Misadventures at CLA – Day Two (Saturday)

My dream of doing an entry every day for a month is shot but anyhow, here's an update for yesterday…

Up early
yesterday for the first-timer's breakfast and did I make my joke about
trying to eat $18 worth of bacon and eggs in the last entry?  If
not, consider it made (I was unsuccessful by the way.)  Came
over to the Civic Centre at 9am on the shuttle (the conference had to
change
locations three weeks ago due to a strike at the Convention Centre
downtown as many delegates – including myself – would have refused to
cross a picket line.  As someone who used to organize relatively
small conferences, I can't imagine moving an event with 1000+
delegates, dozens of exhibitors and all the related issues
three weeks out.  The staff and their volunteers have done an
amazing job making this happen.) My first session was Michael Geist on
copyright and it was an amazing presentation which I hope ends up on his or the CLA's web site.  I also took in a
presentation on the history of libraries in Canada which was good and
finished the day with another amazing one – a group who are working to
improve library access for disenfranchised people.  I'll blog more
on this session which alternately had me in tears, furious, and fired up when I'm not at a time-limited terminal 

(Off-topic but the lady at the terminal next to me was laughing while
checking her e-mail so I asked what was up.  She said she'd gotten
an e-mail from a co-worker that a 9 year old boy had asked a reference
question at their library – “how many doors are there in the library?” so the person
wrote to the entire staff saying they'd counted 26 in the basement and
did anyone want to continue the task?  This was the University of
Guelph by the way (smart kid!))

Went on the Pub Crawl last night but only hit two pubs.  One
highlight was bumping into Toni Samek who is a prof and activist
librarian at the U of A whose work I've read for some of my
assignments.  Great person to hang out with and provide
perspective on some of the previous conferences, current CLA issues and
so on.

I think that's it.  Man, I wish the federal government would
decide to make wireless Internet access a free national service for
every major centre in Canada (and as techology and costs allow, blanketing the whole country.)  I mean if you believe that
highways are part of our national infrastructure, why not include the
“Information Highway” in that?  

Misadventures at the CLA Conference – Day One (Wednesday)

I meant to post
yesterday but the fact that we're staying at a residence.  On
campus.  In the year 2006.  And it still doesn't have ANY
Internet connection fuddled those plans.  So I'm probably going to
change the date stamp on this entry so it counts as yesterday. 
And then my next blog post will likely be from a Starbucks tonight
while I'm drinking an $8 cup of tea.  The Conference Centre has
about eight Internet terminals which are handy but always busy so I'm
skipping a session to do this entry (my priorities may be slightly out
of whack.) 

The drive up to Ottawa was an adventure – starting with me driving over
a curb and nearly into oncoming traffic as we tried to pick up one
passenger at a Tim Horton's where apparently, “Exit Only” means “Exit
ONLY!”  Ooops.  Shea, Sabina, Michelle, Denise, Paul and I were the
passengers in the van and it was a fairly boring ride after that
start.  We ended up going away from the McPuke's fast food rows of
every city for lunch and found a small town cafe run by two local
farmers who were trying to diversify by buying this business but
finding running a restaurant HARDER than farming!  Got to Ottawa
right at 5pm and having seen only the preliminary program, we thought
the keynote speakers (Stephen and Avi Lewis) were up at 5pm.  So
more crazy driving as I park in a bus lane till I get honked at, drive
through one red light (slowly – hard to explain how that happened) and
finally get to the conference hotel which has a bunch of police cars
and police tape right across the street.  I thought the librarians
were already beginning to party or their reputation precedes them but
turns out there was a murder.  Welcome to Ottawa – yours and my
capital city!  Shea and I realise that the keynote's been changed
to 7pm (which makes more sense anyhow) and so we go check into the
University residence, the rest of our paseengers having dispersed to
various points.   Turn around twice and come back to the
keynote while Shea goes shopping (cue nervous smile).  Stephen and
Avi Lewis were amazing in their “father-son as cross-generational
activists” chat and as one colleague said, that was worth the price of
admission by itself!  Went for supper at a nearby Scottish pub
with Michelle, came back and closed down the reception then ended up
going for a drink with a retired children's librarian from Ottawa while
Shea and Michelle went back to the residence.  I think that's all
I'm going to write today (er, yesterday if I can figure out how to
change the time stamp!) and I'll do some more later, either here or at
Starbucks.  It's the 21st Century and we're at a venue where I
can't access wireless?  Unbelievable. 

Canadian Library Association

Turn around twice and after two days in Toronto, I'm off to Ottawa for the Canadian Library Association conference.  I'm taking my laptop but not sure what the Internet situation will be like where we're staying so new blog posts may be sporadic until next week.   The timing couldn't have been better – the one assignment I had due for the rest of the week was cancelled and so my schedule's clear.  (I know one classmate who ended up writing SIX papers over the weekend to clear her schedule so she could go.)  Six of us are going up together in a mini-van I picked up today – Shea and I think it'll be good practice for when we have kids to see if we want a mini-van and also, although we don't believe in it right now, if putting in a DVD is the easiest way to keep everybody quiet! Going to the Bright Eyes concert in an hour and in some ways, it would've been just as easy to not have tickets to a concert the day before I have to do a major trip.  But I'm pretty excited and plan to just enjoy the heck out of myself! 

Book Expo Canada 2006 – The Summary

Back from a couple days at Book Expo Canada in Toronto and here are some random thoughts…

– if you've never been, how the Book Expo trade show works is basically you walk around a huge trade show (200+ exhibitors?) and all the
publishers and other writing organizations have booths promoting their
books, authors and services.  Most of them have authors signings and give away
free books, bookmarks, catalogues, brochures etc. as part of the promotions.  Obviously, the free books (and a chance to meet authors) is the big draw for many
people.  Some have gimmicks as well – a package of spaghetti for a book about Italian immigrants, hockey pucks for a hockey referee, beach balls, “surprise” bags, playing cards – anything to tie in to the book. 

– a big highlight was getting to see a bunch of people I know from the book community, mainly in Alberta and Saskatchewan but beyond as well.  For instance, went for drinks on Sunday afternoon with Deb Rush from Coteau Books in Regina, Greg Gerrard from Pages Books in Calgary, Nicole DeGrandmont from the Department of Canadian Heritage in Ottawa and Michelle Lake, a fellow library student here in London.

– It was great to catch up with everybody that I saw but not so great was hearing that my former boss fell ill in England.  Get well soon, Brenda!

– some of the big names appearing this year included Jack White from the White Stripes, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Tommy Chong, Martin Brodeur, Mike Holmes, Kathy Stinson, Camilla Gibb and many others.  I didn't stand in line for any of them since I'm not that enamoured with signed books OR twenty-minute line-ups but that's just me.  (Okay, I got a book signed by Kathy Stinson – her line was pretty short!) At the same time, how weird is it to be in a place where Margaret Atwood appears to barely makes a ripple?  She wasn't schedule to sign specifically but was demonstrating the “Long Pen”, an invention she came up with that allows authors to sign books from remote locations.  For instance, she could be in Toronto and conduct a signing in Vancouver.  I'm doubtful if this technology will take off since obviously it's having that brief personal encounter that makes signings so special in my opinion.  But you never know…

– I was glad they printed “Librarian” on my badge instead of “Library Student” as I'm sure that helped get me a lot of extra books.  I didn't exactly mis-represent myself but I didn't correct anyone who assumed I was the main acquisitions person for London Public Library (for instance.)  I've heard of fellow students who went to OLA as part of their vendor relations course and were treated very rudely by the vendors once they heard they were students instead of customers.  Don't these guys realise that students will be potential customers in a year or two? 

– another highlight was bumping into one of my favourite Saskatchewan poets, Mick Burrs, as we both stood in line to get a book signed.  Mick moved to Toronto last fall after around twenty years in Yorkton, Saskatchewan so it was a big adjustment.  I can't say this about very many Canadian poets but I was a fan of Mick's before I ever got into the book biz.  And the chapbook he gave me is probably the best book I got at the show.  That or the books the Scientologists were handing out (just kidding – they were charging for their books!)

Anyhow, that's my verbal take on things.  Here are some visuals…


This is the main trade show concourse…

Two colleagues from the Book Publishers Association of Alberta having just launched their “No Black Gold For Alberta Arts” campaign. 
(If you can believe it, various arts groups in Alberta are getting funding cuts, even as the province posts multi-billion dollar surpluses!)



This is one of my favourite poets, Steven Michael Berzensky (Mick Burrs)…


The look on my face is explained by who I'm sending my autograph to using the “Long Pen” (see next photo)…


Just kidding…she was at the booth at a different time (as the photo in the monitor shows.)


My final haul…

Book Expo Canada

I'm off to Book Expo Canada on Sunday and Monday.  I went once before in 1999 or 2000 and it was a blast – Jack Stoddart marched an elephant through the trade show area as a publicity stunt, I got my photo with what was, at the time, the world's largest book, I got a whackload of free books and other cool stuff and had a variety of other book and not-book-related adventures.  Will post again when I get home Monday night.

Experiences of Male Patrons in A Children's Library?

I'm doing a topic of my own choice for one of the assignments in our children's library class and have asked the half dozen or so men in the class for their assistance.  But I figured I might as well put this out to anybody who happens across this blog as well since I'm looking for the widest variety of experiences (if there's a woman reading this, feel free to have your husband/partner/father/son if over 18 write to me.)

Here's the e-mail I sent to my classmates…

I'm asking for your assistance by sending me a short summary of  your experiences and thoughts on the topic of being a male patron going into the children's library or children's section at your local branch. 

Some things you might consider: when you go to a children's section, do you go alone or with someone (female friend/wife/children/someone else)?  What time of day to do you go?  How often do you go?  Which branch(es)? Do you feel comfortable going to the children's section of a library?  Why or why not?  Have you had any interactions with staff that were positive or negative?  How do parents who are there tend to react to your presence?

There are a couple reasons I want to do this as my topic – when I told someone I was taking this class, they said “Oh, you must be the only guy” and I replied, “No, there's about half a dozen of us.”  But this made me realise that even being a male who was interested in this area was seen as abnormal somehow.  Then I talked to the course instructor who said they used to have a part of this class where the students visited a children's library but had to cancel it because the men felt so awkward

Anyhow, I'm not planning to hand in the paper until later in the semester but if you can e-mail me your responses as soon as possible, I'd appreciate it.

George W. Bush performing U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday"

I heard the audio version of this a few months ago but someone went and made a video to accompany it.  Brilliant!

10 Skills For Library School Success at the University of Western Ontario

1. Time Management
One of my professors told me this in my first week and I've heard it repeatedly since – the biggest secret to succeeding in library school is to manage your time wisely.  Being a compressed program makes this especially difficult as do the number of assignments we have – not all are intensive or hard but all do take up your time.  I have no idea how some of the people in this program with families or part-time jobs do it.  I bought a 12-month wall calendar which I've never done before and it's probably one of the wisest things I've done here. 

2. (Speed) Reading
You will be asked to read A LOT in this program.  Books, scholarly articles, journals, web sites, more scholarly articles, textbooks, handouts, magazines and did I mention scholarly articles?  None of this will be reading for pleasure either so if you want to try to do that, add more reading (although it's almost a relief to do this type.  I'm currently reading The Da Vinci Code and I think I'm enjoying it more than I would've in “real life” precisely because it's such a great “escape” novel – even if the actual writing sucks.)  The other recurring piece of advice I got from past and current students when I started was to not even try to keep up with the reading assignments – it's “unpossible” as Ralph Wiggum would say. This was also wise advice.

3. Reading In General
This one seems obvious but you should probably be a bookish-type who does a fair bit of reading already if you choose to come to library school.  I don't know – maybe that's not an absolute requirement (or it's more of a requirement if you're going into public libraries?) but I just don't get how anyone could come to library school and not consider themself a reader and/or book lover.  That'd be like going to engineering school and saying you don't like bridges.  (Are jokes about engineers building bridges universal or is that a University of Regina thing?)  As well as reading lots, you should probably read widely as well – fiction, non-fiction, genre fiction, etc.

4. Interpersonal Skills
This is important anywhere – school, work, family – but being able to get along with various types of people is especially important in library school.  Contrary to stereotypes, this place isn't filled with bookworm introverts – for the most part, people are pretty balanced and well-adjusted.  But it does range from ultra-introverts to massive extroverts so being able to get along with all types will definitely help you out – in your everyday studies but especially when you're thrown into random groups and have to work on projects together. 

5. Public Speaking
This one's important enough that I think they should probably do a brief session (one afternoon?) during the first week of library school to help people who maybe don't have a lot of experience doing public speaking to learn the basics.  We don't do a huge amount (probably 1-2 things per class depending on which classes you're in) but it's something that's very important, not only in library school but beyond.  And since it's people's number one fear, having a grounding in public speaking would be a big help rather than being thrown in the deep end which is what seems to happen now.

6. Computer Usage
This one is probably obvious as well but you should have at least a basic familiarity with computers and computer programs and probably more than that.  This is a point of contention in library schools – the push-pull between how things have always been done and librarians who want to be on the cutting edge.  (One publisher I know referred to “chip-head” librarians who are embracing any and all new technologies in an attempt to fundamentally change the stereotype of their profession as a bad thing that's getting worse about the current library system.  Er, guilty as charged! )

7. Typing
Sort of related to the last point, you should probably be a better than average typer if you come to library school.  I mean, all of your five or six weekly assignments will still get done eventually if you're a two-finger typer but you just save yourself so much time by being able to type quickly.

8. Stress Management
Because of how busy this program is, dealing with the stress of assignments – readings, group presentations, essays, projects – can be a challenge at times.  Apparently exercise and a healthy diet are good ways to do this; drinking massive quantities of beer and eating pizza six days a week is not so good. 

9.  Photocopying
Take the time to learn your way around the photocopiers in the GRC when you first get here as you'll be spending a lot of time (and money!) with them.  Most people don't buy the textbooks and because of the twisted world of Canadian copyright law (it's okay for students to photocopy individual articles/textbook chapters for personal use but not okay for a prof to scan that chapter and distribute it electronically to their class for the students to print out themselves) so endless photocopying it is.  Don't get me started on how idiotic this is. 

10. Perspective
This is library school.  At the same time that it's one of the most important things you can choose to do in society (in my completely biased opinion), it's also not rocket surgery.  No one dies here, no one goes to jail, I don't think anyone hardly even gets kicked out.  Unless you're applying to do a PhD,  whether you got 76% or 86% on your assignment doesn't matter.  In fact, no one will likely ever see the assignment but you and the prof.  And let's be honest – we know that some profs aren't reading our works that closely either and the marks are about “artistic impression” and “technical merit” as much as anything.  One prof admits as much saying “I don't know the difference between an 76% and a 78%.  But I do know the difference between a B+ and a B-” which makes sense to me. 

Bonus Link of the Day: Right before I came to Grad school, there was a thread on “How To Live With A Busy Grad Student” on AskMetaFilter that had some good tips, especially for those of us with partners/spouses/families.

Friday Fun Link – June 9, 2006 (Top 100 Corporations)

Business Ethics magazine has released their list of 2006’s Top 100 Corporate Citizens. I’m not an expert in who’s good and who’s not so good but found a couple names on the list that were a bit surprising to me. (via Kottke)

It’s also interesting to compare this list to Fortune’s recently released list of “America’s 100 Most Admired Companies”.

CLA Ride Share?

For anyone who doesn't know how they're getting to the CLA conference in Ottawa next week, Shea did some research tonight and found that we can rent a mid-sized
car (something like a Grand Am) for $256 with unlimited km that would fit 4 comfortably.
 We could also rent a 7-passenger van for $342 which would probably be
best to take no more than 6.  It's got a km limit but 2100km should be
more than enough to get us there and back.



Anyone riding with us would also share the cost of gas and insurance (unless
somebody has a VISA or CAA that covers rental insurance for vans?  Mine
covers insurance but only for cars.) 
Oh, let me know if you're willing to share driving as well. 



We would ideally like to go up Wednesday morning-ish (8 or 9am?) and
come back Sunday afternoon although we are willing to be flexible to meet the
wishes of the most people in the car pool.



If you are interested, please e-mail me and we can work something out.  Shea
and I are likely going to rent a car no matter what since it's cheaper
than bus/train so it would be great if we could share this expense a bit.