A Wandering Eyre

General Disclaimer: My soon-to-be FPOW is by no means unique when it comes to academic libraries. After talking, and sometimes grumping, with librarians from many different academic libraries, I have come to the conclusion that MPOW is the middle of the pack when it comes to both good and bad organizational themes. It is not [...]

I have decided to write this post in two parts because it may end up being a wee bit long for one gigantic post. I wanted to write about the positives of working in an academic library first because starting out on a positive note is nice. This post could be subtitled: Why academic libraries [...]

(picture inclusion with a nod towards Helene Blowers)
This post has been a long time coming. If all works out accordingly, this post will be published directly after or right before I hand the interested parties my letter of resignation from the University of Houston Libraries where I have worked for three and a half years. [...]

Sometimes we never know how things work, or do not, until a crisis rears its head. Oh, the fun, the joy, of technology that does not work at the reference desk. Today, our reference desk is about as much fun as a poo throwing monkey. Fun until the poo slaps you in the face.
The [...]

I work at the University of Houston and most of the staff this year were disappointed to learn that our enrollment numbers were way down for the current semester. Classes started Monday, along with all the usual hubbub. Other librarians know what I am talking about: ridiculous amounts of printing (“but I need every [...]

Last week at MPOW, we had two leadership training days with Maureen Sullivan (who is a great facilitator). Most librarians under a certain age or a certain level in the organization were included in the sessions. It was interesting, frustrating, and medicinal. It was frustrating because a lot of the organizational culture issues we were [...]

This is a belated announcement, but Five Weeks has eaten up every scrap of free time in my day these last few weeks. Soon, this space will be back to normal.
Ok. Now.
It is a small step, but forward regardless. MPOW has officially added technology training as part of my job responsibilities. I still have most [...]

I have not seen anyone write about this yet and my library has created quite an interesting conundrum that I am positive is not unique unto us.
MPOW has some very nice subject blogs maintained by subject librarians. We put all kinds of useful and interesting things on them. Users can subscribe to their content using [...]

And a story about printing in the library
Once upon a time there was a library that received a dedicated fee from its 35,000 student body in exchange for good service, computers, and free printing. After some years, it was obvious to all the librarians that worked on the reference desk that the amount of paper [...]

Our students returned on Monday and the resulting zoo that has appeared in our library is one of my favorite things about the Fall semester. We had a whopping 10,550 people walk through our door on Monday, roughly a third of our student population.
–Jane, thinks the desk is more fun when it is busy