Well, that's it. Summer's done. The students are back next week.

If I've got it right TheOldPlace is a week ahead of us (or we're a week behind) and have already had their week of lots and lots of tours for new students.

As we're not offering tours this year - well aside from my newly minted audio and virtual tours - but attempting to have serious 'rovering' (enthusiastic members of staff possibly in t-shirts saying 'Ask me' or something), I guess I get to escape the endless round of wondering whether you've said a particular line to the group you're in front of that looks remarkably like the group you've just seen. But I can't say I'm going to grieve over the loss.

Whether I count as 'enthusiastic' for rovering purposes is a good question. I know it's the end of the day at the end of a long week, but I'm feeling very tired and lacklustre.

Still, daughter's birthday to look forward to this weekend with various family and friend events.

International students being welcomed today.

I didn't get to give a presentation as I did last time round - they've changed the format. But I did have to stand at a Library stall with leaflets, candy and a laptop. Generally enthuse about the Library which is easy enough to do. Even if I am vaguely surprised that anyone stops when there are other more interesting stands to see.

But it is the one chance in the year that I get to really go to town with all the fragments of phrases that I know in all sorts of languages. It seems to make the students feel a bit more welcome (and impresses my Library colleagues!). The Finns, for example, are always astonished anyone can say anything in their language, never mind "If you hear the sound of butterflies laughing, you know the taste of clouds."

But ironically my business librarian colleague and I spent most time talking to three young ladies from Minnesota who were enthusiastic about everything - one even wants to come and work in the Library.

As I'm team leader for the ground floor for the next couple of years, one of things I thought might be nice was suggesting lunch for the dozen or so of us at a nearby cafe. Better yet, I could delegate the actual organization of that to the floor manager. We decided to go mad and invite not just the core 6 of us, but also two weekend people and the two or three who support us from technical services. A wider team that almost never meets as a 'team' unless we get together like this.

But there was a slightly bitter taste to my otherwise excellent food when I realized that the list of people in the team was slightly out of date and the floor manager had missed someone out in the invitations. Unforgiveable - and it most certainly should have been me who made sure that list was accurate.

Humble pie for dessert then - though the forgotten colleague was very gracious about it.

Off today to an internal conference - well, 'forum' it's labelled - for heads and course leaders.

Why am I going you ask, as I'm neither? Well, it's actually a bit broader than that and I was invited last year when I didn't have a clue and got a lot out of it, and have been invited again. So I went. In actual fact, it's only a morning as the after lunch events really are just for new course leaders.

But once again, I learned about things going on in the University that I wouldn't have otherwise heard about, I learned about issues of current concern to academics (and others), and I had a couple of opportunities to promote things going on in the Library. (Like the new virtual tour!) Not to mention several chances to meet staff who were new to me and catch up with staff I might not otherwise easily meet.

So very worth while - even I was the only one there from the Library aside from my boss who was doing a presentation.

Bit suprised to discover the Library's virtual tour which I've been working on (and passed to the web guru to put on a server for testing) has gone live!

Hold on!
What about the couple of errors I know need sorting?
What about the tweaking I wanted to do?

The idea was that other Library staff could take a look and comment this week for it going live next week. Ah well, never mind. There's nothing too critical.

But the bigger problem is that the web guru (who is only part time in any case) is now off till next Tuesday! And yes, you've guessed it. No one else has access to the servers.

Getting the audio tour (which is also now finished) posted will have to wait till next week as well.

All a bit disappointing and frustrating. And reminds me that TheOldPlace used to ask us not to take annual leave during freshers' week (next week) or the week before (held for a Library training week).

Sauna and swimming pool look inviting enough (end of the day before dinner, I think) - but yes, this hotel has a network I can connect to as well. (For 10 hours at least.) Definitely a first for me - although it helps that I've brought my laptop along with me as well.

'Retreat' going well - bit of an adventure getting here via public transport but managed to arrive on time. I've been introduced to the idea of World Cafe conversations and far from my fears of what on earth I could contribute in such an atmosphere (I thought) of rarified research and centers of excellence, I find that it's both useful and informative, but that there are also things I can bring to the discussions.

Just had a session on blogs and wikis which was remarkable mostly for the range of skills (from none at all to pretty much experts) and yet still proved to be useful.

Wow! I actually got a fair bit done today. Must be the effects of being so stressed about trying to get everything done that I sat on the bus this morning and made a to do list on my Palm for the first time in ages. It was quite satisfying ticking things off as I went through the day.

It's just a shame that things continued to pile up faster than I could deal with them through the day despite all the activity and achievement. :-(

Never mind, I'm off to a 'retreat' run by one of our centers of excellence tomorrow and Friday. In a very posh hotel I understand in a forest. Must pack my gear for the pool and sauna! Just wish I felt better about whether I should really be attending or not. Don't bank on any posts as I've no idea if there will be 'net access.

Learning to do the cryptic crossword with a couple of like-minded colleagues in lunch and coffee breaks goes on apace. Last couple of weeks we usually get to the end of it by the end of the day. Sometimes just with a couple we can't quite work out. But much improved over a few months ago. None of us can quite do it regularly by ourselves. Just occasionally. So there's still some way to go.

Meanwhile, for those who sometimes ask what librarians actually do (aside from in their breaks) I've been wading through a spreadsheet today listing ebooks. Now this particular list is from a supplier who have had a particular publisher decide that they're going to remove all their books and only place them back with the supplier if we pay for them. Again. (We've already bought them in the job lot we paid for from the supplier.)

Now is it just me or is there something rather shady in being made to pay for something twice like that?

Of course I don't have to buy the books (back). And I won't be buying them all. But I have usage statistics on all the books and while I can ignore the 'dusty ebooks', some of them warrant the cost of making sure they're still available.

One thing that surprised me in the last year is discovering that I now work at the university which has the highest usage figures for ebooks in the country.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

My boss returned from vacation today and her first words (just about) were:
take half a day and go up to the storeroom with your laptop [to finish the article I'm supposed to be writing].

I had thought I might keep the fact that it had been accepted just before I went off for two weeks something of a secret, so I didn't immediately respond that not only was it 'done' (some revisions to make actually) and sent off but I'd had a reply and that it should be appearing at some stage.

So I let her carry on and negotiated up to a whole day and at home rather than upstairs in the garret.

But then my conscious wouldn't allow me to go any further and I had to 'fess up!

Still, my boss was not only amused but very pleased too.

But stupid, stupid, stupid. I don't have time for it - but a day at home is always welcome! (Especially when you've already done the work you're supposed to be doing!)

Put the finishing touches to the virtual tour today and it's now with the web guru. So it will be interesting to see what she does with it. I'm not overly happy with the photos I took - mainly due to a lack of students in them - so I may yet have to go with the more professional ones that are kicking around. But I'd rather use my own if I can.

Meanwhile, for those who asked, my profile page is finally up - it's only taken them a year (!) and there's a photo too FWIW! Can't help feeling it might have been more fun to the Simpsonized version of myself (http://simpsonizeme.com/) which I'm told looks uncannily like me (well, except for the yellow skin).

I guess it had to happen. But so soon?

TheOldPlace had a redesign of the library's website which went live on Monday. Not bad - makes it fit in more with the university as a whole. So in that respect identical to the makeover our site has just had.

But I couldn't help but notice - as I worked on a virtual tour for here - that the tour at TheOldPlace no longer has a link and perhaps sadder, nor does the Alternative Library.

Now it maybe that the links haven't been put on yet, or the pages are being redesigned to fit the 'style' (although what's the point of an alternative library that's not, umm, alternative?), but my guess is that they may have had their day.

So it goes...
I can't help feeling there should have been a ceremony. :-(

Nothing changes.

I found, on the printer, a sheet designed to be put by the power socket of a data-projector. The usual warning about turning the projector off properly so it can cool down rather than switch it off at the wall. Expensive bulbs. TheOldPlace had long since installed such warnings and we've even got one at church (or rather had till recently when the three projectors all went on a proper overhead circuit out of harms reach).

Nor does my propensity to foul up change. I realized today that I'd double booked myself for a day course on Google (to creatively swipe stuff on how to google well for our own course on the subject!) and a residential conference for two days. Neither could be changed. But the day course fortunately will allow a colleague to swap onto it and, as I realized 9 days before the event, wouldn't actually charge if we'd cancelled. (Their fees kick in a 7 days before!)

Too much to do!!!
(Not helped by the fact that I'm off at 4pm today to sort daughter out while wife is on a course)

OK, that's weird.

I can't remember when I last visited the Library Catalog of TheOldPlace - I know I was at the website last week - but I've just popped in to remind myself what Richard Feynman books they hold and it's very different.

I know such things probably wouldn't even be noticed by non-librarians but that I found it so disconcerting was, well, disconcerting.

Sixth and final class of the online course I'm doing on Second Life which takes place in Second Life. Run by the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, it's been very interesting. Both in content and at a sort of meta-level as I look at online learning and how I interact with a distance/virtual course like this.

As I expected, the class sessions were fine for my attendance (barring missing one whilst on vacation) and concentration and engagement. But as usual, I found the self-directed ("I'll fit it in when I have time") participatation in the Virtual Learning Environment difficult. I need to learn to schedule time but what is clear to me is that I do benefit from attendance with people as it were.

And in fact, I'm sure I got a lot more out of this course because I was attending 'with' a couple of colleagues from TheOldPlace who are also interested in the possibilities of SL for library provision to students.

If there were downsides to the course, it might be the slight frustration in not meeting the rest of the class in reality. Somehow SL still seems 'second best' in terms of reality despite the advantages that it conveys. I had expected to learn to build things, but apparently that's th Intermediate course which I'll have to sign up for. Then, too, I think the classes could have been a bit more interactive and hands-on but I didn't mind the sitting in class too much - perhaps because I made my own fun by Instant Messaging others in the class to keep it interesting. Sometimes it would be about class issues, sometimes it wasn't (such as today when the subject of the advert for the job of my former boss at TheOldPlace coming out).

One curious thing I noticed was that reading the transcript of the class I missed was NOT the same as being there even in SL. You'd have thought it would be very similar given that you're just reading on the screen (no one attempted using voice as it's still so iffy for so many people - even just hearing voice apparently). But no, I'm not quite sure what it was, but it's not the same. Although you could read the session much faster than the two hours they took, you just didn't get the pacing and the understanding of what people were saying - particularly when conversation was going on - in such a clear way. Obviously, you couldn't contribute as it was after the fact, and obviously you couldn't look at the instructor(s) - or the other participants - as you might in a real SL class. But I was still surprised at how different it felt.

I think the quote from the forums, however, that summed the whole experience up for me best was something I'd been thinking but which was said much more succinctly by S, than I'd have ever put it: (I trust I can use the quote verbatim - if not let me know and I'll paraphrase.)

"I've been wondering about the role of academic libraries in SL. Initially I was thinking of it mainly in terms of what we could build and link to. A sort of 3D website concept. Since I've been in SL longer I've been thinking of it more in terms of community and social presence and communication. What goes on in the space in terms of interaction between people."

Just so.

One thing I noticed just before going on vacation were two advertisements as I travelled the last mile to work.

One advertising the university I'm at now, the other advertising TheOldPlace.

No question of which was better / more interesting / more attractive.

Ours is completely white with a corporately colored single word in the middle. There are three versions with three different words. 'Potential' is one of them - I can't recall the others - and the uni logo makes up two of the letters. Looks like the kind of thing I might have come up with made to produce an advert in some 'hands on' workshop or other.

TheOldPlace, on the other hand, had a really attractively colored, lively poster that while it might have been a little 'busier' at least made you stop and look again. Based solely on the adverts themselves I know which university I'd be picking if I were a student!

Today I revisited familiar ground from TheOldPlace.

Took senior colleague, S, over to a studio where we recorded half of the library's audio tour. Yes, you read that right, just half. At TheOldPlace it seemed a trivial task to get two of us in front of microphone and record the text. ISTR it took a little over an hour (and that included learning the PC software as we were left to get on with it ourselves).

Here, trying to get two members of staff in the same place at the same time seems to be harder than herding the proverbial cats. Mainly down to the recording engineer's availability it must be said.

But with the engineer doing all the work, me directing fairly lightly, and S being a natural performer (he does have a radio show on a very very local station after all), we were done in half an hour and I can only hope it's as straightforward getting A to do her bit next week.

At least the project's moving forwards once again after something of a hiatus with people on vacation.

Today was rather exhausting and somewhat surreal.

There's a conference for cartographers going on elsewhere in the uni and ages back the Head asked if there was anyone who would lead some of the delegates on a tour of a nearby naval library. OK, so, I didn't have to show them round the actual library. Just get them all to the dockyard gate where we'd be met by the librarian who'd escort us in.

Yes please, I thought. Be quite interesting, I thought. Not very hard, I thought.

(The map librarian I should note was also leading a tour of yet more delegates to a nearby island, which is why he couldn't do it.)

Anyway, I confirmed all the details, printed them out, took them with me, and set off.
Slight panic when the four people who'd chosen this particular tour weren't where I'd been told - but not to worry, they were nearby in a lounge. We set off for the gate and were good and early - despite the slightly older chap who wasn't up to much walking - so I said I'd wait while they looked round the souvenir sellers of nearby naval history ships on display.

No problem there, they were all back in good time and we waited for the librarian. No sign of her. Five past the hour I'm getting a little edgy but we give her a few more minutes before I go and ask at a nearby ticket office if they can contact the library and let them know we've arrived. No, but they suggest we try the naval museum a short walk into the dockyard.

Off we go, keeping a look out for a harried librarian racing to meet us, but no such luck. At the museum we're directed 'round the corner' to the library but can't just go there as there are two guards keeping an eye on a gate. We check with the guards and they confirm we're on a list of visitors and they send us off to the library 'just round the corner'.

In there, we meet a pony-tailed chap who tells us that we're not where we're supposed to be. Despite it looking rather like a naval library and despite the guards thinking that's where we're supposed to be, there is apparently somewhere else that we've been invited to look round and we need to find Building #24. Just as we take our leave of the guy I suddenly realize somewhat out of the blue that he's the author of a reasonably obscure and completely unwork related, unlibrary related blog I read. We didn't have time to stop and talk so I thought it would nicely wind him up just to say: "You're Q, aren't you? I read your blog." as we scuttled out through the doors. He was suitably shocked and bemused!

Anyway, that's when it all started going wrong. Back to the two guards to get directions and they weren't at all sure. But they did have a map of the dockyard. Now maybe alarm bells should have started ringing when I looked at the age of the map, and maybe I should have got the cartographers to take a look for historical interest. But after some searching we found Building #24 and they gave me explicit instructions to walk down a particular road, turn left, turn right etc. and off we went.

10 minutes later we were where we'd been told and it did say #24 on the corner, but it looked like a rather grand residential block than a library. Still, I rang the doorbell and then noticed a sign saying 'Deputy Commander - Fleet'. Oh dear. It might only be the middle of the afternoon but who was going to be pleased at having an afternoon disturbed? Fortunately no one answered the door so I could run away very quickly and pretend I knew along it was the wrong place. Meanwhile, a couple of the (younger, fitter) cartographers had wandered down to the other end of the block and determined it was accommodation all along. No sign of a library.

In a bit of a quandary we noticed a very grand and newly fronted building opposite (and across a courtyard and car park) - can't say the Navy doesn't do things in a grand style - so we thought we'd try there. I left the group outside while I went in and found a very nice reception desk. Evidently all refurbished recently but no one in sight, just a blowup doll sitting in a corner. Then I noticed the small sign directing me to an office down the corridor if there was no one there. I set off with ever more of a sinking feeling but desperately hoping we were somewhere near our goal.

In the office - a large open plan thing with room for at least 8 - there was just one lady and she at least, and at last, knew the name of the librarian. She directed us 'just around the corner' (though inexplicably giving us explicit instructions to avoid an underpass which would have cut five minutes off the walk). We take off once more and get to where we think she meant but there's absolutely no sign of a library. Just another nice entrance - as we'd been told - which led into a stairwell and elevator lobby. No reception, no clues - till I start climbing the stairs and spot a floor directory. Still no sign of the library so there's no point climbing further.

Getting hotter and hotter and more and more bothered and somewhat stressed, back in the lobby I saw a phone. The cartographers were very patiently waiting outside but were happy for me to try and call in help. Obviously an internal phone and no phone numbers at all except an emergency one for security threats. I was desperate. Voices at the other end were not overly enchanted to find I wasn't a security threat just a lost librarian but they did at least suggest an operator number. Which I tried only to find there was no such number.

Back outside I regroup with the patient tourists and have to admit defeat. The elderly gentleman is ready to give up. I'm out of ideas. But at that moment two guys come running past and as luck would have it, one knows not only where the librarian is but shows us - now if only someone had been willing to do that earlier!

A mere 45 minutes late we arrive at the library where the head man who emerges to welcome us specially before handing us over to the librarian asks if we had trouble with security at the gate?! We all nearly throttled him. We never learned why we'd not been met at the gate.

Now at that point I'd decided that no visit on earth could be worth all the stress and embarrassment. But I was wrong.

The librarian had dug out of the archives a host of precious maps and atlas volumes and books for us to peruse. And then we had a long tour round the archives themselves (mercifully air conditioned to protect the stock). And finally a drink!

But some of the things we saw - and were allowed to touch and hold and 'flick through'. 400 year old books. Ortelius' atlas of which there are only two English translations - and we were holding one. Maps from Capt James Cooks' voyages. Ancient Chinese maps from before the printing press. A vast, beautifully bound Russian volume containing plans of every fortress in the country (which had then been swiped by Bonaparte and so had gained lots of French translations neatly next to the cyrillic and a stamp from the Biblioteque Nationale; and then been swiped by the Germans who'd added their own layer of annotations and library stamps; and then been swiped by the Brits... and so on). And perhaps my favorite of all: one of Mercator's original world atlases. Still with gorgeous colors and preservation.

In the end, no one was sorry that we'd persevered to find the place. Everyone was thrilled with what we'd seen and learned and although I could live without the adventure next time, I think the visitors will take back a good report to their conference!

We were even all given a gift of some surplus items they had. It's obscure enough and I thought I'd have no interest - about mine laying in World War II - a volume of text and a separate volume with all the charts - but I started reading the text and it was really quite fascinating and exciting! Just hope the map librarian actually wants it.

Oh dear - I thought I'd mentioned that I'd be off for two weeks vacation. If I did I can't find it - so my apologies to anyone checking in to see what's new. Not a lot.

Still, a couple of weeks away from it all has been refreshing [1] and although there's lots to do on return I did at least manage to not be completely overwhelmed with email by logging on once or twice to delete the junk and answer some of the personal and/or fun things that had arrived.

The only snag with that is that it leaves all the dreary worky drossy difficult stuff to deal with. Only 50 to go now after a day at it but it doesn't look as though I've missed a great deal while I've been away.


[1] wore a wet suit for the first time and am sold on the things. For protection against cold and sun and severe sand exfoliation - not to mention buoyancy and pose value - they can't be beaten.