Collection Development

I just finished Collection Development, my 7th course in Library School. The lectures and the readings were excellent, but the overall experience was somewhat marred because the professor was not able to remove files from the courseware interface that were no longer relevant so she had to add her own files on top of that. This led to quite a bit of confusion for example, there were two assignment files; one from the previous course and the one that she wanted us to us. The administration needs to work with her to fix this, I got the impression that she tried, and they were not helpful. The professor was very responsive to questions which was terrific because of the confusion of files.

The content was interesting but not really all that surprising particularly for someone with my background. I found what made the course most worthwhile were the assignments, especially the group assignments. We were divided into groups based on our interests (academic libraries, school libraries and public libraries) and I was placed in the Public Library group with 7 other people.

Our first assignment was individual and it was to critique a library collection policy. The second assignment (a selection and deselection paper) was a group project and the third, a journal article drafted for either the Acquisitions Librarian or Collection Management could be either individual or group.

The group assignments were most challenging, not because of the content, but because it was a group project done completely online. For me, it was an opportunity to re-practice my project management skills. As was the case in many of the previous classes I took, classmates did not want to seem to take charge (this was true even when there were leaders assigned to a project) but given the size of the group and the scope of the project we needed someone to focus attention on the project as well as identify what pieces needed to be written, what decisions needed to be made first in order to start and identify ways to make the final edit easier (since the paper, of course, needed to be written in one voice). The central part of the paper were the title selections that we were proposing, and to make things easier I developed a template, really an example and got approval from the professor. It certainly made the title selections look as though they were written by one person even though everyone contributed to that section.

There were problems, of course: Some people did not contribute at all even though I emailed them several times--I called that to the professor's attention and she excluded them from our project--we assumed that they were doing individual projects and as is often true in group projects, there were some who did everything but the thing that they had signed up for.

I was appointed group leader by acclamation and I must say that I was pleased with the final project (the professor said it was one of the best projects that she had seen and was doubly impressed because it was done with such a large group) but I found the process somewhat daunting in that too many files were flying around and mistakes that had been fixed in earlier versions kept showing up.

For the third assignment, I participated with a subset of the group. Our topic was "Acquiring and Publicizing Scandinavian Mysteries" and I tried to improve on the previous process by maintaining the file myself from the beginning and early in the process merging the sections that other classmates wrote. Then, we critiqed the draft (with all of the sections included) and I made the final edit based on the comments.

In this course, while I certainly learned about Collection Development, what most stayed with me was the experience of working collaboratively online with peers--as difficult as it was sometimes, it was highly satisfying.

My Top 10 Books of 2007

Every year I keep a journal of books that I have read but I have never gone back through that journal and compiled a top 10 list. This is my first top 10 list and unlike most others is not a list of the top 10 books published this year, but rather a list of books that I read this year and enjoyed. It will be a mix of new and old books.

So, in no particular order, here they are:

1. Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name by Vendela Vida (2007). I am drawn to books that take place in extreme climates, primarily cold ones. And this book by Vida was set primarily in Lapland in Northern Scandinavia. It is a novel about family, family secrets and self-discovery. Vida is a co-editor of Believer, the literary magazine, and this is a luminous book about finding yourself in a world of cold and darkness in the midst of a people, the Sami, on the brink of extinction.
2. The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid (2007). It is a rainy summer in the Lake Country in Britain and a modern day scholar, Jane Gresham, is intrigued by the discovery of a 200 year old body with unusual tattoos. Lake District legends have said that Fletcher Christian returned to England after the mutiny and his time on Pitcarin Island and Jane is determined to prove that the body is Christian's. This book is well written and may be enjoyed by people who love intermingled stories but it is also of interested to lovers of maritime history. One can see the influence of Caroline Alexander's masterful The Bounty (2003) in McDermid's book.
3. The Bloomsday Dead by Adrian McKinty (2007). Set in Ireland and Northern Ireland on Bloomsday, June 16th. This is the final book of McKinty's so-called Dead Trilogy and Michael Forstythe is set the task of finding the daughter of his beloved, his Penelope, Bridget Callaghan. McKinty is an extraordinary writer mixing scenes of violence, keen observation of Ireland today and lyrical soul-searching as Michael questions his life and years in exile. Any allusions to Ulysses, both by Joyce and by Homer (the Odyssey) are of course, quite intentional.
4. GhostWalk by Rebecca Stott (2007). Set in Cambridge both in the modern day and in the days of Isaac Newton, a writer, Lydia Brooke, has been contracted to finish the work of a scholar who drowned just before she finished her expected to be controversial biography of Isaac Newton. Stott uses murders in the 17th century and in her contemporary story to explore alchemy, neurology and animal rights activism. GhostWalk works as a mystery as well as a thought-provoking book about science, the commercialism of science and the conscience of scholars and scientists
5. About Alice by Calvin Trillin (2006). Simply one of the most romantic books I have read. Alice, Trillin's wife died in 2001 at the age of 63 from the effects of radiation treatments. Trillin writes about their courtship and marriage in a style that is honest and loving and filled with longing. Simply lovely.
6. The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid (2007). This is Hamid's second novel and was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 2007. It is short, only 182 pages and told in the form of a monologue by Changez, a Muslim who left Pakistan to study at Princeton. There, he falls in love with a woman who is emotionally unavailable to him and joins a consulting firm. After 9/11, he goes back to Pakistan because he believes that he no longer fits in the United States and yet finds that he does not really fit in at home either. One of the characters tells Changez about the janissaries, Muslim boys who were taken from their homes as very young boys to fight for the Christians because only the very young could be enlisted to fight against their own people. Changez was too old to be a modern-day Janissary and so goes home to be with his people.
7. Consumption by Kevin Patterson (2007). Set in the Arctic, this novel by Patterson, a medical doctor and the author of the travel book, The Water in Between, concerns a woman who is sent from her Inuit people south to recover from consumption. There she falls away from the ways of her people but is sent home where she must learn to readjust. Her doctor falls in love with her and this totally one-sided love (only on his side) affects his life. This is a subtle and lyrical book, with fascinating discussions on cross-cultural epidemiology bookmarking each of the chapters.
8. Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand (2007). I have never really enjoyed science fiction or fantasy but I was mesmerized by Waking the Moon an earlier Hand novel (1995). I don't remember much about the plot but the images and writing were stunning and so I looked forward to her newest book. Set largely on an island off the coast of Maine, Cass Neary, a post-punk photographer is set to interview Aphrodite Kamestos, a photographer whose work influenced Neary. Hand explores the artistic genius and madness in this stunning book. This is a dark book with fascinating discussions on the history of photography that also captures the claustrophobic character of life on an island.
9. Eat the Document by Dana Spinotta (2006). This novel, Spinotta's second was a National Book Award finalist and New York Times Notable Book. It follows the lives of two former 60s radicals as they live underground and continue hiding in the present. It shifts between the decades and the characters and explores and illuminates their decisions in the past and present.
10. Raven Black by Ann Cleeves (2007). This is the first book of an intended Shetland Trilogy. Set in the Shetland Islands part of Great Britain but also Viking in heritage, this novel introduces Jimmy Perez, lead detective, an outsider who has lived on the island for many years but because he was born there, he will never be considered a Shetlander. The murder takes place on New Year's Eve when the island is cold and dark. Cleeves manages to teach the reader about Shetland history while telling a wonderful story--I am looking forward to her next book also set on the island and featuring Perez.

Online classes

There was a story in the New York Times about online classes and programs this morning. It was interesting but mostly predictable. The teacher, it featured, taught from her dining room table in sweatpants and fuzzy slippers. Many of her students were international and the online format accomodated them. The article did mention that many students in many online programs spend more time on their classes than those in traditional settings because "class time" was not limited to a couple of hours per week.

The article also talks about the downside of online classes that students are limited to reading and discussing online and used an example of Irving Howe reading poems by Robert Frost in a class that the author had once had. I am not sure how many students have experiences like that but it does seem to be a limited view of online education. Students can download videos, audios and communicate via podcasts. For that matter, the limitations are mostly imposed by the teachers or students and not technology. Teachers have many options that they can use to communicate. For that matter, I still remember a grammar school class in which I first heard the words of Shakespeare spoken. It was 1959--I was 8 and the voice was Dorothy Tutin and the technology was a 78rpm record. When I think of Shakespeare, I still hear Tutin's voice.

Thoughts on Library School

This post by Nicole Engard has been much discussed in the library student community. Many commenters have focused on the distance learning aspects of her experience while at least one commenter indicated that they thought the problems were with library education in general. I am currently in library school and in fact, in the Drexel online program. Some classes are more successful than others: some teachers are better, the content of some classes is more interesting and the students more engaged. Other classes are flat: everyone seems disengaged both the students and teacher and the topics themselves are not terribly exciting. However, I found this to be true in both my undergraduate and previous graduate (both face-to-face) experiences.

In fact, I find that the students in this program tend to be more helpful and supportive than those in my previous programs and I think that has much to do with the people who become librarians. In my other programs, classmates were rivals--it might be for jobs, assistantships or better grades, but I had several group experiences in the library program that while it might have been difficult starting the group--the feedback, the interactions were constructive and downright pleasant.

I came to library school via a large corporation where I managed up to 30 professional employees who were located all across the country. This group meetings happened over the phone or via net-meeting, communication was by phone or email and even performance reviews were conducted over the phone. To do this successfully, we all had to work to make our expectations clear--I checked email throughout the day and sent everybody a copy of my schedule at the beginning of the day so that they would know I might be in a meeting for several hours and not able to respond to email during that time. My group did the same for me. Was it ideal? No, but we figured out how to make it work and even work well. It also allowed us to focus on the work and not get so caught up in the usual workplace soap operas.

And, when this is done in distance education, it works well. Communication doesn't just happen and teamwork doesn't just happen either. I chose an online program for the convenience and because I thought it would make me a better librarian. We have new tools to use for collaboration and communication and while many libraries don't use these yet, they will need to consider them for the future. And, what better way to learn about the tools than to use them while learning

I usually find that even when I am taking a course, I don't love, I find something else to interest me. Maybe it will start me thinking about a new application for the library or I might use it as a springboard to develop project management skills and always it is an opportunity to improve my communication skills because communicating with your classmates only online means that you have to learn to be concise and clear in order to be understood by your classmates and teachers.

Like every other program I have been in, or every job that I have had, you can bring more to it than you need to get by. Since I started the library program, I have discovered library blogs and wikis and new forms of communication that expand what I learn in the classroom and I create opportunities to try those things out. I suppose that I could have done that without library school but I doubt that I would have and I certainly would not have had the professional opportunities that I have had.

Bloody Harvests by Richard Kunzmann

One place where love of books and love of anthropology come together is in international mysteries. This particular sub-genre of mysteries is one of my favorites and I plan to write about international mysteries that I have read and enjoyed.

Bloody Harvests takes place in South Africa and features two detectives, Jacob Tshabalala, and Harry Mason. Tshabalala is a Christian who is from a family of tribal priests and healers and Harry Mason his partner was born in England and came to South Africa as a youngster. Both have secrets from each other and those secrets influence their behavior through this case.

Kunzmann shows us a South Africa in which history and old wounds piercethe present. The characters are credible and they fight a criminal who is mythic and uses his knowledge of tribal religion and healing and his own unusual appearance to construct a persona that frightens and controls the local population.

Kunzmann has a new book, Salamander Cotton, coming out which features Harry Mason again. It is being published in the U in mid-November.

Another South African author to explore is Deon Meyer who has had 3 books translated into English and published in the US. They include: Heart of the Hunter, Dead before Dying and Dead at Daybreak. Heart of the Hunter is particularly interesting because it touchesthe history of South Africa in the Cold War. Tiny, the lead character, the nickname for Thobela Mpayipheli, is a former anti-apartheid operative trained by the KGB. He races across the country to honor a promise he had made to an old friend. He is a wonderful character, a now-peaceful man who has to reach back into his old life and old skills to survive to fulfill his promise.

Both of these authors are worth reading--they have much to author as thriller writers but also as guides to an unfamiliar place and history.

Why this blog?

I am in my third career and in graduate school for the second time. I bring to both of those years of education, professional experience and lifelong interests which makes my experience of my new career and my new graduate school experience slightly different from my colleagues in work and school.

After undergraduate school (BA in Anthropology) I worked at a family therapy clinic. However, it was not just a family therapy clinic but one of the best in the world and clinicians came from all over the world to train there. It was a fascinating experience and taught me about people, families, and how one could love one's work. And, it taught me about video which was my actual job.

I took a Master's in Technical and Scientific Communications and went to work at AT&T Bell Laboratories--I stayed at Bell Labs for 18 years through the various permutations of AT&T, finally retiring from Lucent Technologies. There, I learned more about people, organization, organizations, how to write books and how to manage people who wrote them.

Now, I am getting a Master's in Library Science and am working at a library in central New Jersey where I live. All of my lessons from the past are useful here and add to those a life-time love of reading and an interest in applying technology to make information accessible to people and I feel like I have arrived at the right time in the right profession.

This blog will be about libraries, graduate school, what I am reading and trends that I think can and should be applied to libraries and it is an opportunity to continue writing because communication is an important part of any job or school program.