the shadow library

blogging is more rewarding than World of Warcraft

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:11:12 +1000

There are three things which are killing WoW for me.
1. The Armory. Yes, I know that Blizzard has the right to do this, it is their data, but I’ve always felt that there should have been way of opting out. It seems like an invasion of privacy that a total stranger can check my achievements, my gear and all sorts of detailed information about my characters. At first it didn’t make much of a difference - then things changed.
2. GearScore. I don’t like my value being reduced to a number. As someone who’s played casually for almost the last two years, my GearScore number is always going to be on the low end. Now I feel that I’ve fallen off this merry-go-round, and it’s difficult for me to get back on, unless I brave -
3. Random dungeons, with people from other servers whom you’re likely to never see again. There are exceptions, but after I finish a random dungeon (or not - which happens fairly because the tank drops out halfway through), I usually despair of human nature. Most of the time, it’s just an unenjoyable experience.

There are other things I can do in WoW which I’m enjoying, like the Loremaster achievement and levelling alts and learning different professions. But these days it’s not quite the same. Yes, I’m looking forward to the changes planned in the Cataclysm expansion, but unless Blizzard can do something to improve the social environment of the game, I’m going to continue to drift away from it. / Raven

the exhilarating taste of hypocrisy

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:14:03 +1000

This is CIO, Competency is Overrated, aka the Incompetent Librarian. A lot has changed in the last 13 months. The biggest change so far as my work is concerned is that I’ve been promoted. I now supervise people. Yay for me!

It’s a massive change. My job is way more stressful now. Somebody once told me that it’s very important for new managers to have a confidant. For example if I’m having problems with Brenda, because she’s never there and has used up all of her sick leave, I can’t complain about this to Jessica, who sits next to Brenda, or to any of my other staff about this. But there are so many crazy things which can happen in this job, that I can’t just bottle it in. Some I’ve decided to use this blog as a confidant. Raven assures me that nobody reads it and so I can write whatever I like here and it won’t get back to any one.

One of my co-workers had also been interested in this management job, she was way more competent than me. A much better reference librarian. She was very organised and could get things done very quickly. But fortunately for me, everybody realised that she was extremely nitpicky and had a real mean streak. She was described with various other words which I won’t repeat here. I gather there would have been an uprising if she had been given the position. I was the least offensive alternative. Still, I view this as a small triumph for incompetency.

But enough of dwelling on past glories. It’s time to talk about the dilemma I’m currently faced with. My supervisor has asked me to speak to Brenda about her absenteeism problem. It’s not a conversation I’m looking forward to, because I will feel like such a hypocrite! Only a few years ago, in a different job, I was in that position. I had a severe case of the Tuesdayitis (I don’t mind Mondays, but Tuesdays were my least favourite day), I’d take a sick day every other week, just about. I was never sick long enough to need to produce a doctor’s certificate, which is just as well, because I would have been hard-pressed finding a doctor who would thought I was totally unfit for work. I was not blowing off work so I could go out and do something fun. I did feel unwell. Actually I think I was suffering from depression at that time, but that’s not something I want to discuss right now.

Eventually I did get the “talk” from my manager, that she was concerned about how much sick leave I was using, that it was damaging morale and making life difficult for my co-workers. For me, that talk did help. I like to think that my lack of competence is counter-balanced by the fact that I’m generally a hard worker, but then even that seemed to be a sham. I realised that I did not want to gain a reputation as someone who had attendance problems. I resolved to be like my uncle, an terrible alcoholic who let his inner demons run riot over all his life and relationships, but who drew the line at letting them impact his work. It was like he knew that only had a little will power, so he conserved it all to cordon off his job. Although I’m not an alcoholic like him, that resolve did gradually help, along with some other things.

Since becoming a manager, I have taken pains to set an example. I have worked in places where the managers acted as if they didn’t want to be there - and often weren’t - and then everybody else thinks that they can slack off as well. Actually I have been very good since starting this new role.

And now I’m on the other side of the fence, having to give the “talk” to one of my employees about absenteeism, feeling like an utter hypocrite. I’ll do it - I have to. It may even help. I’ve worked in places where absenteeism was quite rampant and nobody ever said anything directly about it. The silence almost seemed like tacit permission.

/ CIO

indefinite hiatus

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:37:58 +1000

To the long suffering readers of this blog, if any exist. This winter is giving me the shits and I don’t feel like blogging any more. I don’t know if it may continue later on or if this experiment is over. / Raven

Subverting that which is measured and counted

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:00:13 +1000

We have to keep records of each of our reference questions - they call them query logs here - and these form a part of the library’s KPI, which I only recently learned stands for Key Performance Indicators.

If I were a superhero, paperwork like this would be my kryptonite. Of course, I’m not a superhero, but I would have to admit my incompetence has no equal when it comes to my difficulties keeping this sort of paperwork.

Maybe I do have a bad attitude about this, but for good reason. All library query management systems are inadequate. I’ve experienced a few different types - antiquated paper-based filing systems, stupid Notes databases and the new slow-ware like RefTracker - and they all a waste of time. They are clunky, they stop me from doing my real work, and they will always fail to capture what’s really going on in the library.

Once upon a time there was this thing called trust. The libraries trusted their staff to do a good job, and in return, us librarians (and techs) would be trustworthy. If I were asked whether it was quiet or busy, I’d know and I’d answer honesty - and my supervisor would trust my answer. Now the bean counters are taking over libraries and they want to measure and count and capture everything. There’s no more trust or they wouldn’t be doing this.

I’ve never pretended to be an elite librarian like so many of the librarian bloggers out there. I struggle with a lot of the questions I receive. But I have learned that I work best when I can immerse myself totally in the research to the exclusion of everything else. This is why I hate query management systems so much, they get in the way. Instead of focusing exclusively on finding an answer to the question, I have to cast one eye backwards, noting down what I’m doing so I’ll have something for the query log. Reference for me is very intuitive, whereas the machine-like thinking needed by the query management systems is anti-intuitive and makes me a worse reference librarian.

Unfortunately complying with query management systems is not optional. Because of this, I have found ways to look like I’m complying with the policy, while really subverting it.

1. Always procrastinate with query logging, even if you don’t need to
2. Be as vague as possible in your description of reference transactions, afterall 99.9% of what the bean-counters care about are the numbers
3. Keep your own notes in case you’re ever questioned about the lack of detail, saying that you’re forced to do this because the query management system is so inadequate
4. Blame all the problems in the library on the query management system
5. If you must waste time on logging queries, make that time work for you - exaggerate every possible detail in your favour, but don’t go too far, it must be plausible
6. Make your colleagues hate the query management system by reviewing their queries and questioning how they handled particular questions. They may hate you too, but they’ll also start to dislike the query management system and may follow your example with being vague [I haven’t tried this one yet, because I live in a pretty big glasshouse to be throwing stones in this direction, but this idea may work for those who are better reference librarians]
7. The Nuclear option: Decline to help someone (preferably a higher up), stating that the Library has a rigid policy that all queries must be logged immediately and in detail after each question, and that you are still busy recording the query from your previous question.

/ CIO

how I almost became a full-time raider in World of Warcraft

Tue, 27 May 2008 01:08:36 +1000

Actually moving wasn’t so bad, or so it seems now that two months have passed. I now have my own broadband internet connection, and it’s a better connection than what I had in my old place. To celebrate the moving and the new internet connection, I reactivated my old World of Warcraft account.

Big mistake.

It was quite easy getting back into the rhythm of playing WoW. Too easy. I caught up with a couple guys from my friends list and joined their guild, a raiding guild. Before I knew it I was doing heroic instances most nights a week, not to mention everything on the weekends.

And it was good. I found that within the limits of the class (Mages have been shat upon by WoW developers ever since Burning Crusade came out), I played my character pretty well.

But sometimes the game seemed like a second job. You had to show up on time, or there’d be hell to pay. When in an instance [apologies for all the WoW speak, I can’t be bothered translating it, it would sound too lame, so here’s a glossary], you had to give the game your undivided attention for the next one to three hours (sometimes longer). No answering the phone, or snack or “bio breaks” without permission, or it’s likely that the whole group will die (wipe). And then there’s be more work when not in instances, paying for repair bills and potions and wizard oil and dps food by doing all these daily quests.

I found that doing this consumed just about all my life, outside of work - and it even impacted on work indirectly because most nights I’d be up way too late and often felt pretty ratshit the next day.

It was fun, even exhilarating at times - there is nothing which beats the feeling of downing a boss like Nightbane when you’ve lost a couple of players and you really don’t know if you’re going to make it or not. It felt like such an accomplishment

, and now I can tell that those of who have never played WoW or anything similar are shaking their heads in disapproval, wondering how people can get so worked up over and obsessed with a computer game.

Well if you try it for yourself - and I mean really give it a go, you’ll see that it can be pretty compelling. But why would you want to?

I’ve just had a little break from WoW. I had to go to Adelaide for a funeral and caught up with much of my extended family over there. I don’t know if it was getting the game out of my system for a few days, or all the thinking about death which did it, but I started thinking. Is this really how I want to be living my life, so that it’s mostly about playing this game, and work and everything are only important if they help me do this?

The answer is no. I don’t see how any rational person could answer yes. The thing is, when you’re caught up in WoW, you’d never ask yourself this sort of question. Not genuinely.

So I’ve decided to cut back on WoW, limit it so that I only play on 3 or 4 days a week and set clear limits about how late in the night I can play. I’ve also left my raiding guild - the feelings of guilt and not wanting to let down the side would have certainly undone this resolution of cutting back. Right now I’m guildless, but may be looking for a casual guild, if such things really exist. Maybe it would be better to quit WoW altogether. If this scaling back doesn’t work, that’s definitely an option. / Raven