Musings on the end of term

I'm in a bit of a introspective mood today - contemplating the rhythm of life at a university library.

Yesterday was the last day of classes at my university. It's a major milestone in the rhythm of life here. For example, today you can get a parking spot after 8.15am. It also means that much of the rush is over at the reference desk - just a few students who are REALLY rushed because the paper is due now, yesterday or tomorrow. Yesterday it was the student who wanted to know how many Canadians of a particular ethnicity were enrolled in post-secondary education in Canada. When it became apparent that it was going to take more than 3 minutes for me to find that (I am not the Data Guru at this institution), she told me it was ok because the paper was due in 15 minutes and it wasn't worth the bother. Today it was the student who needed books about a particular fairy tale. The books are at another area institution - about 40 minutes on the bus. Nope, don't have time to go across town for those. What can I make do with here? I do give him credit for knowing to use the LC Subject headings to help himself.

Other shifts: We go to single staffing our reference desk next week, which lightens the load for all the librarians. I'm not sure if it has been the kind of winter we've had this year or what, but we're all ready for a little break.
The students who are in the library have a much stronger sense of purpose than they did yesterday. It's quiet in here - no exuberant conversations about papers, housing arrangements for next year or other topics that probably shouldn't be shared in an open forum.
Today, we're relaxing a little. Soon it will be a time of reflection: Hurrah we survived another semester, now what should have we done that we didn't?

Tomorrow we say goodbye to our current interns. They've been terrific - really terrific - handling everything with intelligence, grace, and good humour. In a couple of weeks, our new interns start work. Today we met to discuss who will be working on which project and how the logistics will work. We have four interns this year - double our usual number and we're a little anxious about how it is all going to work. Next week I'll be scrambling to sort out orientation and training schedules for them. The next big hurdle is getting them started, while juggling vacation and conference schedules.

Finally, a little update to my post a couple of months back (Research: we should do it, but... Feb 6/08). Our online questionnaire is running, but we haven't had the kind of response that we'd like. We only have 2/3 of the number of participants we were looking for. Thesis submissions were due earlier this week, so we're going with one more push to the Programme coordinators (particularly in under-represented areas) to encourage students to respond. We've lined up a focus group facilitator, a room and a scribe. One of our lucky interns will also be participating as a scribe. We're waiting on delivery of analysis software. And, our preliminary results are not what we - at least I - expected. It's very interesting! Stay tuned...