I wrote a post last week about the loneliness of visiting grad school, but it's not just students who move through the revolving door in academia, the academics do, to. This summer, two of my favorite professors are moving on to bigger and better things. One is a friend, along with her partner. We had them over on Monday night to eat pizza off of paper towels in our near-empty new house. I've been in denial that they're leaving, but they have now set a date for the beginning of August, so it's finally real. They will only be a few hours away, so I hope we can stay in touch and visit often.
One of my best friends lives only 2 hours away and is starting to think it's time to move on. I plan to send her every job ad I can find that is within driving distance. I want her to get a good job, but I also want to be able to visit!
I, on the other hand, will be staying put in my first job. I am very happy here and now that we have bought a house, we have committed ourselves to developing roots here. I'm looking forward to roots, it's been so long since I've stayed in one place.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Another life change
I had another big life change today... we closed on our first house. Here's a picture of when my dad was here last month inspecting it:
Why the same old thing?
Why do people such as Christopher Kiess think we should get rid of an MLS instead of revamping it? The notion that an MBA is a better degree seems absurd, though he does say that for public libraries rather than academic ones. I don't know much about public libraries. For running an academic library, I do not see how an MBA instead of an MLS would be useful unless you are strictly a business librarian. An MBA is not a research degree.
Furthermore, many good librarians probably ended up in librarianship because they were not business-minded. At least that's how I ended up here. My worst grades in undergrad were in my two business classes (solid B's, but still my worst). I feel I could learn the business skills needed to manage a library if I were to ever move into management, but don't think a business background could have prepared me for librarianship.
That said, I wish I had learned more about the business part of librarianship in grad school, particularly budgets. There were many practical things I wish I learned in grad school, though at least I learned a lot of them during my job while in school, and at my internship. I wish knowing basic HTML and navigating gov docs was a requirement for every new MLS, as well as a sense of the profession and the theory behind it.
Many things about an MLS are laughable. But we should try to get it improved, not get rid of the degree.
Furthermore, many good librarians probably ended up in librarianship because they were not business-minded. At least that's how I ended up here. My worst grades in undergrad were in my two business classes (solid B's, but still my worst). I feel I could learn the business skills needed to manage a library if I were to ever move into management, but don't think a business background could have prepared me for librarianship.
That said, I wish I had learned more about the business part of librarianship in grad school, particularly budgets. There were many practical things I wish I learned in grad school, though at least I learned a lot of them during my job while in school, and at my internship. I wish knowing basic HTML and navigating gov docs was a requirement for every new MLS, as well as a sense of the profession and the theory behind it.
Many things about an MLS are laughable. But we should try to get it improved, not get rid of the degree.
Web 2.0 Workshop
Our school is hosting a regional workshop on Web 2.0 on Halloween. Last week, while I was on vacation, we invited our first choice of keynote speakers and she said yes! It is Jody Condit Fagan from James Madison University. I heard she gave a great talk about mash-ups for non-techies at CiL 2008, though I attended something else during that time slot.
As the resident techie librarian who is familiar with Web 2.0 stuff, I am supposed to be organizing the panel and poster sessions. I sent out an invitation to people from the other member libraries to contribute to a wiki I set up for this purpose, but so far only a few have posted a bio and no one has posted any other ideas beyond what I am originally imagining. I'm not sure how to motivate people to participate when we're not physically in one room, even though there is no reason for us to need to meet physically. This is something I will need to figure out in the next week or two. It would be really nice to have a good idea of what everyone is doing by the time school starts.
As the resident techie librarian who is familiar with Web 2.0 stuff, I am supposed to be organizing the panel and poster sessions. I sent out an invitation to people from the other member libraries to contribute to a wiki I set up for this purpose, but so far only a few have posted a bio and no one has posted any other ideas beyond what I am originally imagining. I'm not sure how to motivate people to participate when we're not physically in one room, even though there is no reason for us to need to meet physically. This is something I will need to figure out in the next week or two. It would be really nice to have a good idea of what everyone is doing by the time school starts.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Lonely trips down memory lane
I've been quiet on my blog this week because I'm on vacation and thinking about libraries very little. This is somewhat related... I guess you have to allow me to be liberal in the summer.
Last night we stopped in Auburn, Alabama where my husband finished his Ph.D. three years ago. It reminded me of how lonely it is to try to visit a place that is such a revolving door. While we had an excellent visit with his Ph. D. advisor, very few of his friends are left any more. He still had plenty of stories to tell me, showed me where his lab was, where his office was, and which office door window he put his best friend's shoulder through.
Thinking of trying to temporarily capture grad school again is lonely. When I get back to Bloomington, I have a few people left, but will never get the whole gang back in one place. Of those who are left, they are many of the most important people, but not everyone. I'd give anything to recreate several moments of time with the friends I made there... Harry Potter Night (before I was a Potterhead) with the collapsed cauldron cakes and gross attempt at butterbeer that started my love of ginger ale, our hiking group and camping trip, my favorite professor cooking enough Lebanese food to feed an army because I asked him to cook for me, that same professor delivering the Chicago Manual of Style in Hurricane Katrina so I would submit a lousy pathfinder for publication (it got brutally rejected), and mostly working in an office with some of the most amazing librarians on the face of the earth... that office no longer exists.
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, and we didn't take advantage of the time that we had all together in one place. I have to say I am incredibly grateful for Facebook, but I wish we could all have a reunion and have things the way they were, just for an hour or two.
It just seems strange to me that such an important part of your life can't be revisited.
Last night we stopped in Auburn, Alabama where my husband finished his Ph.D. three years ago. It reminded me of how lonely it is to try to visit a place that is such a revolving door. While we had an excellent visit with his Ph. D. advisor, very few of his friends are left any more. He still had plenty of stories to tell me, showed me where his lab was, where his office was, and which office door window he put his best friend's shoulder through.
Thinking of trying to temporarily capture grad school again is lonely. When I get back to Bloomington, I have a few people left, but will never get the whole gang back in one place. Of those who are left, they are many of the most important people, but not everyone. I'd give anything to recreate several moments of time with the friends I made there... Harry Potter Night (before I was a Potterhead) with the collapsed cauldron cakes and gross attempt at butterbeer that started my love of ginger ale, our hiking group and camping trip, my favorite professor cooking enough Lebanese food to feed an army because I asked him to cook for me, that same professor delivering the Chicago Manual of Style in Hurricane Katrina so I would submit a lousy pathfinder for publication (it got brutally rejected), and mostly working in an office with some of the most amazing librarians on the face of the earth... that office no longer exists.
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, and we didn't take advantage of the time that we had all together in one place. I have to say I am incredibly grateful for Facebook, but I wish we could all have a reunion and have things the way they were, just for an hour or two.
It just seems strange to me that such an important part of your life can't be revisited.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Community Borrowers
I've been thinking a lot about how helpful academic librarians should be to people who aren't associated with the college. I became a librarian because I enjoy customer service and helping people. Furthermore, we have to provide reasonable access tot he government documents. I don't want to tell people we can't do something. Especially in the summer when we don't have other people who take priority.
However, we are a small college that is privately funded. We have a small staff and limited resources. And it seems that most of the community people who use our collection heavily that come to the attention of the staff are very weird and make staff and students uncomfortable.
I don't want to go into this in detail, but where to draw the line is an interesting question. I'm grateful when I hear about the issues public libraries have to deal with. If we have anyone making us at all uncomfortable, we call security and the person is escorted out. We don't need a good reason. This is particularly important during the school year when students are around and there are only student employees running the library in the evening. We are very protective of our students.
This past week, a group of home-schooled high schoolers wanted an instruction session and tour of the library. I think I would have been more willing to do this as they are prospective students, but the other librarians compromised and provided a brief tour, but no instruction and no reference. They sent them to the community college on the other side of town, since it is publicly funded. At least we did this, I would have been upset if we had not done anything, even though I know we can't be everything to everyone.
However, we are a small college that is privately funded. We have a small staff and limited resources. And it seems that most of the community people who use our collection heavily that come to the attention of the staff are very weird and make staff and students uncomfortable.
I don't want to go into this in detail, but where to draw the line is an interesting question. I'm grateful when I hear about the issues public libraries have to deal with. If we have anyone making us at all uncomfortable, we call security and the person is escorted out. We don't need a good reason. This is particularly important during the school year when students are around and there are only student employees running the library in the evening. We are very protective of our students.
This past week, a group of home-schooled high schoolers wanted an instruction session and tour of the library. I think I would have been more willing to do this as they are prospective students, but the other librarians compromised and provided a brief tour, but no instruction and no reference. They sent them to the community college on the other side of town, since it is publicly funded. At least we did this, I would have been upset if we had not done anything, even though I know we can't be everything to everyone.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
And the great HPN08 begins!
By October, I think "Harry Potter" will probably be my most popular tag. I began brainstorming about our annual Harry Potter Night, which is on the calendar for October 24. We held a small one in March 07, then a large one in October that we plan to repeat annually. You can see some of our photos here (I need to tag more of them).
This afternoon I have been brainstorming how to make a Horcrux scavenger hunt. The idea is starting to become clearer in my brain now, and resembles a cross between an obstacle course and a scavenger hunt. Anyone interested in playing will put their name on a slip of paper, which will go into a goblet (like the Goblet of Fire). We will draw out 2 or 3 at a time, which will make a team. That team will head upstairs to the second floor and get started. At each of the six stations, they will have to go through some type of obstacle like drinking a large up of sour green juice, finding a large ring in a big box of popcorn, playing red-light-green-light with Umbridge...
It's coming together, and what's cooler than getting paid to play with Harry Potter???
This afternoon I have been brainstorming how to make a Horcrux scavenger hunt. The idea is starting to become clearer in my brain now, and resembles a cross between an obstacle course and a scavenger hunt. Anyone interested in playing will put their name on a slip of paper, which will go into a goblet (like the Goblet of Fire). We will draw out 2 or 3 at a time, which will make a team. That team will head upstairs to the second floor and get started. At each of the six stations, they will have to go through some type of obstacle like drinking a large up of sour green juice, finding a large ring in a big box of popcorn, playing red-light-green-light with Umbridge...
It's coming together, and what's cooler than getting paid to play with Harry Potter???
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