Reliable Communication part two

The IT dept and the Library made plans this spring to move the computer lab from a room on the west side of the library. We want to put it on the east side of the partition that is between the west room and the remainder of the library. Before we can do this we need two outlets added. We ‘enlisted’ the help of a staff member who has done electrical wiring. This was around the end of May/first of June.

A couple of weeks ago I talked to the maintenance department head (CA) about what was happening about this, as nothing had yet been done in the library with the two outlets. He told me that he had not received any info or a PO from our “electrician” (GW). Tuesday of this week I talked to GW. He said he had told CA what was needed. But he also told me that it would cost $600 to put these two outlets in. So the business office had decided back in the beginning of the summer to have him do other smaller projects on campus.

Why would it cost $600 for two outlets? Because the breaker box is already full and GW can not put any more wiring in, for two outlets. They would have to be “conduited” (new word for the day) to a new breaker box in the back room as there is plenty of room in it for new wiring. So that would cost a lot of money.

What I don’t understand is: we are already using these 16 computers and 2 printers on our current breaker box. Why can’t we take out two current outlets and wire in the two needed outlets? Well, you can’t do it that way if you want to do it right.

When was this decision communicated to the Library? Tuesday, 6 weeks after the fact. The “disease” of non-communication continues to abound! Bummer.

BACK ROOM PROGRESS
Remember our back room “disaster”? That was about the time we launched this blog. We (the campus) are having a Workday all over campus every Tuesday. So this past Tuesday a couple of us worked in our back room. 40% of the original area is our new storage room. We are actually making progress in getting the room set up the way we want it. Boxes have been heaved and ho-ed, tables have been turned over onto their legs and arranged in the room the way we want and most of the boxes now placed on the tables in sorted groups. (There’s a few more boxes that need to be moved.) It has been a lot of sweat, aches and pains but we are getting there. It seems to be taking for ever, but we are finally beginning to see “final” plans taking shape. It may not sound like any big deal, but it is exciting to us. If I can ever figure out how to upload pictures to this blog, someday you just might see some before and after shots.

INFORMATION LITERACY
I have been concerned for some time now about the lack of teaching our students how to use the library to its fullest advantage. Today I met with MP, the head of our Non-Traditional Studies department. He wants to put together a 6 weeks course (20 hours) for the NTS students on how to write better papers, improve grammar, use the library and more. This is going to be a little bit of challenge – or maybe work – as I have not done this before, but see the need. So now we (royal we) will need to start researching and pulling info together on how it’s done in other places and what we need to talk about, regarding our own library etc. etc. I’m glad to begin to see some movement in this direction. I have also been in conversation with the seminary dean about doing the same thing there. So we’ll see what happens and where this will take us. “Stay tuned.”

MYSPACE
MySpace is in the news, if you haven’t heard. It is the number one draw to a website, out pacing Yahoo and other similar sites. Genealogy used to be the number (legal) use of the internet. (You can probably guess what is THE number one use, but we’ll not state it here.) It will be interesting to see, as this generation comes of age, if that will change. Here is more information, showing graphs, etc. If you have not heard of MySpace.com or Facebook.com and you are working with high school and college students today either in academic/educational settings or in the public library, you might take a look at what is big with our millennials.

SEMINARY "LIBRARY"
Today ADJ and I went over to the Seminary and worked some more on the books that are over there. We photocopied the title pages and versos of 21 books, keeping them in order of how they were copied. They will be cataloged, labeled, "licked, stamped, and sealed" (no, I'm just kidding). Hopefully they will stay on the shelf in the order we photocopied them so when we return after ADJ has them cataloged them, we can quickly add the labels. The remainder still to do have been sorted and grouped somewhat by how they will be on the shelf after they are cataloged, i.e. all the individual commentaries on books of the bible have been put in canonical order. Books on Greek, Hebrew, New Testament, and Old Testament have been put together by topic, etc. So when we work on the next batch and take back their labels, they will already be somewhat in the order they will need to be when in call number order.

Next we will have to begin to educate the Seminary faculty and the students the new procedures that will need to happen, which they are not used to doing. This will be a self service library. The books are for "in-house use only" so the students will need to track their usage and be sure they put the books back in the correct order. No problem for a grad student, right??? We'll see. But something will be better then nothing, which is what we've had before.


NEXT WEEK
...I will be "on vacation." At least, I won't be in the office. I am going to Arkansas to sort through hundreds (or more) of pictures my mother took for over 30 years while associated with Mid-America Mission, (home of Woodland Acres Bible Camp). Their fiftieth anniversary is coming up this fall, so I am going to take these pictures down to them and go through the pictures. It will be a trip alright - a trip down memory lane. This will probably be a cheaper trip then a lot of vacations!! Hopefully I'll get to see some friends, too as this is where I grew up and graduated from High School. (Next year will be our HS class's 40 year anniversary. But I doubt we will do anything. Nothing's been done since our 25th. We're quite a lazy bunch!) So it may be a couple of weeks or so before I'm back. I can tell you right now it will take me probably the first whole week I'm back just to catch up for the week I'll be gone.