cc licensed flickr photo shared by Gilderic

la bella ali tagged me for this awhile back… (sorry babe!) i skipped a few Qs as i am currently sans kids.

so here we go.

1. Is there anything you’ve ever eaten that was so delicious that you think of it and go kind of misty-eyed to this very day?

• my mom’s yorkshire pudding tastes like joy. (and at a zillion calories, why wouldn’t it?)

2. Are you a city person or country person? Half and half? Why?

• until my mid-teens i adored living in the suburbs. lachine was filled with parks, kids playing in the streets, and a real sense of community. and when i think of raising kids, i would want to do that in the ‘burbs, at least for the first few years. (note: i didn’t go to high school in lachine. best decision i ever made.) (not because lachine high wasn’t a great school, but because it got me out of the usual.)
• as an adult – city. please.

4. What’s the loveliest place you’ve ever traveled? Could be wildly exotic or comfortingly local.

• loveliest would be a tie between barcelona and guadeloupe. as for my new fave place to live? edinburgh. in a heartbeat.

5. Okay, same as Sigrid: Laundry tips? Please?

• a rag sprayed with white vinegar stops almost all static in the dryer.
• wash bright blue items with white items to increase the “whiteness”.

6. Do you have a life plan, or do you just sort of truck along?

• everyday i want to be happy – adjust life accordingly. when that fails, review life, adjust accordingly. (basically – i roll with the punches.)

7. Would friends of the teenage you recognize the current you? Would you still get along?

• i think they would definitely recognize me. and for the most part, we’d still get along. and like ali, i’m still friends with a bunch of them. (including ali)

8. Any novels to recommend for an almost-seven-year-old girl? What were your favourites? Which are you looking forward to sharing with your own kid(s)?

• ali’s list is pretty good. i could prolly pull together a list from some youth librarians for you. these days, graphic novels are very popular and they have been proven to build literacy skills just like traditional texts. </endofmyliteracyspeech

this week i nuked my zotero library.*

that library was created in 2006 when i was starting my MLIS – and all the zigzagging that involves, and then it went on to follow me through my first year as a liaison librarian (and the ZOMG WHAT AM I DOING I DON’T KNOW ANYTHINGness), and now my current gig (and the OHAI ROADMAP-LESS JOB).

basically, it was out of control.

• i would use it to track items that i needed for both personal (home-buying information, health information for friends n’family, the awesome exploits of friends, etc), and professional reasons (research, professional development, future-thinking things that get my bass thumping).
• the “to read” folder was filled with 100+ items that i, ummm, was never going to read.
• the folders were a disaster and i didn’t use tags to it was 39 kinds of chaotic.

so now i am rebuilding it from scratch. and i am relieved. i’m sure it will again get bloated and out of control, but for now, i feel more efficient with it. and i have vowed to use the notes feature to scribble things to myself, and to make better use of folders and tags.

and to always be a fan of zotero, because it really has made oh-so-much of my life easier.

*errrr, i backed it up first, then nuked it. i ain’t no dummy.

well done BYU!

check out the McGill Library Blog where i’m live-blogging ePublishing in the Scholarly Community. there will be webcasting this afternoon as well.

i’m currently taking a course to familiarize myself with copyright since so much of my day involves depositing work in the IR, digitizing & printing rare texts, and publishing scholarly journals.

given that my new gig at mcgill revolves around scholarly communication, copyright is something i deal with on a daily basis.
for the record, i believe:

• copyright is important and artists should have their works protected so they can make a living
• [speaking as a scholarly communication chica] university presses help authors make the best of their work, through peer-review, copy-editing, and layout (check out MQUP‘s books – attractive scholarly texts? NOT kookytalk!)
• copyright law in canada (and the u.s. since i hear about that regularly as well) is in need of a kick-inna-pants because it is no longer protecting culture but inhibiting it
• a lot of scholarly presses are burrowing their heads in the sand in lieu of evaluating their business models

larry lessig (he of creative commons) gave a talk at educause this year, and not only is it one of his best talks, but it looks at the issue of copyright in an academic milieu – something which (i agree) needs re-evaluation.

i love dares. doing scary things (hello battledecks…) is fun.
University of Toronto library students seem to like dares as well – and have taken it to the next level by publicly documenting their dare in order to raise money to fight AIDS in Africa.
the dare? take photos of strangers holding a honkin’ huge “i <3 librarians” sign. the flickr stream is filled with great pix.
guerilla marketing for a good cause.

(thanks Aaron for posting about this!)

update: these photos would be extra awesome if they were licensed under Creative Commons (hint! hint!)

heading to Monterey today to attend Internet Librarian. not only do i get to catch up with my friends, but i get to hear about all the awesome ways libraryland is taking advantage of the web to better meet the needs of library uses.
tomorrow is the first ever LibraryCamp at IL and i’m really looking forward to facilitating that with Jenica Rogers.
i’m also giving a talk on cloud computing with Kendra K Levine and Laura Harris.
finally, i am participating in BattleDecks on tuesday night with folks who are wicked fun.
this is gonna rock.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by ntr23

so at least two of us in the collective have recently gone live with new library websites (probably more, ’tis the time of year). as i was dealing with the fallout from this (and yes, i know, there will always be fallout – some of da peeples will never be happy, not never) i started wondering about the whole process of redesigning library websites.

what are we trying to accomplish with these redesigns? the answer is usually “to make things easier to find for our users”. but this is where it gets all kinds of sticky. libraries have _so_many_ different user groups. in my own library we have:

• undergraduates
• graduate students
• researchers
• professors
• librarians (both chez nous and at other institutions)
• continuing education students
• students who speak neither English nor French
• citizens of the city & province
• and, oh ya, ANYONE WHO FINDS US THROUGH THE GOOGLEMACHINE!

what does this mean for library site design?
how many groups do we need to consult prior to making a big change?
do we then weight the opinions of certain groups more than others?
when doing the redesign, should we do it in-house, or outsource it to a company that can make it sleeker than your average web services librarian has time for?
should we be designing for the 800×600 IE6 group of folks out there, or should we use the redesign of the library site to teach them that the minimum standards have changed, and they should join us, the friendly library, in this new (upgraded) online world?
where’s the line between accessibility and ease of use? is there one? is it possible to have a site that meets accessibility standards, is mobile-ready, and isn’t nine kinds of fug?

so, who wants to take a stab at answering some of these questions?