General sense of excitement and buzz about the place as final arrangements are made for the opening. A plinth and plaque are in place for the speeches and unveiling. Potted plants all over the place. Coat racks, refreshement tables and welcome desks all in place. Lots more. I understand the orange pails collecting rainwater in a couple of places have been removed. Let's hope it doesn't pour.

Meanwhile, more as a distraction than anything I decided to learn the titles and artists of all six pieces of artwork we have hanging on the walls. Valued at maybe $200,000 I understand - though I probably won't be mentioning that on any student tours I do. (At least now I can tell you that the 45 star flag (a John Bratby work) was used from 1896 when Utah joined the Union to 1908 when Oklahoma joined up.)

Spent most of the day finalizing my grand scheme to have (up to) 100 guests setting off on 8 tours simultaneously around the building. I think it's going to work - very much inspired by the original round-robin tours from TheOldPlace. It's just a question of having 8 different starting places and at least 8 'stops' we can all move round in a grand swirling dance. Some have likenened it to a military operation and been very impressed with the colorfully marked floorplans I've knocked out together with individualized tour scripts. But it doesn't feel that clever, just a question of rather retentive attention to holding 80 locations and movements in your head.

And there's plenty of potential for it all to go horribly wrong!

And starting today, the last of our assistants. The three new posts supporting the six faculty librarians are now all in place. This one is the nice lady from Missouri I showed round a while back as she'd applied to be assistant to SN & I. Glad she got the final job. Of course, ironically she would have been (half) my assisstant had I got H's job as I initially went for.

All very confusing.

Away Day on Friday seemed to go well.

Wasn't exactly far 'away' but it was a nice enough venue and at least away from the library. Tucked up in a conference style room for pretty much all day - I think I might have suggested a bit more of break or change of scene at some point than merely lunch in what was a glorified corridor. But it was a good day nonetheless and seemed to be quite productive in terms of thinking about the future and what we might do, where we might go.

That is, assuming that anything comes of it. Past experience has taught to be a little cynical of such efforts (I wonder how much that is former colleagues rubbing off on me!), but I'm still optimistic enough to have the impression that 'things' will come of the day.

We brainstormed, we catagorized our brainstorming efforts (only librarians, huh?!), we wrote on flip charts, I even got to play with my colored pencils and marker pens. (The random words I'd specially been asked to bring weren't, in the end, required). My Belbin plantiness didn't seem to wind too many people up and of course with a couple of us 'new' we were allowed to think unthinkable things, ask questions that others might not think of, and generally suggest things that might otherwise have been left unsaid. I wish there were some way of bottling it but I've no doubt once in my rut after a few years I'll have to join the other side of the table as it were.

Still, off for drinks afterwards for a couple of hours everyone came and was very chatty, so even that seemed a positive experience. I'll have to report back when/if 'things' do come of the day.

One of those days where things seem to pile up faster than you can clear them which I always hate. Particularly when you've specially set out to clear things! (Maybe that's the trouble.)

Some of the end of the day preparing for a team 'Away Day' tomorrow. Not that we're going very far - just to the navy dockyard and a rather plush suite that the University will no longer be using after us - we're the last! But we'll be considering the library and the future which should (I hope) be interesting.

But now I'm off to my ex-boss's farewell meal back up in the vicinity of TheOldPlace. It'll be good to see him (and others) at least one last time and it will give me a sense of closure as he didn't happen to be there when I left.

Just had official notification from my boss - who at least came to tell me herself - that she'd spoken to the 'equal ops' person - who helpfully has a unisex name so that you have equal opportunities to try and recall if a woman or man is being referred to - who says that the playing card idea is likely to cause offence to some religions.

Presumably there's a strong contingent of southern Baptists here looking to cause trouble. [Sorry, sarcasm isn't becoming.]

It's disappointing I guess but leaves room to wonder if there's not some other 'cardish' way of doing the same thing. Postcards with photos on one side? Or might that offend some sizeists who want something they can put in a purse? [Must stop that now.]

Yes, I think I'm disappointed.

Scarily empty diary this week - no bad thing in itself given I feel I have so much to catch up on, but I can't help worrying about whether I should somehow have more.

Currently the only entries are for a bit of management training on Wednesday, an evening event with my former bosses' leaving meal, and an 'Away Day' with the team on Friday.

Now even the first of those has disappeared. Thanks to acute staffing difficulties given our porter/security mail people have (one guy nearly dying of a heart attack in the ambulance taking him to hospital on Friday), I've been volunteered to help on a drive to collect a donation from somewhere a couple of hours away. Will probably take all day, but could be an interesting outing to the home of someone variously described as 'weird' or worse. Only 700 books or so to shift. The management thing will have to wait till the next repeat.

Bit of a social day today what with taking coffee with H in the new extension's cafe, and then lunch with sister in a bar that apparently is the center of the gay scene come evening time.

Meanwhile, our smaller team meeting this afternoon. And having stood around in the foyer for some time during the week waiting to (not) give a tour, it had been impossible not to have a bright idea about something that might work after the tours have finished.

How about playing cards, say four aces and a joker, in five different places around the library (say, the issue desk, enquiry desk and each of the subject enquiry desks) with the basic info from the tour? They'd hardly be collectable but they would perhaps get students to look for the 'set' and contain the most vital [1] of the information they might want.

(It might even be possible to extend the range with Kings and Queens containing the Faculty Librarians - no comments about SN or I being queens though!)

(Another late thought was to put the relevant Dewey numbers (or subject areas) for each floor on the back which would be really useful given our catalog's lack of floor locations.)

With a new assistant though I had a chance not just to present the idea but to actually produce some mocked up versions. D knocked up something like what I'd imagined in Word, I got them laminted and then cut them up. Very nice too. They even seemed to go down well enough in the meeting (though not everyone was there!), but what the Head will make of them I don't know. The only reservation seemed to center around whether playing cards would be likely to offend anyone. Sigh.


[1] Although one of the things I really took away from the conference was to do with the fact it was university academics rather than a library thing. The wider vantage point did remind me that the however 'creative' I might like to think I'm being, it really feels like very small beer compared to some!

Day off today.

And with a supplement in the newspaper today covering 'creativity', it seems as good a moment as any to mention the conference on creativity that I attended last week.

Went with a former colleague as we were 'tabling' a paper. Not quite presenting but a step down - we were under instructions to lead a 40 minute discussion (and yes, a table would be present). We were a little taken aback whilst there to discover that most of the tabled paper sessions were a little more formal and that people did present their material briefly as not everyone attending the session could be guaranteed to have read it. Still, I had nothing better to do at 4.30am when I couldn't sleep, than prepare a mindmap which would aid in 'presenting' it informally. Lesson #1 be ready to present your work even if you've not been asked to.

We were also a bit taken aback to discover almost accidentally just minutes before we left that our work had been amongst those selected when so many hadn't. No case of them taking "just any old thing" then. As we didn't have formal research or quantitative results or anything to show, we just 'enthused' about some of the process of creativity in our jobs and lives (the crossover between the two, how fun it all was and yet how it contributed to 'academic' work we'd produced), it seemed almost fraudulent. As though the emperor would be found to have no clothes. But strangely we may yet be invited back to present our work (and more?) to library staff at the university hosting the conference.

And we were more than taken aback by the formal, academic nature of the conference. I don't know, I think somehow we'd imagined that there would be a little more, urh, creativity in the presentations rather than reports of creativity that had happened. Which is why we were even more determined to get colored pencils out, do something, or even show the marvellous clip from the movie Apollo 13 (which we happened to have on us) where the ground team are expected to work out a way of fitting one kind of CO2 scrubber into another to save the astronauts.

But all that's not to say it wasn't an excellent conference from organization to content and from social aspects to food and more. One of the highlights was Bob Sternberg from Tufts (fomerly of Yale) giving a top notch keynote address. (One of the low lights was the embarrassingly poor introduction he had). The program was dense with little time to breathe but it would have been impossible to come back without all sorts of information, inspiration and ideas.

I don't think it's an annual event; but what a shame!

Never really got my glass of wine last night - every time I got started I'd take a tour off and despite leaving my drink with the library secretary to guard would get back to find they'd forgotten it and it was gone.

Managed somewhat more tonight so excush the shpelling...

All seemed to go well for a second night of 'reception'. Quite a few folk from a learning and teaching meeting I'd been at in the afternoon and 'advertised' the reception to. (Apparently more than one person I've spoken to deletes 'all staff' emails such as the one inviting them to the event, completely unread).

So I got bonus points from my boss and the library head both of whom were there meeting and greeting as well.

One of the chaplains came on the one tour I led so I have a feeling I may have booked myself an engagement somewhere along the line to talk about past experiences, one senior woman was so enthusiastic she even dragged along her husband, and another couple of ladies made a particular point of thanking me for the tour. So it would seem I can do something usefully.

Unfortunately, of course, this is probably a one off series of events and we'll never invite staff to tour the place ever again. But on a brighter note, they were unanimously enthusiastic about the attractiveness of the new space.

Finally got to do a tour tonight. Actually, two.

Students still not interested in taking the ad hoc ones, but this evening (and for the next two evenings) there is a reception for any university staff who want to come along for wine, nibbles and either a look round or a formal tour. Most seem to be opting for the latter, so fellow colleagues and I have been on duty to consume the wine.... sorry, delete that... lead the tours and generally meet and greet.

Goes on a bit late - well, 7pm isn't that late but my buses home are a bit miserable (leave at 6:15 or don't bother till 7:20) - but it's quite a fun thing to do and although I might have been a bit bored of the tour at TheOldPlace, it's good to have a challenge again and feel it's all fresh (including the jokes).

I could even answer the questions I was asked excepting one specialized one from some of my civil engineers (do you get uncivil ones?) I was showing around who wanted to know about the plant room of the new extension, and one woman who wanted to know if were planning any space specifically for post-grads (no).

Photoshoot this afternoon for individual and a team picture of all the faculty librarians, assistants and our boss.

Surprisingly painless ordeal with everyone involved and the uni photographer making short work of taking some excellent photos. A much more streamlined (and professional) [1] process than TheOldPlace!

[1] I can say that as it was often me taking the photos!

First of our floor team meetings this morning. Aiming to have them once a fortnight. Just a short thing to keep us two Faculty Librarians, our assistant, the floor manager and his assistant up to speed on what we're all doing. We can just about all cram into the little goldfish bowl I share with the latter two bodies.

I'm not quite sure we knew what to say to each other, but there were some useful points covered and I suspect they'll come into their own when we're more used to them (and each other).

So that makes one floor team meeting fortnightly, one faculty librarian (and boss) team meeting fortnightly, and one faculty/floor team (and odd others) megameeting fortnightly. I think I'm keeping them all straight. Just as long as I know what I'm expected to say where. (Though I suspect my Douglas Adams quote in the last big meeting might have been the straw that broke the head's back when he muttered "I'm just going to my quiet place...")

The practical upshot of this morning's meeting is that I've managed to give a job to D, our new assistant that the other faculty librarian had previously given to the floor manager's assistant. I could see the latter's worries over job demarcation rearing its ugly head but I'm sure things will settle down as we get used to each other... It's certainly an interesting process.

On the rota to deliver my first formal tour today.

But take up of these ad hoc 'on the half hour' things has been almost non-existent by students. So I wasn't surprised to have no takers. Despite spending quarter of an hour in the new foyer accosting students. "Been here two years..." was one comment evidently blind to the several hundreds of additional square metres she'd been given and which another student described to me as like being in an MC Esher picture. "I go in one door and come out in another place entirely. I'm here one moment and there the next." A bit like my life at the moment.

Still, determined to learn the route and the content of the tour I took myself round it twice which should stand me in good stead for the staff reception's on three nights next week. At least you get a better class of audience on your own. But no very challenging questions.

And with a stroke I'm now at the back of the library.

With the new entrance, urh, opening at last (or rather opening last Monday while I was at a conference) my office moves from near the temporary front doors to pretty much as far from the main entrance as possible. Obviously that directly affects 'traffic' and reduces the number of non-subject specific enquiries, but the main thoroughfare to the staff side lounge/toilets/support services is still right there, so I won't feel too bereft of people passing.

Meanwhile, not needing the space for the temporary loans counter etc means that journal display shelving can return to its former place. Limits my view somewhat - but only of a 1970s concrete stairwell so there's no great loss. I think I'd rather have new journals sitting there looking (as much as engineering titles are likely to) colorful.

Group of us trawled around this afternoon doing a 'practice tour' and working out where we walk, what we say (and what we don't say).

Nothing like as slick as TheOldPlace with its 6 stops and a coherent plan of what to say. Now we have a sheet of paper with a route and things to point out all along it. No wonder it took us an hour! It's not helped by not everything being quite in place yet (some work moving photocopiers for example will go on over the weekend) and it will probably be a couple of weeks before everything is finally fixed and signage completed, but Monday at 11 should see the first tour starting out (assuming there are any takers).

I've signed up in some of the slots to lead the things but I can't help wondering how much I might find it easier to pick out half a dozen 'stops' and work out something along the lines of what I've been used to! (And then if I do that, would anyone be amenable to following suit?) The biggest problem is that the guy who's organizing the tours and everything to do with them is Mr Negativity himself and more than a little opposed to things that almost everyone else seems to want to see implemented. So I shall be wary.

But the anticipation of the front doors finally opening almost makes me regret I'll be away at a conference from Monday to Wednesday of next week. Still, consolation arrived this afternoon in the form of official notification of the $400 we're each being given as a 'major recognition award' it's being called.

Ok, ok, so I got it wrong.

There will be computers on this side of the "street" I believe it's being called the long glass walled 'corridor' that splits the library extension from the computer suite (and some extra teaching space). Both library catalogues and what are advertised as "database" machines but can actually access the internet and university network etc as well.

I've heard two different numbers: 12 and 60. Or perhaps I misheard the latter for 16.

Anyway, that does seem to me to be good news.

Computers beginning to arrive today to get the new 200 seat computer suite ready for the student hordes next Monday.

But although it's going to be in the new extension, they've designed it so that it's not technically part of the library. All to do with the possibility of 24 hour opening for the computer center when the library is closed.

It's going to be interesting to see how much trouble it causes for the library to have no actual student PCs beyond the catalog machines, and for students who just want to use something quickly for reference to have to formally borrow it.

I can't believe we won't eventually end up with a least a few computers in here, but it's not part of the current plan.

New year, old worries!

Still, my new assistant (that I share with my senior colleague) started today. Both of us were at work bright and early while senior colleague made his leisurely arrival somewhat later. As he is responsible for T's induction programme, I took her on a tour of the new extension which has been opened of course since her job interview. Would have possibly gone a little better if we hadn't immediately bumped into one of the library services assistants (who do the mail and the locking up etc) who took great delight in pointing out to us some of the little snags that any new building is prone to.

T, however, seems very capable and I gave her a couple of things to be going on with. One of the floor manager's worries is that there won't be enough for her to do (his other worry is that she'll be taking work away from what the 'floor team' do) and while there may be a settling in period where we sort out who does what, and I'll probably continue to worry about whether I am directing her sufficiently, I'm sure that there is plenty to keep her occupied. It's just a question of working out what in a place where there is much less bibliographic checking and ordering to do; much less shelving and the like to do; less (so it seems at the moment but I may be wrong) enquiry work etc. It's a shame I can't really ask her to 'read' for me! But she does have teaching experience - so there's an avenue to pursue...