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.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
"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.
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.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
. . . 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.
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.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
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.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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)
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!
- 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
Friday, July 1, 2011
The sins of this universe would trouble anyone. ~Leto (God Emperor of Dune)
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. :)
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. :)
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