After having a busy 1st week, we had a free Sunday and Monday (Memorial Day, May 27, 2019), I explored campus town in these two free days, to my surprise this town is worth living with all types of food centers, (Korean, Chinese, Oriental & of Course American), lush green play grounds with a giant stadium (Fighting Illinois), Serene Parks and my love Champaign Public Library a paradise for readers. me and my colleague Amada really enjoyed long walks to these places and Clara’s Recommended Ice Cream Point “Jarling’s Custard Cup”.
Yes, our Monday of 2nd week started with a brief program reflection with Clara and then we had an insightful and inspirational conversation with Dean of Libraries & University Librarians, John Wilkins. who talked about the changing landscapes of University Libraries and efforts made to remain relevant to all changes. he also shed light on university’s budgetary decision makings and tenure based faculty positions of librarians at University of Illinois.
‘Internet of things’ was an after-break session where author of Internet of Things: mobile technology & location services, Jim Hahn shared the experiences and outcomes of his case studies on location based services in libraries. Next was an eye opening experience at Oak Street Library where I saw the compact shelving system & high density storage system for the first time, the amount of work, the skill set and diligence of library staff with these collapsing 40′ high shelves are commendable. here I really felt proud of being a librarian, no matter I never worked with this kind of set-up but at least it belongs to me and my profession.
then we had a tour to scholarly commons and learned about GIS from Aaron King, Scholarly Commons GIS consultant.
Next day, May 29, came with an exciting travel to Springfield at 7:00 am. where we got a chance to see & feel the legacy of Abraham Lincoln by visiting the Presidential Library and Meghan Harmon an able reference librarian greeted us at the reception area and gave us a detailed guided tour of the library with a presentation on historical moments from the life of Lincoln. We also visited the house where Lincoln used to live, it gives you a natural feel of the past and glorious days of the President. Illinois State Library visit was also part of our program. apart from our scheduled program our Director Clara managed to take us to the house of state where we witnessed live parliamentary proceedings and we got into senate building to have some memorable pictures.
Library Assessment session, conducted by Jen Chien Yu, Library Assessment Coordinator, introduced a valuable tool ‘Project outcome’ which we can easily apply in our libraries. and the after lunch sessions were about Preservation where we witness the practical aspects/examples of what we had read about in books. especially media preservation lab is a fantastic one at this University. Joshua Harris, Media Preservation Coordinator can be a good source when we need a help for such a project.
the Last day of 2nd week was dedicated to Digitization of Collections and Alyce Scott, Lecturer San Jose University shared valuable information about digitization. I also had an extra meeting with Kristen Feist to discuss some LibGuides Issues and it was a productive meeting. we exchanged our email addresses and agreed on a continuous professional cooperation when ever needed. in sum it was a perfect learning opportunity to learn how change happens and how to respond to changing scenarios and remain relevant as a professional.
Saturday marked as a free day on our program copy was well utilized as we visited farmer’s market in Urbana and it became part of our memorable events.