What They Said

It's not quite a random collection of stuff today; rather, posts relating to the future (both things to do, and things to dream of):

* AndyW's posting "5 Universal Truths That All Librarians Can Agree Upon Right Now" is, IMHO, danged true.

* Blake's collection of "10 Librarian Blogs to Read" is always good, and I always find one or two more to add to my reader. Check it out, I bet you'll find a few too!

* LJ has a series of video interviews with Marilyn Johnson, author of "This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All," currently on my to-read list. (hi Sally!)

* For the first time in 1600 years, there is again a Librarian of Alexandria. (hi to Mandy, who's lucky enough to work there!)

* I am totally going to be playing around with concept maps.

What will you add in the new year?

Holy Apparition! Also: Say "Thank You"

Briefly, some bits & pieces of interest:

* Jonathan at Zen College Life gives us 85 Reasons to be Thankful for Librarians. There are some good ones in here! My faves would have to be #s 15, 29, 53 and - very important - 71.

* Watch the first-ever Batman episode to feature Batgirl! I love her casual use of library furniture for mayhem.

Musings on 2009

It's the time of year when we all think about the year that's passed, and what may come next year. I've been thinking about my significant events of 2009.

Professionally, it was a very rewarding year. A big event was the publication of my book. I still can't believe that I wrote a book, and that people are reading it! Thank you! I'm sure the SLA Alignment Project will be an equally large part of 2010; it flavored almost all my dealings with SLA events and issues in 2009. I'm going to continue to be deeply involved with SLA; in 2010 I'll be the Chair-Elect for the Physics-Astronomy-Math Division, and will continue as the Information Systems section chair for the Information Technology Division. Although it's in limbo while SLA shakes things out, I hope the Innovations in Technology Committee has a chance to do its thing again too; it was a fascinating process to be a part of last year. And the Arizona Chapter has some big changes coming, too!

MPOW passed some pretty significant milestones, the biggest one being approval to move to construction. (I get to keep my job! Yay!) And I learned a lot with MOPOW (my other place of work); my time with them has come to an end but they provided a large portion of new tech experiences for me in 2009. I had a lovely, stress-free year running our web site with Drupal; in 2010 I'll be taking us to Drupal 6, and then will finally start the migration of our parent organization into it as well. I'm excited! Hopefully I'll also be bringing a new file server online, and upgrade/migrate all our major systems (including our EDMS) onto it.


Personally, it was a more challenging year. I lost my father-in-law, a great guy who is deeply missed. We had a fun quirky less-than-thrilling experience with our first major house repair when the bathroom ceilings fell in. I ended up in the emergency room more times than I'm really happy with. On the up side, though, thanks to some new medications, I'm not getting devastating migraines nearly as often as I used to, so I'm pretty pleased about that. My family continues to be a source of amazement and joy to me. And, hey, I get to keep my job!

I met some great people this year, both in and out of the library world, and I'm looking forward to seeing what 2010 will bring in all the arenas of my life. I hope it brings wonderful things to you, too.

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou - Feliz Año Nuevo - Happy New Year!

The Calendar for 2010

It's true, it's true! There's another in the long line of calendars that feature librarians available now to order: The Mildly Attractive Men of SLIS Calendar. Brought to you by the Library and Information Science Student Association (LISSA) of the University of South Carolina, it features male librarians in "iconic poses from the history of film." Get yours today!

SysGrunt, or, A Day in the Life of a Systems Librarian

Just, y'know, because. This was actually a fairly quiet (and abnormal) day, as I spent most of it working on just one task... aah, it was nice!


Make coffee.
Email (95 messages)
Spec out a new engineering laptop (mmm, Asus).
Cancel account for no-longer-used web conferencing system.
With help from programming friend, figure out bug in application script.
Web site update.
Tweak bogus registry keys for EDMS system, hopefully to fix a recurring bug.
Document processing (update database, update docs with approval info, share appropriately, PDF, post to web)
Lunch.
Email (32 messages)
Install new software.
More document processing.
Install yet more new software.
Last batch of email (22 messages)
Out.

Thank You, AzLA!

Thank You, AzLA!
Originally uploaded by desertlibrarian

So I put 280 miles on the car yesterday driving to Phoenix to present at the Public Library Division's business meeting at the Arizona Library Association (AzLA). I had a good time, and hope I entertained and informed the attendees; thanks to Mary and the rest of the PLD for having me up!

I then was fortunate to attend a SIRLS reception and boy, howdy, are we everywhere! That was pretty cool, and I met some great folks from the school who I hope to continue conversing with. I guess it shouldn't come as such a surprise to see so many of us there, but it was, and a pleasant one at that.

I'll be joining AzLA; have you joined your state library association?

Librarian Meetup

November Meetup
Originally uploaded by desertlibrarian

Thanks to the folks who came to share a nice selection of beer, some really good pizza, and a great wide-ranging discussion about librarianship at Old Chicago tonight. I hope some of the topics discussed lead to greater things, especially a re-energizing of the Arizona Chapter, and I also really hope some of the tips shared help with job searches.

A tip o'the frosty beverage to Robert, Cindy, Jennifer, Lisa and Leslie, and a hoist for Cindy who was sick, Laura who had dental work, and Joe who was just cold (and, you know, lives in Colorado). Cheers!

Never Forget

Red Poppies for Remembrance
Originally uploaded by Arwen Twinkle

In remembrance of all the veterans in my life, past and present - I thank you.

In honor of today I want to share a memory with you all from a military brat who grew up in the Benelux. I shall never forget the day my brother and I - I was 14, so he was 10ish - made a quick run to the local Delhaize supermarket. A tiny, bent, withered old woman came up to us, hugged us both, and said "Thank you". I asked her what she was thanking us for, and she said "Americans saved my life and my family in the War." Then she hugged us again, and left.

It was so powerful - I mean, of course we learned about the Wars in school, but it was detached, from a textbook - easy to read about and then move on. This woman changed that. After this chance meeting we paid closer attention to the land and structures around us and it was everywhere - we were in a part of the world that had been overrun by armies over and over, where many of the forests still held the dead, and where the old people in our neighborhood had been there since the last time it was battled over. It gave us both new eyes - and new respect - for the rest of the time we lived there.

The veterans of the old World Wars are being replaced by veterans of these new World Wars - never forget what they have done for their country and by extension, for you.

Internet Librarian 2009

I'm doing things a bit differently this year - and a bit later, ah well. I'm not going to summarize everything I went to and everything that happened - there are plenty of places to read about the conference. Instead I'm just going to touch on highlights, things that worked well for me or made me groove. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

• Seafood, every day. 'Nuff said.
• The hotel I stayed at, where I will definitely be staying again.
• Meeting with my mentor Stephen for a nice chat about future possibilities.
  
• The Digital Library Practices track on Monday, especially the session on visualization and virtualization. (Not the same thing at all, but they got put together into one session.) I'm looking forward to trying out Graphviz, the open-source tool used by the UNReno folks.
• The book signing event Monday night!
  
• I really enjoy Paul Holdengraber's passion and humor, and his keynote interview with Erik Boekesteijn was great. (And thanks SO much to the Shanachies for all the streaming video they did throughout the conference!)
• Meeting my Drupal guru in person. At last! You rock, Cary.
• Having lunch - including buffalo artichoke hearts, nom! - with my most awesome book editor Rachel.
  
• Surviving my talk... and actually having folks attend it! (Thank you!)
• Rockin' Battle Decks. I haven't laughed that hard at a conference session in a really, really long time. (and there are too librarians in the desert! Ha!)
• Bluff the Internet Librarian at the closing keynote. Cracked me up - both the way the speakers presented it (quiz show style) and the amazing-but-real things used as the quiz items. Who knew?!?
  
• Last but far, far from least: Library 101. Really, Michael Porter and David Lee King are just amazing in their creativity, and if even a quarter of us can channel some of their energy and enthusiasm for libraries into our own arenas, we will KICK BUTT. (If you haven't seen their earlier video presentation "Hi-Fi Sci-Fi Library", go watch that too.)
  

Farewell for this year, Monterey and IL. I'll see you again next year.

ITI Authors On Parade

ITI Authors On Parade at #il2009
Originally uploaded by libraryman

The booksigning event at Internet Librarian was a blast - what a great bunch of folks to be a part of! Thanks to Libraryman Michael Porter for the photo op... and for buying one of everyone's books!

Thoughts on SLA's Name Change

Once again, the specter of "what does that name mean anyway? Maybe if we change it to something else things will be better" rears its head.  SLA - the Special Libraries Association - is proposing a name change, this time to "the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals".

To say the discussions are running hot would be an understatement. Even the quieter listservs I belong to had over a dozen postings since yesterday, and the larger ones had many more.  A glimpse at the Twitter feed for #slaname will give a decent overview of the hullabaloo. I won't even go into the details of what folks have been saying about the acronym, "ASKPro" - I bet you can figure that out by yourself.

How do I feel? I'm - baffled. If the whole point was to find a name that expressed our profession better, I don't think this one is it. I also have never felt the way to solve the problem with the image of librarians is to remove the word "librarian" from the discussion (but, that's just me, and I admit it). Many of the discussions I've seen include some variation on "What does that mean, anyway?" and to paraphrase a post in one of my listservs, having to define what your name means to your membership = FAIL. I just don't think this is the right choice for us.

It does seem an opportune time to mention a new discussion group called "Libraries Need Librarians", where this topic has been one of the most discussed to date. It's a new discussion group, based on the need to support the role and necessity of librarians. Take a look.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I'm just sayin'.

Call for Nominations: PAM IMA

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics (PAM) Division is now calling for nominations for the International Membership Award. The SLA-PAM Division will present this award to a librarian from the developing world; it provides a two-year SLA membership, for the years 2010 and 2011. For complete information, please visit the following web page: http://units.sla.org/division/dpam/manual/awards/pamimadetails.html

Please submit nominations to the co-chair/s of the International Relations Committee (IRC) of the PAM Division (address below) by November 1, 2009. The award will be announced in December 2009. Thank you.

Objective:
The purpose of the award is to provide an opportunity for librarians from the developing world to be an active member of SLA and of SLA-PAM.

Components:

• The award will provide SLA membership, including PAM Division affiliation, for a period of two years.
• The award recipient will serve as a member of PAM's International Relations Committee (IRC) during the term of the award.
• SLA-PAM will fully fund the award recipient's attendance at SLA's annual conference during the first year of the award, including travel costs, lodging, conference registration, and related expenses. Please note: travel to the conference is contingent on several factors including procurement of a visa to travel to the United States. This is the award recipient's responsibility.
• The award recipient will prepare a short report on the state of scientific information/libraries in his/her country, to be presented to the membership at the annual SLA conference either in person or in writing.
• The award recipient will also prepare a final report reflecting on his/her experience with PAM and providing recommendations for future improvements to the award program; this report is to be sent before the end of the second year of the award to the PAM Executive Board and PAM IRC.
  

Qualifications:

• The nominee must reside and work in a developing country and have basic English skills.
• The nominee must be working currently in a library, information center, library school or other information-related capacity, in one of the subject areas related to science and technology. Priority will be given to applicants working in Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics areas.
• The nominee will not have had a previous opportunity to become actively involved in SLA, such as by attending an SLA conference or other professional library association meetings in the U.S.

Nomination Process: Self nominations are encouraged. Nomination documentation should include the following:

• A letter highlighting the candidate's professional career and qualification and explaining why this person should be granted the award.
• The candidate's current professional resume.
• Contact information for the nominee: name, position, business address, and (if possible) email address.

Nominations are to be submitted by 1 November, 2009, to the PAM IRC chair, and the award recipient will be announced in December. Selection will be made by the PAM Executive Board in consultation with the PAM IRC Chair/Co-Chair.

Please submit nominations to:

Mangala Krishnamurthy
Chair, SLA-PAM International Relations Committee
Rodgers Library for Science & Engineering
University of Alabama Libraries
The University of Alabama
P.O.Box 870266
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Phone: (205) 348-2109 | Fax: (205) 348-2113 | Email: mkrishna@ua.edu

Or

Kiem-Dung Ta
Co-Chair, SLA-PAM International Relations Committee
Oklahoma State University
Edmon Low Library
Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078
(405) 744-9743 | Email: kiem.ta@okstate.edu

Guybrarians, machinery & merriment

Not all at the same time, mind you...

* "When I tell people what I do for a living, a now expected look crosses their faces, somewhere between a suppressed chuckle and a barely contained rolling-around-clutching-their- bellies guffaw." Rob Huffman shares his confession about "why he became a guybrarian" and addresses those who make that face at him.

* It sucks to be in Leicestershire UK, where the County Council is replacing all the library staff with automated machines. No, really. Staff is not surprisingly against this decision - 19 of them will lose their jobs over it - but the locals are also pretty upset. What a rotten situation.

* Horror stories (and sometimes happy stories) from the stacks! Check out The Merry Librarian, a new site that collects and shares true library stories (some more wince-inducing than others).

Thank You, SABL!

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of speaking to the Southern Arizona Biomedical Librarians here in Tucson about the librarian stereotype, pop culture, and why it's important to be aware of how we're presented. It was a really good talk, with an energetic and involved crowd, and I had a lot of fun. Thanks again to Cindy for the invitation to join them, and thanks to the SABL folks for sharing their stories with me!

Sterotypical Linkdump

Yes, I know, I need a new name for the "Hey, here's a bunch of articles I found interesting and want to share" pile -

* WestLaw just doesn't get it. "Are you on a first name basis with the librarian? If so, chances are, you're spending too much time at the library." Read the furor and the fallout!

* Today’s Librarian: Hip, Delusional, and Doomed. A well-thought-out and thought-provoking article by Michael Antman, discussing ye olde stereotype, the future of libraries, digital versus print, and so much more. I'm still chewing it over!

* The Librarian Stereotype War. "Can we please just stop debating about the library’s image and what a librarian is and just go out into our community–whether a city, a hospital, or a university–and do what we do best? No more debate will be needed when our community is well-aware of our existence and that *gasp* librarians are people. Who’d have ever thought it, eh?" - Yes, please! I would love for this to be the case, really I would...

* They're called net generation librarians. Librarians in the Philippines tell it like it is!

* It's Not Generational. In a recent NextGen Librarians column at LJ, Erin Silva points out "One of the things I've been pleasantly surprised to learn in my time as a blooming professional is that the generation to which you belong does not determine how forward-thinking you are."

Would any of this be news without librarians?

I'm always cheerful when a fellow librarian gets their name in the paper, but I wonder if there are similar articles out there about, say, lawyers, or police, or other professions?

* Jennifer Garner wanted to be a librarian when she grew up. "...my dream was to grow up to be a librarian, because I had a librarian named Mrs. McCann who I thought was the most magical woman on the planet." (Go, Mrs. McCann!)

* It's hip to be a librarian! "Yes, a librarian can now be anyone -- from your cute neighbor or cool classmate, to that sophisticated babe or handsome hunk."

* Tiny librarian is hell on wheels. "She's petite, she's middle-aged, she's bookish, and if she gets a chance, she'll knock you on your keister."

* Hefting kettlebells, hitting the books. "You know you're not in the average librarian's office when two Apollo brand kettlebells -- one 70 pounds, the other 53 pounds --are positioned directly across the desk."

30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know

A note: this has nothing to do with librarians, libraries, image, perception, or pop culture. Feel free to skip it if you want.

This week - September 14-20 - is National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week. While I'm not a member of the group that's putting on the conference referred to at the website, I am a member of the group of people it targets. In that spirit, here's my blog entry in support of this week.

30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know

1. The illness I live with is: Fibromyalgia

2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 2006 (formally, at least)

3. But I had symptoms since: the mid-1990s. Several docs diagnosed me with various chronic inflammations. Lots of fun. When it got to the point where I had one doc treating me for seven different chronic inflammatory situations it was conjectured that perhaps, just perhaps, I really did have a systemic issue!

4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: Mentally accepting there are things I just can't do anymore. I tell you, it makes me so angry sometimes... I'm still working on this step.

5. Most people assume: that it's no big deal, or that I don't really mean it when I say "I'm fine as long as you don't touch me". Really, I do mean it.

6. The hardest part about mornings are: First putting my feet on the floor. Some days I have to really work at making myself to stand up that first time.

7. My favorite medical TV show is: Don't have one, actually.

8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: my Treo!

9. The hardest part about nights are: Getting to sleep, followed by staying asleep.

10. Each day I take 13 pills & vitamins. (No comments, please)

11. Regarding alternative treatments I: absolutely positively believe in and find relief from therapeutic massage & myofascial release. (I wish my insurance company did.)

12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: Oh, that's a toughie. Having seen how folks react to visible situations in this "enlightened" age, I'd probably stick with invisible. At least I don't get pigeonholed right off the bat.

13. Regarding working and career: I have a great and very understanding boss and team I work with who are totally not fazed if I IM them rather than walking down the hall (because some days that's just tough to do). I can telecommute if I need to, as well. I love what I do and am glad I haven't had to change my career path because of the fibro.

14. People would be surprised to know: how physical I used to be, and how much I miss it.

15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been: See #4.

16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: Put in a new floor. It took a really long time and my husband was really patient!

17. The commercials about my illness: There's a commercial?

18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: Dancing! Oh, my god, I miss seriously dancing. I still do it - I can't live without it - but now I have to weigh the fallout against the benefits. Sometimes I can't dance more than five minutes - but damn if I'll give up those five minutes. (In my head, though, I live life dancing...)

19. It was really hard to have to give up: Some forms of physical exercise. I miss rock climbing and hiking - I have a great trainer at a great gym but strength and resistance training just isn't the same. I also really, really, really hated giving up learning and teaching bellydance... can't do much of a routine if you can't dance for more than a few minutes at a time. (Dammit!)

20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: Uh.... damn. No, really, I have hobbies.... let me think....

21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: Dance dance dance dance dance! Oh, and maybe get a few hours of solid uninterrupted sleep. Yeah, that'd be nice too.

22. My illness has taught me: an incredible new level of respect for my mother, who also suffers but has it much worse than I do (between fibro and diabetes she had to take early medically-necessary retirement). It's also teaching me how to get on with life in spite of it!

23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: "It's all in your head." Come live in my skin for a day and try to say that again!

24. But I love it when people: Don't judge me if I walk slowly or have to take the elevator instead of the stairs.

25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: "Hurts if you lie still and do nothing, hurts if you get up and get on with life; might as well get up!" My motto, from something my mother said to me once.

26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: That this is manageable. It ain't fun, but it also isn't the end of your world.

27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: How much it impacts every aspect of life, and I mean *every*.

28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: My husband will let me shut myself in our room and just rest, whenever I need to. It hasn't been a "once he did this" thing, either -

29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: I've met some amazing folks who also deal with invisible illnesses and they're inspiring. I've found a support group through it. I honor my mother because of it. And I wish the doctors out there who still think fibro is imaginary would learn something more from it.

30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: Nervous! This is the first time I've really put it all out there - my family and friends know, of course, but I feel as if perhaps I'm risking things by sharing this much. But as I said in #29, I've met some amazing folks, and maybe by sharing my own bits and pieces I can be amazing for someone else.

The League of Librarians

Let me just say: BRILLIANT!

I am extra impressed and uber-jealous of the "League of Librarians" covers created by the librarians from Carleton College River Campus Libraries of the University of Rochester, and "kudos to Marc Bollman who came up with the concept, took the photographs, and made magic happen." The Facebook photo album of images is posted to Katie Clark's profile, and I really encourage you to check it out!

thanks to Liz for sharing!

Updated to fix my incorrect library credit; also, the set's available on Flickr so you can see it even if you don't have a Facebook account.

Superheroes & Sterotypes

It's Friday so there must be blog reading!

* A new superhero at Comic-Con? Hmm...

* Cat and Girl does it again with "Long Time Listener". Amen to "it's a start"!!! (via about a half-dozen blogs)

* I am a slacker; I've only just found the Library Leadership Network. (I need to add this great resource to my Information Systems wiki!)

* Just for fun: Non-Wrecky Children's Book Cakes. Beautiful!

* Necessary Science Stuff: Check out Experience the Planets, "our solar system through the eyes of artists" - amazing, amazing, amazing!