Clone me now

Recently I was chatting with a friend, another school librarian.  She'd gone to the Do We Need Books in K-12 School Libraries? session  at ALA and I wanted to get her take on it.  When Cushing Academy originally announced it was going all digital, there'd been quite an uproar, but here we were two years…

“I should just retire”

I've been hearing that, or versions thereof, for the past few years and recently it seems that every group of librarians I'm with includes one that is just giving up.  What's causing this epidemic?  They're feeling unappreciated and unwanted not by their schools or students, but by their own profession. Yes, by their own profession.…

I’m famous!

No, not really.  Clue 49 is "Millie Helper's next door neighbor" - for which the answer is Laura Petrie, not me.  But still, for a few moments, my father had a thrill answering the Washington Post's July 14th crossword!

Going GaGa

A recent post by The Daring Librarian, entitled Lady GaGa Librarians Unite, has gotten a bit of notice.  Gwyneth is also one of the members of the Geek Squad/Geek Tribe, about which I've posted before.   As luck would have it, I spent the other evening with one of my former students, a classical musician, and…

The Big (and not so) Easy: Missing Voices on the Student Transition to College

Ok, I get why there were no school librarians or academic librarians on this panel - apparently our voices have been heard.  But still, having representatives from those groups on this panel would have really added to the discussion.  According to a few people, school librarian membership in LIRT is negligible, so I encourage all…

Native? Immigrant? Inhabitant? Visitor? Who cares?

In April I heard John Palfrey, author of Born Digital, speak.  Thanks to his book, we now use the terms "digital native" and "digital immigrant" - terms that have annoyed me since they first emerged. Why?  Because I don't believe that they're good descriptions of a generation.  What I mean is, I - a member…

A brief #ALA11 wrap-up

Yes, ALA11 ended over a week ago, but in my defense there have been a few things going on in my life that have delayed this post. Before I actually headed to NOLA, things got exciting.  I was mugged - money removed from my wallet by this bandit: Seriously, I was just walking down the…