Reading on the Kindle

I finally borrowed my mother's Kindle for a trip and actually *read*  several books.  I want to capture my impressions before I read this week's New Yorker article by Nicholson Baker...

The Kindle is fantastic for a trip.  There was none of my usual agony about choosing which books to take.  I didn't run out of books to read, which is deadly.  The device itself is tiny and easy to tuck in the outside pocket of my bag.  I recharged the battery once, but I don't think I needed to.  

I love the wireless Amazon bookstore. I was in Oak Park and decided I wanted to read a book about Frank Lloyd Wright.  Presto. I bought one and read it.  I *love* that feature.

I quickly got into the reading experience and got caught up in the book rather than the device.

The book cover and reviews on the back of the book influence my choice much more than I thought.  I actually had a hard time browsing Amazon online.  The awkward keyboard was also a contributing factor because it was a pain to use the "if you like this book..." feature.  Next time I will bring the Kindle to the bookstore with me and buy Kindle books after looking at the physical book.

Initially I struggled with my itouch because of the touch screen.  Apparently I've acclimated because I was very frustrated that the kindle did not use a touch screen.  

I don't know why I missed this, but I found it disorienting to not know how much of the book I had read or had left to read.  The kindle shows me what percentage of the book I've read, but it wasn't quite the same.

Someone needs to invent a single,  universal recharging cord!!! I had a cord for my phone, my camera, my itouch AND the kindle.  Enough is enough.

Overall the Kindle is definitely a good reading experience and it is ideal for travel.  I must like it because I checked out a book from the library yesterday and instead found myself reading the title on the Kindle!  Which reminds me of my last wish for the next generation Kindle - a light. I would love to be able to read in bed or on a dark plane.  

Wilder Winter Wonderland

We had a fun going away party for Stanley on Friday. The them was a "Wilder Winter Wonderland". We all wore scarves and ate snow cones. (I thought it was hilarious.) Each department gave him a funny gift to remember the UR. The Access Services department each made a "flat Stanley"; I also thought that was hilarious. Nora made a movie, which was amazing. And oh yeah, we all wore Wisconsin tattoos (temporary).

I will miss Stanley most at budget time. He has the best budget gestalt of anyone I have ever worked with. He knew when it was the numbers just didn't seem right. He knew when we were overspending. He could tell when we were "where we expect to be". It was both years and years of working with budgets and a natural ability. It is going to be rough without him.

Rotated and Condensed?

I feel like I'm the only one who is shocked to learn that the American Chemical Society (ACS) will be "publishing the print editions of most of its journals in a "rotated and condensed" format that will fit two pages of content on one printed page." In other words, we won't really be able to actually READ the print. And the price for the print is increasing significantly at the same time. At least in my library, the chemists have been one of the most vocal defenders of keeping print. This feels like a sea change to me. Of course, I didn't think email was any big deal the first time I used it, so what do I know about predicting the future....

Not Quite Ready For Adult Books

Lois and Margaret organized a "not quite ready for adult books" reading group at work. We are reading children's books. To date we have read "The Wind in the Willows", "The Borrowers", and "All Of A Kind Family".  It has turned out to be fun and informative.  Some people have read the books as kids, some are reading the books for the first time.  Some people do research (!) about the author, book setting, and vocabulary terms.  And it brings together people from all parts of the library, who rarely work together.  It's been just terrific. Next we are reading "Mary Poppins".  I think it is going to be a shock for people who only know the story from the movie.

We Should Do This

I was reading an article from nytimes.com this morning and noticed that I could send it to my phone and to facebook. When did that happen? I predict they'll add twitter soon too. We should do that for the catalog. Grrrr.

We were inspirational????

Wow. How cool is this? Our book was inspirational to Char Booth!

Chatting with Char Booth ALA TechSourceBy Daniel A. Freeman Char Booth is a Library Journal Mover and Shaker and one of ALA's Emerging Leaders, and is a voice of growing prominence in the Library Technology community. As the E-Learning Librarian at UC Berkeley, Char works at a unique .... The Foster and Gibbons Studying Students report from the University of Rochester was inspirational in that it illustrated the value of detailing the results of local research project in order to provide insight and motivation for similar studies ...

Only electronic

I had a interesting dinner conversation last night with a science faculty member. He admitted that rather than coming to the library to copy an article only available in print, he would simply request it through ILL.  Why? Because the ILL article is delivered to him electronically as a pdf.  He didn't want a paper copy. He wanted the article in electronic form.  

Because you can’t sleep in the library every night

I was invited to a facebook event,  "Residence Halls Open for New Students", subtitle."Because you can’t sleep in the library every night ".  I'm of the philosophy that any publicity is good publicity.

Reasons for Choosing the UofR

According to their facebook posts, here are some of the reasons students (class of 2013) chose UR over other schools. Campus atmosphere and people they met during their visit, flexible curriculum, , and financial aid seemed to be the factors most mentioned.

• just love Rochester
  
• had everything
  
• traditional campus
  
• atmosphere is "me"
  
• scholarship
  
• portable research grant (4)
  
• people less intimidating
  
• almost no one offers a microbiology major
  
• fits my personality
  
• feel most at home at UofR
  
• has everything I want - engineering, great location, beautiful campus, amazing resources
  
• feel more comfortable
  
• better financial aid (yet several turned down full rides at other schools)
  
• money was a huge issue
  
• open curriculum
  
• sciences
  
• research situation always trumps an arts and science college
  
• from rochester
  
• cool program - I can study art and be premed
  
• homey feeling
  
• most money
  
• people extremely nice
  
• campus is gorgeous
  
• incredibly nice people - left with such a happy feeling
  
• people were great
  
• gave off the right vibe - great place, awesome people, awesome campus
  
• aid
  
• balance between social and academic life
  
• curriculum would easily allow you to study art and still fulfill all your premed reqs
  
• opportunity for someone interested in both music and sciences
  
• campus gorgeous
  
• people were nice as could be
  
• after visiting the Rochester campus allowed me to easily discard the other 7
  

Some students (posted in April) were still deciding. Financial aid was certainly a big factor as well as pressure from parents. Reasons given for NOT choosing the "other" school --- heard that the bio program is not as great as the UofR. Afraid of big class size at X.

What Did YOu Choose Rochester Over?

I was reading discussion board at (one of) the University of Rochester Class of 2013 facebook group this morning.  "Rochester is clearly the best, but what did you choose Rochester over?"  I'm always fascinated by this list.  Why does the some kid who applies to Purdue also apply to the University of Rochester?  Why did they turn down Yale for University of Rochester?  Hmmmm.

Northeastern

Purdue

Dickinson

NYU

Brown

Naval Academy

Washington University

Amherst

Emory

Vanderbilt

University of Vermont

Franklin and Marshall

Connecticut College

Brandeis

Tufts

Middlebury

Yale

Vassar

Cornell

Ithaca

Clark

American

University of Delaware

SUNY Binghamton

Carnegie Mellon

University of Iowa

Indiana

University of South Carolina

Ole Miss

Appalachian State

George Mason

Michigan State

University of Scranton

Pitt

Dartmouth

Penn State

Rutgers

Leheigh

Fordham

Sarah Lawrence

Tufts

Middlebury

Geneseo

Rice 

Seton Hall

Alleghany

Time to Remember

librarian

gardener

shopper

Disney World vacationer

teacher

QVC fan

gift giver

cat lover

pony owner

beader

reader

t.v. watcher

sister

daughter

my friend

Clean and Go Green Week

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted to my blog.  Time definitely gets away from me.  We had a clean up WEEK at work. I wasn't sure if anyone would bother to participate. What was I thinking??? We're all drowning in paper.  Suzanne (whose office is spotless) spent two days cleaning out her file drawers.  Even she threw away a huge pile of papers, literally.  Interesting how we all needed permission (?) to take the time to clean, sort, and throw away.  

Mentioned in the student newspaper

I love to find the library mentioned in the student newspaper. We were listed 5 times in an article, "Almost 30 reasons to love UR".

• You dress up to go to Gleason [library], considering you will probably run into more people there than you will anywhere else on campus.
  
• You have a straight face when you tell your friends back home that a library is the social hub of the campus.
  
• You realize that the graffiti in the stacks is better than PostSecret's could ever be.
  
• One of the things on your to-do list before you graduate is doing some promiscuous acts in the stacks.
  
• There is always one person in the Gleason cubicle with a bathrobe on, and, yes, he probably lives there.

Student Grades

More on freshman advising. I was able to see first semester grades for my advisees.

• mostly B's with a few A's. Hmmmm. I guess I also shared the impression of my advisees that most students got A's in most classes. If my six are representative, that is not a true assumption.
  
• one student made the dean's list. I have much greater appreciation for a what a big deal this is now that I have seen every one's grades.


• a student who nearly withdrew from a class, buckled down and pulled off a good final grade. Impressive. First semester was a shock for all of them. Some were shocked on the first day of classes. It took some of them until the first exam...


• one student did quite poorly in a key class and yet had been totally confident the entire semester. I'm not sure what to make of that one.

Subject line: naked student

Email from Marylou, "There are jeans on the floor next to one of the tables near compact shelving and there are socks hanging over the back of one of the chairs. BTW, there is a book bag on the floor & books on the table." Gotta love exam week!

Day 2 Exam Week

I Think I Might Know Why They Use the Library

We had a dinner for our freshman advises sat their dorm on Tuesday night. It was great. The RA really did all the work. She ordered Indian food, which turned out to be perfect. The kids are sick and tired of pizza. Some of them had never eaten Indian food! The RA also arranged for one of the students on the hall to give an informal Indian dance performance. It was super fun. The boys all sat squeezed together on one side of the lounge, punching each other. The girls all sat squeezed together on the other side of the lounge, giggling. I forget that they were in high school last year...

I came away with another reason why students might be coming to the library in droves. The dorms, at least the dorm I was in, was pretty grim. I saw four sterile, ugly lounges. The first thing that greets you when you come in the door are the washing machines and the smell of wet clothes. There are no elevators. To get to the fourth floor, I had to trudge up an ugly, cement brick stairwell. In comparison, the library must seem like the Ritz. Beautiful furniture. Big tables. Clean. Attractive. What will we do if they ever upgrade the dorms?

Less is More

I had the opportunity to be a user the other day. The only difference is that I knew better than to just give up or go buy the book from Amazon when faced with an error message. I wanted to request a book, but didn't notice that it was already checked out and so chose the wrong form. If it happened to me, I'm pretty sure it happens to other people too. There are actually FIVE different forms to choose from if you want to "request this item".

1. Pick up item at my circ desk
2. Get checked out/overdue item for me
3. Put on reserve for my course
4. Request a pdf of article or chapter
5. Email a pdf of this microform
   
   
   I can see that each choice is different. I realize that there are probably at least five different back room processes for each of these choices, but do users really need to know about them? Haven't we learned anything from google? One box please.

A Place for Everyone

I was over in Carlson Library this afternoon and Trina showed me this list (edited slightly) her circulation students have made. It made me laugh. I love it that there are fans of *everyplace* in the library!

Reasons Why We Are Better Than Rush Rhees:

1. We have Trina
2. Carlson has coffee and tea
3. Overall super awesome staff of epic proportions
4. We have Ferdous (Super TA) & 2 human calculators
5. We have earplugs
6. We have Sony headphones and real calculators and Rush Rhees has 99 cent headphones and calculators
7. We have a glass staircase
8. We have better bathrooms
9. We are not attached to Gleason
10. We have study rooms
11. Carlson is fireproof
12. We have good lighting
13. We have a combine 8,000,000,000 credit hours worth of science knowledge
14. You can't get lost in Carlson

Writing a Book

This morning Alan showed me the gorgeous book he helped his wife write. It made me dream again about writing a book. Well, not actually writing a book. I would love to HAVE WRITTEN a book. Sadly, not only is writing a very painful process for me, I don't think I have a book worth of content in me. Darn it. Brenda just finished a book. Susan has written two books. I'm following two people on twitter who just finished their books. Everyone around me is writing books and I'm writing dorky blog posts. Sigh.

Is Anyone Suprised?

We saw some usability footage the other day for our new website. We asked some undergraduates to find a book on x topic. A librarian of course would immediately go search the OPAC by keyword or subject. What did one of the undergraduate do? Go search the subject in wikipedia and scroll to the end of the section looking at the references. When the references turned out to be only articles and not books, they just jumped over to Amazon. Not only were they able to find books over there, they could read a review which helped them choose one book. And then and only then, did they go to the OPAC to find the call number.

You Can Do That???

We, we libraries, are just terrible at marketing our services. We had a design workshop for graduate students this week. In the course of drawing a picture of their ideal library space, they also made suggestions for new library *services*. One enthusiastic and articulate student suggested that we offer a new service where you could request a book and it would be delivered to a circulation desk. Great idea. In fact, we HAVE this service. We offer this service. The graduate student has been at the UofR for seven years and has never found the service, despite actively looking for it. Groan. We're rolling out a new interface today for our request forms. Hopefully this will help. We have no where to go but up.

Making Shields - Kid's Day

We offered a new activity for freshman orientation this year -- a session for kid's day (activities for the younger brothers and sisters of freshman). Kids signed up to make a shield in the Robbins Library, a medieval special collection in Rush Rhees Library. Of course it was fantastic thanks to Alan, Barbara, Rosemary, and Nora. Barbara cut shields out of heavy paper. The kids could draw or paste things on the shields. When they were done, Alan took their picture with the shield. The shields were fabulous. They were decorated with ballet shoes, cows, hatchets, and pink pompoms! It was a lot of work for us, but I bet it made a huge impression on those kids.

Freshman Advising

I am doing freshman advising this fall. Six freshman. I have so much to so say about the experience, I hardly know where to start. It has made me remember back to when I was a freshman. I was often afraid, alone, lonely, uncertain. I spoke on the phone to my parents once a week. I communicated with my high school friends entirely by letters. We never even spoke on the phone. What a different experience my freshman year was these first year students. My advisees talk to their parents on their cell phone all the time. I know they had long discussions about what classes to sign up for. I made my choices entirely on my own, for better or for worse. They talk and text and facebook their high school friends. Even when they haven't made any friends at the UR, they are still very much in touch with their old friends. I'm guessing it's easier to be a freshman now than it 30 years ago. But maybe it's harder to make new connections when the old ones are never broken?

Always Connected

I went to convocation on Friday. I frankly sat on the grass and kind of spaced out in the gorgeous weather. But not so, the students all around me. Every single one of them was either texting or listening to their ipod. I had one of those "ah ha" moments. They simply are always connected. I'm still struggle to understand what that's like.

Ice Cream Give Away

Our last event for orientation week was giving away ice cream to the freshman when they come off the buses from their day of volunteering. It was cold. It was drizzling. We gave away 900 pieces and for the first time ever, RAN OUT!!! We wore our new t-shirts - thanks to Marc and student from the Art Library.

Book Sale -- Orientation Week

Good grief. What were we thinking? We had three events on the Tuesday of Orientation week. Helen and Eileen (with many volunteers) had a small book sale in the reference area. We used to have our major book sale before school started. The parking was ideal, but there were no students. Now we deliberately have more frequent, smaller sales while the students are on campus. It's fun.

Parent's Breakfast

This is the third year we've had a parent's breakfast. If I do say so myself, it was the best year yet. I'm not sure exactly what the difference was, but librarians and parents were deep in conversation for the entire hour. The first year was reminiscent of a high school dance - librarians and parents awkwardly standing in separate groups. This year, Susan wondered if she should even interrupt and give her welcome. My initial advisor training left me feeling completely overwhelmed and unprepared for the task. Ha ha! It turns out, I did learn something and was able to answer all kinds of questions from parents about classes, withdrawal, writing requirements, etc. Very satisfying! The librarian in the picture is Stephanie, head of the Art and Music Library. One of her students came up with the original idea for our t-shirt. Marc translated the idea into the actual design. Very sharp.

Presidential Jeopardy

Day one of freshman orientation. Students and their parents have to sit in their cars waiting to move into the dorms. While they're waiting, they have a big bag of information to look through. We always include a handout with a piece of candy taped to it (so ours stands out from all the other paper...) This year the theme for orientation was board games. Our invitation to the parent's breakfast on Tuesday had a candy land theme. On the other side of the handout Lisa made a presidential jeopardy game. They can call the reference desk and enter a contest to win a flash drive. We don't get a lot of calls, but we hope they see the invitation and maybe the game helps pass the time for those trapped in the car.

Book Cart Drill Team

Last week was a shocking one for Cynthia. She learned about the fall out shelter, pornography, and last, but not least, book cart drill teams. There are two camps. Those who think the book cart drill teams are silly (Susan and Stanley). Those who think the book cart drill teams are FABULOUS and go out of their way to watch the competition at ALA (Katie). I wonder which camp Cynthia will fall into?!

The Newbery Project

This is going to be fun. Kathy found a group of people who are reading all the Newbery Award winning books. I am onboard! I've randomly read 14 so far. (I'm not counting books I read as a kid and can't remember anything about like "Johnny Tremain".)

1. The Higher Power of Lucky - Sweet story with a happy ending. My favorite kind.
   
2. Criss Cross - Hmmmmm. Read it twice and appreciated it more the second time.
   
3. The Tale of Despereaux - Started very strong, but petered out...
   
4. Holes - very scary. I had to keep telling myself it was only a book.
   
5. Maniac Magee - My first Spineli book. No wonder kids love him.
   
6. Sarah, Plain and Tall - The words in this book are beautiful.
   
7. The Westing Game - This is a fantastic book. Of course I couldn't figure out the mystery.
   
8. Bridge to Terabithia - Oh boy, I didn't see THAT coming.
   
9. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Loved this book!!! What a surprising plot line.
   
10. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler - Another great one.
    
11. A Wrinkle in Time - Can you believe I had never read this book before? Fantastic.
    
12. Onion John - Sweet and sad at the same time.
    
13. The Twenty-One Balloons - Liked the premise, but found the book a little boring.
    
14. Caddie Woodlawn - I remembered liking this book as a kid and it held up after all these years.
    

I'm going to take a systematic approach and start with the first winner in 1922 and work my way to the present. Here we go with "The Story of Mankind" by Hendrik Willem van Loon! I wonder how long it will take me to read the remaining 72 books?

Lending Library at the Beach

Oh this was great. I went to Tod's Point Beach for my family reunion. There was a lending library of paper back books by the concession stands. Sweet. I borrowed a book and read it for a few hours. Great idea Perrot Memorial Library.

Freshman Class of 2012

Here is a list of electronics a UR freshman (on facebook) is bringing this fall:

Alarm clock
Laptop, charger
Printer
Desk lamp
MP3 player
headphones
Cell phone
charger
Extension cord(s)
Multi-plug power strip
Digital camera
CD/DVD case
External hard drive
USB flash drive
Calculator
Batteries
Fan

I highlighted the items that didn't even EXIST when I was a freshman. I was very popular on my floor because I owned a popcorn popper - yes - I went to college before there were even *microwaves*!

newlib listserv

I have re-subscribed to the newlib listserv. Some days it makes me want to tear my hair out. The complete lack of direction and advice that seems to exist in many library schools is shocking.

But today there was a message that made me smile and smile. It was from a young woman who thanked everyone on the list for help getting a position. She said,

"I'm so happy to be in an academic library that I hardly know what to do. "

She's right. I have a great job. I am lucky.

We had an "Alternative Coronation" for Susan last week. Alan read a proclamation. We gave her a crown, a velvet robe and a septor. There was harp music, cake and presents from each department. They were fabulous! The real installation was lovely, but nearly as lively. More pictures on flickr.

I love award ceremonies

I love award ceremonies. I love to attend them and I especially love to speak at them. Last night I got to present the Friends of the Library award to Stephanie Frontz, art librarian extraordinaire. Here is my text.

I have a big long list of accomplishments for Stephanie:

Stephanie has been an Art Librarian since 1973;
she currently manages the Art/Music Library ;
for many years she was also in charge of the Multimedia Center in Rush Rhees Library;
she managed the Library at the Memorial Art Gallery for a ten years;
she was a member of the College Teaching, Learning, Technology Roundtable;
she is also a long-standing member of the Friends of the University of Rochester Libraries Executive Committee;
she has been very active in the planning of the annual Book Sale and Holiday Reading;
Stephanie is a member of the Art Libraries Society of North America;
she has written articles and given presentations at national meetings;
she created an annual student art prize on the River Campus;
she is a member of the Gleason Library Art Committee;
and she has served on zillions of library committees over the years

But the list doesn’t really tell you why we chose Stephanie for this award.

Stephanie is passionate – she is passionate about art, about libraries, about librarians, about her students and her faculty.

Stephanie never cuts corners – Everything she does – from arranging flowers for orientation breakfast to teaching a class for graduate students – is done to perfection.

Stephanie sets the bar very high for herself and for everyone around her.

When Stephanie is on a project –everyone wants to be part of it – because they know the end result will be amazing and they will have tons of fun working on it.

Stephanie accomplishes more in a day than the rest of use do in a week. She is the original energizer bunny. And she doesn’t carry around piles of paper or even a big notebook. She carries a tiny, black calendar with her everywhere she goes and jots microscopic notes in it. Stephanie never forgets a detail or drops the ball.

Stephanie represents the very best of what being a reference librarian is about. She knows her subject and her users and her collection and works tirelessly to bring them together. I think that all of us who have worked with Stephanie over the years consider ourselves very, very lucky.

I know I consider myself privileged to have worked with Stephanie and would like to be the first to congratulate her on winning this award.

It Feels Like the "old days"

Trina told me yesterday that circulation in Carlson has increased 46% since 2004 . Wow!

She and Delores observe that "more professors use multiple textbooks and are not expecting their students to buy the books. Instead they are putting them on reserve and using a chapter or two from several books."

Our statistics may also be "affected by the number of unusual items we have on reserve – lamps, locks, headphones, etc. And those all have high circulation. "

Wow. As Trina observed, "it feels like the old days".

Paper helicopters - Carlson Study Break

We tossed paper helicopters from the third floor stairs in Carlson Library at our Study Break Sunday Night. It was fun. And this is our first youtube video - go Kenn!

The Very Public Phone Interview

Where: main staircase in Rush Rhees Library with a constant stream of people going up and down the stairs

What: young woman on her cell phone clearly answering interview questions (job? graduate school?)

Yikes!

The point here is that I would never ever do this. I separate my work (interview) and personal (talking on a cell phone in a public space). Undergraduates don't, or don't to the same degree that I do.

Campus Tour

Just came back from a campus tour. The library was the only academic building we actually entered and the tour guide was pretty accurate.

• The library is the "center of campus"
• The library has "tons and tons of material"
• She (the tour guide) loves studying in the periodical reading room, though it gets crowded. (Really? I wonder when that is?)
• You can eat in the library.
• She knew about the senior thesis exhibits in the Art and Music Library.
• Multi media library is a "mini-blockbuster".
• The pit is very popular in part because you can buy food there and take it to the library.
• Not a single mention of reference, reserve, or even circulation.

Other miscellaneous statements:

• The tunnels are "awesome". (Of course I beg to differ)
• The buses are "really great". Really???
• The University has pledged to buy only local food for the dining halls. (?!)
• One of the mothers asked if the showers were open 24X7. ???!
• Tour leader didn't have a clue as the significance of the dandelion .
• She mispronounced Louvre, as in THE Louvre.....
• We have a tanning salon on campus. Who knew?
• Lots of questions from mothers about what hours the dining halls are open. What was that about?

The 2008 Student Employee of the Year

works at Carlson Library - Phuong (Lucy) Tran. We are sooooo proud! I don't think a student worker from the library has ever won this award. In fact we almost didn't submit the nomination we were so sure one of our students could never win. Here are few quotes from her nomination letter:

"She is a delight to work with and represents perfectly the highest standard of service we strive to provide in Carlson. "

"Lucy not only is an asset to large scale projects, she shines performing everyday tasks with a strong commitment to the library and a recognition that all of the small tasks are necessary for the library to succeed, allowing her to achieve a high level of excellence as a work study student. "

"Lucy approaches all tasks with enthusiasm and excellence. She puts herself into everything she does from the mundane to the complex. "

"Another student commented..., “who is that girl at the desk who always smiles and is so helpful to me?” Again it was Lucy."

We have very mixed emotions about Lucy graduating this May. Of course we're excited for her. She has worked hard and has been accepted into Pharmacy School for the fall. This summer she is taking a long deserved vacation home to Vietnam. But darn it - we're just going to miss her like crazy.

Library Myths

Blue moon? I feel that the misinformation about library services is running rampant this week.

1. You have to pay to get articles through InterLibrary Loan. Ouch!

2. You can't recall books. What?

3. And one patron didn't know how to find articles you "don't need to pay for". Turns out they were searching via the web (not Google) and didn’t know about our databases page.

Happily all were thrilled to find out that we do not charge for ILL, do subscribe to online journals and do allow books to be recalled. Maybe we shouldn't worry so much about getting the word out about the NEW services we offer, but go back and review the basics....

Anyone Else Here Not Sure?

Acceptance letters were sent out last week. I love to read the facebook posts from incoming (potentially) students. My very unscientific observations:


1. Many are having a hard time deciding which school to attend. At least two high school seniors were accepted by 11 schools!!!

Got into 11, grararrrr
I’m really confused
I’m really undecided
It’s so overwhelming
Difficult decision time
I have no idea what I’m going to do
I’m VERY confused
It’s driving me nuts


2. Financial aid is a big factor in their decision.

“U of R has been my first choice but I really didn’t get enough financial aid”
“I guess we’ll see when my financial aid comes…”
“The decision pretty much comes down to financial”


But of course, you can never make a blanket statement about students – sometimes financial aid does not seem to be the deal breaker.

“XX offered me a really nice aid package, but I think I like UR more”

3. A few mentioned academic program, i.e. that UR has programs they want – premed, political science , Bio, BCS

4. Quite a number are concerned about the CITY of Rochester, especially those who currently live in a big city. They worry that “Rochester the city isn’t gonna do it for” them.

5. Who are the current UR students who respond to these posts? RA's maybe?

I Do Not Care Why

I do not care why.

When I look for the online version of Cell in our catalog (journal title), it's entry number 30.

Searching for Scientific American online by title -- number 76.

Philosophy (online) is entry number SIX HUNDRED AND FORTY ONE. (search by journal title)

I don't care about the cataloging rules. I don't care about the serials solutions load. I don't care. All I know is that people choose google and Amazon over the library catalog for good reason -- it's almost impossible to find things in our OPAC.

I gave a talk about how difficult it was to find PRINT serials in the OPAC at ALA in Miami in 1994 - almost fifteen years ago. I feel like I'm in clip from "Ground Hog Day".... The journals are online, but it's still just as hard to find them in the catalog.

Mobile Rush Rhees

Eileen and I are in Gleason Library on our first afternoon of "mobile Rush Rhees". Eileen selected some books from the popular reading collection and we put them on a book truck and we're in business. w00t! We brought a laptop and a scanner but the two wouldn't plug together, so we're using the low tech approach; we're writing down names and titles. So far we've had four people check out books - not bad for our first try. Eileen can go into sales if this librarian thing doesn't pan out.

P.S. We really stole this idea from MIT - a library with many great ideas!

P.P.S. Eastman student, Gregory, suggested the name "mobile Rush Rhees".

Fabulous new signs

Marc made us the greatest signs for our trash campaign in the Gleason Library. They are everything I wanted in a sign. They are edgy. The pictures are gross. The message is not immediately obvious. We're going to leave them up for about two weeks and then take them down.

Wish I'd Had My Camera

Oh rats. I wish I'd had my camera with me on Friday. I would have taken pictures of

1. The young woman lying on the couch in Carlson totally engrossed in reading "The Double Helix"
   
   
2. The young man trying to fit in the last, few all black pieces in the Mona Lisa puzzle
   
   
3. The optics graduate students playing the piano for a concert in the lobby of the BME building.

Darn it.

Collection Development 101

This has been a humbling two weeks. I never was a very good selector and apparently what little I knew, I have completely forgotten. Oh yeah, and of course I've waited until a few weeks before the deadline to figure all of this out. Sigh.

1. It took Alison and me over an hour to figure out how to actually ORDER a book through GOBI.
2. Oh yeah, you need to double check the catalog so you don't order a title we already own. Sigh.
3. Those rascally book series are going to be the death of me. By the time I remembered I had to search the series title, well, I'll probably end up with some dupes unless the people in acquisitions catch my goof ups.

And this is just the easy part, the book selection. By my accounts there are between 4 and 6 places to pull serial information from. That's definitely for another day.

Houston We Have a Scanner

Finally, finally, we can turn this "no" into a "yes". We just got our own scanner. Yeah. I am not making this up. WHILE Stuart was installing the equipment, I had two BME students say to me "this is great, I need to use a scanner this afternoon". Sweet. Thanks Nora for convincing me to finally DO something about this!

We will miss Raphael

Raphael worked for the housekeeping department and was assigned to the first floor of Carlson Library. He has been at the University for 30 years. I don't think any students or faculty knew him. He didn't select books or teach classes or work on the reference desk. Yet, the work he did was vitally important to create an environment that students and faculty find attractive and comfortable. Without that, the rest of it really doesn't matter much. We will miss him. A lot.

No to reserves. No to ebooks

This was interesting. I just had someone desperate to get a copy of "Numeric Recipes in Fortran". Of course all the copies are on reserve. The reserve loan period was absolutely not long enough. A link to an electronic version of the book was useless; he needed to "flip through the pages". Hmmmm. So much for my stereotype that computer scientists find e-books useful.

Visitors

We had visitors yesterday from Cornell. I love to talk to people from other libraries. They were curious as to why we hadn't installed lockers in the new Gleason Library space. Students hadn't asked for them; I guess we just don't have a "locker culture" here. One of the women told me that before she left Ithaca, there was a line snaking around the library (I'm not exactly which one) of students waiting to sign up for lockers! Lockers are given out the first day of the semester on a first come first serve basis. Wow. They definitely DO have a "locker culture" there. It's always useful to remember that what's a big issue for one campus, may not be on another.

Serrandipity at Midwinter

This is the second time that I have accidentally stumbled onto the meetings of the YALSA committee that chooses the Best Books for Young Adults. Wow. It is an amazing process. The committee must read over a hundred books. They discuss and vote on them several times. They also get input from teens who have read the books. I think they met Friday, Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday of Midwinter. I was amazed at how much work they had done, how very seriously they took their work, AND how very open the process was. I probably sat in on the their meetings for several hours just listening and watching. I was wildly impressed and now I can't wait to go read some of the books on the list!

Please Use Elevator

Bat in Stairwell.

Sigh. The first Monday of 2008....

End of the Year Book List

I love end-of-the year lists -- top 10 books, movies, dvds, celebrities, news stories, etc. I love a list. I have been reading a lot of juvenile fiction this year. I initially started so I could give my mother recommendations of books to buy for my niece. But I found that the books were great and so I have continued. Here is my personal top 10 list.

1. The Golden Compass
2. James and the Giant Peach
3. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
4. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
5. The Westing Game
6. Wide Window - A Series of Unfortunate Events
7. Nancy and Plum
8. Sarah, Plain and Tall
9. The Egypt Game
10. The Last Book in the Universe

First semester in a foreign country?

This is a facebook message from a first year student who came to the UofR from China. I was so clueless at 18. I didn't know how to use a washing machine... I can't imagine myself moving to a foreign country and starting college. I would have floundered and probably failed. But this young woman certainly made it. Amazing.


I feel that my first semester in college perhaps taught me more than all I learned in high school. I came to this new country without even knowing the different names of cheese. Now, I know that there are provolone, swiss, and American. I made lots of great friends and I'm satisfied with all my courses=) See, I survive^_^ Thanks so much for all the kind encouragement and warm help. I'll see you again in the new year, lol Merry Christmas!

Bat Did Not Attack Student

We had a bat in the library last night just before our study break. We called facilities to come remove it - bat poop near food and people and books, doesn't seem like a good match. We were told that facilities wouldn't (couldn't?) come remove the bat because it hadn't attacked a student. Hmmmm. And attaching staff still wouldn't have been grounds for removal? I wonder how that conversation was recorded on the dispatch log...

Innkeeper at the Roach Motel

I just read a great piece by Dorethea Salo about institutional repositories. The title is from her statement, " [The institutional repository} is like a roach motel. Data goes in, but it doesn't come out." It's a very interesting article and I'm very impressed that she has the guts to point out that the emperor is buck naked.

This is my favorite quote, "Simply put, the institutional repository and services associated with it must provide value to faculty on faculty terms before it will see more than scant, grudging use."

Check it out.

New Signs for the Bathrooms

Suzanne just walked by and commented on our new, visible bathroom sign. It has been a huge success. We have had virtually no "where is the bathroom?" questions since we put it up. Yeah! I won't tell you how long we lived with a handmade sign on green cardboard.....

Another great idea from flickr!

I saw a picture on flickr of a fabulous Christmas tree made out of books by Plymouth Libraries. I loved it. Marylou and Alison immediately found some red and green (how lucky!!) volumes that had been withdrawn but not discarded and went to work. I love the final result!

Houston, We Have Self Check Out.

Finally, our self check our machine is ready for business. The security gate is installed and working. AND the Millennium bridge to the Goergen Building is open. Phew. Is it called the Millennium bridge because it took a millennium to finally open???...

Only 12 Days to Exams

The students make me laugh. There are only twelve days left until exams. There seems to be a direct correlation between deadlines and work on our jigsaw puzzles. They have finished more puzzles in the last two weeks than they have all semester. Ah - procrastination!

Friday afternoons in the library

Friday afternoons are very festive in the library this semester. I don't seem to remember that they were always this way. The library is filled with students working in big groups, studying by themselves, writing papers on the computers, scrawling formulas on the white boards, etc. The place just buzzes with good energy. I have always had a theory that the circulation desk sets the tone for the entire library. This is a picture of two of our circ students happily cutting snow flakes together. Case closed.

The Library in Gleason Library

The new Gleason Library is a huge success. Students love it. Though because there are no books and no desk, how to insert "library" into the space is an interesting challenge. Judi and the other reference librarians have made a point of meeting with students in the space. So every time they have an appointment, they go to Gleason Library. I think it's a great idea and a way to insert librarians into the space every day.

We're Big on the Little Things

We're big on the little things in the Science Libraries. One of Pat's ideas that has been a resounding success,was to put out bottles of hand sanitizer. Frankly I thought it was kind of nutty, but I learned a long time ago that I'm not very good at predicting what will and won't work. Students love it. Pat even had a faculty member thank her for it last week. Who knew?

It's Important to See and Be Seen

I was talking to some of our circ students last night who were RAVING about the new Gleason Library. The space is pretty much one big open room with floor to ceiling windows at one end. One of the reasons they like it so much (this is after less than one week of use!...) is that "people can see you" and "you can see your friends".

I had never thought of that as an important consideration.

They then proceeded to tell that of course, that was part of the reason that people liked to study at Carlson library -- you can see your friends thought the glass windows as they come up and down the glass staircase. I knew the windows gave the library an open, airy feel. I had never considered that the reason it appealed to students was that they could see their friends through the windows.

It's important to see and be seen.

You found *what* in the stacks?

I forwarded this very funny blog post entitled "amazing things found in the stacks" to my staff. And much to my amazement, it turns out that we too have found some pretty amazing things in OUR stacks over the years.

1. one pair of boxer shorts
2. on vodka bottle (empty)
3. several small cartons of milk (spoiled)

Who knew??

"This is the New Facebook"

After the dedication of the Gleason Library last night, Lorraine stayed around and watched what happened when the space was open to students. She typed up their comments which are just dreamy.


Some initial reactions:

• "Sweet!" (An exclamation by a student as he reached the top of the stairs, followed immediately by a cell phone call to a friend.)
• Students liked the colors, and the art. (Very excited to find out that art will rotate.)
• Some girls tried out every type of furniture in the room, and liked it all. One girl's favorite was the padded stools.
• Many students are enjoying the cup holders and writing tables on the chairs.
• The TV's were of great interest (until someone interrupted the feed).
• Students are moving the furniture already to suit themselves (eg: comfy chairs pulled up to the PC's)
• Students are already using the studio rooms (the ones I spoke to were studying for the GRE's tomorrow)
• An amateur film maker went nuts over the theatre room and declared his intention to "camp out" there.
• Looking in the windows from the outside is already bringing people into the space.
• Some students brought dinner in for themselves and ate at a table by the window.
• 13 laptops and 5 PC workstations being used at 8:25 pm
• Many, many, many questions about "how long this room will be open?" All are thrilled to find out that the space will not close when the IT Center does.
• "Oh my god, this is a whiteboard?!" "This is so awesome!"
• Don's student: "This is where we used to do the pasting? I'm actually excited to study!"
• There are people using the benches in the landing.
• There is already someone asleep on bench couches outside Studio B (which speak to the management of noise in here. There is a ton of activity right now, but there is only a gentle buzz in the room.)

Basically, every area of the room is being used in some way.

Some notes left on the white boards:

• This is awesome! I think I may live here
• I love Gleason. Love. Really love. (<--she's serious)
• All it needs is coffee. Nevermind. (The "nevermind" was added when I told her that there would be coffee on level G)
• I love the colors.
• This is really awesome! The new hotspot on campus
• This is so cool!
• This is the new facebook

I think a man designed this

This is the sink in the women's bathroom of the new Gleason Library. At first I thought "yeah". The gunky pink soap will go directly into the sink rather than on the counter like it does in all the other bathrooms. Then I thought, "wait a minute". Where am I going to put my purse when I'm washing my hands? Or my toothbrush? Or my book (this is a library after all). Hmmmm. No counter, only sink. I have a feeling that a man designed this sink.

A Day to Just be Silly

I dressed up for Halloween as a piece of candy corn. It was handmade and dorky. Students laughed and gave me the thumbs up. One of my class of 2011 friends (I've never met her) saw me in the stacks and we had a little exchange on facebook about it. (How can you miss a woman in a bun dressed as a candy corn?...) The mail guy and the janitor were nearly speechless when they saw me at the reference desk. It was a huge success. I had fun. They had fun. I think we all need more fun.

Just say NO to hand dryers

When it comes to women's bathrooms, I do know more than my boss, who is a man. Interestingly I rarely disagree with him about facilities - because he's usually right and I'm usually wrong. But when it comes to women's bathrooms - I am the expert.

He is excited about the hand dryers he put in the women's bathroom in the new Gleason Library. I know, it's open 24 hours and accumulation of paper trash will be a problem, BUT....

What is wrong with hand dryers?:

1. It takes way longer to dry your hands using a dryer than it does using paper towels, even those cheap, non-absorbent brown towels that we use.


2. If and when your hands are ever do DRY, they are also chapped from the heat.


3. Need to brush your teeth? Need to splash water on your face after a plane ride? How does the hand dryer work with that?? Not. No amount of toilet paper, folded or crumpled, can dry you.

Just say NO to hand dryers in women's bathrooms.

My Greatest Accomplishment Last Year

I know I should probably have on my list of accomplishments for last year things like - established a wiki for class, answered reference questions via facebook, revolutionized the way graduate students are tracking new research by demonstrating RSS feeds.

But no.

Really, my greatest accomplishment (with most of the credit to Isabel) was getting shelves installed on the back of stall doors in the women's bathroom. I do not have to provide one more word of explanation to any women reading this blog. Purse hanging around your neck? Bookbag on the icky bathroom floor? Sound all too familiar?

Why is it an "accomplishment"? Because it took many, many conversations to explain why I needed a shelf in the women's stalls. And once I had convinced someone to order them - we had to show them where to install them. The facilities guy was completely baffled as to what the shelves were for.....

It really is a mars and venus thing.... Next, can we do anything about the super-tight toilet rolls? I am NOT a gerbil.

To see more posts about bathrooms, check out Bathroom Blogfest!

Things You Can Check Out

We check out a lot of things at our circulation desk in addition to books. Some have been suggested by students -- earplugs and headphones. Staff have suggested the others in response to complaints from students -- laptop locks, study lamps, extension cords, and power strips. The lamps were our solution to not great lighting. The extension cords are our interim solution to not enough outlets for laptops. Overall it's been a good way to be responsive to student comments.

Office in the Stacks?

Diane just asked about creating an office in the stacks for herself. Wow. What an amazing idea. Wouldn't that be the ultimate in outreach for faculty and students looking for Math books??? Students always come up to her and ask her for help when she's in the stacks weeding, etc. I wonder if she is actually sitting at a DESK, would they still feel comfortable asking her for help? Hmmmm.

Discouraging

I just had a woman come by the desk asking how she can send a note to library administration. We chatted and it turned out that she had been studying by a man who scared her. Of course, I told her to always let us know immediately, we will always call security immediately, etc. etc. But afterwards I mostly felt terribly discouraged. Her original solution was to send me an email hours or even days afterward the incident? How afraid do women have to be before they feel justified in saying something?

Once You've Been to the City, You Can Never Go Back

We briefly had to put notebooks with old chemistry exams on reserve yesterday. (The chemistry server went down the day before a big test.) The "solution" lasted about 2 hours. The students had to wait for the notebooks. It took too long. They were not happy. Mid afternoon, one the students in the class who had saved an electronic version, simply emailed the file to the entire class. And that was the end of revisiting the era of paper reserves.

It has always been my humble opinion that the same thing would happen if we ever lost access to an electronic journal and had to use the print version. I don't think people would bother at ALL with the print, but would simply wait, for as long as it took, for the electronic version to return.

You can't go back.

Sometimes Wikipedia Rocks

I just had a student come to the desk with a whole page of citations she wanted to find. Sigh. I thought this is going to take forever. It turned out that each citation had a DOI and PMID number - both of which are super easy to resolve. And where did she get such a lovely list of relevant references? WIKIPEDIA of course....

I will NOT give you my social security number

Just got off the phone with a lovely woman in university health services. (I am going to get registered for a respirator so I can clean mold off of books, but that's another story.). Her first question - "what is your social security number?" She was shocked when I refused to give it to her - their system "requires" it. Wait a minute. We still have systems that require social security numbers???? I DO NOT GIVE OUT MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. Geez.

Exam Tomorrow

Q. How do you know for SURE that there is a major exam tomorrow?

A. There is a big bag of chips on every study table.

Not just food. Not just a regular bag of chips. There has to be an enormous, family-size bag of chips.

Curious. I have never, ever seen students coming into the library with one of these bags. Where do they come from??

Things Change

When we had students take pictures of the things they carried with them everyday - none of them included a laptop. But almost two years have passed and I think things have changed. I am seeing more and more students with laptops in the library, even during the day. Yesterday at 2:30, I did a quick check and there were 14 students with laptops. And yes, all the public computers were in use too....

We're Making Progress

These are the days when I really miss Isabel. She was great at coordinating all these facilities things. We're making progress towards getting two new security gates and a self check machine installed. Every day, one more step forward. Today one of the gates and the self check equipment was delivered and taken up to the third floor. I can't wait until it's all installed and we can finally open the gate to the new BME/Optics Building! I feel like this has been on my "to do" list forever!

Housing Reservations for ALA Midwinter

opened today.

At 10:20, two of the hotels were already gone.

My credit card hung for 15 minutes. Amy's has hung for an hour.

It's not 11:40 and the www.ala.org site seems to be completely down.

It's days like these that make me wonder why I still pay my dues!