Watch Spag balance: academic librarianship and professional whatsits, mothering, spiritual growth, and various other aspects of personhood.
In other 80s news.... this is a bit old, but I would be remiss in not mentioning the search for the new lead singer of INXS. They were one of my FAVE bands in high school, and I was really upset when Michael Hutchence died (although the way he died was kind of, ahem, stupid). This is probably one of the best uses of reality programming. I hope they find someone good. No one can replace Michael, though.
I scan the approval review shelves on a regular basis. Mostly what pops out are books that appeal to my personal interests. Other times I notice books that I think that selectors will reject. I try to predict what these are. My first accurate prediction was a book of photography by Jeff Bridges. The photographs themselves were not that bad, but because of who the photographer was he was able to get access to some unique subject matter: Michelle Pfeiffer, Barbra Streisand, Robin Williams, etc., basically the cast and crew of his movies. Was this book rejected because it was a "celebrity" book? I don't know. I didn't ask. It was judged to be "out of scope", however.
Friday, lots of people on vacation, lots of people starting their ALA trips, lots of dead time for those remaining. We're in the fiscal close doldrums, can't send down anymore invoices, can encumber until June 30, but no one has any money left. We have gifts to work on, but they are dusty and icky. Hard to be the rah-rah motivator-manager at this time of the year, so it's biding our time until next fiscal year.
So, thanks BlogSkins, and Tom, for the old skin. I didn't mean to implement the switch yesterday, as I wouldn't have had time to put everything back, but here it is. Expect regular tweaks as I get comfy. Kind of like having pants or dress alterations done.
I just checked out Blogger's new templates and really like them (much more of a selection than when I first got underway). I think it's time for a change, don't you? Maybe now I'll resolve the bloody wrap problem with the archives list.
The acquisitions librarian is often isolated among her fellow librarian peers. I experienced this at my former job, where I was one of two librarians in my unit. Often, there is only one librarian, the situation I'm in now. Various networks are created through meetings with various councils, task forces, etc., here on campus and more widely in our consortia/campus systems. This is an attempt to foster bonds but only accomplishes that on a certain level. Other than that, librarians are divided up into groups. Bibliographers have their subject-related teams, catalogers can team up together, systems folks have the geek bond going with or without MLISs.
I visited my local branch library yesterday, which is a far cry from our former branch library. I realize that I seriously need to update my "current reading" at left (see what happens when I try to build in some currency to this thing?). The California houses book was on the track of my interior design bent, which I can't afford right now, not even Target-level. We did get new sheets for our son, but that's about it--no "design on a dime" makeovers to create a Spanish-themed bedroom or anything like that. I'll summarize my budget ideas and tips gleaned from looking at the houses of wealthy Napa Valley dwellers.... I usually check out 4-5 books at a time from the library, and I did again this time. Toddler development (including potty-training), fun girly fashiony indulgence (Three Black Skirts, and, for my rare bit of fiction, Lamb, The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. I'm really enjoying Lamb so far--it's irreverent and yet reinforcing the spirit of the Truth in a very contemporary and funny way. The author seems very knowledgeable about details of the Bible (as much as I've read of that, anyway), and makes what are sometimes "inside jokes". More on this in a later post.
It seems I'm earning the money, busy juggling a lot in the last few weeks of the quarter: asking for reports, sending emails with important data, making personnel decisions, etc. I also want to write more about gift material at some point. I shouldn't be that harsh with the "book lover" point of view, because I am one too. The workflow manager/administrator part of me gets impatient with the book lover sentiment. But shouldn't I also be defending this strain? Otherwise we're just business people and not special stewards of books and things.-
A more extended library conversation to break up all of the "lifestyle" chat. Today I've had a couple of occasions to break into "PR work" for the library, something that I think I'll be doing more of as I move up the career ladder. Acquisitions generally is a nice place to be to be out of PR fray: it's about processing materials, details of records, etc. It's called the "back room" for a reason. Two circumstances are bringing me out and requiring some more in-depth PR work than I've ever done. One has to do with faculty very concerned about collecting patterns in a specific subject area. I usually don't meet with faculty, but it looks as if I'm about to. The other has to do with our book sales of non-added gift material and how they are handled. I'm learning how political all of this is. I know that books are near and dear to folks' hearts. We say up here that there are no bibliographic emergencies (coined by one of the catalogers), and I feel that's true. We say that mostly to cut down on whatever sense of urgency is placed upon us by those who feel that there are bibliographic emergencies. But, books touch such a sensitive spot in people that they will get very emotional about book-matters. I must not forget that as my role takes on more of a public face.
A couple of campus observations: 1) a lot of young women on skateboards around campus, often big ol' longboards. I know there is a subset of chick boarders, but they didn't seem to be that prevalent in Seattle. A couple of different vibes going on too, mostly quasi-surf and quasi-punk.
Now this is the best news I've seen in a while--Detroit up 2-1 against the Lakers. Buddies and I have been talking about how great it would be to see a team from the East take it all. One might bring up the Bulls, but it is debatable whether or not Chicago was an aberration because of MJ. It would be nice to poke holes in the inevitability of the Lakers on top. The only reason at all I would want the Lakers to win is to see Gary Payton get a ring--he deserves it, and maybe shouldn't have spent all that time on the Sonics. With all that said: Go Detroit!!!
Today is not your ordinary Monday, but a day spent recovering from last night's super RAWKIN' show of A Perfect Circle in San Jose. With the boy safely deposited at grandparents, we made our way to the Bay Area, a nice dinner and book shopping in San Francisco, a quick bookstore jaunt in another neighborhood. Then we made our way to San Jose via 280, a beautiful drive from SF. We were leaving the parking garage to go to the venue, and wanted to kill a little bit of time beforehand--a latte would have been perfect. We were going to ask someone and saw a nice peace officer moving a road barrier--"Excuse me, is there a place around here to get a coffee before the show?" His answer? "There's a 7-Eleven around the corner." David's pithy observation after this exchange: "ask a cop question, get a cop answer."
I lost a few plants last weekend due to the heat. They said "partial sun", which should have been more on the shady side. I lost my Cosmo seeds, which were doing very well. Will have to wait until next year. A purply impatiens is hanging around, but will need help. The pulmonaria is rallying. Add whatever doesn't make it to the "killed it" pile which includes a lavender plant. I don't know why the lavender didn't make it, but it didn't. It's really gone.
I'm very tempted to place a couple of absentee bids for part of Katharine Hepburn's estate. Wouldn't it be fun to own something owned by her? Something small and not obvious, like the kitchen canisters or a rug, vs. the passports or portraits or other memorabilia?
Our son made his first complex deposit in his daycare room's potty! This is very exciting stuff and cause for all sorts of celebration. The teacher phoned me at work and told me. I guess everyone is hugging him and he's quite overwhelmed by the attention. It's a new era.
