Moving, It's

We are moving.

Image from - markuslibrary.rockefeller.edu

After many years as a co-located library for all school levels from Year 11 to PHD we will be moving into new premises and only supplying services to the University level clients.

This has been a stressful time for all the team.
We know it is a positive move, for all the schools.
We 'to date' have packed 1523 archive boxes.
We are at the silly joke stage of acceptance.

We *wave* to our former clients and wish them well.
Feral Library Staff

its been three days now without air conditioning...

the staff are melting and the clients have fled.

trying to get answers, i think services are dead,

we closed early yesterday at 36c

it is forecast 41 today, muddle puddle me 

Melting

Semester two, day one 2012

Had an interesting day yesterday for first day of semester, the usual full on mass of things to do.


Greeted the new intake students for the second semester and worked my way through printer/pc dropouts to info literacy instruction on the fly.

I was at the PC’s working on the printer problem when a new international client asked about searching for an item as he tried to log into one of the printer PCs.

I took him to a general use pc and asked him to log in and began to show him how to search for his item, asking the normal things, who was the author, what was the title etc… we had just got to the page with multiple hits and I was showing him how to narrow the search for the onsite titles, when this must have been too much instruction for the international postgrad seated opposite who had completed his course last semester and was studying to increase his English skills for the IELTS exam.

He leaned though the pcs and said to us… “There is a copy of that title just behind you on the reserve shelves… its blue and in the 600’s. [Psst. I knew it was there, but don’t tell him.]

I sat briefly with a mix of pride because he has learnt how to find what he wants in the system and he completed his postgrad and exasperation as that ended the lesson with the new student. He was happy to grab the item and get the details and go to the shelf to see if there was a copy with a longer loan date. I have learnt that you go with what works for the individual client, so I took him to the shelf.

Needless to say there, at the shelf, we met 4 other students looking for the same item, and they had all missed out as there was a hole on the shelf, where our 4 copies usually sit.

I took the new student back to the pc and showed him how to request an item from our other campus as there was a standard loan on the shelf. At this point I was explaining about recalls and how other clients had the right to recall the item when you had it on loan, and how to do this for himself on other items to ensure he had ‘his turn’, when the postgrad interrupted to tell him that I was right and telling him the right thing to do. So proud. The older post grad ended his session privately telling me that they, the new students didn't really need the book yet as there was enough in the notes to get started.

And a little while later two of the other students emerged from the shelves with older editions of the same title, that they were happy to have until they could borrow the new edition.

Same days are diamonds.

@kalgrl

“Tweaking Tweeps” – how I love you

“Tweaking Tweeps” – how I love you

I was baking muffins this morning and a small part of me was watching the process as apparently I ‘tweak’ as I cook. A friend had accused me of this when she asked me for my recipe for minestrone soup and hers was ‘different’ to mine.

I sat down with the recipe and looked at it in the first time for ages, (it’s in my memory - favourite recipes get there eventually:-) and apparently I ‘tweak’ a lot, without thinking, things like dropping the green beans as I don’t appreciate them in soup to adding a lemon myrtle leaf with the bay leaf as I think it adds to the flavour of the lemon juice in the recipe.
Following the process of making the muffins, I did indeed ‘tweak’ as follows,

I added 100gms of chopped apple which I had ‘coddled’ in lemon juice (loose translation of coddled there) and only 100 grams of blueberries instead of 200 grams, as I think too many berries is overkill and I had apple which ‘goes with’ nicely.
I also grated the rind of the lemon into the mix. I like to take opportunities to add flavour, if they present themselves.

The savoury corn and cheese – I noticed I added ham and cayenne pepper and a smidge of oil as the mix didn’t call for any and was a bit dry.

I then started to notice that I ‘tweak’ in other things, such grabbing Ms 15s iPod to show her how to add her email address for checking easily (not appreciated until her brother sent her a photo of Vic Mignogna raffling a teddy bear at the Perth SupaNova and she needed to see it quickly…lol) and then I handed her one of my triple ‘J’ cds as she had no credit to purchase a song and it was on that volume.

I analysed this a bit more and realise that I ‘tweak’ if I can the learning and information seeking experience of our students. Adding and sending and mentioning something great if I find it. I was serving on the bar at the “Rep Club” the local theatre group at which I am a member and talking to a PHD candidate about a great resource I knew about on the shelf as it would suit her area of research. (Only held on the shelf not ‘e’, unfortunately.)

Thinking about this further I thought about the library people in my PLN and realising that a lot of ‘tweaking’ and sharing for others takes place on twitter. Many of you ‘tweak’ photos you find interesting – making them more interesting for your followers. Many of you pick up on an idea and run with it to see how far you can ‘tweak’ it for interest.

Some of you get down to ‘brass tacks’ or the serious business of a subject sending links and offering thoughts and generally ‘tweeking’ a learning PD experience for us all. This is by far my favourite 'tweak', and one I appreciate endlessly.

I would like to show gratitude for all the “tweaking tweeters” this week as without whom, I would not have travelled the pub crawl in images of the UK (cousin), learnt about new thoughts in ‘curating’ (many Librarians) and that Amy Tan wanted us to learn about the 50 shades of her at ALA (Librarian friend in US). Oh and Amanda Palmer wants my address to send the Kickstarter CD – yay!

So thank you ‘tweaking tweeters’ you rock! @kalgrl

School days, they pass so quickly...

Dear Friend,

I remember waving my first child off to school for the first time and having a small weep on the way home in the car.

I remember being apprehensive about how the day would go, how he would feel, be accepted and if he would accept readily the new group rules and dynamic.

I worried a bit during the day and was relieved to see his happy smiling face at the end of the school day. He was happy with the change, happy to meet new friends and try new experiences and the people he met that had duty of care and in charge of his learning were wonderful.

Over the years he made mistakes, so did I and sometimes the teachers did too (don’t spam me for this, we are all human), however I came to realize that we all had the same goal, to make sure he was safe and happy and learning.

I now realize, from the parent point of view, that I am one of those people that your children will meet in their school life. I would just like to say that if they come into my sphere of work I will, as far as I can, ensure they are learning in a safe, dry, cool, spacious, fully equipped Library and that they have the learning skills to utilize the tools on offer to the best of my ability.

I will also let them, phone home (outside school hours), print out that all important paper when the printer is not working in the classroom or home and help them with layout, spell check and direct them to the school office if what they are asking is part of their area of expertise.  I will also give them a tissue, a band aid, a chair and a glass of water, or be stern about their, or their friend’s behavior in the library, should it be necessary.

So my advice is buy lots of stationery, get them a new back pack every year, but let them choose it, help with the homework, but don’t do it for them, get a tutor for the ‘hard’ subjects if necessary and love them. Get to know the teacher and the school, and try to trust the people they meet in their school years are there to guide and help.

I waved Mr20 and his girlfriend off back to Perth yesterday and while I still feel mildly apprehensive of how others choices and his own will affect him, (and the feeling you get when you wave a loved one off never leaves). I am proud to say I feel his current choices are the right ones for him and the professionals involved in his learning are helping him move forward towards his goals. The feelings never leave you, it just lessens a bit over the years as your child grows and becomes responsible for their own life.

Smiling, raising my cup to you, friends and Hugs.

@kalgrl

Days 3-5 of our sojourn in Sydney

I am writing quickly to enable me to move along from this task as I have found it mildly difficult to write to you as I should, time constraints and many family gatherings prevent.

Day 3 of our journey saw us at the 'Power house museum' viewing a delightful display of artifacts from the 'Harry Potter' school days. Miss Bennett was delighted, Mr Bennett not so much. We gained a few reminders of this display and I must say that 'Bertie Botts every flavour beans' are just that. The maid by the way got a bit hot and tired and we sat quietly in the courtyard for our luncheon, to enable her to recover her strength, before a stoll around the city.

Day 4 we were able to negotiate the trains system and visit the Art Gallery for a delightful exhibition of works by the artist Picasso. Miss Bennett was delighted to view in its original form, one painting she had studied and tried to reproduce in her classes at school. Mr Bennett was happier with the 'real art' of Tom Roberts and a delightful small Van Gough we found in one of the other galleries.
We met up with a friend at the State Library and had a coffee in the rather delightful surroundings, and then strolled through a park area, I believe called 'The Domain'.

Day 5 was one of rest dear friends as we were all, including and especially the maid, tired from our excursions. We had excellent room service at our lodgings, purchased some 'Macarons' to take home and relaxed prior to the trip home on the Sunday. That was a long trip and Miss Bennett was feeling unwell during the journey, poor thing. The maid perked up and that made the journey a lot smoother.

I hope this news will suffice as I now need to move along with the preparations for the year ahead.
I hope this finds you well and enjoying the summer months.
Your friend
Mrs Bennett

*post scriptum - considering firing that maid as she is such a complainer and has just spilt beetroot on my new gown, well really!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@Kalgrl
#blog5daysAustenese

I am in a blog challenge with other librarians, that is, to write 5 blog posts in the style of Jane Austen, I cannot but say that I have indeed found it a difficult challenge. (This is my belated finish to the challenge...ah well, better late then never :)

the other participants are:
@KRidwyn, blogging at Hmmmm
@Girlwithshoess, blogging at Justgirlwithshoes
@jobeaz, blogging at Macaronic
@jzgarnett, blogging at Randomly Yours, Julia

 

Our venture... day two

Dear friends,

I am very much afraid that you may be very disappointed with me as I am such a sad correspondent, my apologies for the tardiness of this update on our activities. These are the main events of day two of our venture to Sydney.

It started out as a very fine day and we were elated to have pleasant weather for our chosen day for a walk around Sydney.  The maid took an inordinate amount of time to unpack and she kept complaining of fatigue (I cannot see why as the silly creature had a good night’s sleep in pleasant surrounds). When finally, I had finished my toilet, and she had dressed my hair to my satisfaction, we ventured forth to find some sustenance to sustain us for the day.

Our first concern dealt with (even though we had a small occasion, dear friends,  of ‘Men won’t ask directions…) we discovered that the light rail conveyance ran under our holiday abode, we took quick advantage of a 3 day family pass and ventured forth. This conveyance was very pleasant and staff were very helpful with directions. We alighted, dear friends at ‘Central station’ and managed to negotiate the reasonably confusing ticket purchase and platform selection and rode the train to Circular Key. Just aside, we do not travel overmuch on public transport in our quiet country town.

What beautiful vistas greeted our eyes on alighting from the train and climbing the stairs to the street level, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, the botanical gardens and the beautiful bay. After many sets of stairs and braving the strong winds at the front of the Opera House, there was no chance of a chill as it was still quite warm, we sat for a while in the tranquil gardens overlooking the bay, recovering our strength and viewing the many craft under sail.

Returning to our lodgings we rested briefly before attending the cinema, a new type of play on a device that may catch on, showing moving pictures. The feature was something about an impossible mission.

That is all I can recall of our adventures and as I am now quite fatigued I will say good night dear friends, until next I write.

Yours in exhaustion,
Mrs Bennett

Postscriptum: The maid continues to be fatigued, I believe she has been affected possibly by 'the lag of the jet' , we must ge her a tonic tomorrow to brighten her up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@Kalgrl
#blog5daysAustenese

I am in a blog challenge with other librarians, that is, to write 5 blog posts in the style of Jane Austen, I cannot but say that I have indeed found it a difficult challenge.

the other participants are:
@KRidwyn, blogging at Hmmmm
@Girlwithshoess, blogging at Justgirlwithshoes
@jobeaz, blogging at Macaronic
@jzgarnett, blogging at Randomly Yours, Julia

A letter to my friends..day one

My dear friends,

It behoves me to write this day to inform you of recent events in our lives, so you can, if you should so desire, share our adventure. I wish to recount our journey to the beautiful city of Sydney and what befell us there.

On the first day of our venture, we set forth in high hopes and mild agitation at the journey to come. Flying high in the skies is always a breathtaking experience considering it is not a natural state for man to fly, however it is a necessary step to cross this great land of ours. Fast horse drawn carriages have nothing on the speed and might of these metal birds that take us on these journeys.

After having taken the time to oversee the maid in the packing of my trunk, (alas, she is sometimes forgetful and a small trial to me), to ensure that nothing would be left behind and my best outfits were included, and fortified with a small imbibe at the local hostelry, we set off.

Included in our journey was to be a small break in the city of Adelaide, a fine place and one of, so it is said, many churches. We did not stay long in this fine state, only long enough to partake of a light refreshment and change carriages, for the next stage of our journey. I entertain hopes of a longer visit on our return journey.

Mr Bennett was in a fine fettle and our dear Victoria was excited about the coming treat to visit the finer establishements in the city and take in the views of the much lauded opera house and the bay on which it sits.

The staff who attended  to our needs on the journey and the captain of the ship were very pleasing and kept us entertained and comfortable. Mr Bennett was delighted on being regularly apprised of the weather conditions and speed and height our conveyance would reach.

After many hours we arrived at our destination. Mr Bennett secured another conveyance to take us into the city and we were soon at our lodgings. The building itself was large and had many twinkling lights, which possibly gave it its name, "The Star". Our rooms were perfectly suited to our needs and the bathing room was more than adequate, boasting a deep bath in which to wash off the rigours of our journey. (I blush as I convey this to you, however I know you would want to know we were comfortable.)

A welcome from our hosts was on the picture box on the wall, and we decided on a short walk to try the air and prepare for our rest. We admired a goodly number of fine establishments and purveyors of goods on the walk, esp. an exquisite patissier. The ladies in the party determined to return over the next few days for a closer look at the many items on display.

After this we retired for the night and I will leave the events of the next day for another page.
I do hope that this missive finds you all well and that no-one has succumbed to the summer heat.

Yours in fine fettle,

Mrs Bennett

Postscriptum,  I should also mention that the maid packed my favourite perfume incorrectly (as I said a trial to me, but she has been with the family for a long time) and it had spilled in my trunk, thankfully not through my clothes, but enough to make it necessary to air out the smaller trunk for a number of days.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@kalgrl
#blog5daysAustenese

I am in a blog challenge with other librarians, that is, to write 5 blog posts in the style of Jane Austen, I cannot but say that I have indeed found it a difficult challenge.

the other participants are:
@KRidwyn, blogging at Hmmmm
@Girlwithshoess, blogging at Justgirlwithshoes
@jobeaz, blogging at Macaronic
@jzgarnett, blogging at Randomly Yours, Julia