Friday afternoon fun. EEEEKKKK!
Mouse in the House!
1
Best Wishes Justine
Today is Miss Justine Eritz’s last day of work before her wedding on Saturday. When she comes back to the Murray Library next week, she will be a married lady named Mrs. Justine Sturgeon.
To send Justine off, her Murray Library coworkers threw her a mini surprise wedding shower. There was food, games, and lots of fun. Even without our social committee director’s input, I think we managed a pretty good party! Thanks to everyone who brought potluck items, decorated, and prepared the games.
We wish you all the best, Justine, on your wedding day, and throughout the many years of wedded bliss that are sure to come!
Justine practices cutting the cake ahead of the big day.
Thanks Christine, for bringing in such a beautiful cake.
Everyone was well-fed!
Don’t go out in Geology Today
‘Cause if you go out in Geology today, you’re in for a big surprise. The dinos have been corralled for their biennial teeth floss and general wash. This process includes yellow ‘do not cross’ tape, the removal of a center post between the stainless steel double doors to the out-of-doors to allow for the entry of the cherry picker, and, the cherry picker. Not to mention two guys in hard hats and Sue – the official dino wrangler.
June, UASC?
Woo what a month! Laurie and I (with the help of the Clelland scholarship), along with Tim and Cheryl were able to attend the Association for Canadian Archivists Conference in Regina during the second week of the month. It was a deeply interesting and fruitful experience, I think, and while speaking in front of a ballroom during the poster presentation was a bit nerve-wracking, we came out the better for it. Thanks to all of you who came to our Brown Bag session last week, and who have been following along with my conference-in-review posts on the archives blog.
I offer a dark fuzzy photograph as evidence
In tandem with Saskatoon’s Pride Festival, the Neil Richard’s Collection for Sexual and Gender Diversity received some attention this year, with an article appearing in The Star Phoenix and the National Post, and Neil himself being interviewed for CBC radio!
Patrick was busy for part of the month preparing for the Aboriginal Round Table session held last week, due to his involvement with the Great War Commemoration Committee. The round table, which focused on aboriginal speakers sharing the oral history of the Great War and the effects it had on their communities, was largely successful, with coverage of the event even being picked up by a newspaper in Great Britain!
The LDC also hosted an historic walking tour event, with Cheryl Avery and Patrick Hayes acting as interpreters. I toddled along with the group and took some pictures (if anyone doesn’t like seeing their picture up here, let me know and I’ll take it down). In no particular order:
Cheryl talking about St. Chad
Walking
The Group
Laurie welcoming The Group
Learning about the little schoolhouse
Patrick mid-grand-armsweep
Thank you to the 22-odd people who came out, and congratulations to our doorprize winner! If anyone wants to get in on the walking tours, another one will be held on August 11th, and will focus on a different area of campus.
Mini Golf!
The 2nd annual Murray Library Mini Golf Tournament was held at Putt n’Bounce yesterday evening. The event was followed by a burger dinner at Fuddruckers.
This year’s event was a rousing success, with 16 participants in the tournament. However, there can only be one winner, and that winner is:
DUANE
Congratulations Duane, on winning for the second year in a row! Duane had the lowest score, an impressive 38 strokes (and 3 holes in one in a row!). Honourable mention goes to Angie, with a second-place score of 42.
Just like there’s only one winner, there can only be one loser. This year’s worst score was also a repeat from last year:
AMY
Congratulations, Amy, on winning the worst score trophy for the second year in a row! Amy had the highest score by two points, at 64 strokes, and no holes in one.
Will someone else be able to unseat our champions next year and win the tin foil trophies? Stay tuned!
Read below to see all final scores. Continue reading
ACA Conference Bites
Over the next few days I’ll be posting some content recounting my experiences at the Association for Canadian Archivists conference over on the archive’s blog (to avoid cluttering up Branching Out too badly). The posts are available here:
ACA Conference Bites: Stevie, Day 1
ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 2 – Gail Bowen
ACA Conference Bites: Stevie, Day 2 – Digital Preservation
ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 2 – Extending Our Reach
ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 3 – LAC Plenary
ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 3 – Poster Session
ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 3 – Metamorphosis
ACA Conference Bites : Stevie, Day 3 – New takes on the old lifecycle
*coughAprilcough* May, UASC?
I may have lost a month . ..
Some updates from the University Archives and Special Collections :
- Probably the biggest news is that Amy Chillog has joined our team! We are very excited to have her, and so far she has survived running the gauntlet of scanning projects and new learning experiences we’ve thrown at her with a smile –truly impressive work, Amy!
- Also big news: Cheryl Avery and Dee Gibson were nominated for the Dean’s Award for Excellence for their work on the Printed Matters exhibition earlier this year. They were honoured along with other nominees, being given certificates in recognition of their achievement. Congratulations to the winners at both the group and individual levels, and to all of the other nominees!
- Tim, Cheryl, Craig, Laurie and myself have been gearing up for the ACA conference to be held in Regina this week. Tim and Craig will be giving talks on digital preservation in the Cloud and deriving benefit from archival content on the web respectively, and Laurie and I (with the aid of the Clelland scholarship) are going to present a brief poster on the Courtney Milne project. We hope to host a brown bag session upon our return. Cheryl is involved in organizing the poster session and a number of other events.
- Several new pages have gone up on the Great War site, recently, as we work towards completion. Some first-hand accounts of the war can be found under the “Diaries and Letters” drop-down under “World at War”, which makes for some deeply interesting reading.
- Neil Richards and his collection for Sexual and Gender diversity were mentioned in the Star Phoenix on Saturday. He has been bending his efforts lately towards collecting a variety of queer-themed movie posters. Shown here, The Picture of Dorian Grey and I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing.
- The Western College of Veterinary medicine is hosting its fiftieth anniversary conference this weekend, and we had the opportunity to work with them both to provide images for a large slideshow which will be shown during the celebrations, but also in creating a small display of vet-med ephemera on the ground and third floor of the Murray Library.
- Also, for all the bibliophiles on staff (that should be everyone, right?), winners of the Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada are currently on display in the Link area, and well worth giving a look.
One Million Science minded Patrons
It is the time of great milestones (kilometrestones?). The Science Library gate count clicked over for its one millionth patron – the winner is…drum roll please…DeDe Dawson. We have awarded her a Sabbatical.
iPortal Hits 50,000!
The iPortal team is pleased to announce the entry of the 50,000th record into the database on May 20th, 2015! Congratulations to all the hard-working team members who have contributed to this milestone in so many ways over the past 12 years!
6th Floor Buzz
Hello all! We thought we would do an update about some of the recent happenings on the 6th floor.
Retirements
After 32 years with the University Library, Karen S is ready for some new adventures as she heads off into the next chapter of her life. Karen started her library career in Circulation, moved on to the somewhat infamous Production Unit, and then transitioned into Cataloguing (now part of the Collection Services Unit) where she currently works. Having experienced many changes in cataloguing over the years, one of the most interesting for Karen has been the move from AACR2 to RDA (which is often affectionately referred to by Copy Cataloguing Group members as “Retirement Day Approaching”). Karen has also acquired a couple nicknames while working at the library: some may know her as “The Doc” – you will have to ask Karen to tell you this story before she leaves; and most of us know her as “The Supply Goddess”, as she has diligently and expertly ordered supplies for technical services units for years now (since 1993!). On June 8th–Karen’s last day with the Library—we will bid farewell to an excellent colleague and friend. Some of the qualities we will especially miss about Karen are her gentleness and thoughtfulness; her conscientiousness and attention to detail; and her overall willing and cheerful attitude. Karen – we wish you all the best in retirement!
Leaving for New Positions
Our colleague Gail, from Serials Check-In, had her last day of work on Friday May 15th. We bid her farewell and had a mini (but actually pretty large) food day in the Serials unit. Gail begins work in the Health Sciences Supply Centre as a Storekeeper on May 19th. Gail will be missed!
A gluten-free feast!
Honourable mention goes out to Amy (formerly of Serials Check-In) who began her new position in Archives and Special Collections on May 5th. Congratulations to Amy and we hope that she is not too lonely on the 2nd floor! Meanwhile, Katelyn has been busy migrating all of Amy’s old office supplies over to her desk.
Saskatchewan Polytechnic Student
Beginning on May 4th, Collection Services welcomed David, a Sask. Polytech- Library and Information Technology student, to spend his practicum under the supervision of Fern. Dave has had the opportunity to shadow and work in Serials Check-in, E-Access, Acquisitions, Cataloguing, the I-Portal, the Bindery. He also has been working on creating minimal bib-records and shipping the Hanson collection for cataloguing.
David wanted to become a library technician because of his love of books and he has always wanted a career that he would enjoy. He enjoys cataloguing- especially building Dewey numbers, and finding subject headings.
David enjoys reading most genres of novels- but especially likes reading Fantasy, and Science Fiction. Right now he is reading HMS Surprise by Patrick O’Brian – which is the third novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series.
We have enjoyed having Dave around and we wish him all the best!
Dave hard at work
Cataloguing and Beyond
Now for a special message from Anna G.:
Who are we: Technical Services Specialist or Cataloguer or IT staff? The possibilities are endless.
We all know that libraries vary, and the needs of our users/patrons are varied as well. This is also true for the cataloguers working in different libraries. In the last two years, I have become more aware that we exceedingly work closest with IT library staff. Dealing with constant changes in my immediate work made me more aware of what is happening within the cataloguing world. One of the models that the University of Minnesota Libraries has adopted intrigues me a lot, and I’d like to share it with you. Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Manager, Archives and Special Collections Metadata Unit explains that at her library, IT staff and cataloguers are no longer such separate or distinct units. Cataloguers are part of a department called Data Management & Access, and are part of the Data & Technology Division. Wow! Laura S, imagine us being on the same floor level, and maybe even sharing the same space?! This is just a thought.
https://www.lib.umn.edu/about/staff/christine-dezelar-tiedman