The Challenge of the IPL

The main problem that I find myself continuously running into while answering reference questions on the Internet Public Library (IPL) is the kinds of references I have to use. I always go to databases, print materials, all of these paid subscriptions since that’s what I learned to search
The IPL is a public library, and doesn’t [...]

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Shoutout for the IPL

One of my final projects is a slightly unusual one – but then, the class is rather unusual for me since it’s wholly online. While doing the reading and having a lecture online isn’t too odd, normally what throws me off the most is the Discussion Board. So far I don’t at all find it [...]

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Terrible Day for Philly Libraries

Thanks to my new Twitter, I discovered last night through CBS3 that Mayor Nutter was giving his budget crisis speech. After 2 minutes of talking about how great our city is (Woo, Phillies!), he got to some terrible, terrible news. We have to close a deficit of over $108 million in just six months. Here’s [...]

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Philly Storage Solutions, pt. 2

The same week as my visit to the HDS, I went along with a Drexel section of the Special Libraries Association (SLA) to get a tour of the inner workings of the Philadelphia City Archives.
As it turns out, the City Archives are located in the same building as the HDS, but we went in through [...]

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Philly Storage Solutions, pt. 1

The other day I got the chance to go see the library’s high density storage (HDS) warehouse. It sort of felt as if I were being inducted into some kind of secret society. We entered the ware house through an unlabelled lobby, signing in with a guard, going down a few levels in an elevator, [...]

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The Lowdown from “Main Street” on the 40

While waiting for the 40 the other day in West Philly, I had what started out as an interesting conversation with a fellow SEPTA believer (some day, SEPTA will be on time!), and turned into a very awkward one. It began the way almost all of my SEPTA bus-stop conversations begin – being asked what [...]

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Electronic Resources, plus a link

Apparently, there’s a whole slew of other Drexel interns at my library, and various members of the library staff here been hosting a small set of lectures for us on what they do in the different sections of the library. Today I got to hear about Electronic Acquisitions, and learn some of the nitty-gritty about [...]

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Constitution Day

I vaguely remember seeing pictures of the Constitution hanging around my alma mater’s library as a first-year, and not really understanding why, since we didn’t even celebrate Labor Day or Columbus Day. A staffer told me that the school had to celebrate Constitution Day in some kind of visible manner, or else risk losing federal [...]

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Counting

Although I finished organizing the Inquisition documents (I’m sure they’d be exciting if one read them fully, but sorting a few boxes of civil suits and cases, no matter the subject, is a little dull), I’m on to bigger and weightier collections. Since I don’t know Italian and the collection is immense, I’m just organizing [...]

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Alicia in Terra Mirabilis

I have never felt as if I were in a Lewis Carroll novel so much as I do in the stacks of my workplace library. As I am always forgetting to bring a camera here, a verbal description will have to suffice. The building is about as long as a city block, and when you [...]

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