Stephenie Meyer is the worst ecological catastrophe of the 21st century

I went in to work the other day and to see that her publisher released another paperback edition of New Moon (the sequel to Twilight) with a movie tie-in cover. Just in case the fans did not own enough junk.

I think that 10% of our books in the store are written by a Mormon who uses vampires as an analogy for angels (not that I have anything against Mormons. Just the bigoted ones). Seriously though, that is a lot of books. And multiply that by all of the big box corporate bookstores out there. Add in Amazon. Throw in a few independent stores for good measure. It all adds up

The lorax is weeping...

..and not just over Stephenie Meyer. Nora Roberts, James Patterson, Nicolas Sparks. I don't want to censor bad literature. We all need a little garbage in out lives. Once you think about it though, all those trees add up.

It got me thinking about eReaders again. One of my readings for class talked about the information infrastructure, liking it to our transportation infrastructure. There are dozens, if not hundreds of components that let individuals (and commodities) travel around, almost anywhere we want to get. The infrastructure of information is similar, and mobile technology such as the Kindle and the iPhone are additional components to our information systems. Not everything can be on them, but maybe some stuff should.

PS - found a blog on eReaders. teleread.org Maybe some of you already know about it. If you don't, check it out.

In which our protagonist lands a job...

It really looks like I am going to be a librarian...

When I first started thinking about getting my MLIS here in Portland, I had a former coworker who was enrolled in the program I wanted to join leave the bookstore for a position with a prominent medical university here in town.

"Hmmm," I thought to myself, "I bet that would be a great job to have while going back to school. In fact, I think I would love to work there..."

With the process of getting into and starting school underway, I turned my attention to getting a job that would start my career as a librarian or information specialist. Fate smiled upon me, and I bumped into the former coworker, and she let me know that the prominent medical university was hiring student workers AND she would put in a good word for me. She is an angel. After applying and having a great interview, I start work on Tuesday.

It's going to be fascinating to work in a medical library, since I've never had any intention on being a doctor. Yeah, they make a lot of money, but blood is gross. Really gross. At least when I am bored at work I can research various debilitating medical conditions. Whenever I or a loved one receive a diagnosis, I'll certainly have the resources to find all the worst case scenarios possible and give the doctor a run for their money. Good thing I'm not a hypochondriac!

In other news...

Found this great article on cnn.com about the future of libraries. What I like about it is that it is not super alarmist. There is no "THEY'RE BURNING BOOKS" mentality. The article states that the way society gathers and devours information is changing, and libraries need to change to stay relevant. I especially like the end of the article where the funding issue is mentioned. There is a real catch 22 to the fact that updating libraries is super expensive, but with the current economic shenanigans we're going through, libraries can't afford to remain competitive.

things are changing...

A big thanks to my sister for pointing this article out to me.

Cushing Academy, an elite New England prep school, is entering into a very interesting academic experiment: removing the books from their library...

click here to read the article from boston.com

I don't really know what to say. It's scandalous, but could it also be the vanguard?

Last weekend in class, a cohort member raised the question: why don't all libraries digitize their collections. The room got hot. Not many people agreed with him, brought it brought up a lot of things to think about.

Will the change from reading a book to reading a devise have any affect on cognitive development and the way we learn? What about phyisical affects, such as the affect on the student's developing eyesight?

Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to preserve a few books when you could spend the same amount of to upload all of the information to a hard drive? Will books simply become cultural artifacts? I think back to the invention of the written word, and how many papyrus scrolls must have been in circulation, relative to the global population, and how few of them remain in museum collections.

What is going to happen when electronic readers are obsolete?

my stomach hurts....

it will be interesting to revisit Cushing Acadamy at the end of the school year, in five years, in ten, to see how things pan out...

a blogger reviews books about blogs...

Rough day at the bookstore last night. Customers were cranky, managers were cranky and coworkers were cranky, which left me at little cranky, too.


However...

A customer made my day about an hour before we closed when I asked her if she needed any help. She said yes, she needed a good book to read. A bookseller's favorite type of customer; someone who is genuinely interested in your opinion. Granted, she ended up shooting down most of my recommendations (as she had already read them), but ended up leaving with three I had suggested. She went with Home by Marilynne Robinson, (the new release of Pulitzer prize winning author of Gilead; this is a required recommendation at my store, but one I can stand behind), The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perotta and my personal favorite of all the suggestions I shared with her: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Ask any bookseller, librarian or good friend you know and they'll all say the same thing: having someone accept a book recommendation is like receiving a really good hug. Or a fresh baked cookie. Anything that leaves you with a warm fuzzy.

Which leads me to the purpose of this post...

I've had a few friends talk to me about my blog and their aspirations to start/resuscitate their own blog. Having just started this venture, I didn't have a whole lot of advice to give, as I am attempting the whole learn-as-you-go paradigm. But one thing that I can share are a few book recommendations that have inspired the development with this blog. So if anyone out there wants to start a blog or is curious about the whole blog phenomenon, check these out from your local library:

The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging by the Editors of the Huffington Post and Arianna Huffington

This is the first book I picked up during my journey of becoming a blogger, and I was skeptical of reading it at first; it seems a little cheesy and a bit too self-promoting. After a few pages, I really got into it and I feel like it offered some very solid advice, especially on ways to develop content and strategies for getting your blog read. Much like a group blog, a lot of different voices are represented in the book, all offering unique perspectives. It also covers a lot of the basics of blogging and resources for getting started (if you are so inclined), so this is a great one to pick up and look through

Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press by Eric Boehlert

This is a great narrative of how the Internet, and specifically blogging, affected the 2008 presidential elections. Ripping off Timothy Crouse's title, this is a fascinating look at the reach blogs are having in today's society. A great read for anyone interested in blogs, electoral politics or contemporary American Society

Blogging Heros: Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers by Michael A. Banks

I'm in the middle of this one right now, and discovering it's another great source for advice. Each blogger that Banks interviews dispenses their personal experiences with blogging, the various rewards they have gained while blogging, as well as their frustrations with the blogging venue and their hopes for the future. And at the end of each interview, Banks quickly summarizes each tip the blogger shares, reinforcing the advice they offer you. Again, great if you want to start blogging more or if you just want to read some one's prospective who has been doing this since the dawn of blog.

So check out these books if you're so inclined. But, in the words of LeVar Burton (r.i.p. Reading Rainbow), you don't have to take my word for it...

Idle ramblings...

Just had my first class weekend. The program I am enrolled in is distant learning, but each course does have face to face sessions twice a term. It felt so great to be back in an academic setting. Our cohort had some fascinating (and heated) discussions, and it was refreshing to put my brain back to work.

One of my favorite discussions we had was on how individuals use information. In a smaller group, we asked ourselves if the way we use information effects the way that we think or if the way we think effects the way we use information.

After class I had a great time hanging out with a few members of the cohort, including members who don't live here in Portland. I really enjoy being a tour guide and advocate for the city. Not only do I enjoy helping people out (like describing the layout of the city or how to take advantage of great public transportation systems) but I also love the ability to experience the town with someone who has not spent very much time here. Its like seeing the city in a fresh new way, as if I just moved here all over again.

In other news...

I just joined LinkedIn, more out of curiosity than expectations. I'm intrigued by social networking, and this is a site I have yet to check out. I've read a lot of reviews, and it seems like a great place for business professionals, especially folks with online businesses. I don't think it will get me a job, but I do think it will be a great way to *professionally* stay in touch. So if you're reading this and I have a profile, feel free to find me, and we'll link up.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Off To School I Go...

I have spent the past few years in anticipation, leading up to one day, yesterday; the official start to my masters program.

I moved east to west thinking I would be out here six months to a year on an academic holiday, and then move back to New England to continue my studies. I did not factor in falling in love with Portland and the Pacific Northwest. After deciding to stay, I spent the next two years researching a masters program that would be a nice fit for me, perfecting my application, waiting on application dates and deadlines, and fretting over financial aid. It has been a lot of mental energy spent waiting for something to finally start, and that day finally came.

It was a long day, a bit overwhelming, but I left feeling even more motivated and excited than I expected.

There are forty other members in my cohort, with a wide diversity of life experiences. Folks who have already started careers and families who just need this degree to get to the next step, folks looking to enter into a new profession and folks (like me) who want to get a profession started. Being a distance learning program, members of the cohort are traveling from all over the Pacific Northwest – Oregon, Washington, Idaho and even Utah.

I have to admit that at first I was nervous about the distance learning aspect to this program, having always relished the face-to-face discussions that take place in traditional classrooms. After yesterday, there is still some apprehension that will remain as I adjust to new learning methods, but I feel that the online structure of the program will set me up perfectly for the future of the information management industry. More and more information is communicated digitally, and earning my masters, I will be in the position to handle the increased changes this industry is going through….

So the fun part begins: the work.

But like I said, I left yesterday feeling excited and motivated. Unlike my undergraduate degree, where I enjoyed my studies but felt little direction as to where they would take me, I now feel a sense of urgency to the work that I am doing. The industry is changing, (take for example the role of the reference librarian. With the advent of wikis and the increased sophistication of online search engines, the frequency of reference requests might be diminishing, but the requests they do receive tend to be more complicated) and I want to be a steward of those changes, ensuring that the industry remains accessible, digestible and democratic…

Alright, before I get any more philosophical, I think it’s time for me to step off my soapbox, sign off and get back to studying…

And the adventure begins....

So I had my first academic induced panic attack. Thankfully, it was pretty minor.

I hop on my school email account and notice a welcoming email from one my professors, announcing to the cohort that the course is available on blackboard, our online classroom.

In my excitement I log in, read the professors introduction to the course and attempt to open the syllabus.

Emphasis on attempt...

I try and open it in Word, and all I get is gibberish. Not normal gibberish but weird computer code analog gibberish.

Great...

I try and open it in various other programs (Works, Adobe, Explorer). No dice. Then I notice a message saying that it's either corrupted or not opening in its original format.

Great...

So then I figure it might just be the document, so then I try and open every other document posted on blackboard. Same thing. Weird Code. Damn.

I feel that I should interrupt my story and explain, if you haven't guessed it yet, that I'm a bit of a Luddite. I'm amazed I was able to graduated college after the turn on the 21st century, and even more amazed that I kept a blog going for over a week without imploding my computer. This makes entering a career in library science both exciting and absolutely terrifying.

Back to the story. I am now sweating bullets. As I write this, 24 hours later, I realize this was simply the-start-of-school-anxiety manifesting itself. But at the time I was kind of wondering if the ability to download a simple document from a website was a psychotic test to see if I would make it as a librarian. So, in my panic, I email the professor, apologizing profusely for inconveniencing her, explaining the situation, but wondering if she could email me a copy of the syllabus. I also email the school's IT department, admitting to my technological shortcomings and beseeching them for any advice they could bestow upon me. Then I crawl into bed, feeling a bit embarrassed, and dream about showing up on the first day of class naked. (j/k. that would be too cliche.)

I come home after a long day at the bookstore, having annoyed all of my coworkers by trying to wring as much advice out of them as possible , to see that not only had the IT folks emailed me back, but so did my professor AND the teaching assistant. And they were all very sweet. And very helpful. And had the exact same advice. I needed to make my version of Windows compatible with Windows 2007. It took twenty minuets. I feel kind of foolish, and no less embarrassed.

If you listen really really carefully you might be able to hear me smacking my palm against my forehead...