Details, Part 3

The Presentation:
The room in which I was to present is huge, with two screens and probably 50 workstations. There were about 12 people who came to listen. We had to wait for at least 10 minutes for the computer technicians to fix some problem on the instructor workstation, so I had the chance for some small talk. I made a joke about why no one wanted to sit in the front row, just like in a real class. I think that went over ok. The computer was finally up and running, and I launched into my presentation. I think it went well, except that when I went to move from slide one to slide two, I hit the B key by mistake, which gave me a blank screen. So I covered (sort of) by apologizing and then explaining that it was a PowerPoint trick I just learned--hit the B key to toggle back and forth between a blank screen if you want to take the students' focus off the screen for a minute. I stayed within my twenty minutes, and when I was done I asked for questions. No one said a word. That was a bit disconcerting, but I guess it's just how they're used to conducting themselves in interviews. Or they were bored to tears and could think of nothing to say.

The User Services Librarians:
Immediately after the presentation, we pulled chairs around a table in the classroom and I met with some of the User Services Librarians, who took turns asking me more questions. That probably lasted an hour. One cool thing they told me about was their Reference Blog, where everyone who works at the reference desk can post notes about assignments that students bring to the desk or things that other people working the desk need to know about. I think it's a fabulous idea, far better than sending an e-mail to everyone and then taping the e-mail printout to the desk.

Lunch:
After the librarians' meeting, it was off to lunch. The lunch party ended up being 6 women, though I think all the user services librarians were invited. I rode with Sue, the Curriculum Collection librarian who grew up in Anna, Texas and says "ain't." I really liked her a lot, and she asked me about people at UNT and in North Texas, including Dr. Totten. Lunch was at B. McNeels, where most of us ordered salads or sandwiches. Jiannan, the unlucky soul, ordered fried chicken, and apparently, the kitchen was out of chicken. It took at least 40 minutes for us to be served. Why on earth someone didn't come out and tell us they were out of chicken and we should choose something else, I do not understand. I had wilted spinach salad with grilled chicken on it. Very tasty. I tried to ask questions of the group about what they like to do outside of work, do they have families or children or hobbies, etc. I didn't get a rousing response. We did talk some about knitting and about food. I let on that I like to bake and am learning (sort of) to knit. There were a few crocheters in the group, but no knitters. They did say, however, that Murfreesboro has a nice LYS.

to be continued (don't worry, we're about to the end) . . .