Moving on...

Phew! It's been a hectic few days... I hosted a Meet & Greet on Thursday. This gave me the opportunity to talk to GVSU staff all about what I do at Kingston University and about some of the differences and similarities between our Information Services and their Library Service. Around 50 staff turned out to hear a presentation I gave and there was also the chance for staff to ask questions. They took a keen interest in the fact that we are a converged department at Kingston. Here at GVSU the library and IT sections are separate but the two areas will be working much more closely when the new main library building opens next year. There were also questions about our collections development at Kingston (some of which I even knew the answers to!) and about a self-service holds project which I helped to roll out at KU.

I then found out all about document delivery at GVSU and had an introduction to the MeLCat service. MeLCat combines the catalogue records of over 400 libraries in Michigan and provides a state-wide resource sharing and delivery service. This has drastically reduced the interlibrary loan bill at GVSU as many of the materials requested can be sourced from other libraries at an annual subscription rate which is subsidised by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). MeLCat even has its own courier service, called RIDES. 

It was Pink Floyd night down at the local ballpark, where I was able to catch a game and also see a cracking laser show afterwards!: 

Laser Show at 5th/3rd Ball Park -home of the West Michigan Whitecaps

There's much, much more to say about my time at GVSU and all I've learnt during my time here but I'm afraid I've become more than a little sidetracked from documenting it all during this balmy Memorial Day Weekend! More about that too, later on but for now I'll be heading out to Chicago in a mere few hours and alas will have to bid a fond farewell to Grand Rapids. 

I've not forgotten about Thing 4 either and have been using Storify to bring together news and photos from some of the libraries I plan to visit over there:

Thing 4 & Chicagwarts...

Well, I've promised myself that I won't let the CPD23 Things fall by the wayside while I am here in the US. I'm hoping to relate some of the tools and tasks set out during this programme to the work I am doing out here. This week is all about Twitter, RSS feeds and Storify.

Twitter is something I have tried desperately hard to get on with (I really have!). The difficulty I have is in configuring my Twitter feed to display the sorts of things I'd actually want to read. Many of the microblog posts coming up are still either completely irrelevant (I gather Jedward made it to another Eurovision final) or highly negative: "My mama need to hurry and get our printer fixed or get a new one because I hate coming in to [x] library". 

I've noticed the Mary Idema Pew building broadcasts tweets on how the construction work is getting on from its own perpective (https://twitter.com/#!/gvsuMaryI) which is all rather sweet. I have also started to follow feeds from places I'll be visiting next week in the hope of picking up some tips! This tweet from popular Chicago-based film critic Roger Ebert caught my eye:

A bold claim indeed from Roger Ebert @ Twitter

The link mentioned in his tweet is to an article called The image of a man you do not see. As well as providing a useful insight into the architectural history of some of Chicago's most famous buildings, the journal entry also includes imagery from an outstanding collection of photographs entitled University of Chicagwarts by Justin Kern. Here is just one example:

The Harper Memorial Library at the Univesity of Chicago - Justin Kerns

Whilst looking at some of Kerns's photographs has made me even more excited about my upcoming visit to Chicago, I am certainly not done with GVSU yet! I visited the University's excellent Special Collection and Archives section today and there will be much more to follow about that soon. For now I'm very much looking forward to Chili Corn Dog Wednesday in the office tomorrow!

Couldn't resist! Here's another of Justin Kerns' fantastic UC pics