Read all about me!

I was interviewed by Kate Tasker for an article for Portraits of SLIS Students and Alumni on my School's blog site

http://slisapps.sjsu.edu/blogs/meet/?p=2108

Thursday the 10th Pre- Conference blather

Thursday the 10^th.  We are going around the room talking about ourselves and then we will do our library and business card spchiel.

Rosario Garza guest speaker: She actually hasn’t worked in a library since 1984. She works for a library consortium which is an organization that helps libraries.

Works for a library cooperative; hers is very successful, and one of the largest. She is a personal friend of Patty’s.

“By pooling your power you can do a lot more.”

“How the library directors work together or…don’t.”

8 systems across the state. If the trigger bill is passed, then 2 to 4 of those organizations would fold.

(Quite a few Mom’s gone back to school here, and two dudes)

LAPL gives their consortium office space, and they provide 2^nd level reference.

Universal borrowing says that a library agrees to provide services to all.

They administer LSTA (library services technology grant) grants, coordinates training, 48 libraries in our system.

CALIFA, Infopeople, get involved grant, lots of statewide grants.CLA allows you to get leadership skills without having to go to the national level.

Student interest group that she says we should belong to “literally” STIG “Student Interest Group”

Librarians LOVE a good theme!

Technical services interest group.

Public Library Fund, which is based on population. Lots of things seem to be based on population.

Check out Dillon’s presentation tomorrow. Go on the ALA’s page on volunteering.

Libraries are at a crossroads, a critical juncture in the life of libraries.

Are you meeting the needs of the community?

(Super majority oh how I hate you! Once again, how can we pass anything with a super majority?!)

  As much as I appreciated Ms. Garza’s honesty about the state of Libraries, it was a dismal way to kick off a three day conference!  I wanted to cry and then slit my wrists after she finished speaking. She made some really great points about getting involved and active in not just your library but your community (of which Libraries should be a vibrant part), but man! What a downer, she could have given us a nibble of something positive as well.

Now we have a different speaker: Joan Frye Williams library consultant and futurist.

Oooh, I want to be a futurist, perhaps I already am?

Georgeandjoan.com is her website.

Being able to set distinguish techniques from principles

Cultivate your eccentricities,Connect what you’re passionate about to the work, and make room for your unique.Awareness to funding. What makes people vote yes for libraries.

I’m going to back a winner, I don’t know what they’re talking about but they are passionate, so they have my votes. If you can channel what you are passionate about.

Highlight your Resilience (I have a broad skill set). Interdisciplinary view.

If you have widely incompatible skills, that’s an advantage. Wow, who thought my Jill of All Trades skill set would be appealing to anyone?! This is a relationship based business. “I would not be sitting here if I didn’t like and know Patty.” “There are only 12 of us …”

“Be careful what you say about someone, because one persons favorite employee, is an other person’s asshole”

Not types of people, types of behavior. Disappointed optimist…maybe its you.

(Use my humor) (Listen first).

Good point, but how can we figure out how to do this …so the union will say yes, patrons will love it. Yes and… (All improve comedy techniques by the way)

“I’ve noticed you are good at…can you teach me?”

Validate who they are.

I can tell we are both devoted to the “principal” of access, and…here is something I can help you with that.

Check out the Cerritos library, lots of chitter chatter about that place!

Justifying to a county that a library was important.

Libraries can’t just be about content anymore; they have to be about place and space, connect, reflect, and celebrate the people who are paying the rent.

If we really want to be useful, we can’t just take care of stuff, we need to take care of people too.

Being in service to the content is not where the future is. Community based work is where it’s at. (Boy, I would love to hear a conversation between Joan and Steven Abram! Now that would be interesting!)

We used to be in the Library business and now we are in the “Chicago” business.

Embedded librarianship.

What do wish you knew more about? Gap in perception about what they think a library can do for them.  If we wait for them to figure it out…too late.

Doing something that matters to them, and then we’ll matter to them.

(Hungry)

“You’re either at the table or on the menu.”

What a great place to end.  On that note, I took my starving self and two classmates to an Indian restaurant I love (All India Café) which is just down the street on Fair Oaks.  As usual it’s delicious, but not spicy enough; it’s really never spicy enough no matter how much I say I can take it! We talked about our goals in the SLIS program and at the convention as well.

            All in all, it was a productive meeting and it was nice to meet fellow classmates.  The drawback for me with distance learning is the lack of face to face communication, so I really like these kinds of opportunities where I get to actually meet other SLIS students. I also really enjoyed the speakers particularly Joan Frye Williams. She had some really interesting things to say and little gold nuggets of wisdom as well.  I am going to make sure I get an e-mail out to her at the end of the conference; really all the speakers too.  I would like to talk to Barbara Stripling more, she was such an interesting women.  I love hearing the older crowd (and by that I mean older than me, whom at 45 is not so young any more myself.) talk about tweeting and using new tech tools!

Pasadena here I come!

Today is the first day of the CLA.  Really it's early registration, but I'm meeting with my class and going to the Huntington Library as well, so it should be a fun and easy day.  I don't really know what I'm going to wear; always an ordeal for me, but I'll try to stand out while still being casual and professional as well.  I usually have a break down of some sort crying out, "Is this what normal people wear?" "What really is business causal to the casually unemployed?" I will figure it out, and yes, I'll probably be wearing a hat, but the outfit will hopefully be in step with the rest.

Happy Halloween!

 

I have worn many wild and foolish costumes over the years on Halloween including the infamous Lorena Bobbit, a scary Ghede, (the voodoo god of the dead), and Cher from her Moonstruck days. I have also played my share of “sexy things”; sexy kitty, sexy puppy, sexy cave-girl, sexy Native American, sexy alien, sexy vampire (that one earned me a write up in the LA Weekly and other places too embarrassing for a mother of two to reveal). My all time personal favorite and go to standard has always been “Witch”. Not sexy witch, just witch; though twice I was a “pregnant witch”. People say that on Halloween you dress up like the thing you wish you could be or are too shy to be in real life. Does that mean that I strive to have more power and control in my life and make magic on the things I wish to change? Would I like to cast spells and make love potions? You betcha! When I take my kids trick or treating, I usually say, oh I won’t dress up this year, but then I end up putting together a costume.  Since my divorce, I have dressed as a Super Hero Mom, and a Zombie Mom, both of which I have cried about, laughed about or both, but I think this year I’m ready to be a witch again. I miss it, and I think it’s time to embrace my inner-witchiness once more.  Now I just have to decide, green face or deathly white? Purple satin hat or traditional Black? Pointy boots or striped tights? You’ll have to wait and see.  I’ll be the witch mom holding jackets standing on the sidewalk trying not to embarrass my kids as I take pictures and yell at them to say thank-you.

Internet Librarian

I spent the weekend at a conference called the Internet Librarian.  I know I know, where would the single (straight) men be at an event like this, but a girl has got to network if she wants a job in her new career and I’m game to try so I got up early to be ready for the five hour drive up to Monterey. I was nervous to meet my driving buddy; a fellow library student. Would he be a serial killer in the guise of a law librarian?  What were the odds he’d also be super hot and single? Well, when he pulled up in a rented white Crown Victoria, I happily and sadly realized he was neither. Once I finally got to my room at the Marriott, I unpacked my business suits and wondered if I’d get to wear the red party dress I brought just in case. (I also misguidedly stuffed a few condoms into my make-up bag). I never did wear the dress and high-heels, (only the smart grey suit saw any action), or use my little prophylactic buddies, but I did get to witness some kick-ass drunk librarian karaoke and learn a ton about the future of information science. When I got back home, I sent out e-mails to the business card connections I made, unpacked and lamented that the condoms I stuffed back in my drawer might expire before I ever get to use them. I really wanted the conference to have that magic “meet cute” element to it, but unless the statistics of who is in a MLIS program these days, I will remain single and searching. I guess it’s just as well. Sometimes business and pleasure need not always mix, and I should use my flirt & mingle techniques elsewhere like at a bloggers conference perhaps?

Falling asleep at the Internet Librarian

I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime pretty much.  If I had an acting talent, it would be funny voices and falling asleep on cue.  Before I was gluten free, I used to be able to fall asleep standing up.  This conference is the deadly triad of slightly boring, starts early (meaning having to wake up early), and takes place in large dark rooms. Add a droney voice and I'm done for.  I have been this way as long as I can remember. In high school, they would put signs on me: Shhhhh Sleeping student!  In college, I brought a tape recorder and re listened to my lectures in my cold apartment later on in the day. At work meetings, I make frequent trips to the bathroom to jump around and try to wake up.  I am usually not caught, but sometimes I am, and It's very embarrassing.  True to form, I have fallen asleep in a few of the meetings today. Not for the whole hour, just minutes and gaps.  Surprisingly, it has not affected my school or work.  I don't know if I  should be frightened or saddened, but I still get all A's in school.  I'm fully awake as I'm writing this, and the lecture is quite interesting. It's a discussion about Drupal vs Wordpress which are part of the world of CMS.  The speakers are funny and engaging, and they have a very nice power point that included a picture of free beer and free kittens to explain open source code.
Stay tuned!

Job Search and more

As I left my office today, I realized that I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I could have stayed for a few more hours if I wasn't so hungry and my hand wasn't aching.  I liked it that much.  I haven't felt that was about a job in a while, and it's really quite scary.  What happens in the world of animation is you get to loving a job, and then what ever show you are on collapses, finishes, doesn't get green lit, over bids, whatever the case maybe, and then you get laid off.  Everyone says what a great job you did, how much they liked working with you, and as soon as the economy improves, they'll hire you back. (with less pay and no benefits).  So right now I'm in the phase where everything is awesome, and I'm loving it, but I can't help waiting for the other shoe to drop.  This is why I'm trying to get out and into Library Science, but I just love animation, so it's a heart-breaker for me. I hope the economy picks up, and Library's are restored to 7 day weeks, and I'll find that great job out there, but right now today, I'm having a tough time believing it.