Good advice

Michael Stephens has a great new post offering advice to new librarians. After just attending my first ALA conference and on the eve of my first post-MLS job search, I’m all ears (um, eyes I guess). He makes some really great points, especially about asking good questions and making sure to listen up. Good communication skills and a commitment to establishing a meaningful dialogue between colleagues, co-workers, library veterans and those new to the profession is extremely important. We all have so much to learn all the time. This is why I chose librarianship…to be continually engaged in the learning process at all times, whether I am in the role of teacher, student, or interested observer — to me, the opportunity to be in all three roles everyday is the most attractive thing about being a librarian.

librarians as patriots

A friend forwared me this article and I thought that I would share it. Librarians really are amazing. In New Orleans, I was amazed and inspired by all of the good work that librarians have done in that region to help get people access to information and restore their community spaces. Here, in this article, librarians are commended for their commitment to taking a stand against the current administration’s attack upon our civil liberties. I am so excited about entering this fantastic field, I only hope that I can offer something nearly as special. Seriously, I think that choosing librarianship has been the best decision of my life. I can’t imagine a better thing to be when I grow up.

ALA Conference — whoa!

Wow, I had a blast down in New Orleans. I would have loved to have blogged the conference, but since my lodging was a bit unstable and my new computer was still in the mail…I’m left to comment on my experience in a more asynchronous manner. That said, there are a host of blogs available on the programs that I went to so I will link to them here:

Library Web Site as Branch Site

Open Source Programs for Reference Librarians

The Ultimate Debate: Who Controls the Future of Search?

LITA Top Tech Trends 2006

Marketing is Everyone’s Job @ Your Library

Who’s Out There and What Are They Doing? Supporting the Independent User

I also went to see Catalog Transformed: From Traditional to Emerging Models of Use. No blog that I can find up on that yet, but i’ll update the link when I find one. This should provide some good reading for ya’ll. Be sure to pay attention…There will be a quiz!

my ALA schedule

I'm heading to New Orleans tomorrow for my very first ALA Annual Conference! My schedule (as it stands now) is as follows (Note: The formatting is totally screwy and I can't seem to fix it right now… my apologies):

Thursday Late PM — Arrive

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FRIDAY
9:30am-11:00am — Interviewing 101, MCC Rm 298-99Placement Services, Exhibits, getting my bearings, etc.5:30pm – 7:30pm — MARS Happy Hour, Pat O'Brien's, 718 St. Peter Street

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SATURDAY
8:00am – 10:00am — The Library Web Site as Branch Site, MCC Rm. 24310:30am – 12:00pm — Power Up your Job Search, MCC 340-341

1:30pm – 3:30pm — Marketing Yourself: Building your Resume and Interviewing Skills
or
1:30pm – 3:30pm — Ultimate Debate: Who controls the future of Search?, MCC Rm. 388-390

4:00pm – 6:00pm — Virtual Reference Discussion Group
or
4:00pm – 5:00pm — Hot Topics in Frontline Reference, MCC Rm 388-390

5:30pm – 7:00pm — Opening General Session, MCC Hall F

[why is everything at the same time? ]

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SUNDAY
8:00am – 10:00am — PR FORUM: Marketing is Everyone's Job @ your library, MCC Rm 352.10:30am – 12:00pm — Who's Out there and What are they doing? Supporting the Independent User, MCC Rm. 356-357

4:00pm – 5:00pm — Catalog Transformed: From Traditional to Emerging Models of Use, MCC Rm. 295-296

6:30pm – 7:30pm — NMRT Student Reception, Sheraton Napoleon Ballroom (I get to accept an award on behalf of the ALA-SC, We are Chapter of the Year Runner Up!)

7:30pm — 3M/NMRT Social, Sheraton Grand Ballroom C

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MONDAY
10:30am – 12:00pm — Information Literacy is the Destination, Government Information is the Road: Using Government Information to Illustrate Information Literacy Concepts, SHER Napoleon BR B1/B23:00pm — Fly Home!

Me! In the news!

Last Sunday, I posted a comment in response to an article about Google and libraries in the Portland (Me.) Press Herald and I got quoted in a follow-up article by another reporter! Check it out! I’m the optimistic one at the bottom of the page (Jami). My first library-related sound bite (er, internet text bite)!

wikipedia takes control

According to a NY Times Article Wikipedia is now not 100% open for editing. Some entries have been set to a 'protected' status which means that they are not open for editing. This is to prevent vandalism and biased entries. When an article is 'protected' it is frozen from editing for a few days (usually) so that people who have been vandalizing will lose interest or so that folks who are engaging in a "revert war" (wherein two parties with opposing viewpoints are constantly editing the article back to their own 'version' of truth) are forced to have a conversation to come to a mutual agreement about the post. Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, describes these measures as quality control and claims that they occur rarely. Still, I think that they represent an interesting issue caused by the  democratization of information on the web and the importance of information literacy. 

back to basics.

Reading Karen Schneider's The User Is Not Broken: A Meme Masquerading as a Manifesto
reminded me of the time I discovered Jenny Holzer's truisms at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. What looks like simple list of of self-evident statements actually represents a transformative moment in our professional conciousness that requires consideration, meditation, and most importantly action. These themes are running through so many prescriptive blogs and publications right now that they run the risk of being buried by our hubris. This manifesto, in it's simplicity, brings us back to the basic principles that should be guiding our daily work. Print this out, read it, read it again, and share it with every librarian you know. Talk about it, think about it, and change the way you work – every day.