“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.” ― Frank Herbert

23 Things for Professional Development has been very beneficial to me. It allowed me to reconnect to some technologies I had forgotten about and write again. It introduced me to new technologies, and as we know in this field, there are plenty of new things to learn. 

Honestly, I think this professional development project focused me to mentally prepare for a career change. So thank you very much for that. 

As for the six word story: 

Blog. What a strange word, blog. 

Standing on a high dune watching ...

Writing on the interwebs feels alone ...

Happy to be doing this job. 

“The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.” ― Frank Herbert

I have a few experiences with volunteering, not all good. I'll start by saying that when I was in college, my sorority had an amazing dedication to service - we were volunteering for something every month. It was a nice way to get involved in our community and we really had a lot of fun. 

Let's see .... the rundown .... I've volunteered with Habitat for Humanity a few times and they are probably my favorite organization. It's a very visceral moment when you get to meet the family for whom you are building - very sweet and powerful. 

At another point, when I was waiting for something professional to open up I decided to work non-professionally and then volunteer as an archivist for a local history organization. This was truly fascinating. It was a community I knew nothing about so accessioning the photographs of their local history was like a puzzle you could never figure out. Riveting. And yet, not really my bag. I love digging through old stuff, but I didn't really care to do it for a living .... unless it was as one of those home organizers. That would be awesome.

I do agree that if we volunteer too much, it will hurt our chances to be professional. There was one place I lived that was very hard to get a job as the economy was haggard and the jobs scarce. I walked over to my neighborhood library branch and asked about their hiring -- they said that they didn't hire anyone who hasn't volunteered for at least two years. Yes, they said that. I said, well, that would be awesome except I actually need to eat food and pay that student loan I have over the next two years, so thank you anyway, but no thanks. WTH? Really? That's arrogance at it's worst and it made me mad enough to move to a place where the industry was hiring. 

Other than these kinds of volunteering, something I love to do is charity walks and cycling events. They are fun, you raise money for charity, workout a bit, and have a really good time chatting with people you would never normally meet. I think I'm a little too selfish with my time at this point to do much else. 

“Truth suffers from too much analysis.” ― Dune Messiah

I just experienced this "thing" and I experienced it differently than I had in the past. What I mean is, it was quite successful. I had been working in a position that was stalled and I wanted to move forward in my career. But we all know what this job market is like -- either there is nothing open at all, or there is nothing you particularly want. I had been applying to some academic positions for the last few months, but you know how academic librarianship is .... you apply, then about six months later, you might find out that you didn't get it. So, in the middle of all of this, there is this job opening that sounds absolutely perfect -- like heaven -- like my life would be perfect if only I could get this perfect job. No seriously, it was that perfect. So, I decided to follow all the advice I had gotten on this job -- I catered the resume to the job posting; I completely catered the cover letter to the job posting, even though it didn't say necessarily what I thought I wanted to say; I studied for the first interview like it was my MA orals exam; and then I studied for the second interview the same way. And I got sleep and relaxed. And I knew that I had a job so if I didn't get this job, I would still be able to eat and pay my bills. (that's a huge weight off) And then, at the end of my second interview, I said very clearly that I wanted this job and that I felt I was perfect for it .... and I meant it. 

I don't know what got me this job -- but I'm just glad I made every effort because I am currently doing the things I've always wanted to do. It's a ton of work, but it's worth it -- and I love it. And once I get a little more comfortable with what exactly I'm doing, I'll update my resume. 

"You do not take from this universe. It grants what it will." -Paul Atreides

Thing 20: I've talked about my long and winding road to librarianship in Thing 10, and I think my only advice to students is don't limit yourself. I was adamantly pursuing academic librarianship when I took a temp position in public libraries because I needed a job and no one else at the time was hiring. I told the interviewer that I did not want to do anything but adult - she made me a children's librarian! Then I got a permanent position as an adult librarian. Several months later, when asked if I wanted to try being a teen librarian, I said sure! Why not? Then got into collection development for the system. In the end, I love public librarianship. I love the variety and wackiness of it. The public is very interesting ..... never boring. I'm glad I ended up having to do something that was out of my little box of expectations. I'm a better person for it. 

So, don't limit yourself. Try not to limit yourself geographically either. Just go get a job. Get three if you have to. Just do it. 

"Ideas are most to be feared when they become actions." -Paul Atreides

Thing 19: Reflection .... I've started an internal library blog at my new job, still using RSS, still using Twitter - more for work now as I got a bit bored with my personal one, still on LinkedIn and Facebook, attending the CLA conference next month and will come back to present what I learned - maybe I'll use Prezo to create something more interesting, I've got Microsoft Exchange at my new job (goodbye lotisnotes!) so I'm up and running on my iphone with both calendars (microsoft and google) sending me notifications - very nice! I'm happy that my new job happily uses mobile tech to work on a daily basis - it's really nice to be part of a team that's not afraid of technology.

I think that's about it.

"An object seen form a distance betrays only it's principle. That which is dark and evil may be seen for evil at any distance." -Scytale and Farok

Thing 18: Jing and Podcasting. I've done neither of these -- the concept of Jing is intriguing but I have to try it out at home where I have the admin priviliges I need. As for podcasting, I've never done it. I've listened to quite a few - when Battlestar Galactica was on, I would listen to the Ron Moore podcast every Friday night after the episode. I know several people who podcast, but frankly, I don't see it as relevant to what I do right now. I'm just not sure anyone around me uses it - I haven't heard anything about podcasting for several years.

"I've loosed the wolf among the sheep." -Paul Atreides

Thing 17: Powerpoint presentations are the bane of our existence. We've learned to winnow-down the amount of information we need to present to several bullets thus making what we are saying little more than the summer reading project of a third grader. And if you read Edward Tufte, space shuttles have been downed by bad Powerpoint presentations. 

As for Prezo and Slideshare.....I've used Slideshare a couple of times and didn't find it to be all that great. Just slides -- don't a little differently. But I really like Prezo and am looking for a project to try it out. I may try to do something with my resume. How fun! 

Visually representing our ideas is so much faster, more fun, and creative. I like playing around with my ideas and seeing if what I'm coming up with is a viable, understandable representation. 

"You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die." ~God Emperor of Dune

Thing 16:  Advocating for your library's very existence is, sadly, not limited to the UK. In America, we are experiencing the downsizing of governments where most of the downsizing falls to schools, libraries, rec centers, and other services that support society - and where the economically challenged are the hardest hit.

"Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual." --Words of Muad'dib by Princes Irulan

I've taken a bit of a break from this blog over the last month or so to concentrate on my new job. I'm a little more settled, so I'm finishing up my 23 Things.

Thing 15: I've attended a number of conferences in various capacities: one-day passes, exhibits pass only, a wandering attendee, a serious session-oriented attendee, a poster presenter, and a research assistant working to get as many presenters to upload their presentations to me for a digital library.

It's way more fun to be relevant at a conference than to just be wandering the edges.

I've always been interested in sitting on a panel at a conference - I think I have a lot to say on many different topics (collection development, staffing, library school, working within your larger organization, marketing) and would love to add to a group discussion.

As for planning - I've never planned a conference. I have gotten a few groups together but they always ended up falling through at some point - busy schedules, reassignments, loss of interest. I am now head up a committee to plan a staff day for my library and I'm so excited about it. Staff days are a luxury now that many libraries have given up trying to schedule, plan, and implement such an undertaking with staff shortages and no budget. But it's still important to come together and re-establish yourselves as a team, do fun things together, laugh, and do some good work.

"Parting with friends is a sadness. A place is just a place." ~Dune

Although I disagree that a place is just a place.

I am moving into a new position at a different library and am very excited about the change. For four years I have worked in a large, urban system - we have a certain 'battle' mentality here. We are battling our worst patrons, battling our city for money and respect, battling to keep our librarians employed and libraries open, and for a while there, battling our dramatically leaky roof . . . it's exhausting. And through it all, we buy books and cds and movies and ebooks and audio books and fiction and non-fiction and subscribe to databases and learn as much as we can and sit at our desks and help our patrons with a smile on our faces . . . because at the end of the day, our greatest battle is to stay here and continue to help our wonderful patrons. Without them, we do not exist. And it's a bit of a calling to be a librarian - who else would choose this? You have to want to give people information - see their glee when you find the book they wanted or know the name of the movie they are looking for or find that random phone number they are dying to have. It's all really quite wonderful.

I'm going to miss my co-workers. I have some really terrific co-workers - now friends - and I'll miss our lunches and desk time together. And my favorite "old men" patrons - Malcolm, Bill, Dave, William . . . you get to meet people, who change you for the better, and you would never have had contact with them otherwise. And the familiarity that comes from working with someone for four years and just looking at them and knowing exactly what they are thinking: "oh, this patron's a doozy!"  "do you smell that?"  "is that a cigar? please tell me that's a cigar!"

I'm happy to be moving forward with my career. In this new position I'll have the ability to do much of what I don't necessarily have the ability to do where I am. We are very bureaucratically layered in this current organization. The new one is smaller and everyone gets to do some of everything. That's actually my favorite way to work. When I was at the bookstores, my favorite was the super small one where you donned every hat every day - it was fun, never boring, and the time just flew by.

Basically, I'm just having a happy moment here - leaving something I did well and gave my all to -- moving on to something I can learn from, strive to, work hard, and give my all to as well. It's exciting!

"Some actions have an end but no beginning; some begin but do not end. It all depends upon where the observer is standing." ~Children of Dune

Thing 14 - I haven't used any of these tools. When I was in my first Master's program, my professor wanted us to do hardcore research - no databases - just texts. Book after book after book, article after article after article. I now have the skill to, if say the power goes out or something, still do commendable research. However, that's not at all how students today are doing it. It's a great skill, but it's unnecessary now. When I was in my MLS program, I researched mostly online using federated searches in our databases - all from home, 100 miles away from the library. I was still old-school enough to print out all of my sources, but at least it was mostly online. In both programs, I kept a list of citations and references and had to plug it all into the papers accordingly. It's tedious, but I can now write and cite in Chicago, MLA, and APA. Woot!

Oh, how my life could have been easier with these tools! Just toying around with them is making me want to go back and do my Master's programs all over again . . . . not really. But they are really great. As I work in a public library, this is only relevant to share with students who come in seeking assistance with citations and also database use in the library. But I won't be using it myself unless I end up writing something. Which you never know, could happen. I do love to write papers . . . and I'm actually totally serious about that one.

"The weakness of thinking machines is that they actually believe all the information they receive, and react accordingly." ~Dune: The Machine Crusade

Thing 13 - Google Docs, Wikis, and Dropbox

Google docs is a great tool to use personally and professionally. I use it at work in place of a flash drive. I kept losing them so now, it's all in the cloud.

I've been using Wikis for years now - good for distance learning and group projects. We used them at the library to create a Technology Task Force in an effort to get gaming into the library. Gaming never took off because of our budget, but it was a good tool for the job.

Dropbox is good if you have your admin rights on your computer. At work I have my desk, and then I work on any one of 8 other desks. We cannot put Dropbox on all of these desks. so it's useless. But a great idea for a smaller or more innovative operation.

A co-worker had a great idea the other day. We would loan out flash drives so patrons could save a letter or resume and then attach it to an email. These flash drives have now all been stolen. So, why don't we encourage people to use Google Docs? For one, people have a hard time using Yahoo - much less Google. So, we would need to educate them about this. It would be super if we could hold classes on how to use Google - sign up for it, then play with all that Google has to offer and learn how to operate "in the cloud."

There is so much out there that we use but our patrons are still struggling with rather simple technological issues. I think our real obligation is getting them ramped up to function in this ever-expanding tech world.

"Survival is the ability to swim in strange water." ~Dune

Thing 12 -- A familiarity with social media was required in my MLS program. We had to join Myspace (facebook wasn't very popular with the adults at the time), had to write a professional blog, had to work in wiki's, had to use our online teaching platform (can't recall which one it was). I was a Research Assistant who worked from my home (in Phoenix - school was in Tucson) so I had to keep up with things virtually there too.

But I was familiar with this concept as I had finished the last year of my Master's degree in History in Indianapolis, IN all the way from Sumter, SC (horrid little town). So, back in the day (1998-9), my professors and I emailed regularly and I flew back and forth a few times. It was much more difficult to do than it would be today with wiki's and blogging and Google Groups, etc.

As for meeting people virtually . . . well, I met my fiance on eHarmony - so there's that. :) I've met a few people I would never have met - like a librarian in England, and a friend in North Carolina . . . and I can keep up with all of my family and friends scattered across the globe - it's pretty cool. I have used it in my professional career from the beginning and will certainly continue to use it. I'm very happy to have CPD23 to help me learn more of what's out there. And get me blogging again.

I've written about "community" a few times - I truly think the definition for this word is changing to reflect all the various ways we can have a sense of community and I love it. I love working in virtual environments on projects that need regular attention, but not necessarily regular f2f interaction. In my current library, we do not do enough to justify this kind of interaction - the thinking is still very old-school, f2f meeting, which is time consuming and most people can't do it anymore as our staff has been so reduced.

I'd love to see one particular thing change . . . we have had an Adult Book Meeting every month since the dawn of time. During this meeting, the Head of Collection Services runs the meeting allowing the various relevant department heads to talk about whatever relevant things they need to say (it's never THAT relevant), then moves on to his staff (of which I am one) and we go over some books that are popular and then he highlights about fifty non-fiction books from a giant list. It's grueling. There's yawning and doodling and flipping through pages and writing of grocery lists. It's just not working.

What I'd like to do is make this an Adult Services Meeting: talk about things relevant to the adult branch librarians, go over ideas for marketing their materials, database demos, generate more branch specific collection stats and discuss their relevancy and how they can used, talk about popular and hidden gem books, narrow departmental participation as much of the info isn't relevant to the branches, and continue the roundtable. We can create a Google Groups or blog to send lists, update information, send out stats to be discussed, and post meeting notes for those who can't make it. Also, rotate where we have the meetings - not just at our main location, but at the branches. Have some fun with it. Talk about specific books more. Be relevant to our librarians so we aren't wasting their time with an old f2f meeting model.

Change is possible - we're taking a survey to see what the branch staff want in a meeting and I can't wait to review the results. We have a few "older" librarians who want to just complain and do everything the same, but I think our budget crisis is giving us all a perfect excuse for change.

All in all, I love social media for work - I think it can be very useful. Just being able to have virtual meetings and a place to upload relevant materials and images - it's fantastic. Now the real challenge is getting everyone else on board!

"Be prepared to appreciate what you meet." Fremen Proverb ~Dune

I have had some amazing mentors in my life.

When I was in my freshmen year in college I met a generous professor who could see my potential even when I could not. This professor nudged me into better performance by demanding more and not taking my laziness as an answer. I always appreciated this and took more classes from him than anyone else. Over the years he became a friend and confidant. He helped me think about my graduate career and shared his stories with me. He was a kind and wonderful man and I lost him two years ago.

My second mentor was more formal as he was the head of my graduate program in history. He was nurturing - which I needed at that time - and he understood that I wanted to ramp up to the level of work he required ASAP. I had been out of school for four years and had no real experience writing at the level required for the history program so I jumped in head-first and did it. It was nice to have some extra grading notes to know what exactly I was doing wrong and then immediately correct it to get it right. After the first semester, I was working very hard and it was paying off. This mentor became a friend throughout the program and I got to know his family as well. We communicate semi-regularly and visit when possible - I could not have succeeded without his trust and assurance that I could do the work. Sometimes you need someone who believes in you more than you believe in yourself.

My third mentor was an odd one. She declared herself my mentor and then reneged. My library science program - the professor in charge of my program who abruptly, sort of, quit everything. Not sure what was going on in her life, but it was a little dramatic. She drove me to do things I would never have done (metadata, poster presentations, etc) so I thoroughly enjoyed learning under her. I wish it could have continued.

My first professional mentor is from my first academic library job. She was instrumental in helping me gain real library experience and understood that when I was taking a reference class online, I wasn't actually learning that much about the physical reference collection at a university! She also hired me back part-time after my internship where I could do and learn even more. She still gives me good advice when I need it and I've gotten to know her family as well. She's a lovely lady.

Finally, my most recent mentor, who was my first public library boss. She is amazing. And still such a good friend, she's going to be in my wedding :) But regarding her mentoring - she had confidence in my ability to do the job and gave me advice on where to look for information, never giving me the information itself so I would learn, and then just backed away and let me go. Even though we don't still work together, she offers me advice about the profession and my career - and calms me down when the budget woes are too much. She's a very empowering personality and as a boss, that was just what I needed. Very glad I met her.

I, myself, have not formally mentored anyone, but I know that I've helped younger librarians with advice of my own. Just being a sounding board is nice sometimes. It's important to merely feel "heard." As a teen librarian I helped many a teen figure out what they were thinking as well as giving them the confidence they may be lacking at any given moment. I appreciate all that has been done to help me along when I needed it and I'm very willing to give that back.

"The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience." ~Dune

Thing 8: Google Calendar -- I use it. I've used it for years now and I'm completely in love with it. Can't live without it.

Thing 9: Evernote - I just got around to loving Evernote. I'm planning a wedding and this tool is incredibly handy at cache-ing all of my notes in one place. I haven't applied it to work yet.

Thing 10: Ah, graduate degrees. Years ago, when I was in undergrad, I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. I graduated with an eclectic collection of classes from five different declarings and ended up with a degree in Criminology with a minor in Political Science. I worked as a Domestic Relations Hearing Officer for a couple of years, but really hated working in that system. Criminal Justice work wasn't what I wanted. So, I got a Master's degree in History - US Diplomatic History 1900-Present with a minor in Soviet History. I loved every minute of this. Reading, writing, presenting - it was fantastic. But there was this one class, Historiography, that changed my life. My professor worked with the Librarian and taught us how to figure out what we wanted to research - how to do the research, how to think about the research, how to evaluate the research, and finally how to use the research. Not just relating to University work, but to all things - how we listen to the news, read the newspaper and magazines - who funded that study? who is reporting that finding? what's in it for them? Question everything. And that nothing is entirely objective because, in the end, we are all human, so something of us is in the work. It was a wonderful class. After a few years not finding work in the History field, I was again working in a bookstore when I took "What Color is Your Parachute" home. The workbook, too. After reading it and filling in the workbook, it told me that I should either have a bookshop or be a Librarian. So, I applied to Library School. While in my MLS program I discovered that my favorite class in my History program was, in fact, a library science staple: Information Literacy. I was in heaven. I knew this was my calling in life - and here I am. A Librarian.

As for jobs . . . well, there has been a myth in America - probably everywhere else, too - that all the sudden, one of these days, all of the old, fogey librarians are going to retire leaving a vacuum for all of us younger librarians to come in fill. Oh, the jobs! Well, as we all know, that's not remotely true. For one, people aren't retiring. Two, they are not filling those positions - attrition is cheaper on the budget and it's all about budget these days. My route to my current position was serendipitous. I applied to over 75 academic entry level positions with several phone interviews, a few in-person interviews, and not a single job offer. Then, I moved to sunny Southern California, on a wing and a prayer, and found a temp job working as a Children's Librarian in a smaller suburb of Los Angeles. I had no experience whatsoever for this job. No Children's experience! Nothing. But life is funny, and I spent three+ wonderful months working there with an amazing mentor who let me learn and do til my heart's desire. While I was there I applied to exactly ONE job - and as luck would have it - I got it! So, I finally started working full-time, professionally as an adult librarian at a branch in a large, urban system. It was awesome. Then I moved to teen librarian at the branch. Wildness ensued. Then I got a promotion to a system-wide position for the same system and it's been a blast.

Now I'm looking to move forward in my career and begin managing on some level. Our current situation is looking pretty bare so I'm looking outside my system as well. You never know what the future holds . . .

"You are a creator of order, of beautiful shapes and systems, an organizer of chaos." ~Heretics of Dune

I'm a little late getting to Thing 7, but here goes! I've joined professional organizations and had mixed feelings about them. Sometimes you are part of a giant organization that needs a lot of money to run and you end up paying a fortune in membership fees never to realize any return on your investment. For me, that's how I feel about ALA. Maybe it's because I'm not part of a library system that encourages participation in organizations. Maybe it's because I'm so busy with work, I don't find the time to get out into the field and see what they are doing. But as a public librarian - ALA hasn't been that relevant. Now the local, state library associations I have joined have been very nice. First I was a member of AzLA (Arizona) and now CLA (California) - by being local, they end up being more relevant, their conferences are more attendable, and you know the people in the mix. I'm always very invigorated after a CLA conference.

I've attended the conferences of JCDL (Joint Conference on Digital Libraries) and ALISE (Association for Library and Information Science Education) for librarianship. In my historian days, I was a member of AHA (American Historical Association), OAH (Organization for American Historians), and the History Honor Society Phi Alpha Theta. I'm also a member of the Library Science Honor Society Beta Phi Mu.

So far, with all of this, it's still CLA that is the most relevant. And through CLA I've gotten involved in Infopeople (as a student) and received more practical training and information than another other organization.

"Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. . . .

 '. . . And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult." ~Dune

Here is a very interesting article about remedial ed in colleges - who's fault is it that we have so many people in remedial courses? I have heard all of these arguments, and made a couple of them myself. and the explanations are sound. It's worth the effort to look into a permanent solution to remedial education -- from the K-12 responsibility to the role of the university.

I remember doing very little to get good grades in high school. In college I was an average student - below average my first couple of years - who had no idea why she was there. I changed my major five times and finally majored in whatever would get me out there! When I chose to go to graduate school, I chose History - through study I refined it to US Diplomatic History because I was fascinated by it. I still am. And my grades were significantly better - acheiving a 3.93GPA upon graduation. Later, when I returned to graduate school for my MLS degree, I was even more focused - earning a 4.0, working as a RA for the hardest professor, and working part-time at an academic library. Sometimes we don't know what we're doing when we're young - sometimes we need time to focus.

. . . the universe is a coherent whole and you are indivisible from it. ~Children of Dune

and by this I mean, even when we don't think we're networking - we're networking. I'm on facebook, LinkedIn, member of the California Library Association and am on their listserv, and taking enough professional development courses through Infopeople that it can officially be called networking now. But I have to say that I don't think librarians network as well as marketers or public relations or business people do on LinkedIn. Or maybe it's just me.

A while ago I read something like, community used to be who you directly lived by, worked with, family, friends - it was local, physical. Now, with online networks like facebook and LinkedIn and listservs and online learning -- our communities are huge, non-local, asynchronous, and virtual. I can communicate on a casual level with members of my extended family in another country without batting an eye. I can share what I made for dinner or a funny sign or my new shoes - no matter how silly someone might think it is, it's important to be able to share your ordinary daily activities with people across great distances. It's the cheapest and easiest communication I've yet to see.

And as for networking - I've met some terrific information professionals/librarians over the years and it's great to be able to stay connected to them and pick their brains or seek professional advice or just comment on their new job. Having moved so much in my life, I love staying connected to everyone. I love social media/networking sites. As for Google+ - sure! Why not?

And finally, yes, facebook is the backyard bbq and LinkedIn is the office - most definitely.

Sand keeps the skin clean, and the mind. ~Zensunni fire poetry from Arrakis

I remember this from when I lived there. Truly amazing and scary and beautiful all at the same time.

Dune. Arrakis. Desert Planet.

http://io9.com/5816396/the-story-of-dune-recreated-with-gummi-worms/gallery/

This is brilliant.

It has occurred to me more than once that holy boredom is good and sufficient reason for the invention of free will. ~God Emperor of Dune

I've got my Twitter account up and running again. I never really knew what to say on Twitter - I was one of those people who thought it was just celebrities updating on their lunches. I guess I was just not following the right people! So, now we will see . . .

I tried Pushnote but none of my twitter or facebook friends are on it yet, so it's pretty useless. Plus, the fact that it only works with chrome, firefox, and safari means I can never use it at work. Also, I don't have system admin authority, so I couldn't download it anyway. Oh, well. I'll try it at home at some point.

I've been using RSS for a while now. I love things coming to me instead of going out and getting it - my friends and family always wonder where I find the quirky things I send them and post. It all comes from my feeds. I follow some funny people/organizations/websites. It can be really fun! Some of my favorites to follow are:

(non-library)

• Boing Boing
• The Daily WTF
• AJE
• Coding Horror
• Fark.com
• Ars Technica
• Newsvine-Technology
• slashdot
• The Kitchn
• xkcd
• The Big Picture
• What's Hot in Google
• Design Milk
• ffffound!

(library-related)

• Tame the Web
• librarian.net
• Infotoday Blog
• Librarian in Black
• Library Stuff
• LIS News
• NPR Books
• Salon Books
• Stephen's Lighthouse
• Swiss Army Librarian
• The Elegant Variation
• The Shifted Librarian
• The Ubiquitous Librarian
• Love the Liberry
• Unshelved

The sins of this universe would trouble anyone. ~Leto (God Emperor of Dune)

I just don't even know what to say. I'm sad.

[UPDATE] This just in: this was a hoax -- and I fell for it and I am now very, very relieved! :)

What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us? ~Orange Catholic Bible

Having a consistent brand is a great idea. I have some ideas but without real graphic talent, it's hard to convey in the way I want. I try to maintain clean lines and bold colors with my blogs and other sites. You can certainly see a style, if not absolute consistency. But then again, that's me talking. I wonder what others see when they peruse them - or if they ever peruse them together. So, let's try this . . . here is my webpage - tell me what you think. Do I convey well? Between the webpage and the blog, is there something I should not have? Or that I should have?

On the concept of a good photo - I couldn't agree more. I have a cartoon on this blog because all of my photos are personal. I need a nice professional picture to upload. I'm on that this weekend.

As far as the name of the blog - that took a while to figure out. I have had a few blogs and have tried to maintain some sort of consistent theme with them and it made them much easier to conceptualize. I've got to keep it fun for myself or I won't keep up with it - so at some point we have to merge our personalities into our professional presence. I believe that with the Internet we have to consider everything we post as being "public" so trying to keep worlds separate is probably not going to last very long. That being said, I do keep my facebook upbeat and funny and not all "emo" and dramatic. I don't ever discuss work on facebook unless it's a funny quip about a strange reference question or something light. I think organizations are itching to find ways to let people go without laying them off (for statistical reasons) and I don't want to give them any fuel for that action! AND it just isn't fun to read the postings of someone who always drones on about how horrible their life and job are.

Googling myself was funny. I have a very common name - especial for male wrestlers, football players, the guy who stole that tank, some guy who won a reality tv show . . . the list goes on. My name is Shawn E Townsend or Shawn T Nelson (former married name). The latter is what I am published under from graduate school so I could find some good library-related things there. But not the former. I had a good laugh, though. It did certainly remind me that I need to make my professional online presence known. So, thank you cpd23. :)

"There's an unwritten compact between you and the reader. If someone enters a bookstore and sets down hard earned money (energy) for your book, you owe that person some entertainment and as much more as you can give." ~Frank Herbert in Forward of Heretics of Dune (1984)

All these great writers are giving up fiction. A few speculate in this article that maybe they are giving up fiction because they've lived enough of life to know that novels aren't true to form or there is a saturation of storytelling. For me, I stopped fervently reading fiction after my first Master's degree in History. I read so much non-fiction at that point that I just couldn't comfortably transition back into fiction. I read books on Buddhism, psychology, society and it's ills, dogs, travel - you name it. Everything but fiction. Now, I'm the fiction librarian at my library. I order all the fiction for the entire system. And I'll confess . . . I still don't really read that much fiction. I read reviews and listen to what my co-workers and patrons are saying and it works very well. I like the book How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard. It's easy to do this and I learned very well from my time working in the bookstores that you certainly don't have to read everything you can talk about!

This being said, there are a few novels that make me swoon. I just finished The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid - it was written very differently and had me riveted to the end. I finished it in four hours. 2030 by Albert Brooks was interesting because it was nearly non-fictional. You can clearly see how we can get ourselves in this healthcare/economic bind. Likewise, The Olive Readers by Christine Aziz is a dystopian future you can logically see happening. And there are the ever-present Dune novels - you can count on Brian Herbert to continue to milk this literary cow and regardless of the terrible reviews, I will still read them, soaking in every last bit of Frank Herbert's creativity, no matter how bastardized Brian and Kevin Anderson make it.

But you know what I'm really into now? Short stories. Maybe this is because I'm a victim of short-attention-span-itis with all of the gadgets and facebook and Internet articles and blurbs and blogs. I'm not sure why, but I'm finding that short stories tell me a better story than dragging on too long with a character or story line I don't care about. I feel like I just read half of The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb because I truly did not care to read the letters of that other character. So, flip, flip, flip -- it made the book go by so much faster! Which is good, because I'm too busy reading short stories and blogging. :)

Muad'Dib could indeed see the Future, but you must understand the limits of this power . . .

" . . . And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning 'that path leads ever down into stagnation.'" ~Dune

Great article on changing libraries. I know it's hard for some librarians to wrap their heads around the new roles for libraries - I see it all the time in my library. We still have several of the shushing librarians! We are also in the process of examining our current public desk set up. We have eight desks strewn around the library and we struggle to keep them staffed throughout the day. The old way of thinking about desk scheduling is meeting the new way of dealing with staffing shortages and cutbacks. I'll provide data on here as I can. It's very interesting so far.

And I'd LOVE to see a cafe in our library. Along with becoming a Yes You Can! library.

If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets - Gurney Hallek

I had fun looking through many of the other blogs - very nice! I've gotten some good ideas to emulate. This is going to be fun!

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct

Ah, well, it's been a long time since I've had a blog. I've had several, never really knowing what to say or why anyone would want to read what I've said. But, reading 23 Things for Professional Development has reinvigorated my desire to have a blog. So, here goes.

I'm a Dune fanatic. The name of this blog is a Mentat Fixe (adacto) from Chapterhouse Dune. This post's title is from the Manual of Muad'Dib from the original Dune. I'll try for as long as I can to have post titles that are Dune-related.

If you like science fiction and fantasy, I highly recommend going to NPR and putting in your top five favorites to help them compile the reader's choice top 100 SciFi/Fantasy books of all time.

Okay, now to the gritty stuff: why am I participating in cpd23? Well, I feel kind of out of it. I've been at a library that's been in a bit of a rut the last few years - beating back the budget monster year after year and in major managerial transition - and I feel stagnant. So, I want to get back on the technology bandwagon and start putting professional development first in my priorities again.