you can count the fingers on one hand

maura @ 10:57 pm

I read a lot of stuff about instructional tech and information tech these days, and I see a lot of love for Twitter in those spheres. And I share that love, really, I do. I felt kinda embarrassed when I first signed up,* but Twitter has become a pretty indispensable part of my infostreams.

* linking to this post is cracking me up because apparently back in May of aught-eight I was all “I don’t want an iPhone!” And look at me now.

But lately I’ve been thinking about the other stuff that I like about Twitter. I don’t go overboard w/the celebs on Twitter — really it’s only a few folks. But it’s neato to be able to follow some musicians that I like, most notably Kristin Hersh and Tracey Thorn. Maybe it’s because they’re old like me and have kids and still talk about “records.” Tracey Thorn’s kids made fun of her for using that word, and now that I’m a librarian it sometimes has a different meaning for me, too, though I will always think of A sides and B sides before anything else (old habits die hard). Kristin Hersh, one of the most prolific (and sharing) musicians out there, lets us know every time she has a new song up on her website. And they both tweet silly funny stuff about their kids, an indulgence that any parent will probably appreciate (and admit to).

My Twitter music fan habit is probably just another mutation in the evolution path (and aging) of me as a music fan. I’ve written some about this in the past. The older I get, the less I crave live music, browsing record (ha) stores, and reading music reviews/news/zines/etc. (though I still sometimes miss my college radio show). But I still feel strongly about music and consider “music fan” to be a core facet of my personality.

Gets me thinking: what counts as a “fan”? I’ve seen only a handful of live shows since Gus was born and probably buy only 1-2 CDs every few months these days. But I still listen to music every day. And my Twitter habit helps keep music in mind, too.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0

maura @ 9:08 pm

At times like this I’m glad I have a picture on my camera I’ve been meaning to upload:

I took this picture last week — it’s of the big jello mold art in the Willoughby Windows that I mentioned, one of my favorite things to walk by in the mornings on the way to work. After I wrote that post I searched all around Flickr, thinking that someone had to have taken a photo of the big jello mold on a table, but I couldn’t find anything. So here it is for your delectation.

I should probably join Flickr. I don’t know why I never have, just hasn’t occurred to me, I guess. I don’t take that many photos (though I do take more now that I have a phone w/a camera) and I’m not sure that I would ever remember to upload them. But it would be nice to add to the pool of Creative Commons-licensed images out there in the world, so maybe I’ll take the plunge soon.

inside out in the daytime, outside in in the night time

maura @ 9:39 pm

Tonight I want to read the Science section in the Times and catch up on my RSS feeds and join FriendFeed and back up my student interview data and brainstorm ways to market the library’s course to the (hopefully many) students that will soon be able to register for it for next semester and go to sleep before 11. Probably impossible, but thank you for making blogging so easy, Twitter Tuesdays!

busy day, just catching up now & kinda funny to see the Levi-Strauss news reported from all corners of my twitterstream.
about 3 hours ago from Echofon

canceled meeting = pleasant surprise of extra time to gtd. listening to air: talkie walkie = good tuesday morning work music.
about 11 hours ago from web

@s_francoeur I know, I love voting w/those old machines, it feels so tangible and real.
about 12 hours ago from Echofon in reply to s_francoeur

no line to vote, w00t!
about 13 hours ago from Echofon

@maura isn’t every night goth night in new orleans?
7:17 AM Nov 2nd from Echofon in reply to maura

resetting clocks last night worked: Gus let us sleep an extra hour this morning, yay!
7:46 AM Nov 1st from Echofon

RT @dancohen UNC Press surveying librarians on “ideas for innovative publishing projects” http://tr.im/DHAe. Free book 4 completing survey.
11:53 AM Oct 31st from web

RT @tracey_thorn: bloody spoilsports http://tinyurl.com/ydapt6g
9:07 AM Oct 31st from Echofon

@listentomyvoice Don’t let it get you down. I had a prof talk loudly to a few students while I was teaching earlier this week. So rude!
10:26 PM Oct 30th from Echofon in reply to listentomyvoice

@lwaltzer he wants 2 B a cobra & does not care that we can’t find a costume. my husband is painting scales on a cape right now. Kaya & Roby?
10:04 PM Oct 30th from Echofon in reply to lwaltzer

perfect weather right now for Halloween: cloudy, windy and mid-50s. shame it’ll be warmer tomorrow.
5:35 PM Oct 30th from web

Great time today @ Gravesend Inn, incredible haunted house built + run by amazing #citytech Entertainment Tech students http://bit.ly/1VeT4N
6:42 PM Oct 29th from web

@brianmathews digital learning objects integrated into library website & college course management system & the marketing of same
12:32 PM Oct 28th from Echofon in reply to brianmathews

so far, so far away

maura @ 9:06 pm

I had this whole post about open access publishing I was in the middle of writing for my other blag, but I broke my own writing rules and didn’t finish it this morning. I read the paper and my RSS feeds instead, which felt like a better way to start this Monday. We blew any sleep gained Saturday night by staying up too late reading/programming last night, then of course I woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep, just for good measure. Tonight I am going to sleep at 9pm, seriously.

I had two classes right in a row in the middle of the day today, which meant that I ate lunch around 11:00am. Maybe it was my tiredness or maybe my full stomach that made me feel like the classes didn’t go particularly well. They weren’t awful, just that there seemed to be a higher percentage than usual of students either blatantly not paying attention and/or chatting amongst themselves. I know all of the things to do in these cases, e.g., stand near the chatterers, give them pointed looks, ask them questions about the material, and ask them to stop talking. And I even did some of them. But still, something about these classes was dissatisfying.

The humble one-shot library instruction session has been written about many times and in many venues, both formal and informal, and I’m not going to bore you with a repeat here. But on days like today I find myself wondering how I can make it better. What if there were a way to get the students more involved and to make the session less draining for me, too? Partly that’s my own fault — my adrenaline rush usually keeps me moving around during classes and I talk with my hands too much. But it’s also because of that dreaded feeling that I have to lecture for much of the session or else I won’t be able to cover all of the material. And lecturing is tiring.

I’ve been trying to hatch an alternative plan for these sessions in my head over the past week or so. I’m not sure if it’s gained enough mass yet to put down in writing — it still feels kind of ethereal. But the gist of it is: what if the entire class session consisted of me asking students questions? What if I asked them to demonstrate searching the library catalog and databases? I do ask questions throughout my classes, but maybe actually rewriting the library session as a series of questions would both help take the talking onus off of me and get the students more involved.

Now I just need to find the time to write those questions down. But not tonight.

i had a little trouble with the scissors

maura @ 10:58 am

Yes, it’s November, so once again it’s time for NaBloPoMo. All fall I’ve been laboring under the assumption that I wouldn’t participate this year. Just like last year, the first 3 weeks of November is the busiest time at MPOW for library instruction. I’m on more committees than last yr, too, and in the midst of a big research project.

BUT. The big but. The point of NaBloPoMo is to force gently encourage yourself to write more, and I could use a kick in the pants w/writing these days. Back in September I settled on a new writing plan: I come into work at 8am and write for an hour before work. (This year Gus rides the school bus to school as well as home, which means that he and Jonathan need to leave the house at 7:30am, which suddenly makes this plan feasible.) Mostly this writing is supposed to be scholarly, but lighter stuff like library blogging also counts.

And this all worked swimmingly until around the 2nd week in October, when I started the student interviews portion of my research project. Suddenly I needed all the time I could scrape together to manage my research; my one Reassigned Time day/week just wasn’t cutting it. So I started devoting mornings to the project too. Which is fine — it’s a great project and I’m really enjoying the work. But I miss my writing time.

Now that the data collection part of my research project is starting to slow down for this semester, it’s time to get back to that regular writing again. And I figure I’ve got a couple of posts that I already know I’ll write, between Twitter Tuesdays and the other blags I write for.

So, I’m in. 30 posts in 30 days. I’ve done it before, I can do it again, right?

i <3 u, twitter tuesdays

maura @ 9:35 pm

Thank you, twitter Tuesdays, for being here for me on a day with 2 meetings and 2 classes all in a row. Because now I have to go to sleep.

(P.S. I went to a conference last Friday, so my stream is probably more librarianish than usual this time around.)

@TheLiB boo to filtering!
about 7 hours ago from Echofon in reply to TheLiB

feeling a bit sad for my kid on yet another rainy field trip day. hope he’s wearing his jacket.
about 10 hours ago from web

@PunkRockKarl Gus was like, “why was she mad about too MANY beans? Isn’t more better?”
about 11 hours ago from Echofon in reply to PunkRockKarl

I don’t care what kind of day you’re having, it’s never cool to yell at the Chipotle worker for putting too many beans on your taco.
2:33 PM Oct 26th from web

RT TheLiB The median age of a Twitter user is 31 MySpace = 26 Facebook = 33 LinkedIn = 39 http://bit.ly/PIPtw RT @Pew_Internet
12:23 PM Oct 26th from web

just crossed the halfway mark for this semester’s student interviews for my research study, yay!
12:22 PM Oct 26th from web

@divanoir @notjonathan they *were* yummy!
10:00 PM Oct 25th from web in reply to divanoir

engrossed, lil nerd style http://twitpic.com/mszfj
7:26 PM Oct 24th from Echofon

some saturday mornings i wish i could do karate, too.
11:34 AM Oct 24th from web

@divanoir har, i was at a conference, some said younger folks dress unprofessionally, and someone pointed out that old folks sometimes do 2!
6:32 PM Oct 23rd from web in reply to divanoir

awesome point: inappropriate dress is not a generational thing! #lacuny2009
2:03 PM Oct 23rd from Echofon

is turnover in positions healthy for libraries? is commitment to the profession more impt than to the specific job yr in? #lacuny2009
1:34 PM Oct 23rd from Echofon

second panel: younger librarians (can’t make myself say next gen) may be easier for students to approach #lacuny2009
1:29 PM Oct 23rd from Echofon

@AgentRamona yeah, the patron stuff can be hard hard hard. more training w/that would be really helpful.
1:24 PM Oct 23rd from Echofon in reply to AgentRamona

@AgentRamona for me it’s about 50% but I wish I had more tech, pedagogy, adv cataloging, marketing. And a req thesis & internship.
11:58 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon in reply to AgentRamona

Jenna Freedman: key value we need to pass on to up & coming librarians is service. (right on!) #lacuny2009
11:54 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon

there’s *not* always a strong correlation between tech savviness and age. I’m kind of tired of that assumption. #lacuny2009
11:30 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon

@oelibrarian I was thinking the same thing. What about the middle? #lacuny2009
11:27 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon in reply to oelibrarian

panel time! the graying (bluing) of the profession. :) #lacuny2009
11:18 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon

it’s true that there’s never enough time to learn everything you want to in library school. maybe the degree should be longer? #lacuny2009
10:50 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon

the feral professionals label makes me feel weird–what about older but new librarians? (maybe i just feel left out) #lacuny2009
10:41 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon

just have to say it: is better compensation of young librarians tied to increase in male librarians? #lacuny2009
10:26 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon

good news for young librarians? SW says will be hard to avoid managerial roles in the future b/c of demo shift #lacuny2009
10:13 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon

listening to Stanley Wilder at the LACUNY Institute #lacuny2009
10:03 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon

@oelibrarian should we invent a hashtag? #lacuny2009 ?
9:57 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon in reply to oelibrarian

RT @kerim: Happy Birthday Ursula K. Le Guin! http://bit.ly/CsbIZ (via @savageminds)
7:18 AM Oct 23rd from Echofon

@lwaltzer ah, yes, the requests for snacks and water are familiar tactics here, too. they are so transparent, these children!
11:05 PM Oct 22nd from web

9pm, and the bedtime stalling begins in earnest, sigh. “I hurt my foot! I can’t walk to the bedroom!” (hop, hop, hop)
9:04 PM Oct 22nd from web

today’s oxymoron: 1 terabyte mac mini
9:49 PM Oct 21st from web

@alevtina yay! fingers crossed for you.
8:58 PM Oct 21st from web in reply to alevtina

@airwalker999 naw, I know, it’s just that the names are so silly.
2:53 PM Oct 21st from Echofon in reply to airwalker999

@untold there’s always a replacement
2:44 PM Oct 21st from Echofon in reply to untold

I am already annoyed by the proliferation of new reading devices/formats ending in -ook.
9:54 AM Oct 21st from web

@mkgold thanks for the shoutout, and great to see you at the #openaccess program!
9:04 AM Oct 21st from web

untogether

maura @ 9:41 pm

I didn’t ride my scooter to work all last week, because the week before I took a spill. I know, I know, why didn’t I tell you, internets? Well, I was (understandably, I think) embarrassed: as I keep saying, the only thing dorkier than an old lady in an orange helmet riding a kick scooter is the same eating it on the broken pavement near the Atlantic Center. Duh. It wasn’t the end of the world — a couple of small scrapes and a bruised shoulder and a chunk out of one hand, and thankfully the worst of it is on my left side (I’m right handed).

With my (minor) injuries I’ve been walking to work the past week or so. It’s funny how sloooooow it seems to me now when I walk to work. It only takes 40-ish minutes, but it’s easily twice the time it takes me to scoot. (Though I’m pretty sure that walking is better exercise, even with the uphill scoot home.) I do listen to podcasts or music during the walk, which I can’t do when I scoot, but it still seems long and a little boring.

Until I get to the art, that is. Then things get more interesting. You may have seen this story in the Times last week about the rise of pop-up art galleries in vacant storefronts around the city. I know it’s not a good thing to have vacant storefronts, but I have to admit that I vastly prefer the art.

I actually walk by two of the galleries mentioned in the Times piece. The first is a long stretch of storefronts with a ton of space, and lots of interesting sculpture and paintings inside. Right next door is an Applebee’s* which just increases the artistic tension, as far as I’m concerned. The Kenny Scharf mural (photo in the Times) is there, and a weird industrial chunky sculpture that’s all wood and oil drums and pipes and water. There’s also the melting waffle from the plaza near my work! I was so glad to see it — it disappeared from the plaza a few weeks ago and I’ve missed it.

* I’ll never get used to this Applebee’s being there. It’s so incongruous.

The second set of gallery spaces is smaller but also pretty cool. There are a couple of pieces with an anti-consumerist bent, which I totally groove on. It’s also nice that the old store signs were left above each storefront; the 1 Hr Photo, Check Cashing and Taco Rico signs really add to the effect. One of my favorite pieces has a table with two chairs and a huge jello mold on it. It’s the spiritual sibling of the enormous melting waffle. Go weird big food art, go!

superblast

maura @ 9:14 pm

It’s Open Access Week, so we had a little program for faculty (with cookies!) at MPOW today and got some spiffy orange buttons to boot.

I’m tired.

So, without further ado, this week’s twitterstream:

headache, are you from too much coffee or too little coffee?
about 2 hours ago from web

@mikhailg my inlaws are in w. lafayette–ping me if you end up going & I’ll share good places to eat.
about 23 hours ago from Echofon in reply to mikhailg

RT CityTechLibrary Happy Open Access Week! How will you celebrate? http://www.openaccessweek.org/
5:17 PM Oct 19th from web

Wait, it’s Sunday night already? How did that happen?
9:52 PM Oct 18th from Echofon

@notjonathan i made a valiant effort! damn you, casunziei and your delicious buttery beety-ness.
11:40 PM Oct 17th from web

I’m totally sick of vampires and zombies.
9:18 AM Oct 17th from Echofon

RT @zephoria: Doing work on Digital Media and Learning? There’s now a conference for you! Submit session proposals: http://bit.ly/WQ90t
9:15 AM Oct 17th from Echofon

seasonally creepy http://twitpic.com/lsapx
5:46 PM Oct 16th from Echofon

RT jpeg2000 Please join me in welcoming @RadReference to the twitterdome!
2:07 PM Oct 16th from web

also: wearing 2 sweaters, no heat in tech services. it’s like a meat locker in here. send a search party if no tweets by dinnertime.
9:53 AM Oct 16th from web

bummed to be missing @mkgold’s guerrilla pedagogy talk at laguardia cc this morning. i need a clone!
9:51 AM Oct 16th from web

@aegisnyc down with research guilt! research is always good.
10:55 PM Oct 15th from web in reply to aegisnyc

our library course for next semester is in sims! never thought i would be happy to learn another bureaucratic proprietary computer system.
12:49 PM Oct 15th from web

@alevtina we have friends in Portland who love it. It’s easy to want to get out of NYC when job hunting! So many other places…
12:44 PM Oct 15th from Echofon in reply to alevtina

ate my lunch while it was still hot, FTW!
1:34 PM Oct 14th from web

engulfed

maura @ 9:30 pm

Earlier Gus asked Jonathan what “engulfed” means, and since I was thinking I’d write a little something about my research project today that seems as good a title as any.

This year a colleague (at another library) and I got a small grant to do an ethnographic study of the ways that students at each of our colleges research and complete their school assignments and projects. It’s modeled after a similar study done at the University of Rochester a few years ago (here’s a PDF of the book they wrote about it). We’re interviewing faculty about their expectations for student work, and also doing a couple of different kinds of interviews with students.

Working on this project has been a blast so far. We started with faculty interviews at the end of the spring and over the summer. But it’s gotten a bit intense over the past few weeks since the student interviews started. Right now I’m in the throes of 2 kinds of interviews with students. One is called a mapping diary — I give each student a map of our campus and of the transit system and ask them to trace and log (with times) the course of a typical school day. The other is called a photo survey — I give each student a disposable camera and ask them to take pictures of different objects and locations, e.g., where they study, what they carry in their school bag, etc. With both of these I’m asking students to meet with me after they’ve finished for between 10-30 minutes so that I can interview them to expand on what they recorded on their maps/photos.

We’ve got enough funding for 10 students to participate in each kind of study. It’s been a bit more challenging than I’d anticipated keeping track of everything: which students have come to pick up their maps/cameras, dropped them off, and scheduled interviews. I’m running cameras to the drugstore to get developed and buying Metrocards in different denominations (as payment to the students for participating in the interviews). When I posted the flyers to recruit students for the study I had such an overwhelming response that I actually had to go around campus and take them down 4 days later! Which is all great, just a bit of a challenge on top of all of the usual life + work stuff.

Thank goodness for RT! Reassigned time, the saving grace of the junior faculty member. Tomorrow I’ve got an RT day scheduled and have 4 students meeting me for interviews. Then somebody has a birthday (and will finally be as old as me), and we all get cake. Huzzah!

tuesday again?

maura @ 9:28 pm

Then it’s time for the past week’s twitter stream:

@boonebgorges re: lecture on twitter, you may want to emph care + feeding if using for library outreach (i struggle with that, honestly) 3 minutes ago from web in reply to boonebgorges

i <3 my research project, but the long days are getting to me. next time must ask for funds for an assistant. about 1 hour ago from web

it is impossible to articulate the depth of my hatred of chicago style. *end*notes?! bah. seething. (sorry, alma mater!) 11:50 AM Oct 12th from web

@alevtina yeah, i have the same, but our bike rack is not in the sight line of the security guard, unfortunately. 11:46 AM Oct 12th from web in reply to alevtina

@AgentRamona yeah, you’re right, he is a little creepy. 11:45 AM Oct 12th from web in reply to AgentRamona

i <3 the new brooklyn public library catalog interface. kudos! 9:59 PM Oct 11th from web

@alevtina you are amazing for biking all the way from SI to work! I still haven’t b/c I am scared of bike theft (riding scooter instead). 8:47 PM Oct 11th from Echofon in reply to alevtina

today was the last day of the season on governor’s island http://twitpic.com/l6m9a 7:12 PM Oct 11th from Echofon

*some* people and their secret twitter accounts for one word tweets, harrumph 10:50 AM Oct 11th from Echofon

@aegisnyc awesome, thx for the tip! we are always looking for new things to read around here. he’s a fickle consumer of kidlit. 10:41 AM Oct 11th from Echofon in reply to aegisnyc

it’s funny nostalgia watching gus get totally into calvin + hobbes. the 3 books we bought recently won’t last the (long) weekend. 4:57 PM Oct 10th from web

p.s. The Stanford-Lockheed Meyer Library flood report is available in at least four US libraries: http://bit.ly/2d5E1S 11:10 AM Oct 9th from web

Tried not 2 yell at my computer while reading Brin’s OpEd on Google Bks, but failed. Interlibrary loan, people! Blargh. http://bit.ly/2m33hX 11:07 AM Oct 9th from web

Signed up 11 students for my research study this week, arranging appts w/9 others (and spoke w/many more). Happy, if exhausted. 10:08 PM Oct 8th from Echofon

@divanoir that’s how we do it here in the BK. 9:50 PM Oct 8th from Echofon in reply to divanoir