The Hub @ WT's got some national attention this week, appearing in the American Library Association's e-publication, American Libraries Direct.
Friday, September 12, 2008
American Libraries Direct
The Hub @ WT's got some national attention this week, appearing in the American Library Association's e-publication, American Libraries Direct.
Monday, September 8, 2008
A huge Hubbub
On August 25, we had our 2nd annual "Hubbub," a party in the Hub for our new freshmen students to introduce them to the library and the Info Commons. Although I'd thought our first Hubbub was pretty great, this year's seemed like a whole different league of fun. It was almost twice the size of our first Hubbub, with about 700 students and more activities for them to do.
One of our great new activities for this year was a photo booth. Beth Kraemer set up a green screen and Photoshopped students (and faculty/staff) wearing funny hats and holding props onto interesting backgrounds. We showed these on our flat-screen TVs and some of our Video Windows, as well as making a flickr set of them.
Our remaining Video Windows were used for video games. We also had balloon animals, makeovers, a caricature artist, palm reading (had to definitely have this again as it was our surprise last-minute hit from last year), and two tarot card readers. We had pizza and drinks. I think our surprise hit this year was the board games. Students sat on the floor and played Monopoly and other retro board games enthusiastically.
A small touch that I think went over well was putting leis over the heads of attendees as they walked in. Nothing says "party" like wearing a lei. The balloon hats that the balloon artist made also added to the festivities.
photo credit Alice Wasielewski
As for lessons learned for next year:
Ordering more pizza and drinks and having the cups poured ahead of time. Not only did we have many more students eating, but we switched vendors, and the quality of the food was better this year, so students were taking more.
Having a longer Hubbub. We had the prize drawing at 7:15, which seemed too early since all the activities were still going strong, but by the time it was over at 7:45 the library closing announcement was coming over the P.A. Maybe next year we could have a 3-hour Hubbub.
It's only September, but I already feel excited about our Hubbub 2009.
One of our great new activities for this year was a photo booth. Beth Kraemer set up a green screen and Photoshopped students (and faculty/staff) wearing funny hats and holding props onto interesting backgrounds. We showed these on our flat-screen TVs and some of our Video Windows, as well as making a flickr set of them.
Our remaining Video Windows were used for video games. We also had balloon animals, makeovers, a caricature artist, palm reading (had to definitely have this again as it was our surprise last-minute hit from last year), and two tarot card readers. We had pizza and drinks. I think our surprise hit this year was the board games. Students sat on the floor and played Monopoly and other retro board games enthusiastically.
A small touch that I think went over well was putting leis over the heads of attendees as they walked in. Nothing says "party" like wearing a lei. The balloon hats that the balloon artist made also added to the festivities.
photo credit Alice WasielewskiAs for lessons learned for next year:
Ordering more pizza and drinks and having the cups poured ahead of time. Not only did we have many more students eating, but we switched vendors, and the quality of the food was better this year, so students were taking more.
Having a longer Hubbub. We had the prize drawing at 7:15, which seemed too early since all the activities were still going strong, but by the time it was over at 7:45 the library closing announcement was coming over the P.A. Maybe next year we could have a 3-hour Hubbub.
It's only September, but I already feel excited about our Hubbub 2009.
photo credit Kopana Terry
Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Still learning about patrons
Today at the reference desk a professor came up and said that an entire periodical series was missing from the shelves. Normally, when an undergraduate or community member says something like this, I immediately go to the shelves and double-check. Because this was a faculty member, I first tried several other avenues: scouring the catalog, making phone calls to circulation and off-site storage, etc., before going to the stacks. Long story short: even professors find the the library confusing and end up in the wrong place. Never assume - or you know what you make out of u and me both.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The Fayette Alliance withdraws its support for CentrePointe!
I just received an email that the Fayette Alliance has withdrawn it's support for the CentrePointe project. This is excellent news, but I wish it had come sooner.
ALA: Notes for next year
What I could do differently at ALA Annual 2009:
Bring cable for downloading photos - I thought about doing this before I left, but decided I would just add photos to this blog and flickr when I got back. What a bad idea. It would have been so much nicer to add these as I posted and a tiny USB doesn't weigh very much or take up much room.
Bring extension cord? - This one I'm not so sure about. It might not be worth the extra weight. There was some amount of competition for outlets, but not too much.
Buy a better laptop? - I really can't can’t afford this, but it would be nice to have a lighter weight laptop with a battery that lasts long enough to get through a meeting.
Make sure committee members are coming to All Committee and/or schedule a time to meet them - This was one of my biggest regrets at this year's Annual. I had assumed (remember what they say about ass-u-me'ing?) that my Orientation Committee fellow members would automatically go to All-Committee. Nope, not a one.
Sign up for Dine Around every night that not otherwise busy - Dine Around, the scheduled dinner plans that anyone can sign up for, I left for the last night and it turned out to be one of the highlights of my conference. I might even sign up to be an Ambassador and lead a group next year.
Make sure hotel has free wireless - My second rate hotel turned out to have first-rate free wireless (I lucked out), but the Hilton where some of the meetings were held charged an exorbitant fee.
Check if friends are going to ALA - I just found out that a close friend who is now a librarian too went to 2007 Annual and I didn't even know it! I need to make sure I ask all the librarians I know and make sure they haven't changed plans.
Suggest that NMRT have ribbons - All kinds of groups had ribbons, including BIGWIG and Library Society of the World. Why in the world wouldn't NMRT have a ribbon? It would be a great way to promote the Round Table.
Suggest that RSS it clear that reviews are by appointment - The seven people who tried to drop-in at the Resume Review Service reminded me of how the promotional materials really should make it clear that appointments are needed.
If I present in the future it would be good to have a "barker" - The guy in the pirate costume really got a lot of people's attention. If I am part of a session, I think it would be great to have someone to stir up interest in the crowd. I think a lot of people create their schedules on the fly or decide to drop sessions that are too far away, so it would be a good idea to take advantage of this.
With all this in mind I think that ALA Annual 2009 will be the best conference yet!
Bring cable for downloading photos - I thought about doing this before I left, but decided I would just add photos to this blog and flickr when I got back. What a bad idea. It would have been so much nicer to add these as I posted and a tiny USB doesn't weigh very much or take up much room.
Bring extension cord? - This one I'm not so sure about. It might not be worth the extra weight. There was some amount of competition for outlets, but not too much.
Buy a better laptop? - I really can't can’t afford this, but it would be nice to have a lighter weight laptop with a battery that lasts long enough to get through a meeting.
Make sure committee members are coming to All Committee and/or schedule a time to meet them - This was one of my biggest regrets at this year's Annual. I had assumed (remember what they say about ass-u-me'ing?) that my Orientation Committee fellow members would automatically go to All-Committee. Nope, not a one.
Sign up for Dine Around every night that not otherwise busy - Dine Around, the scheduled dinner plans that anyone can sign up for, I left for the last night and it turned out to be one of the highlights of my conference. I might even sign up to be an Ambassador and lead a group next year.
Make sure hotel has free wireless - My second rate hotel turned out to have first-rate free wireless (I lucked out), but the Hilton where some of the meetings were held charged an exorbitant fee.
Check if friends are going to ALA - I just found out that a close friend who is now a librarian too went to 2007 Annual and I didn't even know it! I need to make sure I ask all the librarians I know and make sure they haven't changed plans.
Suggest that NMRT have ribbons - All kinds of groups had ribbons, including BIGWIG and Library Society of the World. Why in the world wouldn't NMRT have a ribbon? It would be a great way to promote the Round Table.
Suggest that RSS it clear that reviews are by appointment - The seven people who tried to drop-in at the Resume Review Service reminded me of how the promotional materials really should make it clear that appointments are needed.
If I present in the future it would be good to have a "barker" - The guy in the pirate costume really got a lot of people's attention. If I am part of a session, I think it would be great to have someone to stir up interest in the crowd. I think a lot of people create their schedules on the fly or decide to drop sessions that are too far away, so it would be a good idea to take advantage of this.
With all this in mind I think that ALA Annual 2009 will be the best conference yet!
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