The Rise of Women in Tech

"It’s time for the old adage that women neither like nor do well in math and science be put to rest …"

Amen to that! The folks at MBA-Online have put together another great infographic showing how this is changing, the impact it's having both in the workplace and in our wallets, and a few facts I didn't realize - like how the wage gap is 7% narrower for women in STEM fields.

As a woman in a STEM field - that of astronomical construction - I am heartened every day when I look around at our optical engineer (a woman), our enclosure engineer (a woman), or our thermal engineer (another woman), or talk with the mail system administrator (yep, you guessed it), or interact with any of the solar astrophysicists I talk to weekly (you got it). I feel very, very lucky to work in a project that has pretty much thrown the "typical" attitude out the window.

I can also see the significant change in organizational approach when I walk down the hallways of our sister organization, and compare the astronomers who've joined us in the last 10 years with the tenured astronomer batch - there are distinct gender and racial gaps. I'm so happy to see that change happening!

Be sure to check out the entire graphic. 

The Accidental Systems Librarian

I am pleased to say that Nicole C. Engard's and Rachel Singer Gordon's book "The Accidental Systems Librarian," second edition, is now available!

"The Accidental Systems Librarian takes the approach that anyone with a solid foundation in the practices and principles of librarianship and a willingness to confront and learn about changing technology can serve effectively in a library systems position—with or without formal technology training."

I was delighted to share my opinion of the book in a blurb for it, and I'm happy to point it out as an invaluable resource for anyone who's either been dropped into this happy field by accident, or is thinking of choosing it down the line. (It's a great review for the kind of things you'd be doing!)

Give it a look!

Call for Papers: PCA/ACA

The Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association annual conference will be held March 27 - March 30, 2013 at the Wardman Park Marriott in Washington, DC. Scholars from a wide variety of disciplines will meet to share their Popular Culture research and interests.

The Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Popular Culture area is soliciting papers dealing with any aspect of Popular Culture as it pertains to libraries, archives, museums, or research. Possible topics include descriptions of research collections or exhibits, studies of popular images of libraries or librarians, relevant analyses of social networking or web resources, Popular Culture in library education, the future of libraries and librarians, or reports on developments in technical services for collecting/preserving Popular Culture materials. Papers from graduate students are welcome.

Prospective presenters should enter their proposals in the PCA/ACA 2013 Event Management database at http://ncp.pcaaca.org. The deadline is November 30, 2012. Please direct any queries to the Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Popular Culture area chair:

Allen Ellis
Professor of Library Services
W. Frank Steely Library
Northern Kentucky University
Highland Heights, KY  41099-6101
USA
859-572-5527
ellisa@nku.edu

Surprise!

I know I've said this already, but: WOOT! I get to go to Australia and talk to a batch of librarians! About all kinds of groovy, funky stuff! Who we are, where we work, where we're going, how we're going to get there... pontifications galore!

NLS6 released an announcement about it, and I'm floored by the graphics; check this out!

Ideas for my talk have been madly pinging around my head - I'm so excited about it I'm going to have to work very hard to not talk a mile a minute. And I want to say, Kate and Vanessa are awesome. (Just so you know.)

The Librarian Wardrobe

Just discovered this site... in a similar vein to "This is What a Librarian Looks Like", the Librarian Wardrobe site seeks to collect images of librarian style:

"Not always buns and sensible shoes, librarians at various types of libraries have different styles (and dress codes). Check it out here or submit your own."

 It's a great collection showing the many and varied styles of modern librarians - check it out and submit your own!!

An Open Letter to the Look That Slowly Forms On Your Face When I Tell You I Am a Librarian

Becca Brody nails it over on McSweeney's with her "Open Letter to People or Entities who are Unlikely to Respond:"

"Dear Look That Slowly Forms On Your Face When I Tell You I Am a Librarian:

The raised eyebrows and intake of breath fool no one. As a librarian, I am well aware that most people do not find my job an interesting topic of conversation at a neighborhood barbecue, music festival or, to use a more keenly relevant example, the cocktail party we both attended last Friday night..."

Go forth and read her (sadly, scarily) accurate account of how way too many interactions for us still go these days...  and bear in mind that, if you're in a good mood and feeling forgiving, this is a great time to share a quick note about how fantastic we are.

So. How 'bout that Dewey Decimal System, huh?

Yep, still carrying on.

Friday, September 7, 2012, roughly 8am local time, via @ScrewyDecimal on Twitter: 

Lady: "So what do YOU do?" Me: "I'm a librarian." Lady: "A librarian? That's still a 'thing'?"

Sigh. And people ask me why I feel I still have to carry on about our image and perception these days! THIS. This is why.

Brisbane, Here I Come!

I am honored and delighted to announce that I have accepted an invitation to keynote the 6th Annual New Librarians' Symposium, February 10-13, 2013, in Brisbane, Australia. The symposium's theme is "Think Different, Be Different", and I am looking forward to being just that!

The intended audience for NLS6 is early-career librarians and information professionals,  and the sub-themes are:

•     Inspire (opening minds, expanding horizons)
•     Imagine (the future of the information professions)
•     Create (creativity, risk taking, innovation)
•     Lead (in our profession and beyond)
•     Climb (professional development)
•     Leap (diverse career options for information professionals)

I have the opportunity to talk for an hour on embedded librarianship, special libraries, and our professional identity in any combination and shape I wish - hitting all six themes along the way! Given the incredibly changing nature of the profession, the opportunities available inside libraries and out, and the increase in visibility and interest in embedded positions, I have a lot to talk about! I've already begun outlining my talk, and plan (hope?) on doing it TEDx style.

The really amazing part, that I'm still stunned by? I was crowdsourced.

And then I went to Chicago... Parts 3 & 4

Tuesday and Wednesday at SLA were primarily unit-leader focused; I didn't get to any sessions except the IT Business Meeting, where as division secretary I took some mad notes, yo! I was able to spend some time in the INFO-EXPO collecting information for future vendor relationships with MPOW, and it was kind of nice to be able to talk to a vendor and not say "No, I'm not buying from you, I won't be buying from you, please don't give me a sales pitch". Then it was the Leadership Orientation meeting, and I was surprised at how much Gary LaBranche's presentation on association models got my attention. I also liked Bethan Ruddock's presentation on "How to Parlay SLA Experience into a Promotion" - I realized I had been downplaying all I do with SLA to MPOW and needed to change that, stat! The Leadership program was followed by the Division and Chapter Cabinet meetings - as the only Arizona board member at SLA, I went to the Chapter Cabinet meeting, then onward to the Joint Cabinet Meeting. It got pretty lively in there! (I now know a lot more about "Committee of the Whole" and what it can do.) At this point it was after 8pm and I was starving - so my friend Kathleen and I headed out for a bite to eat, and ended up at Lou Malnati's Pizza.  ZOMG now I see why people rave about Chicago deep dish pizza - this was DAMN tasty stuff! I had intended to head back for the IT Dance Party, but I ran out of energy as we were contemplating dessert so missed the shindig this year. (Dang it!)

Wednesday included a stop at the local FedEx office to ship my Fellows award back home - I didn't want to hand-carry it and take a chance on it getting broken. Plus about twenty pounds of conference-related stuff - books and papers and schwag and stuff - it felt good to get it off my shoulders, literally. I went to the Operation Vitality meeting, where the most excellent Daniel Lee shared the final bits and pieces of the great Wordpress migration, and some tidbits about the forthcoming overarching SLA website overhaul. I'm looking forward to it, and I know I'm not alone. The conference began wrapping up with the SLA Business Meeting, where I learned about and donated to the SLA Loyalty Club, followed by the Future Now Panel, which was entertaining and thought-provoking. I quite enjoyed the discussion about stereotypes versus value. The Closing Reception, thrown by the Kentucky Chapter and partners, was quite enjoyable - it was nice to be able to chat with folks with all the pressure off!

Thank you, Chicago, for a lovely visit. We'll be back!

Family Portrait at the Cloud Gate Sculpture.

And then I went to Chicago... Part 2

Monday at SLA I was finally able to breathe a bit, although the morning kicked off early again with the PAM Astronomy Roundtable at 7:30am. Thank heavens for strong coffee! It was a great session, and having no projector really challenged the speakers - they did brilliantly! (I must admit, Lance's "slides" were one of my favorites.)

Chris and I talking culture.
Photo by The Photo Group, 2012.

Then I dashed off to the Fellows and Rising Stars Roundtable, where I was paired with Rising Star Chris Zammarelli. We decided to talk about culture in libraries, where culture is defined as "the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular group." Chris works for the Department of State, and as such works with libraries around the world, in embassies and out, and one of the things they must be very aware of is the local culture - societal, religious, ethnic, etc. He talked a bit about how that impacts his job, and how he deals with working with people worldwide who are often in different time zones. I talked about a different type of culture - that of the scientists and engineers I work with. Each group has a common language, habits, rituals, and expressions - and they are NOT the same, and are often in conflict. I'm in the middle, acting almost as an anthropologist and translator, to understand and bridge the differences between the two groups. I've had to learn the best way to get them what they want and need, how they search for things - basically, become bilingual.  The takeaway I offered was get to know the culture of your user groups, and integrate into them - then the users will trust you and see you as part of their group. This benefits everyone!

Happy 40th Anniversary, PAM!

After the great Q&A session at the roundtable was over, I headed for the PAM Business Meeting, where (amongst a great many other things) we started celebrating PAM's 40th Anniversary. I was in charge of the souvenir lapel pins, and it was a delight to pass them out to members! (We also had an excellently themed Daily Retreat, courtesy of IOP.) During the following INFO-EXPO time, I was finally able to meet the other members of the Online Content Advisory Committee face-to-face, and I'm looking forward to some of the things we have planned for the rest of the year.

American West Chapters Reception

Monday wrapped up with a couple of social events - first up was the American West Chapters Reception, at the Newberry Library, where I proudly represented the Arizona Chapter (and did a turn at the welcome tables). What a lovely library, and I really enjoyed the piano player - he so clearly was enjoying himself! Then I moseyed off to the PAM Open House, where AIP gave us a beautiful cake (see above) as part of our 40th Anniversary celebrations.

And then I went to Chicago... Part 1

(I can't believe it's August already!)

Last month was a very, very busy one; I moved offices (I'm out of the cave! Yay!), I went to Chicago, and I spoke to the incoming library school grad students at my alma mater. The biggie, of course, was Chicago for the annual Special Libraries Association meeting - although I did get a couple of days before the conference to play tourist with my family!

My conference started quite early, at 7:30am on Saturday the 14th. One of the hats I wear for SLA is that of the Professional Development chair for the IT Division, and PD runs the CE courses each year. I wanted to meet the instructors, make sure they had everything they needed, and thank them in person - it just meant for some very early mornings! I'm very pleased that both sessions went well - "Taxonomy & Information Architecture for SharePoint", with Seth Earley, and "Website Analytics and Usability Studies: Mastering Tools for Measuring Website Effectiveness", with Kate Marek.

Saturday was also the really productive 2013 Conference Planner's meeting - as the Spreadsheet Queen for the Annual Conference Advisory Committee, I was crazy busy, but it was really good. I think we're in decent shape at this point; there are some really interesting sessions in the queue for San Diego!

Leoma Dunn giving me my
Fellows award. Photo by The
Photo Group, 2012.

Sunday was my most over-scheduled day, but also the best! After greeting Ms. Marek and getting her CE course going, I had a quick breakfast with my family and headed off to the PAM Newcomer's Lunch. As past-chair of the PAM Division it was my honor to host the event, although I was only able to stay for about 15 minutes before I had to speed back to the convention center. The restaurant (Russian Tea Time) smelled absolutely delicious and I'm quite sad I didn't get a chance to go back and enjoy the cuisine! Then it was time for a Board Meeting, a Meet and Greet, and then getting ready for the Awards Ceremony - where I was officially made a Fellow of SLA! I'm delighted, honored, and still a bit stunned by it all. I'm very glad that my husband and son could be there - thanks, SLA, for their passes!

SLA President Brent Mai and I, before the award ceremony.
Photo by The Photo Group, 2012.

Girls in STEM

Because it's cool, because we need to encourage more girls to go into STEM fields in general, because we need to ensure girls know they can study any field a boy can, and because it's cool, I give you (with permission) "Girls are Smarter than Boys", by Jen Rhee via Engineering Degrees:

"The science, technology, engineering, and math workforce is crucial to the economy and even though women represent more than half of the world’s population, women hold less than 25% of STEM jobs. In elementary, middle school, and high school, girls actually take more classes and earn better grades in math and sciences. As women progress into college, a decline in interest in math and sciences occurs and declines further at the graduate level and yet again in the professional level.
While biological differences may play a factor, though it’s still not yet fully understood, they are not the whole story. This infographic will tell you what girls go through during school that ultimately has them careers outside of science, technology, engineering, and math."

Yes, please!

I'm lucky enough to be working in a job that satisfies both my interests (and degrees): library science, and astronomy. When I was in high school and applied for a scholarship to study mechanical engineering, I was told by quite a few folks (both classmates and a couple of counselors) that I shouldn't hold my breath, since that wasn't a "good field for girls". I tell you, at graduation I sure as heck strutted my stuff, as one of only four to get scholarships in this field, and the only female! I swapped from MechE to Astronomy & Physics as time went on (and I learned that no, MechE and astrophysics really didn't have all that much in common) and while there were more women in the classes, it was still very heavily male. I look around the research institution with whom MPOW is housed, and there's a lot more men than women... but that trend is starting to change, as MPOW at least has several female astronomers on staff, and my direct project has a near half-and-half balance in the engineering staff. So there's hope!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Vote for me as an Agile Librarian!

It's been a craaaaazy month but let me just reiterate: Drupal ROCKS! Also, DOORS isn't as horrible as I was led to believe, and summer has come early to the desert... hello, 108F!

And now, for the real news: Voting is now open for the SLA Agile Professional Snap & Win contest - please consider casting your vote for me!  Check it out - and many, many thanks!

An Agile Librarian

An Agile Librarian, a photo by desertlibrarian on Flickr.

You've seen what a librarian looks like - now's your chance to show it!  SLA has teamed up with Dow Jones/Factiva to bring the "Agile Professional Snap & Win" contest to a camera near you. Show how agile you are in your profession, capture that with a photo, and you could win $1000 and a year's SLA Membership! More information is at the SLA Snap & Win site.

The Lady is a Vamp, Indeed

"The lady is a vamp: Helena Bonham Carter plays a sexy librarian in new music video", posted earlier this month at the UK Daily Mail Online site, shows us Ms. Carter in a way we may not have seen her in before, but have seen plenty of times. "The King's Speech star appears for most of the clip as a geeky, uptight librarian awaiting a mattress delivery," and then under musician Rufus Wainwright's direction, ends up following the whole repressed librarian path. Check it out:

Pearle Vision, what are we going to do with you?

While it did make me chuckle (mostly from the salespeople's reactions at the end), here we are again, using the sexy librarian trope to sell things. Sigh.

#SLAchat: Drupal vs. Wordpress

For SLA's Online Content Advisory Committee we're hosting a series of Q&A questions on the SLA Blog - there's still time to pitch into the first one, about Drupal vs. Wordpress. What do you think? Come share your musings! Feel free to share them on Twitter, too, using the tag #SLAChat.

(Current score is 3 for Wordpress, 1 for Drupal... mine. Get your own thoughts in!)

A Day in the Life: Systems Librarian Edition

I know it's not the usual time for Library Day in the Life, but some management folks were asking me just what it is I do all day! So here's my sysgrunt (hat tip to RefGrunt, which I miss), a typical day in the life of this slightly atypical systems librarian:

    •    Start: 7:57am. Email (and coffee, lots and lots of coffee)
    •    Initial config of new computer's Windows OS
    •    Confirm committee receipt of new web site online form submissions
    •    IM with my boss
    •    Scrub old version of DOORS from local virtual machine (VM, my Windows machine)
    •    Confirm agenda for SLA Fellows meeting
    •    Email manager regarding spam system settings
    •    Registry scrub of all DOORS & related mentions on local VM
    •    Email new staff member regarding vault account
    •    Install Office on new computer
    •    Regclean on local VM
    •    Install Project on new computer
    •    Reboot local VM
    •    Install Visio on new computer
    •    Updates on new computer
    •    IM with my boss
    •    New job ad on websites
    •    Email
    •    SLA Fellows teleconference
    •    Emails re: new online web form
    •    Clean install of DOORS 9.3.0.6 on local VM
    •    Validate Office, Project and Visio on new machine
    •    Reboot VM after changing network adapter settings per IBM tech
    •    Install Symantec on new computer
    •    Report failure to connect to DOORS licensing server from local VM :-(
    •    Edit/format staff member's technical note
    •    Install Acrobat on new computer
    •    Create new staff member's vault account; confirm another new staff member's account exists; remove departed staff member's account
    •    Install vault software on new computer
    •    Start safety review web page
    •    Set up VPN on new computer
    •    Discover VPN server is not responding to access requests or pings; get with IT to sort out why. Further discover it's not server, it's the network config of new machine. Argh.
    •    Skype with safety officer about the safety review page
    •    Email with managers regarding files on web site
    •   
    •    Lunch!
    •   
    •    Email
    •    IM software crash & restart
    •    Check in technical note & notify staff member it's ready
    •    Changes to safety review web page
    •    Route ICD for approval
    •    Number assignment & format fixes to Report with Responses before posting
    •    Skype/join.me with new staff member to install vault software & give basic training
    •    Email
    •    Im with IT about VPN problem
    •    Change Request processing: returning some to editing for further changes, noting rejections & filing appropriately, pinging for status of still-awaiting-signatures ones, and updating the web page
    •    Realized that past process for denying CRs will no longer work with the recent changes to the workflow. Added a new "CR Denied" final state, and added two new transitions to the "Waiting for CCB" state, allowing return-to-edit and denial states directly rather than having to go back through syseng first.
    •    Email to manager re: CRs awaiting his approval
    •    Email with staff members regarding meeting next week
    •    Browser (involuntary) reboot
    •    Update observing schedules on new NSO website (and poke staff member about training so he can do it now)
    •    Email re: ICD drawings still awaiting proper signoff
    •    PAM strategic plan articles, first review
    •    CR # request; update web page.
    •    Email & filing of answered messages
    •    Fix location of accidentally-moved file in vault.
    •    Email with manager re: PMCS files on restricted instrument pages
    •    Locate DOORS Web installation & configuration instructions
    •    Route ICD for approval
    •    Done! 5:03pm

And now... I'm off to write my new Spectacles column!

Beyond the Core

I want to tip my hat to Bill Jacobs and the Science-Technology Division of SLA for putting together this great list on "Expanding Sci-tech librarianship beyond the core duties." It's a great starting point for answers if you're asked "Well, what do you bring to the party?"

From finding obscure references, through helping someone get or keep their CV up-to-date, to scientific literary analysis - we ARE your superpower! Don't be afraid of our skill sets - put them to use!

This is what a librarian looks like!

The ever-amazing Bobbi Newman, of Library Day in the Life fame, has created a new web site to bust the stereotype, one picture at a time - This is What a Librarian Looks Like. Yes! Look at us all in there, hiking, playing, dancing, eating, drinking, being serious, being goofy - wow, yep, just like "normal" people. Love it!

This is my own entry, to try and better illustrate my own job a bit. The hair color may change, but the second office stays the same...

Wait, what? February?

Holy smokes, I haven't written since I thanked SIRLS back in November! Things I've done since then:

• Presented "Especially Embedded: Integrated Librarianship in Special Libraries" at the SLD Business Meeting at the Arizona Library Association conference;
• Had a lovely holiday season;
• Started to become one with JIRA and DOORS;
• Attended SLA Leadership Summit in lovely Atlanta, GA. Not only did I get a lot of neat ideas and some really good networking in, SLA made me a Fellow!

And now it's February and hey! Librarians are in the news again, this time for defending their no-filtering rule. The latest, "Seattle libraries: No sleeping or eating allowed, but porn-watching OK", brings up the usual problems... we are not censors, and fight for the right for anyone to access whatever information they wish. But... how do we keep the innocent from seeing things the not-so-innocent may be viewing on a public computer? It's a thorny issue for sure, and I feel for the Seattle librarians.

Thank You, SIRLS

On November 3rd, as noted earlier, I participated in the SIRLS 2011 Dickinson Lectures. I'm pleased to say that lectures were recorded and are now available, along with the final slide decks, via the SIRLS website.

• Download the podcast from iTunes
• View my slide deck on Embedded Librarianship as a PDF

Beware the Sixth-Level Cataloger

I like the online comic Questionable Content anyway (not to mention the fact it's the source of a great library-themed Tshirt) but today's just rocks, on several levels. One, it's QC. Two, it's a guest comic by Bill Barnes, one half of the Unshelved creative duo. Third, well, hey! Laser eyes!

The Dickinson Lectures

I am very pleased to announce my invited talk, "Insights into the Life of an Embedded Librarian", part of the 2011 SIRLS Homecoming Event Dickinson Lectures. It will be this coming Thursday, November 3rd, from 4pm-5:30pm in the Ares Auditorium (Room 164) of The James E Rogers College of Law. Also presenting is Dr. Bryan Heidorn, who will be speaking about "Repository as App: Functionality to Attract Dark Data."  Following the Lectures will be a reception for all attendees.

I'll be posting an annotated copy of my talk after it's given. (I'm still fiddling a bit, and these always take on a life of their own at actual talk time.) I hope we'll see you there!

Internet Librarian: Day 3

And here we are at Wednesday. The day kicked off with yet more coffee (I was pretty much on a steady IV of caffeine by this point) and a great keynote panel called "Internet 2020: TrendWatch Smackdown". Roy Tennant, James Werle, Liz Lawley, and Stephen Abram - how could it not be engaging and entertaining?

My takeaways from amongst my mad scribbles during the panel:

1. We must remember that all the innovations in the last 15 years are really just a blink of an eye in terms of librarianship (Werle); 
2. You are not Google's user, but their product (and this is true for more than just the Big G) (Abrams); 
3. Does your service make people say this is really great, or I'm really great? Does it make them feel successful? (Lawley);
4. Look for the magic! (All, pretty much.)

Lawley showed a really amazing movie showing how researchers are now able to insert artificial objects into archival photographs. What first got her attention is that one of the rooms an object is inserted into is... her dining room! (Made me laugh.) The video is jaw-dropping.

The rest of the morning passed learning about Inno'play'ion (the mashing together of play and innovation, by Helene Blowers), where I saw the best use of bubbles in a professional conference yet, and roaming the exhibit hall before the gnomes rushed in and disassembled it.

Time for lunch and then a scramble to make sure I was at the ITI booth by 1pm, on the off chance I was one of the three winners of the iPad raffles. #1? Nope. #2? Sadly, not me. But... I have to admit I'm a bit sorry for winner #3, who was not present... so ITI drew a fourth card from the fishbowl and IT WAS MINE!!! Yes, I did jump up and down and squee mightily.

The conference capped off with another great closing keynote from Liz Lawley on "The Great Gamification Debate". What Liz and her crew are doing at the Rochester Institute of Technology is downright amazing: they created a game ("Just Press Play") for the incoming students that engaged them in learning about the campus, the teachers, art, all kinds of stuff. It all started with the idea that "students should get achievements for being awesome" and ran from there. It's an astonishing idea for engaging both the students and the teachers and I have to admit, I want to play!!!

I had to boogie out of the closing keynote a bit ahead of time in order to catch a cab for my flight home. Another year, another trip to Monterey - and I'm already thinking about what could be done next year!

Internet Librarian: Day 2

Tuesday at Internet Librarian was a kind of hiccup-y day for me. I had plans, people! I missed the opening keynote by Lee Rainie and, based on the tweetstream, really really really wish I hadn't. But I was gearing up for my session at 11:30 and just got caught up in it. But hey: it's online, so we can all see it now!

At 11:30am in Track C, Session C202, Cary Gordon and I presented "Drupal to the Next Level" (link goes to an annotated PDF of our talk), about the choice of and migration to Drupal of all the National Solar Observatory sites. I think it went pretty well - the crowd was smaller than I'd hoped for, but we got some very good questions and feedback. All in all, a good time.

Then I tried to get some more work done (the internet access in my hotel was less than stellar, I'm sad to say) and took a walk out Fisherman's Wharf. Where did all the sea lions go? I didn't see a single one this trip, and that's a first for me. I did enjoy watching the bay for a bit, though, and the seagulls and pelicans. (Damn, those birds are big.) I also recommend the farmer's market that runs down Alvarado Street on Tuesday afternoons.

Then it was time to gear up for what could be either the best or worst evening sessions: The Great Web Tools Face-off. I was on the Red Team with Captain Amy Buckland and fellow teammate Jeff Wisniewski, against the Blue Team of Blake Carver (Captain), Michael Porter, and Lisa Carlucci Thomas. It's very hard to sum up the antics of that 90 minutes - I strongly suggest reading the twitterstream if you can. (It's worth it, I promise!)

I, of course, firmly believe that the Red Team won.

Internet Librarian: Day 1

Last week was the annual Internet Librarian conference in Monterey, a marvelous conference and one of my favorites. (One of these days I have to go to a Computers in Libraries so I can compare them...) Now that a week has passed I want to get my thoughts down, and share a summary of the sessions I attended.

I arrived Sunday afternoon to sunshine and sparkling waters, and only got lost once on the way to my room at the Hotel Pacific (awesome place, I highly recommend it). I had a delicious dinner with a friend (hi Donna!) at the Old Fisherman's Grotto then settled in back at my room to get in gear for the conference.

Monday kicked off with a very thought-provoking keynote session by John Seely Brown (JSB), who talked about how learning has and is changing, and what impact it'll have for all of us. He said we're moving away from an "I think therefore I am" paradigm and into "We participate, therefore we are" - made me think a lot about not only how I do things differently now than ten years ago, but how my son is learning in a completely different way in school than I did. Play has become more and more important - not just play for fun and relaxation, but as a very real way of learning. I see the truth of that in how I learn new tools and then show them to my staff, and I see it every week in my son's schoolwork. Another thing JSB said is that life skill sets are also greatly changing - what once was a skill set that could take you through the next 30-40 years of your professional life now will take you through no more than 5. (That tidbit just about blew my mind, but it rang true when I thought back on my own career.) "Play is key!" Play with your framing of the world, in all aspects of your life. Think about the emerging "Networks of Imagination" - think about Harry Potter, or World of Warcraft, and what kind of collaborative world-building is happening there. Bonus! InfoToday taped his talk, and you can watch it online.

After that, I grabbed a cup of coffee with my mentor (hi Stephen!) and chatted for a bit, then headed into the "Super Searchers" session with Mary Ellen Bates. I always learn a new thing to try in her sessions; this one was focused on how different search engines - and sometimes the same search engines - return different results on the same query, because of location-targeted results (whether you asked for them or not). She also stressed the importance of fighting the monoculture - use different search engines and multiple tools. The new things I'll be trying out of this session are Google Public Data Explorer and http://blekko.com/ - take a look! (I am definitely going to play around with Blekko some more.)

I took a break to get some work done before meeting my co-presenter for lunch to review our session on Tuesday. Peter B's Brewpub has some tasty salads!

Monday afternoon was about clouds and CMSs - I went to "Using the Cloud to Power Library Sites and Services" and enjoyed hearing how the Vancouver Public Library had implemented this. One thing I didn't know is that their hosting solutions were limited since not all countries (and Canada is one of them) allow private data (such as patron information) hosted on servers outside the country - i.e. the cloud. VPL was very limited in their options because of this.  Miami University folks talked about Libguide usability testing, as well. A good discussion option for these kinds of things is "We can't build this for ourselves for $X, but look what this hosted service can do for that…"

I then stuck around for the "CMS Smackdown - Drupal vs. Wordpress vs. Joomla" - I was probably not the target audience for this session, having gone through this myself a few years ago in choosing our CMS, but it was a lively and entertaining session. Poor Joomla, hardly anyone in the room was using it so it seemed a kind of wallflower CMS -

After that I was off to the Grand Opening Reception and ITI Book Signing Event - I sold some more books, woo hoo! I also had fun chatting with Lori Bell and David Lee King, and the Shanachies are always fun to hang out with. When that wound down I headed off to a planning session for the Tuesday night Face-off event…. and that's enough said about that for now!

Monterey, Here I Come!

It's that time of year again... time when thoughts turn to brisk ocean breezes, barking sea lions, and Internet Librarian! Should your thoughts turn to Drupal, come hear my colleague and I hold forth about it on Tuesday, in Track C, right before lunch. Hope to see you there!

McBrarian

Apparently, McDonald's is dangerous to your decorum ... thanks for the tip, Kathleen!



Untitled from christi cagle on Vimeo.

Men of the Stacks

Getcher 2012 Calendars Here! "We know what people think: Dewey, glasses, shushing, books, hairbuns, Party Girl and card catalogs.  Yes, we know what people think.  We know that the American, library profession is approximately 80% White and 72% female; and we know that tens of thousands of librarians are expected to reach age 65 in the next 5 years.  We also know that this is not us."

The 2012 "Men of the Stacks" calendar is now available for order for $20, with proceeds benefiting the It Gets Better Project, created "to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years." Wonderful! Not just a calendar that knocks the socks off (heh, sometimes literally) but one with a great benefit as well.  Go forth and order yours now!

Pearls Before Swine

Hair in a bun? Check. Glasses on a chain? Check. Machine gun? Check.
Pearls Before Swine, 16 September 2011

For the Love of Laura

Warning: more sharing with the choir here! Laura Warner has written a great post at Critics at Large about the wonders of the librarian, "Far More Than Shushing and Checking Out Books: For the Love of Librarians and Public Libraries". This is the kind of thing we need to be shouting at the congregation: we are fabulous and can find you anything!

To quote: "To put this plainly, librarians are surgeons with the Internet. They are specially trained to know how to find anything you need in cyberspace, how to locate the best answer and get it fast. They’re ready and waiting. They are the emergency-response personnel to all your information needs."

Yes! Now go share the news.

What Michael Said

Over at The Travelin' Librarian, Michael Sauers has been posting about his adventures working through "23 Things for Professional Development" as part of the Nebraska Learns project. His #16, Advocacy, really caught my eye:

"So, simply put, I need to advocate more to people who aren’t librarians themselves."

This got me to thinking... Michael says how sometimes he explains "What do you do?" without using the word "librarian" because sometimes it's just easier in some situations. When I think back on how I answer that question, I always say "I'm a systems librarian" and, inevitably, pull out my short explanation (I'm a trained information professional who works a lot with computer systems.") What I've been mulling over is how many times it would have been easier and more straightforward to say something like "I work with computers" or "I work at an observatory" and just leave it at that.


I do think I do a decent job of advocating the power of librarians... but am I preaching too much to the choir? I have to think about this a lot more.

A Librarian's Worth Around the World

from Ritu Pant via the Internet Librarian LinkedIn group, check out this great infographic on the worth of librarians.  There's a lot of really interesting information in there, even for us librarians! I particularly liked the "One week in the life of a librarian" and it got me thinking about trying to create a similar thing for my own library life. Hmm...

Year In Review, Or...

...why I haven't been posting as much as I could have (or should have). It's good to be busy, though! (Not so much with the knee thing.)

• January: Attended SLA Leadership Summit. Interesting, as always. It was bracketed by two major reviews at MPOW. Began long run-up to pre-conference panic attack.
• February: Every major software package at MPOW collaborated on a huge simultaneous meltdown. There was much swearing and running about.
• March: Finished beating software into submission. Spring Break... when we went noplace. Trip to the wilds of New Mexico. Start work on major Drupal migration. Mark mid-point of pre-conference panic attack ramp-up.
• April: The amazingness that is the Kentucky Libraries Joint Spring Conference. They were kind enough to invite me to speak as the opening keynote presenter. There was much nervousness, then much relief. Last good walk outside, in Jenny Wiley State Park.
• May: Lots of household repairs. Drupal migration kicks into high gear. Nine thousand million jillion final changes for the upcoming SLA conference. Significant management change at MPOW. Knee begins complaining more than usual.
• June: More cortisone shots just before heading to Philadelphia for the SLA Annual Conference. (As a division chair this year I was responsible for all the division programming.) Back-to-back major reviews immediately after SLA.  X-Rays and MRI scans.
• July: Bad knee news... start setting up surgeon appointments and physical therapy. Major progress on the Drupal task front.

As of today, I'm teleworking full time and fairly restricted mobility-wise; I see a surgeon next week who hopefully can fix things up a bit. My plan for the rest of the year blog-wise is to get back on the horse with regular postings as soon as I can! Thanks for sticking around.

National Library Week...

...was April 10-16 of this year, with the motto "Create Your Own Story".  CNN acknowledged that librarians are "Masters of the Info Universe" but what really got my attention - made me laugh, but made me sad, too - was Craig Ferguson's opening monologue on the 11th (slightly NSFW):



Craig hit on all the things libraries are facing these days - budget cuts, facilities maintenance, homeless shelters, e-books - and even the sexy librarian stereotype. However, while he always makes me laugh, most of this was rather rueful laughing... followed by a big sigh.  

Also, we know about pants!

Again with the "librarians are frumpy and unfashionable" trend... Leanne Jernigan, who I can only assume is a librarian herself, has created and posted a fabulous, humorous, and pointedly insightful look at librarians in fashion... a major part of the stereotype that just won't die. Yes, it affects us - and yes, we should care whether major fashion houses are pimping "librarian chic" as a style when it blows back on our profession rather... unfashionably.

March was good to me!

March was good to me!, a photo by desertlibrarian on Flickr.

March was very good to me - in addition to the appearance of the Info Pro Handbook, two other articles I wrote were published.

Jake Carlson and I co-authored "Embedded librarianship in the research context: navigating new waters" in C&RL News, and I wrote the introduction to Information Outlook's theme article on librarians and their image, titled "Yes, It Still Matters."

Now I have to figure out what to write next!

I'm in this book!

I'm in this book! a photo by desertlibrarian on Flickr.

"The Information & Knowledge Professional's Career Handbook", by the wonderful Jill Hurst-Wahl and Ulla de Stricker. Jill and Ulla interviewed me for a career snapshot of an active information professional; I'm delighted to have been a part of it.

Spread the Words

Edmonton Public Library has created an amazing PSA about their values and importance to the community. Plus, they have great shirts! Check it out:

Random but Good

Not dead, just crazy busy. Here's a few things to share:

* Seen the Pearls Before Swine comic of January 16th? Those are some serious librarians! 

* Hey, cool! Wil Wheaton thinks librarians are awesome. (Well, we are.) "I beg you: please support your local libraries in any way you can, and if you enjoy reading, take a moment to thank a librarian." Amen, Wil, and thank you!

* I am pleased that I can represent STEM librarians again at this year's WISE conference, "Expanding Your Horizons". It's an honor to speak to young women and encourage them into the sciences, show them that engineering is fun, and get my techy groove on.

Kickass Librarian

I post with no comments other than (1) This is absolutely and smashingly wonderful, and (2) I want to learn the Song of the Cobra.

Expressing My Value

So, I won a contest that I didn't realize was really a contest! Neat. SLA has been running an "Express Your Value" contest, encouraging members to submit videos (or other media type) to share what we do and why it matters - in other words, to express our own value. I had a lot of fun with my video, and was pleasantly surprised when I won the contest!  Here's what I said:



Thank you, SLA, for the opportunity to channel my inner TV ad-man!

Speaking to Truth

Kathy Dempsey over at "The M Word - Marketing Libraries" has written an excellent post titled "Be Clear About the Value You Deliver!" that every librarian needs to read.

Go, now; I'll wait.

Why do you need to read it? Because it addresses the never-ending question of relevance in the Internet age in a better way than I ever could:

"So next time someone asks why you still matter in the age of the internet, answer thoughtfully, using words that will make sense to whomever you're talking with. Otherwise, people will just keep asking the question and never understanding why libraries and librarians are still essential."

Well said, Kathy. Takeaway question: Do you know your applicable org-speak? On pondering, I'm not sure I do. I'll be pondering more, you can be sure.

The Little Librarian... really?

"Be a Real Librarian. Just Add Books!" I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this new toy. I'm all for encouraging reading, but... Hm. As someone who's been obsessively organizing her books at home for years (decades?) this would probably have appealed to me as a kid, but then again, so would a copy of the AACR. Nowadays, I'm not so sure; it doesn't quite represent the modern library anymore. But does that matter, really? This toy is going to appeal to any kid like I was, with a love of books and of categorization, who likes to keep track of who has the books.

(Then again, a gift subscription to LibraryThing would serve the same purpose, I think!)

Another Car Like a Librarian

...Or something like that. With shades of the 2002 Honda ad, the new 2011 Volvo S60 is being compared to a "naughty librarian". At least they acknowledge it's a stereotype:

"You know the sexist stereotype. A supposedly shy, near-sighted librarian, who when given the chance, lets down the hair, doffs the glasses, and becomes the out-of-character 'naughty' librarian.  So by adding more performance, more athletic driving dynamics and less-boxy styling to its “'Naughtiest Volvo Ever' new-for-2011 S60, Volvo wants to throw off its stereotypically staid image and help accelerate the brand’s struggling sales."

Naughty, sexy, car, librarian - yeah, ok. Based on past on-the-spot polls at conferences, most folks don't mind being compared to a great car. Do you?

Don't forget to play!

National Gaming Day @ your library. Join the thousands of folks across the nation (and around the world!) who'll play games on Saturday.

You know you want to!

I Has a Drupal Happy

Today, after a longer time than anyone would have ever thought necessary, I finally took our site upgrade to Drupal 6 live. (Just in time to start planning for 7...) It was an illuminating process, not least of which was learning what password exactly was set for the mysqladmin account (it wasn't any of the ones I thought, and I lost A MONTH over this little wee tiny datum. I can't tell you how gosh-darned smart that made me feel.) Thanks to the patience and digging of my Drupal guru, we got everything migrated and updated and transferred over. Then I - through the power of CSS! - fixed the dramatically-changed template back to the basic layout my staff knows and loves. (That made me feel a bit smarter.)

I am thoroughly pleased with the new functionality in the D6 versions of my modules; I swapped editors to FCKeditor and love it; I'm no longer quite as trepidacious about Views; my image galleries now look nice and streamlined; and my users can now even upload files to the server! (Doesn't mean they will, but at least now they can.)

I am a happy, happy person. (Cary, you rock.)

Why is it always "versus"?

As I've mentioned once or twice before, I've got definite warm fuzzies for people who work in libraries and do library tasks and duties but who may not have an MLS (hereafter known as "paraprofessionals"). Andy Woodworth strikes again with his posting "The Master's Degree Misperception" - his post itself was intriguing in discussing the worth, or lack thereof, of the degree in relation to the tasks done in most (public and academic) libraries. The reference desk got its own particular commentary... and I recall the drama stories I heard both from my mother (at a community college) and a close friend (at a public law library) relating to who manned the desk when and what questions they were allowed to answer, and what they were not. (I never did understand that.)

My own thoughts are that, while I didn't learn anything practical in grad school that I could apply to my jobs (my first professional presentation was titled "Things I Didn't Learn in Library School"), I did learn quite a lot philosophically, and that helped me with the larger questions and exposed me to issues I hadn't been before. When they came up again (as they always do), at least I had a clue of what they were and where to go to get help. But, in day to day life? My MLIS doesn't do a thing for my job skillset, security, or capabilities, nor is it a factor in how my coworkers see me.

What's been reeeeeally interesting is the comments and Twitter discussion. Some folks are gettin' downright feisty about the whole thing. It's been fascinating to watch the flames. I'll be watching this one for a bit.

---

Update September 9th: The conversation continues to evolve.  Emily's responses are well stated, and Kendra had a very good point; I'd rather be out with my patrons (albeit not at a reference desk in my case) than tucked away somewhere, unseen and unknown about.

How do you feel about it?

Over on Will Unwound, Will Manley is hosting a series of guest posters. The first one was Andy Woodworth, of Agnostic, Maybe, and his post is titled "How do you feel about the Librarian Image?"  It was an interesting post about how his attitude towards the inevitable stereotype of librarians has changed - originally irksome, he has "learned to stop fretting and embrace the stereotypes." Here's to intelligent and passionate!

Just as interesting to me were the multitudinous comments, both accepting and dismissive of the stereotypes, including plenty of examples and stories. One subtheme I learned about - being unaware myself as I've pretty much only worked solo - is the intra-library stereotype situation. Much was made of the sexual stereotype as well, and we even delved into pop culture via Project Runway.

As I noted in my own comment, I can only hope that the view changes in the next 25 years more than it has in the last 50... and it's up to us to help those changes along!

Bookworms, Indeed

On August 9th, Jason Smalley mused in a blog posting for American Libraries on the importance (or lack thereof) of the name of the job. In "A Bookworm by Any Other Name," he points out that it isn't always so easy to answer the seemingly-innocuous question, "So, what do you do?"  As another librarian who doesn't work at a library, and as a librarian whose job title doesn't include "the L-word", Jason has some really interesting thoughts on the matter.

When I stopped to think about it, some of what he said rings true for me as well - I almost never get away with saying simply "I'm a librarian," because I always then have to go into what kind of librarian I am, and no, I don't work at the public library, and yes, there are librarians who don't work at public librarians, and yes, there are librarians who spend their entire day working on computers, and....

I must say, however, that I disagree with Jason's statement that he's not a librarian, because he doesn't park his car at a library and "there aren’t thousands of me doing the same job that I do." I think this is just another case where we can stand up and say loudly, "Yes, I am a librarian!"  Yes, many of us do things you don't expect, and there are a whole lot of us who work in places that aren't labeled "library", and there may only be a few who do what we do individually (there certainly aren't a lot of folks doing the same job that I do!).

I hope Jason is able to reconsider his statement of belief. What about you? Do you believe you're a librarian, even if you don't work in a traditional library, or don't have a job title that states such?

Random Librarian Humor

* There is nothing we can't do, including hypnotizing lobsters.

* Bulgari's fall eyewear collection is "fit for a librarian with its tortoiseshell rims and blocky design." Sigh. At least they're "luxurious and stylish" this time around.

* "85 Reasons to be Thankful for Librarians."  Check #15.

* Visit "Three Turtles and their Pet Librarian" on those days when you really can't figure out what to read next. The turtles will tell you.

* Once again it's time to Pimp Your Bookcart!

* Last but not least, I can't believe I didn't post these here! Of course by now you've probably seen them (or at least heard of them), but hey, I can't not put 'em up here. Here are Old Spice and New Spice... now look at them. Now back at me. Now back to them. You're on a cart!

Does your job title get it done?

Thanks to Meryl and Guy over on LinkedIn, I recently read a blog posting at the Harvard Business Review by Bill Taylor titled "Does Your Job Title Get the Job Done?" It got me thinking a lot about the ever-present discussions about job titles - how what we are called impacts so many things. It's a light-sounding article ("Lodestar of the 21st century"? Really?) with a serious focus in the middle.

There are two lines in the article that really got my attention: "Their work truly mattered to them, and how their work got described to the world mattered as well," and "People do their best work when they do work they love — which means it's work that somehow connects with their unique skills, talents, and passions."

Isn't that us? No matter what we're called - and every year the list gets longer - we tend to be in this profession with a passion; because we love what we do. (Sadly, it's not to get rich.) While, yes, I'm one of those people who feels strongly that "the L word" shouldn't be discarded, when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter what we're called as long as we get that job done.

(PS: I am now starting a campaign to get my formal title changed to what everyone here calls me, which is Information Goddess.)

Currently 85° and 63%Rh. Yes, it's monsoon season!

UNT LISSA: The Interview

I was pleased to be interviewed recently by Angel Durr of the University of North Texas Library & Information Sciences Student Association - and she posted the interview today. Thank you for the opportunity, Angel, and for the kind words!

Effing Does Quiet

So, there's this guy, you know? the.effing.librarian. Irreverent, humorous, librarianish, all that stuff. He's also written a really interesting post on the history of "The Quiet Librarian," where he started out looking for the earliest published reference he could find on the shushing thing, and found a whole treasure-trove of information about the early days of librarianship and the never-ending battle with image. In answer to the questions posed at the end of the post, I agree, it's like a pendulum... but my favorite line is the last one:

"Maybe it keeps us interesting. It keeps everyone guessing about us. If so, that's kinda cool."

Indeed!

Not what you think!

Via the amusingly-named blog "How may I shush you today?" via-via @jokrausdu, I'm pleased to bring you a great public service announcement at Ignite Lansing from two staff members of the Capital Area District Library in Lansing, MI:

LSW does Code Monkey

I know, I'm late, but hey! Here we are! (Yes, that's me in the coffee scene, and my son's monkey in the coffee and job scene.) The LSW? Totally amazing group of folks.



Bow down to the LSW! Also bow down to Jonathan Coulton, because really, you just should.

Time for a New Design

I redesigned the blog site using some of the new Blogger templating tools and a CC-licensed Flickr photo from Ken Lund (who takes great photos of the desert). I like it a lot; for anyone who actually visits the blog to read it (rather than via RSS), I hope you like it too.

ObWeatherWoot: Monsoon's coming!

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming...

I Went to New Orleans and All I Got Was...

...a great SLA Annual Conference. Plus a helluva lot of humidity...


Now that it's been two weeks since the conference ended, it's time for a recap! Well, not a recap per se - I won't put you through every session I went to - but I will hit some highlights. It was a long conference this year - four and a half very full days - but it was good!

Saturday: Board Meeting #1! This was followed by the 2011 annual conference planner's meeting. 2011 is shaping up nicely! I'm pleased to be working with the divisions that PAM is cosponsoring with, and I'm excited about our sessions. I'm also extremely pleased that the Arizona Chapter is going to be participating in a session next year, with other Western State chapters. We're working out the details now.


Kudos to Khue D for the PAM Early Bird Dinner at Liborio's Cuban Restaurant! It was definitely a leisurely event, but the crowd had fun and the mojitos were amazing.

Early mornings ho - 7:30 meetings almost every day, bleah! The first one was Sunday with the Leadership Development Institute. (I have been developed!) Discussions about the direction of SLA, the upcoming conference, and other activities (Alignment Toolkit, anyone?) were held. More to come at January's Leadership Summit, I'm sure.

Sunday also brought Board Meeting #2 and the interesting opening session, with Mary Matalin and James Carville - they're entertaining speakers but I got the impression they didn't quite have a good sense of their audience. I tell you, though, I could listen to Carville reading a cereal box with that accent and enjoy it...


Monday was full of business meetings, roundtables, the exhibit hall, and a lively book group discussion while the heavens poured buckets and buckets of water on New Orleans. After dashing through the dwindling raindrops we enjoyed the PAM Open House. I missed four other things I wanted to go to - the whole conference sorted out schedule-wise quite well except for Monday at 5:30, when five things collided. One of those things - that I missed - was the West Coast Chapter Reception; I'm proud to say that the Arizona Chapter will be involved with it next year (after we sort out a bit of a name change)!

Tuesday... more business meetings, a co-moderated session on Data Curation, prep with my co-presenter for our session the next day, and a lovely book signing event during the French Quarter networking reception. The ladies in the walking table dresses were fun! And thanks so much to everyone who bought a book and had it signed. I hope you enjoy it!


The big deal Tuesday night was, of course, the IT/PAM/LMD Dance Party - a Masquerade! The turnout was great, the masks in use were even greater, and we closed it down, once more having to shoo folks out at midnight.This is a great event and I highly recommend that everyone just plans on putting it on your schedule!


Wednesday brought the last of the board meetings and a definite decrease in energy - until the adrenaline kicked in for my session "Embed Yourself: The Librarian is IN!" with Jake Carlson of Purdue. We had a good time and gave, if I may say so, a great session - we ran over our time slot with the Q&A session, and we've had a lot of post-conference interest in it as well. This was followed by the jam-packed Astronomy Roundtable - always one of my favorites - and then the closing session with Nicholas Carr. I was intrigued but too tired to argue at this point!

The Kentucky chapter was kind enough to include me in their post-conference celebratory dinner (these people know how to have a good time at a conference, I tell you what) but I pooped out before the Bourbon Street crawl. It was an exhausting week but really good in a lot of ways, and I'm excited to be working on the 2011 conference planning. I'm also continuing to plot library world domination.... mua-hahahaha!

It's not dead yet...

For everyone who keeps saying to me "But I thought that stupid stereotype was dead already!" - no, it's not...

When: May 21 and 23, 2010
Who: Marie at Library Garden and Kathy at The M Word0
What: "Librarian Stereotypes, Alive & Well, Alas." New Jersey's having a hard enough time of it... fooey to Brad Parks! (This post, and others like it, will show him how "unexcitable" Jersey librarians are, heh.) Followed up with "The Stereotypes Do Live On" - with pictures and excellent suggestions from Kathy on response tactics.

So, then, why do people keep working in libraries? The Librarian in Black wondered that, and asked, and got answers... and I love 'em.  Of the top five results, I agree with four of them! (My top one would be "Enjoy the work itself", to be honest.) What are your reasons?

Do you care?

From the LSW room on Friendfeed: "Do you care about stereotypes about librarians and images of librarians in popular media? Or not? Discuss." There's some excellent comments in here, from both sides of the question - and most of them continue to reinforce the thought that the dratted stereotype is far from dead.

But not professional librarian sex...

In case you haven't already seen it: Yes, amazingly enough, librarians (being people just like, well, people) have... sexual thoughts. Read sexy publications. And - gasp! - even have sex! Of course, just asking about this could get you fired back in 1992... just ask Will Manley.

And now for something completely different!

Are we professionals, or not? Ryan Deschamps poses the question, and (amongst many others) 3 Geeks and a Law Blog chimes in. I'm torn - on the one hand I feel I've worked very hard to get where I am, to be able to call myself a librarian... on the other hand there are days when I feel a trained monkey could do my job. (But not with the same élan!) Make sure to read through the comments as well... and then read David Rothman's rebuttal, too.

On reading through Ryan's ten points, I have to admit - they're very good points. #8 (“Accredited Library Schools Do Not Adequately Prepare Students for Library Work") got me - my very first presentation after library school was titled "What I Didn't Learn in Library School." And heaven knows #9 ("Competing Professions Are Offering Different Paradigms to Achieve the Same Goals") impacts me daily... am I a geek in librarian clothes, or a librarian in geek clothes? (Today I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Which category is that?)

Perhaps I'll just stick, for today at least, with "yes."

Celebs Go Librarian!

Short but sweet:

• Spike Jonze wrote and directed a librarian love story with a twist.

• Betty White's gonna play a cranky librarian on "The Middle"!

• Keith Richards always wanted to be a librarian...

Also, keep your fingers crossed for David Hoskins, a librarian competing on Jeopardy this week!

In the "not so much fun as cause for giant worry" column, don't forget that "When one library is in trouble, all libraries are in trouble." Do you have something to share with these grassroots organizers? Use the tag "savelibraries" in your content.