Yahoo! Mindset, currently in beta, is a nice twist on searching. After running a search, you tell the engine whether you are more interested in commercial sites or informational sites. Move the bar all the way to commercial and you are doing a shopping search. Move it all the way to researching and you have done a more noncommercial search. Leave it in the middle and you have a normal search.
Why smart people defend bad ideas – scottberkun.com could be subtitled: how to work with librarians and libraries. The number of smart people who succumb to group thinking in library work is amazing. Plus, I continue to argue with folks who are defending bad ideas and have been defending those same ideas and practices for decades, so they are darn good at it with so much practice.
Now that I have been at a library for ten years, I do find myself getting defensive about some of our quirky policies that I know the background of. I have to take a step back and try to see things afresh. But it is hard! So I get the defensiveness, but I don’t understand those who refuse to even attempt to see it from a new perspective. I am sure my staff could list many Weird Things That Tasha Insists Upon, but we won’t ask them, will we?
Sartre.org is a website dedicated to existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre. It includes articles, analysis, interviews, works, quotes, and a biography.
The Classroom Electric: Dickinson, Whitman and American Culture is a collection of web sites on Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and 19th-century America. The sites contain digital images of manuscripts, rare photographs, letters, and other documents.
ACTFL has a great website offering information and resources on foreign language instruction. From conventions, to professional development, to publications and news, the site offers the latest information affecting this field.
HighBeam Research is a search engine with a unique feature, their library search. It allows you to search documents, images and reference services. So this search limits your results to newspapers, magazines, journals, transcripts, maps, encyclopedias, dictionaries and almanacs. They have over 3000 sources for their library search to draw from. In my brief trial of the search, I found many great results that could easily be used for report writing and speeches. Much more specific than Google or Yahoo, this is the search to use when you want current articles on a subject that you can point people to via a URL.
Chronicle Careers has a great post about an academic librarian who has left a toxic work environment. Public libraries can be just as toxic, speaking as someone who escaped a similar situation ten years ago. From personal attacks to professional ones, I bore them all. By the time I left, after four years, I was a wreck. I could no longer drive a car and could no longer speak in public without my voice cracking and shaking. But I left with my head held high for a position that I thoroughly enjoy. I drive and certainly have my voice back too.
From that awful experience, I have learned how not to run a library. I strive not to make the same mistakes that I saw made time and again. I hope to empower my staff so that they can make their own decisions, rather than hovering over and judging performance. I try not to blame individuals for situations, but look forward to see how we can change things for future success. I want my staff to feel free to take risks, because through risks the library becomes stronger. And I promised myself never to use the two phrases that my director used on me: “we must explore the range of possibilities” and “making no decision is also a decision,” both used to stop me in my tracks so that nothing could be accomplished.
Toxicity can come in all levels in libraries, so even as a manager/director I have faced it. The difference now is that I can recognize it quickly and feel that I can deal with it head on. Most importantly, I continue to proudly carry the label of troublemaker. To me, it now means that I am willing to speak up and shout if I have to. Making trouble and asking questions is part of my job, even if my voice shakes.
PublicRadioFeeds.com is a podcast directory for radio feeds, offering primarily public radio programs and also Air America and other specific commercial radio shows.
JS Online: As communities try to curb their spending, libraries’ operating budgets keep rising
Sigh. Well, I am sure the 77% budget increase in Waterford makes a good headline, but in my experience as a library director in Wisconsin, we have never even considered ASKING for an increase even a fraction that high, much less expecting to have it funded by our municipalities and county. Amazing.
Over the years, we have struggled to have our city and town fund the library enough to keep books on the shelves and pay for salaries. The municipalities have increased our book budget once in the last ten years (by $1500), and increased our staff once in the last decade by changing an 8 hour page position to an 18 hour clerk position. That is closer to the norm here in Wisconsin. The directors and library board members request more funding, necessary funding, and our municipalities are caught in a situation where they must decrease or curb spending and often must choose between libraries and police.
I do not resent having to justify every dollar I request. I don’t have a problem with running a very tight budget. But I do have a problem when the major newspaper in the state decides that libraries are unfairly getting money while other departments suffer. That is not the case in the vast majority of libraries in the state. Yes, we run wonderful facilities here. Yes, we are the hub of the community. But no, we are not greedy and are not seizing more than our share. Much the opposite, I’m afraid.
The Litblog Co-op is a blog that unites the top book blogs in order to draw attention to top authors and books that may be ignored by the masses. Their first book choice is Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.
