I’m a Librarian… get me out of here!

Let me preface this post by saying that I absolutely love being a Librarian, I love it! It is important that you know this before reading this piece because now I am going to have a little whine about just one small aspect of my job.

Originally from http://www.outblush.com/ I added text

This post was inspired by The Daily Posts Daily Prompt – A Tale of Two Cities – we were asked if we could split our time evenly between two places only, where would they be. For some reason what immediately jumped into my head was what if I could be two places simultaneously?! That would be quite awesome and perhaps even have the ability to put one body in auto pilot whilst my consciousness is in the other one. Everyone I am sure thinks this from time to time for different reasons, but when it occurs for me it is very specific.

As I said before I love being a Librarian, but there is one aspect that is present in most Librarian jobs that I do not enjoy… the food battle.

http://smosh.wikia.com/wiki/Food_Battle

What is the food battle? Well it kind of goes like this… Librarian roving the Library sees someone eating hot chips smothered in gravy. Librarian explains to said someone that they cannot consume hot food in the Library and asks them to please take the food outside. Said someone apologises and starts packing up, Librarian says thank you and moves on.

At this point I need to let you in on an apparently well-kept secret… Librarians are smart you guys!

 

Don’t remember where I got this pic, but I added the text. If you know please tell me so I can give cred.

We went to University for quite a few years in order to become experts in research, social media, promotion and marketing, development of programs on varying topics and many other things – we know our stuff and have an extremely broad knowledge. Many of us are also mothers and fathers so believe me when I tell you that we know that you just wait for us to get out of sight then start tucking back into your carbs.

We know.

So we have to do a loop and come back around and have another chat to you about the food – often you don’t answer us because you are trying to conceal the fact that there are fried goods currently in your mouth – we know this – in fact we waited until you put that forkful in before we confronted you so you couldn’t use the normal defence of, “it is there, but I am not eating it”.

I totally believe you!

Let me tell you something you probably don’t know…

When we have to repeatedly approach you to ask you not to eat hot food – especially when there is a sign on your table next to the hot food that states ‘No hot food’ – it kills us a little inside. It feels like we are babysitting unruly children for $4 an hour instead of an Information Professional who is qualified to do research in basically any field. There are Librarians working for most film companies and researchers work on many TV shows, who do you think gets your iTunes music into all those nice little categories and easily searchable? Librarians 🙂 We do a lot more than you think, a friend of mine works at a radio station as a researcher and researches news items on the fly and feeds through information to the on air team.

Did you know all of this?

Here’s something we don’t understand… we don’t understand why you do it? Why is it so important for you to sneak eat all your chicken nuggets, smell out the Library and make the Librarians feel like you have absolutely no respect or regard for them as human beings?

WHY?!?!

http://www.reactiongifs.com/

The thing that kills me the most is that we have to be polite to you while you are crapping all over us. Because that is who we are, we are professionals and you are our clients. Don’t you worry though, because even though you disrespect us on a daily basis it’s not like we will remember your face and we will certainly do absolutely everything in our power to help you when you don’t know how to find information for your assignment that you only have five hours to write because you spent all your research time smuggling McDonalds into the Library.

Yup, sure buddy, no problem. I’ll be right there to help you with that…
http://www.reactiongifs.com/

So here is my wish… I wish that everytime that tell-tale hot food odour started wafting about, my consciousness would transport to my other body and my autopilot would handle the humiliation so I would not have to be aware of it. Where would my other body be? Anywhere but here 🙂

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Social Media Addiction

So a little while ago I read this post http://kristenlynnwrites.com/2014/03/04/if-our-great-grandmothers-wouldve-had-facebook-and-twitter-when-they-were-young-mothers/ by Kristenlynnwrites and I loved it, it struck a chord with me, but in a different way than I would have expected when I started reading the piece. As I kept reading and giggling my way through the tweets I started thinking about the fact that because they didn’t have social media etc. they probably had a lot of time for other things. Then I read a comment by http://mrhairybrit.com/ that basically said exactly what I was thinking, “… the next generation is going to be a little lost in the world of social media”. I completely believe this in fact in some cases I feel like this is a bit of an understatement 🙂

Social media use is a little bit out of control, there I said it. Don’t get me wrong I use it, I absolutely use it and having lived in a few different places I find it a fabulous way to keep in touch with people I possibly wouldn’t be able to afford to keep in touch with otherwise. In fact I have done a lot of research and study into measuring and getting value out of social media technologies (which is likely evident from my last post) so I am certainly no Noob when it comes to the 2.0 world. What I have a problem with is the people that get so involved with their social media platforms that they basically spend more time posting their life on one platform or another than living it, that is where I think there is an issue. I believe we need a rehab clinic for social media addiction because trust me it is real!

http://www.9ddot.com/

So here are some prime examples of things happening on social media that drive me nuts:

• Mums and Dads posting every breath of their child’s existence. Guys your kids want to make a connection with you, not the lens of your smartphone, put that down and play with them; you don’t need evidence of being a decent parent. In fact if all your interactions with them are through the lens you are not really exhibiting great parenting skills, stop observing and get in there! Someone doesn’t have to ‘like’ it on Facey for it to have meaning.
• This next one was over the line and a totally legit reason to de-friend someone – recently the wife of a friend of mine had a bub, afterwards she posted photos of her C-section on FB… not okay! I wouldn’t want to see myself cut open like that, let alone anyone else… keep it in the family.
• My husband and I got married 2 years ago – people were really surprised when it took us a month to change our relationship status to married (I don’t really know why they cared to be honest, but apparently it was a thing for them). When we were looking for someone to do our ceremony we kept seeing references to a Facebook inclusion, when I eventually asked what it was we were told that a lot of people after signing the register like to have an extra part where they update their status’ on Facey to say they are now married… ‘umm okay, no we won’t be having that. Yes I understand it is popular, we still don’t want it’. Since when was the ring, ceremony and massive party not enough evidence of the ‘I do’?
• Selfies have gone too far! Yes I have taken them, yes I have posted them, yes I love the famous Ellen selfie, it is fabulous! But enough is enough… I do not need to see Belfies (Butt-selfies) which are just pure grot and who thought of that anyway?! The sheer amount of duckfaces I have seen in the past year have made me irrationally hate Daffy Duck a much loved icon of my childhood. And I have to say it… WTF is with after sex selfies?! How is this an okay thing to do? Vent, vent, vent, whinge, whinge, whinge. As a Librarian I have to admit that I do enjoy Shelfies, it’s a guilty pleasure to be able to have a perve at others bookshelves from the non-judgemental corner of my own home 🙂

http://images.dangerousminds.net/uploads/images/bookshelfie222.jpg

So people go on with all these conspiracy theories about Big Brother watching and the government spying on everything we do, the thing is that if they wanted to they wouldn’t have to work very hard. I mean seriously, we are posting our entire lives to social media, all they would have to do is write an extremely basic program with some search terms and it would pull all of your information up. I can literally go onto my Facebook page right now and tell you everything one of my friends had to eat yesterday; seriously he posts every meal… I don’t even know what I had for breakfast yesterday, but I know he had a full continental breakfast in the lobby of a hotel near his work… does that not worry anybody else?

We have basically created our own strange version of The Truman Show; we have done this to ourselves. We are too quick to post stuff and we don’t think about the consequences, for example, did you know people Google you when you go for an interview? If you Google my brother’s name a certain way you will find a video of him setting off fireworks out of his butt from 5 years ago. Once the information is out there, you no longer have control of it.

What do your uploads say about your personal brand? http://www.brandnewmedia.com.au/blog/the-facebook-makeover

So people please think before you upload and if you fit into any of the examples I have spoken about please seek a 12-step program in your area.

What is a Librarian in a web 2.0 world?

Librarian 2.0 – I fully embrace this term. I believe it is the way of the future and I think all Libraries need to get on the 2.0 train.

In the past libraries didn’t market themselves, then with all the alternative avenues for obtaining information opening up they had to. Then came web 2.0 and they began using web 2.0 technologies to connect with their clients. However, in some cases (such as the Library I work for) the Librarians do not do the work with the web 2.0 technologies. A marketing or liaison officer is behind the curtain rather than a Librarian. To me this is NOT Librarian 2.0, clients are expecting to connect and interact with Librarians on the Facebook or Twitter feed not a promotions person. This is also not encouraging Librarians to go inside a technological cocoon and emerge a Librarian 2.0 butterfly.

Librarians need to immerse themselves in this ever expanding web 2.0 world and be a part of it, there should not be a middle man between Librarian’s and their patrons.

What I believe Librarian 2.0 should have – the basics:

• A working knowledge of a significant range of social networking tools
• A passion to investigate how different social networking tools could be effectively harnessed by the library (Harvey, 2009).
• The ability to accept change whether small, big or ongoing as this is the future environment of Libraries, forever evolving.
• Passion, dedication and interest in continuing professional development.
• A “guru of the information age” (Abram, 2012).

I believe we are the gatekeepers of information. There is scope in the future for Librarian’s to aid clients to develop their RSS feeds to locate information surrounding their topics of interest rather than aid them finding online journal articles or physical items. I believe information literacy classes will soon include social networking technologies and personal learning networks. I feel that a Librarian’s function or role will have to be much more flexible, Librarian’s will need to be more multi-skilled than ever before.

References

Abram, S. (2012). Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Librarian 2.0: Preparing for the 2.0 World. Retrieved from http://www.imakenews.com/sirsi/e_article000505688.cfm/ on 8 August, 2012.

Harvey, M. (2009). What does it mean to be a Science Librarian 2.0? Retrieved from http://www.istl.org/09-summer/article2.html on 8 August, 2012.

Baby names

In the past friends have randomly hailed me a baby psychic due to my uncanny ability to guess when people close to me are pregnant before they have told anyone – and in a couple of cases before the person themselves knew. I also seem to have a pretty good hit rate on guessing the sex of the baby. I don’t know why… no I do not think I am psychic and no I will not be able to do it for you. It only works with people I am really close to, I just know! So weird, but anyway I digress…

Over the past year people have changed (or evolved) that opinion of me – they now think I am a stork or something. I think last year was just a huge baby year, but it seemed that a huge majority of the people I regularly spend time with fell pregnant. Out of 12 pregnancies only 1 was planned! And in 3 cases the fact they are pregnant is a miracle in itself, one has had 4 miscarriages – she is now 6 months pregnant, one has cystic fibrosis and was told she wouldn’t be able to have children – she is expecting a baby girl in a few months and the third my maid of honour who found out she was pregnant the morning of my wedding was told she would probably not be able to have children due to being very ill with Anorexia for years. She and her husband have now been married 5 years and they have never fallen pregnant. It does seem a little bit more than coincidence really, you might think 12 pregnancies out of all the friends and family I have might not be much… my hubby and I each had 4 attendants. 2 of his groomsmen’s wives popped not long before the wedding, one of my bridesmaids popped just 2 months before the wedding and another found out she was pregnant the day of the wedding (meanwhile if you count back – she got pregnant after my hens night haha). So half of our attendants had babies in the lead up to the wedding… my 2 brothers gf’s had babies and one is pregnant for the second time now too… crazy stuff.

So obviously I have been exposed to a lot of baby name talk… bit more than I can handle sometimes. My first nephew is named Hendrix (yes his father is a muso),

Hendrix

they are about to have another boy and want another music related name for him (well my brother does at least). So I tried to think of some not-to-freaky ones for them to consider… here’s what I came up with:

• “Lyric” is kinda cool.
• “Dorian” is a music node also known as Russian minor.
• “Reed” like for a sax is cute, but would probably spell it “Reid”.
• “Cash” like Johnny Cash – not the biggest fan of the name Cash though.
• “Travis” as in Barker.
• “Coda” could be another good one.
• “Harper” is Harp player.
• “Chord”.
• “Halen” like Van Halen

Most recent discussions have hailed “Zakk” as in Wylde as the most popular on their current list. I love them and all, but why complicate things by messing with a name like “Zack”? I could take ‘Zac’ or even ‘Zak’ but why is there an extra ‘k’?

Zakk Wylde

Some people are so cruel when they name their children, my Aunt’s partner for example is named Richard Edward Bloggs [surname changed for protection from embarrassment]. Therefore all his life he has been called, ‘Dick-Ed’, he is now 60… poor bloke… mean name award to his parents.

The worst I have EVER heard was from my friend at flight centre (she showed me proof so this is not a story) she had a lady come in to book a flight. Van asked for her name, the lady replied, “Ladasha”, Van questioned the spelling as she wrote, “so is that L-A-D-A…” the lady interrupted, “No, no, no La-Dash-A”. Van asked her to spell it for her, the lady replied, “L-A-DASH-A”, Van gave up and asked her to write her name down… her name was quite seriously and literally spelt “La-a”. Mean name award to her parents.

And don’t even get me started on the bloody celebrities naming their children, Apple, Astronaut, Blue, Sunday, what’s next? Banana?

Hi my name's Banana

I remember a friend telling me that her husband was rejected from filing their son’s birth papers, their name is Walker, they named their son Luke and the father decided to change the middle name to Skye between leaving his wife in the hospital and getting to Births, Deaths and Marriages. Apparently the lady looked at the sheet, looked at him and said, “your wife doesn’t know about this does she?” she shamed him into leaving! Good human award to her!!!

Rule of thumb people, if you would be embarrassed to have the name as an adult… don’t give to your children. Age old rule of think before you act!

Dissipating the stereotype

When you think of librarians what thoughts come to mind?

Smiling, kindly old ladies similar to ‘Granny’ from the Tweety bird cartoons?

Or something nightmarish like the librarian ghost at the beginning of the Ghostbusters movie?

Hopefully nothing like the orang-utan librarian of Unseen University from the Discworld series!

Either way you go ALL are wrong, there is NO cookie-cutter for librarians, we vary in personality possibly (I dare to say) more so than other professions.

Why?

Well take a University library for example; we cater for all faculties within the University. Therefore there are librarians who specialise in commerce, arts, law, creative arts, science, education, engineering, health & behavioural science etc. we also have collection development staff, client services staff, web development staff, electronic resources staff and a myriad of other staff members who fall under various headings. There is no one personality that would cater for all of these areas.

So who are we?

We are somewhat like you (GASP) – are you shocked? We are as different from each other as you are from other people. Some like cats, some like dogs, some drink tea, others coffee (I drink both depending on my caffeine needs at that particular moment).

Do we all love books?

NO! Since the technological boom in recent years many librarians prefer e-resources. Many libraries have already or are now reviewing their collections policy and amending it to an e-preferred policy. With the recent announcement from Kindle regarding the fact they are developing Kindle library services to be released hopefully toward the end of the year where clients will be able to take their kindles into selected libraries and borrow e-books it seems that the idea of an e-preferred policy will continue to grow.

Confused?

So are we!

Librarians…. ditch the bun!!!

Librarians it’s time to bust apart the age-old stereotype of a snaggle-toothed, bun toting, people ‘shushing’, tweed wearing, scary, mean spinster ladies (and why are we seemingly affiliated with cat ladies? When did this happen? I am sadly allergic to cats, but I do have dogs, am I therefore a dog lady? Why do I feel like I should be offended by this?). How did this stereotype come to be? In todays heavily technology influenced society there is no time for ‘shushing’, only time for action. If librarian’s and the libraries they operate within do not step up and keep up with the times then they will fall behind and current and future generations will suffer without the know-how that we as librarians could be providing them.

What do we as librarians in an academic library provide our clients?

1. Information literacy classes
2. Classes on the use and benefits of endnote
3. Research assistance, both walk up and book ahead
4. A quite place to study
5. Reliable access to the internet and technical support to aid with issues
6. A variety of resources that can be borrowed, including laptops
7. And numerous other services

Many libraries are starting to integrate similar services utilising web2.0 technology, some experience success with online librarian chat services, facebook, twitter, instant messaging, forums etc. the possibilities are really only as limited as your imagination. Daily people are finding new and innovative ways of exploiting the technology available to us to promote services. Through embracing these developments in technology we are actively aiding people to continue to embrace libraries!

So what is current library life like?

Busy, busy, busy! Everytime one turns around there is another better technology emerging, new and better…

• Smartphones!!! Like apples new iPhone 4 and androids like the new Samsung Galaxy SII
• Personal Computers like the new ASUS EeePad Transformer which performs the roles of a laptop and tablet in one
• Bluetooth technologies such as this work in progress that may eventually replace computers

Libraries of all shapes and sizes need to be aware of these emerging technologies and keep abreast of them in order to maintain the sustainability of their libraries. Staff need regular professional development to ensure they are all versed in the use of these technologies in order to be able to capably assist their patrons.

What does the future hold?

Truly, this question is unanswerable, with the vastness of opportunities being constantly developed the face of libraries could change as much in the next decade as it has in the last decade.

Libraries have changed dramatically over the past decades, gone are the physical card catalogues, replaced with online catalogues, print journals and books are now largely accessible online and with the emergence of kindles and smartphones that have applications enabling the reading of ebooks, electronic copies are steadily growing in popularity.

One can only hazard to theorise what libraries will look like in 2020 or 2030, it is likely that the steady boom in technological development will continue and more amazing technologies will once again totally transform library operations. Already one can access information literacy classes online via You Tube will something similar to this eventually supercede ‘in-library’ classes? Many researchers have theorised that libraries will become largely digital, meaning that patrons would no longer have to visit a library in order to access anything, all the resources and assitance will be online. 24/7 access to a librarian from the comfort of your own home. I wonder will this lead to a nation of ‘work from home’ librarians? Surely if there is no need for patrons to come to the library, there is no need for staff to either.

There are many crazy postulations one could make about what will be, it is a very exciting time to be working in libraries and I personally believe that even though we have already been completely transformed, we are only at the tip of the iceberg and there are many much more fabulous things to come… I can’t wait!

Will this be what becomes of libraries? Or will they look more like this?