I started compiling and graphing my personal statistics project today. I hope it yields some good material for coursework and for Max/BNLS. I already know it will, and it's a good opportunity to learn some new Excel tricks that I can turn around and teach.
We had the second of the two newly formed groups today and worked on nouns again. Somehow the hour class was done in 35 minutes! Oops. We'll devise some strategies for filling the extra time productively in the future.
One thing I've forgotten to note: apparently the contract for periodicals and newspapers (besides the Daily News, which the government distributes for free) lapsed, so there are no new issues of anything at the library. BNLS must not have gotten on top of the vendor/contract issue until it was too late. I hope a new contract can be put together and begun soon, because the periodicals are very very popular with users and their absence will definitely cut into our "footsteps."
Sort of unrelated but interesting: yesterday the entrance yard between the clinic, library, and community center was full of folks--mostly women and children. After some asking around, we found out the reason: the news has been reporting a certain wealthy ex-pat auto dealer who's been donating free warm blankets to the needy. Well, yesterday was his visit to Molepolole. It's terrible to think some of the coldest days of winter have already passed, and these folks didn't have a way to keep warm. We knew when the blankets arrived, even though we were inside, by the loud ululations ringing out from the lot. Hooray!
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One of the questions that has been nagging at me is how the people you associate with deal with time. Are clocks/watches common? What about calendars? Who uses them? How are appointments scheduled? Are people on time or early like Minnesotans?
ReplyDeleteWere the lapsed periodical subscriptions due to an oversight or a budget problem? How is the library funded? Are acquisitions managed locally or by the central library?
The collection management issues have dogged the BNLS for a long time. I think the faults are many and well-distributed. Partly it is that no one is thinking systematically or trying to figure out where the cracks are that things fall through I think. Ordering is done centrally, but through vendors who may or may not have a sense of how libraries work, as far as I could tell when I was there.
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