Talking in the Library

Resolutions?

Talk to the author of "Fourth Star"

Need a study break? Too cold to go out? Gregg Jaffee, military reporter for the Washington Post and co-author of the recently-released book “The Fourth Star” will be appearing via teleconference at the meeting of the K-State Libraries / Ft. Riley Professional Reading Group. The meeting begins at 6:30 PM, Monday December 14th in Room 123 Hale Library, and everyone is welcome.

I love my public library

I love my public library--not in a sunshine and lollipops kind of way, but because, although not perfect, it has always been there for me. While I've known many public libraries, my home away from home is Manhattan Public Library down at the corner of Poyntz and Juliette.

Manhattan Public Library was my incubator. I read books by the dozens for the summer reading program as a kid. I first made the awesome step of checking out books from the adult side there. My mom worked there. My sister worked there. My little brother came in every afternoon after school. Some of my best friends work(ed) there. I worked there for six years. There are adults in this town that I call, at least in my head, my library kids because I've known them since they couldn't see over the counter to check out their stacks of books. I know that tile and atriums are a bad design feature in public libraries after years of story times. I still think that attack poodles are the key to stopping book thefts.

Sophocles Meets the 21st Century U.S. Army

Looking for something different? "Theater of War", part of The Philoctetes Project, is an eclectic evening that employs the plays of Sophocles to explore the challenges of today's returning veterans.

What: Theater of War

When: Saturday, October 16th. Doors open at 5 pm, show starts at 6 pm

Where: C.L. Hoover Opera House, Junction City, KS

Read more about it here.

College advice your first year and beyond

Here's some more college advice, as if everyone hasn't been giving you advice about college since you were 13.  This advice, however, is a series of New York Times op ed columns written by college professors across the U.S. They've been teaching for decades, and you might even recognize some of their names--if not now, surely you'll look back in four or five years and think, "Wait, isn't this the same person who suggested that I read a newspaper every day?"  Whether or not you take every piece of advice, at least consider it.  That's the whole point of college, after all, learning to take new information and consider it.  You don't have to agree with something just to consider it.

When you read these pieces, you may notice that at least half of the professors suggest learning to write--even if you already think you can write or tested out of Expos, take another course.  I was fortunate enough to have a fantastic AP English teacher in high school,  Mrs. Adams. I think at least eight of us here at K-State Libraries took AP English from Mrs. Adams and can still reel off the elements of a good paper.  So I tested out of Expos. 

I was also an English major, and required to take ENGL 310, Intro to Literary Studies, taught by Dr. Dean Hall. Our first paper was an analysis of  the short story, A&P, by John Updike.  I always earned A's in high school English classes, and figured this class wouldn't be any different.  However, when Professor Hall handed that first paper back, I was pretty close to tears because he marked it so profusely in red.  

Fortunately, we were allowed to write, and rewrite that paper, until we met his standards.  And, when I took the time to read those bloody red notes he wrote, I realized that, while it felt like he was telling me I was wrong, wrong, wrong, he was also teaching me how to do it right.  I took three and a half more years of classes in K-State's English Department.  Right up until the day I graduated, my papers came back with notes about how to improve my sentence structure, or formulate my argument, or properly cite my sources. 

So, here's my advice.  Yes, take a writing class.  But in any class, if your professor takes the time to write notes about your work, he or she isn't necessarily telling you that you are wrong, they are doing their damnedest to help you get it right.  If you can't read the notes, set up an appointment with your professor to have them translated! These years later, I still look back at my semester with Professor Hall and consider it the most valuable of my college career. 

Also, I still hate A&P.

Image credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/justageek/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Butterfly in the sky, goodbye

Friday morning I woke up to horrible news: after 26 years, Reading Rainbow is no longer being broadcast.  According to PBS.org, production of Reading Rainbow episodes ended several years ago.  Instead of enticing children to learn to read and to love reading by presenting kids reviewing their favorite books, children's programming will focus more on the foundations of reading, like phonetics. 

I'm all about children learning to read--and leveraging media to assist in these efforts. I am, after all, a Sesame Street kid and, although I hated almost every other aspect of The Electric Company, Easy Reader was the smoothest reading teacher in the land. 

However, hearing that Reading Rainbow is going off the air makes me want to kick something...hard.  What's the point of learning all of the rules of phonetics if you don't anticipate the joy and power that reading brings into your life? The book reviews written and presented by kids (real kids, who sometimes spoke to fast or flubbed a word) were golden.  Even LeVar Burton's overly earnest presentation had an obvious foundation in a love and excitement of the stories you could discover when reading--check it out:

A nostalgia list for geeks and nerds

As we await Beloit College's Mindset List for the class of 2013, cruise on over to Wired Magazine's list of 100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About.

I'm not enough of a geek to know what some things on the list even refer to, but my fave is:

70) Taking turns picking a radio station, or selecting a tape, for everyone to listen to during a long drive. --it's why my sibs and I are all Pogues fans.

Now, libraries only get mentioned twice in this list, and I think we all know that the library constitutes home ground for nerds, so I thought I'd compile my own list of things kids today may never need to know about libraries:

1) Library checkout cards

 2) Using big fat books with little tiny print to find magazine, newspaper, and journal articles on your topic.  We called them periodicals indices.  Now they are almost all online in databases.

3) The library as a quiet place to study

4) Card catalogs (unless your library doesn't have any money)

 

5) Having to actually go to the library to use the library.

Image credits:

Beyond the Grave by quinn.anya. http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Man with periodical guide by K-State Libraries:http://www.flickr.com/photos/kstatelibraries/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Subject catalog by K-State Libraries http://www.flickr.com/photos/kstatelibraries/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Students reveal why and how they use Wikipedia

And they're using it almost exactly the same way I do.

Check out this video from Project Information Literacy, based on interviews conducted with undergraduate students at seven universities in the U.S.

When I work with students beginning, or stuck in the middle of, the research process, I may begin at Wikipedia, too.  Especially if it's a topic I know little to nothing about, like Lewis structures.  This way I can locate other search terms, related concepts, and journal articles, books, conference proceedings, and other sources of information. 

Some students already know my standard caveat speech, but I give it anyway.  "Start with Wikipedia, don't end with Wikipedia.  Any information you find in Wikipedia that you use in your paper/project/speech, you had better be able to confirm (or disprove) with another source, such as a journal article or book."  Another part of the speech, "If you use something in your paper/project/speech that you only found on Wikipedia, you have to cite that Wikipedia article."  As part of the scholarly process, your audience must be able to locate and read/hear/watch your source of information.

By the way, if you download the LibX toolbar, and the references in the Wikipedia article are correct, you may be only a few clicks away from reading or requesting those legit sources.

Brains as food: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

You got your Mr. Darcy in my zombies!  You got your zombies in my Mr. Darcy! 

Ever since I learned of the book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I have been undying to get my hands on it. I've already read the bits Jane Austen wrote, but am all agog to read about zombies in Netherfield Park. 

If you haven't heard about it on NPR (my BFF), in the New York Times, or on Facebook, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies retains the original work by Jane Austen, with zombies added by Seth Grahame-Smith.

Now, if you've been paying attention to plagiarism and copyright, you may be wondering, why did they let Grahame-Smith take this book written by Jane Austen and add zombies to it?  The simple answer involves death.  Jane Austen's death to be precise.  According to both U.S. And U.K. copyright laws, an author's work is protected by copyright for 70 years after his or her death.  Jane Austen died in 1817, roughly 192 years ago.  That means all of her works are out of copyright and in the public domain.  No, it doesn't mean you can take her work and just stick your name on it, you still have to give her credit (or anyone whose work you are using.)

This, of course, leads to rampant speculation, what other public domain titles could use a spot of zombies?  I picked the brains of friends for their best undead/public domain mashups:

Anne of Green Gables (my money is on Marilla Cuthbert for kicking some zombie... uh, bottom)
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Count of Monte Cristo (reasoning: it's a very confusing book already, so you can just toss one in)
Don Quixote (because he'd be fighting these imaginary things, but they'd be real)
Thoreau's Walden (I think we all know by now that anyone going to the woods to contemplate Nature--and mooch off friends--is going to spend far more time fighting off zombies than watching ants on the windowsill.)

Now I'm dying to hear your suggestions. Remember, the author (or authors if there are more than one) must have been dead for more than 70 years. If you need ideas, check out Project Gutenberg.

Facebook confessions (really long post)

A Friday afternoon etiquette tip from Tara Coleman ad Sara K. Kearns.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:07 PM, Tara Coleman  wrote:
I'm about to unfriend some people on Facebook.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:07 PM, Sara Kearns wrote:
Seriously? Not me again, I hope.  What's wrong?

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:10 PM, Tara Coleman wrote:
There's WAY too much drama. What's wrong with people? Does no one know how to use Facebook right?

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:14 PM, Sara Kearns wrote:
I didn't, until you sent me that helpful video.  (BTW, sorry again for outing your childhood dream of being a backup dancer for Janet Jackson on your wall.)

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Tara Coleman wrote:
First off-anyone who's seen the Rhythm Nation video knows there is no shame in wanting to back up Janet, Ms. Jackson if you're nasty. I guess I should be happy you didn't post those pictures of me voguing (shout out to Robyn-my voguing partner!). Again, no shame, but that bra was a bit too pointy. I would have happily taken a job back up dancing for Madonna too. Ahh...to be 12 again.

I'm sorry I had to resort to a training video, but something needed to be done.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:31 PM, Sara Kearns wrote:
I appreciate that.  Of course, it took me a while to figure out you were telling me that my etiquette was bad.  I thought it was just a funny little video until I remembered that time I set my status as married to Daniel Craig.  Two restraining orders later and I've learned that not everyone appreciates my sense of humor.

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:33 PM, Tara Coleman wrote:
Weren't the hate posts on your wall a clue???

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:35 PM, Sara Kearns wrote:
Sadly, no. Apparently I'm pretty damn clueless. It's ok, though, I'm totally over him now.  He can't compare to Detective Green. Green is my favorite color, so we're meant for each other. Maybe those people you are going to unfriend could use the helpful tips in the training video, too?

On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 4:51 PM, Tara Coleman wrote:
You're clueless, but trainable. Hence the subtle video sharing. I know you can be learned.