Happy New Year! Were you home for Christmas? I guess it would be quite a long haul by car.
I only had Christmas day off, but I wanted a little more time, so I took the 26th and 27th as vacation and spent the Christmas holiday at home. New Year's day I spent in Baltimore with Diane and her aunt and uncle.
The week before Christmas was party time at the hospital. The annual hospital Christmas party was held on the 19th from 1:30 to 4:00. It took place in one of the gyms on the grounds and was a big success. Santa Claus was even present and gave hand-made green ornaments to everyone. (This was a staff Christmas party. Each ward has its own party for the patients.)
It seems that around the holidays the patients get on edge. The attendants said that this year was worse than any other. As of December 2d, all the patients who were working on the hospital grounds, lost their jobs. Due to a federal ruling the hospital was forced to pay the minimum wage of $2.00 per hour or stop all work projects. The hospital couldn't afford to pay the patients that much, so consequently all work by patients was stopped. The patients who had jobs were being paid, but not that amount. So now, that segment of the hospital population, who could do some meaningful work and receive compensation, are faced with nothing but TV, books, crafts, etc. Their small job meant a lot to them. The hospital is working on an alternative solution to this job problem, but it will probably take awhile for something to get started. I think the government had the patients' interest at heart when they passed the ruling, but at Delaware State it backfired.
You sound as if you're very satisfied with your job. I enjoy my work, but as with any job, I do have some bad days. Right now I'm so disgusted with the Budget Department. I have a book budget of $2,000, but I have my doubts if I'll get to spend it. I've already decided to order my last books for the year in April. It takes the budget dept. at least one month to process a purchase order and I find that too long. The library committee meets once a month to select books. I try to get the purchase order typed and on its way to budget the very same day as the meeting. The last library committee meeting was Dec. 2d and I still haven't received my purchase order copy, which means the order hasn't been sent out yet! Heaven forbid I should need any of those materials in a hurry. I just know I won't get to spend all my book budget. How do you select books and do you have a budget?
The superintendent of the hospital was to a meeting where he saw a study carrel, used by the Wilmington Medical Center Library. This carrel had synchronized slide/cassette tape programs to which the user can watch and listen in order to learn how to read a cardiogram, for example. Well, Dr. Anstreicher was really impressed by this and the next day he called me into his office and requested me to go to the Medical Center and inspect the carrel It's really a good method for teaching medicine, but I can't see getting one for a psychiatric library. At least I haven't found any to operate such a program. Tomorrow I have to meet with him and give him my opinion about buying such a unit. I'm against it and will try my darndest to talk him out of it. The library needs other things more than it needs a $1,000 study carrel. Would you believe that none of the periodicals have been bound for the past 4 years? I would like to see some money spent on binding instead of on materials that may not even get used. There are some things which never get used in that library. I believe that I'm the only person who looks at Current Contents. I like to read the Press Digest section and have found the publication's subject index really helpful when Index Medicus doesn't produce what I'm looking for. Once I start getting some new books in (probably in July!) I want to put out a monthly acquisitions list and include information about the various indexes which the library has. Some of the staff are regular users of the library and are constantly looking for information. Then there are some doctors who haven't even been in the library since I've been there. I would think that doctors especially would try to keep up with what's new in the profession.
You're lucky to have a furnished apartment. My apartment is beginning to get filled. Yesterday I bought a small sofa and it makes a big difference in my living-dining room. My mom gave an end table to use and I hopefully will get a coffee table in the near future. I like living in New Castle and have made a few friends here.
Do you hear from anyone from GSLIS besides Grayce and Diane? I had Christmas cards from Bill Louden and Marilyn Long. Bill is working at Heidelberg College in Tiffin, Ohio and Marilyn is a children's librarian at Charleston, West Virginia public library. I wonder what percentage of our class found library jobs. During December I had two letters for interviews. One was for a reference position at Meadville public library and the other was for a position with a company called Service to Publishers located in Lewisburg, Pa.
Have you had a lot of snow in Deer Lodge? A few flakes fell here the other week and that has been it for snow. Of course, winter has only just begun. Although I only have a 5 mile ride to work, I hope it doesn't snow. I hate to drive on slippery roads. Do you live far from the prison? I guess like most prisons and mental hospitals, it is located far from the view of society. I've wondered why they try to hide prisons and mental hospitals. Is it so the people will forget that they exist?
In June I'd like to go to the Medical Library Association convention in Cleveland. I've given up on ALA. I think it's too public library oriented and really doesn't have much to offer me. Not even any of the division are helpful. I belonged to the AHIL division which is for hospital librarians, but I didn't get anything helpful from their newsletter.
It was good to hear from you. Keep in touch.
No comments:
Post a Comment