denidecimal

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:29:38 GMT

I'm beginning to suspect one journal is really enough for anybody. I don't really have time to comment on and discuss professional fads or relevant stories to an extent that would require an entirely separate journal.

Anyway here's my to-do list. For my own planning purposes basically.
- write case study response for 508 and turn in Nov. 3
- finish that Soul in Library Leadership book and start planning presentation for management class on Dec. 1
- DO YOUR REFERENCE SOURCES DAMMIT.
- get in touch with Sybil and get the internship ball a'rollin'
- start the time capsule paper already. Next synopsis due in 2 weeks.
- try to meet up with 560 group and find out what the final project is all about.
- don't forget about field trip on Nov. 17
- city auction is ALSO Nov. 17. They're auctioning old wooden card catalogs WHICH I WANT. Can I work it out? We shall see.

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:34:59 GMT

Today we register for classes and I have, with quite a shock, realized that I could finish the 3 classes I need to graduate and probably work a full-time job. SO. That's what I'm going to try to do.

What I'll take
1. So I'm planning on doing an internship in a school somewhere local. That's about 10 hours a week I think. Still need to set this up...
2. There's a class on user instruction on Thursday nights at 6. I could work during the day then go to that. or if that doesn't work out there are any number of other night classes.
3. There's another horrific weekend class in Gadsden but it's collection development and it's my advisor so maybe it wouldn't be so bad. 4 weekends spread out over the semester.

And then I'll be done. OMG THEN I'LL BE DONE!

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:04:15 GMT

I'm doing a paper on time capsules for my preservation class. Here's a poem about time capsules by Philip Appleman.

Last-minute Message for a Time Capsule
I have to tell you this, whoever you are:
that on one summer morning here, the ocean
pounded in on tumbledown breakers,
a south wind, bustling along the shore,
whipped the froth into little rainbows,
and a reckless gull swept down the beach
as if to fly were everything it needed.
I thought of your hovering saucers,
looking for clues, and I wanted to write this down,
so it wouldn't be lost forever-
that once upon a time we had
meadows here, and astonishing things,
swans and frogs and luna moths
and blue skies that could stagger your heart.
We could have had them still,
and welcomed you to earth, but
we also had the righteous ones
who worshipped the True Faith, and Holy War.
When you go home to your shining galaxy,
say that what you learned
from this dead and barren place is
to beware the righteous ones.

Thanks Anu Garg

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 14:56:40 GMT

for teaching me something about hornbooks - something I knew nothing about!

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 02:31:31 GMT

holy crap there is a journal for EVERYTHING. Even Deviant Behavior. Includes articles like:

Guards As Embezzlers: The Consequences of "Nonshareable Problems" in Prison Settings
Worley, Robert; Cheeseman, Kelly Ann
Deviant Behavior, 2006, 27, 2, Mar-Apr, 203-222
Some correctional employees end their careers in disgrace by engaging in "inappropriate relationships" with inmates. This study employed face-to-face interviews with thirty-two inmate manipulators who admitted to behaving inappropriately with prison ...

One day when I am rich (ha) I will subscribe to a different obscure journal every year.

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:56:43 GMT

So the assignment I'm currently working on for "Reference Sources and Services" asks us to describe our search technique for answering 20 questions using only the Index and Abstracts databases available through our campus library. Each one can actually be answered by one or more specific articles/books/whatever. Here is a sample of questions:

- How have churches in Eastern Kentucky responded to welfare reform?
- What research, if any, has been done on romantic relationships between older women and younger men in India?
- What grappling art was practiced by the ancient Greeks?
- Who is/was Erich Von Daniken? Locate sources which indicate what scholars generally think of his ideas.
- What trends or innovations have been occurring in bed design in the past 12 months?

Actually this assignment is fun as hell. Just sort of tedious.
ok.. back to it.

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 04:06:29 GMT

Yeah so I haven't been around much. School is strangling me.

In any case, name some books I should read. I'll read anything if it has a good recommendation. I'm currently reading Sabriel by Garth Nix. It's the story of an 18 yo necromancer (but a *good* one) chick that has to bring her father back from the dead and save the world. Enjoyable.

I'm also reading The Hummingbird Cabinet by Judith Pascoe. It's a history of collecting beginning back in the days of romantic poets. A minister steals Wordsworth's walking stick *as he's using it*. Nonfiction. References Dust which was required reading for Archives class last spring. Anyway. So name some books. Audiobooks gets special consideration since that's what best fits into my crazy schedule.

Sat, 23 Sep 2006 23:43:49 GMT

They sent this job opening out on the school listserv. What do you think guys? Should I apply?? yeah right.

Job Title: Chief Librarian
Organization: Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions
Location: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
Description: Are you interested in putting your library science education and experience to work in one of today's most challenging, interesting and rewarding environments? Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions is recruiting for a Chief Librarian to manage the Detainee Library, under the direction of the Joint Task Force-Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In managing the Detainee Library, the Chief Librarian is responsible for providing, maintaining and developing library services and operations using reading, recreational games and puzzles, music, or electronic media. The Chief Librarian is responsible for selecting and maintaining a range of reading and recreational materials to reflect the needs of the patrons in terms of languages and appropriate/approved topics.

The Chief Librarian will supervise a staff of three (one Assistant Librarian and two Linguist/Library Assistants). The Chief Librarian will also work closely with other contractor and government staff.

To be successful in this job, the Chief Librarian will need to be creative, adaptable, ambitious and resourceful. The ideal candidate will possess a degree in library studies or a closely related field and relevant experience. We will consider extensive experience in library operations and management, in lieu of a degree. This job requires proficiency in English. Applicants must be eligible for a US government secret clearance. If you're interested in talking in more detail, please e-mail your resume to hr@torresco.com.

Application Information:Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions offers a highly competitive salary and benefit package. Additionally, this job qualifies you for federal tax breaks. Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions is a certified Minority Owned Business and a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business. Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions is an equal opportunity employer.

http://www.lisjobs.com/jobs/item.asp?ID=31404

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 21:06:18 GMT

I'm now done with my short foray into Agatha Christie-land (Seven Dials and The Body in the Library) and am now listening to Nabokov's Lolita on audiobook. Of all the things to listen to in your car on audiobook this is one is most embarrassing. And very uncomfortable and shocking and, frankly, spell-binding. Jeremy Irons reads it (he played Profion in the DnD movie) fairly well.

Paper and Skin

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:56:58 GMT

I watched The Pillow Book this weekend which nicely complimented my class visit last week to two of the book arts labs - the typography studio and the campus art paper mill.
"I love books - the paper smells just like skin." Beautiful, sensual movie.

I missed out on taking binding this fall but maybe I'll take paper making in the spring.

ALSO this is a really cool website we experienced in class:
Fore-edge Painting

Two other facts I that I didn't know but learned in class in the last couple of weeks.
- Suede leather comes from the fleshside of skin
- Recycled paper is so crappy because the fibers that make up the paper become even shorter in the reprocessing. Longer fibers = stronger paper.

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 18:30:12 GMT

I just had a nightmare "quiz" where the teacher said "Oh it's nothing. Just read the thing [a freakin' forward to a book] and you'll be fine" and then it ends up being 20 questions of insane detail and idiocy. I thought I was being crazy actually highlighting anything in it but I ended up unable to even remember the title of the book! Just plain stupid.

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 17:18:43 GMT

Red-Hot and Filthy Library Smut. Saw it on amused_library. Reposted here for your enjoyment. Very work safe.

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 17:45:54 GMT

You would expect a teacher that asks you to read 16 chapters for the first class to have the decency to get the book stocked in the univ. bookstore. Amazon can't ship it until 9/5. period.

Oh well.

EDIT: Nevermind. I'm a dumbass and misread the syllabus.

Currently Reading

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 17:00:28 GMT

Three Days to Never by Tim Powers
Oh how I love Tim Powers. The only other thing I've read by him so far is Last Call which was EXCELLENT. Three Days to Never is in the same vein. Strong but weird family relationships and the gradual discovery of the Truth behind perceived reality. Last Call was better but this one is still pretty good.

In Flagrante Collecto by Marilyn Gelfman Karp
Still holding onto this one. Thinking about buying it. Nice big coffee table book about collections and collecting. Here is a good example of why I love this book...
What then, are the shared traits, the commonalities among these, the least biased of collectors, lovers of the unloved, that can be ascribed to all collectors?
1. Unquestionable Dominion - Collecting gives a province of absolute control, a domain. The collector is pharaohonic, the godly king and absolute monarch of a singular and self-defined territory, master of all he or she surveys.
2. Hands-On Gratification - There is a deep satisfaction in organizing, inventorying, embracing, handling, and communing with the booty. Touching material objects connects us with the time and place in which they were made. Fondling the objects within one's own realm and arranging discrete and fluid categories is a gleeful exercise, a personal potlatch.
3.Empowerment by Delimitation - The choices within one's collecting sphere are limited only by one's own imagination. Answers to one's own questions of what to seek are self-imposed. Should the quest be directed toward variety or quality? Quality or quantity? Quantity or one-of-a-kind, each perfect? Should one upgrade? Should one trade? The boundaries, criteria, and standards are one's own. Limitations of budget are personal and may be built into one's criteria, a fungible scale of allowable desire.
4. Hunting and Gathering - Exhilaration in the quest and the satisfaction attendant to acquisition encourage a refined sense of strategic reconnaissance and a fulfilling sense of personal acuteness, judgment, attainment, and achievement. Regarding one's own collection, choices that were individually made hone self-respect and invite responses from others ranging from curiosity, consternation, admiration, and astonishment to envy.
5. Possession - Ownership is an act of self-affirming intimacy and self-committing responsibility. Acquisitions require maintenance and other kinds of attention. A collector's singular voice is witnessed in a collection. A collection is a constructed self-redefinition of the collector who amassed it. An era may be possessed through ownership of its artifacts. A collector owns history by osmosis.
6. Husbanding and Transference of Characteristics - Husbanding grants protective custody over or of an object, in some cases granting asylum, resurrecting, or gripping the object back from the maw of oblivion. A collection is a charm against chaos, the ordered bit, the finger in the dike. Husbanding confers transference of the characteristics that define what is collected (beauty, wisdom, strength, poise, dignity, quirkiness). The salient attributes if the collection accrue to the collector. Sine the source of these characteristics is the material object, they consequently transfer to successive owners (each owner adding a patina to that object.)

Junior Home Problems - Revised c. 1938.
Highlights include helpful illustrations like "The Daily Time Budget", "Sneeze into your hankerchief" and "A comfortable and attractive bedroom". Designed for junior high school girls, this book tells you what to clean and how to clean it, how to entertain children and what qualities make a good friend.
Here is a list of "right social health habits" a girl should possess:
1. Likes to be considered courteous and polite.
2. Abhors deceit and insincerity.
3. Takes pride in being able to live harmoniously with others.
4. Finds pleasure in considering the desires and wishes of others.
5. Respects the property of others.
6. Appreciates the need of laws for comfort, welfare and safety of the individual and the community.
7. Takes pride in being a good mixer.
8. Enjoys working for the good of the group.
9. Is charitable in her judgment of others.
10. Recognizes the fact that there is good in everyone.
11. Appreciates the need of cooperation.
12. Is glad to be of service to others.
13. Finds satisfaction in forming normal and wholesome ideals and attitudes in relation to sex.
14. Appreciates a normal attitude towards life.
Right.

What Dress Makes of Us c. 1897
This book should probably not be freely circulating since it is over 100 years old. Decent shape though. Discusses which hats and bonnets are best for which shape of face. Idolized Sarah Bernhardt.

How to Make and Trim Your Own Hats c. 1948
Would be awesome if I could understand the convoluted directions and knew where to buy "buckram".

Cutting Edge Fashion Illustration by Mitchell Beazley, 2004.
I love art and design books. This one has stuff like this that I really like by Yuko Shimuzu.

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
God, why am I having such a hard time with this book?!?!?

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:26:12 GMT

I got my summer school grades and yay for keeping the 4.0! Double yay for no longer being a conditional admit student!

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:21:15 GMT

Between the freaky stuff people search for on AOL and the neat pile of feces a patron left on a conference table at work, I'm losing a little more faith in the general goodness of humanity.

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 21:53:31 GMT

Please don't read them (agony) but it's kind of cool that Technorati indexed my class article summaries blog. What use they think it would have I have absolutely no clue.

Friday is my last day of summer school!!
Things I Still Have to Do
1. Synthsize the group paper and email out by 3pm tomorrow
2. Look over and practice skit on Fri. before class
3. Take 3 hour online final by Sat. noon
4. Do annotated bib. for Fri.
5. Email those last two citations ASAP
6. Decide what to wear for Fri. presentation
7. Finish the last article summary (maybe)

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 21:42:27 GMT

Overcompensating covered the AOL privacy violation thing yesterday(?)
I'm not sure if that story is old or not... I know the Dept of Justice subpoenaed Google and a bunch of others (AOL included I think) several months ago but this must be a new situation.

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 04:24:17 GMT

Home and Away: Self-Reflexive Auto-Ethnography

Lame title but actually an interesting paper we were asked to read for class. I'm fascinated by the concept of "home" generally. I love to hear people describe what it is like for them. Is that ultimate place of belonging geographical? Is it the people? What is it? I'm still trying to figure it out for myself. I used to believe I never really got attached to places but now I think that's not quite right... and I can't decide if my mind is changing on that as I get older or if I'm realizing things that I've "known" all along.

EDIT: heh. I just watched Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus and it's kinda in the same vein.

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 03:30:52 GMT

Does anyone know what "general trait anxiety" and "state trait anxiety" are? I have a minor in psych but have not run across these before.

my plans for the next week or so

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 22:34:17 GMT

WHAT HE SAID!!!

EDIT: I looked again and I only have 1 more article summary for 500 (not 4). Still the 2 homeworks and the final but this actually makes me feel A LOT better. They're not bad, just tedious, and I the other things I need to do require special attention.

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:51:38 GMT

After fumbling around for a week or so on Academic Search Premier, Expanded Academic ASAP and JSTOR (yuck), etc looking for information on library anxiety for my research methods class project I finally tried Google Scholar and was pleasantly surprised to see some new titles and authors. So that's what Google Scholar is good for! Dead ends! Anyway, I actually got a little thrill when I found exactly the sort of article I've been looking for. I couldn't get to the full text through Google but it was very satisfying to find that UA has an electronic subscription to the journal I was looking for and a not obnoxiously long or paper wasting copy of the article.

So what is library anxiety you might ask? Well it's that special uncomfortable feeling you get when you're in an unfamiliar or large library and think everyone knows what they are doing but you. They've researched this. It really exists. Personally, figuring out the copier and printer give me the most anxiety.

Sat, 29 Jul 2006 22:19:19 GMT

I finally took that 3 hour online test... gah. Saturday started out sunny but now it's all gray. At least the test is over with. I just have the homework due Monday and as many article summaries and abstracts as I can squeeze out of my brain in the next 30 hours or so.

The best anagram for "metadata" is "a mad teat".

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 22:45:17 GMT

I continue to hate presentations but I guess I'm getting a little more used to how they make me feel.

Aren't you glad Weekly Reader is still around? When I was a kid Weekly Reader day was the biggest deal to me. I remember it being on newsprint but now it's a slick magazine? and online. cool huh?

Thrift Store Trip

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:07:12 GMT

So after class on Monday I went to the thrift store to see what I might find. I ended up buying a 3 volume set of The Animal Kingdom: the Strange and Wonderful Ways of Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Fishes and Insects. A New and Authentic History of the Wildlife World from the mid-fifties. It's written by various people at the American Museum of Natural History.

I love old books anyway but these are especially enjoyable because of the great subheadings for each animal. The first chapter in volume 3 is "Fishes - Their Whys and Wherefores". And there are great illustrations - "Laying Eggs in a Mussel" and "An Archer of Unusual Skill" (showing and archer fish spitting water at a bug above water) and "Tree Hoppers - Comical Little Hobgoblins" to name a few. There are also stories about what it's like to be bitten by various insects and animals. Also a fair number of b/w photos. I would have LOVED reading these when I was a kid.

I also bought The Echo of Greece (1957) by Edith Hamilton and Mysterious Places (1969) by Daniel Cohen mainly for their aesthetic value. Both have their original book jackets.

The books wouldn't really have been noteworthy except I also bought a plastic baggie of old stationary (due to postcards featuring Sigfried and Roy!) and while I was going through it I came across a letter that someone had written and never sent! You KNOW I totally live for this kind of thing.

The animal books and the letter and some cat's feet

Here is what the letter says, punctuation and everything preserved as best as possible:

Name: Sebastian Heung Bu Noroni
Born: 4-18-1990
Weight: 4930 Gr.
Length: 59 cm

Berlin 12-15-90

Dear Marjorie, Dr. Chen and Pei Fang!
How are you? It is a now more than two years that we hear from each other. But always when I think of my time in Alabama, I think of you all, too! As you can see, I am now a proud father! Our son is already 8 months old and a very friendly and peaceful child. My wife's and my life changed a lot since this birth. Through our son we can now understand and feel God's heart and love toward us, his children. How is the health of Doctor Chen? Is Pei Fang still a student or did she return back to China? How is your driving after all? Here in Germany we could experience the down fall of the Berlin Wall first hand! By now everything is back to normal. People are working and living as usual. It is a wonderful feeling to travel now freely to every part of Germany and talk freely with all people. Quite a number of people from East Germany have joined our Unification Church. The blessing of God is now on the people of Eastern Europe. Soon the unification of Korea will come about too! In March 1991 my wife, son and myself will visit USA and Alabama. We like to come for a visit to your house, too! Is that O.K.? Please write sometimes even a small card, so that I know you are alright and healthy!

Your Eric
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

So it was actually mailed from Germany and ended up in someone's personal things in Tuscaloosa and then donated to the thrift store. And they are Moonies too. A superb find!