I was planning to write about how reading about the board of trustees duties this week coincided with the abrupt announcement of Dr. Bataille's departure... but I read a classmate's post that mentioned library and museum missions, and it sparked lots of thoughts!
When I first started my MS in library science in 2002, I didn't understand the academic library mission. Library missions tend to be more straightforward in public libraries than university libraries, probably for the same reasons that university missions themselves are complex and the subject of much debate!
At any academic library (meaning college & university libraries, not primary or secondary school libraries) there is definitely the preservation or "conserving knowledge" mission that Bogue/Aper describes. The weight of that mission varies from institution from institution--part of the variance is related to the institutional mission, part of it relates to individual library collections.
We're currently refashioning our UNT Libraries mission statement because it does not adequately express our vision of the libraries. We have a particularly rich preservation mission, because we have a number of unique collections in the UNT Archives (like university records and photographs), the Rare Books Room (old manuscripts, miniature books), the Music Library (LP's from the Library of Congress, jazz scores), etc. This is part of the "conservation of knowledge" mission that Bogue mentions, but it's also simply the physical preservation of old and valuable materials.
The "conservation of knowledge" portion is expressed in the UNT Digital Library, where all electronic theses/dissertations written by UNT students are kept; the same department is also working with university leaders on a digital repository to store faculty research and publications. The subject librarians for each department similarly work with their associated academic departments (for instance, mine is the Dept. of Philosophy and Religion Studies) to collect and preserve all publications by their faculty in that department, particulary print books.
But we have two more imperative missions. The first, perhaps most obvious, mission is to serve the students, staff, and faculty of UNT by providing the information that they need. This is done in all kinds of ways (reference question answering, workshops, collection purchasing, developing new services) and delivered in person, by phone, text message, IM, online chat software, email, fax--you get the idea, any format you want! This mission in large research universities tends to be focused more on support of faculty research, so that the books purchased are oriented more toward faculty needs than those of undergraduates needing term paper resources. Similarly in liberal arts colleges, the library collection tends to focus on general resources for undergraduates, and less in-depth materials that support faculty research (although this is often supported through services like Inter-Library Loan). UNT of course being a mixed-mission university, the libraries are similarly mixed in their collection and service focus.
Finally, the UNT Libraries have also been designated as a federal and state depository library. This is a designation that brings with it a broad collection of nearly one million documents produced by the government that our library is given for free, assuming we meet government regulations of a depository library. As a federal depository, for instance, we are by law required to serve any member of the public with our documents collection. This goes beyond merely helping people look up regulations on adoption or do-it-yourself divorce forms; our documents collection is rich with primary historic resources and many valuable maps and books that are worth thousands of dollars a piece. This is another key piece of keeping American democracy alive: providing the public free and permanent access to the documents that created our government and the documents that our government creates. It's all part of that famous quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson, the key to a democracy is having an informed citizenry.
So in a broad sense, our particular mission at the UNT Libraries is to preserve a variety of rich, unique collections, to support our university's students, staff, faculty, and to serve the general public. It's a thrilling mission to serve every day, let me tell you!!
I do have to mention that Bogue/Aper's comment on page 21 about digital library access pushed a few of my buttons. I'm a professed bibliophile, but I'm also a hugely geeky techie and love to play with technology--which comes in handy, since my title is Librarian for Digital Collections! One of my primary research interests is library support for distance learners, which goes far beyond mere email reference answers or e-book collections.
Bogue/Aper's statement about the future of libraries makes me feel conflicted, as this great debate in the library world always does. Page 21 says that "we are probably not far from that moment when we will not go to the library but simply purchase a computer disk or other information storage device... and take it home... and have every page of the library available at our intellectual disposal. Such convenience and power, however, may never replace the joy and wonder that comes from browsing the quiet and musty stacks of libraries."
Well... yes and no. Certainly our library catalog can be accessed online, as can many of the e-books, online gov documents, and databases that allow us to access the majority of our journal articles electronically. And that's fantastic--even working in the library, I love being able to email myself articles instead of walk down four floors to make a photocopy. But no, the printed matter isn't going anywhere soon. Full-text searching of our digital collections is a vast improvement on searching a paper index, but talk to any art student about trying to find a certain visual reference for a sketch, and that's much more easily accomplished by visually browsing tangible books than searching using a textbox online. And those unique collections at UNT libraries? We're digitizing them, but researchers will always want to look at the originals, to mine more information from the "real thing," and to touch the actual objects that past giants touched.
Bogue/Aper do acknowledge some of the physical pleasures of books in the "joy and wonder" part of that statement... but as a librarian I have to huffily protest the stereotypical image of "quiet and musty stacks!" My guess is that my personal appearance wouldn't fit into their standard definition of "librarian," either... but that's a conversation for another time and another class.
Hmm. Didn't mean to provide such a wordy post; the words "library" and "democracy" tend to get me very excited!
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
1.26.2010
Ponderings on the "American Idea"
I'm taking a course on the role of higher education in a democracy, and class discussion is bringing up interesting thoughts.
I was fascinated by "A Religious Idea Called 'America'" by David Gelernter (Bradley Lecture, Washington, February 13, 2006). Many of the statements the author makes solidify aspects of America that had puzzled me for some time.
The first of these is what the author refers to as "American Zionism." This is a particularly apt metaphor for this feeling that seems to be inherent in many Americans that America is the best country that ever is or was, a chosen country, perhaps even chosen by God. This is something that I never questioned growing up, but became abruptly aware of when I took my first trip abroad after my sophomore year of college. It seems bizarre now, but before then the "outside world" (meaning anyplace outside of America) was simply an abstraction to me. I believed that other countries existed, that people lived in them, but I didn't truly grasp what that meant. When I landed in Italy, suddenly the rest of the world was concretely real to me. I realized that the faceless people I had imagined living in these countries were individuals just like me, who were simply born somewhere else. I realized that there were other worldviews, other contexts from which to understand world events.
And that made me suddenly question America's historic foreign policy of helping (or meddling, depending on your perspective) in other countries' issues. Helping when asked is one thing, but as we all know, America has done more than that--just look to Vietnam or Iraq, to use the obvious examples. I can see why the potential to free a people and give them a democracy is an attractive idea, but is it our business to do so? Why do so many of us seem to think that it is our right, perhaps our divine right, to decide that a country should be governed in a certain way, and to invade and wage war to ensure that this is so?
I find it difficult to define ethics outside of a specific moral code (as is discussed in James Campbell's Understanding John Dewey, chapter 4, the idea of ethics as a secular moral code). I find it difficult to define "right" and "wrong" without a specific code or criteria. I'm sure that some of this difficulty is because I was brought up in a religious home, and my natural pattern of thinking has been defined by a specific moral code. However, regardless of my own beliefs, I believe that America as a country is defined by and exists in large part to protect religious freedom, and as such should be ruled in as secular and nonbiased a manner as possible. It's simply difficult for me to define how that governing should run, what moral code it should adhere to, without having something specific against which to judge that government's actions.
This post doesn't specifically relate to education thus far, but I have had similar intellectual struggles with education in similar manners. How can we teach a variety of worldviews, values, and perspectives in an honest manner to students? Is disclosing our own personal perspective a helpful insight, a cautionary disclosure of our bias, or a harmful influence that creates more bias?
The more I study and think, the fewer answers and more questions I have.
I was fascinated by "A Religious Idea Called 'America'" by David Gelernter (Bradley Lecture, Washington, February 13, 2006). Many of the statements the author makes solidify aspects of America that had puzzled me for some time.
The first of these is what the author refers to as "American Zionism." This is a particularly apt metaphor for this feeling that seems to be inherent in many Americans that America is the best country that ever is or was, a chosen country, perhaps even chosen by God. This is something that I never questioned growing up, but became abruptly aware of when I took my first trip abroad after my sophomore year of college. It seems bizarre now, but before then the "outside world" (meaning anyplace outside of America) was simply an abstraction to me. I believed that other countries existed, that people lived in them, but I didn't truly grasp what that meant. When I landed in Italy, suddenly the rest of the world was concretely real to me. I realized that the faceless people I had imagined living in these countries were individuals just like me, who were simply born somewhere else. I realized that there were other worldviews, other contexts from which to understand world events.
And that made me suddenly question America's historic foreign policy of helping (or meddling, depending on your perspective) in other countries' issues. Helping when asked is one thing, but as we all know, America has done more than that--just look to Vietnam or Iraq, to use the obvious examples. I can see why the potential to free a people and give them a democracy is an attractive idea, but is it our business to do so? Why do so many of us seem to think that it is our right, perhaps our divine right, to decide that a country should be governed in a certain way, and to invade and wage war to ensure that this is so?
I find it difficult to define ethics outside of a specific moral code (as is discussed in James Campbell's Understanding John Dewey, chapter 4, the idea of ethics as a secular moral code). I find it difficult to define "right" and "wrong" without a specific code or criteria. I'm sure that some of this difficulty is because I was brought up in a religious home, and my natural pattern of thinking has been defined by a specific moral code. However, regardless of my own beliefs, I believe that America as a country is defined by and exists in large part to protect religious freedom, and as such should be ruled in as secular and nonbiased a manner as possible. It's simply difficult for me to define how that governing should run, what moral code it should adhere to, without having something specific against which to judge that government's actions.
This post doesn't specifically relate to education thus far, but I have had similar intellectual struggles with education in similar manners. How can we teach a variety of worldviews, values, and perspectives in an honest manner to students? Is disclosing our own personal perspective a helpful insight, a cautionary disclosure of our bias, or a harmful influence that creates more bias?
The more I study and think, the fewer answers and more questions I have.
4.28.2009
Research Update
I blogged earlier this semester about three projects I'm researching:
And a brief note, in case I haven't mentioned it here before (I've been tweeting it alot): the task management software OmniFocus (and specifically the iPhone version, although I also have the original program on my Mac) has saved my life this semester. It's tracking my personal errands, house projects, work projects, school research, you name it. It's amazing, and if you have an iPhone it will be the best $19 you've spent.
And thus ends my flagrant advertising. (But seriously, busy techie librarians, try it out!) Or at least consider some form of task management software, no matter what computer or handheld you've got.
- practices & experiences of academic librarians embedded in online courses
- factors that affect the adoption of electronic reference in academic libraries
- ...and a project on educational background of academic library deans (with fellow librarian Annie Downey)
- embedded librarians project:
- finishing up the presentation portion of the project (organizing it as 6 case studies, with trends and discussion)
- writing lit review for written portion of project
- since this is for a client (as well as my class), I'm planning to format it as a thick binder with tabs for the lit review/trends, each institutional case study, and will also include a matrix of activities, as well as a summary of commonalities and differences in experiences across the case studies
- electronic reference adoption study:
- this is a paper for a statistics course, so it's a statistical analysis...
- I downloaded the Academic Library Survey datasets from NCES (National Center for Educational Statistics) for 1996 - 2006 (though in the end for various reasons I was only able to use 2000 - 2006; I hope to include the other data this summer)
- reformatting all the data and framing it correctly took quite a while!
- I performed an ANCOVA for a binary response variable using the program "R"
- I did some related analyses, and created graphical displays for each
- I'm now writing the results as an article (it's my first quantitative methods article, and it's proving a bit of a tough writing job for me)
- education of academic library deans study:
- Annie's got us a head start on the lit review
- we plan to do the majority of the data gathering this summer
- we're currently working on an abstract to propose to ASHE for this fall
And a brief note, in case I haven't mentioned it here before (I've been tweeting it alot): the task management software OmniFocus (and specifically the iPhone version, although I also have the original program on my Mac) has saved my life this semester. It's tracking my personal errands, house projects, work projects, school research, you name it. It's amazing, and if you have an iPhone it will be the best $19 you've spent.
And thus ends my flagrant advertising. (But seriously, busy techie librarians, try it out!) Or at least consider some form of task management software, no matter what computer or handheld you've got.
1.08.2009
The Prodigal Blogger Returns!
I'm up to my ears in web updates, email, and things I haven't remembered that I've forgotten, so I'll make this quick. I just had to share that you can now purchase Academic Library Outreach: Beyond Campus Walls; my print copy arrived on Tuesday! It's my first published book chapter, so I'm a little beside myself--my deepest thanks to my coauthors, Suzanne Sears and Annie Downey. They provided the real "meat" for the chapter, I just helped mash it all together.
And today I got a second surprise--I received three copies of the Journal of Web Librarianship, Volume 2 Number 4--with not one but two of my book reviews in it!
Thanks to my Essentials of Academic Publishing class last semester, I've already got another book review I'm shopping around, and nearly done with a paper. And then there's the research project Annie and I have started on... whew! Never a dull moment.
Hopefully I can stick to my writing schedule despite this semester's near-insane course load... my publishing class had me doing well with at least an hour of writing each week day, but I fell off the wagon in November. Ah well, here's to the second try!
And today I got a second surprise--I received three copies of the Journal of Web Librarianship, Volume 2 Number 4--with not one but two of my book reviews in it!
Thanks to my Essentials of Academic Publishing class last semester, I've already got another book review I'm shopping around, and nearly done with a paper. And then there's the research project Annie and I have started on... whew! Never a dull moment.
Hopefully I can stick to my writing schedule despite this semester's near-insane course load... my publishing class had me doing well with at least an hour of writing each week day, but I fell off the wagon in November. Ah well, here's to the second try!
9.21.2008
FGI Blogging & Fall Classes
Rather than re-post my recent FGI blog posts here, I've simply including a link to the feed.
In other news, I'm reading two comics, graciously donated to me by First Second Books. I'm reading Drawing Words, Writing Pictures, a textbook on creating comics, and Prince of Persia (based on the awesome old video game). I'll be posting my thoughts when I finish them--I plan on reviewing one of them here, but will likely submit the second review for publication. So far, I am enjoying them both quite a bit--as usual for First Second, the text and art are fantastic, and the printing quality is stellar.
My posts will again be haphazard this season, as I'm thick into another semester of full-time school plus full-time work (after this spring's also-full-time load, I will have completed my PhD's residency requirement, and perhaps be able to take it a little slower). I have to say, though, that despite the incredible amount of work this is taking, I'm enjoying all three classes--even, to my surprise, my required statistics course. Granted, I don't enjoy all the homework, but thus far the instructor's recorded lectures are doing a great job of illuminating the dull textbook.
My "Finance in Higher Education" course is heavy on the required reading, but it's such fascinating and practical information that I appreciate it. But by far my favorite class is "Essentials of Academic Publishing." For one, it's hard not to enjoy a class where your professor mentions publishing as welcome "bling" on your CV. For two, who wouldn't appreciate a course where your final project is 1) of your choosing, and 2) something that you'll be able to use professionally, since it involves getting something academic published? For three, I just love writing, and being able to read about it, write about it, and discuss it with others is great. The class is forcing me to make time for writing--huzzah!
Now, if only I had classes that forced me to make time for exercise, healthy cooking, and cleaning house... hmmm.
In other news, I'm reading two comics, graciously donated to me by First Second Books. I'm reading Drawing Words, Writing Pictures, a textbook on creating comics, and Prince of Persia (based on the awesome old video game). I'll be posting my thoughts when I finish them--I plan on reviewing one of them here, but will likely submit the second review for publication. So far, I am enjoying them both quite a bit--as usual for First Second, the text and art are fantastic, and the printing quality is stellar.
My posts will again be haphazard this season, as I'm thick into another semester of full-time school plus full-time work (after this spring's also-full-time load, I will have completed my PhD's residency requirement, and perhaps be able to take it a little slower). I have to say, though, that despite the incredible amount of work this is taking, I'm enjoying all three classes--even, to my surprise, my required statistics course. Granted, I don't enjoy all the homework, but thus far the instructor's recorded lectures are doing a great job of illuminating the dull textbook.
My "Finance in Higher Education" course is heavy on the required reading, but it's such fascinating and practical information that I appreciate it. But by far my favorite class is "Essentials of Academic Publishing." For one, it's hard not to enjoy a class where your professor mentions publishing as welcome "bling" on your CV. For two, who wouldn't appreciate a course where your final project is 1) of your choosing, and 2) something that you'll be able to use professionally, since it involves getting something academic published? For three, I just love writing, and being able to read about it, write about it, and discuss it with others is great. The class is forcing me to make time for writing--huzzah!
Now, if only I had classes that forced me to make time for exercise, healthy cooking, and cleaning house... hmmm.
2.11.2008
Unexpected
Okay, I really didn't expect to spend 10 1/2 hours at work Saturday. Sure, I was working the weekend reference shift, but that's only 11 to 4. I came in at 9:30 to get some more work done... but I had no idea that I'd be spending an extra four hours on a single reference question.
Which kind of blew my good intentions, as far as homework, out of the water. By the time I got home after 9pm, I was too brain-dead to accomplish any of it. Sunday, I got a bit of it done, but we also had some construction we had to get done... so my regular reading got done, but I haven't been able to do any decent amount of work on my two research projects.
Sigh. So much for good intentions.
Which kind of blew my good intentions, as far as homework, out of the water. By the time I got home after 9pm, I was too brain-dead to accomplish any of it. Sunday, I got a bit of it done, but we also had some construction we had to get done... so my regular reading got done, but I haven't been able to do any decent amount of work on my two research projects.
Sigh. So much for good intentions.
1.29.2008
The Doctoral Experience Thus Far
After two weeks of classes having begun, I finally attended my first F2F (face-to-face) class session for the Higher Education PhD program. I'm currently enrolled in EPSY 6020: Research Methods in Education (which is a fancy name for "basic quantitative/qualitative statistical research;" this couse is online), EDHE 6510: History of Higher Education (online with 4 F2F meetings), and EDHE 6780: Educational Resources (meets Monday evenings). Last night, I went to 6780 and enjoyed a lively discussion about endowments, grants, and the ethics of fund-raising. We had some particularly interesting discussion regarding the place of athletics and alumni in university fundraising--I can tell I'm really going to enjoy this class.
I've been enjoying the reading for 6510, but to be honest there hasn't been much yet. It looks like the readings and the assignments get heavier at the end of the year, which to be honest is fine with me. I'm trying to get our house on the market by mid-March, so I'm occupied with cleaning, boxing things for storage, and painting. I anticipate that around the end of February, I'm going to hit a huge clash between fulltime librarian-ing, fulltime doctoral student-ing, and readying our house to look its best. Not to mention that whole husband/family/friends side of life... yeah. Good thing I'm enjoying my classes so much at the moment!
I keep desperately seeking new ways to carve out blocks of time for myself. To be honest, my two-hour total commute each day is a kind of welcome break from all these tasks, but at the same time, I keep furiously thinking that I'd rather be spending the time working on homework or something else useful. If only I could get someone, for free, to record themselves reading my textbooks, and then I could play that in the car during my commute... Any other suggestions? I used to think I ought to borrow language-learning CDs from the public library, but that ends up being an additional source of information, without actually helping my work/school/home-responsibilities bind. At least music relaxes me, and NPR feeds me the news.
I certainly welcome any further ideas on better uses for my commute. :)
11.28.2007
'Tis the Season
Yes, to be jolly, but also to heighten that usual sense of the word "busy." Ah, how well I know it after having spent over two decades enrolled in some form of school.
And I've got a bit of good news to post: I've been accepted into UNT's PhD program in Higher Education! Yes, I'm back for more--but as my husband supportively points out, this degree has that helpful distinction of "terminal," meaning that I could, conceivably, one day be done with school. (No, really.)
Why, you ask, particularly as I've argued in the past that most librarians don't need PhDs, and that often it doesn't seem to be worth the time or money invested in the degree? Well, because much as I currently love my job, I know my ambitions and my dreams, and I'd like to be able to move not only into library administration, but potentially into university-wide administration. And it seems pretty par for the course to have a PhD attached to your name in those positions.
Why in Higher Ed, instead of an Information Sciences doctorate? Well, I'm attracted to that program, it looks quite interesting--but at the end it seems to me that a Library/Info Science PhD is best if 1) you want to teach at a library school (I don't), or 2) you are interested in a highly-focused area of library science research that you'd like to pursue (I'm not). I want to administrate, and I'm going into Higher Ed because that's a good, practical preparation for university administration--lots of helpful courses on academic finances and of course the ever-present statistical information (which, being a documents librarian, I'm actually looking forward to). And I'm interested in researching library support for distance education--support both in terms of library services and library materials--and thus, I've already got a potential dissertation topic.
I embark upon that adventure in January 2008. In the meantime, our emerging technologies group at UNT is more deeply discussing options for standards in technology competencies for library employees... we're trying to see if that's a good road for us to take in the Libraries.
And of course there's a desk full of stacked papers requiring my attention--Thanksgiving is a lovely holiday and it's great to rest, but I'm mighty tired of moving some of my "to-do" items from week to week in my calendar. I'm pondering a work-fest week in the second week of December, to try to wrap up a lot of this end-of-the-year deadline stuff (and then hope to write an article or two in that "spare time" over the Christmas break).
Next week, though, it will be hard to keep up with the normal swing of work--Monday and Tuesday I'll be in Austin for the Texas Library Association's Transforming Texas Libraries Summit, which has a lot of potential to be interesting, and then Thursday I'll be in Houston for a fantastic workshop on the visual presentation of data (no, it's really not boring!!) by Edward Tufte. My father, an optics engineer, attended this presentation a few years back and said it's about the best one-day seminar he's ever been to, and promptly bought me one of Tufte's books that Christmas. I've been fascinated with him ever since, and since my current position deals a lot with both graphics and statistics, this seemed like a good training opportunity.
Also, I'm on the Conference Program Committee for the TLA 2009 conference--we're beginning to brainstorm sessions and speakers. If you know of anyone who would be a good speaker on graphic design and/or library marketing, please let me know. I'm particularly interested in organizing a session on that general topic, as it's something that's quite relevant to work I've been doing for UNT, and I'm sure it's a problem for other libraries as well. Or if you have other session ideas, things you'd like to be educated on, people you'd like to hear speak--please just let me know!
And I've got a bit of good news to post: I've been accepted into UNT's PhD program in Higher Education! Yes, I'm back for more--but as my husband supportively points out, this degree has that helpful distinction of "terminal," meaning that I could, conceivably, one day be done with school. (No, really.)
Why, you ask, particularly as I've argued in the past that most librarians don't need PhDs, and that often it doesn't seem to be worth the time or money invested in the degree? Well, because much as I currently love my job, I know my ambitions and my dreams, and I'd like to be able to move not only into library administration, but potentially into university-wide administration. And it seems pretty par for the course to have a PhD attached to your name in those positions.
Why in Higher Ed, instead of an Information Sciences doctorate? Well, I'm attracted to that program, it looks quite interesting--but at the end it seems to me that a Library/Info Science PhD is best if 1) you want to teach at a library school (I don't), or 2) you are interested in a highly-focused area of library science research that you'd like to pursue (I'm not). I want to administrate, and I'm going into Higher Ed because that's a good, practical preparation for university administration--lots of helpful courses on academic finances and of course the ever-present statistical information (which, being a documents librarian, I'm actually looking forward to). And I'm interested in researching library support for distance education--support both in terms of library services and library materials--and thus, I've already got a potential dissertation topic.
I embark upon that adventure in January 2008. In the meantime, our emerging technologies group at UNT is more deeply discussing options for standards in technology competencies for library employees... we're trying to see if that's a good road for us to take in the Libraries.
And of course there's a desk full of stacked papers requiring my attention--Thanksgiving is a lovely holiday and it's great to rest, but I'm mighty tired of moving some of my "to-do" items from week to week in my calendar. I'm pondering a work-fest week in the second week of December, to try to wrap up a lot of this end-of-the-year deadline stuff (and then hope to write an article or two in that "spare time" over the Christmas break).
Next week, though, it will be hard to keep up with the normal swing of work--Monday and Tuesday I'll be in Austin for the Texas Library Association's Transforming Texas Libraries Summit, which has a lot of potential to be interesting, and then Thursday I'll be in Houston for a fantastic workshop on the visual presentation of data (no, it's really not boring!!) by Edward Tufte. My father, an optics engineer, attended this presentation a few years back and said it's about the best one-day seminar he's ever been to, and promptly bought me one of Tufte's books that Christmas. I've been fascinated with him ever since, and since my current position deals a lot with both graphics and statistics, this seemed like a good training opportunity.
Also, I'm on the Conference Program Committee for the TLA 2009 conference--we're beginning to brainstorm sessions and speakers. If you know of anyone who would be a good speaker on graphic design and/or library marketing, please let me know. I'm particularly interested in organizing a session on that general topic, as it's something that's quite relevant to work I've been doing for UNT, and I'm sure it's a problem for other libraries as well. Or if you have other session ideas, things you'd like to be educated on, people you'd like to hear speak--please just let me know!
8.23.2007
Gettin' the Word Out
Another plug for the UNT Digital Collections in ALA's e-newsletter, American Libraries Direct: this time, it's the Portal to Texas History! See the yellow-ish column on the right: the Portal is the Digital Library of the Week.
...And now, back to my regularly-scheduled Hectic Week from Hades. The comfort, as always this time of year, is that eventually it will be September, students will be settled in their classes, and my life will be my own again. Ah, the joy of academic libraries and life on the academic calendar. At some point in my life, I may begin to think of years as starting in January instead of late August--but I doubt it.
...And now, back to my regularly-scheduled Hectic Week from Hades. The comfort, as always this time of year, is that eventually it will be September, students will be settled in their classes, and my life will be my own again. Ah, the joy of academic libraries and life on the academic calendar. At some point in my life, I may begin to think of years as starting in January instead of late August--but I doubt it.
5.08.2007
It's a Great Sign...
...when you come back from a meeting and your face hurts from all the laughing. Yay for a fun group of librarians interested in podcasting!
We're discussing our initial test for when the ordered equipment comes in, and we're pondering a library tour (just in time for new students in the fall!). Since I'll probably be the designated "expert" talking on the podcast for the GovDocs area, I'm pondering what items to highlight in the brief time alloted during the tour. Here are my initial thoughts:
Unrelated Banter:
A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette says:
We're discussing our initial test for when the ordered equipment comes in, and we're pondering a library tour (just in time for new students in the fall!). Since I'll probably be the designated "expert" talking on the podcast for the GovDocs area, I'm pondering what items to highlight in the brief time alloted during the tour. Here are my initial thoughts:
- maps (specifically, geology students)
- data
- lots of historic data, sources
- much of the information is public-domain
- online resources
- covers all subject areas
Unrelated Banter:
A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette says:
Hee, hee. So there are others out there.Graphic novels, Embracing
Every library has at least one librarian who is a graphic novel enthusiast. This person will argue vehemently for a new graphic novel collection for your library. Give him a paltry budget to spend each year just to shut him up. It will be money well spent.
4.23.2007
As Easy as PB & J
Giving a little plug for PBwiki, the online wiki hosting software that I use for my professional/personal wiki. (Check out the PBwiki tour!)
Attention, educators: all educational PBwikis are now free!
(Update: More Denton Reads photos, coming soon...)
2.27.2007
PhDs, Palimpsests, and Presentations, Oh My!
(I could actually add "photographs" and "politics" to my list of "p" words for this post, but ah well. That's what you get for letting an English major have a blog.)
To continue the "To PhD or Not to PhD" discussion, my husband Alex sent me a link to this Census Bureau document yesterday: "The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings." Not only is it a fascinating report, but it shows that I've got my husband using govdocs now!
This is a fascinating Smithsonian article about X-rays revealing a hidden text by Archimedes--it had been scraped off and the parchment re-used for a prayer book. (Thanks to my Rare Books classmate--and GovDocs GLA--Tessa Powell for this link!)
This Thursday at 1pm CST, I'll be co-presenting about wikis with Chad Boeninger for Five Weeks to a Social Library. Chad will be presenting "The Wonderful World of Wikis: Applications for Libraries" and then I'll present "The 'How' of Wikis." Our webcast will be available archived afterward; I'll post the link.
I just posted the "best of" from our photoshoot for the Denton Reads project on my Flickr account. I took these last week to use for flyers and posters. I'm printing them to take the to DR meeting tomorrow at Barnes & Noble, so that committee members can decide which images they'd like to use for various purposes. Chuck and I have a Graphics Team meeting Friday to discuss our progress on the poster and bookmarks, and to brainstorm what events will need flyers.
I've also rasterized the logo so that it can be blown up to larger sizes, and I'm trying to do the same with the logo text... but Adobe Illustrator keeps crashing.
If I'm going to continue to be involved in producing various library graphics, I'm really going to need to take a graphics design course at some point. I think I'll consider taking one in the fall.
A geek's view of politics: reviews of presidential campaign websites.
To continue the "To PhD or Not to PhD" discussion, my husband Alex sent me a link to this Census Bureau document yesterday: "The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings." Not only is it a fascinating report, but it shows that I've got my husband using govdocs now!
This is a fascinating Smithsonian article about X-rays revealing a hidden text by Archimedes--it had been scraped off and the parchment re-used for a prayer book. (Thanks to my Rare Books classmate--and GovDocs GLA--Tessa Powell for this link!)
This Thursday at 1pm CST, I'll be co-presenting about wikis with Chad Boeninger for Five Weeks to a Social Library. Chad will be presenting "The Wonderful World of Wikis: Applications for Libraries" and then I'll present "The 'How' of Wikis." Our webcast will be available archived afterward; I'll post the link.
I just posted the "best of" from our photoshoot for the Denton Reads project on my Flickr account. I took these last week to use for flyers and posters. I'm printing them to take the to DR meeting tomorrow at Barnes & Noble, so that committee members can decide which images they'd like to use for various purposes. Chuck and I have a Graphics Team meeting Friday to discuss our progress on the poster and bookmarks, and to brainstorm what events will need flyers.
I've also rasterized the logo so that it can be blown up to larger sizes, and I'm trying to do the same with the logo text... but Adobe Illustrator keeps crashing.
If I'm going to continue to be involved in producing various library graphics, I'm really going to need to take a graphics design course at some point. I think I'll consider taking one in the fall.
A geek's view of politics: reviews of presidential campaign websites.
1.30.2007
Doing A Doctoral Double-Take
Oh, how I hate to eat my words.
For any of you who read my previous post on "Debating the Doctorate," well... I still am. The longer I work in this position, the more I become interested in an administrative career. Particularly since my responsibilities have become a bit broader after my previous boss's departure.
So I'll add a few more points to that discussion: yes, I still believe that if you're not looking for an administrative position, there's little reason to while away your money and time on a doctorate. But if you're looking toward the admin office, it's pretty much a requirement. I'm tempted by UNT's IS-Doc program, both for its library birthplace and its intense interdisciplinary nature. But I have a friend in the Educational Administration / Higher Education PhD program, and it sounds extremely practical, as well as interesting.
So... consider my mind re-opened on this point.
Unrelated Banter:
I've been listening to stories on SMU's tiff about the Bush Presidential Library via NPR, and now it looks like the story's hit FGI. It seems a little silly to me--I'd think that most people would be intelligent enough to disassociate W's politics from SMU as an institution--but then again, I don't know that I'd want those associations resting in my backyard, either.
Today, my new student assistant started work and jumped right into creating metadata for CRS reports. Between that and dealing with enough email to weed it down to 18 messages in my inbox, it's been a nicely productive day (this despite the fact that a flat tire cost me three hours this morning).
We're about to start two new digital projects this (or possibly next) week... I can't wait!
For any of you who read my previous post on "Debating the Doctorate," well... I still am. The longer I work in this position, the more I become interested in an administrative career. Particularly since my responsibilities have become a bit broader after my previous boss's departure.
So I'll add a few more points to that discussion: yes, I still believe that if you're not looking for an administrative position, there's little reason to while away your money and time on a doctorate. But if you're looking toward the admin office, it's pretty much a requirement. I'm tempted by UNT's IS-Doc program, both for its library birthplace and its intense interdisciplinary nature. But I have a friend in the Educational Administration / Higher Education PhD program, and it sounds extremely practical, as well as interesting.
So... consider my mind re-opened on this point.
Unrelated Banter:
I've been listening to stories on SMU's tiff about the Bush Presidential Library via NPR, and now it looks like the story's hit FGI. It seems a little silly to me--I'd think that most people would be intelligent enough to disassociate W's politics from SMU as an institution--but then again, I don't know that I'd want those associations resting in my backyard, either.
Today, my new student assistant started work and jumped right into creating metadata for CRS reports. Between that and dealing with enough email to weed it down to 18 messages in my inbox, it's been a nicely productive day (this despite the fact that a flat tire cost me three hours this morning).
We're about to start two new digital projects this (or possibly next) week... I can't wait!
10.04.2006
Debating the Doctorate
I've debated the value of a doctorate for a non-teaching librarian in my Academic Librarianship course, with library school students, and with my boss. All these conversations came back to me today when I read Jill Hurst-Wahl's post about further education (she asks some great devil's-advocate questions). She mentions this valuable book aimed at we in the over-educated (or the desire-to-be-over-educated) category:
"Getting What You Came for: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or a Ph.D."
I love this quote at the beginning of the second chapter:
During the Dark Times between researching my thesis and writing it (a year in which I had little guidance, a fruitless job hunt, and a frantic scramble to find an alternate career to teaching), I certainly felt the heavy truth of that statement. I pondered getting out of the Art History program completely (I'd already taken the core courses for library school) and cutting my losses. But I was encouraged by the then-head of SLIS's digitization program (thank you, Dr. Hastings!) and my new major professor--my previous one having left the university--(thank you, Dr. Donahue-Wallace!) to persevere. After Dr. D-W took over, I began and completed my thesis in less than five months--which proves that, as this book professes, you don't have to spend forever on it--but I discovered this only after a year and a half spent fearing it, avoiding it, feeling lost, and having regular nightmares about one of the professors on my Thesis Committee (part of that "ritual humiliation" thing).
I'm blessed now to be in a position at an academic library where second masters' are encouraged, rather than at a public or other position, where I might feel that my time, effort, and money were wasted. I'm even currently taking a class that I'm very interested in, albeit at non-degree-seeking status. But as I don't currently have the desire to teach, I can't see any purpose to starting a PhD, in any subject. I don't think I can justify the time, money, and effort not only for myself, but for my husband and family. I already spent 5 1/2 of our 6 years of married life in school; the first two years in particular, I'm sure my in-laws thought that "I've got homework" was just my periennial excuse. I did schoolwork all the time--every holiday, family dinner, weekend, evening. Much as I love this class, I'm immensely relieved that the pressure and burden of school is (mostly) gone.
Of course, there's then the small fact that after spending 24 out of 28 years in school, it's still bizarre to try to think of myself outside of the student-mindset. Not a small portion of my (and my husband's) decision for me to enroll this semester was due to the belief that if I quit school cold-turkey, my brain might break.
And now you understand why I work on a university campus. It's all because my parents spent my formative years stressing the importance of a college education--eleven years of higher education later, it's the only place that feels right.
Update: Yikes. Five of my last six post titles are alliterative. Maybe I took that English degree a little too seriously...
"Getting What You Came for: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning a Master's or a Ph.D."
I love this quote at the beginning of the second chapter:
"Graduate school is a ritual humiliation in which novice academics are initiated into their respective disciplines."
During the Dark Times between researching my thesis and writing it (a year in which I had little guidance, a fruitless job hunt, and a frantic scramble to find an alternate career to teaching), I certainly felt the heavy truth of that statement. I pondered getting out of the Art History program completely (I'd already taken the core courses for library school) and cutting my losses. But I was encouraged by the then-head of SLIS's digitization program (thank you, Dr. Hastings!) and my new major professor--my previous one having left the university--(thank you, Dr. Donahue-Wallace!) to persevere. After Dr. D-W took over, I began and completed my thesis in less than five months--which proves that, as this book professes, you don't have to spend forever on it--but I discovered this only after a year and a half spent fearing it, avoiding it, feeling lost, and having regular nightmares about one of the professors on my Thesis Committee (part of that "ritual humiliation" thing).
I'm blessed now to be in a position at an academic library where second masters' are encouraged, rather than at a public or other position, where I might feel that my time, effort, and money were wasted. I'm even currently taking a class that I'm very interested in, albeit at non-degree-seeking status. But as I don't currently have the desire to teach, I can't see any purpose to starting a PhD, in any subject. I don't think I can justify the time, money, and effort not only for myself, but for my husband and family. I already spent 5 1/2 of our 6 years of married life in school; the first two years in particular, I'm sure my in-laws thought that "I've got homework" was just my periennial excuse. I did schoolwork all the time--every holiday, family dinner, weekend, evening. Much as I love this class, I'm immensely relieved that the pressure and burden of school is (mostly) gone.
Of course, there's then the small fact that after spending 24 out of 28 years in school, it's still bizarre to try to think of myself outside of the student-mindset. Not a small portion of my (and my husband's) decision for me to enroll this semester was due to the belief that if I quit school cold-turkey, my brain might break.
And now you understand why I work on a university campus. It's all because my parents spent my formative years stressing the importance of a college education--eleven years of higher education later, it's the only place that feels right.
Update: Yikes. Five of my last six post titles are alliterative. Maybe I took that English degree a little too seriously...
9.29.2006
Cool, Creative Colleagues
Sometimes I feel like my colleagues are divided into distinct categories: the art people, the library people, and the techie people (not to imply that I don't know people outside of these circles, as well). It's great to know a wide range of people, but sometimes I forget that they don't all share all of my interests.
That's been one of the great aspects of taking a(nother) course in digital imaging; they are all, to some extent, involved in and/or passionate about art/images, libraries, and technology. It's also been one of the pleasures of my job, getting to work with our Digital Projects Unit, which handles most of the UNT Libraries' scanning and metadata. I'm already missing my fellow former-GLA, Kristen, fellow art-history degree-er and blogger. And I've been chatting with La-La Librarian, who is not only an artist in library school who has a tech-leaning job, but is also familiar with my GovDocs stomping grounds.
Isn't it nice to have company?
That's been one of the great aspects of taking a(nother) course in digital imaging; they are all, to some extent, involved in and/or passionate about art/images, libraries, and technology. It's also been one of the pleasures of my job, getting to work with our Digital Projects Unit, which handles most of the UNT Libraries' scanning and metadata. I'm already missing my fellow former-GLA, Kristen, fellow art-history degree-er and blogger. And I've been chatting with La-La Librarian, who is not only an artist in library school who has a tech-leaning job, but is also familiar with my GovDocs stomping grounds.
Isn't it nice to have company?
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