The interface could be a bit more automated but this is still a cool little web site to let you test your knowledge of various aspects of library science.
(via LISNews)
This is pretty freaking funny…
(via MetaFilter)
Top 10 Jeopardy Mishaps (with all kinds of YouTubey goodness)
The title of the post I link to is “Top 10 Jeopardy Mishaps” but they're really the “Top 10 Jeopardy Moments”. </pedant>
CKUA is one of Canada's oldest, coolest and best independent radio stations. And they're currently looking for a librarian. If you're into music of all kinds and/or interested in media librarianship, I can't think of a better job in all of Canada.
Ask MetaFilter is a great site I've referenced a few times before. As I write this, this recent question
has almost 300 “favourite” votes which makes it one of the most popular questions and answers I've even seen.
Nobody posted a pick for a book that provides a good introduction to librarianship (yet) but I'd say something like “Our Enduring Values” by Michael Gorman is probably pretty close. I mean, the table of contents in that link does a pretty good job by itself of summarizing what librarianship is all about!
In fact, I've heard of one library's board of directors (who, like most library boards is comprised of a mix of municipal appointees and volunteers from the wider community but not actual trained librarians) who voluntarily agreed to work through this book, one chapter per meeting, to familiarize themselves with some of the core values of librarianship. Pretty good vote of confidence, I'd say!
I'm pretty much the perfect example of the value of the Professional Mentorship program at FIMS. I participated in it all three semesters I was there. I had a great mentor in my first term and an okay one in my second. But it was the third that made it really pay off. When I sent in my application to join in my final semester, I asked if they were able to match me with someone in western Canada and preferably Saskatchewan (my other two mentors were Ontario-based which was fine but didn't help a lot in terms of my networking – and have I ever mentioned how much I hate that word? Netsocialing it is then.)
They paired me with a rural librarian working in Weyburn Saskatchewan who I'd heard of but had never met in person. The mentorship went well but the big pay-off was when I got back to Saskatchewan and we exchanged some e-mails. I mentioned that I was still looking for work and he said I should apply at his system, Southeast Regional Library “because you never know what will happen.”
I'd been focusing my search on Regina up to this point but it was the system I'd grown up with, it was based where my in-laws lived and something in his voice said this was more than just idle chatter. A little while later, I got called by the SRL Library Director, a few days later I met them for an interview where they revealed that my mentor was taking an 18-month leave of absence. One thing leads to another and here I am, not quite six months later, sitting in Weyburn and heading down to SRL HQ every morning!
So anyhow, long story short (too late!), I highly recommend that you participate in the UWO CLA Student Chapter's Mentorship Project – whether you're reading this as a student or a grad. This term, it's particularly important as FIMS is taking in a one-time only (yeah, we'll see about that? (Where's my emoticon of a happy face with dollar signs for eyes?)) triple cohort which means there will be 120 new students looking for the kind of advice and guidance that only comes from a working librarian who's been through the grind that is FIMS.
Here are the details about how the program works, straight from the hard-working coordinator, Erin F (the e-mail for the program is at the bottom of this post if you want an application or more details):
—
- The
Mentorship Program’s goal is to connect Library and Information Science
students with library or information professionals.
- The
key characteristics of the program are facilitating knowledge exchange and
providing guidance to current students entering the profession.
Who can be
a Mentor?
- Librarians
or Information Professionals who would like to provide support and
coaching for an interested student.
- Librarians
or Information Professionals with an interest in contributing to the
education of a future professional.
Who can be
a Mentee?
- UWO
MLIS students who would like advice and guidance about library and
information careers from professionals in the field.
- UWO MLIS
students who are interested in making professional connections in the
library and information science workforce.
Mentoring
Relationship Guidelines
- Communication
between mentor and mentee should occur at least twice per term
- The
mentor should try to respond to the mentee within two weeks.
- The
mode of communication is at the discretion of the participants but several
effective methods include emails, phone calls, and lunch or coffee
meetings.
- Suggested
discussion topics and activities include:
- resume
review
- course
recommendations
- industry
overviews
- professional
trends
- current
issues
- job
shadowing
- library
tours
- attending
conferences
- introductions
to other professionals in the field.
Should either party have any concern about the mentoring
relationship, the administrators are available for advice.Students who take part in the Mentorship Program should
consider returning to the program as a Mentor.
For more information about the program please contact Erin
Fields at westernmentorship@gmail.com
Facebook has been censoring photos of breastfeeding mothers. If you believe breastfeeding is a non-sexual, natural thing (and that your eyes won't melt if you catch the corner of a boob in a photo), there's a Facebook group you can join to show your support.
I have a feeling this will be Shea's next profile picture…
(via Techcrunch)
CANOE — SLAM! Sports – CFL – Winnipeg: Evolution of the Banjo Bowl
(Hate to say it but I think the Riders are due for the loss today, especially after how the game ended last week. The Bombers will be pumped for today. I hope I'm wrong.)
Sorry for being late again this week – same “real world must take precedence sometimes” excuse as last week.
That also means anybody reading this has a bit less notice that September 10 has been declared “Librarians Slam The Boards” day.
Jessamyn West over at librarian.net has more details but basically, the idea is that librarians show up on any of the dozen or so “answer sites” on the Internet and provide responses while indicating that the question has been answered by a librarian.
The idea is to promote the role that librarians fill in providing quality information for others.
“This
means making it clear that this question was answered by a
librarian/library professional/etc. End each answer with the mention
your own library, your VR service, etc. Add the link. Mention that
readers should consider their own libraries, too. Promote it to local
media. Keep in mind how many people don’t even realize that libraries
offer reference services. Let’s surprise and delight them with our
quality.
I’d like hundreds of librarians to do this. Thousands? Why not?
I
see this as an opportunity to make the reference librarian community
more visible. I’d like to see a number of us remain engaged in the
answer services, on the chance that the users will have us in the backs
of their minds when they have questions they don’t want everyone to
see. As such, I’m not expecting to see a huge “blip” in our
reference/VR stats because of this. But who knows? The point is to meet
some folks where they otherwise wouldn’t expect us.”
I love some of the taglines they’re proposing librarians use with their answers:
# Have a question you don’t want the whole world to see?
# Librarians—Ask Us, We Answer!
# If you need more help, just contact your local librarian.
# Librarians—We eat questions for breakfast!
Went to our family cottage at Katepwa Lake last night, one of the few places left on earth that doesn't have Internet connectivity apparently.
I did have my laptop so after Pace went down for the night, here are some things I was able to do (or at least thought about doing)…
– I've mentioned that pre-blog, I wrote in a journal on a daily basis. I could've done this (but didn't.)
– play computer games (really, the only game I play is EA NHL 2000. Yeah, I know it's very outdated but I've kept the rosters updated for the most part using an editor and it's like NHL 94 – the all-time best hockey game – in its timelessness, at least for me.
– look through old library school essays. Laugh hysterically at the amount of bullshit that spewed forth.
– do some creative writing (I did say this was a list of things I *could* do, not necessary that I did do, right?)
– look through old digital photos
– listen to collection of downloaded music
– watch a downloaded movie
– use guitar tab I happened to have on my hard drive to play campfire songs using a borrowed guitar. I haven't taken my guitar to Weyburn so my only chance to play these days is on the weekend so my callouses (the hardest part of learning to play guitar is developing the callouses) are gone and my fingertips hurt like hell today!
– file anything in the backlog of e-mail that doesn't need replied to
