Whiteboards and Jungles

Today has been as informative as yesterday, and I am not even done. All of us got a walkthrough of Moodle and Elluminate, the two ways of communicating in the LEEP program. We also got a tour of the Undregrad and Graduate Libraries. Putting these two tours back to back makes you appreciate the changing field of LIS.

I first had the Moogle walkthrough, so I now officially know everything I could have ever wanted to know about Moodle. It is amazing how much technology goes into the LEEP program. The "classical" way of live chatting is sophisticated, but WOW! Elluminate is even better! It was really cool how a professor could show powerpoints, share applications, and even tour a website with one powerful program. Who would've known that JAVA could do all of that? If I did, I would've paid more attention in JAVA class.

I think we can all agree that the best part of Elluminate was the Whiteboard. This was a place that you could draw, type, just about do anything you could do in a simple paint program, and show it to the rest of the class. I wish I had a picture of the ....interesting.... whiteboard we had.

To me, the only thing lacking in Elluminate is the "whisper" option. Technically, students can chat in separate rooms similar to the "classical" way of live chatting, but in the end the private conversations are archived and can be monitored by a professor. I know that LIS is all about freedom of information, but I think they should allow students to privately "whisper."

The computer tour was fun, but more visually stimulating was the walkthrough of the libraries. The Undergraduate Library is underground, something I have not seen before for a college campus. Legend has it that the reason why the library was built underground so that the Morrow Plots, or the oldest plot of experimental corn in the western hemisphere, would not be shaded. Wikipedia cites another reason, but I find it funnier that a plot of corn would dictate the location of a building.

The Graduate Library was just exquisite. It has grand hallways and tiny doorways, a combination that could only work in a library. I really wanted to quickly check the Slavic and Eastern European Library to see what they had, but had to refrain as the tour quickly covered the main sections of the library. Comfy places to sit and study were also part oft he tour C:

The coolest part of the tour was through the main stacks. The main stacks are guarded by desks and librarians ready to check your graduate/faculty status. Once you are through, maps of each floor (including half floors) show how and where the movable book shelves can move. Half of the stacks are in a new addition of the building, air conditioned to perfection. The other half are still in the old part of the building, which felt like a book jungle. I was always sad to leave the air conditioned part of the building.

The third floor seemed empty when I looked around, and no wonder the former LIS library used to reside just across the History, Philosophy, and Newspapers library on that floor! In the library's stead, a plaque of Katherine Sharp, the founder of what is now GSLIS and a protege of Melvil Dewey, hangs on a wall.

Hopefully, within these few days that I am here, I will be able to take small tours of the other libraries on campus. On top of my list are: the Slavic Library, the History, Philosophy, and Newspapers Library, the Rare Books collection, and the Astronomy Library, now located in the large Engineering Library. Of course, I would also have to visit the first home of the library on campus, Altgeld Hall.

I have a little less than one hour to get ready for my frst class. Why didn't I take nap?