pop culture, navel gazing, gender, libraries, technology, and general geekery
Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Captivating and crushingly beautiful. I was concerned that I’d have a hard time with Cumming’s accent, but he spoke slowly enough that I was able to follow. It wasn’t so slow that it was dragging though – perfectly paced. I listened for 5 hours straight and then the last hour when I woke up the next morning.
Hey everyone! I am moving over to www.librarylea.com.
It looks pretty much just like this, but it’s MINE ALL MINE.
Join me!
1) This whole LeBron James thing is ridiculous. Who the hell sets up a primetime event to announce a job change? That’s insane. I read someone justify it because it was somehow benefiting the Boys and Girls Club. Couldn’t he just donate them some more money instead of putting the kids on national TV while he breaks their hearts? Ultimately though, for me, I think this is the best thing he could do, because I no longer give a crap about where he goes, and I already hate Florida – so it works. Thanks for the classless display Bron Bron. The only good thing about him staying in Cleveland would be that we could avoid headlines like this:
I can't wait to hear what two-word name they give this incident
2) I have about four zygotic blog posts that I will get to eventually, I promise. Especially since I’ve yet to say anything about ALA.
3) Oliver isn’t feeling well. He hasn’t eaten much today, and we’re heading to the vet soon.
4) And! Today is probably the most important day of my career so far. I’m speaking to ELEVEN HUNDRED first-year-orientation counselors tonight (in eight back-to-back sessions), and I really need to be enthusiastic and composed.
Wish me luck, folks.
<3LL
If phase one is planning, then phase two is doing. That’s where I am now. I spent a good chunk of the spring semester planning and pitching things and good news, they’re happening. Although, that means I’M happening. I distinctly told myself that I wouldn’t overcommit to things, but geez, things are busy around here.
I’m looking forward to phase three – assessing, phase four – self back patting, phase five – frequent napping, but not so much phase six which is writing about phases 1 – 4 and then going back to phase one again.
It’s the circle of academic life, y’all.
Isn’t The Lion King the best Disney movie EVER?!
A little bit of this: 0812097211
A little bit of this*: B003ES5JH4
A lot of this: 0943914825
Resulting in this: 1570087520
*Yes, I know this is an ASIN not an ISBN. This is also the only literal entry. So really it just ruins the whole concept, but man, I’m exhausted. Hence 0943914825.
So I’m reading this USA Today article about how the University of Nebraska wants to ruin my life, and I get to the bottom and see this:
What?
I’m not sure why I referenced Danny Zuko and not, um, a character that Kelly Preston played. Like . . . well there was that time . . . wasn’t she in . . .
Oh right, that’s why.
Give me a call when she becomes an American cultural icon.
Aren’t old trailers hilarious?
I’m going to try to sleep and not think about a world where my two favorite teams are in the same conference, or worse, ending up in the friggin’ Pac 10.
I’ll try to write again soon, but you know how it is, rockin’ and rollin’ and what not. I might just not be able to squeeze you in, so be cool baby.
Hey folks. I kind of missed the month of May. After my 3 conferences in 30 days palooza I got back to work just in time to pack up my office and move to a new building. I got unpacked (mostly) just in time for all the projects I’ve been trying to put together to magically all come together on the same day. Seriously. Weeks/months of planning and I got emails from all the contact folks of all the projects within 36 hours of each other.
Right now I’m doing a lot of prep work for fall instruction sessions and focusing on outreach with student groups. I do have one IL session scheduled so far for summer school. Which is good, because this fall there are 56 sections of the class that we do the most IL sessions with.
I’ve been thinking about some new (well new to us) models of instruction for the fall. I usually have the 50-minute one-shot sessions (although sometimes I get a T/Th class so I get 75 minutes). I know some people don’t like those, but I do and think they can be beneficial if you design them carefully. However, I don’t believe that it is enough. Call my crazy, but I think students need to think about the library for more than 50 minutes in 4 years. I went to the Off-campus library services conference in my beloved Cleveland, Ohio (#2 of the 3 conferences in 30 days palooza). I figure that I probably won’t be able to convince all 56 sections of the class I work with to come into the library, let alone to come in more than once, and even if they wanted to I’m not sure we’d be able to (sanely) support that. So I decided to head up to The Cleve and learn ways of connecting with students online from the distance ed experts. It was neat. The folks from ANTS were there. I love that they’re making the conference rounds. I’ve already sent tutorial links to my favorite college student, and my coworkers at another one of our libraries. Fantastic!
The OCLS conference presenters had a lot of student feedback about learning objects and LibGuides. Don’t you love it when other people do research and publish it so you can learn from their experiences don’t need to start from scratch every time? (I *hate* the phrase “reinvent the wheel”) The conference proceedings are phone book thick (luckily our travel folks signed me up for the digital version – thanks y’all!) so there is a lot of material to wade through, but it’s full text searchable in Acrobat which helps so much.
This is the point of the post where I would usually insert some relevant song lyrics or a movie quote, but I’m listening to Yo-Yo Ma play the first movement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85. Yeah, y’all didn’t think I was cultured, did you? š Ooh and now my shuffle has steered me to Radiohead’s “Punchup at a Wedding”. Good stuff!
The aforementioned Book Cart Drill Team has made it past the YouTube copyright folks.
This is great because you can actually hear the fun and clever lyrics, but you miss out on the crowd noise. There was a lot of it. Good job, ladies!
Enjoy!
<3LL
My attempt at the Baby Got Books lyrics:
*parody of Sir-Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back*
Oh my god, Becki,
look at her books
they are so big
she looks like one of those librarians
who understands those librarians anyway
I mean, her books, they're just so they're so big they're just like out there
she's just so smart
I like big books and I cannot lie
you other brothas' can't deny
that when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
and a big book in your face
you check out
that's what it's all about
paying my overdues
I'm looking at the nonfiction
so I can improve my diction
oh baby wanna tell you my preference
meet me in reference
so don't be such a bummer
just give me your – call number!
ooh Dewey Decimals
you say you don't like LC?
well read me, read me
catalog and discard me
*Low Rider by War interlude*
so welcome to the school library
ya got a big dictionary
we don't want books unless you got good looks
you can sleep or read a magazine
if books just ain't your scene
I just can't help myself I like 'em in order
sit and read – don't loiter!
admin thinks it's funny
the budget ain't got no money
so ladies?
YEAH?
ladies?
YEAH?
do you wanna support libraries?
YEAH!
scan it, scan it
scan them barcodes
baby got books
*Reading Rainbow Theme sung by Tina Fabrique interlude*
*Single Ladies by Beyoncé Knowles parody*
if you like it then you shoulda put a hold on it (x4)
Ok, so I guess I didn’t post a lot while at TLA. Instead I learned things, had talented people write their name on things, ate tasty things, got rain soaked, and danced until way past my bedtime.
Here is a rundown of days 2 – 4.
I love public radio. I listen to public radio for many hours a day and subscribe to many public radio podcasts. I squealed when I saw that Scott Simon was on the program. He did not disappoint. He was his signature blend of humor and heart. Fantastic.
This conversation between Scott Simon and one of his daughters is amazing.
This ants image is under a creative commons license, just like A.N.T.S.!
I started out with a presentation from the A.N.T.S. folks – Animated Tutorial Sharing Project. Those are four words I love, smooshed together into a happy, open-source, learning sandwich. A.N.T.S. does a bunch of cool stuff. They create tutorials – and encourage others to join them (like you, no, really, you). Currently I don’t have any tutorials on the class guide I maintain, even though I always embedded video during job interviews where I was required to make a LibGuide. I wonder if the usage numbers will change at all if I put an Academic Search Complete tutorial on the class guide page.
see? change is pretty.
Next I attended a session entitled “How do we stack up? Outcomes-based assessment for library instruction” by the aforementioned Megan Oakleaf. (Megan’s PPT as a PDF and handout as a .doc file). I know everyone talks about assessment. It seems that’s what ALL of our sessions have been about lately, BUT Megan’s take is fantastic and capitalizes on information that we already have available. She emphasizes the things we can learn without having to conduct additional surveys. Instead of asking students if the library session they attended helped them create a good bibliography, look at the bibliographies they turned in.
She’s not anti survey, but thinks that in order to conduct effective assessment we need to think triangulation. Surveys, tests (measuring recall) and reviewing the work they turned in. Each strategy will result in a different perspective and different types of information, and will provide a more comprehensive picture than surveys alone (or tests alone, or assignment review alone). The three don’t need to be done simultaneously and instead can be a three-semester cycle.
Finally, Megan’s overall theme is that we have to do something with our results. Assessment that doesn’t result in change is useless. Assessment and change are a never-ending cycle – or in less fatalistic terms, an iterative process. Try, test, change, try, test, change. My worst fear is that 15 years from now I will be giving the exact same library instruction session that I’m giving today. **shudder** To prevent that from happening I will dedicated myself to a phoenix-like cycle of birth, growth, fiery explosions, and rebirth.
I spent the next half hour on the exhibit floor then popped in on the book recycling session (Rags to Riches: Book Recycling for Fun, Fashion, and Furniture) and saw some super-neat cut books. It still makes my stomach churn when I see books cut up, but the presenter assured us they were not books of any value (like all those Reader’s Digest condensed books that pop up at library book sales.) Although there was a cut book made out of Carl Hiaasen’s Skinny Dip, and I have a hard time believing that wouldn’t sell at a friends’ book sale.
Hiaasen, C. (2004). Skinny dip: [a novel]. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
I spent a little time on the exhibit floor then headed upstairs for my first session of the day.
This one proved worthwhile in the first three minutes when our presenter, Mary W. George, did a quick show-of-hands survey of the audience which was dominated by school librarians. The large number of school librarians and Megan Oakleaf’s comment that “information literacy is a K-20 process” really made me think about what I teach, who I’m teaching it to, and who all should be involved. I’m still thinking this one through but feel like there’s something big here.
I scooted out of the session and quickly descended the stairs to secure autographs for my beloved niece and nephews.
LibraryLea and Jarrett Krosoczka
Feeling rather peppy about my fun albeit brief convo with Jarrett Krosocka and the arc of the 4th Lunch Lady book I was ready to head out to a super-fun lunch with friends from library school.
After lunch, I decided to play public librarian for a bit and went to an author panel.
This one was super fun, but I also got a great writing tip that I’m going to try with article writing.
Would you be embarrassed to be seen reading this at a football game?
Maureen Johnson also made some incredibly-interesting points about the gendering of book covers and how e-readers can make that a non issue. She related an anecdote about an adult male reader enjoying one of her pink-covered books on his e-reader from a football stadium. This adds a neat layer of privacy in a reading-in-public-context. Although, the e-book vendor may keep a record of what you have downloaded. I keep thinking about people reading on the Metro. I was amazed by the number of people who read erotica during the commute to/from work. (Zane was rather popular.) I remember the day I was on the train reading The Carnal Prayer Mat for my Gender and Sexuality in Early Modern China class. A person across from me was looking rather intently at my book, when they looked away, I flipped it around and looked at the cover and saw for the first time that it said “Classic Erotica” across the top. Although, since the Bible was the most common reading material on the train, the person may have been pulled in by the word “prayer.” I digress . . .
Li Yu. (1995). The carnal prayer mat. Ware: Wordsworth classics.
I spent a little time talking jobs with one of my colleagues and headed back down to the exhibit floor. I still did not have one free book (except the Lunch Lady arc for my nephew) or tote bag. I left the floor to check out a colleague’s contributed paper session and headed over to the closing session.
Before Julie Powell took the stage, the conference planners recognized sponsors and awesome librarians. I am not at all ashamed to say that I got rather teary, especially when Clara B. Mounce was given the Lifetime Achievement Award for dedicating her life to the city of Bryan, creating a collaboration between Bryan and College Station, rebuilding the library after it was intentionally set on fire, and restoring the beautiful Carnegie Library in historic downtown Bryan. Amazing.
Back to Julie Powell, I have not read Julie and Julia. I saw the first 5 minutes of the movie and fell asleep, which says nothing about the movie, I was exhausted. I have heard many things about her and went in with mixed feelings, but I found her charming, brave, and painfully confessional.
Powell, J. (2005). Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen. New York: Little, Brown and Co.
Robinson, A., Mark, L., Ephron, N., Goldblatt, S., Rudin, S., Lee, D. J., et al. (2009). Julie & Julia. Culver City, Calif: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
The floor was cleared and the stage was set for . . .
I love bookcart drill team. It’s hilarious and a great way to end the week. The video I was planning on putting here has been flagged by YouTube for copyright violation which is of course being disputed by a smart and savvy librarian. We’ll see how that goes. In summary, it was very fun, and I caught a bag of peanuts. Costumes, bookcarts, and snacks – what’s better‽ (Any excuse to use an interrobang . . . )
To tide you over, here is a YouTube playlist of previous competitions.
With most of the learning securely in the past, tucked away and waiting for the reflection and implementation phase – I headed to the All-Conference Reception to talk with friends about life, conference, libraries, and funny YouTube videos. The band was a great party cover band. All was good.
The conference ended with a bang. I picked up my first free book and accidentally acquired two more tote bags. I checked out some databases with ABC-CLIO and won $50 from them toward my next ABC-CLIO purchase. Fun! I was talking with people in the Harper Collins free-book line and found out that you could only get Jeff Kinney to sign a book for you if you were in his session which was starting in two minutes.
Woo Jeff Kinney! Woo The Diamondback! Woo Wimpy Kids everywhere!
After running up and down the stairs a few times to ensure that I got a book signed for my oldest nephew, I breathlessly settled into my seat. I am so glad I made it. This session was an absolute delight. Jeff Kinney is absolutely hilarious. He definitely has an adult sense of humor, but was very careful as there were many children around. He didn’t say anything vulgar, he just seems to live at a PG-13 level, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to people who have read his Wimpy Kid books which he said he originally wrote for adults, but sees as appropriate for kids around 6th grade, although my nephew is much younger. My nephew isn’t the only young Jeff Kinney reader. When he said that he thinks his books are for a middle school audience there was a definite buzz through the crowd and head-shaking aplenty. During the Q&A a lot of librarians got up to ask questions that their students had asked them to ask Jeff. Cute.
He used a PowerPoint-like slide show full of his signature drawings to go along with his talk. It was perfect.
Xtreme pop-up sharks sounds like the most awesome book EVER!
My favorite quote: I think Shel Silverstein is one of the greatest childrenās authors or poets of all time but also a scary looking dudeā Check out the 3rd Wimpy Kid book where Shel Silverstein makes a cameo of sorts.
Kinney, J. (2009). Diary of a wimpy kid: The last straw. New York: Amulet Books.
I headed back down to the floor, got a few more books and headed out of town rejuvenated and ready to get back to librarianing.
Day one was great, rainy and kinda gross, but great.
I didn’t go to many sessions, but had lunch with Megan Oakleaf who is one of my information literacy and assessment heroes.
A great day was capped by a perfect night with a little time spent at the all-conference reception and a night of walking the River Walk with my lovely friends from library school.
I ā¤ conference!
Tomorrow (Thursday) the real learning begins.
The life and times of Library Lea 