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Month: August 2006

It Was Only a Little Project, Take Two

It Was Only a Little Project, Take Two

Published by Iris on Thursday, August 10th, 2006

Remember a month ago when I spent an inordinate amount of time on a tiny little project? Well, I had to stop thinking about it for a while because it didn’t quite rate high enough on my priority list to be allowed precious brain space. Well, I didn’t have time to work on it this week either, but I had too little brain space for my other projects yesterday evening, so I worked on it some more.

<. defensiveness >Now, in all fairness to my work ethic, I’d worked from 8:40 to 1:00 on a Moodle workshop we were putting on, and then from 1:00 to 4:00 on LexisNexis training, so my brain was so fried that that last hour was really useless to me for other, bigger projects. I put it to the best use I could by working on something that was not only useful but also interesting, exciting, and engaging. < / defensiveness >

Digressions aside, I spent an hour and a half yesterday afternoon working on my new professional website. It’s not done yet, but it’s a start. I’ve learned cool things about CSS (all formatting is done via CSS, which I’d never used before), and I’ve played with background images quite a lot, though I’ve gained a new respect for graphic designers. My undergraduate art minor is seeming farther and farther in my ancient past, and it’s doing me absolutely no good now.

I’m still working on color schemes (though this color schemer makes the job a whole lot easier), and the content is only just starting to take form, but I’m pretty pleased with this first draft. I’m particularly pleased with what happens when you hover over “Course Management System” in the “News” section. What fun!

Granted, most of the original CSS is stolen from all over the web, but I’m finally figuring out how to manipulate it for my own purposes. Now that I know why it works, I can start making it work for me.

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The First Public Internet Library

Published by Iris on Wednesday, August 9th, 2006

It’s not news anymore. It’s been blogged to death. But I just wanted to point out that OCLC’s free, public search interface is now available to all. This interface is still a baby interface with lots of upgrades planned in the next months, but once you’ve done a search you can see most of the things we’ve been calling for in catalogs, including faceted search (in the form of “Refine Your Search” on the right sidebar), FRBRized records (click on “editions” when you’ve clicked into a book’s record), user reviews, and more. You can also get a browser search box if you want, or embed a search box into a web site (hmmmm, so many ideas bouncing around in my head).

I’m intrigued by the note in the “help” screen that says that when you search from within a library-authenticated internet connection you may get a link to that library’s “As a Librarian” service. How do we get this added for my library? I don’t know. But it’s something we should think about doing.

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My Favorite Classroom

My Favorite Classroom

Published by Iris on Tuesday, August 8th, 2006

My Favorite Classroom
Originally uploaded by Pegasus Librarian.

It’s not included on any registrar’s list of Carleton classrooms, but it really does get used every once in a while. If you look closely you can even see the blackboard (which is usually covered in the detritus of learning).

It’s one of those things that gives me that warm, fairytale vision of life and learning. You know the one. It’s the same vision that allows you to “see” the quiet domestic scenes that could take place in houses that leave their lights on and their curtains open at night.

Just as I always see tranquil evening scenes complete with fireplaces, books, soft music, and quiet companionship when I look into those lighted rooms, I can’t help but imagine classes on Wordsworth and Keats being held in this outdoor classroom.

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Lost Trees

Lost Trees

Published by Iris on Tuesday, August 8th, 2006

Yesterday morning, as I left the library to go to a Moodle meeting (remember, we’ve adopted Moodle as our course management system, so now the IT department and the library are working to make implementation as painless and effective as possible), I noticed that they were cutting down the two trees in front of the library. How sad.

I realize that even after months of daily watering they were still developing the tree version of male pattern baldness, but I didn’t think they were that sick. Now the walk up to the library looks so bare. (The grass doesn’t look so hot either. Or rather, it looks a little too hot.)

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