First Week at Work

Layout Plan for New Library at ASP

Meeting My New Colleagues and Directors

I arrived in Pachuca to my new home on the Mexican Independence Day, 16 September 2008 and started at ASP on the 17^th. I meet my staff, Edit, a former primary teacher from the Spanish section, and Elsie, who is from Belize. I like to think of ourselves as The Three E-Migos (Elsie, Edith, Elaine) of the Library. Edith has been with ASP for many years while Elsie has just joined in August with her husband, Andre, who is a primary teacher for the English section. My new boss is Debra and the Curriculum Coordinator is Suzy, both of whom I will be working closely with to get the library ready for the SACS Accreditation visit in April 2009.

New Library on second floor (NL)

Old Library on the ground floor (GL)

Current Status of the ASP Library

On my first day at work, I found the original library on the ground floor (GL) had shrunked to half its size since I visited in July. It had been split into two, with one section being used as a classroom. The new library (NL) still was as I had left in July, completely unfurnished. Luckily a professional librarian who visited ASP on 19-21 Aug and gave a detailed report with suggestions for design and collection development. The NL is expected to have a “soft inauguration” by October 1, meaning it should be functional.

The online public access catalog system (OPAC) is not networked or accessible via the Internet , and for some inexplicable reason, has been removed from the GL . Students are signing out books, handwritten. The books have no labels. There is no classification system currently in use.

Furnishing and Design of the NL

On my first day, I met a office furniture vendor and we reviewed possibilities how to best set up the library. Afterwards, I came up with the following layout design. We will most likely meet other vendors to compare prices and styles but this is the basic idea.

Organising the Multiple Copies/Class Sets

Although there is an overwhelming amount of work to be done for the accreditation visit, the most obvious task at hand was organizing and removing the multiple copies that teachers use. This is advantageous for several reasons:

• this should clear about 50% or more of the books,
• give staff more work space (recorded sets will be moved into NL),
• provide an inventory of a large portion of the current collection
• allow teachers to search for class sets online with the internet
• reduce duplication
• provide the finance dept a better idea for future budget allocation for books

I used Librarything.com to do this. Advantageously, it automatically adds the Dewey Decimal Classification Code (DDC) and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). These two pieces of information will help us to organize the books both physically on the shelves and electronically on the OPAC. Although I initiated it, after some fine-tuning, I delegated this project to Elsie. Both Suzy and Debra agreed it was a worthwhile and useful endeavor for teachers and administration

DDC in Spanish – VIVA DDC EN ESPANOL!!!

Great news! There are tons of internet resources for DDC in Spanish online (bookmarks, signs, etc.) – not surprisingly, much of it from the U.S. Furthermore, Edith is attending library technician courses in Pachuca at a local college. I have asked her to find out if they offer any courses for cataloging in DDC. Debra and I have also planned a visit to the State Library in Pachuca to see how they classify and organize materials next Tuesday. I will start to ponder and list down questions for this visit.