Guardienne of the Tomes

(email sent by Colleen to newlib-l after long discussions by folks about how there are no jobs, adn how dare MLS programs not inform students of their bleak prospects, etc etc ad nauseam ad infinitum) I think it would be best to qualify what people mean when they talk about lack of entry-level jobs. Do you mean lack of entry-level jobs you'd be willing to take? Probably. I got my current job a year ago after 4 months of searching. In that time, while I sent out a ton of applications, they were all written to that specific job opportunity (which took a lot of time), and I made sure to highlight how I met the required and the preferred qualifications. While I understand not everyone has the ability to go cross-country for a job, I think it behooves people to understand that the MLS is not likely to get you a job close to home, especially if you live near an MLS-granting institution. Just recently, I decided to toss out 2 applications to dream jobs, though I'm perfectly happy and ...

The meme (as taken from Rudy's Ramblings : the top 100 songs the year you graduated high school. Go to http://www.musicoutfitters.com . Per Rudy's instructions, type the year of your high school graduation [or first year, if still in high school] into the search function. Retrieve the Top 100 songs from that year. Strike through the songs you hate(d). Underline the songs you like(d). Bold the songs you love(d). Leave blank those you don’t care about or don’t remember. Annotate at will. Here goes, the list for my high school graduation year of 1997 *cringe* - I found that some of them I just didn't remember. Honorable mentions from other years below 1997: 1. Candle In The Wind 1997, Elton John 2. Foolish Games/You Were Meant For Me, Jewel Played to death 3. I'll Be Missing You, Puff Daddy and Faith Evans If they liked him that much, they'd've written a new song instead of ripping off an old classic. Just saying. 4. Un-Break My Heart, Toni Braxton I heart me so...

A post to remember 9/11. I'm a native New Yorker, born and raised on Long Island. On 9/11/01, I was at Emory University, working on a PhD in Political Science. My classmate Keisha came in as we were waiting for Professor Giles' class to start, asking why we weren't watching tv, saying the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane - I thought it was a sick and tasteless joke until we turned on the tv in the classroom in time to watch the second plane hit the tower. All of the phone lines were down - you couldn't reach the city or the Island if you wanted to. I figured my mom and siblings were safe, unless there had been a school trip planned to the city. My father and all of my uncles are union electricians, and IBEW Local #3 is the city local - later, I heard that one of my uncles came out of the subways where he was working covered in the debris from the building fall. Not too long after that I started asking myself what my priorities were, and how exactly my research...

There has been quite a bit of brouhaha over Sarah Palin's alleged book banning attempts. (You can read about it at The LA Times , Time , and just about anywhere else you care to trip over it on the 'net, not to mention the various librarian listservs, twitter, and friendfeed.) Let's take a moment and discuss this, shall we? Librarians - I'm taking the liberty of speaking for all of us here, though we may differ on minor details - generally believe it is their duty to provide information. To everyone (unless the library is a special library that only serves certain people - like a law firm library). But generally, your public and academic librarians are there to give you what you need , with that "you" defined as broadly as possible. To book-banner wannabes: for every book like And Tango Makes Three and the Harry Potter series that you'd like to ban for gay penguins and heathen magic, I have others clamoring to ban Ann Coulter and *gasp* the Bible. (Lots o...

I sat through a Faculty Senate meeting yesterday where the Math department presented a proposal to develop a math master's program. A good idea on the face of it, I have to question developing a graduate program in a field where we graduate less then 15 majors a calendar year. I also questioned the wisdom of allowing folks with a BA to teach the university's developmental (read: remedial) math classes. The gist of the reply (not a direct quote, since I didn't write it down, but this is pretty close) was, "Well, these folks would hold bachelors degrees in math, or the equivalent. Which meets the SACS accreditation standards." Well, color me thrilled that we'll strive to meet minimum standards. Also color me highly uncomfortable with the thought of folks - since the plan is to draw community members, not undergraduates - whose BAs and classroom experience are 20 years old to teach the most struggling kids. Le sigh. Many people disagreed with my take on that, ot...

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind both personally and at work. Otto ze wunderhund is recovering well from surgery, I'm totally wiped from 3rd shift and a wickedly busy start to the semester, and classes. I just mailed out packet 4 of 5 for the 2nd semester of the MFA, the workshop I'm taking at UTC with Earl Braggs is going well so far, and the Lit Theory class I'm taking is warping my brain. I've finally given in to the fact that working the third shift is not going to work for my life as it stands right now. The weekend of the 13th is my last working those godawful hours (though I got to meet some really great people). I'm looking forward to having my weekend time back to actually accomplish things instead of getting half-sleep in a personal twilight zone while the dog stomps angrily around the bed, tired of being ignored. (I am also pretty sure I went ahead and walked the dog without pants on the other day when he woke me up to go out, I was so wiped. Sinc...

Courtesy of Allison, your meme of the day is: Food. This is a list of 100 foods that every omnivore should eat sometime in their life. The idea is to bold the ones you've eaten. Happily, I like to eat (though I avoid heavy spices), so i expect to do well on this one... 1. Venison 2. Nettle tea 3. Huevos rancheros 4. Steak tartare (I was raised on raw beef. OMG yum) 5. Crocodile 6. Black pudding 7. Cheese fondue 8. Carp 9. Borscht 10. Baba ghanoush 11. Calamari 12. Pho 13. PB&J sandwich 14. Aloo gobi 15. Hot dog from a street cart In New York, we called these "dirty water hot dogs," because the flavor was best when the water hadn't been changed in awhile. And omg they're awesome. 16. Epoisses 17. Black truffle 18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes Cue Deana carter singign "Strawberry Wine" 19. Steamed pork buns 20. Pistachio ice cream Gross. Dad liked it. Well, he ate it. Pretty sure he only ate it because it was the only ice cream...

Otto is recuperating, sitting quietly for his eyedrops before tearing around the house in his Elizabethan collar, making it very clear he does not believe that accessorizing is something doglets should be involved in. But he has so far been good humored about the giant increase in his turning radius, if a little frustrated that he can't deal with his itches very well on his own. This blog will be returning to issues of librarydom and librarianation, but for those of you interested in watching Otto recover, I have a Flickr set dedicated for those photos here . Thank you again to one and all who decided to help. I wish you could all meet him up close for snooterkisses!