We’re a month or so away from the end of the Spring semester, but we have some big news, and I just had to share.
First, we’ve decided to transition away from the Dewey Decimal System. Most other universities are using the Library of Congress (LOC) classification system, which uses an alphanumeric code that offers more fine-grained categorization. It’s pretty neat.
However, we’re not going to do anything silly like that. Instead, in order to better aid students, we’ll start shelving according to when each item was published, then organizing by color. We plan to use the classical ROY G. BIV spectrum, bookended by black and white covers. Gray-colored books are a little difficult to place, so we’re discarding those.
The result will be so much simpler than Dewey or LOC that we’re getting rid of all numbers altogether. Instead, when searching in the catalog, you’ll find information like “Recently published in gamboge.” Then all you have to do is go to the last half of the shelves, then move to where red transitions to orange, zero in on the gamboge-colored books, then find the individual title you want!
We think it’ll be a lot easier on the eyes, too. As an added benefit to our students, it’ll also provide an interesting visual representation of publishing trends through the choice of color in book covers, which we’re sure will be extremely useful to our students.
Additionally, we’ve noticed that demand for our public computers is very high, resulting in frustrated students either waiting in line or seeking an open computer elsewhere. We want our students to be happy, so we’ve removed the computers altogether!
Printing costs have skyrocketed -- paper is very expensive -- so we’ve also removed the printers and are offering scrolls made from vellum for student use. Super environmentally-friendly; all you have to do to reuse your scroll is take some sand from our public litter box, scrape the surface of the scroll with it until all the ink is gone, then check out one of our quills and inkpots and start filling the scroll up again!
In order to trim costs, we’ve also started raising calves that will eventually be converted into the vellum we need for our scrolls; this is a huge win for the Library, as the leftover veal will be cooked and sold to our students for further funds! We’ve begun to consult with a local restaurant group on tips for making great burgers, and will be collaborating with campus fraternities to staff the griddles.
Now, because we’ve decided to diversify into livestock, we also foresee the need for pastureland, so have begun consultations with another group for ways we can knock down the Library and replace it with some lovely grass! It’s already paying off, as they’ve suggested that over the summer, we take the remaining books, compost them, and use them to fertilize the new pasture. Because the books will be organized by color, the pasture will be a lovely rainbow of hues. Now that’s aesthetic sustainability!
Unfortunately, since librarians do not very often make good cowboys, all Library staff has been scheduled for retraining over the summer. We’ll be spending two months at a ranch in Colorado learning how to rope steers. Additionally, in order to beef up our leadership in this new era of librarianship, we’ll be getting a new administrator to oversee the Library. Over Labor Day weekend, you can expect a blog post from Chet “Desperado” Carney, Gallaudet University’s newest Chief Cattle-Herdin’ Officer, on further exciting new developments!
Since we have removed all computers and the electricity will be shut off, Dr. Carney will be painting his news on a large piece of cardboard; he, and the board, will be found in his new office on the Green. Just keep an eye out for the lawn chair and fella in the cowboy hat!
An actual update will be forthcoming later this week.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Vlog review: The Host by Stephenie Meyer
This blog is back! You can see it's been a while ... things have been busy! Luckily, other staff here at Gallaudet University have volunteered to help out with vlogs! Our first review comes from Sheri Youens-Un, an e-Learning Specialist with Gallaudet Technology Services.
The Host by Stephenie Meyer.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
New movies and books
As of October 1st, the 2012 fiscal year is over.
Why mention that? Because it means that new orders are essentially on pause for a short time -- except for urgent items for faculty -- until we shake out what our plans are for 2013. I thought I’d offer a bit of an update.
All told, we ordered over 1,600 books, e-books, and films. It’s a respectable addition to the collection, I think! So I thought I’d quickly review some of the highlights of our recent film and book purchases. I’m focusing on my own purchases for this one; it’s just easier that way. I’ll do some legwork for the next one.
All Joss Whedon, all the time
Admittedly, I’m a big fan of Joss Whedon on general principle (even that one film with Sigourney Weaver) -- Buffy and Firefly are two of my top ten favorite shows of all time, while Dollhouse continues to intrigue, years after its cancellation. He’s moved back into movies, and I have to say you don’t need to be a fan of the man to know what he’s been doing. We just bought Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers (which is being processed as we speak).
Cabin in the Woods is pretty interesting! It starts off as a stereotypical coed horror flick, with a bunch of unrealistically attractive college students (and the requisite stoner in tow) heading off to … you guessed it, a cabin in the woods. But the story takes a strange turn early on, and just keeps getting stranger. Summing it up requires that you look at the old complaints about ridiculously-premised horror films in new ways; what if it’s all deliberate for reasons other than Hollywood’s love of proven tropes? It’s both an homage to, and a tweak on, the horror-movie formula, with an ending that breaks the mold in its boldness.
The Avengers, of course, is widely considered the best comic-book film of the year, if not the last few years, and a big part of that is the way Whedon wrote it. Suffice it to say that there’s a lot of his trademark wit and unusual turns of phrases in the script, plus the fight scenes are brilliantly-choreographed. The actors are terrific, too -- Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner still makes me uneasy whenever I think of him, while I get goosebumps when the Hulk emerges.
Lovers, not fighters
We also got The Artist, another award-winner -- and for good reason. People looking for dialogue-heavy films probably should avoid this one. For all but the last five minutes, it’s actually a silent film, the subtitles registering only the type of music being played on the soundtrack. Once in a while you’ll see an intertitle with a summed-up version of the dialogue being mouthed on-screen, but if you’re a good lipreader, you’ll be amused at just how much they vary from what the actors are actually saying. It’s a lovely love story, covering a famous silent-film star at the end of his era and his very slowly-growing romance with an up-and-coming star of the new ‘talkies.’ It’s also worth it for the dog, which is ridiculously cute and extraordinarily well-trained. The entire film is shot in a very appealing black-and-white format that actually makes John Goodman look good.
Last (for this post; we actually purchased 64 films this year) is The Vow. I kept it last because it’s not my kind of film, but I know heartstring-tugging stuff tends to be popular. In this case, it’s the story of Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum (both veterans of Nicholas Sparks flicks) as they rebuild their lives and marriage after a car accident and subsequent coma robs her of her memory. It’s actually based on the true story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter.
Drop everything and read
First, I have to admit to being intrigued by Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim books, and it appears I’m not alone. We got the most recent installments -- Aloha from Hell and Devil Said Bang -- and they continue in much the same vein as the first two in the series. James Stark, our resurrected antihero, exists in a Los Angeles where the supernatural abounds and the world is constantly under threat from a race of creatures that favor total destruction of both good and evil. Sort of like the Constantine comic books, except the protagonist of this series doesn’t bother with pretending to help people.
Then there’s Crackpot Palace, a collection of surreal short stories that explore a few different classical tropes ranging from army-as-well-oiled-machine to Dr. Moreau’s Island and the real story of what happened there. It’s hard to describe the way it’s written; the best I can think of is a combination of Harper Lee and Stephen King, with a little of Flannery O’Connor’s highly-calibrated sense of irony.
The fourth and last title I’d like to highlight is The Medieval Python. It’s a collection of essays about the work of Terry Jones, a member of the British comedy troupe Monty Python; it turns out he’s actually been a prolific historian and critic of medieval literature, especially the work of Geoffrey Chaucer and his contemporaries. Jones turned 70 this year, so a bunch of historians and literary critics wrote up essays about the work he’s done and presented the published version to him as sort of a birthday present. A comedian gets a history book as a birthday present; sounds like a joke, right?
I could go on (really, I could; see me in the Library if you don’t think this post was sufficient), but space and time are immutable constraints. Suffice it to say that we’ve all been making interesting -- and useful -- additions to the collection over the past year!
Next week, you can expect a vlog. See you then.
Why mention that? Because it means that new orders are essentially on pause for a short time -- except for urgent items for faculty -- until we shake out what our plans are for 2013. I thought I’d offer a bit of an update.
All told, we ordered over 1,600 books, e-books, and films. It’s a respectable addition to the collection, I think! So I thought I’d quickly review some of the highlights of our recent film and book purchases. I’m focusing on my own purchases for this one; it’s just easier that way. I’ll do some legwork for the next one.
All Joss Whedon, all the time
Admittedly, I’m a big fan of Joss Whedon on general principle (even that one film with Sigourney Weaver) -- Buffy and Firefly are two of my top ten favorite shows of all time, while Dollhouse continues to intrigue, years after its cancellation. He’s moved back into movies, and I have to say you don’t need to be a fan of the man to know what he’s been doing. We just bought Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers (which is being processed as we speak).
Cabin in the Woods is pretty interesting! It starts off as a stereotypical coed horror flick, with a bunch of unrealistically attractive college students (and the requisite stoner in tow) heading off to … you guessed it, a cabin in the woods. But the story takes a strange turn early on, and just keeps getting stranger. Summing it up requires that you look at the old complaints about ridiculously-premised horror films in new ways; what if it’s all deliberate for reasons other than Hollywood’s love of proven tropes? It’s both an homage to, and a tweak on, the horror-movie formula, with an ending that breaks the mold in its boldness.
The Avengers, of course, is widely considered the best comic-book film of the year, if not the last few years, and a big part of that is the way Whedon wrote it. Suffice it to say that there’s a lot of his trademark wit and unusual turns of phrases in the script, plus the fight scenes are brilliantly-choreographed. The actors are terrific, too -- Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner still makes me uneasy whenever I think of him, while I get goosebumps when the Hulk emerges.
Lovers, not fighters
We also got The Artist, another award-winner -- and for good reason. People looking for dialogue-heavy films probably should avoid this one. For all but the last five minutes, it’s actually a silent film, the subtitles registering only the type of music being played on the soundtrack. Once in a while you’ll see an intertitle with a summed-up version of the dialogue being mouthed on-screen, but if you’re a good lipreader, you’ll be amused at just how much they vary from what the actors are actually saying. It’s a lovely love story, covering a famous silent-film star at the end of his era and his very slowly-growing romance with an up-and-coming star of the new ‘talkies.’ It’s also worth it for the dog, which is ridiculously cute and extraordinarily well-trained. The entire film is shot in a very appealing black-and-white format that actually makes John Goodman look good.
Last (for this post; we actually purchased 64 films this year) is The Vow. I kept it last because it’s not my kind of film, but I know heartstring-tugging stuff tends to be popular. In this case, it’s the story of Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum (both veterans of Nicholas Sparks flicks) as they rebuild their lives and marriage after a car accident and subsequent coma robs her of her memory. It’s actually based on the true story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter.
Drop everything and read
First, I have to admit to being intrigued by Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim books, and it appears I’m not alone. We got the most recent installments -- Aloha from Hell and Devil Said Bang -- and they continue in much the same vein as the first two in the series. James Stark, our resurrected antihero, exists in a Los Angeles where the supernatural abounds and the world is constantly under threat from a race of creatures that favor total destruction of both good and evil. Sort of like the Constantine comic books, except the protagonist of this series doesn’t bother with pretending to help people.
Then there’s Crackpot Palace, a collection of surreal short stories that explore a few different classical tropes ranging from army-as-well-oiled-machine to Dr. Moreau’s Island and the real story of what happened there. It’s hard to describe the way it’s written; the best I can think of is a combination of Harper Lee and Stephen King, with a little of Flannery O’Connor’s highly-calibrated sense of irony.
The fourth and last title I’d like to highlight is The Medieval Python. It’s a collection of essays about the work of Terry Jones, a member of the British comedy troupe Monty Python; it turns out he’s actually been a prolific historian and critic of medieval literature, especially the work of Geoffrey Chaucer and his contemporaries. Jones turned 70 this year, so a bunch of historians and literary critics wrote up essays about the work he’s done and presented the published version to him as sort of a birthday present. A comedian gets a history book as a birthday present; sounds like a joke, right?
I could go on (really, I could; see me in the Library if you don’t think this post was sufficient), but space and time are immutable constraints. Suffice it to say that we’ve all been making interesting -- and useful -- additions to the collection over the past year!
Next week, you can expect a vlog. See you then.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Graphic novel doubleheader
Daytripper by Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá
The life and times of Martha Washington in the twenty-first century by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons
The life and times of Martha Washington in the twenty-first century by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Post-summer wrap-up
We’re well into the third week of the semester, and everyone seems pretty well-situated.
Fortunately, so are we. The long work of the summer is over, and we get to shift our focus to more immediately-pressing matters, which usually involves offering in-depth research help to students, posting electronic readings on Blackboard for faculty, wrapping up the last of our orders for this fiscal year, giving presentations to classes, breaking in new student assistants, and generally just keeping things in good working order.
A few weeks ago, we bought two whiteboards on wheels and parked them around the Library; a big one (known as Whitey) went by the Deaf School Yearbooks, and a smaller one (Whitey, Jr., natch) went to the basement, just under the main stairs. We know groups like to work on our study tables and sometimes struggle to find ways to work together without having to tape a bunch of paper up on one of our walls.
So far, we’ve seen people using them fairly well, in addition to some humor. The sign we put up on Whitey, Jr. to encourage people to use the board resulted in an unidentified someone writing a note to poor little Junior, breaking up with the smaller whiteboard in favor of the larger one. He rebounded fairly well, though, so we have every confidence in his ability to pull through!
We also ordered a pretty cool table that’s basically a circular horizontal whiteboard that you can write on. It should arrive sometime in the next few weeks. If anyone has any suggestions for the best place to put it, we’re all eyes! Right now, we’re thinking the seating area with all the couches next to the stairs on the first floor by the Service Desk.
We’ve also finally installed a bunch of Macs in the first-floor public computer area after years of requests. The last straw was a survey we gave out around a year and a half ago, with plenty of demands for Macs. This year, most of our public computers were up for replacement, so we opted to make the switch, reasoning that since they can run either OS X or Windows 7, it wouldn’t be too much of a burden on anyone who has a preference. I have to admit they’re pretty good for making vlogs!
As I said earlier, summer is fairly disruptive to our routines -- fewer classes and students, but more logistical work behind the scenes -- and it’s pretty nice to see everyone coming back and get into the swing of what’s shaping up to be a terrific fall semester!
Later this week, I plan to post another vlog reviewing a pair of graphic novels that aren’t related but ended up complementing each other in very interesting ways when I read them. It should be fun. See you then!
Fortunately, so are we. The long work of the summer is over, and we get to shift our focus to more immediately-pressing matters, which usually involves offering in-depth research help to students, posting electronic readings on Blackboard for faculty, wrapping up the last of our orders for this fiscal year, giving presentations to classes, breaking in new student assistants, and generally just keeping things in good working order.
A few weeks ago, we bought two whiteboards on wheels and parked them around the Library; a big one (known as Whitey) went by the Deaf School Yearbooks, and a smaller one (Whitey, Jr., natch) went to the basement, just under the main stairs. We know groups like to work on our study tables and sometimes struggle to find ways to work together without having to tape a bunch of paper up on one of our walls.
So far, we’ve seen people using them fairly well, in addition to some humor. The sign we put up on Whitey, Jr. to encourage people to use the board resulted in an unidentified someone writing a note to poor little Junior, breaking up with the smaller whiteboard in favor of the larger one. He rebounded fairly well, though, so we have every confidence in his ability to pull through!
We also ordered a pretty cool table that’s basically a circular horizontal whiteboard that you can write on. It should arrive sometime in the next few weeks. If anyone has any suggestions for the best place to put it, we’re all eyes! Right now, we’re thinking the seating area with all the couches next to the stairs on the first floor by the Service Desk.
We’ve also finally installed a bunch of Macs in the first-floor public computer area after years of requests. The last straw was a survey we gave out around a year and a half ago, with plenty of demands for Macs. This year, most of our public computers were up for replacement, so we opted to make the switch, reasoning that since they can run either OS X or Windows 7, it wouldn’t be too much of a burden on anyone who has a preference. I have to admit they’re pretty good for making vlogs!
As I said earlier, summer is fairly disruptive to our routines -- fewer classes and students, but more logistical work behind the scenes -- and it’s pretty nice to see everyone coming back and get into the swing of what’s shaping up to be a terrific fall semester!
Later this week, I plan to post another vlog reviewing a pair of graphic novels that aren’t related but ended up complementing each other in very interesting ways when I read them. It should be fun. See you then!
Friday, September 7, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Quick update!
Two weeks later, we’re back!
If you’re a regular reader, I’m going to go ahead and assume that you may also be a regular user of our Web site. The new version has been up and running for a couple of weeks now (and no, the timing is purely coincidental). We figured right now was a good time to put up a survey -- just three questions and a comment area -- and get people’s thoughts.
We got one comment on the site within an hour of it going live, an IM asking in a rather shocked manner what had happened to our site and that “it’s so … boring.”
I was lucky enough to get that chat -- I’m being sincere; I was pretty amused -- but unfortunately, my identity as the anonymous librarian chatter was sniffed out, so our one bored user remains nameless, perhaps permanently. Still, in case he or she isn’t alone, I’m going to admit something that might shock, surprise, disgust, or even appall some readers.
Are you ready? Here it is: The Gallaudet University Library is not a sexy place.
We have sexy things, certainly, once you figure out where to look -- and if you don’t, one of us will be happy to help you find them.
But we’re a library. With stuff that people use. And there’s a lot of it. Most of it sprawls across the Internet, and a lot of it only works if you go through us. We want to make getting to information as easy on our students, staff, and faculty as possible, which is not really served by whiz-bang graphics or walls of text.
I’m inclined to think that we’re getting closer to pulling it off with each new iteration of the Library’s Web site -- this will be the fourth version I’ve seen -- but as a librarian, I’m not the best judge of that.
In case you’re curious, the Wayback Machine has archived the Library’s Web site all the way back to 2000! If you’re looking for nostalgia, a good laugh, or some satisfaction of your curiosity about how far we -- and the Internet -- have managed to come in the past 12 years, I highly recommend it.
In other news, Lee Murphy, our Circulation Specialist, has retired, after just about 35 years of service. She’s seen the Library, Gallaudet University, and Washington, DC, grow and transform beyond all recognition. We’re sorry to see her go, but wish her well!
August still isn’t over, the Fall semester still hasn’t begun, and we’ve still got some changes coming in the next few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled!
If you’re a regular reader, I’m going to go ahead and assume that you may also be a regular user of our Web site. The new version has been up and running for a couple of weeks now (and no, the timing is purely coincidental). We figured right now was a good time to put up a survey -- just three questions and a comment area -- and get people’s thoughts.
We got one comment on the site within an hour of it going live, an IM asking in a rather shocked manner what had happened to our site and that “it’s so … boring.”
I was lucky enough to get that chat -- I’m being sincere; I was pretty amused -- but unfortunately, my identity as the anonymous librarian chatter was sniffed out, so our one bored user remains nameless, perhaps permanently. Still, in case he or she isn’t alone, I’m going to admit something that might shock, surprise, disgust, or even appall some readers.
Are you ready? Here it is: The Gallaudet University Library is not a sexy place.
We have sexy things, certainly, once you figure out where to look -- and if you don’t, one of us will be happy to help you find them.
But we’re a library. With stuff that people use. And there’s a lot of it. Most of it sprawls across the Internet, and a lot of it only works if you go through us. We want to make getting to information as easy on our students, staff, and faculty as possible, which is not really served by whiz-bang graphics or walls of text.
I’m inclined to think that we’re getting closer to pulling it off with each new iteration of the Library’s Web site -- this will be the fourth version I’ve seen -- but as a librarian, I’m not the best judge of that.
In case you’re curious, the Wayback Machine has archived the Library’s Web site all the way back to 2000! If you’re looking for nostalgia, a good laugh, or some satisfaction of your curiosity about how far we -- and the Internet -- have managed to come in the past 12 years, I highly recommend it.
In other news, Lee Murphy, our Circulation Specialist, has retired, after just about 35 years of service. She’s seen the Library, Gallaudet University, and Washington, DC, grow and transform beyond all recognition. We’re sorry to see her go, but wish her well!
August still isn’t over, the Fall semester still hasn’t begun, and we’ve still got some changes coming in the next few weeks. Keep your eyes peeled!
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