Typos....

No, not mine. Though, I make them occassionally along with everyone else. I'm in the midst of selecting titles for my assigned disciplines. We're past half way through with our Fiscal Year, so I'm stepping up my efforts. To aid this process, I get electronic slips from a vendor who shall remain nameless. Below is the last part of a description for one of the titles, which it states is from the book jacket. I'm not sure if the typo is their's or the publisher's, but it gave me a good laugh.

"Rather than look at overall conceptual issues, which are already well covered elsewhere, this boob looks at the finer details of implementation in order to identify lessons, ideas and opportunities, both at the planning and design phase, and during implementation and review and evaluation."

Or, maybe it really is referring to the author.

Almost a year in a new job

Rules, Regulations, Laws, Statutes, Codes, Travel Documents, Monthly Statistics, Grants, Purchasing Guidelines, Hiring Processes

Wow... and that's all beyond showing up, doing training, managing a team of six, consulting with libraries, implementing projects, and learning the agency. It has been a whirlwind year. I am hopeful that within the next couple of months we will have hired someone to fill the Library Technology Consultant position. This will allow me to stop doing two jobs and finally settle into the manager role.

I have experienced times when I felt completely clueless and inept. Recently, I have actually had moments when I catch myself talking to someone and realize I sound like I know what I'm doing. It has been quite encouraging. I know I still have a long way to go to be the employee that I want to be, the program director that my boss would like me to be and to be the manager that the team needs me to be.

Someone told me many years ago that when you make a move, whether it's job or location, it takes a good year to get to a point where you feel like you have a clue what you're doing. My revision is that it takes a year to clue and longer to feel comfortable.

Me, an expert??

Well, this past month I had the opportunity to be interviewed by a graduate student. She was taking an instructional technology class and had to interview a consultant. Her field of interest is libraries. So when she googled, she found me.

I found the experience refreshing and revitalizing. I was able to share the experiences I've had in the past being an independent consultant AND what it is like to be attached to an organization. I certainly hope that she not only does well on her assignment but that something I said was helpful.


A link to her project

Video ratings...

Being in an academic library, video ratings are not something I've worried about, especially for documentaries, which I frequently order for my subject area of Business. One of these is Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. All the reviews on the title are tops. However, in the year I've been here, I've had two complaints from faculty. There are a couple of rather raunchey scences in the film, one which takes place in a strip club, which have been off putting to the faculty members. One faculty member had seen the edited version on PBS and didn't preview it before showing it in class. I guess it was a little uncomfortable. He later requested we order the edited version. There isn't one.

The second complaint came in about a week ago. Because of the first one, I knew what the issue was. The suggestion from reference was perhaps we could put a warning or something on the DVD. Do we do this? It made for an interesting discussion and the best we could come up with was perhaps a note to preview before showing in class. We are taking this under consideration, but in the meantime, I also pointed out that we have two other documentaries on Enron. Any thoughts?

Demos - a good thing....

In the past several years, I've run my fair share of trials for different electronic resource products. Generally, if you're familiar and comfortable with databases and electronic resources, you can get a good feel for the product without a demo. However, with some products, a demo is a very good thing. This was brought home in the past week with demos on two products that afterwards I realized I wouldn't have figured out all they have to offer without the demo. At least not in a two week trial.

I arranged the first demo for me and a couple of other librarians, because we were given the option to add on the module to an existing product when we renewed (through our consortium), but I had never seen it or heard of it. And, honestly, I wasn't getting much information from the brochure sent by our rep. So, we set up a trial. Next thing I know, the Product Manager is offering to do a 20 minute web demo. I figured what the heck and arranged for the business librarians to join me. Incredibly robust product; I doubt we would have realized half of what it can do without the demo. It was about a 20 minute demo, but it was 20 minutes well spent. Very, very nice product.

The second demo was yesterday. Brief and in person. Again, amazing product. We might have gotten a lot of what it has to offer during the trial, but there are things we would have missed. Another 20 minutes well spent.

Now I'm thinking maybe I should do more demos or at least remember that for some products a demo will be needed. In case you're interested, the products demo'd were Mergent Horizon and West's Campus Research.