Guardienne of the Tomes

I try to keep politics off of this blog. Mostly because I consider myself a moderate and can fall to either side depending on what the issue is, which tends to confuse, unnerve, and annoy people. But this is different. At the University of Kentucky, an effigy of Barack Obama was found hanging in a tree, startling students, staff and faculty on their way to classes and work this morning. This hits me personally - I worked at UK for years, got my MLS there, and consider Kentucky (where I also did my undergrad work at Centre College) my true home. Given Kentucky's deep and problematic history with race relations, I was always very proud to point out the strides the state, and especially the University made towards the goal of respecting and appreciating diversity. University President Lee Todd sent the following email to the entire campus: From: President Lee T. Todd, Jr. Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 12:15 PM To: (all of campus) Subject: Campus Incident on October 29, 2008 Unfor...

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's official. As of January 5, 2009, I will leave my position as reference & instruction librarian here at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and take up my new position as Assistant Head of Access & Delivery Services at North Carolina State University. Give me a moment as I say Woo! Setting aside the unfortunate - but funny - moniker of AssHead, this is a great opportunity. NCSU Libraries are known for not just treating their employees well, but for implementing cutting-edge services, and I'm looking forward to being a part of that. The Head of ADS is Mary Carmen Chimato, who is generally recognized as a big bucket of awesomesauce in library services, and I'm excited to get to work with her. Susan Nutter has made great strides in making the NCSU Libraries a priority for the university. I'll get great management experience and be able to work with a team of active, engaged library folks. I also hear that Raleigh and NC in gen...

Yes, I know, IL08 is over, but I haven't blogged it at all. Mostly because it wasn't worth fighting over the one cord in the hotel room (really, Monterey Marriott? No wireless for customers? And charging for the 'net? Fail) and the wireless at the conference was patchy, and I rarely carry my laptop with me. Initial report? Huge success. Our preconference workshop went over pretty well to the 10-12 participants, though they were sort of quiet (as opposed to us raucous presenters. Put Kenley Neufeld, Courtney Stephens, myself, Laura Carscaddon and Jezmynne Westcott on the same panel and you get so much energy it makes the rest few the planet look like they're on Valium). The presentation Rudy Leon and I gave on bridging the gap between the 1.8 user and the 2.0 world got good reviews (at least from the folks I met), and some lovely observer left me a note full of nice feedback that I now have tacked up on my office wall. Given that these were my very first actual speaking ...

I'll report on IL08 here shortly (it was a great conference!), but for tonight, before I mosey on over to bed with Otto in tow, I wanted to post a link to this story out of CNN (via AP): "Woman Arrested for Killing Virtual Reality Husband." Apparently a Japanese woman, upon finding her Avatar in the game "Maple Story" suddenly divorced, hacked into her ex-faux-husband's account and murdalized his avatar. He complained to police, and she was arrested and transported 620 miles to be detained for the crime. Tonight I will likely be dreaming of all the World of Warcraft Horde suing the pants off of my former roommates, who ganked them whenever possible (though sans hacking). I wonder what a Tauren would like like in a suit, or a Night Elf in cuffs...

Okay, all, I'm off to Internet Librarian in the wee hours tomorrow. (Oops, that reminds me: must print flight schedule.) I am currently in scatterbrain mode and trying to remember everything from the office that I need to take with me. I'll likely go mostly dark while I'm there, since my cell only does regular old texting and no web shenanegans, and I don't like hauling my laptop around unless I have to. If you want to get ahold of me, you can call/text me. Things have been crazy around here lately, what with a packed-full instruction schedule, various other librarywork goodness, some publication proposals that were accepted and need to be fully written, and coursework. happily, the MFA is between semesters until next Residency in November, so it's just the MA classes hounding me to death right now. (This may put me in danger of losing my academic-elitist, intellectual label, but I do so despise Heidegger, with all of my Being.) My desk looks like a library exploded...

With Internet Librarian coming up, I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off a bit. I have finally resorted to making another drop-deadline list that carries me through the end of this semester, and my stomach sank a bit in the realization that no, I will not be going to Lexington for Thanksgiving, since I have far too much to get done. (Happily, an awesome librarian pal I have who has roots here in Chattanooga has invited me to partake in her family's holiday, so I won't spend it solo.) For those of you who don't keep up with me in various other places online, the 3rd shift job at the gym lasted a whopping 5 weeks before I admitted my failure and need for sleep. However, I've also come to the conclusion that taking a full load for the MFA (16 hours), as well as two classes for the MA in Lit (in addition to my full time librarian-chasing-tenure gig) is too much. I took one MA class last semester, and that was a level of stress I could manage - th...

Driving into work this morning, I found myself ridiculously annoyed at a radio commercial marketing a packet on study skills. The ad said, "Do you wish you were one of those lucky parents whose child gets good grades?" Sitting in traffic, I mulled this over, and came to the conclusion that my good grades (and my sister's, and my brother's) had nothing to do with mom and dad's "luck." It had to do with - - brace yourself - - good old fashioned hard work. (Okay, and the threat of an ass-whupping if we didn't make the grade.) Now, naturally, some children are better at school than others. I was one of the lucky ones - I'm simply a good test taker. My sister was not so lucky - she had to work her ass off for her good grades. My brother fell somewhere in between. But it was still not a matter of my parents being "lucky." My parents worked their asses off - we were mid-to-lower middle class on Long Island. We never went on family vacations, b...