Click, clack

With apologies to Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin, I was tempted to finish this post's title with "moo," especially when I could have begun the post with "cows that type." I managed to restrain myself somewhat (Click, Clack, Moo). The clicking, and clacking, mentioned refer to the desperation gripping students in the library this week. Next Friday is the last day of classes for the fall 2007 term and it is crunch time. Every computer inside and outside of the resource center was in use today (after 10:00 am, naturally). It is eerily quiet. Instead of happy and consistent chatter, the only sound that carries is the sound of frantic typing on computer keyboards.

Have you ever noticed how annoying, almost disquieting, that persistent sound can be? It is almost easier to work in noise than quiet clacking.

Due to the course we facilitate, the next eight days are arguably the busiest in the resource center. All but two of my student workers have experience with this phenomenon, so they are rather blase about the prospect of panicked freshman. Out of the one hundred fifty students taking the online lab course, as of this afternoon approximately one third of them had finished. Many are in various stages of completion and some, there are always some, have yet to begin. This makes for an interesting time for the GA's and my student workers. We will all survive with a healthy dose of patience and a sense of humor. Plus, next week is the library open house - there will be refreshments - and I will be making fudge for the student workers. Chocolate and cookies, that oft mentioned sugar rush not withstanding, make the week go by more pleasantly.

I already have three meetings planned for after the last day of classes. One with the library director to plot our strategy regarding the use of the university template on the new library web page. That process has stalled somewhat and I am hoping the subsequent meeting with the university web team will move the decision making process forward. I can not start until I know if we are designing our own or working within the university template parameters. The third meeting is the previously scheduled faculty learning community session; it features powerpoint and I do not have to present.

Now, if I could only decide what kind of cookies to take to the open house ...