SLIS in Tirana

El Fin

2008-07-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

The trip was an eye-opening experience that taught me a lot about myself and about a country I am ashamed to admit I had no prior knowledge. The funny thing is, I now know 3 Albanians that I see on a regular basis. The study-abroad program has made my life richer by leaps and bounds.

Thanks to all for their support during this trip and for reading. Hope you enjoyed it. Comments are forwarded to my email address, so if you have anything to add, please do.

UPDATE:May 2009
If you liked this blog, you'll LOVE my new one, now with more popcorn:
http://snippetsofclarity.blogspot.com/

-L

It's the little differences

2008-07-06T08:55:00.000-07:00

When traveling you expect things to be different. If you don't, please stay home or keep your complaints to yourself!

Of course it seems that the bathroom facilities are the most notable. They had two buttons for flushing; big flush and little flush, makes perfect sense. Some even had a foot petal to flush, a germaphobe's dream come true.

In Albania, the bathrooms are completely open with a drain in the middle. The shower was a small square with no shower curtain. The toilet lid covered the seat and there was a cover over the toilet paper. The only thing missing was a squeegee to push all the water down the drain. I didn't have a problem with this set-up, however it seemed to be highly distressing to some of my fellow travelers.

Locks also operate differently. You put the key in with the flat part on the top and turn it two times. In the hotel rooms you had to leave the key in the door and lock yourself in if you wanted to have the door locked. If your room mate was out, you had to leave the door unlocked until they returned.

I have mentioned driving. One of the TIS administrators Ron mentioned that in Albania driving is new to everyone, which is an excellent point. This explains why traffic rules are merely a suggestion. What would be a four lane road is made into six or eight depending on how much traffic. But the funniest part was the honking. Yes, the honk in Italy like crazy, but it's more a move-it jerk, kinda honk. Not so in Albania. You honk because you're driving, you honk because the sun is shining, you honk because you are starting to move, you honk because you are stopping, you honk because you are driving past a pedestrian. We dubbed it the "Courtesy Toot". If it weren't for the fact that everyone has guns here in Texas, I would employ the courtesy toot. But alas, I would get involved in a road rage incident and possibly cease to exist. I do however love the phrase Courtesy Toot and will try to incorporate it into my speech at every possible opportunity. I get a giggle every time I try to say it. Say it with me...courtesy toot...bwahahaha!

A roundabout in the main drag in Tirane

Tirane road on the way to Mother Teresa International Airport

Wolves

2008-07-01T18:45:00.001-07:00

Onufri Enthnographic Museum where there was a small upstairs room for the wimminz while the men had a nice big comfy room with cushy lambs wool rugs. Mind your place WOMAN!

This is one American woman's impression, YMMV (your mileage may vary).

In Albania there is a common behavior that the men hang out on the street corners and outdoor cafes. Rarely do you see women out, and if they are they are with other women and children going to the market or on an obvious mission. They are not chillin’ wif da homies. It took me about a week before I got used to “walking the gauntlet” and was able to feel comfortable. I dubbed these men wolves as it could be brutal getting past them.

Many of these shots of the men I got holding the camera behind my back and just clicking. I couldn't handle the attention asking permission to take their picture would have brought.

Wolves, Tirane

Wolves in Phone Alley, Tirane

More Phone Alley Wolves, Tirane

Our first weekend was spent in Berat (Berati, City of a Thousand Windows) which is just a lovely town, but not a big city. We were obvious tourists, of which there are very few in Albania. To make things worse, we were a group of seven American women walking the city, visiting the churches and mosques. We drew honks, stares and at one point we had a guy following us for several blocks. It was a rainy weekend and we got caught in a storm. A young girl came and found us amongst the cobble-stone streets up on the hill and offered us shelter in her parent’s home. We stood in the foyer and really tried to refuse going up into the rest of the house as we were dripping wet. They insisted we come inside. They fed us candies and cherry jam, watched Fashion TV, exchanged emails and took pictures. As usual, I didn’t have my camera.

View from Mountain in Berat

Blame it on the Rain (photo courtesy of Barbara Smith-Jones)

Oh yes, and I flipped off a young boy as I was walking away from him. He was trying to speak to me and I could almost understand him, but as I sat there trying to interpret what he said, he broke out with his stellar English and called me a stuck-up bitch. Guess I was a little slow on the draw. I never claimed to be a diplomat. He too took a few blocks to shake.

Future Wolves, Tirane

Shout outs : this is dedicated to the ones I love / Laura G. Ross

2008-06-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

While abroad I had a terrible case of the home sickness. The days I sat on my butt cataloging the 150th kid book were the worst because I had time to let my mind wander. Note to those considering entirely web-based library systems--if you have a slow connection U GONNA GO CRAZAY!

So I frequently found myself thinking of home. As I wandered the cities and worked in the school I would come across things that made me think about YOU, or maybe not.

King-no explanation necessary

Pants!
Lepanto is the stop on the Metro A line before Ottaviano which is the stop for St. Peter's Basilica.

Miss Margarets (ButtGrrl) who adores the Gorillaz

Pigs for Slevin/Fisher

Matt who loves the Engrish.
This is the water bottle that reads Suffled how it gush--they meant it was fresh spring water somehow.

JP whose first Q when I got home was about the bunkers (cute kid)

5 cents' love of Brian Eno

Aris--there was also the Ari bar in Saranda. In Sqhipe Ari= Bear

To Ghost: I never did get a shot of The Cubanito restaurant in Tirane, sorry!

To those I left out, well heck I'm sorry. Lot's of you popped in to say Hi and that meant the world to me, I am so serious. Fanks a million you all give great hugs!

PS. Like my title format? Yes, I did real cataloging on the trip, well more real than the crap temp. records I usually create. Dorky librarian humor, YAY!

Forum/Coliseum

2008-06-24T15:41:00.001-07:00

A few pix of our tourist experience in Rome. The other three were referred to as "the triplets" by the class because they always hung out together. They were also my beach buddies and Beth was my napping partner at the TIS liebarry. We are sweaty and hot in this photo.

Ryan, Zeb, Beth and Laura

Doing the tourist thing was difficult because none of us cared to travel in large groups or be in giant masses of humans. When you go to the Coliseum you have no choice. It was about 100 F the 3 days we were there, in the blasting sun it felt just like home. Oh boy, oh boy )))!

I really dislike being in pictures, but since I need proof and people have actually asked, I'm putting them in. What's wrong with you people?!

...and we're famous! (inside joke)

I pretend not to sweat

I present more proof

I present more proof that I am a goof

Augustus Palace walls

Augustus Palace Mosiac

Are you ready for some football?!

2008-06-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

No, not that kind of football.

The group has been enjoying watching the Euro 2008. In Tirane they have giant outdoor screens set up at the cafes and the places are packed. Every place has the TV set to the game. When I popped into an pub to catch the score I even understood it when the guy told me in Sqhipe (Albanian). Sometimes we were too tired to watch the game and stayed in the room. You could hear the entire city cheering and booing through the hotel window. I loved the solidarity. Our final night in Rome was Italy vs. Spain (click to see video of final winning penalty kick).

Most of the group wasn't that interested, but Mari and I were because we knew the whole place would go nuts and it would be a terrific experience.

View from Julius Cesar bar, what kind of drink requires a 3 foot straw???

She got the last table at the Julius Cesar Bar which was attached to our hotel. The place was rampant with youth hostelers; a very young crowd. We met up with them later a few blocks over at the Yellow's bar.

Mari, TJ and hilarious Irish kid who's name I forgot and me. Not to worry we are all perfectly sober.

TJ (who has a name like that?) was hot and bothered by the fact that we were librarians. As Pink says: "It's Just You and Your Hand Tonight".

We shared a table with some Venezuelan psychologists who were in town for a convention. They were great fun, and mentioned how much they missed A/C and ice cubes. I felt their pain.

Mari and Laura with great Venezuelan ladies.

As expected it was a great time.

Note to self and helpful hint: never go into a 9 hr. flight with a hangover ever again.

Home

2008-06-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, I made it. I will try to assemble some coherent posts soon. Many fun times and pix. For now I'm happy with my coffee and shower. Here's the view from our hotel room in Rome. If you wanted A/C you had to pay 7 EU ($10.89 US)/night for the remote. We tried other's remotes and climbing up to manually turn it on with no luck. Rome is hot and they don't believe in A/C. So, they can invent concrete/mortar and fabulous arches and domes but can't utilize A/C...go figure. PS. Sorry for the poor quality, seems I didn't inherit my dad's videography skills.

On top of old Smokey

2008-06-19T03:08:00.000-07:00

Here are Arta and I on top of one of the many mountains near Tirane; Dajtit. It was a hair raising experience it seems.

The funicular didn't work, so we got to take the van and bounce up and down the roads for an hour. We were on the road to the president's home, and where all of the richuns live, yet the roads were still unpaved.

Had a lovely final dinner with the group. Red wine, spinach cassarole, liver/kidney cheese stuff in place of the mushrooms I had ordered--yummay (bleh), salat jeshile (green salad) and bread, bread, bread, oh and wine in a duck-shaped decanter and wine in a carafe...We all had an unnatural attraction to the duck decanter. If I find a pic from someone else, I'll post it. Then you can enjoy the hawtness that is the DUCKDECANTER.

Rome on Friday!!! HELLZYA!

Tirane/Tirana

2008-06-17T23:56:00.000-07:00

Tirane is full of contradictions and people. It's a wildly woolly chaotic jumble of touch, smell, sight, smell and sound. You eyes burn from the diesel fumes, the smell of exhaust is constant, and your throat is always raw. The brightly colored buildings contrasted by the dirt and dust, the honking cars, noisy motorcycles and people chatting everywhere. It's amazing and I will miss it when I leave. You can walk 30 steps to buy fresh fruit, then another 50 steps to fresh bread. Did I mention you are supposed to walk down the middle of the street? The sidewalk is for sissies! I'm gonna get killed when I go back home to Texas. There are no traffic rules and everyone just watches out for each other and the give and take is amazing. There is no road rage and few accidents. If you want to cross the street, you just look at the oncoming car and they slow down, if they don't, you wait. I've become quite the master at navigating the streets on foot. Consider this my love letter to Tirane.

More graffiti for ButtGrrl

The artwork on the wall to an orphanage

Local High School?

Despite all the new construction, this is a familiar site

Fun architecture

New building

I adored the orange and fuschia building; it made me happy

Official School Blog

2008-06-17T02:14:00.000-07:00

Be sure to check the link to School Library Automation in Albania on my Blog Roll for more photos and our group blog. The goofy tool-bar to the left that has what looks like pictures is where you can see more photos. Not a very intuitive program, but whatchagonnado?

Love to most! ;P

Laura

Butrint/Gjirokaster

2008-06-16T23:01:00.001-07:00

Gjirokaster (jee-ro-kaster)is the birthplace of Enver Hoxha (ho-jah) and the author Ismail Kadare.

We didn't spend much time in Gjirokaster, but it looked like an incredibly interesting town. Wish we'd of had more time.

Just blanket posting photos now, time to start work in a few minutes. More photos of Butrint as well.

Weekend Journeys

2008-06-16T01:42:00.000-07:00

We traveled all across the Albanian coast this past weekend. The road from Durres to Vlore were paved maybe 40-50 years ago. I finally experienced what Michael Palin experiences in his travel shows. Always wondered what it was like bouncing around for hours at end on a dirt road. It's torture. It took about 6 hrs to reach our final destination for the day and as soon as we got in our driver went to his room to take a nap before he drove us to dinner. I sit in the back of the bus with the cool kids (that's a joke son)and developed a lovely case of nausea. I had to sit up straight and hold on to the seat in front of me until I fell asleep. Once I did, I was bouncing all over the place and thought I was going to fall out of my seat a few times.

I don't have photos of the hotel I dubbed the Turkish Prison Hotel. It was nasty as hell. What I expected all of the trip to be like. Fortunately we've had very nice accommodations, until Turkish Hell, that is. Nastay!!! Only one night. At least the ocean was just fabulous blue, clear, cool and calm. I swam, I drank beer. That is why my tummy is so big; Albanian beer and bread, YUM! I'm posting the bikini shot anyway, so be nice to me, I'm homesick and need hugs.

The Butrint dig was just fantastic. It turned me on. It was early morning and still cool at the start of the trip. We were the only ones in the area and so I ran between sites in the cool, damp, green woods. Dreamy. Wish my fambly could have been here with me. We all love Roman history. We could have all peed our pants in unison. GROSS!

Pix

2008-06-13T00:59:00.001-07:00

When I have access to the intarwebbinz I am busy working. Here's a few I sneaked up while waiting for the system pages to load. I'm off the the beach this weekend and will be out of commission for the next few days as I hear there aint no webbinz down south. Will try to get some more up before I go, but it's doubtful. I miss everyone so much! Well, almost everyone.

The poverty is astounding.

Door to Skandebeg castle

Girls Pose like in Albanian videos

Sweet, sweet restins

UFO University, really!

Graffitti for ButtGrrl

Song o' da tripz

2008-06-12T08:46:00.000-07:00

That's not my name! Too lazy to find a bootleg version to embed. Please watch!

Four letter word just to get me along
It's a difficulty and i'm biting on my tongue and I
I keep stalling, keeping me together
People around gotta find something to say now

Holding back, everyday the same
Don't wanna be a loner
Listen to me, oh no
I never say anything at all
But with nothing to consider they forget my name
(ame, ame, ame)

They call me 'Hell'
They call me 'Stacey'
They call me 'her'
They call me 'Jane'
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name

They call me 'quiet girl'
But i'm a riot
Mary, Jo, Lisa
Always the same
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name

I miss the catch if they throw me the ball
I'm the last chick standing up against the wall
Keep up, falling, these heels they keep me boring
Getting glammed up and sitting on the fence now

So alone all the time and i
Lock myself away
Listen to me, i'm not
Although i'm dressed up, out and all with
Everything considered they forget my name
(ame, ame, ame)

They call me 'Hell'
They call me 'Stacey'
They call me 'her'
They call me 'Jane'
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name

They call me 'quiet girl'
But i'm an 'ayet'
Maybe 'joleisa'
Always the same
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name

Are you calling me darling?
Are you calling me bird?
Are you calling me darling?
Are you calling me bird?

Kruja

2008-06-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

We left the school at 3 to visit Kruja where there is a traditional market, also the Skanderbeg museum/castle. Albanian history is fascinating. Unfortunately my camera batteries blew before I could get many pictures. No photos of the medieval market, sawree.

Pill Box

2008-06-10T03:33:00.000-07:00

Enver Hoxha was the crazy dictator of Albania. He was just sure the Italians and Greeks were coming to invade his country. So not! As you travel about the country you will see little clusters of these things. Some are used as shops and some have been painted very colorfully. I think next weekend when we are down by the coast I'll see the painted ones. Here's one now.

Brain Dump

2008-06-09T04:43:00.000-07:00

This is fast and furious and undedited or spell checked. Pictures coming too at some point. Here's the "raw data" Scroll down for pictures.

This s a record of everything that has happened since June 4, 2008 until at some point I find a computer with intarwebbingz and a USB port to upload my thoughts.

Rerouted-11 AM

Bad weather in Philly delayed the departure our original flight. Since we had a connecting flight, the airlines put us on standby to Frankfurt, then to Rome. We took the SkyLink to terminal D. Kerpal started off the boarding pass line by taking 20 minutes, don’t know if he’ll make the flight. You damn guy! The ticked agent literally waved him aside. They weren’t aware that 5 passengers had been moved to their flight, so there was another delay.

One good thing that happened was that I made it all the way through the screening process without a single hitch. Crossing my fingers for smooth sailing through customs.

June 5, 2008

Frankfurt Airport-8:30 AM

Tooling around the airport, had an espresso, walked around listening to The Eels, Blinking Lights and … my latest album craze. The music reminds me of so many things good things; friends mostly.

Last time I traveled out of the country I was nervous. I don’t know what it is this time, perhaps a combination of experience, age, travelling in a group; I’m not nervous at all. I have no idea where I am yet it doesn’t matter. It’s a terrifically free feeling, hope it continues.

We lost two of the original five from the transfers into Rome. The other two got on an earlier flight so I’m sitting in the terminal watching all the people walk past as I wait for the second flight.

The airport itself is ugly. Big strips of stainless steel run across the ceiling. The short-cut between terminals is a super long tunnel that is a claustrophobic’s nightmare. More stainless, a walkway is in the middle and on each side there is a conveyor belt going in opposite directions. The color scheme is punctuated by red lights emanating at regular intervals down the sides of the stainless steel wall. All that was missing was “n sss, n sss, n sss, n sss, n sss” backbeat of electronica.

Hopefully boarding soon better shut this thing down to save the batteries.

Rome Airport-2:30-9:40 PM

Hanging out at an English-style pub in… Rome? The Duck and Dogs. I didn’t have any Euros yet, so I tried to buy water with my credit card at a place that didn’t take them. So I put the water back and the fellow behind me said in Italian that he would buy my water. I politely declined and went to sit down with my group. A few minutes later he showed up to my table and handed me water. Awwww. I was so thirsty I wasn’t about to decline the second offer. Thanks sweet Italian guy, whoever you are!

We are enjoying a seven hour layover until our final leg to Tirane. Everyone is punch drunk, we’ve all been up for 24 hours, with bits and pieces of sleep thrown in during flights. One of our crew is still missing. No idea if she’ll show or where she is. Most have not unlocked their phones for international service due to the cost making communication difficult. Once we arrive at the hotel around 11-12 AM, we will get to sleep in a horizontal position. A deliciously delightful thought. We will leave for the site at 9 AM, assess the situation then leave for our Berati sightseeing tour for our first weekend.

Tirane, Yes. Change, No.

Note to self: never ask Albanian gangstas about gate changes, WOMAN!

Too sleepy to flirt

I sat next to the most delicious of the Schiptar young men on the plane. He had already been identified as the hawtest guy on our flight. I offered him a piece of gum then promptly fell asleep with my mouth hanging open and head nodding like an old woman. He was polite.

City of 1,000 windows

Found an internet café, logged in for a few to say hello. They didn’t even charge me. Yay! I miss the intarwebz. There are unsecured networks floating around. My roommate and I tried to connect to some of them without any luck. Damn.

My rudimentary Schipe has taken me farther than I would have expected. Yay again! Fortunately we have Arta to help us. She must be going nuts being the translator for 13 other people all day long, in addition to her other responsibilities.

View from Tomori Hotel window

Roman Coliseum

Watch your language! Suffled How it Gush. Priceless. Click pic for bigger image.

June 8, 2008

Xhevi

We have the best driver in all of Albania. Xhevi, pronounced “Jevi” or I prefer the mnemonic “Chevy”. He has taken us to all of the best restaurants, cafes and sites. He has a good humor, bribes guards as needed and can drive like a MOFO. He can back up that white Mercedes van like nobody’s business. I’m talking backing up that thing on narrow, windy cobblestone streets, not just a nice wide US avenue. Also, he can make a U-y in seconds flat anywhere in God’s green earth. Now that he’s gotten a little more comfortable around us we have learned a bit more about him, through the gracious translations of Arta. He’s helped us to understand the history and culture of Albania, and come-to-find-out, he drove the press corps during W’s visit to Albania a few years back. I believe may accompany us to the highly discussed visit to an Albanian diskotek. One of our team has a birthday coming up the weekend (June 14-15) we will be in Saranda and Vlore on the Ionia beaches. Gonna try Raki and partay with Xhevi.

Today, among other things we got to go inside the castle of King Zog. We visited so many fabulous places today, a great Monastery, a roman coliseum, the beach…nothing really compares to getting into the former leader of the country. Entry into the castle is forbidden. It was once owned by the state but has since had ownership turned over to Zog’s son. The place must have been incredible, but after the pyramid scheme disaster of 1997, the place was heavily looted. Due to the US intervention into Kosovo, you know, when we bombed the shit out of Serbia, the guard thanked us and said any other nationality wouldn’t be allowed in, but he would let us in. We had free reign in a once fabulous soviet style castle. We gave him a generous gratuity at the end of our tour after Xhavi’s suggestion, who says we probably provided him about 3 days worth of groceries. Money talks in Albania.

Songs of the trip
That’s Not My Name…I’m not Janesha

Tirane

2008-06-03T01:42:00.000-07:00

Links and images from the In Your Pocket website

re

In Your Pocket Tirane City Guide PDF

Goodbye Cruel Work

2008-06-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day of work until June 26th. Here's the exterior of the library as I saw it this morning at 6:30, the incredibly ugly hallway, followed by my desk of mass chaos. It was a difficult day trying to finish up all of the last minute details before I left.

PS. The book on my desk is entitled "Pigs in Heaven", thought it was a funny title.

SF Chronicle article on Berati

2008-06-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

Came across this fun article con fotos trolling Google news. Click the link to read the whole article. Here's a teaser:

Five cool things about Albania

1 Bunkers, bunkers, bunkers: Albania still has tens of thousands of concrete bunkers sprouting like mushrooms across the country, remnants from the Cold War. Some have been uprooted, some painted with cheery murals and a few have been even been turned into bars.

2 God bless America: Due to the U.S. support of neighboring Kosovo and its ethnic Albanian population against the Serbs, Americans are quite popular in Albania. U.S. flags hang from shops and houses, and people on the street shake your hand and thank you. It's always nice not to have to pretend you're Canadian.

3 No means no - unless it means yes: Traditionally, Albanians shake their head side to side to signify agreement, which makes it look like they're telling you "no" when they mean "yes." But some Albanians have changed to do it like we do, so you're never sure what's going on. Which may not be cool, but it is amusing.

4 Dr. Evil's beaches: While the Albanian beach towns of Durres and Sarande are overdeveloped weekend spots, much of Albania's coastline used to be off limits because of military camps during the regime of Enver Hoxha, known as Albania's Dr. Evil. Now they just have mile after mile of uninhabited white-sand beaches. Club Med is in talks to develop a former submarine base into a resort.

5 King Zog: Cool only for his name. Born Ahmet Zogu, he was a clan chief who declared himself king of Albania in 1928 and ruled until the Italians annexed the country in 1939. He died in 1961 and Queen Zog died in 2002, but their grandson was chosen to be part of the Cabinet in 2007.

- Bill Fink

PS. Hellooooo to my SF e-friends!

Crisis Diverted

2008-05-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

Our class had two days of trying to figure out how to do all of this technical work from one non-networked computer. We had thought we weren't even going to need to bother with bringing our laptops. I had a moment of pre-sympathetic computer-withdrawal (PSCW,yes, I made that up). Fortunately, we just found out that they have an IT person who plans to set up a wireless network in anticipation of our arrival.

This near-crisis already had an e-friend busting a gut (laughing) imagining me not online. Jerk!

Eleventy-hundred

2008-05-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

DFW to Philly 1-5 PM
Philly to Rome 6 PM-9 AM
Rome to Tirana 9:30 PM-11 PM

20.5 hours worth of flying, assuming no delays. I'm the one who always gets pulled aside for extra inspection. Last time my makeup bag was swabbed for explosives. My feet and knees are swollen in anticipation. Hope I get stuck in the middle of the 5 row aisle like last time.

Maybe I'll get seated next to a hunky Italian! Mama mia

I sound like a downer, but I'm excited. I just decided to count up the hours because everyone keeps asking me about flight length. Now I can stun them with this tremendous number.

Electricity, eee-lec-tricity!

2008-05-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Albanians may have found a new villain to blame for the frequent power cuts that have been blighting their lives...
Can I get a meow?

with a thanks to Laci for the heads-up on this article

Thundercats are Go!

2008-05-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

Just spoke with one of our faculty who will be in Tirane in June after a visit to his home country of Kosovo. He has the same last name as the former dictator of Albania. He's lent me his Albanina/English-English/Albanian dictionaries which are well-worn. He's always in a good mood and helpful, ~~unlike some of the other doctors I know~~, which is refreshing. So, lunch with Dr. Hoxha in Tirane, what a hoot!

Tonight I meet my instructors and some of my fellow classmates in Denton for dinner and a conference with a Follett representative. He will be showing us the finer points of the system we are going to implement. Also, we meet with someone from the Study-Abroad Center who will inform us on how not to be loud, stupid Americans and how to not get the university sued...I'm just sayin'!

Integrated Library System

2008-05-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

Looks like my class will be implementing an upgrade from the Athena system to the Destiny system. Both of which are products from Follett. I'm feeling lucky because the MARC records have have already been transferred over and are going to be cleaned up by Follett before we arrive. Phew, from past experience I know that there will still be plenty of work left to do.

When I was at Tarrant County College Northeast Campus Library (that's me in the pink shirt, early 2000s!) we migrated from a cobbled together home grown system to Voyager Endeavor. Our campus was the first of four to begin the barcoding project. None of our books had barcodes, we used an OCR scanner that never worked on a long string of characters up to that point.

Since our library was far away from the company's home base, they hired temporary workers to apply barcodes to the entire collection. These were "smart" barcodes in that they had the call number and campus printed on them. So, each barcode went to a specific book. None of the temporary employees came with previous library experience, much less the ability to understand LC classification. After discovering several large batches of barcodes in the trash we realized that two were functionally illiterate. The people supervising were not library workers either. Needless to say we had some massive records clean-up. I was preggers at the time and left for 6 weeks right in the middle. One of the other district library's followed around each temporary employee and watched their every move when it was their turn.

I still have a print out from the binder cover I created "The Big Book of Barcodes" with accompanying unfound barcodes my buddies sent me. This project was where I discovered my innate ability to understand library systems. I became good friends with the District Software Coordinator who has yet to forgive me for jumping ship. I did stay through the chaos of writing procedures, trouble shooting and learning how to create reports in Acess using SQL commands (the commands were canned, don't go thinkng I know SQL).

Coming from a circulation worker's perspective, Voyager was great, but it seems from a technical services perspective, Innovative Interfaces Millennium is a better product. It does have a nice template function. However, you need macros to use Voyager when cataloging, but for circ purposes it had great GUI and functionality. Whereas when I trained our public services director on basic circulation functions in Millennium he was outraged at the lack of intuitiveness. I kept saying "well you bought this thing"! Actually, we got it because UNT Denton uses it and we are in their university system by name. I won't digress into the lack of continuity between campuses.

So ends the long story of how I fell into a trip to Albania to implement a library system. Yet another piece of the puzzle. Knew you were dying to know.

End of Semester Crisis Mode

2008-04-21T12:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's the trite "I'm sorry but I'm too busy to post right now" post. Hopefully I will be able to complete the semester and breathe soon, then more posts that are more interesting than this one.

Tangentially Related to LIS

2008-03-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

I received an email from the director of National Information Standards Organization in regards to using some of my CC licensed Flickr photos. Wowies...

Good afternoon,

I am the Director of the National Information Standards
Organization and would like to get your permission to
possibly use two of your images of the Gibson D. Lewis
Health Science for our redesigned website.We would be pleased to credit you and link back to your
flickr site. If this is something that you are willing to
allow, please email me on xxx@niso.org....

Trying not to pee my pants!

Why Albania?

2008-03-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

I was listening to Rick Steves Radio show this afternoon. One of the guests was the author of the book, Road trip pilgrim's guide : witchdoctors, magic tokens, camping on golf courses, and everything else you need to know to go on a pilgrimage / Dan Austin. I haven't read the book yet, but it really touched upon some of the reasons I am making this trip. My own pilgrimage in a way.

Why would one would willingly go to Albania when there are so many other destinations from which to chose? There are many reasons. Fist of all, I will earn 6 graduate credit hours towards my degree in a subject that I have both extensive experience and interest. Managing Library Automation Projects and Library Operation and Policy Development (I know, I know, I'm twisted). Turns out I'm on the policy development team. This goes under the "careful what you wish for" category as I highlighted my background in writing and developing policies and procedures for two other libraries in the past on my application to this program.

To be perfectly honest, I applied to this program on a whim, thinking it would never come to pass. I mean who the F goes to Albania to implement a library system? The real reason I applied was to get myself out of a very deep rut. I've gotten to a point in my life where I've begun to question all of my choices and decisions. I am hoping that by leaving all that is familiar-- in particular, my family for 3-weeks--that I will come to some epiphany. I want to be able to fully appreciate all that I have in my life. Intellectually I know that I have so much, and more than many. But I have this terrible feeling that I am missing out, that perhaps it was all a mistake. I know this is rubbish, but this is where I have been stuck for the past year.

Now you know my motivation for taking on this challenge; for learning a language that has only a few tentative threads to the languages with which I have familiarity; for going where you are lucky there is a back-up generator on the premises; for being so happy to have your own toilet; for not being able to drink the water unless it comes from a bottle.

I can't wait!

Gerdec Depot Blast

2008-03-18T05:18:00.000-07:00

This Aljazeera article had a much more human touch to it than the other ones I read. Please don't delay me at the airport for linking to this publication. It has been suggested that I'm on the Do Not Fly list now.

Berat

2008-03-13T05:34:00.000-07:00

Our first weekend in Albania will be spent touring Berat, Albania. It is known as the "City of a thousand windows". Here's why...

cc license 2.0

Click this link to view a wonderful gallery of images of Berat created by Alan Grant.

We will also be visiting the Onufri Iconographic Museum in addition to other sites in the area.

View Larger Map

Meanwhile back in Texas

2008-03-12T16:06:00.001-07:00

I would much rather play in the summer courses website that will take me to Albania, but I have to focus on my current classes. I made a good grade on my final draft 2 for 5200, Introduction to Information Organization (w00t). However, it is March in Texas when all of the Bradford pears, peach and plum trees are in bloom. The sun is still gentle and seductive; the pollen has yet to kick-in. I sit on the patio and smell someone's barbecue, listen to the high school drum line, the neighborhood weed eaters, and watch the shadows elongate.

Perhaps the intro to this blog should have warned you that I enjoy writing bad poetry. Consider the previous sentence your warning...

The delicious sun
Nuzzles the back of my neck
Love is born of Spring

Good News Everyone!

2008-03-08T15:42:00.000-08:00

According to the Lonely Planet entry on my hotel accommodations in Tirana...

There are three double and five twin rooms, all of which feature air-conditioning, direct phone lines, TV, minibar and a private bathroom with a shower and bidet.

I am ever so happy! And no, I am not ashamed that my very first post is about the toilets.

Here's the Hotel Lugano's official website. Looks lovely.