8 posts tagged “lists”

Roy Tennant wrote a list of "The Top Ten Things Library Administrators Should Know About Technology." What caught my eye on this were the items dealing more with people. Maybe it is because I am not a "techie" librarian like a lot of the celebrity libloggers are. Or maybe because I tend to think that your technology is only as good as the people you have running it. The idea of good people managing your library's technology has been on my mind lately, and if I was passing this on to my boss, I would especially highlight the following items from the list:

• "Maximize the effectiveness of your most costly technology investment -- your people." Mr. Tennant makes a good point about making sure you have good resources for your people. Don't bog them down with cheap or less than the best equipment. But I will also say to turn that equation around. Don't go around skimping on good people either. You need to hire good people to manage your technology. Just like library administrators have a specific skill set, which may or not include technological prowess, tech people also have a unique skill set, and it is one not all librarians or library staff have or desire to have (and I say this in terms of temperament, not unwillingness to learn). If you know you are going to need a good systems analyst or similar, hire one. Don't try to skimp by tossing the responsibility to another overworked professional in your library who may not have the full range of skills or the temperament to do it. And don't say "they can learn it" when you define "learning it" as just hand them a folder and hop to it. That's not right.
  
• "A major part of good technology implementation is good project management." Indeed. Again, this goes to the idea that everyone has different skills. It also goes back to the idea that you need good planning, and that you need to be proactive, not reactive. In other words, plan ahead and don't wait for the crisis to happen.
  
• "The single biggest threat to any technology project is political in nature." I think what Mr. Tennant wrote here pretty much speaks for itself. To administrators, he asks: "Are you willing to throw your political support behind it? Are you willing to invest the resources required to make it a success? Will you marshall the entire organization to support, promote, and use this new site or service? If not, simply don't bother." As I always say, put your money where your mouth is, otherwise, shut up. 

Anyhow, my quick two cents. I may add to this later, or probably just add it along to another post with a few other things about library managers.

I found this neat list a while back of "10 Things to Write in Your Notebook." It is exactly what it says: ten things you can use as writing topics for your notebook or journal (or blog). The commenters also add their own ideas, which means you get a bit more than ten ideas. Definitely a nice little list for when you get writer's blog.

Found at Life is a Journal.
 

This is the list of questions we used during the phone interview process for the reference librarian positions (entry level) that we are hiring at MPOW. I am typing them in the order from the sheet, and I am putting them here mostly for personal reference. If anyone out there finds them useful, feel free to use them. Any brackets added for clarification but not part of the questions originally.

The questions:

• What skills or experiences do you think you would bring to this position and why do you think they are pertinent?
  
• What is your definition of Reference? Why do you think reference is important?
  
• What are the most important developments in Reference you currently see taking place?
  
• What differences are there between undergraduate and graduate research?
  
• What technologies are you familiar with? How would you use these technologies with the responsibilities [of the job] as you understand them?
  
•  Describe an experience where you had to work together with others on a project. What strengths did you bring to this experience?
  
• Why does this position interest you?
  

After the first run, colleagues suggested adding the following, which were used somewhat consistently:

• Have you looked at the library's website? Any thoughts on it?
  
• How do you keep up/current with the profession and librarianship?
  

My workplace is participating in the September Project (ok, I have mostly dragged them into doing it, but that is a separate story). Anyhow, we had a film showing, with a decent turnout if you ask me considering some of the obstacles we had to overcome. And we made a book display related to learning about the world after 9/11. I also made a list of the books featured inside the display, which I posted to my workplace's blog. At any rate, there were some book titles that I would have liked to either feature on the display case or add to the book list that I did not put in for a few reasons. For one, we did not have the books in the library. Now ordinarily, that would not stop me. If I thought the book was important, and it was or else I would not be writing about it here, I could have just told people to get the book in question via Interlibrary Loan. Two, these are actually books that I have personally read. You would think that it would be appropriate to put them on the list since I have personally read them, and therefore, I can vouch for those books. In fact, for a couple of the titles I left out, I even blogged about them in my personal blog. So, it would have been perfect since I could have linked to those posts. However, the topic of September 11, not to mention Constitution Day, which is in September (and for which we are making displays as well), can be a bit volatile. Some of my book reviews have some opinions which may or not (ok, probably not) go along with the red conservative mindset predominant in the little East Texas town I work. Do I think people should be reading the books I left out? Absolutely. But in the end, I don't think it is worth it to make a fuss because one of two things could happen. One, someone will see the additional items, follow a link to a post of mine with a strong opinion, feel (easily) offended, then gripe to some administrator. Not that I give a hoot if they gripe or not, but I don't need my boss coming down on me asking questions. Not worth the hassle. Actually, that is the scenario I would like to happen. In reality, odds are good no one would notice, and it would be an effort for naught. Such is life. It's moments like this when I wish I could be back in an actual library instruction position so I could be working with students instead of trying to do PR work that a significant number of the campus population does not appreciate. But I disgress.

So, what did I leave out. Here they are, in no particular order. Title links go to the WorldCat record so you can find them at your local library or demand they get it for you:

• The Great Derangement: a terrifying true story of war, politics, and religion at the twilight of the American empire. I briefly wrote about it at The Itinerant Librarian here. I am sure that mentioning megachurches in a less than flattering light in this part of Texas would not go well in the library's official blog. And that is just one chapter of the book.
  
• Rogue State: A guide to the world's only superpower. I wrote about it at The Itinerant Librarian here. This is the book that made it to "Osama's Book Club." If you don't get the reference, it is explained in the post I linked. Somehow booktalking from "Osama's Book Club" is not as sexy as "Oprah's Book Club." Here is a bit of what I wrote in my personal blog back then: "In seriousness, I figured that if the great villain is reading something, I ought to take a look at it, so I did." Such a radical idea, huh?
  
• Crossing the Rubicon: the decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil. I wrote about it at The Itinerant Librarian here.
• Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror. I wrote about it at The Itinerant Librarian here.

And speaking of Osama, I happen to think that it could be a good idea to maybe read some of the things the guy along with Al Qaeda has said and/or written. On the display, I did feature the book Al Qaeda In Its Own Words. Not a bad choice, and for me, it was the only one we had in the library. However, I knew there were at least two others that we probably should have, but we currently do not. The two I would add are:

• What Does Al-Qaeda Want? Unedited Communiqués. I wrote about it on The Itinerant Librarian here. This is a pretty short book, with some commentary to the texts. I think it is a very accessible way to get a sense of what Al Qaeda wants. And no, they don't hate us for our freedoms; they may not like our freedoms and values, but they don't hate us for them. Then again, a lot of fundamentalists and dominionists in this country don't like our freedoms either, but let's not go there now. By the way, the post I linked also mentions a couple of other items I read that could fit on the reading list.
  
• Messages to the World: the Statements of Osama Bin Laden. I did not blog about this one, but I briefly reviewed in my GoodReads list (my GR profile is linked on the right column of this blog). Anyhow, a bit more comprehensive than the previous book.
  

One more thing I wanted to link to someplace are the excellent reading lists provided by the American Association of University Presses. Under their section "Books for Understanding," the AAUP provides excellent lists of books on various topics in the news and current events as well as civil rights.The thing that bummed me out, so to speak, is that I pulled their list on 9/11, and we lacked pretty much most of the titles. What little we did have was in the form of e-books, which is fine other than the fact that it makes them mostly inaccessible. I say that because offering a student an e-book on a topic is pretty much like pissing on their oatmeal, as the adage goes. Yes, I have had students basically say to me, "oh, you mean you don't have a real book?" I have my work cut out for me, but here we have seen fit to follow the trend of getting as much in electronic format as humanly possible (that's another story for another day). One or two may be ok with the idea (and distance students are mostly ok with it), but overall, students here want an actual book. Plus, I can't put an e-book in a display case. Anyhow, the "Books for Understanding" is an excellent resource I cannot recommend highly enough. Looking it over, if we add a couple other things, this by itself would not be a bad list. Just a thought.
  

I like some of the idea outlined in this list of "25 Ways Libraries Can Serve Book Groups." However, given that we are an academic library, and more importantly, that our ability to purchase books is pretty much next to non-existent, the ideas will have to remain at the conceptual level. I think with some modification, we could probably have a book group on campus now and then. I am not quite sure how to go about it, but I still like the idea enough to make a note of it. Maybe something for later.

A hat tip to Stephen's Lighthouse.

I came across this a while back. It is a list of "Ten Essential Homeland Security Books." Regardless of where you may stand politically or about the military operations in Iraq, you probably can learn a bit more by reading these books. The author, Christopher Bellavita, writing for the Homeland Security Affairs journal, gives a short review of each book to help us get a sense of what each book is about. For those who may be wondering, I have read two books on the list: The 9/11 Commission Report (in graphic novel form) and Imperial Hubris.I have also read the three basic documents at the end of the list, but I may want to look at them again. I think a lot of people should be reading those documents again.

A hat tip to the Resource Shelf.

I saw this a while back, and I love it. As a former college instructor, I heard all these excuses at one time or another. Professor Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, pretty much lays down the law in his list of "Top Ten No Sympathy Lines." His home page is here.

Some of my favorite replies include:

• "Leprechauns, unicorns, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, hobbits, orcs - and students who know the material but don't do well on exams. Mythical creatures."
  
• If they complain the course covered too much material: "Great! You got your money's worth! At over $100 a credit, you should complain about not getting a lot of information. If you take a three credit course and get $200 worth of information, you have a right to complain. If you get $500 worth, you got a bargain."
  

It is a great list, so go take a look.

I am always looking for any prompts and ideas to help me with my writing. Liz Strauss, of the Successful Blog, has posted a small list of questions as part of her post on "Writer's Block: Unblanking the Blank Screen." The questions she provides are:

1. What something have I learned or learned about lately?
2. What news have I heard that I’d enjoy adding my point of view to?
3. What have I read that I might want to recommend?
4. What pithy comment was left on my blog this week? How might I respond?
5. What pattern, behavior, trend have I noticed?
6. What question do I have that I want answered?
7. What skill or a technique might I teach?
8. What argument might I give the pro/con to?
9. What lesson have I learned this week? What funny story can I share?
10. What pet peeve or problem have I got a solution to?

I think I will find these useful when I am running a little low on ideas and steam.