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Saturday, June 30
Facebook Round-Up
by
Jason
on Sat 30 Jun 2007 10:45 AM CST
When did this blog go from a wide swath of technology-related stories to "Today's Facebook news is..."  But Facebook is booming - I'm finding and being found by old college friends, work colleagues and more. My mom's not on (yet) but I expect that add request any day.
The strangest? I was looking at the profile page for a librarian here in Regina and one name on his "Other Friends" list sounded familiar. I e-mailed the friend (via Facebook of course) and it turns out it was a guy who had gone to the same elementary school as me for one year when we were eight then moved away. Honestly, I thought there'd be a lot more of those "six degrees of separation" connections happening for me on Facebook but that hasn't been the case.
So anyhow, here are a few Facebook related stories I came across recently that I thought I'd pass along...Face Off Extension for Firefox- if you're not a fan of the new applications for Facebook, this Firefox extension allows you to turn them off. I haven't installed it yet but the idea has some appeal - how many invites to join "horoscopes" does one person need? How many different "This Is What I'm Reading" apps are out there?Facebook Deja Vu- an analysis of the impact of Facebook on various groups - from teens to venture capitalists. "No less a personage than Marc Andreessen has declared Facebook a seminal milestone in the on-going history of the internet." (Andreessen is credited with investing the first graphical web browser - Mosaic - if you didn't know.)
Facebook Is The New AOL
Touching on some points in the last article but in a more critical manner, blog pioneer Jason Kottke, points out the similarities between America Online in 1994 and Facebook is 2007."As it happens, we already have a platform on which anyone can
communicate and collaborate with anyone else, individuals and companies
can develop applications which can interoperate with one another
through open and freely available tools, protocols, and interfaces.
It's called the internet and it's more compelling than AOL was in 1994
and Facebook in 2007."
Warning: You Too Could Be Addicted to Facebook
The one word people use when describing Facebook is "addictive". A college journalist takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the phenomena.
"Even while writing this article, I found myself distracted by
the Facebook. Intending (for the most part) to do research and
gather information, I often found myself updating my profile,
checking out new messages, and even joining groups – all
while I was supposed to be thinking about how to stop doing exactly
that."
"How Facebook Ended My Marriage"
A technology journalist decides that listing himself as "engaged" on Facebook is giving out a bit too much personal information so he changes this setting without realising this will send a message to all of his friends that "Thomas is no longer engaged." "Within minutes an email arrived from a friend in San Francisco
asking if I was doing ok and a friend in France posted the news on his Twitter feed (photo above), which has nearly 800 readers. Colleagues discussed the situation without me knowing about it.
Suddenly I found myself explaining to people spanning nine timezones
that we are, in fact, still getting married. Don’t always believe what
Facebook tells you."
Friday, June 29
Friday Fun Link - The Concept of Alphabetization (June 29, 2007)
by
Jason
on Fri 29 Jun 2007 10:47 PM CST
On late night TV talk shows, every show
begins with the host inevitably saying something like “We’ve got a
really good show for you tonight!” whether the guest is Tom Hanks or
that guy who made the funny noises in the Police Academy movies.
My Friday Fun Links are sort of the same thing - sometimes I have really good ones, sometimes they’re kinda “meh”.
But
to be completely honest, this week’s FFL feels like the librarian
equivalent of Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts sitting down on the couch (or
Tom Cruise jumping on it).
Here’s a link to a great discussion at MetaFilter on the development of the history of alphabetization.
All
kinds of topics are covered - the idea that alphabetization developed
long after the alphabet instead of soon after as you might expect.
Other related issues that librarians face every day - do you use a
person’s last name or first? How do foreign cultures with different
naming conventions fit in? How about foreign alphabets in general? Does
a word with a space (”sea foam”) come before a compound word
(seaborne). And so on.
Anyhow, folks, we’ve got a really good link for you this week…enjoy the know!
Thursday, June 28
Show Pile
by
Jason
on Thu 28 Jun 2007 11:50 PM CST
I don't talk a lot about my work on this blog but I thought I'd discuss one of my favourite activities that I do - approving the purchase of books that patrons have requested - to celebrate my three month anniversary in this position which is tomorrow. In my library system, this is known as the "show pile" although this is a term I never heard before - at library school or elsewhere. (I asked my boss who's been there for fifteen years but he said he doesn't know the history of the term either and that it predates him.)So anyhow, it's a fairly standard service in most public libraries. Patrons want to read a book that we don't have in the system so they can request that we buy it. I get print-outs of these requests added to a folder on my desk on a regular basis. ("Don't fall behind on show pile!" was a piece of advice more than one co-worker gave me when I started.) Whenever I have time, I grab the folder and work through a few of the requests. According to the librarian I replaced, they should take about five minutes each, give or take, with some taking much longer (some obscure book you have to do a lot of research on) or some taking much shorter (should we buy the diet book that was featured on Oprah yesterday?)
I can either ask that the book be purchased, request that we bring it in as an inter-library loan or send it back to the branch of the patron that requested it and ask that they buy it out of their own budget.
Making the actual decision involves working through all of that 503 Bopp & Smith stuff we used to laugh at - currency, price, format, relevance, etc. - plus more! Not only do you look at the book individually, you have to look at the rest of the collection too. (Er, that might have been in Bopp & Smith but I don't remember that chapter.  ) Do we already have a lot of books for this subject/call number (non-fiction) or by this author (fiction)? How well do they circulate? Is there going to be demand for this book or will it enhance our collection to buy it? Or is it more cost-effective to bring it in as an ILL? I am in a very fortunate position that the number of requests we get isn't so high that I end up having to reject a lot of requests and the majority do get approved. The ones that get rejected are usually because we already have the book on order and the paperwork simply crossed in the office between when the request was made and when the book was ordered (and that's usually a clue that I'm falling behind with the show pile!)
Something that hit me while doing this, especially working with small branches in many communities that I lived in or am otherwise connected to, is the importance of privacy. I used to think of Shea's job as an RN as one that required a high level of discretion but never thought of librarianship at quite that same level.
Now I see that they're closer than I realized. I get to see (these are made up examples) which former teacher of mine is ordering a book on dealing with depression. Or the mayor of a rival town may want to read about tax dodges. Or a kindly old grandma in a small town requests raunchy Danielle Steele novels. And so on...
It reminds me of when I announced at library school that Shea and I were pregnant and Lindsey H. who worked at LPL goes "Jason, I've known for months." "I knew you looked at my account!" I blurted. "I didn't have to. Who do you think processes the holds at Central? You've been reading a lot of pregnancy books lately!"
There's also that related issue of unintentional censorship and/or favouritism that happens when you do have a limited book budget and a seemingly unlimited number of books out there. Librarians (should) strive to be fair and equitable but there are times when I'm sure some collections librarians either reject books that they don't have an interest in or that they disagree with just as there are probably librarians who inordinately collect books in their own areas of interest or knowledge. This is almost sub-conscious but I try to be aware of that bias. Still, I admit that I do get a bit more excited when I see a book on say, American politics or rock music, then when I see a chicklit novel or a military history in the pile. But as I said, I'm really lucky in that, at least so far, I don't find myself having to reject any of these requests very often.
Anyhow, that's a bit of insight (hopefully) into one of the more enjoyable, library-specific activities in my new job. Here quickly are the names of the books I approved the purchase of during an hour or so of researching this afternoon (in which time I also rejected maybe five or six requests.)
NON-FICTION
Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of the
American Superpower – Zbigniew Brzezinski
Untwisted – Serge LeClerc
The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution Against Political
Corruption and Economic Chaos – Ravi Batra
Diana Chronicles – Tina Brown
2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl – Daniel Pinchbeck
FICTION
Greywalker – Kat Richardson
People of the Weeping Eye – W. Michael Gear
Girl At Sea – Maureen Johnson
Average American Male – Chad Kultgen
Family Tree – Barbara Delinsky
Possibility of Fireflies – Dominique Paul
Wednesday, June 27
Toronto Is The Facebook Capital of the World
by
Jason
on Wed 27 Jun 2007 08:11 PM CST
A MetaFilter thread discussing an essay entitled "Viewing American Class Divisions Through MySpace and Facebook" leads to this interesting nugget: Toronto has the most Facebook members of any city in the world (that's absolute "most", not even per capita. This means TO outranks much larger cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Canada has a pretty strong showing in the Top Ten overall as well - Vancouver is #5 and Calgary is #7 and Montreal is #9.
Tuesday, June 26
How *Does* A Google Query Work?
by
Jason
on Tue 26 Jun 2007 12:49 PM CST
Here's a great answer to the question of what exactly happens when you do a Google query.
Monday, June 25
Pace's Future Careers...
by
Jason
on Mon 25 Jun 2007 09:17 PM CST
Librarian
 Author And of course, rock star! 
Sunday, June 24
FIMS Course Blogs
by
Jason
on Sun 24 Jun 2007 11:02 AM CST
This will be a bit sparse to start but I thought I'd do a post of FIMS classes that have related blogs. If you know of any other course blogs (or other related online materials - wikis, etc.) that are beyond the FIMS intranet, please let me know via a comment or e-mail.LIS746 - Collection Development in Academic LibrariesLIS757 - Social Software
Friday, June 22
Friday Fun Link - Does Internet Filtering Work? (June 22, 2007)
by
Jason
on Fri 22 Jun 2007 01:03 PM CST
In keeping with the topic of the day over at my other most favourite site on the Internet, LibrarianActivist, here’s a report on internet filtering from the National Coalition Against Censorship
which is admittedly, a bit dated, having been produced in 2001. But it
gives an excellent overview of many of the issues and problems being
discussed in the wake of the LPL's board to look at increasing the use of filters in their library. And an update of the report in 2006 shows that the same concerns with internet filtering software remain to this day.
Here are some examples of what happens when you filter:
- CYBERsitter blocked a news item on the Amnesty International
site after detecting the phrase “least 21.” The offending sentence
described “at least 21” people killed or wounded in Indonesia.
- SurfWatch blocked the University of Kansas’s Archie R. Dykes Medical library upon detecting the word “dykes.”
- X-Stop blocked the “Let’s Have an Affair” catering company
and searches for Bastard Out of Carolina and “The Owl and the Pussy
Cat.”
- WebSense blocked a Texas cleanup project under the
category of “sex,” and The Shoah Proj-ect, a Holocaust remembrance
page, under the category of “racism/hate.”
- Cyber Patrol blocked a Knights of Columbus site and a site for aspiring dentists as “adult/sexually explicit.”
- BESS and SurfControl blocked curriculum materials on
Populism because they also contained information about National
Socialism. Symantec blocked the National Rifle Association and other
pro-gun sites while allowing sites associated with gun control
organizations.
- BESS blocked a site on fly fishing, a guide to allergies,
and a site opposing the death penalty as “pornography.” It also blocked
all Google and AltaVista image searches under its category of
“pornography.”
Thursday, June 21
Happy Longest Day of the Year
by
Jason
on Thu 21 Jun 2007 06:06 PM CST
Or as a sleepy new father and an overtired new mother call it: "everyday." 
Tuesday, June 19
Parental Myths
by
Jason
on Tue 19 Jun 2007 03:08 PM CST
This really has turned into a baby blog (as opposed to a library and technology one) lately, hasn't it? I checked my stats and the number of readers continues to grow but I assume that's as much to do with the long tail of old entries that people are finding as with anything new that I'm writing. Oh well...the focus of this blog has shifted before and it will shift again. And as somebody said to me once, "When you're a librarian, it's all on topic." So with the excuses made, here's a list of myths parents have about their babies (via Reddit, my current favourite one-stop shop for interesting links.) It's a good list, pretty funny, pretty accurate and I only wish it was longer!
In unrelated news, my laptop is back from the shop and FedEx says it's sitting in the Regina depot since Friday awaiting "next business day delivery". But it's not in my hands so apparently that means FedEx doesn't consider either Monday or Tuesday as a business day. Monday, I could see - does anybody consider it one? (What's that rule about never buying a car that's made on Monday morning or Friday afternoon?) But Tuesday? They had all day today when I was off and back in Regina to deliver it. And they didn't. I am very sad. 
Monday, June 18
Nations That Have Not Yet Adopted the Metric System
by
Jason
on Mon 18 Jun 2007 10:45 PM CST
Sunday, June 17
How Fatherhood Affects The Body and The Brain
by
Jason
on Sun 17 Jun 2007 12:31 PM CST
I'm not a big fan of the Hallmark holidays - those ones that you just know were made up at some point in the past, mainly to sell greeting cards. But anyhow, happy first Father's Day to me! Most of us know the ways that parenthood affects mothers. But in keeping with the theme of the day, here's an article from Slate magazine outlining some new findings about how parenthood affects fathers (er, if you're a marmoset):
There's also preliminary but tantalizing evidence that fatherhood can change the brain. A 2006 study
found enhancements in the prefrontal cortex of the father marmoset.
After childbirth, the neurons in this region showed greater
connectivity, suggesting that having young children could boost the
part of the brain responsible for planning and memory, skills parents
need when having kids gives them more to keep track of. The neurons
also had more receptors for vasopressin, a hormone that has been shown
to prompt animal fathers to bond with offspring. (Receiving an
injection of vasopressin, for instance, prompts a male prairie vole to
cuddle and groom a youngster.) (Thanks to Heather M. for the pointer to this article)
Saturday, June 16
Smaller: The Story of the Disposable Diaper (The Perfect Innovation) - Malcolm Gladwell
by
Jason
on Sat 16 Jun 2007 11:37 AM CST
Doing my third diaper change of the morning reminded me of this excellent Malcolm Gladwell article I read a year or two ago. In it, he looks at the history of disposable diapers, their science and the impact various elements have had on the economic aspects of the product.
Shea and I did the cloth v. disposable debate and like all good neo-hippies of the world, we were going to go with cloth. But someone (Quinn? Ian?) showing me a Wired article about how each is equally bad for the environment (PDF) in its own way along with the extra complications of trying to do cloth while maintaining two separate households, tilted the pointer towards convenience.
Friday, June 15
Friday Late Link - Public Library Does Away With Dewey (Fri June 15, 2007)
by
Jason
on Fri 15 Jun 2007 11:56 PM CST
I had this ready to go yesterday but never got near a computer to post it. So I'm backdating to Friday and life goes on...
“The Prelinger Library is a small privately owned “public library” in San Francisco with the unique philosophy
that browsing library stacks can reveal new knowledge, if the books are
arranged for browsing. This is counter to most public libraries who
rely on computer terminal searching, databases and the Dewey Decimal
system to atomize books and subjects, with stack browsing a sort of
random after effect. Now a (real) public library in Arizona has joined the revolution
and claims to be the first public library in the nation to drop the
Dewey Decimal system. Instead, books will be shelved by topic, similar
to the way bookstores arrange books. The demise of the century-old
Dewey Decimal system is overdue, county librarians say: “People think
of books by subject. Very few people say, ‘Oh, I know Dewey by heart.’
“”
(via MetaFilter which has some great discussion about the role of classification systems in libraries and bookstores)
Thursday, June 14
Good Web Sites About...Designing Web Sites
by
Jason
on Thu 14 Jun 2007 05:53 PM CST
I can't remember if I ever mentioned it on this blog (probably knowing me) but I'm currently volunteering on the web site redesign task force of the Canadian Library Association. For tomorrow's telefconference, everybody was asked to submit a link to a web site whose navigation they thought worked well. Some people did, others simply gave lists of what elements they liked (and didn't like) and since I agreed with most of what was already said, I sent the list of sites below instead. So, two questions for anybody who's out there: 1) is there a library and/or organizational web site whose look/navigation you particularly enjoy or that works really well?2) are there any sites you like that have good tips about web site design? Or any personal preferences for things you like (and don't like?) ---Hi all,Rather than chime in and repeat a lot of what's been said already (and which I agree with for the most part), I'll point you to a few sites you may or may not have seen before. I know most people won't have time to peruse these by tomorrow but they might be useful to look at as this process moves forward. Web Pages That Suck - has a good checklist of things to watch out for when designing a site. Ironically, their site design is horrible (or maybe that's intentional?)Jakob Neilsen's Top 10 Web Design Mistakes- an annual list of the worst trends/ongoing errors in web design. Highly worth reading and featuring lots of other Top 10 lists for other years and specific topics. The book "Don't Make Me Think" is great. The web site? Not so much...Finally, a Google search for "Best Library Web Site" led to this best practices wikiCheers all - talk to you tomorrow!Jason
Wednesday, June 13
The Birth Order of Children
by
Jason
on Wed 13 Jun 2007 05:15 PM CST
We were talking about having multiple children today at coffee break ("I think Shea and I want to survive this one before we decide that" was my take) and a co-worker mentioned this e-mail which she forwarded to me. Too true.
The Birth Order of Children
Your Clothes
1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms
your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.
Preparing For Birth
1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that last time, breathing didn't
do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth month.
The Layette
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, colour-coordinate them, and fold them
neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the
ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?
Worries
1st baby: At the first sign of distress - a whimper, a frown – you pick up the
baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.
Pacifier
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go
home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some
juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.
Diapering
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or
not.
2nd baby: You change his diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change his diaper before others start to complain about the
smell or you see it sagging to his knees.
Activities
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing, and Baby Story
Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.
Going Out
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five
times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number
where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.
At Home
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't
squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.
Swallowing Coins
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital
and demand x-rays.
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin
to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance.
Tuesday, June 12
So I Was Sitting In the Dentist's Chair...
by
Jason
on Tue 12 Jun 2007 07:15 PM CST
...and what better time for letting your mind wander far FAR away? If a couple recent posts were "link dumps", consider this one a "mind dump" as I sit at home waiting on a few things before I head back to Weyburn after a quick trip into the city. (Hmm, one thing that didn't factor into my choice of jobs was $1.15/litre fuel and more frequent than expected trips for doctors, dentists and all kinds of other appointments and obligations. Oh well - it's only money, right?) - flipping through the channels (ceiling TV = best dental technology improvement of all-time), I happened upon my former boss' acceptance speech for the Arts category at the YWCA's Women of Distinction Awards being replayed on local cable. Couldn't have gone to a better choice. Congrats Brenda!- we have Bell satellite at home but the other reason I like local cable is for the real estate channel. I cannot believe how much real estate has gone up in Regina in the past few years - 19.4% in the last year alone which I believe leads the country. If we didn't need to find another place to live, we'd sell our house tomorrow! - I spent most of the afternoon today buying books for our library system. Life is good. - in a weird way, my laptop dying couldn't have happened at a better time. I get to focus on Shea and Pace without the distraction of that shiny blinking box always at arm's reach. (Er, not that I wouldn't have otherwise, of course! )- I think I'll pick up some Lang's Vietnamese food for supper on the road home - even though my mouth still isn't working yet. It's soooo good (the food, not when my mouth doesn't work.) - I am having a very honest debate with myself right now about having a quick nap before heading back to Weyburn or getting on the road ASAP. Guess what? Baby wins...I'm outta here!
Sunday, June 10
How Mainstream is Your Musical Taste?
by
Jason
on Sun 10 Jun 2007 09:19 PM CST
I am...26.58 % mainstream in my musical listening habits. Kinda surprising - I would've guessed I was about 80% mainstream. Actually I probably am 80% mainstream if this site could look at my CD collection. But my online music listening habits (which are tracked by last.fm and which is where these stats are drawn from) are probably a lot more focussed on new bands that I hear about online. And if I'm honest, I'm a bit more conscious that by streaming what I'm listening to to this blog, I'm helping create a virtual representation of myself. So on my computer, I listen to hipster cred bands like Wilco, obscure singer-songwriters like Sam Baker and trendy but perhaps not yet broken newcomers like Lily Allen. Meanwhile, at home in the CD player, it's all Spice Girls, all the time!
[Edit: Except I just looked at the last.fm sidebar and realised that Anne Murray's "Could I Have This Dance" has been sitting there for about a week. Embarrassing but it played at my grandpa's funeral so I wanted to hear it again when I got home. No shame in that! What'd we learn in 503? Never apologize for your reading habits. I guess the same should apply to your music listening habits. Unless you like Nickelback. There really is no excuse for that! ]
Saturday, June 9
Link Dump Redux
by
Jason
on Sat 09 Jun 2007 03:24 PM CST
So after saying a couple entries ago that I never do link dump posts, here I am doing another one. Maybe I should give in and make this a recurring feature on the blog, just like the Friday Fun Links? Heck, I could have a whole week's worth of features and never have to come up with an original thought again!Sunday Photo of the Day (Flickr or From My Own Collection)MetaFilter MondaysYouTubesday Wikipedia Wednesday Thursday Download of the DayFriday Fun LinkSaturday Link Dump o' The Week Or maybe that would be incredibly dumb. 
But anyhow, (seeing as it's Saturday) here's a few more link dumps for you..."OMG! My mom joined Facebook" - NYTimes Facebook's recent facelift (ha!) is deeper than I initially realised. All those new widgets you can add to your profile are a big step in Facebook's attempt to become a "social operating system". They don't want to be bought out by Google or Microsoft - they apparently want to *be* Google or Microsoft. This could get interesting!"More Advice College Graduates Don't Want To Hear" - NYTimesLots of good tidbits here - I'm a big fan of "pay yourself first" along with "pay yourself 10% of everything you make" having read "The Wealthy Barber" while still in high school. The sooner you start saving, the better off you'll be in the long term. Chris Graves has a link to a site that explains compound interest in a very straight-forward manner. How do you save 10% when you're young and not making much or paying off student loans or whatever? It's hard but not impossible. Set up an arrangement with your RRSP company (you do have an RRSP, right?) to automatically withdraw 10% from each paycheque (or from your student loans even!) and adjust your spending accordingly. Don't buy Starbucks. Don't buy smokes. Don't buy booze, shoes or a CD of the blues if it means you won't be able to save that initial 10% every month.
Man, I have lots more to say on this - this should be a full post sometime (why do I have a memory that I already linked to Chris Graves' post on compound interest? It's taken a year but more and more, I feel like I'm repeating myself on this blog.)LIS757 Delicious Links PageThis semester's social networking class at FIMS has a page where students are required to submit links to stories about various aspects of Web 2.0. Lots of good browsing here! (Bonus to the person who can identify which submission here is a link back to my blog. Since Delicious only shows titles, not URL's, I'd have to scan through all of them to find out which person linked back to me - which is how I found this page initially.)The Loneliness of the Conservative Librarian"When David Brooks did some research into political donations by profession for his September 11, 2004, column in The New York Times,
he found that for librarians "the ratio of Kerry to Bush donations was
a whopping 223 to 1." By contrast, the corresponding ratio for
academics was 11 to 1. As one of those rarest of beasts, a conservative
librarian, I can attest firsthand to the stifling left-wing orthodoxy
of modern American librarianship."
Another anecdote which I think I've told before... I was walking out of our first day orientation and ended up walking beside Quinn (though I didn't know he was Quinn just yet!) and he noted that he'd recently read an article about how librarianship was the most left-wing, progressive profession by far. I was like "yeah, and..." Anyhow, that's a thought that's been going through my head lately - looking at Facebook profiles of colleagues who are brave (stupid?) enough to note their political and religious beliefs (not that these two are linked - I know there are progressive religious people and there are conservative ones.) Anybody looking for an RQ challenge? Do a search for any studies of the political leanings of librarians. Or use the Political Compass quiz and Survey Monkey to do an informal study on your blog. (I'd do these things but time does not actually exist for me right now!) Or do a full-fledged independent study at FIMS next term and send me the results!  Here's my results by the way:Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -8.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.74
Friday, June 8
Friday Fun Link - Librarians As The Enemies of Books (June 6, 2007)
by
Jason
on Fri 08 Jun 2007 07:48 PM CST
A bookseller writes in Library Quarterly about how librarians are the enemies of books - marking them up with tape, stamps and glue, getting rid of unwanted and obsolete books and so on.
(Oh, and it’s an article written in 1937. Have things changed or are librarians still responsible for “ruining” books?)
(via MetaFilter)
Thursday, June 7
Why Raising Babies Is Like Making Bread (And Thoughts On Why I Blog Daily)
by
Jason
on Thu 07 Jun 2007 10:14 PM CST
Jill has a really nice post about being a parent that resonated as Shea and I head towards our son's first month on this planet (and after dad's first week back in the office.)Michelle also admits to some amount of shame at her lack of blogosity in comparison to my almost-daily-posting track record, especially with a new job, a new baby, and no computer (not quite true - no laptop but I still have access to a desktop pretty much everywhere I am - so a bit more inconvenient but not too bad.) Anyhow, a few people have asked me since I started this blog how I'm able to post so regularly. So I thought I'd try to answer that now. The first element is that I've kept a personal journal (my small town roots won't allow me to refer to it as a diary - those are for girls! ) since 1991 during my first year of University. I've always been a wannabe writer and had made various attempts at keeping a journal since probably the day after I learned to write. But they never stuck until, perhaps unsurprisingly, I got my first computer. The advantages of keeping the journal electronically - searchability, security, automation of some things like the time stamp I use for every entry- helped me to make writing in the journal a habit that I've never stopped. (I think I read somewhere that you need to do something 20 or so times in a row for it to be a habit. So less than a month of daily posts - in your personal journal or on your blog or for anything else - going to the gym, going to bed early, whatever it is - and you should be on your way. Of course, how they figure this out so precisely is the bigger question!)Getting back on topic - knowing I would have to write regularly to make the journal a habit, I decided to aim for a daily entry knowing that a weekly time frame gave too much chance to let it slide. In the end, my entries weren't necessarily daily but as often as I had time or reason to write. Some are one line long, some are pages in length. I would say that since 1991, I've written 10 000 single spaced pages worth of entries. Of course, I'll never go back and re-read everything but it's nice to be able to go back and, like looking at photo albums, have moments and memories come back to me - either when I'm trying to remember specific details or just browsing randomly. So when I started my blog, it was a fairly easy transition to doing regular, frequent posts here also. And much like my journal, sometimes I'd go for a few days without
writing on my blog while other days would see half a dozen entries or more. Finally, I think I've developed a few tricks to make daily blogging easier - I bookmark interesting links as I come to them so I always have something to talk about, I try to visit a few aggregators such as MetaFilter and Reddit on a daily basis which provide lots of potential links/topics for discussion. Things like photos and embedded YouTube videos are easy "cheats" on days when I don't have anything to discuss but still feel obligated to post. I've also built up an archive of maybe 20-30 draft posts that could turn into full fledged blog entries at any time. Pending topics range from long-buried subjects like "10 Things I Learned In Library School (Honest)" to a more recent idea to write about "Why Saskatchewan Is The Most Canadian of Provinces" to a list of useful library employment web sites (including RSS feed links for those that don't already have them courtesy of Ponyfish.So anyhow, there you go - an explanation of how (and why?) I do daily (give or take) blog posts. Oh, and the biggest irony? Since starting this blog, my personal journal has gone from daily posts to closer to weekly ones!
Wednesday, June 6
Oscar is due today...
by
Jason
on Wed 06 Jun 2007 12:36 PM CST
...I wonder if it'll be a boy or a girl?
Monday, June 4
A Thought...
by
Jason
on Mon 04 Jun 2007 02:14 PM CST
When I am If I were to be King of the Universe, every new mother would receive eighteen months of paid maternity leave at their full salary with no cap (right now, I think it's something like $1600/month as the maximum you can collect no matter what you make as a salary). There would be no maximum amount that could be paid out but for people earning less or no income, there would be a minimum payment (why not $1600/month for poetic justice's sake?) As well, every father would receive a month of paid paternity leave, also at their full regular salary.
But until that day comes, I'll head back to work tomorrow and think of Canada's $51 Billion dollar EI surplus while wondering, WTF is that for anyhow?
(Someday I'll detail my attempt to claim EI after a year of being a student, knowing this was totally against regulations and being totally shot down as expected - but at any rate, the story of my appeal hearing is a good one! )
Sunday, June 3
How To Give A Good Presentation
by
Jason
on Sun 03 Jun 2007 05:22 PM CST
This is a subject that's been on my mind as a possible topic for a post since probably before I started this blog and came back to the forefront of my thoughts after getting some very nice compliments about the eulogy I did for my grandfather last week.
I'm not a presentation expert by any stretch but, without a lot of formal training, I do think that I've developed the ability to give a decent talk when required (although I've also had a few clunkers in my life too!) So, what are my personal tips for giving a good presentation?1. Be original. I always like to attack my topics from a unique angle if possible. This was especially useful in a library school classroom where often many individuals or groups are presenting on the same or similar topics but also applies in other settings as well. It can be as small as asking to present on public library collection policies in my "Collection Development for Academic Libraries" course to taking on the persona of a young adult who is in a coma for my book talk in Children's Lit to trying to write eulogies that break out of the "The deceased was born here, lived here, got married when, had this many kids, this many grandkids, enjoyed pastimes such as and passed away then" template that so many people use mixed with glittering generalities ("He was a wonderful person." "She had a great sense of humour.") It can be risky - someday I'll post the obituary I wrote for my grandma where I talked about how she pretended to be an alien from another planet - but it can work. Not only did a lady come up to me after my grandfather's funeral to tell me they still had clipped and saved my grandma's obituary from nearly a decade ago but at the time, that unique obituary got my Grandma written up in the National Post. 2. Use humour.
It's tough to do this effectively and again, I've told some clunker-jokes that aren't much better than the crap you find in "1001 Jokes for Toastmasters". But in my opinion, effective use of humour is vital to keep your audience interested (or even just awake!)3. Be prepared.
Try to know your material inside and out. I'm not always the best at doing this (and it was hard to do in library school just because of how busy we were) but when I do know my stuff well, it really helps the confidence and reduces the public speaking stress we all feel. For example, I did ten drafts of the eulogy I was going to do for my grandfather all building on the previous one and so that was like an ongoing rehearsal. Then, when it was finalized, I read it over, both silently and aloud, probably another dozen times. At the funeral, I read the eulogy from a script but was comfortable ad-libbing a few comments and probably could've done it in a completely ad-libbed fashion if I had a cue card with a few main keyword reminders on it. 4. Don't Just Talk
It can be gimmicky but I'm a big fan of props, games or other elements beyond that which are spoken to make the presentation more engaging. One example - I started a presentation on digitization by taking a digital photo of the audience in front of me. Another eulogy example - my grandma was famous for enjoying mints and candies so before I got up to speak, I handed out a bag of wrapped candies to be passed around each section of the church. This also gave me an opportunity to add some humour as my first comment once I got to the podium was a joke about the punishment awaiting anyone who chose to litter in church!5. Be Concise
I stole this idea from Elisabeth Davies who taught us Cataloguing and Research Methods but if you use Powerpoint, I'm a big fan of very plain, simple slides without a lot of text on them. In the MetaTalk thread below, someone suggests you shouldn't have more than six words on a slide and that's a guideline I try to follow myself. Here's a couple other good resources:How To Save Your Butt When Giving A Presentation (via Citadel of the Blogs)MetaFilter "MetaTalk" Discussion About A Presentation Given By The Site's Founder Googling variations of "Presentation Tips" will lead to lots of other resources.
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