Ready or not

Friday has come and gone; things are as ready as I could make them for the students return.

In the resource center, scheduling was not nearly the headache anticipated. Only one student contacted me with a problem and it was quickly resolved. The first week of school routinely brings students to the library looking for work-study positions. I am anticipating the opportunity to hire at least two more students. Now all I have to do is stop the circulation desk from saying there are no library jobs available!

With the exception of reserving a computer lab for week one introductions and a few expected quirks, my course is ready. Every student enrolled (all 145 of them) received an email welcome with general information, contacts, and web links. Luckily only one email came back with a basic "does not exist" message. The new GA needs to be added to the course software on Monday as for some unknown reason she does not exist in the great realm of technology; an easy fix if someone will answer the phone. Even a course welcome blog post, reiterating the email message, was successfully connected to the course calendar!

Signs for the library door are in place, library and resource center hours have moved from the staging server to the live page, and a blog post announcing fall hours information is scheduled for tomorrow morning. I did not finish my planned children's book collection list (still need to go through the newest SLJ) and place the book order, but this week is soon enough.

There is a palpable sense of purpose on campus reserved for the first day. Students are arriving overflowing with emotion; excitement for a new adventure, elation seeing friends, fear of the unknown, a bit of confusion with the whole process, and an underlying joy for the new school year. Not something that can or should be ignored, it can only be reveled. It makes the stress of the previous week worthwhile. Welcome back!