Just a reminder that Friday December 21st is the last open day for the UW Libraries until January 2nd.  Have a safe and happy holiday!

University Libraries’ Holiday & Winter Closure:

Closed December 22nd—January 1st:

University Libraries will close at 5:00pm, December 21^st and remain closed through January 1^st. The Libraries will reopen at 8:00am on January 2^nd. Library patrons are encouraged to secure print library resources in advance of December 21^st.

Access to Library Collections:

Request It retrieval and scanning services will not be available while the Libraries are closed. Online access to library resources will remain available through the libraries’ webpage at http://www-lib.uwyo.edu/ for the duration of the break.

Computer Lab Alternatives:

UW students needing computer lab access may use the Ivinson Lab (8:00am – 5:30pm) and the Willett Drive Lab (24 hours, swipe UW Campus ID card for entrance).

Interlibrary Loan Services:

Due to the large number of libraries that close their Interlibrary Loan Offices during the Christmas break, the UW Interlibrary Loan Offices will not be ordering materials from December 15, 2007 through January 1, 2008. Please feel free to submit your orders during this time and we will process them on January 2nd. If you have a special need during this time, please stop by the office and we will see what we can do to help. We look forward to serving you during the coming year.

Thank you for your support as library employees join the rest of the campus community in enjoying the holidays and the winter closure with their families and friends.

Place your Prospector orders before Friday at 5:00 p.m., as the Prospector catalog will be out of service until January 7th for upgrades. I hardly know how to go two weeks without Prospector, I fear the withdrawal symptoms might be severe!

Speaking of withdrawal symptoms, the Writer’s Strike is killing me. Thank goodness for all the good TV options available from the Coe Library AV department and from Prospector. Currently I’m watching season two of The Office and it is cracking me up!

Flying over the holidays? Google just improved their flight status search results.

According to the Official Google Blog:

For the latest information on a flight’s status, simply search for an airline and flight number, and the first result will tell you whether your flight is on time or delayed as well as the estimated departure and arrival times. Here’s a quick example for a specific American Airlines flight:

Wishing you safe and happy travels!

[via Phil Bradley]

If you need some dvd entertainment over the holidays, now is the perfect time to stop by the AV desk in the basement of Coe Library. All movies checked out this week will have a due date of 1/2/08. You can find movies by searching in the library catalog and limiting your search to DVD.

Recent additions to our AV library include:

• Sopranos Season 6
• Mad Hot Ballroom
• Control Room
• Veronica Mars Season 3
• Easy Rider
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• Pollock
• Before Sunset
• Bridge to Terabithia
• The Constant Gardener

There are lots and lots of lists out this time of year detailing the best books, but one that I trust a great deal is librarian Nancy Pearl’s list of her favorites. She always picks books by new authors or books off the beaten path or books I seem to have missed somehow. And she picks really really good books, as a rule.

An archived audio version of the list is available online with commentary on why she chose these books. Two of her picks, Then We Came to the End and Alice in Sunderland, are already in my Prospector queue. What are you reading over the break?

Then We Came to the End, Joshua Ferris
In the Woods, Tana French
The Unknown Terrorist, Richard Flanagan
The Zoo-Keeper’s Wife, Diane Ackerman
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, Brandon Sanderson
Fowl Weather, Bob Tarte
Away, Amy Bloom
By George, Wesley Stace
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations, Georgina Howell
Alice in Sunderland, Bryan Talbot,
Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World, Liza Mundy
Dancing with Rose: Finding Life in the Land of Alzheimer’s, Lauren Kessler

The UW Libraries celebrated the holidays last week with food, music and games on the 5th floor of Coe Library. Emptied for construction, the 5th floor was transported into a construction-themed winter wonderland for the party.

Mattheim Bulldozer performed our favorite Christmas carols, including “I Saw Maggie Kissing Santa Claus”, “Reference Wonderland”, and perennial crowd-pleaser “Silverfish”. Revelers played musical chairs, demolition bowling, and construction chair races. Thanks to the Employee Support Committee for planning a great party!

Remember, the Libraries are open through Friday this week with abbreviated hours (Coe 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. and Geology, Annex, LRC 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.). Come in and renew your books, wrap up your research, and say hello before the Winter Closure.

University Libraries’ Holiday & Winter Closure:

Closed December 22nd—January 1st:

University Libraries will close at 5:00pm, December 21^st and remain closed through January 1^st. The Libraries will reopen at 8:00am on January 2^nd. Library patrons are encouraged to secure print library resources in advance of December 21^st.

Access to Library Collections:

Request It retrieval and scanning services will not be available while the Libraries are closed. Online access to library resources will remain available through the libraries’ webpage at http://www-lib.uwyo.edu/ for the duration of the break.

Computer Lab Alternatives:

UW students needing computer lab access may use the Ivinson Lab (8:00am – 5:30pm) and the Willett Drive Lab (24 hours, swipe UW Campus ID card for entrance).

Interlibrary Loan Services:

Due to the large number of libraries that close their Interlibrary Loan Offices during the Christmas break, the UW Interlibrary Loan Offices will not be ordering materials from December 15, 2007 through January 1, 2008. Please feel free to submit your orders during this time and we will process them on January 2nd. If you have a special need during this time, please stop by the office and we will see what we can do to help. We look forward to serving you during the coming year.

Thank you for your support as library employees join the rest of the campus community in enjoying the holidays and the winter closure with their families and friends.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

The text of Doris Lessing’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature is available online. And it is beautiful.

She reflects on books and education and the differences between the Third World and what we take for granted. Her reverence for stories and books and libraries shines through:

We are a jaded lot, we in our world – our threatened world. We are good for irony and even cynicism. Some words and ideas we hardly use, so worn out have they become. But we may want to restore some words that have lost their potency.

We have a treasure-house – a treasure – of literature, going back to the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans. It is all there, this wealth of literature, to be discovered again and again by whoever is lucky enough to come on it. A treasure. Suppose it did not exist. How impoverished, how empty we would be.

We own a legacy of languages, poems, histories, and it is not one that will ever be exhausted. It is there, always.

Her words made me thankful to be surrounded by stories and books and education, something perhaps I take for granted more often than I should.