Fun with keywords

In my attempt to procrastinate (I have a guest coming over tomorrow and I haven't done my dishes, the pile of laundry sitting in my living room, or vacuumed not to mention my rat still has his nest under my bed), I took a look at the keywords used to find my blog. There were some pretty funny ones recently:

how much does katie leung weigh
I don't know and I don't really care. Why would anyone really need to know the weight of the young actress making her Harry Potter debut in November?

the greatest canadian
Why yes, yes I am. Thanks!

mlis students crazy
Affirmative. All MLIS students are crazy.

canuck bondage
I'm sorry, I don't discuss my personal life on here (well except for the banalities of house cleaning)!

ask jeeves give me list of non-fiction books(from a google search)
Well, that could be a pretty darn long list! What type of non-fiction are you looking for? Just any random titles and number will do? Anyone else think this person may need a definition of non-fiction before furthering the search?

Stick Library

Stick Library

To fulfill your cartoony library needs, checkout the Stick Library strips; Doodles from a MLIS student.

Very entertaining. She also includes commentary for each image, providing insight into the mind of the artist.

Anything that can make me giggle has got to be at least mildly amusing to all of you.

OLA 2006 Superconference program online

I was emailed today and told that the conference program is now online (in PDF, website still under construction) and the paper programs hae been mailed to OLA members. This was verified by the fact that I had the pretty package in my mailbox when I got home after work.

OLA 2006 superconference
February 1-4, 2006
Toronto, ON

Online registration is also now open. Make sure to register before November 30, 2005 to get the early-bird discount! For those of you who are still students, registration costs $20/day (wed-fri) and $40 for Saturday (i.e the entire conference would cost ya $100).

Also, according to page 9 of the program, they will have a conference blog and also blogs for each session. "To volunteer to help develop the blogs...contact Trevor Balla at membership@accessola.com"

No further comments at this time other than my pic in the program is yucky - I wasn't warned it was photo night before that meeting!

OLA2006

CBC Arts: Acadian artifacts salvaged from Louisiana flood

CBC Arts: Acadian artifacts salvaged from Louisiana flood: "Hundreds of Acadian artifacts from a Louisiana museum are drying out in the care of archivists in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.
Among the artifacts rescued from flooding was the royal proclamation in which the Queen acknowledged for the first time the wrongs done to the Acadian people during the deportation of 1755"

You can't keep us Acadiens from disappearing! It's great to know that some of the artifacts were recovered and may be saved. If nothing else, let this be a reminder for all museums and libraries to have a disaster plan - or at least not to keep valuable items on the bottom shelves.

Finally! The cataloguer!

In today's Unshelved! strip we finally meet the cataloguer - and she's a knitter too! (I really need to learn how to knit so I can join the group)

ROSA LOUISE PARKS | 1913-2005: Good-bye, Mrs. Parks

ROSA LOUISE PARKS | 1913-2005: Good-bye, Mrs. Parks

Ah, Mrs, Parks. Another hero has left us, but fortunately her heroic efforts won't be forgotten. Growing up watching Detroit television and listening to Detroit radio, I certainly knew about Rosa Parks and her fight for equality for all humans. Her story is just one of the ones I grew up with among many stories, including my own mother's experience of being asked to leave a bar because she was dancing with a black man (back in the mid-seventies). I don't understand racial discrimination. I don't understand how it still exists. And it does, and yes even in Canada. I'm just glad the world has people like Mrs. Parks who are willing to fight for human rights to make life in this world better.

The following is an excerpt from the article linked above. Funny how the library's mission has changed over the years since obviously our current goal is "access for all", and in the past it was "access for all, but better access for some".

"As youth adviser to the NAACP, she helped young people organize protests at the city's main public library. There were separate libraries for black and white people. The one for blacks had far fewer books.
She organized black youths to go to the main library to ask for service. By Jim Crow rules, blacks could order and pick up books from the library, but they couldn't browse the stacks or study there. Despite several attempts, they were unsuccessful in changing the policy"

Flapart

Flapart

Only in Canada will you find these zany "alternative book covers" (ok, they ship to the US too). This is hilarious - I mean I know I'm always trying to get a look at what other people are reading when I'm out on the bus or walking around and sometimes, we really don't want people to stick their noses in our books. My favourites are The Nutritional Benefits of Nose Picking and Perfecting the Art of Fart Projection.

Books are so much fun!

Canadian Library Week / Semaine canadienne des bibliothèques

Canadian Library Week / Semaine canadienne des bibliothèques: "Also being celebrated during Canadian Library Week is National School Library Day (NSLD). NSLD will be held on October 24, 2005"

Happy Canadian Library Week!

There's a list of events going on, as well don't forget to check out what's going on at your own libraries!

Le Monde.fr : La convention sur la diversité culturelle en débat à l'Unesco

Le Monde.fr : La convention sur la diversité culturelle en débat à l'Unesco: "Dans son premier article, ce texte vise 'à protéger et à promouvoir la diversité des expressions culturelles', 'à reconnaître la nature spécifique des activités, biens et services culturels en tant que porteurs d'identité, de valeurs et de sens'. Concrètement, il 'réaffirme le droit souverain des Etats de conserver, d'adopter et de mettre en oeuvre les politiques et mesures qu'ils jugent appropriées pour la protection et la promotion de la diversité des expressions culturelles sur leur territoire'. Ce socle juridique nouveau permettrait aux Etats d'échapper au droit commun du commerce international pour mener en toute autonomie leur politique culturelle."

So It seems the U.S. is the odd one out again, being the only UN member state trying to amend and stall this UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions while it's still in the preliminary stages.

I understand why they are worried, besides the fact that it means America may lose a little bit of their stronghold in the arts and entertainment industries in foreign countries. Condoleeza Rice is quoted in the article fearing that this could pave the way for some governments to create restrictions on free exchange of information and even prohibit the point-of-views of cultural minortities. I think she just likes to take a ride on a slippery slope. What they probably are more worried about is the fact that this convention would, well I'm not sure if it would supercede but it would be considered "equal" to WTO (OMC en français) jurisdiction. That is, the WTO already has trade rules saying that governemnts can't give preferential treatment to domestic goods and services (or something like that - I'm no trade expert or lawyer) which has always been a bit of concern for public libraries in Canada since technically someone could come in and create similar services and then argue that the libraries have an unfair advantage due to government funding (I know I read articles on GATS, or is it GATT that covers this?, and the WTO and all this, but I admit, I don't remember it all).

Fortunately the U.S. does not have Veto and already a majority of UN members are planning on approving this, so really, the US stance won't stop this. It'd be nice though if everyone could play together; I mean what good is it for all the kids in the playground to agree to play soccer when the one with the ball wants to shoot hoops? Just makes things difficult.

By the way...

I just thought I'd put it out there that the "Canuck" in Canuck Librarian has nothing to do with the Vancouver Canucks. I don't watch hockey, in general, unless I have a boyfriend who does, and then I cheer for whatever team he likes or any Canadian team. To me Canuck has always just been an expression for Canadian.
I never did look up the origin of the word - must put that on my to do list. (who am I kidding, "to-do list" like I have one!)

Canuck Librarian @ Blogs Rating

Canuck Librarian @ Blogs Rating

Blogs Rating. Another fun site that's out there. I thought we were blogging to build community? Or just to do it for ourselves? But I guess we have to be somewhat concerned with ratings now.
Actually, I'm just surprised a whole 170 people have actually bothered to vote on my blog! I feel special. And althought my rating is only 6.05 I do think that accurately reflects my blog.
My blog is a bit of a mish mash of stuff. I try to talk library, but often throw in personal stuff too. I'm not much of a writer; I'm starting to think that's something I need to work on. Although a couple weeks ago I did go back and read every post I had written from the beginning and I do think I have improved.
This site even has a section for Library and Information Science Blogs. Wow! I really need to search the internet more often; I usually just go to the usual sites - what happened to my sense of exploration?

UWO CLA Student Chapter: Mentorship Program

UWO CLA Student Chapter: Mentorship Program

I saw this recently and thought I'd mention it here, though I think I may have mentioned it previously. Anyway, the productive students back at my alma mater have finally got the mentoring program up and running. Good for them! The CLA student chapter there has always had pretty good leadership that followed through on project plans. Well, the program seems to be better received with the students than expected so they now have more mentees than mentors, so if you're willing to email a prospective librarian/information professional a couple times a term to extoll the virtues of the profession and share your wealth knowledge, please send Sophia an email!

To show you how well organized they are, just take a look at their charter; this is just a portion of it:

"Mentoring Relationship Guidelines

* Communication between mentor and mentee should occur at least twice per term.
* The mentor should try to respond to the mentee within two weeks.
* The mode of communication is at the discretion of the participants but several effective methods include emails, phone calls, and lunch or coffee meetings.
* Suggested discussion topics and activities include
o resume review;
o course recommendations;
o industry overviews;
o professional trends;
o current issues;
o job shadowing;
o library tours;
o attending conferences;
o introductions to other professionals in the field.
* Should either party have any concern about the mentoring relationship, the administrators are available for advice.
* Students who take part in the Mentorship Program should consider returning to the program as a Mentor."

Everyone loves librarians

Tonight I went out to a club for Latin night. The woman who teaches the classes I go to was there with her dance partner and they gave a free lesson before the DJ kicked in.
Anyway, I was chatting with her and we were talking about how great it is not to be in school anymore (kids around here are going through midterms) and so the conversation led to where I work, etc.
That's when she gave the typical "I loved my librarian in my hometown" speech. She went on to tell me how when she was little she'd always go up to the librarian to ask for something new to read and the librarian would always find her great books. (At this point she kind of jumped around with glee imitiating her younger self.)
It's just odd being in a profession where people really do connect; positively or negatively. Teachers and librarians - those seem to be the people that folks cling to memories of. I remember my grade school library, but not the librarian (although it might've been the French teacher). I remember stuff that I found out there and the book sales we used to have. I remember my highschool librarians - one was a man, and I guess I always thought he was handsome even if he was more than twice my age.
I remember when I was even younger and the library was in the mall. Not too many people my age, or even a tad older, can remember that - but I do.
But then again, I guess I do remember a lot of my library experiences since I was/am destined to be a librarian.
Sorry for the walk down memory lane, I just find it so neat how we can share so many similar memories with strangers. I'm so sappy aren't I?

The silence is deafening!

I know it's not good to rant about work, so this isn't a rant. Last week a new policy was created for the workplace to cut back on noise complaints I guess. It's pretty basic, nothing special, made sense - essentially no screaming, yelling or talking loudly by offices and wear headphones when listening to music. Then they just revised it to add in that the use of non-work related streaming audio and video is strongly discouraged due to band-with. First off, this really has nothing to with the sound and noise issue (since the part where they tell us to use headphones covers this). Second, what the heck am I going to do without the radio???? My productivity is going to go way down - and it is even up to par yet. I need the music to distract the part of my brain that wants to jump on the internet and look at my Bloglines and email and all that jazz. Of course I understand that bandwith is, I guess limited, but still my employee satisfaction is worth more :)
Ok I'm selfish, but, hey I'm not the lowest on the totem anymore. (Off topic, but is "lowest on the totem pole" now politically incorrect to use? because, after all, isn't the animal/god depicted at the bottom of a totem pole of lower importance anyway?)
Well, I guess I have to go make some mix CDs to bring into work now. Yeah like changing the CD player every 30 min isn't distracting (yeah I know I can have more music on a CD than that, but I do get bored easily). Maybe this is just work's way of telling me I should invest in the outrageously expensive iPod.

Telegraph | News | Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign for ex-child soldiers

Telegraph | News | Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign for ex-child soldiers

I think it's pretty sad that people are more moved by cartoon characters than they are pictures of the real deal. I think it's great the advertising people came up with this idea to get people thinking; but it really gets me thinking, not necessarily about the affects of war on children, but on how our society pretends it doesn't really exist. We're all just Smurfs going on with our happy little lives, ignorant of the dangers and realities going on elsewhere. Ok, so, maybe we're not quite as ignorant as we used to be, but still, how often do we think about it? it's so hard to connect with the world sometimes.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'm not going home, so no yummy turkey dinner for me, but when I do sit down to eat whatever meal I have, I will make a point of remembering all for which I am thankful. I know it's corny, but we really do need to remind ourselves how good some of us have it.

Spirit of Gemuetlichkeit

Onkel Hans
Originally uploaded by Canucklibrarian.

Three days ago I was sitting waiting for a bus and I saw the sign on another bus flash "Gemuetlichkeit" when usually they say things like "Good morning" or "Have a nice day." Of course, I assumed it was related to Oktoberfest. You'd have to be living under a rock to not know it was Oktberfest time of year again.
Personally I've never celebrated before. In my hometown I used to see the German clubs, like Fogular Furlan or Teutonia clubs, advertising Oktoberfest, but I didn't know anyone who went.
First year of university I heard about the fest here. I thought it must be good if students rented school buses to take the 6 hour drive down here! I never went myself since in 1st year I was still underage (and we all know that for adults Okotberfest=beer).

So now I live in the city best known for its Oktoberfest - the largest Bavarian festival in North America. My goal was to meet the mascot, Onkel Hans. One day into Oktoberfest and that goal is accomplished! Onkel Hans has his own, erm, what're they called? posse, entourage, groupies? Anyway, these big guys follow him around and one of them offered to take my picture, so, yay!

Bet you've never seen Einstein do the chicken dance.

This morning I went to a free pancake breakfast for Oktoberfest. They were also having barrel races too and there was a team of Einsteins, probably from Einstein fest that's also going on.
Anyway, some kids asked the band to play the chicken dance, so they obliged. Nothing like a community coming together at 10 am on a saturday morning to do the chicken dance!

So, I've now had the privilege of seeing Einstein doing the chicken dance, as well as barrel racing (they lost both times I saw them race though).


Einstein chicken dance



Einsteins barrel racing

Cottage country

As mentioned previously, I went up to cottage country last weekend and visited Penetanguishene and Midland, Ontario. I really didn't do too much, but I did drop by one of the museums in Midland (there were lots of museums and sites of interest in both towns, but I wasn't in the educational mood). The Huronia museum also has a re-creation of a Huron village that people can go look around. It's interesting.





I also dropped by the libraries in both towns. Penetang has a newer building while Midland has an old one. I didn't get to go inside Midland's though since it's closed on sundays. I hate that so many libraries are closed on Sundays - that's my prime library day!

CTV.ca | Scientists discover 10th planet's moon

CTV.ca | Scientists discover 10th planet's moon: "Brown labeled the object a planet and nicknamed it Xena after the lead character in the former TV series 'Xena: Warrior Princess.' The moon was nicknamed Gabrielle, after Xena's faithful traveling sidekick"

Oh, that's funny. Our planets are named after Roman gods, so heck lets just throw in a few tv characters for good measure!

I was just taking CTV's weekly news quiz - you know questions on headlines from the week (Katie and Toma are having a baby!?!), and I actually got the question referencing the linked article correct. (in all i only got 5/10 correct and did better that 19% - well not bad considering I only watched the news once this week!)

Point of this post: Astronomy is good and so is "Xena".

Halloween challenge

I need ideas since I can't come up with my own. My work is having both a costume contest and a pumpkin carving contest. I'd like to at least attempt something, but I'm not creative. So any ideas for a costume? (prizes for scariest, funniest, most creative) I'm thinking something library related (hence my posting here).

The pumpkin carving contest is by department, so it's a collaborative effort. What do you think would be the best design for a cataloguing department to create? Again, I'm not too creative so the best I can think of is carving the Dewey for Halloween (394.2646) or pumpkins (635/.62) into it...Yeah lame I know, and noone outside the department would get the joke. There's a pizza party at stake here!

So what are you doing to celebrate Halloween? (or do you celebrate?) Anything cool going on at your work?

I remember the years (between grade 5 to grade 8) when we weren't really allowed to celebrate Halloween at my house. One year the church held it's own event and the kids were encouraged to dress up as characters from the bible. I think I went as a generic angel. At least Halloween wasn't completely spoiled!

I just like to play dress-up. (Also one reason why I used to be part of the SCA) I want my own Tickle Trunk one day.

A different take on the library calendar

CLA: Marketplace. Fundraising calendar for Lakedell Public Library

So we've all seen librarian calendars with librarian workers showing the stereotype ain't true. I think a library in Alberta did one a couple years ago with a tatooed librarian, and a motorcycle librarian, etc. and I think a library in the states somewhere did one this year.

Well, here's a slightly different take on the library fundraising calendar. It doesn't feature librarians (AFAIK) but rather, men. The "Look. Men read. See men read." calendar aims:

-to raise awareness of the benefits of reading, literacy, and libraries;
-to provide positive role models to counter the image of men as reluctant readers; and more specifically
-to raise funds for a new public library building and collection at Pigeon Lake, Alberta

For only $20 Canadian who wouldn't want one? I mean, I might get one just to check out the rest of the men inside :)
Ah, yes, nothing like objectification of the human body :p (really I am quite torn), but it is art so that makes it alright.

Visiting

So I went a bit North to "cottage country" to visit a friend. Unfortunately because it's month's end she had to go to work to do inventory and won't be home til 2 pm. That means I'm alone, left up to my own devices, here in Penetanguishene. So besides a stop to the ATM, the public library was my first destination. It's nice to visit small town libraries. So here I am in the library. I've already spent $8 on a library tote bag and another $2 for internet access. Since I am a new librarian and I do not work in a public library, I found it very cute to walk in the children's area. They had a cute children's table, rocking chair and steps to sit on. I'm sure this is fairly standard in public libraries, but, like I said, it's new to me. The collection here is larger than the one in a town of similar size I used to live in. It also is a bilingual collection and I think the town is officially bilingual as well.

Anyway, I shouldn't waste the beautiful day sitting inside the library, although I've only used 15 minutes of my hour on the computer! I think I'll go ask them the best touristy spots to see. I'll post pictures when I get home.