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"best" "top10"'s "toread"

The Top 10 list is a ubiqutious part of our culture these days and using the power of folksonomy, you can easily find some interesting web sites.  This is a list of sites that have been bookmarked using the tags “best”, “top10” and “toread” on Delicious, a social bookmarking web site.  Fairly tech-heavy but there are some links that non-technies might find of interest there as well – Top 10 Presentations of all-time, Top 10 Underated Movies, etc. 

Posted 18 November 2006 § Internet § List § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

Librarian Activist

Just a reminder that if you like reading this site (or if you don't and want something with more 100% library-related content with zero tangents about baby poop, Fred Eaglesmith and Saskatchewan), you might also want to boomark LibrarianActivist.org (or add it to your RSS reader.) 

Sabina's back in radio contact after being without Internet access for awhile and is posting up a storm.  I'm also making an effort to post more than Friday Fun Links over there as well.  Lots of library/technology/information stuff I come across fits better on that site so it's worth reading LibrarianActivist too! 

(For any newcomers, LibrarianActivist is a well-established library blog that's been around since November 2003.  The person who created it was a science librarian in Montreal but she recently decided to hand it over to new people.  She posted a message to that effect on the blog looking for someone.  One day Sabina came up to me at the Grad Club and was like “Did you see that Librarian Activist is looking for new owners?” and I was like “yeah, why?” and she goes “Dave and you and I are the new owners!” After I got over the initial “oh crap, another blog I have to post to” shock, I realised how perfect this was.  Sabina's ideal for this as she embodies activism.  Plus with Dave and I on board, we'd all be able to bring our own unique interests and perspectives plus share the load of putting up new posts on a regular basis.  This is just me talking out loud so don't go e-mailing me or Sabina right away if you're interested but we talked a bit about how cool it would be to make this a community blog, like MetaFilter, where a whole community of library-types could post stories as well.  We've only been running the site for a few months now so that's more of a “maybe someday” scenario at this point.)

Posted 17 November 2006 § Library § Main Page § Politics ‡ Comments (2) °

Friday Fun Link – International Children's Digital Library (Nov 17, 2006)

“The International Children’s Digital Library
was initially created by an interdisciplinary research team at the
University of Maryland in cooperation with the Internet Archive.
Members of the team include computer scientists, librarians,
educational technologists, classroom teachers, graphic designers, and
graduate students from the University of Maryland’s (UMD) College of
Information Studies (CLIS) and the UMD Human-Computer Interaction Lab
(HCIL), a leader in children’s interface design.”

Their search interface
is particularly cool – it’s very kid-friendly with big, obvious buttons
that allow users to search for books by age range, length, subject and
most importantly, cover colour! You can also search using combinations
of the above. (Thanks to Linda B. for the tip!)

Posted 17 November 2006 § FridayFunLink § Library § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

Pamphlet For New Students

Approximately a year to the day from when I got my acceptance letter to the MLIS program last year, it's another circle closing as I was recently asked to finish off a brochure for incoming students that one of my fellow student council members didn't have time to complete. 

This brochure will go out with the information packages that all new students receive and hopefully help them know a bit more about what's available from Student Council in terms of programs and services. 

Posted 17 November 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

"Our Son's First Words Were 'Clock', 'Combine' and One That Can't Be Reprinted" (At Least I Come By My Rabble Rousing Honestly)

(Click on image to see larger size.  Depending on your browser settings you may have to also click on the image that appears after clicking to see this article at full-size.)

Posted 16 November 2006 § Main Page § Photo ‡ Comments (1) °

Book Meme Too

Jill did the book meme on her blog which led to a blog of one of her friends who had coincidentally done a similar book meme on the very same day.  (Whoa dude!) 

The friend's list was “10 Books You Think Everyone Should Read”.  I'm duplicating a couple picks from my other list but here you go…

1. Diary of Anne Frank – Anne Frank
2. Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut
3. Behold The Man – Michael Moorcock
4. Time's Arrow – Martin Amis
5. Down To This: Squalor and Splendour in a Big City Shanty-Town – Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall
6. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer A Man Who Would Cure The World – Tracy Kidder
7. Not Wanted on the Voyage – Timothy Findley
8. Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs At The Turn of the Millennium – John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, Sabin Streeter (eds)

9. The Cay – Theodore Taylor
10. Stuck in Neutral – Terry Trueman

As you can tell, I tried to stay away from the “canon” classics – both adult and children's – because everybody knows you should read them.  Otherwise, I'd stand by these picks as some of the “best of the best” of all the books I've ever read.

(MeShell says that everybody at FIMS is reading this blog so come out of the woodwork people! Put your own lists in the comments.  This type of list is custom-made for librarians – how can you resist?  Just do a Top Five if you don't want to put off your RQ's or Cataloguing essays or co-op jobs for too long.  If you're a prof, you can post anonymously – I can't tell where you're posting from, honest.) 

Random Librarian Trivia of the Day:  Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every section of the Dewey Decimal System (via Amy's blog).

Posted 15 November 2006 § List § Main Page § Meme § PopCulture ‡ Comments (16) ° Tagged:

"You Look Beat Down" (and a stroll down memory lane)

Is it a bad thing when multiple people tell you that you look beat down (or a variation of this – ie. “You look really tired”) within a one week period?  I'd heard about the way this program wears you down, especially if you go straight through in three semesters, but was going pretty strong well into my second semester so thought I would be able to continue my run into my final term.  But between student council stuff taking way more time than I expected (and being way more stressful than I expected) plus a job hunt and a pretty heavy semester in general, I admit it – I'm beat! 

The good news?  One month from today and barring a major meltdown (true, which could very realistically happen but at least would be entertaining for onlookers) I will be officially finished my Master of Library & Information Science degree.  (Technically, our last day is December 8 but because I'm in a joint distance class with U of T, we're on their schedule so our last class is in the evening on December 13.  It could've been worse – originally it was scheduled for December 20 I think.) 

I can't believe how fast this year has gone.  It seems like only yesterday that I sat down in Orientation at 9am on January 3 with Michelle D. from Regina (with Emma M. on one side and Jessica Van M. on the other), having absolutely no clue what to expect.  Emma and I got talking and I found out she'd been in Regina at RCMP training before having to leave due to an injury so that gave us some common ground to chat.  (Emma also later told me she was jealous that Michelle and I knew each other already, having met each other in Regina before coming to London.  I think we may have been the only two in our cohort that did know someone else there!) 

I remember our collective shock at hearing that we would indeed be having our first evening class that day (that wasn't really clear from the advance materials – some people thought we'd have orientation then not start classes until the next Monday with the undergrads!) and then how grateful we all were that Professor Trosow realised what a long day we'd had and let us out early. 

I remember that our orientation also finished early so I decided to head home (a 10 minute walk) and ended up walking part way with this tall guy with blonde-brown hair who said he was from Victoria and a philosophy major. 

“I read some study in <obscure academic journal> that said librarians are the most left-wing profession around.” 
(me: “yeah…and?”  also: who the hell does this guy think he is – don't they screen for left-wing credentials at library school?)  Turns out that guy who I didn't know what to make of on day one became one of my best friends in the program.  (I still don't know what to make of him though!)

Anyhow, I get home for a bite to eat and to relax, only to have everybody's worst nightmare – late for your first day of school – realised!  I somehow got it in my head that our night classes started at 7pm but when some niggling doubt made me check my schedule at 6:30pm, I was like “Arrrgggghhhhhh!”  I sprinted to class in six and a half minutes, snuck in the back of the room as quietly as I could (trying to be as casual as one can while huffing and sweating all over the place) only to be invited to move closer to the front, along with some of my fellow back-rowers, by the prof who has poor eyesight. 

The next morning I was up bright and early for my first cataloguing class.  I'm not much of a morning person usually but I remember how excited I was that morning and how I thought “yeah, this feels right.” 

I'm debating doing a list of personal highlights from the year but that'll have to wait for another entry. 

Here's my first-ever photo in London Ontario.   I remember driving out of the airport thinking, “do people randomly pull over on the side of the road to take pictures like they do back home?” 


Posted 15 November 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page § Photo ‡ Comments (2) °

A Book Meme

Saw this on Etc., the blog of the instructor for LIS765 so thought I'd give it a shot:

One book that changed your life?
I'd say “Diary of Anne Frank” when I was pretty young, probably around the age that Anne is in the book.  After that, I went through a phase where I felt like I had to read it on at least an annual basis as some sort of…tribute?  (That's not the right word.)  Commemoration?  Obligation?

One book you have read more than once?
Other than the one I just listed?  I'd say I go back to “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut probably as much as any book. 

One book you would want on a desert island?
Ahh, this question is always a balance of finding a book that you could enjoy the most and a book with lots of content that you could return to endlessly.  Being a practical sort (and a trivia master after last week's come-from-behind victory! ) I'd probably go more for the latter with something like an encyclopedia or, if limited to one volume, an almanac. “The Complete Shakespeare” is another popular answer for this question I think. 

One book that made you laugh?
I recently wrote about The Poo Bomb so I'll go with that.

One book that made you cry?
“Barb's Miracle: How Barb Tarbox Transformed Her Deadly Cancer into a Lifesaving Crusade” was a book I had to read when I was a juror for the Alberta Book Awards.  I expected a typical preachy, self-help-type book but this story,  with its brutal honesty, shocking photographs and inevitable but tragic conclusion had me in tears everytime I opened it.  We didn't name it to the shortlist but I think I suggested to the other jurors that we ask if the Awards committee could make this book a “special mention” in the program, something they (the other jurors and the Awards committee) agreed to.

One book you wish had never been written?
Well, I like Ranganathan's “every book its reader” law so I hate to pick one book that should never have been written.  But with that said, the one that popped into my head was the “autobiography” of Posh Spice (who later admitted she'd never read a book in her life – hmmm.) but again, I'm sure there are people who  enjoyed this book so why judge? 

One book you are currently reading?
“What's Going On In There?  How The Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life” which was written by a neurobiologist (and mother of three) named Lise Eliot.   It's a bit heavy on the science but if you get past that, very informative on all aspects of childhood mental development. 

One book you have been meaning to read?
From working in publishing, from reading about books endlessly on the Net and in magazines and from watching the authors featured on “The Daily Show”, from wandered through bookstores – new and used, from friends' recommendations, I've amassed a list of books I'm interested in reading that's twenty single spaced pages long (I'm planning a future blog post on “Librarians as packrats” – even this list is a symptom of my own disease.) 

So instead of picking one book, here is a sample pick from each letter:
Ancestor's Tale, The – Richard Dawkins
Buying of the President 2004
Crowfoot: Chief of the Blackfoot – Hugh Dempsey
Dark Fibre: Tracking Critical Net Culture
Economics As If The Earth Really Mattered – Susan Meeker-Lowry
Five Legs – Graehme Gibson
Guns, Germs and Steel
How To Grow A Young Reader
I Capture The Castle – JK Rowling's Favourite Book
Jihad Versus McWorld – Jere Longman
Killing Bono – a guy who grew up with Bono, had his own band and wanted to be a star too but didn't make it
Letters To A Young Activist – Todd Gitlin (modeled on Rainier's letters to a young poet)
Master and the Margarita – lots of recommendations
Never Let Me Go – novel about clones who are raised for parts but live in society
Oster Conspiracy of 1938 – plot to kill Hitler told like fictional thriller
Pride and the Passion – recounts glory days of New York Islanders
Quotable Book Lover
Role of Failure in Engineering
Seven Types of Ambiguity – intricate fiction, same story told from perspective of seven different characters, one section each
Three Day Road – Joseph Boyden
Upstairs in the Crazy House – mental illness, poverty
Village of Small Houses – Ian Ferguson
Weathermakers – cited by Stephen and Avi Lewis at CLA as a book they both really enjoyed
(no x so here's another w) Works, The: Anatomy of a City – Kate Ascher – explores how NYC works
Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, The
Zen Guitar

My “To Read” list was getting so long, I started putting mini-summaries with some of them (as you can see) so I'd have a bit of a clue as to what they were about when I went back to the list.  Pretty heavy on the non-fiction.  What else does this list say about me?  (Er, don't answer that.)

Now tag five people:
I'm a (wannabe) librarian so I like sharing.  So I challenge anybody who comes across this post to do this meme.  Heck, if you don't have a blog, you should start one just to do it!  Or post your own answers in the comments of this post if that's too much work. 

Posted 14 November 2006 § List § Main Page § Meme § PopCulture ‡ Comments (2) ° Tagged:

A Tale of Two (Four?) Libraries – It was the worst and worst of times then the best and best of times

Not very often but sometimes, I really don't like libraries.

I was over at the University today for a group meeting and afterwards, went to the Business Library because the catalogue showed that they (as well as our main library Weldon, the Taylor library and a few others in the system had a copy of a book I wanted, Copyight Guide for Canadian Libraries.) 

I picked the business library because it is (arguably) the closest to our building and also because they showed two copies available.  I scribbled down the call number and off I went.  When I get there, I go to the basement (if you haven't been to the business library you should go – for all the money Ivey supposedly has, not a lot seems to get directed to the library.  Or to be fair, I think it's just a total lack of space.)  But neither book is on the shelf, either at its usual spot or in the oversized section although the I know the catalogue had said both were “in library”.  I take a quick glimpse on nearby shelves knowing books often get misplaced or misshelved but, though I find some other useful books, I don't see the one I want. 

Having been scared/scarred by 503 RQ's where we were told “You must NOT ask the reference librarian for assistance!”, I didn't ask for help when I left and instead hiked up to to Weldon.  (I probably should've double-checked the catalogue but another strange feature of the business library is they don't seem to have even one terminal down among the stacks and only 1 or 2 in the main reading area.) 

So anyhow, I go to Weldon and same thing – no copy at either the regular or oversized spot.  Here, I do go to the catalogue and realise what's happened.  The reason I didn't find it at the business library is that the book has been given a different call number there compared to all other UWO libraries!  (I'd only glanced at the holdings locations and the top call number when I did my original search, assuming the call number would be the same at all locations.) 

[Can anybody out there who works as a cataloguer (Jen?) or took Advanced Cataloguing tell me why this would happen, especially when I thought that Western had central processing for items?]

Looking more closely at the catalogue, I also see that Weldon has a copy but it's a “no loan” reference copy (fair enough.)  So now armed with the proper call number, I go back to the business library but even though it's in the same area (KE2994 instead of KE2799) and I had already scanned the nearby areas the first time, I still don't find either book!  Again, I refuse to ask, partly because I don't feel like going upstairs only to have to turn around and crawl back down the stairs again (really, it's a truly scary place!)  and instead, decide to try my luck at the Taylor library.  “This is a fun day for a UWO library tour” I try telling myself. 

I go there, not holding out much hope by now to be honest, but when I go right to the spot, there it is.  Sweet sweet digital copyright text…  Delicious taxonomy of bibliographic control.

On the other hand, I happened across this library catalogue whild doing some other research tonight and it made all my anger go away.  Try the visual search and the digital catalogues – very cool!  

Posted 13 November 2006 § Internet § Library § Main Page ‡ Comments (8) °

Blog Roll

Looking at my stats and realising how many people come here via links from other sites makes me realise that I've been a bit remiss about providing permanent, recirporcal links to the blogs that bring people here or just that I check on a regular basis. 

Consider that rectified.  Somewhere over there
<—–
…is now a list of some of the blogs of people I know that are updated on a semi-regular basis

I also have dozens of blogs bookmarked but that are either not updated very frequently or only tend to have assigned rather than original content (many of the blogs I've seen that were created for the 525 or 765 courses.)

If I'm missing your blog and you'd like it listed, feel free to e-mail me.  On the other hand, if I've linked to you and you want to remain anonymous, let me know that too ASAP.

I tried to put a little descriptions of each blog that will pop up when you mouseover the link so if you have a better suggestion than what I put (some of them are pretty bland “LIS Student”-type things.) I'll take that too!

Finally, I thought I'd try to define my own blog in ten words or less.  “Blog of an LIS Student about his experiences in library school.”  (Crap, that's eleven! )

Posted 11 November 2006 § Blog § LibrarySchool § Main Page ‡ Comments (2) °