In this month’s episode, we give you a behind the scenes look at life as a BookNet staff member, AKA a BookNetter. Join us for a chat with Project Manager Monique Mongeon, Product Coordinator Hannah Johnston, and Software Developers Ben Farrall and Madeleine Griggs to learn a bit about them and their work at BookNet Canada.
(Scroll down for a transcript of the conversation.)
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Transcript
Aline Zara: Welcome to this month’s episode of the BookNet Canada podcast. I’m your host, Aline Zara, a marketing associate at BookNet.
This month I’m bringing you a very special behind the scenes look at BookNet Canada. Have you ever wondered how a BookNetter spends their day? Or what it’s like to work with us?
I’ve sat down for a Q&A with Project Manager Monique Mongeon, Product Coordinator Hannah Johnston, and Software Developers Ben Farrall and Madeleine Griggs to learn all about their work days, their current projects, how they’ve been adapting their work during the pandemic, their favourite book genres, and more.
Up first, my conversation with BookNet Canada’s Project Manager, Monique Mongeon.
Thanks for joining me, Monique! So, tell us what is your role at BookNet Canada?
Monique Mongeon: So, I'm a project manager here at BookNet. I am the lead project manager for SalesData and LibraryData, as well as our backend account and user management system, which everyone at BookNet is very familiar with, but none of our users would ever see. And I also help out with other BookNet projects as well as they come up. But most days SalesData and LibraryData are my focus.
Aline: What would a typical day look like then, as the Project Manager for both SalesData and LibraryData?
Monique: I don't know that there's ever a typical day at this job or any job. But most of my days start with daily standup meetings with the other product coordinators and developers to keep moving the development on our services forward and address any issues that might have arisen. From there, the day can kind of take any number of shapes. I might have meetings with internal teams to plan upcoming feature development. I might be writing specs, documentation, or creating wireframes for new features. I might be testing the performance of new features that our developers have already completed. We're also all hands on deck with customer support. So I might be helping subscribers with their reporting needs, help them understand the data they've gotten in a report, walking through how they can get the data they're looking for, or just learning more about the problems that they're facing either as an individual employee or as an organization to kind of help us figure out how we can create new reports and tools to help meet their needs and make their life a little bit easier.
Early in the week, another big job is data processing. So we review and quality check all the data that's reported to us by libraries and retailers for the previous week before releasing it to SalesData and LibraryData subscribers. So that can take up a lot of time. It's a Monday when we're recording this, so this is a hot day for processing. But at a higher level, as a project manager this job is also about the longer-range planning and strategy for the projects I manage.
So thinking about things like, what does the future look like for SalesData and LibraryData? What does the next version of these projects look like? And along with the team, we do a lot of thinking and planning about what might be coming next based on the industry's needs, the insights we get from conversations with our subscribers, and all of the research that we do. And then some of those ideas eventually make their way to a requirements gathering phase, where we consult with subscribers and then start iterating through potential implementations of those ideas.
So it's sort of a mix of getting down in the weeds with customers on a daily basis to help them with their issues and help them learn to use our products more effectively. And then also pulling like all the way back and looking at a really high level at what the industry needs to make better use of data and how we can help them achieve those goals.
Aline: And it also sound very tech-based and data-based, too. So, what brought you to BookNet and this role?
Monique: Yeah. So before joining BookNet, I worked in ebook production for almost a decade on the publishing side of the industry. And before that, I'd worked in print production and at bookstores selling books to customers. I've always been really interested in the way that technology and publishing intersect. I was a big sort of early — I'm gonna date myself here, but I was like an early internet user. But books have always been a passion of mine. So finding the place where those two things intersected and how I could help publishing evolve as our world became increasingly digital was really important to me in a career. But after working in digital publishing for such a long time, I've also had this sort of other side of my skillset that was more of a natural aptitude for the sort of product and project management skills.
Anyone who knows me in my personal life knows that there's like nothing in life I don't love organizing and scheduling and categorizing. So I was excited to join BookNet and take on challenges that would help me grow that part of my skills while also getting sort of this higher level bird's eye view of the industry. On the publishing side, you're really focused on one particular aspect of the publishing world, and at BookNet we are working not only with publishers, but also with retailers, libraries, wholesalers, sales agents, literary agents, and so many others who are working to get books into the hands of readers. So seeing all of that come together is a really rewarding part of this job.
Aline: Then, out of all of those things, what would you say is the one thing that’s the favourite part of your job?
Monique: Oh, that's so hard. I think my favourite part of my job is getting to hear from so many people at different organizations, talking to them about how they use data and technology at their business, and helping them make either a small part of their workday or a huge part of their business process more effective. It's also really great to help people discover surprising trends, either in the industry overall. We've been doing lately a lot of look at backlist and frontlist sales, and we've found some interesting insights, which I think we're gonna have on the blog soon that I think are really fascinating at sort of a whole industry level, but also our tools help our customers understand data about their own business as well.
We recently were talking with a library who's been using LibraryData and through the data that's being reported, they can see that their fiction collection circulates about 10% more on average than other libraries. And that's something they wouldn't have known had they not had access to all of this other data. And that helps them understand, number one, how the readers in their area are maybe different from readers in other areas, and it can help them better decide how to plan for their collection.
So being able to supply that kind of information is really satisfying, and it's also really interesting to hear how they're using it. And I think in the last year and a half more than any other time, being able to supply data about the health and vitality of the book market has been super, super satisfying. So much has changed about the retail landscape and about libraries and their ability to stay open and constantly changing over the last little while. And being able to track how that's been going and provide that back has been very edifying.
Aline: Absolutely! One last question for you — when you’re not working with us at BookNet, where would we be most likely to find you?
Monique: Well during the pandemic, that is my apartment. No, I'm gearing up for a fall term in the digital production class that I teach at the Chang School's Book Publishing Program. And over the pandemic, I've taken up sewing. So I can usually be found cutting out fabric and sewing it together and listening to podcasts or audiobooks while doing those sorts of things. I just got an alert that my most recent hold is in, so I'm pretty excited to start a new audiobook with my next project.
Yeah, I'm also really into axe throwing. I've had to practice with a set of darts while the league has been on hiatus during the pandemic. I think we've all had to get a little inventive with our hobbies and also our business the last little while. So it's been an interesting time to adapt my life and also help our customers adapt theirs too.
Aline: That sounds like fun! Thanks for your time, Mo.
Monique: Anytime, anytime!
Aline: Our next BookNetter also works with SalesData and LibraryData. Here’s Product Coordinator Hannah Johnston.
Thank you for joining me, Hannah, so great to have you!
Hannah Johnston: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Aline: To jump right in — what is your role at BookNet Canada?
Hannah: Yeah, for sure. So I am a product coordinator at BookNet Canada. I was hired primarily to work with the SalesData and LibraryData teams, working with our developers and the project management team, but my role has since expanded as these things are likely to do. BookNet supports various industry standards and I work on several of those helping make sure that the standards meet our needs working on EDI, ONIX, and the BISAC and Thema subject codes. And also recently I've taken over running the Loan Stars program, which allows libraries to vote for their favourite forthcoming books and recommend those each month.
Aline: It sounds like you have your fingers in a lot of different pies. If you had to choose one, what’s your favourite thing about your job?
Hannah: My favourite thing, and this is maybe a little bit of a cheat because this is a bonus of having the smorgasbord job, is that I get to meet and work with so many different players across the book industry. So some days I'm talking mostly to retailers, other days, publishers, libraries, even readers sometimes, and helping solve problems and address pain points for all of these different stakeholders is really rewarding and wonderful.
Aline: Is there one project that sort of stands out for you? What is the project that you’ve most enjoyed working on?
Hannah: Yeah. One that was really exciting was last spring, spring of 2020, when we launched LibraryData. I had come in at the end of that project when we were in the final phases of testing the beta version of the site. And it's rare at BookNet for us to build a product that's entirely net new, something that has all new features, all new reports, new data that we're bringing in from a new source, libraries in this case. So there have been lots of room for growth and experimentation as the product matures, and that's been really exciting to work on.
Aline: And with LibraryData launching in 2020, at the start of the pandemic, that also makes things a little more interesting! Do you find that your work has changed with COVID-19?
Hannah: Definitely has changed. It's changed for everybody. One thing I noticed that was interesting is that especially early in the pandemic, there was so much uncertainty and I noticed a real greater urgency and demand for data to help understand how the industry was being affected by COVID at the time, sort of what the trends were, the ups and downs and how we were seeing this play out in, especially the retail market.
But something else that has been kind of, something that I've enjoyed, a benefit, is that with the move towards more web-based and remote work, I've had the opportunity to work with a much more geographically disparate group of people. So rather than most of my interactions centred on players in Southern Ontario, it's been really great to get to interact with people across Canada and even globally. And I feel like my communication circle has really broadened with COVID-19 and the move towards different styles of working.
Aline: Before I let you go, I’ve one more question for you, Hannah. What’s your favourite book or literary genre?
Hannah: My favourite literary genre changes constantly, as it does with everybody. But right now I've really been loving sci-fi, especially a lot of hard sci-fi really that goes into the real science-y aspects of it. But some of my favourites over the past couple of years have been a bunch by Neal Stephenson. I've loved Anathem, Reamde, and Seveneves. How Long 'til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin is amazing. And also I would recommend anything by Martha Wells, but especially All Systems Red, which is incredible. Definitely worth a read.
Aline: I’ll add them to my list! Thanks so much for this, Hannah!
Hannah: Yeah. Thank you so much. I'll talk to you later.
Aline: For our next interview, we’re going deeper into BookNet tech with software developer, Ben Farrall.
Ben, thanks for joining me! To get us started — what is your role at BookNet Canada?
Ben Farrall: What is my role? I guess my title is a software developer, so really that entails me working on various projects at BookNet, and that could be really anything from, you know, technical spec to actual development to support that follows that. And that does actually, you know, help a lot of the other staff. So I am a supporting member of the staff. So if anything comes up technology-wise that they may need support on then myself and the rest of the developers are all there to help.
Aline: It sounds like you’re involved in a lot of different projects and work with a lot of people in your day to day. So, what does a typical day look like for you?
Ben: Well, I was trying to think about this before and not to be too cliched, but I guess every day for a developer probably starts with a cup of coffee. So you probably won't be able to start until you have a cup of coffee and you’ve woken up. And then that's really good to go.
Once I've logged in I'll just say the usual hellos to everybody. And then I'll probably start by going through, you know, just generally emails, look at anything that's come through overnight. And specifically, I'm looking at, we get technical emails that come through to the developers. So I'll generally go through those and check to see if there's anything that's maybe gone wrong overnight. Usually, it's okay. And following that, I'll move over to JIRA, which is a task board. So various projects have different boards set up and depending on which one I'm working on at the time I can go and I can see what I was currently working on the previous day or whether something new has come up and it's been assigned to me. And from there, it's really a case of just steady work. You know, if anything comes up during the day, then I can jump to it. And it's, you know, no day is the same.
Aline: And with all the projects you’ve worked on here at BookNet, if you had to choose one, what’s the project you’ve most enjoyed working on?
Ben: This is probably another hard one because, I mean, I've worked on quite a few over the years of being at BookNet. A lot of them have been web-focused projects and one of them which was started at the beginning of last year and it's kind of, it's been put to the side a little bit, but we have a BiblioShare system which is used for the ingestion of ONIX data that we get from various clients. And the new project was to create that system again in a newer technology. So that was for me, like a really enjoyable one because it meant we could go out and look for something new and look for something more current that's been, you know, more wide-spreadly used and see how we can actually implement it ourselves. So it was very much a greenfields area to work in. And that was pretty cool. That was pretty fun. There was a lot of trial and error. There was a lot of just discovery and learning and yeah, really just get stuck in with something that's really brand new, even in some cases, it was so new that it had like a few kinks in it. And the people that, you know, Microsoft, it was developing, the technology was still working as hard as well. So we will continually evolve with them as well.
Aline: Cool. Now, Ben, you’re a software developer. You’re really at the heart of the tech side of things of BookNet, you know, the technology of what we do. So, what brought you to BookNet?
Ben: Okay. I guess that's probably more of a personal question. You know, the bigger question is what brought me to Canada, which is how I go into BookNet. Then maybe that's, you know, for another the day. BookNet itself at the time when I moved to Canada, I was working for some big financial firm, you know, it's just selling my soul.
And then my wife actually found this position. It was being advertised on Work In Culture. And she was like, ''Oh, that'd be really, really good for Ben, actually.'' And, you know, took a look and read through and I felt actually, that would actually be really, really, really nice, you know, a real change of pace. And it, to me, it kind of, sort of, it's like a fresh change, you know, an opportunity to have an actual, you know, an impact with a smaller team, a more focused team as well. So, and then reading BookNet's culture, you know, reading about the history of BookNet, I could already see that they were way more relaxed than any financial company would be, and they were way more friendly and incredibly supportive.
Aline: And we love having you. I feel like the answer to any tech question is always “ask Ben first!”
Ben: I hope so. I mean, I hope I have an answer. I'm certainly willing to chip in. I've had my fair few mishaps over the years.
Aline: Well, that’s all I’ve got. Thanks, Ben.
Ben: No worries. Thanks for having us.
Aline: Last but certainly not least is Madeleine Griggs, another of BookNet’s software developers.
Thanks so much for joining me, Madeleine. Just to start us off — what is your role at BookNet Canada?
Madeleine Griggs: Well, I'm one of the software developers at BookNet Canada. So I'm working a lot of the times behind the scene to make our products better and introduce new things.
Aline: Do you have a favourite thing about your job?
Madeleine: I mean, I really like the, just the coding aspect of it, you know, it's kind of like solving problems all day and fixing puzzles. So that's really appealing to me. I guess that'd probably be my favourite thing about the job, but I actually really like working with the people here too. It's been a little hard with COVID to connect to people, but everybody's been really good about reaching out.
Aline: COVID has definitely made things different. Do you feel that your work has changed with COVID-19?
Madeleine: Well, it's kind of interesting because I'm actually was one of the people who was hired during COVID. So I've always worked remotely with the company and I've never actually been into our office. So it's actually been pretty interesting to have a remote-only job to start off with. I guess the big thing is making sure that we have opportunities to discuss a little bit informally about some of the problems that show up in the day to day, which naturally happens a little easier in the office.
Aline: For sure, especially since you're working on so many projects at once. Out of all these projects you work on as a software developer, which one have you enjoyed working on the most? Is there one?
Madeleine: I like all the projects that I've worked on, but I'd say probably my favourite and one that's near and dear to my heart is the new Bibli-O-Matic that we recently turned out. It's a software extension for browsers that lets you see ISBN numbers on the web. And it was sort of my first introduction to the book industry as a software developer. So I really enjoyed working on that project and I received a lot of positive feedback from people about it.
Aline: Oh, absolutely, I use it all the time!
Madeleine: It originally started off as an internal tool, so I'm not surprised. I think that BookNet users saw how useful it could be for other people.
Aline: So, at BookNet, we’re all readers — what’s your favourite book or literary genre?
Madeleine: I'm pretty much a sci-fi and fantasy fan. That's like the number one types of books I read and I read almost exclusively that although I could probably stand to read a little bit more broadly. My favourite bookstore is Bakka-Phoenix in Toronto. Gotta love the sci-fi.
Aline: You’re in good company! Thank you, Maddy.
Madeleine: Thanks very much.
And that’s all from us at BookNet for now. Thanks again to Monique, Hannah, Ben, and Madeleine for your time. It’s tough not being together at the office, but it’s always great when we can find the time to chat. Links to everything we’ve mentioned can be found on our blog — including Monique’s backlist blog posts, Hannah’s LibraryData, Ben’s BiblioShare (although not yet the version 2.0 Ben mentioned), and Madeleine’s Bibli-O-Matic web extension.
Before we go, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that BookNet Canada staff, board, partners, and our makeshift podcast studio, operate upon the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, Wendat, and Huron indigenous peoples, the original nations of this land. We endorse the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and support an ongoing shift from gatekeeping to space-making in the book industry. And we hope that our work, including this podcast, helps to create an environment that supports that shift. We'd also like to acknowledge the Government of Canada for their financial support through the Canada Book Fund. And of course, thanks to you for listening.
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