thinking about thinking about winding down

our free-sites issue with the UVA databases got fixed this evening. There were many other sites also that were on the “free” list (meaning students don’t need to pay for minutes) that weren’t working properly either. Not just UVA. I’m glad it’s fixed and I’d really like this to be the end of our technology woes.

Today, we started pulling materials off reserve. I asked all the faculty to let us know what they no longer need on reserve, so that we can start to move materials back into the general collection. I’m fine with keeping everything that’s needed on reserve, but if some materials can come off now, I’d prefer not to have to do it all at the end. We had stacks and stacks and stacks of books piled high (and falling off) the desk today. By, the end of the day when they were all taken off reserve and reshelved in the stacks, and I looked back at the reserve shelves, there are still a ton of books up there. Nothing compared to UVA, of course, but still many for us. Sherri and I were taking stabs at what percentage of the reserve materials actually ever circulated … but I won’t post our guesses in the blog … More will come off in the next few days, though I imagine there will still be a lot until the end. It was a pretty productive day. Sherri made collection development decisions on all the textbook-like things. We got everything taken care of that we could. My goal in the next 8 days before Hawaii is mainly system documentation. We’ve got the software figured out pretty well now and we just need to write it all up for the future voyages.

Global Studies -- the class that the whole shipboard community attends -- is taking a new turn for the next 5 days. We are having short introductory remarks and then breaking into small group discussions for the duration of the class (30-40 minutes). I am co-facilitating a small group and we have 15 students -- the same students everyday for the next 5 days. (Usually students attend Global Studies (or don’t) in whatever classroom they choose.) Attendance will count as points towards the final exam. The second to last day before Hawaii will be the Archbishop, the last day will be a group of students talking about impact and activism, and then the final exam. We’re trying to use these small group discussions to move from information overload to a time for processing and reflecting on everywhere we’ve been and how we can use what we have learned to guide the world forward. It’s not an inconsequential goal for the very short amount of time we have left …

And then there was the crew talent show. They were great. There were a whole number of crew we’ve never seen before (folks who work in the engine room, the laundry, etc.) and then there were our favorite people from the dining hall and the purser’s desk and our cabin stewards … They sang and danced and played music and did stand-up and carved ice sculptures while the crew in the background all sang We Are the World (there goes another scary high-school flashback …)

Clocks go forward tonight an hour. We lose an hour every night for very many nights from here to Hawaii. Ugh …