July 2007 Archives

I must disclaim up front that I know this was a necessary safety feature that we needed in our stacks. I realize there is probably no way to make a retrofitted sprinkler system attractive in an old building.
When I pass these in the stacks, I can't help but wonder what our patrons will think about the new additions...our stacks don't have a particularly warm and fuzzy reputation to begin with.
However, I am totally fascinated by the little hanging signs that say "Main Drain" and "Inspectors Test". Very curious...

Read an article in ACRL's College & Research Library News called "The Class Librarian".

Neat idea--The University of Chicago assigns a librarian to each incoming class, e.g. "Class of '11 Librarian". Basically from there it's targeted marketing to undergrads about getting library help via a welcome letter, workshops, tours, and web sites.

I *heart* the website they've created for this..very attractive, especially the spiffy contact form on each librarian's page. I also like how they are cross-marketing their alumni privileges here.

So, the question is, how could we do something similar at Penn State? The article authors were able to use an email list that reached the entire class of students...not sure if we could do that here. Same goes for the welcome letter. This will require thinking through the logistics a bit and making the right contacts, but I think it's a really neat program!

To my total surprise, my RUSQ article got a sidebar mention in this week's edition of American Libraries Direct e-newsletter. (half way down on the right--and no, that is not a picture of me, it's a picture of Ranganathan)!

So, first the sticker thank-you and now this! Of course, this newsletter gets spammed out big time from everyone's email...so no big heads over here :)

I'd like to put a programming idea on the table for PSU Libraries. It's been spreading like wildfire at other libraries and I'd love to see us do it at PSUL. Let's try the Learning 2.0 program that's been developed by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. By mean "let's try", I mean lets have a small planning group, develop a timetable, some marketing, incentives (read: prizes), etc....basically a plan, to get a whole bunch of folks here on board with the idea.

If you are not familiar with this program, it's designed to educate organizations about new technologies and is based around exploring 23 things. It's offered under a Creative Commons license so you can duplicate it and use the pre-packed pieces of it in your own library, so we're talking minimal development time here.

Of course we wouldn't want to just hang the program out there by itself...we'd need some context, discussions on either end of it, those kind of things. I think it would be a great campus-wide initiative for continuing discussions about web/library 2.0. We could somehow tie it into our in-service day... ok, the spark plugs are firing!

If you're reading this, let me know what you think. If you've done this in your own library, let me know how it went...advice happily accepted!

K, so I'm catching up on my blog-reading and am finding a ton of bloggers expressing the same feelings about ALA that I've been having upon return from the conference. Here's a smattering of various posts. I especially like the last one and the photo that goes with it:

Wandering Eyre
Free Range Librarian
Tame the Web
Chronicles of Bean

With this I'm going on record that I am on board for revitalizing ALA.

Michael Stephens' post got me thinking about the accessibility of our website on the iphone. I'm guessing there'd be a need for a lot of that two-fingered zooming action to see all the text that's on there.
If any of you iphoners out there tests it, let us hear about it!

So today I got two (2!) pieces of "fan mail"...never, ever, saw that coming. They were in reference to my guest column in the latest issue of RUSQ. One comment was via FB from an acquaintance, but the other...oh the other... A handwritten piece of snail mail, which contained a sticker in the shape of a book, with two sentences written on it. It's so curious to me that I had to scan it in and share it.
A colleague tells me to begin expecting these little oddities to show up every so often. What an interesting profession I've chosen.....