Posts Tagged 'librarydayinthelife'

#libday8 mondays are teaching

Published January 31, 2012 the profession Leave a Comment
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Hello Library Day in the Life! I’m the Data Services & Government Information Librarian at the University of NC at Greensboro.

Rather than document my day as in the past, I’ve decided to just talk about the highlights of each day. Yesterday’s highlight was teaching my Political Science class. I teach a sophomore-level class on international relations. I didn’t blog about it last semester because I was spending much of my free time on prep. This semester I have a good plan, and besides a three or four hour session on the weekend to go over my notes or create slides or grade, I don’t have to slave over every particular part. I’m hoping to spend more time this semester reflecting on the class to see how I can improve my teaching.

Yesterday was a highlight because it was the first class that was mostly discussion driven. I have a short 50 minute time period, which is really 45 or 40 once they have settled in and I have gone over any logistics. We were talking about neoconservatism as an ideology and its relationship to the main theories in IR, liberalism and realism. I wouldn’t normally talk about this much except that their textbook had a blurb on it and their Zombie book (yes, zombie book) had an entire chapter. I thought it might be a hot topic of conversation, especially if I asked a question at the beginning that was slightly controversial.

The students handled it really well. I had people speaking that I had never heard from and some of them were trying to integrate the theories into their comments. We moved a bit into another topic that is more for a future class, but as we will come back to that problem (humanitarian intervention), it was a nice way to highlight themes for the future.

I have difficulty sometimes with the discussion format–students want to raise their hands and be acknowledged by me, but I really want them to speak to each other. We finally got into that mode after a few minutes. The problem is the classroom set up–I’m at the front and they are facing me and not each other. In my smaller sections I’ve had them make a circle (of trust), but with 41 students that is difficult.  I often do small group discussions with (write-pair-share), but they always end up looking to me as the leader for the discussion. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

At the end of class I did a short introduction to constructivism and we will finish up with it and feminism on Wednesday. Constructivism always is a bit of mind bend for some students (A student last semester told me that “I’ve never heard of that third theory!” as if I had made it up! Fun times). I will definitely write more on Wednesday about the class!

While teaching this class may seem unrelated to my work as a librarian, I would make the case that it supplements my librarianship in unique ways. I have already had consultations with several of my students who were in my class in the fall. My relationship with the political science faculty has always been good, but as I am often in their building I see them much more than I ever, and they have questions about the library and about resources. I don’t know if this is true yet, but I also feel like I’ve been contacted more by students who were not in my class. I’ll have to check the numbers, but I’m pretty sure they are higher.

The biggest benefit has been the development of my reflective practice in teaching. This is a two-way street because I have tried to be a conscientious teacher since I started doing library instruction. I plan lessons based on the assignment. I try to think of new techniques or activities for improving learning (or keeping people awake). I also know how to plan a class so that it has a focus, so that students know what the purpose of the class is. A faculty member recently made a comment that I found interesting. He is teaching an online class for the first time and he said that he realized while prepping the class that each session needed to have a point and that he was starting to translate that into his irl teaching. Before he would present the material in a continuous path throughout the semester, but not really try to develop a beginning, a middle, and an end for one session.

Our library instruction one-shot sessions must have a focus and when teaching a semester-long class I automatically approached it in that way. It is difficult to translate that technique directly because sometimes you run out of time, especially when students are engaged in the material, but the goal is there to have some kind of structure to our classes. Teaching librarians, I don’t think, give themselves enough credit for being good teachers.  Honestly considering the amount of “training” I had in graduate school for political science compared to the amount of real training I’ve had as a librarian, I simply have to be a better teacher.

But the class has also affected my teaching as a librarian. I’m definitely less and less nervous about messing up. I’ve noticed that beyond the initial boost of adrenaline I haven’t been nervous in front of people much. Man, I messed up so many times in my credit class last semester, but nobody’s life ended. And the students seemed to enjoy my instruction. Also I’ve been rethinking my library instruction sessions to try and shape them in ways that are more appropriate for the students’ real needs. I feel like I have a better insight into what they need from me–maybe it is because I know more of them now–but I also think it is because I am more familiar with what is going on in their actual classroom and how they are doing their research.

So, that was my Monday. I know  this is long winded, but I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a while. If you have any suggestions, especially on the discussion part, let me know!

chronicles of a workaholic: vacay and #libday7

Published July 27, 2011 the profession Leave a Comment
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I like doing Library Day in the Life. I find it helpful to track my time and the project allows a large group of librarians to talk about our profession. I like vacations better and tend to take them at the end of July. If I participate in #summerlibday, it is usually for one post.

So, here is my one post.

Even though I am at home, vacation has ended it seems. This morning I worked on a chapter about professional involvement for an edited volume on kick-starting your library career. I should have written that one of the perils of professional involvement is having to write a chapter during your vacation (because you are so busy during regular work times that you can’t get it written).

I helped a colleague on chat with a data question and I have another one waiting me in my email inbox. I have been trying to avoid answering (or looking at email) as much as possible during vacations, but sometimes I am a weak, weak woman.

Next up is a webinar for the Help! I am an Accidental Government Information Librarian series for which I do tech support. I’m excited about the topic, Resources for Guard and Reserves Soldiers. I would have rescheduled for a different week, but schedules are tight and we had promoted it. The only frustration is that the university Blackboard administrators went ahead and changed our version of Elluminate to Blackboard Collaborate. I’m sitting here staring at an all new system. Yikes, spikes. (Post-session note: We had some tech difficulties starting out, but I learned a bunch about the structure of the guard and reserves as well as resources. Helpful stuff for any public services person.) If you are interested in the topic or the series, you can find the presentations and recordings on the NCLA Government Resources Section website.

Tomorrow I have a Skype meeting with a colleague from IASSIST, the data professional’s organization. We are the co-chairs of the Education Committee and need to plan for the year.

Friday I have another Skype meeting with the wonderful people at Adventures in Library Instruction. We are going to talk data and data literacy. If you haven’t come across this blog, I encourage you to check it out. They are podcasting on a variety of topics relevant to library instruction. The most recent is on Jason Puckett’s book about Zotero. I heard the podcast right before co-teaching a session on Zotero, and it helped me think through the structure of the session.

Monday I am meeting with a colleague in the Warren Ashby Residential College about library support for the college in the next year. This is the continuation of the in-house librarian program I have been doing for a year now.

Tuesday is ShareAcademy!! Woohoo! Can’t wait. Last year I didn’t present, but had loads of fun. This year Jenny Dale, Amy Harris and I are presenting … on presentations!

Wednesday I will be back at work for the day to answer email and prepare for Thursday’s presentation for BLINC on the new American FactFinder.

I also need to spend the next week and a half working on my fall class. I am teaching a class called the International System as an adjunct faculty for the Political Science department. The class is an introductory, core course on international relations theory. I love teaching IR theory at this level because you don’t get weighed down in the theoretical debates. This class is also necessarily historical since so much of IR theory developed in response to events, in response to the question “why?”.  Events like the Arab spring, the assassination of Osama bin Laden, and the global economic crisis are also good discussion starters and students are better able to see how international relations can be relevant to them. I last taught this class during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the level of interest in the material definitely increased once the bombing started. Sad fact, but true. Because this is a unique instruction project for me, I plan to blog more reflectively and more often once the class starts.

And then the next Monday, August 8, I am back from vacation!

Yes, I tend to be too involved in my work. And yes, I did get a real vacation earlier this week. I am better about keeping time for myself, for my family and friends, and for de-stressing. The reality for me, though, is that librarianship is a career and not just a job. I love what I do in my day in the life of a librarian.

Mieko helping me work on my class.

hello NCLA executive board and farewell #libday6

Published January 29, 2011 the profession Leave a Comment
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This is the last day of 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.

I spent the entire day at the North Carolina Library Association Executive Board meeting. The chair of the Government Resources Section asked me to attend because I’m the incoming chair. I also ended up representing Reference and Adult Services Section because the section’s chairs had other commitments. It was an interesting experience. I am on governing committees at the university, so I am accustomed to Robert’s Rules of Orders, but it is always fun to compare different groups that use the orders. Some are very strict about following procedure and others make a passable attempt. I definitely prefer meetings that have some kind of order or control. It doesn’t need to be Robert’s Rules, but an outline or agenda that is followed is a definitely must. It keeps meetings from devolving into venting sessions. Beth Filar Williams at UNCG has a great outline that provides a topic, the discussant, and a time estimate, and generally it keeps us on time and focused so the meetings always seem productive.

The overarching theme of the meeting was NCLA’s financial troubles because of declining membership. If you are an NC librarian and not a member, I strongly encourage you to take a look at the association. The sections within it are small enough that you can become quickly involved in the leadership (I was the Secretary-Treasurer of the Government Resources Section after five months as a professional librarian and on the board of the Reference and Adult Services Section after a year). The sections put on good programming–GRS held a SimplyMap training in conjunction with Business Librarianship in NC this past fall, for example. I’ve been trying to do more data programming with the GRS, but we also hope to have virtual workshops on supporting government information that will be open to anyone. Come join us. While yes, joining costs money, it provides a quick and easy way to get involved and make your name in this state. If you joined in the past and didn’t get much out of it, try again. The sections have new blood and are looking to be responsive to the needs of the membership. So, that’s my pitch. Get out; get involved.

And that may be it for library day in the life. I don’t think I’ve ever kept up for an entire round before! It is an interesting exercise to document your days so closely. It isn’t my favorite approach to blogging as I prefer the reflective posts, but I think it serves its purpose as a snapshot of our librarian days.

So, what’s on board for next week? Oh, lots! I’m attending an American FactFinder training for its new interface, teaching our interns about congressional research, and then at the end of the week, presenting at the Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching! It is a fun conference with a nice combination of faculty, librarians, and course development staff. Friday morning I’ll be presenting with Jenny Dale and Amy Harris on classroom interactivity. We are all doing some research to beef up this presentation, which we did a version of at the Metrolina Information Literacy Conference, and I was assigned Practical Pedagogy for Library Instructors. Lots to do! More info about all of this and posts from Lilly Conference are on tap for next week.

Thursday = Meetings #libday6

Published January 27, 2011 outreach , the profession Leave a Comment
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Came in an hour late today to use up some more comp time from last week. Also, today is another long day. The theme today may be meetings. I don’t have many but they are both scheduled for strangely long times.

  • 10:00:
    • Arrived at work and checked email. Had a question about advance searching in Lexis Nexis Academic. Always fun, that database. I was trying to describe everything I could and decided that was silly. One part (searching within results using subject terms) was just too difficult, so I created a short jing video just to make sure she could see my steps. Man, I love technology sometimes.
    • Checked out the cover of our book! Here’s a sneak peek.

      book

      I’m so excited. And they chose blue! Like reading my mind.

  • 11:00
    • Realized I need to do a bit of collection work before my meetings start. I’m not the greatest collection liaison to be honest, but I’m at least staying on top of my gobis!
    • 11:30 – A psc student stopped by for some help. Apparently she is working with the other student on the Federalist Papers. She wanted to jazz up her presentation so I showed her Prezi. She then asked me “What is it you actually do for your job?” “Oh, everything” should probably be my answer.
  • 12:00
    • Brownbag of mentors and mentees. The untenured librarians all have tenured mentors and this was one of our monthly brownbags. We talked a bit about the new peer evaluations. I’ve never done these before because it is a bit uncomfortable to evaluate someone else who is tenured, but it sounds like we really should, especially those of us who observe each other teaching.
  • 1:30
  • 2:00
    • Ashby residential college office hour: I had my first question of the semester (and third overall). One of the student workers was joking about how I could stand doing all this research. She then waved a paper in my face. I asked her if she needed help and it took some encouragement to get a handle on the problem she was having. She basically was looking up publication information for several books in order to cite them, but she couldn’t find them easily on the internet. Hello, Worldcat! The funny part is she seemed apologetic for having to ask. These students are pretty self-reliant; it makes my job harder in trying to get the questions out of them.
    • Found out that Sam, my Ashby student, had a lengthy consultation with one of the res college students! Yay! Maybe our hardwork is finally paying off!
  • 3:00
    • Department meeting: Good discussion about customer service. We came up with some good ideas, which I can’t recall at this point. Luckily minutes were taken! Also, we had a discussion about creating workflow documents showing how much time we spend doing what in an average week. It wasn’t  the easy thing to talk about and I’m not 100% on what we are doing this for, but it is a good thing I document my work like a nerd!
  • 5:00
    • LIS program town hall meeting: Our LIS program is going up for a review in February and had a town hall meeting to answer questions and get feedback. The faculty has stepped it up, so I have high hopes for the process.
  • 8:00
    • When I arrived home I found an email from another Ashby res college student asking about library school! WOOOHOOOO!!!

Wednesday = research #libday6

Published January 26, 2011 the profession Leave a Comment
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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.

Because I had collected some comp time, I decided to take the morning off today. Luckily my work week was front loaded, so the rest of this week won’t be as busy as the past two days. Having to go where and when people need you is definitely a feature of librarianship you just have to live with. Sometimes when I’m working on a particularly big project it can be extremely frustrating to drop everything, but it happens. I’ve been trying to schedule my quiet times at the beginning of my days and leave the afternoons open for meetings and consultations. Sometimes it works.

  • 1:30-3:30: The director of Ashby, the director of undergraduate research and I are coming up with info lit/research/integrity modules that can be inserted into the courses at the residential college. It is a hard process because we are creating something new while trying to work within the existing structure of things. The first module is for source evaluations. We will encourage profs to bring students to the library for an intro session, then we’ve created assignment templates that could be used to reinforce the concepts learned. We just have to figure out how to get faculty to implement something like this in an organized way. Today’s meeting was good for coming up with ideas, but more soon on where this will go!
  • 3:30-4:30: Tried to find scholarly articles for a psc undergrad. I’m not 100% on her project but she has to look at federalist 15 and find scholarly resources on that essay. This is crazy difficult to search because most articles are about the topics within the federalist papers and not individual ones. Sigh. The search continues.
  • 4:30-5:00: Jamba Juice and answering emails about our undergraduate research award. I cajoled the political science department into stepping up their game and now have a pile of emails.
  • 5:00-7:00: My reference desk shift! I have two two-hour shifts a week. I will sometimes get political science students to come do consults during this shift, especially the older and Master’s in Public Affairs students. Most of them work therefore it helps them times after working hours.
    • chat: Sources for a project examining the planning of the Denver International Airport; PAIS actually was very useful for this!
    • in-person: Sources for finding african american attorneys in NC in the 1900s-1920s; We talked about the problems with the Census and the possibilities with using directories.
    • Worked on email. Lots of email. And the federalist question a bit more.

Until tomorrow!!

gym. consultations. outreach. repeat. #libday6

Published January 24, 2011 outreach , the profession Leave a Comment
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I’m the Data Services & Government Information Librarian at the University of NC at Greensboro and this is my fourth go at Library Day in the Life.

So, the title is an attempt at levity, but it is also my new mantra. I feel ten times better on days that I exercise before work (even if just a quick walk). I’m a nicer person too. Thank you endorphins. I also discovered that I could read the Kindle New York Times while using the elliptical without killing myself in the process. Lynda is a happy girl.

  • 7:00-8:00: Gym & newspaper: I count the newspaper in my work duties because if as a political science and government information librarian I didn’t keep up with current events, I would have some difficulty. Of course these aren’t counted in my actual work hours, but it is the overall package of professional life. Just trust me on this one.
  • 9:00-10:00: Coffee! And prepped for outreach talk with the Warren Ashby Residential College and for a consultation on coup d’etat data.
  • 10:00-10:30: Coup d’etat consultation (A prof is building a event data set on coups, coup attempts, and failed coups in Latin America. I got to show ICPSR to an undergrad research assistant. Fun times.)
  • 11:00-11:30: Met with Warren Ashby Residential College to promote our librarian-in-residence service.
  • 11:30-12:00: Quick lunch and look through email
  • 12:00-1:00: Taught Political Science 240 (international system) instruction session. I will miss working with this professor. He now has a full-time gig at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse (I’m jealous of you, Rachel Slough).
  • 1:00-2:00: Went to Ashby for an office hour. No questions yet, but it is early.
  • 2:00-3:00: Attended the Ashby Residential College staff meeting. We talked about the upcoming class offerings. They have classes set through Spring 2013, which is super helpful for me in planning how to support them.
  • 3:00-3:30: Agraphia group. Our untenured library faculty have a writing support group. Read more about Paul Silvia’s idea in my previous post.
  • 3:30-4:00: Catch up on email and buy a chocolate treat!
  • 4:00-4:30: Created flier for RIS intern program for recruiting in our LIS classes and typed up notes for the short presentation I am doing at 5:30.
  • 4:30-5:00: Got photos of our Game Night on Friday and uploaded to Irma’s Flickr and Facebook
  • 5:00-5:30: Mad rush to finish printing fliers for …
  • 5:30-5:45: Presentation on our Reference & Instructional Services Internship Program to new LIS students. Woohoo. Come join us!
  • 5:45-6:00: Talked with a political science professor about traveling and budget woes. I think I offered to teach a class. I am insane.
  • 6:00-7:00: Dinner at the office. Yummy! Talked to one of our former interns about his recent job interview (woohoo Will!).
  • 7:00-?: Friends of the UNCG Libraries book club meeting. We are reading The Ghost Map. You can read my thoughts (if yer bored) at my blog-in-the-works.

(Yes, the title is a reference to Jersey Shore. And yes, I know I should cite my sources. And no, I don’t watch Jersey Shore. … At all.)

Voices of librarianship and #librarydayinthelife

Published January 22, 2011 outreach , the profession Leave a Comment
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Round 6 of library day in the life (LDITL)! Oh my! So, for the past three years a group of fearless librarians have been documenting their days for a week at a time and the next round starts on Monday. The justifications behind it have been presented and Annoyed Librarian has made his snide remarks (I firmly believe AL is a man and probably Stephen Abrams.)

Personally I like the project. Sure, it is navel gazing, but every profession does that once in a while, even political scientists (Hello, Mr. Perestroika). We have heard the reasons. Yes, someone interested in the profession could read a post and say “That’s is exactly what I want to do do!” Yes, it provides for reflection on daily work, which is something we don’t do enough anyway. Yes, my interns and other LIS graduate students can see what madness they getting into. And yes, it provides a window into the profession for those wondering about the value of libraries.

For me, the striking thing about LDITL is that we aren’t ever really doing the same jobs. Entries have common themes usually: technology, collections, instruction (both group and one-on-one), professional work. But if you were to put my posts up against a technician you’d probably think we had different professions altogether. First, you don’t want me anywhere near cataloging rules (or rules in general). Second, the daily work is pretty different. I spend most of my day running from meetings to instruction sessions to remote office hours to having impromptu research consultations in the middle of the library lobby (or the line of the coffee shop). I have to fight to find times to sit in my office uninterrupted (actually that is called working from home).

I’m not saying this is a better approach. The technician probably gets way more to do’s checked off her list on average and therefore can demonstrate Productivity much easier than I can. But, the daily job is just not the same and this is what is interesting about LDITL. I call myself a librarian, but what I do in my daily work does not necessarily resemble the librarian beside me. Factor in my focus on numeric data, stats, and the government and the world becomes even more different. I’m sure this is true in many professions, but librarianship is stereotyped more than most (“NO! I do not shelve books!). So, LDITL is way for us “librarians” to document the differences.

The one thing I would like to see coming from LDITL is some sort of curation of the posts. Now that we have hit the sixth round I’m worried that the voices from the past are going to be overlooked. I got hooked on this because of Lauren Pressley’s thoughtful posts from the first round and I had tons of fun reading Dennis Nangle’s hilarious and prolific tweets from rounds 4 & 5. Bobbie Newman’s wiki helps to keep the posts together, but I had in mind an online archive with a representation of voices featured on a rotation and then links into the older posts. Different types of librarianship could be highlighted by choosing some key/funny/representative posts: Hey! here’s instruction in libraries or Hey! here’s cataloging in libraries or Hey! here’s writing in the library profession. Maybe it is the “traditional” librarian coming out, but it could be an interesting project. Any other visions for on how it could be done? Thoughts on how to use the LDITL posts?

Oh, and btw, you may see a bunch of LDITL posts coming from this spot on the internets over the next week. Word of warning…

the dark side of librarianship … writing #libday5

Published July 26, 2010 the profession , writing 2 Comments
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I’m the Data Services & Government Information Librarian at the University of NC at Greensboro and this is my third go at Library Day in the Life.

Today is an atypical “work” day for me as I have taken some time off to work on a large project. So, my library day in the life has been errands, writing, tea steeping, writing, miso soup making, writing, and not much more. The point to get from today is that (some) librarians write. Luckily most of us aren’t required to write (unlike academics), but we have opportunities to do so.

I’ve been thinking about writing and librarianship a bit this weekend (wonder why?!) and the common complaints about the quality of library literature. Granted, some articles could have a better editing process. And granted, some people should just not write. But coming from a field with excellent research agendas (political science) and pretty dismal writing quality (I dare you to read Bruce Bueno de Mesquita), I guess I appreciate an article that is just plain READABLE. Plus one that applies to what I actually do in my library daily life.

Library literature lacks the rigor of other types of academic writing, undoubtedly, but while I appreciate a well-researched article, I admit that I read more often to learn about how other libraries are doing new projects or offering new services. Our work would be lacking if we didn’t have the case study format. The evidence is in my treatment of College and Research Libraries News (CRLN) versus College and Research Libraries (CRL). Of these two ACRL publications, CRLN is focused on case studies and “how we did it” type articles while CRL is solidly research in the library field (lots of citation analyses). I typically read CRLN cover to cover. I rip out articles that I want to keep and file or give to others. I’ll find articles in PDF format to keep for my interns to read. I actually look up quite a few of the URLs and post them to my delicious account. I use it.

CRL on the other hand usually sits on my shelf. I’ll skim the titles, and read them if I think I’ll get fired if I don’t or if one of them starts a conversation. Mostly though, it sits on my shelf. (Sorry CRL!) Maybe I’m just too busy to absorb the wisdom of CRL, which is probably very true, but with my busy day I have to make choices and I will choose the options that will benefit my work (or patrons). The cynical librarian may even say that CRL is only meant to satisfy some institutions’ tenure requirements while CRLN is the publication we actually read. But that would be cynical and you didn’t hear it from me.

So, in honor of the library day in the life round 5 and to a day of writing, I raise my mug of tea to the case study. May you thrive and prosper and keep lyndamk forever well-informed.

Now, enough procrastinating! Back to writing…

the days are just packed #libday4

Published January 27, 2010 the profession Leave a Comment
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I’m the Data Services & Government Information Librarian at the University of NC at Greensboro and this is my second go at Library Day in the Life.

A LDITL is a very different creature in during a semester. Last time I did this little exercise in “me”-ness it was the middle of the summer. Granted my days were filled with fun in libraryland, but nothing compares to the start of a semester. So, what was my day like yesterday? Here are the highlights because no way I can remember everything.

  • Started out with my computer rebooting repeatedly because of updates, so I actually read through PW and World literature today
  • Once the computer decided it was finished, I dug into three outstanding reference questions-two data and one government information. All three are complex, but are answerable. One I’ve been working on for a while, so I finally asked for help from my data and gov info peeps.
  • Started sending out the post for our Digital Projects Coordinator position. Got some interesting comments from the Twitterverse! You know who you are.
  • Met with my twin, Amy Harris, to discuss our upcoming Trivial Pursuit Night. We are trying to get students to sign up as a team, but we are having trouble conveying that. Dunno why. Because it is the start of the semester I guess.
  • Prepped more for class on Thursday. The focus is writing annotated bibliographies and not just research, so I need to get my rear in gear on prepping for that. Most of it is ready, but I like to obsess.
  • Answered my phone (I don’t often do this) and was asked to be on a committee for LPSS. I’m NOT answering my phone EVER again.
  • Email email email email email
  • Tried to read documents for our University Curriculum Committee meeting on Friday. They kept pouring in by email so I just said I’m done and will return when the barrage has ended.
  • Reference desk for two hours. Asked a student to check my Politics section in Choice-go through the new books and mark which ones we have in the library. I felt guilty but the sweetheart said she enjoyed doing it. Sucker! Only questions at the desk are log-in and ‘where is this book’ type questions at the moment, so work is possible.

    • So that was about it. Nothing remarkable and nothing fascinating. Just lots and lots of doing.

Friday = Summertime Blues

Published July 31, 2009 the profession , work Leave a Comment
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#librarydayinthelife
I am participating in the Library Day in the Life project. Join us! It’s painless. Me = Data Services and Government Information Librarian.

Arrival at 9:00 am, but wishing I could have taken the day off. Oh well! Emails, vmails, rss are the usual starting points.
9:30 am: Started brushing up on some statistics. T test anybody?
10:30 am: Spent some time trying track down the library’s video camera that a LIS student was supposed to use for interviews with our library liaisons. Found it in the DE librarian’s desk (with her permission of course). There goes that half hour. I was actually hoping I couldn’t find it so I wouldn’t have to do an interview today :) That’s what I get for efficiency.
11:00 am: Early lunch because of filming: Amy at noon and me at 1:00 pm.
12:00 pm: Sent off emergency email to the NCLA Government Resources Section board about changing our sessions. I’m ready for the conference to start. No changes can be made then!
12:15 pm: The student came early to film. It went fine, but you never can tell when filming the Lynda. We want to use these short segments as videos for our subject guide welcome pages. Good stuff. Glad I have the rest of the afternoon to myself though.
12:30 pm: Started working on my reappointment package. Sigh. Not looking forward to it, but need to just get it done! Decided to work on it for exactly an hour and no more!
1:30 pm: Wanted to work on something easy so switched to updating the user guide for our Blackboard integration project. Listened to the latest Evernote podcast while working on it. I love Evernote. Love it. Big thanks to Lauren Pressley for showing it to me back a year ago.
2:30 pm: Met with Beth, my co-presenter from the Creative Commons workshop. We created a short evaluation through Google forms and sent it out to the group. The difficult part was remembering who was in the session.
3:30 pm: Met with Amy (impromptu) and talked about creating a pre & post-test that could be launched in a wide variety of classes. Now we acquire qualitative data that requires quite a bit of work. I’d like to see something a bit easier.
4:00 pm: Started reading articles for a writing project as the rain starts to fall. This will end out my day.

Here is to the end of July. Because August is usually just preparation for the semester, I’m considering summer officially over. So, the theme song for today is Summertime Blues by The Who.

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ALA 2012

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