A View from the Stacks: Stina Lets Rita K Talk – As If She Could Stop Her

Stina told me (Rita K) that I could be a guest blogger and write her entry this week. Now, if you have read her blog previously, you know I work with her and enjoy her quick wit and excellent reference skills and that I don’t care whether she is a “real” librarian or not.  When she gets her union card – that is, her Masters in Library and Information Sciences, she will make some library a great reference librarian. And while she can certainly sew and judge beer – I think she even knits – those things don’t define her. She is a brilliant young woman who will be a terrific librarian!

I asked her if I could guest blog because I want to do more promotion for our podcast, KCLL’s Sidebar. An ulterior motive, I know, but the more publicity we get, the more people might even listen to the podcast. My original purpose for starting a podcast was to find another way to disseminate information on how to do legal research, about how we can help those with legal questions, and to address those auditory learners out there. Of course, I also just want to learn new skills – I love learning and always have. I think we quit growing when we stop learning.

Today we received a message from a law library in New Zealand, telling us that they had listened to our podcast and had enjoyed it. And Jim Milles of “Check This Out” fame has offered to do a promo for us. Jim, I haven’t got it yet – hope you are still planning to do it! A nephew of one of our librarians listened to the podcast and said it was a snore, but I doubt if we will ever really appeal to those aficionados who expect exciting entertainment from a podcast.

We will continue to run Stina’s beer reviews, will try to include comic segments from time to time, and answer interesting reference questions we receive. We know that ultimately the appeal of our podcast will be limited to fellow librarians who teach the public, to those few public patrons who are comfortable with techy toys, Stina’s Mom, and my spouse.  We expect to have our second episode posted in a couple of weeks. You can subscribe to it through iTunes, find us on Feedburner, and access us at our web site at www.kcll.org. Tune in and listen.

Rita Kaiser, Reference Services Librarian, King County Law Library