Thursday, November 11, 2010

One night in happy valley

The last work-related trip I had scheduled for the year is for the Penn State Commonwealth Campus Libraries fall meeting. We met November 9-10 at the University Park campus, where I worked for about fifteen months.

For many this was their first opportunity to meet our new dean, Barbara Dewey, in person. I had the pleasure of meeting her back in August during my interview. Highlights from the agenda included an update on the Google Books Project a lightning round presentation on Source Evaluation and Citation Feedback, and an update from the Collections Mobility Task Force. For the Source Evaluation and Citation Feedback, Jennifer Gilley (head librarian, New Kensington) evaluated the proposed works cited pages for students in two courses. She provided feedback on the sources selected and the MLA citation style. She's found this process to be useful in understanding how undergraduates in certain courses select their references. She adjusted her approach to providing library instruction for these courses based on the types of sources the students use. I learned a lot from her project. It also reminded me it's important and okay to try new things and take risks.

I was also introduced as the new head librarian at Greater Allegheny. It was really humbling to hear the enthusiastic applause of my colleagues and be congratulated over and over.

Something a little different was the Digital Libraries Technologies and Information Technologies Open House. We were able to tour their space in Paterno Library. They also had party favors, pictured below. As they were handing out the drives, the first thing I thought of was this libraryman photo. It inspired mine.

2GBs

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