Alpaca Farms and my Voodoo Juju

One of the things I'm doing in my reference rotation, is sitting down with each liaison librarian to learn about the resources, (electronic and print), that the librarians use most often in their specific areas.  I've found that trying to absorb 2 hours of all new information is pretty difficult to do, and even harder to remember.  I explain to the liaison librarians that they are to imagine that they just won a million gazillion dollars, (approximately), and after much soul searching they have decided to purchase an Alpaca farm in eastern Kentucky and go into the Animal Rescue and Farm Vacation industries.*

                                                                      Purty 'Pacas

So I tell the liaisons that before they depart for Alpaca-land, they've only got ONE HOUR to impart all the most important resources in their subject area to me.  (It's sort of like The Price is Right meets Weakest Link meets Eminem, if you speak hip-hop game-show.)

So, what keeps happening, is some really cool voodoo juju.  Because, it seems, that every time after I meet with one of the liaisons, the VERY NEXT reference shift I work, and often the VERY FIRST QUESTION I get, directly relates to something I just reviewed with the liaison.  Case in point, after reviewing early childhood and education resources with the librarian liaison to that department, the first student that approached the desk needed to find journal articles about education!  Cah-RAZY!!  (We sent her to the database, Education Research Complete.)  


Another time right after meeting with the history and political science liaison librarian, a student needed to find articles on trade in Chile from China.  We started with Europa World Plus but that was a toughy and I spent some time helping him come up with the right subject terms to search in the databases and suggested a consultation with that librarian. 


Oh! And then on Saturday, and this not exactly the same, but related on the Juju level, after having a chat with a friend from home, the first person up to the desk had been assigned a project researching the economy and landscape of my hometown, Cleveland, Ohio!  What are the chances??  Insert: Shout out to the Cleveland Memory Project at my Alma Mater, Cleveland State University, here.


In summary, 1.) The Universe is finally working with me and not against me as exhibited by this 60 degree cloudless, sunny day.  AND, 2.) Going to the experts builds confidence and skills.  Mad crazy skills!

                                                                  More Purty 'Pacas

*Which is actually close to what I would do if I won a gazillion dollars, but in San Diego, and I'd actually hire people to take care of the Alpacas, and farm, and I would just work out of my state of the art music studio in my basement and hire crazy good music producers and we'd just crank out mad tracks all day and night! Jee-ah!