The Purposeful Bloggist

applying for The Dream Job March 10, 2011

I wasn’t sure what I would do with this blog after graduation. Then I realized that helping others apply for their first professional job is every bit as important as trying to smooth the path through library school. Junie, my current supervisor has given me some incredible pointers about cover letters that will hopefully be key to moving on up to the big time.

The three descriptors of your experience are: proficient, experienced, and familiar. Saying that you are “expert” is marginally ok, but can be dangerous if it’s not absolutely true and verifiable.

emphasise the volume count and/or databases in your current library (if you have a job, that is) to the extent to which it is comparable to the library with the job you’re after. Look up their website and see what’s there so you will be ready to talk about their collection.

“team orientation” is a very common thing to want in ads – give examples of the collaborative projects you’ve worked on with others.

writing awards = communication skills

presentations go toward exhibits or displays if you don’t have those

State your Master’s Degree is from an ALA-accredited program at the very beginning!! Doc Martens also mentioned this since HR will weed you out from the beginning if it is not clear. Too many “degree” options out there, taking advantage of the poor and the desparate. But that’s a different blog…

The Long Tail Tale June 9, 2010

Coming into the final stages of the program and time to organize the accumulated work for portfolio presentation.   Starting with the framework and hoping that form dictates function.   Lynn gave me a great piece of advice.   When starting a big project, take on 10 minutes of the task.  Anyone can do 10 minutes of something, right?   If at that point you need a break, go!   then arrange another 10 minutes.  If, on the other hand, the 10 minutes turns into a good stretch, then bravo!    Those combined little increments add up to big returns on investment.   It’s like the Amazon theory of project management.

Does this Blackberry make my head look fat? May 7, 2010

Oh dear.  I was so determined to be nice in this blog, but the continuing drag of thinking is pulling me back.  Thank God.  My face was about to fall off from all the smiling.

thinking about my “issues” paper for cataloging, I jotted down something yesterday about social tagging and how it was crowd wisdom that condemned Socrates to death.   I deleted it the next day for being too “snarky.”   compared to the last paragraph of my draft of the cataloging paper, which I will have to severely edit, I have only begun to snark!

before I cut this whole section though, I decided that I owe it to myself and maybe to cataloging to take up my mantle of snarkiness, bust out the metaphors and tell it like it is – or ought to be.    On the adoption of RDA as a means to make the library work like Google…

“This raises the issue of why libraries want to join the forces of Google and Amazon for world domination in the first place.   Libraries serve a different purpose than the profit-driven giants of digital enterprise – at least one would hope that they do.  It seems so obvious, but it bears repeating again and again: digital material requires digital reading devices.  Not every library user has one.  Not every library user wants one.  Libraries advocating RDA as a means to make catalogs more like search engines seem to be ignoring that a great deal of library material is still in print book format and there are a great many library users who like it that way.  For some, cluttering the library OPAC catalog with holdings from all other institutions makes it more confusing and difficult to use.  Combining book records with journal article titles, dissertations, white papers, old comic books, maps, used grocery lists, and internet resources is extremely irritating when a person is looking for a book – one with pages that a person can check out and take with them to the park. 

Assuming that all the world is going digital is not only speculative, it is elitist.   There.  I said it.  Elitist, elitist, elitist.   The biggest winner appears to be Apple with its growing array of electronics designed to fit all needs, especially those that come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. 

Why would the library want to encourage this consumerist view of information?   Furthermore, how does the library sustain such a temporal and transient philosophy?  Are the people using Google today suddenly going to change to the library’s OPAC because we copied the original?  

Perhaps the problem is not with AACR2, with RDA, with the catalog, or with the traditional library.  The problem may well be in the assumption that catering to the whims of people who can afford an iPad will save the library. ” 

yes, I have to edit it all away, but I just had to say it.  That’s probably why I’ve been divorced twice.

A Model that Lets it Be December 1, 2009

I am trying to create a model for my final paper and I am sort of caught up in the cool software.   my daughter sent me this for encouragement.   Thanks baby girl!

Water on the Moon November 14, 2009

there’s been a lot of reading in 5053 about  Truth.    the consensus is that there is none.   everything we know is a construct that is relative and contextualized.    Every society functions according to its agreed set of truths. 

until just today, most of us thought (or should that be “consensed?”  is consensed a word?   it is now.  I proclaim the verb “to consense” now exists)  that the moon was a dry rock.   No hope of life, mainly because there was no water.   How thrilling to find something new, about something that was assumed to be true  for so long.   Guess they will be re-writing a lot of science books this year. 

time to go start that final paper for 5053.

Control Plus! November 1, 2009

While going through websites for health and service information, I found out that “control +” enlarges the information on the screen while “control -” makes it smaller.   It seems to work for all webpages.   Maybe ya’ll knew this, but I didn’t!   I had a senior citizen (about my age) in the library last week.  We were laughing that even with our biggest bifocal glasses we were having a hard time with most of the print in websites.  “Control +” would have been a real help– if only I’d known!   

Kudos to the Social Security Adminstration website for putting information about this helpful function on their webpage.   Boo to the Medicare webpage for NOT putting this in big, bold print.    and Thank You Dr. Van Fleet for these seven tedious, time consuming exercises that have been so useful in so many ways.

I just used my skills today – Do Da! Do Da! October 30, 2009

sing along with me!  

A former faculty member who is also the parent of a middle school-age child just called about resources I would recommend for his daughter’s science fair project.   It was related to germs and bacteria SO I got to recommend a few of the neat things I learned at the MLA conference including a few of the features of Medline Plus  that might appeal to the science fair set, and Tox Town which they could access from home FREE.  I also told him about a database we have here on campus that Dr. Van Fleet introduced to those of us in her reference class: AccessScience which they can come in and use on campus.   Dad was very happy.   Let’s hope the daughter is as enthusiastic.

Yippee!   I’ve acquired some Skilz!

SCC MLA Conference October 26, 2009

The first thing I learned during the conference was not to neglect blogging while in situ.    now, I have a paper to write for the generous folks at NLM as well as updating other blogs and facebook pages about the experience.   Oh.  and school work.   that too.     I seriously dreamed last night about a paper that I had to submit, but I ended up riding escalators in some kind of education mall that went nowhere.    3am, I wake up in a panic thinking about all the things I have not done.    So, I intend to focus now on what I accomplished.   And then, I’m going to bed.

suffice it to say that the experience was great.   As a student rep, I was able to attend all the events and many presentations.    More libraries need to sponsor staff / participants – I have no doubt it would improve library service a hundred-fold.   I also learned to always stay at the hotel where the conference is being held.   there is more to life than a penny saved.   for one, lots of good conversation takes place in the free time between meetings and in the evening.    My library friend tells me that there is a whole Twittersphere of information going on behind the scenes as well.   and for another, it is just plain fun to associate with such nice people and to make friends.    It’s good to have library peeps.   We are so isolated in grad school.   I do not think that is healthy.

you can catch the bowdlerized version of the conference on the OLISSA facebook page and the NLM blog for starters.   It really was great.   I hope everyone applies for the scholarship next year.   I was given the Princess treatment — and I liked it.   If you want information, just ask me or take a look at the NLM website.   The call for applicants came through my OU email, so I encourage everyone to look for future opportunities. 

Petit et Precis October 12, 2009

in a recent email, Dr. White who is teaching 5053 offered the following strategy for writing a short analytical paper:

Think of arguing your case in front of the Supreme Court and you have 30 minutes to state your case or risk the chance of losing. You must present your case early and convince the courts that you actually have a case, then defend your case (justify why they should rule in your favor).  Opinions don’t really matter. Assertions are useless. Jibber jabber is a waste of time and you will be defeated. We don’t want that. 

Well put!  This is a great analogy for me, since I find short papers very difficult – especially beginning them.  They feel so abrupt.   This strategy puts it into perspective.   It is not narrative writing.  For this next paper, I am going to close the white picketed gate to my  flowery garden of rhapsodic prose and GET ON WITH IT.

reference reflections September 29, 2009

in 5513, Dr. Van Fleet asked what we thought were some reasons why people did not choose to approach the reference or information desk for help.   my response was just a little too unformed to vocalize in class, but…

I’ve worked at many institutions, so I hope that no one takes the following observations “personally.”   and, let me start by saying that I realize not everyone is as drawn to working at the information desk as moi.  Caveat in loco, I have witnessed just how many people utterly hate reference.   for some, it is an absolute punishment to be scheduled an extra hour “out there.”    They have a lot of work to do.   and the longer they are out of their offices, the more work is piling up on their chairs.    These people have other important duties besides reference, and not doing that kind of work is VERY obvious when it comes time for performance evaluations.   Did you process all the 19th century microfiche?   the answer is a quantifiable yes-no.   Did you provide adequate customer service to that student looking for a topic in Sociology?     a qualitative “yes” and who’s to argue? 

I’ve also worked in places in which the director makes it clear that when we are working on the information desk, we are to take “real work” out there with us.    we aren’t to “just sit there” waiting to be approached.    so here we are, with a stack of cataloging items with order forms to sort, or a box of random gov docs that just arrived, or a huge cart of items from the bindery that all have to be processed – well, no wonder the nice library users don’t want to interrupt us.   we look overwhelmed with “real work” as opposed to – what – the “imaginative fun” of reference?   Well, ok.  except that’s exactly what providing reference service is like to me, but you get the point. 

Part of the problem as I see it is that reference is considered of secondary importance to other functions.   the institutions in which I’ve worked so far have all been too small to hire librarians dedicated to nothing but answering reference inquiries all day.    This comes from the top-down.    The comment “you have to take real work out to the information desk during your shift” speaks volumes about what that director considers the “real work” of staff, and of what a “shift” should mean to the organization.    if I have learned anything from Library 2.0, it is that we must focus on the information customer – if they are priority, then why would library staff consider anything else above the primary interaction that occurs during the reference interview?

When I’m Library Director, reference will be a privileged position.   only the select few will be allowed to interact with customers.    people who grumble about having to fill in, will be remanded to the nether regions of tech services.    Those with honor will be allowed to spend the time between questions exploring the databases, perusing new reference works, reading an almanac or devising tutorials.   Whatever makes them better, sharper, faster, and more knowledgable in their art – that’s what they’ll do.   They’ll get up and walk around, looking for lost souls in the stacks or at the computers.    We’ll all be Library Angels….

when I’m Library Director in heaven, that is.  O:)