Organization Monkey

Faculty Pub Night at the Library

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Marie Kennedy

This fall the library is hosting a series of presentations from LMU Faculty members to celebrate their recent publications or creative works. Each forum allows the author to present, discuss, and answer questions about their work in a casual setting. Books are available for purchase.

All LMU faculty, students, staff and members of the community are welcome!

Our second event in this series will feature LMU Professor of English Chuck Rosenthal. Dr. Rosenthal recently lived for four months in the Himalayas of northeast India, the setting for his new book, Are we not there yet: Travels in Nepal, North India, and Bhutan

Tuesday, October 27, 2009
5:30pm – 6:30pm
Von der Ahe Family Suite, Level 3

Refreshments will be served!

Visit the Faculty Pub Night Website for the entire schedule of events and more details.

Posted in library, writing | Tagged Pub Night | Comments Off

Mingus quote

Posted on October 26, 2009 by Marie Kennedy

“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple” — Charles Mingus

this is my guiding quote of the week.

Posted in library, management | Tagged quote | 1 Comment

preparation and chance

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Marie Kennedy

last week our university president gave his annual academic convocation, this year focusing his theme on the library. specifically, he focused on the new library on our campus, “the william h. hannon library: what is it saying to us?” he talked about libraries being a “house of chance,” a place in which a prepared mind can be surprised by new ideas. he quoted a really beautiful passage from elaine scarry’s book, on beauty and being just:

One submits oneself to other minds in order to increase the chance that one will be looking in the right direction when a comet makes its sweep through a certain patch of sky.

he went on to say in his speech that universities and libraries in general strive to create the sort of environment that prepares its users well enough that they will be alert and ready to recognize and absorb new ideas as they come along.

i like the spirit of scarry’s quote, especially in the setting of an academic convocation, because it intends for us to be awed by and embrace surprises. it gets at what i appreciate most about working in an educational environment; we satisfy the expected goal of the student via instruction but we also provide a setting to explore and appreciate new ideas.

Posted in library | Comments Off

know your audience: license agreements

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Marie Kennedy

one of my job duties is to negotiate license agreements for electronic resources that the library subscribes to. i really like this part of my job. i’ve liked the language of law since my first part-time library position at the law library at the univ of florida. i taught myself a lot while on that job, and learned that contracts can be written beautifully, clearly, and simply. contracts are an easy concept: here’s what we agree to, here’s what you agree to, here is what we are both bound by, and here’s how we’ll resolve any discrepancies that come up later. why, my lawyer friends, do you make the license agreements i deal with so dark, murky, and one-sided? didn’t your momma ever tell you to keep your audience in mind when you write? 🙂

Posted in library, license agreements | Comments Off

to-do list

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Marie Kennedy

we’ve reached that point in the semester when students have to schedule their sleep!
this to-do list was found on a white board in one of our group study rooms.