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Library Issues Technology

Academic Library 2.0

In my last conference attendance for some time, I’ll be at Internet Librarian 2007 at the end of this month. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so excited about a conference, and it’s not just that it’s in Monterey in October. It’s that I have a chance to lead a workshop with the most exciting bunch of librarians I know:

Workshop 11 — Academic Library 2.0
9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. FULL DAY
MODERATOR:
Amanda Etches-Johnson, User Experience Librarian, McMaster University
FACULTY:
Chad Boeninger, Reference & Instruction Technology Coordinator, Ohio University
Michelle Boule, Social Science Librarian, University of Houston
Meredith Farkas, Distance Learning Librarian, Norwich University
Jason Griffey, Head of Library Information Technology, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

What do the terms Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 mean for academic libraries and librarians? Join our panel of 2.0 practitioners and experts for a day of exploration and discovery as we navigate the 2.0 landscape, exploring what 2.0 tools and technologies can do for academic library users. Through a combination of presentations, discussion, and hands-on activities, our dynamic speakers introduce you to technologies such as blogs, wikis, RSS, mashups, social bookmarking and online social networks. This interactive session provides practical examples of academic libraries that are using these tools and technologies, arms you with the expertise and techniques to introduce these technologies in your own library, and share strategies for getting buy-in from staff, administration, and patrons. A worthwhile day for those interested in implementing changes to keep up within the Web 2.0 world.

If you know anyone attending IL for a preconference, this one is going to knock their socks off.

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Brand_New_World Uncategorized

Sleeping

The hardest part about being pregnant so far has been sleeping. I’ve heard it said that all these sleep problems in the third trimester may be a way for nature to train you to get used to functioning with little sleep, since that’s what you’ll do when the baby comes.

Every night it’s a juggling act. I have two different body pillows (one u-shaped, whole body style and another that just goes around my middle and cushions my back and front). Then I have the two pillows for my head and a special foam pillow that goes between my knees. Poor Jason. I wake him up sometimes, shuffling things around, trading pillows, trying new configurations. Two nights ago, I had insomnia at 3:30. Starving by 5:30, I got up, ate some cereal, and then went back to bed on the couch. Last night I tried sleeping while sitting up (reclined a bit). That worked until 2:00, when I realized my neck was hurting.

It’s a fun adventure. But poor Jason!

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Brand_New_World pregnancy

Our little kicker

Eliza is jumping around so much tonight that you can see my belly move. A foot? An elbow? A hand? It’s hard to tell at this point. I’m not sure how she’s positioned, but it’s pretty weird to see her nearly coming out of my skin. You can’t come out through the belly button, I keep telling her.

I’m on a “no refined sugar diet,” mandated by my doc, since I only passed my glucose test by 1 lousy point. Too bad sweets are the only things I’ve ever craved during this pregnancy (today I want a King Don, aka Ding Dong!). So far, so good, though. I’m mainly eating veggies, fruits, whole grains, and of course lots of protein, and actually enjoying drinking milk (which I normally don’t do). Two and a half more months without sugar!!!!!! But it’ll all be worth it.

29 weeks, 4 days pg

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Brand_New_World jason

In Denver

You know that it’s bad when Eliza isn’t even here yet, and I’m  in Denver, and I miss her.

*sigh*

Miss Bets as well. 🙁

Categories
Library Issues Technology

5 Minute Madness @ LITA Forum

Follow along, or go and take a look:

http://twitter.com/griffey

Too fast for blog, must twitter it!

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Brand_New_World Uncategorized

First big baby gift

Our first big gift came the other day, from my friend Jen and her family, a swing!
It reminded us that we’re going to have to put together A LOT of stuff. Babies have sooo much stuff! Three showers in the near future, the first one next weekend.

Categories
Library Issues Personal

Heading out to LITA Forum

Tomorrow I’ll be hitting the road, heading off to LITA Forum in Denver, CO. I’ll be heading up the LITABlog blogging effforts, pushing posts through, editing like mad, and capturing audio for the ever-popular LITABlog Podcast series.

If you’re in Denver for the Forum, say “hey”. Myself, Michelle, Karen, and Jonathan of BIGWIG will be in attendance…if you’re interested in throwing your lot in with us in hopes of changing ALA and LITA for the better, definitely stop one of us. Our plans have slowed, but not stopped. We’ve still got some rebellion in us…and we never run out of good ideas.

Categories
Library Issues MPOW

Metasearch aka Federated Search aka The Mind Killer

This is the period during the year at MPOW that we are reviewing our goals, and really looking at what the next 6 months will bring. As a portion of that, it’s up to me to try and figure out how our IT department fits in with this, given that we are mentioned in no less than 99.999999943% of the Library Wide goals. Pretty much every overarching goal for the library as a whole has some part of it that IT is going to support, or design, or maintain, or drive.

This makes for job security. It also makes for many hats.

After looking at where we are headed (new building, re-thinking the library, focusing on the students) we decided that the area that could most impact the way that we do things is metasearch. No one is happy with their ILS, and patrons just aren’t using our catalog at all…circulation statistics for books is through the floor. But foot traffic, website visits, database use, reference questions…all are up from previous years. So we’re definitely being used, just not for books. Given that the library “brand” is books, that’s worrying.

As an attempt to bridge this gap to the books, the library IT council decided unanimously to pursue Metasearch over the course of this year. The idea is, of course, to have books presented to patrons side-by-side with all of our other resources.

The gap between theory and practice in this case seems like the Grand Canyon.

Is anyone happy with a metasearch product? I know that most of us agree that the technology isn’t mature yet, but at this point implementation of a metasearch solution seems less daunting than trying to roll to another ILS. Especially since I can give LibraryFind a try without signing away my soul to the Library Corporate Masters.

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Brand_New_World pregnancy

Feelin’ good

So far, so good on the pregnancy. I’m in the third trimester now, getting bigger by the minute, but still have a decent amount of energy. I’m a mixture of excited and nervous in anticipation of Eliza’s arrival. I can’t wait to meet her, to see her, to know her. But of course, going into labor and being in the hospital scare me to death! I feel her kicking constantly now…she’s quite the active one. The doctor says she is a bit advanced in that respect, since she’s still quite little to be such a kicker. That’s our girl!

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Brand_New_World Meta

Welcome!

Welcome to Brand New World, the blog wherein Betsy and Jason explore what it’s like to plan for, have, raise, and generally interact with their new baby girl, Eliza. No guarantees regarding either quality or quantity of writing is expressed or implied, but we thought it might be handy to have a place for us to express ourselves.

Betsy is currently 28 weeks along, due on Dec 19, 2007.

And so here we are.