A Wandering Eyre

Sometimes there are too many words and sometimes there are not enough. There are a lot of things changing at MPOW. I think most are for the best, for individuals and for the organization. Some are unexpected and some come as no surprise. I am optimistic that good things are coming. It is my way [...]

While speaking with my sister yesterday, I was berated for not putting anything new here this week. Unlike me, she has nothing to do at work this week. I have been silent for two reasons, both of which are very exciting and nerve racking. Reason #1 – I am a member of a Strategic Direction [...]

Sometimes I wonder about the people that are steering the boat. Sometimes I am a happy sailor and sometimes I am grumbling as I take my turn at the oar. (I am just full of the metaphors today) My friend, eprahs, points out one of the many insane things that happen in academic libraries. In [...]

I worked the overnight shift at the library on Wednesday because we are open 25 hours during finals. The two other schmucks who volunteered are also on the Strategery Committee (Strategic Directions to those non-SNL lovers) with me so we ended up talking shop for awhile. I have been gone and missed some key discussions. [...]

Yesterday, I came home to a sparkling clean house, courtesy of the in-laws. My house was clean before they came, my mother raised me that way, but they got all the cracks and crevices I tend to ignore. You know the cracks and crevices I am talking about, things like fan blades, dust boards, and [...]

MPOW is considering moving towards a learning commons. In preparation for this, we have conducted a survey and a focus group in conjunction with campus IT. The things that came out of the focus group were not that unsurprising. Some of the key complaints were The library is not open long enough (our central computing [...]

Sometimes those of use involved in a lustful relationship with technology forget what it is like for those not tied up by virtual strings. I am insightful enough to realize that I have an evangelizing quality to my beliefs regarding technology and I feel self-righteous at times about those beliefs. It is good and well [...]

Today, it is cloudy and one of those days in which my job feels like it is waging a battle against me. I try to be a good subject librarian. I try to be responsive to the needs of my faculty. I order things they want. This morning, after doing some checking, I found out [...]

At MPOW, we are going through a strategic directions process which has the potential to radically change the way we operate. Something that has come up, many times and not just in “Strategery” as we have coined it, is the library’s web site. When I think of our website, I think the words awful and [...]

There has been a lot of talk about how ALA can keep the NextGen and progressive librarians happy, but Michael Stephens has a different sort of list, “Ten Ways To Lose Your Techie Librarians.” Every library manager, AD, and dean needs to read and take heed. The one my library is notoriously bad at: 9. [...]