Librarians in the news

Productive Day

We sure had beautiful weather yesterday. Cool, refreshing and approximately 11degrees. No need for overcoats and layers however, not to last since rain predicted for tomorrow. This morning was spent productively working on our presentations. Followed by an informative and interesting talk on the “Rare Book Collection”. A very vast collection ranging from Anglo American History to Shakespeare’s Collection. He also spoke about the Unica Project which is an initiative to digitize rare, unique books for scholars to access when and where they need it. The next session was an Instructional Session by Katie Newman on “Journal Impact Factor”. Must admit was not aware of Eigenfactor, SCImago and PoP (Publish or Perish). Essential tools for our researchers.

Scorecard

-1 degrees F weatherwise on arrival in Champaign;
1 light snowfall to greet us on the first morning;
4 flights and over 30 hours spent in transit from SA;
10 is the multiplier to convert from Rands to Dollars;
10 is also the number of miles at which the tornado warning siren sounds here to be prepared;
73 channels to choose from on the TV; and
Countless the number of smiles and offers of assistance we have received!!

Brutal

...is how those of us who travelled direct to Atlanta would describe the trip here. We left at 10am from Joburg on the 19th and arrived here in Urbana-Champaign at 3.44am South Africa time on Saturday.

Crazy.

Here we are in the Airport in Atlanta waiting to board our flight to Chicago. After more than 20 hours in the air, Simon's completely out of it. William is still looking dashing as ever and Sara is trying desperately to sms her family to tell them she's still alive. I don't think Avenal took the same flight as the rest of us, because there she is with not a hair out of place and her flawless make-up. Mandy's in the background trying to make sense of it all and telling Simon to wake up for goodness sake. I'm behind the camera, because, really, I just wasn't fit for public consumption at that point in our travels.

We were all really grateful for the tips Joan and Pat had given us on our send-off. Despite a few butterflies when we went through the gruelling process of packing and re-packing our bags at various security checkpoints, we sailed through it all. And we only had to ask about five times to reassure ourselves that our bags would indeed follow us to Urbana-Champaign. :)

It's 5.03am now and I'm wide awake. This is not a good sign. Welcome to jet-lag, everyone.

Bon Voyage

Wishing everyone heading off to the US tomorrow a very bonny voyage. Enjoy every minute of the trip and let us know about all the exciting things you encounter.

I trust you've packed all your winter woollies. :-(
My warmest regards, Caroline.