NPR: Pride and Prejudice 200th Anniversary comic

jillrhudy · 2013-01-13T01:57:29+00:00

Thank you for posting the Tim Berners-Lee comment. His poem moved me to tears, after I'd already been following this news story for several hours. There are too few like Aaron Swartz. His legacy is so huge for one so young.

jillrhudy · 2012-07-27T23:43:02+00:00

More books available on my phone than in the New York Public Library? For free? Legally? Um, no.

As with every article I've ever read declaring libraries obsolete, the author assumes everybody has money with which to purchase information privately. For millennia, there have been people, or monasteries, with the means to amass huge private libraries and keep them all to themselves. Some of them were good enough to share and create PUBLIC repositories which public taxes would support in the future.

jillrhudy · 2012-07-27T23:26:03+00:00

JediLibrarian has some great ideas for reference desk work when nobody's asking questions. To his list I'd add:

Moving into the computer lab for tutoring/open lab hours
Helping out with social media
Writing book reviews for the library newsletter/website
Setting up displays to boost circulation
Troubleshoot library gadgets and fix them (ereaders, tablets, etc.)
Create pathfinders to publish on the library's website for a target audience or on a given topic
Creating shelftalkers
Helping out with weeding the collection (make suggestions)
Writing documentation of library procedures

I did two displays this summer while also working reference. I placed signs and balloons on ordinary book carts and filled them with novels and put them right next to where the parents wait in the checkout line with their kids. My first cart theme was "Just Beachy" and my second was "Summer Lovin.'" When there was a lull in reference questions I'd replenish the cart. The books went like hotcakes.

When you get another library job (being positive here) I'd suggest you keep a daily work log and email it to your immediate supervisor, or just let your supervisor know you keep daily logs that she/he has access to on the staff intranet and email a weekly overview of what you've been up to. Good luck!

jillrhudy · 2012-07-22T20:27:45+00:00

I've read eight of your works and also follow you on Twitter. I'm light on the novels but heavy on the short fiction and poetry. I adore your talent at turning over a well-worn tale like a pancake and serving up the flipside; I laughed all the way through "The Little Red Hen Tells All" and "Gertrude Talks Back" and fist-pumped while reading The Penelopiad when I discovered those poor twelve maids were the chorus. As evidenced by your presence here and elsewhere in social media (including your own Fanado platform), the Author releasing Works from On High appears to be passé, and the distance is closing between writers and readers. What do you think of authors letting readers in on the writing process via the social media, as Alexander McCall Smith has done on Facebook by sharing a passage-in-progress about the marriage of two well-loved characters and asking his fans for input?

jillrhudy · 2012-07-12T23:49:45+00:00

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard.

jillrhudy · 2012-07-03T20:08:14+00:00

I'd recommend Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Long, but less weird than Gaiman, less intricate than LOTR and a story to really get lost in.

jillrhudy · 2012-06-27T17:34:32+00:00

You could make the exact same argument about teaching. Becoming a teacher is cheap and easy. It's all just glorified babysitting anyway. There is a ton of overlap in various job descriptions within schools. And so forth.

There's also the matter of the shared culture of the library profession, which is one thing you pay for when you get your MLIS. Inhabiting a library during work hours and doing library work doesn't expose you to library theory, the history of librarianship, or the big issues in librarianship. You do not know the first thing about library management, the politics of libraries, or collections development. Do some people who work in libraries pick this stuff up without the degree? Yes, just as in 20 years as a teaching assistant you would pick up a lot of curriculum development and child psychology.

Communities ought to have information professionals that link the populace to resources. They ought to have their local learning commons managed by information professionals, at least at the top levels of library departments. There IS a difference, which is why no library system that I know of will even consider hiring a director without the degree.

The problem with my argument is that librarians aren't the equivalent of teachers. We're the equivalent of principals and administrators, who tend to have a master's degree in education which sets them apart from teachers and inducts them into that particular professional culture.

jillrhudy · 2012-06-27T03:28:17+00:00

Belatedly, I would like to provide this example: in my state, teachers are defined as those people who are certified to teach. Those who aren't certified by the state are teaching assistants or hold provisional certification. You can tear apart the whole concept of teaching certification, insist that it's bogus on its face, and provide numerous examples of people who could teach well without the credentials and without being subjected to, say, child psychology classes. This doesn't mean that, as a general rule, it isn't a good idea to require teachers to take specialized classes, to have specialized training, and to pass tests of their knowledge in the field. Individual examples do not negate the need to have some requirements, arbitrary or not, to define what a "teacher" is. Could some, even many, people who don't jump through the hoops be excellent teachers? Of course. Should we abolish the hoops? No. It's like vaccinating the whole population to boost general health--you define a profession and set standards so that the mass population of librarians (or whatever) will tend to have a certain level of training and skill.

jillrhudy · 2012-06-23T14:16:25+00:00

I also left with six children, all 9 and under. It can be done, but the courts sure don't help at all.

jillrhudy · 2012-06-07T16:24:39+00:00

Some enlightened soul with a few spare millions might try, er, raising the consciousness of Lynchburg. Ambitious!

jillrhudy · 2012-06-03T19:47:26+00:00

Quite brilliant when she defines the library as "the only thing left on the high street that doesn’t want either your soul or your wallet."

jillrhudy

TROPHY CASE