Show up late (or get pulled away from) an NSUBA Library staff meeting and you’re likely to find your caricature on the whiteboard:

 Artwork attributed to the library’s inhouse artist, Mr. Zac Thorp:

This afternoon, I attended a University Assembly meeting via ITV on the NSU-Broken Arrow campus.

Here’s an image of what I saw:

Here’s a synopsis of what I overheard:

from NSU President Dr. Don Betz:

• many people affiliated with NSU are full of intense passion and great ideas; NSU as an institution will survive the challenges of the current  global economy due much in part to these impassioned, innovative people
• true leadership emerges during hard times
• destiny is not something that happens to you, it’s what you do to make it happen
• changes can cause a sense of fear or exhilaration; the exhilaration comes when you find you have the talent to successfully address these changes – when you find that you have the “capacity and audacity to take it to another level”
• 88% of NSU’s 60,000 graduates currently reside in NE Oklahoma, which is where NSU should aggregate its resources in order to improve the lives of those who live in ”one of the most challenged areas in America”
• NSU is implementing a new program titled “Making Place Matter,” in order to accomplish this positive impact on the community
• NSU plans to collaborate with other institutions because “we can not do it alone”
• those who succeed at University will improve the lives of their families and their communities
• almost 50% of NSU’s student body come from a non-traditional background, e.g., working class, first generation, etc.
• many NSU employees are from NE Oklahoma, which helps them to understand both the mission of the school and the demographics of the community; this understanding gives them insight on how to successfully mentor those who enroll at NSU

from a plethora of significant others:

• NSU will roll out its newly designed website on August 20th – which can be accessed at www.nsuok.edu
• many universities are now including social software, such as Facebook, YouTube, and blogs to communicate with their students – as this appears to be what contemporary students want; NSU plans to participate in this new trend by giving more content responsibility to faculty and staff
• NSU expects an increase in the enrollment of American Veterans as a result of the new GI Bill, which takes effect Aug 1
• many new services have been designed or enhanced in order to ease the transition of GIs from the highly dependent environment of the military to the highly independent environment of academia, including dorm and classroom cohorts, faculty mentors, counseling services, and sharing resources with Tulsa Community College
• incoming NSU freshmen will be able to ease their transition by participating in two new programs: campus connector, a peer program that matches incoming students with a mentor; rooky bridge camp, a two-day, one-night camp run by 65 upperclass volunteers who help incoming freshmen better understand expectations and create a support network

© DaVinci Institute

“Libraries are judged by their overall relevancy to the people in their constituency. Much like Google’s approach to calculating the relevancy of search results to individual search queries, libraries need to continually assess the relevancy of the features and functions they provide to the people they serve.” ~ Thomas Frey

The most current statistics of the ARL’s longitudinal study of service trends in academic research libraries reveal some interesting transitions over the past 10 years:

• Library staff are collaborating and networking in far larger numbers.
• The total number of library staff has decreased slightly; whereas, the total number of students served has increased significantly.
• Reference librarians are relied on for research assistance only half as often today as they were just 10 years ago. (Perhaps patrons can not find one or do not know how librarians can increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of the research process.)
• Reliance on internal materials, i.e., those owned at point of access, has decreased 25%; whereas, reliance on external materials, i.e., those that must be borrowed from other libraries, has increased 158%.

Personal observations of the above trends:

• Sharing knowledge and information is what being a librarian is all about.
• Cross-training and multi-tasking are two extremely important skills for information professionals to master.
• Outreach and advocacy prevent – or at least postpone – obsolescence.  
• While library budgets shrink, the number of published works – and library patron’s ability to learn of and want access to them – has increased. Therefore, libraries must share and patrons must wait.

Yes, that’s a bullwhip.

All are still to be found on my WordPress Dashboard, but all have disappeared from my homepage.

Very inconvenient – not at all how I like it!

Thank you to TCCL’s American Indian Resource Coordinator Teresa Runnels for promoting the new Read posters being published by the Center for the American Indian Family at Maxwell Park Library.

*Image accessed from TCCL

Thank you to the staff of TCCL for promoting an expansive linguistic vision through the creation and publication of the following poster:
* Image accessed via Center for the American Indian Family

Copies of the poster are available for purchase at the new TCCL e-store: http://www.cafepress.com/TulsaLibrary

[Didn't read Part I? Here's a link: Around T-Town: Gypsy Coffee House]

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Accepting the invitation to enjoy a new experience, I grabbed my camera and headed downtown to see Apollo at Gypsy.

The drive to the cyber cafe wasn’t too bad - if you discount the fact that I took I-244, arguably the most dangerously designed and structurally neglected highway in Tulsa.

My condition upon arrival wasn’t too bad - if you discount the fact that I had neglected to wear sunscreen during 4 hours spent outdoors on what appeared to be a cloudy day.

And the Gypsy?

Three stories.
Red brick.
Quiet neighborhood.
Tulsa skyline.
Police cars trolling.

Parking lot?
Not out front.

Exiting one-way Cincinnati onto what I hoped was two-way Cameron, I went in search of a parking space. Happily, I found an unpaved lot within a reasonable walking distance from the back of the building (a rare treat in downtown Tulsa). So I parked by a pole, exited my auto, and strode westward.

While walking and attempting to untangle my scarf from my camera strap, I met a couple of musicians unpacking instruments from an auto; the guitarist I knew offered an impromptu introduction to the guitarist I did not.

Impromptu introductions completed, I circled round to the front of Gypsy, accessed the entrance, and found a foyer with stairs leading up to a second-floor salon. Though a massage sounded like an attractive idea so near the end of semester, I considered the heat emanating from my shoulders and steadfastly strode on. . . through the door and over the threshold into the alleged “something[s] illegal,” crappy coffee, and “extremely creepy old men.”

Once inside, I found both the furnishings and the humans who gathered upon and around it to be quite interesting and eclectic. The furniture nearest the serving counter included several high, round, wooden tables predominantly occupied by persons some might perceive as dubious. However, upon closer observation I assessed these “oldsters” to be primarily 30- & 40-something websurfers lost in the World of Warcraft -seemingly oblivious to their physical surroundings.

The furniture scattered throughout the remainder of the coffee house consisted of several low, rectangular, slightly stained, cushioned chairs and couches, arranged in a variety of geometric shapes, predominantly occupied by persons in their late teens and early twenties seemingly enjoying the company of “friends, lovers, and others.”  Not a “mallcore kid” in sight.

And the “something illegal”?

One guy had an unlit cigarette hanging beneath his pierced nose.
Neither of which is illicit in Oklahoma, as far as I’m aware:

Another patron displayed a tilted hat and tattooed arm.
Yet again, neither illegal – or even atypical – for a young Tulsan:

And the only thing I got from behind the counter when I asked for “tea” was a cup of chai and the cheerful offer to enhance the experience with a bit of espresso.

*Image accessed from spiritual-happiness.com

——————————————————————————

While the members of Apollo completed their preparations to play, I sipped my chai and watched a young college-aged woman use a ball-point pen to draw an elaborate design upon the hand of her male companion.
Once the project was complete:

“May I see?”

[Hand extends. Intricate tree of life appears.]

“Very artistic. You should try henna.”
“You think so?”
“Absolutely!”
“I wanted to once, when I was visiting Louisiana, but didn’t.”
“Why not?”
“No one I was with wanted to try it, or to wait while I did.”

“What’s henna?”

Before either of us had a chance to enlighten the ill-informed, the music started with Basler’s fun and energetic percussion followed by Healey’s expert, tempo-setting bass.

Almost immediately, the casual banter ceased and all eyes turned toward the duet on the makeshift stage.

Once the initial instrumentations had the audience totally entranced, in walked Osborn and Lawless providing Apollo’s vocals and lead (and wearing kilts, no less), thereby transforming the duet into a quartet and solidifying the spellbound state.

Disappointingly – to me at least, despite the fun pageantry and fabulous performance, no one got up to dance.

Not sure why.

Could’ve been that the space occupied by the audience and the furniture upon which they sat left little room to stand and shimmy. Could’ve been that the patrons were far more considerate of the photographer than they need’ve been. Perhaps it was that those in attendance were simply too shy to shake it as the glass eye of an SLR roamed the room.

Whatever the reason, happily the lack of theatrics and undulations didn’t extend to the boys in the band:  Healey and Basler not only provided flawless rhythm, they also offered charisma and comic relief – interacting with each other and making fun side glances at members of the audience. Frontmen Osborn and Lawless both contrasted and complemented their bandmates, providing an exceptional harmonic framework, and offering both gravity and passion as they played – interacting with each other and being a bit more forward in their seduction of the audience:

Ultimately, I found both the music and those who had gathered to partake of it a very pleasant experience indeed.