The Now: June 12, 2024

I am weirdly in a holding pattern. Our library is moving back into a remodeled space this summer... but we don't know when. There is a ton of stuff I need to do for that BUT I can't do much of it until we know the timeline and are in the space. I have a feeling August is going to be a rush of me trying to get things ready for the fall semester.

Here's what I'm focusing on:

1. Creating Your News Diet: On Friday, I'm giving a webinar about how to stay informed about current events without being overwhelmed. One of my undergrad degrees is in media studies so I'm trying to walk the line about being informative (here's some history of the news) without getting too in the weeds (let's talk about muckraking in detail). I think I found a good balance. As a tie-in, I wrote a blog post on this and adapted it for our monthly email newsletter. 
2. LibGuide Updates: Our library has a lot of LibGuides. If you don't know what those are, they are basically curated lists of "things" based on a topic or event. Most academic libraries offer these as a starting point for people's research. Each summer, we give them a clean up to make sure links are working, the information is correct, and we're still sharing the best material. It's not difficult work, but it does take time.
   
3. Newsletter Promotion: I'm trying to increase the readership of my newsletters. To help with that, I decided to run a summer reading sale. I sent out the first alert yesterday and shared it on my socials. I think I'll wait a few weeks and try again with a better sales pitch. I would both love new readers and an increase in paid readers. We shall see if this works.

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