School Library Automation in Albania

Not a lot to say for circulation; the library automation project had many obstacles but the smoothest transition has been circulation.  Ilira was receptive to our help but was already on top of things with the Destiny circulation functions. 

Some of the highlights of the project was Thursday Pizza Day, Far East Restaurant, hard boiled eggs (inside joke), the beach, and Ilira's patience with allowing us to invade her library.  Thanks Ilira!

Overall, this has been a great experience thanks to our fellow project members, the staff at the Tirana International School, and our leaders, Barb and Toby.

Thanks!

Meredith

Mari

Circulation Team

Arta, Mari, and myself were assigned the task of entering all of the school's textbooks into the Destiny system and giving each a unique barcode so as to create a simple way for the faculty to keep track of each item and do analysis of their collection.

We, the textbook team, would like to present you with a poem we have written about our sweaty experience for the last two days which have been spent without air conditioning and in the presence of a lot of heavy text books in need of some cataloging love.

The attic is hot.
The textbooks are dusty.
My piles are dwindling,
And my heat rash is lovely.
Children, your books
Have been cataloged with care.
Don’t touch that fresh barcode,
Or I’ll set fire to your hair.
History and grammar,
Geometry and lit,
Pick your favorite subject
On that pile you can sit.
The shelves are full and bending
Workbooks are on the floor.
I will go screaming out the window
If you dare to bring me more.
My computer is dying
And Destiny is down.
This is a good stopping point.
It’s time to leave town.
Students and teachers
Next fall, pretty please,
Don’t forget our sweaty faces
When you find your books with ease.

Today is our second to last day. I am very happy about all of the work we have accomplished, but sad because I do not want to leave. We have encountered many adventures thus far. To recount a few:

Two days ago there was a lizard in the kid’s room. We have an hour lunch everyday, from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. I usually eat in about 30 minutes and then take a nap. I went into the kid’s room and was making my bed of giant red and orange pillows with a couple of lime green and pretty blue pillows thrown in beside Laura, and there was the tiniest lizard scurrying around! I wanted to catch him before he attacked Laura while she was sleeping…it took me almost three minutes, but I got him. He bit me once because I frightened him, but I safely escorted him outside and put him in the school’s botanical garden. (The next day when I went into the room, Laura made my pillow bed for me and it was so nice of her….we were not bothered by any more reptiles)

One of the days this week a few of us discovered an interesting restaurant named Far East. They served Chinese food, and oh man it was delicious! I love the food we have eaten since we’ve been here, but change is always welcomed. I ordered shrimp tempura as an appetizer and mango shrimp as my meal. The others had combinations of chicken with rice, spring rolls, and chow mien. All in all, the experience was amazing. We found out later that it was a more expensive place to eat; we figured that much out when they gave us warm lavender hand towels before we ate and afterwards! We felt like royalty.

Moving on to library business, we have one day left and things are starting to come together. The room Zeb and I are working on is almost completed. As of now, we have two more shelves of video cassette tapes to enter into the catalog and we are finished. It takes a while to do that though, because of the slow internet connection and we have to enter most of the information ourselves. The junior fiction/literature room has a hold on it until we finish with other important tasks. We stopped cataloging at the “M’s” but will begin bright and early tomorrow morning and finish what we can. But, we have successfully catalogued most textbooks for the entire school and the teachers’ resources. This is a major job because there are a lot of them and they are all very different from each other. They are not just “a bunch of books” but spirals and folders of all kinds of information. Our leader is very happy with how far we have gotten and feels that we have done an awesome job in our short stay here.

Tonight is our last night to have dinner as a group. It will be fun and a little sad at the same time. Working with one another for two weeks straight has been interesting and full of excitement. We are such a diverse group, and I’ve learned so much about them, that I feel like I can be thrown into any situation (and in any country) and take care of myself and others. I’ve loved being here and do not want to leave…but Rome is patiently awaiting my arrival! Let the shopping begin!

Love.

Beth.

On the Adriatic in Durres, Albania (Photo Credit: Mari Martinez)

Vlore

This weekend we toured to Vlore (Arta’s hometown) and Sarande, both beach communities.  The accommodations at Vlore were (let’s just say) less than desirable.  Apparently the hotel we stayed at was a really nice hotel under communism, but has since turned into something that resembles what one might find in a scary movie about tourists being abducted in the middle of the night to be sold at auction.  The place was falling apart; the rooms were disgusting, with doors that would barely fit the definition.  The one perk of the hotel was its beautiful location.  It was at the top of a hill overlooking the beautiful Ionian Sea with a huge stone winding staircase down the hill to the seaside and the restaurants down below. 

During the afternoon we toured the city’s independence landmarks since from this city, Albania claimed independence in 1912 (the date of November 28 or 29^th depends on who is in power at the particular time).  Jevi drove us up to the top of one of mountains to view Vlore at sunset and then off to hike up to one of Ali Pasha’s castles overlooking the city and islands.  The view was spectacular.  After following some sheep back down the mountain to where Jevi was parked, we went back down to the city for dinner.  For dinner we ate at the Riviera Restaurant, which is built onto the side of a cliff.  We were seated outside on the patio overlooking the gorgeous water and were tempted to stake tents or bedrolls right where we ate.  Arta, Jevi, Katie, Jan, and myself all shared spaghetti with sea fruits, salad and a bottle of merlot, which was delicious!  It was just a magical evening to say the least.  Then reality sunk in when we went back to the Roachtel 3 1/2.

Sarande

Upon getting to Sarande, we attempted to help Jevi find the Hotel Lindi, which we ended up driving past about five times (which is funny since that’s the amount of times he has actually stayed at the hotel...short term memory loss maybe?).  We ate lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Ionian Sea with views to die for.  After lunch we went back to the hotel to nap and get ready to go out again.  Four of us girls (Arta, Katie, Mari and I) went down to the pebble beach where Arta and I attempted to get in the water, but it was just too cold for me.  Arta was a trooper though; she swam out a good ways but the cold got the best of her too.  We wound up taking a nap on the beach before Toby, Jan, and Barb came strolling along.  We all headed back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. 

Dinner was especially nice as it was in a preserved castle overlooking the city and seaside.  Let me clarify...the place was nice but the service was not.  Apparently, in this part of Albania, they don’t know how to delete an entry in a food ordering menu and instead of sharing scallops in lemon and wine sauce, we were given two orders of veal in lemon and wine sauce which we were forced to pay for, and what can you do in a foreign country but cough it up, grunt, and be on your way.  The white and red wines made the situation much more tolerable.  Dessert was at yet another café built out over the water where we ate gelato and watched the ships lights of Korfu, Greece because yes, we were just that close to it.  Dessert was followed by a small get-together on the balcony outside of Katie and Mari’s room.  The hotel even gave us a bottle of complimentary local red wine for the festivities.  There was a wedding going on somewhere in one of the buildings on the street below so the music and sound of bottles breaking from that added a little soundtrack for us to enjoy. 

Butrint

After packing up our things and leaving the hotel (which was fabulous and had the best showers and staff you could ask for!) Jevi drove us to Butrint, an ancient Roman city under excavation. From the 3^rd century B.C. to 16 A.D. it contained structures from the Hellenistic, Roman, Late Roman, Medieval, and Venetian eras.  The entrance fee was more than we expected (500 LEK), but when you consider that the exchange rate of LEK to U.S.D. is 78:1 you can’t beat that!  It was a really great experience.  We were able to sneak a picture of Arta standing behind a headless statue of Artemis.  If Albania had a better P.R./Tourism department, it would have a ton more tourists, and rightfully so.  The historical treasures here are beyond measure and are really a testament to the importance of Albania to European history.

The Blue Eye

On our way to Gjyrokaster (the birthplace of former dictator Enver Hoxa and subject of many books) we stopped at a place called the Blue Eye.  The Blue Eye is a place where natural springs send up their gifts in the formation similar to (you guessed it) a blue eye.  The water was only 10c but it was beautiful.  I have never seen water so clear and blue that it looks like glass.  After accidentally stepping in the frigid water, I trekked back to the van with soggy feet to head for the castle in Gjyrokaster and lunch.  The van miraculously made it up those narrow, winding, cobbled streets with a scary type of skill only to be parked for a few minutes when the decision was made not to proceed into the castle.  We ate lunch overlooking the city and headed back for Tirana.  It was a fun but extremely tiring weekend.

Until next time,

Olivia Vanderburg

View from King Zog's residence in Durres (Photo Credit: Katie Dziminski)

It's hard to believe that our time in Albania is drawing to a close, but with only three more full days of work left at Tirana International School (TIS), the reality of heading to Rome for a few days and then home is beginning to set in.

I'm one of three members of the cataloging team, along with Ryan Bell and Olivia Vanderberg...but unofficially, everyone in our group has contributed to the cataloging effort. Ryan, Olivia and I prepared ahead of the trip by creating several quick reference guides for Ilira, the TIS librarian. These guides should provide her with some simple instruction about adding new titles to the collection, editing exisiting titles, generating call number reports, and creating groups of titles for specific topics. We've each met with Ilira to review the guides we created and have demonstrated how to execute the task.

 Here at the school, cataloging has actually belonged to the entire SLIS team. Our most concentrated cataloging effort so far has targeted the school's Easy/Junior Fiction collection. Over the course of the first few days, we decided to combine the collection under just the heading of Easy, compared each book to its record and made appropriate changes, and then moved the books to the next station for new spine labels and reshelving. We estimated that half of the books in the TIS collection are located in Easy, meaning that we handled in the neighborhood of 2500-3000 books in about three days. Those familiar with cataloging practice were able to put their skills to use ; those who didn't, received a crash course in cataloging 101. Interestingly, no one is running around saying they've found his/her calling as a cataloger...hmmmm.... Since completing the Easy collection, we've moved on to the Fiction collection, deciding to separate it as Junior Fiction and Fiction, and again are combing through the records for an abbreviated review of the titles. Another team is tackling the addition of textbooks to the library collection so that they can be either checked out to a teacher or to the students  each year, something that TIS specifically requested they be able to do with this new automation system. And the amazing team of Beth and Zeb have singlehandedly reviewed the Non-Fiction collection and are now adding the entire video/DVD collection to the library catalog. Way to go, Beth and Zeb! I'm in awe.

One of our final pushes is adding a couple of hundred (?) donated books to the library catalog. Several of us are adding these titles, assigning barcodes, and then moving the books along for spine labels. A pile of these new books actually found their way onto the shelf by close of day yesterday!

Well, that's about it for now. I have a pile of books staring back at me, dying to be added to the Tirana International School Library.

Regards,

Katie

Random remembrances from last week until today, which is Monday, I think.....

One of the first things I remember doing is labeling EVERYTHING. The work flow group had to make stacks for the others/catalogers to put books in for all of the diseases the books might have. These “diseases” included no spine labels, incorrect cataloging information, and just bad, bad, bad. We then put as many books as we could carry at one time in a box and hauled them up the stairs. I just kept telling myself that this was good exercise and I was correct because my biceps hurt for the next two days. (They feel all better now, and look much bigger, in case you were wondering.)

After we had a nice flow going with checking the books and putting them in the correct stacks, we started tackling the job of creating spine labels. While this is a simple task, there are many steps that everyone has participated in. One person enters the correct call number into the computer, after the sheet is full, they print it out. Then, someone else takes the sticky off, and puts it in its appropriate spot on the book. After this, one must take a piece of heavy duty tape and put it over the label so it will not peel off. The book then goes into the proper alphabetical stack, gets alphabetized, and put on the shelf. While there are other steps, I will not go into detail about them. Mainly because “tape cutter” is very self-explanatory and while important to the team, is not that impressive of a job. :-)

Once we finished the kid room, that’s what I call it, it felt like a sigh of relief. There were so many children’s books it was crazy. But browsing through the titles brought me back to when I was in grade school and going to the library was the best part of the day. I went everyday because I would read a book a day and I wanted more. I wish I could still read a book a day but they have grown in size and I have grown to work and be a part of the real world. boo

Moving on, Zeb and I, my teammate, have conquered the biographies. We separated the 92s from the 920s (I know you do not know what I am talking about, it’s ok, moving on), checked them in the catalog, and reorganized the rest of the nonfiction. Four shelves had to be picked over, book by book, to make sure they were in order. We also had to see if they were classified correctly, and if they had spine labels so others will know what they are and where they are. Although we have finished this task we have to move on to the video section; the spine labels have to wait until the last days to be created and this is only if we can finish all of our top priority work.

As of now, it has been busy, fun, and rewarding. I have learned a lot about cataloging and I now know that I would not want to be a cataloger. Lunch is usually yummy, but today we had pancakes and powder eggs. I consumed a lot of syrup and neon green apple juice. It is all right though, for I have two extra apricots and a bunch of bananas at my home/hotel. And tootsie rolls. Gotta love those tootsies.

Love.

Beth Wallace.

Home in Tirana (Photo Credit: Connie Mitchell)

Laura (Gutierrez-Ross) and I (Connie Mitchell) make up the Library Policy team here at the International School at Tirana, Albania. The first day here we contacted the school librarian (Ilira) to interview her about circulation and other policies pertaining to the library. Then we talked with the textbook manager (Ron) about his policies for distributing textbooks to the students. We also collected documents from them that pertained to their current policies. It was interesting that policies about some things had not really been thought about before, but they were eager to put something in place. For example: they had had only one book challenge, because “the teachers choose their books very carefully.” They had a procedure which was unwritten whereby the librarian contacted the director and a staff meeting was held. The librarian presented the arguments of the parent and the staff decided that the book should remain on the shelf since it had good qualities for teenagers. The librarian reported back to the parent that the book would remain on the shelf, but his/her child should not read or check it out. 

They didn’t have a written copyright policy or acceptable use policy since the students do not use the computers in the library and can copy things only in the office under the supervision of the secretary. The collection is weeded very seldom since they place a high value on all the books they have. Library conduct rules include leaving shoes outside if you are under eleven years old. Books are chosen by the classroom teachers for purchase or are donated to the library by parents. Lost books have fines of twice and value of the book plus $1. This is because the shipping costs for replacements are expensive.

We have come up with a preliminary library policy document and hope to present it to the group and staff members for a final reading.

Overlooking the city of Berat from Berat Castle which dates back to 400 B.C. (Photo Credit: SLIS student Jan Reed)

Greetings from Albania!

The task of actually getting to Albania was a real chore, for some more than others.  After getting through the DFW Airport, checking into customs, and getting to the right terminal, Ryan, Beth and I spent 45 minutes at the check-in desk waiting for the airline workers to figure out how to send our luggage all the way through to Albania...apparently trips to Albania are few and far between.  After the ticket agent determined that my baggage should belong to Ryan on paper, it was off to the terminal.  Forty-five minutes before boarding, U.S. Airways (our carrier) sent us all to Lufthansa to travel to Germany for a connection instead of Philadelphia because of a storm that would have caused much delay. (YAY! Extra visa stamps in our passports!)  We caught the sky-link tram and sped over to the international terminal where two more classmates joined our group for the same reason.  After a brief stop in Frankfurt, Germany we were off to Rome!

When in Rome

After a "Bretzle" and a cushy flight from Frankfurt, Laura, Connie, and I (Ryan and Beth were able to get on a flight an hour earlier) walked and wandered for 2 hours before we found the Duck and Dogs Pub where we were to meet up with our other classmates before continuing on to Tirana, Albania.  Let me just say that the Rome International Airport has some severe catching up to do in the way of "You Are Here" maps and directions.  Mari and I found some postcards to send from Rome so they'd get there in time but alas, the airport sold postcards and had an outgoing mail box but NO stamps!!! Are you kidding me?!? So, for those of you who get Rome postcards sent from Albania, just know that we tried to send them in time to get to you before we do! 

The flight from Rome to Tirana was filled with lightning and a LOT of turbulence, but was otherwise very uneventful.  Arta and Meredith met us at the airport with our driver SaltyRishe (I know the spelling is all wrong but I typed it how it sounds).  We checked into the hotel by midnight and tried to get settled and asleep so that we could be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the tour of the school the next day.  The Hotel Lugano is like being in someone's home, which is nice even if you don't understand a SINGLE word by most of the staff.  It has 8 bedrooms and we take up the entire thing, except for those who live on-site.  Well, that's it for now.  I hope I have given you an overview of what it took to get here.

How long it takes (a few examples)

• Olivia, Laura, Connie, Beth, Ryan: left DFW on Wednesday at 4pm and arrived in Tirana at 12am Friday morning. (32 hours)
• Meredith left on Wednesday morning from Lubbock, TX at 9:45 am and arrived in Tirana Thursday night around 8pm.  (about 30 hours)

Signing off,

Olivia Vanderburg

St. Dmitri inside the walls of Berat Castle (Photo Credit: Laura Gutierrez-Ross)

Although not a well-known fact to those in the US, Albania is full of terrific archeological sites. One of our first excursions was to the Berati Castle. Everything is built with stone including the streets that are difficult to navigate, but beautiful. Berat Castle was one of the four castles that were used to protect the country from the Turks; Berat, Petrela, Kruja and Durres.

Three of us got separated from the group when taking photos. We were found by Vassily who showed us around the castle. He was very proud of the place and spoke to us in Italian as he showed us around. He knew all the great photo opportunities and graciously took our photos while we posed precariously at the edge of the precipice. We took our leave and circled around snapping shots of the astounding view.

We met up with the rest of our group at the bottom of St. Dmitri's church, who were just coming down with, you guessed it--Vassily!

Dr. Barb Schultz-Jones (Photo Credit: Karen Snow, SLIS)

We are a diverse group from the School of Library and Information Sciences at UNT. On our project team we have students from Utah, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. Since we offer distance education, our students reside both inside and outside of Texas. Together we plan to migrate the library automation system at the Tirana International School from Athena to Destiny. We're excited about the opportunity to experience Albania and have spent the past several months researching our destination and becoming experienced with the Follett Destiny system. We look forward to sharing our multicultural experience.