#first thing i learned in my mlis program was :) not to do that! :)

[lonlonranching]

called off sick to work bc my cramps are lichrally insane and my creepy ass coworkers still finds a way to harass me <3

[faeriekit]

hello! ive been thinking about pursuing an education in library science amd qas wondering about the process and what the types of careers would entail. would u mind talking a bit about it? if not, its no problem, i was just curious. thanks

Bonjour!!! You have activated my trap card: talking about library stuff!!

Have you had any experience with working in libraries before? If you haven't, try volunteering with your local library for a few months and see if you like it first! One of the things I noticed really early on in library school was that people with a different background, like a background in teaching or in academia, often struggled with concepts that came naturally to people who worked within the system a lot. People think it's the same. It's not. It's close! but there are key differences in when and how you operate and the vocab and concepts utilized. Getting into libraries really lets you understand the rhythms and patterns of library work before you dedicate your life to it!

I went into library school already working in a public library, so I didn't really explore a whole lot of other opportunities, but lots of people like to get their masters with a specialty in other adjacent niches, like archival work, medical librarianship (maintaining a medical library at a medical school, I think it needs a medical degree of some sort?), academic librarianship (library in a college), teacher librarian (kids + kids' schools, requires an teaching degree), law library (ditto #1), and, of course, public! Which is what IIIIIIIIII doooooo and which no one really makes any money doing ❤️❤️❤️

Unless you're admin. They love paying for admin.

A Masters in Librarianship and Informational Sciences (MLS or MLIS) is often referred to as library school by all attendees ever, but it's generally as rigorous as any other masters degree...especially if you're already working full time. Every ALA (American Library Association)-accredited program has its own application requirements, such as your GRE score and letters of recommendation, but they scooted me in based off of a clean GPA during early covid, so I got away without taking harder tests ✨ And if you're in the US, you're going to WANT to go to an ALA accredited program, or else zero people will hire you ever. The ALA has a searchable directory for finding an accredited program that suits your needs, including online, synchronous, by state, so on and so forth. Use it. It's worth it. Once you have a few programs you like, you could see what they ask for application wise, or what the prices look like.

Librarianship, especially public librarianship, is hard to break into! I was rejected from the first part time job I applied for based off of...probably nothing, honestly- because the field is just so over saturated with applicants. You spend months applying to the scant few open positions that pop up. Everyone is vying for the veeeeery few fulltime jobs that are available. Networking is necessary-- join your state library association as soon as you know that this is your forever career, and your union as soon as you know you have a job, and talk to people! Talk to your local librarian now! Get the lay of the land and other great info about local options from your local library!

And no one wants to paaaaaay you unless you're in a really rural place and everyone thinks you just sit around reeeeeaading and meanwhile you're up to your eyeballs in library publications and program development and research and maybe even kids media, but I went into this job as someone already working in a library, so I had a better handle on hauling myself up into a full time position and out of a part-time depression. And I love my work!! Kids are hilarious and I love picture books as an art form and my coworkers are great, which isn't luck everyone has. I decided I liked libraries and the system I was working in before jumping in all the way, which helps so, so, so much.

Have hobbies, find a niche, learn how to maximize your skills in a library setting.

📖 Hey, it may be for you! 📖

[altheterrible]

The water is only knee deep.

Well I haven’t written a long, rambling post about my life in awhile, so here we go.

Right now, my life has a level of stability that is truly unprecedented.

When I moved to Detroit for grad school and was suddenly away from my family and their drama, I found myself in a much more stable environment than I had ever been, and it was unfamiliar and uncomfortable. I reacted by causing my own chaos, because at the time I only felt normal if I was in fight or flight mode. Hence the years of stitches and hospitalizations and all that jazz.

Now, though, I am in a very stable place and I don’t feel compelled to ruin it. I feel like...instead of getting knocked over again and again by crashing waves, I am standing up in the water and realizing it’s only knee deep. I’m surveying my surroundings for the first time because I’m finally not struggling to keep my head above water.

This is what I see.

Getting my pharmacist license back is going to require paying my fine and probably getting a lawyer as well as acquiring documentation from my therapist that says I am now stable enough to practice pharmacy. That will not be a problem, she is 100% on my side. My sister will be a lawyer in a year so I have that covered. I will not have $1000 in a year, but I should get a decent tax refund this year that I can put towards it. 

But! I do not know if I want to go back to pharmacy. Retail pharmacy is soul sucking. Telling old people they can’t have their anticoagulant unless they have $200/month, telling people they can’t have inhalers or insulin unless they pay...it’s unethical, frankly, and I won’t do it. Hospital pharmacy would be a better fit, but that generally requires a residency and I absolutely can’t even afford to apply for residency especially since I know that with my record, I wouldn’t match.

There’s a certificate in medical writing I want to start working on, but I can’t get financial aid and I can’t afford even one class a semester. But medical writing would be a good fit for me--I understand clinical research, I enjoy writing, and I am good at breaking things down so people can understand them. But, money. Always money.

I applied for a recently-opened lead position at my current job, and the pay bump would be nice, but it’s still only part time. That said, I really enjoy what I do there and I love my coworkers. It’s low stress and no one throws things at me. I would absolutely abandon pharmacy to pursue a career in museums, but it’s such a hard industry to break into. There's a gulf between customer service at a museum and the curators/designers/science folks, and it is huge and impassable.

My sister is giving me more responsibility at the library. I’m going to start running an adult book/movie club in September in addition to running monthly teen nights. I’m doing a murder mystery night in October as well, and the annual trunk or treat. I’m going to be working 5-6 days a month instead of the 1-2 that I have been, so I’ll have a little extra money. I really enjoy working on library programming, I love coming up with ideas for programs and then making them into reality. I’ve looked at finishing my MLIS, but my credits expired last year and I think I’d have to start over. But in Michigan, you don’t really need an MLIS to be a high-ranking library employee, and my sister says she thinks I would make a great director once I get some more management experience under my belt. She’s going to teach me the secrets of grant writing and she’s working with me about learning how to report our data to the state for state aid. I think working in libraries could be extremely fulfilling. I’ve toyed with the idea of sending a resume off to the local medical school library to see if they need an assistant. 

One of my goals for therapy when I switched therapists in January was that I wanted to be able to make a firm commitment to staying alive. I’ve always felt very ambivalent about the future. I wasn’t sure there would be anything in the future worth sticking around for. Now I realize I need to make those things myself. I think I finally am committed to staying alive. I still go down suicidal, life-is-meaningless, I wish I was dead spirals, but they don’t last too long. Idk, maybe it’s the Prozac. Maybe it’s working jobs that don’t make me hate myself. Maybe it’s having a life that’s predictable enough that I can actually plan for the future.

For the first time in my life, I don’t feel the urge to run and leave everything and everyone behind. I’m letting myself form relationships with people that actually mean something to me. I sometimes still feel like if I disappeared, nothing in the world would change, but mostly I’m starting to see the worth in myself that other people keep insisting is there. I’m treating myself better. Trying to rest, trying to be creative daily, putting my needs before other peoples’ wants. 

I don’t want to say I’m happy, because I don’t want to jinx it, but I am content most of the time. I whine and complain a lot, but that’s just who I am as a person; a whiny baby. When I go to bed at night, I no longer wish to die in my sleep. I don’t pray to get hit by a bus or a car or an asteroid anymore. And you know, maybe that will change. Maybe things will get dark again. Right now, I feel okay about that, too. I’m just enjoying my quiet little life and not bracing myself for the next catastrophe. It might come, it might not, but that doesn’t mean that right now, this moment, needs to be rushed.

[nitewrighter]

Congrats on the degree!

I also want to be a librarian. So how many college/university ears did it take you in total? Did you already work in a library and you need to have the degree to get a higher position? Which classes were the most challenging?

Well, I initially graduated from UCSC with a bachelor's in literature. So the wild thing about the information science master's is that you can enter it from virtually any field. I've known like, human resource experts, former teachers, all kinds of guys in my MLIS course. The materials for Information Sciences just tend to be highly specialized so there's only a handful of universities that are ratified to distribute the MLIS degree.

It took me 2 years to get my masters, i was taking about 3 classes a semester (but I did take 4 classes for one semester and I do NOT recommend that holy fuck)--but also, this is important! I don't work full-time--like that's one of the reasons I pursued this degree in the first place, so I could advance to full-time. I do have coworkers who work full-time or work 2 part time jobs between libraries and it took them like 3-4 years to get their degree. But honestly like, the SJSU MLIS program has had a fully online MLIS program since 2014, which is fantastic because it's so flexible with regards to your schedule. So it will heavily depend on what institution you choose for your degree, but honestly, SJSU--with the exception of my collections development class, which was kind of a joke--has a really well-developed and flexible-to-your-professional-background MLIS program.

As far as which classes were the most challenging... I mean that one time I was taking 4 classes in one semester just made *all* of them the most challenging because I had bitten off more than I could chew. My YA materials just made me hella jaded about YA as a genre in general, but it didn't put me completely off of continuing to pursue teen librarianship so *uneasy thumbs-up*.

Some classes (*cough* instruction in information literacy *cough*) will force you to quickly adapt to software that is literally at least 5 years behind any kind of user-friendly design or any kind of common use, and other classes will force you to learn a machine language that is like... so crazily outdated it kind of cycles back to being basically useful (MARC records my beloved/beloathed). And also you may be stuck with an absolutely shit professor who just sticks you in an insanely huge group project for the whole semester and doesn't even have a reading list (*COUGH* COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT *COUGH*).

But like... in their own way, all of them equip you for the demands of library work--because you don't know if you're going to be working with a hella outdated system, you have to be adaptable of your respective library's community, and you also have to continue to think of the library sciences as this continuously-building-and-adapting body of knowledge. It's literally fucking lord of the rings out here: You're the person overseeing how we fucking organize our body of knowledge but tech and communications is far outpacing our ability to fucking keep track of this shit in a way that equitably serves our communities!! AND ALSO FASCISM AND CENSORSHIP AND HISTORICAL ERASURE IS CONSTANTLY LOOMING. So it's like that one scene with Gandalf:

"I wish it had not happened in our time."

"So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

Librarianship is a complicated beast that is highly dependent on the community one serves, but also, there are standards of the work that we must actively fight to preserve because this shit is so much older than any of us. So take up your sword, my friend.

[rgr-pop]

I’ve been thinking about public history and also art galleries a lot lately for organizing reasons and also a reflection on my education or whatever. recently in one of the museum worker fb groups a question was posed: there are no museum jobs, what other fields do you work in? and my first thought was, why is no one saying libraries? the answer is libraries. and my second thought was no one is saying libraries because museum workers would never settle for the ceiling salary of library workers. that thought was unkind if true in some cases--or maybe just true in the past--but not the same as saying that museum workers get paid more than we do. it is more like saying, museum workers get paid nothing on the promise or fantasy of something more than a public servant/teacher salary, whereas library workers either get paid nothing while they get into debt for a few years on the promise of a teacher salary or else they work as paraprofessionals for $12-15 forever and ever, with a little taste of that old fashioned public servant security and benefits [that’s me]. that’s sort of complicatedly true. the fact is there are not museum clerical paraprofessional technical jobs, there is no abundance of mes in museums. it’s easy and certainly more correct to say that this is because we do not have public museums in the way that we have public libraries. this is probably the bigger problem obviously! but the responses to this post were all the same: museums have been shaken down so now we all work in other nonprofits. it is true that what you learn in museum school is literally nonprofit administration but this was all in such relief for me all of a sudden, having reviewed the archives programs last week, that the museums degree is a degree that teaches you not to work in public service. (a unionbusting sector degree.) it is maybe uncontroversial to say that the museum degree is dumber even than the mlis... what then, of the complaints that the mlis is an inappropriate vessel for the training of archivists, a large chunk of whose work is more closely aligned with people getting curatorial/nonprofit management museums certifications? (the mlis IS inappropriate for archivists--it is only disciplining, although wisely, and not training, e.g., it is a degree in working for mainly public institutions instead of mainly not public institutions.) it is shocking to me that more programs aren’t cutting the archives program loose, into its own thing, and then embedding them in museums (etc.) programs. some do, but very few still. the programs that do this are the only strong looking public history and cultural management programs IMO. it is simply true that the institution cannot say “yes we can give you just an archives degree” because they must then admit that there are no archives jobs. and also that they only have 3 archives classes. meanwhile museums people are not getting training in doing the thing that they could do for public institutions (simply describing and tracking things lmfao) because we want to train them instead to be grant stooges... anywho I am still 85% sure i would rather get eaten by a bus than get an mlis, especially for the whole entire 3 archives classes you can get at every top rated archives program in this hemisphere. a racket! 

[qqueenofhades]

I graduated undergrad a few years ago and finally “figured stuff out” what I wanted to apply for. I narrowed it down to either a career in HR or as a librarian/MLIS. I chose HR since it’s college courses rather than a masters degree, but now I worry that I would have loved being a librarian. I have a real fear of making mistakes so I second guess everything lol I start my HR program in Sept 2020. My undergrad is in women studies/gender studies/feminist research.

First of all, congratulations on applying for things! I’m applying for things right now and it’s the actual relentless soul-crushing worst, especially when the default position is just to ignore you and not say anything at all. I applaud you for doing that and making a decision and moving toward your future, which is especially difficult at this point in time. So yes. Genuine and many kudos. Also, A+ excellent major, do approve.

I am the same way in terms of being afraid of making mistakes and second-guessing everything, including how my own educational career progressed, even though I am sitting here with a PhD and a lot of student debt and an absolutely abysmal job market and other exciting souvenirs for my trouble. I don’t regret the overall result, just that I constantly worry that I could have done it better along the way if I ever had a goddamn clue what I was actually doing (but then had to learn it and probably couldn’t have known it beforehand, but still blamed myself for not magically knowing it, because that’s the way anxiety works! Hooray). So I get the gnawing fear that oh no, you might be making a mistake, what if this derails your whole future, etc.

I’m not sure if you want me to tell you that you should go ahead with HR, or make a last-minute switch to being a librarian, and I can’t do that anyway, since it’s your call. It depends on how much you like school and lots of finicky detail, since the time that I worked in libraries during my master’s degree left me with a real admiration for people who can do it as a career. They are forces of nature and should not be messed with. If you do want to pursue it professionally, then yes, you will need the MLIS, since I doubt any major institutional or university or private library will hire you without it. I can’t say for sure, but I feel like the MLIS programs are difficult to get into and often quite expensive in terms of tuition, so that’s something else to consider. (Then again, you could say that for almost any higher degree, particularly the expensive part.)

However, I will say that in my experience, if you feel that you really want to do something, and that not doing it would just take you away from it in terms of a perceived “better” option, it’s worth thinking it through again and understanding what exactly caused you to make your current decision. I’m not going to knock anyone for going with what they feel might be safer employment, especially in the middle of 800 crises (not least a pandemic causing massive job losses) and the fact that libraries are so relentlessly defunded and underappreciated anyway. It’s a long and hard slog to make a career in the humanities to start with, but especially when libraries are first to go on the chopping block despite providing some of the most critical services in any society. So I do get the sense that no matter how much you love it, you might want to be careful.

Nonetheless: librarians are awesome, and we need as many of them as we can get. So if you do feel like you still want to explore it (and hey, there’s still time to do that!), I absolutely do support it.

[winchesterawesomesauce]

Some life musings and advice

I had a long conversation with my dad tonight where I had a life realization. I should have taken a year off before college. When you’re 18, you’re brain ain’t developed enough to handle going off to live on your own for the first time. I was out from under my parents’ watchful eye and their encouragement to do the best I could in school. So, for the first time I was allowed to do as I pleased, without any repercussions. Or so I thought. When I failed a class because I had decided that going out and partying before the final exam was more important than school, the college sent my parents a notification and boy did I get it. My mom gave me the option to take a year off, after my sophomore year and I wish I had taken it. 

I suggest that people going to college take at least one year to learn more about themselves and their work ethic. Now, maybe you’re a more mature person than I was at that age, but I wish I had taken a year to learn more about the real world and the stakes of doing well in life, not just school. But, hindsight is 20/20 and there is no rewinding. However, if I could have a do-over I would take a year or maybe even two before starting college. There is no set age expected for you to complete your higher education. You can be a 25 year old enrolling into a college, or, like I found at one of the jobs I had later, you can be 75 and enroll in school. 

Of course, having your college degree helps you on the job search. But I feel as though life experience outside of college, even on a very basic level, like being a waitress/waiter, or grocery store checkout person, or a shelf stocker for a store, will help many people develop more to appreciate the difficulties of the real world. Prior to that, I had all of my needs met, didn’t have to worry about finances, didn’t even know how to balance a checkbook. I lived a charmed life and squandered it in college. My GPA was simply embarrassing. 

Following college, I treated my job the same as I had my school years, not caring about the consequences of failing there. Because I knew my parents would always help me out of whatever shit storm I found myself in. I was seriously lucky. Now, fifteen years after graduating, I am finally stable enough to live on my own. It takes everyone a different amount of time to fully grow up. I was seriously lucky to have gotten into graduate school at all with my awful GPA. In fact, I have no idea how I managed that. Still, I graduated with my MLIS with a much better GPA than I did college. And now, during the pandemic, I’m considering applying to a Ph.D program in Information Science. Because I’ve got nothing else besides job applications to fill my time. And it isn’t the most mentally challenging way to spend my days. 

ANYWAY, the point I was trying to make is that everyone should try different things, although I would recommend taking a year off before going to college. Or, hell, three years. There is no rule saying you have to attend college right after high school. So, that is the realization I had today. Only over a decade after I graduated college by the skin of my teeth. 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[mothdogs]

Are you a librarian? If so, can you tell me how to become one, cause that’s my dream job. Please and thank you!!

Hah, I was just talking to someone about this like an hour ago. Yep, I’m a children’s librarian. I’m currently about halfway done with my master’s degree in library science and I work in a public library.

Most libraries are going to require masters degrees for full-time positions. The most common type is the MLIS (masters of library and information science), although depending on your school some programs either drop or emphasize the “information” part. General MLIS courses are things like foundations (basically a history of the discipline), collection development (learning how to know what to add and remove from any given collection or books/materials), cataloging, reference, and various technological classes. You’ll also probably be able to choose a specific type of library--you’ll focus more on reference and information literacy if you want to work in an academic/university library, or you might focus on programming, reader’s advisory, or collection development if you want to work in a public library. There are also some special-interest classes; I loved my archiving class and my young adult literature class.

Getting into grad school varies depending on your program. My #1 suggestion is to find a program that’s not going to leave you mired in loan debt, because while librarianship isn’t generally /terrible/ pay, it’s rarely lucrative unless you work in a well-to-do area with lots of state/local funding. SO. Seek out programs in your state, first. Also don’t discount online schools. MAKE SURE your school is ALA (American Library Association) accredited--if it’s not, your degree won’t mean jack shit. Most MLIS programs accept a range of undergrad experience; a bachelor’s in education, English, history, or business admin will serve you well in an MLIS, though that’s not to say that other bachelors degrees won’t get you in either. Also, some schools require the GRE (Graduate Ready Entrance Exam, basically the SAT for grad school) and some don’t, which can be something to take into consideration, as it’s about $300 (may be more now) and a serious pain in the ass to take. 

Also, I highly highly recommend getting a part-time position in a library before or as you start your MLIS if it’s at all possible. Lots of libraries hire part-time pages or assistants or circ clerks, and it’s a great way to get some experience and ground your degree work in understanding of how a library actually works. Experience is invaluable in this field. I’d recommend going to your local library and asking to speak to librarians who have their MLIS degrees--most of them will be happy to tell you about their experiences and give advice!

Best of luck anon :-) 

[theancientgeekoroman]

While this might not be your area of expertise could you lend any advice to a high school senior (almost college freshman) planning on going into History, looking at a masters in museum studies? I’m a bit over whelmed and not entirely sure I know where to start

Hi, Nonny!

Okay, I did actually get an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Oklahoma, so I do have some experience there :3 I work in a museum professionally at the moment as well.

For History in general at the university level is a lot of analysis and reading and a lot of papers. If you’re in the US, I would suggest looking into CLEP exams for the introductory courses (History 101, 102), depending on your university, if you want to skip over the beginning courses. CLEP will help you test out of courses before you go into courses and can save you money in the long run. (If you’re not in the US, you can always look into an equivalent program that lets you test out of lower-level courses in your country if your university system works that way).

One of the things I’d suggest before going to your university is to e-mail the professors in the history program (look up and see what courses they teach) and express your excitement of working with them. You can also see if they list any of their syllabi online to get an idea of the kind of workload they assign and what textbooks they expect you to have for their courses. One of the most useful thing I did as a history major was keep all my textbooks because I needed them again - one of my undergraduate textbooks I had in 2015 I ended up needing this year for graduate school! So, you never know.

The other thing I did was I color-coded my notes/highlighter for different eras for my classes. It helped a lot because my ancient history was always yellow, Medieval was blue, Renaissance was orange, etc. That worked for me, but remember that you have to try and figure out what works best for you.

I know that my history homework (in 3-credit American courses) always had about three hours per course each day I had class - so if I had it three times a week, I was reading about 9 hours a week. I have dyslexia and ADHD, so I had to make my schedule to accommodate for that, so the three hours, depending on the day, it might take me 6 hours for something that would usually take half that time. Make sure you take a lot of breaks during the readings because it can really get overwhelming. Stand up, stretch, get a glass of water, and if you have trouble concentrating on one of the readings, don’t be afraid to change which homework you’re focusing on.

As I’ve said with other advice, remember to talk to your professors. This is especially important in history because it can be overwhelming. One of my favorite professors was a Medieval professor, and I kept in touch with him well into graduate school. As you go through the program, don’t just meet with your assigned advisor, but talk to all of your professors. A lot of them will be good for recommendations in the future, and a lot of them give invaluable advice about how to proceed in your career.

Here’s the thing about Museum Studies degrees that I didn’t realize before I was already halfway through my program: the field is exceptionally over-saturated with people with museum degrees. However, having said that, if you want to get the degree, I wouldn’t blame you. I got mine because I wanted it and then I decided to pursue my MA in Classical Studies. So, I’m going to give you a couple of options because I know this is overwhelming, but remember, you still haven’t even started university yet, so grad school is still a bit away for you, and there might be even better options once you’re graduating!

The first thing I would suggest is that if you can, over the summer, try to volunteer at a local museum and see if they’ll let you float over different departments to see what you like best. Related places like local art galleries are also an option! A lot of places also have internships, but you might need a little bit more experience before an internship (high school internships happen, but it’s been my experience that many museums prefer interns that are enrolled in college already). 

Most universities have galleries and museums so you can volunteer there, too. Some university museums have front desk paid positions for students, so check that out as well! 

Museum Studies isn’t the only graduate degree to consider when you’re thinking about working in a museum after graduate school. Another thing to consider is getting a graduate degree with a Museum Studies graduate certificate to complement it could be an option for you. 

If you’re thinking about working in a science-based museum, multiple different science degrees would be applicable. One of the jobs I looked at ended up requiring an Entomology degree, so you never know! Other degrees that might help would be a graduate degree in Anthropology, Art Conservation, Art History, Education, History, etc. One of the things you should do is look at the museums you would like to work at and see the educational background of the current employees and the openings there to see which is the best route to take. (Additionally, if you have an MA in any of those fields, depending on where you live, you could also teach community college in addition to or while you’re searching for a museum position). 

Another degree to consider that I think is applicable is a Master in Library Science, some degree programs of which have a Museum Studies specialization (such as the one at Kent State University: https://www.kent.edu/iSchool/museum-studies). The good thing about pursuing an MLIS with a focus on museums is that you can apply to public and academic libraries as well as museum libraries, which gives a little more flexibility.  

The reason why I give you all these other options (I know it’s a lot) is that I didn’t get a museum job until six months after I got my BA degrees and moved across the country - twice. This was also after having an apprenticeship, several internships, and uncountable volunteer hours as well. So, that’s a lot to consider. Once I got to where I live now, though, I got a museum job almost two weeks after I moved here, so you have to take where you live into account, too. Las Vegas is a pretty transient city, and a lot of people here don’t have Museum Studies MAs, so it’s a rarity. Other places that I lived (like Chicago) have so many people vying for the same jobs, it’s difficult to get your foot in the door. But, that’s why the volunteering, internships, and networking is so important. Professors are part of your networking, so keep that in mind, too. If your university has an art history club or history club or museum club, join it/them. Go to the museum and gallery openings at your university and talk with the people there. Usually, they have a lot of the professors and upperclassmen there, as well as local museum professionals. Go to events at local museums and art galleries, too! One of the things I wish I had done before I did that was make business cards that I could give to the people I met there, which is what I do at my current place of work when I meet people who want to keep in touch with me. Small things like that could go a long way. 

I would spend some time researching the schools that you’re interested in for graduate school (as I assume you’ve already chosen which university you’re going to next year already) and compare their programs. While you’re an undergraduate, try to take one course in other fields that might interest you. A lot of times you can take courses in Anthropology or Art History for general education requirements and sometimes they’ll count towards a history major. Don’t be afraid to explore outside of your comfort zone. 

The last thing I would recommend is after you do all this research, and you still want to go to graduate school specifically for Museum Studies, then you should do it. I loved my program, and although everyone told me once I graduated that I would not see a good ROI (return on investment), I had wasted my time. But one of the things I did during my program was an internship at a museum on the same campus where I would get my first full-time benefitted position. I learned how to run a museum. I learned best practices and how to curate. I learned basic exhibition design. I learned art and museum law. There was a lot that was covered in the program that was generalized that will help me in any museum I work at in the future, which is part of why I liked the program. The MA in Classical Studies was my next move because I would like to be a curator of Ancient Greek and Roman art eventually. 

Just remember, take a deep breath, and you don’t have to worry about graduate school quite yet, but if you want to make sure you’re keeping up with the job market, keep an eye out and follow positions you want on sites like Indeed.com so you can see what people are looking for and begin to gain skills in those areas. 

Also, and this is weirdly important for a history major, but I have seen current university students not know how to do it - learn to write and read cursive, in your native language and the language of any historical figure you might be studying. Somehow this has become a special skill, but I know it because we were required to use it in Catholic school. 

I hope this wasn’t too overwhelming, and if you want to ask me more about my MA in Museum Studies, feel free to do so. Let me know if you want any clarifications on what I’ve outlined here; I know it was a lot. 

All the best,

Tychon, the Ancient Geeko-Roman

[armor-goblin]

LIBRARIAN SIRINIAL SHOW US THE TRUE— ahem. I’m actually just curious: What exactly entails the work of a librarian that it’s such a competitive field? :0

it’s a good heckin question!! 

people think of librarians as mostly working in the public sector and doing mysterious book stuff. but degree is effectively about information architecture and how to find and archive and share information, which is why it requires a master’s in the first place! it’s versatile, and there’s a lot of skills that go into it. i was required to take an IT class as well as basic information organization classes and a management class, and then i got to supplement with things like research in LIS and copyright law and motivational theory and stuff, because that’s my areas of interest. you can take a degree in children’s librarianship and become more of an educator, or you can take a degree in archives and specialize in preserving and disseminating primary sources and historical materials, or you could specialize in data management and go into a more tech-focused position managing large datasets or making data accessible. this is the long winded way to say ‘librarians can wear a lot of hats,’ haha. we learn a lot of very useful skills, and what i think is most important is that we also are taught how to disseminate information, not just archive it; it makes librarians great liaisons and educators as well as data managers or catalogers, and means we can do a lot to make information accessible. and running a library takes a lot of these skills. 

in practice, library techs/clerks do a lot of the grunt work of shelving and customer service and checkin/checkout. full librarians’ duties also include: cataloging, adding to and maintaining the collection both digitally and physically, budgeting, event planning and hosting, book repair, website management, tech support, connecting with the community to host events or support programs...among other things, and in addition to those basic tech duties. some might work reference desks or teach classes or workshops as well, or train new employees, or work with the city on preservation, or what have you. academic librarians also often teach or help teach, as well as preparing learning resources to complement other teachers, as well as do their own research and write their own papers. they might work one on one with researchers in other departments, liaise between departments and the library, or help with and plan events, along with all those other duties like collection development/maintenance and budgeting and data management. increasingly, professors are adding information literacy components to their classes and librarians are increasingly being brought on to help with curriculum design or to embed in a laboratory or classroom setting as a permanent fixture, which is awesome. and effective! 

unfortunately, libraries are often chronically underfunded (ESPECIALLY public libraries), and we’re also facing a problem of people not retiring, as in many fields. there’s just not that many traditional librarian positions available for new grads like i will be in a few months, and we are often competing with people with years of experience in a library setting…and experience tends to win out for a lot of employers. (a lot of MLIS students seem to move into the degree after ten or twenty years in another career, and come into the game with a lot more experience -- at least from what i’ve seen talking to my peers, this is pretty common.) in contrast to public libraries, academic library positions tend to be more lucrative and full time, but they’re correspondingly harder to get, since they can require higher levels of education/experience and often require you do to a lot of stuff to maintain tenure track. (not all require you to be on tenure track, but a lot seem to.) (plus some of these positions require PhDs in LIS, which makes them even harder to get, of course.) but yeah, at least in part it’s that a good number of people are getting this degree and there just aren’t that many traditional library positions available since people aren’t retiring and libraries tend to be low on funds to hire more full-time employees. 

i do think more employers are starting to seek out people with library skillsets to manage their information systems or help educate or what have you, though. there are jobs available that aren’t strictly library jobs, but require the same skills; they’re just not always labeled as such and thus you’re competing against an entirely different set of people and also, perhaps, against perception of your skillset vs what your skillset actually is as a librarian. (anyone who manages a database is a good example of a non-library job that really overlaps with LIS, because it’s the same basic skillset of organizing and storing information. but you might be competing with a lot of different folks depending on what that database is for – lab managers or IT professionals or experienced programmers might want that job too, and might stand a better chance to get it.)or these positions are labeled as librarian jobs, but they want a specific background or skill in addition, and so they’re looking at either a tiny pool of applicants or a large pool of less qualified people. (like science librarians, especially in non-academic environments. often having a science degree is ‘just a plus’ because otherwise you just don’t have enough applicants – and frankly it’s very feasible for librarians to teach themselves enough to get on with once they’re in the position, so other factors can be more important.) 

so, yeah! the field’s competitive, but it’s partly because of factors that affect a lot of workplaces, like retirement and underfunding. and it’s partly, i think, because employers haven’t completely figured out that the skills they’re asking for overlap with LIS, which would broaden the positions we can fill a lot. i’d like to say things are changing for the better in that respect but it’s honestly pretty hard to tell. library science incorporates a lot of stuff that’s become incredibly important in a pretty short time, but it’s also female-dominated and suffers from a lot of mystery about what we can actually do, and librarians have done and are still doing a lot to try and rebrand as versatile information professionals and clear up those misconceptions. 

[acecademia]

Do you feel like grades have a purpose? Have you heard of ungrading, standard based grading, and project based learning? Can you see yourself using any of them when you teach?

Hi, nonny!

Speaking as someone whose self-worth has largely been dependent on academic achievement their whole life.... it depends.

I don't want to go into my "everything that's wrong with public education in the US" rant because it's long and it gets me really worked up and angry and I do not want to go there right now.

I'm putting this under a cut cuz it got super long

We put too much emphasis on grades. Grade scales vary from state to state, and it's very dumb that an 83 can be a C+ in one state and a solid B in another. Also, an 83 means you understood 83% of the material. How is that not great???

I legitimately cried the first time I got a B on an assignment. I cried even harder when I got an F on an assignment (and was grounded for two months, even though, in my defense, it was totally not my fault that I got that grade and that teacher was a jerk). I had a full-on panic attack when I got a C on an exam in undergrad. And that right there? That's not healthy.

Now, that being said, I think that grades have different purposes for different types of classes. If you're in art class in K-12, then like if you do the projects, you should get an A on them. If you're in a computer programming class in undergrad, yeah, your grade does matter there because that's--presumably--a skill you're going to use in your job, and if you don't know how to do it, then, like, that's not great.

The real secret about MLIS programs is that your grades don't matter. Like, so long as you pass, the libraries you interview at are not going to quiz you about your GPA. They're going to see you have an MLIS from an ALA-accredited program, and that's going to be all they need to know about your grades--that you got the degree. My grades mattered more because I was applying for PhD programs, obviously, but most of the instructors in that school were fairly chill about grades. This isn't me trying to brag, but I had a 4.0 for my MLIS. Only a couple of the classes I took required much additional effort to get an A. Some programs are more intense than others, but a lot of the professors I took classes from were more focused on getting us to engage with the material and think than to grade us harshly on how well we learned.

There were two grading methods I've had in the past that have really stood out to me positively. One I think works for classes where you don't need a measurement of knowledge (so more discussion-based classes than math or whatever). One of my professors in my MLIS used it, and I really liked it because it took basically all of the pressure away. There was a set of required assignments. If you completed those assignments--in good faith--to the best of your ability, you automatically got full points for them. Completing all of the assignments would get you an 85/100 in the class as your final grade. There were then additional, optional assignments that were worth anywhere from like 2-5 points or so, and you could complete as many of those as you wanted to get the grade you wanted. She used the same grading system on those as well, so if you did the thing, you got the points.

The second was from undergrad, and it would honestly work for either kind of class. There were assignments that were all clearly laid out in the syllabus--in detail--that you got on day 1 of class. That syllabus packet laid out exactly how the assignments were graded and what different parts of the assignments were worth. The way the class was structured, you basically just earned the number of points you wanted to get the grade you wanted, which yeah, is how most classes work, but this was super easy to understand? There were a total of ~450 points, and at the end of the semester, your grade was calculated by moving the decimal place two spots to the left. So a 390 would be a 3.9, which was then assigned a grade using a basic GPA scale. You only needed 380 points to get an A (379 being the uppermost A-). That means there was an excess of around 70 points that you could earn but didn't need to in order to get an A. You had all of this padding, so if you got into the semester and saw you weren't doing so hot, there were so many opportunities where you could make up those points. It was amazing.

Those two systems led to some of the most chill classes I've ever taken. I didn't stress about my assignments having to be absolutely perfect and fuck up my anxiety. I turned in what I'd done, looked at the feedback, synthesized it, and then started on the next assignment. I feel like I focused more on what I was learning as opposed to focusing on creating the most perfect paper or presentation or whathaveyou.

I'm also a fan of project-based learning, but I have reservations about making those projects be group projects, which seems to be a trend. Like yes, knowing how to work in a group is great, but when you get a groupmate who does not give a single shit about their assignment, it sucks. It sucks really bad. And it's stressful. None of these things are conducive to learning.

All in all, I'm open to different forms and methods of assessing learning, many of which--I'm sure--come from my more humanities-based background where having opinions and backing them up is what's important. I think it'll depend on exactly what the class is, what the goals of the class are, if other professors/instructors are teaching the same class at the same time as me, and honestly, trial and error.

[cromulentbookreview]

A Perfectly Cromulent List of the Best Books I’ve Read This Year

Well, the best books I’ve read this year that I haven’t cromulently reviewed on this site. I read a lot of books because it’s what I like to do and I don’t really have a lot of friends to hang out with, or really anything that I do besides work and grad school so...yeah, I read a lot. My Goodreads challenge this year is 100 books, which would be the first and only time I’ve ever read 100 books in a year. I’m at 95 right now - so close! Just gotta get some short books and audiobooks in, and I’ll be good!

Anyway.

Below are some of the books I’ve read this year that I really liked, but didn’t feature here.

The Cromulent Book Review is where I like to post reviews of ARCs so I can ensure that I keep getting them. 

ARC = Free Book! 

Free Book = Me happy. 

Therefore:

Happiness = x(ARC+1) + H^2.

I have no idea if that equation works or even makes sense. Math was never my strong suit. Maybe I should’ve paid attention instead of reading The Hobbit under my desk. 

Anyway! Here, in no particular order, are some of the best books I’ve read this year:

Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G.

Did you know this is a webcomic? Yeah, it is. I did not when I read the ARC from Netgalley, so I was all sad when I thought I’d have to wait for more books...but you don’t! Hurray! One of the best graphic novels / webcomics I’ve ever come across - snarky, subverts most familiar fantasy tropes, and, best of all: bunnies. And bunny-related puns. It’s fan-fricking-tastic. Read it now. Then go buy the books! Go on, I’ll wait.

Castle in the Stars: The Space Race of 1869 by Alex Alice 

Love it. It has everything I love: German history, Steampunk, gorgeous illustrations, space travel...I desperately need more than just the first volume. Also, at roughly 60 pages, these "books" are way too short! I need the whole story now, please. God, I miss Germany. Nitpicking: Neuschwanstein was only just beginning to be under construction in 1869. Ludwig II never really lived there (well, he did for a bit while it was still under construction) - he never lived to see it completed, though it wasn't like he didn't have eleventy-million other castles. Like Hohenschwangau, which is literally across the way from Neuschwanstein. It's quite nice. There's also Herrenchiemsee, Königshaus am Schachen, and Linderhof which is the only castle Ludwig II lived to see completed. Neuschwanstein was opened to the public immediately after they were done building in 1886. It's been a tourist attraction since then. ...God, I miss Germany. I need to re-up my German and my German history. I've got a book on Ludwig II in German around here somewhere...

Eden West by Pete Hautman

It's rare that I ever finish a book in a day. I am way too easily distracted by the internet, the job I’m supposed to be doing, the graduate work I’m supposed to be doing, the writing I’m supposed to be doing, the chores I really should get to before something catches fire...you know, stuff. This book I think, is the first time I've seen an Amazon Kindle 1.99 deal, gone "sounds interesting, I'll buy it." And then, on the "thank you" page, clicked "read in Kindle Cloud Reader" and started reading immediately. I was over halfway through this book when the receipt email made it to my inbox. I was sucked into this book immediately and dropped everything to read it. My only complaint is that it ended too early - I would have loved to see Jacob adjusting to life in the world outside of the Nobb, interact with society at large, meet Lynna's friends. Also, it would have been nice to see some of the jerks within the Nobb get their comeuppance or see the place be shut down altogether. Also, protip: if you have to keep telling people "it's not a cult", you're probably in a cult. Just sayin'.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Yeah, I went to a rural high school chock full of conservative Christians, Mormons, and, oddly enough, members of the Russian Orthodox church. No way in hell were we ever going to go near The Color Purple. I mean, if Ricochet River was too risque for my school, then The Color Purple would’ve been considered pornographic. God forbid we have any books featuring frank discussions of female pleasure! The Color Purple all about female empowerment, friendships, relationships, sex, love, hate, racism, sexism... So of course my school didn’t teach it. By far the most beautiful book I’ve read this year, and I honestly wish they’d make The Color Purple required reading for not just all high school students, but for all humans. 

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

I don't often describe books as "compulsively" readable - for the most part, if I'm reading something, I can stop, switch to something else or go do something else for a while and I'll be good. But when I started The Hate U Give, I just could not stop. I had to keep reading, keep reading, keep reading. This book hooks you and just does not let go, it's awesome. The 4.5/5 is really only for some scenes which, in retrospect, set up just how normal and loving Starr's family life is, but they dragged a little too long. Some scenes could have been cut. That is my only criticism. This is a fantastic and extremely relevant book - it's another one of those books I'd like to buy multiple copies of and then just hand out to random people and be like "READ THIS NOW." Seriously, read it.

This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee

Immediately after reading The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, I just had to get my hands on everything Mackenzi Lee had ever written, but this turned out to not be a lot...still, I inhaled This Monstrous Thing, loved it, was disappointed when I learned it wouldn’t be getting the sequel, but then my heart nearly exploded when I learned that Lee herself will be writing a YA Marvel tie-in novel...about Loki.

About. Loki.

The awesome woman who brought us Gentleman’s Guide is going to write a novel about Loki!

Also, Gentleman’s Guide is going to be getting a sequel soon! Hell yes!

That high pitched ringing you heard a couple weeks back was my fangirlish squee - unless you have tinnitus, in which case, it was tinnitus and my fangirlish squee. Mackenzi Lee is probably my favorite writer that I discovered this year, and I can’t wait to see more of her stuff in the future. She’s also very tolerant of my pestering of her via Twitter. (Sorry, Ms. Lee!)

Nimona, the Audiobook by Noelle Stevenson

Loved, loved, loved the audiobook version of Nimona! It was absolutely perfect, and probably as close to a Nimona movie or TV series that we'll ever get (fingers still crossed! Noelle Stevenson writes for TV now - come on, Marvel, make us a Nimona TV series!). It's done in a BBC Radio Play style with a full cast and original music and it's just absolutely delightful. Sir Goldenloin sounds exactly like how you think he would, too :) It's only 2.5 hours long, so it would be perfect for a long car ride or if you need something fun to listen to while cleaning or doing housework. I actually managed to clean my whole room while listening to this - made the task fun rather than torturous. My only complaint was that occasionally the voice actors would ham it up a bit with growls and groans and such, but...eh, it's an audiobook/radio play. I'm mostly just glad now that Nimona has been made accessible to the blind. Nimona is awesome and everyone should get a chance to experience it, whether or not they can see the illustrations.

Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

This book broke my heart into a million pieces and then put it back together somewhat...but still. Beautiful and sad.          

Bronze and Sunflower by Cao Wenxuan (曹文轩) translated into English by Helen Wang

Beautifully translated book about two young children growing up in rural China during the Cultural Revolution. A very heartwarming tale of a family sticking together no matter what in the face of poverty and diversity. Can't believe I hadn't heard of this book til it was assigned in my MLIS program! Love it love it love it. Stop everything and read it now.         

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

This book took my adolescence and distilled it into a middle grade novel about a girl who becomes obsessed with the idea that a jellyfish killed her ex-best friend. The way Suzy sees the world and the way people treated her was all to familiar to me, especially the story of how, around middle school, her elementary school best friend Franny suddenly became a different person, and that person didn’t want to hang around Suzy anymore. Not only that, she started being mean to Suzy. This is one of those awful, painful experiences that I’m pretty sure everyone has had at some point in their lives. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has lost a friend - whether it be because they died or they simply turned into an asshole as a byproduct of puberty.

The Last of August by Brittany Cavallaro

There are two things I love: YA and Sherlock Holmes stories, and most of the time when they're combined the end result isn't all that great, but the Charlotte Holmes books have both been absolutely amazing so far. Brittany Cavallaro became a new favorite of mine with A Study in Charlotte and she managed to top it with Last of August.  I am in desperate need of book three. Right now. I don't want to wait. I need it. Neeeeeed it.

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

Oh God, oh God, oh God why did it have to end?!? Libba Bray is perhaps my favorite YA author ever - in fact, A Great and Terrible Beauty was the gateway book to my YA addiction. I remember reading A Great and Terrible Beauty under my desk during my high school chemistry class. Worth it! So what if knowledge of chemistry never really sank in? Anyway: I tore through all those books, endured the long, awful wait for the next one, and then was depressed when they ended with The Sweet Far Thing. And then The Diviners came out in 2012 and I was immediately hooked. Who doesn’t love fiction set in the Roaring 20s? I tore through Diviners, endured the long, awful wait for Lair of Dreams, and then endured the even longer, more awful wait for Before the Devil Breaks You. My only criticism is that I, somehow, had the idea that Before the Devil Breaks You would be the last book in a trilogy - and that this book would provide all our answers and give us an ending for Evie and Sam and Jericho and Mable and Theta and Memphis and Ling...but as I made my way through the book and the number of pages I had left began to dwindle, I rapidly realized this was the final book of a trilogy, but the third book in a series. There’s going to be a book 4. Which, first off: awesome! More, please! But also: NOOO! Agh, no, I want to know all the answers! I want to know whether Evie will end up with Sam or Jericho. I wanna know if Theta will finally find happiness. I WANT TO KNOW, DAMN IT! Ugh! So it was disappointing knowing that I would be taken along for a wild ride through the Roaring 20s but with magic and special powers and a 20s Stranger Things vibe only to be set up for yet another long, awful wait for another book. Ugh! I WANT IT NOW. In fact, I NEED IT NOW!

Also, when are we going to talk about the fact that Diviners and the Gemma Doyle series take place in the same universe?? Don’t believe me? Go reread that Post Office scene from Lair of Dreams. Go on, I’ll wait. I need Gemma and her friends to show up for the final battle, or to act as a mentor to Evie or something!

Aaaagggghh. Series books. They’ll be the death of me, I tells ya!

This is by all means not a complete list. Just a list I threw together to make up for the fact that I’m lazy and not blogging because...eh, busy. And lazy. So...there are some books to read. Go read them? I dunno, you don’t have to listen to me, I’m just some random person who has a Tumblr account. Read these books or not, your choice.

Still, you should read these. They’re great.

[intothestacks]

The Not-so-Secret Life of Librarians: Community Librarians

Some of you may remember a post I wrote a while back lauding seasoned librarians who take us newbies under their wing and mentor us (bless y’all to the moon and back). Well, my mentor is Claudio Bringas, a community librarian at Edmonton Public Library’s Enterprise Square branch, in downtown.

But what does a community librarian do? Aren’t all public librarians community librarians? I asked Claudio if he’d be willing to answer a few questions, and he very graciously agreed.

What does an average day look like for you?

It depends. Some days are mainly about contacting people, emailing, making phone calls. Sometimes you could spend the day writing reports, and other days you would be delivering programs outside of the library. It’s difficult to describe an average day—it varies day to day.

Sometimes we have internal team meetings, and also meetings with different community members. For example, this afternoon I have to meet somebody from a community league and also the Community Recreation Coordinator for the City of Edmonton. They’re planning on setting up an English language training program (something like a conversation circle) at the community league, and are interested in knowing what the library can do to help. That’s an example of what a community librarian meeting outside of the library would be about.

In some branches, community librarians have to do more desk hours than others. When I was at the Stanley A. Milner branch, I only had to do one day every so often. Here at Enterprise Square, it’s whenever I’m needed, so I’ve been doing much more desk hours than I used to.

You became a Community Librarian back in 2008, when the EPL first started hiring for such a position. How would you say community librarianship has changed since then?

Well, one thing is the perception of the people outside of the library. The different community groups are more aware of community librarians and have a better understanding of what we do, whereas at the beginning it was very strange. People didn’t know why we wanted to attend certain community meetings, go to interagency meetings, or participate in this or that event. Now they’re always inviting us to go. I think that’s because they’re more aware of what we do, and aware of the library services as well.

Before, people would think, “The library’s there, they have their books and collections, and that’s about it, right?” Now the public is starting to become aware of the changes. I think it’s because the community librarians are engaged with different groups, and we’ve been doing a wide variety of activities that people wouldn’t see as traditional library programs.

Internally, for us, I would say that in the beginning we had much greater freedom to do different things, explore different programs, whereas everything is now more regulated and has to be justified. For example, as far as programs: if you want to create a program, it must be approved and follow the appropriate channels. Your proposal has to go to the teams that oversee certain types of programs. In the beginning, it was like, “Well, this is something new, and we’ll just try it out.”

A cast-out-a-net-and-see-what-comes-back kind of thing. See what sticks.

Yeah. And that’s pretty much what I did when I moved to the Stanley A. Milner library from the Londonderry branch. My manager said, “Basically, there’s this area that the Downtown library serves. We’ve been focused on one specific area (which was the inner city, the East side of downtown), but there’s also this whole other side where we have lots of organizations and different places. You go and explore to see what’s there. Go and.… do whatever.”

If you had to give one advice to hopeful community-librarians-to-be, what would you say?

That they would need to have a lot of experience in different community initiatives. Just a library degree by itself isn’t enough.

So the message is, “get involved”—right?

Yeah. The people they’ve been hiring lately are people that have all these great experiences and have done all these wonderful things, internships here, setting up libraries there... It makes it very difficult for other people to compete if they don’t have those experiences.

When I got this job, I was one of the first five, and I don’t think any of us had those types of experiences. We were just straight out of library school. I think if I were to apply now, I wouldn’t have a chance. So that’s what I would suggest: Get involved with community groups and initiatives, whether it’s a paid job or volunteering.

The other thing I would say is that if somebody likes a job where they’re always in control of everything, everything has to be a certain way, this job is not for them. [laughs]

About Claudio: Claudio Bringas is one of two community librarians at Edmonton’s central public library branch. An Aussie by birth, he mostly grew up in Chile before moving to Canada in 2001. He graduated from the University of Alberta’s MLIS program in 2007.

About the Edmonton Public Library: The EPL currently has 18 branches spread out across Edmonton, as well as a few lending machines in busy areas of town. It has a full-time Community Librarian per branch, except for its central branch (which has two) and Highlands branch, which has two part-time community librarians instead (co-community librarians, if you will).

Want to learn more about the not-so-secret life of librarians? Check out my first post on what librarians do and my posts on my volunteer job as a spider librarian (part 1, part 2, part 3)! :)

[savetopnow]

2018-03-14 14 EDUCATION now

EDUCATION

Cathy Jo Nelson

Choose USC-SLIS for your MLIS!

New Standards – Discount Price through SCASL

Happy Thanksgiving – Happy Weeding

Put a positive spin on it

Library Flier

Cool Cat Teacher

6 Super Science Edtech Ideas: Using Technology to Level Up Science Classrooms

When Do You Let Go of Your Grail?

Active Learning in the Science Classroom

When It is OK to Miss a Day: Stop The Presses for Your Priority Person

5 Ideas to Change Teaching with Digital Tools

Mndshift

Rethinking How Students With Dyslexia Are Taught To Read

A Deeper Look at the Whole School Approach to Behavior

Using Expressive Writing To Keep Students Grounded and Engaged in Science Courses

Can Online Learning Level the AP Playing Field for Rural Students?

How Empowering Girls to Confront Conflict and Buck Perfection Helps Their Well-Being

Parents Countdown to College

Defanging Social Media

Spring College Visits Aren’t Just for Juniors

How One Student Hacked the College System

The College Selection Dilemma: Big or Small?

Should You “Follow the Money” When Choosing a College?

Reddit Education

Former GDOE students reflect on impact of Mes CHamoru

UCR student government decides to spend $35,000 on free sweaters

What do I list as an expected salary?

Foreign language enrolment in the US trending downward

Ethnically Diverse Universities in the US

Study Hacks Blog

Tim Wu on the Tyranny of Convenience

Sebastian Junger Never Owned a Smartphone (and Why This Matters)

Facebook’s Desperate Smoke Screen

On Simple Productivity Systems and Complex Plans

Alexander Hamilton’s Deep Advice

Teach Thought

10 Reasons To Use Inquiry-Based Learning In Your Classroom

Why Teachers Should Digitally Document Evidence Of Learning

How To Teach Students To Research Without Google

Learning is an experience. Everything else is just information.

The TeachThought Podcast Ep. 110 Reinventing Learning: Relevant, Engaging, and Fun Learning Experiences

Teacher Network

How are you getting students excited about handwriting? Send us your pictures

Secret Teacher: the focus on exams is failing GCSE students

World Book Day 2018: teachers dress up – in pictures

Does writing by hand still matter in the digital age?

Classroom pay: ‘My male colleague was paid £7,000 more than me’

The Answer Sheet

A 13-year-old explains why he is walking out of school for 17 minutes on Wednesday

What legal rights do students really have to protest during the school day?

Low-income, first-generation students have — finally — established a beachhead at Ivy League schools. Now the real work starts.

Betsy DeVos defends herself on Twitter after being skewered for ’60 Minutes’ performance

Nine controversial — and highly revealing — things Betsy DeVos has said

The Best Education Blog

Diane Ravitch's Blog: Network for Public Education Releases a Parents’ Guide to Online Learning

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[jewsome]

Kabbalah books, my websites and me

I have a long history with books on Kabbalah and organizing them on the web. As I just reached a milestone in this process, let me share the timeline so far.

1984 – My earliest memory of Kabbalah happened while still in highschool. I distinctly remember a girl, I didn’t know till then, coming up to me at school and asking whether it is true that the Kabbalah predicted that the world would end that year. I don’t recall my answer but remember hers, when I asked why she was asking me. She was told that I would know, being interested in Kabbalah.  This being my earliest memory of Kabbalah I wonder what did I do or say to deserve this reputation. I think I will never know.

1991-1992 – I studied in the rabbinic program of Leo Baeck College in London for a year. I stayed in the dormitory of the college which was on the campus itself along with the library. I got the access code to the library, so I spent many a night reading there, including Kabbalah books. I wanted to know and understand it but not necessarily from a  religious perspective. I did not want to practice it, my interest was and is more academic.

1994 – Made my first website.

1996 – Made my first personal website at por.gabor.com address. Unfortunately I have no record backup or image of it; that site is gone.

2000 May – I registered my own web domain “pgabor.com“ where I have my own personal website ever since. Even in its earliest incarnation it had a list of Kabbalah books. As far as I recall I moved that from the previous por.gabor.com address. The earliest copy the Wayback machine has of my list is from January 27, 2001.

2006 September – I started my librarian masters program.

2007 October – I created a separate website dedicated to Kabbalah books at sefarim.net. That site is gone now too,  This is the earliest copy you can find it online is from December 31, 2007. Technical side note: first it was a custom PHP/MySql based website but by 2011 I moved it to WordPress.

2008 March – I earned my MLIS (Masters in Library and Information Science) degree from University of Washington.

2010 July – Registered “kabbalahbooks.co” domain and moved the content of the sefarim.net website over there. At the time the “.co” domains were hyped as the best new thing for those who didn’t manage to get a good “.com” domain. I was hoping that with this more SEO friendly name the site could grow its audience. The first copy the Wayback machine has of this site is from May 4, 2013, see here.

2014 August – Created a website for Jewish books in general at JewishBookWorld.org .

2017 July – As I didn’t find the time to update the kabbalahbooks.co website for years I had let its domain expire with the idea of simplifying my life. At its peak I had listed over 600 books in seven categories.

2019 January – Even thought the focus of JewishBookWorld.org  was sharing newly published books I started to add about one book a (week)day from my list of academic/scholarly Kabbalah books to that site.

2019 August 23 – Here is the milestone I mentioned in the intro. I just finished re-adding the last book from my old list with “Secrets From the Lost Bible by Kenneth Hanson“. From this point on I will just add new books on Kabbalah as I learn about them.

So without further due let me introduce a new page on this website, the full list of books I gathered from an Academic/scholarly perspective. Every book on this list has its own page on this site. I also posted my other lists of Kabbalah related books include, but for these clicking on the book titles you get to the corresponding page on Amazon: Commercial, Fiction, Meditation, Popularizer, Religious, Qabalah.

The post Kabbalah books, my websites and me appeared first on Jewish Book World.

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[jennierosehalperin-blog1]

Why I feel like an Open Source Failure

I presented a version of this talk at the Supporting Cultural Heritage Open Source Software (SCHOSS) Symposium in Atlanta, GA in September 2014. This talk was generously sponsored by LYRASIS and the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

I often feel like an Open Source failure.

I haven’t submitted 500 patches in my free time, I don’t spend my after-work hours rating html5 apps, and I was certainly not a 14 year old Linux user. Unlike the incredible group of teenaged boys with whom I write my Mozilla Communities newsletter and hang out with on IRC, I spent most of my time online at that age chatting with friends on AOL Instant Messenger and doing my homework.

I am a very poor programmer. My Wikipedia contributions are pretty sad. I sometimes use Powerpoint. I never donated my time to Open Source in the traditional sense until I started at Mozilla as a GNOME OPW intern and while the idea of data gets me excited, the thought of spending hours cleaning it is another story.

I was feeling this way the other day and chatting with a friend about how reading celebrity news often feels like a better choice after work than trying to find a new open source project to contribute to or making edits to Wikipedia. A few minutes later, a message popped up in my inbox from an old friend asking me to help him with his application to library school.

I dug up my statement of purpose and I was extremely heartened to read my words from three years ago:

I am particularly interested in the interaction between libraries and open source technology… I am interested in innovative use of physical and virtual space and democratic archival curation, providing free access to primary sources.

It felt good to know that I have always been interested in these topics but I didn’t know what that would look like until I discovered my place in the open source community. I feel like for many of us in the cultural heritage sector the lack of clarity about where we fit in is a major blocker, and I do think it can be associated with contribution to open source more generally. Douglas Atkin, Community Manager at Airbnb, claims that the two main questions people have when joining a community are “Are they like me? And will they like me?”. Of course, joining a community is a lot more complicated than that, but the lack of visibility of open source projects in the cultural heritage sector can make even locating a project a whole lot more complicated.

As we’ve discussed in this working group, the ethics of cultural heritage and Open Source overlap considerably and

the open source community considers those in the cultural heritage sector to be natural allies.

In his article, “Who are you empowering?” Hugh Rundle writes: (I quote this article all the time because I believe it’s one of the best articles written about library tech recently…)

A simple measure that improves privacy and security and saves money is to use open source software instead of proprietary software on public PCs.

Community-driven, non-profit, and not good at making money are just some of the attributes that most cultural heritage organizations and open source project have in common, and yet, when choosing software for their patrons, most libraries and cultural heritage organizations choose proprietary systems and cultural heritage professionals are not the strongest open source contributors or advocates.

The main reasons for this are, in my opinion:

1. Many people in cultural heritage don’t know what Open Source is.

In a recent survey I ran of the Code4Lib and UNC SILS listservs, nearly every person surveyed could accurately respond to the prompt “Define Open Source in one sentence” though the responses varied from community-based answers to answers solely about the source code.

My sample was biased toward programmers and young people (and perhaps people who knew how to use Google because many of the answers were directly lifted from the first line of the Wikipedia article about Open Source, which is definitely survey bias,) but I think that it is indicative of one of the larger questions of open source.

Is open source about the community, or is it about the source code?

There have been numerous articles and books written on this subject, many of which I can refer you to (and I am sure that you can refer me to as well!) but this question is fundamental to our work.

Many people, librarians and otherwise, will ask: (I would argue most, but I am operating on anecdotal evidence)

Why should we care about whether or not the code is open if we can’t edit it anyway? We just send our problems to the IT department and they fix it.

Many people in cultural heritage don’t have many feelings about open source because they simply don’t know what it is and cannot articulate the value of one over the other. Proprietary systems don’t advertise as proprietary, but open source constantly advertises as open source, and as I’ll get to later, proprietary systems have cornered the market.

This movement from darkness to clarity brings most to mind a story that Kathy Lussier told about the Evergreen project, where librarians who didn’t consider themselves “techy” jumped into IRC to tentatively ask a technical question and due to the friendliness of the Evergreen community, soon they were writing the documentation for the software themselves and were a vital part of their community, participating in conferences and growing their skills as contributors.

In this story, the Open Source community engaged the user and taught her the valuable skill of technical documentation. She also took control of the software she uses daily and was able to maintain and suggest features that she wanted to see. This situation was really a win-win all around.

What institution doesn’t want to see their staff so well trained on a system that they can write the documentation for it?

2. The majority of the market share in cultural heritage is closed-source, closed-access software and they are way better at advertising than Open Source companies.

Last year, my very wonderful boss in the cataloging and metadata department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill came back from ALA Midwinter with goodies for me: pens and keychains and postits and tote bags and those cute little staplers. “I only took things from vendors we use,” she told me.

Linux and Firefox OS hold 21% of the world’s operating system marketshare.(Interestingly, this is more globally than IOS, but still half that of Windows. On mobile, IOS and Android are approximately equal.)

Similarly, free, open source systems for cultural heritage are unfortunately not a high percentage of the American market. Wikipedia has a great list of proprietary and open source ILSs and OPACs, the languages they’re written in, and their cost. Marshall Breeding writes that FOSS software is picking up some market share, but it is still “the alternative” for most cultural heritage organizations.

There are so many reasons for this small market share, but I would argue (as my previous anecdote did for me,) that a lot of it has to do with the fact that these proprietary vendors have much more money and are therefore a lot better at marketing to people in cultural heritage who are very focused on their work. We just want to be able to install the thing and then have it do the thing well enough. (An article in Library Journal in 2011 describes open source software as: “A lot of work, but a lot of control.”)

As Jack Reed from Stanford and others have pointed out, most of the cost of FOSS in cultural heritage is developer time, and many cultural heritage institutions believe that they don’t have those resources. (John Brice’s example at the Meadville Public Library proves that communities can come together with limited developers and resources in order to maintain vital and robust open source infrastructures as well as significantly cut costs.)

I learned at this year’s Wikiconference USA that academic publishers had the highest profit margin of any company in the country last year, ahead of Google and Apple.

The academic publishing model is, for more reasons than one, completely antithetical to the ethics of cultural heritage work, and yet they maintain a large portion of the cultural heritage market share in terms of both knowledge acquisition and software. Megan Forbes reminds us that the platform Collection Space was founded as the alternative to the market dominance of “several large, commercial vendors” and that cost put them “out of reach for most small and mid-sized institutions.”

Open source has the chance to reverse this vicious cycle, but institutions have to put their resources in people in order to grow.

While certain companies like OCLC are working toward a more equitable future, with caveats of course, I would argue that the majority of proprietary cultural heritage systems are providing inferior product to a resource poor community.

3. People are tired and overworked, particularly in libraries, and to compound that, they don’t think they have the skills to contribute.

These are two separate issues, but they’re not entirely disparate so I am going to tackle them together.

There’s this conception outside of the library world that librarians are secret coders just waiting to emerge from their shells and start categorizing datatypes instead of MARC records (this is perhaps a misconception due to a lot of things, including the sheer diversity of types of jobs that people in cultural heritage fill, but hear me out.)

When surveyed, the skill that entering information science students most want to learn is “programming.” However, the majority of MLIS programs are still teaching Microsoft Word and beginning html as technology skills.

Learning to program computers takes time and instruction and while programs like Women who Code and Girl Develop It can begin educating librarians, we’re still faced with a workforce that’s over 80% female-identified that learned only proprietary systems in their work and a small number of technology skills in their MLIS degrees.

Library jobs, and further, cultural heritage jobs are dwindling. Many trained librarians, art historians, and archivists are working from grant to grant on low salaries with little security and massive amounts of student loans from both undergraduate and graduate school educations. If they’re lucky to get a job, watching television or doing the loads of professional development work they’re expected to do in their free time seems a much better choice after work than continuing to stare at a computer screen for a work-related task or learn something completely new. For reference: an entry-level computer programmer can expect to make over $70,000 per year on average. An entry-level librarian? Under $40,000. I know plenty of people in cultural heritage who have taken two jobs or jobs they hate just to make ends meet, and I am sure you do too.

One can easily say, “Contributing to open source teaches new skills!” but if you don’t know how to make non-code contributions or the project is not set up to accept those kinds of contributions, you don’t see an immediate pay-off in being involved with this project, and you are probably not willing to stay up all night learning to code when you have to be at work the next day or raise a family. Programs like Software Carpentry have proven that librarians, teachers, scientists, and other non-computer scientists are willing to put in that time and grow their skills, so to make any kind of claim without research would be a reach and possibly erroneous, but I would argue that most cultural heritage organizations are not set up in a way to nurture their employees for this kind of professional development. (Not because they don’t want to, necessarily, but because they feel they can’t or they don’t see the immediate value in it.)

I could go on and on about how a lot of these problems are indicative of cultural heritage work being an historically classed and feminized professional grouping, but I will spare you right now, although you’re not safe if you go to the bar with me later.

In addition, many open source projects operate with a “patches welcome!” or “go ahead, jump in!” or “We don’t need a code of conduct because we’re all nice guys here!” mindset, which is not helpful to beginning coders, women, or really, anyone outside of a few open source fanatics.

I’ve identified a lot of problems, but the title of this talk is “Creating the Conditions for Open Source Community” and I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about what works.

Diversification, both in terms of types of tasks and types of people and skillsets as well as a clear invitation to get involved are two absolute conditions for a healthy open source community.

Ask yourself the questions: Are you a tight knit group with a lot of IRC in-jokes that new people may not understand? Are you all white men? Are you welcoming? Paraphrasing my colleague Sean Bolton, the steps to an inviting community is to build understanding, build connections, build clarity, build trust, build pilots, which creates a build win-win.

As communities grow, it’s important to be able to recognize and support contributors in ways that feel meaningful. That could be a trip to a conference they want to attend, a Linkedin recommendation, a professional badge, or a reference, or best yet: you could ask them what they want. Our network for contributors and staff is adding a “preferred recognition” system. Don’t know what I want? Check out my social profile. (The answer is usually chocolate, but I’m easy.)

Finding diverse contribution opportunities has been difficult for open source since, well, the beginning of open source. Even for us at Mozilla, with our highly diverse international community and hundreds of ways to get involved, we often struggle to bring a diversity of voices into the conversation, and to find meaningful pathways and recognition systems for our 10,000 contributors.

In my mind, education is perhaps the most important part of bringing in first-time contributors. Organizations like Open Hatch and Software Carpentry provide low-cost, high-value workshops for new contributors to locate and become a part of Open Source in a meaningful and sustained manner. Our Webmaker program introduces technical skills in a dynamic and exciting way for every age.

Mentorship is the last very important aspect of creating the conditions for participation. Having a friend or a buddy or a champion from the beginning is perhaps the greatest motivator according to research from a variety of different papers. Personal connection runs deep, and is a major indicator for community health. I’d like to bring mentorship into our conversation today and I hope that we can explore that in greater depth in the next few hours.

With mentorship and 1:1 connection, you may not see an immediate uptick in your project’s contributions, but a friend tells a friend tells a friend and then eventually you have a small army of motivated cultural heritage workers looking to take back their knowledge.

You too can achieve on-the-ground action. You are the change you wish to see.

Are you working in a cultural heritage institution and are about to switch systems? Help your institution switch to the open source solution and point out the benefits of their community. Learning to program? Check out the Open Hatch list of easy bugs to fix! Are you doing patron education? Teach them Libre Office and the values around it. Are you looking for programming for your library? Hold a Wikipedia edit-a-thon. Working in a library? Try working open for a week and see what happens. Already part of an open source community? Mentor a new contributor or open up your functional area for contribution.

It’s more than just “if you build it, they will come.”

If you make open source your mission, people will want to step up to the plate.

To close, I’m going to tell a story that I can’t take credit for, but I will tell it anyway.

We have a lot of ways to contribute at Mozilla. From code to running events to learning and teaching the Web, it can be occasionally overwhelming to find your fit.

A few months ago, my colleague decided to create a module and project around updating the Mozilla Wiki, a long-ignored, frequently used, and under-resourced part of our organization. As an information scientist and former archivist, I was psyched. The space that I called Mozilla’s collective memory was being revived!

We started meeting in April and it became clear that there were other wiki-fanatics in the organization who had been waiting for this opportunity to come up. People throughout the organization were psyched to be a part of it. In August, we held a fantastically successful workweek in London, reskinned the wiki, created a regular release cycle, wrote a manual and a best practice guide, and are still going strong with half contributors and half paid-staff as a regular working group within the organization. Our work has been generally lauded throughout the project, and we’re working hard to make our wiki the resource it can be for contributors and staff.

To me, that was the magic of open source. I met some of my best friends, and at the end of the week, we were a cohesive unit moving forward to share knowledge through our organization and beyond. And isn’t that a basic value of cultural heritage work?

I am still an open source failure. I am not a code fanatic, and I like the ease-of-use of my used IPhone. I don’t listen to techno and write Javscript all night, and I would generally rather read a book than go to a hackathon.

And despite all this, I still feel like I’ve found my community.

I am involved with open source because I am ethically committed to it, because I want to educate my community of practice and my local community about what working open can bring to them.

When people ask me how I got involved with open source, my answer is: I had a great mentor, an incredible community and contributor base, and there are many ways to get involved in open source.

While this may feel like a new frontier for cultural heritage, I know we can do more and do better.

Open up your work as much as you can. Draw on the many, many intelligent people doing work in the field. Educate yourself and others about the value that open source can bring to your institution. Mentor someone new, even if you’re shy. Connect with the community and treat your fellow contributors with respect.Who knows?

You may get an open source failure like me to contribute to your project.