Royce Kitts

2009-09-19T12:06:00.001-05:00

Harrison showing off his moves in a video he made.

2009-07-20T11:35:00.001-05:00

oh.my.gosh

2009-06-16T21:14:00.001-05:00

Stuff that seems to be happening more and more nowadays....

2009-06-13T13:52:00.001-05:00

I was this article today and it reminds me that these type of things seem to happening with more frequency.

"Sheriff: Arizona home invaders wanted all dead"
--from the AP wire service

TUCSON, Ariz. – Two of three people arrested in a fatal southern Arizona home invasion had connections to a Washington state anti-illegal immigration group that conducts border watch activities in Arizona.

The Pima County sheriff said Friday that 34-year-old Jason Eugene Bush, 41-year-old Shawna Forde and 42-year-old Albert Robert Gaxiola have been charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and other charges.

The trio are alleged to have dressed as law enforcement officers and forced their way into a rural Arivaca home on May 30, wounding a woman and fatally shooting her husband and their 9-year-old daughter.

The Web site for the Minutemen American Defense lists Forde as the group's leader and Bush as its operations director. Forde is from Everett, Wash., but has recently been living in Arizona.

My summer song

2009-06-10T19:25:00.000-05:00

My new favorite song.

Lettuce

2009-05-22T23:16:00.000-05:00

JetBlue cracks me up!

2009-05-19T07:12:00.000-05:00

Check out this blurb on the JetBlue site:

CEO Outreach program

JetBlue is committed to aiding one of our country's most endangered assets: the American CEO. In recent months, the CEO population has fallen upon hard times. Since being stripped of their private jets, they are despondent and listless, mere husks of their former selves. JetBlue provides these CEOs with a close approximation of their natural habitat: a relaxing, perk-filled flight on which all the snacks are free. Since first experiencing "jetting," CEOs have shown remarkable recovery, even expressing interest in former pastimes such as golfing and fraud. Learn more about the CEO Outreach Program at welcomebigwigs.com.

Lisa Simpson likes the library.

2009-05-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

Swine flu widgets

2009-04-28T18:11:00.000-05:00

Library websites

2009-04-26T10:56:00.003-05:00

Just read a blurb by a good friend and he was wondering why library websites suck so much.

And to be honest he has a point. Library websites are never really as cool to those outside of the library world as they are to those of us in it. To be fair they have evolved a bit since the mid-90's, and they are easier to update thanks to things like wordpress. But still a library website looks like a library website. Nothing more so than wordpress based website, where you have a bunch of libraries picking from the same batch of templates.

As I sit here and type and try to think of ways to make my own library's website more relevant, I wonder just how I should be approaching this problem. Heck is it even a problem?

Do I need to host a bunch of links? Do I need a front page that has new info on it? Do I farm out things to other websites that we here at my library are just never going to get as good as other do? (For instance sites like GoodReads and libraryThing that offer way more for Bookies than I could ever have time to produce.) Do I just scrap the whole thing altogether and just put up a blinking sign that says "For info text 785-845-1507"? Or, "UR library misses U"

Back in this mug

2009-04-08T16:16:00.001-05:00

Yeah, been on a long break i know. But things have finally settled down and i am now ready to pontificate on my greatness once again.

Freedom Train by Langston Hughes

2008-10-04T14:36:00.001-05:00

I read in the papers about the Freedom Train
I heard on the radio about the Freedom Train
I seen folks talking about the Freedom Train
Lord, I've been a-waitin for the Freedom Train!
Washington, Richmond, Durham, Chatanooga, Atlanta
Way cross Georgia.
Lord, Lord, Lord
way down in Dixie the only trains I see's
Got a Jim-Crow coaches set aside for me.
I hope their ain't no Jim Crow on the Freedom Train,
No back door entrance to the Freedom Train,
No sign FOR COLORED on the Freedom Train,
No WHITE FOLKS ONLY on the Freedom Train.
I'm gonna check up.
I'm gonna to check up on this
Freedom Train.
Who is the engineer on the Freedom Train?
Can a coal-black man drive the Freedom Train?
Or am I still a porter on the Freedom Train?
Is there ballot boxes on the Freedom Train?
Do colored folks vote on the Freedom Train?
When it stops in Mississippi, will it be made plain
Everybody's got a right to board the Freedom Train?
I'm gonna check up.
I'm gonna to check up on this
Freedom Train.
The Birmingham station's marked COLORED and WHITE.
The white folks go left
The colored go right.
They even got a segregated lane.
Is that the way to get aboard the Freedom Train?
I'm gonna check up.
I'm gonna to check up on this
Freedom Train.
If my children ask me, Daddy, please explain
Why a Jim Crow stations for the Freedom Train?
What shall I tell my children?
You tell me, cause freedom ain't freedom when a man ain't free.
My brother named Jimmy died at Anzio
He died for real, and it wasn't no show.
Is this here freedom on the Freedom Train really freedom or a show again?
Now let the Freedom Train come zooming down the track
Gleaming in the sunlight for white and black
Not stoppin' at no stations marked COLORED nor WHITE,
Just stoppin' in the fields in the broad daylight,
Stoppin' in the country in the wide-open air
Where there never was a Jim Crow sign nowhere,
And No Lilly-White Committees, politicians of note,
Nor poll tax layer through which colored can't vote
And there won't be no kinda color lines
The Freedom Train will be yours
And mine.
Then maybe from their graves in Anzio
Black men and white will say, We want it so!
Black men and white will say, Ain't it fine?
At home they got a Freedom train,
A Freedom train,
That's yours and mine!

The director

2008-10-02T17:47:00.001-05:00

Well, Im a director now. Damn time flies when you are drowning in new things.

It took about three weeks, but I finally settled in. I think once I had an idea of how the budget worked I could breathe again.

Now my favorite part is the schmoozing that goes along with the job. Being able to start new projects and making decisions is also very fun.....

...but man oh man.....

Aint nothing funner than order a ton of books on a thursday night!

Gonna be a director in a week

2008-08-23T09:45:00.003-05:00

So last night I was on my back porch watching the storm roll in and then it hit me: In one week im going to be running a library.
Yikes!
That scared the hell out of me. It is definitely going to be different going from always asking permission to being the one that people ask about stuff. I hope they don't think they need my permission all the time.

So yeah, the cool part will definitely be working with staff and making sure they get what they need and that they enjoy working at the library. Also getting to know the public will be fun. I have a bunch of city stuff to do the first week. I will be doing an interview with a reporter on Monday for the local paper. How cool is that.

I think the first thing is to find a library related budgeting class to attend. That will probably be the hardest thing for me to do.

So in one way very excited, and in another a little frightened.

What if no one voted?

2008-08-08T10:21:00.002-05:00

I pulled this from the KMAN1350AM website.
I am often surprised to learn of the sparse turnouts for elections. I know some people think the general elections are the only ones that matter, but primaries can be just as important. You have to make sure that the person from your party gets a shot at the job, and if you don't vote in primaries then, in my opinion, you are still letting others choose what is best for you.

This is the article:

"No voter-turnout from Fort Riley

FORT RILEY, Kan. (AP) Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh confirms that no votes in Tuesday's election came from 14 precincts at Fort Riley. No votes were cast at the Geary County section of the base despite nearly 600 registered voters."

********
I guess you could come up with all kinds of reasons why this occurred, but if you followed the rough percentage of people outside of this area that did vote you would expect about 120 people to have voted. Remember these are all registered voters, there are certainly many more that are not.

People....you gotta vote!

Library Director Royce Kitts MLS

2008-08-03T20:30:00.003-05:00

Well it finally happened. I am now a library director, and I am completely finished with the work on my masters degree. All within the same couple of days.

It really seems hard to believe. I am not used to completing things, nor am I used to striving towards a goal and actually achieving it. But it is here, the two things I have been thinking about for a long time. Of course this means moving and all the trappings of that endeavor, but it also means that for the time being there really isn't much for me to obsess on. In fact, I have been blissfully not engaging in any strenuous mental activity of any sort.

I wonder what kind of director I will be.

My hopes:
1. people feel comfortable enough to be themselves
2. i never appear unapproachable
3. i can help my employees realize their abilities
4. i can facilitate an environment of learning
5. library users find my library an awesome place
6. i never get too old to beat some teenager at guitar hero
7. there is always a doughnut laying around
8. ils systems become easier and cheaper
9. i will still find familiar faces at my old library when i visit
10. and lastly, that no one ever dreads coming to work, and that smiles are the norm.

This is a short list, and maybe on the idyllic side, but hey, isn't it about time that people approach the library from the angle of 'let's do all those things that most people just talk about'.

Royce Kitts, MLS
Library Director
Tonganoxie Public Library

(my official first day of work is September 2nd, in case you are coming to the doughnut and coffee party)

Final Class presentation

2008-07-28T11:24:00.003-05:00

Well the end is days away. One paper and one test away. Not worried about either, kind of know what they want, and even at this point could totally flake out and still get good grades.

But I had fun that one last time in Emporia presenting in front of other people who were presenting as well.

I spent the majority of my time talking about the importance of library advocacy. Especially in terms of helping to support the sustainability of our rural libraries here in Kansas.

I was also amazed that I was one of only a couple of people who built our website for the capstone project from scratch. Most others used googlepages and it showed. I noticed that four people had used the exact same template....oh well, they had to do one more thing and they did.

So I am starting the pre-celebration and only working on school during my lunch breaks now....so no more nights of staying up working on school.....need to find something to take up all that time now....thinking its time to show the son how to catch some fish.

unofficial KLA minutes for July 24th.

2008-07-25T12:14:00.001-05:00

{{these minutes are solely my interpretation of events and in no way are meant to be a reflection of the official minutes. These thoughts are approved only by me, and are not approved by any KLA member or employee.}}

Well we had an eventful meeting yesterday. Granted it was closer to a UFC cage match than most KLA meetings, but it had the distinction of being one I won’t soon forget.

We went around and introduced ourselves, where we work, and something about our favorite pet. I think it was Denise Smith who had the best story, something like out of the saddest Disney film you ever watched. A dead pig, a dead sheep, a run over puppy, all in about the span of a week! Poor Denise.

During the member and guest comments we were treated to the song “You really got me” by the son of Andrew Evans. I expect that at some point that kid is gonna be a rock/jazz/blues/classical star.

Then we went through the normal submitting of minutes and reports from the previous year. The report that really caught my attention was the one by Richard Brookman the chair of the Young Adult Roundtable. He has some exciting stuff prepared for his roundtable and for the KLA at large. Keep an eye on Richard, that cat seems to be able to get things going at full speed.

Next up was the ratification of presidential appointees. That was quickly done, with yours truly being name the publications/KLA newsletter chair. Andrew Evans and I are going to get together in some fashion and try to kick out a normal style newsletter sometime here in the near future. (Bet you didn’t know that, huh, Andrew?)

Well, then started 2 ½ hours of what I would call the worst case of civility in a KLA council meeting I have ever witnessed. Basically one section of KLA had sent a representative to the meeting to argue that sections case about what they consider to be an unfair dues structure. The section feels that they are being unfairly picked on by the new proposed due structure, and the Executive Council of the KLA feels that they are received a dues break that no other section in KLA is given. Seems simple enough doesn’t it? Well it did at first.

My problem was not with the problem that this section had, but with the way the representative bullied and badgered people on the council. I lost track of how many times this person tried to derail someone’s comments by making some snarky witticism that only appeared to bemuse himself.

It is at this point in my remarks about the meeting that I should say that Roger Carswell is now one of my favorite people. With calmness and intelligence he was able to tone down the elevated emotions….but only for a bit.

Motions were suggested; amendments to resolutions proposed….and 2 hours later things were so confusing to me at this point that on both votes relating to this I voted ‘abstain’. I could not in my mind justifying voting for or against something that no longer made sense to me.

Civility never goes out of style! And with class and grace Laura Loveless was able to handle what I thought was unacceptable behavior. I felt bad for the gentleman who sat next to this agitated section officer. I know we all hear the term ‘guilt by association’ all too often, but in this case, it personally made me sad. To his credit this person did ask the agitated person to calm down a bit, but to no avail.

I don’t feel that either side walked away thinking they had won this battle, if anything it was a skirmish that will inevitably be repeated.

The best thing about the meeting was that it ended.

So what are your thoughts? Where Were you at the meeting? Do you feel I got things all wrong? Or slightly wrong?

How to tell people they sound racist

2008-07-22T22:09:00.001-05:00

On the Hunt!

2008-07-16T19:10:00.002-05:00

Well a fresh round of interviews start tomorrow. Call it round 3. Round 1 was back in April and May with me supposed to interview at 4 places. I ended up canceling one of the interviews. I got turned down for one of the jobs, and got two job offers, but alas my wife was not up for moving to the towns the jobs were in.

Round 2 ended Monday after I waited 2.5 weeks to hear whether I got the job or not.
(Note to people hiring people: 2.5 weeks is a long time to make someone wait.) Fortunately, I was turned down. My brain said it was a good job, but my heart was having a hard time justifying moving there. Had a lot to do with the place having the third highest crime rate in Kansas....and for some reason everyone got this look of horror when I mentioned the name of the place....always a bad sign...
But it would have meant a really cool workplace with some really cool people, and a step up from my current job.

Round 3 starts tomorrow. Who knows how this will go, it is the first interview that leads possibly to a second interview in front of the full library board. And there are applications out at three other places, but no firm dates on when the interview will be, or even if it will be.

But the good thing now is I really don't feel the pressure anymore. I have an awesome job, with awesome benefits (so far no place has come close to the benefits I have, financial, not professional). Sure I struggle with the way things are, and how I think they should be, and yeah, I would like to go to a national conference at some point. Hopefully, ALA midwinter in Denver is a possibility.

Until then, I will just enjoy having my degree in two weeks, having an awesome wife and son and a wonderful place to live out in the country.

Library Society of the World fresh new website!

2008-07-07T09:09:00.003-05:00

In a perfect world in which we were all superheroes, I would like to think of myself as the Green Arrow and my pal Joshua Neff as Batman. If you are not familiar with the Joshua Neff, he is a pretty awesome librarian kickin' it over at the Johnson County Library. He is on their top-notch web development team and he has been a part of kicking out some pretty good websites.

Today Joshua released the awesome news that there is a new 'Library Society of the World' webpage:

http://thelsw.org/

What is the 'LSW'? Well, check out this blurb from their homepage:

"By joining the Society, you are joining a world-spanning group of library professionals and library advocates, dedicated to furthering the role of librarians, archivists, information professionals, and information educators through communication and collaboration. The LSW is about people, not buildings (although some of us think architecture is sexy). It's about friendship, not organization. It's about creating and fostering opportunities, not building barriers and divisions."

Keep an eye on this site. Expect great things to come from this endeavor.

Things they don't cover in graduate school part VII

2008-07-06T13:13:00.001-05:00

Damn, this job hunting thing is stressful. Not just on me but my family as well.
Let us just say that we are kind of in a bit of a panic.

This time the real link to my capstone portfolio

2008-06-30T08:17:00.002-05:00

Yeah, so that last link I posted to my capstone portfolio was bunk. As in, password protected.
I have a version up on Freewebs. Ignore the freewebs add at the bottom of each page (if you can!)

Capstone Portfolio

Currently, I am going through and tweaking the stylesheet so everything looks nice.....remembering all about percentages, padding, spaces, etc....fun schtuff!

My capstone portfolio website is almost done

2008-06-28T23:03:00.002-05:00

So, I am almost done with my capstone project. Go through, tighten up verbiage, fix a couple of html kinks that are buggin me, and then to sit and relax.

check it out:
capstone website

del.icios.us meme

2008-06-23T09:51:00.005-05:00

This is one of those fun things out and about on the internet these days (aka memes). Courtesy of the Jason Griffey, who just happens to have come out with probably a very awesome book on Library Blogging.

Basically, go to Wordle and you create this awesome picture by cutting and pasting text or putting in your del.icio.us username. Fun stuff for a Monday. I have seen a couple that people have done and it is quite awesome.