I have a not-so-secret love of filling things out in little boxes: one of my remaining OCD traits.
Even if you don’t like filling things out in little boxes, if you do web work, I highly recommend that you fill out ALA’s excellent annual survey on web workers. The results are always fascinating (see last year’s), and it seems like the questions get better and more targeted every year.
So:
I proposed a talk for an upcoming Ignite event in Ann Arbor, and my idea was accepted. I’m going to talk about how what librarians do is actually really exciting and diverse, and why we shouldn’t be worried about the profession becoming obsolete. The talk is called “Ambient Librarianship, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Job.”
I wanted to address the subject because I recently landed my first full-fledged librarian job, and I don’t do anything that librarians “traditionally” do at all. Basically I’m a web dev for a scholarly publishing house that happens to be in a library. And, most librarians I know don’t do “traditional” librarian work either, or it takes up very little of their time. Instead they teach, they build websites, they manage social media, they wrangle data. Sure, they’re all working with information, and promoting information literacy, but they’re not sitting behind desks and organizing tiny cards in tiny drawers in giant chests.
I had a bit of a crisis of faith about halfway through grad school. I had worked in libraries since high school, and I thought I wanted to be an academic reference librarian. Then after two semesters of what I perceived to be really dry, really commonsensical courses in reference, cataloging, database searching, etc., I thought, my god. What am I doing here? I almost dropped out. I then realized that the other courses I’d been taking (information technology, complex systems, information policy), and the other work I knew how to do (web dev and design) could be folded into the label “librarian.” I feel much better about it now, but it took a long time.
I recently asked Twitter for librarians to tell me what their titles are, and what they do, and where they do it. If you’re a librarian, I’d love to hear from you.
Hey, kids. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I’ve been wrapping up some freelance projects.
Yesterday, after a particularly boisterous staff meeting, I made a t-shirt design depicting our new unofficial mascot: a small whale sculpture by the staff elevator. A quick photo, some lasso, some filters, some Cooper Black, and voila.
My boss has already made an iron-on version, and our director is looking into costs for silk-screening.
As one friend pointed out, this is what happens when I use my powers for evil.
On an unrelated note, I just caught this Flash ad on Salon.com, in a Glenn Greenwald thread about Obama’s new video directed at the government of Iran:
I like that a) not only does the meal cost about 3 times what one would pay for, say, an excellent, rare-meat-and-weapons-grade-drinks-filled “evening for two” at Knight’s, but b) the lady seems distinctly uninterested in her dining companion, who appears to be prattling at her over his small glass of wine while she peers lovingly into her giant glass of wine. Ah, romance.
My boss is very funny.
me: instead of leaving in the previous soups of the week, or just leaving them blank, whoever prepared the sign for today just left “Soup 1″ and “Soup 2″ in earlier slots.
my boss: so, did you pick soup 1 or 2?
me: oh, today was chili or NE Clam Chowder.
me: yesterday I probably would have chosen #1.
me: because I like being #1.
my boss: “I’ll take what’s under lid #1, Chuck.”
me: “You’ve won…MINESTRONE.”
me: *flashing lights and bells*
This past winter I helped copy edit a forthcoming O’Reilly book by local web optimization guru Andy King. It’s now available for pre-order.
I hadn’t done much editing since college, so it was a nice change of pace for my freelancing gigs. I’ve been doing more editing and writing for the web since.
Even with the full-time job, I’m still doing small projects here and there, mostly content development and small design overhauls for existing contracts, and projects for friends. So, feel free to ask.
HELLO “DENOV”:
JOBBOTRON SOMETIMES WONDERS IF ALL OF THIS “TECHNOLOGY” STUFF ISN’T WORSE FOR US IN THE END, PROVIDING AS IT DOES THE ILLUSION OF INFINITE CHOICE WHILE WE REMAIN SIMULTANEOUSLY ENSNARED IN REAL-LIFE OBLIGATIONS AND BIASES.
JUST KIDDING. COMPUTERS MAKE US ALL GODS ON EARTH. EVEN JOBBOTRON, AND JOBBOTRON _IS_ A COMPUTER.
YOUR IDEAL CAREER IS:
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* SHOVEL TRAINER *
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LAST, PEOPLE LOVE MUSIC. DURING YOUR WORKDAY, TRYING SINGING EVERYTHING. “I NEED THOSE NUMBERS ON MY DESK BY MORNING, JACOBSEN” SOUNDS SURPRISINGLY ALLURING WHEN SUNG TO THE TUNE OF “EDELWEISS.”
CRAVENLY,
JOBBOTRON
(ENGINEER ON DUTY: THORSTENSON FINLANDSON)
After several weeks of nail-biting, over-drinking, staying up too late, and wearing fancy shoes, I have emerged with having accepted a position at the B-School Library at the University of Michigan. My market title is Info Resources Assistant Sr. My job will be to wrangle digital collections and help to maintain and overhaul the library’s existing website.
I start (probably) May 5 May 12. I am excited.
And working a lot. And editing some chapters of a book. And stuff. And crocheting. And book clubbing. Rereading The Beekeeper’s Apprentice.
That said, I have been reading a lot. If I were to add a “What VP is reading” feature in the sidebar, would anyone care?
Update: Book widget added.
Today:
