Was awesome. I had little idea of how dry California actually is, even at the coast. The sequoias were so immense & gorgeous! They don't die of old age but fall over eventually. Kings Canyon is several thousand feet deeper than the Grand Canyon...beautiful rocks & roaring river & Grizzly falls; we enjoyed the attention of the Stellar jays. Point Lobos was fantastic: harbor seals basking on rocks breaking crashing waves, flocks of brown pelicans cruising by, black Cormorants & Oystercatchers on the rocks.... Then the trip from Monterey down to Gorda was hair-raising: the Pacific Coast Highway 1 was closed because of the fires, so we went on a hairpin road following the arroyo between the mountain ranges, at about 15-30 mph the whole way. We saw only a few firefighters' vehicles; there were no sideroads & only 1 turnoff--with a trooper guarding it--right where I was watching not only smoke but also flames from the fires. Of course this was the road Amy wanted to turn on! Eventually we found the Hunter-Liggett army base, went through it to the National Forest road, & began an even more twisty-turny, up & down, 5-10 mph drive. We did see Acorn Woodpeckers, a new species for us. We were exhausted by the time we arrived at the Treetops Resort, the Yurt place, which was great. Round tents with a clear roof to see stars, wood floor, running water; the lodge had great food & clean bathrooms; we heard elephant seals from dusk to dawn, saw a golden eagle, Western Scrub Jay, Spotted Towhee, quail, & turkeys. We visited the Hearst Castle, which has amazing artwork: sculpture from ancient Egypt, banners from the Palio in Sienna, Italy, wood ceilings from medieval Spain, famous tapestries from France, etc. Enjoyed our visit to San Luis Obispo, with the airy public library (our one chance to catch up on email) & the Natural Cafe. Then there was Malibu, with more hair-raising canyon roads & driveways, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and the Getty Museum, where Amy got us a private tour of the largest art history library in the world. There they not only measure the books' size, but also weigh them: shelving goes up to 15' & staff have to know ahead of time if they'll be able to handle the weight when an item is requested; they also use cherry pickers besides the stair-step ladders. They had a whole large room full of files about provenance, and scroll-holders for architectural drawings which are too large for flat files.
My photos are at the Picasa link on the upper left; Amy's are here.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Back from California
New photo album at Picasa with the trip.
American Library Association Annual Conference:
re: chat ref--about 30% of users are in the building but won't leave their computers to come ask questions, so it is reasonable to ask if they're present & if we may come to them.
RUSA Codes--liaising with users--the point was made that librarians from ALL departments teach (yes, including tech services). Based on their survey of all types of libraries across the US, time spent on liaison work ran from 11% to 31% of the workload. Liaisons would like more training; there is not clear standard on what liaison responsibilities should be. Liaisons should meet in small groups to share their current practices, challenges & strategies (e.g., how to establish trust as a new liaison, how to set boundaries). While there is no one way to do liaison work (varies by institution, academic discipline, personality of librarian), it is helpful if groups establish responsibilities & expectations in written form, and share these with each new librarian.
Media Literacy [Copyright & Fair Use]--owners retain the rights to "derivative use" (e.g., thumbnails of websites) but not to "transformative use," which adds value & uses the product for a different purpose than the original (e.g., using an entertainment film snippet in the classroom to increase communication skills & critical thinking by commenting on a social aspect of the film). Fair use is not supposed to stifle creative uses of that expression.
LITA Top Tech Trends--small literary journals & presses are going open access because it is less costly for them; we need to become better at manipulating data, visualizing it, using it; libraries can provide technology like scanners for circulation, provide in-house podcasting booths, etc.
LITA - Joe Janes--People are "in the library" when they are on our website, asking a chat ref question, renewing a book online, in databases, etc. They are interacting with info provided by the library or with staff. A library is all 5 of: place, stuff, support, interaction, & values. Libraries have to be somewhere (specific physical place) & everywhere. We need to ask: when don't the users want to be "in" the library? What is the library "in"? The user is the library, not the librarians or staff. [My, Kim's question for us: How do we make it easier for users to be the support & interaction & values?]
Monday we trooped to the Orange County Court to get our marriage license, with our conference friend Mara and our friendly Justice of the Peace Ken; had our brief ceremony; & are now legally recognized in CA, a few other states, & a few countries (Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark?).
American Library Association Annual Conference:
re: chat ref--about 30% of users are in the building but won't leave their computers to come ask questions, so it is reasonable to ask if they're present & if we may come to them.
RUSA Codes--liaising with users--the point was made that librarians from ALL departments teach (yes, including tech services). Based on their survey of all types of libraries across the US, time spent on liaison work ran from 11% to 31% of the workload. Liaisons would like more training; there is not clear standard on what liaison responsibilities should be. Liaisons should meet in small groups to share their current practices, challenges & strategies (e.g., how to establish trust as a new liaison, how to set boundaries). While there is no one way to do liaison work (varies by institution, academic discipline, personality of librarian), it is helpful if groups establish responsibilities & expectations in written form, and share these with each new librarian.
Media Literacy [Copyright & Fair Use]--owners retain the rights to "derivative use" (e.g., thumbnails of websites) but not to "transformative use," which adds value & uses the product for a different purpose than the original (e.g., using an entertainment film snippet in the classroom to increase communication skills & critical thinking by commenting on a social aspect of the film). Fair use is not supposed to stifle creative uses of that expression.
LITA Top Tech Trends--small literary journals & presses are going open access because it is less costly for them; we need to become better at manipulating data, visualizing it, using it; libraries can provide technology like scanners for circulation, provide in-house podcasting booths, etc.
LITA - Joe Janes--People are "in the library" when they are on our website, asking a chat ref question, renewing a book online, in databases, etc. They are interacting with info provided by the library or with staff. A library is all 5 of: place, stuff, support, interaction, & values. Libraries have to be somewhere (specific physical place) & everywhere. We need to ask: when don't the users want to be "in" the library? What is the library "in"? The user is the library, not the librarians or staff. [My, Kim's question for us: How do we make it easier for users to be the support & interaction & values?]
Monday we trooped to the Orange County Court to get our marriage license, with our conference friend Mara and our friendly Justice of the Peace Ken; had our brief ceremony; & are now legally recognized in CA, a few other states, & a few countries (Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark?).
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