The Month In Review, Part 2

I don't talk about my work much on this blog. For one thing, I have to be cognizant of keeping various "company secrets" confidential, and sometimes it's hard for me to determine how confidential something must remain. So I keep mum about everything just to be sure. But I would like to break the code of silence to discuss a project that I've been working on that's been six months in the making. Nothing mentioned here would compromise confidentiality, and this has been a major part of my workload (and subsequently stress) this month.

The trade school that I work as librarian at is one of several sharing the same name that are located across the nation. The project I've been involved in is to create an online resource for students and faculty that will be available at all the campuses. There are only two of us working on it: myself, and another librarian that oversees resources for all the campuses. The interface that we're using is LibGuides, a system that many libraries use in order to create guides for their patrons. It is used by public, academic, and other types of libraries. I was actually called on to help create a complex LibGuide resource for an online university prior to this project, and I used LibGuides to create a pathfinder for one of my MLIS classes--so I am very familiar with creating and editing pages and content. For the resource in this current project, we will be providing some general resources (dictionaries, encyclopedias, research/writing guides, etc.), student success resources, career resources, and resources that are directly related to and discuss concepts that are part of the various academic programs that the schools provide. For the most part, all of the resources we chose to include had to be freely accessible with no login or passwords required. The only exceptions to this were the online databases that the schools subscribe to; landing pages and overviews for the databases were created to provide students with easy access.

I've looked at many other LibGuides, and they run the gamut from sparsely populated and out-of-date to complex and well-maintained. For the most part, I see very little dynamic content on LibGuides; to me, it seems that the general attitude is one of "create it and forget it." This seems like it would be short-sighted; having dynamic content that changes would encourage users to keep coming back to see what's new. With the LibGuide that we've created, we made it a priority to include things like RSS feeds, embedded YouTube channels, and Twitter and Facebook feeds (where appropriate). By doing so, we hope to spark student and faculty interest in the content and see users returning multiple times.

Once again, the needs of the user became one of the forefront concerns when determining what content to include and how to organize it. In the LibGuide that I helped to create for the online university, we included a number of resources for college-level General Education subjects because those courses were offered by the university. For this current LibGuide project, we're not including anything like that because the campuses do not offer those types of courses (however we are including high-school level General Education resources since several campuses offer GED prep help). We also didn't include as much on research and writing as we did in the online university LibGuide because the trade school students don't do an excessive amount of either for their programs. I gathered input from students at the campus where I work so that we could also include resources that would interest them. The LibGuide is being created to be used, and we want to utilize all possible outlets to make that happen.

This month has been spent adding a lot of content and finalizing the overall organization of the LibGuide. Finally, we will see the fruits of our labor and the LibGuide will be going live within the next few weeks. If I can share the actual guide here, I will post a link when it's available.

The Month In Review, Part 1

Do you ever have the feeling that you're drowning? Not actually drowning in water, but the sensation of drowning because life is throwing everything she's got at you and you can't keep up. I had thought that once the Spring semester was over, things would calm down and I would be able to take a deep breath and relax a bit. I'm still waiting for that to happen, and I feel like I'm trying to tread water in a fast and treacherous current. To help explain what has been going on, this will be the first of at least two posts about life, the universe, and everything. And no, the answer is not 42 (bonus points if you get the reference).

I went to spend some time with family after the passing of another great lady in my family (see my last post). It was a time spent talking and eating good food, and once again I was inspired by the healing that can be accomplished with family and a wonderful meal. It really is amazing how food can bring a family together. A meal becomes a time to share laughter, love, pain, sorrow, and joy. In its own way, family meal time can become a therapy session (although the success of such really depends on the family--a family divided may not find meal time to be very pleasant or healing). The first night I was at The Ranch, we went to an Italian restaurant in a nearby town. As proud Italians ourselves (on my mom's side of the family), we know good Italian food. This was good Italian food. The restaurant has this outside seating area that's a wooden structure with wooden tables and benches, and potted plants on the ground, the tables, along the walls, and hanging from overhead. In the evening, it's a truly lovely place to eat a meal as the sun dips behind the trees and darkness starts to fall. You can hear the breeze and the birds as you sip your wine and reminisce about old times. Which is exactly what we did.

And because the menu looked so good and it was so hard for us to pick, we chose several different things to taste--and boy did my taste buds have fun! Here's a look at what I got to try:

The roasted beets had such a wonderful and delicate flavor.

This is cuttlefish. Before this dish, I had never had cuttlefish, and I actually had to look it up to figure out what it was. What it was was tasty!

These are anchovies--not salty like the ones found in a can, but fresh and cooked with tomato, potato, and other fresh ingredients. It was surprisingly good!

Gnocchi and rabbit, an excellent pairing if I do say so myself.

Now this may not cater to everyone's tastes, but I found this tripe to be very tender and tasty.

This tiramisu was the only disappointment. My mom makes the best tiramisu that I've ever had, and I've never been able to find a restaurant that makes tiramisu that's as good or better than hers, not even at this one. However, I did like the presentation--having it served in a jar is a cute idea.

We lingered over our food and even though we got there long before the dinner rush, the sun was starting to dip behind the trees before we finished and left. It was calming to the body, mind, and soul to eat this wonderful meal in a charming setting and talk about Zia, the "good old days," the food, and anything else that came to mind.

The next night, we ate a wonderful home-cooked meal. My mom made baccala with olive oil, Italian herbs, and garlic, and polenta to go with it. Our cousin made chicken livers, and while I had only ever had liver in pate form, I did tentatively try them--and they were excellent. Our homemade dinner was just as good as the one we had at the restaurant, and once again our table was filled with not only incredible food but love and stories of the family told by Zio, our resident old-timer (who also wrote two books about his father, my great-grandfather).

It was good to be around family, and I returned home with a much lighter heart.

Reminiscing

I'm going to deviate from my "normal" range of topics again and reminisce a bit. We just had a death in the family, and it seems that when death hits close to home, reflection is almost certain. At least that's the way it seems to work in my case.

The lady who passed away was my great-aunt and one of the kindest people you could ever meet. She was warm, generous, and always loved having people visit the property she and her husband (who is thankfully still with us) own. She was rather indulgent with the children in the family, and I cannot ever remember her saying an unkind word or being stern with anyone. Ever since my grandmother died six years ago, she became a kind of surrogate grandmother. She was in her early nineties when she left us, so she lived a long, happy life--but that doesn't seem to make it any easier to say goodbye.

When I think of her, I can't help but think of the land and house that she called home for longer than I've been around. It's quite a large piece of land with a house that hasn't changed at all. Years ago, and I'm not sure if this was even before my time, it was dubbed The Ranch; however, there was never a horse or cow or other kind of livestock to be found on it, at least as long as I can remember. The only critters that have lived on the land are rattlesnakes. And probably whatever they found to eat. Instead, part of the land played host to the Campground that was set up right next to the river that runs through the property. Both the Campground and the river provided many hours of summer fun when I was growing up. I remember setting off fireworks for Independence Day in one of the natural clearings that was surround by trees and dry brush. Not the safest of endeavors, and I'm rather surprised we didn't start a fire with a stray spark and burn the trees down--but it was such fun for us kids. Nowadays, the Campground is feeling its age and is overgrown as nature has slowly taken over, but we can still see the old water pipeline and electrical wires that run from the living area of The Ranch; the river is still there too of course, although it has changed its path over the years as rivers are wont to do and we have to walk a little further to get to the water's edge.

Aside from the Campground and river, a good chunk of the land was covered with orchards of plum trees. Zio (my great-uncle) was in the prune business for many years. We would go exploring in the far areas of the orchard, out to the pump house and beyond where we would hand-feed the neighbor's sheep over the fence lining The Ranch's boundary. In the suburbs we don't have to be wary of rattlesnakes, but in the orchards at The Ranch looking out for them became second nature--none of us wanted to get bitten, and we had a few close calls that reinforced vigilance. Now, the orchards are bare ground but for a couple of old apple trees that line the drive and a line of olive trees that were put in a few years ago. It took me awhile to get used to not seeing all the trees. There have been a few other big changes since I was young--a second house was built for my cousins to live on The Ranch, and a large vegetable garden was added--but some of The Ranch has stayed the same. It even smells the same, the smell of summer heat and river and a kind of tree that I can never remember the name of.

Zia (my great-aunt) was such a part of that place, and was a regular character in the memories that we made every summer. She would walk down to the Campground from the house to join our festivities. In more recent years, we would have big family dinners of good Italian food outside in the carport and finish the evening listening to my mom play folk songs on her guitar. Zia loved hearing Mom play. To me, she and Zio are the heart of the land. With her gone, I anticipate that the feeling of the place will change. Dear, dear Zia, you will be missed more than you can know.