Moving process completed, internal demolition begun

We are now fully moved into our temporary location for the library renovation.  All books were moved out of the library by professional movers.  Not all 80,000 volumes were able to fit into our temp location.  About 10,000 had to go to another facility along with the Archives.  Light demolition of the interior of the library has begun (ceiling panels removed, furniture removed, networking equipment removed).  Hopefully the contractors will begin work next week.

Meanwhile, five miles south of campus, the staff of Logan Library have taken up residence in Box City, a large room in a with over 4,000 boxes of books.  The weeding process has begun amongst all the chaos of settling into a new place full of books.  Two of us are located in the front reception areas, and the rest of us are wedged into various crevices of boxes stacked 4 and 5 high.  Numerous obstacles have been overcome in the past week including a wireless option that didn’t work.  With a very weak Internet signal, not only was it almost impossible to do our work, but our phone option was also a bust (Voice over IP).  So we now all have wired Internet connections.  Then yesterday the air conditioning was fixed.  We had temperatures in the 80s on Monday.  They needed to fix the fix today because this morning the temperature was 60 degrees while the thermostat was set to 73.  Brrrr!  That is now fixed.

I finally have a handle on things and am able to plan a little for my ASEE conference next week.  I am presenting a paper for the Technical Papers session.  My paper title is “Using LibGuides as a Web 2.0 Content Management System & Collaboration Tool for Engineering Librarians.”

Been away…Been busy

Yes, I have been away for quite some time.  Why is that?  My library is getting a major renovation this summer and we’ve been preparing.  The entire library will be gutted, completely reconfigured and we’ll have all new furniture.  We should be moving this week and all of the books on the first floor have been boxed up by a moving company.  They will start upstairs, which is where most of the books are, probably today.  So what I did for four straight weeks including some weekends was packing up Archives.  Our Archives was really just three storage rooms of stuff, over 100 years worth.  Nothing is catalogued, there are no finding aids, and there is very little order.  We are talking total chaos.  Think of the show “Hoarders.”  It was almost that bad, only we couldn’t rent a dumpster and throw stuff out.  Just about everything had to be kept.  Here was the main challenge.  Everything needed to be organized and placed in proper archival boxes.  To make it more challenging, our Archives room in the library on campus will be about one third the size of what it was before.  So that means a large number of stuff needs to be stored off-site.  Thus, I had to organize the items according to what will stay on site and what will remain off-site.  This all had to be done in a month.  That meant long tiring days on my feet, doing actual physical labor.  I liked that, but it did get exhausting at times and also stressful given the time restraints.

So the plan for the rest of the summer?  Move to an off-site location which is a large room where all the books will be located so that we can do some major weeding.  We’ll have to do that in order to fit all the books upstairs when we move back in.  Plus we’ll need to provide a certain level of library service which will be challenging.  The details on al that are still being worked out.  Oh, and I have a presentation to prepare for at the ASEE Conference in two weeks.  I am thinking I will have to work on that in the evenings at home.

Fantastic Task Manager App for the iPhone

I think I may have found the perfect task manager program for my iPhone.   It’s called “Remember the Milk”  (RTM) http://www.rememberthemilk.com/ With my former phone, the Palm Centro, the only option I was aware of was the Outlook Tasks feature which I found completely useless.  So I was left using my calendar and the “Notes” program.  The Notes program helped but it left much to be desired.  With RTM, I can set tasks for specific days and set due times.  I can postpone tasks.  If a task does not get done on the day it is due, it shows up for the next day and every day that it remains undone.  I can set sound notifications for when tasks are due.  I can classify tasks however I want them classified.  For instant, I have categories for “Personal,” “Work Tasks” and “Work Projects.”  Keeping these separate or combining them is a key feature for me; one that I was not able to do with Notes.  There are a host of other features as well.  Unlike the thousands of free apps out there, this app cost $25 per year, but you can use it free for two weeks.  After two weeks of using it, I was hooked and coughed up the $25.  I’ve found this program to be the best task/time management tool since being able to sync my Outlook calendar with my phone.  If you have an iPhone, I highly recommend trying it out for two weeks.

Library Computers Used by a Third of Americans

Here are some interesting stats from a study paid for by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The study shows that a third of Americans – about 77 million people – use public library computers to look for jobs, connect with friends, do their homework and improve their lives, according to a new study released Thursday.

While this is good news for libraries right now, I hope library usage does not decline significantly as the “digital divide” narrows.  I would hope that people would still see the value of libraries even if they have Internet connectivity at home.  If the public sees the library as simply a place to gain free Internet access, there could be serious implications for public libraries.  For the entire article, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/25/library-computers-used-by_n_512681.html

Logan Library to Celebrate National Library Week with “READ” Poster contest

To celebrate National Library Week ( April 11-17th), Logan Library will having a “READ” poster contest.  The “READ” poster project is a program that the American Library Association created and attempts to promote libraries and reading by all segments of the population by showing celebrities reading or posing with a book that they like.    Libraries have tapped into this program by either displaying these posters in their libraries or by creating their own of people in their community.  For example, colleges and universities have created their own posters but by using their own staff, faculty and students.

This week, Logan Library has kicked off a contest to see who can come up with the most creative poster.  Anyone in our community is free to send us a picture of themselves or student group reading and we will place it within a template that shows a standard “READ” heading made from Rose-Hulman lettering, “@ Logan Library” and their name or the name of their group.  The winner of the most creative poster will win a prize.  These posters will not all be printed, but rather placed on our Facebook page where our “fans” will be able to vote for their favorite.  The winner of the contest will be chosen by the poster with highest number of “likes” by our fans.  So far we have two posters, one of the entire library staff posing around a Civil Engineering “sculpture” and one of myself.  Mine shows me in the library, leaning on my congas (yes, I lugged them into work for this picture) and reading “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac.  We hope to use this as a means of promoting the library at Rose-Hulman, promoting reading, and increasing our Facebook page membership.  Details can be viewed at http://www.rose-hulman.edu/drc/library_contest/

In addition to the poster contest, on the afternoon of Friday April 17th, we will host a “Library Rocks” celebration at the library.  We will have music and food outside and inside we will have several workstations showing off what we do.  For example, our library director will be demonstrating a new tool we have subscribed to “Noodle Tools.”  I will be either showing off LibGuides or our Digital Archives project.  I will post more information about this event as it develops.

Outsourcing Librarianship to an iPhone App

Yep, I’ve found a way to marginalize our profession with a simple iPhone application.  I bought an iPhone last week and I LOVE it.  It’s the best invention since the iPod and will be even better once they make the storage on them big enough to hold all my music (other 50 GB right now).  I downloaded an app called “Librarian.”  Yep, our days are numbered!  You turn it on, set the noise sensitivity meter and when the volume goes over that point, it goes “Shhhhhh!”  THAT’S IT, WE’RE FINISHED!!  I mean, yeah now we have more time to check out books, but that is also being taken over by self checkout systems.  So I guess we’ll get to just sit around and do the part of our jobs we enjoy the most, READ!

Seriously, isn’t that what many people think about our profession?  Come on, we’ve all heard it…we tell people we are a librarian and they say “OH!  I love to read!  That would be a great job.”  Or when I was in library school I would have people ask me why I needed a special degree for to do that?  I heard that more when I lived in Kentucky than I do in Indiana – I’m not making Kentucky jokes, just stating a fact.  But even in Indiana, among other professionals and highly educated people, there is general lack of understanding of what we do.  I’ve spoken to people who realize it is a profession and that a Masters degree is required.  They have respect for the field, but still ask, “so what EXACTLY do you do on a day to day basis?”  They don’t know.  So I guess next time someone asks me, I will break out my iPhone, turn on that app, and say, “Well, I used to do this” (and play the Shhhh sound), but now my iPhone does it for me.  I figure that might be a good starting point when having to once again, explain what exactly librarianship is all about.

New Time Management System

It’s been a while since I last posted.  That is because I’ve had to rethink how I complete tasks.  In my last post, I wrote about all of the projects I have going on and how busy that will keep me.  Not long after that post I hit a wall.  It dawned on me that I was multitasking and task switching on a large scale.  While I was making progress on several fronts, that progress was very slow and nothing was really being completed.  So one day I decided that I needed to make a list of the things (larger projects) I need to accomplish and focus on one at a time instead of bouncing around from one to another.  My first goal was to finish updating the list of AtoZ records in EBSCO AtoZ (at least the ones I have now; there will be more to come later).  I expected that to take me months, but I did it in three days.  Of course it was 3 days with my head stuck in a spreadsheet and web browser which almost drove me mad; but it has been completed.  Second, I created a summary of the student survey that I conducted last week.  Next, I finished updating my paper for the ASEE conference and uploaded the final draft yesterday.  Today, I start preparing for my IOLUG conference presentation.  My next major project will not begin until this one is complete.  Of course there will be other projects and tasks that will interrupt this process…students needing help, a variety of requests from my boss, and bibliographic instruction classes to prepare for to name just a few, but I think I have come up with a good time management  /project management system that will work well for me.  So far the results have been excellent.

New Quarter – Tons of Work Ahead

We begin our Spring Quarter at Rose-Hulman today and what a way to start it.  I started with an 8 AM lightening round orientation for a senior design class.  I was given 15 minutes and had to speak fast and to the point.  While it was the quickest class I’ve even done, it certainly helped to wake me up.  Now I am ready to take on the day, the week, and the new quarter.  We’ve got our work cut out for us.  We’ll have training for our new ILS system (Millennium by Innovative) which will be implemented this summer.  We are right now planning for events for National Library Week in April.  We are doing some party on the last day of the week but are also going to do one of those “READ” poster campaigns.  I got it started by creating one of myself.  We will be doing some major weeding of the collection to make room for possible library “modifications.”  We are moving forward with our library liaison program with each of the departments.  I am not sure how that will go, but it’s definitely a worthwhile experiment.  I hope to complete scanning all of the Modulus yearbooks and finally be done with that.  That all depends on how many hours my student worker can work.  There are about 15 more books to do.  I will evaluating some EBSCO products.  I am about to submit a final draft of an ASEE conference paper that has been “accepted pending changes.”  I have to help plan for the IOLUG (Indiana Online Users Group) spring meeting.  I will be presenting on using mobile devices to access commercial databases.  I am getting an iPhone tomorrow to begin planning for that.  I will also have to plan for the ASEE conference in June.  And of course, I will have to continue to update those AtoZ records.  OK, now I’ve scared the crap out of myself writing all that down.  Time get to work.  CHOP CHOP!

Is Google the New Microsoft?

http://thisthatotherthing.wordpress.com/2010/02/09/is-google-the-new-microsoft
Ok, so now Google is challenging Facebook and Twitter by adding new social features to Gmail that would allow users to more quickly and easily share status updates and media.  These features are the heart and soul of Facebook and Twitter and by integrating it into their other programs such as Gmail, Picasa Photos, and YouTube, it poses the question, is Google beginning to look and act like Microsoft by trying to get in on every new innovation and make it their own?  Ever since they first produced their Windows operating system, Microsoft has always taken existing ideas and made them their own.  They have been highly successful and profitable with their flagship products, their Windows operating system and Office productivity suite.  While I still value these products, it seems like in the last ten years, they have done nothing original.  They latch onto a new concept or product developed by someone else and try to make it their own, often times unsuccessfully.  In contrast, Google has been a leader in new innovations and has done very well with their products, which by the way are mostly free.  But as Google expands into an ever increasing array of areas such as their own cell phone, and now these new Gmail services, you have to wonder, are they losing their edge?  Are they becoming another Microsoft?

Read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/08/gmail-social-feature-to-l_n_453809.html

Social media: A guide for college and university libraries

ACRL has put out a guide for those librarians who are beginning to experiment with using social media services.  This is a good tips and tricks article oh how these services can be best utilized to promote library services and to dialog with users.  Since I am in the early stages of these experiments myself, I found this guide somewhat useful.  The guide can be found at http://crln.acrl.org/content/71/1/10.full