The Unclassifiable Library Remix

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Randomosity

Today was very much a mixed bag.  I skipped out on the AED/CPR workshop for staff development and worked my reference desk shift this morning.  While there I began work on the display for the boards in the front lobby.  I loved this meme I saw recently:


I thought it made for a good display idea, to highlight some books worth reading - a sort of passive readers' advisory.  I also happened to come across the article HBO Makes Great TV from Books.  It made the display easy to assemble - simply gathering the images I needed to use.  Our display boards don't hold actual items well, so I prefer to laser print cover art onto card stock for display.  I sent the pictures I needed to our librarian in charge of publications printing, who prints them off for me.  I have a desk jet in my office, but for displays the laser jet makes for a much better picture.

While at reference, I also spoke to our Freshman Seminar coordinator on campus.  I love working with her, she is one of the most pleasant people that I've ever met - always so full of energy.  Due to the nature of the course, they are going textbook-less this year and relying more heavily on Blackboard.  She wanted to consult with me to make sure she was abiding by copyright, since other than the campus attorney for official inquiries I am the default campus copyright guru.  Since she was merely linking to material provided elsewhere on the web, she was entirely within the legalities of copyright - no where near murky ground.  I love cut and dry cases like that.  I emphasized my if you merely provide links, there are no legalities to consider.  However embedding material or copying it means having to consider Fair Use, the TEACH Act, and other copyright implications.  I also added copyright to my Klout topics, though I am still figuring Klout out.

My reference surprise today was someone asking for three different years of University catalogs.  I didn't know that people still looked at those! 

I spent the afternoon attempting to finish my article for the Journal of Access Services, which I am behind on (as usual) as I always seem to overestimate how much I will get done in a given day.  Didn't quite finish writing, but I did read an article from my hometown newspaper The Virginian Pilot-Ledger Star - Library's retro-gaming event hits a new generation.  The Central Branch (the one I went to growing up there over on Virginia Beach Blvd.) held a Pac-Man tournament.  I wish I had been in town for that - how much fun!  I would really like to see something like that happen here at my library - some sort of gaming day, or circulating games. I think that academic libraries should include some gaming and not leave it as a strictly public library domain - at least on National Gaming Day @ Your Library in November.  Though I do believe their academic purpose can be more far-reaching than one day a year, not to mention I personally think there are a lot of benefits to recreational gaming as well.  (Though as a gamer girl I definitely am biased in this view.) 

There was also the ever-present beginning of the year fine appeals and job applications to review, which come in on an almost constant basis and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully in two weeks, I will have all student assistant hiring completed.


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