37 posts tagged “work notes”

I am honestly not sure what to make of this. This webinar, "'Big Challenges (and Opportunities) for Academic Libraries" (see the link here for some details) was something our director pretty much made us watch recently. I honestly expected a lot more given that a reason our director was making us watch it was as a prelude to upcoming work on strategic planning. I was not impressed by the content, and at times I found it a little condescending. Some of the (supposedly) revolutionary ideas they presented were things we have been doing already for years. Even when the boss managed to get through on the phone line to ask a question, asking the "now what?" (after we have done all that) question, we did not get a clear answer. The article by Walton (see citation below), which was the basis of the seminar, was not that much better.

One of my colleagues, who is a recent hire, commented that much of the presentation and article was a "fear" presentation, namely one of those gloom and doom presentations where they speculate about the fall of the library. And there is enough in the article to show that a lot of administrators, including Walton, contrary to his claims, who would not miss the library as we know it were it close tomorrow. Walton may claim he is in touch with libraries, but he is a consortium administrator. He has not been in the trenches for a while. So when he asks a question such as "is a great academic library based primarily in a great collection?" then answers that access is more important than ownership and does not address materials other than to reduce books and print, I have to wonder. Because where I currently work, there is nothing more embarrassing than having a student ask if we have books on X topic only to have to turn them away because we either do not have them (a very likely scenario for certain topics) or we have it as an e-book, in which case they look at you as if you just insulted their parentage (this happens fairly often too, and it will likely keep on happening as we increase electronic holdings in favor of print. Not a choice I really agree with, but I don't make that decision). Walton seems to agree with the assessment from other administrators that "books, except entertainment reading, were eventually going away" (page 90 in the article).And this is just one example. There is a lot in this presentation that seems alarmist and at times a bit overgeneralizing.

For the McCombs segment of the presentation, I just wanted to go down her list and say, "we do that, we do that, we do that other thing, that thing over there did not work," so on. I found it to be nothing more than restatements of the obvious. Allow to use some examples (quotations are from her presentation):
 

• "Created the 24/7 experience." This has been suggested in our campus a few times. It is just not going to happen. Unless there is a major hiring spree of extra staff to keep the library open, security to keep it safe, additional measures to lock down parts of the building, and so on, not happening. Those things cost money for one (something that McCombs did not mention anywhere in the presentation), and while some members of our administration like the idea (mostly because they do not have to stay late hours), in reality, they are not about to cough up funds or resources to make it happen. We don't do this literally, but we get close given our hours, plus the many resources on our website that are online 24/7.
  
• "Develop specific and unique connections with student life." This is one of the reasons my position was created: Outreach Librarian. I am constantly seeking ways to develop those specific and unique connections with student life. From maintaining relationships with campus groups and students to implementing, administering, and maintaining most of the library's 2.0 initiatives, I can say we do that already. Tell me what's next, don't just tell me something I know already. Yes, we do that.
  
• "Seen as innovative technology leaders." It must be nice when your campus (SMU in her case) has the resources to build an information commons or a student multimedia center. We barely managed to convert a conference room into a small practice presentation room for students to use. With significant effort and push by our instruction librarian, we finally got a hands-on teaching classroom for library instruction, a room that we do have to share with at least two other campus organizations (instructional design and interactive television) as part of the Faustian deal. And we had to fight for those things pretty much every step of the way, and let's not even add that the library has no control over a substantial amount of its space. We are working on this, but not easy.
  
• "Strong faculty support." With a few exceptions, this is pretty much non-existent. And it is not for a lack of effort on our part. Our director has put a lot of thought and effort into implementing a librarian liaison program for academic departments. Our librarians strive to work with faculty to meet their needs in various ways, and very often, we are met with derision, indifference (which seems to be the attitude of choice), and/or insults (I have been called incompetent a few times by them, for instance). When I hear that "strong faculty support" is some panacea, I just want to know how do you overcome their overall disrespectful attitudes for openers. Don't just tell me you need to have "strong faculty support." Give me specific steps to build it, or how to work around things when it is lacking. Not everyone works in the same utopian campus where faculty all fawn over the library. Lacking, but to be honest, not our fault.
  
• "Close relationship with central technology support services." Considering that we cannot even get our campus IT people to even make a phone call when they are doing some upgrade to the network or computer systems, I don't think this one is coming any time soon either. I could go on and rant about the many ways IT treats the library as an after thought or a bother, but I have more I need to write about. Lacking, but again, not our fault (communication and common courtesy are a two-way street. This is another thing that I often do not hear from many of these bright-eyed speakers).
  
• "Special Collections involved with faculty for both programming and research support." Our Archivist has been hard at work at this, considering that she has pretty much had to build Special Collections and Archives from the ground up. I think this recent success of hers illustrates very well how our archives department is involved. Yes, we do that.
  
• "Connections with the administrative community." To an extent, this is part of my job as well since I do a lot of the PR work for the library, so I strive to keep the administrative community informed. Our director spends a lot of time working with administrators as well. Yes, we do that.  
• "Do not shy away from the big assignments." Oh really? Our librarians work on various campus committees, and we have done work in things as big as accreditation. A few of the librarians, including myself, were on various committees dealing with the accreditation process. Yes, we do that. 
• "Volunteer." Yes. We do that too. 
• "Create networks of advocacy." Again, part of my job for one, especially in dealing with students. Something our instruction librarian does with her students. Something the archivist does with potential clients, faculty, and campus. So does our director. Yes, we do that. 
• "Be available to represent the university in any number of forums." To the extent this is possible, yes, we do that. 
• "DO NOT WHINE." I may vent, but I do not whine. I, along with colleagues, put my money where my mouth is. I just wish others would do the same. Expressing frustration over a lack that, more often than not, you have no control over, is not whining. Give me your resources, your information commons, and your very supportive faculty, and I will build you castles. I can only work with what I have. Yes, we do (or not do) this too. 

There are other items in McCombs list, but there is only so much I can take of the condescending tone, the underlying attitude that if you are not doing those things, then there must be something wrong with our library, or you fall short somehow. I can attest the ways we literally bust our behinds to serve our academic community with little resources, often with ungrateful support (if any), and we still get very positive reviews on things like LibQual+. So please, tell me something new. Oh, and for the love of your sky fairy of choice, we are not Starbucks (no matter how many coffee shops you want to replace libraries).

Even Mendoza, who represented a community college, did not tell me much new, and she added to the alarmist tone. Her presentation in terms of suggestions was pretty much fairly similar to McCombs.

So again, I am not sure what to make of this. Maybe I am just not the audience for this presentation since I happen to be pretty well read when it comes to the LIS literature as well as being familiar with the various reports cited like ECAR and OCLC. In this day and age, are there really libraries out there that need to be told this kind of thing? In a way, this was not too different than the times when my school district, back in the days when I was a school teacher, decided to have some teacher in-service day and inflict some "motivational" speaker (who very often had not been in a classroom for ages or not at all) to come tell us how to run our classrooms. So much for change. 

Anyhow, my two cents for what little they may be worth.

Oh, almost forgot, the citation for Walton's article:

Walton, Robert, "'Big' Challenges (and Opportunities) for Academic Libraries." Texas Library Journal (Fall 2009): 88-90.

Update note (10/29/09): Here is a link to the Jim Neal "New Directions" (link to YouTube video) speech that is mentioned in the webinar. Unless you are really curious, don't bother. It's an almost hour and half soporific presentation by an administrator from a large campus (read very well funded) telling the rest of us (who are nowhere near as well funded) what to do. I inflicted it on myself, and I could certainly write a whole post just replying to it, but to be honest, I am a bit tired of this whole affair. Some of us have to actually work for a living.  

 

This is mostly a small link dump for a post I am may write for our library blog about the Nobel Prizes. In addition to writing about the recent awards announced, I have spotted a couple of items out there that may be of interest as well.

• Here is something on what happens to some of the Nobel laureates who have to go back to work. Just because you won the prize, it does not follow you are rich and get to retire. Far from it. (via Bookninja). 
• From the Nobel website, "What Did the Nobel Laureates Read When They Were Young?" I am thinking that the books listed here would make a good library display as well. (via Resource Shelf).
  

Also, I need to check and see if the winners may have books out or books written about them or their work that we may have in our collection; this information can then be added to the post later as well.

Update note (Same day):

Here are a couple of stories on this year's Nobel laureate in literature, Herta Mueller. A lot of the attitude was "wtf is Herta?" as conveyed by the news stories. I will admit that I had not heard of her, but then again, there are a few other Nobel laureates in literature (and other fields) I had never heard of before I read about them winning the award, and I certainly did not go out of my way to be dismissive. Instead, I wanted to learn more. Why some, especially Americans, feel a need to poo poo an accomplishment like this is beyond me. Seems like a display of ignorance, and then they wonder why the rest of the world has a negative opinion. The stories:

• Literary Saloon has a small summary with links. 
• The Times has a piece on "Why have we never heard of these Nobel authors?" which looks a bit at the judges. 

And the saga continues as Congress has pretty much proven that they are bought and sold by the insurance industry. I am really, really trying not to go on a rant, but it is getting harder these days not to. I get the impression that we pretty much are not going to get any significant reform at all from the current crop of legislators. In the unlikely miracle that something were passed, as soon as mid-elections come around, and the right wing machine steamrolls in with misinformation and fear, thus getting rid of the current Democrat majority, you know those people will be working hard to repeal said miracle of something passing. In plain English, we may well end up worse off.

When I kept the blog for students here on Vox, under a different url, one of the things I used to do was collect links and resources on various hot topics. These were things I thought they would find useful for their papers, especially for freshman composition where they had to write argumentative essays on current events. Health care reform back then, we are talking four or five years ago, was a hot topic as it is now. Anyone with access could find articles on a database, so I tried to go past that to locate government documents, think tank reports, so on, that students often overlook. Also, I like the idea of having the studies that news organizations like CNN report on. People really need to read the actual documents once in a while, so to that end I do these little link dump postings with some commentary. I can get some of my thoughts off my chest, and I can provide pieces of information. And when it comes to health care reform, we need all the information we can get. We need to dispel the fears and educate people. Maybe, even though the hope is infinitesimal, people will wake up and do what is right. By the way, as a disclosure, when I used to keep the student resource blog, I would not add my personal comment like I did above, tempting as it could be. Since this is my "scratch pad," I feel more comfortable throwing in an opinion or two.

So, here are the links for this week:

• Let's start with the infamous IHAP (America's Health Insurance Plans; note that AHIP is basically the health insurance industry's lobbying organization) report, the one on "Potential Impact of Health Reform on the Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage" (link to full report in PDF). This is the report that some of the news organizations have identified as biased, incomplete and debunked. See for example MArc Ambinder posting for The Atlantic here. Here is some reporting on the pushback against the report from CNN. Now, I link to the report because I think people should at least look at the executive summary with the key findings. Of course, they also need to seek other sources, including sources that not show as much self-interest and bias as AHIP does. That is basic information literacy right there: the ability to evaluate sources for bias and interest. Report found via Docuticker. 
• The Urban Institute released a report on "The Cost of Failure to Enact Health Care Reform: Implications for States (link to the publication abstract. You can get the full report there in PDF). You could go with the IHAP report and give a pass to the insurance companies, who will keep raising rates and dropping coverage for people regardless of whether there is reform or not. Or you can read this report and see what can (and will likely happen) if no reform is enacted. From the abstract: "The report makes clear that the cost of failure would be substantial and felt in every state. The analysis shows that if federal reform efforts fail, over the next decade in every state, the percent of the population that is uninsured will increase, employer-sponsored coverage will continue to erode, spending on public programs will balloon, and individual and family out-of-pocket costs could increase by more than 35 percent." I think I can trust an organization that provides "independent nonpartisan analysis of the problems facing America's cities and their residents." Report found via Docuticker. 
• The Urban Institute also has put out a brief looking at age issues when it comes to insurance premiums, in other words, what they may charge a senior when compared to a younger person. This one may require a bit closer reading because these are the things discussed when the insurance companies claim that rates will go up and bring up the idea of sharing risk. The brief is "Age Rating Under Comprehensive Health Care Reform: Implications for Coverage, Costs, and Household Financial Burdens" (link to PDF). 
• The Center for Community Change reports that "New Report, Documentary Debunk Myth; Show Heartland Favors Favors Health Care Reform" (link to press release. You can get the report and look at the short documentary via their links). This is the kind of resource you would rarely see in the major news. Much of the news coverage covers the angry people, the so-called teabaggers who claim that people in the middle of America hate any idea of health care reform. This source should start providing some refutation to the claim. But we still have a long way to educating people. Found via Docuticker. You can find the direct link to the full documentary on You Tube here; get the documentary's stories in segments here. The stories are simply heart breaking.
  
• K.G. Schneider responded to a comment on her blog by conservative (by her own identification) Ellie Dworak. Worth a look if just to see how some people respond to the issue. If I was showing this to students, I would point them to how both sides are talking to each other. Ms. Dworak apparently did not like being taken to task on a blog. All I will say if you write it publicly, and she did by commenting on Ms. Schneider's blog, then be ready to be questioned and engaged. I think Ms. Schneider gave a pretty good reply to an issue many bloggers with an audience deal with, in addition to her thoughts on the health care reform debate.
  
• Do you need help understanding the health care reform debate? So do I very often. Ze Frank, a comedian, helps to put it in perspective, with some humor in the process. The Free Government Information Blog gives us a link in "Ze Frank Tries to Understand Healthcare." Ze Frank pokes fun at a lot of the rumors and myths going around about health care reform. Overall, he puts things in pretty good perspective. He mentions FactCheck.org in the video, a site I have linked to before but I will do so again because it is an excellent resource to get perspective on issues and, well, check the facts people and so-called experts throw around, often hoping no one is really paying attention. In essence, use FactCheck.org and show others that you are indeed paying attention. 

In case the random reader that finds this blog is interested, you can find my previous posts on this topic here, here, and here.

Update Note (Same day): Oops, almost forgot to include this. This is an article on "How to Read Articles About Health and Health Care" by Dr. Alicia White (link leads to PDF).  This is an excellent piece to use in teaching information literacy. Also, it is very good for just reminding people not to panic when they see some headline about some medical "breakthrough" that is often not a big deal, if at all. The article comes from the British National Health Service (NHS) Behind the Headlines webpage. Actually, this NHS site is another very good source of health information and health literacy. With a hat tip to Resource Shelf. 
 

While the politicians in Congress are more worried about appeasing the insurance companies than actually doing something decent and humane for the people who need health care now, the evidence keeps coming in of why it is we need a good, universal health care system that will take care of all citizens. These are things that I think more people should be reading. Also, if I had a student researching the topic, this would links I would like him or her to read.

• I saw this from Families USA. It is a short report entitled "The Clock is Ticking: More Americans Losing Health Coverage" (link to PDF) that details how people are losing health care coverage on a daily basis. You can look at your own state and see how they are doing in terms of losses. By the way, Texas, where I reside now, is not doing very well. This definitely worth a look.(via Docuticker). 
• The AFL-CIO reports on a survey they ran with Working America. The Health Care Survey (link to the survey on here; press release here). This survey, which includes personal stories, is a very good dataset on the topic. From the press release, "Over half of the 23,460 people who responded online to a health care survey sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Working America say they cannot get the health care they need at a price they can afford, and the problem is even more acute among people who buy their own insurance, Hispanics and young adults." And that is just for starters. (via Docuticker). In the meantime, the politicians in Congress are more worried about appeasing the insurance companies than actually doing something decent and humane for the people who need health care now. 
• The Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, has a Middle Class Task Force. This task force has put out a statement on "Why Middle Class Americans Need Health Care Reform" (note PDF link; found via Docuticker). This is definitely a good question to answer. This country has a very screwed hierarchy. The rich can obviously pay any doctor and get the best care since they can pay for it. The poor can go to the emergency room at any time, since the hospitals can't turn them away; the hospitals just pass the cost on to the middle class workers with insurance, which is a reason why premiums for people like me, who are gainfully employed, keep going up. It has been argued that it is a hidden health tax for middle class workers when they have to pay increased premiums because insurance companies and hospitals have to "eat the cost" of the poor and unemployed. Granted, with a universal system, someone still has to pay, but the cost would likely go around and certainly be a lot more equitable. 
• I just saw that Congressional Budget Office, according to ABC News, stated that there are no cost savings in the Democrats' health plans. Now, before the other side gets too excited, keep in mind that you do have to look at the costs, and it is likely that some costs will go up no matter whose plan is being applied. Actually, the CBO has a few other reports related to health and health care that may be worth looking at before people get too excited. 
• And while talking about costs, you can get a look at cost implications of three health reform scenarios (link to press release; the report page is here). The report is presented by the Commonwealth Fund (via Docuticker). 
• Oh, the famous number of 45 million uninsured? FactCheck takes a look at it in context. 

The items just keep coming in, and I want to be able to share them with readers out there as possible. If people need yet another reason to consider why we need a universal care system that is not based on whether some pirate insurance company let's you get treated or not, here are a few more things to consider. For now, this is just some fodder or food for thought.

From Docuticker (this is a great lifesaver when it comes to tracking down specific documents, whether government or think tanks):

• Yes, losing your home can be an extremely traumatic experience. And it will affect your health as well as if things were not already bad enough. "Will the Public's Health Fall Victim to the Home Foreclosure Epidemic?" from the PLoS Medicine Journal. By the way, the journal is open access.
  
• Did you know that nearly 44 million Americans were without health insurance in 2008? Here is the press release from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. You can get the full report here. 
• Learn about funding from the Recovery Act (you know, the bailout) for Community Health Centers. You can check it out by state. From the Health and Human Services Recovery Site.
  
• From the Employment Policies Institute, "Who are the Uninsured? An Analysis of America's Uninsured Population, Their Characteristics and Their Health." Get the abstract here. From there, you can get the full report in PDF. Their study looks at the voluntarily and involuntarily insured, i.e. those who actually choose not be insured versus those who can't afford it. Keep in mind a policy institute like this one has an interest in raising the question because if they can say a significant number of people choose not to have insurance, then it must mean there is not really a problem. Not exactly the greatest logic, but worth a read for the sake of seeing the opposition. For instance, from the abstract, "Furthermore, the lack of health insurance is often equated with a lack of healthcare, despite the fact that individuals without coverage often receive medical services from a wide variety of sources within the healthcare system." See for example other links here to issues like home foreclosure or my previous post (linked below) where, sure, they may get health care, but it often drives them to financial ruin, something these people interested in things like "the impact of new labor costs on job creation" (from their About page) are probably not considering as much.
  
• To go along with the study by the EPI, you can always get a more accurate picture by looking at "The Hidden Costs of Health Care: Why Americans are Paying More But Getting Less." From the Health Reform website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  

From Lifehacker:

• Since it does not look like we will get a decent universal system anytime soon, odds are you are going to have to buy your own health insurance, especially if you are self-employed, under-employed, or unemployed. The Wall Street Journal had an article on "Buying Health Insurance on Your Own." (Lifehacker link, which has one other item as well). 

This adds to the list from my previous post.

 

I have been trying to create relevant posts on timely topics for the library's blog. It was something that the boss liked when I made one a while back on Judge Sotomayor. The idea behind stuff like this is to keep your eyes open, and then put together a small and quick list of links of information so patrons can find some good information. It sounds easy enough, but sometimes it can get a little complicated. Health care reform is back in the news, and it is certainly a very timely topic. I have been saving some clippings in preparation for a post at the library's blog, but some are a bit substantial. They are substantial in the sense that I have to go through them and evaluate them. Given a lot of other stuff I have to do at the moment, I am going to throw them here, so I can come back and get them once I review them. If anyone finds the links useful, feel free to use.

• From the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, an investigative staff report on "Underpayments to Consumers by the Health Insurance Industry" (link to the press release here. You can get the report and additional materials on that link). I think it is important for people to be aware when resources like these are released and available. They are a way to keep tabs on the government, not to mention that very often government reports like this are an excellent research tool for students and interested public. The catch is that you do have to take the time to look through the materia. Found via Docuticker. 
• Link to a nonprofit organization, Patient Privacy Rights, that claims to be "dedicated to ensuring Americans control all access to their health records." It was highlighted in the LII Newsletter recently, which is why it caught my eye. Privacy is an important concern when it comes to patients and their health records.
  
• From AARP's Policy and Research, "State Health Care Briefs for 2009." From the description, "this set of State Health Care Briefs provides a one-page overview of facts on health care data for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Information is provided about each state’s older population, the uninsured, Medicare beneficiaries including those who fall into the “doughnut hole,” hospital re-admissions among Medicare beneficiaries, the distribution of Medicaid long-term care funds, and prescription drug spending." Documents are provided in PDF format. Found via Docuticker. 
• From Pew Internet, "The Social Life of Health Information" (link to overview. You can get the summary and full report from that link). This deals with how people go online to look for health information, and how they then talk to someone about it offline.  Found via Resource Shelf.
  
• From the American Journal of Medicine, an article on "Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study." Last I looked, you could get the PDF to read the article there. This is a very important topic given that most bankruptcies in the U.S. are due to medical catastrophe. If that is not a reason to get universal health care and reform the system, I am not sure what is. Found via Docuticker. 
• From the Congressional Research Service (via OpenCRS), a report on "Health Care Reform: An Introduction." CRS is such a great resource, but given it's lack of transparency,  you have to know how to find them with tools like OpenCRS. One of these days I would also like to write a small post for the library blog on finding CRS items. Found via Docuticker.
  
• Though this one does have citations for the facts it presents, I was not sure if I could post these "20 Disturbing Facts About U.S. Health Care that Everyone Should Know." It could work to get some discussion rolling. 
• The PCLS Senior Services Blog has a post on "Online Health and Wellness Information." It is highlighting the website Healthfinder.gov. I have actually used the Health Finder site in demos to parents of students. They have a very good Spanish component, which I found useful for my audience at the time.
  

I may add to this list, but this is clearly plenty at the moment. The bankruptcy one is something I have been wanting to write about in my own blog for a while.

Lately, I have seen a few pieces dealing with job hunting for academics. Also, I am making these notes because I have been involved in some phone interviews, this time as an interviewer, and I have seen the effects up close of not being well prepared. Those effects are not pretty. So in the interest of sharing for anyone who may find them useful, I am collecting some good links I have looked over.

• From Inside Higher Ed, Christine Kelly has two pieces. First, she writes about "Preparing for the Non-Academic Interview." This is important in this economy where you have to go where the jobs go. A doctorate gives you a lot of skills you can bring to a workplace, but you have to sell yourself. Kelly gives you some advice on how to handle some common questions you may be asked such as why you are applying for a job outside of academia. These are questions to think about ahead of time before you go to the interview. Second, looks further at "Non-Academic Interviews" telling you how to prepare for the interview once you have one. Kelly points out how the interview is a lot like acting. It is a performance. The common theme? As G.I. Joe would say, ". . .and knowledge is half the battle." Do note that some of this can apply to librarians seeking work as well if they choose to seek work outside of librarianship.
  
• You may find yourself using social networking sites to help you network. I find Facebook has been pretty good in terms of gradually building a professional network. I have tried Linked In, but I have not used it as much. I may need to review it. Just in case, here is a small article about "LinkedIn Profiles: Avoid the Six Most Common Mistakes." This is in addition to the usual advice about using privacy settings effectively and avoiding content postings that could be embarassing to you somehow. By the way, the title on that says "six," but there are only five items. Maybe the sixth mistake is make sure you know how to count. The advice is still good enough to have a look. 
• Now many doctoral graduates may end up working in a community college. Actually, that may be a good thing given that in this economy, community colleges are the fastest growing institutions of higher education due to their affordability for one. But those graduates need to keep in mind that the mission of a CC is different than the average four year school, and it is definitely worlds away from a big research university. These are teaching institutions. David Lydic, at Inside Higher Ed,  has some advice for those choosing this route. First, he tells us how about "Interviews at Community Colleges" and gives advice on how to prepare for the interview. Second, he gets down to more specifics when he tells us exactly "What You'll Be Asked." This article has very good sample questions from various CC's to candidates for jobs. If you are considering a job teaching at a CC, this is a must read. Personally, I would be willing to teach at a CC, or at least work at one of their libraries, precisely because of the teaching mission and student diversity.
  
• Carole Martin, at CEO Consultant, writes out "10 Killer Job Interview Questions and Answers." This is a more general list, but it tells you how to answer them, with even small comments about what an employer may be concerned about when asking the questions. I think this is important, being able to see things from the employer's view in terms of why they may be asking a particular question. Some of these questions are applicable to librarians seeking jobs. If the link is problematic, this site also picks up the article.
  

Update Note (6/22/09): Here are two  items on interview questions that I would add to this list. They specially tell you what to say as well as what not to say when answering interview questions. These two lists are great tools to help anyone prepare for a job interview.

• From the blog Dumb Little Man, here are "10 Answers You Should Know Before Your Job Interview."  
• And from Bhuvana Sundaramoorthy, here are "50 Common Interview Questions." 

After the whirlwind month of April, May was a bit slow given that the spring semester came to an end. During May, we had a short week of interim before the long summer session and then Summer 1 started. However, I was still busy because, as the old saying goes, there is no rest for the wicked. This small list are some things I wanted to get done in May that I was not quite able to complete.

• A carryover from April was the LG slide regarding the No Food policy in the library. How the heck I managed to miss that I am not sure. But I hope I should be able to get it done this month. Also in the carryover from April, the signage for the reference area.
  
• I missed making blog posts over at The Patriot Spot with reference book of the week items related to Asian/Pacific Heritage Month and Older American Month. In this case, I did not forget, and I did not miss this intentionally. The reality was a lot more frustrating. We did not have a single item in our reference holdings related to either topic, not even in a vaguely tangential way. If I have any money left over from the very small allowance I was given for collection development, I may have to see about ordering something related to these areas. I have to admit it felt embarrassing for me, and yet, give our very out of date collection, I am not surprised. And no, by now I make no bones about it, and I don't think my boss would dare to disagree. We have some issues when it comes to our book collection being out of date in various areas. Anyhow, hopefully by next May, I will have some materials. 

On a positive, I did get a good number of things done in the month of May, including the weeding of the print reference collection. That topic by itself is worthy of a blog post at some point, since I did learn a thing or two while doing it. But that is another story.

These are some links I am finding related to Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month. Some I will use for display materials, and others I will highlight in a blog post for the library. This here is just a holding space for all the items, i.e. for reference purposes. However, if anyone finds them useful, take a look as well.

• From EDSITEment, feature on Asian-Pacific Heritage Month. This has some lesson plans for teachers and links. 
• From California State University-Sacramento Library, the Japanese American Archival Collection. I still need to look over this, but it looks like a valuable resource.
  
• Banana: A Chinese America Experience, an online exhibit. From the about page: "Together, these works examine the influences which shape the lives of Chinese American youths in the U.S. The web site and the exhibition reconstruct the apartment of the fictional Lee family, second-generation Chinese Americans presently living in New York City. The Mother came from Hong Kong to the States in the 60s as a student to escape the rigid and competitive educational system there. Living with relatives, she was cut off from her parents and culture. As a Parachute kid who (metaphorically) landed in America, her experiences differed from her son¹s, who was born in New York, an Americanized Banana--yellow on the outside and white on the inside." This exhibit is from the Tenement Museum. 
• Site of the town of Locke, California, that, according to the LII, "Website for this California delta town founded in 1915, which is "the only town in the United States built exclusively by the Chinese for the Chinese." Features brief history and photos of points of interest such as the boarding house, Chinese School, and Dai Loy Museum (a former gambling house that was closed by state authorities in the 1950s."
  
• From the UC Irvine Libraries, SEAADoc: Documenting the Southeast Asian American Experience. From the website, "is an educational resource of the Southeast Asian Archive at the UC Irvine Libraries focusing on post-1975 refugees and immigrants from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam and the communities they have developed in the United States. It contains 1,500 visual images and 4,000 pages of searchable text selected from the Archive to represent a cross section of our holdings."
  
• Site of the project Children of the Atomic Bomb, "is a research website project developed by Dr. James N. Yamazaki, UCLA professor emeritus of pediatrics, together with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center" (from the website). I have to admit that this looks very interesting, but a part of me does worry that at least one person in my community may get a little sensitive (I do live in East Texas). I may put the link with a comment in the blog post anyways.
  
• From Library and Archives Canada, an online exhibit on "The Early Chinese Canadians: 1858-1947." I have to admit that I find interesting how the Canadians, their government especially, have managed to put out some neat things for this theme. American governmental agencies mostly have the usual proclamations and basic promotional stuff, but something like this is rare. 
• This I really need to look over. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) recently released the Statistical Yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 2008. From the looks of it, you can download the whole thing as a PDF, or you can read the tables as EXCEL files. I think there is a lot of potential for some of these UN publications in terms of reference work. Something to look into, but this I can add to my blog post/guide on Asian Pacific American resources.
  
• A small article from Reuters on "Chinese Writers Fail to Find Global Voice." These writers face censorship at home and ignorance about China abroad.
  
• Set of links from the InfoPlease website. 
• The Library of Congress's page on Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. 
• The Smithsonian's Education unit also has one. 
• Scholastic has a little something on Asian Pacific Heritage. 
• The Air Force has a set of posters. I did print out a couple for use on a display.
  
• U.S. Census Facts for Features for the month. '
• The White House Proclamation for Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, 2009. This was not as easy to find. For all the positive raves Obama's Administration gets about being online, transparent, and all 2.0, finding things like this on his White House site is not easy, and there is no "printer friendly" option to print out the document. 
• Read Write Think has some things for teachers. 
• Peace Corps had a press release for the occassion. I thought it was kind of cool, as they recognize some of their volunteers.
  
• The American Consulate in China has some links, mostly to things like LOC. It is interesting to see what they choose to highlight for people overseas to see. 
• From a health point of view, MedlinePlus has a lot of stuff on Asian American health. I think I can use a few of these for display. 
• From the CDC Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, more information on Asian American health. 
• The National Park Service does have some good information on Asian American topics in National Parks for travel, sites, so on. 
• Information on Asian American Heritage from IMDiversity. This I have to look at a bit more closely.
  
• The Official Declaration of Asian Heritage Month in Canada. A nice image, but no way to get the image in better quality (they do offer the text). 
  
• Resource: The Center for Asian American Media.
  

Update note (5/11/09): Some additional links:

• The Asian American Studies Center at UCLA.
• "Asian American Literature: A Selective Bibliography" out of CSU Stanislaus. 
• "Asian American Literature: Resources for research." Has links to publishers, page done by Dr. Noelle Brada-Williams.
  

This list is going to be part of a larger post I am planning to help me reflect on the whirlwind of activity that was April 2009 for me. I am making the list here, then will link to it from my main blog to keep things short over there. For context, I am putting in a photo of my "tactical board" (or, as others may call it, the "honey do" list) for April 2009, as it looked at the end of the month. I have to say that I got the vast majority of what I listed done (and that includes stuff not on the board that the powers that be requested as well in addition):