Library Secret: Lingo and Secret Handshakes

We’re a little late hopping on the National Information Literacy Awareness Month train, but after an official announcement from our dean on the Library blog and to faculty and staff via email, I thought that de-lingofying the term might make a good Library Secret.  Nearly a decade of restaurant work (in every front-of-the-house position from [...]

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What to do with Wolfram Alpha

I didn’t know I needed a computational knowledge engine, but now that Wolfram Alpha has provided me with one, I’ll surely be reaping the benefits of this “long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone”.  Pie.  They should be done by the end of the month.
I’ve only just begun to waste time [...]

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Educational technology is so not on their radar

From Gapers Block, a Chicago news blog:
Loyola University here in Chicago is using something called iclickers to track and increase students’ involvement in class.

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Nanny-nanny boo-boo and the Tech-hesitant

Well, my Facebook workshop filled up within 4 hours of me sending out my promo, so I feel a little better about Mr. Naysayer’s jerky email.  Earlier this afternoon, I was explaining the whole thing to a faculty friend in the same department as Mr. I Respond to Emails with Questions in the Subject Line [...]

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Oh f*ck

Heh. So, uh, remember how in my Shovers & Makers blurb I blathered on about how it’s just so frigging easy for me to get proposals accepted for conference sessions? How I practically do them in my sleep? Apparently I also submit conference proposals in my sleep because I have absolutely no [...]

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Anger is easier & quicker than all other options!

Sometimes I like working with angry patrons.  They come to the desk all pissy about some injustice or another, aggrieved and convinced that they’ve been dealt a personal insult.  I get to ask them a simple question, follow up with a simple response and then, like the miracle worker I am, the insurmountable problem is [...]

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Passive aggressive patrons bug me more than the students they rat on

Have the rules changed or is it now acceptable for students to eat sandwiches in the library?

I’d much prefer this old codger to storm up to the desk with the offending sandwich eater by the ear and demand that he be tossed to the curb, actually.  Outrage is so much more dignified than what passes [...]

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Let them write with cake

It’s Problem-Solution Time!
Problem 1: We have an excess of promotional pens with our old logo taking up space in storage.
Problem 2: Our most common question at the reference desk is “Do you have a pen I can borrow?”
Solution: Stock the pencil cups at the reference desk with the cheap promotional pens.
Clean and easy, right? [...]

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I have some rhetoric for you

Not to get all politicky, but when libraries are involved…
From the New York Times:
Shortly after becoming mayor, former city officials and Wasilla residents said, Ms. Palin approached the town librarian about the possibility of banning some books, though she never followed through and it was unclear which books or passages were in question.
Ann Kilkenny, a [...]

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When Databases Leave

Like many libraries, our library is part of a great statewide consortium that gives us discounted access to databases and resources we may not be able to afford on our own.  Like many states, our state recently slashed a whole boatload of programs and other expenditures in order to balance the budget.  This week we [...]

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