For the record, I tend to love this conference and this year was no exception. It is organized by people I respect, draws focused talent from a broad range of specializations, and I am invariably able to touch base with well-loved colleagues past/present/future. I have also found that ACRL seems to coincide with and/or create... Continue Reading →
project curve, part five: library on wheels.
It’s been a spell since I wrote for the project curve series, but not for lack of inspiration: my inaugural Fall semester at Claremont was an engaging blur of teaching, trying, making, and doing, leaving me for the first time in a long while with scarce time to write. Which leads me to compose a... Continue Reading →
love your library button templates (and more): project curve, part one revisited.
A while back I started this series with a post on ‘love your library’ buttons, maker breaks, and other handmade projects we're working on at the Claremont Colleges Library. After about five months of trying pins out in different outreach contexts and reworking the designs to various ends, I can unequivocally vouch for the soundness... Continue Reading →
outreach = pitch.
In her In the Library with the Lead Pipe post on the subject, Emily Ford makes the series of points that library outreach is really about marketing, that the product we're selling is service, and that all of this hinges on connecting with one's user community in a personal sense. Marketing is about making a... Continue Reading →
i before e: my year of ontological balancing.
As anyone with visible tattoos, hairless cats, or a penchant for decorating with look-but-don't-use vintage objects such as ornamental table napkins can attest: the more esoteric you are, the more you end up having to explain yourself. When your mystifying characteristic, animal, or possession attracts attention, you have a choice: A) explain clearly in a... Continue Reading →
interview x2.
Now that it's summer and academic librarians have a bit of breathing/reading room, I've been getting more and more inquiries about the research report I published via ACRL in late April (and keep them coming, by all means). By way of further explanation, this week I talked with my longtime friend Ellie Collier at In... Continue Reading →
drive-by advocacy.
Like many others, I have a fear of appearing too pollyanna when I talk to faculty about libraries. Some cite the notorious inferiority complex in academic librarianship to explain this feeling, which has been discussed often and thoroughly enough to not merit rehashing here. For the record, I feel no inferiority – merely a difference in... Continue Reading →
