It takes a community

To borrow from Hillary Rodham Clinton, who in turn borrowed from an African proverb, I do believe "it takes a village to raise a child." Or in our case, it takes a community to sail around the world. We are delighted to be joining the community that will be the Spring 2013 Semester at Sea voyage, and I hope to post lots in months to come about the connections built among the many diverse members of that still-forming group.

As excited as we are to join the shipboard village, our community at home in Virginia is a very, very special one we will miss a great deal. We are just awed at the warm support from colleagues all over UVA (especially in my home library and Alderman), the helpfulness of Jr's school with homeschool details, the flexibility of Sr's employer, and all kinds of help from friends, family, and of course the wonderful staff at SAS. There are too many names to list, but we appreciate every single one of you for wishing us well, covering duties while we are away, and doing all of the things that make SAS possible. I know it is a month before we go, but we are already saying goodbye to friends and family we see infrequently. We will do our best to keep posting here as so many of you have made us promise!

Free puppy

You know how a free puppy is wonderful, but has strings attached?  You get wet kisses, full body tail wags, and an inseparable new part of your life before you even realize what happened. You also have to get your puppy shots, paper train her, teach her about human culture, find food she will eat, and make sure she gets enough exercise. Semester at Sea gives connections with new friends, experiences of places and things we can't even imagine yet, and has already become part of our life stories. You also have to get shots, do much paperwork, learn new cultures, eat new food, and make sure you get enough exercise. Plus organize a floating library and arrange life for a whole family to travel in 14+ ports and be away from home, school, and work for a few months.

SAS and free puppies: amazing gifts that come with a lot of responsibilities!

We are in the final flurry of preparations. Nearly all of my work preparing the shipboard library is done for now, but there are many things left to do at work and home. One month from today, we board the plane for San Diego.

Photo credit: http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/press.aspx?id=3935

Ship's library

My colleague who is the current Semester at Sea librarian sent this nice picture of the view from the library desk today.

My family always likes to be able to picture where I am working, so this is for them!

As you can see, it is a tidy, small, yet surprisingly complete library. We're big on stats in libraries, so here are some from folks who have gone before me:

Name: 

Taormina Library. 

Collection size: 

About 9,000 volumes specifically tailored to international study and travel, and to the curriculum of the current voyage. Electronic access to UVA electronic books and databases is a major library service, though you have to be very patient because the internet is sloooooow.

Staffing: 

Two professional librarians plus 8-10 work study students. The library is open every day we are at sea, from 8am to 11pm! I will be the 22nd librarian from UVA to head the SAS library since 2006 when UVA signed on as the program's academic sponsor.

Patrons:

In Spring 2013, we will serve 650 undergraduate students and 35 faculty (teaching 87 different courses). In addition, voyage staff, lifelong learners, and dependent children are welcome to use many of the library resources. The collection is almost exclusively focused on the academic needs of students and faculty since UVA's role is to support the academic mission of Semester at Sea, but SAS courses have been designed by faculty from many disciplines, regions, and interests, so the collection is varied and broad.

Check back for more posts about the library, along with travel plans and other silly things as we get closer to departure. I should have started this blog a while ago so I could fill it up with my endless thoughts on this adventure in a place where you all can read or ignore as you like. We have about 6 weeks to go.

Photo credit: Jane Penner, University of Virginia/Semester at Sea

You are doing what?

Anyone who has been around us for almost the past two years has heard so much about what we are doing, and why, that I am sure most of you will want to stop reading right now.

For the less than 1% of our friends, colleagues, and family who we haven't bored to tears by talking about our plans, here's the brief background:

Semester at Sea is a comparative, undergraduate study abroad program offered by the non-profit Institute for Shipboard Education, with academic sponsorship from the University of Virginia. Since the academic program uses UVA library resources (both on the ship and online) throughout the voyage, they take a UVA librarian each semester. Many UVA librarians line up for this opportunity, and the planets aligned for me to go this coming spring. 

Since it is a learning community with people of all ages in addition to college-age students, faculty are allowed to bring family members. It took some creativity, but my husband (known here as Sr) and nine-year-old son (Jr) will be sailing with me. Last I checked, my dad (Grandpa) is scrambling to get his life organized enough to come along as a Lifelong Learner, too. Especially for Grandpa, but really for all of us, I'll believe we are really going when we are standing on the deck sailing out of the first port. 

I have been meeting students, faculty, and staff who will be sailing with us both in person and online for the past few months. Everyone says ours will be the best voyage ever. If you are still reading at this point, you can see the details of who, where, and when on the SAS site:

http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/spring-2013/

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of our Semester at Sea! We are still in the planning phase, but setting up the blog is now one more thing we can check off the list.

In just a few weeks, we will set off from North America for an unforgettable voyage, ending many ports later in Europe via Asia and Africa. Along with us will be 600+ undergraduate students, 35+ faculty, assorted staff, crew, spouses, dependent children, and lifelong learners. The ship has a 9000+ volume library which I will manage with lots of help from another librarian and a cast of work study students. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it!

Our visas for Ghana, India, and China arrived today, so it feels like we are almost ready to go after months of planning. The list of things to do is still quite long, so I better either go do some of those things, or go to bed so I can do them tomorrow.