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Hey, internetz, as you may recall from past posts about my job(s), I love working on reference desks. Between the people watching, random questions, and the opportunity to develop relationships with students and faculty, it’s a pretty fantastic way to spend a chunk of my week.

Here at Hampshire, we have an experimental reference desk called the InfoBar. It’s a consolidated service point for the library, media services, and IT. The bar sites right at the library entrance; we’re the first folks you see when you walk through the door. Did I mention we have bar stools and pens?

I am a fan.

This is my first shift and I’ve already helped folks with basic directions (hey, we want students to feel comfortable and welcome so they will come back and ask for help with their projects) and some more complicated technology questions about Hampshire’s courseware system, Moodle. I imagine I will get some heavier reference questions once the dust settles from the first week of school and students begin to get into their reading and various projects.

We all weather storms in different ways. Some might want to watch various news channels and freak out with family over the phone, others (read: me), will cope with the hurricane by mucking around  LibGuides, monitoring Twitter, streaming 89.3 the Current, and reading the stack of periodicals so I be on trend and select quality goods from my college’s social science collection. I get paid to buy stuff which translates in library speak to this: I am the social sciences selector; I do collection development.

Anyways, here I am spending my last weekend in Connecticut waiting out Irene.

Stay safe, friends.

One last look.

Above, my victory lap. I started processing three collections on 1 September 2009, a total of 348 linear feet.They were not minimally processed; this was old-school, maximal processing. I finished processing those collections in June. The finding aids will be published at the end of the month after I leave.

In my department, one doesn’t really consider a collection to be DONE until it moves to its permanent home onsite or at the Library Shelving Facility (LSF) in Hamden. The medium sized collection, totally nearly 105 linear feet, went out in the Spring. The final, smallest collection, will go out in September.

This photo is of the largest, most complicated collection totaling 245 linear feet. Seeing that go off shrink wrapped on pallets to LSF is the taste of sweet victory and I was exhilarated watching the TR&S guys load it up on my way in to work this morning.

My last day of work is a week from today. I have some loose ends to tie up, but not many. I have two reference shifts to work, but mostly farewell lunches to attend.

That will do.

And next month, I will return to become a librarian for social sciences & emerging technology at Hampshire College. I am so excited to return to my 5 College roots and to work in a library that is entirely focused on undergraduate learning. I will miss some of my colleagues at Yale something fierce, but ultimately this job will allow me to work through many of the questions I am most interested in vis-a-vis scholarly communication, teaching, and the role libraries play in higher education today.