Just having fun

Over on the AASL elist, someone posted that for a state exam, they had to memorize the Dewey Decimal Categories and were trying to think of a way to memorize them using musicals. I won't shame the state requiring this but... honestly??? Why, in 2024CE are we requiring this?I stopped giving DDC lessons around 20 years ago,…

The “H-bomb” conundrum

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal about the "H-bomb" and Axios' Boston newsletter has a brief (very brief) summary: Over the years, I've met many graduates of Harvard and other Ivies, SLACs and so-called elite institutions. I once worked (pre-library career) for a man who had an MBA from Wharton... and couldn't…

Thought Experiment

During a recent year-end meeting, a colleague said that if our new administrators had just spent the year sitting back, doing nothing but observing, the school would still have managed to function: that classes would have been taught, exams given, crises dealt with, etc.. It got me thinking about our role as librarians and the…

I’m old (but you already know that)

Last year I saw and bookmarked this tweet: https://twitter.com/i/status/1594528156064821248 As I've moved from residence to residence, my workspace has changed from a desk... to a desk that could hold a desktop computer... to now, when I actually need very little space for my actual work stuff but am thinking about/designing for my notecards, pens and…

Friends that read together

Last week, I got a text from my childhood BFF: This started a great conversation: That book she didn't remember? Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. A friend at work had her copy (also from 1971) and I re-read it immediately. That's one of the best things about being a reader, and being friends with readers.…

As I think about What’s Next

Many years ago, as a Baby Librarian, I realized I was the youngest in the room at many AASL committee meetings. Now, "baby" was in her 30s, so that didn't feel quite right. And I've blogged about many of my issues with AASL (and ALA) before. I'm no longer the youngest, but sadly, many of…

I feel so old

https://twitter.com/adrisheares/status/1557885461154111490?s=11&t=C3_I1GsVaBsvx3wFpJLvYQ Wow. When I started research, my "search engine" was the card catalog, and sometimes (for deep searching) the <i>Reader's Guide</i>. Remember those? Good times. This isn't an attempt to paraphrase Sondheim, but I've been through CompuServe, AOL, AskJeeves, AltaVista, Infoseek (via Netscape Navigator)... and I'm still here. I currently use Duck Duck Go, but…

Determination

Today at graduation I saw something that made me tear up. No, I'm not ashamed to admit it. It was the second time I've seen something like this and, well, excuse me while I find another tissue. In August, one of our students took a hit during a hockey game and was seriously injured. Injured?…

From the archives: Moving up a stage

This isn't quite "leveling up" and it could possibly be thought of as moving down a stage, but it is movement. What am I talking about? In this post, Shelagh discusses these professional stages: Theorist Donald Super offers these 5 stages of self-concept & career development:  Like Shelagh, I'm in the maintenance phase, but moving…

From the archives: Gratitude

Over the years I've seen many posts about gratitude and I'd saved this one from the AISL Blog to remind me to post my own. There was, around the same time, a post on an email list that was formatted differently and I thought I'd mimic that here. So without further ado, here are some…