Lemme just say: Holy Cow! I'm so glad I've finally had a chance to see danah boyd in action - her keynote this morning was amazing! So much to think about, so many new perspectives - it was full of awesomesauce, to borrow a phrase. I didn't have a chance to blog her talk, but others have - it's worth checking out!
The rest of the morning was the last of the CyberTours. Thanks to all the speakers this year!
Got to attend my first Pecha Kucha session (20 slides, 20 seconds each) - on marketing, trendspotting, organization - very cool format, very challenging! Also quite entertaining depending on the speaker. Stephen Abram made me laugh, Nancy Dowd made me sniffle a bit!
And now, The Steven M. Cohen Show on What's Hot with RSS. His presentations are always lively and there's always a new tool to check out. I consider him the master of feed reading so seeing what he uses to get through his 1000+ feeds is always illuminating.
The conference closing keynote is Liz Lawley, and for once I get to hear her speak! (Last couple of years I was always on the way to the airport when she was speaking.) Technical/Tangible/Social - full of yummy Internet-capable tools and toys and now I want them all!
This wraps up another great conference in Monterey. I'll be posting more later as I dig through links and tools and references, and find/post pics and videos. Internet Librarians FTW!
October 22, 2008
October 21, 2008
Internet Librarian: Day 2
Today is all about the CyberTours! Come to the exhibit hall and check us out!
October 20, 2008
Internet Librarian: Day 1
Monday in Monterey kicked off well; kudos to Pino's for their coffee and great service!
Tom Hogan opened the conference with a great list of responses to last year's question "What do you call a non-Internet Librarian?" Top ten answers are:
#10 - Shelf-Pointer Librarian
#9 - Analog Librarian
#8 - Legacy Librarian
#7 - Unplugged Librarian
#6 - 3x5 Librarian
#5 - InterNot Librarian
#4 - Retrobrarian
#3 - {Supervisor's name here} Librarian
#2 - Wallenda Librarian
#1 - Librarian 1.0
Much laughing in the room!
Keynote: Howard Rheingold was interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking about mass communication as a mode of knowledge. Talked about OhMyNews in Korea, the Penguin Revolution in Chile, reaction to the Spanish train explosions - and the Danish protests in Syria after the cartoon incident. (Flash mobs, or smart mobs, are not always positive things.) I'll be looking up his book, Smart Mobs.
Next up for me was Super Searcher Shares with Mary Ellen Bates. Learned about some new aspects of known search engines, plus some new search tools. Searchme, SiloBreaker, Loki, Twing, and more...
Fast & Easy Site Tuneups was next, from Jeff Wisniewski. Pretty much a F2F presentation of his article of the same name from the June 2008 Computers in Libraries (so check it out for his very good suggestions).
As always, Cool Tools for Library Webmasters was great! I always come away with something new to try out from Darlene Fichter and Frank Cervone. This time around, I'll be checking out VisCheck, ImageFlow, Browsershots, and some of the online CSS repositories.
Steven M. Cohen, once again, did a great show with Tips for Keeping Up. I will definitely be checking out some of his suggested tools - I use about two-thirds of them and want to see what I can do with the rest!
The day (well, except for the social bits!) ended at the Opening Reception, where I was able to score a copy of the ShanachieTour book, signed by the DOK guys. (Not sure who they are or what they do? Read "Discover Innovations at DOK".)
Weather report: Today was cool, crisp and sunny - a beautiful day! It hit 92° back home today; I don't think it got above 60° or so here in Monterey.
Tom Hogan opened the conference with a great list of responses to last year's question "What do you call a non-Internet Librarian?" Top ten answers are:
#10 - Shelf-Pointer Librarian
#9 - Analog Librarian
#8 - Legacy Librarian
#7 - Unplugged Librarian
#6 - 3x5 Librarian
#5 - InterNot Librarian
#4 - Retrobrarian
#3 - {Supervisor's name here} Librarian
#2 - Wallenda Librarian
#1 - Librarian 1.0
Much laughing in the room!
Keynote: Howard Rheingold was interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking about mass communication as a mode of knowledge. Talked about OhMyNews in Korea, the Penguin Revolution in Chile, reaction to the Spanish train explosions - and the Danish protests in Syria after the cartoon incident. (Flash mobs, or smart mobs, are not always positive things.) I'll be looking up his book, Smart Mobs.
Next up for me was Super Searcher Shares with Mary Ellen Bates. Learned about some new aspects of known search engines, plus some new search tools. Searchme, SiloBreaker, Loki, Twing, and more...
Fast & Easy Site Tuneups was next, from Jeff Wisniewski. Pretty much a F2F presentation of his article of the same name from the June 2008 Computers in Libraries (so check it out for his very good suggestions).
As always, Cool Tools for Library Webmasters was great! I always come away with something new to try out from Darlene Fichter and Frank Cervone. This time around, I'll be checking out VisCheck, ImageFlow, Browsershots, and some of the online CSS repositories.
Steven M. Cohen, once again, did a great show with Tips for Keeping Up. I will definitely be checking out some of his suggested tools - I use about two-thirds of them and want to see what I can do with the rest!
The day (well, except for the social bits!) ended at the Opening Reception, where I was able to score a copy of the ShanachieTour book, signed by the DOK guys. (Not sure who they are or what they do? Read "Discover Innovations at DOK".)
Weather report: Today was cool, crisp and sunny - a beautiful day! It hit 92° back home today; I don't think it got above 60° or so here in Monterey.
October 14, 2008
PAM International Membership Award
Do you know a great physics, math, or astronomy librarian in a developing country? Tell us about it! Nominations are now open for the SLA Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division's International Membership Award; the award provides a two-year membership in SLA and travel to the SLA Annual Conference. Read more, including nomination deadlines and contact information, on the PAMblog.
Recently Read: "Between the Stacks"
I haven't posted book reviews much here before, but I think that might change. I just finished "Between the Stacks", by Barry Bowes (Landesman, 1979) and quite enjoyed it. Set in a public library in the UK, it follows the trials and tribulations of the staff at the Pike Lane library, told from the viewpoint of the (interestingly unnamed, throughout the book) senior assistant. It's quite amusing, while also illustrating the frustrations of the reference interview, being the unpaid babysitters, and many other well-known PL issues. The issues at Pike Place frame an introspective journey by the main character, who's trying to evaluate his future, both personally and professionally.
It's not an easy book to come by; there wasn't a copy anywhere in my state (thanks, ILL!). Amazon has a few used ones from international sources, and I'm pondering placing an order, but we'll see. Even Library Thing, with its gazillions of books, only shows four copies. If you do have access to it, though, give it a read!
It's not an easy book to come by; there wasn't a copy anywhere in my state (thanks, ILL!). Amazon has a few used ones from international sources, and I'm pondering placing an order, but we'll see. Even Library Thing, with its gazillions of books, only shows four copies. If you do have access to it, though, give it a read!
October 13, 2008
Ssh.
Found via LISNews, this video of poet Jon Goode reciting his poem "The Librarian" just gave me goosebumps. Yes! Not just an ode to the power of librarians - the power of ssh - but a philosophical musing on honor, infidelity, war, and much more. Give it a watch.
(yes, I'm catching up. And yes, I'm a weather wimp: highs only in the low 70s last couple of days, I wore a coat to work this morning!)
(yes, I'm catching up. And yes, I'm a weather wimp: highs only in the low 70s last couple of days, I wore a coat to work this morning!)
October 2, 2008
The $900,000 Librarian
Holy cow! A collector at a recent Christie's auction in New York spent $902.5K on a photograph by artist Cindy Sherman". Read the article over at Forbes."Sherman poses as a librarian, gazing beyond the shelves of books that surround her. [...] There is a certain kitsch appeal to the black-and-white photos, but the underlying message is more serious and draws attention to female stereotypes in our society."
via LISnews
September 30, 2008
Warning: Political Ranting
ObDisclaimer: My rants! No one else's! Nyaah!
* 1st Presidential Debate: Rude much, McCain? I have to admit: for a long time I liked McCain, and not because he's one of my state senators. But ever since this whole race started, he just keeps dropping in my estimation. Watching the debate - just the rudeness he displayed to Obama - floored me. Shame! (But, hey, at least there was a debate, and the grandstanding from earlier in the week came to nothing.)
* Bailout Whining: If Pelosi's speech didn't actually change the bill (and, erm, it didn't), then why should what she said affect how folks were going to vote? Regardless of how I feel about the bailout bill itself (which I promise not to get into here), this whining and finger-pointing about "Those almost-votes didn't vote because of what she said, waah, waah" reminds me much too much of my 3-year-old son's schoolroom. Grow up, people!
* "Gotcha" journalism: If you don't want what you said quoted back to you and it shows you up badly, oh, I don't know, check your facts first. Or, gee, don't say it at all. (I laughed and laughed when McCain told Obama "That's not something you say out loud" and then Palin pretty much said exactly what Obama had the next day. Priceless.)
* The upcoming VP debate: Can. Not. Wait. I don't think it's going to change much race-wise, but boy, is it going to be entertaining (one way or the other).
* 1st Presidential Debate: Rude much, McCain? I have to admit: for a long time I liked McCain, and not because he's one of my state senators. But ever since this whole race started, he just keeps dropping in my estimation. Watching the debate - just the rudeness he displayed to Obama - floored me. Shame! (But, hey, at least there was a debate, and the grandstanding from earlier in the week came to nothing.)
* Bailout Whining: If Pelosi's speech didn't actually change the bill (and, erm, it didn't), then why should what she said affect how folks were going to vote? Regardless of how I feel about the bailout bill itself (which I promise not to get into here), this whining and finger-pointing about "Those almost-votes didn't vote because of what she said, waah, waah" reminds me much too much of my 3-year-old son's schoolroom. Grow up, people!
* "Gotcha" journalism: If you don't want what you said quoted back to you and it shows you up badly, oh, I don't know, check your facts first. Or, gee, don't say it at all. (I laughed and laughed when McCain told Obama "That's not something you say out loud" and then Palin pretty much said exactly what Obama had the next day. Priceless.)
* The upcoming VP debate: Can. Not. Wait. I don't think it's going to change much race-wise, but boy, is it going to be entertaining (one way or the other).
September 26, 2008
Friday Fun
Today: T-shirts! All from the folks at Instant Attitudes.
Want!
Don't we all?
For the other coffee-holics out there
September 25, 2008
This is a sexy librarian look?
My first reaction: outright laughter.
You are looking at a preview of the fall line from designer Marni: "The Italian label offered its take on sexy librarians this season."
My second reaction: More laughing, with a bit of a wince.
Thanks to the.effing.librarian!
Three Beautiful Things
Thursday Edition!
- Having a song sung to me on the way to work in a little piping voice about a monster, a starfish, a shark, and lava dragons.
- Learning that the name of the spider we've seen in the bushes every day this week is, in fact, Darth Vader.
- Hearing from two friends that their babies arrived safe and sound and everyone is healthy, happy and tired. Congratulations, Kevin & Linda and Chris & Jen!
September 23, 2008
September 17, 2008
Dr. Dewey Decimal!
ScaryGoRound has a new Tshirt available for order: Dr. Dewey Decimal! Also be sure to check out Books Rule from the same great shop. (thanks, Jeff!)
I love it when fall arrives in the desert; sunny days in the low 90s, clear nights in the low 70s or high 60s. From now until March, this is the weather that makes living here worth the summer heat!
September 12, 2008
Shopping, Marketing, and Fantasies
Yes, it's another catchup posting!
Currently a pleasant 86° and sunny.
- Check it out! Shelf Check has a store now! The Twitter button especially made me laugh.
- Coming out next month: The Shanachie Tour book and DVD! If you haven't had a chance to see the DOK guys speak in person (they're inspiring), this is the next best thing. Highly recommended!
- Shelf Talk has a great post about Fantastic librarians, or librarian fantasies? "Could it be that librarians’ staid image is now bursting the seams of naturalistic fiction and spilling forth into the realms of imagination and empires of wonder?" Love the post, and now I have a few more books to read, too.
Currently a pleasant 86° and sunny.
Call for Papers: PCA/ACA
The Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Annual Conference will be held April 8-11, 2009, at the New Orleans Marriott in New Orleans, Louisiana. Scholars from numerous disciplines will meet to share their Popular Culture research and interests. Prospective presenters should send a one-page abstract with full contact information by November 30 2008.
September 9, 2008
Fredricksen Library Bookcart Drill Team
Brilliant! Be sure to check out the Fredricksen Library Bookcart Drill Team as they do an awesome quick-change from Marian the Librarian to Queen! (I can't seem to embed this one properly or I'd have done so...go check it out!)
September 5, 2008
Friday Fun
Two funnies, and a not-so-funny:
- Consider this before you move to Arizona. (It's so true! thanks, Abs!)
- The Procrastination Flowchart (thanks, Mike!)
- That dratted stereotype of the bun and glasses is even stuck in politics! I swear, if I hear one more talking head refer to Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin as looking like either a sexy or naughty librarian, I'm going to throw something. Arrgh! So I've joined a new group on Facebook: "Sarah Palin is not a 'sexy librarian'." Help the Tragic Optimist take sexy back!
September 3, 2008
Food Meme: Nom nom nom!
Snagged from WarMaiden and HedgehogLibrarian... I've not done one of these "list memes" before but... it's food! The idea is, that this is a list of 100 foods that every omnivore should eat sometime in their life. The idea is to bold the ones you've eaten. Being not only omnivorous but foodiily-adventurous, or so I think, I thought I'd give it a whirl!
Now I'm hungry!
- Venison
- Nettle tea
- Huevos rancheros
- Steak tartare
- Crocodile
- Black pudding
- Cheese fondue
- Carp
- Borscht
- Baba ghanoush
- Calamari
- Pho
- PB&J sandwich
- Aloo gobi
- Hot dog from a street cart (No, but I have had shawarma from one, would that count?)
- Epoisses (Assuming it's the cheese, no. If it's something else, well, then, no.)
- Black truffle
- Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
- Steamed pork buns
- Pistachio ice cream
- Heirloom tomatoes (I just don't do raw tomatoes. Blech.)
- Fresh wild berries
- Foie gras
- Rice and beans
- Brawn, or head cheese
- Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
- Dulce de leche (OMG, this is fabulous stuff)
- Oysters (tried 'em once, skip 'em now)
- Baklava
- Bagna cauda (on the want-to list)
- Wasabi peas
- Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
- Salted lassi
- Sauerkraut
- Root beer float
- Cognac with a fat cigar (Cognac, yes.)
- Clotted cream tea
- Vodka jelly/Jell-O -Shots
- Gumbo
- Oxtail
- Curried goat
- Whole insects (I ate a bite of a grasshopper once, though. It was all I could bring myself to eat.)
- Phaal (I don't have the guts, ha ha)
- Goat’s milk
- Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (thanks, Chris!)
- Fugu
- Chicken tikka masala
- Eel (I love eel!)
- Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (Still don't see what the fuss is about.)
- Sea urchin
- Prickly pear
- Umeboshi (one bite, once. VERY salty.)
- Abalone (in Chile, many times. Very tasty!)
- Paneer
- McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
- Spaetzle
- Dirty gin martini (I don't like gin)
- Beer above 8% ABV (it would seem yes - Chimay)
- Poutine (another on the want-to-try list)
- Carob chips
- S’mores
- Sweetbreads
- Kaolin (wait, what, the clay? No.)
- Currywurst
- Durian
- Frogs’ legs
- Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
- Haggis
- Fried plantain
- Chitterlings, or andouillette
- Gazpacho
- Caviar and blini
- Louche absinthe
- Gjetost, or brunost
- Roadkill
- Baijiu
- Hostess Fruit Pie
- Snail
- Lapsang souchong
- Bellini
- Tom yum
- Eggs Benedict
- Pocky
- Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (find me one and I'll do it!)
- Kobe beef
- Hare
- Goulash
- Flowers
- Horse
- Criollo chocolate
- Spam (I did live in Hawaii, where you're not allowed to say you don't like Spam)
- Soft shell crab
- Rose harissa (lordy, do I want to try this one; I love North African food)
- Catfish
- Mole poblano
- Bagel and lox
- Lobster Thermidor
- Polenta
- Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
- Snake
Now I'm hungry!
Rex Libris, Stereotypes, and All That Jazz
Hi, all - I'm back! I've been saving up a few things but rather than stuffing them all into one big posting I'm going to dribble them out over the next couple of days, get back into the regular-post thing :-D
Check out "When Stereotypes No Longer Apply," an ACRL blog posting by Melissa Mallon. Good stuff, and good comments, too. Yes! We need to move towards a time when it doesn't matter what the librarian looks like, but what the librarian does. (Bet it doesn't happen anytime soon, though.)
I simply cannot stop singing this catchy tune: Hi-Fi Sci-Fi Library! Michael Porter (Libraryman) and David Lee King have done an amazing job. Check out the lyrics, too, if you miss a few during the video!
Just in case you haven't read about it (or heard it) yet, the group My Morning Jacket's recent album release "Evil Urges" has a song called "Librarian" on it. I think I've already commented on the lyrics.
After a small delay, Rex Libris issues #11, "R'lyeh Rising", and #12, "Space Balls... of Evil!" are now available. Go forth and get!
Check out "When Stereotypes No Longer Apply," an ACRL blog posting by Melissa Mallon. Good stuff, and good comments, too. Yes! We need to move towards a time when it doesn't matter what the librarian looks like, but what the librarian does. (Bet it doesn't happen anytime soon, though.)
I simply cannot stop singing this catchy tune: Hi-Fi Sci-Fi Library! Michael Porter (Libraryman) and David Lee King have done an amazing job. Check out the lyrics, too, if you miss a few during the video!
Just in case you haven't read about it (or heard it) yet, the group My Morning Jacket's recent album release "Evil Urges" has a song called "Librarian" on it. I think I've already commented on the lyrics.
After a small delay, Rex Libris issues #11, "R'lyeh Rising", and #12, "Space Balls... of Evil!" are now available. Go forth and get!
August 25, 2008
How I became a librarian meme
(Sneakin' one in under the hiatus blanket...) First outright tag for a meme - tagged by Christina! Thanks! Started by Jill, the question was what got us interested initially in our fields of interest? Lemme 'splain... no, that would take too long. Lemme sum up...
I've always been in and around libraries (my mom was a career librarian until her retirement last year; my dad was career Air Force so we were always on the move, but wherever we were, there was a library). I fell in love with astronomy in 7th grade Earth Science and knew I'd be in the sciences one way or another when I grew up (I read my first copy of Jastrow & Thompson when I was 15). I originally went to college on an Air Force scholarship to study aerospace engineering, but a game of ultimate frisbee gone really wrong ended those plans, and I switched my study focus to astronomy, which is what I wanted to study in the first place (I will always miss Dr. Tom Swihart, my most excellent advisor). I landed a student job at the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab, which led to my first post-college job with the Mt. Graham International Observatory. I moved from there to the new Gemini 8m Telescopes Project (which became the Gemini Observatories when it went operational), and one of the things that I took on was managing the engineering documentation.
I really got a kick out of it, and was also contemplating going back to school - these two things finally clicked together and I headed down the street a couple of blocks to the School of Information Resources and Library Sciences. I met with Dr. Charley Seavey, who became my advisor, and it's all thanks to him that I even made it through, as the philosophy and social epistemology stuff really threw me off (I did great in statistics, though!). But make it through I did, with a focus on technical librarianship (fairly new at that point, this was back in '97-'99), and I graduated with a job offer in-hand from the Gemini Observatory in Hilo (Hawaii) to come out and set up the new research library. I jumped in the deep end at that point - up until then it'd all been databases and engineering archives!
Although I will always treasure the time I spent in Hawaii, the two years I spent out there setting up and managing a traditional library really brought home to me that I was much happier in the computers - webmastering, DBAing, things like that - and with engineering documentation. When the time came to move back to the mainland, I looked around at other large astronomy engineering projects, and hit up my current employer for a job. (Obviously, it worked.) I love being part of something no one's ever done before, and the skills I've built along the way have made me especially suited to dealing with both scientists and engineers, managing various electronic documentation systems, juggling configuration management issues, and configuring new web site management systems. That's what I spend my days doing now; I do order an occasional book, and snag journal papers and conference proceedings for the scientists and engineers, but I'm quite happy in my life as a systems librarian and intend to do so for many more years :-)
OK, so that's a bit long for a sum-up, but believe me, it's shorter than the whole story! I'd be interested in answers from Hedgie, G, Emily, Stephen, and Effing, if they'd like.
I've always been in and around libraries (my mom was a career librarian until her retirement last year; my dad was career Air Force so we were always on the move, but wherever we were, there was a library). I fell in love with astronomy in 7th grade Earth Science and knew I'd be in the sciences one way or another when I grew up (I read my first copy of Jastrow & Thompson when I was 15). I originally went to college on an Air Force scholarship to study aerospace engineering, but a game of ultimate frisbee gone really wrong ended those plans, and I switched my study focus to astronomy, which is what I wanted to study in the first place (I will always miss Dr. Tom Swihart, my most excellent advisor). I landed a student job at the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab, which led to my first post-college job with the Mt. Graham International Observatory. I moved from there to the new Gemini 8m Telescopes Project (which became the Gemini Observatories when it went operational), and one of the things that I took on was managing the engineering documentation.
I really got a kick out of it, and was also contemplating going back to school - these two things finally clicked together and I headed down the street a couple of blocks to the School of Information Resources and Library Sciences. I met with Dr. Charley Seavey, who became my advisor, and it's all thanks to him that I even made it through, as the philosophy and social epistemology stuff really threw me off (I did great in statistics, though!). But make it through I did, with a focus on technical librarianship (fairly new at that point, this was back in '97-'99), and I graduated with a job offer in-hand from the Gemini Observatory in Hilo (Hawaii) to come out and set up the new research library. I jumped in the deep end at that point - up until then it'd all been databases and engineering archives!
Although I will always treasure the time I spent in Hawaii, the two years I spent out there setting up and managing a traditional library really brought home to me that I was much happier in the computers - webmastering, DBAing, things like that - and with engineering documentation. When the time came to move back to the mainland, I looked around at other large astronomy engineering projects, and hit up my current employer for a job. (Obviously, it worked.) I love being part of something no one's ever done before, and the skills I've built along the way have made me especially suited to dealing with both scientists and engineers, managing various electronic documentation systems, juggling configuration management issues, and configuring new web site management systems. That's what I spend my days doing now; I do order an occasional book, and snag journal papers and conference proceedings for the scientists and engineers, but I'm quite happy in my life as a systems librarian and intend to do so for many more years :-)
OK, so that's a bit long for a sum-up, but believe me, it's shorter than the whole story! I'd be interested in answers from Hedgie, G, Emily, Stephen, and Effing, if they'd like.
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