This is one UGLi Blog.

UGLi Blog is now... Librations!

2009-07-13T14:25:00.018-04:00

Good afternoon, dear readers!

At the conclusion of an eventful blog-in at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania beginning Friday, July 10, 2009, A.D. [Political incorrectness intended; if you could, please read "2009 A.D." as "in the year of our lord 2009." Thanks.], we are proud to announce the birth of a brand new venture, the internet's first library/bar:

Librations - get here fast and then we'll take it slow.
http://librations.us

Please update your feed readers and keep those comebacks coming. UGLi Blog will continue as an archival collection of our wacky adventures. Librations is based on an idea at least as old as the Great Depression, a kernel of a thought that only recently became our Plan C. Feel free to let us know what you think of our new gathering place and please stay tuned for many, many good librations in the future!

With our deepest gratitude for your laughs and bon mots,
Katie (and Emily... she is driving back to Michigan now.)

UGLi Blog Update: The Book-mo-boat has not set sail

2009-07-06T09:30:00.022-04:00

Dearest readers, for those of you waiting with baited breath to hear of Life Plans A, worry no more! I am happy to report that the Book-mo-boat -- i.e. the world's best Plan B -- is still chillin' in port at Muskegon (pronounced MUSK-uh-john) Lake, Michigan.* World Peace will have to wait because we two are too busy, working as newly minted professional librarian ladies!

Plan A-E
Emily has accepted a job as an Undergraduate Learning Librarian at our very own UGLi! Congratulations to Emily and friend of ugliblog Angie, who has also been named a UGLLLibrarian! MLibrary is so lucky to have you both.

Plan A-K
Katie has started her job as a Reference & Web Services Librarian at Gettysburg College Musselman Library and is settling in at her sublet townhouse in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She is blogging her new life at quintessential chronicles of kdt. Feel free to contact her for her Gettysburg address.

Plan A-U
UGLi Blog is in transition, and soon will be sporting a new domain, a new look, and a new identity. Emily and Katie will be having a Blog-In soon to determine how we can continue to nurture our beloved brainchild to 2010 and beyond. (I don't want to get anyone's hopes up too far, but ugliblog's next iteration may be even more podcastic!)

So those are our planz. Thanks for reading, everybody, and as always, our virtual suggestion box is open to comebacks!

Snappy Comebacks from PetaKids

*Our many thanks to those who applied to work on the Book-mo-boat. Captain Emily will keep your information on file and contact you in the event of crew member openings in the future.

ugliblog worldwide June 4, 2008 - July 4, 2009

2009-07-05T11:52:00.001-04:00

I <3 google analytics.

This is SO Metadater: the Musical!

2009-07-03T06:54:00.004-04:00

Web Site Story. See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Oh, 21st century dating -- "I can't wait to read about me later on your blooooog!"

I [heart] the University of Michigan

2009-06-08T14:17:00.010-04:00

Guess who just got an email message that her diploma is in the mail? That's right!This girl!

I thought I would share the content of the email with you, since it kind of killed me:
First of all, I'm so impressed that UM sprung for 'First Class US Mail,' especially in these tough times. They couldn't even afford full quotation marks, but that diploma is coming first class, recession be darned! U-M Diploma Status would also like to inform me not to call the University of Michigan to ask when my diploma will arrive. I can just hear the harried bureaucrat on the other end of the line telling me, 'It'll get there when it gets there!' To tide me over (and prevent annoying phone calls), the folks over at U-M Diploma Status were kind enough to provide me with a link to a preview of my diploma -- WOW:

I am now, pretty much officially, a leader and best. Thanks for your message, U-M Diploma Status! I can stop fretting now -- my Master of Science in Information (Information) is in the mail.

Recent SI grads: did you get a diploma preview? If not, you may not have graduated! Just FYI (Information).

On the subject of ketchup

2009-06-07T11:27:00.008-04:00

I, Katie, have a confession to make. I am a lover of ketchup, that sweet American condiment with little nutritional value. In the past, I have been mistrustful of others who do not like ketchup. HOWEVER, I would like to apologize to the ketchup haters out there, because I have recently learned that one among you is one of my most trusted allies -- Emily, also of ugliblog.

Dearest Emily, please accept my sincerest apology. I will try not to hate on ketchup haters from here on out, and I will also stop wearing my ketchup costume to torture you. I've seen the error of my ways!

Much love!

The Library is Where Bert's Cafe Is

2009-05-29T13:11:00.000-04:00

Dear friend of ugliblog, Anand, had the following interaction at the Graduate Library reference desk this week. Thanks for sharing with the ugliblog community, Anand!

patron: if my teacher put a book on reserve, where would that be?
me: it'll be at the UGLi circulation desk. do you know where that is?
patron: is that, like, by Bert's?
me: [best professional smile] mmhmm!

See you at Bert's!

METADATER: The Startup Plan! OR My Master's degree in silly things

2009-05-25T11:39:00.014-04:00

My last paper at SI (for the course 529: Analysis & Design of Online Communities) required me to create a start-up plan for a new online community. I realized my most entertaining idea for a paper topic had already been discussed on ugliblog: the concept of METADATER, the online dating site for information professionals. As I wrote this paper, I was inspired by Emily's coining of emoticon sign-flirting earlier this year, and an abundance of analytics indicating people in need of romantic advice are ending up here on ugliblog. For those of you who are curious about where my serious discussion of the intentionally silly took me, here are some excerpts from my final paper:

The purpose of Metadater is to provide resources and an online community for the type of people who Google phrases like “facts on flirting,” “dating advice for nerds or geeks,” or “he doesn’t even know I exist.” Metadater aggregates information about dating sites and advice on flirting, dating, and relationships, allows members to share stories, advice, and personal profiles, and lets those Google searchers know they’re not alone – it reminds them that there are like-minded people out there who turn to the internet for help in navigating the complex landscape of romantic relationships. Metadater is an online community dedicated to providing people with lighthearted, fun information, conversation, and activities that encourage them to transform their outlook on dating from clueless or confused to confident and amused.

A valiant purpose, indeed.

Using its member databases and algorithmic matching based on personality, interest, friend suggestions, and geographic criteria, Metadater hopes to playfully employ informatics theory to enable good conversation and promote people’s understanding of romantic relationships and each other. Metadater intends to be a stress-free environment, where there is no pressure to meet your soulmate, and the focus is on open discussion, community, and a shared, humorous take on the trials and tribulations of flirting, dating, and romantic relationships.

To be clear, Metadater does not yet exist, but it really should. Any developers out there willing to take on this challenge? As a Metadater community founder, you'll be doing a service to nerds, geeks, and dorks everywhere. Contact me for more information and eCommunities jargon!

Congratulations Graduates!

2009-05-20T14:47:00.031-04:00

We at ugliblog want to salute all 2009 graduates! Congratulations on becoming Masters (or Mistresses) of Information! We're so proud of you!

And, as a special treat, we bobble our heads to you in this world premiere short short film:

A really great afternoon

2009-05-10T18:23:00.006-04:00

Now that Emily and I have graduated (stay tuned in the next few days for a special graduation ugliblog post), I have lots of time to create Care Bear data visualizations! This coloring book page describes the "pop" vs. "soda" debate in the United States by Juice Graph, Care Bears, and geographic distribution:
Data gathered from: http://www.popvssoda.com/

Life Plan B: World Peace

2009-04-30T21:18:00.008-04:00

Bookmobiles bring books to people, meeting the people where they are. But what if the place where the people are doesn't have roads? Bookmobiles can't go there. Imagine yourself camping along the great coast of Northern Lake Michigan. You might be on Beaver Island. Imagine yourself running out of books to read. You are without roads. No bookmobile to save you. You are in danger of getting bored. Life Plan B is your saving grace.

Life Plan B is to commandeer a sail boat and turn it into a Book-mo-Boat. The Book-mo-Boat works like a bookmobile, except it specializes in locations only accessible by water. I'm creating a search committee for a qualified crew (p.s. I'm the Captian and Katie is the First Mate). Here are the main qualifications:

Applicants must:

Put water safety first, understanding that if they do not know how to swim, they will be wearing a life preserver at all times.
Have a sense of adventure, and dream of a life on the high seas of Lake Michigan.
Like to read. There won't be anything else to do on the Book-mo-Boat.
Be able to go for long periods of time without internet access.

Preferred qualifications:

Not susceptible to sea sickness.
Be a master at the art of the reference interview.
Have experience in fending off Somali pirates.

The last preferred qualification brings me to my main worry about the Book-mo-Boat, and my suggestion for world peace. After our summer on Lake Michigan, the Book-mo-Boat will sail to the uncharted waters off the coast of Somalia. This is dangerous. About as dangerous as getting involved with un-chartered charter schools. But, we will be a brave crew. If the pirates want our Book-mo-Boat, they can have it. I imagine that the pirates will get so caught up in the wild adventures they find in books that they will abandon their wicked ways and civilize themselves. Andrew Carnegie would love this idea.

There are some Book-mo-Boats already in existence. We'll model our best practices on their experiences:

Norway has a book boat!

The book boat made the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Library and Information Science!

Sweden also has a book boat!

Lao Children's Library Boat (just photos)

Please just write a little sentence or two about why you want to sail on the Book-mo-Boat with me and First Mate Katie and leave it in the comments to this post. The Book-mo-Boat, should Life Plan A (full-time library employment) not come together, will leave port at dawn on July 1, 2009.

Plan D: Donkey Ball

2009-04-19T14:48:00.014-04:00

I have made an important discovery for anyone out there looking for Life Plan D. If this whole librarian thing doesn't work out, I'm considering putting my marketing and outreach skills to good use by becoming a donkey ball promoter. The sport, also known as donkey basketball, is similar to standard basketball; the key difference is that a player must be on the back of a donkey in order to score points. Donkey ball events are often organized to draw crowds to fundraisers. As far as I can tell, scores are typically much lower than in human-powered basketball. Please see the following:

Thomas, Katie. (2009). Donkey Ball Stubbornly Holds on Despite Criticism. New York Times, April 17, 2009. Available online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/sports/othersports/18donkey.html.

This article provides an introduction to the history, current practice, and controversy surrounding the sport of donkey ball.
Donkey Ball Operator Leticia Kwall describes the whimsicality of the activity: "Normally when you see animals, people are in control. In this forum, the reason it’s so entertaining to children is that the donkeys are totally in control of the situation."
As if you needed further impetus to click on the link above, here is a sample of what awaits you:

Thanks, New York Times!

For looking for further information about professional "assletes," I recommend these donkey athletic profiles put together by a donkey ball company in Vermont.

For fellow information professionals in need of direction, might I suggest you carve out a niche in the field of donkey ball informatics? There are myriad design possibilities in this market -- consider donkey ball trading cards (or e-trading cards), donkey ball apps for Facebook and iPhone, or building the first donkey ball online community. I'm issuing a call to action, friends: it's time to bring donkey ball into the Web 2.0 world.

Plan C: Librations

2009-04-03T14:36:00.005-04:00

I was recently browsing the encyclopedic section of The American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States Volume 12 (published 1971) and I found this amazing picture of a bar that had been turned into a library during the Prohibition. This both made me infinitely glad that there is no Prohibition on, and got my wheels turning. Life Plan C is now to open a library that sells beer. We're calling it Librations. Emily and Katie: librarians by day, librarian/bartenders by night.

Any Happy Hour ideas?

All roads lead to ugliblog

2009-03-23T18:59:00.009-04:00

Via the awesome power of Google Analytics, we now know that the demand for facks about flirting spiked on March 10, 2009.

yayCRL!

2009-03-18T13:18:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I went to my first librarian conference, the ACRL 14th National Conference in Seattle, Washington. It was quite the adventure. I had a great time, saw some interesting presentations, hung out with cool librarians, and had the opportunity to facilitate a round table discussion on Millennial Librarianship -- what it means to be a young librarian joining the profession right now.

My favorite experience of the conference had to be the dance floor at the all-conference reception, in a giant room called the "sky church" at the Experience Music Project. I'd never considered the possibility of a librarian-filled dance space before, and it was an amazing sight to behold -- so many different librarians, so many different styles of dance! Good, good times.

I didn't have my camera, but some other librarians did, and shared some photos of the event on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=int&q=acrl2009+dancing&m=text. Unfortunately, it is hard to capture the utter joy and wonder of the experience in static images.

Copyright violated?

2009-02-24T10:23:00.011-05:00

I have a little copyright issue, and need some advice.

I get really fired up about community history, and the role of libraries in preserving our community histories. About two years ago, I worked on a local history project that involved lots of people in my home community, the library, and other community organizations, and came to fruition in an essay and exhibit. The purpose of the project was to gain some publicity for a historic building and community gathering place very near and dear that is in constant financial trouble.

So, I was googling around the Internet yesterday, and I found the following video:

The Parks and Recreation Dept., who I intended the research to ultimately benefit, posted the video on their blog.

That's cool, right? Community history belongs to the community, and people are interacting with it because it means something to them. I shared my research becuase it's not just me and the archive that are wrapped up in the pool. There is a version of the essay on a local wiki, and I would love it if people added to that. Some have. The history of that pool means a lot to me, and to so many others in my home community, so we should all be able to celebrate it and pass it along, right?

Well, maybe not entirely. The images are copyrighted and property of the public library. There is a use fee and use agreement connected with the images. The fees help to keep the archive alive. The agreement helps keep the use of the images legal. Taking screenshots of the images and then citing "courtesy of..." when the library mostly likely did not okay this, isn't really legal. If the library did okay it, please, prove me wrong. If taking screenshots of copyrighted images is legal, please, prove me wrong.

I'm a librarian. I'm uptight about citing sources. I think plagiarism is the 8th deadly sin. The research for this project took a long time and involved a lot of people. I cited my sources like crazy so that other people wouldn't have to spend two years in front of a mircofilm reader reading unindexed newspapers to find information about the building, and to find the photos used in the video.

Am I being too uptight? Too invested? Should I let it go? Should I let the library and historical commission deal with it, since they own the images and I donated my time and research to them? Any free advice?

It's going to be okay!!

2009-02-05T19:49:00.009-05:00

This whole job searching thing is getting stressful. I tend to break my collarbone every 5-8 years, and would just like a job with a nice health care package, please.

I nervous googled “librarian, interview questions,” and found these resources for you.

Librarian interview questions

Some more interview questions

How to apply for a library job

After reading through some of these, I began to hope that no one asks me in a professional situation, “what is the best reference question you’ve ever been asked?” Friends, I cannot lie, it was the student that asked, “Which Van Halen album is ‘Panama’ on?” Looking over my glasses I exploded, “1984!!!” The student looked at me with eyes that knew I was wearing a hand-me-down cardigan from my grandmother. I didn’t know until then that I was dying for someone to ask me a question that could exercise the part of my brain where useless facts are stored.

Librarians know lots of facts that they don’t get to use often. Trivia is how librarians show off. It's an over-looked professional quality of librarianship.

Friends, to make a long story short, it's going to be okay. We've got skillz. Our treasure troves of trivia are the furthest thing from useless. Hang in there.

A Librarian's Essential Accessories

2009-01-22T14:13:00.000-05:00

Recent conversations with fellow librarians have driven home the fact that I am woefully unprepared, wardrobe-wise, to begin my career.

1. While I have managed to acquire glasses, what am I to do if my spectacles need a rest? I will need an eyeglasses retainer, just to be on the safe side:
2. With the variable indoor weather of many libraries, cardigans have become a mainstay of the librarian wardrobe. My current cardigan collection is inadequate, and who knows what future heating and cooling systems will throw my way. In a recent web search for proper attire, I came across this gem:
Ladies and gentlemen, the cardigan for dogs has finally arrived, and is available at the low low price of $49. I'll be stocking up on these soon, so that all my future (XX Small to Medium) pets can be appropriately outfitted. Remember, librarianship is not just a career, it's a lifestyle!

Facebook, aka Fort Creepy

2009-01-18T15:21:00.010-05:00

The term "creepy treehouse" seems to be a popular topic on various blogs focusing on social computing and education. The term is often connected with facebook interactions. According to Jared Stein of flexknowlogy, a creepy treehouse is:

n. Any institutionally-created, operated, or controlled environment in which participants are lured in either by mimicking pre-existing open or naturally formed environments, or by force, through a system of punishments or rewards. Such institutional environments are often seen as more artificial in their construction and usage, and typically compete with pre-existing systems, environments, or applications. creepy treehouses also have an aspect of closed-ness, where activity within is hidden from the outside world, and may not be easily transferred from the environment by the participants.

n. Any system or environment that repulses a target user due to it’s closeness to or representation of an oppressive or overbearing institution.

n. A situation in which an authority figure or an institutional power forces those below him/her into social or quasi-social situations.

Popular examples of this defination of a creepy treehouse are professors that make students follow them on twitter, or forced use of the blackboard facebook app. In our own words: would you take your Collection Development textbook to the bar to read while all your friends are there having a lively time? It would take a special person to say "yes" to that.

We think the concept of a creepy treehouse is best described as a social situation online that makes you uncomfortable. The action is invasive, and perceived as inappropriate by one of the parties involved. One element of this may be a social situation that crosses a contextual boundary (educators friending students and vice versa) or a generational gap. There are some people you'd just rather not hang out with online.

In conclusion, stop creepy treehousing. Use privacy settings, friend lists, and exercise your "ignore friend request" right. It's okay to feel strange about the amount of information people can find about you online. Define your personal limits (cough cough myspacers...). Boundaries are something to be thoughtful about, especially on new frontiers.

More info:
Attend our ML2SIG discussion Monday, January 19, 12-1pm, room 806 Hatcher.
Chris Lott: Social Networks vs. Tools
Classroom 2.0: avoiding the "creepy treehouse"
Get out of the creepy treehouse (check out the discussion thread)
for those still interested:
Wikipedia: Social software in education

Cleaning it up

2009-01-15T12:28:00.005-05:00

I was cleaning my desktop today, when I came across this screenshot. It happened to me while I was making a sweet Presidential bingo board for the library's election event, bound to be a total hit with the ugli population. I mean, who doesn't like bingo? I'm not sure how pop-ups are generated, but it nearly killed me that this ad popped up when I was image searching Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson would hate this.

Librarian Hero

2008-12-16T09:51:00.010-05:00

As if we need more reasons to admire Josie Parker of the Ann Arbor District Library!

Read the story online:
http://www.mlive.com/annarbornews/news/index.ssf/2008/12/ann_arbor_library_director_sho.html

Recession good news

2008-12-14T00:58:00.017-05:00

Dear readers, UGLi Blog has been hit hard by the global recession, leading to a dearth of posts in recent times. Thankfully, Reuters has reported some more positive results of the recent economic downturn:

* In another sign of holiday cheer, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported a 250 percent rise in the number of guns handed over in a no-questions-asked program to exchange weapons for holiday gift cards. The department's station in a high crime suburb received 964 guns, two hand grenades and two briefcases full of dynamite. [Emphasis added.]

http://www.samstoybox.com/toys/DynamiteShack.html

If only I had a couple of briefcases full of dynamite, I would be RICH in holiday gift cards right about now. Now I know what I should have been investing in all these years.

* More people are seeking love online to compensate for the pain of losses. Match.com, which has online dating sites in 40 countries, had its largest membership growth in the last seven years in November. "During these trying times, people are looking for hope in their inbox," said CEO Thomas Enraght-Moony.

Could this possibly become a Depression when there are so many opportunities for informating? I think not, my friends. I think not:

http://images.google.com/images?q=internet dating

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Case of the Missing Book

2008-10-28T14:55:00.009-04:00

Books go missing from libraries. Librarians and library users hate that. Patrons demand explanations, and librarians yearn for the answers. Where do books go when they are missing? They choose their own adventures. Go ahead sleuths, track down that book. Your patrons depend on you. Here are your options:

Get paranoid.

Explain that some books just don't fit in.

Surrender the book. You've had it all along.

(A special thanks to Katie for making this possible.)

Happy Birthday, UGLi Blog!!

2008-10-17T23:58:00.014-04:00

It's been one heckuva year. Thanks for all the good times, UB!

In honor of this joyous occasion, here's a quick link to some of our favorite posts: OMG, yay! Any other favorite blog moments? Suggestions for the next year? Post them in a comeback!
<3

Punk'd!

2008-10-02T17:39:00.013-04:00

Funny thing happened this afternoon while I was working Ask a Librarian, our instant message chat reference service. To give you some context, the most common questions we get on this service are about access problems for our online databases, often a frustrating (and generally boring) topic for both the patron and the librarian. Chat reference is usually a rather proper exchange, as far as text chats go, and often concerns bibliographic information. But not today...

[15:58] meeboguest940311: Hi dude whats up

(I'm used to people being occasionally informal on chat, especially the millennials, but this gave me pause. I considered several lines of attack, including some uptight, librarian-y responses, before settling on a laid-back approach.)

[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: hi
[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: not much
[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: what's up with you?

[15:59] meeboguest940311: can you tell me who the cool bald guy who does film is?

[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: hmm
[15:59] UMLibraryAskUs: at Askwith?

(I was thinking "film" as in videos and DVDs, not film studies.)

[15:59] meeboguest940311: No at the grad
[16:00] UMLibraryAskUs: oh, yes. That's Scott Dennis.

(Scott Dennis is my librarian crush. He knows pretty much everything about electronic resource collection development. He is, in fact, a cool bald guy.)

[16:00] meeboguest940311: Oh yeah, that is his name. Thanks!
[16:00] UMLibraryAskUs: no problem!

[16:00] meeboguest940311: later dude
[16:00] UMLibraryAskUs: l8r

(I was particularly proud of my signoff. All in all, a quick, entertaining exchange.)

I emailed Scott to tell him he's famous -- that pretty much everyone on the library website today is looking for him -- and it turns out he was the patron at the other end of my fun chat:

Katie, I cannot tell a lie… That was me, doing a live demo for a Screen Arts class I was teaching. I wasn’t planning on it, but when I showed the Library Help feature in CTools, a student in the class said, someone is there right now waiting to chat? In a tone of disbelief. So I decided to prove it on the spot. I didn’t want to make whoever was on chat duty actually have to do any research work, and I wanted to be funny, so… It worked like a charm. The class roared with laughter (about 50 of them in Angell Hall Auditorium D), and they were very impressed with your hip current texting style! That’s really a librarian? One asked. I’m very lucky you were the one on duty! Thanks. --Scott

It's been a long week, but now I feel great. I'm so hip, a studio audience of 50 millennials can't even tell I'm a librarian.

[Uptight Librarian Note: I received permission from Scott to post this on the blog; I don't go around randomly publishing patrons' private messages to the internet.]

Consultant for the ________ Mafia

2008-10-01T09:00:00.009-04:00

It's morning. The librarian is in bed, reading. Her phone rings, she looks up from her book reluctantly. The answering machine picks up the call.

Message: Hello, hello, hello, Emily, this is Mo. I got your name from _________. When you get this message please return my call. If you end up leaving me a message, I will call you back immediately.

Librarian cracks up laughing, calms herself, and then picks up the phone and returns the call.

Mo: Hello.

Librarian: (curiously) Hi, this is Emily. I just got your message.

Mo: Oh, Emily, yes, did you recognize where I got your name?

Librarian: Yes.

Mo: That is great. Well, Emily, let me explain. I traveled to _________ International Middle School recently and they showed me the library and told me about the Library Scholar that they brought in to help them organize their library. They speak very highly of you. But you see, Emily, the reason that I visited that school was because I am starting a school of my own. We don’t have the funding we need yet, but we have students, 4 teachers, and a board. I am trying to build a library for the students, and don’t know where to begin.

Librarian: Okay…

Mo: I know that you have experience in this.

Librarian: No, not really, I don’t work at a school.

Mo: Well, I need some help. You see I need to buy books, and don’t know where to begin. Do you know how to build a curriculum?

Librarian: (dumbfounded) No. I’m not a teacher.

Mo: Ah, yes then Emily, you understand my predicament. You see, Emily, I am not an educator, I come from the airline industry by trade.

Librarian: (biting the sleeve of her pajama cardigan to suppress either laughter or tears) Uuuuhhhh….

Mo: What I want is for you to come and visit my school in __________, _______ and teach me how to start a library. Or, if that cannot be done, I will come and speak with you in your city.

Librarian: (hesitates) I am super busy.

Mo: (laughs) Ah, yes, Emily, aren’t we all. I don’t know what books to buy. Emily, you are the expert.

Librarian: (uncertain) I’ll e-mail you some information.

Mo: Oh, thank you. We will be in contact about meeting soon. Oh, thank you for your time, Emily. You are a wealth of resources for me.

Librarian: Okay, bye.

The next morning the librarian is sitting at a computer, reading the New York Times. In the midst of articles on Presidential elections and failing economies she runs across the following article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/africa/01pirates.html.

Librarian: (reading the computer screen) What have I gotten myself into?

Nerds in possible like

2008-09-27T16:01:00.016-04:00

Hey boy, why you didn't call me?
-The Blow

Lately, Katie and I have noticed on our ugliblog analytics that people in need of relationship advice are turning to google and landing on ugliblog. There seem to be a lot of people out there who need advice about flirting, flirt texts, flirting in Grand Rapids, flirting with librarians, good comebacks for flirting with nerds, among many others. Over the past three months, people have landed on ugliblog by searching over 20 different keywords dealing with the subject of flirting. In order to stay relevant to the needs and interests of our readers, I will now provide you with some innovative flirting advice (a special thanks to Katie and Greg who helped me brainstorm this system awhile back).

Scenario: You are at the bar. There is a rather cute person in the corner, reading a book. This person is so perfect that you may try to find them on Craigslist missed connections later. You look up from your crossword puzzle and stout, just as the person looks up from their book and i.p.a. You want to wink, but that's soooo 20th century. So go ahead, take those skills that you learned in the chat room and apply them to the bar. Throw that cutie a sign language winkey emoticon ;).

I hope that this helps those of you that are struggling with this whole flirting thing. Please note that flirting with emoticon sign language has never been tried by those who invented it, so the success rate is still unknown. Please share your success stories with us!

The secret about girls is that they want you to like them.
-The Blow

By Special Request: What is Community Informatics?

2008-09-12T09:57:00.011-04:00

Questions abound concerning one of my specializations at the School of Information. Even SI is struggling to come up with some set definition. I think that basically it is about sharing information. How is this different from Library and Information Services? LIS is about the how. Community Informatics is about the what and the why. For me this means seeing libraries as community centers (both public and academic) that serve the needs of their communities. I think that a lot of community informatics involves getting librarians out from behind the desk and into the community, visiting different organizations and groups, finding out what they need the library to be. Information is meant to be shared, and this process won’t work if librarians are confined within the walls of the library. Sometimes this might mean creating unlikely connections.
I worked on a project a year ago that connected a public library and archive with the parks and recreation department, our local neighborhood association, and the city commission of my hometown. We brought an exhibit on a local pool created in the archive to the place in the city where it belonged, at the pool (see http://www.historygrandrapids.org or add to and edit the wiki version http://www.viget.org/Richmond_Park_Pool). This made people in the community aware of the archive and the library, while we all celebrated the rich history of our neighborhood pool. People asked me reference questions at the opening of the exhibit. Reference questions while waiting in line to do cannon balls off the diving board? Yes, please.

Want to know more about Community Informatics at the School of Information?
http://cic.si.umich.edu and
http://www.si.umich.edu/msi/ci.htm

Terrestrial Life in Space!

2008-09-10T16:08:00.016-04:00

Following up on my July lit review, I am particularly geeked by this recent bit of news... WATER BEARS IN SPACE, everybody!

Like, OMG, you guys. I could talk about this story in relation to popular/scholarly information and its potential uses for library instruction, but I'm really just too overwhelmingly excited that we (Earthlings) have reached the Final Frontier, surviving the vacuum of space without special equipment. It's a good week for science, y'all.

Tardigrades: so incredibly sci fi.

DUCK HUNT, or How I Spent My Mandatory Vacation

2008-09-02T15:34:00.025-04:00

A lot of people out there in internetland have been googling "library orientation scavenger hunt" or similar keywords, and some folks have ended up here (you'll have to take my word on this). I wouldn't want to disappoint ye olde googlers or our regular (excessively observant) readers who are curious about what I ended up doing for the Great Indoors. UGLi Blog, as always, is here to meet your needs.

Earlier this summer, I was scratching my head trying to come up with scavenger hunt ideas, but nothing really sang to me until the deadline for the Great Indoors (i.e. the day itself) began to approach. This is typical for me, as I do my best innovating in times of great need. Somehow I decided ducks would be a good organizing theme, specifically rubber duckies. The idea began with "the UGLi duckling" and evolved from there. I go with whatever pops into my head when crunch time rolls around. Here's how it went:

The prizes for the scavenger hunt were rubber ducks with the MLibrary logo (naturally we put these in a much bigger, inflatable duck):

At the reference desk, participants were given a map of the library and Smartypants, their first duck. Each duck handout said FOUND on one side and LOST on the other. The found side gave a short bio of each duck, and the lost side told students the name and location of the next duck to retrieve.

These ducks (Smartypants, Michigander, Hypatia, Arnold, Quackers, Techie and Duckerton) were all associated with an area of the Shapiro Libraries (UGL reference desk, Askwith, Science, stacks, Bert's Cafe, computer lab and instructional center). By collecting all seven ducks and returning them to the reference desk, students earned their very own coveted squeaking rubber ducky. As you can probably imagine, the whole thing went over quite swimmingly.

Top 500 Reasons to Come to the Great Indoors

2008-08-27T10:41:00.014-04:00

This little guy, plus 499 friends:

The Great Indoors: Sunday, August 31st from 4-6 pm @ Shapiro Library.

Collections for Personal Enrichment

2008-08-24T23:21:00.006-04:00

I like to collect things. I have quite a few collections of things, most of which have no value to any museum, archive, or estate/ junk sale. When I write this three of my most worthless, yet highly cultivated, collections come to mind. My collection of tattoos I have seen (good and bad), boat names (good and bad), and t-shirt sayings (just bad).

On a recent sailing adventure I found a real treasure to add to the boat names collection. Sighberspace. What a terrible boat name. Imagine with me for a moment Sighberspace’s distress call; “Mayday mayday, this is Sighberspace.” It’s such a bad joke name for a boat, not to mention just a downright terrible computer joke that can only spark more terrible computer jokes. If I wanted to relax, you’d better believe I’d spend some time floating around in Sighberspace. Har har.

Millennial Mania

2008-08-18T09:17:00.028-04:00

Lately I've been thinking a lot about millennials.* The librarians I know often discuss millennials -- our current generation of younger patrons. How do millennials access and use information and how do they communicate? If librarians can pin down millennials' needs, we can better serve them and we can maintain our relevance in an increasingly decentralized information age.

I realized recently that the youngest of today's library school students are among the first crop of millennial librarians. In this vein, I have a confession to make. I am a millennial (a fact that I hadn't confronted about myself until, fittingly, I read it in black and white on Wikipedia). So what does it mean that we new librarians are in the same generation as the students that more experienced librarians are desperately seeking to understand?

As a millennial (however reluctant I am to admit it because it makes me feel like an awkward middle schooler), I am accustomed to rapidly-evolving information and communication technologies. I remember dial-up, but barely. I may not be a skilled texter, but I could be if I focused more. I rarely have the attention span to read a book cover-to-cover, but I can spend hours following a trail of interesting Facebook updates.

I've been asking around about millennials, and I've heard they expect information resources to be intuitive, to be Google or Wikipedia-esque in their ease of use. I've also heard that millennials are as likely to rely on peers as they are to rely on their superiors for "expert" advice. I’m not sure how true these things are of me, but I think they may be generally true of those youngsters born in the 1990s.

This collaborative way of approaching knowledge (and in a sense determining our truths by the consensus of any given moment) signals a shift in society discussed --and sometimes bemoaned-- by philosophers and pundits alike. But older generations have a history of worrying about what cultural dead-ends those young kids are leading us into. And as of yet, cultural evolution has continued apace both despite and because of the innovations of the young.

Personally, I don’t think we need a revolutionary response to millennials’ supposed information, communication and technology prowess. I don't think we need the brand "Library 2.0" to open ourselves to a paradigm shift. Libraries have always evolved to reflect society’s views of knowledge, and have so far managed to remain relevant and useful. Maybe we respond a little more slowly to the latest technology, perhaps with slightly more deliberation. But we adopt the things that work and we empower our patrons adopt them, too. I value this traditional function of libraries as much as the next librarian, millennial or no.

So, what does it really mean to be a millennial librarian? Is there really a generational gap here, or are the reports of our differences greatly exaggerated?

* Beware that Wikipedia link, the year range listed for the "millennial" or "gen y" generation changes regularly. I guess that's a symptom of society's attempt to describe itself as it evolves. Or the lack of authority and dependability of Wikipedia articles. Take your pick. For more on naming the millennial generation, see this Washington Post article.

Theft, Part II: TO CATCH A THIEF

2008-08-10T09:00:00.033-04:00

I think one reason our library director considered the stakeout a viable option for dealing with a series of thefts was that Oberlin actually has a history of apprehending library thieves (which is a whole other amazing/ridiculous story).

James Shinn, who got his 15 minutes of infamy in the early 80s, was caught by a librarian at the Oberlin College Library in 1981. He had stolen 480 rare library books with a combined value of $35,000. Shinn is a nerdy-interesting Google if you are curious. A brief 1981 NY Times article describes the manhunt. Besides inspiring librarians in general to beef up security for special collections, Shinn also gave librarians at Oberlin a hearty sense of their own crime-fighting capabilities, thus enabling me to have my very own brush with library covert ops nearly 25 years later.

The Oberlin College Library has a special room named for James Shinn and plastered with news stories of his crimes and capture. This room is not open to the public and is rarely visited by staff. The Shinn Room is the library’s Executive Washroom. I mean, where better to study a rich history of library heists and library heroism than a library director's bathroom? Nowhere, I suppose.

[Something I discovered along the way:
books about people who are crazy about books.]

P.S. Mr. Shinn, if you Google yourself regularly, thanks, and no hard feelings!

Summer Time Warp

2008-08-06T13:02:00.008-04:00

The library is quiet. There are a few people studying at tables or working at the computers. A librarian sits behind a computer at a desk. There is a middle aged man (Patron) sitting at a public computer.

Patron: (gets up from the computer he is seated at and slowly approaches the librarian) Excuse me, do you know what the date is?

Librarian: (looks up from the computer) Hello. Yes. It is August 5th.

Patron: (confused) I'm sorry did you say August?

Librarian: Yes.

Patron: (squints and shakes his head) It's August?

Librarian: (shows patron a calendar on the computer screen) Yes.

Patron: I missed my flight.

Librarian stares at patron with a commendable straight face. There is a long silence.

Patron: Huh. (pauses) Do you have a pay phone I could use? I think I need to make a phone call.

Librarian: I'm sorry, we don't have a pay phone. There is a pay phone on Liberty near Border's.

Patron hurries out the door. Librarian shrugs and goes back to looking up interesting things on the internet.

Theft, Part I: LIBRARY STAKEOUT

2008-08-04T16:04:00.051-04:00

STOP, THIEF! Security is a legitimate concern at libraries and librarians often struggle to balance the ideal of open access with the reality that monitored areas are sometimes less prone to theft. Is it our responsibility to protect innocent borrowers from visitors who will prey on unattended valuables? What level of monitoring would our users prefer and what would serve the community's best interests? Librarians like to ask such questions of ourselves and each other. If no immediate agreement can be reached, we form committees to deal with the issue. Or, on certain occasions, we snap into action. This is story of one such action.

In my undergrad years, I worked as a circulation desk attendant and student supervisor at the Oberlin College Library. One year, we had a rash of laptop and backpack thefts. No matter how many signs we posted warning people of the danger, they still left their stuff unattended and it still got stolen. One patron came to the desk in tears to report not one, not two, but three separate thefts of her valuables over the course of a week. (Responses among library staffers ranged from sympathy to incredulity that she would leave her stuff unattended the second two times.)

The library administration decided reporting these numerous incidents to Safety and Security after the fact was not enough. We needed to catch a thief red-handed. Thus, a plan was hatched and a LIBRARY STAKEOUT was born.

Late in the semester, the library's student workers received an email announcing extra work shifts. We were told we had the chance to join the library's effort to end the theft problem once and for all (well... at least for that school year). Get paid for a covert mission in the library? Yes, please! The following day, I signed up for my very own stakeout.

This is how it went down: A circulation staffer planted a "dummy" backpack in a high-traffic area of the library. Whoever was on stakeout duty got paid to sit in a darkened room for an hour with a walkie-talkie and keep a watchful eye on our planted backpack. If we saw someone grab the bag, we were to radio down to library administration, where the library director or assistant director would run out of his office and stop the thief as he or she exited the building. The staff implemented this plan with fervor (that particular and rare fervor of bored library workers who are suddenly tasked with a vitally important stakeout mission).
Photo: abbyladybug on Flickr - pretty much exactly where our backpack was planted.

You're probably buzzing with excitement right now, just as we were in those precious, early days of Operation Catch-A-Thief.... Come on, already! Did you catch the thief or what?

Day in and day out, we watched that dummy backpack. Day in and day out, we brought the backpack back to the staff area at the end of the day's scheduled stakeout shifts, simultaneously relieved and disappointed that no theft of our utterly conspicuous fake bag had been attempted.

Soon, since no more thefts had occurred, the stakeout shifts became more expensive than they were worth. How could it have been that we had so many thefts, followed by none at all, right as we began our stakeouts?

I have a theory. Remember that email I told you about, in which all the student workers of the library system were offered extra hours? And remember how hilarious and ridiculous it seemed that the library would pay us to sit in a darkened room watching a planted backpack, armed with only a walkie-talkie, intense focus and the library director as backup? I forgot to add that there was a clarifying email sent out a couple of days after the first, reminding us that this library stakeout mission was supposed to be... a secret.

But if all those other library workers were anything like me, they got that first email and immediately told everyone they saw that day about an amazing new project at the library. And like me, when they got that second email, they probably thought, "Oh, well... you probably should have told us that to begin with."

Instead of catching our thief red-handed, the Oberlin College Library effectively spread the word that the building was being closely monitored by staff. Instead of stopping crimes in progress, we successfully prevented them.

Come to think of it, all the library had to do was convince its student workers that a series of stakeouts would occur, and we took care of the rest. I guess it just goes to show: you should never, ever underestimate the power of a funny story.
Photo: StudentsReview - Oberlin's Mudd Library. Looks like a fortress, but it wasn't really. Until the stakeout.

The Typical Librarian (a Friendless Old Hag?)

2008-07-30T13:45:00.019-04:00

My good friend Remigio recently forwarded me a comic that depicts the typical librarian in a slightly negative light:

http://www.theonion.com/content/cartoon/nov-19-2007

This satirical commentary on our current political climate, where debate continues as to whether the use of torture will strengthen our national security, compares steep overdue fines meted out by librarians to the cruelest form of physical punishment.

Since we librarians generally have a sense of humor, I'm not going to argue with this representation.

But one "friendless old hag" to another, is this -

- the face of a sadistic state-sanctioned torturer?

Most likely. Steer clear of this one if you see her in your local library. Safety first, friend. Safety first.

METADATER: a long explanation for a short joke

2008-07-27T23:07:00.022-04:00

Caution: This post contains a hearty portion of information nerdiness/ geekiness/ dorkiness. I will try to "overexplain" some things a little for the benefit of our average reader (returning readers will notice that "overexplanation" is something I do on the regular, for real).

So, feel free to skip ahead if you already know a thing or two about metadata. Or don't, if you want to see me try to explain it.

Context: What the heck is metadata, anyway? According to wikipedia and SI, metadata is "data about data." Metadata helps us make sense of information by providing us with context. It allows us to better communicate and organize information and thus retrieve information more efficiently.

Titles and formatting are examples of metadata often used to describe text. For instance, the metadata I apply to READ THIS NOW! tells you a lot more than a less invasive "read this now" would have. The metadata (bold, caps and exclamation point) I use to describe the data (three words which represent your imperative) helps me communicate my meaning, draws your attention and hopefully inspires you to continue reading. It also allows me to classify what I say as important, rather than just plain old words like the stuff around it.

Recently, when I asked a fellow information professional if he had any thoughts on metadata, he asked, "Can you be more specific?" I said no. He said, "It's a ... good thing?" Metadata. It's a good thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata

Aaaaanyway...

What's the deal with METADATER? Last semester, I was writing a literature review on Metadata Standards and Interoperability for the Digital Libraries course that Emily and I took together. While this may sound vaguely impressive, I can assure you that I had almost no idea what I was talking about, but I sort of guessed at a string of plausible words and ended up sounding mildly coherent. Professor, if you're reading this... sorry dude. Thanks for the passing grade.

So Emily and I were both typing like mad in the office trying to get these overly technical lit reviews done and submitted on time, and I typoed "metadater" and I sort of cackled and said "METADATER!" in this incredibly nerdy affected voice and we both died a little in a good way. We wrote the term on the office white board and it lasted for a while.

Since then, we've realized what METADATER is really all about. We've learned the true reason I discovered the concept in the first place.

METADATER is an online dating site for information professionals. Or it should be. It doesn't actually exist. But it could.

After all, http://metadater.com/ was recently "registered\purchased." And who knows what it'll be when it finally goes live.

I'll give you a few moments to think about the ramifications.

Seriously?
Yes.

Well... seriously bad/good joke. I mean, word play and information science? It doesn't get any better/worse. I warned you it was nerdy.

Need a good LOL read?

2008-07-27T22:59:00.008-04:00

I'm going to get really agitated if one more person remarks to me, "Do you really have to go to graduate school to be a librarian? I just thought you needed to know the Dewey Decimal System...hmmm...." (The best response I've ever gotten to the "what are you doing with your life?" question was, cracking up laughing, "no really, what do you want to do when you are done with college?") Though I think that graduate level education is appropriate for librarians, I think that most of the things that we encounter in libraries are experiences that our Web 2.0 education cannot fully prepare us for.

Scott Douglas' Quiet, Please is memoir of his experience as a public librarian. Douglas humorously describes the current issues in libraries, and the experiences that library school doesn't prepare us for. Basically, the book is a collection of humorous accounts of grumpy-pants co-workers, the importance of community, issues surrounding Myspace and porn in the library, food in the library, and my favorite, problem patrons. No one can resist a good problem patron story. Librarians live for them. They spice up our days.

Douglas' memoir is a fun read that I think all information professionals can relate to in one way or another. Let's be honest, it's a total jungle out there in Library Land, and you probably need some summer reading that will remind you that you can survive it. Read on and on.

Extraterrestrial Life: A Quick Lit Review

2008-07-16T14:46:00.028-04:00

Yesterday at the reference desk, I had one of my most interesting research questions of the summer. A student was creating a bibliography for her class and chose extraterrestrial life as her topic. She needed a couple more sources, and I was more than happy to fire up my Proquest-searching skills for the occasion. Here is a sampling of what we uncovered (cited in APA format, with some added bolding to really make things pop).

Dartnell, L. (2008). Hairy Blobs found in an acidic hell. New Scientist, 198(2569), 15.

This article addresses recent research that shows life (in this case, hairy blobs) could survive in similar conditions to the Martian oceans (an acidic hell).

Want proof? Here're some hairy blobs:

http://io9.com/5013254/hairy-blobs-discovered-in-acidic-lake-could-have-evolved-on-mars

Pendick, D. (2008). Earth through alien eyes. Astronomy, 36(5), 23.

This article discusses whether aliens with our current level of technology would be able to find Earth from lightyears away. The answer is yes, they could.
My favorite quote is from scientist Sara Seager, who discusses her research published recently in The Astrophysical Journal: "Maybe somebody's looking at us right now, finding out . . . the length of our day."
Quite possibly, aliens are discovering the length of Earth's days as I write this blog entry. What an extraordinary thought!

Sheehan, D.P. (2008). On the eighth day, God created extraterrestrials: Vatican says life on other planets possible. McClatchy-Tribune Business News (wire feed), May 14 2008. Retrieved July 15, 2008, from Proquest Research Library.

This newspaper article was originally published in The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. I've never heard of this paper, but now I wish I read it every day.
In an interview in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes (the Vatican's top astronomer, according to the article) says rejecting the the idea of alien life outright would be "putting limits on God's creative freedom." Extraterrestrial life is apparently a "thorny" theological issue in Christianity, but the Vatican has made its position clear.
In addition to Vatican experts, this article includes views on the topic from a UFO researcher:
Besides, he added, aliens themselves may be creatures of faith. In a few of the many thousands of reports of alien abduction, abductees said they could speak with their captors. "Where people could ask questions, one of the questions they asked was, 'Is there a God?' or 'Do you believe in God?' " Bassett said. "Without fail, the ETs would say 'Yes.' "

In Wired's report of this story, they captured this related image of a saint and an alien meeting in a small chapel:

http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/06/alien_religion?currentPage=all

All in all, a productive day at the reference desk!

Emily and Katie's Super Classy Office Warming Reception!

2008-07-11T13:26:00.017-04:00

A photo montage.

There were stories of problem patrons.

There was lots of leaning.

Of course there were jokes!

There was super classy food.

It was a delight.

Why I am becoming a librarian

2008-07-07T16:09:00.006-04:00

Today Katie and I were having a discussion about why we are becoming librarians. Katie suggested that we both make pie charts of why we are choosing this profession. I sort of ran with it, and then Katie helped me make this sweet pie chart.What are your nerdy motivations for your profession? Dear reader, assure me I am not the only nerd out there.

LIBRARY ORIENTATION: the coolest gig in town

2008-07-03T13:20:00.023-04:00

One of our summer projects is running Library Orientation sessions for incoming freshmen (class of '12... makes me feel real ancient). The UGLibrarians have come up with a pretty sweet instructional style for these half-hour sessions.

Let us set the scene...

THE STUFF - 7 tables full of library resources (mostly books, but some newer technologies are also represented).
THE PEOPLE - overwhelmed and/or cocky 17 and 18 year olds, 50-ish per session, in groups of 6-10 per table.
THE ACTIVITY - a worksheet, the students try to figure out the themes of their tables (not that hard), say what the stuff can be used for, then present their findings to the entire session.
THE SPACE - the Grad Gallery, decked out in the finest signs and banners.
US - Emily H, who hates hamsters; Katie D-T, who has enjoyed Delerium Tremens (a belgian brew) but never had the DTs.
OUR LOVELY ASSISTANTS - one rotating UGLi Babe (that's a librarian, to the uninitiated).

Now that we have laid our stage, please allow us to entertain you with a story or three...

1. One of our fellow librarians, Renoir, has an excellent presentation style. Not unlike an improvisational jazz musician, Renoir riffs on the things the students say (i.e. he uses the openings the youngsters provide to regale us all with stories of the library which swell and reach new heights and show off his oratorial prowess).

Our favorite Renoir story came up in multiple orientation sessions. One day, a student asked, "Is there a limit to the number of books we can check out?" Smiling slightly, Renoir responded "I'm glad you asked," and proceeded seemlessly into this wonderful story.

Several years back, some student groups banded together to protest against another club. They were nerdy and creative and they decided to center their direct action on the library system. On one fateful day, these students rented U-Haul trucks and parked them outside the library. They brought armful after armful after book truck of library books to the circulation desk, hoping to stun the library -- and the university -- in its tracks. The students were successful. Every library staffer had to stop what they were doing and spend their entire day checking out books and loading books into U-Hauls. The librarians complained to their supervisors, and the complaints made their way up to University Administration. The student groups, through a clever knowledge of library policies, eventually emerged victorious.

2. One of our more adolescent incoming students shared with some 70-odd entering Wolverines a picture of a penis he and his tablemates found in a graphic novel. Emily, noticing that each novel at the table was open to its most explicit content, made a quick recovery, acknowledging the penis and addressing the major Graphic Novels Table talking points, thus saving orientation.

3. Katie ended a solid session with a solid quote by pop princess Shakira. The musical theater students she was orientating were impressed, and began to sing the song. Quote: "So, librarians are available whenever, wherever ... we're meant to be together.... yeah, I just ended with a Shakira quote."

Legalize it (Books)

2008-06-25T12:36:00.014-04:00

My housemate Sarah recently sent me this comic, which details an alternate universe. It's a dangerous world out there, and books are the ultimate gateway drug.

http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/061808/legalize-books.gif

toothpastefordinner.com

ALEXANDRIA, Va. DEA officials held a press conference to alert law enforcement officials of a dangerous new hallucinogen, "books", which can cause users (slang term "readers") to visualize people and places that do not exist.

- Protesters assemble outside drug den ("library")
- A student holds his "library card", which he claims grants him access to books legally.

I'm so glad that in the real world, books are available over-the-counter without a prescription or legal repercussions. Well, if you don't count copyright law.

These children shall pass fifth grade

2008-06-22T19:06:00.004-04:00

For those of you have not seen me kicking around town this week, I did survive my mission to _________ International Middle School. My favorite part of my time there was, believe it or not, not working in the library. It was hanging out with my sister. She is a fifth grade language arts teacher, and had her students as a final project write biographies on famous persons. The biographies blew my mind. Some of the facts were a little off. One student wrote that Eleanor Roosevelt was the "First Lady" to ever marry a president. Another wrote that when Truman dropped the bomb, "everything in Eleanor's body stopped working." My favorite was the following:

During the war Winston Churchill He became Prime minster. He was for England. At that time His grandFather deid. When the war ended Winston ChurchiLL sadly deid. I January 30, 1965. In Oxford england. they threw him in the river.

I made sure to buy some biographies for the library.

A blast from the past

2008-06-18T16:24:00.010-04:00

In February, Emily and I had the privilege of attending the grand opening luncheon for Bert's Cafe, the UGLi's newest coffee shop. After the luncheon we got to meet the man himself, Bert Askwith, who is known by some as "the biggest thing to hit the library since Google."

Today, I was presented with proof of this momentous occasion:

Notice our big smiles and averted eyes. We were totally awed. I'm thinking of getting this framed.

...

It’s Already Been Broughten, or the story of one librarian’s journey to the 1st Annual Bilderberg Challenge

2008-06-16T17:35:00.041-04:00

On May 30th, 2007, an historic call to arms was issued via the SI listserv:

------------------------------------------------------
[BRING IT] softball -- archivists vs librarians (BRING IT)
For literally hundreds of millions of years, tension has been brewing between archivists and librarians...
Well stop your shushing, put down your acid free folders, and get ready because forever is about to be decided:
THE 1ST ANNUAL BILDERBERG SOFTBALL CHALLENGE
When: Saturday, June 7, 2008, 1 pm
Where: Burns Park Softball Diamonds (look it up or follow the information scent)
Who: Archivists vs. Librarians
What: A duel on the diamond - standard softball rules - bragging rights at stake - in a word, BRING IT!
------------------------------------------------------
This email, issued by Maureen and Bill, ARCHIVISTS AT LARGE, started a revolution in the SI community. No longer was the listserv dominated by a handful of HCI enthusiasts. It was time for the traditional information professionals to take the stage, and take it we did, rocking the status quo.

This challenge marked my entrée into the world of SI-all email communications and sparked a fever in my heart that could only be cured by MORE SOFTBALL.

On 06/07/08 at approximately 1:23 pm, the 1st Annual Bilderberg Challenge began, a softball showdown between archivists and librarians. The archivists, hosts and home team, were decked out in black. The librarians wore white. There was tension in the air and a storm was brewing. Everyone in attendance recognized an epic battle was underway.

Photo Credit: Dawn B.

As a proponent of librarianship and former captain of the Oberlin varsity softball team, I knew it was my duty to unite LIS students and allies to overcome ARM’s attempts to undermine us. We dominated from the moment we stepped on the field; the Bilderberg Trophy was at stake and we could taste victory with every pitch.

With our reputation on the line, we put the archivists’ trash talking to the test, and they crumbled under the weight of our heavy bats and profound fielding prowess.

The final score:
Librarians 16, Archivists 7.

Archivists, I have but one thing to say for my profession: IT’S ALREADY BEEN BROUGHTEN.

[If you're curious, Wikipedia has more on the Bilderberg Group. For Quaker porn, please visit Maureen's blog at: http://patriarchive.wordpress.com]

Welcome to Mafia's Media Center

2008-06-08T21:43:00.007-04:00

I am in ___________ visiting my sister. She is a fifth grade teacher at ____________ International Middle School. Her school is a bit corrupt, but since I'm part of her family, they hired me to help them re-organize their media center. (Apparently it helps to have a family member on the inside). Wednesday night my sister tried to prepare me for what I was about to encounter.

sister: the books are a mess, they are just piled on the shelves and falling apart.
me: (trying to stay positive) well, books are meant to be used
sister: yeah, but not as roller skates

This did not prepare me for what I was about to encounter. On my first day at the school, my sister walked me down to the media center, past the old grandfathers who are paid to be full-time ____________, past oodles of screaming children, into a room turned totally upside down.

My sister left the room and the librarian told me he wished I wasn't there, that their library didn't really need much done. That was awkward. Then he told me that he doesn't really know what to do when kids ask him what book to read, so maybe I could just make a list. I said, "maybe I'll just put these books in order first", and got to it. He got on his cell phone. As I sat reshelving books, and he sat __________ on his cell phone, it became more aparent that there is a _________ being run out of the media center. This was confirmed when he yelled over to me, "Miss Emily, you go to the bathroom for a break now." Umm... I have since uncovered that the school is in fact controlled by the __________ mafia.

So I have become a library __________. I have been shelving for ______ days, _______ hours a day______. All while witnessing _________. There seems to be some major issues here. That is all I can say right now.

Planning a scavenger hunt/tour

2008-05-30T09:41:00.004-04:00

One of my projects at the UGLi this summer is to create some sort of tour of the library for the Great Indoors, an open house held in the library for freshmen during welcome week. The Great Indoors traditionally involves free pizza and provides fun activities that help students get comfortable with the library.

I've been scratching my head to come up with ideas for a tour that will be engaging and will help students learn about the library without the activity feeling like a chore. I think I've settled on creating a scavenger hunt, in which students follow clues that lead them to different parts of the library. I think something active will be more well-received and ultimately more useful for students, but I have yet to figure out exactly how to implement this idea.

So far I have a list of places I want to be stops on the tour/hunt. I'm trying to think of a theme, and decide what the clues will be. Some ideas we've come up with so far: crossword puzzles, word finds and photos of the next location. Originally, this tour was going to just be a Flickr photoset of the library, but I think the scavenger hunt has much more potential to actually be fun and interesting for incoming students.

Has anyone ever planned and created a scavenger hunt or active tour before? Got any suggestions? Send them my way.

He doesn't even know I exist (insert sigh here)

2008-05-21T14:34:00.006-04:00

I was spending some time in the British Literature section (PR's for library nerds) of the UGLi the other day, deciding what books we should keep and what we should get rid of. I stood a minute pondering on whether or not we needed two copies of Oroonoko by Alphra Behn, when this lovely photo fell out of the book. I always knew I'd meet my true love in a book, I just didn't expect him to be so good at wheelies.

The Big Move

2008-05-19T13:37:00.005-04:00

Our Office Relocation Project is nearing Stage 4: Completion.

The old office, being moved:

Despite our worries, the new office seems quite homey. What a relief!

The new office:

We are now housed on the second floor of the UGLi. And we have a FLASHLIGHTS drawer.

What you can really do with a library degree

2008-04-17T22:19:00.006-04:00

Katie and I were in the office today avoiding writing our papers for Digital Libraries. Katie was paging through a book we recently found in the office titled What Else You can do with a Library Degree: Career Options for the 90s and Beyond. The book inspired her to perhaps switch her specialization to tailored and take classes that would enable her to become a private investigator. I was in sort of a tizzy and was feeling very uninspired, until Katie said, looking up from the book and at the computer screen at the introduction to her paper, "I wonder how many words I have already." My response, "200." Katie hit word count, "200!" The next edition of What Else You can do with a Library Degree: Career Options for the Internet Age will most likely list psychic.

I guess that librarians do need to be a bit psychic though. How else could we find the right source with so little to go on? (true example; student: "I have to write a paper about my passion." librarian: "what's your passion?" student: "War"... moments later the search/ student's passion is defined as American opposition to the Korean War).

TAX DAY! or, how this one time, I almost didn't graduate from Oberlin but then I shaved a rat's head and everything magically worked out for the best

2008-04-15T10:48:00.022-04:00

In past years, April 15 would find me scrambling to complete my overly complicated, multi-state, last-minute tax reporting. Somehow, this year, I got my taxes done early and mailed YESTERDAY. I am like, so administratively sound right now, you guys.

Anyway, in honor of this special day for the United States economy, I thought I would share with you the story of one tax year in which I was NOT quite so on top of things... this is the story of tax preparation and its fallout circa April 15, 2006.

It was my last semester at Oberlin, and I was taking two courses required to complete my psych major (and thus, my degree). One of them was a 2-credit neuroscience lab. Since it was a once-a-week lab course, and only worth two credits, attendance was mandatory. I also had softball games many afternoons, which complicated my attendance and made the professor grumpy. Of course, one week, my lab section fell on April 15, otherwise known as TAX DAY OF DOOM.

Let me mention that I am really bad at remembering to do things if they are not in my routine. Or remembering to do things that are in my routine after I have been soundly shaken out of the flow of normal activity by something as traumatizing as trying to complete my taxes at the last minute.

So, this tax day necessitated a lot of phone tax support from my mom, and generally running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything squared away -- the proper forms and payments mailed from Oberlin or Detroit to the appropriate agencies. I let my coach know that taxes had been more complicated than I'd planned and I'd be late to softball practice, but somehow in the midst of my tax-related frenzy, I completely flaked on going to my (mandatory for graduation) neuroscience lab. And this was the day we were supposed to do brain surgery on a rat. Oops.

Having missed rat brain surgery (clearly the pinnacle of my career as a psych major), I was convinced that I would fail the lab since the professor had already been very unforgiving about potential softball-related absences. My only hope was to go to the another lab section the next day, which was run by a different professor, and beg for her to let me participate in their rat surgery session. The only problem? I had a softball game that afternoon, and would not be able to stay for the whole surgery.

Thankfully, the other professor was very accomodating, and allowed me to switch over to her lab section for the remainder of the semester (the rat project continued after the surgery, when we implanted an electrode in the pleasure center of the rat's brain, and then tracked how he learned to press a bar to stimulate the electrode), as long as it was okay with my new group members that I was not able to complete the surgery. I arrived in lab wearing my full softball uniform, ready to perform rodent neurosurgery. The group was cool with me not being there for the whole class, so after the demonstration surgery and the anesthetization of our rat (Orpheus), I was tasked with the important duty of pre-surgery prep before I left.

In other words, I shaved the rat's head. This did not go incredibly smoothly, since Orpheus wasn't quite anesthetized enough, and was pretty squirmy. Nevertheless, I completed the task and then rushed off to my softball game. I remembered to go to the rest of the classes, and eventually passed the lab with flying colors.

So, I guess I might have been overreacting, but for those 24 hours following that fateful tax day, I was absolutely certain I would be unable to graduate from Oberlin. It seemed so ridiculous yet so fitting that I would miss graduation for such a silly reason. But in April, 2006 I learned a valuable lesson about Tax Time: while there are those Tax Days that make you miss the important things in your life, there will always be subsequent miraculous opportunities to shave rat heads and undo the damage you've caused in your tax-induced delirium.

In the end, I graduated. On time. All thanks to Orpheus, who (begrudgingly) let me shave his little rat head when my academic career needed it the most.

Poetry Break

2008-03-30T15:39:00.004-04:00

(From Garbage: A Poem by A.R. Ammons, pt. 7. It reminds me of a certain catalog I know.)

... I punched

out Garbage at the library and four titles
swept the screen, only one, Garbage Feed,

seemed worth going on to; and that was about
feeding swine right: so I punched Garbage Disposal

and the screen came blank--nothing! all those
titles, row on row, of western goodies, mostly

worse than junk, but not a word on Disposal: I
should have looked, I suppose, under Waste Disposal

but, who cares, I already got the point: I
know garbage is being "disposed" of--but what

I wanted I had gotten, a clear space and pure
freedom to dump whatever, and this means most

of the catalog must go, so much that what is
left will need no computer to be kept track of:

har:...

UGLi Field Trip

2008-03-24T18:20:00.011-04:00

On Friday the staff of the UGLi piled in maize and blue mini vans and traveled to the new Border's. I'm directionally challenged so I couldn't tell you where it is, but it is in Ann Arbor somewhere. Anyway, the store is a test case for their new "concept stores." Basically, the store is just a really big, really technologically advanced bookstore with lots of flashy stuff.

From the moment I walked in, I felt like I was in a computer store, and got overwhelmed. The store manager who gave us a tour must have read my mind when he said, "this space used to be a CompUSA." The store did have some neat shelving and seating, and some clever organizational ideas. But, the big screen t.v.s on the walls made me feel like I was in Best Buy. The store has a technology area that includes a space where customers can make their own CD mixes and download e-books. The thing that really got me was "the Long Pen," which is this teleconferencing device where you can meet an author and they can sign your book. You can see the author over the screen, they can see you, and then you put your book under the machine and the author signs their name on their thinkpad. The "Long Pen" then signs your book, stroke for stroke. It was weird. I have wonderfully awkward memories of meeting authors and basically tripping over myself (not to brag but I ran into David Sedaris in Paris and it was visibly shocking for me). It's refreshingly human to not be able to just turn off a camera and hide sometimes. Plus, if robots start signing our books for us, where will it end? It's so sci-fi.

In the discussion that followed the tour, many of the librarians declared they were uncomfortable with the store. I whole heartedly agreed.

You can see more photos on the UGLi flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uglib/

Highlights of March 19, 2008

2008-03-19T19:39:00.005-04:00

Read closely resume tip #2 from Career Services:

2. Use the spell checker feature on your computer and ask SI Career Services staff and at least on friend to review your resume for typos or grammatical errors.

Oh, the hilarity of an ironic typo.

One reason why I'm sticking to public services

2008-03-13T21:19:00.006-04:00

DIFFERENCES between, CHANGES within:

Guidelines on When to Create a New Record

["The document helps guide the cataloger in determining whether the item in hand can be cataloged with existing copy or requires a new bibliographic record. General guidelines are followed by specific guidelines for manifestation-level records for single-part monographs, multipart monographs, integrating resources, and serials. The text describes what constitutes a major difference between manifestations, requiring the creation of an original record, as well as detailing major changes within a serial manifestation that would lead to the creation of a new record. In addition, guidance is also provided to identify minor changes that would not require a new bibliographic record, but might necessitate updating an existing record."
from http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=collectiondevb]

Eyes glazing over? Me too. I applaud the work of catalogers everywhere, but I think I'll officially add this to the list of professions I could never do (I actually wrote it down once... doctor, horticulturist, flight attendant, sex worker, and now... cataloger). I think catalogers do really important work, but if I had to use this 38-page PDF on a regular basis... I think I might go over to the dark side (where the future's so dark, I gotta wear night-vision goggles).

Incidentally, when I got curious to see how exactly one does decide whether to make a new bibliographic record for an item and I tried to download the advertised PDF, I got instead a word document entitled "STARTING A LIBRARY SUPPORT STAFF ORGANIZATION." Amazing. Even the ALA concedes that anyone who tries to read "Differences within, Changes between" is going to need some professional help.

A Review of "10 Funny Flirting Facts," in honor of Valentine's Day

2008-02-14T14:29:00.007-05:00

Today on MSN.com there was an article I found amusing:
10 Funny Flirting Facts (I don't know how long this link will work, but I'll try to include enough of its content here so that you don't have to use the link to understand the awesomeness of the list).

First, the health benefits of flirting -- apparently, people who flirt more often have higher white blood cell counts and better immune systems. According to "studies." I couldn't find any of these studies, but I'm sure it's true.

Second, the hair flip is the most common flirting signal, "according to scientists."

This one is impossible to paraphrase:
"3. In some places, flirting is illegal. In Little Rock, AR, an antiquated law is still on the books warning that engaging in playful banter may result in a 30-day jail term. In New York City, another outdated law mandates that men may be fined $25 for gazing lasciviously at a female; a second conviction stipulates the offender wear a pair of blinders whenever he goes out for a walk."

The list of flirting tips goes on to talk about how people are taking flirting to the next level -- flirting the tech-savvy way includes email and text messaging. People have also taken flirting to the streets -- between cars on a morning commute, or via mass transit.

I found this article pretty entertaining, but I have a nit to pick: like many popular articles, this one mentioned scientific research about its subject, but didn't directly cite the scholarly sources it used. I found this frustrating because I think the idea of being a professional flirting scholar is really, really hilarious, and I wanted a less efforful way of finding all that flirting literature out there. Flirting scholars, please hit me up with some reliable citations. Soon.

I enjoyed this article so much, I decided to ILL a book by the article's author: Man with Farm Seeks Woman with Tractor: The Best and Worst Personal Ads of All Time. I'll let you know if it's awesome.

Sharks Part 2: Told You So...

2008-02-02T13:29:00.000-05:00

Internet connectivity has been sporadic for our friends in Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, India, and Bangladesh this week due to three broken internet cables in the ocean. Though repairs are being made, the progress may be slow. Sources don't seem to know what caused the break in the cables, and it is suspected that at least two be the cables were possibly cut by a ship anchor. But, the third broken cable, off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, has not been explained. The cable was a mere 35 miles from shore. According to the Florida Museum of Natural History most sharks congregate and attack not far from shore and are drawn towards metallic objects, thus leaving my prediction as shark attack. This has been one of the largest outages since an earthquake in Taiwan in 2006. Remember dear readers that we can create things such as the internet, but we pesky humans will never outsmart nature.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Internet-Outages.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=internet&st=nyt&oref=slogin">http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Internet-Outages.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=internet&st=nyt&oref=slogin
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/31/dubai.outage/index.html?iref=newssearch
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/attacks/howwhen.htm">http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/attacks/howwhen.htm

Shark Attacks and Internet Connections

2008-01-20T19:11:00.000-05:00

Katie and I are in a course on digital libraries this semester. As you know, I have issues with the tangibility of the digital world. We recently read an article for class that attempts to make tangible the intangible nature of networks such as the internet. So, in the article this guy just travels around the world following broadband wires. This "hacker tourist" reveals to his readers all sorts of mind boggling things about broadband wires, the most mind boggling being that the broadband wires in the ocean have a "steel anitshark jacket" around them. I never had given any thought to the fact that a shark attack might tamper with my internet connection. Now I do. I was having trouble signing into facebook earlier today so I could play Scrabulous. I instantly thought "shark attack." (How many times have you thought about a shark attack threatening your Scrabble game?) Printers are slow today at the UGLi-- it's probably just another shark messing with the connection.

One down, three to go

2007-12-16T13:05:00.001-05:00

I got a concussion once and the doctor told me to rest my brain: "don't overstimulate yourself," he said. For him, this meant I should sit in an empty room and do nothing. For me, this seemed completely impractical -- didn't he realize I use my brain for pretty much everything? I was on spring break with the softball team, and staying understimulated is nigh onto impossible in Myrtle Beach. But I did my best.

By claiming overstimulation and "doctor's orders" I could get out of any activity, and I took advantage. Suddenly, I had an excuse to avoid the remotest possibility of stress. I opted out of strenuous activities like having conversations, watching movies and eating ice cream. "Sorry guys," I would say, "I don't think I can do that. I'm trying not to overstimulate myself."

As absurd and impractical as the doctor's advice really was, even the minimal sensory deprivation I was able to achieve was pretty nice. Letting go of the need to be engaged in anything at all was surprisingly freeing. That Myrtle Beach doctor gave me a language for stress-reduction that I've been using ever since.

I decided to become a librarian partially because I really appreciate having control over the pace of my life, I've learned that I value stimulation in moderation, and I think this career will allow me the freedom to determine just how stressed out I'm willing to be. Dumbly, I've chosen to pursue this path at SI, which feels like the most intense library school in existence. It makes my brain hurt just to think about it.

I told you about my concussion and my quest for understimulation because I realized today that SI is pretty much the most overstimulating experience of my life. Done with the first of four semesters, I feel shell-shocked. Completely addled. Kind of like I have a concussion. All I want to do is vegetate, in fact it seems right now that that's pretty much all I'm capable of. So if anyone asks me to go anywhere or do anything, I think I'll just say no.

After all, my brain is healing. It deserves a rest.

What a darling suggestion!

2007-12-04T17:30:00.001-05:00

One of our lovely co-workers was recently reading through the UGLi suggestion box, and found this recommendation; "KDT should wear more revealing clothing. HOTTT." This nearly killed me. Thank you patron for your comments and honesty. I can assure you that the UGLi has taken your comments respectfully, but this is outside the scope of the library's services. However, Katie has graciously taken the time out of her hectic life to respond to the patron's suggestion. Thank you for your response Katie!

As a side note, please remember that the UGLi suggestion box is not a joke.

Because President Bush Said So

2007-11-27T16:02:00.000-05:00

November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month because President Bush said so. Well, President Regan said so first in 1983, but that sort of fizzled out.

But, we can’t look at this as just some political good deed, but as a time for awareness about the disease as it becomes more prevalent in our world. As this number of people with Alzheimer’s begins to rise, so does the cost of living and healthcare for many. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that nearly 4.9 million Americans over the age of 65 are currently suffering with the disease. Many of us are among the 4.9 million families that have been affected by Alzheimer’s.

As the disease becomes more common, the simplest action for us to take is to gain a knowledge and understanding of the disease so that we can know the warning signs and symptoms, as well as know how to support our friends and family as they deal with Alzheimer’s.

The Alzheimer’s Association has a wonderful website that gives basic information about the disease, as well as resources for people suffering with the disease, their caregivers, and their support networks.

http://alz.org/index.asp

My favorite book dealing with the subject is The Wind Garden by Angela McAllister. It’s a lovely children’s book about a young girl named Ellie who looks out for her Grandpa. Her Grandpa reminds me of my own Grandma as he spends his days sitting on this porch remembering. The book itself is aimed at children 10 and under, but shoot, I read it all the time. It’s a really beautiful book.

SAFETY FIRST!

2007-11-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

Wedgie-proof is the new black. Just in time for the holiday season.

Unfortunately, there is still no known protection from the everyday accidental wedgie. I hope the twins are working on that.

The Internet is Magic, or “But the problem is, how am I supposed to believe in miracles anymore now that I know how the internet works?”

2007-11-14T20:25:00.000-05:00

Today, Emily and I had an exam on the Internet. And by that I mean, we took an exam on concepts related to the internet for SI 502. The exam made us kind of crazy, and we sat in the office recovering, talking in the sort of manic, stressed-out haze that characterizes a lot of our conversations about the work we do at SI.

Emily said the things we've learned in this class have reduced her sense of wonder about the internet, that learning its basic workings has made the whole thing somehow less awe-inspiring. She compared this to the plight of young children (I'm paraphrasing here): "It's like when you hear rumors at recess that Santa Claus isn't real, and even though you know that Christmas is really about Jesus, some the magic of the holiday is lost."

Many of us on this side of the digital divide use the internet every day, without feeling the need to understand how it works. Some of us might even feel that trying to learn how the internet works is a little like asking to have Santa spoiled for you. The internet is pretty freaking complicated. It's hard to sum up, and it requires time to understand. Some day we beleaguered 502-ers might get there.

Although, we are already miles ahead of some. Consider:

Part I

and

Part II

As Jon Stewart suggests, the internet is not just a series of tubes. Ted Steven's tube analogy (while it sounds half-cocked) is thought-provoking because it reminds us that the internet has physicality – cables, computer hardware, servers, and routers that can "talk" to each other. But the higher-level result of all that underlying architecture – the fact that in less than a second you are able to get a webpage that is stored on a server thousands of miles away to display on the screen in front of you in a format you can comprehend – is mind-blowing when you really think about it. And the layers in between the physical and the conceptual -- they might as well be a series of tubes, for all most internet users care.

My 502 GSI has told us that the core question in this course is "Who's talking to whom?" We perceive with our senses, and communicate in human terms. We've created machines that perceive and communicate in numbers, in bits and code, in simple electronic signals. How do we talk to computers in a language they understand, how do different computers talk to each other, and how do layers of hardware and software work together? The fact that computer systems work, that networks work, is a miracle of communication and coordination.

So as much as I sympathize with Emily and all those little kids (including wee young Katie, circa 1993) who discover their parents lie to them to make life seem cooler, learning some basics about the internet has only increased my wonderment. For me, it's more like discovering Santa isn't real, realizing your parents pulled off a massive, long-term hoax in collaboration with parents all across the Western world, and then settling into an appreciation for the system that could enable the conspiracy to continue from year to year and generation to generation. Well, something like that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the more I learn about the internet, the more I think that the fact that it works at all is truly, fantastically, completely magical. The more I learn about the internet, the more I feel like doing new-agey pagan rituals in its honor.

Not really.

Well, maybe a little.

Better OFF

2007-11-13T12:32:00.000-05:00

I recently finished reading Better OFF: Flipping the Switch on Technology by Eric Brende. Brende was a graduate student in Science, Technology, and Society at M.I.T. when he began to feel overwhelmed by the dependency of society on technology. Brende frames technology in terms of machines, motors, and natural resource guzzlers. Determined to find “how much was too much” technology Brende and his wife move to an Amish community and live without electricity for a year. Brende, describing this lifestyle overly utopian and very unhumble terms at times, does give insight to finding a balance between what machines should and shouldn’t help us to do in our daily lives. A graduate student at the time himself he writes, “In the modern university, with its rapid turnover of assignments and fast-paced technology, the human brain is treated as just another processing device and is expected to keep pace with electronic blips…In the absence of fast-paced gizmos…we can simply take our time…by speeding through life with technology, you reduce what any given moment can hold. By slowing down, you expand it.” He concludes that he does need some technology to get by, and that conveniences like running water aren’t just luxuries. But, he prefers living a slower dearer life without “fast paced gizmos”. Though Brende is a bit condesending at times, his book is worth reading.

Soliciting IPL questions

2007-10-18T19:14:00.002-04:00

Emily and I share a class called Information Resources and Services (SI 647). In this course, we learn a variety of practical skills associated with reference librarianship.

One of the main ways we are gaining reference experience in 647 is by answering questions through the Internet Public Library (IPL). People from all over the world take advantage of the reference services provided by IPL's volunteer librarians (like us). Users ask questions for schoolwork, to satisfy their curiosity on a subject, or to settle bets. It's a really cool resource to those with internet access.

Sometimes, there is a dearth of questions available to us when we look to complete an IPL assignment for class. Therefore, I am asking for anyone reading this to consider asking questions on the IPL, which is used to train librarians in classes across the country (and maybe... the world!). It's a win-win -- we get to learn by answering questions, and you get the answer (or pointed to free internet resources which will help you learn more about your question).

Here is a link to the IPL:

http://ipl.org/

And the "Ask a Question" Form:

http://ipl.org/div/askus/

Feel free to ask any questions about the IPL in the comments on this post, and ask away!

2007-10-17T21:27:00.001-04:00

Orange Almond Cookies
These decadent treasures are a must for all homework, class, or meeting breaks. We like to keep them in a drawer labeled "event supplies".

1/2 cup granulated sugar
7 tablespoons butter, softened
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
1/3 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup plain yogurt
Cooking spray
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
orange rind to sprinkle on top of cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350'

2. Beat first three ingredients with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add honey, almond extract, and egg; beat until well blended. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups, level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with yogurt. Drop by level teaspoons 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350' for 12 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.

3. Combine powdered sugar and juice in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Brush powdered sugar mixture evenly over warm cookies. Sprinkle rind on top of the cookies before the powdered sugar mixture dries. Remove cookies from pan and cool.

(This recipe was adapted from the Lemon-Honey Drop Cookies in The All-New Complete Cooking Light. To make the cookies lemon, substitute orange rind and juice for lemon rind and juice, and the almond extract for either lemon or vanilla extract.)

Introduction

2007-10-15T11:16:00.002-04:00

Emily and Katie share a job, an office and an event supplies drawer.

Together, they are learning to become librarians.

These are their stories.