If I had to pick a single song to define my time as an undergrad, it would likely be this one. The song only took on more relevance after I went to York, England in 1995 for a four-month exchange.
I post it today in honour of Chris McG., one of the American exchange students who I hung out with way too much during the semester and who just found me on Facebook the other night. Chris, his then-girlfriend (and now wife) Kelly and a guy named Brian Smith (good luck finding somebody with that name on Facebook!) formed a folk-punk group called “The Banned” which was probably one of the single most enjoyable experiences of my life. (I would post some lyrics but I'm aware that my mother-in-law reads this site so I'll take a pass on that.)
“How many librarians does it take to change a light bulb?” “I don't know but I can look it up for you…”
(One of our maintenance guys told me this one today. Of course, I immediately tried to come up with a “How many maintenance guys does it take to look something up in the ready reference collection?” joke to fire back at him. But I couldn't come up with a witty punchline in that instant. I'm sure something will come to me at 3am this morning. Hmm, I wonder if he's listed in the phone book…)
After former FIMS classmate and current RPL colleague Trudi S. gave a very well-received “Introduction to Web 2.0” session for a mixture of staff members from across the RPL system, I was asked by one of our branch heads if I could repeat this training for them during their next staff meeting so all of their staff members could hear the presentation.
Knowing there was a huge untapped demand for this type of training, I decided to extend the offer to all of our branches and so far four of them have taken me up on it. So tomorrow I'm doing my first session and quite looking forward to it. Having done nearly fifty of these types of sessions for the branch librarians across Southeast Regional Library, I'm sure my spiel will come back to me quite quickly!
Plus I'm also working on developing an RPL-specific version the “23 Things/5 Weeks to a Social Library“-type programs that you'll find in various libraries across North America and around the world. Hopefully we can get that launched in a timely fashion and capitalize on the interest generated by a column written by one of our branch librarians on the topic of “23 Things” for our internal e-newsletter, the session Trudi did and another session we're holding in March on the specific use of Web 2.0 technologies at RPL.
The role of management is to do what's in the best interest of the organization. The role of the union is to do what's in the best interest of the people who make up its membership.
Union members are expected to adhere to the rules and duties described in the union contract and their job description. Professional librarians often do duties beyond what is expected – whether it is working at home, undertaking professional development activities on their own time or otherwise focusing more on their role as professionals than their role as union members.
To the general public, librarian is a term that can be applied to anyone who works in a library. To some “on the inside”, only those holding the MLIS can truly be called “librarians”.
A speaker at the Canadian Library HR Summit made the provocative comment that libraries aren't about cataloging and reference and haven't been for a long time. Some would go so far as to say libraries aren't about books anymore either.
When people think of libraries, the first word to come to mind is likely “books”. When people think of libraries, many librarians want the first word to come to their minds to be “information.”
Libraries receive most of their funding from municipal sources. In the information age and for a mobile populace, libraries increasingly serve patrons from outside their civc boundaries.
Whether you did a library science degree in 1950 or 1980, you'd likely learn essentially the same things about librarianship. If you did a library science degree since 1990, in many ways, it would be as if you've obtained a completely different degree.
Part of the selling point of librarianship is the fact that there were reports that many boomer librarians were nearing retirement which would create many job openings and allow young librarians to advance much more quickly in their careers than they may have in the past. Unlike nursing and teaching (the two other female-dominated professions that librarianship shares many similarities with), the burn-out rate for senior librarians is much lower and in fact, many stay in their jobs long past retirement age because they enjoy the work so much.
Some librarians are among the most activist, involved people you'll likely ever meet. Some librarians are among the most conservative, cautious people you'll likely ever meet.
I'm sure there are others I'm missing. I may come back and add more as I think of other examples.
Amy was good enough to a) admit no one tagged her but she was doing it anyhow then b) tag me for the “Seven Things You May Not Know About Me” meme that's going around.
The only reason I mention that first part is because that's similar to my own approach to web memes – if I come across something that catches my attention, I do it whether I've been tagged or not. And I don't bother tagging people (though I'm glad Amy tagged me – always fun to be touched, if only virtually, by a Library Journal “Mover and Shaker”! ) working on the assumption that if anybody comes across a meme I post on my blog, they'll either do it themselves or they won't.
So, with all kinds of unnecessary explanation out of the way, here's seven things you might not know about me, pretty much as they pop into my head…
1. I've been married three times…to the same woman. (I did detail the explanation behind this but that was one of my first-ever blog posts so most people probably haven't seen it.)
2. I have an irrational fear of things blowing up in my face – everything from when I light a BBQ to boosting a car battery to opening a bag of microwave popcorn. It's not a debilitating fear and I do manage to do all three of those things (plus other tasks of a potentially explosive nature) on a regular basis. But each time I do, I always take a *really* deep breath.
3. I just read an entry in my personal journal (ie. non-blog) from about fifteen years ago when I tried to guess where I'd be in twenty years. I was (surprisingly) pretty close for most of it except that I listed about ten different types of work I might be doing and “librarian” was nowhere on the list.
4. If I had to work a retail-type job, I think I'd be pretty happy in Staples. In fact, I love Staples the way most men love Home Depot.
5. I was a massive fan of professional wrestling growing up and though I don't watch it regularly anymore, I still try to at least sort of follow the storylines and comings and goings of wrestlers via various wrestling web sites and watching when I catch one of the various programs on TV. (And yes, “something to do with pro wrestling” was one of the items on the list I mentioned in #3.)
6. I've personally only known one person who made the NHL. David Karpa was a tough-guy defenseman who had a 10-year run with the Quebec Nordiques, Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers. He was a couple years older than me but because we grew up on the same street, I'm proud to know that I've stopped an NHL-level player's slapshots of a frozen tennis ball with my testicles!
7. I've also seen this meme going around as “25 Things You May Not Know About Me” but I often struggle to write longer blog posts these days with the constant interruptions of the Spaceman. (Actually, that may not be a secret to anyone who's paying attention to how many one-link blog posts, photos and videos I'm relying on lately! )
(8. Okay, that last one was pretty weak so a bonus one: Shea and I first met as college roommates. My family owned a townhouse near the University and her mom heard that we might have a room available when talking to someone from my hometown at a funeral. To this day, a running joke is that Shea's mom doesn't know when Shea and I went from roommates and actually started dating! )
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