Dad Gum Guv'ment

Sarah Palin

2008-09-03T21:35:00.001-07:00

My God. I can't believe Palin is McCain's VP pick. Low blow. Very low blow. I hope Biden shreds that Creationist, right-wing, fundamentalist weirdo a new one in the debates. If McCain's campaign manager thinks that he's going to lure Hillary voters with that pro-life, NRA-card-carrying fertility bank he's out of his mind. Cleaning up corruption is all well and good, but that woman actually has some totally outrageous beliefs.

From the Wikipedia entry on Palin: "In June 2008, Palin spoke at her former church. On the topic of Iraq, she asked that people pray for the soldiers and that "there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." In regards to a proposed natural-gas pipeline she said, "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built."[110] On August 17, Palin was in attendence when David Brickner, the leader of Jews for Jesus, gave a guest sermon claiming that terrorism against Israel is due to the disbelief in Jesus by its Jewish population;[111][112][113][114] according to a McCain campaign spokesman, Palin rejected his views.[115]" What else could you expect from a woman who's married to a BP employee. Has this woman been sadistically, methodically brainwashed by the oil executives for whom her husband works or does she really believe this crap?

Perhaps it was a fit of postpartum depression that led her to the odd decision to name her down-syndrome infant "Trig," in sarcastic reminder of either A.) that type of math that he will never be able to do or B.) a personal wink/nod to the NRA using her own offspring's very name to advertise a part of their signature icon. Only a jarring, ill-breeding malignancy of a woman could have thought of such a name for her child. The others got much better names: Track, Bristol, Willow, and Piper. Sucks for this family of pro-life poster children that little 17-year-old Bristol can't wait until marriage to get knocked up. That's right. Palin announced that Bristol and her 17-year old boyfriend Levi Johnston were getting married following the public disclosure of Bristol's pregnancy out of wedlock.

You've just dug yourself a grave, McCain, if you think the voters are stupid enough not to call your bluff. You're putting her in there as a last-ditch effort to pack your ballots with female moderates. You have a VERY low opinion of their intelligence, obviously. If they vote you in, they'll deserve the backlash to pre-Darwinian, counter-Scientific, pregnant/barefoot/chained-to-the-stove-style "family" tribalism modus of society that will descend on America if you come to power. I mean, voting with Bush while calling yourself a "maverick" (did you actually look up the meaning of this word in the dictionary before you chose it for your slogan?) is bad enough, but SARAH PALIN? You're out of your mind. I'm very, VERY scared of the America you want to create.

Funny email forwarded to me at work

2008-08-23T06:04:00.000-07:00

>A Vacancy Announcement for Part-Time Public Technology Assistant -CAII is now >available in the HR Public Folder and soon will be on the web. Please share with >those who do not have access to email. Thanks!
>
>
>*some chick*
>Human Resources
>Baltimore County Public Library
>Phone 410-887-6177 ext.4
>Fax 410-887-3025

Now, let's think on this for just a moment. A Public Technology Assistant is someone who sits on a desk just to help people with computers. They need to be able to show people how to print, how to sign on, to troubleshoot email and webpage issues, and so forth. And they'd open this position to "those who do not have access to email?" Shouldn't said person have at least basic email skills?

Unreasonable Expectations of Librarians

2008-08-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

For how long do you help someone before you tell them you've done everything you can do for them and send them on their merry/annoyed little way? Usually I play it by ear and if the person has the right attitude, I help them a bit more. If they're demanding, rude, or curt with me, I make it a policy to do as little as possible for them.

Take this lady today. She wanted to find a comparative chart between "all the major diets," rating what has worked and what has not worked. I ended up spending 20 minutes with her getting all the weight watcher books in our catalogue for her, and eventually she suggested we look in Consumer Reports, where indeed, I found they'd rated the major fad diets back in June 2007. Sure enough, Weight Watchers was on there, and it did relatively well, all things considered. She was a bit demanding, but very polite and I didn't mind getting her what she asked for.

I usually find, however, that elderly people are less polite, expecting not only that I read their minds ("I don't remember the title, you know the one about the woman who lived in Maine, always solved crimes in her spare time?") but that I do it quickly and often.

Here's a little equation that will tell you the type of service (S) you're likely to get from me, the higher the number the better, based on your attitude (a), my available time (t), and the total customers (including you) who also need help (c).

S=(c/t)*a

So there it is. The total number of customers and my time, and your attitude, are all factors in the kind of service you will receive from me.

Staff Dining Room Conflicts of Interest

2008-08-16T11:01:00.001-07:00

So, a staff dining room is supposed to be a place at which staff members are able to sit and eat during their breaks, right?

Apparently not at my branch. At my branch, the circ staff likes to have their staff meetings in the dining room, usually at the same time I have my lunch break. My precious, too short, rare, non-paid time lunch break.

So unless I want to sit during my only break from the stressful, harrowing information desk and listen to circulation assistants discuss the nuances of shelf-reading and new policies relating to CD cases and so forth ... I gotta sit in the librarian's office and eat my lunch, which sucks for several reasons. I don't get to talk to my coworkers, I might get salad dressing on pieces of paper that are sitting around, and so forth.

Can't they just meet somewhere else?

Control Freak Supervisers (and the Lesbian Dwarves who stalk them--Tonight on Geraldo!)

2008-08-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

I recently received this email from a higher-ranking co-worker. Phrases in brackets mine for clarity/emphasis.

Hi,

Don't be surprised when you come in to find the cart of travel books [which you spent the better part of an hour pulling from the shelf] missing. We put them back out to be reshelved [you know, just to make more work for you]. Because we're a small branch we really do not want so many books [maybe like 40 in a collection of over 2,000 items] missing from our shelves, even if it's only for a day. Most of our customers here are browsers and if they don't see it on the shelf, they will not check out [even though there's only 3 other librarians here, who all know where to find travel books if a customer asks--your desk]. Please feel free to use the laptop for collection maintenance, you can take it out on the floor [another thing you'll have to learn]. I'll review procedures with you the next time you're in or Nancy can on Monday night.[Even though we don't want to take on the responsability of training you or being your home branch, we still want to hold your hand while doing something as basic as collection maintenance].

Also, one of our customers complained that we had no travel books on New York or New England so we specifically requested these through the blog, so please do not withdraw these titles even though they may be slightly older [you have to keep obsolete travel books, even though we have newer ones on the same geographic regions, which is poor customer service, just because I say so].

Thanks
*control freak superviser*

Do I *really* want to shill out money for an M.L.S.?

Get off your cellphone while I'm talking to you, douchebag

2008-08-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

I hate it when people talk on their cellphone while simultaneously trying to conduct business transactions. How rude. What, do people think that others will somehow find them more interesting if they broadcast the intimate details of their life to all and sundry? And those walkie-talkie functions, those are the worst. You're not an international woman of mystery, you idiot, and your troubles are interesting only to you. And sir, this isn't Jerry Springer, no one cares about your drama with your girlfriend.

Office Supplies

2008-08-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

So, I was at the information desk again today (you know, my job) and some lady walked up, interrupting me from the customer I was helping, saying "I need an envelope, you know, for a disk?" Since I was obviously helping someone else, I said "Just a moment, ma'am, I'll be with you as soon as I'm finished helping this young man." So this lady went to someone else at the circulation desk (my branch has them brilliantly combined into one desk so we can hand off transactions to co-workers with ease), and asked the same thing. The young woman working at the circulation desk tried as best she could to find such an envelope for the customer, offering a plastic bag, a paper towel, and so forth, none of which she accepted. When the lady saw that I had finished with my other customer, she came up and repeated her question. "Do you have a disk envelope?" "No, I'm sorry, ma'am, we don't have those to sell or to give out. This is a library. There's a Rite Aid down the street." In a huff, she walked out. It's been my experience that people expect the library to be a storehosue of free office supplies for the public.

Another woman came into the library later in the day and asked the same young woman at the circ desk for some white out. She searched in all her drawers, and then approacehd me and asked if we had any white out. I said no. The customer came up to the information desk and asked me if I knew of a place around here where she could purchase white out.

"Yes, there's a Rite Aid down the street."
"Do they ALSO have a copy machine?" she inquired curtly.
"Um, they're a pharamacy, ma'am; I doubt it."
"What I MEANT was is there a copy machine somewhere in the vicinity of Rite Aid?"
"I'm sorry, I don't know. I think we're the closest."
This customer also walked out in a huff.

I guess I'm just fed up of people who come into the library expecting us to hand out stuff to them for free. I'm tired of having to say "This is a library. I don't know what kind of shop you think you're in. We carry books here, which you can borrow" in so many words. Just because county taxpayers get free books, free internet access, free access to highly-educated professionals, they think they should get paper clips, white out, disks, sheets of copy, and so forth for free too.

After the last customer left, I walked up to the young lady at the circ desk and and explained why I said we didn't have white out, even if we may have. She clearly didn't understand me, because she made an incredulous face. What I thought I said was "We can't be giving out office supplies to the public indiscriminantly. If people thought they could come to the information desk and get paper, pens, pencils, printer ink, white out, paper clips, and so forth for free, everyone and their brother would be at our door. I, personally, would rather have BCPL invest that money in my and my co-workers' salaries than make BCPL into an office-supplies free-for-all."

"I give people paper when they ask for it," she said dismissively, frowning, before walking away. It honestly made me feel like a total jerk, as if she thought I were being stingy. But seriously, if everyone gave out BCPL's office supplies for free, it would totally be much more expensive for the organization, right? Where is the line between providing good customer service and not being a charity for people?

Statistically Improbable Phrases

2007-10-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any of you have discovered the phenomena that are Statistically Improbable Phrases(SIP): phrases that occur with great periodicity in one book but not in others. As such, they are an index of sorts, and can help the reader understand the author's main (unique) ideas in succint form.

Go to Amazon.com. Type in Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy by Eliade, it will come up with the following SIPs: shamanic ideology, autres peuples turcs orientaux, initiatory master, shamanic ascent, atnongara stones, shamanic structure, shamanic costume, family shamanism, mystical heat, initiatory schema, shamanic ideologies, spontaneous vocation, initiatory dreams, future shaman, ecstatic capacities, ancestral shamans, celestial wife, ecstatic journey, celestial ascent, voluntary quest, strayed soul, shamanic cure, cosmic zones, hemp smoke, shamanic complex.

For Harrison's Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, it lists: cultus epithets, magical sacra, fireless sacrifice, magical musician, chthonic ritual, matriarchal conditions, underworld divinities, women divinities, local cultus, wineless libations, primitive significance, chilly gloom, votive relief, underworld beings, real gist, local heroine, sacred child, eager feet, winnowing fan, snake form, fertility charm, main gist, underworld gods.

So, for instance, if you're in grad school and only have an hour to read a 400 page book, you can familiarize yourself with the key concepts of a book by looking up the SIPs in the index and reading enough to familiarize yourself with the definition of each. So, even though you will not have read the book cover to cover, you'll still be able to speak intelligently about the key concepts (useful trick).

From Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice, we get: praeterhuman intelligence, black graphite pencil, secure thy pen, violet pencil, energized enthusiasm, four great princes, sub figura, electrum magicum, preliminary invocation, love under will, conquering child, initiated interpretation, lineal figures, scrutinium chymicum, neophyte ritual, lesser ritual, magical record, magical link, supreme ritual, editorial brackets, rushing fire, paper first appeared, magical memory, been conformed, elemental weapons.

From Bradley's The Mists of Avalon I find: little sickle knife, magical scabbard, holiday tunic, pagan banner, fairy country, attendant priestesses, treaty troops, little dark people, old royal line, spring maiden, holiday gown, great priestess, deerskin tunic, dragon banner, old priestess, breeding woman, young stag.

From Little, Big, by John Crowley, I find: folding bedroom, old orrery, imaginary study, alligator purse, guardian trees, tall bed, single eyebrow.

They also have Capitalized Phrases in a separate menu, which also could be of some importance, depending on whether the item in question is fiction or not.

From Herbert's Dune, I get: stillsuit manufacturer, panoplia propheticus, gom jabbar, colonel bashar, inkvine scar, ducal signet, factory crawler, poison snooper, voice from the outer world, stillsuit hood, dew collectors, diamond tattoo, little makers, maker hooks, message cylinder, water flagon, funeral plain, death commandos, spice liquor, palm lock, prison planet, shield belt, terrible purpose, demanding memory, desert power.

I dunno. . . I just think this is really neat. I wish we'd had this when I was in school.

Thing 23 Reflection

2007-09-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

My favourite exercises were the video by that anthro professor on Web 2.0, that was pretty cool. I enjoyed making an "avatar" of myself, but that's just because I'm vain.

I think a lot of people participating in MD 23 things see this program as helping adults improve their e-literacy, but I have to say, as someone who considers myself pretty e-literate (hey, I know it sounds like a pun but honest it's not, it's phonetic irony) this program opened my eyes to technology that I didn't know existed. I've used the internet since it became publically avaliable in the 90s, and this program showed me a lot of stuff I didn't know existed. The thing about web 2.0 is that people are inventing and spreading new technologies at so high a rate, it's unlikely that anyone who has to work a regular job will have time to find out about everything that's out there. That's why I loved the Web 2.0 awards--it surveys the content for me so I don't have to, and picks out the best in each category. Very appreciated.

I wouldn't improve or change significantly anything about the program. I think that for a large staff like BCPL, it's unrealistic to expect the administrators of the program to have a larger workload or have any more oversight, just so all of us out here in the boonies can understand new words in the dictionary like "podcast". The blogs we're keeping I think are a good way for the folks in AO to monitor our reaction and progress in the program.

I would certainly participate in another discovery program if it was offered in the future. Some suggestions for future web-based learning programs:

Exercise for the Seated Laborer: Pump up your Glutes without actually moving them

Latin for Librarians: Applied Cognates and the Dewey Decimal System
How to talk to Crazy People: An e-course on Self Defense
Pregnancy in the Workplace: We don't want you to actually *use* your maternity leave.
Library Service for the Elderly: Pre-emptive Curtness as a Reference Tool
Young Adult Reader's Advisory: Or "Read this, you little s***"

Oh, and I'm just kidding, for those of you who read my blog and don't understand that about half of what I say is spoken in jest.

Thanks for setting up this program, Jim and Ellen. You're great.

Thing 22 Ebooks

2007-09-27T16:30:00.000-07:00

Shouldn't this exercise be called "eBooks" instead of audiobooks? I don't like Overdrive or NetLibrary because they require you to subscribe and, from what I understand, the subscription to the book in question expires in a certain time. I suppose that's useful for publishers who're trying to make their dividends, but it's not going to survive web 2.0 when everything becomes free and open-source. People won't want to bother.

That being said, I found about 50 books I want to download. I'm so excited to think that, as time passes, more and more once-copyrighted print materials will become public domain; and, thusly, more will be available to download. I especially enjoyed reading the list of "Top EBooks" from "Yesterday" on Project Gutenberg's website. Books I intend to download include:

Manual of Egyptian Archaeology by Maspero
Household Gods by Aleister Crowley
Sea-Kings of Crete by James Baikie
The Golden Bough(!) by James Frazier (I wonder if they uploaded the original 12-volume edition or if this is the abridged version)
Of Human Bondage by Maugham

and a bunch of others.

I'm going to be using this a lot, especially when I'm looking for rare or out-of-print books.

Thing 21 Podcasting

2007-09-27T16:17:00.000-07:00

In the rush to finish 23 things I'm finishing this *thing* on the information desk while it's slow. So I can't actually download stuff onto BCPL's staff computer. BUT I was able to do some podcast searching. There isn't too much about archaeology or anthropology in podcasting, but there's an awful lot of radio broadcasts of shows that I might have missed. I can see myself using this podcast search to download podcasts from NPR or for fragments of HBO shows that might be on there.

I used to listen to DemocracyNow! podcasts in college in the morning doing my stretches. Why, a podcast is an important part of the modern gentleman's routine. It lets one go about one's day and still stay abreast of important news without being tied down to a specific time.

I'm sure I'm going to use this web 2.0 feature a lot once I get my home internet connection up and running.

Thing 20 YouTube

2007-09-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

I've used YouTube before and found it very hit or miss. A lot of the video quality is poor. I feel bad trying to access YouTube on the information desk because our customers aren't allowed to access it, so I don't want to exempt myself from the high-bandwidth restrictions right before I explain to someone else that they're not allowed.

I do think that YouTube has applications in politics and journalism to which it has not yet been applied (the Democratic triumvirate of Obama, Clinton and Edwards lame attempts and building e-consensus notwithstanding). YouTube (and podcasting) actually has the potential to make old-school journalism (multi-national media conglomerates) obsolete. What if people stopped watching Fox and checked YouTube's commondreams.org (as yet nonexistant) hybrid site?

Imagine. . .

Thing 19 Web 2.0 awards

2007-09-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

I explored ma.gnolia.com and was very impressed. I think that I'll be using this tool a lot, especially since I browse the web from several different computers--it's a lot more convenient to simply copy and paste the link to an interesting new site into ma.gnolia.com than it is to write it down, or even email it to myself.

I enjoyed the search query tool at the beginning. Sites about archaeology that came up included news about protests over the Hill of Tara motorway in Ireland and its archaeological significance; a mystery news story about a medieval manuscript; and a site explaining the significance of brain remains in mummy dating.

Very cool.

Thing 18 Online Productivity Tools

2007-09-26T13:41:00.001-07:00

I think it's funny how a lot of these exercises begin by describing a new technology (wikis, flikr, etc.) and then act like there's some controversy over their inclusion in professional life. For instance, on the introduction to thing 18, it says "But no matter which side of the office suite platform you side with, on this both sides seem to agree; web-based apps have their place." Now, how does that sentence make sense? Web-suite platform? That's like saying "There's two sides to this issue, but they both place the issue in a (non-specified) place." What? Isn't that a double-negative or something to that effect?

I've used Google Docs for quite some time now, and I love the ability to create documents, and, what's more, the ability to save them and access them anywhere I have access to email. That's the really cool thing about OPTs--non-local storage. Again, I'm confused as to how someone could feel controversial over these new tools. I guess if you owned Microsuck I mean Microsoft, you might care. Who else does? The discrepancy between .doc and .wpd has bothered years and years of high school and college students, not to mention open office for Mac, whatever that file extension is. Who in their right mind can logically say that Google Docs isn't a good thing.

I tried out some of the spreadsheets. I don't think they have anything better or more user-friendly than Microsoft Excel per se, but they're free, and people can now use this technology without having to pay hundreds of dollars or (worse) downloading it from open-source site clones or mirrors that could expose their computers to viruses.

Thing 17 Wiki Sandbox

2007-09-26T13:37:00.000-07:00

I added my blog to list of favorite blogs. I went on the list of favorite children's literature and added some of my own. I'm not clear on why there's so many "favorite things" lists, weren't we supposed to have one list for each thing and edit it collaboratively? Instead, it looks like people missed the point of this exercise and each created their own page.

It is sort of confusing, unless you know HTML and have used wikis before, to distinguish between adding your blog to the favorite blogs list and adding some content to generic "favorite things" wikis, I suppose.

I'm unclear as to what we're supposed to learn from this exercise.

Thing 16 Wikis

2007-09-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

I've used Wikipedia for years now. I usually use it as a *starting place* when I'm learning about a new subject. I think its links lists are really great, sort of like a del.icio.us list, since anyone interested in the subject can add links. I've used wikis in my cabaret to collaboratively brainstorm skit ideas and plan meeting agendas.

I'm unclear as to why a library would want to implement a completely open wiki. What would be the value of customers being able to log on and edit the card catalog, for instance? I could see readers' groups keeping a library wiki. Social networking wikis in librarys? I'm lukewarm on that idea. Since myspace has been down, this library has been more peaceful than it's been in months. I hope we never allow high-bandwidth access again.

Actually, I can think of several apt uses for wikis in a library setting. What if the teachers at Franklin Middle could upload homework assignments to our wiki in advance, so we have materials ready for our customers who happen to be students? Now there's an idea.

Thing 15 Library 2.0

2007-09-17T14:27:00.000-07:00

The YouTube video for this lesson was really awesome, I have to say. The author of the video is named Michael Wesch, and he's an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. I felt really engaged by his use of the copy/paste function to convey meaning. The last bit of the video, where he types "We have to rethink a few things" and deletes "few things" and then writes in "copyright" then deletes that and writes in "privacy" and a slew of others, I particularly enjoyed. What a wonderful use of the medium.

The concept of Library 2.0 I find intriguing. I love new things in general, I love computers and the internet specifically. I feel that I could study computer applications every day for the rest of my life and still not understand everything that's out there. I think that's pretty cool, that our culture has evolved and specialized to the point where no single person can grasp all facets of their own culture, even all facets of a beta culture like the internet, that has only been around since the late 80s. (1960s if you count APRA and the cold war network setup linking four computer terminals; I don't).

I like the article by Rick Anderson, and I agree with him. But I'm not quite sure what he's suggesting libraries do, exactly. Move all of our content to the internet? Structure our spaces so that libraries are just internet cafes with "helpers" (i.e. obsolete librarians) who stand around and train newbies? (Hey, wait, that's basically my job description, oops.) Surely we must retain some semblance of a print collection.

When he mentions that we have to let go of the "come to us" model of library service, I start to get nervous. What do libraries have that the internet doesn't? Well, print books, for one. People trained in sorting and accessing information, there to help you (although the virtual librarians at Maryland AskUsNow! are one exception to this). We have a physical space where "the community" (i.e. anyone who feels like it) can come and sit for any length of time and surf the internet or read a magazine (at my library these are mostly the homeless, teenagers whose parents don't get off work until 6pm or 9pm, immigrants, people on welfare looking for jobs [or not looking for jobs, as the case may be], retired people, and others). Homeless people can't sit in the internet, and the internet isn't a place where parents can leave their children unattended. . . or is it? Hmmm. . . I'm not going to get into semantics. We have FREE internet for anyone with a library card. The internet itself isn't free to all.

I wonder how this specific library is going to change in five or ten years. I hope I'm still around to see it. Let's see if I get drafted to fight in Iran so that Halliburton can make it's desired profits for next quarter.

Thing 14 Technorati

2007-09-10T14:18:00.001-07:00

Technorati. Who's saying what. Right now.

On Technorati's press kit page, under the window, it states:

On the World Live Web, bloggers frequently link to and comment on other blogs,
creating the type of immediate connection one would have in a conversation.
Technorati tracks these links, and thus the relative relevance of blogs, photos,
videos etc. We rapidly index tens of thousands of updates every hour, and so we
monitor these live communities and the conversations they foster.

I couldn't get the explanatory video to play, which is just as well because I find most of them pretty tiring. Apparently, the search tool is where most people start, by finding blogs, pictures, video or music relating to their query.

I did a search on "aegean archaeology" and 100 people had blogged something with those words in it this week. I think that's pretty cool.

I didn't find the rest of the feautures as user-friendly as the page suggests. For instance, I didn't see anywhere to take advantage of the ostensible new and improved "sorting options - including sorting by language, authority, and freshness" where can you do this? Do you have to be signed in?

I just searched for my own blog by name, and it came up! Whoa nelly, that's kind of creepy, but comforting, too.

While I was particularly impressed with this statement:

Second, we've worked hard to make serendipitous discovery of interesting stuff
easier and more intuitive. Our new “Discover” section, drawing on a
commonly understood newspaper metaphor, organizes the blogosphere into easily
recognized categories, within which some of the most interesting recent posts
are highlighted.

I didn't serendipitously find anything new and interesting on the page, which actually just links to the page. I don't see anywhere that organizes said entries into categories. I like that they're trying to foster this experience, this "serendipitous discovery". I think this exact experience is the closest anyone of our generation will ever come to actually practicing cartomancy, but I thought they were describing something else. What is the real difference between the and the ? How do they determine the Top 100 non-favorited blogs? Internet traffic? Links to that page? I'm confused.

I'd like to play around with this further on my own time in the future. What a great service.

Black-Eyed Susan Book Awards

2007-08-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

It's time for all of us to admit that the ostensible goal of the Black-Eyed susan book awards has failed. Failed, failed, failed. On their website, Baltimore County Public Schools says that:

"The purpose of this award is to promote literacy and lifelong reading
habits by encouraging students to read quality, contemporary literature."

In reality, BCPS doesn't give a hoot about quality, contemporary literature. All they're doing by giving their kids the Black-eyed susan list for summer reading is succumbing to laziness. Instead of an individual review board for the selection of summer reading or, gods forbid, a long, long list of optional classic books, like the ones provided by Beth Tfiloh Middle or Franklin High Schools, they rest on the laurels of a dubious "award system". It seems that their logic is "well, if it won an award, it must be noteworthy."

As a librarian, I have to give BCPS a virtual slap on the hand. It's not just because of the hours and hours of my time at work devoted to locating, deliberating over, having trouble finding, and explaining the unavailability of Black-Eyed susan books to customers. It's not the repeated gazing into the eyes of uninterested children who don't really want to read. It's the fact that the parents think they're doing the kids a favor by getting them to read this narrow selection of books.

Quite simply, it puts an unrealistic strain on BCPL's resources for three months out of the year (four if you count September, when most of the kids who didn't actually do the summer-reading in summer come to finally get the books). By making ALL THE CHILDREN IN THE COUNTY read this narrow selection, it inundates our system with requests that we're just not prepared to handle.

Thumbs down.

Del.icio.us Thing 13

2007-08-27T14:18:00.000-07:00

I like del.icio.us in theory, but in order to use it, you have to install software onto the computer you use to browse the internet. I'm hesitant to put the links I would find of personal use onto the staff computers at the library. On the other hand, we already have a sort of "most used links" page with the BCPL.info website, in the section called "of use to librarians" or some such, but it doesn't use tags.

The kinds of links I'd put on my home computer would be a lot different from the ones I'd feel comfortable putting on the library's computers. Why would my coworkers need to access cheat codes for Mac OS X's version of Civilization IV or read Cornelius93's Thelemic exegesis?

I didn't really understand the coolness of del.icio.us (which, by the way, I do not find a *cute* way of spelling delicious, nor funny, I think it's mostly obnoxious) at first. I did a search for "Archaeology", a topic I'm relatively competent in, and it came up with 11,405 hits. I'm unclear as to how they sort the results (is it alphabetically by site name?), unlike Google they don't sort them by number of other pages linking that site to the search term. But then, when I did a more specific search for "aegean archaeology" it came up with 28 hits. I realized it was searching the tags themselves.

::light comes on::

OH, I understand why this is useful. I especially liked their "clouds" giving numbers of people who also think this site is useful. I think this tool with minimize librarians' searching time for obscure reference questions, and will also expedite student research time by minimizing scrolling thru search windows.

Awesome.

My name on Del.icio.us is Bastian_Balthasar_Bux. If you can name the literary reference of that name, I will rejoice and sacrifice to you.

Thing 12 8/16/07 Rollyo

2007-08-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

Wow!

I always thought there should be something like this out there. I particularly liked the Rare Books Search roll, although they didn't have many of the titles I wanted, I'm sure if I had more time to explore, I could find some decent out of print books for sale somewhere. Not that I have the money to actually buy them or anything.

In the "Free Photos" roll, it wouldn't search the phrase "civil war plantation family", so I shortened it to "civil war", and it still didn't come up with anything. When I did one phrase "Heathers" (as in the early 90s movie) it didn't bring up anything either. I wonder if it's just a bug with that particular one or not.

The Quotes roll was great, although gramatically incorrect: "quotes" is an adverb of the verb "to quote"--therefore, there is no such thing as "a quote"; rather, the term is "quotation". I found a bunch of quotations by Aleister Crowley immediately, so I think there's probably some bug with the "Free Photos" roll itself. The quotations by R. A. Wilson always put me in a good mood. I'll probably be using that one a lot.

Thing 11 7/30/07

2007-07-30T14:48:00.001-07:00

I love LibraryThing. From it, I've learned that I should read the following books:

1. When God was a Woman, by Merlin Stone.
2. Themis; a study of the social origins of Greek religion by Jane Ellen Harrison.
3. Neuropolitics : the sociobiology of human metamorphosis by Timothy Leary.
4. Penguin Great Ideas : On The Suffering of the World by Arthur Schopenhauer.

and a bunch of other stuff I've already read.

I'm really starting to like web 2.0. I wonder what web 3.0 will be--holographic, interactive, bio-mechanical-interface, multi-sensory sessions in holo-deck-like structures? Non-local intelligence transfer, over very large distances--anywhere in the memetosphere to anywhere else, instantaneously?

Oh, why should we ever leave our homes again?

Thing 10 7/30/07 My Avatar

2007-07-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

This was really fun. I wonder if there's any image generators that let you do more intensive avatar creation, like change the facial contours or make up alternative facial hairstyles. I used Yahoo for this one, I wonder what other folks have gotten.

Thing 9 7/28/07

2007-07-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

MERLIN.

It seems as though no one has posted anything in the MERLIN forums in several weeks. Guess it's a slow month for the cutting edge that is library public service in Maryland.

There seems to be an awful lot of talk about "integrating" internet and multi-user gaming into library service for some odd reason. Am I the only one who finds the idea of a bunch of noisy children on video terminals blowing up CGI villains completely distasteful? I mean, sure, the kids will be happy--but should we really alter the fundamental structure of the public space at the library just to accomodate this generation's Attention Deficit Disorder? In the rush to "serve the community", our library managers are actually catering to a particular demographic (teens who don't read but like to play video games) at the expense of everyone else.

Has everyone gone insane? I mean, as a grad student, I'm someone who uses the library to actually read books, to actually do research (I know, I'm such a square); if I had to look up stuff to the sounds of shouting pre-teens and squealing kids, I might just go postal. The day that libraries become arcades is the day I hand in my two weeks.

7/23 Thing 8

2007-07-23T15:56:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed learning about RSS and the notion that I can get all my news in one place, thus shortening the time I spend staring at computer radiation. I've subscribed to anthropology.net and to the IWW feed. Who knows what diabolical rates of information I will be able to absorb with this new capability? Muahahaha.

7/16 Things 1-6

2007-07-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

I don't feel the need to write a separate blog on each of these things, as they're pretty basic and simple. I did Things 1-6, including:

1. Learning about Maryland 23 things program. So yes, library administrators are training their librarians in Web 2.0. Now all those non-computer-savvy librarians who got their MLSs when we were still using actual card cataloges will be even more out of the loop. I blame the Bush administration.

2. Lifelong learning. Yeah, I do that. This week I learned how to use a trowel and how to stratify an archaeological dig unit. The week before that, I learned how to feed film into a movie-house projector at the Charles cause my friend is the projectionist there. Next week, who knows? Makes it hard to focus on just one thing or one career, but hey, at least I'll always have something to gloat over at parties. Apparently constantly learning new things keeps your brain young. I also am ridiculously good at crossword puzzles. Who knew?

3. Setting up my own blog. You're lookin' at it. Moving on.

4. Register my blog and track my progress. I don't really like this part. I registered it with the other librarians on blogspot, but I'm not interested in having some librarian I've never met leave comments about my own unique brand of cynicism/humor/curmudgeonism. It's just my way, I don't need to justify it to YOU.

5. Flickr. Mneah. You have to go thru Yahoo to use it. The first three times I tried to set up an account, yahoo collected my personal data and let me think my username/password was all go, and then "Incorrect Username/Password" kept coming up when I tried to login. Somehow, the third username/password I tried to use worked. Flickr is cool, maybe this way I can bully AG and Matt Shiver into finally giving me the photos they took of me from the Alice in Wonderland show.

6. Flickr mashups. I think these are pretty cool, especially the image-editing mashups and chart-generating sites. Really glad I learned about these.

And so, you see, I'm not up here looking at prurient websites.

Week 3 7/16 Thing 7

2007-07-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia has the potential to change the way our culture processes ideas. As a repository of common knowledge, I think it's brilliant. Who knows what other user-created content websites will follow in its wake?

Imagine: voting on issues done by EVERY SINGLE citizen. F*ck those clowns in Congress, let's all decide on everything. Anyone with access to a computer could cast their vote, even on such trivialities as House resolutions or Senate sub-committee hearings. A truly engaged and engaging populace of voters, without burden of politicians.

Imagine: real-time transfers of medical data to health professionals and patients. No waiting on test results. Get your MRI and find out whether it's a fracture in the same day. Have a biopsy and leave the office knowing your status.

It could happen.

Reader's Advisory Advice

2007-06-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

Does anyone actually enjoy doing "reader's advisory"? I mean, for all intents and purposes, to my mind, the phrase is a contradiction in terms--as all those who read enough to be called 'readers' take responsability for their own education and media exposure and thus don't need advice--and so "reader's advisory" as a concept shouldn't be used.

Well, I don't much like doing it. In fact, when I click that RA customer service bubble, I'm more cynical and misanthropic than at almost any time in my life, because my faith in the intelligence of the Joe Punch-clocks and the Sally House-coats of the world has just been diminished that much more. I'll admit that perhaps I'm just lousy at it and need more training, but seriously. What sort of person goes to a library not knowing what they want to read about?

I classify such persons into several groups, based on demographics I myself have observed and noted down:

1. Middle-Aged women with nothing better to do than read ghost-written crap. You all know who these are. And you dread them coming to the Information desk because you know they're going to be there for 15 minutes or more, talking to you about their son's new barbeque or how they got a hip replacement; and how they need something to kill time while they sit in their pastel-colored houses and drink diet soda and watch Oprah. These people should be discouraged from coming to the library, but they are in reality our main patrons. Without them we might not have jobs, so give them something from the Adult fiction section like Maeve Binchy or Danielle Steel. Give these people large stacks of crappy literature so that the circs from your section will be up and send them away.

2. Single parents (ostensibly or otherwise) trying to find books for their badly-behaved and unintelligent offsping (who don't like to read anyway). Okay, these might actually be my personal least favorite because they always say stupid stuff like "I need a girl's book" or "Do you have books about sports for my son?", which automatically shuts off my brain. If it was up to me, these people would be banned from ever handling or talking about literature, but I'm not (yet) the dictator imperatum for this planet, so that will have to wait. I will never understand why a person would want to segregate their child's reading experience based on their child's physical sex, but hey, there's a lot about breeders I don't understand. Give these troglodytes something akin to what they ask for. "Girl's book" means emotion-driven plot and/or domestic drama (books about Barbie, ponies, dolls, best friends, or something by one of the Brontes if the kid is older), while "boy's book" can be translated as any book with a male as the main character (if this fails, hand them something with a picture of trucks, wild animals, or wrestling on the cover).

3. Religious and/or crazy people. Sometimes adults will come up to me, hand me a book off the shelf, and say "I want to read this. Can you tell me if it has any bad words in it?" Whoa nelly! If I could see my face when that happens, I'm sure it would make me laugh. I say, as deadpan as possible: "I don't think about language the way you do, so I'm not sure what you mean by bad words. Maybe your pastor/rabbi/ayatollah could recommend something for you to read?" I get this really gross feeling inside when someone asks for "Christian fiction" too. If the person presses the issue, you can look up the book's Lexile and tell them for which grade level the book was intended.

4. Horny celibates who don't have the gumption to just go to the porn store. I don't know why these unfortunates need to make it seem like they're not actually browsing in the Romance section, but some people must feel guilty about it, because I get these folks asking me for stuff all the time. One lady came in once and said "My mother likes reading about vampires and the supernatural, but sort of racy, you know?" Oh, I know. You don't want books for your mother, you want books for yourself, weirdo. Bring these people to the Romance section and tell them which publishers write the kind of stuff they're looking for.

5. Teenaged "Goths". When I was a teenaged goth, things were different. We didn't go up to our librarians and tell them we wanted to read about demons or witchcraft and ask for recommendations. We went to the bookstore and stole the Lesser Key of Solomon the King or books by Mathers, took to the fields and did some barbarous invocations ourselves, for pete's sake! Why do kids think that alternative-looking librarians will find them interesting if they talk about their now-banal interest in the occult? Give these miscreants something vanilla from the Llewellyn catalogue, like D. J. Conway, Ray Buckland or Scott Cunningham. BCPL doesn't carry anything by Crowley, Mathers, or Bonnewitz, so they won't find anything that they can actually do damage with.

6. Non-English-Speakers. That is to say, folks whose primary language of facility isn't English. I personally feel that it's my duty as a librarian to give them literature that will make my language seem interesting and engaging--because I hear it's not a user-friendly language to learn. I've learned that it's best to take these folks to whatever non-fiction section most sparks their interest and give them a J book from there. They like Gorillas? Head for the 500s. Gardening? Mid 600s. If THAT fails, take them to the Juvenile fiction section and hand them some easy reads, like Dr. Seuss, Arnold Lobel, or Eric Carle. If they need something less Juvenile, perhaps some Dahl, Craighead-George, or Lowry.

7. People who can only speak in vague terminology:

"Oh, you know. Something funny."
"Could you be any more specific?"
"No, just something that makes you laugh, something light."
"Fannie Flagg writes humorous books. . ."
"I hate Fannie Flagg."
"What did you last read that you enjoyed?"
"I don't like to read, I just want something to take to the beach with me."
"So something that's a quick read?"
"No, I need something that's going to take my mind off. . ." etc.

You've all had this interview. It usually takes anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, before the customer walks away with something they intend to check out, or just walks away. They're never satisfied, really, because they don't know what they want or, at least, can't express what they want or think concisely. The key to helping these customers is to get them out of the library as soon as possible so you can spend your time on customers that might actually benefit from literature. This process is known as triage.

8. Everyone Else. For everyone else, try to find out what the person last read that they enjoyed, look it up on Amazon.com, and find what else people purchased who purchased that item. Honestly, it works like a charm. You could also use Librarything.com, but for the advice function to work, you have to input at least the last five books they enjoyed. Use your judgement--if the person is going to take a lot of your time anyway, you might as well go ahead and use Librarything.