Maybe I Should be Surprised, but I’m Sorta Not….

I would like to take a moment to thank the Journal of Access Services for driving home the point that the work we do here in access services is ripe for the mocking.  I can’t exactly pinpoint my reaction to the fact that every article in the current issue is authored by the Annoyed Librarian.  I guess it wouldn’t bother me so much if I didn’t feel that the AL is just way more negative than they are witty or satirical.  I was a fan of AL a while back, but that changed when I found myself flinching more than laughing at the posts.

I guess I am feeling mostly disappointed that a peer-reviewed journal, in my particular area of librarianship, would publish 10 chapters of ranting.  I am all for having a sense of humor and throwing digs at some of the more absurd and knee-jerk reactions libraries and librarians tend to have, but I think the AL is just a lot of negative without a counter balance of anything positive.  Frankly, I am tired of negative.

For other opinions on this topic see the following posts:

• Apparently Annoyed Anonymous Bloggers can get Published in Peer Reviewed Journals (InfoSciPhi)
• Officially Annoyed (Deepening the Conversation)
• oh yeah, it’s a library “science” (Attempting Elegance)
• professionally annoyed (eclectic librarian)
• Being Annoyed without Being Annoying (Library Attack)

Where Has the Time Gone??????

I have been very remiss in writing and for this I apologize. Life really trumped blogging a lot these past few months. Work has been keeping me very busy, but things are going very well on that front. After being without an associate department head for almost a year, I am thrilled to announce that Colleen Harris has accepted the position and will be joining us in January. On top of that, we have been running at less than full staffing for the past several months and if all goes well that should end by the end of November. Needless to say, my staff and I have been working very hard and have been a tad stressed and stretched thin. That would be the reason for the lack of content over here.

In other news, my colleague, Tripp Reade and I are presenting at the Brick and Click Academic Libraries Symposium this Friday. We are presenting on our department’s experience of merging two of our major service points into one combined service point. This merger happened just as I arrived at NCSU and we have been working very hard for the past almost two years to make it a success. We have learned a lot from the experience and are very eager to share our experiences with our colleagues. I will post slides after the presentation and I intend on blogging the conference. This is my second year attending Brick and Click and it quickly became my favorite conference last year. If you have not attended and have any interest in academic libraries, this is a fantastic and affordable option.

I was taking a look at the stats for this site and I am constantly surprised by how many hits it gets even when I don’t post forever. The repetitive pattern in the referrers and search terms seem to be “effective communication” and “giving feedback.” I have a few more posts in my head about both of these topics. I have a particular post that has been brewing for a few weeks. I think in the next day or so it will be ready to be written up.

So there is my promise to post again soon.