Happy birthday Science Library

Today we celebrated 1 year since we (not me, actually - I was juggling a new born with a strange and a new medical diagnosis, an expedited passport application for her, and an impending plane trip half way round the world) moved into the Science Library. Took some bubbles in to work and Amina baked a gigantic chocolate cake. Eva had a great time toddling around the staff room. She then visited the Law Library and charmed some of the staff. The Science Library is still an absolutely stunning space to walk into, and it's a real pleasure to see it teaming with students using all the spaces in all the ways we thought they would when the library was just lines on a page. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to help plan something so wonderful and then to work in it once it was all finished.

The Library Song

Song by Sarah Whyte about the new science library... Love it!

Science Library is cool

Just found out there's a Facebook group called "I heart science library" - has 190 members already (I am one now), and is full of student comments about how groovy the new library is! So gratifying to see people loving the glass topped tables you can write on, the big screens in the group study rooms, the beautiful comfy chairs (I particularly like the replica Eames plywood chairs and the luxurious arm chairs on the top floor), the whiteboards you can copy the content from onto USB sticks, the power points for laptops at every seat... the list goes on. All that work and the incredibly detailed thought and planning was worth it. Jill says that every PC is in use and the group study rooms are fully booked. Can't wait to get back to see it all in person.

Science Library open

The new UWA Science Library opened on Monday (or stage one anyway). Wish I was there to enjoy it.

New Science Library

We had a tour of the unfinished UWA Science Library on Friday. It's looking good, though there's a fair bit of work to do. Seems so BIG at the moment. The furniture selection is fabulous. Very high end and stylish - but of course it's not in the building yet. I spent a fair bit of time on the weekend working on the 5000 metres of fixed book shelving - how wide each bay is, how many shelves are in each bay, where the reference collection, quartos and folios go, how much room there is if we shelve at 80% full ... We don't have all 900 mm shelves, but some are 600mm, 1050mm or 1200mm. A bit unusual, but it's so our shelves fit around pillars and look like they're of a uniform length. We also don't have all bays with 7 tiers of shelving. Most are 7, but we have some 6 tiers, and quartos are 5 tiers. Makes the calculations nice and complex!

Next job is to get my staff to fill in how many mm of space each call number from each of the 5 collections we're merging takes up so that we can tell the removalists where to put all the books. And this is before we even look at the 8000 metres or so of shelving for journals!

Above is a photo of Friday's tour group. I'm in the red shirt - can you tell I'm 7 months pregnant? Jill is next to me in black . She's doing my job while I'm on maternity leave.

Christmas party

I hosted my team's Christmas party at home last night. Most of them are in the photo to the left. It was a lovely night - I decided to just have cold platters (shamelessly ripped off from Jane Brook Winery), so that no one had to be in the kitchen, and there were no issues with timing etc. We had three types of platter, one with smoked salmon, one with scotch eggs, and one with cold meats. Each was accompanied with various cheeses, dips, chutneys, antipasto or salads, fresh and dried fruits, and a couple of different breads. For dessert we had simply delicious Amono gelato and sorbet in waffle cones. Again, very easy, and everyone helped themselves.

It was undoubtedly the easiest party to cater for, and very relaxed. I'm really enjoying entertaining in this City Beach house. I had a great time - they are such a lovely bunch. Everyone pitched in to help put food out and to stack the dishwasher and clear away. Today we've all had leftovers for lunch in the library. I suspect there may still be leftovers on Monday for our Christmas eve morning tea.

The machine is us/ing us

Really like this video by Mike Wesch explaining Web 2.0. It was mentioned at the ALLA conference in September and I hadn't gotten around to looking at it until today.

BDW to UWA

The October 2007 Library News at UWA has profiles of two ex-Blake Dawson Waldron librarians who arrived almost simultaneously at UWA. Funny how things happen. Alissa and I worked together at BDW, and several years later we both end up at UWA together (though now in different subject disciplines).

New, new job

 

After saying in July that I was moving jobs to Curtin Uni, quite a lot has changed.  I never did make it to Curtin (and they were extremely accommodating of me, which was great), and am now the Science Librarian at UWA.  This is, of course, also where Simon works (but safely across campus), and where Harrison goes to daycare.  I'm loving the 10 minute commute!  One of the exciting things about this new role is that we're building a new science library and merging 4 different science collections together.  Something I'm not unfamiliar with from my days at ECU!  So I'm thinking about service models, 24 hour accessibility, multimedia rooms, training rooms, call numbers, spreadsheets, desk design, shelving, seating etc etc etc

Thanks for appreciating my service

Love this You Tube video showing why libraries and librarians are so universally loved ....

A change is as good as a holiday

Mixed feelings today as I resigned from ECU to take up a position (starting August 20) at Curtin Uni.  I will really miss the folks at the School of Law and Justice.  But I am very much looking forward to a week off between jobs, and to starting a new challenge.

Newsletter blog

For my sins I am the editor of the law librarians' newsletter in Western Australia this year (I did the same job in Qld a couple of years ago). I've been thinking about whether I could do the newsletter better as a blog... Looking at labelling the various elements of the newsletter so that people could sign onto an RSS feed just for the posts about union list updates, for instance. Blogger's new Layout feature might allow me to be a bit more flexible with what sort of content I have where. I might have a play around for the next issue and send out both versions - one pdf and a blog version for selected members to review. You can create a post by email (which I'm doing right now), so the president's report could be filed by email if necessary. There could also be permanent links to sites of interest - journals, blogs, research sites etc. The sticky issue is whether people could get an RSS feed just when a new issue is complete, rather than each time one element was updated.

New library - virtual tour

There's a virtual tour now for the new library... so you can see all the bright colours, the courtyard, and the seating.

New library

Back at work this week... The new library and IT building is open, and looking great. Very bright, lots of groovy and comfy seating, the bookshop and an Aroma cafe half in and half out of the library, a big e-lab and heaps of other computers. Still a bit of unpacking and settling in to be done, and my office doesn't yet have a phone, but it's all so much better than the old library. I'm staying in my office in the school in the long term, but I'll sit in the library office for the next couple of months so that students finding their way around the new library can find me easily. It's actually really quiet, so I'll probably get a lot of work done.

H settled in well at daycare. He's a "big" boy in the toddlers room now, and seems to be loving it. The girls can't believe how much his tummy has shrunk since last year. It's so funny watching him go through his little routines there - putting his hat back on the peg, and stopping to take his sandals off before bouncing on the mini tramp without being asked. UWA is great with hygiene and tidiness and getting the kids to take responsibility, but they're also incredibly warm and loving. They were genuinely glad to see Harrison again and take real pleasure in seeing him happy and healthy. There was a birthday at daycare yesterday and he couldn't share the cake, so I made and iced a gluten free one last night and sent wrapped slices to daycare today for them to keep in the freezer and take out when there's a birthday. Hopefully it will taste OK!

We also swapped the breadmaker the family gave me for Christmas for the Panasonic one that has a gluten free setting. Made bread for H on Sunday and it was amazing! I liked the GF bread that came out the breadmaker we'd borrowed from Mel, but the stuff I made on Sunday was a much better texture, even though it's the same mix. Who knows, I may even start making ordinary bread for Simon and me.