Nerd Fest 2009

These last two days have exposed me to so much nerdom I feared whatever trace of coolness I had left would disappears never to return. Then again I've really enjoyed seeing nerds in their native environment and realize I wasn't so different but that was okay. Thursday night I went to see MC Chris with my best friend Catherine. The lyrical styling of MC Chris is of the Nerd Core hip-hop genre. Generally rapping about that which nerds find cool like comic books and video games.

The show was great, but with an interesting mix of teenie boopers sporting their hoodies and super-hero tees. The openers also followed this genre with the Nintendo rock group I Fight Dragons and a rap/punk rock trio named Whole Wheat Bread. Catherine bought me a t-shirt and after the show MC Chris signed it...as I told him I was a librarian...to which he replied "awesome very awesome" and thought "another crazy."

The next day I attended Tulsa Tech Fest 2009. Which was a total grown-up nerd fest. There were hundreds of people but probably only ten females. This made for an interesting day as the restrooms were never busy and gathering the attention of everyone in the room was an easy task. Really this was a great event, free aside from the two cans of food you had to donate. A pizza lunch was provided and there were a ton of "door prizes." I was amazed by the difference in funding where corporations have something to gain out of the event aside from the tax right-off. I learned a lot and enjoyed being around other techies which makes me realize what a nerd I really am. I can't help it, I love seeing the latest trends in tech software and hardware. Windows 7 Surface Touch Pack demonstrated their newest applications, which involved a young hipster who as design manage for Surface held a dream job of many in the audience. Overall good times and really Nerd is the new black!

My Julia Child Cliche

So I've been on a Julia Child kick lately and today I got very cliche. I watched Julie and Julia with my mom a few weeks ago and we both really enjoyed it. We love Julia Child and Amy Adams (although her character left more to be desired). The day we went to see the movie my mom brought me a first edition of Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In order to acquire the book, she hid it behind the shelves of the used bookstore until she could purchase it at a later time! She said it was for my birthday (which is in December and it was summertime) either way it was a really nice gift. I'm now reading the book the movie was based on...and so on and so on.

Tonight while grocery shopping I decided to pick up some leeks and potatoes having thought earlier how cool it is to create something out of so few ingredients. This is of course the first recipe in the book. I wonder if Julie really serendipitously came upon those ingredients or if it just worked well for the beginning of her book. Either way it sounded simple and tasty to me.

I picked up a couple of Idaho potatoes and some leeks. Chopped it all up, cut my finger once, called my mom to confirm what the tender green part of the leek really included, placed in pan, added filtered water, and some salt. I then let it cook for 45 minutes and resisted adding other ingredients (just a little garlic, maybe some chicken bouillon (my mom had a great suggestion of bacon)). When 45 minutes had passed I took my crank egg beater and gave it a beating. Worked well.

I added butter, pepper and more salt. After a few tastes in it is purity, I gave-in and added some shredded cheese and more salt. This time smoked Alder wood salt which just happens to make everything better. I also added a few plain lays potato chips and pondered the risk of mad potato disease. Sitting down to eat, I had a great dish at hand, and only had to fight one cat for bites.

Church of Google and Information Seeking Lesson Learned

Church of Google

HA! Wow this site makes me laugh but I must admit I've sounded like a fanatic myself at times. Mainly I appreciate the information organization and communication tools offered by Google such as email, chat, calendar, documents, reader, and blog. Also there are very cool things going on with Google FastFlip, Google Health, and Google Wave. I do fear repercussions from becoming so dependent upon one corporation but so far so good ? :S

Information Seeking: Google is not God

While it seems one only has to rely upon Google to acquire all information needed this is not the case. Ultimately you have to rely on all sorts of information sources to successfully complete research. At times Google is helpful but cannot be relied upon solely. There are much savvier ways of searching the net that many in the general public are not familiar with. This is where information professional come in handy. I'd like to design a web search strategies workshop but I have a lot to learn myself.

The other day I spent an hour with a student researching an amendment for a recent bill being debated in congress. We were making use of Thomas a Library of Congress database for federal legislative information, but it is complex with many types of information being archived. We went back and forth from news stories found on the web providing some overview to the Thomas database trying to identify the exact text in this proposed amendment.

I found the Thomas database, by the way, from doing a keyword search to "matthew shepard hate crime prevention act" and finding the link in a Wikipedia article. The student didn't see me do this at first and then she was like, "how'd you get there(Thomas)" and I'm like "ah I'm not telling." Because you don't want students thinking that's the "be all to end all" resource. I told her eventually, but showed her how I accessed the much more legitimate database.

At the end of the hour all we had located was a new story discussing how the bill had passed but this particular amendment dealing with the death penalty had not. After the student was gone I realized Thomas had pretty advanced search options and I was able to take the senator's name (learned from the last article) and search by that and the type "amendment" along with keywords "death penalty" and located the specific text of the amendment. Regardless the student was gone and I didn't even know her name. While I am glad to know about such a great resource for federal legislation and how to search it, I wish I would have been able to do so when the student was there (and not immediately jumped to keyword searching as has become so habitual). I also wonder how much of it should be left up to her to discover.

Libraries and Censorship

A poster hanging across from my desk reads, "Libraries are the second defense of freedom. Reading is the first!" The founding fathers, well aware of the danger of censorship and tyranny, promoted rights such as freedom of expression and religion. Democracies are dependent upon the free exchange of ideas so that the greater good may arise. Institutions which provide unbiased access to unbiased materials are essential to the free exchange of ideas. Libraries, positioned away from profit motives, came to serve this purpose and over time established principles guided by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Freedom of speech grants authors and publishers the right to produce literary works of expression (Rubin 2004, 187). In addition to expressing oneself freely the First Amendment also entails the ability to receive a diverse set of view points. The goal of libraries is to create policies which support this intellectual freedom. Various personal, social, professional obligations tend to restrict or increase access to information. As a result the American Library Association established policies to provide guidance and reduce these pressures. In 1939 the ALA adopted the Library Bill of Rights to ensure the development of diverse and unrestricted library collections (Rubin 2004).

Libraries are charged with providing access to the flow of information while librarians must guard against censorship. It is not the responsibility of a librarian to decide what is true and useful; rather it is the responsibility of a librarian to ensure non-useful falsities are also included in the flow. It is up to individuals to debate the validity of the information and decide what is right. Swan (1986, 52) states, "The knowledge of truth and the knowledge of untruth, like the knowledge of good and evil, are indissolubly joined. Our cause, professionally and politically, is with both of them."

Rubin, Richard. 2004. Foundations of Library and Information Science. New York: Neil-Schuman Publishers, Inc.

Swan, John. 1986. Untruth or Consequences. Library Journal 111(12): 44-52, via Ebsco (accessed April 23, 2009).

READ.KNOW.SPEAK

Precautionary Principle

As I drive by "Cancer Center's of America" their flashing sign really makes me consider the medical industrial complex. Advertisements for such places make cancer treatment sound like a blue light special at the Kmart. With all the marketing that goes on cancer treatment must be big business and therefore why would anyone in that industry want to prevent cancer. Most corporations big and small in the United States focus solely on the bottom-line and frankly the business of cancer prevention just does not pay as well as cancer treatment. Other parts of the world embrace the Precautionary Principle, which promotes the idea of proving something is safe prior to its release in the world. This means manufacturing processes and resulting end products are conducted in manners proven safe to humans rather than waiting until millions are diagnosed with incurable cancer. If we in the United States embraced this idea, cancer treatment would not be a growth industry but rather a last resort measure for the few unfortunate in which cancer was not preventable.

A good movie highlighting the harmful effects of the chemical industry is Blue Vinyl

Glance at Oklahoma from the Past

Here is a great quote from one of the first field guides on Oklahoma, Washington Irving's Prairie Sketches.

In the often vaunted regions of the Far West, several hundred miles
beyond the Mississippi, extends a vast tract of uninhabited country, where
there is neither to be seen the log house of the white man, nor the
wigwam of the Indian. It consists of great grassy plains, interspersed with
forests and groves, and clumps of trees, and watered by the Arkansas,
the grand Canadian, the Red River, and all their tributary streams. Over
these fertile and verdant wastes still roam the Elk, the Buffalo, and wild
horse, in all their native freedom. (Irving, 1835)

Information Broker

My experience with reference assistance in a community college setting has led me to consider the task of information broker. Many students find struggle to successfully find information via library resources and will turn to Google options instead. Fortunately many do seek assistance from library professionals who typically guide the student in use of information retrieval systems. At times it seems more appropriate to asses what sort of information package the student is seeking and do the majority of searching for them. Providing them with several options so as to best approximate their needs. This enhances the valued-added services provided by librarians, and aligns with expectations of digital natives. While enabling lazy tendencies among searchers many not be desirable, providing it as an alternative when students feel they have exhausted their skills is not a bad thing. Acting as an information broker just might be the answer for an information overloaded society.