Anticipating midwinter, and news

I hear that yesterday was supposed to be the statistically gloomiest day of the year. Things here certainly bear that out. It went from unseasonable 70s over the weekend to freezing temperatures yesterday, and my galoshes are getting a workout.

I'm getting a little tired of driving to and from school in the dark, and of waiting for feedback on "that paper" (as someone I know once put dissertations into perspective). The substitute I'd lined up for ALA Midwinter backed out, too, so I have to hustle to find someone with whom I'm comfortable.









But -- Seattle! Well, I'm very much looking forward to it, but I'm going to be exceptionally busy, with lots of committee work commitments, and ALA Council. I will be speaking on the OITP Task Force on Digital Literacy panel Saturday at 3. And don't miss the USBBY session Friday night at 8.

In related news, I'm very excited to be the new member manager of the YALSA blog. And it was a thrill to see my name on both the YALSA and the ALA home page.

Back at work, I'm still chewing on the question of the library supplying required reading. After all, it could be half of our circulation if we met the student demand for those books. But I ran the numbers yesterday, and the amount of curricular titles checked out dropped to 13.7% percent of fall semester checkouts, versus 17.8% last year. So, more voluntary engagement with books. But circulation is still far from what I'd like it to be... I need to write more about the transition from a robust library program to one with entirely different concerns and practices, but I'm freaking out a little about having to move everything into a portable or into storage before Spring Break in March. We should know for sure if that's the timeline -- tonight.