gonnabe librarians

Okay, so it's not the end.

2011-09-08T14:30:00.000-04:00

I have no need to shut down Gonnabe Librarians yet, as I'm still looking for work and have decided that you're not a librarian until you're paid for it. Diploma, shmiploma. (That would be really hard to say out loud. Schmiploma. If I were actually talking instead of writing I'd say, "Diploma, ship......shid.......shdip.......Paper, schmaper.")

So fear not, faithful fans! All three of you can rest easy, as I am ready to grasp, once again, the blogging reins! My steadfast hubby and stouthearted children and intrepid pets are ensconced in the land of enchantment, and my heart is heavy no more! Sadly, the library locals are not nearly as impressed by me as I am, and not one of the eight resumes I sent out has resulted in an interview. Am I crushed? No! Shall I persist, undaunted and unafraid? Yes!

Meanwhile, here's my favorite new thing: The Little Free Library. It's where you can buy a tiny house for books that anyone can put out anywhere. It's like Give-a-Penny-Take-a-Penny but with books! And it's adorable! I mean, look at this:

Is that cute, or what?!

Is this the end?

2011-06-26T11:05:00.005-04:00

Here's where I am right now:

Sitting at my computer in Syracuse, sighing loudly.
In limbo between graduation and a cross-country move to Albuquerque.
In between two houses: one under contract and another not even thinking about being sold.
In the doldrums.

So I've completely lost my sense of humor. (Which, some might say, is not lost if it was never had to begin with. And surely the having it to begin with is up for debate in some circles.) At any rate, Gonnabe Librarians is languishing with me.

But here's where I'm going:

To Albuquerque, NM! The driest, sunniest place on Earth!
On a job hunt! In the Land of Enchantment! Where it's always sunny!
Into a totally awesome new home! In dry, totally-never-humid Duke City!
I am heading, eventually, out of limbo and maybe back to dancing flamenco and maybe into a library. In (say it with me, now) Albuquerque!

Here's the Albuquerque flag, which is probably the coolest state flag of the 50:

Here's the thing I would like to know: now that I'm out of school, but still unemployed, am I or am I not officially a librarian? Does the title come with the diploma or the job? Because I'm having an identity crisis, here. Luckily, I'm still taking one class (Metadata, which by the way I love so much more than Databases, but I freely admit that had I not taken (most of) Databases I would probably be ready to tear off my arm and beat myself over the head with it right now. But maybe not. Maybe I'm giving Databases too much credit, and myself too little, because I always liked metadata so that's probably why the class sort of makes sense to me)---

Where was I? Librarian title.....diploma or job.....identity crisis.....ah, yes. I'm still taking one class so I still feel in the loop. Actually, limbo is a loop, too, isn't it? A whole other kind of nasty, testing-of-the-patience, grinding-of-the-teeth kind of loop. I guess I'm loopy. (LOL!)

The point? I'm not sure what to do with this blog because I may no longer be, in fact, a gonnabe librarian. I may actually be a plain old librarian. So, what to do? End and archive? Rename and plow on? You may think I'm asking for advice, but since I've let good ol' GL sink into oblivion my expectations are low. So I'll just sign off by pointing to an article called Dances of the Planets (pointed to, first, by Mental Floss) that is all about loops, which I think is wholly appropriate right now and, btw, pretty spectacular. (Be sure to check out the numbers, even if you are not that person who does things like check out the numbers.)

And there's the word "dance" in the title! And it's just like my favorite childhood game, Sprirograph! It's a sign! Of what, we may never know, but holy moly--all this pointing and looping must be leading me somewhere.

Digital iCreation: Award Winner!

2011-04-04T12:09:00.008-04:00

Last spring, I wrote a post called "Why are you not signed up for this?!" wherein I try to refrain from writing all about me, and instead rave about a fabulous class that should be a requirement for any and all library students, Digital iCreation. So guess what? EVERYONE IN THE CLASS WON AN AWARD! And not just any award, but the prestigious

Chancellor's Award for Public Engagement and Scholarship!

You can read all about the award and the other winners if you click here. Of course, when I tell people about it I say I won an award, because I'm that self-centered. But, truth be told, the person who should get all the of credit is of course our illustrious professor, Marilyn Arnone, who created the class and received funding for it from Imagining America and was so supportive and encouraging it makes me choke up a little just remembering it. Seriously, I was talking to a classmate at the awards dinner last Wednesday (Liz, who by the way rocked that class with her amazing work,) and she raved even more than I did about how much she misses the class because it was one of the few where she got a real community feeling and a sense that she was doing some real good in the real world and at the same time got mad skills and tons of product to show.......and show off.......which is more my thing, but still. (If you want to read all about it for real, check out this article from the iSchool news.)

But as I was thinking about all this and looking at the pictures from the dinner I thought, "Wait a minute....this is the perfect chance to do something I haven't done in a long time: MAKE A REALLY STUPID VIDEO!" Plus, what better way to honor Digital iCreation than with a digital creation? Of course, I made it at work with Windows Moviemaker, and it's not exactly a video but more like a photo montage with music and captions, and it might leave you wondering if I learned anything at all in the class, but whatever. It makes me giggle, as usual, even though you'll probably just roll your eyes and say, "Ugh. That Shander's at it again. Why doesn't she give it a rest, already?!"

Public library meets public art?

2011-01-13T15:58:00.007-05:00

I've been chewing on an idea, and unlike so many of my ideas that flash in front of me, speedy and brilliant (or so I think for a bright and shiny three seconds) and then fade away into the sad and lonely rear corners of my over-taxed (or is it lazy and under-utilized?) brain, this one I can picture seeing through to the end. But before I let you in on the idea, you must take a moment and recall that I have been posting over at Information Space, where I mentioned maybe making an iWay video, then waxed rhapsodic about the Library in the Library, then threw out ideas like hijacking people's internet connections and forcing them to go to the library and then killing them with kindness. Well, in the interest of instant gratification (no waiting for approval) and the resurrection of Gonnabe Librarians (because I feel the guilt of a neglectful parent) I've decided to run my latest idea by you, dear reader, right here.

So back in March 2010 I wrote about book folding. It's this craft I was introduced to by a neighbor, and what I love about it is it's relaxing and super easy and even the most basic books look really cool, especially when there are a whole bunch put together. My 9-year-old daughter taught her 7-year-old cousin to do it, and now my sister-in-law's house is stuffed with folded books. (I wonder if she curses my name.) So anyway, I got involved with an art exhibit, Play With Your Books Open!, that traveled from the Health Sciences Library at SUNY Upstate to SU's Bird Library to the Golisano Children's Hospital art gallery. That last incarnation is still up, but not open to the general public so you can't see it. So check out this slideshow instead, and then read on for the REALLY BIG IDEA:

Folded book exhibit at Golisano

So here's the REALLY BIG IDEA:

You know how Nancy Pearl came up with the "If All Seattle Read the Same Book" thing? What if the entire county of Onondaga did an "Everybody Fold One Book" thing? And what if the libraries held book-folding workshops, maybe using their weeded books, and what if those libraries collected all those books and then worked with local artists to display them in some unusual way, and what if the public was invited to go by all the libraries and check out the displays and then vote on the best one, in person or on Facebook or something? And what if there could be a prize for the winning library, like a bunch of e-readers or new computers, maybe underwritten by sponsors, who could maybe have their names posted around the library and on the Facebook page for a little while in return? Or maybe the libraries could auction off the books? Sell them on Etsy and all proceeds go to the library system?

It's a county-wide public art project by the public at the public libraries! The whole thing is a win-win-win! Books get recycled, art gets made, libraries might make a little money and attract curious onlookers who might not have stepped foot in them for decades who are then reminded how AWESOME libraries are, and if the libraries played their cards right they could get all sorts of new members who might even advocate for them in these dark, dark days of budget cuts and other miserable news. And if it was successful OCPL and NOPL would have this TOTALLY ORIGINAL program and serve as a model of innovative, collaborative librarianship.

So the idea is eating at me and I'm going to propose it as a Library in the Library project. I might get shot down, but I'm okay with that. You've gotta generate a lot of bad ideas before you get to a good one, right? This might be one of those bad ideas that morphs into something kind of cool...or it could turn into a totally embarrassing moment for yours truly, but I'm okay with that. Life, as I always say, is just a series of embarrassments. But that's what makes it interesting.

Dance to the nth power

2010-09-11T18:32:00.004-04:00

Best robot dances in the history of the world. 'Nuff said.

Return of the Prodigal Mother, or: Blood and Gore Galore

2010-08-09T08:28:00.000-04:00

So, I'm back in the good ol' 'Cuse. And happy to be here, in the bosom of my loving family: a harried but heroic husband, a couple of hyperactive, selectively deaf children, and a menagerie. New York was awesome, but I confess it gave me a whole new appreciation for Central New York. I'd wax rhapsodic about the treasures of our beloved home, but my return was marred by the sight of my daughter's pet rat and its second head.

My husband tried to prepare me. He'd been talking for two weeks about the eye infection that looked like an alien, and how it turned our cute little albino rodent, Cloud, into nothing less than a zombie. Would that I'd listened, and not pooh-poohed and dismissed him as a wuss of the first order. ("I can take it," I said to myself. "I'm a mother. I gave birth. I clean the toilets.") Then I saw the rat, and OH. MY. GOD. It was like Night of the Living Dead. In my HOUSE.

I blame Google.

Now, I'm not a total buffoon. (Though these posts might indicate otherwise.) I know what's a good website and what's not. I mean, I did the H.E.R.S. assignment in 605. I know about information literacy, y'all. And when I Googled "rat" and "eye" and "discharge" I came up with a few sites that said, essentially, "Don't worry too much about it. Might be infected, but probably minor. Could also be nothing but a cold." And they weren't fly-by-night sites that you don't bring home to mother. So we waited to see what would happen. And I mean, come on....we're talking about a RAT. Are we really supposed to take it to a vet and pay for antibiotics and shove said meds down its throat?

You betcha.

My heroic husband and brave little girl did just that when the second head appeared. TWICE. Because the first time it actually worked. This is what my husband told me when he called me in NYC: "Cloud's face fell off! I was nauseous for three hours!" But underneath her skin was pink and healthy and she was on the mend. Unfortunately, it was only the intermission, because by the time I got home I swear her head looked ready to explode and cover the whole house in blood and gore.

Long story short: It didn't get better despite copious doses of antibiotics, so I made the call and we had poor Cloud put to sleep and buried her in the backyard next to the two groundhogs, three squirrels and one parakeet. (I'll tell you about our killer dog another time.) Later that day our daughter, still dressed in her funeral black, sat by the grave and wept.

But you know what I found thanks to Google, that would've taken a lot of extra time and effort otherwise? The Mourner's Kaddish, in Hebrew, PLUS the phonetic transliteration, PLUS the English translation. (I think saying it for a rat may go against all sorts of laws, though, so don't tell anyone.) So Google's not quite dead to me yet. But when it is, I think I'll bury it in the backyard.

(don't forget the databases)

2010-06-22T21:39:00.003-04:00

It's a little pathetic that I'm posting something from another iSchool, but I firmly believe we could have rocked this, if only we had thought of it first. Without further ado, here are University of Washington Information School students and faculty channeling Lady Gaga in "Catalog":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_uzUh1VT98

Gonnabe Librarian’s Log – PubDate 5/20/2010

2010-05-20T10:15:00.001-04:00

One week from tomorrow, on the PubDate of 5/28/2010, I embark on a month-long assignment in New York City. My mission? To work as an intern for the New York Public Library, in the Jerome Robbins Dance Archive. I will master the art of film and video processing for said archive, and become a world-class archivist of the moving image, giving me the power to RULE THE MOVING IMAGE ARCHIVE WORLD! But this position affords me an equally opportunistic ... um ... opportunity: to leap headfirst into the secret mission given me by my alter-ego, for whom I work undercover under the guise of a loving but impatient mother and devoted but moody wife, but who actually has enacted a hostile takeover of my subconsciousness and rules my every stupid move. The secret mission? To learn ballroom and latin dancing, and remake myself in the image of Cheryl Burke or Edyta Sliwinska and RULE THE BALLROOM FLOOR! I confess, however, to not a little trepidation and angst, for I fear I will look less like Cheryl and Edyta, and more like Cloris Leachman. Ah, the pain…..

E'erbody in the lib gettin' frisky

2010-05-12T18:00:00.002-04:00

I'd really like to see all of this survey's results...

Survey: Librarians get frisky in stacks

Published: April 19, 2010 at 3:57 PM

NEW YORK, April 19 (UPI) -- A 1992 survey of 5,000 U.S. librarians, long withheld by a professional journal, found one in five respondents had engaged in sexual trysts among the stacks.

Will Manly, who said the New York-based Wilson Library Bulletin withheld the results of his survey in 1992, published results recently on his Web site indicating 51 percent of librarians in the early 90s were willing to pose nude for money and 61 percent of respondents admitting to renting an X-rated film, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

Manly said the survey questions were printed in the now-defunct journal, but bosses withheld the results and fired him for the saucy survey, which he said received 5,000 responses from librarians.

The survey also found 22 percent of respondents believed condom dispensers in library bathrooms would be a good idea and 14 percent said they had been sexually harassed by a patron.

(from United Press International, http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2010/04/19/Survey-Librarians-get-frisky-in-stacks/UPI-70101271707027/)

The 15th Ward

2010-04-25T20:43:00.004-04:00

So I'm almost finished with a final project for my Digital iCreation class. It's a website created for a public memory project focused on the 15th Ward, a neighborhood wiped out by urban renewal. I-81 was built, the hospital district moved in .... but that's not what I'm here to say.

I'm here for SEO. Search Engine Optimization.

I'm here to make the 15th Ward site come up on Google. So, I'm going to link to it here. So, pardon me ... 15th Ward.

It's cold, I know. Using this blog to promote another of my projects. Who knew Gonnabe Librarians would come to this? *Sniff* *Sniff* *SOB!*

Meanwhile, don't look at the 15th Ward yet. It's got some glitches. (Oh, look at that! Another link!) But, HOLY CRAP! did I learn a lot this semester! In fact, I created an eportfolio with all sorts of videos for the class, and you can take a peek at that if you want. And, while I'm at it, here's where I'm doing all my blogging now, in case you didn't already know. Which I'm sure you did. Because I wrote about it right here. And I swore my ass off, so if that offends....well, then you shouldn't be reading this blog at all.

Man, I miss swearing in print. Why? Who the hell knows?

Thank God for Nicole and PBJ, who keep this blog on life support. You guys ROCK!

George Washington: What a Bastard

2010-04-17T21:56:00.006-04:00

Gee, thanks, George Washington, first president of our nation and extremely delinquent library-materials-returner.

George Washington racks up late fees at NY library

Sat Apr 17, 2:13 pm ET

NEW YORK – If George Washington were alive today, he might face a hefty overdue library fine.

New York City's oldest library says one of its ledgers shows that the president has racked up 220 years' worth of late fees on two books he borrowed, but never returned.

One of the books was the "Law of Nations," which deals with international relations. The other was a volume of debates from Britain's House of Commons.

Both books were due on Nov. 2, 1789.

New York Society Library head librarian Mark Bartlett says the institution isn't seeking payment of the fines, but would love to get the books back.

The ledger also lists books being taken out by other founding fathers, including Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and John Jay.

The entry on Washington simply lists the borrower as "president."

___

Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com

Retrieved 4/17/2010 from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100417/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_george_washington_library_fines

Happy National Library Week

2010-04-13T15:08:00.003-04:00

April 11th-April 17th is National Library Week, so I expect you all to get celebrating!

This year, National Library Week culminates a local PR stunt game of library-based "Clue." Not in a fun board game way, but in a grueling "collecting cryptic fortune cookie clue statements" kind of way. Now, I am all about this game. I love solving puzzles. Unfortunately, none of our patrons seem to care.

So now I ask: what is it the public wants in a PR stunt, precisely? Is it strippers? Please say it's strippers.

I've got a stripper pole ready and everything.

Working for the Q Center

2010-03-30T00:32:00.004-04:00

Last semester, I searched furiously for jobs/internships relevant to information professionals/librarians. I applied for a digital literacy internship, got the interview, and failed, probably because I showed up to the interview dressed like Flava Flav. I applied to a few other jobs with no response until I heard back from the Q Center.

The Q Center is a place where gay/lesbian/transgendered youth can go for advice, do homework, meet mentors, and just have a place to feel safe and be themselves. So you might be asking, why did the Q Center need my services? The center has a very nice collection of gay/lesbian/transgendered fiction and non-fiction available for the youth to check out. The director of the center desired to expand their collection and hired me to develop an acquisition plan. In addition to the acquisition plan, I had to go through all the books to see which ones were missing, I had to migrate their book database from a '90's computer to a new millennium computer, and I had to contact Q members to ask for the books back.

The interesting part of the story came in the interview. The director asked me how I've been involved with social justice and gay & lesbian issues. I sort of froze because I'm an aspiring librarian and never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd have a question like this for a library intern position. After I stopped mentally screaming, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH." I collected my composure and crafted tales of my philosophy minor and mentioned the fact that I lived comfortably with my homosexual cousin. Whew. I was nervous because I felt like I had to be a gay/lesbian/transgendered student or even advocate to do library type work. Also, I did think for a split second about lying and saying that I was gay, but I couldn't live with something like that. I was nervous. Don't judge me.

Luckily, I got the job, worked a few months and helped to add over 100 works to the Q Center collection. I'm happy with the experience, but in retrospect the interview was perhaps the scariest moment of my life. Long story short. Expect the unexpected.

What happens when you search "librarian" in Flickr?

2010-03-12T07:44:00.001-05:00

THIS HAPPENS.

haiku4u

2010-03-06T10:22:00.001-05:00

spring break approaches
we are waiting and waiting
and waiting...wait...um.....?

This Book is Overdue!

2010-03-06T09:54:00.001-05:00

2010 EMC Information Calendar

2010-03-03T10:29:00.003-05:00

Just so you know, I have no idea what this is good for, except that you get a piece of information about information every day, and how could that be bad?! My brother sent it to me and he's a multimedia guru - or if I were to use the correct terminology, he's a thought leader - so I figured I'd try it out and clicked "Blogger" and BAM! here it is on my page. I put it on iGoogle too, just in case. ("Just in case what?" you ask? I have no idea.)

Library World: 1, Me: 0

2010-02-22T14:48:00.012-05:00

Oh, my poor little GL blog...so neglected...so sad. That's why I am forever grateful for good friends like Harriet, who point me to articles like this one. There's a new book out about librarians, written by Marilyn Johnson, called "This Book is Overdue"!: Hot for Librarian. Then there's a sub-subtitle: How Librarians and Cybrarians can SAVE US ALL, and a superhero librarian is flying out of a pile of books to do her heroic duty.

This it TOTALLY the book I should've written. Or could've written if I was already a librarian and not a library student with every waking moment eaten up by homework or children or needy pets. Or if I was actually a real writer who could sit down and write an entire book, which is doubtful because I'm getting more and more ADHD as time goes on. (ADHD: Aging, Dragging, Harassed and Droopy.)

But here's the thing: when you read the article, which is an interview with said Johnson, you'll see references to Megabeth, book cart drills, dancing librarians, and subversive librarian blogs like "Society for Librarians Who Say Motherfucker," ALL OF WHICH APPEAR ON THIS BLOG! Plus, she's really interested in the new librarian image, which is what I wanted to showcase with all my Gonnabe Librarian colleagues, but failed miserably at because I'm clearly not a motivating force. (Except I've probably proven that I would be a new librarian, if I was still somewhat new and not old and crotchety. So I guess I'll always be a measly wannabe new librarian, and will have to settle for being one of those sad ancient people who tries to be hip and young and looks like a moron, but has fun anyway. So, score one for me.) Anyway, I could've turned this blog into a book, if I was more enterprising. Take that one point away.

PLUS, Johnson's first book was called Dead Beat, about obituary writing, and I have actually started a blog called O-bitchuaries! I haven't actually posted any yet, because I'm stuck in mulling mode on that one. But keep your eyes peeled! (And if you want to bitch about something and can write it up as an obituary - like the death of your perfect, flat stomach after childbirth, or the death of the grocer's "s", send it to me and I'll stick it on there.) Anyway, I've decided that Johnson is my doppleganger. Maybe I should stalk her.

Speaking of which, Johnson says that librarians have stalkers! WTF?! I don't think I'll have to worry about that, because I'll be an old, creaky, trying-to-look-half-her-age-and-really-looking-like-a-pathetic-shadow-of-her-former-self librarian, and not at all attractive to stalkers. But just in case, here's what I would do if I had a stalker:

1. Shave my head.
2. Wear hockey jerseys.
3. Swear a lot. (Big surprise there.)
4. Get out the Doc Martins.
5. Carry the riding crop that I used in a cabaret show once, when I was a showgirl.

See how I slipped that in? Telling all y'all I was a showgirl, so you'd know I was once young and sexy? I'd post a photo, but that would just make me look desperate.

The upshot? I'm going to buy that book and cry hot tears about lost opportunities. Or at least get in what looks like a really good read.

Book Club Burlesque

2010-02-07T17:45:00.004-05:00

Am I dead? Is this heaven? I got a tip from a friend and fellow future librarian about this delicious piece of not-so-bookish-and-yet-clearly-brainy-in-a-bizarre-and-subversive-sort-of-way entertainment. The article appears in the New Yorker, no less, in their Book Bench section. It's called Fiction Fetish, and it's got to be brilliant. It's a burlesque show with a stripping librarian, and was created by artists who idolize Edward Gorey and the Brothers Grimm, and "plan to dedicate shows to Amy Sedaris and Chuck Palahniuk."

Books and dancing and sex and Sedarises. I mean, come ON!

Pointers

2010-02-02T19:45:00.004-05:00

Well, it's finally happened. What with the other blog, and writing assignments, and updating the Lessons Learned page on the personal website I had to create for a class, and keeping up with the discussion boards on our learning management system, I've finally hit a wall. I have actually run out of things to say.

But never fear, dear reader! (I know there's a reader out there somewhere. I can hear you breathing.) Here's my plan for today: pointers to stuff I've looked at recently and either a) snickered at or b) cried over or c) wrote myself and am THAT shamelessly promoting.

Let's get the shameless promotion out of the way, then: Library Class: Boon or Bane?

Now check out this list of librarians doing Michael Jackson's Thriller. Actually, that pointer comes from a pointer from the Infomaven's Desktop, which is a pretty cool blog, in case you haven't seen it. Anyway, the Thriller dance is a rite of passage for librarians around the world. Kind of like circumcision except the only thing that gets cut off is your dignity. I know that when I finally get a library job I WILL be forced to do the Thriller dance, and I WILL like it. (Actually, I really will like it. I even learned it once already. Back when it wasn't a cool bit of nostalgia but was actually cool.)

Here's why I'm pretty much terrified about losing my internship at the NYPL this summer: NYC Loves Libraries. Read this article for details about that ugly picture. And if you want to get even more depressed, you can see Obama's take on the real value of school libraries.
Say it ain't so, Barack! Say it ain't so!

Here's a video created by the Central New York library Resources Council in response to the fourth cut in two years. FOURTH funding cut! In TWO YEARS! WTF?!

But lest I leave you, dear reader, ready to slit your wrists in the bathtub, allow me to point you to a video that a fellow student pointed me to last semester. It's the only one I can watch over and over and over because it's THAT CUTE. And God, I need cute right now, because the future for librarians is looking pretty damn ugly.

Interabang? Interrobang!

2010-01-29T14:19:00.003-05:00

I have just discovered a not-quite-accepted punctuation mark I wish I had always known about: the interrobang. It's a combination of an exclamation point and a question mark. As someone who has always resisted using more than one punctuation mark at the end of a sentence, this is a godsend.

So hey, publishers and software developers: let's get working on spreading the interrobang! I would like to be able to use it while posting a blog entry instead of pointing people to the Wikipedia page, which has some lovely pictures of it in different fonts.

iSchool blogging

2010-01-21T19:53:00.004-05:00

So I have another writing gig! I'm going to be a blogger for the official iSchool blog, called "Information Space." My first post is Dance Librarians: Mythical Creatures or Merely Extinct?

I am, of course, thrilled and delighted and honored. I mean, the fact that they gave me a chance to write for them after reading this blog is pretty astounding, and I am truly humbled. But will I give up Gonnabe Librarians for the hallowed halls of the academy? Hell, no! And do you want to know why? I'm sure you're just dying to know. I can hear the crickets, which is a clear indication of a tomb-like silence, which means maybe all y'all have died already....Do you sense a theme lately?....Anyway, when I got the official word that I would actually be allowed to write for the iSchool, they said they had only one hard-and-fast rule: no swearing.

To which I replied, "WHAT THE FUCK?! Isn't this a university? And a library school? Don't they uphold the rights of free fucking speech and no censorship and shit?!"

I didn't really say that, because I'm not a total moron. But I thought it for a second, before I rememebered that the iSchool has a reputation to maintain, and they need to be professional. And this blog is SO NOT professional it's ridiculous. I mean, I won't even be able to point people to it when I start job-hunting, which kind of makes me wonder if I should maybe rethink the whole thing. Hmmmmmm. HELL, NO! I'M KEEPING IT!

Anyway, I hope you'll check out my posts on Information Space every week. I can't say what day or anything, because I'm not that organized. (Does that mean I'll be a crappy librarian?) But that's what RSS feeds are for!

And as for Gonnabe Librarians, I might take out that final 's' because right now it's just me, but actually I have a plan to get other students more involved. It involves stalking and video cameras, though, so I think I'll shut up now. And I'll plead the 5th if you have me arrested.

So, what did you learn?

2010-01-19T11:36:00.006-05:00

I thought I'd throw out a few things I learned at ALA Midwinter:

1. Bacon is the gateway meat. Vegetarians, beware!

2. Free wifi sucks. Or my computer does. Actually, my computer speaker really does suck because I tried to watch an online class yesterday and whenever our heater came on (which, I freely admit, sounds like a jet engine and forces us to turn up, say, the TV to volumes suitable only for the landing strip of an aircraft carrier)....where was I? My speakers suck. Can't hear a damn thing without headphones. Free wifi sucks, too, if you're at a convention or the Boston Public Library. But when I tweeted that, someone else at the convention said it worked fine for him, so now I'm wondering if I have that condition where anytime you go near electronics they stop working. Because also my battery died withing three hours, and it's supposed to last over nine. My husband says speakers eat up batteries like candy, but I think it's that magnetic field problem. That's probably why I also lose my watches. They just fly off my arm when I'm not looking because my magnetic field is so crazy strong. That doesn't explain the gloves and the jewelry and the sunglasses, though.

3. Librarians are CRAZY for tote bags. Even I, who stuffs as much as possible in my coat pockets just to avoid carrying a purse, coveted a particularly huge tote bag from McGraw Hill. I filled it with about 1000 lbs. of free books, and now I'm crippled. Everyone was tweeting about this picture of a guy with a tote bag full of tote bags, but the picture is all blurry, so who cares? Plus, a tote bag full of tote bags doesn't weigh 2000 lbs, so I win.

4. This is the low-down on jobs from one vendor: health sciences libraries. 40-60% of those librarians are going to retire in the next five years, he said. And he's scared because those are his clients, and what if the libraries don't bother replacing them? I wanted to smile gently and pat him on the head and say, "There, there. Everyone knows no one is going to retire ever, ever again. Thanks to the imploded economy, the entire workforce will be forced to work until they die of old age, and the rest of us are shit out of luck. So your clientele will be creaking along well into their nineties! You're set for life! In fact, you'll probably die on a sales call, you lucky dog, you!"

5. Boston has a new T line, called the Silver Line, which is a bus connected to an electric cable. I don't know why, but that freaked me out. Maybe because of my crazy magnetic field.

6. Even the most comfortable shoes aren't comfortable after a day at a convention. It probably would've helped if they weren't heels. I mean, they're comfortable and all, but you know....they're heels....I'm a dumbass.

7. Swag is great! But apparently, after a number of conventions you become very selective. Now that I'm permanently crooked from the 5000 lbs of books, I can see why.

8. A dance librarian is a mythical creature. More on that later.

9. Schmoozing isn't so bad, as long as you have Xanax.

Okay, so I'm hoping to find out what everyone else learned because I have the sneaking suspicion I missed something. Like, where were all the Twittering librarians I follow, and why didn't I meet any of them? Is it because they were all on their laptops getting thrown off the network every 30 seconds? Oh, wait - that's just me and my crazy magnetic field.

Let's try this again....

2010-01-18T14:26:00.002-05:00

So I posted a thing asking if people want to contribute to Gonnabe Librarians, but instead of posting it right away I waited awhile, and then when I finally posted it showed up on it's original save date, which meant it was below a couple of haikus, so who know if anyone saw it. At least, that's what I hoping is the reason for NO RESPONSES WHATSOEVER.

So here it is again, hopefully at the top of the page:

WANTED: Distance students

Do you like to write? Do you have a sense of humor? Are you gonna be a librarian? You, too, can join Gonnabe Librarians and write about life as an SU student, from the sunny climes of Cali to the sweltering summers of Savannah! (On-campus students: you're not off the hook.)

No, you won't get paid. No, you won't be thrust into the spotlight of celebrity bloggers and asked to write a book. But if we ever manage to get a link from the iSchool you just might get an audience of librarians and students and professors who may or may not appreciate your sense of humor and think it's value added. Hey, it could happen! Meanwhile, we have our fans. Okay, not fans, but followers. Okay, only a few followers, but we're working our asses off here - okay, maybe not working our asses off, but at least one of us is having a really good time!

Think you have nothing to say? Think again! We're not looking for art or thoughtful analysis or anything. No serious library-related ponderings or predictions for the field or lessons learned. Just hoping to show the world what library students are all about. Mainly because we're bored.

Doing a semester overseas? (You know who you are.) Make your fellow students green with envy - post photos of exotic Germany here!!

Living in paradise? Make the campus students cry as they watch yet another foot of snow cover their cars!!

Find a story about unusual librarians, like Megabeth, the 53-year-old, 5 ft. tall librarian roller derby girl, or the surprisingly intricate and well-rehearsed book cart drill teams? Got a good library limerick? Make a video? Wear librarian glasses? Post it here so we can all reap the benefits of healing laughter (or shock and awe, or horrified disgust) as we slog through another semester of library school!!!

Got your own blog? That's okay, too! Post a sentence or two about it, and throw in a link. We're happy to serve as a pointer, if it means you'll give us a pointer now and then. Seriously. We're not proud. We'll beg if we have to. We're looking for traffic, here, not just screaming into the void. Okay, we probably are screaming into the void, like all the other billions of bloggers out there, but we can dream of going viral, can't we?

So if you're funny or entertaining or remotely interesting (or at least think you are), and you're an SU library student living anywhere, and you want to be added as an author, email me (Shander) at esbawden@syr.edu. I promise I won't harass you or anything. Not much, anyway. Not enough for a restraining order, at least.

A new hauki4u

2010-01-13T09:21:00.000-05:00

Classes will start soon
We prepare for frazzled thoughts
Brought on by group work

Haiku4u2

2010-01-08T14:52:00.000-05:00

Winter break is gone
Anyone know where it went?
I'm not done sleeping.

The Archivist of Death

2010-01-02T19:43:00.008-05:00

Is there a better job description than that? I heard about the Archivist of Death on NPR. I can't remember his name or where he's from because my aging brain is mush, and though, according to the New York Times, the aging brain is better than younger ones at grasping the big picture and seeing significance and even solutions, that ability hinges on that brain being kept "in good shape" and mine is clearly full of holes. I would say "literally" but then I'd have to prove it, and that would open up a can of worms best left closed. Especially because I hate worms. They make me thing of death, and how we're all inching ever closer and how I really want to live forever, even if I'm just a holey brain in a jar because I really want to see how it all ends. Which brings me back to the nameless Archivist of Death. (See how I did that? I bet you thought I forgot.) He collects interesting obituaries - over 400 a month - and pastes them in albums. He mentioned that they used to be much more intimate and nice than they are now. Having read very few obituaries, being that I mulishly ignore death and dying and anything that smacks of either, I wouldn't know. But the interview made me think I want to do something cool enough to be called the Archivist of Death, so I decided to start a "Write Your Own Obituary" website, and then found out there already is such a thing. Or twenty such things. So now I want to start an "O-bitch-uary" site where people can write obits for anything that really pisses them off. Like McSweeney's Open Letters, but for people who want to pretend someone or something is dead. (By the way, if you Google "obitchuary" you find out that an unacceptable number of people think that's how you spell obituary. My first o-bitch-uary will be about the death of people who can't spell.)

The upshot of all this death talk? It reminded me that we at SU have a student colleague who blogs about graveyards. She is totally someone who should be on Gonnabe Librarians, but maybe she's shy. Or she's all like, "Why the hell should I write for Gonnabe Librarians when I have my own blog that's so much fucking cooler?!" I've gotta give her that. It is cooler. So wander the hallowed digital grounds of The Living Come With Grassy Tread.

I guess the iSchool has it's own Archivist of Death already, doesn't it? I'll have to settle for being the o-bitch writer.

haiku4u

2009-12-21T10:35:00.001-05:00

winter break is here
we'd like librarian gear
because we are dorks

Counter-intuitive thinking stabs me in the eye and then makes my life a whole lot better

2009-12-15T19:38:00.004-05:00

Here's my new favorite reference source: The Encyclopedia of Counterintuitive Thought. Okay, so it's not an encyclopedia. It's a list - a pathfinder, if you will - of bizarre ideas put out there by people like the Freakonomics guys that includes things like "Drugs are good for you" and "Ann Coulter should be a feminist icon." (I think the person who wrote the second one had maybe already taken the first one to heart, but whatever.) On the list is this entry: "Conventional wisdom is right." That one gave me a stabbing pain behind my left eye, because if conventional wisdom is right then all the counter-intuitive ideas have to be bullshit, which means the whole list should spontaneously combust, right? But then the list is all about how counter-intuitive ideas give the finger to conventional wisdom, so how could the one about c.w. being right be right?

So then I realized that grad school hasn't done me any good at all so far, because I can't even wrap my mind around a simple logic problem without wanting to puke. Which is where I was before I started grad school.

But here's the point: the list had some take-aways that I will definitely use during the rest of my schooling, and maybe even well into my career.

1. Being smart doesn't get you ahead. This will help me stay zen-like and all shiny happy when I blow a final like I did last week in Management.

2. Watching TV and playing video games make kids smarter. This is lucky, because we just bought our kids a Wii for Christmas, and now I get to play it with them and increase my GPA at the same time.

3. Plagiarism isn’t a big deal. Surely this means we no longer have to cite anything in any style, which can only be a blessing for all concerned. Except maybe the authors. Cry, cry. World's smallest violin, etc.

4. Critically acclaimed authors are terrible. I will remember this if I ever work in a public library and have to do reader's advisory. "Put down that Zadie Smith book right now! It's crap! CRAP, I tell you!"

5. Delaware is one of the country’s biggest problems. A big help with the whole graduation/relocation thing.

6. Impulsiveness is superior to careful consideration. What a relief, because all these years of careful consideration have gotten me nowhere. So what if I spent my time doing what I loved and married a wonderful guy and had fantastic kids and found friends I adore and got into a great graduate program because I had a stellar undergraduate record? Clearly I'll do better being impulsive. Maybe even reckless. I think I'll go out right now and max out my credit card.

7. Laziness should not disqualify one from being president. Impulsive AND lazy. My future library boss will never let me go.

8. Civilization should be destroyed. Well, that one just goes without saying.

And here's one more: Amateurs are better than experts. So now I can be all superior and snarky to my professors but I'll still get A's because I'll be making myself so smart with video games and TV. But it won't matter because being impulsive and lazy will trump being smart. And when civilization is destroyed who the hell will care anyway? Especially if you live in Delaware. Then you'll be all like, "Woo hooooooooo! Bite me, world! I'm not the problem. YOU'RE the problem. And now you're DEAD!"

Chair dance (not to be confused with a lap dance, so get your minds out of the gutter)

2009-12-04T11:13:00.002-05:00

Thanks to the twittering librarian @anniemmm, I'm thinking about cool moves to use when I'm a librarian to distract people from crappy or embarrassing librarian moments and other fuck-ups, of which I'm sure to have many. Here's what I'll be doing at my desk to get me through those unhappy times:

Did you know there's a photographer who does librarian portraits?

2009-12-03T12:17:00.006-05:00

Her name is Cindi Trainor and she did a word cloud essay on Library 101 which, by the way, I highly recommend for any student who's really sick of reading academic articles on information literacy and reference evaluation. Like me. (I'm starting to think I may be a little too shallow to be a librarian. Library 101 is just my speed because they've got an awesome, shiny, flashy video and a bunch of short, easy-to-read essays by famous librarians types. And Barack Obama. And they have t-shirts. And buttons. And, of course, a list of 101 things librarians should know to be gamechangers!)

Who are you people, anyway?!

2009-12-02T15:09:00.004-05:00

On the Subject of Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T23:30:00.006-05:00

My family is wisely celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday this year, as it's much better for everyone's disparate schedules to do our fooding in a weekendly fashion. So I'm heading homeward early tomorrow morning for some well-deserved, (not-quite-)total relaxation. Alas, coursework and projects follow me even to the sacred ground of Home.

I am always unduly excited about this holiday in particular. The weather is crappy, it's dark all the time, and school is just heading into the hectic final stretch: it can leave a person of average good cheer feeling like so much wet cardboard. But just then, along comes Thanksgiving with warmth and light and family and enough saturated fat to ensure a safe hibernation. It is a needed boost to help us remember what we have even during gray times.

For those not in the know, Thanksgiving is a noble and illustrious American tradition. Allow me to provide you with an illuminating diagram.

Thanksgiving.

I wish you all warmth, comfort and ample foodings, and I invite you to use this occasion to reflect upon all the things you are thankful for this season.

Library of Mongress

2009-11-24T16:13:00.004-05:00

In honor of the Australian tradition of Movember (Mustache November), gonnabe librarians proudly presents Great Mustaches of the LOC. That's right: flickr uers decided to tag their favorite mustaches in the photographs posted by the Library of Congress. Now the whole world can enjoy these fine figures of men - and their mustaches.

Eco, the Louvre, and lists

2009-11-23T14:18:00.002-05:00

Did Umberto Eco miss his calling as a librarian? Okay, I doubt it, but Gonnabe Librarians might like to see what he has to say about lists and Google searches. The title is...um...sensational, but it's a direct quote, so we'll excuse it, won't we?

We Like Lists Because We Don't Want To Die

Some Librarians Write Books Too!

2009-11-18T21:47:00.008-05:00

Sometimes when I tell people that I'm going to become a librarian, the room becomes silent, the crickets buzz, followed by a gulp and an "oh." After their mental recovery, they might say something like "what kind of job will you have?", assuming that I'll wear triangular glasses and my hair in a bun.

The stereotype almost seems like a cliche at this point. Some of the same people who ask me what I'm going to be are going to be things like lawyers or businessmen. I snicker a bit inside because I know I won't face the pressure of failing as a lawyer or my company embezzling money and having to go to jail. (muhahaha)

The worst that could happen to me is that a patron becomes a little hostile or the little sticker comes off the binding of a book and my mind implodes at the sight of uncategorization.

General people do have these stereotypes that I love me some books. WOOO HOO gimme dem books. I love 'em. And sadly I do, a little, but more than that I like writing. I want to write books. I want to write a librarian character who takes over the world or who makes more money than a doctor or who just simply punches people in the face who stammer, "oh librarian, eh? what you gonna do with that?"

In fact, many times when people ask me, "why do you want to be a librarian?" I reply, "to be a writer." You can't just graduate with a degree in writing, magically sit down write your first piece and have enough money to pay of your loans, buy a house, marry the girl next door, divorce that bitch and then afford little brats. A writer needs to sustain her or himself, which means working at Wendy's or shoveling blacktop, or becoming a librarian etc.

That doesn't mean I'm some poser. I don't have to sneak around a library or classroom and ACT by randomly blurting things like DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM for approving nods from my cohort of "nerds" while the teacher's eyes roll back in their heads as they cream their pants. No, I study librarianship because that's what I have to do to survive. It's a morbid truth. Would I rather have the ability to sit at home and write everyday until I die even without making any money? Absolutely.

On the flip side, that life seems f'in boring. Yes, I want to write everyday, be accomplished, published, etc. But I want to work with people and do something fun, new and exciting like working in a library. And sometimes after a hard divorce or diarrhea you really don't want to be sitting all alone in a room with a computer and a blinking cursor on a white document page. I would so much rather be working in a library wearing a kilt, triangular glasses, a Hilter mustache and my hair in a bun.

More Comics!

2009-11-03T14:37:00.003-05:00

I'm continuing fellow author Natalie's post by providing you with another dose of comics. Huzzah!

The first is Piled Higher and Deeper, or PhD comics. It's about grad students working towards their doctorates. Although the library students on this blog aren't PhD students, the comic is eerily accurate for those of us (like myself) who work as research assistants. And I actually found out about this webcomic through a library, so that makes it even more relevant, somehow.

The second and final offering for today is actually just a not-so-safe-for-work storyline within a larger not-so-safe-for-work webcomic: Diesel Sweeties took a brief if entertaining trip into the land of sexy librarian stereotypes. Hello, Library Anne!

Library Students in Toronto Take it Outside

2009-11-02T12:24:00.004-05:00

Is it a bad sign that I'm posting something about another library school on a blog that supposed to be about SU library students? Let me tell you why I'm about to do just that:

1. Only one person has sent me Halloween photos so I can't start my "Library School Gets Scary" slide show. (Thanks, Heather, for your surly pumpkin. Fie on the rest of you!)

2. I haven't even started editing my "Why do you want to be a librarian" video, and probably won't get it done until Christmas. Of 2012.

3. After a whirlwind of excellent introductions by our fabulous new authors...BUPKIS! The silence is deafening.

So until our next wave of hilarious, outrageous, image-busting effrontery about the goings-on of Gonnabe Librarians at SU, click on the Varsity link below for an article about library students in Toronto takin' it outside. I figure we could do the same thing, and then I'll make a video of it and put music over it and add some lame captions, and voila! Another crappy video for Gonnabe Librarians!

theVarsity.ca

P.S. Just received Halloween photo #2. (Thanks, Lauren!) Maybe I need to meditate on the virtue of patience.

The Merry Librarian ROCKS!

2009-10-28T20:31:00.003-04:00

So I just got an email from the Merry Librarian because I'd emailed her to let her know I found her blog and LOVE IT and that I was linking to it and posting about it on this blog so all y'all Gonnabe Librarians already working in libraries might send her funny stories (deep breath) and guess what? She emailed me back and said she would put a link to Gonnabe Librarians on her site. AND SHE DID! So now we have two - count them, TWO - links to other awesome librarian blogs! Woo hoooooooooo! Now your job, you Gonnabe Librarians who already work in libraries, is to send her your funny/sick/too-good-to-true-but-they-really-are library stories. Like chickens and teenagers in book drops. And crazy old ladies asking where the porn section is. PLUS, you can vote for her as a Blog to Read in 2010 through LisNews.org. But if you vote for her and then don't vote for this blog too, I'll come after you. And I know where all of you live. Or at least where your classes are.

Karaoke Librarian Q & A

2009-10-27T11:51:00.002-04:00

Get ready for another really crappy video of really excellent library school karaoke divas!

Glorious Piece of History

2009-10-26T00:08:00.000-04:00

Comics!

2009-10-24T19:43:00.003-04:00

Today's topic of conversation is one of my favorites: comics! Now, normally I prefer superhero comics, but newspaper-style comics are pretty damn good in their own right. So I have two library-related ones to share with you.

First, is a week worth's of last month's Monty. September 7-12. All I have to say is that anything can be catalogued if you want it to be. Yay for over-organization!

Second, is a title that one of my friends from my last job introduced me to, Unshelved.com. It's the story of a public library. And pretty hilarious at times. To start at the beginning, click here.

The Secret Life of Librarians

2009-10-21T14:45:00.003-04:00

Hi, I'm Nicole! I'm the newest addition to the gonnabe librarians crew. I'm originally from the Syracuse area, and I'd really like to become a special collections reference librarian.

Some of you out there are probably wondering what library students like to do for fun. I have a lot of interests, but I'll provide a sampling.

One of my hobbies is hugging mascots:

I'm currently trying to learn Arabic, and I enjoy listening to Arabic music:

And I also love Korean karaoke:

So that's a brief look at a library student's hobbies! Hope you enjoyed it.

RAVE!

2009-10-19T17:39:00.004-04:00

So fellow author, Claire, and I were thinking what we really need is a five minute dance party before our classes. She very kindly looked for library songs that were danceable, and guess what...bupkis! They were totally NOT danceable, so I thought I'd do some more searching and why I looked on YouTube I'll never know except that I just looooooove YouTube and all the weird, stupid things you come across. And library raves are one of those weird, stupid things, except they're not that weird. And they're not even that stupid. I guess they'd be called AWESOME! If you like jumping up and down while being smashed against thousands of other people jumping up and down. Which I don't. But these videos make me wish I did.

gimmicky librarian wares

2009-10-16T23:44:00.005-04:00

Many of you have probably seen this.

She Blinded Me with Library Science

It's a shirt from this nerdy webcomic that I totally have never read.

SCIENCE!

The Librarian Song

2009-10-14T10:04:00.001-04:00

Having any doubts about your chosen profession, Gonnabe Librarians? Here's a little ditty to put your mind at ease...librarians are SO FINE!

Gimme an L!

2009-10-07T13:54:00.002-04:00

I just linked to this blog from my other blog. The one we're doing for SU so they can ~~spy~~ do an ongoing survey of our thoughts as we meander through our classes. Is that pathetic? Not the ~~spying~~ surveying part. The linking to myself part. I think that's pathetic. But you know why I did it? Because according to Google THERE ARE NO LINKS TO THIS BLOG! Google is wrong, of course, because we just got a link from the effing librarian (YAAAAAAAAY! Thanks, Ef!) But still, just to motivate all y'all to put a link from your blog to Gonnabe Librarians, here's a cheer:

Gimme an 'L'!
Gimme an 'I'!
Gimme an 'N' and a 'K'!
Links! We need links!
Hip hip, hooray!
Do it today, okay?
Want money? I'll pay!
Don't be a fink--link today!

Now I need a picture of a chipper, shiny cheerleader but I learned in library school that finding a picture on Google and copying and pasting it is illegal. I'd do it anyway, but now I feel like I can't because I'm a librarian in training and that would just be bad. Bad library student! Bad!

The Merry Librarian

2009-10-06T12:07:00.001-04:00

Any gonnabe librarian needs to check out this blog. Stories galore--funny, touching, gross as all hell....and you, too, can submit a story. So all y'all who already work in libraries: get on it!

Ask a Librarian or Ask Google

2009-10-05T16:04:00.003-04:00

For IST 605, Dewey group will give a presentation about reference services and we anticipate you to take a few minutes taking the survey: Ask a Librarian or Ask Google. Please let us know your experiences with online information resources and library reference services.

Thank You!!

DO remember to send the URL to people you know to get them involved!!!

New Author and Web 2.0

2009-10-04T10:37:00.002-04:00

Hello, all! I'm Natalie, the newest author here on Gonnabe Librarians. I've been obsessed with books and libraries for longer than I care to admit, which has brought me here to chilly ol' Syracuse, NY.

In other news, we've been talking in one of our classes about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. Wonderful stuff. One part of that is Facebook, which leads me to a link that was passed on to me just the other day. Not so wonderful stuff (well, for the poor guys involved. Hilarious for us. But I'm rather glad I'm not them...).

When Reference Interviews Go Wrong

2009-10-03T17:00:00.002-04:00

By our illustrious iSchool colleague, Rose

This is the first installment of a serial story. Watch this space for the amazing adventures and terrifying travails of the heroic reference librarian! (Now you're committed, Rose!)

The car screeched around the corner on two wheels; barely missing the pedestrians waiting for the light to change. Several cars back, the police raced along the street avoiding traffic while trying to keep up with the speeding sedan. Popping noises were going off from somewhere as if people were throwing firecrackers into the road. I couldn’t believe this was occurring all around me.

“Geez,Louise! “ I thought,” I should be in back at the reference desk right now answering questions, not running for my life. What the hell happened?”

I swerved to miss a woman pushing a baby carriage in the street just like in the movies. I could still hear the police sirens behind me; they sounded closer.

Where was the turnoff to the bridge? If I could just get to that before they caught up with me I might make it out of the city and really hightail it once I reached the countryside. Then the only thing stopping me would be the amount of gas in the tank. Fortunately I had filled up that morning.

That seemed like ages ago. I remember feeding my cat then rushing so as not to be late opening up the library for our early morning customers. Who knew that the first patron’s request for information would lead to this cascade of events culminating in me fleeing for my life.

“Come on, come on, I know you’re out there.” I was talking out loud now; a sure sign that I was losing my usual librarian’s sang froid. Up ahead I could see the bridge looming into view. If I planned this right I could make it. I gripped the steering wheel tightly and pressed down hard on the accelerator pedal. The car lunged forward aiming straight for the bridge.

Hi, all!!

2009-10-02T20:59:00.007-04:00

Hi, I'm Carly, （Xiaoou）, honored to be here, as a new author of the blog.

I'm from China, came to US in mid August, 2009 to pursue my MLIS in Syracuse University, majored in Computer Science(That is the reason why people keep asking me why I'm not in IM program).

Well, I love books, love sharing, willing to serve people to help them to find what they want, or, as Prof. Lankes mentioned in the mission of librarianship, “The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities." Sounds exciting, huh?

This is ME!

Tomorrow is a traditional festival of China, Mid-Autumn festival, or you can call it "Moon-cake Festival". Enjoy the moon cake, ladies! (I really have no idea how to cook it even I consider myself as a cooking GENIUS:-p)

He's baaaaaaack!

2009-10-01T22:06:00.006-04:00

So in an earlier post I had to bid a sad farewell to one of my favorite blogging librarians: the effing librarian. He killed his blog, I said RIP, you will be missed, deleted the link, blah, blah, blah, and now........back from the dead.......it's THE EFFING LIBRARIAN: THE REUNION TOUR!

I figure he's been dead awhile, though, so instead of looking like this:

he probably looks like this:

The effing librarian zombie. So now I wonder if my link will open a portal to the realm of the undead. But I'm going to risk it.

Which reminds me--someone did an 18 page research paper on this: WHEN ZOMBIES ATTACK!: MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF AN OUTBREAK OF ZOMBIE INFECTION. The conclusion? "An outbreak of zombies infecting humans is likely to be disastrous, unless extremely aggressive tactics are employed against the undead." No shit.

Then there are the zombie ants. Actually, they're more like pod ants, where they get taken over by aliens and then killed and turned into houses.

God, nature freaks me out. I'll never sleep outside again.

2009-10-01T12:00:00.006-04:00

I've had the honor of being invited to Shander's unstoppable juggernaut of a blog! Allow me to introduce myself.

My name is Heather, and I'm speeding towards librarianship, flying by the seat of my pants. I did an undergrad thing at SUNY Stony Brook, where I must have gotten confused: I went in studying English, and came out speaking Japanese.

I'd like to say that my favorite pastimes are creating killer indexes and reminiscing over wine about my favorite Library of Congress call numbers. Actually, my hobbies run more like: Saving bugs from sidewalks. Playing Name That Plant. Drawing pictures. Pie.

I studied for two years in Kyoto, Japan, where I owned the karaoke scene, climbed Mt. Fuji, and made friends from all over the world. In the end, though, I left, because I just thought the garbage cans had a bad attitude.

In other news, it's October! Happy October, everybody!

Hip like Whoa FTW

2009-09-28T18:57:00.005-04:00

So hip: hipster librarians thrive in New York.

IDENTITY CRISIS!! A little nerdy, totally gauche, not hot, not ugly, above average intelligent, history major, into indie music & national public radio, slightly witty, crazy for cats, coffee addicted... I am a library cliché!!

Am I...

this?

or this?

Maybe I'm the kind of girl who writes "bologna is kind of expensive" in shaving cream on her friends car after being stood up for a game of Scrabble.

Yeah, I think that's me.

searching and demanding....and yelling

2009-09-23T15:34:00.008-04:00

So we're learning aaaaaallll about searching this week. Like, AAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL about searching. Like, my-head-is-going-to-spin-off-and-crack-in-half-and-spill-my-brains-all-over-my-lap kind of searching. And something that's come up a couple of times is relevancy rankings in search engines. Like, when you put "gonnabe librarians" in a search engine what comes up? I'll tell you what comes up in Yahoo: BUPKIS! In Bing: LESS THAN BUPKIS. In Yahoo you get my delinquent FriendFeed account and something from Digg saying it's been Dugg once. (And guess who Dugg my blog that one time......thaaaaaaat's right...ME. Everyone go on Digg right now and Digg Gonnabe Librarians! Digg)

Anyway, Google had the blog listed, but ranked #2 because the embarrassing 1 Digg thing came up first. (Need I remind you? DIGG GONNABE LIBRARIANS!)

(Would some brilliant person out there tell me why this blog isn't ranked #1 when the name of it is Gonnabe Librarians?! And the URL is gonnabelibrarians.blogspot.com?! Doesn't that count?!)

So, here's what I figure I need to do, according to things learned this week: I need to splatter "gonnabe librarians" all over the blog. So:

GONNABE LIBRARIANS!
GONNABE LIBRARIANS!
GONNABE LIBRARIANS!
GONNABE LIBRARIANS!
GONNABE LIBRARIANS!
GONNABE LIBRARIANS!
GONNABE LIBRARIANS!

And they say if it's in big, bright font it's more likely to come up. But I can't do big, bright font because Blogger doesn't have tools for that and I don't have time to look up the html code right now.

GONNABE LIBRARIANS!
GONNABE LIBRARIANS!
GONNABE LIBRARIANS!

And I guess since this is supposed to be for SU library students, and anyone interested in library school--

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY! LIBRARY STUDENTS!

And FUTURE LIBRARIANS! And MSLIS!

Ummmm.....SU! SYRACUSE ORANGE! SYRACUSE LIBRARIAN-TO-BE! LIBRARIANS OF THE FUTURE!

LIBRARY NUTS!
LIBRARY WHORES!

Whoa. Ease up there, cowgirl.

Oh, and of course the best thing to do is get linked to from other sites, but since I don't think anyone is reading this who also has their own blog and wouldn't be embarrassed to have a link to this one, I think I'm out of luck. But, on the off chance that luck is with me: LINK TO THIS BLOG! Or tell someone else to! Be demanding, like me.

Introducing....NEW AUTHORS

2009-09-19T18:47:00.002-04:00

I know. I can hear you. "Well, it's about time. The blog's called Gonnabe Librarian. With an 's'. Where the hell are the other librarians?" And here they are! Woo hoooooo! Seriously. It's not all about me.

I might need to delete this whole blog

2009-09-09T12:57:00.004-04:00

It's Never Too Late (or: When Old People Are Still Super Cool)

2009-08-31T12:13:00.008-04:00

This weekend the whole ischool took IST 601, a one-credit gateway-type course where we got to meet everyone, play games, work together on a project, learn about innovation, find exactly what the grading standards are like, get all inspired by some fabulous presentations (Information is Power! You will change the world!) and here's my take-away: I'M TOO FUCKING OLD! There were a few poor souls older than me, but not many. We can hope we serve as inspiration to the younguns, but hell--I doubt it. They're probably all like, "Wow, I hope I'm not crawling into grad school when I'm an old fart." And then they laugh because they know THEY'LL never be old farts, THEY'RE going to be all young and cool FOREVER. They're not going to let themselves go and get all wrinkly and soft and grey. Nooooooooo, not them.

And then I wake up to this AWESOME article with the headline, "Tiny Librarian Hell on Wheels." And not only is she tiny, but she just became a roller derby girl. And she's 53!

Read it and pass it on....For the sake of old farts everywhere looking for a little inspiration themselves.

Thank you, Masked Librarian

2009-07-25T19:42:00.005-04:00

So, I follow a lot of librarians on Twitter and they're not what you'd expect. Okay, some of them are exactly what you'd expect, but not The Masked Librarian! Thanks to him I learned about @ALAsecrets and the subversive, even perverted goings-on at the ALA conference (not telling my husband, as I intend to go next year), and about pranks to play on patrons involving decaf coffee, and about where to get cool librarian gear. (CLICK). And that there is such a thing as librarian gear. And that Chicago is more crowded than Montana. And, of course, he found this old ad on Flickr for cigarettes about how a Tiparillo might just get you laid by a sexy librarian and so I'm blogging it. Because I have nothing else to blog about. Because I've spent the last 48 hours reading Atlas Shrugged so I can enter an essay contest and try to pay for the rest of my tuition. I think Ayn Rand would plotz if she lived now. But, I digress.

Twitter...gotta love it. Even if you really don't want to.

Librarians Get Funky

2009-07-18T15:33:00.008-04:00

Screw dance libraries, dancing in libraries (um...haven't done that post yet, but you HAVEN'T LIVED till you've seen a crazy lady dancing at a computer in a library), and screw dancing for, about or because of libraries. Why bother, when in every tired corner of our bedraggled country one can stumble upon a LIBRARY BOOK CART DRILL TEAM. I kid you not. From Texas to Ohio to California, librarians and their beloved carts compete for the title of Library Book Cart Drill Champion. They COMPETE! IN PUBLIC! I feel the twang of an adrenalin rush just thinking about it.

If there is a God they will have a course on this in library school. Like, "Cart Choreography 101." Or, "Applied Cart Drilling for Special Librarians."

Check out Madonna's Material Girl.

And who can resist the chutzpah of these ladies in Get Down With Your Funky Shelf.

And my personal favorite: I Want To Be a Librarian.

Okay, so this next one isn't a book cart drill team, but came up in my YouTube search even though I specifically said "library cart drill team" and I LOVE stepping and these girls are awesome and so are the girls in the video that automatically pops up when this one is done. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Watch them anyway. Even if they're not librarians. And don't have book carts.

Step Team - UAB Gospel Choir

Fear and Loathing in Libraries

2009-06-19T08:58:00.005-04:00

It's Official (Or: I Won't Freak Out, I Won't Freak Out, I Won't Freak Out)

2009-05-05T14:32:00.010-04:00

My nonrefundable deposit is in. I have a notice of matriculation in my hot little hands. I've registered for classes in the fall of 2009.

I think I might have a heart attack.

This, folks, is IT. There's no going back once you've started grad school at a place like SU. I mean, a year's tuition is like A MILLION DOLLARS. Or twenty thousand dollars, which may as well be a million dollars even for someone like me who's perfectly stable, financially speaking. And, frankly, mentally and physically speaking. Boring, I know, but if you're looking for a future librarian who's also a nutcase, then you've got the wrong blog.

But it's not the money that has me all atwitter. SU is helping a lot of students in that department (for which we are, of course, eternally grateful). It's the change of identity. By the time I graduate, in May 2011 if all goes well, I'll be a working librarian instead of a gigging flamenco dancer. Maybe I'll do both, but still--for the first time in my life instead of saying, "I'm a dancer" I'll say, "I'm a librarian. (Oh, and a flamenco dancer.)" Worlds collide.

Speaking of worlds colliding, dance librarianship seems like a no-brainer. The question is, how many dance libraries--or libraries with a dance collection--are there? TONS! Or at least, more than you'd expect. Some are part of music collections, some are listed in museums, and most are in the US, if the SIBMAS International Directory of
Performing Arts Collections and Institutions has it right.

So, hell! I haven't even started grad school and I have a plan. No need to panic, here. In fact, I'm dancing a jig.

the.effing.librarian

2009-05-01T09:49:00.002-04:00

the.effing.librarian is closed. Links are removed. Fans are reeling. R.I.P.

html crap is killing me

2009-04-17T18:12:00.003-04:00

Just looked at one of my posts on a different computer, and found out my bullets aren't bullets. They're garbled and weird even though they look totally normal on my computer. So what's THAT about?

Ignore the rant of post below, please. I found a brilliant guy to hold my hand through the whole html thing

2009-04-09T12:59:00.003-04:00

Slacker

2009-04-08T16:06:00.011-04:00

(Note to self: find out how to indent in html. Or find a brilliant person to give me a f@#$%ing clue! Don't tell me about blockquotes. That's NOT the f@#$%ing clue I'm talking about.) So, here's a limerick:

There once was a library student
Who really was not very prudent.
She slept through her classes
And broke her eyeglasses.
In hangover cures she was fluent.

Musings on a Reception

2009-04-03T13:41:00.008-04:00

Two weeks ago, or thereabouts, I attended the Admitted Student Reception for prospective MSLIS students at SU. Most people were mulling over their school choices and deciding whether SU was the place to go. I, of course, was not mulling. I live in Syracuse. I only applied to SU. I need not mull.

I brought my little video camera to document the event. The day was a full one—9am-4:30pm—and involved food, panels, tours, and more food. It was a day crammed with information for the aspiring information professional. I learned a lot. For instance:

· I need a tripod

· I need a microphone

· I need a camera that doesn’t involve tiny little tapes, and I should think before shooting to prevent rotten shots with lousy sound.

· Privacy issues should be taken into consideration. (If I was already a librarian I’d have thought of that.)

So, I have crappy video. Lots of unusable, crappy video. Not totally unusable. I made a montage that you can see at the end of this post. It’s like a word cloud, but it’s not a cloud. It’s a list of words. All the words that led me to wonder just what I’d gotten myself into with this whole library school thing.

Now, bear with me as I offer an overview of the reception and share some very general impressions of the school, the panelists, librarianship, etc.

First impression: If you look at The Dome (SU’s basketball arena) from certain spots on campus it looks like….well, take a look:

That sad sight aside, the ischool (the School of Information Studies) is housed in Hinds Hall, which has been completely renovated. The facilities are slick, modern and very up-to-date regarding all the latest technological stuff. I, for one, can’t wait to learn what exactly all that stuff is, so I can stop calling it stuff. At any rate, it looks very cool. Very 21^st century.

After breakfast (there was a fantastic coffee cake muffin which I would totally recommend if you were in Syracuse, and if I knew where it came from), we went upstairs for the first panel of the day. Half a dozen professors talked about what they teach, what their research interests are, etc. There was a break, more food and coffee, and then a second panel made up of alumni, who talked about where they worked and illustrated all the really interesting things you can do with a library degree. Then a lunch break followed by a panel of current students who talked about what they're working on and with whom, future plans, etc. Finally, there was a tour of the museum which I skipped because I was exhausted from holding the camera up for hours without a tripod

Things I learned:

· You can get credit for categorizing pasta.

· There are a lot of specialties. Medical, law, corporate, school media, public, academic....and there was nearly a throwdown when one librarian said her specialty was the best and the other librarian said, no, her specialty was the best and blood was in the air. I wanted to collect bets (I was laying my money on the public librarian because she was young and probably more agile,) but I had a video camera in my hands. Good to know they’ll go to the mat for their work, is what I was thinking.

· You can volunteer in a game lab at SU. Like, with games. And do research on games and gaming in libraries. And take them out to libraries in the area and show off the whole thing to librarians and convince them that they're really missing the boat if they don't welcome gaming in their libraries. SU is the only school in the country doing research on gaming, but beyond that I don’t know the details. Clearly, I should find out specifics before blabbing about it in a blog. But HEY! You can work with games! BOOYAH! And there's a website about it all, so you don't need to listen to me anyway. Just click here.

· Your degree can take you to places other than libraries. Like, you can work as a preservationist on a Native American reservation. And get paid to collect cannons.

· Librarians are pretty happy with their lot. (Except for the Annoyed Librarian. See link to your right.) They get to move around if they want to, they can always learn more about other aspects of the field, they get to teach and/or help people. (Which begs the question: what if you don’t want to teach or help people? Maybe this isn’t the career for you? But even then I bet you can find ways to work more solo, as it were. Get really good at all the technology stuff. The stuff I hope to talk more intelligently about at a later date. Then maybe you can spend all your days on a computer. Avoiding people.)

· Have you noticed I don’t really have any idea what I’m talking about? That’s because I haven’t started yet. So, sue me.

· Students get lots of opportunities to work with professors, and even get published.

· Internships are crucial. I want to do mine in Amsterdam. Can an English speaker get an internship in a non-English speaking country? Actually, I know for a fact that most Amsterdamers (Amsterdamites? Amsterdamians?) speak English. No, wait. I’m thinking of Denmark.

· If you want a pretty course take the one on special collections. If you want a job, learn archiving.

· The students raved about the school, even though there were no professors listening in. So the students weren’t just kissing ass—they actually meant it.

To tell the truth, I ended the day with a big headache. Not a headache, really, but a head that spun around. Not like in The Exorcist. It was spinning because its was crammed with new information. Looking at my crappy video later I knew why: there are TONS of things to learn about librarianship.

Apparently, it's normal to feel dazed and confused when you face the prospect of library school. One alum (the public librarian who totally would have won the throwdown) said she went into her first class, where a bunch of librarians are paraded through to talk about their specialty, and said after each one, “Oh, I want to do that!” By the end you pretty much want to do it all but are forced to choose, and it ain't easy. But they say you can time the “ah ha” moment when, as one professor put it, every one of us will go, “DUH!”

I hope I go, “DUH!” by Thanksgiving.

Here’s the other thing I noticed: almost everyone said something like, “I have a different background from everyone else.” Which means either they’re all egomaniacs, which I guess is possible, even though that’s not the first thing that occurs to you when you think of a librarian, or else having a diverse and interesting background is actually good for future librarians. Thank God for that, because I’m doing a mid-life switch from flamenco dancer to librarian. There’s a different background for you.

Word Cloud

2009-03-27T11:23:00.002-04:00

So I pasted all the class titles from the MSLIS curriculum into a word cloud generator. If you want to see the result click here.

A Librarian Framed

2009-03-25T11:04:00.018-04:00

So I needed a new pair of glasses because I wear my contacts 24/7 and was like, "My eyeballs are going to shrivel up and I'll look like one of those shrunken apple heads, except it'll be like I only shrunk my eyeballs." The girl at the optometrist seemed pretty cool, pretty with it, pretty hip, and I'm a world-class ditherer, so I asked her advice. She immediately pointed to this pair of frames and said they were her favorites, and that they were small so they'd fit my ridiculously narrow face. She didn't say ridiculously. But it is ridiculous.

So I got the glasses and the girl at the checkout counter said they were her favorites, too. So I'm thinking, BOOYAH! I'm cool.

But here's the thing: I TOTALLY look like a librarian now. Then I wondered if they knew, like with ESP or something, that I'm going to library school in the fall, or if maybe they thought I looked like a librarian already, so the glasses complete me. (Now I have to call them Tom Cruise, because in case you were buried under a rock in 1996 and don't know, Rene Zellweger completed him in Jerry Macguire. My family'll just luuuvvvv it when I run around the house yelling, "Where are my Tom Cruise? I can't find my Tom Cruise because I need my Tom Cruise to see where my Tom Cruise are!")

So then I'm like, "I've gotta see if these make anyone look like a librarian, or if those damn women just thought I'm a total nerd and are snickering about selling the crappy librarian glasses to a loser." Here's the test I came up with:

Glasses on a bear

Glasses on a pig

Glasses on my dog

Glasses on me with a cowboy hat

Glasses on a head of lettuce

Yeah. I'm totally ready for library school.

Wannabe Librarians, Up Close and Personal

2009-02-11T12:23:00.005-05:00

P.S. Do you know how many superhero librarians there are out there? Prepare to be dazzled!

Noah Wylie played a librarian adventurer:

Batgirl was a librarian (am I the only one who didn't know that?):

And Jet Li played a librarian ninja (or something to that effect):

There are plenty more, including the one for the NJ State Library, so the MSLIS program should definitely think about a superhero future librarian mascot. After all, look at the university letters:

They're the first two letters in the word "superhero!" It's a no-brainer.

Must You Twitter?

2009-02-09T11:33:00.003-05:00

Twitter is an annoying little tool, kind of like a little kid who follows you around, nattering at you until you want to chew your own arm off, but then goes away and leaves you wondering where he is, what he's doing, and when he'll be back. And I want to kick something every time I hear new words added to the lexicon of social networking, like Tweets, Twitterati, and Twoosh. But I've got to give it this: it's amazingly useful for getting the word out about all things You. Before I get into the whys and wherefores, just let me rant a bit. Just a teensy, weensy rant, because while Twitter's a useful servicee and all, it first led me to ponder the deep, eternal question, "What is it all for, really?" with the resultant answer, "Nothing good." I deleted my account and went through the five stages of grief before I figured out why it's such a screaming success.

Twitter is the social networking site for minimalists. No photos, no videos, no "Which alcoholic drink are you?" quizzes. Each post is ridiculously (some might say thankfully, or intriguingly) short: only 140 characters are allowed, EVER. Which is irritating if you're a blowhard and have a lot to shout about, because you have to use multiple posts and that's just abusing the system and will get you un-followed pretty damn fast. If you don't set up your account right you view bizarre, incomprehensible, one-sided conversations because unlike Facebook you aren't privy to the previous posts. So you might see something like this: "@easb I was thinking about it." Then you wonder who easb is, and maybe follow her to catch the other side of the conversation, because whose curiosity wouldn't be peaked? Soon you've got a migraine from jumping from one person to the other to follow a conversation that's actually not that interesting anyway. People you really want to follow, though, are often missed: posts scroll right on by and drop off your page when you're not looking, so you're always vaguely aware that you're missing something. Then there's the problem of followers: how do you get them? Or why do you get only the weirdos who follow anyone and eventually have their accounts suspended for suspicious activity? What if all of your friends are on Facebook and wouldn't bother with Twitter if you paid them, so you have no followers on Twitter and feel like a total loser?

Of course, there are settings to take care of problems like this. You can pick and choose who to "listen to" so you don't miss tweets by people you really want to follow. You can decide to follow no one and tweet into the void. You can turn Twitter into a public art project, like this one. Or, you can come to a new way of thinking about Twitter, which is what I did.

The revelation? Twitter is the world's best bulletin board. A library program like SUs can tweet to students about coming events, canceled classes, location changes, awards received and so on. Students who join Twitter can have tweets from the program sent directly to their cell phones. Need to cancel a class? Tweet about it, and students get the message. Special event? Twitter will keep them in the know. Fire in the ischool? Twitter will save their skins! Need to lighten the mood? How about haikus for worn out Future Librarians?

Never fear, student
Thanksgiving break is coming
Golden turkey waits

That's 66 characters, perfect for cell phones.

Click here for an example of a Twitter account for the MSLIS program.

Tweet on!