An Oy Vay of a day

Well . . . I drove to work in the storm that was hitting the northeast, went to get out of my car and it was like someone had dumped a bucket of water on me it was raining so hard, the campus mall was covered in deep puddles (drainage is, how should I put this, about as robust as an ‘old grey mare’), one of those puddles was in front of the library entrance ramp so I had no choice but to walk through it (we need a boat), so I spent the morning with my shoes off while my socks and pant legs dried, the library had leaks all over the place (one seems to be following the microfiche cabinets around-every time we move them a leak appears near by), I had to break my vow not to go outside until it was time to go home in order to ship a UPS overnight package to another library, I opened all my unopened overdue notices from the entire semester and have been sorting through them (I hate having to leave these until people are calling me about overdue books and I’m jealous of other libraries that have the time to do that, I wish I did), I filled in for a colleague’s reference shift because her daughter’s school was cancelled today, am reading Fundamentals of collection development and management and just finished the section on ‘Skills and Competencies’ and am feeling horribly inadequate in my CD abilities (to the point where I want to crawl under a rock for fear someone will find me out . . . oh wait . . .), and finally discovered that my new debit card pin number got screwed up and I cannot get access to cash in order to tip my stylist tonight . . . needless say, Oy Vay doesn’t exactly sum up how I am feeling right now . . . a few four letter words come to mind instead . . .

Oh boy! We’ve got signage!

Day three, post SUNYLA conference, and the library is pretty quiet.  I think the rainy weather here in the northeast has really dampened people’s spirits.  I think some have gone back into hibernation until they hear the sun is finally out.  Unfortunately, our recurring leaks don’t want to go away.  We do not yet have windows on the front of the library, still just scaffolding and plastic draped over that. (I wonder what that is doing to our air conditioning bill).  On the up side of that, we have an inordinate amount of flies visiting the library.  Well, really just a few here and there, but they are getting in because of our lack of windows.  Thankfully we haven’t seen any more birds since about two weeks ago.  So, when are the windows coming?  Who knows! 

Anyway, the title of this post refers to signage.  Yes, folks, we are in the process of getting our signage installed.  And it is all really cool.  Basically it is just vinyl-type lettering that is is applied to surfaces (walls, glass, columns, etc.), so nothing to mount onto anything.  They are like big colorforms (if you are old enough to remember those) or rub on decals (again if you are old enough), or iron-on images (if you are old enough to remember them) or temporary tattoos (except they are permanent).  So a big “Alleluia” for the fact that our funding for signage is no longer stuck in Albany, especially since they are being oh so productive these days, and to knowing that our patrons will be a little less confused around here (providing they actually read them).  Although . . . I would like to say, some of it will be out of date very soon (of course people! can’t expect it to all go perfectly!).  I was reading the directory in the front lobby and it places certain things in our lower level, which is where they are now, but we already know that those things will be moved to the main level very shortly.  Hope they can ‘edit’ the signage . . .

A new milestone in our library

It was refreshing to learn this morning that the newly renovated part of our library is now leaking, just like the older parts!  Hooray!  And actually it is right in the middle of the Circulation Desk area.

This week, May 24-30

Not much to report this week as I have been busy with paperwork for the most part.  But I was talking to my Dad last night (Hi Dad) and he pointed out I hadn’t posted anything since the 21st.  So, here I am.

Of course I had Monday off for the holiday.  Tuesday was interesting, I attended a Non-tenured librarian retreat in Manhattan at Stony Brook.  S.B. has a posh little Park Ave. location where 13 of us met to discuss some of the things we have been doing lately.  Some of the presentations were good; an overview of what one outreach librarian does in her job, a business librarian’s electronic resource collection analysis and what it means for his library, a discussion about the teaching of federated search, a recently presented conference paper on a librarian’s take on Medieval book circulation (books of Hours to be specific), and a moderated discussion of the library as place.  Being a small group we also got in some quality networking.  Hopefully we will be able to meet again soon and share more of our work.  In general I would say it was a success.

Here at the library this week we are back under construction.  The entire front of the building is covered in scaffolding and draped in white plastic sheeting.  All the windows are being removed and the caulk has asbestos in it.  But the exciting part has been the two story high sheets of glass being removed from the balcony over our second floor.  There has been a whole lot of crashing and breaking of glass going on, yet we can’t see any of it.  The replacement windows will probably start going in next week or the following week.  And the panes will be smaller.  They had determined that maintaining such huge windows was impossible.  So, new frames will be put in for the new glass.  Other than the noise it has only caused some minor inconveniences.  Our entire N (art) section closed off, next week our Reference room will be closed for two days, and a few staff (including the director) will be displaced temporarily.  But we should be completely back in business pretty soon.

Now, if someone can turn off this drizzly weather and get the sun back out . . .

Well, back to writing my annual faculty activities report.  I think it is actually due today.  Might need some coffee first.

Announcements Annoucements . . . .

Well, yesterday the president issued a statement in reaction to the protest on campus yesterday.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that he probably had students in his office complaining.  Supposedly (and this is all second hand in formation and not my views) the protest was organized by a student and parents and they were saying something gays could be ‘cured’ through religious conversion.  The protesters has gone through all the proper channels (whatever they are) to hold this protest.  And once the students heard about it they ran down to the location to voice their disapproval.  So this is what the president sent in an email, with a subject line of ‘Freedom of Speech on Campus’:

You might be aware that late this morning a small group of protesters urging the conversion of gay people through religion have visited our campus. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects distasteful and objectionable speech. We support the right of everyone to express his or her views as long as they do not violate the rights of others. However, the protesters’ opinions are inconsistent with those held by the ——– College administration and community. At ——– we are committed to sustain an environment of diversity and inclusion. We encourage all our students to engage civilly with these and any other visitors to our campus regardless of their views.

 

This morning, Health Services issued some information about the Swine flu outbreak:

 

U. S. health officials declared a public health emergency yesterday over the recent outbreak of swine flu. Currently, no cases have been identified in ———– County. However, 20 individuals in the U.S. have been diagnosed with the swine flu, including 8 confirmed cases in New York City.

 

 In keeping with good health habits, we advise:

 

·      Avoid close contact with people who are sick

·      Stay home when you are sick

·      Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing

·      Wash your hands often

·      Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth

·      Get plenty of sleep, be physically active, manage your stress, drink plenty of fluids and eat nutritious food

 

Swine flu is an acute respiratory illness (defined as: recent onset of at least two of the following: runny nose/nasal congestion, sore throat, cough, fever) which may sometimes be accompanied by body aches, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. If you are experiencing symptoms of an acute respiratory illness, you may want to contact your health care provider. Your health care provider will determine whether influenza testing or treatment is needed.

 

If you become ill and experience any of the following warning signs, seek emergency medical care:

 

·      Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath

·      Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen

·      Sudden dizziness

·      Confusion

·      Severe or persistent vomiting 

Let us hope the kids are able to get through the next two weeks without any problems.  It would be really awful if a bunch of them couldn’t finish the semester at this point.

And then, on a sweaty note, Facilities issued this email:

NOTICE – CAMPUS AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM 

The currently unusual spell of mid summer type weather has created extremely uncomfortable indoor temperatures in most buildings.  The campus air-conditioning system is not in operation due to construction modifications underway as part of the new ice-storage system project.  The system will not be turned on until June and consequently the buildings will be without air-conditioning until then.

Facilities staff will make adjustments in the amount of outside air supplied by the HVAC system in an attempt to alleviate the problem during the duration of the heat wave.  Temperatures are forecasted to be much lower as the week progresses; which is good news.

 

Thank you for your patience. 

 

Yes, the temperatures are going to drop starting tonight, but I can still hear the collective groan over the delay in turning on the AC.  Now, if they can only get that air circulating through the library again . . . nah, I think it is too much to wish for.  Hope your day is conflict, virus and heat free!  Yeah, I know, not what some of you would call ‘library’ news, but it is all part of the day to day stuff.

 

 

 

 

Swiftly approaching the end of the semester (and chaos?).

Boy, the weather gets warm and things get crazy on campus.  There is a student setting up his senior project in the center of campus.  It is a huge multi-piece sculpture of metal and burnt wood.  There is a protest against gays on the lawn that no one knew about so the reaction to it is very knee-jerk and unorganized.  Everyone is outside in full force, trying to take advantage of the warm weather.  Shorts, sun dresses and flip-flops are the order of the day, along with a few folks that look like they should be at the original Woodstock (this campus is awesome, too bad the mime that was in the library a couple months ago isn’t around today).  And yet there a lot of students in the library.  The semester ends May 12 (two weeks) so students are circling the computing stations like sharks.  Our scanner died about a week ago so there are many concerned questions about it at the Reference Desk.  But on a non-panicked, happy note, for the second year in a row, some of our Art & Design students (12) are displaying their book art final projects in the library.  Go books!

ACRL National-Friday

I’m in Seattle!  I actually arrived on Tuesday and did an awesome tour yesterday.  Today is the first full day of the conference.  The tour was Chocolate, Waterfalls and Wine.  And that is what it was.  We took a bus out of the city and went to a beautiful waterfall, got a tour (and samples) at a chocolate factory, and finished up at Chateau St. Michel for a tour and, of course, wine tasting.  Hooray!  Of course I bought chocolate and wine.  The wine might survive the trip home but unfortunately the chocolate is already doomed.

Two of my colleagues and I did a poster session today at 9 am and it was really successful.  I honestly cannot tell you how many email addresses we got but it was three and a half pages.  Now the question is, who is going to type all those into an email list?  Well . . . I guess we can sort that out back in NY.  Had a lovely lunch hosted by EBSCO and am looking forward to the next set of posters at 2pm.  Haven’t actually gone to any paper or panel discussions yet . . . there is one at 3:15 that looks attractive though . . . Am pretty much just hogging a computer at the Internet Cafe on the vendor floor instead of looking at vendor stuff . . . sorry guys!  

So far, a great conference.  Once I go to a session I will have bit more to report.  For now, Seattle is great, have been to the Public Market and had dinner at some great places.  I will be at a Gale event at the space needle tonight.  Oh, and we have had three straight days of sun.  Hoorah!

Ice Storm and Soda!!!

So during this break I could write about all the blogs I have been reading, something thoughtful and insightful . . .

Yeah right!  Instead I’m writing about today’s weather and my colleagues ten year old.  We are in the middle of a lovely mess of a snow/ice/rain storm.  Naturally I got up this morning to check the campus reports to see if there were any closings or delays.  Nothing.  Except for a message  on the hot line saying we were open as usual and to be careful coming in (this is prior to when I leave at about 7:15).  So I got here and the library wasn’t open, there was almost no one around, so I let myself in and got to work.  The closer it got to 10:30 the more I wondered where everyone was.  Eventually they trickled in and I guess at some point they opened the library.  It was only around 10:45 that I learned we had a two hour delay!!!!  So, what sort of alternate universe did I get sucked into that I didn’t get those messages.  I called the emergency hot line, twice, and I didn’t get any emails.  The kicker is that the delay was to give folks time to deal with the ice on campus.  As of right now, the entire area is a sheet of ice around the library.  Whee!

Well, at least I get a full day of work in.  And besides, coming into work today yeilded a very cheerful moment at lunch.  My colleague’s ten year old is here today and she got the wonderful idea of shaking up her bottle of ginger ale and opening the top . . .  well, she only got it part way open when she realized the soda was going to go  all over the place.  So, she put her mouth over the entire top of the bottle, jumped up, and ran outside.  By then we were already laughing.  Once outside, the escaping soda from the bottle and her mouth all ended up on the pavement.  Back inside I asked her if it went up her nose.  Naturally she said yes.  But the best part was when she said to her mother, “I’ve never tried that with ginger ale before.”  So I just want to thank her for cheering me up, I’m still smiling.  It definately makes up for missing the delay.

Stay in? Go out?

So I have been taking the week off and getting some reading done.  I have been productive with Ken Bain’s book the past few days, but that has been at Starbucks with a venti coffee in front of me.  Today we are getting snow here and I am questioning whether it is wise to venture forth.  The other wrinkle in this is that I just completed a post about the second chapter of Bain’s book and WordPress froze up on me and I lost half the post!!!!  ARGH!  Lovely WordPress (grumble, grumble, grumble).  I am in no mood to reconstruct it now and would rather just go to Starbucks and sulk.  So what do you think?  Stay in?  Go out?  Oh, by the way, Happy New Year . . . 

View from my apartment window

Ghost Town Paint and Signage

December 23rd and there is almost no one on campus.  Actually, there is more ice on campus than there are people!  We have painters in the Library today spiffing up some of the shabbier looking areas and dressing up some spaces that are awaiting new signage.  The library has been under renovation since looong before I came here and amazingly enough things are coming to an end.  But where is the signage!  Our students are confused enough, but without proper signage . . . it’s hopeless.  Right now I am looking at a square column in the middle of the Reference Desk that used to be off-white and is now “Rocky Mountain Blue” . . . it will take some getting used to.  I’m praying it will be even better with the lettering.  Now if I could only remember what that lettering is going to say . . . I think I am succumbing to fuzzy holiday brain.  So on that, happy holidays to everyone.