M&Ms

Today I met again with Moises, and this time he let me add in two e-reserves. For most of the rest of the day I spent time with Mark learning about many of the different things he does. Including pulling money from the machines, which was pretty cool.

I also shadowed Sarah on the reference desk for a bit and read some more articles about disaster recovery for the lit review.

Just Water...I'm Such a Cheap Date

First this morning I met with Moises to learn about e-reserves. I think it might have been better to schedule this meeting for the first week of classes because they are kind of slowing down this week. There wasn't much to do this morning, but Moises did have one reserve and he walked me through the process of adding it to the professor's e-reserve page.

Since the meeting with Moises was a lot shorter than I expected, I spent the rest of the time trying to print out articles for the pack back lit review and then I shadowed Dave and Jason on the reference desk for a bit.

Then I had the JSTOR/Project Muse meeting. I think this is going to be an interesting project.

After the meeting I ran into Michael Rivera and we had a water and talked about some things. I met with him again later in the afternoon and went through the towers and he talked about running lists and organizing the move to the new FAL. I almost forget sometimes that they're going to have a big move too.

In between meetings with Michael I had some free time again so I spent time shadowing Heidi at the reference desk. Its kind of neat to see the different ways people handle the reference desk.

After meeting with Michael I met with the lit review team with Dan, Ann, and Teresa. I've never been part of publishing an article before so I think it will be interesting experience.

Deserted Fridays

I spent most of the day today working on the pack back lit review. For some reason, no one wants to meet on Fridays so these are usually really slow days.

I did meet with Teresa for a while again today to talk about subject guides and computer support. She also told me a lot about the resident selection process. I think it will be really interesting to get to see how it all works from the search committee side rather than the candidate side. Teresa told me about some of the crazy answers people have given and unusual things they have done-she said one girl even started to take off her clothes during her presentation!

Then I shadowed Dan on the reference desk for a while. It was kind of neat to see him in action. I wouldn't have guessed he would be so good at helping people, but there was a couple that was looking for information about copyrights and he whipped out the Library of Congress website and showed them all of the information they could find there. He was really nice to them and they stuck around for a long time talking about how much libraries have changed.

Later, Teresa came by with the pack back "tool" which just makes my head hurt.

The Juggernaut that is the Pack Back

Today I started off with my regular meeting with Teresa. I always think I don't have anything to talk about until I show up in her office and then I somehow take up the entire hour.

Next, I met with Kathleen, who showed me how she maintains the reference section and processes new reference materials. Then we went for free pizza (I'm really going to miss welcome back days!) and after I shadowed her on the reference desk for about an hour. We had one kind of tough question. A guy wanted to know which movies were playing at the Spanish theater in Santa Fe in the 40s. Since all of the microfilm of the Albuquerque and Santa Fe newspapers from that period are in Texas, we tried the Center and they had a few from Santa Fe and Kathleen suggested that he try the public library for the Albuquerque papers.

While I was at the reference desk, Dan came by to see if I wanted to go to the Gale training. The session was pretty informative, but I mostly learned not to sit next to Dan at instruction sessions. :)

We had to leave early to go to the ZPS meeting, where we talked about the pack back and everything that is going to happen in the next couple months. The pack back is taking over everyone's brains right now.

After the meeting, I had my last session with Clay. I really enjoyed billing. It was kind of nice to be able to clear fines and add money back to people's accounts.

My First Green Chili Stew

Today I met again with Mark and learned how to use the instruction room. He said that the chairs are all broken, but that there was supposed to be a lifetime warranty. So I learned that it is important to keep copies of those types of things even if you think someone else is taking care of it.

Next I met with Jason to learn about newspapers and reference. He also showed me the e-reference page and explained about ready reference and periodicals. We also talked a bit about making movies and videos. It seems that all of this is really big in Albuquerque right now. Jason even said they're filming a movie with Kevin Costner (I think that's who he said) right down the street, but his house was short-listed!

After meeting with Jason, I went with Kathleen to get some free green chili stew at the welcome back day tent. It was pretty good, but she said it is usually much hotter. I think it would have been even better that way!

Then I met with Pat to learn about working as an assistant in the office area. It sounds like she helps take care of a lot of people. She said she does projects for Nancy, Johann, Patricia B., Patricia C., Martha, and the business office!

Round Two with Russ and Clay

Its amazing how many books are crammed onto only two floors of the library. Today Russ took me around to tell me about shelving projects and student workers.

I also met again with Clay, this time I got to click the buttons. :)

And we had another pack back meeting. Its getting close!

Circulation Breakdown

Today I worked most of the day with Ava at circulation. I was there about 10 minutes and then she put me to work. It kind of felt good to be in the middle of things again. I also had the chance to see her hire a few people and turn a few people down. Also I spent a couple hours with Clay learning about billing. I never realized it was such a complicated process!

Free Ice Cream Makes Any Day Great

Whew, today was pleasantly less full than yesterday. I was starting to notice that there is no possible way to keep most of the meetings to just one hour. People have so much to say once you get them started. So after tomorrow (which will be crazy) I've started scheduling coffee breaks and meetings for at least 2 hours or giving myself some bumper time in between meetings. At least most days.

First thing this morning I met with Steven from circulation. I was really surprised how prepared he was. He even had a little sheet with a list of things he wanted to cover. I learned how to place a hold, process the holds, check books in and out, and how to work the Pharos machines.

At 10 I had my regular meeting with Teresa, which is always nice.

Then there was the free ice cream at the Fine Arts Library. Yum!

Then back to circulation to practice what Steven had taught me and to learn about guest cards with Mark.

At 3 I went to my first ZPS meeting where we discussed Mr. Jäger and his company, Absolut. I knew I liked this library.

Then I had my meeting with Martha. We talked about many different things, but mostly our observations as new people to the library. She seemed really interested in having me shadow her, and said that she would see if there were administrative meetings that I could sit in on with her. I don't think Sarah got the chance to do that, so I asked her if she would want to go too and she said she would, so hopefully Martha can sneak us both in.

Beware the Man in the Crannie

Many more meetings today. First with Twila Firmature from EResources. She told me about the development of the electronic resouces team. She said I could come to one of their team meetings and talk with the other people on her team.

Second I met with Mike Kelley from CSWR. I'd never really thought about working in a special research area like the CSWR, but after talking to Mike it sounds so interesting maybe it could be a possibility. The way he explained it was that they house primary documents like manuscripts and photographs that people use to write the books that are found in the other parts of the library. Very interesting.

Next I met with Nancy Dennis. We ate at a Greek restaurant and talked about her many roles in the library and about the library world in general. She asked what was the best surprise and worst surprise about UNM. Interesting question, also posed to the dean at the faculty meeting, that seems incredibly dangerous to answer honestly.

After lunch I met with Bruce Neville from Centennial. He gave me the tour and introduced me to his faculty and staff and told me the CRAZY story about the flood. Many weird conincidences! It seems like it would be a good place to work, I can see why Sarah picked Centennial for some of her reference time.

Finally, I met with Russ, who showed me how to close down the library and "encourage" people to go home. He said that they have found people hiding in the library and Mark said that people have been left inside! It seems like a pretty hard building to clear with all of the nooks and crannies to hide in it would be really easy to be overlooked. Russ also told me about the tables in the Willard Room that used to have sheets of glass on top that would shatter into a million peices if they touched each other! He said they shattered one of the doors one time too.

I also worked a little bit on moving the Pack Back Lit Review files from the PB wiki to the wiki Teresa already has set up.

Day Two

Today was the second day of faculty orientation. The UNM services people gave us a ton of UNM stuff, I picked up an extra bag for Sarah since she didn't get to go last year. Also, I got to meet the new president of the university--he's from Oklahoma too.

Orienting to the Faculty World

I spent today at the faculty orientation meeting. Martha Bedard, the dean of the library, is new too so I spent a little time talking with her over lunch and I got us lost on the way to the library faculty meeting. At the meeting Sarah gave me a wonderful introduction. I'll have to remember to do that for the next resident if I'm here next year.

They're Burning Books in Britain

Today I met with Teresa twice, once for our regular meetings and once with Sarah to talk about the collection management tool, but we also talked about tenure and other career related things.

I also met with Randy from ILL. I didn't realize it was such an expensive program!

Most of the day was spent scheduling more meetings and working on the literature review for the article about the fire. An interesting fact: England is #1 for library arson.

The One Week Milestone!

Well, I survived the first week, and I think in that time I've spent more hours at Higher Grounds than people who work there. Today was pretty busy. I had 5 meetings, all with people who work in areas I'm interested in, so it was hard to keep it to one hour.

First was Christy Crowly, she works with DSPACE and is on the EResources team. I'm not very interested in DSPACE, but it was interesting to talk with Christy about the movement toward digital information and the difficulties with copyright and getting faculty to post their writings in the repository.

Next, I met with Paulita Aguilar. She is the curator for INLP and was one of the first residents. The INLP program sounds like a very special and unique program, and it is obvious that Paulita is very passionate about the work that she does. I asked if there might be a project I could work help with when I get to the project part of the residency, and she said that there was a possiblity for some web based work and maybe some other projects.

Third was the meeting with Fran, who has tons of information to share about working as a library administrator. She mentioned that it might be possible for Sarah and I to join her and Martha on their trip to the capital to talk with the legislators in January. I think that would be a very useful experience. I didn't know that deans did that type of thing, but it makes sense since it is a public institution and that's where the money comes from.

Fourth was the meeting with Patricia Bkrich in development. This is another area that I didn't really know existed in library land. Its amazing how much goes into getting people to give money and the types of factors the fundraisers look at to decide who the best candidates are to target for certain types of projects. Patricia also mentioned that it might be possible for me to work with her on a development project. I think it would be really interesting to see the process from start to finish.

Finally I met with Mark Emmons from instruction. Since instruction is an area I'm interested in as well, I had 90 million questions for Mark and I kept him well past his allotted hour. Luckily, he's pretty nice and didn't seem to mind too much. He told me about instruction both on the overall professional level as well as on the UNM library level. Mark also mentioned the LOEX conference that will be held in Albuquerque in 2009 and said it might be possible for me to help with the planning committeee, which would be awesome!

Maybe I Smell Funny?

I meant to have more meetings scheduled for today, but by the end of the day I only had two.

The first was with Karen Olsen this morning in the CAPS office. It sounds like a really useful program and it is amazing that they can offer all of the services for free! Karen invited me to come back for the student tutor orientation to see how they train the tutors, hopefully I will have time to go.

The second meeting was with Johann van Reenen. It went a lot longer than I expected and I felt a little bad for taking up so much of his time, but I really enjoy talking with Johann.

Also, today Teresa asked me to do a literature review focusing on other libraries that have experienced major disasters like the fire in Zimmerman.

49 Semi Trucks on a Collision Course with the Land of Enchantment

Ok, I'm officially scared. Today was my first meeting with the pack back team and I can't believe how much there is to consider and how much has to work out exactly right to even dream of having everything back in the basement and ready to go by January. Luckily, they have a storage space that can be used to sort the boxes, and a team that has planned and calculated as carefully as possibly. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Also today I had two "coffee breaks", one with Susan Magee and the other with Rita Critchfield. Susan is in charge of web services, an area I'm pretty interested in. Hopefully I'll get to work on a project in that department.

Rita Critchfield is the head of human resources and it was so interesting to talk with her. I'd never thought about how much goes in an HR department for a library this size, but like she pointed out, when a library is as big as the UNM system it has to operate like a business.

My last meeting of the day was with Sue Awe, the Director of Parish. She gave me the tour and introduced me to her staff and all of the people who were displaced from Zimmerman as a result of the fire. There are people who have been using graduate carrels as offices for over a year! I don't think they can be in their offices AND close the door at the same time. It made me feel kind of guilty when I came back to my office, which by comparison seems amazingly enormous.

And so it begins...

Today Teresa gave me the grand tour of Zimmerman and I had the first of my scheduled meetings.

The meeting with Dena from the Fine Arts Library also included a tour of the library, a discussion about the new building, and an introduction to the staff who managed to make it to Friday. They seem pretty interested in having me spend more time at the Fine Arts Library, since I have experience working in that type of library. Also, Dena mentioned that UNM will be getting ARTstor soon. Woo-hoo!

The second meeting was with Dave from circulation. We talked about which people I should shadow in his department and how long I should spend with each person. I learned a lot about consortia and how that works and he said he could tell me more about it the next time we meet and that I might be able to come with him to one of the meetings.

Finally, I worked a little on a spreadsheet for Teresa. I'm so not sure if it turned out anything like she needed. Hope so, but it was kind of confusing.

Until next week...

The Keys to the Kingdom

I guess I'm offical. I now have a library faculty badge, LOBO card, and 2 keys that actually open doors. I've started scheduling coffee breaks and meetings to discuss the rotations. I'm still not 100% sure how all this works, but I'm hoping it will make more sense after I talk to some of the branch managers and program directors. Sarah's been a big help and has told me a lot about how she approached the rotations, but she said that she and Evangela did it really differently, so I guess it isn't done the same way everytime.

Also today, I had lunch with Sarah, Kathleen, and Chad at Frontier and had a meeting with Clark to talk about eresources and the library webpage. I met Carl from LIT, who came to add AIM to my computer, but we decided to leave it with GAIM for now. And I saw Dan pick his butt. Very full day!

Breakfast and the Big Black Binder

As far as first days go, today went surprisingly well. There was a welcome breakfast first thing and then two meetings with Teresa to go over the contents of the Resident's Manual. I learned how to use my Groupwise account to schedule a meeting and how to check my phone messages. Teresa gave me an big black binder that contains the Resident Manual and information about the library, faculty, and staff and explained about scheduling sessions with all of the different people in the library. We talked about the pack back. I think my brain may explode.