The Hazy Lazy Days of Summer

The hazy lazy days of summer that are anything but!

I find that in terms of patron numbers and reference questions they usually are much quieter due to the far smaller number of students on campus. However, summer is generally the time where I work with my projects. And this summer there are a number of them. Everything from preparing the presentation of the OPAC catalog to working on technology savvy ideas for the upcoming school year.

This morning's project included creating a search form that will rest inside the online class software for the institution so that professor's can place the widget on their course home pages and students can search the catalog directly from their course page. Now, it's currently only sitting on my home page, but that's because I haven't shared it yet. Next week I'll be figuring out how to share it properly, but it appears to work and has all the most used information of the library page, which is the exciting part!

There are continual updates on the web pages. It seems like I keep finding typos are realising that information is no longer accurate after the library has joined a large consortium. And so I rewrite and send that information to tech services to get it properly updated.

I'm also interested in working with Camtasia to create library tutorials and potentially working to create podcast files as well. Specifically I'm looking at blogging software so that the library can host its own blog. I'm looking into WordPress and Moveable Type, looking mildly at TypePad as well. I know there are likely other blogging products as well and I'll need to figure out exactly which one is right for the library.

Combine that with reworking the library with carpet and furniture and you have a very full summer!