La de da

Hello fair readers!

You might be asking yourself…where in the world did Leah go?  And if you’re old enough to remember it, you can even sing that little song from the show that was based on the PC game.

Remember that show?  Sigh.  Good times.

But seriously, where the hell have I been?  Let me give a little hint.

Yes, that’s right.  My life has basically been overtaken by grad school in the past few weeks.  More so than ever before.

Because guess who is done?  Just take a little guess.  A tiny, itty guess.

The girl with the Information Policy book?  Omg good guess.  Me!

So right now, I’m in the weird period between student and librarian.  Officially, I’m not a librarian until May 3rd.  Yet, course work is done.  Assingments…done.  I guess it’s just all up to the waiting game now.

Still, I would like to share some of my final projects that I worked on this semester.  I would like to think that some of these are a culmination of my graduate career.  So you better believe that I’m going to share the things that have been completely taking up ALL of my time in the past few weeks.

First, my Humanities Public Piece. 

In my resources in the Humanities class, we had to take a topic that bridged over several areas of the Humanities and then design a public piece around it.  I chose to do Pride Month because I have worked at a library that has done LGBT programming before.  It was widely publicized, extremely popular, and rewarding for everyone involved.  Also my boyfriend works at this amazing bookstore that specializes in LGBT lit. and I really saw an opportunity to create some unique programming.  If you would like to view my presentation, click here.

Second, my instructional tool.

I decided I wanted to focus on free, authoritative legal resources on the Web.  All you regular readers know that this is an area that is of special interest to me.  Most legal resources are difficult to find, difficult to use, and insanely expensive.  Legal research should not be for the few, but for the public.

And finally, my National Information Policy presentation.

We basically had to pretend we were being nominated for the Secretary of Information, a position that exists in most countries…just not the US.  I tried to really narrow my policy proposals, as you can see if you watch my presentation.  

There was more.  Papers to be written, evaluations of presentations to fill out.  It’s strange that this is now over.  This huuuuge part of my life…that really only lasted about 1 1/2 years.

This is me 2 years ago…to the month, graduating from Undergrad.

Oh Leah the Library Student…you had no idea what was in store for you.

To everyone at Dominican GSLIS graduating in two weeks….congratulations friends.  We made it.

Hello fair readers!

I hope your Vernal Equinox and your potential Easter celebrations went smooth and hopefully with much less snow than mine did.

(photo taken by Yenna, posted on Flickr with the tag “Winter sucks”…I agree)

But all this winter snow in Spring has given me some time to stew and grow more and more annoyed with this article:

Our Public Libraries Are Being Turned Into Video Arcades

and the fuddy duddy librarians who are rallying around it, as if this was a good point.

I would like to take one particular response to the article and break it down into it’s ridiculous components. Why you ask? Because it’s sad. And angering. And wrong.

Posted by anonymous in response to the LISNews blog about the article:

Wow. Just wow. That’s right people. Librarians like that actually still exist. Sad, yes?Let’s debunk that statement.

“this is just part of the problem with public libraries since they forgot what they were in the early nineties”

What is a library? According to the free online dictionary:

li·brar·y

(lbrr)

n. pl. li·brar·ies

1.

a. A place in which literary and artistic materials, such as books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept for reading, reference, or lending.

b. A collection of such materials, especially when systematically arranged.

c. A room in a private home for such a collection.

d. An institution or foundation maintaining such a collection.

2. A commercial establishment that lends books for a fee.

3. A series or set of books issued by a publisher.

4. A collection of recorded data or tapes arranged for ease of use.

5. A set of things similar to a library in appearance, function, or organization: a library of computer programs.

6. Genetics A collection of cloned DNA sequences whose location and identity can be established by mapping the genome of a particular organism.

So there’s a definition. But truly, a library is what a community makes of it. A library can be as big, or as small, as the school, city, business or organization it serves provides it to be.

So libraries can be this:

But libraries can also be this:

(this picture was taken by The Shifted Librarian at DOK Delft, one of the hippest libraries in the world)

Needless to say a library, a building, an inanimate object, does not forget what it is. A community, a school….people change it when they see a need for change.

Back to the hater:

“and decided to become this hybrid amazon.com/barnes and noble/arcade/rec center ordeal that we have now”

This comment implies that a library cannot change to keep up to date with the times. That a book-store style of library, or a library catalog that has pictures and words that everyone understands in it….are bad things. Let me direct you back to a blog I posted about librarian stereotypes. If change does not occur, if keeping up to date with modern trends…not just in libraries but in the whole world

If these things do not occur, then it is logical that the entity will cease to exist. I recommend this poster reads a little something called The Origin of the Species by means of natural selection by Charles Darwin. Check out the bit on survivial of the fittest. Apply.

Let’s continue:

“I am a young adult librarian”

Really? Well that’s quite a surprise. Because most teen librarians that I know…totally rock.

“and soon we will be losing ref desks for kiosks so that we are encouraged to wander around and bother the patrons ala target employees”

First, Target employees certainly do not walk around bothering people…or even asking if you need help. They are few and far between. And would it really be so bad to get rid of those awful reference desks that scare the bejeezes out of most patrons? Wandering around and asking people for help…well that’s just helpful. Not bothersome.

“this is sad. the video game aspect, while i don’t agree with it, isn’t the libraries fault. we have books here. we just have adult and children too stupid to read them now“

As soon as I read that sentence…well it took every bone in my librarian body to not pick up a volume of the OED and chuck it across the reference section.

And no, the typo in the sentence does not make it any better.

Talk about a total loss of hope.

Not just in libraries…or even librarians…but humanity as a whole.

It’s sad.

So I suggest to reading this to cleanse your palate of that awful taste of bitter librarian:

Videogames and Martinis: 25 years later

It’s much more useful than calling someone stupid….which as librarians we should all know….is just no excuse for poor service.

Have a lovely week, fair readers! And do yourself a favor, play some video games.

Law Library’s Cute Signage! (feat. Natalie Dee comic)

Originally uploaded by leah the library student

Hello fair readers!

Yet again, it’s a busy busy day today filled with homework doing and humanities researching. However I want to post about the uber cute new signage at the law library where I do reference a couple times a week. Pritzker Legal Research Center has a fantastic staff and I just love love love that they included a little Natalie Dee comic for the available headphones.

Users can also check out cords, laptop locks, lamps, powerstrips…just about anything your little law student heart would desire for a long day of legal researching.

As always, three cheers!

Have a lovely Thursday.

Hello fair readers!

Yes, it is Friday night. I know. But I have to work all day tomorrow. So what am I doing with my time?

That’s right. Go ahead. Laugh.

But seriously, I have discovered, with a wee bit of help from friends and blogs, two uber cool and free legal research tools.

That’s right. FREE. A word that doesn’t commonly come joined with the words “legal” and “research” very often.

That’s because of these two culprits

for the most part. And not that those publishers are by any means evil…at least…I don’t think so. They just charge oodles of cash for access to legal information.

So, as you can see, I was pretty psyched when I found out about these free websites that are actually quite progressive and efficient.

The first, and probably my favourite of the two, is PreCYdent Search Engine.

So. Freaking. Cool.

You can search for opinions and statutes, and then you can rate them, tag them, create PreCYdent widgets, put a PreCYdent facebook application on your facebook page….and lots of super cool 2.0-ish tools that are usually just not connected with legal resources.

The second, also free and cool, resource is The Public Library of Law.

This has LOADS of great, easy to locate info. Case law, statues, regulations, court rules, and omg even legal forms. I’m about to pass out….seriously.

I highly recommend librarians, particularly in public libraries, check out these amazing resources. The will be great tools for members of the public to start off their legal research. They are easily searched and don’t have hidden fees…at least not that I have encountered. It’s refreshing to see the legal research world opening up to 2.0 concepts.

I have said this before, but I will always say it again…three cheers for progress!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Hello fair readers!

I have had the fortunate opportunity to work at the Joseph Schaffner Library at Northwestern University while working on my graduate school. And now we are hiring another Intern. I would encourage any Chicago area library students to check out this paid internship. It is a wonderful environment to work in and valid experience to put on your resume. Carol is an amazing boss who will include you in many aspects of the library. So far I have been fortunate enough to contribute to library instruction podcasts, evaluate databases, and answer reference via Instant Messaging. So if you are looking for academic library experience and have a passion for progressive librarianship, I would encourage you to check out Schaffner. Here is the job posting:

Hello fair readers!

I came across this site today: Purple states and it set me to thinking.

Purple states is web broadcast-style coverage of the primary elections. It is user created ala Web 2.0, but watch the introduction video. It is only user created to a point. It is professionally edited and enabled by the creator, New York Times.

The other day I was talking about Web 2.0 with my boyfriend and he said this, “Web 2.0 is over. It’s evolved. More complicated”. Is that true?

I suppose from the beginning 2.0 has always been a very broad, difficult to define term. It took a sixteen page, or so, article just to explain it by the man himself.

Yet I have always been lead to believe that the theory of 2.0 revolves around one major concept: user created content.

Take Second Life, for example. A world where the vast majority of the content is indeed user created.

As a former MMORPG player, I found Second Life to lack something….a little shine maybe? A good solid point and purpose. So I wonder in a world when 15 million users are playing the same games that made me slightly less excited about the clunky graphics of Second Life, how long will it be around? Is this just the first stage? A hint of metaverses to come?

I do not know the answer to these questions. I’m not sure anyone does. But I suppose that this is the glory of 2.0. It’s all so nebulous, yet exciting. People can barely define it but want desperately to be a part of it.

Still if this is the case, that 2.0 is “over”, then what is next? And most importantly, what are the librarians going to do about it.

Have a lovely Sunday fair readers.

Hello fair readers!

First let me thank everyone who participated in the survey. My paper and research are both finished, at least for the time being. However I’ll keep the survey up. Simply because it is fun and interesting and truly an ongoing work in progress.

So I figured after asking everyone to help me, I could at the very least explain what I’m doing. I have a bit of a passion for the topic of library stereotypes, the damage they can deal, and how they can be fought. My most recent paper was specifically focused on academic libraries.

The survey ended up being extremely interesting, and I wanted to post some of my results. I’ll try to keep these as anonymous as possible. Promise.

In my survey, I asked two questions. The first was if the respondent was a student and the second was “What come to mind when you think of the word “librarian”?

I’ve actually conducted this survey before but it was really me just emailing a bunch of friends and asking opinions. So this time I wanted to use a format that was a little more formal and also try to get an idea of who was responding.

Approximately 60% of the respondents were students. Which is great. I figured as long as I had a majority I could still make this pertinent to academic libraries specifically.

30% of respondents mentioned books. Trust me when I say this stat depresses me. Of course, I love books (see above picture). But libraries offer so much more than just a book. And when all is said and done with this survey…only one person said anything about a computer.

Here is a picture of University of Kentucky’s library.

That is their information commons. Isn’t it awesome? I know. Check that signage. I totally want to staff that desk. Three cheers for progressive librarians! This is one of my suggestions in the paper. Creating an information commons and hopefully having this be the first thing a patron sees when they enter the library.

Now I’m just going to share a few of the more interesting comments on the survey. Stats are only fun for so long, right?

Let’s start out with one of my favorites:

“Like a Robin to a Lawyer-Batman“

I must say, I had several law students reply and besides the library graduate students, they by far had the most positive answers. When I think of why this might be, I realized that law students simply interact with librarians more than the average undergraduate. It makes sense that they might think of us as the awesome research assistants that we really are.

Unfortunately, not everyone thinks like this. Let’s get some of the bad ones out of the way:

“A woman, wearing glasses, standing behind a desk telling me to “shhhhhhh”.“

Gee…wonder where they got this idea?

:::glares in the direction of a certain unfunny action figure:::

I used that one several times in the paper.

“One who categorizes, shelves, retrieves, repairs books.“

This is a perfect example of how a lot of people just don’t know what librarians do all day. And let me tell you, if I have to go back to shelving after having my Master’s….well lets just say it won’t be fun.

“The very first thing that popped into my head was “glasses”. Not exactly sure why, but it was.“

ha! That made me giggle.

Another funny one: “smelly books“

ha! Love it.

“Repressed middle aged woman“

(See above action figure.)

And of course, this one always pops up. It surprised me at first. But then every Halloween, you always bump into one of these.

” Sexy“

And still, the best answers can even come from librarians themselves:

“Stuffy and boring, book-centric out-of-touch old lady with applique sweaters of teddy bears holding balloons. Sadly, I know this isn’t true, nonetheless it is the first thing that comes to mind. Mainly due to the root of the word “libr,” meaning book, and the oh so many Nancy Pearl connotations of a “shusher,” yet the term has come to not encapuslate the demands of the position. Viva la revolution.“

We are guilty of thinking of this stereotype too. And really…when it’s all said and done, who’s fault is it that people think of these things? If you mention marketing to certain people in our field, they practically run in the other direction. Even if you do a literature search for “marketing and academic libraries”….you will have sad results indeed. (and yes, I tried truncating)

OK. The stereotype is there. Now what can we learn from this? Well, as I put forward in my paper, there are multiple ways that you can start working against the stereotypes that exist. Here are a few….and I’m not going into as many details because I just don’t want to write my paper all over again:

-Update the catalog

-Gaming!! (three cheers for Jenny Levine!)

-InfoCommons

-Update Marketing!

To quote one of the awesome respondents, “Viva la revolution!”.

Thanks to everyone who participated. You services are deeply appreciated.

Have a lovely weekend, fair readers.

When you assist me with my research! Participate in my survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0LayV9O5dPd3gQsJnUCnjA_3d_3d

You know you want to. Don’t lie to yourself.

Hello fair readers,

As you may have noticed my blogging has trailed off a bit. Apologies abound.

The job search is certainly taking a toll, not only on my time but also a wee bit of my sanity.

Don’t worry. We’ll get through this.

In the meantime, I would love to share this video, created by library students, about library as place.

It’s clever. It’s well made. It’s such a damn good point. It centers on the Harold Washington Library.

Plus, they use a really good Aphex Twin song at the end…which makes me oh so happy.

So soon I will be back to my regular opinionated self, blogging probably more than I should. Promise. Until then….voila