Other bands and artists have hinted at this model but nobody on the level of Radiohead has gone this far. Their new album, "In Rainbows" will be released on October 10 using a "Pay What You Want" model for those who download it digitally.
Says one commentator on Reddit:
"I can't stand Radiohead's music, but I'm going to drop $15 on this
album just to provide incentive for the rest of the industry to adopt
this model. Even though I don't like their music itself, it's hard to
dispute that taking on a risk like this is a HUGE contribution to music
in general."
In semi-related news, Amazon has started a new service called AmazonMP3 which is similar to iTunes except that they're selling DRM-free music. Their selection is pretty decent so far and although I haven't tried it yet, it's almost enough to make a guy start paying for music again!
Today marks the six month anniversary of me starting at Southeast Regional Library. It's hard to believe how time is flying - I think any job tends to go faster, the longer you're there and the more comfortable you get but this one, mixed with the new baby which also helps to make time pretty much meaningless, is really flying.
I had my six month performance review on Thursday and I didn't get fired so that's good! In all seriousness, they're pretty happy with me which is always nice to hear. Like anyone, I have my weaknesses and if you knew me at FIMS, I'm sure you can guess what a couple of those areas for improvement are!
It's amazing to think of how much I've learned in the last six months. Someday (maybe when I'm done this contract), I'm ruminate on this further.
One thing that's been in my head the last few weeks - my letter of offer mentioned that I would be spending 2-3 days on the road but the first few months saw me thinking "really?" But the last few weeks have more than made up for that - I've probably traveled 1500 km in the last two weeks alone.
What else? I was trying to think of a list to commemorate this special occasion and I was able to come up with two:
The Five Most Helpful Things I Learned In Library School That Actually Help in the "Real" World 1. How to Juggle Multiple Assignments and Tasks Successfully
2. Advocacy Class
3. Collection Development Class
4. I'm really glad I got at least a little exposure to library layout and design in the "Management of Special Libraries" class, especially since I ended up in a rural system with 48 branches that are in all shapes and sizes of buildings including everything from stand-alone buildings to one that's connected to the town laundromat! Since I started, three branches have undergone or are undergoing a move to new space so this training has come in very handy!
5. Who to ask to get the answers I need (and not to be afraid to ask people for those answers.)
Five Things I Wish I Had Learned 1. It's always hard to admit when you're wrong but I wish I'd taken more management classes and not poo-pooed the idea of "management theory" as strongly as I did (although if you were in 506 with me, you know why I was so resistant!)
2. On a related note, it would've been good to get more training about the different aspects of working in a unionized library environment - both pro and con.
3. How To Make Tough Decisions. This is probably something that comes with experience more than being taught but I wish, even in a theoretical framework, we did more scenarios about some of the tough decisions you'll face as a working librarian. For me, in six short months, this has covered everything from the possibility of branch closures to handling patron suspensions to staff discipline to navigating municipal politics and even bigger issues than any of the examples I listed.
4. This doesn't directly apply to me (right now) since I did end up finding work eventually. But recent conversations with a variety of classmates have illustrated just how tight the job market is for new grads. I don't think that would've changed my decision to take an 18-month contract over a full-time permanent position I was offered but I admit that I did buy into the "old boomer librarians will be retiring in droves" line and the knowledge that this isn't necessarily so does have me thinking about where I might end up next earlier than I thought I would.
5. Librarians don't sit in an office somewhere reading the latest bestsellers for eight hours a day and mulling over their potential significance to society. I really wish somebody had told me that!
I'd seen the one with the British cell phone salesman singing opera before and it's definitely worth checking out (although admittedly, the editing goes a long way to increasing the impact - the intro clip of the sad sack-looking guy, crowd reaction shots, judge reaction shots.)
In other news from people I used to know, Brandon Manitoba will be home to a new book and writer festival later this year and Corey Redekop's "Shelf Monkey" has been selected as the book that everybody in Brandon is being asked to read. How cool is that?
I mentioned in an earlier post that Bloglines isn't reading the RSS feed for this blog for some reason (and hasn't for some time apparently.)
I sent them a complaint and they basically said "we're working on it". A couple readers also sent in complaints to Bloglines with no results. No other news but I wanted to update as a different reader recently mentioned she's having this problem too.
So it's a crappy solution but my best idea is that you should either start using a different RSS reader (I use NetVibes and Google Reader is quite popular too) or <gasp> remember to check this site manually. (How very 2002 of me! )
This is a wicked version of an awesome song (even the drunk guys singing in the audience don't ruin it - actually, they sort of add to the anthemic feel.)
And I never really caught the power of James Dean Bradfield's voice until hearing him do acoustic versions of some Manic songs. (Thanks intrawebs!)
An annual survey provides a snapshot of the world of library bloggers. I don't think I filled this out when the call for responses went out so here are my responses:
1. Male 2. 31-40 years old 3. Western Canada (survey methodology - she lists "Eastern, Western and Middle of" as choices for Canada. I know there are readers out there who will swear up and down I live in the middle of Canada but I personally consider myself a western Canadian.) 4. Live in small urban area (again, no definitions provided so it's up to the respondent's interpretation) 5. Have my MLIS 6. Don't have any other advanced degree 7. Received MLIS between 31-40 8. Work in a medium public library serving 40 000-99 000 (although this is misleading because this is the sum total of the population I serve. In reality, my largest branch is ~3000 people.) 9. Nothing they listed really fits what I do as my "job" as I do a whole range of things from collection development to building inspections to government advocacy. "Management" would probably be the best umbrella term for everything I do I guess. 10. Have been working less than one year 11. Yes, I am the direct supervisor of others.
My brother-in-law and his girlfriend are expecting their first child later this year. So tonight, they got a new digital camera as a baby gift from his parents. Here's a sample:
A few recent conversations and readings have swirled together to make me want to write about the four day work week.
I should mention off the bat that I was very fortunate when I worked for the Saskatchewan Publishers Group to be on a four-day schedule (all three employees in the organization were) so these comments come from experience of how a four-day work week can operate in reality.
One of the things that prompted my musings was seeing an article on how Google treats its employees. Google does a number of progressive things in terms of their workplace but arguably the most progressive of all is allowing employees to spend 1/5 of their time on personal projects. Although not technically, the same as a four-day work week, in many ways this would be the same for all intents and purposes because the employees, with very little restriction, get to work on anything they want. The downside is that Google owns the product if it becomes profitable. I believe Google News and Orkut (which is their social networking site and is the second most popular in the world although barely known in North America) as well as many other Google services came about because of this 80/20 program. But overall, one of the big draws for people coming to Google is the opportunity to explore their own ideas rather than those of their bosses and supervisors.
Would something similar work in libraries which are public institutions and not dedicated creating new products or increasing profits? Well, that's another thing that led me to this post. Shea recently got an e-mail updating her on a project that her floor at the hospital was the second workplace in Canada to participate in. Called the "Human Becoming" study, it was a project where "nurses spend 80% of their salaried time in direct patient care and 20% of their salaried time on professional development" (which, as with Google, is fairly loosely defined. They want you to do nursing-related PD of course but some of Shea's colleagues were apparently doing things like taking an art class or whatever to make them better, more well-rounded human beings and therefore, better employees.)
The full results of the study from the first test site (which I believe was a Toronto hospital) are here. (PDF)
I should also note that Shea unfortunately wasn't able to participate in the study because we were heading to London just as it was being brought to her floor at the hospital.
Anyhow, the study, both in the original location and on Shea's floor, have provided results that I think are to be expected - morale was higher among staff, patients felt better treated, there was an extremely low turnover among participants (including *zero* turnover in year two of the study which is unheard of in the nursing world) and so on.
So could something like this work in libraries? Of course - it's just a matter of people (the librarians, the trustees and other decision-makers) having the will to make it happen. In my mind, I always link three female-dominated service professions - nursing, teaching and librarianship - as being fairly similar in many ways. But for whatever reason, librarianship seems to be behind the other two in terms of having progressive workplace options. (I should also add a Hammond disclaimer (tm) that this is only a general impression I have and that I haven't had exposure to a lot of library systems' internal operating policies to know if this is something that happens in libraries across Canada, large and small.)
I should also clarify - I'm speaking mainly of public librarianship when I say this. In fact, I recently had a conversation with an academic librarian who admitted that because she was hired in the summer when many academic libraries are on much slower schedules or shut down completely, she got her first paycheque two weeks after being officially "hired" without having worked a single shift. Talk about progressive - getting paid without working!
Anyhow, here's a few examples of some of the options that one of these three professions has that librarianship doesn't. It's from the nursing world as that's the one I'm most familiar with (Shea's a nurse, my mom is a nurse as are two of my aunts.)
Within nursing, there are all sorts of options for lines (ie. positions) that run from full-time every variation from 4/5, 3/5, 2/5 right down to 1/5 time. Beyond that, some nurses choose to work only night shifts. Some work 12 hour shifts. Some work 8 hour shifts. Many job share a single full-time position. And so on. Of course, some of these are a reflection of the type of work that nurses do (not too many librarians are going to only work night shifts since not too many libraries are open all night.) But you get my drift.
I don't know as much about the teaching world but we're all familiar with the biggie - two months off every summer. That's on top of 2-3 weeks at Christmas and a week at Easter along with a number of in-service days and so on. Now before any teachers out there jump on me for making the "teachers don't work very hard" argument, that's not what I'm doing at all. Teachers work damn hard when they are working. But they do also have a number of benefits, especially in terms of time off that would be the envy of somebody working at a "regular" job (M-F year round with 3-4 weeks off per year total as opposed to the 10 or so weeks that teachers get.)
What else inspired this post? Oh, I saw a blog post on "The Four Day Work Week: 16 Reasons This Is An Idea Whose Time Has Come" I think this guy is making the claim that we should move to four 10-hour days per week which isn't what I'm saying at all. But still, many of those sixteen reasons apply if you're talking about simply lopping one day off your regular work week - a four day work weeks gives you more time with family, less consumption of non-renewable resources, and an INCREASE in productivity. (What? Yep, it's true. I'm sure studies have been done but I know anecdotally that when I worked very similar jobs in Saskatchewan for four days per week and Alberta for five, I felt equally productive. Of course, part of this was the Sask one was 32 hours per week and the Alberta one was 35 so the difference wasn't so great. But still, I would think many of us would find that we were nearly productive if we came into work for four days per week instead of five, knowing that for those four days we would be more rested, energized, alert and so on.
As this blogger quotes in his article:
"In 1930 famed cereal maker W.K. Kellog had this to say about his
decision to decrease his companies work week from 40 to 30 hours.
The efficiency and morale of our employees is so increased, the
accident and insurance rates are so improved, and the unit cost of
production is so lowered that we can afford to pay as much for six
hours as we formerly paid for eight."
Many people seem to just assume that the five day, eight hour day work week is the way the world works. But I think there is a natural progression - our great grandparents probably worked six days a week for 10-12 hours per day. It was only during the last century that the standard forty-hour week came into existence. Now that a new century is here, perhaps the time is ripe to make another leap as a society?
The final part of this post that would've been a nice summary of what I'm talking about was a cartoon I came across on Reddit. But I didn't save it at the time and can't find it again so you'll have to live with me describing it to you.
The first panel shows a harried businessman with a briefcase marching along with the blurb "Time = Money" rising above his head.
The second panel shows a gravestone with a briefcase beside it and the inscription "Time > Money".
The point is this: no matter how much you love your job, there are more important things in life - time with your family or even just with yourself to do the things you love to do or need to do. And a four day work week is a perfect way to give you more time for the important things in life.
Despite the potential of the Internet as a tool to overcome
distance, living in rural and small town Canada continues to be a
factor associated with lower rates of Internet use, according to a new
study released today in the Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin.
The study, which uses data from the Canadian Internet Use Survey,
found that geographic location has an independent influence on Internet
use after controlling for other factors, including age, education and
household income.
The odds of an individual in an urban area using the Internet for
personal, non-business reasons are about one-and-a-half times those of
someone from a rural or small-town area.
In 2005, only 58% of residents living in rural and small-town areas
accessed the Internet, well below the national average. This gap
between rural and urban areas may reflect the interaction of other
socio-economic factors, or it may represent other effects, such as the
availability of broadband.
Education appears to be the most important determinant of Internet
use. The odds of using the Internet for an adult with at least some
post-secondary education are almost three times the odds of someone
with high school or less education.
However, the importance of some factors associated with Internet use
has changed. Controlling for other variables, the presence of children
in a household has no statistically significant effect, while women now
appear to have greater odds of using the Internet than men.
Note: The Canadian Internet Use Survey asked 30,466 Canadian
residents aged 18 and over about their personal, non-business use of
the Internet, including electronic shopping. Conducted in
November 2005 as a supplement to the Labour Force Survey, it excluded
residents of the territories, inmates of institutions, persons living
on Indian reserves, and full-time members of the Canadian Forces.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 4432.
The study, "Factors associated with Internet use: Does rurality matter?", part of the Rural and Small Town Canada Analysis Bulletin, Vol. 7, no. 3 (21-006-XWE, free), is now available from the Publications module of our website.
For more information or to enquire about the concepts, methods or
data quality of this release, contact Larry McKeown (613-951-2582; larry.mckeown@statcan.ca), Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division.
I did an earlier post
about the guy who designed a program to link IP addresses to Wikipedia
edits. This has led to all kinds of discoveries of spin, manipulation
and outright lies being planted by individuals and organizations who
want to harm others or clean up their own image.
Now a blogger has compiled a list of the seven most scandalous edits that have been discovered…so far.
The Canadian dollar hit parity with the US dollar for the first time in thirty-odd years today due to a combination of a booming natural resources sector in Canada and the US having a fuckwit for a President a lagging US economy full of government deficit spending, sub-prime mortgages crashing, a never-ending war, massive trade imbalances and so on.
What does this mean for Canada? I'll leave that to smarter people than I to speculate on but I do know I'm looking forward to my next US shopping trip - cheap shoes and booze for this boy!
Also, see MetaFilter for some interesting commentary including discussion of why US and Canadian books have different prices printed on them and what dollar parity might mean for the publishing industry.
I mentioned in an earlier post that one of the reasons I took this job over another one that a) paid better and b) was a permanent full-time position was because Southeast Regional Library is the rural system I grew up with and which still oversees my hometown branch.
What I didn't know when I took the job that one of the big assignments I would be given would take me to (and through) Indian Head on a regular basis (probably half a dozen trips to the area so far in the six months I've been working.) That's where I was tonight and that's where I'll be again tomorrow night.
It's a lot of miles on the road but nice to be covering familiar terrain.
(And if I can figure out how to get the pictures off the camera phone I was issued, I'll post pictures of the rollover I came across tonight. Nobody was in the vehicle by the time I got there and there was no indication that anybody had been injured either luckily.)
"Google has officially
launched the missing piece in Google’s online office suite: Presently,
a presentation product that competes directly with Microsoft PowerPoint." (via TechCrunch)
I had an appointment with a specialist last week and during the course of it, he asked me about a procedure I'd had over ten years ago. Being so long ago, I couldn't remember some of the important details such as what the exact sequence of events leading to me having this procedure was or who were some of the doctors who'd seen me when the issue was discovered.
(I hasten to add, this isn't anything serious or life-threatening. Just a specialist doing a good job of being thorough and ensuring that nothing's changed significantly in the intervening years.)
Anyhow, that got me thinking about a question I've often asked myself in the past, when I've gone to my doctor here or especially when I moved provinces and had to see new doctors - namely, why don't we have a national online database of our health records?
I know, I know - security would be a HUGE issue as would the cost to set it up initially. But in a world where we do something as sensitive as our banking online, is it much of a leap to have our complete medical history available? (Okay, I admit - if someone gets into your bank account, they probably can't do a lot of mischief and after you set-up a new credit card and account, I assume you're good to go. But if a hacker gets in and finds out you have a heart condition or mental health issues or AIDS, that's something a phone call won't change.)
Still, I can't help but think that the advantages of a system like this would greatly outweigh the potential negatives, especially once it was up and running and the initial resistance (which is inevitable) was overcome. If it was highly secure (like bank security times a million) with double-locks - maybe everytime you went to the doctor/dentist/optometrist or whoever, both you and they had to log-in to record the session? Or only doctors you authorize could browse your record?
Pros - easy transfer of patient information as they move between both doctors and geographic locations - provides a comprehensive history in one place - part of your medical history isn't in one office, another part somewhere else and yet another part - would allow remote access by specialists and others without the need for expensive and time-consuming photocopying/faxing - highly accurate statistics could be pulled anonymously for various diseases, populations, age groups, regions and so on. - data would be more secure in the sense that a patient's records would be stored off-site (and likely backed up constantly somewhere else.) This could be a cost-saving for doctors who no longer need to store massive amounts of information in their offices.
Cons - security of the information would be a massive concern. A project like this might even attract hackers eager to test their skills. - the system would have to be incredibly robust to be able to record the range of info that a doctor can quickly record with pen and paper - not just written notes but sketches, diagrams, etc. - the cost, especially of setting up such a system would be huge as would ongoing maintenance/upgrading. Does every doctor's office have to buy a special computer? Hire new staff to do the entry? - health is a provincial responsibility but this would have to be a federal initiative to be successful. Not sure on how the politics of the Canada Health Act work but it would mean every provincial health minister would have to sign-on.
I don't know - it's a massive idea but so was the idea of universal health care in the first place. And that turned out pretty good!
Okay, from the useless celebrity gossip world (of which we are all guilty adherents, I'm sure), the car crash that was Britney Spears' "performance" at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this week is grabbing a lot of attention.
If I had a bit more time, I'd do this mash-up properly but for now, you can enjoy a fairly funny juxtaposition - an MP3 of a Travis cover of the song that launched Brit's career against a video of the VMA meltdown.
For this to work properly, 1. click "play" on the video below and pause at 45 seconds, muting the sound in the YouTube player (note: it is very likely the clip be removed from YouTube soon since all other earlier versions of the same clip have been so if you're going to try this, don't wait.)
2. open this link in a new tab and let it play past the introductory remarks, clicking back to the YouTube tab before the singing starts.
3. click play on the YouTube video so the video clip and the performance of the song start at roughly the same time.
I think this has been active for awhile but has just officially launched. It's a comprehensive, cross-Canada library job board sponsored by The Partnership, which is a coalition of provincial library associations who work together on a variety of joint projects. The job board allows you to search for postings, or, if you're an employer, post them.
You can sign up to receive jobs as they're posted but this doesn't make up for the site's most glaring weakness - the lack of an RSS feed which is all but inexcusable in this day and age.
Still, when I was looking for work earlier this year, I was monitoring about four different job boards (and that's when I was just looking for positions in Saskatchewan!) including the Sask Library Association's, the CLA's, the Foothills Library Association and the Regina Public Library Careers page. So having a central spot where (hopefully) all positions that are available will be posted is a great step forward.
CKUA is one of Canada's oldest, coolest and best independent radio stations. And they're currently looking for a librarian. If you're into music of all kinds and/or interested in media librarianship, I can't think of a better job in all of Canada.
Ask MetaFilter is a great site I've referenced a few times before. As I write this, this recent question
has almost 300 "favourite" votes which makes it one of the most popular questions and answers I've even seen.
Nobody posted a pick for a book that provides a good introduction to librarianship (yet) but I'd say something like "Our Enduring Values" by Michael Gorman is probably pretty close. I mean, the table of contents in that link does a pretty good job by itself of summarizing what librarianship is all about!
In fact, I've heard of one library's board of directors (who, like most library boards is comprised of a mix of municipal appointees and volunteers from the wider community but not actual trained librarians) who voluntarily agreed to work through this book, one chapter per meeting, to familiarize themselves with some of the core values of librarianship. Pretty good vote of confidence, I'd say!
I'm pretty much the perfect example of the value of the Professional Mentorship program at FIMS. I participated in it all three semesters I was there. I had a great mentor in my first term and an okay one in my second. But it was the third that made it really pay off. When I sent in my application to join in my final semester, I asked if they were able to match me with someone in western Canada and preferably Saskatchewan (my other two mentors were Ontario-based which was fine but didn't help a lot in terms of my networking - and have I ever mentioned how much I hate that word? Netsocialing it is then.)
They paired me with a rural librarian working in Weyburn Saskatchewan who I'd heard of but had never met in person. The mentorship went well but the big pay-off was when I got back to Saskatchewan and we exchanged some e-mails. I mentioned that I was still looking for work and he said I should apply at his system, Southeast Regional Library "because you never know what will happen."
I'd been focusing my search on Regina up to this point but it was the system I'd grown up with, it was based where my in-laws lived and something in his voice said this was more than just idle chatter. A little while later, I got called by the SRL Library Director, a few days later I met them for an interview where they revealed that my mentor was taking an 18-month leave of absence. One thing leads to another and here I am, not quite six months later, sitting in Weyburn and heading down to SRL HQ every morning!
So anyhow, long story short (too late!), I highly recommend that you participate in the UWO CLA Student Chapter's Mentorship Project - whether you're reading this as a student or a grad. This term, it's particularly important as FIMS is taking in a one-time only (yeah, we'll see about that? (Where's my emoticon of a happy face with dollar signs for eyes?)) triple cohort which means there will be 120 new students looking for the kind of advice and guidance that only comes from a working librarian who's been through the grind that is FIMS.
Here are the details about how the program works, straight from the hard-working coordinator, Erin F (the e-mail for the program is at the bottom of this post if you want an application or more details):
The
Mentorship Program’s goal is to connect Library and Information Science
students with library or information professionals.
The
key characteristics of the program are facilitating knowledge exchange and
providing guidance to current students entering the profession.
Who can be
a Mentor?
Librarians
or Information Professionals who would like to provide support and
coaching for an interested student.
Librarians
or Information Professionals with an interest in contributing to the
education of a future professional.
Who can be
a Mentee?
UWO
MLIS students who would like advice and guidance about library and
information careers from professionals in the field.
UWO MLIS
students who are interested in making professional connections in the
library and information science workforce.
Mentoring
Relationship Guidelines
Communication
between mentor and mentee should occur at least twice per term
The
mentor should try to respond to the mentee within two weeks.
The
mode of communication is at the discretion of the participants but several
effective methods include emails, phone calls, and lunch or coffee
meetings.
Suggested
discussion topics and activities include:
resume
review
course
recommendations
industry
overviews
professional
trends
current
issues
job
shadowing
library
tours
attending
conferences
introductions
to other professionals in the field.
Should either party have any concern about the mentoring
relationship, the administrators are available for advice.
Students who take part in the Mentorship Program should
consider returning to the program as a Mentor.
(Hate to say it but I think the Riders are due for the loss today, especially after how the game ended last week. The Bombers will be pumped for today. I hope I'm wrong.)
Sorry for being late again this week - same “real world must take precedence sometimes" excuse as last week.
That also means anybody reading this has a bit less notice that September 10 has been declared “Librarians Slam The Boards” day.
Jessamyn West over at librarian.net has more details but basically, the idea is that librarians show up on any of the dozen or so “answer sites” on the Internet and provide responses while indicating that the question has been answered by a librarian.
The idea is to promote the role that librarians fill in providing quality information for others.
“This
means making it clear that this question was answered by a
librarian/library professional/etc. End each answer with the mention
your own library, your VR service, etc. Add the link. Mention that
readers should consider their own libraries, too. Promote it to local
media. Keep in mind how many people don’t even realize that libraries
offer reference services. Let’s surprise and delight them with our
quality.
I’d like hundreds of librarians to do this. Thousands? Why not?
I
see this as an opportunity to make the reference librarian community
more visible. I’d like to see a number of us remain engaged in the
answer services, on the chance that the users will have us in the backs
of their minds when they have questions they don’t want everyone to
see. As such, I’m not expecting to see a huge “blip” in our
reference/VR stats because of this. But who knows? The point is to meet
some folks where they otherwise wouldn’t expect us.”
I love some of the taglines they’re proposing librarians use with their answers:
# Have a question you don’t want the whole world to see?
# Librarians—Ask Us, We Answer!
# If you need more help, just contact your local librarian.
# Librarians—We eat questions for breakfast!
Went to our family cottage at Katepwa Lake last night, one of the few places left on earth that doesn't have Internet connectivity apparently.
I did have my laptop so after Pace went down for the night, here are some things I was able to do (or at least thought about doing)...
- I've mentioned that pre-blog, I wrote in a journal on a daily basis. I could've done this (but didn't.)
- play computer games (really, the only game I play is EA NHL 2000. Yeah, I know it's very outdated but I've kept the rosters updated for the most part using an editor and it's like NHL 94 - the all-time best hockey game - in its timelessness, at least for me.
- look through old library school essays. Laugh hysterically at the amount of bullshit that spewed forth.
- do some creative writing (I did say this was a list of things I *could* do, not necessary that I did do, right?)
) 
