Last day of classes

Friday was the last day of classes for the spring 2007 semester. While we still need to officially survive finals week, always an interesting endeavor, the tide begins to change in the library and on campus very quickly as spring leaves and the summer term begins; the last day of finals is Thursday, students are out of the dorms Friday, graduation is Saturday, and Monday is the first day of summer I classes. It is continuously amusing when students ask what I do all summer when they are not here (we work a 12 month contract).

For the record, summer is not all that different from the rest of the year. There are students on campus all summer because the university has a large summer program for education majors. My hours remain the same (8 am to 5 pm), but since instead of a full contingency of people working in the resource center, myself, two graduate assistants, and ten to twelve student workers, there is just me. That means hours availability is significantly less as I attend various workshops, conferences, and use vacation time. Next week I travel to the Cincinnati area for a workshop. As opposed to last year when the spring workshop was near Dayton, I paid attention to the location and made sure to make a hotel reservation the evening before. I will be driving down Thursday evening, attending the workshop on Friday, and returning home that evening. No three hours in a car, a full day at a workshop, and three more hours in a car for me. Do you know how early you have to get up to be ready to drive three hours for an 8:30 am workshop (she asks facetiously)?

I have made inquiries of campus printing services concerning my posters for the ALA conference next month. After last year's challenge, I will definitely plan better this year and hope not to have an overabundance of pink on my posters (it should have been purple). I am tempted to share a snotty email response from a print shop person regarding that issue, but will take the high road and make due with the simple mention. So fair warning; as there were many, many, many posts on web page redesign, there will now be many, many posts on creating the poster session for ALA.

Finals, here we come.