The Accidental Bloggist

Yesterday’s presentation at the KPM Symposium seemed to go well enough.   As the other speaker said afterward, “no one booed or threw paper clips at us.”    I suppose we will wait to read the comments and decide what to do about OLA in April.   It would probably be a wise move as I expand my professional experiences.

SNAP!!!   IT WAS AWESOME AND I LOVED IT!     oh.  I mean to say that it was adequate in meeting my needs and expectations…. 

a snippet in today’s Tulsa World from the “Stems & Pieces” column, page G6, asks “Is there any job on Earth less stressful than librarian? What do they have to worry about?  Someone whispering too loudly in the non-fiction stacks?”       

Yeah.  good one.  ha ha.   I’ll tell you what some of us worry about on a day-to-day basis.  

Students who can’t read very well but whose parents refuse to help with homework, dropping kids off at the library for a combination of free tutoring and babysitting: we worry about these kids on all kinds of levels.

People who have just been told that they – or their loved ones – have Cancer, informed by a doctor who sent them off with a pamphlet and a referral: we worry about these fragile human beings who have no idea how to find reliable information on health care.

Adults who are returning to the classroom after a long respite and were given little or no instructions about how to access all the online information that will mean the difference between their success and failure - toward an effort in which they’ve invested something to the tune of at least $10,000:  we worry about these people who have so much riding on their visit to the library.

People who need help finding the right tax form, help with research for a term paper, help with that song that they can’t quite remember but it means so much to their anniversary planning, help in locating the exact wording of a city ordinance that will allow an apartment building to go up on their adjoining property, help with finding their birth mother or father, help with filling out an online job application because they’ve never used a computer in their lives:  we worry about them every day.  

Today in the Tulsa World, the snippet that appeared above this snippy little remark states that the writer is ”loving” Former Gov. Frank Keating for making remarks “referr[ing] to teachers as ’slugs,’ and jokingly declar[ing] that ‘homicide’ was the best way to deal with their union…”   Presumably the writer’s anticipation stems from the joy it brings when exposing this level of idiocy.    How Ironic Is That?   

We are teachers in the library.  Every day, we teach people the skills to find information that is critical to their lives.  Like many other educators, our funding is being slashed, our membership must deal with increasingly complex and stressful situations brought on by a nation in the grip of a recession, our infrastructure is being pushed to the limit –  all the while our validity is being questioned.   Add to that the fact that we are all human.  Experiencing the same stress of dealing with our coworkers, managers, and customers.   $6000 a year for counselling in a company that employs hundreds of workers in over 25 locations across Tulsa County sounds like a bargain to me.

Is there any job LESS stressful than librarian?   How about ”irresponsible, uninformed, and flippant writer” in the Tulsa World?

for 5990 this week, our assignment is to blog about “connection technology” readings.  my response to chapter 3 was a hearty “wish I’d read this before attempting the first assignment.”   I didn’t know what I was talking about at all - ”Blade Server” sounds like a slasher / vampire film to me – I was just doing my best to sound confident.  hope it is ok to say that now that the grade is posted.  =]

Chapter 4 was ok at first: Krol’s analogy comparing packet switching to mailing a letter was great.   Long about page 39 and IP addressing conventions though, I felt my brain getting numb.    TTL, TCP, UDP, ICMP, 2 to the 32 power of the 16th million zzzzzzzz I was asleep by page 42 and did not wake up until the next intelligible sentence on page 52, “the overall result is that routers use this simple Boolean approach….”    BOOLEAN!   I know that!!   “simple” and Boolean in the same sentence!   I was so excited that I stayed awake to the bottom of that page, but must have drifted off again – don’t remember much until the ping! on page 58 and my favorite word “Summary”

I’m sure all this sticks in one’s head eventually – especially if one enjoys it and thinks it will be useful.   it’s good information I guess, but in every academic library in which I’ve worked, we had absolutely no authority to do anything with the computers.   The IT department locks down the system with administrative passwords and we had to ask them to do everything for us.    Everything.    As in the latest update to Adobe reader that allowed us to download articles.   or Flash player.    the simplest most innocuous things, we still had to wait until IT arrived in their blazing chariots of passworded fire.   It may change, or it may be different where you work.    but if you have an IT department that gets paid 3 times the salary of the head librarian to come flip that little switch or supply that administrative password, I doubt it.

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in the sixteenth century, a quiet, studious monk by the name of Martin Luther rocked the foundations of Christendom.   In pointing out the futility of buying indulgences for the remission of sins (and the greed behind selling them), he forever changed the way Christians looked upon their relationship with God and Church.

It was the end of the world as we knew it.

Erasmus, the apologist for the other side, did not so much overcome Luther’s arguments - rather, he pointed out the effect that such conclusions would have upon the body of the faithful.   if salvation is a matter of justification by faith alone, then no one need “do” anything.   as in “go to church” at all.   and if no one needs go, then no one needs tithe.   get it?

Mother Church was a little more blunt.   shut the hell up Martin or the royal We will kill you.  Do not ask Us to put your Faith to the Test.   Yet, there he stood because he could do no other.

Rome went nuts.   First, they tried to censure the renegade.   It didn’t work.  Much to their horror, his teachings gained ground.   Quick!  Counter-Reformation!   Adapt or Die!    we hate them, they hate us, we’re right, they’re wrong.   war, revolution, pestilence, plague, pox, and posturing.   Gee whiz, it’s like every day was an election year.  

centuries of bitter rivalry later…  lo and behold, both Catholic and Protestant Churches survive.  One did not replace the other.   it turns out not to be so much a matter of “either/or” as “different strokes.”    apparently there are enough people in the world (over a billion Catholics and some 71 million Lutherans alone) to support both. 

Computers and the internet appeared in the late 20th century.    tentative at first – saying “uhmm, I think there’s a better way to handle card catalogs…”  Then came Google for looking things up, Apple for making things fancy, and Amazon for selling things cheap and delivering them right to your door.  Schism!  then everything must be going digital!!   Library meltdown!!!!  The demise of our print collection is at hand - so we will be justified by electronics alone.  Bring out your dead!  We’ll throw those unbelievers on a pyre of their burning, useless contagion of books.   It’s Us against Them.  And oh boy is it ever going to get really really toasty for Them! 

Luther’s arguments were taken to their logical conclusion by Calvin – if it’s “faith” alone, then actions intended to impress or appease God, are useless “works” - THAT sure blew open a can of Worms.   can’t I pray for my children like Augustine’s mother, or is that just wasted breath?   How about works of charity for the least of my brothers and sisters in the name of “you did it for Me?”  

not according to Calvin.   Heaven is not a work-release program.   you’re saved or you’re not.   there’s nothing you can do.   How does that sit with a rational human being?    More to the point, how does it feel?   Because logically, there is no way around it.

Erasmus hinted at the obvious difficulty that such a premise presents to a priest – or to any person of faith.  Ora et Labora.  Luther spluttered a bit in his later writings, but ultimately he had no compromise that could embrace human participation in personal salvation.   Prayer, worship, acts of charity, confession of sins, penance, the virtue of simple kindness in the name of Jesus - all are works.  Taking Luther’s cue, Calvin embraced a more honest, but brutally fatalistic doctrine of total depravity.   so there’s no point in any of it really…. even living it out is sort of a waste of God’s time.   

eeeeeuuuwwww.   Calvin’s was a stark and cold interpretation that still leaves too bitter a taste in the mouths of many believers (including me, along with the grape juice in those little cups they use instead of a good shot of red Merlot).  obviously Mater Church didn’t die.    it turned out that there are many mansions after all.  

yes, in some ways it’s the end of the library world as we know it.   we can’t just close our eyes and build towers of paper to block out the piercing electronic light.   but we don’t have to offer a requiem for print as a constant dirge either.   in fact, Erasmus might point out how ultimately nihilistic it is for a Librarian to do so.  

Many (if not most) of my fellow students bemoan the fact that everything is going digital and how much they hate that because they love books and going to the library.   but, since it’s the logical end to this…. these statements usually end with a little sniffle or sigh of resignation.  O Ye of little faith!    If you think you have come to bury a dying institution, then please walk away so the rest of us can tidy up the place before people get here.   Go get an IT degree.   And stop beating your breast with that book, rending the paper journals, and scourging yourselves with the bookmarks!   

After all, where is the dignity in that?

First, this link to the tool produced by the Grandaddy of all consortia libraria:  OCLC.   they have digital library products and services – at what I would imagine is a pretty hefty fee - but they are at the heart of every other library function and why not.   no really.   why not.  anyway, as such, their DC software would get my nod since one never knows when other products are going to die and take everything with them.   http://www.oclc.org/us/en/services/collection/default.htm

Reference #2:  an article by Edmund Balnaves that addresses some of the issues (and validates my uncertainties if my suggestion # 1 is not followed).   products with strong histories of functionality and continued tech support are fundamental when creating organizational strategy:  http://llc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/20/4/399?ijkey=O6OAxJKjGAx8aTh&keytype=ref

#3 - in the spirit of seeing both sides, this article neatly answers my first question and makes me think anybody can do this.   the flow charts are amazing.   I feel more reassured that Dublin Core would seem to be the metadata of choice for all this, no matter what platform, right?   I still would not want to trust my whole library’s IR to my ability to do this myself.   http://www.wrlc.org/dcpc/dcmspaper/

#4 -  omg a PowerPoint!!   love those bulleted lists and flow chart.   Tom Ceresini of Palinet makes life easy…   or not.    http://www.palinet.org/media/2007conferencepresentations/2007DigitalCollectionManagementSystems.pdf

#5 = this next article may be dated, but this is about the speed at which most real libraries keep up with the technology – in fact, this is downright progressive if not futuristic compared to local instititions I’ve worked in lately.   Librarians!   put on your sci-fi goggles and peek into the future.   or not… http://www.stsci.edu/stsci/meetings/lisa3/grothkopfu1.html

# 6 – Copyright.   my favorite topic and I love this site, although I’ve not made my way through it all.  I warn you, take a piece of thread into it, because it goes for miles under the surface.   Georgia Harper is a Texas woman who sets out some legal issues with a delightful touch of pepper sauce.   Intellegent, witty, and USEFUL.   why do we have copyright?   why should we care?   Georgia, tell it!  http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/image.htm

# 7 -  since I have a forthcoming post on the “death of print,” I want to include this link to a speech presented by Dan Okrent, editor of Time magazine.  I will be taking the opposite view, not that it matters in the face of pretty much every other comment I’ve read lately on the topic.  but, given the content, I hope ya’ll appreciate the irony of an oral message, transcribed through conventions of print medium, and published in a digital journal.  in terms of Homer and linear B, what does this really say….  http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0002/okrent.htm

# 8 – digital bookmoblie?    open source gone native, leave it to those radical militant librarians to take it to the next level: http://www.digitalbookmobile.com/  

# 9 -  so now that there is electronic bookmobile, wouldn’t it be nice if there were just a list of digital books floating around out there in the datasphere?    some kind of locator - that flows over the boundaries of Gutenberg and Google.   yes, confirmed DCists, behold!   http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/

and for #10 – there are several Sudoko sites, but this one keeps archives and provides a forum for enthusists.   there is even a puzzle-solver that you can set up to solve step-by-step if you are stuck and want a teeny little boost (which I would call “cheating” if I hadn’t used it once or twice).   the daily puzzles can be printed or completed electronically and submitted for competition.   go on.   have yourself a little fun…  http://www.sudoku.org.uk/