To Err Is Human. To Really Foul Things Up, Get a Computer.
We've been having connectivity issues at work all week. In order to understand the impact on me, you need to understand my job. I maintain the library's computer system, and use it to enter books into the system or remove them from the system. I'd estimate that I spend 90% of my time on the computer system. The other 10% is ordering books (but we're done ordering for this fiscal year), selecting books to be withdrawn, and talking to people.
The connectivity issues caused occasional access problems to the Web, but made it impossible to access the library's computer system much of the time. So I kept trying to come up with things to do without the computer system. I did a bunch of "weeding" (selecting books for withdrawal--deselection is the fancy term). However, all I really accomplished was loading up more carts of books waiting for me to use the computer system to withdraw them. Which I couldn't do. And we're low on carts. I made two trips to the recycling bin downtown to dump withdrawn books, instead of my normal one, but hauling books to the car hurts my back. I can handle one trip, but two is pushing it. I wrote up a list of the new Jazz books that we bought. And I couldn't think of other stuff to do, and my boss couldn't think of other things for me to do except weed more books, but we were running out of carts. However, last night, the system stayed up a while, which was great because I got tired of the new books piling up on my desk. (We did a bunch of ordering to spend the money left in our budget.)
So today, I couldn't access the computer system. I tried one of the wired computers in the hopes that the problem was with the WiFi, but no dice. And then the access to the Web was down. At that point, I told my boss if everything stayed down, I was going to go home and make up the time next week. She was a little taken aback, and said that she had a lot of things that she could do off of the computer, but our jobs are very different. She teaches classes on how to do library research, so she can always plan a lesson or record a video. She said, though, that I shouldn't make myself crazy over it. (Too late.)
The Web and the library system came up for a while, although the library system was up and down a lot. I'd withdraw one book, and then the system would crash. It occurred to me that I could work on my online Python class (on the Web) when I couldn't access the library system. (And working on Python was legit; I want to write a script to manipulate patron data, so I got permission to work on the class part of the time.) So that's what I did; worked on the library system until I got sick of it crashing, and then worked on Python for a while. Lather, rinse, repeat. Until the library system completely stopped working. So I went to Python, but then a video that I was watching hung my browser. THEN I had had enough, so I left. But it was only a half-hour early, so I fought the good fight.
I can't describe how nice it is to use Internet access that works. But it's a sad commentary when my home WiFi is more reliable than the one at work. TGIF!
The connectivity issues caused occasional access problems to the Web, but made it impossible to access the library's computer system much of the time. So I kept trying to come up with things to do without the computer system. I did a bunch of "weeding" (selecting books for withdrawal--deselection is the fancy term). However, all I really accomplished was loading up more carts of books waiting for me to use the computer system to withdraw them. Which I couldn't do. And we're low on carts. I made two trips to the recycling bin downtown to dump withdrawn books, instead of my normal one, but hauling books to the car hurts my back. I can handle one trip, but two is pushing it. I wrote up a list of the new Jazz books that we bought. And I couldn't think of other stuff to do, and my boss couldn't think of other things for me to do except weed more books, but we were running out of carts. However, last night, the system stayed up a while, which was great because I got tired of the new books piling up on my desk. (We did a bunch of ordering to spend the money left in our budget.)
So today, I couldn't access the computer system. I tried one of the wired computers in the hopes that the problem was with the WiFi, but no dice. And then the access to the Web was down. At that point, I told my boss if everything stayed down, I was going to go home and make up the time next week. She was a little taken aback, and said that she had a lot of things that she could do off of the computer, but our jobs are very different. She teaches classes on how to do library research, so she can always plan a lesson or record a video. She said, though, that I shouldn't make myself crazy over it. (Too late.)
The Web and the library system came up for a while, although the library system was up and down a lot. I'd withdraw one book, and then the system would crash. It occurred to me that I could work on my online Python class (on the Web) when I couldn't access the library system. (And working on Python was legit; I want to write a script to manipulate patron data, so I got permission to work on the class part of the time.) So that's what I did; worked on the library system until I got sick of it crashing, and then worked on Python for a while. Lather, rinse, repeat. Until the library system completely stopped working. So I went to Python, but then a video that I was watching hung my browser. THEN I had had enough, so I left. But it was only a half-hour early, so I fought the good fight.
I can't describe how nice it is to use Internet access that works. But it's a sad commentary when my home WiFi is more reliable than the one at work. TGIF!