It's that time of year - assignments are heating up and the Library is getting busier, the questions are getting harder and more interesting. I'm teaching three library sessions next week so I won't be jotting much here for a bit.
Enjoy Mark Fiore's political humor for the time being, and watch the debates at the West Bank auditorium Thursday night.
A few weeks ago I briefly felt caught up and - almost - bored. That lasted about a week. Now, I'm scurrying around, trying to make sure everything will be ready for the start of Fall semester. It's particularly difficult to do that during this session break, because the library closes at 6 p.m. One has to schedule a late bathroom break right before 6 in order to stay beyond closing.
We get busy even before classes start, because students are starting to come to campus and check out the library - what's where, does the library own my textbook (usually, it does not). All the guides and Web pages need to be reviewed over the summer to be sure they are accurate. But often it is over the summer that changes occur, so the guides and pages cannot be finalized until the changes are finalized. So, we do the very best we can to keep up with changes on campus, in our buildings, in our services, our database names, etc. Resources like Research QuickStart make that process easier by running off a database that can make global changes with a single keystroke (or something almost that simple!) Other changes are more challenging, but - in my mind - that's what August is for!
So you may not see much change in my blog, because I'll be busy elsewhere!
For now = take a look at
Guthrie :
http://www.guthrietheater.org/act_I/show_group.cfm?id_group=41246011
MN Artists Organization:
http://mnartists.org/
This article is featured in today's U of M News:
A Laughing Matter
How wonderful to see humor applauded. Humor is important not just in health care but here at the University. And often it is harder to find in academe.
It isn't always easy to convince people that such entertaining things as humor, fun or, say, coffee are acceptable in an academic library. But people are human, comprised of many components and capable of multi-tasking.
For students faced with dry topics (library research methods, perhaps?), the right touch of humor can help retain focus.
Similarly, when students come here to study or - soon - to work on their projects by using software like PhotoShop and Word and other production tools, they are likely to stay longer if coffee and snacks are nearby.
I am not saying we have to mimic Barnes and Noble. There are things about that chain that irk me, and I have some firsthand experience, if you're interested. (I have it even if you're not). But you have to admit that BN had vision when they paired up with Starbucks. Reading and coffee are an appealing combination for many people.
Back to humor, there are just 49* results this morning from a MNCAT search for the keywords humor and research (adjacency not required!). Read on for a few of the listings:
Attardo, Salvatore, 1962- Humorous texts : a semantic and pragmatic analysis / by Salvatore Attardo. Berlin : New YorK : Mouton de Gruyter, 2001.
TC Wilson Library P302.7 .A88 2001
Lefcourt, Herbert M. Humor : the psychology of living buoyantly / Herbert M. Lefcourt. New York : Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, c2001.
TC Wilson Library BF575.L3 L425 2001
Hampden-Turner, Charles. Building cross-cultural competence : how to create wealth from conflicting values / Charles M. Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars. New Haven : Yale University Press, c2000.
TC Wilson Library HD62.4 .H35 2000
Jenkins, Joseph C. The humanure handbook : a guide to composting human manure / [Joseph Jenkins]. Grove City, PA : Jenkins Pub., c1999.
TC Andersen Horticultural S657 .J46x 1999
Berger, Arthur Asa, 1933- Media research techniques / Arthur Asa Berger. Thousand Oaks : Sage Publications, c1998.
TC Wilson Library P91.3 .B386 1998
Humor and laughter : theory, research, and applications / Antony J. Chapman and Hugh C. Foot, editors ; with a new introduction by Peter Derks. New Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A. : Transaction Publishers, c1996.
TC Wilson Library BF575.L3 H87 1996
I've been gone far too long : field study fiascoes and expedition disasters / edited by Monique Borgerhoff Mulder & Wendy Logsdon ; with a preface by John Heminway and an afterword by Nigel Barley. Oakland, Calif. : RDR Books, c1996.
TC Wilson Library QK45.5 .I94x 1996
Annals of improbable research. Cambridge, MA : MIT Museum, c1995-
TC Veterinary Medical Library Periodicals
Humor in America : a research guide to genres and topics / edited by Lawrence E. Mintz. New York : Greenwood Press, 1988.
TC Wilson Library PS430 .H86 1988
Handbook of humor research / edited by Paul E. McGhee and Jeffrey H. Goldstein. New York : Springer-Verlag, c1983.
UM MORRIS Briggs Library BF575.L3 H36 1983
TC Wilson Library 152.4 H191
TC Wilson Library BF575.L3 H36 1983
The World encyclopedia of cartoons / Maurice Horn, editor, Richard Marschall, assistant editor. Detroit : Gale Research Co., 1980.
UM DULUTH Library REF NC1325 .W67 1980
TC Wilson Library Quarto 741.5 W8928
TC Wilson Library Reference Quarto NC1325 .W67 1980b
Humour and laughter : theory, research, and applications / edited by Antony J. Chapman and Hugh C. Foot. London ; New York : Wiley, c1976.
IN STORAGE: MN Lib Access Ctr 152.4 H883 9ZAR10D03S06TFB
Hazlitt, William Carew, 1834-1913. Studies in jocular literature; a popular subject more closely considered. London, E. Stock, 1890. Detroit, Gale Research Co., 1969.
TC Wilson Library 820.16 H33a
*All the above said, it's dangerous to use statistics to prove a point. If you search MNCAT for the keyword "humor" and leave out the word "research" (which is implied in much of what we own, anyway, the result is a whopping 5075! Of course that includes children's literature, fiction, poetry - all of which are cool but don't reveal what I see as academe's general avoidance of humor.
You can browse "any subject heading begins with "Wit and Humor" and today that search retrieves 245 results. One of the top ones on the list was "I died laughing : funeral education with a light touch" and it reveals more subject headings, including death--humor and "Funeral rites and ceremonies -- Humor" and the MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) Wit and Humor. This MeSH heading brings up 14 results compared with LCSH's 228.
All of which reminds me of my favorite HBO series to rent (nah, I don't do cable), which is Six Feet Under. It's so smart and funny. to die for.
May did fly. It's July and finally the weather is contemplating going into summer mode but it's been some time coming. And the May flies, I believe, have thrown themselves onto the pedestrian bridge in an act of love or suicide, I'm not sure which. Wish I had a digital camera.
The snowball bushes are blooming on West Bank right outside the door of Blegen Hall. Lovely! So civilized...
As we clear out a space in the Wilson Library Reference Room to add a large table for computer workstations, the view to the paved outside world has opened up, perhaps the largest span of window space first floor has ever enjoyed. But it's marred by the sight of an Info kiosk that has been shorn of its flyers, stripped down to stapled corner edges of colored paper. It looks a lot like a trash bin turned inside out. Maybe we can plant something living to hide the view of it. Beyond the kiosk is a lot of brick and before it, pavement.