One of the unexpected pleasures of working in a library is the patron request. Although we do our best to predict which books will be popular, our members find authors we have never heard of and titles that slipped past our regular examinations of publisher's lists and book reviews.

Recently, I tried to fulfill request for Time Management by Randy Pausch, the late author of The Last Lecture. When I looked for it from our usual book vendor, it wasn't listed. I asked another librarian to look for it, in case I had missed something. She came back with the same answer. We searched online and found that Amazon was selling the MP3, but nothing else. (Later, Amazon added the CD and it seems that they have now added a paperback of the book.)

We were mystified, but intrigued, especially by the comments ostensibly left by Pausch's sister urging people to boycott the products as they were not authorized by her late brother, something we have not been able to confirm or refute. A quick Google search revealed that Pausch's time management lecture has long been an online favorite. It's available entirely online from a friend and colleague of Professor Pausch, Dr. Gabriel Robins. The great advantage of the online version, besides the obvious video component, are the accompanying slides and handouts as well as the related articles about Randy Pausch. 

The video can be seen on YouTube, Google Video, Blip.tv and several other online video sites, and the YouTube version is embedded below. The slides and associated articles are all available from Dr. Robins.

What a goldmine of great content! Keep those requests coming!