Fun Facts!

By Guest Blogger Melissa Ravely

One of the many reasons I decided to become a librarian is my love of random facts. Once I was assigned my desk at my new job, I found that I had a large expanse of blank, white wall to stare at every day. Naturally, something had to cover that space, so I decided to fill it with facts I learned while working at Towson's Cook Library. Initially it was only going to be things I learned while helping patrons at the desk, but I loosened that rule over time and included any facts I stumbled across while at work. The only rule I upheld was that it had to be a new fact to me. Over the course of the school year, I posted 25 facts on my wall, and it became an entertaining focal point to our shared office space. Even librarians with offices on other floors liked to check in periodically to see what I had posted. Those 25 facts are listed below, with information on where I learned it (if I still remember). Since it was such a hit, I do plan on continuing it next year!

1. Home schooling is illegal in many countries. (This was one of the first reference questions I helped answer while at Towson - a student wanted to know in which countries home schooling was allowed.)
2. Moby Dick is based on the true story of the shop "Essex" and its sinking. Deborah Nolan [Towson's Dean of University Libraries] is a descendant of one of the survivors! [I learned this at a Happy Hour Cook Library was hosting for area librarians - Shannon created an ice breaker consisting of book titles affixed to each of our backs and we had to ask each other questions to figure out what our book was. Mine was Moby Dick, and while talking with Debbie she offered up this tidbit!]
3. In formal usage, "people" refers to a general group, while "persons" refers to a collection of individuals. [I was editing a pdf help guide on how to find bibliographies, and came across the word "persons" and went on a fairly long expedition to figure out if it was correct or not.]
4. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliopohia is the fear of long words. [The first time my fiance came to my job and I showed him the wall, he said I should add this fact, as it is one of his favorites. He also offered up "defenestration" as the act of throwing someone out of a window, but he had told me that one before so I did not put it up on the wall.]
5. A teddy bear collector is called an arctophile. [I collected teddy bears, and while researching #17 below, came across this fact.]
6. True, authentic diners were prefabricated at a factory and then transported to the site. [I had emailed my dad about the Bel-Loc Diner I pass on my way to work every day, saying I thought it looked real since it was from the 1950's, and he replied with this fact.]
7. In 1916, in Erwin, Tennessee, the only known elephant lynching took place after the elephant, Mary, killed a townsperson/circus volunteer. The circus owner had her publicly lynched so as to dispel the angry town and bad press. The play "The Elephant's Graveyard" is based on these events. [Towson students were putting on the play in question, so I researched its background, as elephants are my favorite animal.]
8. Until 1971, British currency included 12 pence per shilling and 20 shillings per pound. In 1971, they changed the conversions to just 100 pence per pound. [I was reading Dicken's Oliver Twist at the time and it mentioned shillings, and I thought, you never hear about shillings any more, so I looked it up.]
9. Hawaii was an independent monarchy until American & European businessmen overthrew it in 1893; it was then an independent Republic until annexed by the U.S. as a territory in 1898.
10. Originally, a sunroof was a metal panel that only let in air and light when opened, while a moonroof was a glass panel that would let in light all the time. [I mentioned to my colleague Laksamee that my car has a sunroof, and she asked what the difference between a sunroof and moonroof was, so we looked it up. Today, the terms are interchangeable, though by this definition my car actually has a moonroof.]
11. Vexillology is the scholarly research of flags. [When our new intern, Jennie, began and saw my wall of facts, she said she always uses this one whenever a random fact is needed.]
12. The German word for "garlic clove", Knoblauchzehe, directly translates as "garlic toe". [I have a friend who started taking German in college for fun, and then moved to Germany after graduating; in one of her email updates on her life she mentioned that this always makes her giggle whenever she goes grocery shopping.]
13. In poker, "Dead Man's Hand", consisting of a pair of Aces and a pair of 8s, got its name because those were the cards in Wild Bill Hickok's hand when he was shot and killed..
14. The famous black bricks of the facade of 10 Downing Street [the British Prime Minister's house] were found to be yellow covered with 200+ years of pollution. During the reconstruction of the dilapidated building in the 1960s, the bricks were painted black after cleaning to preserve the iconic look.
15. The leaves on a rhubarb plant are poisonous. [A colleague brought in strawberry-rhubarb pie for us, and while I was partaking of some with another colleague, Lisa, she informed me of this.]
16. Most geckos have fused eyelids, meaning they can't blink. [I was checking my email one day and got the quarterly update from my hometown science museum, and it included this fact.]
17. Douglas Spedden (age 6) survived the sinking of the Titanic with his white bear "Polar". [I was reading the book "Teddy Bear Stories for Grown-Ups" which had a story of one man on the Titanic who perished, but whose son's bear was found (the story said the son had given the bear to his father upon departure). I was looking into to see if the story was true (while the family bear exists, it cannot be proven that it was on the Titanic and could just be family lore) but found this true story instead. Spedden's mother wrote the children's book "Polar the Titanic Bear" based on his story. Sadly, Douglas was the first child to be killed in a car accident at the age of 9.]
18. Charlie Chaplin married his last wife (the daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill) when he was 54 and she only 18 (thus causing her father to disown her). They subsequently had 8 children, the last of which was born when Chaplin was 73. [Some actor, I don't remember who, on a late-night show had mentioned that Chaplin had 8 children after the age of 54 and I researched the claim the next day.]
19. During WWI (1914), British and German soldiers held an unofficial "Christmas Truce" along the Western Front, laying down arms on Christmas Eve and Day and exchanging small gifts of food, beer, and tobacco. In 1915, the soldiers went so far as to have a soccer match on Christmas in No Man's Land.
20. The skin of mangoes contains the same chemical that is found in poison ivy. [I was discussing fact #15 with my colleague Amanda when she mentioned this - she is allergic to poison ivy and found out the hard way about mangoes.]
21. The Baltimore Ravens are named such because Edgar Allan Poe died and is buried here in Baltimore. [As a newbie to the city, I found this fascinating.]
22. The exceptions to the less vs. fewer rule are time, money and distance. [Less vs. fewer is one of my biggest pet peeves, and I was venting about new signs in the restrooms saying to "use less paper towels" when it should use "fewer" because "paper towels" are numerically countable. The corresponding sign that said "use less water" was correct, since you can't count "water". The person I was venting to questioned the countable rule, citing an item on sale is said to be "15 dollars less than the list price" when dollars are countable. So I looked it up and she was right!]
23. Composer Gustav Mahler was one of Sigmund Freud's first patients. [A student researching Freud informed me of this.]
24. Monowi, Nebraska (as of 4/28/11) is the only incorporated town in the U.S. with a population of 1. [This popped up on Yahoo! News one day when I was checking my email.]
25. It is believed (but truly unknown) that Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann's wife, Clara, were lovers, as they were known to have all lived together and the two destroyed all of their personal letters.

Committee Work - Signage Assessment

By Guest Blogger Melissa Ravely

A large part of any academic job is always serving on committees. I got started working with the Marketing Committee when I pointed out a need for "call number cheat sheets" of sorts to put in the stacks to aid patrons who would like to browse. When I voiced this need, I discovered that the Marketing Committee was already planning (although they had not yet started) to assess signage around the building, and was invited to join the Marketing Committee to aid in this assessment.

As it turned out, at my first Committee Meeting, I was offered the position of head of the sub-team who would do the assessment. I've never even served on any sort of committee before, and here I was leading a sub-committee and a major project already! But I jumped at the chance to have that experience (and also to break the monotony of adding closed captions to help videos!)

At that first meeting, we established the members of the subcommittee and started throwing out ideas of signs we noticed were missing that we would like to create, and also made comments on existing signage that we did not like for a variety of reasons. Over the course of the next month, I walked the entire building (we have five floors) and made an Excel spreadsheet detailing every sign I saw (and with so many, I know I missed some!), which floor it was on, and whether it was a permanent sign or a sign that someone had simply printed from their computer. I emailed it around to the subcommittee members and asked for their comments so that at our next meeting we could discuss which of these signs are great and can stay, which signs need revamped, and which ones need taken down. From this discussion we created a list of our top priorities. The categories of these priorities included directional signage, call number signs, signs for restrooms, and certain room or service desk signage. This list also included all of the signs we wanted removed.

The next step was to take this list to the library Administrative Assistant and discuss the possibilities and costs involved with accomplishing our ideas. She and I took the list and walked the entire building again to see the various environments. I learned that our second floor is going to be completely remodeled in the next few years so we shouldn't worry about changing any signs there since they will all be replaced with the remodel. I learned that for the seeing-impaired we cannot have any signs physically on a door, as it poses an obvious safety concern. I was also informed not to put any signs on glass (although another committee member came up with a work around for that later - instead of using paper, print signage on clear sticker paper that can thus be affixed to the window) and that no permanent signs could be put on the nice wood paneling as permanent signs are drilled into the walls (although later this was amended). I was told of materials we already had that could be used for signage (for free!) and she also let me know the vendors and prices of existing signs to give an idea of what cost might be incurred in making new ones.

So at the next subcommittee meeting we discussed all of these things and finalized the list that included the most important signs we would like to revamp or create and what the prices would be for each. This list included buying new hanging signs for our service desks, creating a podium map for the main floor, relocated a map in the main lobby to a more visible location, revamping an existing generic "Welcome to Cook Library" sign that is on every floor to be floor-specific, re-printing all of the call number range signs so that the fonts match, creating better directional signage to the Media Resource Services lab (as the only room that is contained inside a lobby and behind the elevator shaft no one can ever find it!), and removing all "no smoking" and "no food and drink" signs from around the building (food and drink have been allowed since the cafe opened in the main lobby a few years ago, and the entire campus has been deemed smoke-free for a year, so the signs are unnecessary). Out of this list, only the hanging signs and perhaps the floor-specific signs would incur any cost. The rest we could use existing equipment for and/or create ourselves.

The next step was to take this final list to the Dean of University Libraries to discuss and get the go-ahead for our plans. She emphatically agreed with all our ideas, loved that we had taken the initiative to assess and change signage around the building (it sounded as if signage had been a thorn in her side for awhile!) and gave us a lot of good feedback for how to create the signs we had in mind. Now, we just have to do it!

But with the most important signs accounted for, the subcommittee still has work to do! When I assessed the entire building, I was surprised to find loads of personally-created signs tacked up for various reasons. The main problem with all of these "hand-made" signs was the complete lack of uniformity. As a subcommittee, we decided that sometimes these non-permanent signs are necessary (think "out of order" signs and signs for the stacks that can move as the books move) but if signs are going to be made, they should be somewhat consistent. At our last meeting we began the process of decided upon some sort of template or at least a list of guidelines for sign-makers to use so that we don't have the hodge-podge of signage we have now. At that meeting, we came up with a list of things we should mandate in a future list of guidelines, and decided to create templates for commonly used signs (such as "out of order"). The list of things to consider in making the guidelines included fonts, borders, pictures, colored paper, use of bold/italics/underline, a whole conversation on excessive use of exclamation points, and what kind of information should be included in signs.

For our next meeting, I plan on bringing samples of the existing signs from around the building so we can work off of these examples - discussing what we like and dislike about these signs will help guide the creation of our set of rules.

I will say this project has shed new light for me on signs - I notice them everywhere I go now and have definite opinions about them :-)

Captivating Helpful Videos

By Guest Blogger Melissa Ravely

Last week I mentioned that a large part of my job has been working with the program Captivate to create help guide videos for our patrons. To get an idea of what these videos are, check out Cook Library's Help Guides webpage here: http://cooklibrary.towson.edu/helpguides/index.cfm?list=all. This lists all of our help guides, including PDFs created by our librarians and external links we have found particularly useful. The Captivate videos are indicated as such by a director's clapboard, so look for that icon!

My first task last fall was to update all of the existing Captivate videos to reflect Cook Library's then brand new website. As it turned out, EBSCO had also slightly altered their look and that had to be updated as well. This turned out to be a fantastic way to learn how to use Captivate since these video files were already established so I could just learn the basics used to alter different aspects of the files. Mostly this was learning how to record screenshots of the new website and editing any text boxes that now had incorrect directions. This also meant that sometimes the voiceover was now incorrect as well, but in most cases the librarian who had created the original was still at Cook Library, so I graciously asked them to re-record a line here and there and then I learned how to insert sound clips. I also had to edit the closed-captioning, and as I discovered that many of these videos did not have closed captioning, I had to create it. (I should point out that I only thought of the closed captions near the end of this endeavor - thus I spent weeks solely adding closed captioning to all of the videos. Closed captioning was the bane of my existence those days.)

Since I was learning as I went along, I edited them in an order I established based on how much needed edited. That way, I figured I could build on my knowledge one step at a time, adding features to my skill bank as I came across them. So the last video I tackled was "Locating Books by Keyword". Since it was a video based solely on a website that no longer existed, I had to almost completely scrap it and start over. It was nice to have the script and storyboard already done; I tweaked the directional steps but kept the script basically the same, and followed the old storyboard to set up the screenshots of the new website. Here I also learned how to create the voiceover recordings, locking myself in the office late at night to ensure no background noise got picked up in the microphone, and re-recording line after line to make sure I didn't cough or have any harsh-sounding letters.

A semester later, they were all updated and newly posted to the aforementioned website, and I was the hero of all the librarians who now did not have to find the time to update them themselves in between teaching and committee work and the other projects keeping them on their toes. :-)

So then, I thought, I'm pretty good at using this Captivate program! Maybe I should make a few videos of my own! Having just spent four months listening to those already made, I knew what topics were covered and I had a few good ideas for topics yet to be approached that I felt would make for good videos. I had edited a whole slew of videos in one semester, so I thought I could knock a few new ones out during the Spring.

As it turns out, that was a bit bold. Coming up with ideas is easy, and editing a video was a bit time-consuming, but it got faster the more I did it, and a single video only took a couple weeks to update. However, I did not yet realize how much work it takes to get from "idea" to "editing".

I started with the idea of showing patrons how to use Google Scholar. As I tinkered around on the site, researching and plotting the steps I would point out, I realized I should probably explain how to use Google Advanced Search options first. So I took a small step backwards and tinkered around that search engine as well and after a few days had a nice bulleted list of the steps, in order, that my video would show.

The next step proved more time-consuming than I imagined as well: coming up with an example search that would yield a results list diverse enough to cover all of the aspects I wanted to exemplify. For Google Advanced Search, I needed a search that was complex enough to use as many of the Advanced Search options as possible, that yielded diverse results. Once I started trying current political topics, I also wanted to be sure to choose a search that would not be offensive to anyone. When trying to find an example search for Google Scholar it again took a while to stumble on a topic that yielded materials in multiple formats that Cook Library had access to, and that those examples would all show up on the first page of results.

After a few weeks, I finally had a bulleted list of what I wanted to cover, and a few good examples with which to do so. Next I had to create a storyboard of all the screenshots I wanted to cover, and at this point I also created a first draft of the script. I found it was easier to capture the screenshots when I already had a script running through my head, so I could make sure everything I would need to point out in the video was captured.

Once I had the storyboard plotted out, it was time to dive in and record the screenshots. That part went pretty smoothly. Once I started editing, adding pop-up boxes and arrows I found that this stage also took much longer than anticipated - creating all of those things from scratch takes a lot longer than editing existing ones! Once I had the video itself established, the next step was to re-write the script until I was satisfied with it and then record all of the voiceovers. Once the voiceovers were in place, I had to go back and adjust the timing for all of the pop-ups and text boxes to show up in accordance with the script. Last but not least, I had to create the closed captions and time those accordingly as well. (Once again, closed captioning was the bane of my existence!)

In the end I had a massive, 9 minute long video. Our "best practices", as established by video creators before me, suggest that videos are no longer than 5 minutes (although you can see from the aforementioned list that many are longer than that). After garnering feedback from my colleagues, I decided to split it into two videos - Part 1 covers Google Advanced Search and Part 2 covers Google Scholar. This meant tweaking the script once more and re-recording a few slides to allow the videos to stand on their own. I also edited a few other things my colleagues had suggested, and put the finishing touches on.

3 months after I started, all of my hard work had paid off, and my videos were posted online for all to see!

An Introduction of Sorts

By Guest Blogger Melissa Ravely

Hello! I've never blogged before, so I hope you'll bear with me over the next month as I fill in for Shannon.

Today, I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I am Melissa Ravely, the Evening Research and Instruction Librarian at Towson University. While that is where I truly got to know Shannon, we actually attended Kent State University at the same time and even took one class together!

Now what is a "Research and Instruction Librarian", you might ask? While it is traditionally known as "Reference", Towson has put a more practical spin on the department with its name change, since research and instruction are the two facets of our jobs that take up most of our time! The "Evening" part of my title is self-explanatory I am sure, but it means that I man the Reference Desk solo from 6-10 pm Sunday through Thursday nights whenever classes are in session. I field questions from mostly students, some faculty, the the occassional non-affiliate. I like working the same hours every day, as I really get to know some of the regulars (and I'm sure they appreciate knowing that my smiling face will always be there to assist them!). I did an analysis of the type of questions I most commonly received during that time slot of Fall Semester, and found that simple catalog searches and computer issues were the most popular. (I'd be interested to follow this analysis through the rest of the year and see what changes - I was surprised that APA citation questions were not as common, and am sure they became more popular as the year went on). I created the following pie chart to show my findings for Fall Semester 2010:

But manning the desk isn't all I do. Don't forget about that "instruction" part of my title! Since I am not a subject liaison, the opportunities to teach library instruction classes are fewer, but every once in a while the subject librarian can't schedule a session and I get to cover it. Usually it's a more entry-level class such as COSCI111, and I just cover the basics of finding books and articles with our resources. I also got the opportunity to co-teach database searching strategies to Towson High School students for one of their AP English courses.

Outside of the classroom, instruction doesn't stop, especially for a library - we want to reach and teach people whenever and where ever they may be! One way to do that is through online tutorials and help guides. These are a mixture of PDFs and videos. I was initially tasked with updating all of the existing video tutorials to reflect the changes that were made last summer to Cook Library's homepage. In so doing I became extremely well-versed in Captivate, the program used to create the videos, so I began making new videos as well. But I think I'll leave that to another blog post later this month (so tune in then for the details!)

I think I've covered the basics of my job and adequately set the stage for future blogs while Shannon is out. Hope you're all staying cool from all this summer heat!