#thing 7

So like…does that make this Thing Six since I finished it first? Or did I finish Thing Seven prior to Thing Six?

Facebook, oh Facebook.  I remember way back, when I was an undergrad, we had Friendster, then Myspace.  Facebook wasn't yet born, and it took me quite a few years to sign up.  When I was in grad school, one of my professors encouraged us all to join.  Little did I know what I was getting into, or what Facebook would quickly become.  It has been a great way to catch up with old friends or connect with new colleagues.  It has also caused some anxiety, especially around national elections.

For this exercise, I "liked" the page called Literary Tattoos.  It was on the very bottom of the list that Monica posted on the Libguide.  It has some great pictures of very interesting tattoos related to books and reading.  I have seen some pretty elaborate library-themed tattoos floating around the interwebs over the years.  I told myself I would get one after I was done with grad school. but I have yet to actually make that happen. 

I also went ahead and liked the Tennessee State Library and Archives page.  It wasn't on the list, but I think it is a pretty neat page.  They features lots of state-related items, old photos and documents and other cool things like that. 

I helped Terri create the library's Facebook page, and I think we still haven't hit our stride with it yet.  I feel like we do a better job sometimes that others, and I think that is okay.  I would like to post to it more than I do, to be honest.  Becca has done a marvelous job promoting our books on Facebook!!!!!

Funny Titles Aren't Taken Seriously Enough I often entertain the thought of losing you, myself,  completely. The scent of this pillow, pungent even in sleep, invades my dreams the thought of losing you and all your remnants between my voluntary solitude and your front door,  but what do I have other than the trivial shit you swear is mine? I've lost all connection with the reasons  I wanted them, it's pointless.

I've gotta stop getting drunk  and calling at four in the morning  for no other reason than to say  that you were wrong all those months and

I'm just back from the first CILIP ARLG conference* and am brimming with enthusiasm and ideas - and happy to have survived my first big library conference and met so many fun and fascinating people. I'll be writing a more detailed report for my generous sponsors, but I wanted to get down my initial impressions before I begin to (over)analyse them.

The conference was entitled "Great Expectations: what do students want and how do we deliver?" and the range of workshops available meant a tough choice for each session. I mostly stuck with workshops in the "student experience" strand, and I've certainly come away with plenty of ideas to take forward in my library. I was fearful that I would be overwhelmed by the scale of the work done elsewhere, but I stuck to my decision to think positively and was able to find something to inspire me in every session I attended. In particular, it was a useful reminder to get out and talk to students and to faculty about what they want from the library and then come back to them with services that have been devised based on their feedback - make consultation meaningful, and not an afterthought. A key point in several of the sessions I attended: sell people the benefits of the service and they will value it - we're in 'sizzle, not sausage' territory here.

Looking at the conference as a whole, another recurring issue was the (contentious) use of the term "customer" or "consumer" for "student" (I will admit that I dislike "user" as a general term - we tend to use "reader", but perhaps we have the gravitas to carry it off...). The notion that the increase in student fees is turning higher education into a straightforward financial transaction between student and institution was debated from the word go. Reassuringly, Paul Abernethy (VP Academic Quality, soon to be President, LiverpoolSU) stated that the students he represents have a strong feeling of *not* being consumers but of having basic expectations that need to be met - we libraries (and universities as a whole) need to get the fundamentals right. This suggestion was a useful counterpoint to the focus on innovation in service - a reminder that we need to start from a firm foundation and then build up our ideas. Liz Jolly's likening of the student/university transaction to a gym membership struck a helpful note - not a cash transaction but more an equation of cash+effort=result. (And there's a technical and motivational expectation on the gym itself, to extend that metaphor.)

So, there was (and is) plenty to think about - in the bigger picture and painted in miniature for my own library. I'll be sure to share some of the local ideas once they're fleshed out from the flashes of inspiration and scrawled notes I've brought back with me from Newcastle. And I'll be sure to try to get along to more ARLG events in future - and would recommend them to anyone working in FE/HE.

I remembered the other thing.

Why are text books so expensive???

Forget tuition.