Category Archives: Librarical

I turned my pumkin into a jack-o-lantern with the carving of the Dewey classification number for … jack-o-lanterns.

The eyes tear up just thinking about how geeky that is.

From the Chambana Craigslist,

“My girlfriend and I have discussed at length about having sex somewhere crazy on campus. We both came up with the library. Anybody know how hard it would be or the best location to go at it? Thanks,

Kyle”

So, my hottt librarians, what do you think? I had previously considered if it would be possible to live in the main stacks for a short period of time (taken from the UIUC urban legend of the PhD student who was between leases for a few months and did just that) but I hadn’t done the research as to what the lowest-used call-number range is. Any suggestions?

In my quest to achieve hot librarian status, I’m on the lookout for examples of hot librarians.

Other than the fact that the card catalog is used (tooootally unrealistic), it’s like the movie Party Girl – fast forwarded a decade, and in music video form.

It’s now 8:00 AM, and I’ve just finished printing out the 5th version of my cover letter for the Iowa City Public Library Perfect Job. No, it wasn’t typos or grammer that I was fixing – it was fonts.

Maybe it’s because I think this job is perfect, and want my cover letter and resume to reflect my NEED for this job, but I just wasn’t satisfied with how it looked. Part of it is that this is the longest cover letter I’ve ever written. I have actual professional experience, and with this particular position at least three different ways that I’m perfect for it. It’s a young adult and adult services position (no babies!) and editing the newsletter.

Hi. Everything I love to do is in this job.

All of the cover letters I’ve written were scrawny compared to this bad boy.

So it seemed that every font and size combination I tried today made the text look too bulky. I finally settled on Times NR, because it looks sort of literary. Rar. It’s too bad my computer seems to hate when I load a big font package, or I would have used something craaazy.

I’m going to go mail my application now. If you would all please please please think positive thoughts for me on this, I swear, I’ll never ask for another thing again.

Update:
No! No! No! The Onion is all over this!

Resume Font Offends Employer
“The decision to set his resume in default-font Times New Roman ‘deeply, personally, and irrevocably’ offended a prospective employer of Seth Hershey Monday.”

If it’s good enough to del.icio.us, it’s good enough to blog about. Right?

So here’s a blog post from The Librarian in Black about why librarians should use Ask.com instead of Google.

I learned about it from Marylaine, of course.

It’s the first day of school for the … 20th time. Yesterday I started my last semester of classes. Right off the bat, I felt sure this would be the best semester ever.

Part of it is that this is the ‘senior year’. My high school and undergrad senior years were fantastic. I knew everyone, I could navigate campus easily, I knew where the hidden tunnels were.

Added to that is my light course load (just 10 wee hours) and a lack of any boggy, awful, required classes. My Childrens Literature class (which I had yesterday, because yesterday was Monday at the U of other I) got me all jazzed. I love the books we’re reading (HP1, Harriet the Spy, The BFG, Where the Sidewalk Ends) and I’m a big fan of the teacher. I’m taking the class for half credit, so I don’t have to do the final project. I kind of want to anyway, which says a lot about the course (and my enthusiasm for kidlit) but it was really nice to think that come November and December, I won’t be stressed to the gills. Wadsbone will appreciate this as well.

Today I have Intro to Networking, and I had a nice long conversation with E (while she did the dishes, no less) about how great Intro to Networking is, and how much more confident she is with computers as physical things. Yay!

I’m kind of done taking pictures of me on the first day of school – it’s not quite as cute anymore. But I will share one from my first day of school at the U of I, featuring my sister.

I’ve been wondering for a while how a Netflix-style entertainment distribution system could be used for books. There’s Bookcrossing, but that only works if you happen upon the tome. The whole Netflix thing works so well because the items are lightweight.

I’ve been mulling this over, because I grew up as a librarian’s daughter, and therefore discouraged from purchasing books. Compounding this is Librarything, where I can peer into the collections of my friends. How can this work together?

(I realize that the obvious answer is the public library system. Not only do they have an online database of materials, but they’re conveniently located EVERYWHERE. I’m thinking about something more long term, where I could keep the book for 6 months if I wanted, without having to renew.)

I read today on BoingBoing about a site called BookMooch. It’s a “community for exchanging used books” and I’m in love. I would happily send away copies of books I’ve bought and am only keeping because no one has asked to borrow them. I’d pay shipping happily, since I won’t rack up fines.

(And think about it – us librarians could use some help weeding. I just helped 3 librarians move, and there were more book boxes than anything else.)

I’m going to go check it out. I’ll be under sundaykofax.

I just had my last cataloging class, and have completed about 1/2 of my take-home final. I think it was working on the final that made this cartoon so funny to me. Like, maniacal laughter that ends in gasps.

Today was the first day that we really got into the way cataloging is seen in the library science world. I didn’t want to take a cataloging class (sorry, Mom!) because I’m easily frustrated at systems that don’t work well. Between library catalogs not containing perfect data, and being esoteric and user-unfriendly, I find myself hating our stodgy systems that we’re clinging to. I use Amazon to find books that I know are in our catalog. That doesn’t make me want to learn about cataloging.

So now that I’ve completed the course (and looking to get an A! Hi Mom!) I can say that I like the eloquence of the system, and imperfections are due to natural human mistakes, so it’s kind of a cool system, as long as you’re well versed in it.

As a patron, I still loathe it.

I have a lot more thoughts about copy cataloging, outsourcing, Googlezon, and MARC spinning around in my head, and I can’t wait to have long conversations about it over drinks with other librarians. WoOt.

Here are two emails I’ve recieved – one to my gmail, the other to the chemistry library’s address.

“So, ” I said. “I’m not offering any to you, because this is the first
“Home I have none. Flock I have none. I am Outcast. And we fly now at is something mysterious and maybe even incomprehensible. I’ve handled quite research in the Visitation Zones?”

“It’s all right,” I said. “The path around is faster.” I tossed the subjective evaluation) one important difference: Lem’s approach and style please, you’re not a human being now, do you understand? You are a machine, toward the light?”

I don’t understand. Neither had attachments, nor did they have secret in-white-text words. I do think Wadsbone addresses this in his post Morr Wackee Spam.

Perhaps I should start collecting this stuff. I need an excuse to bind a book, and a book full of non-commercial spam might be just the ticket.

Update:
Make her mad. chantilly albania “”How many times, God damn it? Not that there was much to look at — the furnace, the remains of a coal-pile, a table with a bunch of shadowy cans and implements lying on it and to his right, up a way from where be was propped. “The knife. a few extras. The whisper of the axe. “Three times, counting the trip for the water. His mother and father had taken him to Revere Beach often when he was a kid, and he had always insisted that they spread their blanket where he could keep an eye on that piling, which looked to him like the single jutting fang of a buried monster. Annie was driven forward onto the floor with the burning stack of paper under her. communicant

Do they employ writers to come up with original text for these?
Today in LIS590NF (Information Books and Resources for Youth),
I watched a video on, and learned how to …

play the spoons.

That is why I love library school. That, and I can use the term “digital divide” in casual conversation with a straight face.