A bit of quiet before starting the day

There is something to be said for arriving at work on the early side. I am usually here no later than 8am, usually by 7:30a. The library opens at 7:00a, but the Information Desk does not begin until 8:00a, which means the place is pretty quiet except for a few early students. The Reference Office itself is quiet since the rest of the librarians come in on the later side of the morning, and the Director, while an early riser, goes to her own office. So, I get the place mostly to myself. Came in, checked my e-mail, read through the Research Buzz, which I receive every week by Friday morning. It was brief this morning. She has not been writing a lot into it as of late, so I get through it quickly. It is one of those things I like looking through for new website ideas. She did recommend an internet radio station for those of us who like background music while we type. So, if you like indie, trance, and so on, SomaFM might be for you. I am listening to it now while I type this. I have to say it is pretty good. That and the Scout Report. I have a Collection Development Committee meeting later in the morning, and it looks like from the agenda it is mostly discussing a recent trial for ABI/Inform, which I did not do, but since we had it where I used to work, I am familiar with the database. I already know we are not going to get it given our funding situation. Then there is a proposal from Thompson Gale for a set of databases. Since the State of Texas has decided to cut back on its TexShare databases, it means for us that databases we could get on a good deal through the TexShare System we now have to pay for on our own. This is basically a big bite for us, so we'll see. One of the things we may be losing is one of our Spanish language databases. Spanish falls under my subject areas, so I am advocating for keeping it. Also, the University is considering the creation of a Spanish major, likely Spanish for Business Professionals, so such a product would be more desirable and necessary, but again, costs and funding will likely be the considerations. It is sadly one of the realities of academia, and libraries in general, that we have a society where the government can happily spend millions on the latest weapons to kill efficiently, but never enough to educate its citizens.

On a different note, I got a somewhat interesting reference question yesterday. I am finishing up the research for it this morning, and I will post the question and my answer later today. Well, I have to be at the Information Desk at 8:00a today, so I better get going.