It's pink

Working with graduate assistants and student workers I have opportunity to form relationships and grow with a dedicated group of people. After all, it takes dedication to go to school, manage your extra-curricular activities, and give quality time to a campus job. The intrinsic make-up of higher education institutions mean students move on after three of four years (once they're hired, they generally stay), but the ebb and flow mean as they graduate, others are hired. Even after the requisite letters of reference are written, there are always a few you stay in touch with over the years.

Last week I got an unexpected gift in the mail from a former GA; a pink snuggie, complete with free book light. It made me smile, but not as much as the phone call on Thursday and the opportunity to learn a bit about the new job.

(And yes, this really is an "at lunch" post. It's my Sunday evening on reference duty!)

Shameful follow-up

Monday, I posted about gleefully working my way through six back issues (or three months) of Booklist and School Library Journal. Before I was able to feel too smug about the accomplishment, even with the fine sheen of shame, the September issue of Booklist appeared in my mail box. Since I was in the mood and this issue had a few Thanksgiving titles, it was a simple matter to peruse and purchase another 22 titles for the juvenile collection. Here are a few of my selections:

• Angry Management, Chris Crutcher
• Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Gennifer Choldenka
• Hate List, Jennifer Brown
• Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, Holly Black
• Duck for Turkey Day, Jacqueline Jules
• Turkey Trouble, Wendi Silvano
• Punctuation Celebration, Elsa Knight Bruno
• And Then Comes Halloween, Tom Brenner
• Breathless, Jessica Warman

Purchasing holiday books is often a bit of a conundrum; student teachers are in the classroom for the fall season, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, yet finished the first week of December. The juvenile collection does include Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Chinese New Year (to name a few), but they are not as extensively used during the traditional down times between the fall and spring academic year. With luck on my side, the Halloween and Thanksgiving titles on this list will be shelf ready in time for classroom use.

Slightly shameful

The most recent additions to "my" juvenile collection are titles reviewed and selected to finish empty budget lines for the 2008-2009 academic year (ending June 30th). After noting release dates, titles pending publication after May 31st were placed in a B & T folder; on hold for purchase at the beginning of the 2009-2010 academic year (beginning July 1st). With permission given to the acquisitions librarian to begin purchasing, they have since become the only books added to the collection over the summer. Even experiencing back-up in cataloging, this is not a good way to begin a new school year ... my new book shelves are empty sans ten titles. Most of the new books have already begun circulating, the patrons expect and peruse the new books on a regular basis.

For weeks I have been dragging three months worth of Booklist and School Library Journal, not to mention print lists of Horn Book newsletters and Publisher's Weekly feeds, back and forth between my office and the resource center hoping for a few minutes to begin the review process. Today, I had an opportunity to spend the afternoon selecting children's books. It was very enjoyable, except for the short window of purchasing due to availability and print runs of juvenile literature. Titles from the July and August journal issues were sold out, out of stock, and awaiting restocking with our jobber. Chances are I will still get many of them, but after repeated instances of OS, I did something I rarely do; something frowned upon from a collection development perspective. I went through the June titles and looked at the stars for purchase.

I did not automatically choose a starred review, but they did get a significant amount of my attention. I am feeling slightly shameful ... but, I will persevere. ;-)

Ready or not

Freshman arrived on campus today and were unloading cars, picking up pre-ordered text books by the box, and traveling in somewhat happy packs. Several students and their parents were in the library and resource center after lunch. They were excited and asking questions about the collection - and the Ellison dies! I found it both interesting and reassuring; this is the first time I remember seeing students and their parents beyond the library main floor.

For me, today was a day for finishing big tasks, little tasks, and all manner of tasks in-between. Oddly enough, finishing the little tasks that kept piling up made the biggest difference. Starting happily with the little things, I was able to post a dozen entries on the resource center blog featuring children's books, education books, activity books, and educational technology specific books. Moving on to the big things I completed all my scheduling for graduate assistants and student workers for the fall term! Once finished, the in-between things were a challenging way to finish my day. It took close to half an hour to search my email for a password, but I prevailed and the new GA's will be able to access their course email and blog outside of the course management system.

It is another Ghostbusters movie night on AMC, while waiting for Eureka to start I watched the opening scene in the library and ...

Somthing to read

Today was my Saturday shift for the summer term (and now it's over!). There was a newly cataloged cart of children's books awaiting delivery to the new book shelves in the juvenile collection. It is never enough to just rearrange and shelve the books, there is always time to review new additions; as I was shelving I could not resist selecting one or two or six to check-out.

• Swim the Fly, Don Calame
• Dull Boy, Sarah Cross

"What do you do if you can deadlift a car, and you spend your nights flying to get away from it all? If you’re fifteen-year-old Avery Pirzwick, you keep that information to yourself. When you’re a former jock turned freak, you can’t afford to let the secret slip. "

"But then Avery makes some friends who are as extraordinary as he is. He realizes they’re more than just freaks—together, maybe they have a chance to be heroes. First, though, they have to decide whether to trust the mysterious Cherchette, a powerful wouldbe mentor whose remarkable generosity may come at a terrible price." -- Dull Boy, Amazon product description

• King of the Screwups, K.L. Going
• Gentlemen, Michael Northrop

"Micheal, Tommy, Mixer, and Bones aren't just from the wrong side of the tracks--they're from the wrong side of everything. Except for Mr. Haberman, their remedial English teacher, no one at their high school takes them seriously. Haberman calls them "gentlemen," but everyone else ignores them--or, in Bones's case, is dead afraid of them. When one of their close-knit group goes missing, the clues all seem to point in one direction: to Mr. Haberman." -- Gentlemen, Amazon product description

• Girlfriend Material, Melissa Kantor
• The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han

Two were destined for home this afternoon, Gentlemen and Dull Boy, and are resting comfortabley on the sofa as I listen to the hockey game on Pens radio and try to ignore the ten second delay between radio and television because of the fickle announcers on NBC (they are very pro-Redwing, the Pens have not yet won a game, it's the Wings losing). I'll soon have to decide listen or watch, doing both is very disconcerting.

Last of the budget

This has been one of the oddest academic years I have had; with seemingly unending emphasis on technology and web design little time has been available to read the juvenile books purchased. These last few weeks I have made a concentrated effort to rectify that situation, but find myself with the attention span of a cranky 3-year old. Books accompanied me to lunch and, more often than not, returned to the library unfinished. In some cases I did not even bother to read the end (I'm famous for that, it drives co-workers crazy), never a good sign. As luck would have it, one of my resource center budget lines had a bit of money remaining; the line I use to buy juvenile books.

A few of the titles I selected are detailed below. I hope one of them, or one of the two books I chose to take out of town with me, Absolutely Maybe and The Witches of Dredmoore Hollow, break my book ennui.

• The Vast Fields of Ordinary
• Secret Lives of the Supreme Court: What Your Teacher Never Told You About America's Legendary Justices
• Rissa Bartholomew's Declaration of Independence
• A Tree for Emmy
• Gone with the Wand
• Pharaoh's Boat
• Sprout
• Jake Ransom and the Skull King's Shadow
• Frankie Pickle and the Closet of Doom

Time will tell, but in the meantime I am enjoying the freedom of better Internet connection with my new laptop and recently purchased wireless mouse (with usb connection). It's nice to be able to post without dropping the dial-up connection.

oh, joy

It is that time again; yearly performance reviews are due soon. We have been using the same self-evaluation format for the last decade or so; new goals are set and accompanied by statements of goals fulfilled from the previous year. Though I find them increasingly mind-numbing and stressful, it is a yearly wake-up call. I use my yearly reviews as a time to update my resume/CV, a golden, if not forced, opportunity to take a critical look at my professional development.

This year a change in administrative faculty status was accompanied by a new evaluation process, a form. Thrilled not to have the multiple page document looming, a heartfelt sigh of relief was heard throughout the library. That is, until we looked at the new form this morning and realized it was comprised of setting goals and included statements of goals fulfilled.

Soon I will be digging through my computer files in search of last year's evaluation. Normally I would have a list highlighting monthly duties/accomplishments/tasks, I am incredibly anal in that regard, however be it good or bad, this year most of my time was consumed by the library web site and its accompanying committees, design, and creation. Instead of writing, this was the year of presentations with a state technology presentation, an ACRL poster session, and this Friday a workshop presentation.

Just goes to show, the more things change the more they stay the same, even evaluations.

Stop and smell the roses

Due to a course deadline countdown on the resource center door, for the last month we have been almost preternaturally aware of time remaining in the semester. As the countdown progresses, we know on a daily basis there are "x" number of days until the last day of class. While an exciting rite of passage, once the sign goes up its very existence makes the last month stretch ... on ... for ... ever. A bit of a conundrum.

Focused on getting us all through the course with minimum of fuss, it is easy to lose sight that with the end of the term excitement is finals and graduation. With graduation comes the yearly loss of great student workers who move on with their academic lives and careers. Both of my graduate assistants and two student workers are anticipating graduation on Saturday. One of my student workers has been with me for three years. A sweet young woman who has already secured a teaching position out of state, she has been joyfully anticipating her walk across stage. She also stopped in my office on Monday with a bouquet of flowers; a thank you and wonderful lift to my spirits.

Won over ... kind of

I am a firm believer that books are not ever going away. There is not a technology available that can replace the pleasure of holding a book in my hand, smelling the "new book" smell, turning the pages, and having that worn spot in a favorite book. As I've been fulfilling my adjunct duties over the last several weeks, instructing an online educational technology course, it became obvious students could benefit from electronic book access. They need to view literature inside the course management system domain on Saturday evening when libraries are closed.

My library subscribes to Safari Tech books by ProQuest. Though billed as "the e-reference library for programmers and IT professionals," the number of beginner level technology books for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Movie Maker was expansive covering 2000 - 2007 editions. I was also able to locate titles for iMovie and the broader topic of blogging. Add a proxy url to the resource and soon students are able to view the books at their leisure on or off campus at any time of the day or night. I suspect my excitement is due to the fact that they are e-books for an online technology course, but they definitely filled a need.

Two of the students have already commented on the access and appreciate the added resource. Excellent! This also has the added benefit of pulling more education students into the library web site and database resources.

Librarian, know thy budget

It's no secret academic libraries, or any library for that matter, are closely guarding budgets. I oversee specific sections of the overall library budget (education, education research, and general purchases) as well as a separate multi-line resource center budget (technology, instructional supply, office supply, non-print, etc.). While both sets of expenditures serve the same community of patrons and professionals, there is a line of demarcation when spending said funding; library budget purchases are for the library circulating collection and resource center purchases are for the resource center circulating collection. There is one notable exception to this policy, a gray area of interpretation to be sure, the juvenile collection.

Part of the overall circulating collection, juvenile books are also an integral component of the resource center. When I first started this job, the juvenile collection was woefully under represented because of the existing structure's lack of funds. A small endowment was set aside for juvenile and often only award books were purchased. With the resource center came the resource center's budget, including opportunity and responsibility. Recognizing the need for juvenile purchases and noting the resource center budget is relatively healthy, I made the decision (with director authorization) to purchase juvenile books using resource center budget.

Significant juvenile collection purchases have been made over the years and as the number of juvenile titles increased, so did the circulation of the juvenile collection. Slowly but surely the number of juvenile books requested from other libraries decreased and the number of our books requested by other libraries increased. Patrons do not check out one children's book, they check out a stack of them for the classroom, for assignments and for pleasure. Each year the director shares circulation statistics, juvenile circulation has close to doubled in the last five years.

Last year the library purchased 1500 - 1800 books for the circulating collection, 877 of those books were juvenile; different budget, same catalog circulation classification. Thanks to my budget spread sheets, I can easily locate the percentage of my resource center line budget spent on children's books and relate it to the circulation statistics. Why is this important? Today my boss asked me if I thought it was time to curb spending on the juvenile collection. He noted that every third cart arriving in technical services was juvenile (very true, though an argument could be made that I simply spend earlier than others) and my general spending purchase line was exhausted before the half-way mark of the academic fiscal year (a recent purchase of Alex Award titles - adult books for young adults - had put me over my limit).

I was able to expand on budget allocation for the juvenile collection, make note of the number of juvenile titles purchased in regard to the entire circulating purchases last year, and reference the circulating collection increases supported during the same time frame. He was pleased with the break-down and inclusion of statistics. I am pleased to be able to proceed as usual, balancing need with available budget.

Reflecting on another first

The current economic climate has made the job search more of a job hunt. In academics, often a thriving business during economic downturns as people return to college for re-training and degrees, there have been wide-spread reports of layoffs, hiring freezes, and salary reduction. Some institutions of higher education are growing, my college alma mater newsletter announced it had the highest enrollment increase in their history this past year. And, the Boston Globe reports today that Despite Crunch, Some Colleges Going on Hiring Binges.

Last week I reflected on the increasing role email and phone interviews were playing in my personal career; technology is allowing hiring entities to cut down on costs evaluating and filling openings within their ranks. Earlier this week I received a letter from an institution; I had a phone interview with them prior to the holidays. They kindly apologized for extended lag time between my interview and subsequent contact (something I am used to when working in academics). I was thanked for my time and informed the decision had been made to disband the search committee and place the opening on hold. I was invited to resumit my application materials when the position was re-advertised. While they stopped short of saying the money was not available for a new hire, someone is currently filling the job in an interim capacity, it was certainly implied.

If the search is disbanded once for possible fiscal reasons, how secure is the position at a later time? Is the pool of applicants sufficiently large that a re-posting of the job may not be noticed and the question not asked? It's a bit of a conundrum.

Weather Break: A View from my window

The radio just played "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and is now playing "Who Says You Can't Go Home?" ... huh, who says D.J.'s don't have a sense of humor?

After fighting my way through the frozen tundra and arriving at work on time this morning, classes were cancelled fifteen minutes later. This announcement was followed by notification of campus offices closing (a message received 30 minutes after the closing was an accomplished fact). Alas, we remain open with a skeleton crew.

The picture above is the main street outside the library. Yes, there is a road there; it's behind the second row of trees, before the white house. I am hoping someone clears it in the next few hours before I clean off my car and fight my way home again. I love winter.

Tidbits of interest to me

I spent time reading my Blogines feeds while finishing lunch (quesadillas, yum) and found two particular posts of interest. From the Wired Campus Blog is the article Consortium Releases New Guidelines for Web Accessibility; something I find ironic as just last month I finished updating the library web site to the university template. Luckily I worked with a webmaster who had understanding and respect for web standards and accessibility.

"The World Wide Web Consortium, an organization devoted to improving the interoperability of the Web, has released a new version of its Web-accessibility guidelines."

"With the release of the new version of the guidelines, W3C also released a suite of quick-reference documents — sort of guides to the guidelines. They include an overview, a guide on how to meet the new requirements, and a guide to understanding the new guidelines." -- Scott Carlson, 12/11/08.

The second item is from the Boston Globe, Recession? Not for College Presidents by Derrick Z Jackson. This article is an intriguing comparison between college presidents and corporation CEO's on Capitol Hill looking for funding.

"Having spent many years as a part-time college professor, I have often advocated for resources for these institutions that are complex villages and cities unto themselves. But too many universities are more the Roman empire than the laboratory for the 21st century, throwing scholarships at athletic specimens while bankrupting lunch-pail geniuses, spending lavishly at the administrative level while slashing the library." -- Jackson, Boston Globe, 12/6/08

As an academic librarian with full understanding of library budget cuts and reduction of salary, I admit it made interesting reading, as did the accompanying comments. Money, and who it is used in any business entity, is something people will never agree on.

On a lighter note, seems Time Magazine has posted "The Top 10 Everything of 2008." There is a lot of everything and I particularly enjoyed the #10 Buzzword, Topless Meeting:

"A finalist for Oxford University Press' Word of the Year, this phrase refers to gatherings where laptops (as well as other mobile devices like iPhones) are banned. Coined in Silicon Valley, where meeting participants were often distracted by their handhelds, the term is attributed to author and web developer Dan Saffer." - Top 10 Buzzwords, Time Magazine

And in keeping with the theme of things, I also enjoyed (in no particular order):

1. Top 10 Children's Books
2. Top 10 Editorial Cartoons
3. Top 10 Fashion Faux Pas
4. Top 10 Movies
5. Top 10 Olympic Moments
6. Top 10 TV Series
7. Top 10 Viral Videos
8. Top 10 TV Ads
9. Top 10 Scientific Discoveries
10. Top 10 Awkward Moments

Mom always liked me better

Like many siblings, my sister's and I often tortured each other with the time honored phrase, "that's okay, mom likes me better." Doing undergraduate work, education professors routinely cautioned us not to play favorites with students in our classrooms. Working as an education librarian, I joke with "my" professors assuring each in turn that they are indeed my favorite (call me fickle). All kidding aside, today I was reminded why one professor in particular is an all-time favorite.

I know I have posted/blogged about this professor previously, but it deserves repeating. He is vocally supportive of everything I do for the library and resource center, and has been since day one. He routinely brings his junior block students to the resource center for a tour at the beginning of each semester and boasts how the juvenile collection has improved during my tenure. We have a friendly competition concerning the Caldecott selection each year; several years running he had the book and we did not (gasp!). And yes, he brags about it to his students. Every time he requests a collection purchase, I get a thank you email after I notify him the selection has arrived.

Personally and professionally, this professor has graciously agreed to be on my reference list for the last five years. I know the high quality glowing recommendation he presents to potential employers on my behalf, hiring teams have shared his comments during interviews.

Today I got a thank-you note via campus mail from this professor. I was not surprised at the concept of the note itself, he routinely sets a professional example having each of his students sign the note. It would be easy to take the thank-you for granted, but each time I open it there's a small thrill of satisfaction. Here's a glimpse of why he's a favorite:

"You continue to help us understand the abundance of available resources, if we but use them! Thanks!"

The note made me smile (I'm smiling even now as I discuss the note here). So while I may find it challenging not to play the favorites game, I guarantee this professor was at the top of my list today.

Here we go

In many ways tomorrow is the real beginning of the fall term; last week could be termed the "getting to know you" phase. Students have been to each class at least once, my student workers have worked a shift and some will even get their first paycheck on Friday (if they turned in paperwork as instructed), and almost everyone in my class has an active login for the course management software.

On the library front, training will continue in the resource center throughout the month of September before I am able to have office hours and return to the library web page. That is only to be expected with a newly minted staff and I have prepared the web committee for this delay. I already have a scheduled evening and weekend shift for next week, something I like to get out of the way while our business is a bit slower. And, I have had an opportunity to begin ordering for the library by placing two carts of juvenile books into Baker & Taylor. There are several other items on my ordering agenda that need to be addressed, specifically requests that arrived after the money was spent last fiscal year and consumable items (Ellison cutting pads and laminating film) that will be needed shortly.

Though unwilling to go as far as saying hit me with your best shot (I'm not crazy), I'm ready to move with the business at hand ... fall term.

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!

The endless week

These last few days have been an endless loop of tasks to be done. Until now I did not fully realize how much time the library web page project had taken from my summer. Yes I whined about my loss of time, consistently and quite eloquently in some cases, but as this week progressed the number of things I would have traditionally already accomplished grew longer.

Added to that, I have spent four days whining about my work load.

Luckily things have a way of coming together if I just work hard and persevere. One GA turned down a job offer, my second offer was accepted this afternoon.

Scheduling for the semester will commence tomorrow ... and I even had another applicant in this afternoon interested in one of the remaining job openings.

Blog posts have been completed for both the resource center and library, web pages are ready for the start of the new academic year, and marketing tools are in place for library and classroom visits.

My favorite tech from IT was in the library this afternoon working on my floor's computers. She promised they will be ready for Monday morning. I believe her, she's never let me down.

Tomorrow excited freshman will be moving in to the dorms. We will all be ecstatic the new term is about to begin. It is literally a blank page waiting for great things to be written.

Freeing my mind

Today I did a lot of annoying to-do lists tasks working with the oft motivating theory that if I finish all of the little things I have to do I will have cleared my mind to move forward with what I should be doing (free your mind, and the rest will follow). Plus, if I finish the pesky detail items I will have no choice but to do the big important tasks and projects.

What? Things like schedules for my students and GA's and setting up grading for the new term.

So, today I did the fall hour schedule for the library web page and the resource center web page. They are basically the same, but there are times when I must close and the library remains open. Doing this process once at the beginning of the year in calendar format makes the year run a bit more smoothly. Of course, I had to do both of the hours pages twice, once for the live web and once for the new web page. I still need to finish up the second copy of the library hours.

I laminated the resource center marketing book marks (will punch holes and attach to our cool new pens) and the course book marks. Both have the new library logo as well as a listing of library web page and resource center web page links. I am really pleased with this little project and hope it works well. My first class visit is next Friday and I hope to get into classrooms next week. Of course I did not cut out the book marks after laminating; a nice chore for my student workers on Monday.

I went through my most recent months of Choice reviews and ordered education books. I have the newest copy of Booklist and School Library Journal to peruse after making the schedules on Friday. I have to wait until Friday because .....

I offered the GA position on Tuesday, even with an inkling she would probably not accept the offer. When the feeling came to fruition on Wednesday, I was able to offer the position to another applicant and must wait for an acceptance on Thursday before doing schedules.

Lets see, I posted a big ole pile of juvenile books to the resource center blog. And to wrap things up, I chose a group of posters from ALA graphics I hope to purchase for the resource center. My unending need to "beautify" this dated space conintues. The collage looks great, but I do not think it should take over the entire floor. Hence, the poster option. I'll need to check pricing for poster frames and consider how much of a chunk it will take from my budget - and then determine if the cost is worth the end result.

Panel preparations

Instead of posting about the throngs of shiny, happy, people in the resource center today creating bulletin boards, laminating, color printing, and making a joyful noise, something that would be fulfilling but self-indulgent, I decided to share the Mock Caldecott selections for the fall 08 panel. It is always fun to select books for this session. My goals are to not only choose books with different styles of illustrations as well as varied artistic mediums, but also to make sure they meet Caldecott criteria and are recently purchased juvenile titles that have yet to circulate. This group of picture books includes fiction and non-fiction titles; the selection has award winning illustrators and artists that are new ... at least new to me.

Mock Caldecott Book List:
Alphabetical by author last name & illustrator

Billingsley, Franny & Karas, G. Brian [illus]
Big Bad Bunny

Cyrus, Kurt
Tadpole Rex

Diaz, David
De Colores = Bright with Colors

Field, Eugene W. & Potter, Giselle [illus]
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

Fleming, Denise
Buster Goes to Cowboy Camp

Garland, Michael
Americana Adventure

Giovanni, Nikki & Raschka, Chris [illus]
The Grasshopper's Song: An Aesop's Fable Revisited

Haseley, Dennis & Young, Ed [illus]
Twenty Heartbeats

Jackson, Alison & Pedersen, Janet [illus]
Thea's Tree

Lehman, Barbara
Trainstop

Lyon, George Ella & Gammell, Stephen [illus]
My Friend, the Starfinder

Parker, Robert Andrew
Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum

Shea, Bob & Smith, Lane [illus]
Big Plans

Shulevitz, Uri
How I Learned Geography

Wells, Rosemary
Otto Runs for President

Winter, Jonah & Widener, Terry [illus]
Steel Town

Naturally the list is peppered with a few personal favorites, that is only to be expected since I have autonomy over the selection! One title that caught my attention quickly was Trainstop. A second title I enjoyed was Big Plans. The best part is listening to the students discuss and evaluate their selections, they always find something intriguing.

Monday, Monday (one day down)

I am never quite sure which type of accumulated mail is worse, snail mail, email, or voice mail; but today I had a large dose of each waiting patiently for my undivided attention. They were all doomed ... today was the first day of the last week of summer break (aka Monday) and no single form of communication receives undivided attention. The first wave of students have arrived, all of the sports teams, many football players in the library today, and the resident assistants, creating bulletin boards and laminating in between meetings, are now on campus. Continuing the countdown, freshmen arrive Saturday and everyone else moves into the dorms Sunday.

Today I scheduled library and resource center tours for children's literature classes, found eight more books to use with the Mock Caldecott session that will most likely scheduled sometime after Labor Day, and began a fun project geared toward beautification. Really. I have a hideous wall outside the resource center that was previously used for projecting transparencies. It is an unsightly combination of pencil marks, fingerprints, and residual tape pulls. Requests have been made to paint it (sigh), but after two years I have come to the belated and obvious conclusion it will not be happening any time soon. I have decided to create a picture book cover wall collage.

As new picture books arrive and are processed, often we take off the book cover. I use these on bulletin boards to highlight new books and ultimately discard them. My plan is to laminate selected covers, protecting them from aforementioned pencil marks and graffiti, and affixing them to the wall updating my unsightly space. Discussing the concept with an artistic member of the serials staff, she mentioned I should consider incorporating foam board (putting covers on it as well) to create some visual depth and interest to the project. A very cool idea I am hoping to incorporate. I envision the collage as a fluid art project; once the wall is full I will be able to change out covers making it continuously new. With a growing list of things needing my immediate attention this week, the last thing I should have been doing today was starting this project. But after gaining permission, I was excited to proceed and am thrilled with the progess thus far.

Alas was unable to spend the entire day luxuriating in my artistic side. I interviewed a graduate assistant candidate for my course, solved a potentially horrific problem with a paniced phone call (my course disappeared), and made a few last minute changes to the course adding a section on educational video evaluation, using YouTube, Teacher Tube, and Google Video, to an internet assignment. All I have to do tomorrow is create the grade book, verify students have been loaded, check my course rosters, and create email welcomes for each student enrolled in the course. Oh, and hopefully hire one of the graduate assistant candidates.

On the list for tomorrow I have to schedule GA's and Student workers; place help wanted signs in the resource center for next week; finish the Mock Caldecott book selection; work on the Mock Caldecott web page; create, print, laminate and affix informational book marks or "business cards" to the new resource center pens for tours; nag the boss and reference team for the fall library hours schedule; and attend various meetings. I might even get a chance to order supplies, select picture books for the juvenile collection, and peruse reviews for the education collection.

Other than that, tomorrow is smooth sailing. Piece of cake.