Take a Look at TechDirt

If you want to get a feel for what's going on in technology beyond the limited world of librariana, I would suggest adding TechDirt to your feed list. Since TechDirt already has about a million readers, you may know of it already, but if not, take a look.

Self-described as "easily digestible tech news," TechDirt consists of well-written items covering a wide range of technology-related topics, done in an engaging and often amusing personal voice. I find it's a quick, easy way to get quality info from outside my little box.

WDT

Long Time, No Post...

...and there's so much out there to talk about, I feel like I'm falling down on my blogging job.

However, I'm trying to cut myself some slack, as I have an absolute inability to keep any thought in my head for the requisite 31 seconds these days. So, go check out LISNews for all the libsci chatter that's fit to blog, and don't miss T. Scott's "Librarian 5.0" for your "yes, of course, THAT'S what I should be doing" fix, and check back sometime later for deep thoughts from me.

WDT

My Mental Snapshot

Not very librarian-y today; sorry about that.

1. Once two competing cognitions are held simultaneously, the individual can be said to be in a state of "cognitive dissonance"...Instantly, this conflicting cognition creates an imbalance between itself and the original cognition. This conflicted state of mind will, necessarily, seek to attain psychological consonance, i.e. a balance between competing cognitions.

2. CHICAGO (Reuters) - Fatter rear ends are causing many drug injections to miss their mark, requiring longer needles to reach buttock muscle, researchers said on Monday. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051129/od_nm/buttocks_dc).

WDT

LiveBlogging, Lame-o Style

Cool people blog live from conferences like Internet Librarian; here's my live blog from room 1040 Dykes Library, viewing the College of DuPage webcast happening right now.

First, I have to say that BCR gets major kudos for making these teleconferences available via the web for their members. Our cost for hosting this interesting event: absolutely nothing. There are four of us sacked out in our little cozy nook, getting updated and continuing education the easy way. If you don't usually make the time for the DuPage bradcasts, this is a great way to go about it.

Second, the quality is greatly improved this year over last, although that may be just because it is the Stephen Bell show this time and not a panel.

Finally, these shows are often aimed at the lowest common denominator and sometimes I come away saying, golly, I didn't get anything new out of that. Today's show is a nice mix of the basic and not-so-basic, and I've gotten a lot of good things for the module of my information resouces class that will be focusing on Google and web searching.

The next show isn't until February 3, but it looks like a showstopper ("three ways the library profession is broken and four ways to fix it"). If you're in BCR territory, register now with them; anyone else, you can pay up at the DuPage site.

WDT

CV vs. Resume

I've been asked for a copy of my CV, and fortunately I have one available that is only about (ahem) a year behind, so I can update it and whip it out without too much fuss. I am once again kicking myself for not keeping all this in a database that could then be used to populate the document, but that's not what this post is about.

I don't like submitting a CV, because it's so--so--sparse, I guess, compared to my resume. My resume is full of job activities and action verbs, and I feel like it is an authentic representation of my work life. The CV makes me feel inadequate, with its emphasis and teaching, publishing, and presentations. I feel like a lot of what is there is padding (small articles, presentations at local conferences, etc.).

My resume is substance; my CV is air. I don't like that.

But then again, one thing that my CV highlights about me that my resume almost totally misses is my commitment to sharing in the library field. Sure, I did a lot of my presentations under the roof of the NNLM, but I've been a private citizen for a year now, and a third of my CV content is from 2005. I present (and am trying to publish more) for the same reason I blog: I have all these thoughts up here, and it helps me clarify and understand to share them with someone else. It is a huge added bonus that maybe hearing my thoughts can help someone else think on their own.

So, maybe my CV is more substantive than my resume after all; from this perspective, the resume is about what I do while the CV is about who I am, and there is nothing airy about that.

The Luckiest Library Patron

I am IMMENSELY fortunate to have the good luck and good sense to live in Johnson County, Kansas, home to what absolutely has to be one of the best public libraries in the country. Many people scoff at the suburbs, and folks on the Missouri side howl at our tax rates (although the property taxes in Cass County, MO, and Johnson County, KS, aren't really that different), but money CAN buy happiness when it comes to public library services.

I was reminded of my good fortune yet again when I was reading Tim Roger's blog and marvelling that such a great mind is working for !me! the taxpayer. Tim wants a library environment where !I! have a say, and where !I! can connect and communicate with other patrons. He wants to take !my! library the next step, and I'm so lucky to get to come along.

Right there with him is Erica Reynolds, who I am certain will make sure that !I! have access to !my! library wherever and whenever I happen to be. I'm the luckiest library patron!

The amount of my taxes that go to JCL is WAY too small. Even with my regular donations in the form of fines, it's not enough. We're there once a week, if not more, and we use literally thousands of dollars of resources every year.

Not all libraries can be Johnson County, but all librarians should strive to be like Tim and Erica: tuned into the needs of their communities and the possibilities that buildings, web sites, and people can provide.

WDT

Happy Birthday to Me!

Updates:
Vegas=great, even for a square like me. Recommended for all persons over the age of 21.

Tablet=toast. Apparently the hard drive went all soft on me. Estimated return date unknown.

Birthday=happy. Happy day to Krafty as well.

Blog name change=coming up after this post is done.

Finally, a little bit on why I consider myself to be Gen X but not Next Gen. I think the easiest way to do this is in a list:

(Warning to any NextGens who might read me: you will most likely find this offensive. Broad generalizations are often offensive but can be useful. Apologies in advance.)

Gen X (me): Be underemployed for a while but consistently work up into positions with decent duties and pay.
NextGen (not me): Be underemployed for a long time while refusing to move, waiting for the "perfect" job, and complaining loudly about the lack of MLS jobs.

Gen X (me): Embrace self-directed learning, using the degree as a springboard.
NextGen (not me): Demand "more" from MLS programs, including "real reference" but dear Lord, not "real catalgoing."

Gen X (me): Desire to remake the library and the library world into a more flexible, open environment. Understand that to do this, you often must move into management.
NextGen (not me): Complain loudly about problems in the profession while saying, "I never plan to be a manager."

Gen X (me): As we are used to being ignored (between the Boomers and the Millenials), develop an understanding that everyone has something to contribute, even the crazy woman who's been in tech services longer than I've been alive.
NextGen (not me): Complain (more!) about not being "heard" without having the decency to hear others.
TRUTH IN LENDING STATEMENT: This is something I believe and strive for but do not always achieve. I'm working on it.

There's more, but I think that's enough. New MLSes: avoid the excesses of NextGenness by seeing opportunity everywhere. Talk less while seeing and hearing more. And don't ever, EVER, tell someone you want to work in a medical library "because I have a lot of medical problems myself."

WDT

Tablet DOA

For those of you interested in my tablet PC doings, I thought I would share the news that for the moment it is DOA. It will start booting into Windows and then will go no further. I'm turning it in to for a visit to the Tablet Witch Doctor and hopefully it will come back good as new.

Fortunately, my counterpart in charge of this project warned me that these things were buggy, so I set GoBinder to do a daily backup onto the included 1GB secure digital card and saved everything else to our network drive. I won't lose anything except my preferences in FireFox, thank goodness.

I did drop the tablet the other day; it bounced nicely. I don't know if this is related or not, but it seems like the problems would have showed up sooner if they were actually caused by the incident. We'll see.

WDT

Sparse Posting This Week

Today: trying to get myself organized and prioritized
Tomorrow: nonstop meetings, final preparations
Wednesday-Friday: LAS VEGAS!

I am NOT taking my tablet and I WILL NOT be checking email for forty-eight glorious hours. I do plan to have as much fun as a light-drinking, non-smoking, limited-interest-in-gambling, limited funds, married person can have, which apparently is QUITE A LOT!

WDT

Another Tablet Update

Although I am not young enough that I learned to type and write at the same time, I am young enough that by the time I entered college, I was doing all of my intellectual work on the computer, so it has been YEARS since I have really done any substantial work by hand.

However, I have found that there are a number of things that I am more interested in writing now that I have the tablet and GoBinder. For example, I am mapping out the information resources in health policy and management class that I will be teaching next summer (if we can sucker enough students into it--I mean, convince enough students to participate), and I could be typing up an outline in Word (or OpenOfficeText), but I'm not. Instead, I'm hand-scribbling notes in GoBinder.

Cutting and pasting is possible but impractical in GoBinder, and so there are literally scribbles on my notes. Why would I choose this replica of a relic (handwritten notes) over the clean, clear typed format that I've known and loved for the vast majority of my intellectual life?

I think it has something to do with the creative nature of this particular work. Each session outline is evolving as I think through it, and changes in one session create changes in another. I had six notes pages open, and was able to pop through them in a very non-linear fashion, adding and subtracting, commenting and annotating as I went. Typing up an outline in MSWord would be a very dry substitute, and actually, I would probably print it out and write all over it anyway.

I will have to type up the outline when it's time to share, and I may get aggravated when I have 18 notes pages at the end instead of the six I am working with now, but for the moment it seems like a real perk to the machine.

Piled Higher and Deeper

If you're interested, here's the current version of my statement of research interests for my PhD application. What do you think? Useful to the profession? Silly? Full of typos?

WDT
**************
Statement of Research Interests and Career Goals
Whitney E. Davison-Turley
November 2005

How do libraries measure their impact? How do we measure and express our value? This question is becoming more important as libraries of all types face increasing resource competition, and simply reporting statistics like the number of children at story time, total annual circulation, or number of database hits does not at all represent what it is modern libraries do for and mean to the groups we serve.

I want to focus my research on ways in which we can make our impact more clear, drawing on quantitative and qualitative strategies from librarianship and the social sciences as well as business, health care, and education. In my current position at an academic medical center, the question may involve providing mobile information resources for students. Do the students who use the resources get better grades on rotations or do better on their exams? Can we determine long-term if this makes them better doctors? And the next important question: if there is some difference, is the involvement of a librarian at all important? Similar questions can be asked of almost any library service provided at any library. What is the true, endpoint impact of what we do?

I hope through my research to explore assessment and evaluation of this kind of endpoint impact, and to develop processes that librarians of all kinds can use. We experience our value in the smile of a child at story time, as a thank you from a student, or as an acknowledgment in a research article; how can we encode that value into quantifiable statements of “this is how I improved the world today and this is why it is important”?

Completing a PhD will allow me to pursue three career goals: first, it will provide the credential I need for promotion as I eventually hope to become a library director, and a PhD is a requirement for advancement to that level. However, the PhD will also allow me to teach; some of my most rewarding professional experiences have been teaching other librarians, and I want to find a way to integrate teaching into my professional life even as I plan to move up in library management. Finally, pursing a PhD will provide me with the rationale and the support structure to produce research which I sincerely hope will be of value to the profession. I have seen repeated need for this kind of assessment data and evaluation planing across library types, and I have a strong desire to contribute in this area.

More 43 Folders-Inspired Stuff

Do you want to "work," or do you want to actually get work done?

Techno-distraction kills my ability to get work done. There are a number of possible cluprits: IM, email, Yahoo! Music (totally worth the $30 for the "chill" station), Bloglines, Google Desktop, and any number of other toys and gizmos. They all pose such glorious distraction possibilities, and they all seem legitimate. Oh, I'll ask So-and-So a question--I'll look this up--I'll just check this one feed----

I do a lot of work in this environment; I'm wired (or have been rewired) to scan a lot of datastreams as part of my information gathering process. But, if I actually want to get something done, I have to unplug. I can think a thought in half the time, and its usually a clearer, more pointed thought, too.

For what it's worth, I'm checking out now. If you need me for the next 90 minutes, call me on the phone. :)

WDT

The Ten-Minute To-Do

Another good tip from the 43 Folders people: make every item on your to-do list an actual ACTION item, and make it something that can be completed in a reasonable chunk of time (I've decided that for me, this is about 10 minutes).

This tidbit of advice goes against everything I learned in the Franklin Planner Cult Indoctrination, uh, I mean, Productivity Class, I went to waaaay back in 1996. Their point was, don't waste time putting anything on your to-do list than can be done in less time than it takes to write it down.

The problem is that an item like, "Get started with *&@#(#& journal clubs so you don't look like such a slacker compared to Michelle," is simply too complex. It seems like a to-do, but it is actually a project statement with about a jillion little to-dos packed inside it.

However, broken down into tiny chunks, that to-do looks like this:

1. Collect emails into one folder
2. Call Keisha re: phone bridge
3. Make a list of club participants
4. Contact phone club participants
5. Contact chat club participants
6. Etc

These are tasks I can actually manage in the time I have: before a meeting starts, while waiting on hold, or whenever. Larger tasks (e.g., map out first module of Health Policy and Management biblio class) get scheduled for a time I'm at my desk and unencumbered for an hour or longer.

The key difference between this and the Franklin philosophy is that the Franklin folks have you evaluate your tasks by priority and then allot them accordingly. The unfortunate fact is that everything's gotta be done, important or not. So, for me, it seems to work to break it down into atom-sized peices and just do whatever fits in the time slot I have in front of me. At least I get the positive feeling of checking small things off instead of having large items drag along with me for days or weeks.

Queequeg has declared my idea of a KCMetro Librarians' Binge to be square but appealing. If you're a reader and want to come, post a comment and I'll be sure you're on the list. Not like it's an exclusive or anything, but just so's you'll know when it's happening.

WDT

Side Note: Get OpenOffice2. Now.

Don't delay, just go download it, and enjoy. Even if you only do it for the integrated print to PDF function.

Channelling My Inner Patron

I'm getting in touch with my inner patron today. Patrons don't experience things the way we do: classification is a joke (especially LC or NLM--at least Dewey makes some kind of visual sense); databases and the citations they contain are obscure; IT restrictions keep them from doing the things they need or want to do. Libraries are full of barriers and hoops, and librarians aren't always the gentle guides they need to be.

I want to print a 48"x36" document across multiple 8.5"x11" sheets (tiled printing). I've done it a million times before, as it is a cheap way to print large documents which you then trim and glue together. The results are of decent quality, especially for a 30-minute non-competitive poster presentation for which you are essentially filler because no one else signed up. Plus, I get to cut and paste for a while, which is remarkably fun and soothing.

An aside: this is both the volunteer gene and my procrastination tendency (mentioned previously) getting to me at once. The issue here is that I got myself into this, so there's no one to address to alleviate the anxiety and get over the procrastination. I guess I'll have to have a stern chat with myself. I'll do it later.

I have tried every workaround I can think of to get this to come out. The issue appears to be a setting on the color printer that when the memory buffer gets full, it just stops printing. Yes, I could call the IT staff, just like a patron could ask a librarian, but it just seems like it should work. No offense to our IT staff, but they are hard to find, always "busy," and always question what it is I want or what I am doing. Just like we do when a patron asks a question, right? And just like a patron, I am definitely trending towards taking the easy way out (I'll print out handouts and take a projector and shine my poster up on a wall) instead of asking for help.

I sincerely hope the next time a patron comes up to me with one of "those" questions, I can draw on this experience and look at them with soft eyes.

WDT

The Kind of Geek I Am

Just a quick note I thought this audience would appreciate: I have lost the entire day playing with my tablet and GoBinder. It's work-related, so it's a legitimate use of time, but I just have to smile--give me a toy and give me a new way to organize information and I can disappear for hours.

I feel very fortunate that the things I get to do are also the things I like to do; I get paid to get into the "flow" state where task and focus become one. Lucky me.

Ongoing Quest for True Personal Information Management

One potential HUGE perk of the tablet: it came with access to GoBinder, which seems on the surface to do a lot of the things I want my personal information management product to do. It's a matter of finding the time to really get it working, but it appears I actually could have tasks, notes, project plans, documents, etc., etc., all in one place and all searchable. Hmm. My counterpart here is more interested in OneNote because it has better audio and video integration, but I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. I need more darned time!

Guilt item: what do I do with my recent $70 purchase of Franklin swag if I really get into GoBinder? Put 11 months of planner out on EBay?

Also, I have no idea where I stumbled across the reference, but for time management/personal planning/"life hacks," I am completely onboard with the 43 Folders folk. In my original perusal of their content, I really liked Patching Your Personal Suck.

The best part: "You can’t just turn it on and instantly be the thing you wish you were. It takes reflection, thought, iteration, and a personal commitment to facing the stuff at which you suck. And we all suck at something. You totally suck at something, and it secretly drives you nuts every goddamned day."

There's a lot of stuff I suck at, but one of the worst is that I put off doing things that I somehow feel pressured into doing; not stuff that I don't want to do, because there's a lot of that, and I generally just deal and get it done. But, if there's a project or a task that I feel I've been somehow coerced or cornered into, I will delay and delay and delay.

Somewhere else on 43 Folders they talked about dealing with the anxieties that keep you from getting stuff done, and I guess the anxiety here would be "dealing directly with the person who annoyed me by dumping crap on me instead of being a passive-aggressive procrastinator."

Now, THAT'S a task worthy of the GoBinder task list.

WDT

A Quick Tablet Update

Good things:
1. Very high coolness factor
2. Note taking is easier than I thought it would be
3. Darn speedy machine, with darn speedy wireless
4. If left on chair, makes an excellent seat warmer in cool weather

Not-so-good things:
1. Too heavy with additional battery (regular battery life seems to be about 5 hours)
2. Lopsided with additional battery
3. Tablet-specific features are not intuitive and I just don't have the time right now to explore things in depth

To make it my main machine, I need a port replicator which is not forthcoming from any budget stream I can see. This makes it difficult to really be at one with my tablet.

I like the concept of the tablet, but what I want is all of the same functionality in a package the size of a paperback. That would be TRUE portability; get a port replicator and even something tiny could be a main machine.

I can say that a tablet with ubiquitous wireless access eliminates any need for a PDA. I'm willing to lug the extra weight to get full PC functionality.

WDT

Revisiting My Past Life

Many of you know that I play string bass; from the time I picked it up in 5th grade until I was about 19, my one and only desire was to be a musician. As I was pretty darn good, this was an excellent possibility, but life intervened and here I am beating out my librarian blog instead. We never know what path we'll take.

However, music has been on my mind recently, and I finally took a deep breath and took my bass out of its case after almost two years of not playing. The news was not so good; the fingerboard and saddle have loosened, I have two seams open, and the neck warped a little bit. Mercifully, a local shop is going to be able to fix her up for me for a lot less than I thought.

The question then becomes, if I'm going to pay (to have it fixed), am I going to play? I've got to find a new group, make it a priority, yadda, yadda, yadda, and I just don't know if this time I'll be able to get over the ghosts of the past and just enjoy the experience of making music, at whatever level that might be.

I'm just not sure I can do that. We'll see.

WDT

My Kingdom for an AccessMedicine Class Script

So, I'm in the middle of AccessMedicine Promotion Month, and I realize that if I'm supposedly teaching an "AccessMedicine Power Hour" on Friday, by golly, I probably ought to do more than stand up there and say, "Um, this is, like, um, AccessMedicine, or something."

This is where I begin to pine for a single source of librarian education resources. I know someone else out there has already done this; I'm sure their class script would be just fine for my needs. Why do each and every one of us have to continually reinvent the wheel? Gaah!

I guess I'll send a message out to MEDLIB-L and see if anyone is willing to pony up what they've got. And education librarians, I'm looking in your direction with narrowed eyes. Surely there's got to be a better way.