Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with librarians

How'd they get the goods?

punkbitch — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:21:49 -0800

Librarians! (I know you're out there). While reading this Washpost article, I came across the following quote: "The FBI documents based on surveillance of Ivins said he visited a public library in Frederick that evening, where he searched a Web site dedicated to the anthrax investigation and checked various e-mail accounts." How do they know that? I remember that at one point, the Patriot Act would've had us give up info on patrons (while forbidding us from revealing that we had been contacted by the feds). I mean, in the library I worked at for 9 years our computers cleaned themselves out pretty well after each use.

So, anybody got the inside track on the Frederick, Maryland?
Is it just that the FBI is so unbelievably tech-savvy... ?
I'm being naive aren't I. I'm wasting my potential to ask a question this whole week on this...

Just curious.

Which path to a career in libraries: diploma or master's degree?

Rora — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:25:29 -0800

Which path to a career in libraries: diploma or master's degree? I'm contemplating pursuing a library career and weighing my options. On one hand I could do my master's in Library Sciences. But, to put it bluntly, I'm scared of higher education. I came out of my undergrad feeling unmotivated, insecure, and with a middling GPA. Because of my average grades, I'd have to go back to school to raise my GPA to acceptable admission levels, lengthening the amount of total schooling to at least three years. I have no guarantee that I'd be successful in university the second time around, which puts doubts into my ability to get accepted and then succeed at a master's. Boo hoo.

The second option is a library technician diploma at a college. I have more confidence (rightly or wrongly) in my ability to succeed here. I don't think I'd have any problems getting accepted and because of my bachelor's I can take an accelerated course which would only take one year vs. two.

So what are jobs like for library technicians? Is the work interesting, is the pay decent, am I going to be stuck working at the beck and call of a real librarian? Should I suck it up and go for the master's? Advise me, librarians of Metafilter!

Excuse me, ladies, how long is your kissing window?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:57:21 -0800

So there's this beautiful woman that I'm finding myself overwhelmingly attracted to. We have a great time, seem to have some chemistry, some central common interests. There's been a couple of moments when I thought that she wanted me to kiss her. But they don't last long. Oh yeah, she's a biter. So there's this woman that I know. I like her a lot. A lot a lot. I think I might like her a lot a lot a lot a lot.

I know her from a class. She was (I think) dating someone from the class. I believe she is not dating him any longer. He seemed sort of lame. But it made me very sad, as I was trying to take things pretty slow with her.

Recently she came over my house for dinner. To talk about a mutual interest/hobby/passion we have. It was pretty awesome.

So here's the meat of the question. I was really unsure of where I stood at the time, because of the other dude. Not sure if this was a date or what. I think it was not a date. I believe we've yet to have been on a real date. So I was showing her something on my computer, and she was sitting in my chair and I reached across her to grab the mouse, and she leans over and bites me. On my arm. Really, really hard. I thought it was going to be black and blue, but was dissapointed when it wasn't.

It took me a second to figure out what just happened, and then, not so smoothly, I was like "why did you bite me?" and she said "I couldn't resist".

And she looked at me for like a millisecond, and I was thinking, ok, I kiss her now? And then, just as quickly, she turned her head and said she had to go...put on her coat and said goodnite, gave me a hug and left.

Saw her again this weekend, spent a couple of hours with her. Had an equally nice time. Lots of joking. That could be flirting? It was flirtateous. But I believe she's the type of person who is generally charming and flirtateous and maybe really hard to read. So when I was leaving, I looked at her and she was looking at me, and there was this second where I thought I could kiss her and then just as fast as the last time, she turns her head and gives me a big hug, and then I leave.

Ok so I'm confused. Am I expected to jump in, real quick, when I have the chance? I'm used to kissing where there is a sort of long look. I'm generally more comfortable with women letting me know they want to be kissed, where it's pretty clear what's going on. But after both these occassions, I felt like kissing might have been appropriate...maybe even wanted by the other side. And if she'd kept my gaze like 2 more beats, I would have gone for it.

I'm wondering if I'm a) being a panzy for not going in quickly when the moment presents itself or b) being smart and taking some time and sucking up the way this makes me totally bonkers and how I just want to kiss her the whole time I'm around her. Additionally there's c) wondering if she's wanting me to make a move and may get bored if I don't and d) wondering if she wants this all to take a really long time and I need to plan on being cool and waiting till it really feels comfortable. Oh yeah and there's e) that in the end she's just going to want to be friends and I'm going to have wasted all this high end worrying for nothing. I've had E happen a few times and it's my backup anxiety.

So, ladies of Askmefi, if you are letting a guy know that you want to be kissed, how long do you let him know for, and how fast do you turn away?

If it matters, she's an early 30s, super hot geeky type, a touch of sexy librarian, with an excellent sense of humor.

Name an important recent book on academic librarianship

mrmojoflying — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:09:29 -0800

What recent book(s) must my wife read to become better versed in the issues facing academic libraries and librarians today? She is meeting with M.S.L.S. program coordinators at the end of this month, and while she is confident in her own personal reasons and rationale for applying to librarianship graduate programs, she would feel more confident if she was a little bit better informed about the "bigger picture."

LibraryFilter

bad grammar — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:00:34 -0800

Is it usual for school librarians and teachers to have disagreements and conflicts over "appropriate" content and media in school libraries? E.g., the situation in which a younger librarian would like to bring in new media and books targeted to current teen concerns and points of view, whereas older teachers want to concentrate on the edifying "classics," the conflict being particularly bitter when the library and school do not have much money to spend. Overtly political disagreements as well (the librarian is more liberal than the teachers).

Freeware for Alarming Librarians

exceptinsects — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:53:20 -0800

Help my librarians remember to rove! I need a specific sort of break timer and I can't seem to find one anywhere. We are trying to implement the practice of "roving" at my library; that is, when it isn't busy at the reference desk the librarians should go walk around and be available if people have questions out in the stacks.
The problem is that it's hard to get in the habit of doing this, so I thought a little reminder message would help. I want it to just give you a little nudge when things aren't busy, but not to be annoying when you're trying to help someone.

What I want it to do:
--Pop up a message of my choosing at intervals of my choosing. (e.g. "Rove?" every 10 minutes regardless of what else is going on on the computer)
--It should require the person to click the window to close it, but should close without any further waiting.

It must:
--be free
--be web-based (Firefox or IE) or able to be installed on Windows without the intervention of the IT people. (Similar to Firefox).
--be unobtrusive when it isn't alerting you
--not be linked with Outlook since it doesn't work with the profile we use at the desk

I tried Workrave, but I couldn't get it to work like I wanted--it seems like it doesn't pop up consistently--maybe it doesn't count the time when you're not actually typing? Plus, you can't edit the text.

Other previously recommended options mostly seemed to cost money or not do what I wanted--a lot of them seem to want you to take a break for a certain amount of time, but I just want the message and that's it.

Reference question

ryanshepard — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:13:38 -0800

librarianshipfilter: Essential professional reading for a reference librarian looking to hone his chops? I recently finished Thomas Mann's great Oxford Guide to Library Research and am interested in any recommendations the librarians among us have on insightful, iconoclastic, or otherwise essential professional reading. What books have helped make you a better librarian?

Interesting academic/professional conference session formats?

zepheria — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:21:38 -0800

Planning a professional conference for 300 or so instruction librarians and looking for innovative session formats or other structured interactions to engage participants. Have you run across any unusual and effective conference session formats or activities? There will be traditional hour-long presentation/discussion sessions, but we're interested in exploring other ways of harnessing the creative energy of this dynamic, passionate group. We've heard stories of "hackerfests" where groups convene to solve programming problems and are thinking along those lines, except without the coding.

For example, we might consider a "teaching technique slam" open mic session during a cocktail hour, or develop some kind of alternate-reality gaming inspired puzzle to solve collaboratively.

What do you experienced conference attendees recommend? Thanks!

What's so bad about being a librarian?

Rock Steady — Mon, 07 May 2007 09:06:09 -0800

Librarians -- rain on my parade! What didn't they tell you in school? What are the worst parts of your job? What do you regret about your schooling/early career? So I have decided to go back to school to get an MLIS degree (at Simmons), and while I am completely excited about it and I am committed to going, I suspect that the large group of librarians here on AskMe can open my eyes to some of the pitfalls of the profession, with an eye towards avoiding them, if possible. I have seen the obvious questions here about careers in Library Science, but if you know of any that elude the site's search function, I'd be happy for pointers to them.

Measurement-foo and shelf-fill rate help?

robocop is bleeding — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 09:03:17 -0800

See a librarian’s brain asplode*! So my library is moving back into our building next summer. We have some 8,400 linear feet of bound serials* being moved into 15,500 linear feet of compact shelving*. We need to tell the mover what we want our fill rate* to be. Sounds easy, right? However, there are complications, horrible complications. [+]

Best online libraries with articles on weblogs? Free is better

sailoreagle — Sun, 11 Apr 2004 08:51:31 -0800

Anybody know of any good online libraries? I'm especially interested in libraries containing articles on weblogs, as that's the theme of my dissertation and that's what this research is for. If you can point me directly at good interesting articles on weblogs, that would be great too. :) (Yes, I'm aware I may be asking too much, but I figure there's no harm in asking.)
Bonus points if they're free resources, but I'm not opposed to paying a small sum to get articles if I have to.