SFPL Internship : Week 13 (Recap)

Following up and following through -- those where the twin themes of week 13.

A three-day wave of follow-up questions to each of our seven Peer libraries, and then an unexpected, last-minute entry from an eighth library filled my e-mail inbox with messages that needed replies, processing and filing. There's still the remote possibility that more messages will come in the next week, but because my presentation is only a half-week away (and my report due soon after), it's not likely that I'll add any information from messages that do, unless they bring up something that either completely supports my recommendations, or changes the game so dramatically that it can't be ignored.

Since the report and presentation will cover the same ground, I'm composing them simultaneously -- in that way, the presentation serves as an outline for the report. The annotated bibliography is coming along well, too. With such a wide variety of topics covered in the Peer survey and recommendations, it's been difficult for me to hone in on the dozen or so resources that would be most beneficial, but so far I think I've maintained a pretty good balance. Most of my resources are geared towards academic libraries -- partially because I work full-time and do school research in an academic library, so I'm more familiar with academic-oriented materials, and partially because the topic of digital resources best practices is so new to public libraries that there just doesn't seem to be much out there written specifically for them. So whenever possible, I've tried to choose academic books with broad audience and applicability, and with a concise, practical approach towards digital resources management -- not a theoretical or critical one.

Time has become very tight, so this is likely to be the last post I'll make until after I've traveled to San Francisco to deliver my report and presentation and to attend DPLA-WEST. So you'll have to forgive me for going silent for a week or two. I'm sure that when I return in May, I'll have plenty of stories to share about my adventures -- as well as thoughts related to my Golden Gate Bridge cataloging project, which will resume on May 1st.

See you then!