Dear Diary, I am working on my Blog for Electronic Resources creating the content and learning a lot about the numerous resources we offer. Additionally, I am glad that I was able to join the WPIT (Web Presence Improvement Team) subgroup "Card Sorting" that I had hoped to work on. I did Usability Testing last week and am excited by the prospect of making our library website better and more user-focused.
I joined the Communication Task Force for my ACRL committee at Midwinter and that involves the website and archives, etc. I am looking forward to that. I am working with my Emerging Leaders team on our Intellectual Freedom project that we will present during a poster session at ALA Annual.
I am working on my Information Literacy: Beyond Google speech for the Trio Day sponsored by Notre Dame's Project Upward Bound next month.
I am working on my Pirate Teacher instruction sessions this week. I added RefWorks to my session and I created a video of the Tutorials highlighting only those sections I wanted to show quickly. Their tutorials move at a painfully slow pace so with my video recording made using the Smart Board, I sped it up.
I also submitted another review to be published. I verified with the publisher that my other 2 are going to be published in the next two months. I only have 2 more scheduled to write.
I am preparing for my Drop-in Sessions (WorldCat, ND Catalog, Online Journal Articles and RefWorks). I am finalizing my RefWorks instruction sessions. I am attending meetings in the mean time. For example today I am attending a meeting on Quick Search and then a meeting discussing Indiana's Light Archives. Tomorrow I have an 8:30 meeting for the Reference Department, and then I'll leave to attend Electronic Resources 10:00 meeting and then I'll get out at 11:30 and attend an 11:30 Midwinter Recap meeting and then it will be afternoon. So I stay plenty busy. It makes me laugh to recall what a patron told me once, "I wish I had your job and got paid to just sit and read all day!" Ha!
I don't get stressed because I amuse myself with toys that people have given me, such as the Librarian Action Figure my friend's mom gave me. Her mom works in the Math Library and is a huge part of the reason I love Notre Dame. My manager has helped me develop selection criteria for my post-Notre Dame career search.
I reflected on the aspects of my Residency that have brought me the most joy. Top on that list is the people! I told my friend that the people I have worked with are all so PRECIOUS! I said it in the voice of Smeagol from Lord of the Rings. The employees at Notre Dame are MY PRECIOUS!
I had to make a very very difficult decision to decline an offer to go to a Campus interview. It sounded like a great position, but it was not keeping with my newly created criteria. I have never been much of a gambler. I am convinced a Bird in the Hand, etc... But my counsel encourages me to be more fastidiously selective. UGH!! But this experience is helping to clearly identify what I want to do long-term. Phew!
