librarianship =

This is my fourth go at Library Day in the Life and I’m the Data Services & Government Information Librarian at the University of NC at Greensboro.

In retrospect Tuesday was a day filled with numbers: crime rates in Cary, demographics of the Hispanic population, and the number of Southern Baptists in NC. Good times.

• 8:15: Arrive and COFFEE!
• 8:30: Looked at air travel to IASSIST in Vancouver for our annual data conference.
• 9:00: Met with Susan Farr, our documents manager, about upcoming personnel stuff.
• 9:30-10:00: Found a flight to Vancouver. Not the greatest flight, but it gets me to where I’m going and I won’t have to pay for an extra hotel night.
• 10:00: Worked on notes and handout for Political Science 302
• 10:30: Researched question on whether Brazil is a consensual democracy for psc 350 student. The consensual democracy idea is contrasted with majoritarianism. Check out Patterns of Democracy by Lijphart if you are really bored and want to know more.
• 11:00: Looked up sources for English PhD student studying the rhetoric of presidential speeches. Not quite sure what he was asking, so hopefully I’ll get more info back from him.
• 11:15: Spent lunch reading through some interesting blog posts. Here are my faves:
  • State of the Union: Watch the Strategy, Not the Polls
    • Why? Because I love watching the SOTU address.
  • New Ideas: Separating the Chaff from the Grain
    • Why? Because it is SO TRUE. Also in his blog he links his book titles to Worldcat thereby encouraging readers check out the copy in the library (instead of linking to Amazon). Small thing, but pure brilliance.
  • Revolution or Evolution? Social Technologies and Change in Higher Education
    • Why? This post is pure meta. Using technology in a presentation to talk about the challenges integration of technology into teaching.

• 12:00-12:15: Wrap up lunch and head off for Political Science 302
• 12:30-2:00: Political Science 302. I’ve taught this class three times now and I love it, even though it is the most basic demonstration class you could ever do. I have plenty of activities for the students, but I can’t really just let them jump into SimplyMap and World dataBank without some guidance first. I guess that is the nature of some sources, especially numeric databases. Data libs and friends: How have you taught these in your sessions? If so, what activities worked?
• 2:00-2:45: Consultation with an undergraduate research assistant looking up demographic statistics on Hispanics in NC. SimplyMap and American FactFinder go head to head for the love and approval of all.
• 3:00-3:30: FREEDOM! I have hit a slow period in which I will get some more coffee (I am falling asleep as we speak) and catch up on random to do’s. Thank you RTM for being my brain.
• 3:30-4:30: I started doing a quick check-in (look through my inbox, go through to do’s) but suddenly got an urge to write a blog post on the Assoc of Religion Data Archives. The PSC 302 prof and I were talking about it and I realized it had never been featured on the dataland blog. For shame!
• 4:30-5:00: emails
• 5:00-5:30: Listened to the ICPSR recording of the ARDA and Roper Center presentations. I had never gotten around to listening to them and I’m on a kick! A cool feature is the religion family tree. Sweet!

• 6:00-7:00: Meeting of the UNCG LIS Alumni Association Executive Board. I’m the Communications Director, which means I maintain our blog, Minerva’s Library, and Facebook and keep the contact database current. I also tell Kathy Shields, our Assistant Communications Director, what to do   Amy Harris and Erin Sapienza are joining our Executive Board, which is super fun!
• 9:00: Hopefully I can stay awake for the State of the Union Address. Granted these aren’t as much fun as the days when I would yell constantly at the screen (Ah, I kinda miss you Georgie…Only kinda).  I can’t wait to try out the enhanced SOTU materials on this website (fingers-crossed that it doesn’t crash!).