Climbing the stacks, one book at a time.
Jan 9th 2008TracyMiscellaneous
OK, so, it’s 9 days into 2008, but the sentiment is still genuine. The unusually warm January temps for this part of the world are a little disconcerting. My New Year’s resolution is to blog more. I may not be blogging about library items, though. Library Sherpa might turn into your grand superstore of blogs with a dizzying array of topics. Whoa, hang on for a new year of Library Sherpa!
Nov 21st 2007TracyUncategorized
Why, thank you - Mary Dalrymple of The Motley Fool - for writing this nice piece about re-discovering your local library. Ok, sure, she had a little blurb at the very end about other ways to purchase bargain books — but the crux of her article was giving thanks for the technology and convenience of the local library system.
So, on this Thanksgiving Eve 2007, let us all give thanks for our libraries. Pass the cranberry sauce…just don’t get any on that book you borrowed!
Nov 17th 2007TracyOpinion & Miscellaneous
You may have noticed that the comments feature of my blog has been turned off. This is not because Library Sherpa is no longer interested in reading your feedback. Sadly, LibrarySherpa.com has been victimized by the spammer. In the entire existence of this blog, I have received 21 legitimate comment postings and 547 spam postings. (Not even benign spamming, mind you, the most vulgar of language which involves either porn sites or various well-known enhancement pharmaceuticals.) Thanks to modern blog technology, I am able to capture these so that they don’t ruin my blog. But, I see this behind the scenes and it has really bothered me. I finally saw no other option than to just turn off the comment feature. I do apologize and hope to one day be able to open up the peanut gallery again. So, please keep reading and check back for opportunities to post again. For the automated spambot out there —- keep your comments to yourself.
Nov 16th 2007TracyBooks & Opinion
I particularly liked this quote from this New York Times article: “Amazon.com has changed the function of a bookstore,” Mr. Herold explained. “Bookstores have always been meeting places, and author events help to differentiate us.”
I concur. As much as Barnes & Noble and Borders try, they don’t have the same look and feel as an independent bookstore. If you’re not on a college campus, it can be hard to find a place to chat about books (particularly ones NOT on Oprah’s preferred list) and to just share thoughts about literature. Certainly, the Internet has made literature more accessible, but at what price to integrity?
With the gift-giving holidays upon us, think about a small bookstore instead of a big chain. Pay it forward by encouraging the recipient of your gift to explore a different look and feel to the world of books. Learn to love reading again and all the aesthetic intangibles associated with it.
Webster’s Bookstore Cafe in State College, PA … I miss you!!!
Oct 6th 2007TracyLibrary Related & Reference
My Internet dependence has reached a new level. I am addicted to my customized Google News Alerts. Not only do I use them for work, I set up this free push technology to keep me abreast of news items that interest me. In order to keep me on top of all the news fit for a Library Sherpa, I have an alert to pick up keywords of (”library” OR “libraries”) — notice my use of Boolean searching — so that I can see every time a library item of interest hits the web. Some news stories that I might not otherwise have heard about:
Although these headlines may not be particularly salacious, I think it’s important for library professionals to be aware of what’s going on in the library world around them. Google News Alerts brings this information to me, because I’m otherwise too lazy to seek out this information myself. I prefer the “comprehensive” feature, which will pull info from blogs and other sources than just Google News.
I understand this post seems like a shameless plug for the omnipotent Google, I am merely demonstrating how a tool like this can benefit those of us with a foot in the library world. I’m sure Yahoo! and other search engines have fine alerts as well. Please feel free to tell me about other products which you think keeps you on top of the big stories from our professional world. It’s a great big world and librarians are the keepers of books in it!
P.S. GO PHILLIES!
Sep 30th 2007TracyThoughts & Miscellaneous
Perhaps you’ve noticed the lack of new content. I see that my last post was the first birthday announcement. It appears as though I have rested on my one year old laurels and left Library Sherpa by the wayside. Well, it is autumn and time to turn over a new leaf. Library Sherpa is back. Much like “The Six Million Dollar Man” - Library Sherpa will be “better, stronger, faster.”
In other news…THE PHILLIES WON THE NL EAST!! (That’s baseball for the professional sports neophytes out there.) Read all about it on Yahoo! News or from Sports Illustrated.
Aug 10th 2007TracyMiscellaneous
It was one year ago today that I birthed, er, registered LibrarySherpa.com and began my journey into blogosphere. To be honest, Library Sherpa didn’t really take it’s current form until my pre-SLA conference preparations in April and May. So, I guess that makes Library Sherpa a little developmentally delayed in some ways. But, hey, it’s catching up in leaps and bounds and will be a grown up blog very soon. So, raise a glass and celebrate the first of many years of Library Sherpa! Cheers!
Jul 31st 2007TracyLibrary Related & Opinion
Someone asked me if I have not updated my blog because I’m too consumed with reading the latest Harry Potter book. No, that’s not the case. I’m afraid I am not a Potter aficionado, just a little lazy and unfocused lately.
I saw this blog posting and wanted to share. “Does Self-Checkout Make Libraries Less Friendly?” I’m kind of torn. Perhaps these are a necessary evil. While I agree that they do make libraries seem less friendly, some people (myself included) don’t always want that personal touch and just want to get in and out of the library quickly. One of the comments to this original post made the connection to the self-check out at the supermarket, and that it was along the lines of having a personal choice. What agitates me the most about self check-out, either in a supermarket or library, are those people who cannot use the equipment and then tie up the line for the rest of us. Sounds a little cocky, I know. We need more common sense in this world. If you eye up a contraption and don’t feel confident that you can use it properly, then swing on over to the human at check-out to help you. While I’m ranting, same goes for E-Z Pass on the highways. If you see an “E-Z Pass Only” sign and you don’t know what “E-Z Pass” is….then don’t get in that lane!
Ahem. Anyway, back to books. Self-checkout in libraries. Necessarily evil is my official response. I do get impatient when the 6 year old in front of my has 30 books to check out to my one at my local public library. I would embrace a self-checkout machine at those moments. The machines just can’t replace the humans entirely…like the plot of many sci-fi books and films. We librarians might wind up like this….
Jul 18th 2007TracyInfo Tech & Opinion
Mr. Sherpa recently turned me on to Twitter. It bills itself as, “A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!” So, chalk this is another Web 2.0 communication tool. As of now, Mr. Sherpa and I use it to communicate since our cell phone carrier shut down the website where we could send free text messages to each other. Yes, I could send the messages from my phone but since I’m in front of a computer all day long at work it is quicker for me to type him a message using this Twitter site. I’m sure I’m not using it to its full potential or even how its creators imagined. But, like any good end user, I am adapting the technology to suit my needs. Now, it also appears as though there is another site named Pownce which functions in a similar manner. I have yet to check it out, but there is a blog posting comparing the two at Mobile Messaging 2.0
Happy Twittering. (or Powncing)
Jul 15th 2007TracyLibrary Related & Opinion
Hopefully, rumors of the death of Dewey are greatly exaggerated. According to this article from the New York Times, a public library in Arizona has ditched the Dewey Decimal System in favor of a “Barnes & Noble style” system of classification. (Library Sherpa takes a deep breath and counts backwards from ten….) WHAT?!?! Have you lost your collective minds, Perry Branch Library in Gilbert, AZ? Ok, sorry, that wasn’t professional. Ah-hem. What we have here is a contribution to the ‘dumbing-down’ of America. Librarians are not only keepers of books and information, but instructors. Rather than teach and lead the people how to use Dewey, this library has given up and succumbed to the evil siren song of corporate America. One of the anti-Dewey comments in the article was that the DDS is outdated and has a Christian-American bias for cataloging. The pro-Dewey counterpoint was that the system has been revised 22 times to address these issues. The U.S. Constitution had faults with it as well and that was revised. But, let’s just scrap that for a more Barnes & Noble friendly version of historic government documents. (No, Dick Cheney, I’m NOT talking to you.) I did calm down long enough to try to see this situation from an opposite point of view. If this change will bring more people into the library, then I suppose it could be a productive thing. However, I cannot get past the idea of changing what I consider to be a basic fundamental of the library, an organized and proven classification system. I feel that what this library has done is the start of a slippery slope. Between the self-checkout counters and the ‘lay-man’ style of book organization, it would conceivably be easier and easier to phase professional librarians out of the library. This, my friends, would be bad for us all. Long live Dewey! Viva la Dewey!
