Wow Gosh Emma you have certainly had a great adventure, visiting so many places of interest, but there is no place like home!
Safe Journey home. Love Doreen.
Niagara Glad to see you had a great time. You look suitably happy and wet in your new sensible coat (it looks like mine - should I check the wardrobe?).
Niagara Peninsula I think we are being driven over land to the Niagara Peninsula for a hike along a section of the Bruce Trail. We we meant to end up at Niagara-on- the-lake for dinner. I just bought a new waterproof coat today so I'm all set.
So many places You are certainly having an adventure with all these places and restuarants . Received your card from Vancouver today.4/10 . Thank you. John has said that you are going to the Niagra Falls tomorrow, take your raincoat, I hear you get very wet. How will you get there over land or across the Lake.
Enjoy the rest of your trip, when you do arrive home, you will not know what time of day it is or even what day!
Take care Love Doreen.
browsing It is true that this system removes browsing but from the stock in the deep store only 100 items were selected on a daily basis. The regularly circulating stock was in 2 more traditional library reading rooms that you could browse. They made the decision that providing additional reader space and study area variety was more important than the value of browsing lower use material. When space is restricted that argument makes sense especially if your face to face users are mainly UG.
OK Just that the people sent to escort us did not know their way around so they kept getting lost and the result was were taken from one building lobby to another. Security levels meant we could not get through doors to where we needed to be and we were left hanging around for literally hours. We arrived at 9.30am and by 1pm we'd had 30 mins of 'contact' time with some one telling us something interesting. It was shambolic. If it had been organised properly we could have been in and out in 90mins but we wasted most of the day just hanging around in lobbys.
A real shame that you weren't able to meet those running the service. Those rules look pretty strict - no moving the furniture (which is exactly the opposite of what the type of 'social learning' space we are developing in UK HE is meant to encourage)
There has been some discussion on a mailing list (code4lib) in the last week about the 'browsing the shelves' experience, and the issues around recreating it in a virtual environment.
One of the correspondents suggested that one of the strengths of browsing the shelves is that you can pick up an item and make a judgement on it there and then - not possible if you just browse a catalogue record (although possibly with enhanced information in/linked to the catalogue this might be done better). I guess that this type of system really removes the possibility of shelf browsing completely, so if there is something key about that experience it needs working out if/how you can offer a similar experience.
Seattle Your room look very spacious and comfortable and the weather from your window looks good. It has been nice here but chilly.
Take care and don't over do it. Love Doreen
Automated retrieval You build a large empty container and line the whole thing out with warehouse racks, You put your stock in large metal baskets that fill up the racks. As user searches the catalogue and finds the item they want is located in A R system so they click to say they would like to read it and head for the pick up point which is the circulation desk. As they walk through the building the robot scoots up the aisle and raises the arm to unhook the basket containing the chosen book. The whole basket is retrieved and the robot speeds up the aisle to deliver the basket less than 2 minutes after the user 'clicked' The member of staff collects item from basket and issue it at the counter.
Inside Well I am off to see Seattle Public library in a few minutes so I'll let you knowwhether I agree.
I agree that the inside of the Vancouver Public library was laid out for a traditional service model and is looking a bit tired. I think they know that too and were planning an entrance floor refurb soon.
You go all the way to Canada and eat in a Belgian restaurant? I have to admit that when we were there we didn't find any decent eating places (we were not impressed by the places our guidebook recommended). I think there are meant to be good Vietnamese places. I know Vancouver is a bit of a cultural melting pot, but I hadn't heard about the large Belgian population!
Automated Retrieval System How did this work? I've always felt it would be great to have one, but our users still do seem to like browsing the shelves...
As Damyanti said, we were unable to resist visiting the library when we were in Vancouver - it is amazing (although I think I prefer Seattle on the inside...)
Wow! VPL (unfortunate initials) is an amazing looking building! I would be interested to know what it was that made some potential users afraid to come in. No really, I would be interested. I'm not being sarcastic! You seem to be having a great time, and although I am rampantly jealous of you being in Canada, I only *slightly* hate you.
Fantastic building Yes, agree with Damyanti, cool building. Can we have one too please? And when you equip the gym, can you make sure it has a shower attached?
not remembering Lovely to see you out and about. Knowing what your memory is like I'm amazed that you even remember that you've been to Canada before. Love yoy have a great trip
umyl026
E J Bull
Coming home
Hi Doreen Thanks for the message. I I'm looking forward to being back with John. It has him along trip. See you soon. Emma