What is it with giving out candies, chocs and all sorts of food stuff at students’ presentations? After a couple of presentations, I was half-expecting a plate of char-siew rice coming my way as I sat through yet one more presentation.

During the break, I turned to a lovely girl in what looked like a Prada knocked-down and asked, “You guys distribute food all the time at presentations?” She laughed a little too nervously while fiddling with an unopened bag of mini Mentos. “Sometimes we give out apples…” And like a true blue librarian, I asked, “Where do you throw the cores?” By that time, the next presentation was up and Ms Prada was saved from giving me a satisfactory answer but I must say the delicate shade of pink on her face was delightfully lovely.

I guess when I stepped into the classroom to observe students presenting their group projects, I caused a little bit of a stir for one little moment. I can just about hear “What the hell is the librarian doing here?” Observing only-lah. Don’t panic. As if my comments would contribute to your marks. But commented I did. The lecturer had wanted me to see her students’ work after the Advance Searching Skills class I gave them at the beginning of semester. I was there to see how well they use and cite secondary sources. One group did cite some secondary sources but when their experiment (yah, they attempted an experiment instead of a survey – brave, right?) went a bit out of orbit, they did not attempt to rein it in by using secondary research. Secondary sources would have given them a framework to work from and the presentation would have been tighter.

All in all, the presentations were good. What was enjoyable was how the lecturer dissected the analyses of their data and coached them. Man, you got to hand it to her. She is one academic all of us should be proud to work with. I certainly am.