Hey folks,

I thought that you might be interested to see some of the cool stuff that I saw and did while I was back up in Ireland. I had a great time, ate too much and all that, but a picture speaks a thousand words, it’s said, so here are a few to brighten your day. Sorry for the awful quality, photography is not my strong suit. The weather was actually pretty good, so excuse the presence of the sun!

My dad’s place- very in the middle of nowhere. But next to a castle- those guys are everywhere in Ireland:

 

 

This next one isn’t in my dad’s garden, but I visited some friends down south, so behold Trim Castle:

While I was down there, I saw… this. I did not expect to see those words assembled together, but sometimes life throws you a curveball:

I took a trip to the majestical Dunfanaghy in County Donegal…

…where I saw the spectacular sights from my childhood:

 

Took a visit to “my mountain,” Muckish….

 

…played with fire guilt-free (It’s not like Ireland has fire warnings)…

 

…and located a very poorly disguised pot of gold. Must be the guy’s first day on the job. 

I was home for Christmas Dinner. Please note that my nephew is sporting a t-shirt of a pug flying through space on a pizza.

 

Every year the casualties are atrocious, but we persevere:

 

  I also went to the Giant’s Causeway:

 

I reminded myself why I left Northern Ireland…

 

 

…and why there’s still some hope in there…

 

And I got to spend some time in the nature with my family.

Finally, the take-home for all of you fine New Zealanders is this sweet prayer. I’m not a prayin’ man, but things like this remind me that there are grains of wisdom everywhere, even in the 17th Century 🙂

 

Kia ora koutou,

Following the success of the library games afternoon in September, a plan is being developed for an event to run around week 5 next year, which is the week starting 20 March. We want to produce a fun-heavy event focussed on allowing students who are starting to fall through the cracks to reconnect with UC. We’ve settled on a week of events, one each day, under the aegis of “Week of the Geek,” and I want to scare up some willing bodies to help me plan and put it into practice. I’m really hopeful that we can have some guilty fun ourselves, at the same time as scoring a social and mental health win for our students.

I expect that people on this project group will attend weekly to biweekly meetings to keep things moving, and take responsibility for completing some of the tasks that come up. Most of the events themselves should last for a couple of hours or so, but we need to firm up the ideas. You’ll also have to show up and participate in at least one event.

What I want:

• Take a look at the below, and see if it’s the kind of event you’d like to be part of.
• Drop me an email if you’re interested in being on the team: brian.mcelwaine@canterbury.ac.nz
• Let me know whether there’s one of the events in particular that you’d like to help plan and execute. I’m ideally looking for a kind of “day boss” for each day to help keep preparations on track.
• Deadline for “expressions of interest” will be next Wednesday, 7^th December, because we’ll need to get cracking to make it a really successful event.

Here’s what I’m planning for the Week of the Geek:

Monday Funday: start with a bunch of boardgames, maybe some video games, competitions etc over a couple of hours during the day. Invite SAGA, UC Gaming Guild, MTGSoc.

Tuesday of the Dead: Do a Zombie Run across the various library locations, possibly under the guide of “gathering research to find a cure” to highlight the serious side of the library. Alternatively we could invite a group like KAOS to run a “Killing Round” for an hour or two with all participants to stay in the library for the duration. Maybe a horror film in the evening.

Four-legged-friendsday: Get an organisation like http://www.caninefriends.org.nz/ to bring their adorable fluffballs to the library so people can pet them and chill out a bit. AUT did that recently via http://www.caninefriends.org.nz/.

Treasure Thursday: We run a treasure hunt (there’s a soc for that!) either inside the library or on the campus in general, students can bring groups or join them, some prize for a win? There’s a fine line, but you could potentially give clues that could be solved easily using library resources, to locate something on-campus, and provide librarians in key places to help.

Be Good Friday: For the final day, we invite some of the societies based on good deeds such as SVA, EFFSoc, etc., meet up in the library and then go and do some pre-decided good deed-ery, clean a place or fix a thing, for example.

Ngā mihi nui

Brian

At lunch today I stumbled on this recent report from NORC, about the information habits of regular Americans. It made pretty interesting reading from an Information Literacy perspective, about how people make judgement calls in their own natural habitat, and to help with decisions that matter to them.

There are interesting points about the importance of word of mouth to meeting information needs, and how this affects what we try to teach.

It’s also pretty telling that most rely on instinct to decide what information to trust, and the  main cause of seeking more information is just that their gut tells them to be skeptical.

Anyhow, if you’re involved in Info Lit discussions, I’d recommend a read. Though they’re Americans, the respondents are not a million miles away from our students in terms of how they think, so maybe this report can inform how we frame our Info Lit delivery.