virtually a librarian

these muffins = breakfast on the run - (gluten + fat)

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Jun 122010

I’m in the middle of writing out the recipe for my favourite muffin mix, to stick on the kitchen bench in the hope the baking fairy might make them for me while I was at the office tomorrow. I thought it might make a useful-ish blog post, because trying to find gluten free recipes that aren’t loaded with fat to make up for the gluten free-ness can be a challenge.

This recipe is based on a gluten- and dairy-free muffin recipe I found over at Taste.com.au, but each time I’ve made it, I’ve made an alteration – firstly to get the balance of flours right (it’s really important with gluten free cooking to get the right flour mix – a single flour doesn’t cut it, and you’ve really gotta experiment for texture), and then to reduce the fat. I also substitute non-dairy milk for low fat milk (not skim – there’s virtually no other fat in these, and your need some!).

So here it is!

Light olive oil, to grease
3 eggs
200g apple puree
160ml (2/3 cup) low fat milk
80ml (1/3 cup) honey
1 medium banana, mashed roughly (the recipe calls for an apple, but I prefer banana – it makes the muffins really moist; the apple does go well with blueberries, though)
1/3 cup frozen or fresh blueberries (I usually substitute for a punnet of strawberries, which I cut fairly chunky; otherwise I use raspberries)
200g (1 1/2 cups) Orgran gluten and wheat-free self-raising flour
175g (1 1/2 cups) almond meal (I use the organic Woolworths Select one from the health food aisle because it’s really grainy and makes the muffins feel more substantial – I do, however, sieve it and leave out the really course grains)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
vanilla bean dusting sugar, to dust

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (I usually do just a touch under for fan forced and it’s fine at that temperature) and greeze a 12 hole muffin tin, or a 6 whole large muffin tin (I think they’re called texas muffins?).
Whisk the wet ingredients together, then add the mashed banana and berries.
Sift in the dry ingredients, stir to combine.
Spoon into muffin tins and bake for 20-25 minutes (larger muffins take a little longer – also, using banana instead of apple makes the mixture take longer to cook). Do the skewer-comes-out-clean trick.
I let them cool in the pan for five minutes, then turn them out and dust with the vanilla bean dusting sugar.

I haven’t tried freezing them, but they last really well in the fridge. By the way, the almond meal does boost the calorie count, so sometimes I’ll substitute some of it for whatever gluten free flour I’ve got on hand. But the meal really is good for boosting the filling-ness of these muffins, and it’s really yummy.

If you’re a gluten free eater, you should check out my friend’s new blog, gluten free lissy. She’s a lovely, warm person and her posts have those same characteristics. She’s quite a cook, too… think I might have to invite myself over for some of her baked chocolate swirl cheesecake really soon.

Another favourite blog of mine is Gluten Free Goddess – her photos are beautiful. I haven’t made many of her recipes, but do enjoy trawling there.

PS I should disclose at this point that I am a pretty crap baker. I have pulled these muffins off successfully every time I’ve made them, but yeah, my substitutions are probably not very conventional – do hope they work for you if you try them!

outside of library-land...

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Jun 112010

Continuing with the theme of moving the personal / professional line, I thought I’d do a photo post today, to describe what/who I am – what I like to do – outside of library-land (apt for a Friday night, right?). I’ve mentioned before that I have a serious case of work-bleeding-into-personal-space-and-time, so it follows that I do spend a lot of my time thinking / reading / talking / writing about libraries and technology. But I *am* more than a librarian / educator / gadget girl (though I sometimes forget that) and I *do* spend time on things that have nothing to do with libraries or technology (though sometimes not as much as I should).

tiniest, tiny, huge

The thing I love to do most in the world is hang out with my niece and nephew, Issy-B and Seba. I took this picture this afternoon, when we got home from a walk. We all wore our new sneakers – Nikes for me and Dunlop Volleys for the twins. I think Issy-B is jealous that mine are hot pink, while hers are pastel. We might have to rectify the imbalance with another pair of sneakers. Luckily, we’re going shopping tomorrow.

christmas chicken cooking on the webber

I really like to cook, although unfortunately I don’t have much time for it. I try hard to stick to a menu during the week, preparing as much in advance for the coming week over the weekend. I also try to keep some curry and some pasta sauce in the freezer for emergencies. But if I had my way, I’d cook something gourmet every night.

a few of my favourite shoes
(bummer about the blur)

I like to shop. A lot. In particular, I like to buy things for my niece and nephew (clothes! books! toys!), things for the house, and shoes. Unfortunately, I have super skinny feet, and it’s really hard to get AA fitting shoes in Australia. Oh, and I also love buying presents. In the past I have also been a big buyer of handbags and perfume (though my recently acquired mortgage has cured me of these two vices – handbags just cost too much [plus I'm a backpack girl these days] and I have enough perfume to last me about, oooh, 7 years [seriously]).

mushroom girl feltie
(on the front of issy-b’s first birthday card)

home made earrings (box one of too many)

From time to time, I make stuff. Recently, I’ve made a few felties, which has been rather a challenge, seeing that I passed my sewing class in grade eight by the skin of my teeth, and I do not even attempt to sew buttons back into their original positions. I also really like making jewelry, particularly earrings, but haven’t had much time for it lately. (Must confess there are two pairs in this box that I didn’t make – bottom left and second from the right in the top row, although the latter broke so I’ve done a repair job on them.)

I was going to add that I’m a fairly prolific reader, but that kinda goes with the territory, right? Oh, and I also like to sleep. A lot. But not really sure how to illustrate that one!

roar! i'm a task monster!

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Jun 102010

task monster

Photo courtesy herlitz-monster-talent under a CC attribution license.
Available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/monstertalent/3463025654/.

A colleague introduced me to a new term, recently, which perfectly describes my state of being today: “task monster”. To be a task monster is to put blinkers on, put one’s head down, and frantically power through your to-do list.

Huzzah for a productive Thursday, spent at my local public library. Notably the productivity was aided by being away from my laptop, with all its fun – and not so fun – distractions. Time now to deal with everything I missed while I was ‘checked out’ today.

trove's new list feature: a great tool for educators?

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Jun 092010

A friend who works at the National Library sent me a tweet this morning asking if I’d consider using Trove’s new list feature for course reading lists.

The short answer is an emphatic yes. Currently, I use my Delicious account to share links with students by converting the feed for a tag or group of tags to JavaScript and embedding this in our Blackboard sites. It works really well. For next semester, I’ve also used Delicious to tag the books I’m putting on the unit reading list. So far, I’ve been tagging publisher records, book sites and Amazon records for titles, because at this point, my main driver for compiling the list is to get it to our liaison librarian before she goes on holidays this Friday – findability in the catalogue is secondary to sourceablity for purchase, so it makes sense to link to the sources. I’ve tagged everything with inn333reading and then added tags like libhasprint, libhasebook, libhasboth and libdoesnothave to create individual lists to send the librarian. Down the track, I’ll exchange the URLs I’ve bookmarked for catalogue record URLs to make the find and get process seamless.

I love the idea of creating the course reading list in Trove rather than Delicious because

it provides students with alternative suggestions for sourcing the books, should they not be geographically located in Brisbane, or should the book be checked out (including commercial options, which I do think is useful)
it exposes students to a key bibliographic database
it exposes students to the idea of constructing resource guides (particularly important in this unit on information services, products and programs)

I also really like that, in addition to items within the database, I can add a non-Trove website to a Trove list – this means I can bookmark pretty much anything, including journal articles in databases by pasting in a static link to a journal article in an aggregator database. This means I can bring the whole semester’s reading together, no matter what the format (although notably, I can do this with Delicious, too).

To make this a robust tool for educators, I’d like to see some additions, including (in order of importance)

a Firefox plugin that allows me to add web resources to Trove lists without having to go to Trove
an rss feed for lists, both so students can subscribe to it and see when I add items, and so I can convert it to JavaScript and embed it in a course site
a widget that allows lists to be embedded in another site (could just be recently added items, or first five, or a tag cloud)
option to save searches within a list – for example, I’d like to be able to point students to a particular subject heading
ability to export the list as a bibliography in preferred format (for example APA) – this might already be possible – did I miss it?
the ability to tag a specific journal article (I know this is asking for a lot) directly from the search interface – that is, without using the workaround of opening a separate window, locating the article, copying the permalink/static URL, and pasting it back into Trove to add the item as a non-Trove website. I’m not even sure if this is possible. It may be for some platforms – perhaps the addition of volume and issue fields on the “add to list” screen would facilitate the passing of this data in a URL? Hmm. Actually probably not. So this is probably the impossible request, but I’m gonna make it anyway!
[late addition] ability to sort lists, for example by material type and whether my designated library has the items (thanks Jenny for the suggestion!)
an ISBN lookup browser plugin that lets me see a resource on Amazon, right click and select an option to add the related Trove book record to a Trove list (I know, I know – I’m lazy, but these kind of things save administrative time)
I like the idea of being able to add websites that aren’t catalogued in Trove, but it could be cool if, as people add resources to lists in this way, they became part of the database. Maybe a program for power users who can add records to the database, or alternatively, a moderated process that allows records to be added?

Can you imagine the possibilities for collaborative development of subject guides? Many libraries buy the same resources as each other and then invest copious amounts of time in developing subject guides locally. What if all the ATN libraries, for example, got together and developed a core set of subject guides using Trove lists? And with a national curriculum on the way, Trove lists could be incredibly useful for curating resource sets to support the curriculum – including digitised primary resources. The ability to compile and share lists across collections epitomises the idea of the contents of Trove being a national collection, by facilitating meaningful grouping. I love the idea that the school librarian at a small town out west can curate their own collection of curriculum support materials, including books from the school library, websites and digitised resources from the nation’s greatest libraries. But even more appealing than the fact that they can do this, is the fact that they might not have to do it locally. Resources can be curated into lists once to support countless customers. If we can reduce duplication of efforts across those areas of our collections that are alike other libraries’ collections, that allow us more time to focus in on what’s unique and special about our collections.

I’ve started compiling a list for the unit I’m teaching next semester. There are only two items in it so far, but compare it to my Delicious list – the Trove list is certainly prettier, and I like the idea of using a library-built product rather than a proprietary product.

So I think the Trove lists idea is really promising, and I’ll look forward to seeing further developments. Expect to see more on this here as I keep playing with the functionality.

Yet another smart and useful tool from our National Library.

[Update: @katykat pointed out that OCLC’s WorldCat does lists, too: example. However, the OCLC lists functionality doesn’t seem to allow you to add websites, which means I’d need an rss feed for the list, and I’d have to splice that together with an rss feed for weblinks from my Delicious account. Bit messy.)

defining, debasing and moving on: library 2.0

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Jun 082010

For today’s installment, I’ve dusted off a post I’ve had sitting in draft since 2008. Uh-huh. 2008. I’ve updated it so it makes sense in the here and now, but I haven’t done much editing, because I think it’s really interesting that we’re still having conversations about the relevance of the ’2.0′ tag. Right no, in my research group, we’re trying to come up with an alternative language to think about all the 2.0s: Library, Business, Government, Enterprise. For me, the best fit for an alternative term (at least around libraries) is ‘participatory’: The Participatory Library.

When the early proponents of Library 2.0 argued that Library 2.0 is not about the technology, I think they did themselves a disservice by not clearly and simply articulating what it is actually all about. For me, the strong link (other than technology) between Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 is that both are about participation. So these days, when I talk about ‘the concept formerly named Library 2.0′, I tend to talk about the participatory library.

I found it interesting when I unearthed this post to discover that I was having the same thoughts about an alternative language two years ago that I’m having now.

So here it is: out of the vault…

Just before I wrote the first draft of this post, I got asked to do an interview on Library 2.0 for a non-library publication. At one point during the interview I said to the interviewer “Ummm, this is kind of a weird topic to pick up in such a generalist publication” (from memory, I think it was a general government news broadsheet). It’s pretty cool that something library-related has gotten enough mainstream interest to generate an article in a publication targeted at a more general audience.

Unsurprisingly, the interviewer’s conception of Library 2.0 was pretty much entirely technology-centric. It’s noteworthy that technology is the aspect of the Library 2.0 ‘philosophy’ that someone outside libraries has picked up on. And it’s interesting that this interview came up at this particular point in time: firstly, given the conversation that was happening in the biblioblogosphere at that point in time around the debasing of the concept of Library 2.0, and secondly, given a paper I was due to present at a conference in a couple of days time.

The interviewer came across my name on the 2008 VALA program, and so was interested in my work with IM. It was kind of a tricky interview, because our understandings of Library 2.0 differed. I think technology is a central part of Library 2.0, but I’m not sure that the interviewer had heard too much about the other aspects of Library 2.0.

Why did we do IM at the National Library in 2007? We thought it could be a good step forward in virtual reference service provision, for a number of reasons, one of which was that the technology seemed to be responsive and flexible and fit for the purpose. We thought our customers might prefer to use an IM client they were familiar with rather than navigating to a web page to use a proprietary chat product that was essentially trying to replicate the technology they were used to, but not really succeeding (in my view). We did it because we were looking at ways to overcome some of the well-documented issues with proprietary chat reference products. In short, we did it for the users and to reach out to non-users, not for the sake of technolust. It was kind of difficult to explain to the interviewer that the technology, while a motivating factor, was not the main impetus for the pilot.

Is the Library 2.0 label any good to us?

Around the time I started writing this post, there was a fair bit of discussion around the Library 2.0 discourse and whether the rhetoric is any good to us, or whether the term has been debased* to the point of no return. I’m in two minds about this (both then and now). If the concept of Library 2.0 helps us to get library staff interested in and thinking about technology, if it means we deliver responsive, needed services in the way our customers want them delivered, if it means getting people engaged with the library, then that’s great.

*See the comments on this post, not so much the post itself.

But I just don’t know how much useful a term as open to conjecture as this one is can really be. Largely, I think we’ve failed to reach a definition of Library 2.0 that we can all agree on. Yes, many have attempted to define it, but in doing so, they’ve been more focused on what it’s not about (technology) than what it actually is about. (Go here and see how one librarian has attempted to grapple with what this thing we call Library 2.0 really is.)

For me, Library 2.0 is about user-centredness, responsiveness, and meaningful innovation informed by research, evidence and evaluation. It’s about participation. In my last role, where I was responsible for online collections and services for a large public library, any thinking I did about Library 2.0 was intrinsically related to technology, but that was more because my business was online services, not because Library 2.0 is technology is Library 2.0.

The early proponents of the term tell us that Library 2.0 is not just about technology. Maybe not, but whether we like it or not, it’s an enormous part of it (and there’s nothing wrong with that, so long as our forays into technolust land and focused on user needs).

At the time I drafted this post, I was preparing to give a paper at a conference that’s aiming to go beyond the hype of Web 2.0. I presented there on Gold Coast Libraries’ online library project, which encompassed a range of initiatives, some a little 2.0, but most decidedly 1.0. So I’d been pondering the whole Library 2.0 thing and whether I really had anything invested in the Library 2.0 rhetoric. I certainly love that it’s given technology and particularly online services a raised profile in library land. But I think the answer I came up with in the end was that I think some of the rhetoric is floored, and I’m certainly not wedded to the term.

No matter how much we theorise about Library 2.0 NOT being all about technology, the whole concept of Library 2.0 is wed to the concept of Web 2.0, and I don’t know that we can impose a divorce. A lot of people are caught up in the tools. I (and many others) have said it before, and I’m sure we’ll all say it again: it’s got to be about the service and what the user wants, first and foremost. But, with a concept that is so intrinsically linked to Web 2.0, I’m not sure that we can entirely shift the focus from the tool to user needs. Alongside Library 2.0, we’ve been encouraging people to play with technology through Learning 2.0 / 23 things programs. It follows that people who play with this stuff are going to want to put it to use. Can we blame people for succumbing to the shiny and putting the tool before the need?

The rhetoric around Library 2.0 cannot be separated from technology because the 2.0 meme will not allow it. We can’t coopt a technology concept like ’2.0′ and apply it to our context and expect people not to tie it up with technology in their heads. Yes, I wholeheartedly agree that Library 2.0 is (at least in my head) about user-centredness and engaging our users and non-users. But it’s also about technology, and using technology to achieve user-centred services, community engagement, and meaningful change.

Have we debased the term Library 2.0? I don’t think so. I’m not sure we’ve so much debased it as picked the wrong term to describe the phenomenon in the first place. Where the early proponents probably saw the 2.0 meme as a way of articulating next generation library services, the mainstream has linked the meme with its origin: technology. I have to say, while I’m in total agreement that the technology shouldn’t come before the user need, it’s pretty hard to tow the line that Library 2.0 is not just about technology when I’m yet to see or read about a non-technology based Library 2.0 initiative. (Or maybe I should say: a non technology initiative that’s been labeled as Library 2.o-ish.) If you went to a conference with Library 2.0 in the title, and you heard about storytime (with paper books, not ebooks), bookclubs (of the physical kind, not the blog based) and newsletters (of the dropped-in-your-snail-mail-box kind, not the rss kind), would you feel ripped off? I’m pretty sure I would, and yet these anecdotes could well epitomise the tenets of Library 2.0: empowering users through participatory, user-driven services, a focus on constant and meaningful change, improving services to current users, and reaching out to non-users.

Do we hear about libraries implementing non-technology based Library 2.0 services? Not in my experience. And what does that tell us? That this term, defined by the masses, is intrinsically linked with technology. At technology conferences (and non-technology conferences) we often here about the how, not the why: how we used this tool to do this. The tool focus is hard to avoid when we hear so much about it.

Maybe it’s time to stop talking Library 2.0 and come up with a term that gets to the guts of it: let’s get the words user, needs, responsive, service, evaluation, participation in there. If I were to describe what it is I tried to do in my last job, where I was the ‘innovations’ person who was responsible for online services, I’d say I was in pursuit of responsive, streamlined, flexible online services that meet the needs of our customers. Not as sexy as Library 2.0, but much less airy-fairy, and open to far less conjecture. I think The Participatory Library just about cuts it, so that’s what I’m sticking with for now.

the personal-professional divide: moving the line

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Jun 072010

I’ve never had a clear line between my personal and professional lives. It’s not possible to be a workaholic and stop the professional from bleeding across into the personal, at least in terms of time and space – I work outside of work hours, and I work in non-work environments (I always have, but it happens even more now that I’m lucky enough to be able to work from home).

I’ve also always had a very blurry line between personal and professional in online forums, too. Take Twitter, for example: my private Twitter account is very much my life stream – it’s full of anecdotes about my personal life, as well as my professional life – but I’m largely connected there with people I have a professional link to. My friends and family don’t do Twitter, but this hasn’t stopped my private account from being the domain of non-work talk. I have a clear line in my mind about what gets posted to my private Twitter account, and what gets posted to my public one, but that line is not necessarily a marker between personal and professional – it’s more about degrees of personal (and, I have to say, what I’m willing to have my students read!). I am, essentially, a heart-on-my-sleeve kind of girl. It’s my approach to life. I share stuff. It makes me who I am, both as a person, and as a professional. I share through my private Twitter account the stuff I’d be likely to share with people in person, both personal stuff and professional stuff.

As I posted a few days ago, until recently, Facebook has been a fairly open forum for me, but I decided to cut back my friends on Facebook to include only those people I actually know and hang out with IRL. That means I’m no longer connected with many library types on there, and I’m no longer connected to people from school that I don’t hang out with IRL. Again, though, the line in the sand with Facebook is not about personal and professional – it’s about the ‘realness’ of my connection with the people I’m linked to there.

This blog has always had a clearer purpose in my mind. Although I’ve been an incredibly sporadic blogger, I’ve always blogged about professional-related topics here, and I’ve rarely injected the personal. I didn’t start this blog to talk about personal stuff – I started it to talk about professional stuff, and that’s how it’s always been. This #blogeverydayofjune challenge has changed that for me, sort of out of necessity – 30 posts in 30 days is a whole lot of professional topics.

So I’ve read with interest as Sue and Con have grappled with the idea of blogging about professional topics on personal blogs, because for me, the situation is reversed. I’m bolshy (read: loud and obnoxious) enough to say whatever I think about whatever is on my mind when it comes to professional topics (as long as they don’t set off the appropriateness radar, of course), but I’ve actually found it really uncomfortable to interject the personal here. Weird, huh? I kind of have the reverse issue that Sue and Con are talking about. That’s really strange for someone who is a compulsive sharer!

I’ve decided, though, that it’s okay to let my purpose here change, or rather, to let it diversify to match the way I am in the other forums I’m in, both online and real world, especially right now while I’m trying to figure out if I’m gonna keep blogging. In a post on online identity, Jenica Rogers wrote:

But once you’ve found your voice, and anchored it in who you are, be prepared for it to change. Your boundaries, too…

And you may discover that you yourself change as you write and talk. You may become a different person. You may join new communities. You may find a different purpose. You might want to be a different kind of speaker and writer. Honor that. Stay true to yourself and your voice, whatever that means for you. Because you always need to know why you’re doing it, and if that why changes, then let the how change, too.

I’m still not sure that I’m going to continue blogging here, and so the ‘why’ is a little unclear. In the past, the ‘why’ has been about having a space to have a voice on professional issues, other than through formal publications. So while I figure out if I want to continue with this blog, I’m going I’m going to mess around a bit with my modus operandi here. The ‘how’ is going to change up a bit, and I think that’s okay.

for the love of reading (and memes)

blogeverydayofjune, memes 1 Response »

Jun 062010

Hooray for Con, who suggested this reading meme for we #blogeverydayofjune types.

Do you snack while reading? Actually, it’s more that I tend to read while eating. Now that I work at home a lot, I tend to use the time when I stop to grab lunch or an afternoon snack or dinner for a quick dip into whatever it is I have on the go.

What is your favourite drink while reading? Depends on the time of day, but usually coffee, though I do most of my reading in bed before I go to sleep, post teeth brushing.

Do you tend to mark your books while you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you? I majored in literary studies in my undergrad, and it made me a book marker, though these days when I’m reading fiction, I read more holistically – with a focus on the big picture, rather than the detail. That means I mark books a lot less than I used to. One of my friends is a book marker, and I love reading her books because I love seeing where she’s added little asterisks against sentences she likes.

How do you keep your place? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book open flat? Mostly dog-ears. Bookmarks tend to slide out in my backpack, although I quite like to use flight boarding passes – there are many scattered in the books on my shelves. They tend to hold better – maybe because they’re wider? They’re also a thin cardboard, so you can push them hard up against the spine. Lately I haven’t been flying as much as I used to, so I’m much more about the dog-ear, though if I have to stop mid page, then I’ll scrounge for a scrap of paper to mark my exact place.

Fiction, non-fiction or both? In book form, fiction. I read a lot of short non fiction (blogs, news, articles) online. I’m not a good non fiction reader, and I struggle to read a non fiction book from cover to cover.

Do you tend to read to the end of a chapter or can you stop anywhere? I’m slightly compulsive about reading to the end of a chapter, or some other logical break (like the end of a section). Even if I’m falling asleep, I’ll push myself to get to the end of a chapter before stopping. And on the train, if I come to the end of a chapter, I flip ahead to see if I can make it to the end of the next chapter before starting it. If not, I’ll listen to music instead.

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or on the floor if the author irritates you? Ah, no.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop and look it up right away? If my laptop is on and nearby, I’ll look it up. Otherwise I’ll just work with the context.

What are you currently reading? I just (as in five minutes ago) finished the latest Sookie Stackhouse, Dead in the family, and I haven’t got anything else in reserve. Perhaps a trip to the Borders eBook store tomorrow? (Probably to get the latest Melina Marchetta.)

What is the last book you bought? The aforementioned Sookie. Oh wait, no, it was Each peach pear plum in board book, along with another picture book (the name of which escapes me), bought for a one year old’s birthday.

Do you have a favourite time/place to read? In bed, every night. On the train on my way too and from the office. At one of my favourite coffee shops. Standing in queues; while I’m cooking toast; basically, whenever and wherever I can.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alones? I’m not phased, but I do get rather attached to characters, so I love a good series.

Is there a specific book or author you find yourself recommending over and over? Several authors: Salley Vickers (especially Mr Golightly’s holiday and The other side of you); Michael Robotham (smart psycho-thriller); Jasper Fforde (literary sci-fi); Janette Turner Hospital; Audrey Niffenegger… where should I stop?

How do you organize your books (by genre, title, author’s last name, etc.)? I group authors together, kind of by genre. For example, one section of my bookshelf is dedicated to chick lit (but I put Margaret Atwood in there next to Marian Keyes cause I thought it was kinda ironic). Another section is dedicated to children’s and young adults’ authors, another to books I’ve borrowed from people, another to books I haven’t read yet (though nothing in that section is calling me, at the moment), another to fiction about art history (art history was my other undergrad major, and I have a thesis in me somewhere about art historical fiction), another to art/literary theory. Then I’ve got a classics section, a crime/thriller/trash section, a contemporary fiction section… Having said all of this, I am just about to get rid of pretty much all my books. I’ve decided to keep in print only my very favourite titles (I’m thinking I might keep 20 or so fiction titles of the few hundred I have). The rest I’m going to get rid of. At some stage, when I’ve had time to pull out my favourites, I’ll be inviting friends over to take whatever they like. I had hoped by now that I’d only be buying eBooks. That’s just not possible, so I’ll continue to buy print where e isn’t available, but from now on, once I’ve read them, if my purchases don’t get elevated to favourite status, I’ll be passing them on.

Barbara’s additional question: background noise or silence? Not silence, but quiet.

bleary-eyes, barcamp, bebes, blogging and bed

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Jun 052010

A day of Bs.

bleary-eyes

I had a slow and painful start to Saturday, after a late night reading #blogeverdayofjune posts and more than my evening quota of the latest Sookie installment. I have an obscenely pink Hello Kitty alarm clock, which was bought for me as a joke, and which lives on the bottom shelf of my bedside table. I persist in using this really rather ugly alarm clock because the snooze button is Kitty herself: she’s about seven centimeters tall, and as a result, it’s really easy to lean over in the dark and smack the snooze button without looking. Snooze lasts for nine minutes (and as an aside, I am convinced that nine minutes is the optimum length of time for snoozing: five isn’t enough; ten seems to make me greedy for another hour; nine is just enough to make me feel like I’ve indulged myself, without making me late [correction: without making me any later than I was going to be anyway - the fact that I frequently mistype my name as Late is really rather Freudian]). So, although I should have been up at 6am to get ready to drive to Brisbane, instead, I dragged myself out of bed, bleary-eyed, at 7am, and promptly commenced whirlwind-ing round the house.

barcamp

I spent today at #barcampbne (aka BarCamp Brisbane). Plans (or unplans) have been in the pipelines for a couple of months and it all paid off today, with what I think was possibly the biggest BarCamp Brisbane has seen to date. It was a great day, with talks on topics as diverse as bell ringing and adult Aspergers, and a fish bowl on Agile. I didn’t actually get to see any presentations this time round (I was the meeter and greeter responsible for pointing all likely candidates towards the breakout rooms), but judging from the conversations in the hallways and the chatting at break times, I’m pretty sure everyone had a great day.

It made me think that it would great to do another PodCamp with a focus on getting the general public involved, similar to the one I facilitated for Gold Coast Libraries earlier in the year. (It was really great to see at least one person who was introduced to the unconference/Camp concept via PodCamp Gold Coast in attendance today at BarCamp. Public libraries FTW!) I’d love to do something in Brisbane later in the year… Anyone interested in helping out?

bebes

A pretty great day was topped off by making it home in time to hang out with my delicious niece and nephew for a bit before bedtime. Kids have a way of giving your perspective like nothing else.

blogging

It’s day five of #blogeverydayofjune, and I hoped today’s post would be in the form of live blogging from BarCamp. Alas, I got distracted by unorganising (and by the lovely company of a good friend), so I got to the end of the day without coming up with anything witty, or intelligent, or even remotely relevant, to say here. The reality is I’ve got nothing left in the tank tonight, so I decided that profundity could wait til a week day, and you’ve got this here post on all things B.

bed

And so it comes back to bed. Perhaps this post would have been more coherent, and perhaps it would have had more point, if I had not authored it from the comfort of my very yummy bed…

On that note…

buonanotte!

library programs and emerging tech: essential reading?

blogeverydayofjune 4 Responses »

Jun 042010

It’s 4.21 as I start writing this post, and I’ve been growing increasingly aware of the fact that I’m lacking ideas for a post today. Evidently, working from your lounge room with only Twitter for company is not conducive to coming up with little bits of fun trivia to write blog posts about. Ho hum.

The next thing on my to do list for today is to finish compiling the reading list for a unit I’m teaching next semester. So I thought I might blog about it – not only will this give me a blog post for the day, but I’m hoping you might have some fabulous ideas for must-read books.

Here’s the background: The unit is focused on library programs, products and services. While it aims to provide a general overview of service development, delivery and evaluation (with all the content necessary to underpin these topics – like, for example, user needs analysis and programming for target markets), it’s also focused on emerging technologies and their applications for programs, services and products. The unit is taught in a blended mode, with the majority of the learning activities taking place online, supplemented by some workshops. Each week, students will experiment with technologies and think about the applications of these technologies in their personal lives, their personal-professional lives, and in information practice. Essentially, we’ll be learning about emerging technologies by using emerging technologies. We’ll be playing, experimenting and experiencing emerging tech for the sake of playing, experimenting and experiencing, but we’ll also be using emerging tech as our primary communication and collaboration channels for the unit. Content will be delivered using emerging tech, assignments are built around use of particular online tools, and students will develop and interact with personal learning networks within the course.

You can imagine that compiling a reading list for this sort of unit is not a particularly easy task. Well, actually, it’s really easy to compile a huge reading list. It’s not so easy to compile one that is actually a manageable amount of reading to undertake in a semester.

I’m taking two approaches to addressing this problem. The first is that I’m trying to compile a really tight list of essential reading (and boy is that hard!). The second tactic I’m taking is to embed sharing about the readings into the assessment. Inspired by the One Minute Critic, I’ve prepared an assignment that requires students to provide a short (2-3 minute) precis and critical discussion of one of the books on the reading list, and also of an article of their choosing. We’ll create a schedule for the semester, and run our own internet radio show. That way, we’ll all get an overview of all of the readings, hopefully whetting our appetites and encouraging us to read all of the books ourselves.

So, this list I’m compiling is the list of books that students will choose from. So far, my ‘dream’ reading list is way too long. WAY too long. (So long that I’m not going to post it here in case I unduly scare off any students who are planning on taking this unit next semester, and who might happen upon this blog post!)

I’m breaking the list into categories:

Technology / technology in society
Emerging tech in libraries
Social theory
Library programming and/or community engagement
Service development/management

If I had to pick just one book across all these categories to set as a reading for the semester, it would probably be Born digital by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, because I think it’s fundamental that new professionals have a clear picture of this new generation, and that they begin to grapple with the digital native world view. Even if some of these new professionals might be on the cusp of the ‘born digital’ generation themselves, this book still has valuable insight to offer, particularly on how the perspective of a digital native differs from that of a digital immigrant. It’s crucial that we understand where this digital generation is coming from, because as a cohort, they’re going to shape the world. And we need to shape our collections and services to fit their needs.

What about you? If you had to pick a single book that falls into one of the categories I’ve listed (or perhaps, a book for each category), what would it (they) be, and why?

i’m not perfect

blogeverydayofjune 5 Responses »

Jun 032010

If I was forced to choose one word to describe myself, it would be: “perfectionist”. (I can think of a few others to go along with it: “stubborn”, “crazy”, “stubborn”…) Every now and then, I do something pretty dumb, or I miss something important, and I’m reminded anew that (as a friend direct messaged me on Twitter today) “nobody is perfect and [I] need to accept that!”.

I think women in particular suffer from wanting to do everything, and to do it all perfectly. It’s like we have a desire to yell to the world: “Look at me go! I can juggle all of these balls in the air, all at once, and nothing ever falls! I am Wonder Woman!”.

Well, I’m no Wonder Woman. I’d like to be, but I’m not. And much as I want to get everything right, all of the time, occasionally I need to admit (out loud) that this is a completely unreal expectation to have of myself. I would never expect it of anyone else, yet I’m happy to put myself through the perfection wringer. Crazy! But I bet I’m not alone.

So here it is: my profound thought for the day. I’m not perfect, and that’s okay.

Also, I may have just eaten half a packet of treat size dairy milk chocolate bars for dinner.

Out.

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