Just in time for a holiday chuckle, he's back; Too Much Information? Mr. Library rides to the rescue. Here are my two favorite question and answer excerpts from .... Mr. Library Man!
Q. Dear Library Man: Since you work in a public school, aren't you really a school media specialist or something?
A. The preferred title is biblio-hero.
and ...
Q. Dear Library Man: Is it your ambition to become the powerful Librarian of Congress?
A. You caught me. These 21 years at a junior high library in west Modesto have just been a stepping stone in my scheme to dominate the library universe.
Tags: Mr. Library Man, Modesto Bee, Brad Barker
Showing posts with label Librarianship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Librarianship. Show all posts
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Informational overload
The conference was great, with my fashion choices noted and complimented on Friday; but now my brain is overloaded with ideas and information I want to put to good use on the new library page design. Since this project will take over my work life for the next eight months (huh, nine months total, an interesting parallel), I have to clear all of the residual projects from my plate so it is possible to immerse myself in the process.
Today and tomorrow I must write my article submission so the rough draft can go to my boss by mid-week, I can let it settle for a day, and then the final copy should be submitted via email by Friday. It's a plan (yet here I sit, blogging and preparing to go to the bank, post-office, and drug store).
At the conference there were several session on utilizing web 2.0 technologies into library web pages. I was pleased to note familiarity with all of them, had made inroads to utilizing two in particular, and hope to convince the boss several of them are worth inclusion. I spoke with a librarian friend, a web master extraordinaire' who looked at me with pity when I mentioned tables setting up the page. When she finished shaking her head I voiced my idea of using layers instead; a smile and nod of approval followed.
In the very first web session Thursday, discussion concerning the use of tables as a design element was discussed with a bit of disdain (CSS, W3C, 508), guess it is a good thing I had that idea Wednesday evening. Nothing like being hit on the head with a web karma club. Another web session on Friday presented Google search and once again the club swung my way; Wednesday morning I spent time creating a library gmail account so I could utilize this tool. It seems I will be moving forward with the idea after all.
I need a nap.
Today and tomorrow I must write my article submission so the rough draft can go to my boss by mid-week, I can let it settle for a day, and then the final copy should be submitted via email by Friday. It's a plan (yet here I sit, blogging and preparing to go to the bank, post-office, and drug store).
At the conference there were several session on utilizing web 2.0 technologies into library web pages. I was pleased to note familiarity with all of them, had made inroads to utilizing two in particular, and hope to convince the boss several of them are worth inclusion. I spoke with a librarian friend, a web master extraordinaire' who looked at me with pity when I mentioned tables setting up the page. When she finished shaking her head I voiced my idea of using layers instead; a smile and nod of approval followed.
In the very first web session Thursday, discussion concerning the use of tables as a design element was discussed with a bit of disdain (CSS, W3C, 508), guess it is a good thing I had that idea Wednesday evening. Nothing like being hit on the head with a web karma club. Another web session on Friday presented Google search and once again the club swung my way; Wednesday morning I spent time creating a library gmail account so I could utilize this tool. It seems I will be moving forward with the idea after all.
I need a nap.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Views from my Saturday
Today was my last Saturday for this term (she gleefully announces to all asunder) and I spent a great deal of time catching up on what could be termed busy work, but is more kindly referred to as things I can drag with me to the reference desk. Much of what needed to be done was technology related, blog postings and web page updates for the new library web page design samples, and easy enough to do no matter where I was stationed with my trusty lap top. The other task was collection development, also known as spending money. I gleefully perused October issues of Booklist and School Library Journal for juvenile fiction; picture books, middle readers, and YA selections. While doing so, I had time to reflect on how much time it took to complete these three seemingly simple tasks.
I spent two hours today, if the post times are to be believed it was between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm, adding juvenile and young adult titles to the resource center blog. Final tally of the project numbers thirty-two titles; six different categories of posts including graphic novels, juvenile fiction, young adult fiction, recreational reading, picture books, and special collection juvenile titles; strategic placement of six book covers highlighting several young adult and juvenile titles (Fire from the Rock, Useful Fools, and Freak); and linked each title to the library catalog for easy access to call numbers, availability, and location. I felt the usual sense of satisfaction when complete, but had a fleeting moment of concern when reflecting on how many things I had on my plate to accomplish today. Statscounter and Feedburner numbers are not huge for this particular blog. Was this time well spent? I have to say yes.
Two to three hours every couple of weeks posting titles to the resource center book and information blog is time well spent. It saves me time from sending various email to education faculty concerning titles they expect to be added, but did not specifically request. It saves the same faculty members time from deleting unsolicited messages from their email in-box. It saves me time at the end of the year as I no longer spend days/weeks putting together book lists for the resource center web site. The blog is searchable, faculty and students may look for particular topics and find posts matching their area of interest, and the blog is an archive of titles added to the resource center collection, as well as education, reference, and juvenile titles. Many of the newest "hits" posted lead directly from the resource center "what's new page." Therefore the blog is working well in tandem with the web page. That I enjoy doing the blog is a great side benefit, but not the sole purpose of the project. Guilt assuaged regarding the two hours spent blogging
The initial hour and a half of my day was spent updating and tweaking the samples created on Friday for the new library web page. After our two hour meeting, the boss presented and we discussed the twenty-eight academic library web pages that contained design layouts the faculty librarians liked, it was evident there were similarities in each of the designs. We liked clean, simple pages without drop down boxes and frills. The layouts most desirable were basic tables with clear-cut directions for further library information. Some of our favorites included:
With these things in mind, I developed the aforementioned sample web pages to give us something viable to view. Personally, I am a very visual person. When starting the resource center web page redesign, I grabbed a pen and paper and made rudimentary sketches of how I wanted things to look. My pen and yellow legal pad did not suffice for everyone to view, hence the sample pages. Taking time this morning to look at the three samples on several different computer screens it soon became apparent that I had neglected to create one page with no specific background color. I opened one of the already completed samples, saved it as another document, made a few simple adjustments to the existing layout, and pulled the background. Now, we have four samples to evaluate.
This evening I have taken a look at the samples from my dinosaur computer at home. They load pretty quickly, even with my dial-up modem, but the 800 pixels we determined to try do not fit on the screen, nor do they print on a single page. Since I do not want to bog things down with the idea of the printer friendly page (in my humble opinion, it should be printer friendly to start with), tomorrow I will send out an email and have everyone look at the pages using different computers - or just make the changes and not mention the problem. I'm thinking 750 pixels is a better size; decisions, decisions, decisions. Our next web page re-design meeting will be scheduled for some time next week. The charge this time is for each librarian to pick the ONE page they like best and then find several design elements in any of the pages they thing would be a great addition to our page. Another couple hours out of my day, but this was an assignment, per say, not a choice.
My third, and probably most favorite task this lovely Saturday was collection development. As I have mentioned before, purchasing for the juvenile collection is one of the great perks of my job. Today I could not help but reflect on a post I read on Read Roger earlier in the day. In it there was discussion concerning a Child_Lit list serv discussion thread concerning a class of library students, the very real concern by their instructor concerning hesitancy to promote books with instances of language, sexuality, and drugs in book talks, and the subsequent comments from the post regarding the lack of back bone these students have and ultimate question ... would they buy the books in the first place? I was going to comment on the post, but for the first time lost my nerve (hence a lack of link to the actual post, go there, you can find it easily).
I wonder how much of this stems from the fact that library students, especially school library students, are somewhat bombarded with issues of book banning and challenges while taking classes? It can be overwhelming. Pre-teens, teens, and young adult readers are looking for books that reflect their lives. And, whether you agree with the language and subject matter being presented, librarians owe it to patrons to purchase high quality titles that deal with patron interest. The library collection cannot and should not reflect personal bias of the librarian purchasing. Are these mlis students not cognizant of the issues facing today's teens? Or, are they really serious about having collections not representative of their patrons/students? It is hard to believe a younger student in "library school" would not be more aware of this distinction.
Did my collection choices take longer than normal today? I do not think so. There are plenty of books in my collection (yes, right now it is indeed my collection) that are great titles, but not something I would care to read. Since the juvenile collection is not about what I like to read, but about supporting the curriculum and providing quality resources for the students, the point is moot.
Tomorrow is my last Sunday evening for this term. Naturally, it is a Sunday evening when the Steelers are the NBC night game so I will not see yet another football game. My plans for the day include adjusting those web pages; in fact I have just emailed myself a reminder on that subject (it's sad, but it works) and starting that article I am supposed to submit in less than two weeks.
Tags: Academic library blogs, Collection development blogs
I spent two hours today, if the post times are to be believed it was between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm, adding juvenile and young adult titles to the resource center blog. Final tally of the project numbers thirty-two titles; six different categories of posts including graphic novels, juvenile fiction, young adult fiction, recreational reading, picture books, and special collection juvenile titles; strategic placement of six book covers highlighting several young adult and juvenile titles (Fire from the Rock, Useful Fools, and Freak); and linked each title to the library catalog for easy access to call numbers, availability, and location. I felt the usual sense of satisfaction when complete, but had a fleeting moment of concern when reflecting on how many things I had on my plate to accomplish today. Statscounter and Feedburner numbers are not huge for this particular blog. Was this time well spent? I have to say yes.
Two to three hours every couple of weeks posting titles to the resource center book and information blog is time well spent. It saves me time from sending various email to education faculty concerning titles they expect to be added, but did not specifically request. It saves the same faculty members time from deleting unsolicited messages from their email in-box. It saves me time at the end of the year as I no longer spend days/weeks putting together book lists for the resource center web site. The blog is searchable, faculty and students may look for particular topics and find posts matching their area of interest, and the blog is an archive of titles added to the resource center collection, as well as education, reference, and juvenile titles. Many of the newest "hits" posted lead directly from the resource center "what's new page." Therefore the blog is working well in tandem with the web page. That I enjoy doing the blog is a great side benefit, but not the sole purpose of the project. Guilt assuaged regarding the two hours spent blogging
The initial hour and a half of my day was spent updating and tweaking the samples created on Friday for the new library web page. After our two hour meeting, the boss presented and we discussed the twenty-eight academic library web pages that contained design layouts the faculty librarians liked, it was evident there were similarities in each of the designs. We liked clean, simple pages without drop down boxes and frills. The layouts most desirable were basic tables with clear-cut directions for further library information. Some of our favorites included:
- North Carolina State University Libraries
- Florida State University Libraries
- Oberline College Library
- Carleton College Library
- University of Georgia Libraries
- Fordham University Library
With these things in mind, I developed the aforementioned sample web pages to give us something viable to view. Personally, I am a very visual person. When starting the resource center web page redesign, I grabbed a pen and paper and made rudimentary sketches of how I wanted things to look. My pen and yellow legal pad did not suffice for everyone to view, hence the sample pages. Taking time this morning to look at the three samples on several different computer screens it soon became apparent that I had neglected to create one page with no specific background color. I opened one of the already completed samples, saved it as another document, made a few simple adjustments to the existing layout, and pulled the background. Now, we have four samples to evaluate.
This evening I have taken a look at the samples from my dinosaur computer at home. They load pretty quickly, even with my dial-up modem, but the 800 pixels we determined to try do not fit on the screen, nor do they print on a single page. Since I do not want to bog things down with the idea of the printer friendly page (in my humble opinion, it should be printer friendly to start with), tomorrow I will send out an email and have everyone look at the pages using different computers - or just make the changes and not mention the problem. I'm thinking 750 pixels is a better size; decisions, decisions, decisions. Our next web page re-design meeting will be scheduled for some time next week. The charge this time is for each librarian to pick the ONE page they like best and then find several design elements in any of the pages they thing would be a great addition to our page. Another couple hours out of my day, but this was an assignment, per say, not a choice.
My third, and probably most favorite task this lovely Saturday was collection development. As I have mentioned before, purchasing for the juvenile collection is one of the great perks of my job. Today I could not help but reflect on a post I read on Read Roger earlier in the day. In it there was discussion concerning a Child_Lit list serv discussion thread concerning a class of library students, the very real concern by their instructor concerning hesitancy to promote books with instances of language, sexuality, and drugs in book talks, and the subsequent comments from the post regarding the lack of back bone these students have and ultimate question ... would they buy the books in the first place? I was going to comment on the post, but for the first time lost my nerve (hence a lack of link to the actual post, go there, you can find it easily).
I wonder how much of this stems from the fact that library students, especially school library students, are somewhat bombarded with issues of book banning and challenges while taking classes? It can be overwhelming. Pre-teens, teens, and young adult readers are looking for books that reflect their lives. And, whether you agree with the language and subject matter being presented, librarians owe it to patrons to purchase high quality titles that deal with patron interest. The library collection cannot and should not reflect personal bias of the librarian purchasing. Are these mlis students not cognizant of the issues facing today's teens? Or, are they really serious about having collections not representative of their patrons/students? It is hard to believe a younger student in "library school" would not be more aware of this distinction.
Did my collection choices take longer than normal today? I do not think so. There are plenty of books in my collection (yes, right now it is indeed my collection) that are great titles, but not something I would care to read. Since the juvenile collection is not about what I like to read, but about supporting the curriculum and providing quality resources for the students, the point is moot.
Tomorrow is my last Sunday evening for this term. Naturally, it is a Sunday evening when the Steelers are the NBC night game so I will not see yet another football game. My plans for the day include adjusting those web pages; in fact I have just emailed myself a reminder on that subject (it's sad, but it works) and starting that article I am supposed to submit in less than two weeks.
Tags: Academic library blogs, Collection development blogs
Friday, October 19, 2007
Blogging for college scholarship money
As a member of ALA each month you receive American Libraries magazine, ALA also offers and online version of American Libraries as well as an email newsletter called AL Direct that arrives in your inbox on a regular basis (I'd say weekly, but honestly have not paid all that much attention; I just browse it when it arrives). Thursday's issue featured a short blurb about a library student finalist, Karin Dalziel, in College Scholarships.org 2nd annual blogging scholarship. I was surprised by two things; first, what a cool way to help pay for college, doing something you enjoy, and second, I've read her blog! Here's the blurb from AL Direct:
I already placed my vote, and would encourage people to take a look at the finalists for this interesting award. (And yes, seriously consider voting for Karin.)
Tags: Blogging Scholarship, College Scholarships, Karin Dalziel, AL Direct
"Library Student is finalist for $10,000 blogging scholarship. Karin Dalziel, an LIS student at the University of Missouri–Columbia, is one of 20 finalists for College Scholarship.org’s 2nd annual blogging scholarship, which features an award of $10,000 to help pay for books and tuition. Dalziel was selected from hundreds of applicants and is the only library blogger in the group." (ALDirect, 10/17/07)
I already placed my vote, and would encourage people to take a look at the finalists for this interesting award. (And yes, seriously consider voting for Karin.)
- College Scholarships.org: The Blogging Scholarship
- Announcing the Finalists for the Blogging Scholarship
- Cast your vote!
Tags: Blogging Scholarship, College Scholarships, Karin Dalziel, AL Direct
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Mr. Library Man?
I do not remember, and I am too lazy to check and see, if I blogged about this charmingly hysterical question and answer column in The Modesto Bee written by Mr. Library Man, aka Brad Barker a librarian at Mark Twain Junior High School in Modesto, California. The first column I read was "Mr. Library Man wants you to speak up and ask questions." In it he underscored the reasoning behind his column and questions:
Today's column is "Ask Mr. Library Man: Call number for breakfast is 641.52" and includes a fresh take on some perennial questions asked of librarians. Here are two of my favorite questions and answers:
and ...
Thank you Mr. Library Man, write on.
Tags: Library humor, The Modesto Bee, Mr. Library Man
"You know the stereotype. Librarians are portrayed as stern, old-fashioned ladies with cat's-eye glasses whose only jollies come from shushing the giggles of children. As an antidote to narrow- minded caricatures, and to perhaps demystify my profession, I offer this (potentially recurring) column -- Ask Mr. Library Man." - (Barker, Mr. Library Man, 8/29/07)
Today's column is "Ask Mr. Library Man: Call number for breakfast is 641.52" and includes a fresh take on some perennial questions asked of librarians. Here are two of my favorite questions and answers:
Q: You know that phrase "information is power"? If that were true, wouldn't librarians be the most powerful people on earth?
A: Shhh! You've figured it out. Librarians are the mighty overlords of the planet. Our low pay (relative to education and expertise) and our lack of public esteem are part of a massive cover-up.
and ...
Q. Is sarcasm a good quality for a librarian?
A. Considering the overwhelming absurdity of the modern era, sarcasm is a basic survival skill.
Thank you Mr. Library Man, write on.
Tags: Library humor, The Modesto Bee, Mr. Library Man
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