I've moved this over to wordpress

I know you're been missing me. Now I'll be over here:

http://universitybibliothec.wordpress.com

Spring Term 2008

I've gotten lots of good questions lately. But, I haven't had time to track them. Here are some of the few I've just gotten:

*I need arguments refuting Rachel Carson's environmental arguments.
*Is the rainforest a carbon dioxide sink or source?
*Where are books on kinematics?
*Do you have Mario Kart for the Wii yet?
*Is there a lot written about Wasson's teaching principles?
*Where is coffee produced and what happens to it?
*What are the problems with eating too much soy?

Winter term 2008

*How do I cite a figure in CBE?
*How do I find a full text article on Young's modulus for ligaments?
*Do you have any change? [Uh. I actually asked him to leave.]
*How do I print single sided?
* How do I download an article on my thumb drive?
* (via meebo) How do I get the article about Ushers syndrome?
* I need to know about genetic mutation and fru+ and fru-. Can you help me? (Sadly the answer was a resounding, no!)
* I want to find books on identifying medicinal plants in the area.
* Do you want these books on saltwater fish?
*Do you have books on how to build a grandfather clock?
* I need books on how to research soliton. I had a list, but don't have it with me.
*My 2nd graders need pretty pictures of camels, hippos, and walruses? Also information on their life span.
*I need articles on the genetic basis of homosexuality.
*Where are books on nurse sharks?
*Where is your 1973 copy of the Annual report of the Carnegie Institution of Washington?
*Where can I find resources on sea otters?
*I need to find out if this ligand of cobalt (II) was published in the Journal of Chemical Education. (SciFinder Scholar DOESN'T let you limit by journal title. Isn't that stupid? Did I already learn this, but forgot? Also SFS insists that you write a chemical in a very specific way. JCE lets you search, but not by chemical formula. Isn't that also dumb. A plain text search was also useless. WoS was the best resource, as it searched the text and let us specify by journal name. BUT, it wouldn't have found the chemical structure. VM helped me on this. Thank goodness she was here!)
*Where are these call numbers?
*I need a book on the Amazon Rainforest and biodiversity.
*I'm lost! Where is this lab?

End of the Fall Semester

*What's the molecular heat of transfer? [I'm at a loss for this one. Anyone? Is this a formula?]
*I need resources on folklore of US football.
*Where is this article from PubMed?
*What about an article on kinase from a long time ago? Author unsure.
*How many bones in the human body?
*What reference style should I use for my Human Physiology lab report?
*When is Guitar Hero 3 going to be ready to check out?

Week 8 - Fall 2007

I'm learning new things all the time.

Human Physiology students from the Environmental Physiology class need books and encyclopedia articles on their subjects, NOT a pubmed search. Hyper and hypothermia are covered nicely in some of our books (although we could stand some new ones) and in the Encyclopedia of Human Biology.

Other questions I've had recently I keep forgetting to write down.

*Where are the proceedings from this 10th conference from Cambridge?
*Where are these journals located?
*Why are the only issues of Nature on the shelf from 2006? (We went e only as of 2007)
*Can hypothermia help save your life?

In the news!

Thanks to this lovely piece in the Oregon Daily Emerald, we got to be on KVAL news, last night. Still working on a video clip of that.

At the end of the day yesterday, we were the 5th most emailed article:

Fall 2007 - part II

*Where do I find peer reviewed articles on GMO (genetically engineered, transgenic, etc.) things?
* Where do I find articles on the genetic basis for sexuality?
* Where are the photocopiers?
* Articles on the use of omega 3 fatty acids and female athletes.
* How do I make a graph using Excel 2007?
* Where is this Russian journal from the 1950s? Where are the ones from the late 1940s?
* Can we check out an Xbox 360 and Guitar Hero?
* I need information on transforming energy into different kinds of energy. Where can I get that?
* Do you have photos of the bicep and tricep from the side?
[There were lots of them, but I forgot to write them down and now they are gone forever]

FIGs - some thoughts

Either they should have a research project AND a topic in mind, or don't bother with the library assignment.

What worked:
* Environmental footprint and finding tips to reduce their footprint (also had 1/2 class answer as if living in dorms, and 1/2 living at home. Nice way to show the difference!)
* Death in the Science Library: Crime Scene Investigation
* Having students find web sites with contradictory opinions and post to bulletin board - Although, I should have done more to talk about how they did this and what they found out.

Needed more work:
If you have students looking up topics on different sites (I used Mayoclinic, medline plus?, cdc, webMD), make sure it is somewhat controversial. (We did ACL injuries, try ulcers or cold/canker sores)
Have students look into bottle bill, plastic bags ahead of time

Colbert on Wikipedia and Oregon

found quickly and easily on wikipedia, of course:

Stephen Colbert (2006-07-31). Video: The Colbert Report, Wikiality (English). Comedy Central. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?lnk=v&ml_video=72347

Fall 2007

* That person is snoring so loudly that it's disturbing us. Anything we can do about it?
* Are there any quiet places to study here? [unrelated to the above]
* Why do you have video games here?
* How do I reserve the Playstation 3?
* Where is Halo 3?
* Do you have information about water use and golf courses, especially the ones in the Southwest?
* Can I get headphones to use on a PC?
* Where is this online article?
* Where is the journal Chemical Communications? (It seems to be in 2 places, under CC and Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications)
* You have vol. X issues 1 and 4 and I need issue 3. Where might it be?
* What images do you have for medical things?
* Where are these journals? [All with multiple names and put in places where they shouldn't]
* I'm looking for a small obscure pocket gopher. [Google books was really good at helping us find references when all else failed]
* I'm looking for something on taxonomy that Linneaus wrote.
* What is the chemistry behind seasoning a cast iron pan?
* I need a photon cross section for silicon.
* I need articles on the biology/genetics of transgendered folks. [Turns out MeSH still uses transsexual for this one. We'll hope they catch up soon.]
* Where do I find articles on the genetic basis for sexuality?

Gonzo - 2007

I like that the MC has never even seen a Gonzo!

Powerpoint is fun. Nice color schemes Tiff!

I'm already juiced on all the cookies and the chocolate dipped strawberries in the back.

The real, live piano makes for some classy offerings this year.

E reports that the strawberries are already 86ed. It is 1:12. Is that some kind of record? e feels jilted.

Thanks Ben and Cara for the Prelude from Five Bagatelles. I don't know much about music, but that was fun to listen to. E adds that the Law Library, from which they hail, rocks.

Thanks for that guest commentary E. She'll be joining me for as long as her attention span and blood sugar permit.

There seems to be a group audience mad lib going on. We have
yellow (from Barbara)
Deb Carver (from ARB)
on the floor (from E)
Oops! I did it again (from Laura)
a very large zucchini (Tom S.)
Pee Wee (Paul F.)

Jen performs the worst poem in the world. Nicely done, Jen. That poem sucks! Plop!

I love the systems department. I'm not just kissing up to them, as they rule my life as I know it. But, I'm just tickled that you are up there. I like the bug and the flying silly string. And, practical tips along with entertainment. That's Gonzo at its best.

Victoria is coming up. Poor Jaconda! The great depths of despair expressed in this aria have driven E to the cookie table. Poor E!
What a voice! The piano sounds great too.
Inquiring minds want to know if she does that around the office. Sadly, the answer is no. I wish we got to hear more of Victoria signing.

Aimee is back to hula. How great to see you again. Waika is about a warrior and what sustains him. He discovers that it's not honor or glory, but love of the land and his family. We should all be so lucky. Someday I hope we'll get Aimee a full live band to do her dancing justice.

We don't have the song on CD as planned, so it's Hukilau Unplugged! Erica is gorgeous with a big belly full of baby.

*break*

Some guy in a very nice bathrobe and bike is here. This is his 2nd Gonzo. He's still impressed with last year's fashion show.

The cookie police are fierce. Snap! Snap!

More mad libs:
pulcratudiness (Pam) all bets are off on the spelling
Pinky toe (Jen)

The man Harrison Ford called "His sexist man alive" Tom Stave
Factfile Live from the Gonzo stage
If I close my eyes it sounds just like NPR.
Organic cookies are the prizes. I'm totally jealous.
Snappy commentary by the panelists, ok, by some of them.

Mama Look a Booboo by Los Invisibles. They look amazing as always. And the instrumentation and signing gets better each year.
I wish I could remember some of the lyrics, but I'm laughing too hard to type.
followed by....
Sly and the Family Stone. Amen!

more mad libs
Dodge ball (by Jeff?)
4 wheelin' (Shirien)

Ben with a Shan-sonne or the Donkey Serenade. There's some sort of bestiality kink getting expressed here. 'Nuff said. All kidding aside, Ben continues to amaze on the keys.

[The following from guest blogger Dave "The Exterminator" Fowler]
A poetry slam...oh my! Judging from the participants, truly bad poetry appears to be guaranteed.

Who knew there were so many beatniks in the Knight!

Andrew has a soul patch!

Youtubiverse?

Dear librarian... Please fix your search engine! lol

Annie is channeling William Shatner....

Mirror, mirror, on the wall...who be the hippest poet of them all?

Dan the Art Man!

-Thanks for helping while I had my moment of glory in the sun.

Thanks everyone! C U next yr!

Gaming in the Science Library part I

I have a proposal and a list of games to start with. I've been in meetings and chatted to all the folks I can think of. I'm sure I'm missing something.

For now I'm waiting to see about funding sources, but I hope that we'll be able to get this up and running in time for Fall term.

The clock is ticking!

Summer 2007

I've had loads of questions, none of which I've been keeping track of. But, to the best of my ability:

*Where is this article? (repeat)
*I need the statistical tables for the G theory. [Right there in reference. Frustratingly, the text on this theoreom is circulating, but the tables (published separately) are in reference. AND, the authors magnanimously switched order, so that each of them is the 1st author on one of the publications. Still, not user friendly. grrr)
*Why doesn't my computer work?
*Where can I copy/print/scan?
*Where is this book? Where is my ILL article?
*I need thermodynamic properties and a phase diagram for CO2 and SO2.
*What are the standards for approving a drug in a country with nationalized medicine?

Interview questions

When you get to the part of the interview (and you will) where they ask you, if *you* have any questions. You *should* have some. Some of them may have been answered already, but have a few in your back pocket, to be sure.

Feel free to chime in here, I'll try to keep adding to this list:

*What was your career path?
*What is your typical day like?
*What is the worst (best) thing about your job?


Questions you should be prepared to answer:
_How have you handled a problem at work?
_Where do you see the profession going in the next 5 years?
_What made you interested in this position?

More specific to academic libraries/reference
positions:

_If someone asks you a question that 10 others have
already asked you, how would you answer it?
_Something about your teaching philosophy, how do
you see bibliographic instruction/information literacy/critical thinking skills?
_If someone said your collection was weak in X [fill in some legitimate, but perhaps obscure request, like graphic novels in Spanish in an academic library], how would you handle the request?

Spring Quarter marching on

* How do I tell if this is a scientific journal article? [Talked about language used, references, datum, publisher, etc.]

* What is the accession number for this paper from the Institute for Theoretical Physics? [Ended up giving the patron contact information for the ITP.]

* I'm looking for Erasmus Darwin's book from 17xx. [We could actually print this book, albeit in 50 image chunks, from the 18th Century Books database. How totally cool.]

*I need a Ph.D. dissertation from Oxford or a 2 page article from this journal. [WorldCat had it...]

*How do I find the most recent volumes of this journal? [They are now online.]

Week 4

*We get to see all the sections of HPHY 102 this week. I'm having them use laptops and complete challenges to find information on their topic and use some of our specialized databases.

* Where can I find these articles on handed-ness?

* Where is the ITC/photocopier?

* Where are the KCs?

* Can I check out an older edition of this geology textbook?

* How do I use Interfolio for letters of recommendation

* Where are those reference books that are in multiple volumes and start Langen... something? (Landolt-Börnstein and Springer currently has a free electronic index for them here:
http://www.springer.com/west/home/laboe?SGWID=4-10113-0-0-0)

Week 3

*Is there a dichogamous angiosperm flowering within walking distance? (This includes hazelnuts, some plum trees and brassicaceae, not sure if we have them on campus and if they are flowering)

*Where are the dissertations? Can I check them out?

Week 2

My how time flies.

*What American Sign Language DVDs are good for learning sign? [Actually that's my own question. But, I'm asking it and will post answers as I can.]

*Do you have a book on Excel (tm) that can help me with a Chi squared analysis? [A trick question, SPSS is much better for this sort of a thing.]

*Where are the QK1001-2999? [Uh, this seems to be a trick question, as we don't have that call number range. Is it a typo? We're trying to find out.]

*Where are the CRC Handbooks?

*Where can I find information about homeotic development in fruit flys?

*I need recent articles about insulin and diabetes.

UCLA trip - part IV

My darling daughter and I arrived at LAX, right on time. We got our rental car and hit the 405. Even in the carpool lane, we were in stop and go traffic until we exited on Santa Monica Blvd. Ugh. There were more cars out on the road than we see in a normal week in Eugene.

We made it just to UCLA's GSE&IS building just in time to tell Cindy Mediavilla's Portfolio class (IS 400) that we have jobs open in Eugene, Oregon and we'd love to tell them all about it. It was Wednesday of week 10. Everyone seemed much more interested in getting their papers (and portfolios) finished.

We visited with staff and students from the department for a bit, before heading over to Moore Hall and the Information Architecture (IS 279) class. We especially wanted them to know about the positions in the Metadata department. The instructor, a gracious and vivacious Lynn Boyden, gave us a few minutes to tell everyone about the positions, hand out our sheet with all of the jobs listed and answer hard questions about salary.

That night we networked* with some LA area librarians at one of Westwood's Persian restaurants.

The next morning, we braved the Sunset traffic and foggy morning to say hello to the students in Anne Gilliland's (Chair of the IS department) Archives class (IS 431). Z was a big hit at 9am, drawing a room full of "ohhhhs!"

Since our panel discussion was moved from the lunch hour to 1:30pm, we hung out in the department's Commons room. Where students congregate and eat lunch. I set up handouts with the job announcements and tried to talk to everyone who happened to walk in. Pity them. We got to see Melanee again and meet some wonderful folks.

The panel was held upstairs in the new lounge area. We had about 14 students attend in total. The librarians on the panel talked about finding our job, interviewing for jobs, what to look for, what not to do and I talked about the things I like about being a librarian at the U of O.

I was charged with finding out what was important to people who are graduating from library school. The students at UCLA mentioned:

• a supportive and open management staff
• opportunity to implement outreach strategies and
• many other things we've learned in library school
• a city or town that is diverse - sexual orientation, ethnically, racially
• a city or town with things to do, basically for single young professionals
• a place that fosters creativity and professional development
• money - both salaries for paying off loans and support for conferences. And, if not money for conferences, time off to attend them.
• ongoing ability to take classes (time from work for this and/or faculty discounts)
• a chance to make a difference
• have a sabbatical
• mentoring (more formal than informal)
• room for cross training and variety
  

[Props to Melanee and friends for at least the 1st four.]

In the end, I talked to about 6 people who seemed pretty serious about applying for at least one of the jobs. I met with several of them 1 on 1 and they asked me more detailed questions.

Dr. Mediavilla raved about the quality of this year's class. She said we'd be lucky to get any of them. After meeting with them over the course of these 2 days, I would agree.

*It was great seeing our library school friends, who are all real live grown up librarian types, and Miz SJ. formerly of Eugene, who we still miss.

Fun with maps

I find this wonderful. A map of all the places I've visited - and more importantly, all the places I still need to see!:



create your own visited country map