A Wandering Eyre

**Blogger is having some problems and keeps cutting this post in half. I hope it takes this time**

I am very glad that ACRL has jumped on the bandwagon and decided to have an official blog of their conference next week in Minneapolis. I am, truly. However, I am disappointed about the way in which they are going about presenting their blog to the world because, well, they are not. As far as I have been able to decipher, (the blog has not been publicized much, even to me and I am participating) the blog will only accessible to those attending the actual conference or those who have paid to attend a virtual conference. I would understand if they wanted to limit the video streaming and digital content of presentations during the conference and I might even understand if they had a good argument for keeping the blogs under raps until after the conference as well, but I have not heard of any plans to release the blog to the general public after the conference is over. It would be nice to use the blog, as PLA did, to showcase ourselves and all the great things that ACRL has to offer.

The ACRL blog will not be like the PLA blog or the new LITA blog that is still under development because ACRL has contracted with an outside company which will host the blog. The company is Learning Times, http://www.learningtimes.net/, with whom I have no argument, but I think there would be easier ways to create a conference blog in a scenario where ACRL would have more control over format, flow, and content.

Which brings me to my next point: Why do we, as a profession, often take something that could be incredibly simple and make it into something cumbersome and cost ineffective? ACRL has smart techie people who would probably be willing to help set up a blog that was directly hosted by ACRL, but instead it was contracted out. Another great example is Virtual Reference. Libraries sometimes spend thousands of dollars on VR platforms, when a free AIM, MSN, or Yahoo messenger account will work just as well and has the added bonus of being familiar to our customers.

I know that this problem has a lot to do with the fact that our libraries are often parts of large, clunky, bureaucratic institutions that need to form a committee every time the stapler needs to be refilled. I know that. I live that. Sometimes though, in my dream library, I wish I would be able to find an obvious solution to a problem and implement it without having to first explain the technology, why we need it, how it makes our lives easier, why it makes sense, and why our students have already been using the technology months or years longer than we have.

–Jane, rant over

I know my blog posts have been hit and miss since last week. Sorry. I have been too busy at work to think of anything fabulous to say and my computer at home has had a bad case of spyware. Hopefully, I can get my computer cleaned up by the weekend. Otherwise I might go absolutely insane. Actually insane sounds nice.

LITA has a new interest group, Bigwig (Blogs, Instant messaging, and Wikis Interest Group), which will not be official until ALA Annual in June. For now, we have a wonderful new listserv which you can find here

Rita Rambles has pointed me to this site which is quite funny. My big pet peeve is overuse of the letter Y. I have a cousin named Jordyn Macayla. Yeesh. She is a brat too.

–Jane, adding a Y to an ordinary name does not make it extraordinary

I have a few links I want to put up so I will just write a couple of sentences and let you have a go at them. I will write something witty later on today. Same bat time, same bat channel.

This really is what it is like to work in a bookstore or public library. I swear people are actually this dumb. “Can you show me that blue book that you had sitting on that display table last month?” Scary thing, we could usually find it.

Want to write a love poem and need some help? Try the Love Poetry Generator.

Need confirmation that people in Texas, except your truly, really are political idiots? Well here ya’ go. Honestly, this should not be news for those that even remotely pay attention to things going on in the educational sphere.

–Jane, thinks maybe a trip for coffee after that pixie stick and starbursts is an ill conceived idea

Ever wonder what kind of questions we get asked at a university reference desk? In the style of RefGrunt, here is a list of the things I answered today: (oh, and you have to imagine me answering the questions looking like this)

In the morning (1 hour)
ILL
Computer will not login to the system. I check it and restart it. I tell him to try again once it restarts and let me know if it does not work.
An Accounting textbook entitled Cost Management. Nope.
The guy with the computer problem comes back and tells me it did not work and he has moved to another computer. I put an “out of order” sign up and let the IT guys know about the problem.
Printer out of paper
Printer, different one, will not print. I find out is clogged by PDFs. I cancel the large PDFs and watch the printer queue to make sure it clears.
I explain how to get an account for the computers.
How to find books and articles on Hindu mythology
(phone) Yes we have census tracks for Brazoria and Harris County which have the breakdown of ethnicity.
A girl walks by and thanks me, I did not help her, for service rendered. As long as she is happy.
A student brings me a copy card that will not work. I let her borrow one from the desk.
Student returns card.
Student has forgotten their password for their computer login.
Colleague K comes to the desk and we discuss our plans to watch Angel Season 5 tomorrow and talk about NCAA Basketball.
Printer not printing. We reroute two printers and alert IT.
I leave the desk

After lunch, I return for two more hours of abuse:
Where is the campus Writing Lab
Student asks for old exams, what she really wants is exam keys that her professor has placed in reserves
Stapler
Computer login account
Document will not print. It is a PDF. I ask her which print button she used. I show her the right one.
QA books in Reserves? Right behind you.
He tells me he is looking for articles on telecommunications, what he really wants to know is how to find articles for which he already has citations.
Change for a $20. Sorry, no change.
How to find databases, Chemical Abstracts in particular.
Current journals? Right behind you?
(phone) How to connect to the library resources from home
Where to get a copy card. Right next to the copy machine.
Wants scotch tape and sees the box of earplugs on the desk and says, “Are you kidding me?” Nope.
(phone) how to get here from one of the major freeways
Library access from home
(phone)Looking for the book Water Resources and Environmental History.
Article from Journal of Personality and Psychology. Someone ripped out the one from our copy. Bastards.
Stapler.
Change for a $5, nope.
Fix a broken stapler.
Express terminals for internet access - over there
Lost diskette
Admin office
Will books from another library make the door alarm go off, nope

–Jane, that’s all folks

I need to stop amusing myself by amusing all you goofies who read this, but here are two more things and then I swear I have got to stop for awhile.

Bit One
Steven Cohen links to a short piece in LJ and then says this:
Yes, ALA conferences will never be the same, but not because of Gorman. They will never be the same despite Gorman. Weblogs at conferences have transformed the way content form these events are delivered. More people can be involved and can “attend” without being there. This would have happened despite Gorman’s comments. Consider it a coincidence.

So basically Gorman is irrelevant, but we were already starting to get that. Actually I am hoping to be proven wrong, though I doubt it will happen.

Speaking of ALA and blogs, I will be an “official” blogger for ACRL, though I will not tell you which monniker I will be using. Smarties might figure it out on their own. I will be “unofficially” blogging about the conference here. Translation: This is where I will tell you about all the fun social gatherings.

Bit Two
You know that game they play on the Motley Fool radio show called “What Did the FED Chief Say? Ok, I have a new one: “What did the aerospace engineer say?” This is what Mr. Rochester just emailed me:
I can’t figure out why my coordinate transfer matrix is not properly converting from earth centered inertial frame (with x-axis pointed along the vernal equinox) to a body fixed system at the time of launch. Stupid! Stupid!

Any takers?

–Jane, responds with huh

P.S. After gaining his permission to post his words, Mr. R informed me that he has since fixed the problem. Whew! I was really worried about that.

Using a space telescope, NASA has discovered two planets orbiting a star that is not our Sun. The existence of other planets was theorized on the existence of gravity wobble, but now they have actual pictures. Cool Stuff. Mr. Rochester is a rocket scientist and failed to mention this to me. What is the point of dating a smart man if you can not rely on him for this kind of information? Must I do all of the info-mining myself?

–Jane, thinks it is pretty

My day started off great with free, FREE, coffee from my very happy apartment complex managers. I fall madly in love with anyone willing to give me good coffee in the morning. Now the whole day stretches ahead of me with a long meeting and a desk shift looming before me, like some grotesque afternoon monster. Oh the joys of my job!

In reading through Librarian.net this morning, egads! Jessamyn mentions my post on leadership and I clicked on one of her new “Linkhopper” sites (left side) to find this jewel, A Librarian’s Guide to etiquette. These people have my sense of humor. Here is a handy tip on how to avoid annoying coworkers. Good idea. I usually go and roam the computer and research areas when my partner’s voice starts feeling like nails in my skull. Nothing like a quick roam around the students to make you realize that you just house the computers for chat and WebCT. Research? Nope. It’s all about the free printing, baby. Oh, and of course the porn. Don’t forget the porn.

–Jane, loves the Reference Desk even when all the students ask for is the stapler or the hole punch

I have been following the Terri Schiavo case with horror, which is the reaction for most I think. David Weigel, hilarious blogger, pitches a tv movie and suggests actors for the parts.

There is also a link to this site which contains a hilarious cartoon run of the issue. This one is my favorite.

–Jane, appreciates sick humor

From the Queen of Hilarity, Dooce, I present you with “The This is Good for Licking” Flikr page.

–Jane, licks her desk

The actor set to portray the next villain in Spiderman 3 is apparently this guy, Thomas Haden Church. I have no opinions on this, though I think it is strange that the actual villain has yet to be revealed.

–Jane, heart Spidey