Guardienne of the Tomes

As I've mentioned previously, I started my position as Information Literacy Coordinator at CSU Channel Islands on July 1 of this year (2014). My libraryfolk have a general idea of what my position entails, but I'm pretty sure my friends and family just nod their heads and smile and have no earthly clue what I do. So, here's a post about what exactly it is that I do all day. Information Literacy First, let me start with a brief statement about Information Literacy, since that. Is a huge part of my job. What is it? It's the set of skills and critical thinking applied to a person's need for information. So, the recognition that one needs information to solve a problem or question; determining the best place to find that information; critically reviewing the information and its source for relevance, validity and reliability; deciding on the best way to incorporate that information into decision-making...all of these fall into the realm of information literacy. Generally...

As I've mentioned previously, I started my position as Information Literacy Coordinator at CSU Channel Islands on July 1 of this year (2014). My libraryfolk have a general idea of what my position entails, but I'm pretty sure my friends and family just nod their heads and smile and have no earthly clue what I do. So, here's a post about what exactly it is that I do all day. Information Literacy First, let me start with a brief statement about Information Literacy, since that. Is a huge part of my job. What is it? It's the set of skills and critical thinking applied to a person's need for information. So, the recognition that one needs information to solve a problem or question; determining the best place to find that information; critically reviewing the information and its source for relevance, validity and reliability; deciding on the best way to incorporate that information into decision-making...all of these fall into the realm of information literacy. Gener...

This post is my story, and my charge to you to be your own advocate, particularly when it comes to your medical care. Why am I posting this to my librarianship blog? I debated it. But it impacts my worklife as a librarian, it impacts my colleagues, and it is relevant to my passion for people to educate themselves, to become critical consumers of information. The Mayo Clinic does a decent job of explaining the disease , and I'm going to lift most of their description and use it here. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease. The arthritis you have in your knee from running, or shoulder from pitching, is more likely osteoarthritis, and it comes from wear and tear of the actual joint. Rheumatoid, on the other hand, affects the lining of the joints, and causes painful swelling, bone erosion, and joint deformity. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease - effectively caused by your body mistaking itself for an invader, and attacking your own fine tissues with your own...

This post is my story, and my charge to you to be your own advocate, particularly when it comes to your medical care. Why am I posting this to my librarianship blog? I debated it. But it impacts my worklife as a librarian, it impacts my colleagues, and it is relevant to my passion for people to educate themselves, to become critical consumers of information. The Mayo Clinic does a decent job of explaining the disease , and I'm going to lift most of their description and use it here. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease. The arthritis you have in your knee from running, or shoulder from pitching, is more likely osteoarthritis, and it comes from wear and tear of the actual joint. Rheumatoid, on the other hand, affects the lining of the joints, and causes painful swelling, bone erosion, and joint deformity. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease - effectively caused by your body mistaking itself for an invader, and attacking your own fine tissues with you...

5:30am - Awoken from sleep study by technician. GRUMPY. Hair full of goop from electrodes. 6:00am - Picked up by husband, returned home. 6:30-7:10am - Showered, dressed, became some semblance of human. 7:15am-7:45am - Opened the library building with a walk around the floors, unlocking things. 7:45-7:55am - Conducted email triage. 7:57am - Emailed our Facilities liaison to ask for deodorizers in the urinals, on behalf of some grumpy menfolk. 8:00am-10:50am - Reference desk shift. 1 major research consult on the WonderBra vs the MiracleBra, the rest was all printing. Also completed IRB application #1, sent to research collaborator in COMM for review. Also typed and emailed minutes and action items from yesterday's Faculty Affairs committee meeting to committee members. Most productive reference desk shift ever. 10:50am - 11:35am - Peer review of teaching (sat in on a COMM/LIB 211 class) 11:40am-11:50am - I took my lunch salad out. With extreme prejudice. It did not taste like a burr...

5:30am - Awoken from sleep study by technician. GRUMPY. Hair full of goop from electrodes. 6:00am - Picked up by husband, returned home. 6:30-7:10am - Showered, dressed, became some semblance of human. 7:15am-7:45am - Opened the library building with a walk around the floors, unlocking things. 7:45-7:55am - Conducted email triage. 7:57am - Emailed our Facilities liaison to ask for deodorizers in the urinals, on behalf of some grumpy menfolk. 8:00am-10:50am - Reference desk shift. 1 major research consult on the WonderBra vs the MiracleBra, the rest was all printing. Also completed IRB application #1, sent to research collaborator in COMM for review. Also typed and emailed minutes and action items from yesterday's Faculty Affairs committee meeting to committee members. Most productive reference desk shift ever. 10:50am - 11:35am - Peer review of teaching (sat in on a COMM/LIB 211 class) 11:40am-11:50am - I took my lunch salad out. With extreme prejudice. It did no...

A recent Chronicle article titled " The No-Matter-What Rule of Academic Motherhood " caught my attention recently, not least because a good many of my similarly-aged colleagues around the country have recently become mothers in the past two years. Childless, I cannot imagine the extra work of raising a whole human being while also working the academic track. After thinking about it some more, I thought perhaps I could add a little something. There is also a No-Matter-What rule of Academic Chronic Illness, though it is less written about, and perhaps less known as a challenge. I got sick in 2010, but wasn't diagnosed until a complete physical collapse in summer of 2011. Swollen and painful joints, extreme fatigue, complete collapse after working too many hours, or doing anything physical, and constant bouts of colitis finally landed me at a rheumatologist who diagnosed me with Ankylosing Spondylitis and/or Rheumatoid Arthritis. I worked in a boom-and-bust mode. I was embar...

A recent Chronicle article titled " The No-Matter-What Rule of Academic Motherhood " caught my attention recently, not least because a good many of my similarly-aged colleagues around the country have recently become mothers in the past two years. Childless, I cannot imagine the extra work of raising a whole human being while also working the academic track. After thinking about it some more, I thought perhaps I could add a little something. There is also a No-Matter-What rule of Academic Chronic Illness, though it is less written about, and perhaps less known as a challenge. I got sick in 2010, but wasn't diagnosed until a complete physical collapse in summer of 2011. Swollen and painful joints, extreme fatigue, complete collapse after working too many hours, or doing anything physical, and constant bouts of colitis finally landed me at a rheumatologist who diagnosed me with Ankylosing Spondylitis and/or Rheumatoid Arthritis. I worked in a boom-and-bust mode. I w...

It has been a busy summer. In late June, my husband and I packed all our things, drugged our anxious Basset hounds Otto and Igor, and headed west. We drove from Chattanooga, TN to Camarillo, CA for our next big adventure. We decided to splurge on a bigger home than our tiny 1BR back in Chattanooga. We now live in a 3BR, 2.5BA townhome. We made the decision not just for size, but because the property is practically on campus at CSU Channel Islands and is only a half-mile walk to the library where I work. Additional bonuses include a two car garage, and being across the street from the dog walking and running trail. Coming home from errands, we drive through strawberry fields and a lemon/lime tree orchard. It is beautiful here in Southern California. It seems bizarre to live in a place where we don't allow the weather to dictate what we wear. In fact, we don't ask about the weather at all. It is always sunny and beautiful with azure skies. Always. Constant sunshine, friendly neig...

It has been a busy summer. In late June, my husband and I packed all our things, drugged our anxious Basset hounds Otto and Igor, and headed west. We drove from Chattanooga, TN to Camarillo, CA for our next big adventure. We decided to splurge on a bigger home than our tiny 1BR back in Chattanooga. We now live in a 3BR, 2.5BA townhome. We made the decision not just for size, but because the property is practically on campus at CSU Channel Islands and is only a half-mile walk to the library where I work. Additional bonuses include a two car garage, and being across the street from the dog walking and running trail. Coming home from errands, we drive through strawberry fields and a lemon/lime tree orchard. It is beautiful here in Southern California. It seems bizarre to live in a place where we don't allow the weather to dictate what we wear. In fact, we don't ask about the weather at all. It is always sunny and beautiful with azure skies. Always. Constant sunshine, friendly neig...

Changing lanes and speaking as a woman-librarian, and not just a librarian: I feel I can take care of myself. Years of working in customer service have honed my skills of talking folks down from anger and frustration. I'm not a small woman, and I consider myself more aggressive than most. I've taken numerous RAD classes for self-defense, and succeeded in defending myself again one attacker, then two. I went to the 54th largest high school in America  in an area still riddled with gang violence, drugs and crime, and managed to stay clean. I worked the second and third shift for a number of years, walking home in the dark, dodging requests for a light, and for other less savory things. I pack a mean right hook and I've got a nasty mouth learned from growing up in NY with a former sailor for a dad. I'm heavy and solid, you probably can't carry me away unless you've got some serious towing power. It takes a lot to rattle me. But I have been rattled. Years ago, I rep...

Changing lanes and speaking as a woman-librarian, and not just a librarian: I feel I can take care of myself. Years of working in customer service have honed my skills of talking folks down from anger and frustration. I'm not a small woman, and I consider myself more aggressive than most. I've taken numerous RAD classes for self-defense, and succeeded in defending myself again one attacker, then two. I went to the 54th largest high school in America  in an area still riddled with gang violence, drugs and crime, and managed to stay clean. I worked the second and third shift for a number of years, walking home in the dark, dodging requests for a light, and for other less savory things. I pack a mean right hook and I've got a nasty mouth learned from growing up in NY with a former sailor for a dad. I'm heavy and solid, you probably can't carry me away unless you've got some serious towing power. It takes a lot to rattle me. But I have been rattled. Years ago,...

The Friday of a long week, where I was ill and out of the office on Monday, taught some advanced research classes, and had more than my usual in research appointments. Aside from Monday, it was a bang-up week. A graduate level Education class has a rowdy and fun instruction session Tuesday night, and actively interested students populated the upper-level undergraduate History instruction session on Wednesday afternoon, despite the classroom being near-85 degrees. Yesterday's research appointment showed up on time, and left feeling empowered to find what she needed. Today's research appointment for a student studying linguistics went beyond well, fleshing out research strategies for two different research papers. Five minutes ago, the Political Science department just called to ask if I would spend some time with each of their candidates to talk about library services and resources. (I did this for them in their last search, and apparently got good reviews. Hooray for successful...

I've been working lately to redistribute my time to better fit my goals. This includes accounting for time for swimming and physical therapy (good for my joints), time for cooking (I feel much better having started a new restrictive diet), time for funning with my husband and hounds (good for my mental health and love life), time for good sleep, time for keeping up with the library instruction and pedagogical perspectives world now that I'm teaching again, and time for hobbies, which were the first things I dropped when time became scarce. This commitment to balance has had an interesting (but probably not surprising) effect: I engage in fewer activities, but I believe I do them to a better quality. (Transitioning to fewer but higher-quality activities is something my colleagues and friends have advocated for a few years now, I'm just a stubborn ass who refused to think I couldn't do-and-have everything I wanted. So, hat tip to those who are wiser, and a double-tip to ...