I very badly need to get in control of my paper tiger. Only 5 weeks otj (~1 week out of office in those 5) and I can’t see my desk already. And the piles are shifting. And I got a paper cut while catching a sliding pile *sigh*
Back in the saddle again,
We’re talking about consolidating all our myrid spreadsheets & text files & nascent databases containing all out E-res data to get a better handle on what we have, where we can adminster it from, who to contact for troubleshooting, when renewals are, how much each costs, whether or not we have perpetual access to content already paid for (like in Emerald).
My head hurts just thinking about it; I mean I’ve done similar before (at M[f]POW), but I got spoilt by having a new Electronic Resources Librarian get hired in just as I was getting all the data pieces consolidated. Then we went with SerialsSolutions ERM product and it was going spiffily when I left.
We’ll see about shaking some funding loose for this, though I suspect there are other pressing priorities from a content hole point of view.
Wrapped up the OITP Strategic Planning Retreat, feels like we got lots of stuff accomplished, but hard to pin down exactly what. The fabulous OITP staff received the Advisory Committee’s recommendations well & seem eager to tackle the points we discussed. We’ve set direction for research and policy, I snookered myself into *yet another* appointment (OITP Telecom SubCommittee with Bob Boucher chairing), and I’m about brain-dead from thinking and considering future priorities.
Heh, well, turns out the OITP Planning Retreat doesn’t really start until Tuesday - luckily I had free digs for a night with a 20+ year long friend (yes, from my high-school daze) and his family. Big shout out to the Freeds! Another day spent wandering SF, life is rough. My feet are happy to be not-walked-upon right now…
Wow, the flight was almost 1/3rd full. I finagled an exit row for my legs but the arms don’t go up in those rows (or in the bulkhead seats) on 737s so I moseyed on up a few rows (with the attendants’ blessing) to an empty row and laid out to sleep across three seats. Almost as good as what I expect 1st class is like (having never flown there before), perhaps better?
So here I am, in the Bay area, having done absolutely no prep for contacting library type folks I know. I am a library-social slug, apparently.
I’m typing this from the Chinatown Branch of the SFPL - yay free wireless! I’m such the library wireless junkie.
I think I’ll go walk the plank (plank in this case = the Golden Gate Bridge)…
Not quite at MnPOW a full month and I’m off on another multi-timezone-hopping trip, this time to sunny San Mateo Public Library, where the OITP Advisory Committee will do some strategic planning and broad direction setting for OITP activities for the coming few years.
Kathy, again, negotiated some fabulous digs; this time at the San Fransisco Airport Marriott Hotel. Oddly, for me, I’m not on Southwest this time — they wouldn’t get me back early enough for my preference on Thursday. American’s Red-eye gets me back in time to make it to work on-time (I’m such the conscientious employee).
Assigned seats make the queueing less competitive here at any rate.
So, okay, by now you know I get jazzed over the strangest things.
Had patrons come in today (I mean c’mon who would be jazzed over that?!) who wanted to use a microfilm collection of ancient newspapers (yup, more than 15 years old, so they’re ancient) 1860-1880, to be exact (oh, I meant 150+ years ancient) 
Anyway, MnPOW has a new microfilm digitizer which totally rocks (a Cannon Microdax) and was simple to show & use. I made an outline of the process (the outline seems pretty complex to me at the moment, but looking at the computer+scanner setup it’s following a wizard)
Long ramble short here… showed patrons how to use it, the were impressed at the ease and happy to have it digital instead of print - and it was fun!
Yippie, Our Article Linker is up and configured (and I typoed a few things in my setup document, but we won’t dwell on that since it’s fixed now) and working out of EBSCO and CSA databases - onward to the next clumps of databases and then on to the individual subscriptions!
Woohoo!
While I’m so totally looking forward to LITA National Forum in Nashville, my wallet is not. I had no idea how expensive (to my now one income mindset) it is.
Originally, I was going to just commute (hey ~43 miles one-way twice a day for a few days is nuthin for a driving fool like me - I used to commute ~91 miles one-way to work daily, for below subsistence pay but that’s a different post someday) but ~655 miles one-way does not a good commute make. That’ll teach me to change jobs after having a poster session acepted at a local, national event 
(well, no, it won’t really)
So, MnPOW has this really neat-o competitive process to dole out supplemental travel monay — and I found out I’m eligible to apply, so I’ve completed the application and am crossing my fingers and toes (ow, they’re cramping as I type this) for some sort of (literally any) remuneration.
Wish me luck!
And see you in Nashville if you’re going too!
Yay, EZproxy cfg entries are in for all the proxiable databases! Vendors contacted to update IP ranges and ID the proxy server. Whee!
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