With a research project required in the Global Studies course for all 600 students, they have been making good use of the materials on board, as well as the UVA library databases.
We've also been busy with a physical inventory of every library book, DVD, CD, and map. That means using a barcode reader to scan EVERY item. Because our library catalog resides on the shipboard intranet, the success of our project relied on a responsive network. So we started our work each day at 0600 (that's 6 AM for you landlubbers) before the students and everyone else on board start to use the intranet. Library student workers even volunteered for the early (before 0800) shift and enjoyed the work. We placed my laptop on a cart, attached the barcode reader, and walked up and down the aisles. We completed our inventory project while we were sailing the River Amazon so we didn't need to negotiate any rough seas.
Our fabulous library team is made up of 11 student assistants and Nedra Peterson (on the left in our team photo below). Nedra is the director of the library at Woodbury University in Burbank, CA and is a natural shipboard librarian. In addition to her outstanding library skills, she is flexible, good-humored, and thinks fast on her feet. She's blogging her experiences at Librarian Afloat.
Yours in exciting library busy-ness,
Mary
Way to keep things properly organized, Mary!!
ReplyDeleteCount on me Margie!
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