2 April 2007 ? Monday
It is just after 11 a.m. at work. I am alone. Reham has just left for the Gulf Chapter of SLA?s annual conference in Bahrain. Amna and Hana are in the USA. We were able to send them to the ACRL/Baltimore conference and now they will spend a few days at Dartmouth College, gleaning from their library colleagues there what information they can. So, I am all alone with student assistants ? it?s good to do this once in a while (he said optimistically).
I have great respect for my library colleagues ? they are workers who try hard and while each one of us has different skills, we do seem to complement one another. Some of the saner moments while I am here at AUK occur in the library, working with these fine people. It is a pleasure when I can help them broaden their backgrounds by attending conferences and workshops. This will be perhaps one of the few legacies I leave behind ? not bad?
It is the week before Spring Break, so there are lots of students in the library using computers, databases, etc. We spend a lot of time helping them with citing sources. To this end, we show them a cool tool called – good for anyone citing a paper using MLA, APA or Chicago style manuals. This is the ?Google generation? and this source is easy for them to get used to? Yes, we teach them ?to fish? but we need to feed them along the way?
As noted in previous diary editions, we plan to bug out this Wednesday for Oman again ? can?t wait. It is striking as to how different each Gulf country is ? each has its own deserved reputation. To me, Oman is the gem in this region ? this opinion shared by many who have been in the Gulf for a while.