Hmm.. a thought from Carl Grant’s commentary
Well yes I am updating this blog, that has not been updated since last spring, but as I read from my list of Google Readers, I noted that miss_tinamarie shared this, and was interested to say nonetheless, this was on something she shared a while ago from Stephan’s Lighthouse on commentary from Carl Grant about an article on the future of academic librarianship in this changing technological world.
The article features an article I have heard last year at ACRL/NY, where the topic was brought forth on how paper-noted is librarians on being heard. This brings forth the idea on what exactly makes a published author or not. Still with the issues I see, myself included that writing is such a scary process, it makes it more difficult to want to write just about one subject when there are so many more interesting things.
Yes I do believe that librarians don’t add content to what information is out there, but information is ever changing, and from the headaches I have – yes there is too much to try and disseminate. Still whenever I think about writing, my heart gives a thump, and I want to be able to let my voice be published eventually.. now if I can work on my grammar, that would be a better thing.
Updates – Personal and Professionally.. April Update
Well of all my blogs this is the one that I update the most infrequently, that should change one of these months, give or take.
I am right now doing several things at once – I am on Spring Break from my part time job as an adjunct Librarian in the Community College I work at.
Preparing to take the GRE next week, as well as preparing for a short trip to Japan next month. Also going to the Book Expo next month, so preparing for that at the moment.
Also in the midst of all this, preparing for graduate enrollment at Hunter for Spring 2010. Hoping to being in Fall 2009 as a non-marticulated stuent, but who knows how it would turn out.
Research – any solution on portablilty?
Research, something I find myself surrounded by. I like to read about new things, and prefer to save .pdf vesrsions from the databases I can seach through, but what about moments when you’re on the road or in my case, the train. I can’t always heft around my laptopn, and have been searching for that solution to save my eyesight.
The better idea is to covert everything to using those ereading devices from Amazon or Sony, but those can be considered frivious purchases, that I actually see some reveiws, as saying – that paper is much better.
Currently as a adjunct, my supervisor tasked me to learning as much as I can about instutiional repostitories. Another is for personal reasons, but it is community college, and reference with technology.
So now kinda stressing over the fact that I have to try and read as much pdfs on. How should one feel when confronted with this much pdfs to read. I will probably secumb to the lure of purcahsing an ereader one of these days.. but it is so aggravating to try and save toner, paper, weight, and space. I doubt my desk can hodl up all the paper I want to print.
Book Reviewing and Benefits, even if it often work with no pay…
As a new librarian, reading book reviews is one way to boost your knowledge quickly in terms of being a Public or Acquisition librarian who knows all that is out there.That is my belief. Hence the extravagant pricing for subscriptions to PW, Booklist, Choice, or Library Journal. It takes a lot of work, love for reading, headaches to read an amount of books, and then produce a book review.
If you are reading the established publications, that I mentioned. You will notice some characteristics, length of the review, and/or what type of agenda is the review trying to push. Is it pushing you to purchase the book, or saying that it is a book to avoid? One thing I notice is often how neutral the reviews are. This is formal writing, but once you get on the net – there are many places with reviews that would be a personal touch.
Nowadays – with web 2.0, everyone should be able to share reviews right? But what would happen if you join up with a group.. isn’t that neat then? There is some unity in writing within a group, other writers – that may read something and then review it, would it be books that you yourself eventually read – or would you read the book yourself and then write a review that would go alongside that other book review?
I would say, sure it is neat. As a reviewer for J LHLS, I find msyself being compelled to asssit, any way that I can. Because as a librarian – the feeling to refer other people to books – is interesting. The ease of writing reviews, makes a person more familair with writing for publication, while the nerves to write good reviews may not go away any time soon. I truly enjoy the benefits to reading various types of books, that I can get to keep after I am done with the review. I actually don’t think I can comfortably jump into reading a book, without a review or a recommnedation anymore..
E-publishing vs. Publishing- Which better as a news source?
Happy MLK Day….for those that get a day off.
One of the things as a new librarian at this time, you would see is the abundance of information via print or electronic source materials.
Personally I get surrounded by news from the print and electronic – in deals with library publications. In terms of electronic news, I get to read tons and tons of it from my Google Reader, while in print I have subscriptions to Library Journal and American Libraries.
Still which is the more pertinent information source?
Getting surrounded by all these infromation pools, can lead to moments of information overload, which I personally get a lot of…. but then how would you, as a library professional handle the input of all the news?
Twitter vs. Plurk – a brief reflection
Well I cross posted this from my hobby blog, since I want to be able to target different audiences with this reflection.
vs. 
These stamp images are courtesy of SirCrocodile and Quarksbar on Deviant Art.
Just as the title said, I am procrastinating on the studying that is needed to be down for my XML class, and my book reviewer life.. but I was reading this from Hynavian‘s blog, and it kinda inspired me to write a little on this topic.
Now as a reflection angle.
I really like twitter though, and I can say that the people I follow, or who are following me… can fall into two categories – one are anime fans like I am – Gia, Omo, Hinano, JP, Jlist, and another group are fellow librarians, Jill Ken, kgs, Bill, Rebecca …. so as a professional angle… I try to strive forth….I earnestly believe that blogging is paving the way for computer social connections…after all my MLS project was a survey on librarians who blog.
My criteria for friending on Twitter is quite broad, and as long as I can connect with you, then I’ll follow you back. I am trying to use Twitter, as a social tool as well…I twitter a lot.. well not as much as other Twitters I read, but I am getting there… currently 929 updates…
Because there are so many competitions out there, trying to conquer the micro blogging space (FaceBook vs. MySpace, PC vs. Apple… you get the picture…!) I realize that there is another social micro blogging networking that is out there… Plurk, and this is another seemingly cool social networking.. thingy. I have actually signed up with Plurk as well, so each their social niche.. so far I am testing the waters of Plurk, so who knows.. I squatted down on Plurk, so that my normal user name, will not be taken.. animemiz or anime_miz… hmm.. still…. I believe that twitter has a lead over Plurk, but as time will go on, and see how easy Plurk can do it for me… perhaps I will also adjust to using Plurk as as well as Twitter… so don’t hesitate and jump onto the micro blogging like I did. By no means am I abandoning my blogs, it just seem easier to connect and give quick thoughts on Twitter… (although there are moments when I stick my foot in my mouth far too often… but this is something I am trying to work upon…)
Here are actually additional links for reading up on the debate on Plurk vs. Twitter..
ACRL NY’s Publish or Perish Presentation
I was able to attend an informal presentation on the Publish or Perishing ideal for librarians at the Brooklyn campus’s Long Island University. It was a short trip for me to go to the LIU, so I was surprised when I found out that it was for free to library students. I quickly rsvp for it and I spent three hours listening to about four different presentations, made by some cool librarians.
These are some things that I learned today… so a nutshell and recap…
- Fiction writing can be considered as a venue of publishing.
- The area of written research of librarians who write outside of the LIS field is heavily under researched.
- Starting small is actually not such a bad idea.
- That there is a Meet up group for NY Librarians.
- Posters board presentations can lead to articles.
- Jayne Ann Krentz might have a librarian background…. or at least she is sensitive to the ideas of librarianship.
Publishing is a life’s goal of mine, so I am sure that I will see these librarians again… now I need to roll up my sleeves and take more of a proactive approach to writing for the NRMT VOICE!
For more information, and as a plug, here’s a link to their wordpress.. There are handouts, and presentation links there, because as an effort to be green.. no paper was distributed at the presentation.
