As you trot off to the beach....(farm, city, apartment, dorm----fill in the blank!)

I am wistful seeing you all float away to lives empty of tests, papers, finals, and studying for a week. We will be here catching up on projects that we often can't do when you are here needing help. I am working on a project in the Archive, trying to finish some tutorials, and work on my ERC procedures manual. I never run out of things to do. Go, have fun, and be safe! We want you back soon!

Hot off the Presses?

Just read a book that made you want to tell everyone about? Know of a book that you think we should have that was recommended in a reading for class? Hear an author being inteviewed on the radio? Whatever the reason, there is a way to make yourself heard. There is a link to a form you can fill out online. It is on the library home page at http://pierce.eou.edu at this location. The link is "Suggest Title for Purchase." We would like to know what you think!

Try a three-dimensional life!

I'm with Paul Rowan, Director of Information Technology, in his letter to the editor of The Voice. I have noticed a significant increase in students using university bandwidth to check on their virtual relationships in Face Place or My Space. I wonder what would happen if they spent that time actually cultivating their real three-dimensional lives? That might leave more bandwidth to spend for those of us who are actually working productively. It is annoying to have to wait even one nanosecond longer to access databases so that Harry can see Sally's last Saturday night's escapades or to hear Joe's latest rap pick. Give it a rest....go visit your friends in real time and space.

Research 'R Us!

The heat is on! Fingers are flyin', tempers are flaring, and a whole forest has been consumed in paper this week. I have noticed that several times (more than five) this week, students are writing papers on the research computers in the ERC.

Repeat after me:

ERC=Research
Computer Lab=Writing

Students tie up the ERC machines for too long writing papers. Thanks for being respecful to your fellow students by writing upstairs.

I'm Baaaaack!

Wow! It is great to be back! Students look really busy getting projects finished up. The Quiet Zone has been packed almost all day! Best wishes for a good week of studying. Again, it is wonderful to be back amongst all the fun!

From a distance-Bette and Me

I know...you hate the song as much as I do but it alludes to my situation for another week. Struggling to even type the sentence I formed in my narcotic-filled brain, I am longing for normalcy. I had BIG surgery last week (see photo except my surgeon was a female!) and have another week to get myself together before getting back to work. I miss you guys but am hardly good company as things stand! My husband watched me take one-half hour to unpeel a flap on a caramel wrapper. The next half hour, I got the next flap undone. Yes! I did get to eat the caramel as a reward. I even tried to knit. Holy Cow! I couldn't remember from one stitch to the next where I was. I tried to go it alone without the pain meds but Wow! Slammed -- as with a ball peen hammer, freight train, Mack truck…you get the picture.

My point is that in the last half-hour before the next pain med and the first half-hour before it kicks in, I have a lucid hour to do homework for my reference class. This week's focus is on ready reference sources. I long to answer my questions in the Reading Room, running from First Facts to The Statistical Handbook of the U.S. but having to work "at a distance" I have to confine myself to online resources. I found two cool ones in our list of databases: Brittanica Online and World Almanac. They have a database search box like the other databases and you can choose the focus of the search to just World Almanac but also Funk and Wagnall's Encyclopedia. Once again, Pierce's ERC resources save my bacon! Bye! Pain meds R making me Zzzzzzz.