown away!

Here are the things that have been inspiring me this week:

LIS discoveries:That awesome moment when you realise that you can use the search box  in circulation history, instead of scrolling through tons of pages to find out if a patron has had a book! Brilliant.

New ways of searching: My current assignment focuses on the finer points of searching on catalogues and databases- truncation, wildcards, Boolean logic etc. While I'm very familiar with these I don't tend to use them. But, after working on this assignment I'm determined to try and incorporate them more into my searching skills. Do you have any tips and tricks for better searching?

Currently Reading: The last quarter of the moon. I'm loving this book by Chinese author Zijian Chi. It is beautifully written and her descriptions of the Chinese landscape are amazing. Full book review to come soon.

Three things libraries need to do to survive: I thought this blog post had some really great ideas, especially the one about libraries needing to get a new definition of who we are and what we do.

I'd love to hear what you've found interesting or motivating this week, just leave a comment here on the blog or send me a tweet @JuliadeRuiter

Kate de Goldi- Changing Faces, Changing Places

Last Friday night Waitaki District Libraries, along with the Janet Frame Eden Street Trust hosted New Zealand author Kate de Goldi. 

Kate is the author several books for children and young adults, including the award winning 'The 10pm question'. Kate also regularly presents book reviews on radio and televsion. In her talk she mentioned that she reads three books every week as part of this role! I wish I had that much dedication! 

Kate is an awesome speaker. She is so warm and engaging and really gets involved with her characters. One of the big themes of her talk was the importance of place in her writing. She mentioned that her books often feature 'real' places, like her old hometown Christchurch, but may not always be geographically accurate! 

Her style of writing really appeals to me, it is very down to earth but amusing at the same time. I also feel like I can relate to the characters which is always a feature in books I enjoy. If you are wanting to read one of Kate's books, I would recommend 'The 10pm question' which is excellent. You can check out some reviews of it here. 

If you ever get the chance to hear Kate speak, I would highly recommend it. 

The library filling up before the event.

Kate in action.

Weekly inspiration ~ 25-29 March

Happy Easter! Hope everyone has a relaxing break :) Here are the things that have been inspiring me this week and that I've been loving!

1: These two articles by Meredith Farkas: "Assuming resistance is a bad thing" & "Lets just try it and see what happens!" I pretty much love any article by Meredith!
http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2012/02/14/classic-blunder-2-assuming-resistance-is-a-bad-thing/

http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2012/01/28/classic-blunder-1-lets-just-try-it-and-see-what-happens/

2: The third book in the Divergent series: I am so excited for the upcoming release of the as-yet-untitled book by Veronica Roth- probably my favourite YA series EVER!! Also if you're a fan, you may be interested to know a Downton Abbey minor character has been cast as Tobias 'Four' Eaton in the movie!!
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/03/15/divergent-four-theo-james/

3:  Better book displays: My boss fowarded this link to me about creating better book displays & I found it very useful :)
http://658point8.com/2013/03/15/better-book-displays/

4: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I thought you could only get these in the United States ( please tell me if I'm wrong!) but I found them in Akaroa this weekend! They are so deliciously salty/sweet and just in time for Easter :)

Weekly inspiration ~ 18- 22 March

Phew, another busy week gone by. Here's what has been inspiring me this week:

1: Managing your information flow. I found this useful as I can get quite addicted to Twitter and Facebook and not realise how much time I'm spending looking at these sites.
http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/blogs/libraries-and-learning/13-03/infowhelm-strategies-managing-your-information-flow#.UTfWdjPX6oU.twitter

2: Teen Librarian Toolbox: Another cool blog to follow :)
http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/

3: This hilarious blog by Moara Tamaira
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/blogs/moatas-blog-idle/8429618/Kick-it-in-the-guts-Trev

4: Personal branding by Courtney Lambert
http://courtneylambert.co/a-personal-conversation-about-personal-brandi

5: Instaframe app for Twitter- so good! Here’s an example:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Focus

I've been feeling very inspired and motivated this week after reading blogs written by (fabulous) librarians like Rita Meade and Ingrid Henny.

Reading about how positive and passionate people can be about their job, makes me think about what my focus is. Am I constantly thinking about the negative- budget cuts, the future of libraries, career paths, upcoming study? Or, am I focusing on the really awesome, satisfying parts of my job?
I don't want to become one of those people whose glass is half empty, so my resolution is to make sure I turn my negatives into positives. I'm finding that I'm being inspired by librarians via Twitter and blogs. Its been a great way to realise that other librarians get frustrated the same way I do and feel the same satisfaction seeing a happy patron walk away.
A colleague recently sent this link through ( A future librarian's promise by Carlie Graham) and it really spoke to me as it did to her. It is well worth checking out. My favourite is:

Be creative.I will never stop looking for ways to innovate to bring truly cool and useful things to library members. I promise to work to bring art, culture, beauty into libraries, and will seek out simplicity.

 

 

If you have any stories about great library moments I'd love to hear them! Just leave a comment here on the blog or if you're on Twitter, tweet me @JuliadeRuiter

 

Julia :)

P.S. This made me giggle!

Librarian Fact #218

Library assistants are capable of finding lost books using no more than a ladle, a skein of wool, and seven safety pins.

From: http://librarianfacts.tumblr.com/page/7

 

Book Review: Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick

Woohoo! The 30 Day Book Challenge is nearly finished! This is review number eight :) Just a short review today, as work has been flat out and my brain is kind of overflowing with appointments I have to organise and places I have to be and people I have to text/message/email. It's just been that kind of day.

As far as conclusions to series go, I really enjoyed the final book in Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush Hush sequence. I got just a tad bit involved with Patch and Nora's story but funnily enough I completely forgot that there was another book coming out. So, when I saw it on the acquisitions shelf I admit- I did a happy dance. I couldn't wait to get into it and the story didn't disappoint. Filled with thrills, chills and romance I was engrossed from start to finish.
I like Fitzpatrick's style of writing and the story literally flew by.

There was the requisite plot twist which I actually didn't see coming ( I pride myself on being able to predict storylines), epic battles ( well, for me anyway) and some awesome quotes from Vee.

A satisfying conclusion to a great YA series.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Julia