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Most people are surprised to learn that you need a Masters of Information and Library Science to work as a Librarian and that not everyone who works in the library is a Librarian.  There are kinds of library workers - Librarians, Library Assistants, and Library Pages.  And there are three types of Librarians - Adult Reference, Young Adult, and Children's.  

It is often assumed that if you love books you'll love working in a library.  But most of what we do in the library is related to customer service. 

What exactly do we do?

Contrary to popular belief, librarians don't get to read on the job.  Librarians do anything and everything.   We are ready to answer any question that comes our way and be quick on our feet.  We know that not everything can be found with Google. 

A typical work day includes helping library customers set up an email account, write a resume, track down where to cash a check from a bank that no longer exists, call a tow truck for a stalled vehicle in the parking lot, make an immigration appointment, look up how to buy a baby stroller (not found in Consumer Reports), find a newspaper article about a couple who died after being hit by a tree without using the word tree in the search, reunite lost children with their parents, break up fist fights, identify the initials and Masonic-like symbols found on a sword bought at a thrift store, and figure out how to get the sales records of a sale on Craigslist that may be stolen music LPs.  And the list goes on. 

These examples are just from the past two days!  Some questions are so hard to answer that we send them on to the experts at the Bellevue Regional Library.  This link gives you many ways to talk to a librarian.

Library staff have even written books about working in the library. I have mixed feelings about these books, but they do give you an idea of what it is like to work in a library.  Working in the library is rarely dull!

• Quiet, please : dispatches from a public librarian by Scott Douglas
• The library diaries by Ann Miketa
• Free for all : oddballs, geeks, and gangstas in the public library by Don Borchert

The holidays are here and budgets are tight. The good news is that everything in the library is available for free. What can you find at the library to help you through the holidays? We have books on holiday cooking and baking, song books, and books on how to make ornaments, wrapping paper, gift tags, cards, and other holiday craft projects.

There is even a book about having an eco-friendly holiday season. Green Christmas : how to have a joyous, eco-friendly holiday season

The library also has holiday DVDs, music CDs, children's picture books, fiction with a holiday theme, and even downloadable holiday e-videos, e-books, and e-music.

To find ideas, do a subject search in the catalog -- Gifts, Christmas Cookery (for Christmas cookbooks), Christmas music, Christmas decorations, Hanukkah, Winter solstice, and Kwanzaa.

Come into the library to get out of traffic and the mall. Speaking of malls, don't forget to check out our libraries at the Crossroads and Southcenter malls. They have comfortable chairs where you can sit and read a magazine while your friends or family are shopping.

Oh, and happy holidays!

Do you ever wonder what happens when you place something at the library on hold?

A "hold" means that someone wants to reserve a particular item at the library (a copy of a book, magazine, DVD, CD...etc.) It can be something that is checked in at your local library that you want to have set aside, or it can be an item sent from another library for you to pickup at your local branch. Library Holds

How does the hold system work?

Every morning each library runs a report of all the items placed on hold that it owns. Staff take the requested items off the library shelves, check them in, create a hold slip with the patron's name on it, file the item on the holdshelf or send it on to another branch where the patron wants to pick it up. Notification is sent saying that the item is ready to be picked up. The hold stays on the holdshelf for 7 days. If it is not picked up after 7 days, the item is taken off the holdshelf and sent back to the library where it came from or sent on to another patron who has placed a hold on it.

How long does a hold take? If an item is checked in at the branch where you want to pick it up, it is best to call that branch and have them pull the item from the shelf right away. If the item is checked in at another library it usually takes about 3-4 days for the item to get to the branch where you want to pick it up. It takes time for the library to pull it off the shelf, send it by truck to our shipping and sorting facility, send it by truck to the library where the patron wants to pick it up, and have a staff member put it on the holdshelf.

Sometimes you will notice you are "6 of 14 holds" on a DVD and there are 3 copies. What does that mean to you? It means that you are 6th in line for the item and there 8 people in line waiting behind you. There are 3 copies and they are all checked out for 7 days. Five people have to return the item before it is your turn. Once and item is checked in it takes about 3-4 days to get to the next person, that person has 7 days to pick it up, and can check it out for 7 days. So, it may take about 3-4 weeks for you to get your hold. If you want to know more about how to best estimate how long it will take for you to get an item on hold, please ask a staff member.

There is the option to freeze a hold. This is if you want the item, but are not ready for it yet. Maybe you are going on vacation or you are overwhelmed with other books to read. Have a frozen hold means you are still in line for the item, but it will not come to you until you re-activate or unfreeze the hold.Freezing a Hold

Why are holds important? It means you have access to every item in the in the King County Library System - all 43 branches! If you don't find the item you are looking for at your local library, you can place it on hold and have it sent to you from another branch.

Going on a trip soon?  I just came back from Tanzania.  Before I left I heavily used the library to prepare for my trip.  Here are some examples of what I found at the library:

• 
  Books on CD for learning Swahili
• Swahili travel phrase books
• Travel DVDs on Tanzania
• Music CDs from Tanzania and Zanzibar
• Travel guidebooks by Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide
• Fiction books written by Tanzanian writers
• Travel literature about Tanzania and East Africa by writers such as Peter Matthiessen
• Interlibrary-loan book requests for books that the King County Library System doesn't own about travel in Tanzania
• Animal and bird identification guides for East Africa
• Information about Tanzania from databases such as the "International Relocation Center" where I learned it is impolite to hand people food with my left hand
• Web Links from the King County Library System homepage about Tanzania

I felt really prepared before leaving, but still experienced culture shock!  Nothing can really prepare you for the sights, smells and sounds of a new place.  Happy travels.

Are you a couch potato or do you want to become one? Start watching 1 of over 4,000 television shows available on DVD through the King County Library System.

Can't think of a TV show you'd like to watch? How about...

All in the Family  Avengers Baretta Benny Hill Benson Boston Legal Cagney & Lacey Cheers Columbo Desperate Housewives The Dick Van Dyke Show Family Ties

Father Knows Best Frasier Friends The Fugitive Golden Girls Gunsmoke I Love Lucy The Jack Benny Show The Jeffersons M*A*S*H Mary Tyler Moore Show Monk

The Monkees Murphy Brown The Odd Couple Saturday Night Live Sex and the City Six Feet Under Smothers Brothers Taxi This American Life Three's Company Ugly Betty Will and Grace

You can even browse all the television series on DVD in the library catalog. We have comedies, talk and variety shows, and police and medical dramas.

KCLS does not purchase every television show available on DVD. For example, we purchase Emmy winners, but not all the nominees. We try to buy the best television programs from the United States, and some from the United Kingdom and Canada. We look to see if they have been well-reviewed, won awards, or have ties to the Northwest.

If you'd like to learn more about how KCLS selects which DVDs to purchase, please ask a staff member for the "TV Series- Fiction" (p. 96) section of our Collection Development Manual.

There is an online form if you would like to suggest that KCLS buy a DVD.

Happy watching and don't forget to share the remote control with your loved ones.

Documentaries can be really interesting. You'll be amazed at the wide variety of documentaries that the library carries. You can browse the library catalog for documentaries or do a subject search for "Documentary films."

There are a few documentaries with ties to Washington State such as "Arid Lands" about the Hanford nuclear site, "The Heart of the Game" about the Roosevelt High School women's basketball team, and "Source to the Sea" about a man who swims the length of the Columbia River.

If you want to see a funny slice of life check out "Heavy Metal Parking Lot."  It is full of short interviews with Judas Priest fans in the concert parking lot. 

If you are interested in making your own documentary, consider taking classes at the 911 Media Center in Seattle or at the Northwest Film Forum.

Are you looking for a job or taking the GRE, SAT, or Postal Service exam soon?  Try using the Testing & Education Reference Center from the KCLS Database page. 

What's in it you ask? For starters, there are free career assessment tests.  I took one and it said I should be a librarian! 

Writing a resume?  Try using the Resume Builder which is a step-by-step guide to creating a resume. 

The Virtual Career Library has information about finding a job, getting an internship, writing a resume or cover letter, interview tips, and and advice on how to negotiate your salary.

Looking for a good college or want to find out about scholarships? Trying to figure out where to take a distance learning class? It's all in the Testing & Education Reference Center.

The Testing Preparation section includes online access to the most recent study books and practice tests for tests such as the Postal Exam, GRE, SAT, ACT, TOEFL, NCLEX, U.S. Citizenship, AP, and ASVAB. 

While the library does carry many test study books, often the one book you want isn't checked in or there is a long holds list.  Through the Testing & Education Reference Center you can sit home in your pajamas, turn on your laptop, read the entire study guide online, and then take a practice test. 

If you get stuck or have a question, please contact your local library.

Do you ever walk into a library and feel like the reference books can't be touched? Well, now you can touch reference books from home through the Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL). GVRL is an online database with access to over 450 full-text reference books. You can use it for homework or to satisfy your own curiosity. GVRL opens the door to a huge reference collection, maybe even bigger than the one in your local library.

You can search by subject or just browse.

Say you are doing a paper on the aardvark (a large ant eating animal with a pig nose living in Africa, in case you were wondering) and you can't find a book in the library. Type in aardvark in GVRL and whala, you get information from 4 different reference books about aardvarks adding up to 13 pages. Probably more than you ever wanted to know, but maybe not! GVRL tells you which reference book the information came from and how to cite it in your research paper.

One perk of using GVRL is being able to print the information out so there is no more pesky photocopying!

Some titles included in GVRL are History of the American Cinema (10 volumes), Business Plans Handbook (with sample business plans for businesses like a restaurant) (13 volumes), Scholarships, Fellowships, and Loans (good for students looking for money for college), Grizmek's Animal Life Encyclopedia (17 volumes), Cambridge World History of Food, and Shakespeare for Students (3 volumes).

To find it go to the library homepage, click on DATABASES, under Search by Subject click on Homework Resources, and then click on Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Just remember, you can't break the database so just try it out. If you get stuck, please contact your local library.

Have you ever wondered what scheme the library uses to classify music CDs?  Well, wonder no more.  The library uses a cataloging system called ANSCR (Alpha-numeric system for classification of recordings).  It is widely used by libraries with large music collections.  

For example, let's start with a CD called "A Rush of Blood to the Head" by the band Coldplay.  If we look in the catalog we see it has the call number:

CD PR COL R04.

1. CD tells us that this is a compact disc. 
2. The CD is assigned a music category such as Jazz or Rock.  That is what the PR stands for, Popular Rock. 
3. COL represents the band's name, Coldplay. 
4. R04.  The R comes from the first letter of the album title "Rush of Blood..." and the 04 is the last part of the music publisher's number that appears on the CD.

The end result is a call number unique to the CD.  There are exceptions to every cataloging rule so don't be surprised if you notice something that may not make sense to you.  Library staff are here to answer your questions and help you find the music you need.

It is easy to browse music CDs in the catalog. 

A trick to finding the very newest CDs in the library is to do a Call Number search and type in CD ON ORDER.  That will bring up a list of the CDs that are being purchased, but have not yet arrived in the library.  You can place holds on them. 

If you are looking for a CD and the library doesn't own a copy, consider submitting a request for the library to purchase it.  There is no guarantee that the CD will be purchased, but it never hurts to ask.

Rock on!