Is this the end?

Here's where I am right now:

1. Sitting at my computer in Syracuse, sighing loudly.
2. In limbo between graduation and a cross-country move to Albuquerque.
3. In between two houses: one under contract and another not even thinking about being sold.
   
4. 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:

1. To Albuquerque, NM! The driest, sunniest place on Earth!
2. On a job hunt! In the Land of Enchantment! Where it's always sunny!
   
3. Into a totally awesome new home! In dry, totally-never-humid Duke City!
4. 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!

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?

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

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

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

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.