Searching but not finding

I am getting Dewey back. Not to two or three decimal points (except in art), but general centuries and decades and even some years. Five years away and I felt completely fogged in last week, but now it's beginning to make that imperfect sense. I like the fractures and crevices and canyons, though some of it is just to scratch our heads. I often bill myself as the librarian who can't remember authors or titles or call numbers. I can find them. But it is quicker if I can just walk to the shelf. I can't wait to really know my new collection. Some of this is my desire for a sense of mastery. I like to be good at my job. I will be.

I wanted to put up a picture of the lake next to my library, but I can't find my camera. Here's a pic via Google. I think it is old, as the gazebo roof is not that red, and I don't see any of the desert willows that are all around. I couldn't find anything more current. Which brings me to today's topic: Millenium by Innovative.

I do not want to sound too crabby/picky, even if that is my nature. Here I am, just the most cursory training in a new-to-me ILS, and I am stubbing my toes, and getting tripped up wildly. In front of the customers. Title and author searches work fine. I can limit by location easily. But the subject search is soooo weird. I don't know what we own, and I don't remember the precise Dewey number for birds of prey, for instance. Today, I tried for books on the venus fly trap. I got lots of listings for books on the planet Venus. Put the phrase in quotes, same results. Flytrap gave me bupkiss. I ended up doing a title search on flytrap. That worked. But it was pathetic.

I can't do keyword searches any better than title. I try putting an author's last name and a major word in the title. Don't do that. Retrievals are just incomprehensile. Using the "advanced" keyword to do fielded searching is cumbersome, and doesn't seem to work either. There must be a better way! Which is why I am reading the Millenium page at home though I am tired...will have to report back.

Oh, another addition to the great unfinished books of 2005: A Long Way Down. IMac is being sluggish so I won't link. I know it was supposed to be humorous. I just wasn't getting the jokes. Sigh.