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Monday, May 10, 2010

A Monumental Event

Student Video about what they like about the library.

ttfn

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

I Didn't Think I'd be Saying This

Two years ago on Valentine's Day, I posted my first blog post. Back then, my blog was daily posts about what I was doing at work or what was going on at work on any given day. Later, my posts evolved from daily rantings to infrequent reports about the goings-on at work. This past Valentine's Day celebrated two years. Unfortunately, it was also the day I experienced my heart attack. I'm doing fine and am on the road to full recovery. However, things have changed somewhat.

As things in my life are changing (as well as things at work), the amount of time I can devote to this blog is not as convenient as it was before. So I will no longer be posting regularly.

This does not spell the end of this blog, but the end of regular rants and updates. I do plan to continue posting, but only when something major or monumental occurs.

The experience has been rewarding and I thank everyone who communicated with me and read along with me. Consider it not the end of an adventure, but the turning point in a new one.

It's been fun.

ttyl

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Counting the Days

The semester is almost over! The last day of day classes is April 30; evening and graduate classes end May 1. Finals begin May 3 and end May 8. It seems like just yesterday the semester began and we were swamped in snow storms.

This semester, the technology end of things held up until recently. Problems with the databases and proxy server began cropping up. Blackboard has had some outages and the web server has been flaky. At least the big headache we had last semester and the previous ones hasn't reared its ugly head. I'm not going to say what because I don't want to jinx things.

We have had some issues with some of the weblab computers, but it's nothing that the tech students, the systems librarian, and I haven't been able to handle.

Faculty are beginning to make regular runs on the office picking up those blue exam booklets, and ILL traffic has picked up as students begin working on their papers.

Overall, we've had a pretty descent semester. Even the temperatures in the building have been somewhat cooperative--and that's despite the drastic temperature changes outside.

ttyl

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Request, Review, Reflect, Report

The library recently conducted a survey: Student Library Survey: Win a Flip Camcorder! The results were quite interesting.

I'm not sure if the results of the survey will ever be released for public consumption, but I'm sure that the brief impression I leave here will give you some idea of the comprehensive nature of the survey. The respondents of the survey included freshmen through seniors, as well as evening and graduate students.

For me, I noticed that the bulk of positive comments were about the staff and about the services the library provides. The bulk of the negative comments were about things the library and staff have virtually no or little control over.

The positives included comments about the friendliness of the staff, the helpfulness of the staff, the availability of quiet study areas, and the abundance of access to electronic resources and computers, and the ease and availability of ILL services. There were a few comments recommending updating the book collection.

The negatives included comments about the lack of hot water in the bathrooms, the oppressive heat or frigid cold in the building, the spotty WiFi coverage, and the gestapo-like swipe system for entering the building.

The swipe system was instituted by Public Safety after a rash of thefts believed to be the work of outside interlopers. Thefts still occur and they are generally student-on-student incidents.

The environmental concerns are basically handled by Facilities and Housekeeping. We do our best with keeping up with the problems and reporting them and Facilities and Housekeeping do their best with keeping up, but we can only do so much. It's kind of hard to keep the place clean when students won't pick up behind themselves or see just how far they bend or twist something before it breaks.

The technology concerns are mostly handled by IT. The decision to hire Tech Students to work at the Reference Desk beside the librarians has been a boon to the staff. The tech students are able to troubleshoot problems, help with maintaining the computer lab, and provide help with software questions the rest of the staff can't handle, doesn't have the time to handle, or isn't trained to handle.

Occasionally something may come up that neither we nor IT is responsible for. Just yesterday, one of our electronic resource providers made a change that prevented students working from home from accessing the vendor's databases. The problem was eventually resolved.

Overall, I think the survey shows the library is doing a good job and the students recognize that.

ttyl

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Better World Books Expands Its Business to Mars

In a surprise statement, Better World Books announced it's expanding its operations to Mars with its
Introducing Better Mars Books
initiative.

The literacy rate for the red planet is expected to rise as a result.

ttyl

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Learning Commons Webcam

One of my readers, and a good friend, sent me the URL to the Learning Commons her library has.

Not only are there pages and host of links dedicated to it and its purpose, there's a live Webcam in the commons. You can actually peek in and take a look at what's going in.

The day I took a look, the place was BUSY.

If you're curious about what a Learning Commons is or your library is thinking of adding one, check out NCSU's site.

Learning Commons: NCSU Libraries


Thanks, Erin!

ttyl

Thursday, March 25, 2010

More on What a Learning Commons Is

Yesterday, I linked to a site that explains what a learning commons is. Today, I'm linking to York University in Canada. They dedicate an entire Web page to what a learning commons is and they briefly touch on the interchangeable term Information Commons.

Learning Commons.

ttyl

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

What is a Learning Commons Anyway?

Now that there is definite talk of constructing a new addition to the existing library building, and it looks like the funding allocated for it will not be yanked from us this time, I've been wondering what exactly is a learning commons.

A lot of library's have "learning commons," and "digital commons," and "library commons," but very few explain just what they are. They describe what they do, but that's about it.

I found the following site from the Central Oregon Community College that gives a rather reasonable and understandable explanation: 21st Century Library.

Web 2.0, here we go!

ttyl

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Whew! Glad That's Over

We're all going through the annual evaluations process and it's taking up a lot of time. Before we actually go in behind closed doors to discuss things with our supervisors, we are given a self-evaluation form to fill out.

We're asked to compare our goals from last year with our goals for this year. What goals we have for the upcoming year. What we think our strengths and weaknesses are and what we can do to improve them. That form is then passed on to our supervisors for them to look at and amend--if necessary. Then our supervisors (at least mine) gives you a copy of the evaluation for you to look over before the meet.

Once inside, everything on your self-evaluation and your supervisor's evaluation of you is discussed. Then you agree (or disagree) with suggested changes, and a final copy of your official evaluation is created for you to sign or not.

I've never heard of anyone not.

I'm good for another year.

ttyl