Just another dent in the damage…

The first couple of weeks of term are always the busiest for an academic librarian, mainly because it’s the god awful induction time of year. To be fair I got off quite lightly by only seeing about 300 students, but of the sessions I did a couple of those were to over 100 at a time! How scary is that! I’m not a teacher and never envisioned having to ‘teach’ but alas for your average librarian information literacy skill sessions are just a part of the job now. I think once over the nerves I’ll be cool with it and the more practice I get the better I’ll be…. right?

This year I mainly stuck to a traditional ‘I speak, you listen’ type format yet with inquiry-based learning on the rise I guess I’ll be expected to try new things soon. It seemed to work quite well and by keeping it short I hope I didn’t bore too many people. I can’t ever remember being told how to use a library catalogue but I guess I must have been at some point. Maybe I just used common sense, who knows, but for a lot of students this could be the first time they’ve ever used a library and we can’t assume that everyone is good at simple searching. Amazon wasn’t that popular when I was at university but I guess the majority of students these days are familiar with how to search that… and it’s not that different to searching a library catalogue. Is it?

It’s not until you have to prepare induction sessions that you realise how much there is to tell people. I kept my actual speaking time to about 30 minutes because I understand that new students have so much to take in during those first couple of weeks and most of what I say probably went in one ear and out the other anyway. I simply just covered the basics: how to find the library, how to use library systems and general house rules. I think the main thing is to give the library a face. Students need to know who I am and where they can find me.

I also ran a session for post-graduates. The difficulty with these is that you need to focus more on databases and how to access/search journals. Therefore you need to know what databases they’re likely to use and come up with good examples of things to search. Lucky for me these students were from Animal and Plant Sciences and given they’re my second favourite department I was quite comfortable with search terms and strategies.

This year is the first year we’ve had the new Liaison Librarians (i.e. myself and two others) in place as support for the Faculty Librarians and so it’s been the first year my equivalents have also done these induction sessions. One of my colleagues was a little braver than me and decided to introduce the Cephalonia (or Kefalonia) way of doing these. The ‘Cephalonian Method‘ is the brain child of Linda Davies (Cardiff University’s Science Librarian) and was introduced to ‘freshen things up and give induction some sparkle‘. I managed to sit in on one of these sessions and it definitely worked as a good ice-breaker. It made the session more interactive and students were very responsive… it even led to more questions at the end. I’m not sure if I’ll do something similar next year but at least its given me something to think about. If anyone wants to share any induction ideas with me then please… get in touch, I think I’m gonna need a lot of help.

Emptying my bins on Thursday night is a weekly task and little thought ever goes into it but this week I had a revelation! Opening up the bathroom bin to see pretty much a whole carrier bag full of cotton wool pads got me thinking… ‘what if I could find some alternative that is better for the environment and cheaper for me to buy’. It was a little thought, one that was there and then went as quick as it came and life went on until morning. Anyway as the daily routine of opening up Google Reader came about I whizzed through a few hundred boring news feeds and then BAM Eco Peek-o from Craft Candy hit me smack bang in the middle of my falafel sandwich! The answer to my prayers: Machine washable exfoliating round facial scrubbles from ‘Buy Hand‘ on Etsy.

So after browsing a few more of these little scrubbies I was just about to hit the buy button when I had a second brainwave – why don’t I just make some myself? And so, I did. I tried with single crochet, double crochet, magic circles, amigurumi spirals etc and settled on the pattern you’ll find at the bottom.

I think the double crochet ones worked the best. First off they’re an actual circle and not a sort of flattened hexagon like the single crochet type on the left. I also preferred starting with a magic ring rather than the typical chain method as you’ll notice in the picture below a magic ring means the centre hole is much smaller – but seen as this is just a preference I’ve included both in the pattern.

You’ll need:

• Kool Kotton – machine washable double knitting in white (or a colour of your choice);
• 5mm crochet hook;
• tapestry needle;
• scissors.

Instructions:

rd 1 – chain (ch) 3, 12 double crochet (dc) in 3rd ch from hook, slip stitch (sl st) to join round OR make a magic ring with 12 dc in round, sl st to join round (12);
rd 2 – ch 3, 1 dc in same stitch *2 dc in next stitch, repeat from * 11 times, finish round with sl st in 3rd ch stitch (24);
rd 3 – ch 3, 2 dc in next stitch, *1 dc in next stitch, 2 dc in next stitch, repeat from * 10 times, finish round with sl st in 3rd ch stitch (36).
Finish off and weave in ends.

Voi la and see you later disposable cotton wool pads, I’m hanging out with my new friends now.

I saw this a while ago but considering it seems to be doing the rounds again I thought I’d throw in a quick “what the hell were you thinking woman!?” I love granny squares but this is seriously yak. I’d be a little impressed if Cate Blanchett actually made it herself… but only a little.

I absolutely love crocheting, knitting, sewing, crafting… Anything that involves a needle of some sort and a piece of thread/yarn/whatever. I love reading craft weblogs and looking at pictures of other people’s craft rooms and I’ve always wanted to try and use this blog to show you more of the stuff I do but I just never seem to get round to it.

This week I’ve had a massive clear out of my craft room to try and create an inspiring yet functional place! Most importantly FUNCTIONAL. I moved to by new house just over a year ago and was super excited about getting a work space but the more kit I brought to fill it out the more it got crammed into bags and baskets, hidden away to keep the room looking tidy-ish. So after mistakingly managing to pull one of my only two shelves off the wall I decided it was about time to sort this tip out. I got pots, baskets, tins, jars and new shelves and set to work. It took a couple of evenings and a few missed episodes of Hollyoaks but I’ve FINALLY sorted it and thanks to Max I’ve an extra couple of shelves to store all my crap on! Tonight I got my camera out to start snapping away but the damn battery died so alas… no pictures yet. It doesn’t really look that different just much better organised and I can actually get to my sewing machine!

I uploaded a few choice pieces of some of the stuff I’ve been doing lately to Flickr in the hope that it’ll prompt me to document my activities better. I’m working on a couple of craft related posts so if you don’t see something by the end of October nudge me, please… I need it!

For now I’ll leave you with this little guy:

Made by my own fair hands for my pal Vic! The pattern is available from Ana Paula Rimoli’s Etsy store (she’s the writer of Amigurumi World and Amigurumi 2), if you’ve never heard of her go check her stuff out, she’s seriously amazing (her patterns are so simple to follow and are all totally adorable).