Spring Semester, Week 4

Call it academic amnesia, but I always forget how exhausting this part of the semester is until it arrives. The first couple of weeks I'm full of energy and offering out my services like crazy, and then week 4 hits and I remember that there's only one of me. Someday I'll figure out how to balance my library evangelism with a recognition of my own limitations. But right now I'm still trying so desperately to get the students and faculty to actually use the resources that when someone asks me for something it's really hard to say no.

So I'm right in the middle of making the rounds of the art history and communications classes and giving customized presentations on library resources for their first assignments. Most of them are repeats from previous semesters, and at least I'm just doing guest appearances this time and not subbing for the classes like I did in the fall. The one I have tomorrow is new, though, so I have to pull something together between the time I arrive tomorrow and the time class actually begins. I started working on it today, but then I had a literary magazine staff meeting, and then a former coworker/aspiring librarian came in to shadow me for the afternoon, and then the whole day was over before I knew it.

The job shadow thing was fun, but I hope I wasn't too negative. It's hard to stop once I get going about not having a budget or being able to buy useful resources. Someday my big mouth is going to get me in trouble with the powers that be. She asked some good questions and made a few suggestions (she doesn't have the degree, but she's worked in libraries longer than I have) that were right on target but that also made me reflect on my giant to-do list of things I want to attempt or accomplish to improve the library.

I wish there were a few more of me. I'm getting pretty adept at exploiting the functions of the library copy machine to fulfill ridiculous student requests; maybe I can figure out a way to make a few copies of myself.

People in my neighborhood

Encountering kids on my daily walks with the dog always makes me a little nervous. You never know how either one is going to react to the other. We quite possibly have the world's friendliest dog, but he also is prone to overexcited jumping and peeing, despite his embarrassingly adult age.

Today while we were out we heard a man and his daughter speculating on the dog's name from across the street. Next thing I knew they were headed across to meet us and get the scoop. As usual, they had a cousin and uncle with the same name.

The friendly dog's enthusiasm was tempered somewhat by the fact that the daughter was in a stroller (people on wheels make him nervous), so he was less hyper than his usual self, and I was starting to think we'd get away without him laying down on his back to be petted or me slipping and landing on my ass on the ice trying to restrain him from a flying leap into her lap.

"She's not afraid of dogs," the father told me proudly, and encouraged me to bring him closer. The dog took it as a sign to bypass the kid and lean against the dad. Cadaverously thin, he was holding a lit cigarette in one hand. By now I was close enough to smell the alcohol on his breath.

So he helped his (verbal, ambulatory, but still diapered--what age would that be?) daughter down from the stroller. She promptly walked right up to the dog and held up her face to his. I almost fainted. Thankfully, he licked her face, like the good dog that he is. My parents' cocker spaniel would have probably bitten it off.

The father went on to tell me about the family's Jack Russell terrier and how it had taken awhile to warm up to the kid but now is very protective of her. "I didn't want her to grow up afraid of dogs," he said. Then he told her to give the dog a kiss--which she did, full on the face, and we went our separate ways.

It's hard to know what to think. They were well and warmly dressed, with one of those expensive strollers with the bike tires in the back. They seemed to be having a pleasant walk. But I can't help but worry about whether they got home safely across busy streets and without kissing any unfriendly dogs.

Inauguration Day

The meat of the inauguration conveniently coincided with our 11 a.m. campus-wide lunch break, so our co-curricular activities coordinator arranged to have the coverage broadcast on the big screen in our gallery. The library is right across the hall, and when I came in to work (Tuesday is my late day) at 10:55, there was already a good-sized group of students gathered.

I, of course, had to stay in the library during the festivities (someone might steal a textbook if I dare venture past the doorway), so I pulled up a live feed on one of the news websites and huddled by my speakers, just in time for the oath of office. As Obama repeated "So help me God," there was a huge cheer from the gallery. The student at the table next to my desk jumped up, handed back his book and headed for the door, asking, "Is it time for him to speak?"

I watched the inaugural address almost uninterrupted, save for one oblivious student who needed her hand held while she printed. I had tears in my eyes by the end. I don't know if it will go down in history as the best political speech, but it was exactly what I needed to hear.

Later that afternoon one of the sophomores, who usually comes off as sweet but a tad self-absorbed, came in and stopped to chat. She was beaming. "This was the first politician I ever wanted to vote for," she told me. "And the best part is that it was people like me, my age, that elected him. There have been too many old, white men making decisions for us."

I think that conversation, and that cheer from the gallery, made the day for me. I'm excited that my candidate won, but I would have voted anyway. The fact that so many of our sheltered, often unaware suburban students felt that kind of excitement about a political candidate makes me believe that yesterday marked much more than just a changing of the guard.

Gorey-esque grammar

Because our one-size-fits-all general education courses have to cater to the lowest common denominator, the freshman comp teachers are forced to spend about the first four weeks of the semester on grammar. Sad but true. The students hate learning it, and the instructors hate teaching it, so it's a fun way to kick off the semester.

This afternoon one of my coworkers brought in a copy of The Deluxe Transitive Vampire, which our expatriate former coworker recommended. I only got to flip through it, but my impression is that if Edward Gorey wrote and illustrated a grammar textbook, this would be it. One page I randomly turned to had a picture of a rat aiming a pistol and the sentence "The rat shot the pizza chef."

I have to track down a copy at once--possibly for creative writing club, but more likely just for my own nerdy amusement.

On a tangentially related note, I heard on NPR that there's a 2009 version of The Electric Company coming out this month. I don't remember much about that show, but I've been told that I learned to read at a precocious age because of it. I may have to TiVo an episode for old times' sake.

Frostbite of the brain

Thank goodness for Martin Luther King, Jr. In addition to all of his Nobel Peace Prize-winning work for civil rights, I appreciate the fact that I get the day off on Monday because of him. God, I need it.

The brand-new, high-tech print management system in the library (new motto: "yes, now you have to pay to print") is down again. That's twice in less than two weeks. Apparently we got the Bartleby the Scrivener model--most days, it just prefers not to. On the first day of the semester, it was an IP address problem. This week, the "new" (refurbished) computer that runs it overheated and died. Apparently 3 weeks of use was too much for the processor fan.

Add to that the fact that tomorrow the high temperature here is supposed to be -2, and I have to say I'd prefer not to either. But it's a point of pride that our school, conveniently located as it is near all major public transit, never closes. Too bad my house is not similarly conveniently located. Today it was a balmy 2 degrees this morning when I left home and despite three pairs of socks and two pairs of gloves my extremities were freezing by the time I got on the train.

I may need the three-day weekend just to thaw out my brain.

"Book Bailout '09" (copyright pending)

**Update: Our preliminary math was way off. The grand total earned by/for the students was actually $1024.50 . I'm floored!**

Our tiny commuter school doesn't have a campus bookstore (since we barely have a campus). Instead, a faculty member posts assigned textbooks on an online textbook ordering site, and students are expected to order from there. Designed for small schools, and probably small itself, it's not particularly user-friendly, and the books are overpriced and take a long time to arrive. So much so that when I order textbooks for the library, the administration has me order them from Amazon.

Last fall when my fledgling library advisory committee met to discuss strategies for improving the library that did not involve spending money (a caveat from my boss), someone suggested holding a textbook swap for students and charging admission. The students would buy and sell books to each other, and the library would make a small fee. At the time we dismissed it as not a source of significant enough profits (not to mention that I'm not sure I'm even allowed to fundraise). But the humanities department chair and I liked the idea enough to pursue it.

At the end of the fall semester we set up a table in the hall outside the library and offered students a chance to drop off their old textbooks and set a price for each one. If the books sold, the student would get the profits. If not, he or she would have the option of donating the books to the library or taking them home. We weren't sure what to expect, but 35 students showed up with a total of more than 150 books. We were encouraged, but a little nervous that we'd end up having to give them all back.

Today was the textbook sale. We didn't do a gate count, but we were thrilled with the turnout, and we sold about half of the books. This was especially exciting because we didn't limit the dropoffs to currently assigned textbooks, and there were an awful lot that weren't on the syllabi for this semester.

I have to do the accounting tomorrow, but we think we took in almost $700 today. All of that goes to the students, but that's fine with me. In addition to a few outdated textbooks to add to the library collection, we both got a lot of satisfaction out of having pulled this off in the first place, and being reasonably successful. Several students already asked if there would be another event at the end of this semester, and one very enthusiastic student repeated "Do this every semester!" over and over while he was checking out.

After a very rough first day of the semester, it was nice to have a moment of triumph. Once again it was outside of the library, but at least this time we were within shouting distance of the door.

Be it resolved

I've always been very big into New Year's resolutions. (Also Lent resolutions, birthday resolutions...) Making them, that is. Keeping them is a whole different story. In the past I would write them in my journal every Jan. 1 and then periodically revisit them and beat myself up about my shortcomings.

Last year M. Defarge and I did something a little different; we made joint resolutions that applied to both of us and posted them on the fridge. I have to say (no brag, just fact) that I did better than he did on most of them, but on the whole I was really impressed at how well we kept them. Unfortunately we did not do that this year, and now that he's descending into master's project-related panic, I have a feeling this is not the time to be bringing it up. So I'm going to post a few here so that someone is witness. Feel free to ask me for a progress report at any time.

1. Write more--at least 1 blog post per week; possible additional writing with student club
2. Learn to knit
3. Start volunteering regularly (at least once a month) with Chicago Cares or another organization
4. Apply for a grant or submit a work-related article for publication

I think that's probably sufficient; no point in overpromising and underdelivering. This will, however, be in addition to continuing last year's resolutions of going to the gym, not drinking caffeine, not eating lunch out on work days unless someone asks me, and organizing each room in the house (once; that should do it for another year).

Wish me luck!