happy national library week

A day in my life at Bird….okay, not really, but these are really funny (at least to a librarian who staffs a reference desk):

mad, mad, mad, mad world

Uniworld that is. We have a new resource at the library – two print directories that have gone online:

• American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries, and
• Foreign Firms Operating in the United States

They’re both incredibly easy to use and search, so please….go use and search.

sshh

More new developments to the physical space at Bird – we’ve converted part of the what was previously Media Services to a quiet Reading Room. We get a lot of feedback that things are a little “spirited” on the lower floors, so here’s some space to get that tough reading done, where it’s nice and quiet – feel free to shush your neighbor.

On the other hand – we’ve also responded to your requests for more computing, and added 22 more computers to the Learning Commons on the 1st floor. Guess you really wanted it, students were climbing over the crime scene tape just as soon as our heros in LITS could get them connected – and within 30 minutes, they were all full. Type away people. Type away.

ch-ch-changes

If you come over to Bird right now, you’ll see many new developments in progress:

• The last of the glass walls/barriers are coming down;
• We have a new reference and circulation service desk (in place of what I fondly called the Starship Enterprise formation of the 3 desks we used last year);
• Media services (lower level) has been dispersed; and
• The big empty compact shelving on the lower level is being dismantled in favor of some more quiet study space (interim until we can implement the larger design changes for the library).

So pardon our mess, but we hope these and further changes to come will enhance and improve your experience in the library. If it doesn’t, just let us know – we librarians live for user feedback. Seriously. No really, I’m not being sarcastic.

And do check out our beta website next time you’re using a library computer (it only works on our computers right now, but you’ll be able to access from elsewhere soon). I think we can all agree our current website needed a facelift, so take a look and take the survey. I think it looks great and once the content is fully migrated will be, well, kind of awesome and a huge improvement for finding what you need, not just what we think you need. So check it out and let us know. Really – we want to know!

spring office hours

Welcome back students. I’ll be holding office hours in the Atrium at Whitman again this semester, so if you have research questions be on the lookout for a librarian with a laptop and whiteboard – Wednesdays 11:00 am – 1:00 pm, starting next week (1/21).

Don’t be strangers!

(as always, you can reach me by email and/or IM too, whatever works for you)

who moved my cheese?

The semester is winding down, the library is quiet again… wait, what’s that noise? That is the sound of improvements and movement at Bird Library. As a head’s up, if you frequently use Media Services in the lower level of the library – it’s moving over the break – to nowhere and to everywhere…meaning it’s being redistributed throughout the library, see announcement here.

We’re also getting a new service desk, a much needed improvement since the walls came down last year. Hopefully all neccessary construction will take place while you’re all snug at home, recovering from the past semester. So sleep in, enjoy your break. We’ll be here for you when you get back – hopefully with a tiny little face-lift, a nip here and a tuck there.

have you ever cheated to get ahead?

The Cheating Culture

The library was a co-sponsor for a recent (11/18) lecture entitled, “An Ethical Crisis: Changing the Cheating Culture”. The speaker, David Callahan, author of The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead, has done some interesting research on the prevalence of cheating  — in business, at school, in, ahem…government office. During his talk, he expanded on three main reasons he believes people cheat to get ahead;

1. the carrot for the highest levels of achievement has gotten “bigger and juicier”,
2. fear (of not succeeding), and
3. nobody is watching.

I wanted to hear him expand a bit more on the idea that cheating is not, in fact, the victimless crime many people think it is, but in fairness, I haven’t read his book (yet), and he did acknowledge that when you cheat to get a better position, or entry into a top university, you are taking the place of someone (a VICTIM) who was more deserving. He closed with some suggestions for improving the “cheating culture”, mostly involving kicking more money into education k-16, so the field is more level, and enforcing rules and regulations for fairness and oversight. I’ll let you read the book for more about that (call number HF5387 .C334 2004, yes we have it).

But it got me thinking more generally about cheating in the business world, and how it’s never a bad time to talk about ethics in business, especially to all you budding entrepreneurs out there. So when you check out that book, take a look in SUMMIT (our catalog, yes, read some books…it’s not all online) and do a subject search for business ethics, or maybe professional ethics, or try a keyword search on corporate responsibility. Hell, just do a search on Enron… bankruptcy and fraud seem to be rising to the surface of that search. And as long as you’re reading blogs, check out The Business Ethics Blog for some more great stuff.

And in closing, to the student who cut in front of, oh, about 6-7 people in line for an Insomnia cookie immediately following a lecture on cheating to get ahead. Really?

business students came in 1st

A shout out to the Whitman students who won last Friday’s JPMorgan Chase Case competition… congratulations, and invest your winnings well!

what’s so special about special collections?

How many of you know that SU has a Special Collections Research Center (SCRC)? That it’s on the 6th floor of Bird Library? How many of you care?

Well you should, and here’s why…

The Special Collections Research Center and University Archive houses some of the most interesting and rare items at the library, primary research and original documents and texts – like letters and diaries, photographs and memorabilia. And as an SU student (and yes, scholar), all of this is available to you for your research. These are NON-circulating materials, deemed too important or rare, or perhaps especially fragile so can only be used at the research center. Many of these items are also periodically used in special exhibits on and around the library and campus. And for instruction, they’ve just added a beautiful new seminar room, with state of the art equipment for sharing and viewing fragile materials.

So this is a business blog, why am I telling you this?

Because the SCRC includes 100 collections in Business & Industry! So if you’re interested in historic business papers, especially local businesses, I would encourage you to check them out.

And for another perspective on making rare and valuable materials available to undergraduate students, read this recent NYTimes article, “Handle This Book!“

food for fines

oh, it’s been awhile since I posted, sorry – took a week off from work. So let’s try and catch up.

Food for Fines is coming up November 20, so if you’ve got some fines you’d like to see disappear, or even if you just want to help out some local families that could really use it now, bring in a nonperishable food item and we’ll take $1 off your bill, for more info about this rare opportunity, click here.