I have become obsessed with organizing my DVDs. All week I have been organizing and then planning and then reorganizing...it's madness. Maybe this is because I'm librarian, maybe I have a little compulsive disorder problem. The disturbing part is that I don't mind this new hobby, in fact I love it.
Here is why I keep reorganizing. I have Case Logic cases for my DVDs, this allows me to fit my hundreds of DVDs on one bookshelf. However, I have movie DVDs and television shows on DVD...plus I even have some VHS still. So my dilemma has been do I keep the VHS movies separate from the DVDs - part of me says yes because VHS deserves to be secluded to their own shelf...or drawer (!). But then I look my VHS and realize how many great movies I have that I have not replaced with DVD...a great movie does not deserve seclusion simple because of its format. So. I have been intermingling my formats...thus creating difficulty in organizing alphabetically. My case logic cases fit 72 DVDs, and I even have one that is wider and fits 144 I believe. I was grouping my movies in alphabetical clusters....a few VHS tapes and then a case afterwards with DVDs that start with the same letter as the group prior on the shelf. This worked for a few days.
Then I thought about genres. At one point I had tried group genres and then alphabetizing within the genre. As a librarian it's easy enough for me to classify a movie...however, I forget how which genre I've put movies into and then I go to look for a certain movie and find myself spending more time looking for it then I would if things were just alphabetized. Plus I feel like I'm at work if I start subgroups of my movies.
Oh and then there has been the whole issue of movie versus television...do I mix them or keep a case or two only for television series. I've done both and I think I've come to the conclusion that I prefer the television shows organized separately from the movies.
My last issue has been room for growth. In the Case Logic cases I like to leave a few DVD sleeves empty after each letter because I'm sure I'll buy more and it's not to have to shift all your DVDs to fit one new one in the case. So, do I decide on a raw number of empty sleeves and if so what is enough for growth or do I figure mathematically the proportionate amount of growth expected per letter based on how many I have of that letter compared to the total. I'm leaning towards the second option because I love doing math and it sound just quirky enough to be on the verge of crazy.
In fact this whole DVD reorganizing this week is just quirky enough and a huge stress relief for me...which may be just enough crazy to keep me sane.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Typewriters
In the last week there has been a student who has become extremely interested in our typewriters at the library. In the last year I have not seen one person approach the two electric typewriters we have in our computer room so I'm intrigued by this student's curiosity. Being at least 10 years older than him...okay definitely 10 years older than him I started to realize this may be his first encounter ever with a typewriter.
My memories with typewriters are from when I was a kid...probably around age 9 or 10. We learned how to use computers in elementary school and I think all the reports I wrote were on Apple computers. So my use of the typewriter was always just for fun...I think because I dreamed of writing books I loved the idea of typing out my first novel at the typewriter. We had a high end typewriter that had the "lift-off" tape so you could erase mistakes...what a handy invention that was. I was doing a little research on typewriters and discovered that in the 70's IBM came out with this "lift-off" tape. They also produced the "Selectric" machine...a typewriter that had enough memory to contain 50 pages before it was typed out, this allowed the writer to come up with rough drafts. I think of the typewriter as such an old machine that I never realized just how advanced it was 35 years ago.
I'm not sure what type of typewriters we have at the library but they are not advanced! A few observations I made of our typewriters that are both annoying and fun:
The Classic Typewriter Page
IBM Archives
The First Typewriter
The Virtual Typewriter Museum
My memories with typewriters are from when I was a kid...probably around age 9 or 10. We learned how to use computers in elementary school and I think all the reports I wrote were on Apple computers. So my use of the typewriter was always just for fun...I think because I dreamed of writing books I loved the idea of typing out my first novel at the typewriter. We had a high end typewriter that had the "lift-off" tape so you could erase mistakes...what a handy invention that was. I was doing a little research on typewriters and discovered that in the 70's IBM came out with this "lift-off" tape. They also produced the "Selectric" machine...a typewriter that had enough memory to contain 50 pages before it was typed out, this allowed the writer to come up with rough drafts. I think of the typewriter as such an old machine that I never realized just how advanced it was 35 years ago.
I'm not sure what type of typewriters we have at the library but they are not advanced! A few observations I made of our typewriters that are both annoying and fun:
- They do not erase.
- They are loud! One typewriter is louder than 10 people typing on computers :)
- To move the page up or down...thus moving your typing ribbon up or down a line you have to press the code button and the number 6 or 7 depending on the direction. I found that fun! I still remember when word processing on computers involved command keys. Now we have the handy F1, F2, F3...etc.
- The typewriter keyboard has a Return key...remember this key everyone?! It Returned your ribbon to the other side of the page. Now we have an Enter key because we Enter information into the computer.
The Classic Typewriter Page
IBM Archives
The First Typewriter
The Virtual Typewriter Museum
Monday, July 20, 2009
July...seriously?!
How is it already mid July. They say time flies when you're having fun but the reality is that as we get older time all becomes relative to how much time has passed. For example when your 5 years old and it's summer, and your waiting for Christmas it feels like that 6 months will take forever. Because 6 months to a 5 year old is 10% of what their total life has been...and that's not even accounting for what their memories have been. When you become 31, the 6 months til Christmas flies by because now 6 months has become 1.6% of your life. I wish I could say this observation is all my own but it is not....a coworker pointed this out the other day.
Speaking of work and time and life...how has it been 3 months since my last post? I am now 31, a library director (for only a year thank goodness) and still single. I like the first two and am learning to accept the third reality. This week I am enjoying the simple pleasure of sleeping in every day. I'm working the evening reference shift all week and am thrilled to not have to set my alarm clock once this week! Yay. I have never and never will be a morning person. Oh I've had jobs that started bright and early and all of my past coworkers will tell you that I don't fully become coherent till around 9 am...until then (or until I've had copious amounts of coffee) I'm just a walking zombie. So working the later shift and sleeping in this week may do wonders for my creativity...maybe I'll actually get a few blog posts out this week.
Speaking of work and time and life...how has it been 3 months since my last post? I am now 31, a library director (for only a year thank goodness) and still single. I like the first two and am learning to accept the third reality. This week I am enjoying the simple pleasure of sleeping in every day. I'm working the evening reference shift all week and am thrilled to not have to set my alarm clock once this week! Yay. I have never and never will be a morning person. Oh I've had jobs that started bright and early and all of my past coworkers will tell you that I don't fully become coherent till around 9 am...until then (or until I've had copious amounts of coffee) I'm just a walking zombie. So working the later shift and sleeping in this week may do wonders for my creativity...maybe I'll actually get a few blog posts out this week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)