Nerdy Things I Love

Library Research. I know I'm a nerd because I get excited about researching in a library. It is something that I want to truly infect my students with. I love going to the library for a book and just browsing the titles around that book--I always find something that I wasn't looking for, but really really needed. I always encourage students to do really exploratory library research, but so many of them are really reluctant to go into strange, scary stacks (which is a little understandable). But I love it. I was in some stacks today that I haven't been in since I was a high school student. They weren't as scary to me today as they were then and I hope to go back before Hometown Big Univ. (HBU) closes for the holidays on Friday.

Librarians. My FAVORITE public librarian was hard at work yesterday. I went in to find that wonderful index of Black magazines that she introduced me to last time. My memory is not always the best, but if you show me where a really useful book is in the library, I'm likely to remember it. Well I went straight to the spot where I thought the books were and they weren't there. Another reference librarian saw me looking very pitiful and confirmed that I wasn't crazy--that the books should be there. She walked around the reference section with me (bless her heart) to see if someone left it in a reshelving area. No avail. I started to go about looking up some other books, but something told me to go over to periodicals and see if my favorite librarian was working. And she was. I reintroduced myself and said remember those books....No sooner than I could finish my sentence, she began to giggle and reached under her desk. She pulled out all three volumes of this index and said "my boss told me to take these back days ago, I'm so sorry!" We had a good laugh and I got back to work.

Microfilm. I used to really hate microfilm and sometimes I prefer the hardcopies of periodicals (especially older ones). But since I started my diss I've come to appreciate microfilm. What a great way to get a lot of information into a small space. And microfilm seems to keep a lot of Black periodicals catalogued in libraries that don't necessarily have strong holdings in Africana studies. Only catch--I'm yet to find a microfilm reader with a really good printer--can we update the machines???

Coffee Shops in Libraries. I'm not a huge coffee drinker but I love that an increasing number of college libraries have coffee shops. It's always creates such a cozy, aromatic space to do some reading.

Books. I'm really just a nerd because I love books. If I didn't have to park on a meter today, I probably would have spent two more hours in the HBU library just looking around the shelves. They have some great collections and I'm going to be spending a lot more time down there. Gotta get a special borrowers card.

Had a really productive day of researching. I think I found all the sources I need to fill in the gaps in this chapter before I start revising my last two sections.