100 Days and counting

In 100 days, AISL's 2021 Conference will start - all virtual, as it was last year. However, this year it will be three days, not one, and there will be a fairly robust technology platform. How do I know all this? Because I raised my hand to volunteer... became tri-chair... due to someone dropping out…

Past their best by dates

As we've been doing a (I hope) final pass on the collection, we're noticing a lot of books that are just past their "best by" dates and having to determine if they should stay on the shelf until something new comes along, keep them anyway, or remove them and try to replace. This isn't the…

Anyone else missing time?

Yesterday I proctored the ACTs and the first person that walked through the door was a student I'd known for seven years. The last time I remember seeing him, he was shorter than I and clearly an awkward boy... and suddenly, he's approaching six feet and very much growing into a much more confident man.…

You say “slim”, I say “skeletal”

No, I'm not body shaming. I'm publisher shaming. We're busily looking at the collection now that we've moved things into place. This requires asking the question "how many books on [topic] do we need?" and "if we have that many books, shouldn't some of them be more up-to-date?" It's also an opportunity to see where…

How could I forget?

Of course my list of newsletters wasn’t complete because there are just. so. many. (and yet, purging just seems too difficult right now). Arts & Letters DailyJSTOR Daily Fun fact: “Daily” doesn’t mean anything here. Weekly… monthly… it’s all good. I Heart British TVLaura Olin

Making progress

We've had a successful first week, and to be honest I'm surprised and pleased. When we walked out on the 10th I didn't think we'd get here but, well... whew! Every year we try to do something for the faculty as a welcome back to the school year thing. This year, we decided just to…

Finally!

The students are here! The students are here!

Of course we're excited to see the new students (and by "new" I mean anyone in the Class of 2023, Class of 2024 and Class of 2025, since we've barely got to know 2023 and have never met the other two classes). The same applies to all the new faculty. But... Over the summer, the…

Tracking the year

Tuesday, Karen left a comment on my post about the Big Picture: Hi Laura, I have been exploring different TL blogs as I start on this journey in my career. I have taught in many guises and never really needed to explain what I need to exist in a school, and am now beginning to…

The clock starts ticking… now

It's official. A year from today, I can start withdrawing from my 403(b) without penalty, something I'll do when I retire. That isn't my plan for the immediate future, but it is nice to have options. After all, there's still a library to build and a program to transfer. But as I said, options. Things…