Click here to find older posts.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

Mookini Library


My first visit to my future workplace was on the day I received the result to my TB test. Who knew? Not having TB is a requirement to getting a job with the State of Hawai'i. That turned out to be the final link in a long chain of qualifications I had to meet in order to be hired.

My workplace is the Mookini Library, and it is pronounced Moe-O'Keenie, not moo-kini, even though there is not a little Hawai'ian okina (')--the symbol for a glottal stop--between the two letter o's.


I walked into the building and saw:

The eponymous Edwin H. Mookini, chancellor of UHH from 1976-1979.
Portrait of Dr. Mookini. Sexy, right?


Special exhibit about the districts on the island of Hawai'i and their history and legends from the Hawai'ian Studies Program. Students in this program learn about Hawai'ian heritage, history, arts, and graduate speaking fluent Hawai'ian. There is a lot of exhibit space with four horizontal display tables in the lobby.


An ATM. 
An ATM in the library lobby. The convenience! It made it easy to decide where to open my bank account.



Students at the circulation desk.




The Information Desk.
The Hawai'ian word kokua means help or cooperation
I decided to make this my destination.

All I said was "Hi, I'm Morgan Light" and the warm welcomes began. I met a few staff members including the Library Director, who said she'd nudge the State HR people to move my appointment ahead quickly. She also took me on a short tour of the library and the campus.

I found many interesting things on this tour. As you can imagine, I could not help but compare things with Fogelson Library.

      Mookini Library                                     Fogelson Library
  • 93,000 sq. ft. library on three levels                                                                         40,000 sf on three levels
  • staff of 20 with 8 ft librarians, 23 student employees                                             Staff of 3, and varying number of students
  • 9 group study rooms, 4 w/computer and large monitor                                        1 group, 4 individual rooms
  • 100 PCs with MS Office for student use                                                                  8 since the computer lab was annexed away from library use
  • 3 Mac computers with Adobe Creative Suite 6                                                      Promises promises
  • Media production room ('Ulu Room) for student use                                           N/A, several around campus. After all, that's the focus at SFUAD
  • Library classroom with 26 computers                                                                    Lost to Digital Art Department, Summer '15
  • 3  scanner-printers                                                                                                   1, works occasionally
  • 4 black and white printers and 1 color printer                                                      1 for student use. it's the same machine as the scanner, above
  • 3 black and white photocopiers                                                                               2
  • 2 DVD and 1 VHS single-viewer stations                                                               28-seat viewing room. I do miss the cute Miniver Room.
  • Support of the State of Hawaii                                                                                Former support of Greer Garson, who died in 1996
  • Special Collection of Hawai'ian resources with a librarian                                 Southwest Collection, paging only. Free access lost Summer '15

The Hawai'ian Collection has a dedicated librarian and its own student workers




Statistics are informative, but the real differences were these:
 
the size of the staff,
I have heard complaints that some positions were cut, but there are six full-time librarians on staff and two staff members who do the IT and A/V support. Having a library IT professional with four student workers makes this job amazingly easier. Nobody has to take time away from library services in order to fiddle with the databases or fix a copier. Each semester. the librarians conduct around 100 library instruction ("Information Literacy") classes.

 an atmosphere that supports serious study,






dedicated classrooms for conducting Information Literacy Instruction,
 


Computer center in addition to about 50 other computers throughout the building,


and, best of all, a focus on student academic needs instead of student entertainment. There is a gaming center and there are pool tables, but they are in a different building. 
. . . as they should be.



The State did take care of things quickly and I was officially hired just a few days after that first visit. My first day of work was Friday the 27th, the day after Thanksgiving.  That day, the library was closed as was and most of the campus. It was a perfect day to do the necessary paperwork, take a thorough tour of the building and the campus, and get an introduction to my job and work space. 

This was prepared for me at the entrance to my cubicle:


On Monday, the library staff threw a surprise welcome party for me. They seem almost as happy that I am here as I am to be here. Almost. 
Welcome gifts from other staff members. Home-grown and hand-made.
I know they are relieved to get someone into my position because the previous evening supervisor was promoted about 9 months ago. But they can't possibly be as happy as I am.

 
This is the pin I wear.

 One thing that is better at SFUAD is the friendly familiarity between the staff and the patrons. Besides there being about ten times the number of students on this campus, there were some incidents with stalking and patrons interfering with staff members' time. So no one wears a name tag. Everyone is very professional, but there isn't the tendency to interact as closely with the students.

 
My first several weeks I have been here with only the clothes that I brought on the airplane. I was worried I would not be able to dress appropriately, having only capris, jeans, and a few tops. But it turns out that's all I need; shoes are required in the building but dress is very informal. When I get my stuff from the moving company, I'll have too many clothes.

Some places in the library building are really cold, but my area is open and near the entrance, so it is comfortable most of the time. I will hang on to my little space heater (I brought it in case the A/C was freezing, as it was sometimes in Fogelson), but I don't think I'll need it. Maybe I'll loan it to Veronica, who wears a big down parka with a fur-trimmed hood while she is in her office.

Poor Veronica!






But me, for the only time in my life except for the euphoric time after the births of my children, I am perfectly happy. I can say that I feel perfect and perfectly happy.


What a lucky duck, since I can't afford to retire, to get exactly the job I wanted!