That last ALA conference session ...

Finally. I unearthed my handouts from the session I had starred before even getting on the plane as one I wanted to attend on Sunday in NOLA! ACRL's New Publications Committee & the ACRL-CLS Research Committee co-sponsored a program; Publish, Don't Perish: Helpful Hints for Authors. Since I am waiting, oh so patiently, for my first article to be published and loving the peer review process that makes the article now over a year old before print, I decided this would be a good professional development session for me. With luck, the session would be more than the ever popular "write what you know" rah-rah, blah, blah, blah. Luckily, two of the session speakers were not only informative, but also had common sense tips on publishing.

Marie L. Radford, PhD - School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies Rutgers University

Dr. Radford was a particulary engaging speaker who didn't pull any punches. Beyond her handouts detailing her Radford Rules for Increasing Writing Productivity and Enjoyment, she addressed time management and barriers keeping potential authors from actually writing. What resonated with me the most was her assurance each person in attendance was already involved in an interesting project at work that would be suitable for an article. Additionally, she stressed the importance of writing every day. That, coupled with writing what I know (sigh) had an effect on how the entries on this blog have changed.

At first, I created this blog because I could, because it was fun, and because I was curious to see how a personal blog would differ and/or evolve differently from my various professional blogs. The professional blogs have topics of news and information (plus collection development), educational technology resources, and a new childrens book review blog. Of the three, only one will be collaborative in nature with a children's literature professor adding book reviews and class work to the project. Generally speaking, beyond blog spam, none of the three as of yet have any comments. Quite honestly, two of the three do not lend themselves to comments as they are of an informational nature.

This blog has moved beyond the personal only to a cross between personal (baseball, sci-fi, and blogging) and professional (conference, technology, books) with a few snarky personal comments thrown in for good measure. I am attempting to use it as a way to move beyond the barriers Dr. Radford detailed that everyone must overcome to write. With luck, looking back over the topics I've written about and discussed, one or more will stand out and give me a starting point for my next professional article. Right now I appear to be working true to form and blogging mostly about children's books, adult books (not that kind), technology, and professional development opportunities such as the conference and presenting a poster session.

What do I hope to write about? There are a few things at the forefront right now:

• The children's literature review blog and collaboration project
• Beginning a new professional blog with another librarian in Ohio, also a collaborative effort.
• Honing my skills writing children's book reviews.
• Working with a partner to writer about conference planning. We have been talking about this particular project for a year now. I sent her the copies of this session and we really need to move beyond the talking stage.

Patricia Glass Schuman, Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Ms. Schuman is the President and Founder of Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. I remember thinking, a publisher definitely is someone to assist would be authors concerning the "ins and outs" of library publishing. Trite, I know, but definitely true. Two different aspects of Ms. Schuman's portion of the program stuck with me: the craft of writing and the process of publishing.

With writing, she suggested the following:

• Think about what you are reading that is interesting and what audience it speaks to and about, professionally.
• Find your personal passion. If you are not interested in what you are writing no one else will be either.
• You have to practice the art of writing. What do you have to say?
• Consider outlines and sample chapters.

Concerning publishing, she made the following comments:

• Are you qualified to write a book? What, if anything, have you previously published in the library science field?
• Look at publishers catalogs. Is what you want to write something they are publishing? Has it already been done and if so, how is your offering different?
• Make contact with publishers early in the process.
• Think about what rights you have as an author regarding intellectual property and translation writes.
• What rights do you have as an author regarding your work?

I have to admit that right now, publishing beyond articles is something I am not really ready to do ... but you never know. I will keep authoring this blog to work on my writing and continue to be in the habit of writing daily, even a short blog entry. Naturally, I started reading one of the Alex Award winners at lunch this afternoon and it will more than likely be the topic of my next entry.

Tags: ALA, ACRL, ALA Annual Conference, Marie Radford, Patricia Glass Schuman, Neal Schuman Publishing

Rock, Paper, Scissors

When did this happen?

Always willing to admit I'm not the most hip person around, I was nonetheless surprised to see two different news clips for Rock-Paper-Scissors (of all things) on ESPN and CBS Sunday Morning yesterday.

Two. Before lunch. Before I even finished laundry.

Here's what I've learned:

• There is an official World RPS Society
• There will be a world championship held in November
• There is a USARPS League, not to be confused with the world society
• There is a Master of ROSHAMBOLLAH: see article in Washington Times
• There was a $50,000 RPS tournament held in Las Vegas ($50,000!)

Even better:

• There is a Roshambo Winery
• The Roshambo Winery holds a RPS event

How cool is this?

Tags: Rock-Paper-Scissors, Roshambollah, Roshambo Winery, ESPN, CBS Sunday Morning

2006 Alex Awards Program

One of the best things about the ALA conference is the number of different areas of librarianship represented. As an academic librarian, even though I purchase the children's and YA collection, I do not always have the opportunity to attend sessions dealing with YA and children's literature often more represented by the public and school libraries. Big conferences such as mid-winter and annual often are geared to accommodate all areas of interest. I try to make time for a session or two that deals with this genre for a couple of reasons; first because it is and always has been an area of literature of great interest to me, and second because as the education liaison at the university I work with the professors teaching children's and young adult literature. When so much of my time is spent with technology (web pages, etc), it is simply lovely to make time for literature sessions.

This photo is from the Alex Awards program that took place Sunday afternoon. Authors participating in this panel had written some of the 2006 Alex Award winni,ng novels. Speaking at the session were (alphabetically) Neil Gaiman, Greg Galloway, A. Lee Martinez, Susan Palwick, and Jeannette Walls. Of the award winning titles I read The Glass Castle by Walls last fall.

Titles written by the panel and recognized at this session were:

• Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
• As Simple as Snow - Greg Galloway
• Gil's All Fright Diner - A. Lee Martinez
• The Necessary Beggar - Susan Palwick
• The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls

Since we regularly purchase Alex titles, I'm headed down to the recreational reading area right now armed with call numbers.

New Orleans Neighborhood Story Project

Eureka! Almost a month after the NOLA ALA conference (and subsequent travel delay and moving) I have located my informational handout about the Neighborhood Story Project. Despite the obvious reasons to purchase this collection, the sale of books benefits the project itself, it will make a great multicultural addition to the library collection. It's one thing to read what an unknown author has to say and another to know it is written by young adults living in the neighborhood. An excerpt from the handout says:

"The Neighborhood Story Project was a community documentary program based out of New Orleans, Louisiana. The books were bestsellers in the city, depicting vibrant neighborhoods otherwise shunned by the media, but all remains books were destroyed by the flooding. With the assistance of Worzalla Printing, Soft Skull is re-issuing these books under the Red Rttle imprint. The books now stand both as a testament to the resilience of the residents of New Orleans, in particular those from the worst-affected areas, and as a map back from disaster offered by the city's teenagers."

Blogging Goes to College

Brainstorming Weblog Use in Higher Education. Today I attended a much anticipated workshop/brainstorming session held at OhioLINK in Columbus, OH. Co-sponsored by OhioLINK and Youngstown State University it's purpose, as detailed by the facilitator Paul Kobulnicky, was to:

"Generate a list of possible uses of weblog software in a higher education setting, discuss issues of use and policy that may pertain and then to disseminate our results to the broader community. Along the way we form some personal relationships an get some face time."

Three different small group activities, complete with ingenious ways of breaking us up into groups, and a full group discussion session were instigated throughout the day. The three questions and/or scenarios were as follows (excerpts from workshop agenda):

1. Potential uses of blogging in the area of teaching and learning.
2. Uses of blogging as applied to library services.
3. Potential uses of blogging in higher education considering research, service, administration, and other roles within the university.

Some interesting possiblities raised included using blogs as a "town meeting" of sorts, providing university presidents and provosts with a way to communicate with the university community as a whole. This was seen, and presented, as a great public relations tool. Another group raised the issue of alumni blogs, study abroad blogs, and even the opportunity for strategic planning and policy blogs were briefly discussed.

Though the session was indeed "preaching to the choir," all of the attendants were at the least interested in blogging, various drawbacks to blogs were also raised. Issues of copyright, scholarly publication, ownership, acceptable use, reluctant bloggers, and comment moderation and "censorship" were discussed.

Unfortunately, I opted to leave my work laptop at work and lost a great opportunity to blog during the workshop. I'm looking forward to seeing other participant comments and hope the accompanying blog is kept as a means to continue the process begun today.

More NOLA session information

I found two more folders of information I brought back from sessions I attended in New Orleans. Moving two days after returning from a major conference was not one of the brightest moves made during the summer, but the point is moot now. The handouts? One was on publishing and writing what you know (more on that later) and the second was the info I've been hunting for on the Neighborhood Project (now I can order the books). I was planning on spending some time genuinly reflecting on the two sessions, but I decided it could wait another day.

I am lightning!

Lunch update! Yes, yes .... I had to go back again and try another quiz. I talked to some friends after lunch about the quizzes and they all exhibited surprise that I was indeed sarcastic. Go figure. This time I wanted to see what gender my brain was, here goes:

***Your Brain is 87% Female, 13% Male***

You have the brain of a girly girl Which isn't a bad thing at all. You're empathetic, caring, and in tune with emotions. You're a good friend and give great advice.

Let's add that I am also a bit cranky with Blogger right now. I've been unable to add the cute joking book clip art I wanted to this post, the right column of this blog keeps disappearing whenever I use justify, and I keep getting error messages with posting.

Okay, one more. I need to decide between what type of weather I am, do I drive like a guy or a girl (tempting), what my funky inner hair color is, and how cynical I might be. Since it's been pretty nice here the last several days, I've decided on the weather:

***You Are Lightning***

Beautiful yet dangerous. People will stop and watch you when you appear even though you're capable of random violence. You are best known for: your power. Your dominant state: performing.

How Sarcastic are you?

Need a good laugh? Take the "How Sarcastic Are You?" quiz from Blogthings. I found this today on the Goddess of YA Literature blog and just for fun, because I know the answer to that particular question, I took the quiz.

The results? No surprises here:

***You're Totally Sarcastic***

You sarcastic? Never! You're as sweet as a baby bunny. Seriously, though, you have a sharp tongue - and you aren't afraid to use it. And if people are too wimpy to deal with your attitutde, then too bad. So sad.

While I ponder if the info should be added to my "about me" blurb, I'm going back to see what kind of donut I am!

Update: It seems, ta-da, I am a Boston Creme Donut. Really. You can't make this stuff up (well, obviously you can).

***You Are a Boston Creme Donut***

You have a tough exterior. No one wants to mess with you. But on the inside, you're a total pushover and completely soft. You're a traditionalist, and you don't change easily. You're likely to eat the same doughnut every morning, and pout if it's sold out.

OK, only one more. Next up, what is my Pirate name? Mad Flirty Fran!

I lied, I just had to go back and see what color my aura was. Wonder which one of these quizes let's me know how compulsive I may be? Anyway, here are the aura results. At least the color is right since my favorite color is green.

***Your Aura is Green***

You're very driven, competitive, and even a bit jealous.However, you seek out balance in your life - and you usually achieve it! The purpose of your life: inspiring others to be better. Famous greens include: Tony Robbins, Donald Trump, Martha Stewart. Careers for you to try: Guru, CEO, Talk Show Host

Tags: Blogthing, Sarcasm, Donut

The Fruit Bowl Project

I forgot to mention finishing an interesting read on Friday at lunch, The Fruit Bowl Project by Sarah Durkee. This book has a great premise, one that will appeal to teachers and students alike, and a unique presentation. The first part of the book introduces readers to the teacher, class, and to a lesser extent, Nick Thomas. We are privvy to the writing process undertaken and in the books second half, are presented with the finished product.

West Side Middle school's eighth grade teacher, Ms. Vallis, invites a famous rock star (he is married to her cousin) to speak to her classroom writers workshop. A songwriter as well as star, he explains to the class, “My theory is that for a writer, every song, or every story, that they sit down to write is just like a bowl of fruit that a painter sets out to paint.” The class brainstorms a "boring" idea and each student is assigned to tell it from a different point of view, genre, or style. When finished all will be compiled into a book to share.

I enjoyed the first half of this book a great deal more than the second half. Actually, I felt a bit cheated learning only a small part of each student writing before being presented with their finished work. The projects shared were very inventive, but I would have enjoyed reading more about the characters and a significantly less number of assignments. With that said, I can see how this would be a great starting point for a class assignment and would not be surprised if it motivates teachers to try something similar.

Tags: The Fruit Bowl Project, Sarah Durkee, book reviews, children's books

Those Stargate actors

Watching Eureka on Tuesday evening I noted several familiar faces sci fi faces on the show. The sherrif was a cupcake eating goa'uld on SG-1; the colonel was a Russian colonel on SG-1; and I was really amused to have the main character - the marshall - have the name Jack Carter.

Coincidence?

I think not.

Tonight watching SG-1 the doctor they brought from earth to determine what was wrong with everyone was another familiar actor. Just got it . . . he was in one of my all time favorite episodes, Window of Opportunity - or GROUNDHOG DAY! He played the guy on the planet responsible for the time loop Teal'c and O'Neill were stuck in (ending a sentence with a preposition - shame).

New Stargate episodes

Finally, new episodes of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. Last week was the first new episodes for season ten of SG-1 and Atlantis, season three. I'm still mourning the loss of Colonel - oops, Major General O'Neill (two L's), but last seasons final few episodes gave me hope as the shows were full cast member episodes and not just the Daniel and Vala show.

So, last week's premier for SG-1 was "okay" as far as I was concerned. Certainly no bells or whistles or fabulous insights. It tied up a lot of issues from the prior season but there were so many convience factors in play. The whole show is sci-fi/fantasy after all, so I can't complain about suspending realistic believability tying up the ends (please). I mean, Daniel just happened to activate the rings in time, Teal'c just happened to be in the right place at the right time, Mitchell just happened to put the marker on Bra'tac so he was ringed in along with them, an Sam just happened to have all the factors exactly as they should be to be rescued. Ok, Ok. But I am a little freaked by the Vala's child being Ori, but she sure is Vala's kid. Shades of the Harsis child of the Goauld several seasons ago.

Tonight's episode, Morpheus, looks promising, as do several others planned for the season. I am gleefully anticipating some season ten episodes; the 200th episode and the return of Jack AND the episode two weeks from now, Insiders, with Ba'al (my favorite badguy).

Laptop battery is almost gone and SG-1 is on right now!

Tags: Stargate, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Sci Fi Channel, Gateworld

Web pages, a love/hate relationship

One of the great things about being part of a state wide academic library consortium such as OhioLINK is we get a wide selection of databases for our users. One of the drawbacks of said consortium is said databases change with some frequency as we try to get the best price and service/selection for library patrons. Several databases have undergone changes at the end of the fiscal year, June 30th, and will require a great deal of library web page updating so patrons during the summer sessions do not see interruptions. As library web master, an 'other task to be named later' job I fell into, this type of change is generally my jurisdiction. Luckily, the portion of the library web page detailing databases and database information is a section that has become the director's baby.

However, and there is always a however, a summer project three years ago was the creation of a set/compilation of children's author and information web pages for the resource center. Each page covers a single author and includes books we have (with catalog links), reference books that have author info, article resources, internet links, and - of course - database recommendations. Last count shows I had, conservatively speaking, 75 author pages.

Great!

Except now I have to go through and change the databasae recommendations portion of 75 individual web pages. Right now I'm up to the "P's" (just finishing Philip Pullman) and hope to have all done by the end of today.

The 'what I did on my summer vacation' portion of this term was to begins a full library web page redesign, the second in three years, beginning with the resource center pages. I hasn't happened so far since I am still learning to use the web editor in question. I'm using Dreamweaver and and found it is not at all difficult to edit existing pages. But I would like to utilize css in the new design, making sure we conform to web standards of w3c, and this is more challenging.

So, while I do love playing with web pages and the creating part of the process, I do also hate the pure tediousness of updating such a big chuck of web resources. I wouldn't be doing it all in one day - make that two - except the library web stats indicate this group of pages are a top ten every month.

Done in by success.

Tags: OhioLINK, Web Design, Dreamweaver,Library web pages

Horns & Wrinkles, pass it on

I finished reading at lunch today and was pleased with the book overall. It ended satisfactorily and all of the established fantasy "rules" in place by the author were followed. Definitely what I would call a fable; the book was chock full of animals with human characteristics including both river and rock trolls, magical faeries, humans interacting with the animals, good vs. evil, a self-less good deed, and a moral that was not sappy or overdone. This book would definitely interest children who read fantasy. Actually, the best part of the book was a chance to pass it on to another reader.

The book traveled to lunch with me for the last time today. One of the girls working came up to me and asked if I was a teacher. I told her yes, at one time, but that I worked at the University library now. She replied, "I wondered, you always have a good book with you to read." Seems she noticed Horns & Wrinkles, went to the public library to check it out, and was disappointed to learn they didn't have it. I explained I was reading an advanced readers copy and that it wouldn't be available until September.

Should have seen her eyes light up when I said she could read my copy.

I finished it, along with my chocolate chip cookie, before the end of my lunch hour and left her the book to read. I'll be interested to hear what she thinks.

Tags: Horns & Wrinkles, Joseph Helgerson, book reviews, children's books

Horns & Wrinkles, lunchtime reading

I am on my last advanced readers copy book from the ALA conference. This one is Horns & Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson. Though a fan of J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter, I am not particularly a fan of fantasy in general. This book is well-written and an easy read, regardless of the genre. I am about 3/4 of the way finished and have been following the tale with interest. Full of trolls, fairies, bullies, family, and magic, it is a nice way to spend my lunch hour.

Tags: Horns & Wrinkles, Joseph Helgerson, book reviews, children's books