Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Folder to binder

There are ten days until the last day of class. Cabin fever, also known as I can not wait until the term is over, has hit everyone with a vengeance. As one professor succinctly put it last week, we are all just sick of each other. To that point, the library instituted end of term extended hours yesterday and will remain open until 2:00 am Sunday through Thursdays. Students may use the library as a place; no circulation or reference services are available after midnight, but space and computers for studying and group work are. Ultimately, it's a refuge for peace and quiet away from the dorms.

My end of term angst surprisingly enough centers on the web committee (what? the library page is not done yet?) and its members inherent resistance to make a decision. Last week we spent an hour and a half discussing vocabulary for items to be placed in the "find" category. I still do not know what we will be finding. On the plus side, my new web page binder is pretty, organized, and chock full of notes and information. I have sections devoted to:
  • Committee meeting notes
  • Site map notes
  • Library Google account resources
  • Widget & page tool samples
  • Web statistic information
  • Dreamweaver CS3 & Contribute
  • Meebo account information
  • Chat marketing, integration & policy statements
  • Space for more information
(I also just had the oddest tasting cookie, I think it was ginger with chocolate and marshmallow. Possibly a smores cookie, but I digress.) The more information area looks to be filled with samples of other academic library chat icon buttons. I have been doing research on what people are using on their main pages to attract patrons to IM/chat and other forms of library reference and research help. There seems to be a couple of recurring themes, one using the icon showing a person reaching out of a computer monitor to help and the other featuring different IM client logos. Not sure that we want to advocate using a specific IM client instead of our Meebo chat, I am leaning more towards an appropriate clip art icon with our service name.

Now? I'm to meet with the boss and help him work with Contribute and web pages. I am not sure if he wants to make a word document into an html page or if he wants to insert a word document/handout into an existing page. I hope it is the latter and suspect it is the former.

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