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My Librarian Trading Card

Flickr has a group dedicated to Librarian Trading Cards.  You can create your own (and do lots of other cool things) with FD's Flickr tools.

Here's mine:


Posted 21 July 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page § Meme § Photo ‡ Comments (0) °

Friday Fun Link – July 21, 2006 (NFB Shorts)

The National Film Board of Canada has put a bunch of their classic animated shorts online for free viewing. The Big Snit is required viewing for all Canadians.

Posted 21 July 2006 § FridayFunLink § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °

Stat of the Day

Of the 147 million Americans on the Internet, 12 million have blogs. (via PopBitch)
Posted 21 July 2006 § Blog § Main Page § Randomness ‡ Comments (0) °

The Last Saskatchewan Pirate

I heard about Calvin Ayre tonight on CBC's The National.  Much like myself, he is from a farming family in rural Saskatchewan and attended UWO to do his Masters.  Unlike me, he did an MBA instead of an MLIS.  Oh, and he became a billionaire via his online gaming company while my stock portfolio consists of RRSP's, some income trust stocks that my grandpa told me to buy and a few shares in a gold company that are currently worth (just a sec…) $62.50.   Yep, Ayre and I are peas in a pod, I say! 

I was going to write that Ayre is the only billionaire from Saskatchewan but apparently that's not true – Murray Edwards who's the richest of all the rich oil & gas guys in Calgary (and a part owner of the Flames) is from Sask-a-bush (I didn't know that or else I would've given him a call when I lived there.  I did say “hey” to Ken King who's the President of the Flames and also from Saskatchewan during their playoff run in 2004 when he was outside for the Fanfest activities.  If I had my old-school print photo albums here, I could scan and post the pic I snapped of him giving me a thumbs up.) 

The other Saskatchewan billionaire is Jimmy Pattison who made his fortune via a variety of businesses (for example, he's responsible for all those Pattison billboards on every road and street corner in every city in Canada).  Pattison lives in Vancouver. 

I thought two brothers, Byron and Doc Seaman, who are from Saskatchewan and also part owners of the Flames and would be up there but apparently they're only multi-milllionaires.  Oh…

Classmate of the Day goes to Florence Hwang since this is a Saskatchewan-themed post and she reminded me today that she's from Regina.  (How did I forget that?)

Renee Stollery also gets a CotD for giving me a good laugh during Collection Development.  Our instructor told us the list price for a subscription to an electronic journal ($8000) and asked what we thought a certain library was able to negotiate as their price.  As various people were called on, they guessed different numbers – $1000, $2000, $4000 – and then our instructor calls on Renee and she goes “$1” in a moment right out of the Price is Right.  I don't know – maybe you had to be there but I found it pretty funny. 

Posted 21 July 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

There Will Be A Lot Less Criticizing of Student Council On This Blog From Now On

After discussion with a member of the current student council, I let my name stand for election (er, appointment?  I have no idea how they do things) and as of Wednesday afternoon, am the new, incoming Academic Rep for the MLIS Student Council. 

As with everything in my life (Spirit of Librarianship, whether or not to do co-op, toast or cereal in the morning), I have mixed feelings about this.  I want to keep doing my own projects – mainly Lunch Bucket but also a couple others that I think would be awesome for the Fall.  Plus if I get doing a job search next semester, that could take up some time as well.  (I doubt it would be as bad as applying for co-op but a lot of people described that process as being “like taking another class.”)  But there are some exciting initiatives under way already and the potential to maybe implement a few of my better ideas directly rather than nagging people on student council constantly.  So we'll see how it goes. 

Then on top of that, I went for breakfast today with Cabot Yu, a FIMS alumnus who now works for the Government of Canada and was back at FIMS presenting some information on getting a government job to students, giving career advice and just generally being an all-around helpful guy.  Had a good conversation with a bunch of fellow students at breakfast about CLA, their conference, Feliciter and various other issues in the library world.  And I think I ended up suggesting that I might be willing to join a CLA committee if there is a vacancy.   I am the Establishment Man (or maybe just a guy who can't say no! )

Oh, and Cabot picked up the bill for all of us.  So, he gets Classmate Colleague of the Day for that generosity – both at breakfast (he joked “hopefully, this helps make up for that $18 first-timers breakfast at CLA.”) and also just in general.  To me, Cabot's one of those guys who defines what a librarian should be – selfless, smart and eager to help in any way possible (and I don't say that just because I know he reads this blog!) 

Posted 20 July 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged:

Suggestion For A New Statutory Holiday

Canada currently recognizes nine federal statutory holidays (PDF) and one civic holiday.  Various jurisdictions have slight differences, either in the name of existing holidays (Canada Day is apparently called Memorial Day in Newfoundland, Victoria Day is Dollard Day in Quebec) or by having unique holidays of their own (Family Day in Alberta in February, St. Jean Baptiste Day in Quebec in June.)

The ten (eleven if you get both Good Friday and Easter Monday as many places do) official holidays in Canada are:
January – New Year's Day
March/April – Good Friday (and/or Easter Monday)
May – Victoria Day
July – Canada Day
August – (Civic Holiday only in most of Canada)
September – Labour Day
October – Thanksgiving
November – Remembrance Day
December – Christmas Day
December – Boxing Day

I know there are a ton of economic issues involved so this is unlikely to ever happen but I always thought that we needed at least one or two more statutory holidays to make it an even dozen and to match the number of months (even if every month doesn't necessarily get a stat.)

The biggest gap is that long stretch between the hangover of January 1 to the redemption of Good Friday/Easter Monday in March or April.  There's a reason why February has the highest suicide rate of any month and it's not just Christmas credit card debt.  I think that having a statutory holiday in February would go a long way to improving the situation.  Alberta's on the right track with their “Family Day” which is nondenominational, noncontroversial (oh, I'm sure some would protest) and something most people have, whether it be parents, siblings, cousins, siblings or whatever.  So why not simply expand this to the rest of the country?

My other idea for a new statutory holiday is a bit stranger.  Part of the reason it's so hard to implement a new holiday is the fear the business community and government have of another day where the vast majority of citizens are at home and therefore, not working and driving the economy.  I agree – we all have enough holidays together.  So why not have a rotating statutory holiday that depends on something else that's fairly important to everyone, no matter your religion or ethnic background or location in the country?  Why not make it official that your birthday is a statutory holiday?  The benefits are enormous – instead of being obligated to eat turkey or go to church, you get a day just for yourself to do whatever you want or need to do, with no obligations to family or friends, god or government. 

What if your birthday falls on a day that you're not scheduled to work?  As with other stats, you would get a day off near it in lieu.  What if you are born on a stat?  Bonus round – you get to pick any day of the year that you want to be your own personal stat holiday for the rest of your life (no changing though – the federal government might even have to start a registry!)  The name of this magic new holiday?  YouDay.  Unlike Saddam's eldest son, this YouDay would be a time for peaceful reflection, joyous celebration or any other activity you wish to engage in. 

When I am elected Prime Minister of Canada (and then declare myself “Grand Ruler for Life”) this will be my first decree change.  Helping Peter Goldring realise his dream will be my second.

On a completely unrelated topic, isn't 33 a wonderful number?  

Posted 19 July 2006 § Main Page ‡ Comments (6) °

ALA AA

As I sit here at 3:39am on a Sunday night/Monday morning, drinking Corona by myself, I am reminded of the classmate who observed ALA could just as easily drop the “L” from their name and mean the same thing.  (In my defence, it is STILL +26 outside and I am having Mexico flashbacks.)  Man, what is the Mayan Rivieria like in the summer?  Mayan summer…I like the sound of that!

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

My Most Overused Words in Library School

– basic/basically
– hopefully

– information
– interesting
– maybe
– probably
– useful

I can be a decent writer sometimes but man, those crutch words will kill a paper! On the other hand, there are some words and phrases I should use more in library school…
– cutter
– fake drool
– “Go Google yourself!”
– “Is Dilbert a scholarly source?  Sure…”
– monograph-tacular
– socialist hegemony
– specific vroom-vroom
– “yes, I'll have another pint, thank-you.”

Posted 17 July 2006 § LibrarySchool § List § Main Page ‡ Comments (3) °

Sunny Day

Hard to believe but sometimes I have no idea what to write.  So maybe I'll just do a stream-of-consciousness thing and see, uhm,…if I'm conscious. 

Went over to school today to hand in the last section of my Individual Study.  Now I just have to put together a presentation
and finalize arrangements to present it to the 501 class and I'm done.  Oh, and update the
paper with some new information and incorporate Lynne's
suggestions before I hand in my final copy of the complete project.  THEN I'm done.

Has anybody else used www.logmein.com, a very handy, free service that allows you to easily access your home computer and share files from anywhere?   I discovered it about a month ago and have found it very useful since I haven't migrated to a completely online life yet (though that appears to be the way we're heading…
Gmail for e-mail
Delicious for bookmarks
Streamload for file storage
Flickr for photo storage

…and so on. 

– also got a good start on my Mission Statement critique for 506.  I talked to Paul and Leah in the computer lab and it was good to hear that we were pretty much on the same page with regards to length (~4 pages), citations (~2 outside sources) and purpose (I think we all did public libraries though this wasn't necessarily a requirement of the assignment). 

– It was +33 today and so after being at school for a bit, I came home and went down for a swim with Shea in the pool behind our building.  There was rebellion stirring at our apartment – the building managers have been working on the pool for a month and a half (having originally told us it would be open “by June 1”).  Their main excuse was that they couldn't get the chemical balance right but I walked by on my way to school and saw one woman in there.  Her skin didn't appear to be melting off so we decided to try it too.  Very nice!  Maybe Christina and I can co-host a FIMS pool party later this summer?

– listening to an audio file of “Dance Monkeys Dance” by Ernie Cline on my MP3 player which I find very hilarious (the content, not that I'm listening to an MP3).  I finally broke down and bought an MP3 player since the University bookstore was having a sale a couple weeks ago.  The model I bought was marked down from $279 to $99 (although a check online when I got home showed that the current price is probably closer to $150 so not as great of a deal as I thought – still decent though.)  It's a Sony and I feel a bit of guilt because I know they're evil with all their rootkit shenanigans.  But at the same time, I like Sony products (why?  I have no idea – probably because their marketing is better than anyone else's and has affected me on a subconscious level. ) 

Had a good talk at breakfast the other week on this topic – how far do you go to be a conscentious consumer?  If you drive an SUV but use it often for your non-profit work, is that okay?  If you eat at McDonald's once a month, is that still too much?  Once a year?  What about drinking Coke?  Gassing up at Shell?  Buying really cheap toothpaste at Wal-Mart?  Or is ever possible to be completely pure in our society without interacting in some way with evil corporations?  It's sort of that same point I made about the Al Gore documentary – I agree with lots in that film but find it ironic that he's travelled by jet to literally 1000's of locations around the world to present his take on global warming. 

What else?  I stare at the 12-month desk calendar over my desk everyday so decided to do a count.  This semester, I had 48 assignments due over 14 weeks which is what, just about 4 per week?  This includes everything from a fairly short (one paragraph to 2-page) weekly “reader response” to a chapter of a textbook or a children's novel to some mid-length essays (2-5 pages) to a few major projects including my Individual Study and a Book Ownership case study for children's lit where we interviewed a child about the books they owned, transcribed the interview, recorded the books they owned AND wrote an essay analysing our findings.  Four weeks left in this semester and  I have 14 left (I had a very top-heavy semester which sucked but of course, now that I'm through it, I'm glad that it turned out that way.)  

Even if they're short, it's those weekly readings (with responses) that kill you.  Maybe I'll do another list as a future blog post – “10 Tips for Profs at FIMS So That Your Students Don't Stab Themselves In The Eyeballs”.  Suggestions welcome!

Posted 17 July 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page § Randomness ‡ Comments (1) °

Mark Your Calendars RIGHT NOW!

Got some amazing, great, wicked cool news yesterday.  Art Slade, who won the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature for his novel, Dust in 2001, will be coming to FIMS on Monday October 23 to speak as part of the Lunch Bucket Speaker Series!

A few details have to be ironed out yet but the date is now confirmed.  Yay!!! 

In addition to being an excellent writer, Art is a great guy and very entertaining speaker.  Whether you're interested in children's literature or not, you should plan to come out to this event.  It'll be amazing. 

Posted 16 July 2006 § LibrarySchool § Main Page ‡ Comments (0) °