Librarian on Location: Live Blogging 3-5-08

1:20 p.m. Today we are in one of the dormitories on campus. I am stationed in the foyer. Wednesdays are the days we do Librarian on Location. This day was chosen at random I guess but it may need to be revisited because Tuesdays and Thursdays seem to be busier days on campus. To the right, you will see me with a student. You can see the signage we use and the golf shirt with logo that I wear each week. I also have business cards and library brochures. This shot was when I was outside of our Soda Shoppe.

1:38 p.m. OK...I consider myself a world class evesdropper. I am trying to turn off my evesdropping tendencies while I am in the girl's dorm, but it is hard. The present crisis is a prank involving peanut butter on door handles.

1:42 p.m. Two questions so far today. This is more than the past two weeks. One student asked which books are on the first floor of the library and which books are on the second floor. She didn't understand where the call number break was. Another student asked what I was doing and why I was here. She said she doesn't have much trouble researching. I told her to leave me her email address and I would send some things to her that she might not have seen.

2:02 p.m. I sent some articles to a student on national service requirements. She is working on a debate presentation.

- A professor walked by and cracked a sarcastic joke about us reaching out to the students "because the library is just SO far away." He obviously hasn't been reading articles on millennials and their addiction to the instantaneous and the convenient. Sure, the library is just down the sidewalk but it could be in Turkey for all some of these students know. How many academic librarians can tell stories of students showing up during their last semester before graduation and telling the librarian that this was the first time that they used the library. Every academic librarian has a story like this these days. Why do we assume that a building equals "people will come."

2:50 p.m. It is so nice outside that I almost decided to position myself on the building colonade but it has been so windy lately that I didn't think that was such a good idea. As I get more adventurous maybe I can head to more exotic locations. Next week it is back to the Soda Shoppe.