"To know the future - return to the past"

It's here, the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (though the official Harry Potter site at Warner Brothers links to Order of the Phoenix). Wired reports that Harry Potter has teamed with MTV, in much the same way as the new Batman movie had done recently, for promotional purposes.

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer Unveiled - Telegraph.co.uk
• What Does the New "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" Trailer Mean? - MTV Movie Blog
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer Shot by Shot - MTV Movie News Story
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - MTV Movies

The movie release date is November, so I have time to re-read my copy of Half-Blood Prince!

APA PsycNET on Facebook

From APA PsycINFO via the EBSS list serv this morning:

The PsycINFO Department of the American Psychological Association ispleased to announce the launch of our official APA PsycNET Facebookpage. This new presence on the popular social networking site provides us an opportunity to connect with customers. We will provide information about upcoming enhancements and create a forum for Facebook members to ask questions or leave feedback. Visit APA PsycNET's Facebook page. - Alexa Minetola Robertson, MLIS Documentation/Training Specialist.

APA PsycNet's first wall post describes their presence on Facebook:

"Welcome to the new APA PsycNET page on Facebook! Check out our search tools, join in discussions, post and share your ideas and suggestions, and invite your friends. Keep updated on how to find all things in psychology, from Freud's classic books to the latest studies in mental health and well-being. Our goal is to keep you posted on the latest information about psychology and PsycNET. So, visit us often!"

Interested? Become an APA fan if you are a Facebook member (I was the 56th fan).

Annual 2008 Wrap Up

"Live" from YouTube, the ALA Annual Conference wrap-up video featuring Mickey, Minnie, Doc, Grumpy, and the gang, as well as a few librarians and notable speakers. Special thanks to the ALSC Blog (Association for Library Services for Children) for posting about the video.

Now, if only I could find video on YouTube from this year's Book Cart Drill Team competition!

It's Friday and Nature Calls

It's Friday and the sun is shining and I am grateful for that, since we are doing collection inventory this summer and I've been working on it today.

I've been noticing more wildlife floating by my window and around my building lately. A young groundhog wandered by earlier this week but I wasn't fast enough to snag a picture of him. I did, however, catch a wild canary who has been repeatedly banging on my window for the last two weeks.










I also caught a great picture of a moth resting
on the ground just outside my building.






and a chipmunk just darted by my window as I am writing this!


There are great advantages to having a pond right outside your building and windows in your office!!

Libraries Build Communities

Photograph c. ALA 2007

Don Wood, Program Officer Chapter Relations with ALA, sent 2008 Libraries Build Communities volunteers this photograph yesterday along with his thanks (you are welcome),a project evaluation form (I completed and returned it), and a request for photographs from individual sites (coming soon). This is the same picture featured in ALA Cognotes, Saturday, June 28 at ALA in Anaheim.

More than 100 conference attendees await their assignments before the kick of of Friday's "Libraries Build Communities" community service event. Volunteers were dispatched to 13 project sites in the Anaheim area to illustrte the importancer and influence local libraries can have on their communitries. Projects included helping a high school archive 115 years of its history, create a puppet show for grades K-4 (8-25 students) at a library serving a chilren's shelter and update another library's 20-year-old collection. "Libraries do help build communities," said Michael Dowling, director of ALA Chapter Relations Office. "We're excited to support the community and libraries in Anaheim and surrounding areas while we network to improve4 library services to millions of Americans across the country." - ALA Cognotes, Issue
1, 6/28/08

I selected Morse Elementary School from the listing of available locations. Upon arrival on Friday, I learned our task was to be cataloging! It's been years (eight or nine at least) since I have done any cataloging so I quickly volunteered for tech duties adding spine labels, reading levels, stamps, and library markings to cataloged titles. Team captain Rhonda Marker from Rutgers University, who contacted me via Facebook before ALA, led the way and our small group successfully cataloged eight boxes of Scholastic Book Fair titles for the library.

This is the second time I have been able to participate in the Libraries Build Communities effort, the first was in New Orleans; I highly recommend the volunteer experience. I hope to have a Picassa web album to share soon.

And yes, that is me in the front row holding my camera.

Visiting ALA Annual as a Newbie

Having been back from the Annual Conference in California for almost a week now I am settled back into the daily routine and ready to review my first time at ALA. As a new academic librarian and first timer to anything ALA related I was so excited to get there and see what brings 20,000 plus librarians away from their desks and out to the pacific coast. Of course I did the early bird registration and had been pouring over the preliminary program, trying to plan my conference time with appropriate sessions. As the conference grew closer I received much welcomed advice from my fellow colleagues also attending. One of the best pieces of advice, other than wear comfy shoes (which I of course only packed sandals with heels and ended up at Target in search of flip flops), was to leave yourself some breathing room. Often times there are additional events, sessions or just networking with others that pop up and will become a valuable resource. Also it is a good idea, if pre-planning your sessions, to pick back up options. Unfortunately, I was closed out of a session that filled up quickly only to find myself walking across the hall to attend my second choice. This turned out to be a wonderful session called Protecting Planet Earth sponsored by AFL FOLUSA, where each author not only captured my attention but gave away signed copies of their books!
Overall as a newbie, I think I did fairly well. I was happy with all of my selected sessions, only got lost once, took home 5 wonderful new books, and met some great people and decided to join a few organizations. The only thing I may not have done as well as others, is take full advantage of grabbing low cost and free items from the exhibit booths. Next time I'll be ready.
I would like to make mention of a great ALA organization called New Members Round Table (NMRT). I learned about this group at the conference and wished I would have discovered them sooner. They provide great resources and programs for new librarians or new ALA conference attendees or both. I recommend taking a look at their website. I know I will.

A New Kind of Book

Today, I discovered there is a new kind of book to borrow.
Actually a "human" book. Called the Living Library, it allows a person to "borrow" a human for a 30 minute chat. The borrowed person represents a certain aspect: gay, immigrant, goth, male nanny, librarian, etc. Read here for more about the concept.

A novel concept to be sure! I am sitting on a Visioning Task Force for OSU Libraries and my sub-committee is Collaboration. One of our members had read this and thought it interesting. Our committee as a whole thought it gave an unusual twist to providing information and reference service. Imagine being able to go to a university library and checking out a professor, a researcher, a scientists, an athlete or a scholar to talk with, as well as any of the ones mentioned above and lots of others not mentioned. What a way to provide a diversity experience in a unique way and information in a meaningful way!!

So, what book would YOU be???? I think I might be the harried mom or maybe the collaborator ......