The collection is finally starting to come together!
I have about 12 good resources for knitting (I took out about 5, I thought they were too commercial) and have written the descriptions for them. I reviewed the Collection Development Policy (a must, I know) and narrowed my idea of a resource. Its tough to separate knitting from yarn-shopping......but I had to take a stand. It was tough cutting The Loopy Ewe....
I think I will poke the magazines (Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting, Knitters) in the mag section, but leave the all-online ones (like Knitty) in the Knitting section. Knitty CALLS itself a magazine, but its a digital periodical.
The craft blog resources are shaping up too, I'd say I have about 10 already and hope to add 10 more.....or even more!
Paul's mum and dad are here from Ireland for 10 days, and we will see them tomorrow. Since I finally finished my two huge papers for Collection Development (I think I put too much into my work sometimes; its not enough for me to go for an A, it always has to be PERFECTION) I will be coming up for air and actually getting to spend time with them. They can also help me with the resources and the native speaking section for the Say Hello project. Slan!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Monday, October 15, 2007
What a week!
The past two weeks have been like The Cliffs of Insanity! I had a huge professional development presentation at work, and then a week of working extra shifts while our two key people were on vacation, and then two papers to turn in--in addition to life and other kid stuff that is a full time job in itself. My in-laws are coming from Ireland this weekend and will be here for 10 days; fun!
Virtual Reference
I had a lot of fun working on my blog Wiki paper, and looking at other's work I think....mine is a bit long. I just have so much to say about blogging, and I can see a real permanence and future to it. Amateur journalism, electronic newsletter.....all of the promises of the original desktop publishing that began with personal computers being more fully realized in Blogs. The individual as the artist. Doing it My Way. The electronic community--call it what you will, blogs are still an exciting medium.
I have been getting my resources together for the knitting section, and for the craft blogs. These should be taking shape within the week.
Virtual Reference at Work
This week I applied my VR skills....on the job! I had the idea of making audio booktalks for the college's upcoming student book discussion groups. My supervisor was enthusiastic! For about a month we wrote booktalks for the books, recruited staff and faculty to read them, worked out the tech kinks. The week that they were supposed to go live.....the Webmaster left the college! Denied! Hit the post! Tripped at the last hurdle! I wrote off all the work and decided to retry next year.
BUT....the college hired a contractor to do fill in work and we were included! The audio files went live and the page looks great. We have had more requests for the books this year than ever, and I hope that when we take attendance at the event we will blow last year out of the water! Success!
Virtual Reference
I had a lot of fun working on my blog Wiki paper, and looking at other's work I think....mine is a bit long. I just have so much to say about blogging, and I can see a real permanence and future to it. Amateur journalism, electronic newsletter.....all of the promises of the original desktop publishing that began with personal computers being more fully realized in Blogs. The individual as the artist. Doing it My Way. The electronic community--call it what you will, blogs are still an exciting medium.
I have been getting my resources together for the knitting section, and for the craft blogs. These should be taking shape within the week.
Virtual Reference at Work
This week I applied my VR skills....on the job! I had the idea of making audio booktalks for the college's upcoming student book discussion groups. My supervisor was enthusiastic! For about a month we wrote booktalks for the books, recruited staff and faculty to read them, worked out the tech kinks. The week that they were supposed to go live.....the Webmaster left the college! Denied! Hit the post! Tripped at the last hurdle! I wrote off all the work and decided to retry next year.
BUT....the college hired a contractor to do fill in work and we were included! The audio files went live and the page looks great. We have had more requests for the books this year than ever, and I hope that when we take attendance at the event we will blow last year out of the water! Success!
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
Week 5--WARNING! Pity party ahead
Second Life is so cool--but I think for the first time I experienced what it must be like on the WRONG side of the digital divide. Having to pack up all my crew--food, homework and all--and try to manage their needs while in class is really tough. My machine at home just cannot do SL, and my work machine will not allow it.
In addition, the night before (while I was in Collection Development class) my neighbor called and needed me to keep her kids RIGHT NOW since she had to go to the ER with her infant who had a fever of 107! I was happy to do it, but it trashed my class session (I apologized to my group and to my professor) and kept the kids out really really late, which made them hard to manage. The baby is much better now, though he had to have 3 massive antibiotic shots.
I have said it before--if my professors knew what my study environment was like, I would get an automatic A! Some days the kids are insane, they fight nonstop and its very disruptive. Other days I get spaces of time to work--as much a 20 minutes in a stretch--for a couple of hours. Seems like most of the bad times are around finals though, when the pressure to produce is REALLY on!
I remind myself daily (hourly) that I am in the home stretch and only have about 9 week to go. The pressure of balancing work, kids, other people's kids (I do not have full time day care; we trade our kids around the neighborhood to make it work for all the different schedules), other activities (soccer and scouts) and school is often overwhelming. Always overwhelming. I do not do anything nearly as well as I want to do it. I miss just playing with the kids, but most spare moments are dedicated to school or life maintenance--you know, things like laundry, cooking, things that have to be completed for life to continue (cleaning is not in that category!) FavoriteSpouse does a lot--he cooks all 4 nights I am in school or at work--but he works 60+ hours himself, and has little open time himself.
It will all be worth it one day, right?
PITY PART OVER!
Our projects have been approved and I am beginning work on them. I have a good idea for a handful of knitting/fiber sites, and will do searches for the rest. The knitting/craft blog section will be really really fun as well--I will save that for last, like dessert.
Helen (the head librarian at work) has started helping me with the Say Hello project. She knows lots of people and has some connections. We are hoping that through the college network we can fill in some collection gaps in that.
My In-laws are coming from Ireland on the 18th for 2 weeks; I am trying to complete as many projects as possible before then. I am nearly done with my big CD paper; I will start working on the VR wiki this week. After CD, the wiki will be really, really fun. I need to have those done by next week so I can start on the next CD paper, which is due while my in-laws are here. I do not want to be studying nonstop while they are around--they are fun and we need to do fun stuff together.
In addition, the night before (while I was in Collection Development class) my neighbor called and needed me to keep her kids RIGHT NOW since she had to go to the ER with her infant who had a fever of 107! I was happy to do it, but it trashed my class session (I apologized to my group and to my professor) and kept the kids out really really late, which made them hard to manage. The baby is much better now, though he had to have 3 massive antibiotic shots.
I have said it before--if my professors knew what my study environment was like, I would get an automatic A! Some days the kids are insane, they fight nonstop and its very disruptive. Other days I get spaces of time to work--as much a 20 minutes in a stretch--for a couple of hours. Seems like most of the bad times are around finals though, when the pressure to produce is REALLY on!
I remind myself daily (hourly) that I am in the home stretch and only have about 9 week to go. The pressure of balancing work, kids, other people's kids (I do not have full time day care; we trade our kids around the neighborhood to make it work for all the different schedules), other activities (soccer and scouts) and school is often overwhelming. Always overwhelming. I do not do anything nearly as well as I want to do it. I miss just playing with the kids, but most spare moments are dedicated to school or life maintenance--you know, things like laundry, cooking, things that have to be completed for life to continue (cleaning is not in that category!) FavoriteSpouse does a lot--he cooks all 4 nights I am in school or at work--but he works 60+ hours himself, and has little open time himself.
It will all be worth it one day, right?
PITY PART OVER!
Our projects have been approved and I am beginning work on them. I have a good idea for a handful of knitting/fiber sites, and will do searches for the rest. The knitting/craft blog section will be really really fun as well--I will save that for last, like dessert.
Helen (the head librarian at work) has started helping me with the Say Hello project. She knows lots of people and has some connections. We are hoping that through the college network we can fill in some collection gaps in that.
My In-laws are coming from Ireland on the 18th for 2 weeks; I am trying to complete as many projects as possible before then. I am nearly done with my big CD paper; I will start working on the VR wiki this week. After CD, the wiki will be really, really fun. I need to have those done by next week so I can start on the next CD paper, which is due while my in-laws are here. I do not want to be studying nonstop while they are around--they are fun and we need to do fun stuff together.
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