So as is the case with any new job, I inherited some unfinished business. One piece of business that’s hard to ignore is that over 30,000 records have yet to be converted to the online catalog. They are in the card catalog, which for you non-library folk, means that they are essentially hidden from sight. […]
There were some great additions to the trends, including the emphasis on mobile computing, though in running over the list, I’d add the blurring of public/private personae. But Michael Golrick honed in on the challenge of my presentation: not to point out problems, but to point out responses to those problems (avoiding the pat term, […]
I admit that when I start reading a journal called “Information Technology and Libraries” at 3 a.m., I’m not really looking to have my mind blown. Not that ITAL hasn’t published many excellent articles, but the sheer wonkyness of even the best writing in ITAL can usually help my mind cycle back down enough to […]
Have you taught as an adjunct? Please do take this thoughtfully-composed survey. I only found one question ambiguous: “6. Due to the low numbers of PhD faculty, have you considered full time teaching as an alternative to your career as a practitioner?” If that means have I considered working full-time as a contractor without benefits […]
Once upon a time there was a church parishioner who kept complaining to his pastor that he wasn’t being “spiritually fed.” On and on he went at every church meeting. Nothing would help: not new sermon styles, not different music, not a change in the worship order. Finally another parishioner turned to the unhappy guy […]
Need a funny icebreaker for your next “info literacy” workshop, class, or discussion? I laughed with recognition at PIL InfoLit Monologue #2, which is about what students say about procrastination, course-related work, and conducting research in the digital age (2:10). This two-minute video comes from Project Information Literacy (PIL), a national research study led by […]
In the last week I have been immersed in a writing project I am thoroughly enjoying, so I’ve had just enough personal time to exercise, fiddle around with homebrewing, and do a little reading (finally almost done with The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing — which is nothing less than astonishing). But I keep meaning […]
Today I am taking a writing day, as a way to help my writing soul and displace me from the omnipresent Now. I have too many writing tasks to work on in the next fourteen hours, and that’s a wonderful problem to contemplate! But I had this link roundup written, so here you go. As […]
Even those of us who worry about the image of librarians can’t get upset about J. Crew’s “library shawl cardigan,” with its sexy-smart thing workin’ for it. Although — full disclosure — in the real world, my library sweaters have typically been ratty, lint-flecked monstrosities designed to be furtively donned in the privacy of an […]
I’m tooling around California, having a blissfully good time, but just saw that Project Information Literacy out of U Washington had just announced it had issued a mid-project report, based on its 2008 fall student discussion groups held on seven U.S. campuses with 86 college students. This report is really required reading not just for […]