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Library History Seminar XI

I went to Library History Seminar XI last week with some other folks from SISLT . It was ok, as with most conferences the presentations were all over the map, some were interesting, some were not. You would think that since LHS is only held every 5 years more people would present their best research, alas this was not the case.

Some words of warning, Robert Allerton Park and Conference Center, where LHS was held, is in the middle of nowhere. Be prepared for a drive to Urbana-Champaign for any food, bookstores, or alcohol. ( The library conference triumvirate) Connectivity is spotty at best, very few computers, phones, or TVs. Cell phone reception is also hit or miss.

Best lesson learned at the conference. If you keep books by Marx and Gramsci in a duffel bag, you can deny that the books belong to your library.

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Hi, I’m Bert


Bert
You scored 72% Organization, 60% abstract, and 44% extroverted!
This test measured 3 variables.

First, this test measured how organized you are. Some muppets like Cookie Monster make big messes, while others like Bert are quite anal about things being clean.

Second, this test measured if you prefer a concrete or an abstract viewpoint. For the purposes of this test, concrete people are considered to gravitate more to mathematical and logical approaches, whereas abstract people are more the dreamers and artistic type.

Third, this test measured if you are more of an introvert or an extrovert.
By definition, an introvert concentrates more on herself and an
extrovert focuses more on others. In this test an introvert was
somebody that either tends to spend more time alone or thinks more
about herself.

You are very organized, both concrete and abstract, and both introverted and extroverted.

Here is why are you Bert.

You are both very organized. You almost always
know where your belongings are and you prefer things neat. You may even
enjoy cleaning and find it therapeutic. Bert is a big neat freak and
gets quite annoyed when Ernie makes a big mess.

You both are sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract thinkers. Bert
is probably a bit more concrete in his bottlecap collecting addiction
and his love of the weather. He does show his abstract side when he
sings and performs his “Doin’ The Pidgeon” song. You have a good
balance in your life. You know when to be logical at times, but you
also aren’t afraid to explore your dreams and desires… within limits
of course.

You are both somewhat introverted. Bert is probably more introverted,
because he spends most of his time either with Ernie or alone. Still he
has no problem being around other people in his role as chairman of
“The National Association of ‘W’ Lovers.” Like Bert, you probably like
to have some time to yourself, but you do appreciate spending time with
your friends, and you aren’t scared of social situations.

The other possible characters are

Oscar the Grouch
Big Bird
Snuffleupagus
Ernie
Elmo
Kermit the Frog
Grover
Cookie Monster
Guy Smiley
The Count

If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback! Also if you want
to tell me your favorite Sesame Street character, I can total them up
and post them here. Perhaps your choice will win!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 86% on Organization
free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 73% on concrete-abstra
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You scored higher than 17% on intro-extrovert

Link: The Your SESAME STREET Persona Test written by greencowsgomoo on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test
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The greatest cataloger ever

In a follow up to this post on cataloging , Sanford Berman is Nerve.com’s, Crush of the Week .

And now I get to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, only without the pork. :-)At UTK’s School of Information Sciences I was in the Ph.D program with Dick Kawooya. Among other things Dick is helping to build connections between UTK SIS, MU SISLT and Makerere University in his home country, Uganda.

Berman was a librarian at Makerere in 1971-72 according to his bio. And it only took me one person to make the connection. Thanks Dick for connecting me to the most famous (or should it be infamous?) cataloger of our time.

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Which Tarot card are you?

Via Wanderings of a Student Librarian

The Hierophant Card

You are the the Hierophant card. The Hierophant, called The Pope in some decks, is the preserver of cultural traditions. After entering The Emperor’s society, The Hierophant teaches us its wisdom. The Hierophant learns and teaches our cultural traditions. The discoveries our ancestors have made influence the present.

Without forces such as The Hierophant who are able to interpret and communicate traditional lore, each generation would have to begin to learn anew. As a force that is concentrated on our past and our culture, The Hierophant can sometimes be stubborn and set in his ways. This is a negative trait he shares with his zodiac sign, Taurus. But like Taurus he is productive.

His traditional lore can provide a source of inspiration for the creatively inclined, and his knowledge provides an excellent foundation for those who come into their own in the business world. Image from: Morgan E. Cauthers-Knox.

Which Tarot Card Are You?

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Universal Service

The Wikipedia definition is a bit sparse, but universal service is the idea the everyone should have access to telecommunications. Classically this idea has only been applied to basic telephone service, it’s why 99% of the United States has the ability to have a land line telephone.

This Slashdot discussion talks about the problems with broadband on America. The US is now 16th in the world in broadband use per capita. Other countries see the benefits of broadband why not the US? Broadband access is the new digital divide. And the US as a country is on the wrong side of it.

Note: Now that I’m back in the LIS world full force, I’m trying to get back to more of way I started this blog, to comment on things librarianish. (is that a word?) 🙂 Look for more of these type of posts in the future.

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Looking for web services job postings

I’m starting some research into web services librarianship (or related job titles). Here is my research question, gap in the current research and outcome.

Research Question:
What are the perceived duties, needed qualifications, etc. of a web services librarian? How does the position announcement compare with actual job functions?

Research Gap and Outcome:
Since web services is a new field for libraries, it has very little history and an ill defined skill set. By examining the current generation of people in these positions, insight will be gained into what these individuals thought they would be doing in their job and what they are actually doing. This insight will provide a framework for new hires, and in doing so, improve library web services.

I’m starting this research off with a content analysis of web services librarian job listings. I’m looking to collect around 50 job postings.

The collection criteria:

1. Positions must list Web Services Librarian or a related job title. Related titles will be determined by reading the entire ad and determining context.
2. Positions must have a start date in 2005 or early 2006 (Jan. – May)

I thought I would ask library blog land for a little help. If you see a job listing that fits there criteria, leave a comment and tell me about it. Better yet if you are a web services type librarian who started your job sometime in 2005 or will start soon, give me a shout.

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My car is back

My car is finally back. It took a little more work and a few more parts than expected to remove the electronic shifter box and put my car back to normal. Shifting with the regular shifter is a little awkward right now but nothing practice won’t fix. And it is nice to know that my car will actually shift into drive when you want it to.

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RSS readers and a change in thought

I like RSS. It theoretically lets me absorb a lot more information than I would just browsing blogs. Trouble is I could never really make myself use RSS. I’ve used Feed Demon, the RSS support built into Thunderbird and Firefox and the Sage extension for Firefox.

I don’t know why I’ve never tried web based RSS readers. I guess I thought of RSS as the same type of thing as Usenet newsgroups for some reason. Which is a bit odd I know. Anyway with Usenet you needed client software so you should with RSS right?

The introduction of Google Reader made me take other look at web based RSS readers. Unfortunately, Google Reader needs a lot more work. The interface looks nice, but is difficult to use. One opinion of Google Reader said that Bloglines was much better. Several people that visit this site get here via Bloglines but I hadn’t really looked at it that closely.

Upon closer inspection I have ditched Feed Demon and imported all my RSS feeds into Bloglines. It does everything I need it to do and doesn’t require anything but a web browser, although I did install the handy Bloglines Notifier to let me know when feeds have been updated.

To make it easier to Bloglines users to subscribe to this site, I’ve added a Bloglines button under Syndication Feeds in the left hand column. If you use Firefox, the Feed Your Reader extension supports Bloglines. With this extension you can make clicking the RSS button in Firefox add the feed to Bloglines instead of adding it to Firefox.

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