Tuesday 12 June 2012

Back in Blighty...

The jet lag is certainly taking its toll! I woke up last Thursday morning with no conception of what country I was in, let alone how to use my legs.. then promptly flung myself sideways into a table before tardily ambling into work! I've since spent some time presenting what I found out while in the States to colleagues and it's the complimentary ear plugs (seen at Grand Valley State and the University of Chicago) which seem to have sparked the most interest out of everything!

Online networks are the order of the day in Thing 6. Like a lot of other CPD23 bloggers, I do feel Facebook sits uneasily with work stuff but there again some libraries do manage to have a lot of fun with it! A quick glance at GVSU Library's Facebook site made me aware of a 'link' (circled below) on their Contact Us screen which you can click to transform this page into a version of the hit 1980s arcade classic, Asteroids!:



I've also 'Liked' the American Library Association which I'm hoping will help me to keep updated on what is going on with libraries across the pond now that I'm home. 

I did have a go at accessing a LinkedIn account which I set up some years ago and have subsequently ignored but I had no luck (possibly a good thing given recent security problems hampering the site). LISNPN is a site which interests me, though. To me it's almost (almost!) like a flash-mob forum for librarians! New events are posted up by the site's members all the time which other users can attend. I have registered and can see this being a useful source of info in future.

As something of an epilogue to my adventures in the US Midwest, before I left Chicago I did get to do a quick tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Chicago Auditorium at Roosevelt University. This was only the 2nd building which FLW was commissioned to do and just about the last major masonry structure constructed in Chicago before the city became a heaving mass of steel and glass. I naturally also had a wander up to Roosevelt University's Library and was captivated by some of their posters. I was further impressed by the incredible view which you get from its high windows:

Frank Lloyd Wright's magnificent Chicago Auditorium which also
served as a bowling alley for American GI's at one time (below)

Decorative library posters adorn the
walls of Roosevelt University Library

"The Extraordinary Power of 100% Peer-
Reviewed Scholarly Full Text Journals"!!

View from the 10th floor reading room at Roosevelt University Library

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