Storm Wages ON
[caption id="attachment_247" align="alignleft" width="364" caption="Flooded backyard of 1 staff member"]
Institutional Library Services
Senator Carrell’s visit
The Western State Hospital Library was toured by District #28 Senator Mike Carrell January 7. ILS staffers Laura Sherbo, Elizabeth Jahnke and Kathleen Benoun were on hand to greet the senator and tell him about the scope of services available to hospital patients and staff. District #28 includes Lakewood, Steilacoom, University Place, DuPont, Fircrest, Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base.
Fedmoney
This is a free full-text online resource for all U.S. grants and student financial aid programs. Find detailed and up-to-date information for over 130 government grants and loans ! www.fedmoney.org/
we’re so Cool
Winter is whizzing along, winds whipping the waves and the snow comes in flurries. It is cold, first the ice storms on Sunday then clean that up and the snow comes in fits and starts on Wednesday. If it is safe to get to work then one gets on the road and gets to work, but if it is not safe - then the work will wait, it will always wait.
Cherubs
The first time that I walked into the Washington Correction Center for Women it was for a job interview. I remember thinking that it felt more like a college campus than a prison. I got the job and ten years later I am still working here in the library. The first week that I worked here an inmate told me to my face that they did not want a man in this job. I smiled at her and told her that I was here to stay. One of the inmate library clerks admitted that she was guilty of her crime but allowed that the other 800 cherubs here were all innocent.
Library tours/orientation
Well today I had the pleasure of giving a small orientation to a class from the education department. I also have another one this afternoon. I have found that these have gotten easier over time, but I still wonder what to say and I have to remember what they need to know. Checkout periods, how many books or CDs, mention ILLs and that they can only come in during their scheduled time, the re-entry notebook, and other things that are considered vital for them to know.
Arts & Letters Daily
This site is so good that I do not know where to start. Want to read the London Times online ? Or the latest issue of New Yorker ? Book reviews from Village Voice ? George Will's column ? Lots of Weblogs ! NPR Hourly News ! Much Much More ! Find all of this at: http://www.aldaily.com
Trust
The most difficult part of my job is being a supervisor to the library clerks. As all library clerks are inmates they bring a unique aspect of supervision that I was not aware of before, trust. For the most part when you work in a library on the streets you hire people based on their work experience, their history, a background check may be done, and as such you hire the best person for the job. This is not always true when it comes to hiring workers for the library. Some times you are just hiring the least offe
Knowing when to leave or as I like to put it run for the hills
After my first year working at the Washington State Penitentiary library I was ready to make a run for it, and "it" could have been anything at that point. I was tired of all the issues that come up with working around inmates, such as the theft of materials, the blatent disregard for authority, the endless request for information, being alone with no co-workers, and the constant battle with balancing the Department of Corrections policies with library policies.