Okay, All You Documents Geeks...

You know who you are.
And you know you want to subscribe to UNT's RSS Feed of most recently-added CRS Reports!

http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs/rss/

(Thanks, Mark!)

Speaking of Podcasts...

...A week after our meeting to order recording equipment for UNT Libraries podcasts, Daniel Cornwall announces FGI podcasts. Yes, that's right--documents librarians podcasting.

Isn't the world a great place?

Wading Through Wednesday

Thanks for all inquiries--I did arrive home safely last night.

I had a librarian nightmare last night (not metaphorically; it really was a dream). Patrons were rushing the desk, screaming at each other about who got there first and why everyone else's question was stupid. One patron in particular kept talking about how another patron was weird and didn't I think so too, and wasn't his information need ridiculous, and I had to keep patiently explaining to her that I was here to serve everyone, and that no one's need is weighted any differently than any others'.

I think I had this nightmare because during my service desk shift last night, patrons kept asking for pens. Asking in the way that I intuitively knew meant that these pens would not be coming back.

Completely off-topic from patrons... my task on Denton Reads is nearly done! I've got the Children's Festival photos yet to edit/upload, and probably 20-40 other photos to edit/upload, and I also have to archive the existing website. Then I get to update the website with the "events went successfully!" kind of copy and post/link photos. Then I'll be done.

I think.

Great news: we've got RSS for the UNT Library Digital Collections searches (check out the spiffy orange RSS icon at the right)!!! Now, you can save frequent searches and get updates when new items arrive... much like the RSS feeds now available for wishlists in BookMooch (free online book trading service).

Unrelated Banter

• I found a story about how UNT's new President Bataille read "Hoot" to some 6th graders as part of Denton Reads. I'm really hoping that someone photographed the event...
• My talented colleague Kristen pointed out this spiffy (beta) newsletter collection from the Library of Congress: Chronicling America. Thanks!
• FGI has a great page of resources for Spring DLC Denver.

Denton Reads...

I've been so busy with work, the Denton Reads project being just one of my current tasks, that I don't even have time to blog it all here.

Briefly, I've made some updates to the Denton Reads website, and also created a Denton Reads blog. I really love using blogs for things like this--the ability to add multiple authors, categories, widgets, photos, and other fun things just thrills me.

I'm currently working with the other member of the DR Graphics Team to create a poster, book club flyer, bookmarks, and other promotional images for publicity purposes. Next week, I hope to take the photo that will be the main image in the poster, and then I'll probably have to give myself a crash-course in using Adobe Illustrator (oh, mercy).

And the logo has had one more change: the courthouse is larger, and the outline is thicker. This is it. I promise. No, really.

Card-Carrying Member (as soon as it comes in the mail)

I'm now an official member of ALA, LITA, and GODORT--all for the this-time-only reasonable price of $135 (don't you hate to call anything over a hundred bucks "reasonable?"). Next year on this date, my checkbook will weep, I'm sure.

Last year, there was a lot of frustrated talk among NextGens about ALA, some of which has now quieted. But it seems a little hard to be active in the library community without the membership--first of all, I wanted to be in LITA and GODORT, and second, if I'm going to attend a few ALA conferences a year anyway, then I might as well get a slight discount.

Speaking of professional activity...

• Whew! I just submitted a presentation proposal--my second in two weeks. The first one was a lot easier than this one, on which I procrastinated until the deadline loomed, and then just forced myself to write it and send it in. Sometimes I can spend a week crafting and perfecting a proposal, and sometimes I just blurt it all out in desperation. My philosophy is, at the very least if I just finish it and send it in, I've got a chance.
• It's only a week and a half until DLC--I've got to start planning what to pack! (I'm finding it's hard to pack light when you need a laptop, hairdryer, and iron just for starters...)
• I'm pondering harnessing the power of RSS for the CRS archive and the CyberCemetery. The problem, as a colleague quickly pointed out, is that the batch-uploads to CRS (often 100+ at a time) make for a messy feed. So we're thinking about creating a feed for each of the browse terms (which are actually LIV top terms). I think this would be a great way not only to help researchers, but to market our department's digital collections. I'd love to have links to the feeds on the GovDocs homepage... guess I'll add that to my project wishlist.

And now, for something completely different (but, um, still library-related):

• "Show Your Librarian Some Love" -- great article from the Chronicle of Higher Education about teaching faculty and academic librarians.
• Google's buying YouTube! It's the millennial version of AOL/Time-Warner.
• Back to Sophie Brookover's "Priorities and Professionalism" article about finding that balance of career vs. family, I thought I'd link to LIScareer.com's articles on the topic; in particular, I liked this quote from Susanne Markgren's "Librarianship and Parenthood: Confessions of a New Mother:" "...I feel that working and being able to step outside of the mommy role helps me to be a happier and therefore better mother."
• Just to prove that I'm still in tune with my MA, here's a story on Greece still wanting those Elgin marbles from the British Museum. I remember writing a paper on this topic for my MA... seven years ago, and they still haven't given up. Wow, this is what I call hopeful thinking: "Greece hopes the landmark structure, purpose-built to showcase finds from the ancient Acropolis, will eventually host the collection -- even as a permanent loan -- despite repeated refusals from the British government and British Museum officials."
• In more Art History news, the Vatican opened a Roman necropolis.
• The ultimate nerd-job: Blogger for NPR!
• Did you know that ALA is older than the IRS?
• On making up words (a librarian's prerogative, apparently).
• Teaching in Second Life... at Harvard, no less!
• And while we're on the topic, why not attend one of these Grand Opening events at SL's Info Island?
  
• Here are some resources for ePortfolios.
• Google blog search!
• The nitty-gritty of web typography (aka, Something Else to Waste Time Obsessing Over).