This is the post I’ve been putting off for quite some time now.  It’s not a lesson plan with goals and outcomes, or a PDF of a handout I made, or photographic evidence of my librarianness, so I just don’t know where to begin.  It’s real life stuff, and maybe even some emotion, and most definitely sentiment and nostalgia.  Admittedly not my strongest combination of stuff to blog about.

For that reason, I’ll start with the obvious: I made it through grad school!  I received my public librarian certification in the mail a couple of weeks ago, which means that I am officially karen the librarian!  I even have the portfolio to show for it at my very own domain (it’s in a constant state of maintenance, since I can’t seem to settle on anything, so thanks in advance for your patience).  Saturday is convocation for the iSchool, where I’ll have one last opportunity to bond, reminisce, and celebrate with my digital classmates.  I never imagined how much I would take out of this program.  Thanks to Syracuse University, my great professors, my rad classmates, and my amazing mentors, I feel absolutely prepared to be a real librarian… and I’m insanely stoked about it, too.

Considering the great transitory state of my life right now, I reckon my saga wouldn’t be complete without a shocking plot twist.  Many people already know this, but in just a few short weeks, I’ll be relocating to Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  I never dreamed I’d have a reason to move so far away from my friends and family, but then I met a pretty rad dude.  Now I have solid justification to give this a shot, and I’m very happy about it.

I promise not to write about the sweltering southern summer heat.

And yes, I am looking for a librarian gig in that area, so feel free to pass along a job offer or two.

At some point, not too long ago, I had a pretty huge realization.  It occurred to me that, with graduate school ending, I’m finally arriving at the place that I’ve worked so long to reach.  Twenty years of schooling (!!) and twenty-five years of living, all for this new journey that’s starting to unroll before me.  It feels big and awesome, and every moment of these days is approached with awareness and excitement.  I’m incredibly grateful to be where I’ve been and where I am, and optimistic about where I’m headed.  Every day I realize all over again how blessed I’ve been to have such fabulous people in my life, and I’m so appreciative of all the kickball games, visiting friends, bathroom haircuts, lunches at my favorite restaurants, track meets, golf cart excursions, long talks about life, music listening, pickled garlic eating, poetry readings, and all of the other things that make me feel at home and loved.  I’ll miss all of this terribly, but I know that there are big things in store for me, and I’m beyond excited to open myself up to new challenges and experiences.

I don’t know what I ever did to deserve such an amazing life, but I’m ridiculously thankful for every second of it.  It’s a big life, and I’m happy to be living it.

Now that we’re three weeks in, let me remind you:

April is National Poetry Month!

The best part about this is that, every year, my favorite issue of American Libraries arrives in my mailbox.  The April issue is my favorite because it comes with a cool poster to promote National Poetry Month.  Last year was my favorite: it featured a line from Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Of course, I also dig this celebration because poetry should be honored for what it is: an art that everyone can connect to in one form or another.  One of my most cherished moments of undergrad was the day that I understood that anyone can write poetry.  Anyone can write poetry, and I can prove it.

My evidence is pretty embarrassing.  You see, I am not a poet.  I know poets, and I know that I’m not one of them.  Even though I would never consider myself a member of this revered group of wordsmiths, I’ve written in verse on sparse occasion, mainly for classes.

One day, way back in the great yesteryear 2006, I wrote one of these poems.  It came to me suddenly, each syllable of the limerick flowing smoothly out after the one before.  When I was finished, I read it.  Then I laughed, and then I handed it in to my professor.

When she read it, she laughed, and then she said, “I’m sorry!  I hope it’s supposed to be funny, because it is.”

I thought it was especially funny, because I’m really not a poet.  And me, this non-poet, had that limerick published in The Angle, my college’s literary magazine.

Here, in all of its embarrassment glory, is my poem:

There you have it, friends.  I love National Poetry Month because everyone really is a poet, even non-poets like me.  So, before the month is through, take a few minutes to write something: sonnet, haiku, limerick, even prose poetry.  Stop your busy life for a moment and enjoy creating something!

photo courtesy of Katie, from Fight for the POA Library

If you can remember all the way back to last week, then you’ll recall my post about the then-endangered Physics-Optics-Astronomy Library at the University of Rochester.  When I wrote that post, I had no idea how huge the issue really was, and what kind of audience my words would reach.  It didn’t take long for people to respond.  I heard from librarians on the issue:

Karen:
The proposal to close the POA Library in order to create an engineering computer classroom is not a decision of the University of Rochester Libraries. This is a case where the library is a tenant of the College. Our short proposal focuses only on how we could best mitigate the harm of closing POA based on the resources available to us; recognizing that there are many essential elements of the POA library that simply cannot be moved or reconstituted elsewhere. The reactions of the faculty and students to the potential closure of POA has beautifully articulated what we already knew; a library is far, far more than a room with books.

Susan Gibbons
Vice Provost & Dean
River Campus Libraries
University of Rochester

I also heard from more people like my friend, who use and love the POA Library:

Hey Karen,

I’m one of the alumni from the University of Rochester, currently working on my doctorate in physics at a different institution. However, the POA library truly is my favorite memory of undergrad. Some people remember their fraternities or their sororities, or some really awesome professor, or some other really deeply impactful college experience. For myself, the POA, the friendships I made there, and the times I spent in that room, were the most deeply meaningful part of my undergraduate years. If you’re looking for a library who’s patrons are devoutly dedicated to the institution, look no further than the POA. I really highly recommend going there if you haven’t been; it’s an experience unlike any other library experience that I’ve ever had.

Call me selfish, but I’m glad that I took a few minutes to join in on the issue, because the passion surrounding this library made my little librarian heart swell with pride.  The beautiful thing was that there weren’t sides to be taken- everyone was working to maintain the best possible library experience.

Within days of my post, my friend followed up to let me know that the plans to move/split up the POA had been scrapped!  I’m sure my blog had nothing to do with it, but it was pretty rad to be in on something that had a real impact on so many students.

For me, there are several takeaways from this experience.  First of all, people really do love libraries!  In fact, lots of people have lots of love for their libraries!  Sometimes I start to think that I’m part of a very select group of people who are so dedicated to libraries and what they can accomplish in the community.  Before I can think that way for too long, an occurrence like this creates tidal waves of optimism and potential that flood far-reaching places that once seemed completely inaccessible.

Secondly, the POA Library is a perfect example of what a group of regular people can do with just one common spark.  This illustrates the power that we actually do have.  The patrons of the POA Library worked together to make a significant difference using positive expression and unyielding enthusiasm.  Who’s to say that we can’t all do that?

My extreme gratitude goes out to those who responded to my initial post.  I consider myself very fortunate to have been a minuscule part of this movement, and I’m beyond happy that the University of Rochester is continuing to provide such fantastic service to all of its patrons.

As that memory played in my head with the fuzzy quality of a reel-to-reel, complete with sound effects, I marveled at what naivety I experienced just a few short months ago.  That’s because things around casa de k.t.l. have become an insane rush to the finish line.  Between lesson planning, resume building, studying, exam taking, job searching, kickball leaguing, portfolio developing, et al., I’ve been maintaining a teux-deux list ten miles long.

Speaking of portfolio developing: this is going to be hosted on my website, and somehow integrated with my blog.  I’m not as familiar as web design as I thought, so this is proving to be quite a challenge.  I love this part, though, so I’m reveling in the learning experience.  The point here is that there will be a new karenthelibrarian.com up and running sometime in the next couple of weeks, complete with my professional portfolio.  Electric!

I also have some massive life stuff coming up ahead, and it’s going to be huge.  I mean, we’re talking Billy Fuccillo huge here.  However, I’m not quite ready to share it with the world, so you’re going to have to wait.  If you already know what it is, please don’t ruin the surprise.  This means you, cousin Andy.

With graduation just weeks away, life has become an exploding fireball of stuff, work, friends, and good weather.  My goal at the moment is to get it all done well, enjoy the process, and remain fabulous while doing so.

As I’m working on all of that, please take a moment to check out the poster by Carol Harvey that came down the listserv this morning, from Sarah Chauncey, via Dr. Ruth Small:

What is a Library Media Specialist?

Happy Graduation Season, everyone!

Shortly after my post, a friend of mine responded with a plea to put out a librarian APB, and I wouldn’t be upholding the ethical code of my profession if I didn’t act immediately.  My friend introduced me to a wonderful resource at the University of Rochester that he and many others regularly use for academic and personal research.  The Physics-Optics-Astronomy Library, part of U of R’s River Campus Library System, offers science enthusiasts and scholars like my friend access to lots of specialized research information in those related fields.  I’ve never been there, but it seems to be an asset to the university that students and faculty regularly take advantage of.

From what I can tell, the POA Library closely follows the traditional library model.  There are a few computer workstations and access to a printer, but the focus of this library is on reference materials, bound periodicals, and electronic journals.  There may not be a coffee bar, gaming station, or iPod loans, but those things aren’t what its patrons are after.

The reason why my friend pointed this out to me is that the POA Library is slated to be renovated to include a digital work environment catered to the needs of engineering students.  The existing collection will be moved to various places, including an off-site storage facility.  A small portion of the POA Library space will be reserved as a study area for the students and faculty it currently serves, but the collection will be separate from this space.

So, really, what does this have to do with National Library Week?  Well, this year’s theme is  ”communities thrive @ your library.”  It appears to me that patrons of the POA Library are one heck of a community of students and faculty dedicated to these science disciplines, and the proposed changes will create a disjointed library experience for these folks, thus eliminating the communal aspect of the POA Library.

I don’t have much information from the librarian side of this argument, other than a memo that includes a short proposal, so I am obligated to tell you that I might not have the full story here.  Whether or not that is the case, the POA Library does a great job of meeting the needs of the community it serves, and the proposed changes may detract from that effectiveness.  If the library space must be altered, it seems as though the University of Rochester can take greater consideration to maintaining the unity of the collection and its users.

I’m not here to slander the good name of University of Rochester libraries.  To the contrary- U of R has a ridiculously impressive library system that serves an incredibly diverse group of patrons.  My limited experience with the institution’s libraries has been overwhelmingly positive, and I would hate to see that change for such a devoted group of science scholars.  I welcome any comments that include more information from both sides, and really hope that all parties involved can reach a solution that benefits everyone.

To learn more about the POA Library changes and/or to join the movement, stop by the group’s Facebook page.  From there, you can learn what the story is and who you can contact to voice your opinion.

Special thanks to Rich, for pointing this out to me.  Good luck with your efforts!

And that shakes out to be several hundred teenaged eyes rolling at my cheesy jokes.  Am I on the way up, or what?

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.  You see, friends, in my quest to abolish abysmally incomplete works cited pages from the face of the earth, there’s only one thing I discussed that no one was aware of.  In all the classes I taught, not one single student knew that you have to cite the images that you use.

So I explained to these students that using images in brochures, posters, PowerPoints, and research papers without citing the source constitutes plagiarism.  Just like the words you use, the images included in your work are assumed to be your own- unless you cite them.

More than this, I discovered that students and teachers alike are unaware of a fantastic resource for digital images.  This database of photos, illustrations, and other graphic artwork offers images that kick butt in terms of quality when compared to the results of a Google Image search.  And, unlike Google Images, this resource lets you know right away the terms of use for its content, which means that students understand whether they can use, share, and/or manipulate an image they find.

This resource, undoubtedly sent direct express from heaven, is the Creative Commons at Flickr.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Creative Commons, it’s a nonprofit organization that allows anyone and everyone to easily adapt the copyright of their creative work and subsequently share their work with the world… on their terms.  It’s a beautiful thing, something that I use often, including on this little blog of mine:

For a quick rundown of what Creative Commons is, check out their introductory video.  If you’d like to harness the good faith power of Creative Commons on your own work, visit their website to acquire a license in roughly seven seconds.

There are many more reasons why I recommend Flickr’s Creative Commons page, including the fact that the searches yield many more relevant (and much prettier) results than Google.  Also, it’s a cinch for students to conduct searches, and it includes a SafeSearch filter.

To get the awesomeness rolling, simply type “Flickr advanced search” into the search engine of your choice:

From there, click the link to the page, type in your search terms, and check the applicable boxes from the content/media/date prompts.  Before executing your search, be sure to check the box for Creative Commons content:

Click the search box, and be amazed at the delightful images that appear before your overjoyed eyes.

In case I haven’t lauded its eminence enough, the Creative Commons page at Flickr is great for students because it’s web-based image searching, but with the safety of knowing that these images have been put specifically on this site for an openly expressed purpose.  I’m spreading the word as much as I can, because it’s a great habit for students to get into, and can provide teachers, librarians, and parents with an opportunity to discuss important topics like intellectual property, plagiarism, and copyright.

At the very least, give the Creative Commons page at Flicker a shot.  If you still don’t understand why I’m so excited about it, you can always go right back to Google Images, right?

Did I say notorious rumor?  Because what I meant was ubiquitous fact.  Sure, librarians come in all shapes, sizes, and skill sets, but it’s generally safe to say that we dig books.  Even if, like me, we don’t have as much time as we’d like to read titles of our own choosing.

Regardless of our passion for paperbacks (not to discriminate against hardcovers, but I was really going for the alliteration), librarians also understand the value and necessity of routinely weeding our collections.  I just discovered that I’m going to be moving out of this apartment in a couple of months, so I decided to dive right into applying tried-and-true deselection criteria to my personal library.

I was trucking right along, determining what books I could live without, that my back might be spared the agony of hauling my currently massive freight.  I’d gotten almost entirely through my leisure reading shelves when I stopped to admire my progress.  Checking out my weeded pile, I was pretty impressed with my ability to let go:

And then I turned around to examine my pile of keepers, and my sense of accomplishment immediately dropped to the floor and slipped through the cracks in the hardwood:

How am I supposed to let go of any of these?  I love pulling them off the shelves for a second read (or third, or fourth, or twelfth read), sticking post-it flags on pages with particularly fascinating passages, or checking out the notes I scrawled in the margins.

With a few more shelves of novels to go, as well as all of my professional resource books, a load of art/visual publications, and some instructional volumes, I’m approaching full-on heartbreak with a side of anxiety.

Since there’s no doubt that something will have to go, I think I’ve come to a healthy, intelligent decision:

I will just get rid of all my furniture instead.

Throughout my first week, I was just the slightest bit distracted from my library experience because of the plans I’d made for the weekend.  Plans that were three months in the making.  Plans that became my graduation present to myself.  Plans that took me into uncharted territory in foreign lands.  These plans… they were big.

That weekend, my little sister and I went to Toronto to see the band that got me through my formative years, Our Lady Peace, play my favorite album of theirs in entirety (Spiritual Machines, in case you were wondering), as well as a complete second set of other songs.  I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ve seen this band numerous times in the past.  This show, however, might just have been my favorite.

For starters, we had the best possible seats in the joint.  Well worth the astronomical price, my little sister and I spent the second set leaning against the stage.  We were darn close:

In addition to the rock star seats, the tickets also included a meet and greet after the show.  When it was our turn, we talked with the band about breakfast before creating evidence of awesome:

I was also privy to a meet and greet the first time I saw Our Lady Peace live, which was about eight years ago.  All these years later, I still blush when I think about how seventeen-year-old me intensely geeked out when Raine Maida shook my hand.  But this time, I kept my cool, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t creep anyone out.

If you’re into this sort of thing, feel free to peruse more photos from the show at my flickr page.

In case that wasn’t enough excitement for me, my sister called me while I was getting ready for school in the wee hours of Monday morning.  Since I’m her only family in Rochester, I promised her forever ago that, when the time came, I would drop everything I was doing to be by her side when it was time for her to introduce her first child into the world.

I did add the obvious stipulation that this offer did not extend to the date of the Our Lady Peace show.

Luckily, the little guy held off just enough, and he arrived on Monday night.  It was a long, exhausting day, but seeing that tiny dude was something I’ll never forget.

Please don’t tell my sister that I was complaining about being exhausted on the day that she gave birth.  Thanks.

Anyway, here’s the young fellow:

Everyone is really healthy and happy, and this week has been a particularly strong reminder of how seriously rad life is.  It’s hard to believe how far my life has progressed during these two years at the iSchool, but my practicum experience is making me antsy to take the big leap into my own library.  Once that happens, I might be ready to start thinking about babies.  Or rock superstardom.

She explained that, no matter how stern she is about it, her students refuse to adequately cite their work.  As I thought about the idea, it made a whole lot of sense: her classes often complete projects that involve a lot of information, such as brochures and short books.  Teaching them how to properly attribute the content they include is imperative, because we know that very little of the information in the product is the intellectual property of the student.  That is, they didn’t come up with any of that material on their own.

So, with the indispensable assistance of my peers and colleagues on Facebook, I created a brief lesson for her two classes, health and parenting.

I call this lesson, “Do I have to cite it?”

Clever, I know.

I started by making approximately thirty index cards with various sources of information:

I handed them out to the students, and asked them to tape the cards to appropriate half of the white board.  One side was labeled yes, while the other was labeled no.

A few of the cards were tricksters, because I wanted to make sure we discussed things that are not okay to use at all (whether you cite or not), but that some students actually do:

Once everyone had hung their cards, we discussed each source.  I asked students if it was properly categorized, then had them justify it.  It was a little shaky at first, but they got the hang of the citation game after a few cards.  I got the repetition in, but tried to make the cards slightly amusing to keep the students interested.  One of the cards read, “that sweet Lady Gaga tune you used to jazz up your PowerPoint slideshow.”

I devised the index cards to reflect plagiarism issues that I wanted to discuss.  As the students justified each source, we talked about common knowledge, public domain, informal communication (conversations, emails, etc.), paraphrasing, self-plagiarism, and much more.

In addition to the activity, I provided students with a handout that they could use for reference.  In case you couldn’t tell, a lot of my aesthetic design juices went into the handout, which hopefully explains the, uh, homeliness of the activity.

If you dig the handout, feel free to check out the plagiarism handout PDF.  If you can’t make color copies, it worked best for me by printing one color copy and photocopying the rest.  It was much easier to read than printing a master in grayscale.

For this lesson, I got most of the information from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University.  I was turned on to this resource by the director of the Writing Center at my undergrad, where I was a tutor.  If I may be so bold, this is one of the greatest resources in the entire history of mankind.  It’s loaded with information, including up-to-date guidelines for MLA and APA citation formats… and it’s free.  Thank you, OWL, for being so darn awesome.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
If, for some strange reason, you decide that you like my idea, please take it, use it, modify it, share it, and/or enjoy it.  Feel free to pass the handout along, but, please, keep my attribution on it.  I mean, that thing took me a long time to come up with.  Besides, I’m pretty sure that taking credit for a handout on plagiarism yields twice as much bad karma.

I’ve heard it works better with a treasure map, but turn-by-turn GPS is probably also pretty effective.

Lame jokes aside, my practicum taught me just how true that introductory hook is.  In my last week at the school, our big activity was a library scavenger hunt.  Every seventh- and eighth- grade English class was brought in to complete an activity that would get them in all corners of the library, utilizing our different resources to answer curriculum-related questions.

As we were preparing the activity, my host librarian handed me something that looked a lot like this:

Of course, her map had each shelf labeled with the proper call numbers, but it was still pretty difficult to figure out.  When she saw me turning it upside down (or perhaps right-side up), she admitted that students always struggled with the library map.  She’d had very limited time to create the map, and had never gotten around to refining it.

Opportunities like this are why I love the practicum experience.  We show up with goals, objectives, and some ideas, but we also get to help the librarian complete some long-term projects that he or she just can’t find the time to do.  The library map is a perfect example of this.

As I was creating the new map, I realized what a powerful little piece of paper it can actually be.  My site supervisor worked with me to decide what information to put on it, and it became a rad little guide to helping students better understand the library.

Here’s my updated map:

(click the image for a larger version)

The scavenger hunt was a success, and it gave me some ideas for when I have my own library.  This showed me that having a good map is a great way to help students learn how libraries are organized, and can offer some assistance to students when the librarian isn’t readily available.