Monthly Archives: March 2008

On Trying New Things

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about an odd shift I’m seeing. It seems like a couple of years ago, there was a big push in my corner of libraryland to “try new things,” which was mostly code for “try a blog, try a wiki, try IM, try social bookmarking, try Flickr, try ANYTHING.! Please!!” [...]
Posted in random thoughts | 6 Comments

Spring… un-Break

Spring term starts on Monday after two full weeks of what most people choose to call “Spring Break.” Clearly, I must not understand the meaning of the word “break,” or else it means something other than it has meant for the rest of my life. This was not a break. In fact, it was probably [...]
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What are Reference Works Good for in the Google Age?

Over the last couple of years, my co-workers and I have noticed steady and possibly even increasing use of our reference collection by our students. And while I love this (I mean… obviously… cuz I’m a reference librarian), I’m also always just a little bit surprised by it. I mean, they’ve got Wikipedia and Google, [...]
Posted in search and discovery | 3 Comments

How Many Bagels?

How many bagels do you suppose it takes to stock a 2-hour study break in the library on the last day before finals at a college with just under 2000 students? … Yes, I want you to guess… … … No really. Pick a number… … …Got one?… Ok. Campus Activities bought 20 dozen, and [...]
Posted in random thoughts | 4 Comments

The Problem with Vocabulary

There are a couple of things I really like about being primarily a subject librarian, and about having subject librarians easily accessible in a college library. For one thing, it sure helps when those crazy-hard questions come to the desk and you can say something helpful-sounding like “I can get you started with some of [...]
Posted in libraries and librarians, search and discovery | 8 Comments