OMG !! I am so disappointed.

Ok, I am not going to be able to sleep tonight until I get this out, so even though I have to get  up in a mere 7 hours (I like 8+ hours of sleep. lol - haven't had that since I started grad school though. anyway...)

I have been admiring a fellow librarian's work - Steven J. Bell; I first found a title of an article and have been searching for it for about a week. Finally giving in and doing an ILL, although I admit I am trying to see what I can go without to subscribe to Library Issues. Going through his website (again) led me to one of  his blogs the ACRLog. In his post on Feb 22, he notes a comment from an Assistant Vice Provost at UC Berkely, Barbara Gross Davis. This is where the OMG comes in, along with a lot of disappointment. 

She made a comment as a guest speaker at the Chronicle Brown Bag on Feb 21 that libraries are a place to go for non-tech learning. 

"There are many other areas that don't necessarily involve technology that are influencing how people teach, such as formative/early feedback, classroom assessment,learning in groups even in large classes, library based research assignments, and so on."

 Hello? Has she been in a library lately? She apparently is working on a new edition to a book she wrote in 1993 Tools for Teaching. Guess she isn't including a library as one of those tools, or a place to find the tools. I hope she is being bombarded with information on what libraries have to offer.

 As Mr. Bell points out, even if an instructor states no digital items, they still must use the computer to access the OPAC! Perhaps UC Berkeley still uses card catalogs.  (I have unfortunately had the pleasure of working with instructors who won't let students use any thing digitial - no eJournals or eBooks. No matter how you try to explain to them that we have more e-items than print, etc - they don't get it. The most recent comment was "If I let them use the computer to do their research, they will be on there playing games. Don't tell me otherwise. I saw it with my own eyes." How does this instructor think they are going to type the paper - on an IBM Selectric. Again, I digress.)

I am working on a paper, and what will be the beginning of my dissertation on academic libraries and social networking tools. There are many who are incorporating them and other technologies into their websites. A recent article by Shu Liu in College & Research Libraries (Jan 2008, V69, 1) titled Engaging Users: The Future of Academic Library Web Sites looked at 111 ARL libraries and identified which ones had incorporated some Web 2.0 technology into their website. There are more research out there, not only identifying what is being used, but also why we should be using it. That is where my paper is focusing on - the why. 

Ok, I got that off my chest - for tonight. I just was going through Dr. Davis's  website and noticed something else. She states that the book she has outlined, her 1993 edition, is available as a eBook  --- can't be, libraries aren't involved in technology!

I feel that my work as an academic librarian just took a turn towards urgency; I have been educating  instructors and administration on what we do and how we do it, but I guess I assumed that the majority of them had a clue - I am thinking I assumed too much. 

  

Finally got an AIR !!

Yes, I finally got an Air!! I have wanted one since they came out and I wish I didn't have to get one under these circumstances, but I didn't have much of a choice.

My former laptop's case, the first model with the Intel chip, had cracked. I actually noticed the crack after the Mac store replaced the white keyboard cover with a new one - it appears they tightened the screw too tight. (The first white models soaked up body oil and turned a nasty yellow, so last year, Apply replaced them.) I had gone in several times and showed it to them, noting that it was spreading but they seemed unconcerned. The beginning of January it had spread to the top, on the keyboard cover and a piece had come off. That was it - I went to the Mac store, showed them and they finally agreed they should fix it.

Dropped it off once the piece was in and was floored when they called and told me the interior was corroded! (actually speechless might be a better description) They said someone spilled something like coffee or soda on it. Well, the only time I EVER have any drink near it is when I am in class at Pepperdine and myself nor anyone around me had ever spilled a drink that I know of; at home it is a true laptop - didn't even have a desk until this past Saturday. Anyway, I tell them that, I even note that the keyboard seems fine. They tell me the liquid went down the BACK of the computer, into the little air slits. This makes it more strange -- I have NO IDEA how that happened!!! (I wondered if the Mac store is to blame, but the manager told me their repair area is a "dry" area. Still, it took them a week to call me about my computer, even though I am a Genius member. When I called to complain it was taking so long - they had initially quoted 24 hour turn around, this was before they discovered the corrosion, a manager told me the repair area apparently had personnel issues going on, so I still wonder.)

This past week while working on a big paper for school, the computer started having issues, so turned in the paper on Thursday night and Sunday went into my Mac store and bought one. (I used Friday and Saturday to catch up on my sleep and buy a desk. lol)

I love my AIR; still upset about my former laptop, but I had no choice but to abandon it. Now to just enjoy the good times! Yea - I have an Air!!

Great Beginnings for the new year

Well, it has been almost two months since my last post, and it has been whirlwind.

The biggest (and best) news was that on Dec 13th my husband had his kidney cancer removed. It was a four hour surgery and all went well. He had Dr. Park from Urological Associates of Southern Arizona and he did a great job. It was a combination laparoscopic and full incision, which means that they did as much as possible laparoscopically - all the laser/cutting and then just "opened" him up to remove the tumor. It was large - almost 8 lbs. (Think gallon of milk or bowling ball.) I am guessing there is a fancy medical term for this - but I don't know it. What was amazing is that he was released 42 hours after surgery, started walking two, then three times a day, and 4 weeks after surgery he was back to work! (A little tired but not too bad.) Now, almost two months later he is doing just about everything he was before - he says he feels about 95% back to his old self. Yea! And on this past Tuesday, we got the results of his first follow-up tests and they were clean. We have been so blessed. We are so thankful for all the friends and family support and prayers. We couldn't have done it without them.

The second part of this, was that on Dec 14th, the day after surgery, Cal's doctoral degree was posted - He is officially done! He defended in July, but there are APA amendments after that, plus Pepperdine only posts at the end of each trimester - so he had to wait until December. Yea!

Other news...
I am in my second to last semester of school - it is starting to get very exciting, but also scary. One of my classes this year is Research, so we are working on our problem, research question, claim, reason and warrant (not in that order) and of course working on a lit rev. Our project doesn't have to be based on what we are doing (or expecting to be doing) our dissertation on, but it definitely seems to make sense to. We are using a great book, The Craft of Research by Booth, Colomb and Williams. I highly recommend it.

As an academic librarian, that is where my focus is going to be around: I want to look at the new trend of academic libraries use of course pages, to see if there is greater ease to the student and more collaboration with the faculty. I created an acronym - VEER to describe how library resources should be presented to the student V = valuable, E= easy, E= efficient, R = relevant. I believe that if we can meet each of these, that students will use the resources we present to them. We are competing with Google, which is an easy interface, but if searches are not done correctly can lead to massive number of hits (many of which will not be relevant) and the more time you spend on something and with little value in return, you are not using your time very efficiently.

Another great project I am working on is for my consultancy class at Pepperdine University. I am working with Susan Gautsch, the Director of e-Learning in the Graziadio School of Business and Education. She is teaching an MBA course this spring and I am working with her in piloting the Confluence Enterprise wiki that Pepperdine recently acquired. I am really beginning to love this product! It is fairly simple to use (like my wetpaint wiki), but has some additional features that take it to the next level. I am partial to web products that don't require coding. (Always frustrated me that I could only amend/add to my site when I had my computer - which had Dreamweaver. If I was inspired at work or at a conference, with no computer, too bad. I had to keep that momentum going until I got home and had time to do it. With wikis - I just log in, do my business and sign out. Very Sweet! Gosh I love Web 2.0 technologies!!)