Prague Summer Seminar: Days 1 & 2

Day 1 - Sunday, May 15

Most of us arrived this day. I shared a taxi from the airport with Erica and Michael. After a little rest and refresh, Erica and I went to a nearby cafe for espresso (and I had a sausage).

First Prague selfie with Erica

This little round "new Catholic" church down the road from the hotel is apparently
from the 13th century and became a landmark for us.

Sunday evening the group gathered in the lounge of the hotel to meet for our orientation. We took a group photo that then was annotated with everyone's names -- this became very helpful in remembering who everyone was! In total, there were about 19 library school students, three main Czech hosts, one faculty person from UNC, and one staff person from UNC.

After the orientation meeting, a group of us went to the famous Cafe Louvre, which was just around the corner from our hotel. I had a delicious dinner of salmon and potatoes!

Day 2 - Monday, May 16

I was sitting in the hotel dining room, reading the assigned articles, and sheltering from the hail that was dropping outside. A couple people from the group invited me to explore with them because we had free time until our afternoon tour at 2:30. We strolled around old town and went up in the Astronomical Clock Tower, then had lunch in a cafe by the mall. There was a very interesting Metamorphoses-inspired sculpture outside the cafe. The lunch was a nice way to get to know some of my cohort members, including a SJSU classmate and a person from Northridge (close to my hometown).

The group in a lower level of the Astronomical Clock Tower complex

From up in the Astronomical Clock Tower

In the afternoon, we were treated to a guided tour by Václav Lojka, an archivist and historian who makes a living giving tours. We visited Charles Bridge, Old Town, and the Jewish Quarter. That evening, the group went on a river boat cruise, and we enjoyed a variety of Czech foods and further touristic information from Václav.

The Astronomical Clock Tower.
That's Vaclav in the USA hat.

Beam of light anointing road workers down the street from the hotel.

Beautiful day for clouds. On the way to the river cruise.  

Nice ambience from the river at sunset. 

The Prague Summer Seminar: An Introduction

During the last two weeks of May, 2016 I participated in the Prague Summer Seminar through UNC Chapel Hill and Charles University. It fulfilled 3 hours of course credit for the MLIS I am completing through SJSU, and was an amazing experience. The others on the trip were library school students from all over the US and one from Canada. Additionally, I got to meet a handful of students from my program, which was refreshing because it's an online program and I don't get many opportunities to meet my classmates in person.

We toured all type of libraries, from royal family libraries to monastery libraries to national libraries to public libraries, and often received VIP access. Our Czech hosts were incredibly gracious, welcoming, and hospitable. I had an experience that I will always cherish, and the Czech Republic and its librarians hold a special place in my heart.

In the following days, I will make several posts chronicling each day's activities and noteworthy things I learned.

Stowaway cupboard at the Archiepiscopal Chateau Library in Kroměříž

The Archiepiscopal Chateau Library in Kroměříž

The Vltava River with the Prague Castle on the hill

The National Theater in Prague with full moon

The Remains of a Massive Project

Shortly before I wrapped up my semester and left for the Prague Summer Seminar, we finished moving books out of the Reference Stacks. Major hump-busting to finish bringing back a few thousand items.

It was a strange couple weeks filled with all sorts of deadlines and pressures. I remember a particularly busted cart tipped over and just about broke me:

@bibliobebe Thomas Aquinas is coming for me

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) May 4, 2016

Then there was the day I spent 2 hours wheeling carts of books through the silent study room, which was the day we emptied the room minus the atlases:

Was gonna tweet something abt the students in the silent study room wondering where i got the endless steam of carts (2 hrs of wheelin past)

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) May 11, 2016

And then there was the day we got the atlases off the shelves and I took a big deep breath of accomplishment.

Omg... thought this day would never come... and before my big trip... what a dream come true! pic.twitter.com/ws9uQpcvON

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) May 12, 2016

We moved like 12,000+ volumes in less than six months (sweating brow emoji)

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) May 11, 2016

We're currently in a sort of purgatory where we're waiting with baited breath for the demolition to begin. The shelves are empty and we're answering questions regularly about why. Some time this summer, they will tear out the empty shelves and then recarpet the Reference Room and the entire south wing of the Geschke building. Flexible, movable furniture is on order. We'll see how it all plays out, but I figure this is one of the important moments where we listen to the needs of the students above what we believe the traditional library should be. The students need more space to be comfortable here, and we want them to be comfortable.

More Reference books on the move

Lots more Industry Surveys this week.

Checked w/the business librarian & yes! Need to keep these Industry Surveys. She also absolved me from mending them pic.twitter.com/0kKXv4k9a8

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) March 30, 2016

Plus! Such a nice collection of Historical Abstract of the US. I'm gonna miss these buddies when they reside in the stacks.

This feels like a milestone because I love grabbing one and riffing on its usefulness when training the new student workers. I always say, "Nearly any imaginable statistic you could ever need is in this little ditty."

Cart 100

Yesterday was a milestone... Cart 100 of books on the move from Ref to the Stacks. This cart was composed of H call numbers... still trucking through the business reference books.

With any luck, we'll have everything moved before I go to Prague on May 14!

Catching a breath to reflect in the H section

We're making incredible progress moving the Reference print collection to that stacks thanks to all my colleagues' joint efforts in Cataloging and Access Services. On Wednesday I was struck by the vast empty black shelving as I walked into the room.

This week the Ref student workers packed up no less than 14 carts of Reference books for Cataloging to work their record magic on, covering call numbers N31 H84 v. 1 -- HN 49 V64 A47 2008.

It's starting to move so fast I am worried about emotional fall out.

I also wonder if it is time to tell our external stakeholders (students and faculty) what in the world is going on... time for a blog post on Gleeson Gleanings?

Visual Literacy Workshop

Last Friday (2/26/2016) I attended a Visual Literacy Workshop in Berkeley hosted by the Visual Resources Association and led by the engaging and funny Jessica Sack.

In the morning, we looked at original art in the new Berkeley Art Museum.

Ms. Sack instructed us in the art of open questioning...

What do you see?

What's going on?

And then narrowing questions to focus seeing.

Use the list of words your partner supplied to identify the art object they described... what from those words guided you to the art?

Draw what you see.

We freed ourselves from the analysis of language by lingering in the visual impression rather than jumping to our discoveries.

At the end of the first half, we were armed with question to cultivate visual literacy with viewers of art and a list of teaching outcomes.

View from the women's restroom, 4th floor Doe Library

In the afternoon, we looked at reproductions of art in the art slide room of the Visual Resource Center in UC Berkeley's Doe Library.

Ms. Sack instructed us in the art of critique of digital reproductions.

Three different color saturations of a Van Gogh painting...

A painting by Winslow Homer that was mistaken for depicting a school bell...
... seemingly connected to a Winslow Homer etching depicting a bell summoning men, women, and children to work in a rural factory published in Harper's Weekly.

How does the poem "The Morning Bell," published with the etching in Harper's Weekly, give meaning to the painting, which was held in a private collection for many years?

And we closed the workshop by writing a reflection... On how to question... How to engage with a work of art... How to critically assess context and bias.

Above all the workshop provided an intersecting space for open and congenial librarians, educators, art history students, and museum curators and I left feeling inspired by the fulfillment of learning to look and learning to teach how to look. Judging from the new colleagues I met at the workshop, I'm in good company in that pursuit.