Blogging et al

I must say that I enjoy reading blogs more than I have enjoyed writing. Hopefully as time progresses I will enjoy both equally.

I have been mostly reading the more popular library blogs - Library Stuff, Beyond the Job ( a great resource), Shifted Librarian etc. I have stumbled across some others e.g Librarian-in-excellence, Library journey... that have been pretty interesting too. I have to learn how to do this RSS feed thing so that I wont have to google everytime to see if there has been a new post on these sites.

In other news I have found a great cataloguing conference. The Online Audiovisual Catalogers Conference http://www.asu.edu/lib/olac/ The planned workshops are in areas that we have been wanting for some time now. Needless to say I am making a request for funding/support to attend.

I just finished reading Tenure and Promotion for Academic Librarians: A Guidebook With Advice and... / by Carol W. Cubberley. I wish I had read this book 3 years no 5 years ago. It is very informative. I plan to go through it again and put into practice many of the recommendations she has made.

New library in the region

Good news for librarians in the region. Can an increase in the number of jobs available be expected?

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College of Bahamas closer to university status

The College of The Bahamas is just a few steps away from its goal of being an internationally respected University, it was revealed on Wednesday after officials collaborated at a retreat.
COB council members, chairmen of task forces and senior administration members met at the Hilton in a relaxed atmosphere for a revision of the university's strategic plan of taking the COB to university status."It's a multi-faceted process," said the secretary of COB's council, Patricia Meicholas. "We can't say exactly when the name will be changed, but it should be in the short term."

The name change must come after the government creates a University of The Bahamas Act first, among other things that need to be done before university status is appointed, added Meicholas.At the retreat, the nine task forces chosen last year to put the plan together, presented the information to the group of 30, including newly appointed president Janyne Hodder, for one of the plan's final revisions before being presented to the public again for validation.

There have been many drafts of this plan, according to Meicholas, and there will probably be more in the future after fine-tuning"Anyone can throw up a sign outside with university on it, but that's not what we want for our national university," said Meicholas. " We want to make sure everything is done properly."This retreat fits into COB's overall goals as it is one of the final revision processes of many, in getting the vision of the college implemented.S

Some of the agenda in the strategic plan involve adding a master's degree programme, a new library, as well as more dorms. So far, COB has added three new courses of study, is engaged with US institutions concerning the master's course, and is currently in the process of building a new library among other advancements.The group will gather again for another retreat later on in the year, before going to the external stakeholders in November, for the public's responses.

Extracted from The Nassau Guardian (24/07/2006) Bahamas

First night

Tonight I begin my first Reference duty for the new semester. Back to the night shift. I was involved in orientation last week and was rather shock, yet again, by the youthfulness of the new students. I am beginning to feel old! This batch struck me as being even more 'don'tcarish' than those of previous years. I hope to be proven wrong on that score.

A lot is happening at this time in the island. We are preparing for one of the biggest cricket tournaments, plus there is the usual building frenzy. So there are delays and detours and as a result the traffic is horrendous throughout the day. The good thing about working late shift is there is no traffic jam when I am leaving work. Whoopeee!!

I still have to narrow down my objectives for this year. I have been working in the general direction of where I want to go. But I have to meet with my head so that I will be able to focus on particulars. Hopefully that will be this week as there is the matter of my assessment next week.

All in all it is looking like an active semester and hopefully a truly productive one.

Beginnings

Okay, so after lurking for sometime now, I have decided to set up my own blog. I have been checking to see whether there are others with whom I share certain characteristics out there, but I am yet to locate one such person. So, I hope that this space will allow me to find such persons and perhaps add our voice to the sphere.

We will see how it goes.