since i try not to schedule meetings on mondays, my tuesdays tend to have at least two of them. i think i run fairly productive meetings. i always have an agenda, take minutes, and rarely go over time by more than a few minutes. i’m also a big believer in only having meetings when there’s something to discuss – i’m not a fan of the standing meeting. but then, i don’t run every meeting at mpow.
these meetings had to do with sorting through work needing to be finished by the digitization team. my ABSOFRICKINLUTELY amazing programmer has created a database that queries both our catalogue and Sherpa/Romeo while tracking the process of depositing items into our IR. it is a thing of beauty and when we’re done testing it i’ll tell you more about it.
i also met with my direct supervisor to update her on the the past month and to sort out priorities for now until may 31 (end of fiscal year, chez moi). we’re going to focus on our new “on demand” service – printing on demand and digitizing on demand. (will post more about those when they go live.)
over lunch i rewatched larry lessig’s talk about copyright in higher education – cuz sometimes librarians need to be reminded that they ARE fighting the good fight. also, i’m a huge fangirl of his, so watching a talk is never “work”. while watching larry, i took my first stab at a packing list for my trip, based loosely off of jessamyn’s (i know i talked about her in the last post. deal.)
other stuff done during the day:
realizing that we need to get better support from a hardware vendor, and trying to figure out the best way to get what we need. they are a new company, and have great customer service, but they’re still growing so only just now figuring out all the demands of their users.
answered a survey sent out by a library considering using one of our products, to help them make the decision.
came to terms with the fact that my office is a berloody mess and i really need to do something about it before i lose my mind. note: this will probably be repeated in #libday5.
thought about downloading some reading material for my travels tomorrow, but then realized that because i use zotero, i had all the PDFs/screenshots with me already. in my world, zotero = productivity.
once home, worked for another few hours finishing up emails and letting folks now that i wouldn’t be back in the office until next monday.
finally fell asleep around 2am. i was restless thinking about going to the SLA Leadership Summit and seeing some great friends (who i only see at conferences due to geographical shenanigans, but who i talk to daily.) also, St Louis has ribs and blues bars. sweet.
wednesday to sunday
i’m at the SLA Leadership Summit in St Louis, MO.
i decided to come because i’m the Communications & Social Media Chair for both the IT and Academic divisions. being on the advisory boards means getting to help plan future directions for the divisions, which is interesting because i get some insight into the organization.
the leadership summit is very different from the annual conference. there are only about 250 people who attend leadership. they are all on chapter or division boards and are really the folks responsible for implementing and “living” SLA. thanks to the tiny size, it’s dead easy to meet folks.
leadership is also different because the summit is about developing the leadership capabilities of the attendees. we skillshare on topics like recruitment & retention. board meetings look at programming for the annual conference. the invited keynote is always someone that has an interesting take on organizations and how best they can serve their members. essentially, it’s about developing SLA leaders (both those who are appointed to boards, and those who self-identify as leaders) to ensure the association can respond to its membership.
this was my first leadership summit and on the whole i found it a good experience. it was great to hear what other folks have planned for the annual conference in New Orleans. it was interesting to hear about, and then really think about, the concept of loyalty when it comes to large organizations, and even further, what this means in academic libraryland.
and of course, SLA events are made for networking. some people i know i will only see at SLA events, and i’m always eager to catch up with them. the LSW had a sizable cohort at leadership, so much so that there was talk of having an LSW caucus – if only to have some beer money for the meetups at annual!
i’ve been a part of a number of library organizations since first starting library school – SLA, CLA, ALA, QLA, LSW – and to be honest, SLA has helped me the most in terms of growing into a professional. [i don't want to sound like a shill, because this is all very sincere.]
for any LIS students reading this, think about the associations to which you belong (and if you don’t belong to any, you are missing out on a crazy opportunity to network and gain insight – especially since students dues are usually insanely cheap) and be sure the association is working for you. can you find mentors? are there free resources available to you? are there scholarships available to cover your expenses to the annual conference? library schools can only do so much – becoming an information professional is all about being resourceful, both in terms of finding answers to questions, and seeking out opportunities for yourself.
to students who complain that their school “does nothing” for them, i say two things:
that sucks. a lot of us have been there. it’s frustrating.
do something about it. host a conference (those who are “big names” inlibrary-land love talking to students and will come to your school in the middle of the winter when it’s crazycold out and speak because they love LIS students). join the local chapter of whatever association seems to be the best fit. hop online and join in the discussion about libraryland (and no, I DO NOT MEAN NEWLIB-L.) reach out to info pros in your area that have jobs you want, and take them for a coffee to pick their brains. whatever you do, do not expect someone to do this for you. it’s your career – own it.
yesterday was a long day. all-in-all it was about 10 hours in my office. that’s not really normal for me, but i definitely do more than 9 to 5 (’sokay for now – i’m such a keener right now i scare myself).
i try not to have any meetings at all on mondays. so far this has been pretty successful, and it means i get the time to sort out my week while drinking lots of coffee.
so here is, roughly in chronological order, what i did.
laptop was all kinds of crashy over the weekend so got in and talked to the tech guys to see what can be done. (not much, it seems. i have a lemon.)
trudged through the email that came in over the weekend, tagging stuff for follow-up. i really do need to implement a GTD system because my inbox is a disaster.
i’m currently taking a course on Canadian copyright so i got this week’s lesson and realized i hadn’t finished last week’s assignment. nurts.
fought with the university’s personnel software trying to mark down some staff absences from last week. realized i don’t have permissions yet, so sent emails to rectify that.
dealt with some rush ILL requests to digitize some theses.
looked at a quote we gave a campus group for digitizing some archival photos. made a note to talk to the group about creative commons licenses for the photos.
the superfun bobbi newman is running “library day in the life” for the fourth year.
i signed up to do this for round 3, but i was in the midst of changing jobs, so i really didn’t have a “day in the life” at that point – especially since one day involved packing & moving my office.
i also signed up for round 2, but realized i didn’t have a “day in the life” yet either, since i had only been a librarian for 5 months and some days involved minutiae that new librarians need to learn, but aren’t really part of your job (like, which rooms you have to teach in have wifi access when there’s no list anywhere…)
so this round, i’m in. i’ll be travelling to st louis 1/2 way through the week for the SLA Leadership Summit, and the first 2 days of the week will be used to catch up with my boss who has been on vacation for 2 weeks, but – that such is the life of a librarian, there is no “regular” week to show folks. which i guess is why bobbi planned this whole thing in the first place. *lightbulb moment*
i’m currently taking a course to familiarize myself with copyright since so much of my day involves depositing work in the IR, digitizing & printing rare texts, and publishing scholarly journals.
i was a freshly-minted librarian and very excited to be at the conference (presenting no less!). i was terribly nervous to meet (or “meat” as i like to call it when i finally get to shake hands/hug someone who i have a friendship with online) a lot of attendees, but not Cliff. when i finally met him, it was all easy-peasy lemonsqueezy in our chit chat – as though we bump into each other doing groceries every week.
i couldn’t quite figure out why it was like that, until just this week, when Cliff went and decided that he would raise 20,000$ for Haiti, with 10,000$ from his own pocket. this is the thing about Cliff: he is one of the most caring individuals i have ever met. i wasn’t nervous meeting him because i knew that he genuinely cared about his friends, online and in meatspace, so i didn’t need to worry about impressions, etc.
i’m writing this post for two reasons:
the earthquake in Haiti has devastated a country which has always needed more help from the international community (and i’m not going to get in the discussion about why i am frequently disappointed that it takes a natural disaster to wake folks up). i’ve been trying to figure out how to help, and the best way at the moment seems to be to give to Red Cross or MSF or Partners in Health, because money gets things done quicker. if you are in a position to give some money, please consider that.
everyone should know about Cliff’s generosity and the fact that the man doesn’t sit around wondering what to do, but instead goes ahead and does it.
as a sidenote, if you ever have the chance to meet Cliff at a conference, DO IT.
update
Cliff met his goal of raising 20,000$ in THREE DAYS.
amazing.
given that my new gig at mcgill revolves around scholarly communication, copyright is something i deal with on a daily basis.
for the record, i believe:
copyright is important and artists should have their works protected so they can make a living
[speaking as a scholarly communication chica] university presses help authors make the best of their work, through peer-review, copy-editing, and layout (check out MQUP’s books – attractive scholarly texts? NOT kookytalk!)
copyright law in canada (and the u.s. since i hear about that regularly as well) is in need of a kick-inna-pants because it is no longer protecting culture but inhibiting it
a lot of scholarly presses are burrowing their heads in the sand in lieu of evaluating their business models
larry lessig (he of creative commons) gave a talk at educause this year, and not only is it one of his best talks, but it looks at the issue of copyright in an academic milieu – something which (i agree) needs re-evaluation.
i love dares. doing scary things (hello battledecks…) is fun.
University of Toronto library students seem to like dares as well – and have taken it to the next level by publicly documenting their dare in order to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa.
the dare? take photos of strangers holding a honkin’ huge “i <3 librarians” sign. the flickr stream is filled with great pix.
guerilla marketing for a good cause.
the past few weeks have been, cover your ears kids cuz i’m about to cuss, batshit crazy in libraryland.
i’m done with it.
all of it.
if you don’t have something constructive to say, something that is looking to FIX problems out there, get out tha way.
personal attacks, anonymous attacks, and, well, attacks in general, just create some serious infighting in a profession with WAY MORE IMPORTANT things to worry about.
to the folks in libraryland who have had a rough coupla weeks, THANK YOU.
haters will always have blogs. drama llamas will always figure out a way to snark.
but please know that many of us think you rock.
(and remember, there’s always PS22 goodness available 24/7 thanks to the intertubes.)
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