- Papillon - Henri Charriere
- Persuasion - Jane Austen
- The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged) - Alex Dumas
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon
- The Sword of Honor Triology - Evelyn Waugh
- A Handful of Dust - Evelyn Waugh
- The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene
- Chronicles of Narnia (all seven books, I've read some) - C.S. Lewis
- Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
- Neuromancer - William Gibson
- A Passage to India - E.M. Forster
- Rabbit, Run - John Updike
- The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John Le Carre
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (P.S.) - Steven Levitt
- John Henry Newman: A Biography - Ian Ker
- The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett
- The Complete Stories - Flannery O'Connor
- Ulysses - James Joyce
- Catch-22 - James Heller
- The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler
- Trafficked - Kimberly Purcell
- Sons and Lovers - D.H. Lawrence
- Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
- Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
- Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Friday, March 9, 2012
My "Book-it" List Nos. 1-25
I am sure that most everyone is familiar with the concept of a bucket list, but as a librarian, I thought it would be good to generate a list of books I'd like to make sure I have read. These are in no particular order, and contain works of fiction and non-fiction:
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Dis-connection Is A Factor, Too
First off, I can't believe it's been close to two weeks since I last posted anything. I usually have much more to say, but just haven't had the time. Finally now, an opportunity is presenting itself.
I have talked about connectivity a lot, but I want to take some time here in this space to look at dis-connection, that is, the one (perceived or not) between libraries and users. I want to emphasize again that the views I express here are my own, and not necessarily those of my library or my employer.
I work at a small, liberal arts university that has a mixture of traditional liberal arts degrees like History, English, Psychology, Sociology, etc. We also have pre-professional programs like Business, Education, and Nursing.
Anyways, I have thought recently about how the connections of our students prove to be as much a dividing force as they help to connect users to information. I am fairly laid-back at work about most things, but the one thing that now irritates me to no end that text message has made its way to the reference desk and beyond. No, I am not talking about text messaging reference services, those certainly have their place (incidentally it's not a good fit for my library).
While I am not okay in any way, shape, or form with people text messaging while I am teaching them about library resources, I have developed some ability to either ignore it or to constructively correct the situation. Perhaps its just a fact of life that it is going to happen, as today's student seems to need the constant connection to the internet, to their social networks, and their friends. What concerns me more than that, is that some students have got the notion in their heads that it is completely legitimate to text their friends while I am answering their questions in one-on-one situations. If anyone has some great strategies for handling this, I'd love to hear about them.
Moving away from the text-ing debate now, it seems that as libraries are changing, some users are dis-connected from proper library etiquette. Cell phones calls can be problem, as are bad library acoustics. I am not so naive as to think that everyone will come into the library, quietly find a book, find a table or chair or study carrel, those places still need to exist in libraries. I realize that not all schools or libraries are like that, but I have also come to realize that the reaction of the students to noise from their fellow school mates can play a significant role in the way people conduct themselves. That said, I think I would take people texting in a library over calling their friends. A keystroke or touch on a smartphone or messaging phone is less irritating than the student who answers their phone: "What am I doing? I'm in the library" in a non-library voice.
I have talked about connectivity a lot, but I want to take some time here in this space to look at dis-connection, that is, the one (perceived or not) between libraries and users. I want to emphasize again that the views I express here are my own, and not necessarily those of my library or my employer.
I work at a small, liberal arts university that has a mixture of traditional liberal arts degrees like History, English, Psychology, Sociology, etc. We also have pre-professional programs like Business, Education, and Nursing.
Anyways, I have thought recently about how the connections of our students prove to be as much a dividing force as they help to connect users to information. I am fairly laid-back at work about most things, but the one thing that now irritates me to no end that text message has made its way to the reference desk and beyond. No, I am not talking about text messaging reference services, those certainly have their place (incidentally it's not a good fit for my library).
While I am not okay in any way, shape, or form with people text messaging while I am teaching them about library resources, I have developed some ability to either ignore it or to constructively correct the situation. Perhaps its just a fact of life that it is going to happen, as today's student seems to need the constant connection to the internet, to their social networks, and their friends. What concerns me more than that, is that some students have got the notion in their heads that it is completely legitimate to text their friends while I am answering their questions in one-on-one situations. If anyone has some great strategies for handling this, I'd love to hear about them.
Moving away from the text-ing debate now, it seems that as libraries are changing, some users are dis-connected from proper library etiquette. Cell phones calls can be problem, as are bad library acoustics. I am not so naive as to think that everyone will come into the library, quietly find a book, find a table or chair or study carrel, those places still need to exist in libraries. I realize that not all schools or libraries are like that, but I have also come to realize that the reaction of the students to noise from their fellow school mates can play a significant role in the way people conduct themselves. That said, I think I would take people texting in a library over calling their friends. A keystroke or touch on a smartphone or messaging phone is less irritating than the student who answers their phone: "What am I doing? I'm in the library" in a non-library voice.
Friday, February 10, 2012
My view on e-books
Okay, after much consideration, I'm just going to come out and say it: I am not a fan of e-books. Maybe this is librarian heresy, but I am sure there are some that would stand with me on this issue. And, I say this for several reasons. Before I go into them, I want to preface my comments emphasizing that I am speaking for myself only.
While I realize that I said in my post on February 4th that I was a pluralist, I still consider myself that, regardless of whether or not you can be such without liking e-books. In my mind, an e-book will never be the same as a real book, no matter what size your e-reader is, or how you turn a page with the touch of a finger. Making notes in your Nook, Kindle, or other device as your read is not the same as being able to scrawl things in the margins of a physical book.
Also, any belief that all college students read and love e-books is also completely false. I agree that textbooks are expensive, and that e-books may provide a price break, as well as not break a student's back. Cost is only one of the factors involved. Not all textbook publishers have every text available electronically, and if you have a college age son or daughter, do you really want them staring at a 7" screen for the better part of four years and beyond?
When students or other patrons do research, you can not simply walk up to a "shelf" of e-books and browse across spines and indices easily. You have to enter and exit out of every book you're viewing. Whereas in a library, it is easy to walk over to the shelf, pull down the books you need, find a table, and flip through them to find the information you need.
I also find that I really enjoy the tactile sensation of holding a book in my hand, turning the pages, flipping back and forth easily at will. The glow of an e-reader in my lap is of little comfort to me.
So that's my argument, I'd welcome any comments if you have any.
While I realize that I said in my post on February 4th that I was a pluralist, I still consider myself that, regardless of whether or not you can be such without liking e-books. In my mind, an e-book will never be the same as a real book, no matter what size your e-reader is, or how you turn a page with the touch of a finger. Making notes in your Nook, Kindle, or other device as your read is not the same as being able to scrawl things in the margins of a physical book.
Also, any belief that all college students read and love e-books is also completely false. I agree that textbooks are expensive, and that e-books may provide a price break, as well as not break a student's back. Cost is only one of the factors involved. Not all textbook publishers have every text available electronically, and if you have a college age son or daughter, do you really want them staring at a 7" screen for the better part of four years and beyond?
When students or other patrons do research, you can not simply walk up to a "shelf" of e-books and browse across spines and indices easily. You have to enter and exit out of every book you're viewing. Whereas in a library, it is easy to walk over to the shelf, pull down the books you need, find a table, and flip through them to find the information you need.
I also find that I really enjoy the tactile sensation of holding a book in my hand, turning the pages, flipping back and forth easily at will. The glow of an e-reader in my lap is of little comfort to me.
So that's my argument, I'd welcome any comments if you have any.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Connectivity Follow-up
Yesterday was a semi-busy day for me with teaching back to back library instructions sessions for one of our university's English professors. Sometimes in the midst of instruction, you learning interesting facts yourself either from the session or in preparations for it. Going in, I was not aware of any topic, but as it turned out, her topic for her students was, roughly, examining the concept of what are private spaces and what are public spaces and how has technology changed our conception of those. Obviously here with U.S. legislation in the last few weeks those things have been debated with SOPA and PIPA. The topic was timely nonetheless.
It was an hour, one-shot class so after we are done speaking we interact with the students more on a one-on-one basis. As I was working with one particular student, their topic was to some degree looking at the availability of Internet access in the United States. While the student worked on their own a little bit, I did some of my own searching for her from the classroom podium equipped with a PC. As I did my best to come up with search terms for Google, I came across a U.S. government site ( I love the availability of the statistics by the way) that had three tables courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau. The data was collected through a Current Population Survey (CPS) in 2009.
According to Table 1, 68.7% of those that responded had some type of Internet access. Of that number, 63.5% of them had broadband access, 4.7% had dial-up, and 0.4% had something other than broadband or dial-up. Getting down into the ages, the split was fairly even between those aged 25-34 (74.2%), 35-44 (77.8%), 45-54 (75.8%); but the two lowest numbers were those younger than 25 (67.0%) and 55 or older (58.2%). So, over 2/3s of the United States has some form of Internet access in their homes, and interestingly enough, 76.7% reported that they access the Internet from "some location". I take this to mean coffee shops, restaurants, offices, but I would be inclined to thing that much could be attributed to libraries either in school, at a university, or in public libraries. So, while 31.3% don't have Internet access at home, I think it becomes more critical for libraries to be protected so that they can provide the access to the ubiquitous level users need.
As a last point, when the Census Bureau first began asking about Internet access in 1997, only 18.0%, of the 102,158,000 users reported having access at home, so in roughly 12 years, up to 2009, that number more than tripled up to the aforementioned 68.7% of the 119,296,000 had Internet access/use at home.
It was an hour, one-shot class so after we are done speaking we interact with the students more on a one-on-one basis. As I was working with one particular student, their topic was to some degree looking at the availability of Internet access in the United States. While the student worked on their own a little bit, I did some of my own searching for her from the classroom podium equipped with a PC. As I did my best to come up with search terms for Google, I came across a U.S. government site ( I love the availability of the statistics by the way) that had three tables courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau. The data was collected through a Current Population Survey (CPS) in 2009.
According to Table 1, 68.7% of those that responded had some type of Internet access. Of that number, 63.5% of them had broadband access, 4.7% had dial-up, and 0.4% had something other than broadband or dial-up. Getting down into the ages, the split was fairly even between those aged 25-34 (74.2%), 35-44 (77.8%), 45-54 (75.8%); but the two lowest numbers were those younger than 25 (67.0%) and 55 or older (58.2%). So, over 2/3s of the United States has some form of Internet access in their homes, and interestingly enough, 76.7% reported that they access the Internet from "some location". I take this to mean coffee shops, restaurants, offices, but I would be inclined to thing that much could be attributed to libraries either in school, at a university, or in public libraries. So, while 31.3% don't have Internet access at home, I think it becomes more critical for libraries to be protected so that they can provide the access to the ubiquitous level users need.
As a last point, when the Census Bureau first began asking about Internet access in 1997, only 18.0%, of the 102,158,000 users reported having access at home, so in roughly 12 years, up to 2009, that number more than tripled up to the aforementioned 68.7% of the 119,296,000 had Internet access/use at home.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Connectivity and Librarianship
Nowadays in libraries one of the most common words you here is connectivity (or connected, connections, etc.). First and foremost, we are connected with information. A recent study conducted by industry analysis firm IDC showed that in the European market alone, the sales of smart phones were expected to exceed 95 million for the year 2011. That's an astonishing figure at first glance, but then to anyone that does not live in a bubble, perhaps not really. One could only assume that the same could be said of the U.S. market, Samsung sold 35 million worldwide themselves in the 4th quarter of 2011, a larger total than even that of Apple. Note, too, that this does not include any tablets or other mobile devices that provide internet connectivity themselves.
I normally don't quote movies, and do not consider myself a movie buff at all, however, there exist lines that you don't tend to forget--thanks in part, I presume, to the power of the media and the entertainment industry--but in this case I find that one line is appropriate. In the 2002 version of the movie Spiderman, the character of Uncle Ben Parket played by Cliff Robertson says "With great power comes great responsibility." And as my research tells me, this is not the first time this has been said, nor will it be the last. It is a variant of a concept attributed to Voltaire among others. We have information at our fingertips unlike any period before in history, and with that power comes a responsibility to be good stewards of the information. We must show our users how to navigate through the trash heap of information on the internet and find the good. This is not to dismiss books, not in the least. Books have become part of the internet landscape with the huge library Google has amassed with their Books project. Just as Google has collected their volumes from previously published works, there has also been a movement towards self-publishing. Anyone who has the money to invest can do so quite inexpensively and reach a substantial audience.
The other portion involves those of us involved in the sifting along side our users. In the last several months, I have come to realize once again the power and pervasiveness of social media for professional purposes. A lot of it began for me back in late March 2011 when I was able to attend the ACRL 2011 Conference in Philadelphia, PA. At that conference, many if not all of the sessions came with Twitter hashtags (#) which promoted the real-time sharing of information from the ordinary (We're in such and such meeting room, come join...) to feedback of the panel discussions and much more. That type of learning led me to using Twitter more and more often. Since that time I have engaged in many fruitful discussions, debates, and other conversations about issues in libraries, librarianship, and more. And while 140 characters is somewhat limiting, the opportunity to begin a dialogues is thoroughly present. I hope that others buy-in, and also encourage their users to as well.
I normally don't quote movies, and do not consider myself a movie buff at all, however, there exist lines that you don't tend to forget--thanks in part, I presume, to the power of the media and the entertainment industry--but in this case I find that one line is appropriate. In the 2002 version of the movie Spiderman, the character of Uncle Ben Parket played by Cliff Robertson says "With great power comes great responsibility." And as my research tells me, this is not the first time this has been said, nor will it be the last. It is a variant of a concept attributed to Voltaire among others. We have information at our fingertips unlike any period before in history, and with that power comes a responsibility to be good stewards of the information. We must show our users how to navigate through the trash heap of information on the internet and find the good. This is not to dismiss books, not in the least. Books have become part of the internet landscape with the huge library Google has amassed with their Books project. Just as Google has collected their volumes from previously published works, there has also been a movement towards self-publishing. Anyone who has the money to invest can do so quite inexpensively and reach a substantial audience.
The other portion involves those of us involved in the sifting along side our users. In the last several months, I have come to realize once again the power and pervasiveness of social media for professional purposes. A lot of it began for me back in late March 2011 when I was able to attend the ACRL 2011 Conference in Philadelphia, PA. At that conference, many if not all of the sessions came with Twitter hashtags (#) which promoted the real-time sharing of information from the ordinary (We're in such and such meeting room, come join...) to feedback of the panel discussions and much more. That type of learning led me to using Twitter more and more often. Since that time I have engaged in many fruitful discussions, debates, and other conversations about issues in libraries, librarianship, and more. And while 140 characters is somewhat limiting, the opportunity to begin a dialogues is thoroughly present. I hope that others buy-in, and also encourage their users to as well.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
I couldn't think of a better first full day here on the blog than today. Why, you may ask? Well I will tell you. This is National Libraries Day in the United Kingdom. I was first made aware of the plight of UK libraries a few months back, and as you might expect, was horrified. Regardless of their mission, all libraries, in their essence, really are after the same thing: doing the most for our patrons to enhance their learning and their lives. That can involve many things, and intellectual pursuits happen across many mediums. Anyone that knows me, knows that I am, in libraries, a pluralist above all things. Books and electronic resources both have their place.
However, I digress...so let's get back to it. I was deeply concerned to hear about the issues that surround public libraries in the UK. It blows my mind to see Cllrs. seriously considering cutting library funding. They are one of the most necessary services any government can offer their populations. Libraries offer new worlds to people that might not otherwise be able to afford them. Better yet, people are exposed to new things at absolutely no cost to them. If libraries were to go away, or be reduced, that's less time, if any, that people have to experience the world that exists outside of their community.
I realize that I am writing this from an American point of view, but I would argue that any librarian or library staff member has the duty of advocating for libraries worldwide, regardless of what type of library they work at or where that library is located.
So, I will close with this from the NLD website: "National Libraries Day is devoted to all types of libraries, library users, staff and supporters across the UK. Join in by organising a celebratory event, contributing to our forums, tweeting with the #NLD12 hashtag and visiting your local library on the 4 February or the week leading up to it. How will you get involved?"
However, I digress...so let's get back to it. I was deeply concerned to hear about the issues that surround public libraries in the UK. It blows my mind to see Cllrs. seriously considering cutting library funding. They are one of the most necessary services any government can offer their populations. Libraries offer new worlds to people that might not otherwise be able to afford them. Better yet, people are exposed to new things at absolutely no cost to them. If libraries were to go away, or be reduced, that's less time, if any, that people have to experience the world that exists outside of their community.
I realize that I am writing this from an American point of view, but I would argue that any librarian or library staff member has the duty of advocating for libraries worldwide, regardless of what type of library they work at or where that library is located.
So, I will close with this from the NLD website: "National Libraries Day is devoted to all types of libraries, library users, staff and supporters across the UK. Join in by organising a celebratory event, contributing to our forums, tweeting with the #NLD12 hashtag and visiting your local library on the 4 February or the week leading up to it. How will you get involved?"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)