How fast can one learn French? 6 months?
Context: There's a paid summer internship at the National Gallery of Art for their rare books department, but "Advanced skills in a language other than English are essential."
Maybe I should have studied romantic languages. Maybe I should have concentrated on history. Maybe I should have picked up more area studies specialization.
There's too much to know and too little time to learn it!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Fun Weekend
And now for more fun links to break up the long, rambling posts about my hectic days:
In an extreme example of the maxim, "If you want it done right you have to do it yourself," Calum MacLeod built himself a road that was so successful the government appropriated it later.
An awesome Gallery of pictures with a woman shooting a bullseye almost every year for 70 some years. The other galleries in the parent site are fun to look through too.
I've been busy for the last few days. Yesterday was the beginning of MileHiCon, where I volunteered by helping set up the art gallery (don't know why that's so fun) and timing a few panels for the presenters. The highlight for me was Donato Giancola, who did a talk on the classical influences of his art, and had a painting up for auction valued at 7k dollars depicting George about to do battle with the Dragon. Giancola is still an oil on canvas guy, and his work in person is exquisite. I only wish that one day I'll be able to have a nice sketch from someone as skilled as he is, but until then I can stare at the art in the galleries.
Today was Zombie Crawl Day. I went with a bunch of library science students, and although I didn't have the time to zombify, I lifted some fake blood off someone else and had some nice bloody smears across my face. Here are some highlights:
Oh God they're breeding!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Awesome Archival!
Here's something to watch for:
I am looking forward to seeing how this little (up to $2mil) project is executed. What I would love to see in an online archival site such as the above is something beyond a simple display of materials, even if they do provide 360 degree viewing and 4000x zoom. I'd love to see more curational context (which can sometimes be kind of sparse in websites) AND links to research, published material, and people who have made use of these documents. In other words, a reverse bibliography. How hard could it be? And how fascinating to follow a document from its simple state as a piece of old paper to a piece of some interesting historical puzzle?
If anything, that sort of approach might more immediately illustrate just how useful these materials have been (or how little has been done on them if you find 0 citations!) It would be a good way to advertise the value of archives while at the same time using the power and flexibility of the web to add value to a product, not just make it available.
That's my futurist archives rant for the day.
"The NHPRC and UVA Press will create a new web site which provides access to the fully annotated published papers of key figures in the nation’s Founding era. The project is designed to include the papers of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin...Through this web resource, users will be able to read, browse, and search tens of thousands of documents from the Founding Era."
I am looking forward to seeing how this little (up to $2mil) project is executed. What I would love to see in an online archival site such as the above is something beyond a simple display of materials, even if they do provide 360 degree viewing and 4000x zoom. I'd love to see more curational context (which can sometimes be kind of sparse in websites) AND links to research, published material, and people who have made use of these documents. In other words, a reverse bibliography. How hard could it be? And how fascinating to follow a document from its simple state as a piece of old paper to a piece of some interesting historical puzzle?
If anything, that sort of approach might more immediately illustrate just how useful these materials have been (or how little has been done on them if you find 0 citations!) It would be a good way to advertise the value of archives while at the same time using the power and flexibility of the web to add value to a product, not just make it available.
That's my futurist archives rant for the day.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Day from Hell/van
The bookseller Ed Maggs on books:
Today was one of the most fascinating and educational days of my LIS career. I needed to observe a library for not one, but two projects, and had spent some time looking for a library that would fit with my interests. After sending e-mails around about the possibility of there being an archives in Denver with an Asian bent and getting nothing, it was serendipitous that during a completely unrelated meeting of a publishing group I mentioned wanting to work with Asian collections and someone mentioned that UC Boulder actually had an Asian special collection. After a few e-mail exchanges I was in contact with the librarian in charge of the Japanese/Korean portion of the collection, and arranged to meet him. That happened today. The interview I had with him, and subsequently UC Boulder's Archivist down in the library basement, was worth an entire semester of classes.
The only downside to this facinating education was that it took twice as long as I had been anticipating, and I had expected to be able to finish to projects before class that evening. Instead I got to enjoy a leisurely ride through 20 some miles of rush hour traffic, and banged out a somewhat unprofessional bibliography in the hour I had before class. The assignment didn't carry too much weight though, and what I gained today was more than worth it. I am absolutely exhausted, so I'll have to go into more detail tomorrow (but not too much. I don't kiss and tell.)
"Maggs says he enjoys the process of discovery behind letters and books. 'I'm a frustrated historian or novelist,' he says. 'Books and manuscripts are the greatest repositories of history and history, maybe, is the most important thing of all for giving meaning to our lives.'"
Today was one of the most fascinating and educational days of my LIS career. I needed to observe a library for not one, but two projects, and had spent some time looking for a library that would fit with my interests. After sending e-mails around about the possibility of there being an archives in Denver with an Asian bent and getting nothing, it was serendipitous that during a completely unrelated meeting of a publishing group I mentioned wanting to work with Asian collections and someone mentioned that UC Boulder actually had an Asian special collection. After a few e-mail exchanges I was in contact with the librarian in charge of the Japanese/Korean portion of the collection, and arranged to meet him. That happened today. The interview I had with him, and subsequently UC Boulder's Archivist down in the library basement, was worth an entire semester of classes.
The only downside to this facinating education was that it took twice as long as I had been anticipating, and I had expected to be able to finish to projects before class that evening. Instead I got to enjoy a leisurely ride through 20 some miles of rush hour traffic, and banged out a somewhat unprofessional bibliography in the hour I had before class. The assignment didn't carry too much weight though, and what I gained today was more than worth it. I am absolutely exhausted, so I'll have to go into more detail tomorrow (but not too much. I don't kiss and tell.)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Hnnnng
Nothing warms you up like trying to pedal a bike with a flat tire. I filled the tire with air (75c for air! What is the world coming to!) and it went flat again immediately, so it looks like I'm going to have to replace a tire.
I was doing a little RSS reading after coming home from class and came across a list of resources for job searches in the library field. The first link was for North Suburban Libray System. Their front page reads " On May 31, 2010, all NSLS full-time employees (except delivery staff) were laid off. The only member service NSLS will provide in the immediate future is van delivery. This scaled down version of the NSLS website will remain up until further notice."
FUUUUUUUUU
Well, here's hoping that in two years there will be employment prospects again. I should really get started on cultivating expertise somewhere to make myself more employable, but I find it difficult to find the time in between the classes I am taking, which are are as introductory as you can get (with the possible exception of Organization of Information, but that one drives me a bit nuts.)
I am still holding out judgement on this whole ten weeks a semester thing. Way too short in my opinion, but then again, I am looking forward to taking classes that are more relevant to my focus.
I am currently in the interview process for two different jobs. Both are full time and rather decent. What I -really- want is a call back from the libraries in Rangeview, but I'm not sure if that would happen. I turned in three separate applications to them on Monday, and because the computer was having a terrible time interpreting the file I had to go over every little check box individually and double check that it wasn't changed from the last time I loaded the file. I realized after I had printed that I was not thorough enough and one check had gotten through, and then, when I could not find any white out, decided to fix the issue when I got to the library I was submitting everything to. Of course by the time I got to the library I had forgotten about this, and so two applications say that I was previously an employee of Rangeview and one says correctly that I have not. I literally did not have a moment to do anything today, so I guess tomorrow I'll have to call them and set things right. Bleh.
So far I've gotten a whole sentence translated of the Japanese book I'm trying to go through. I don't think I'll get very far, but some Far East Language skills would really help, and I need to brush up VERY badly.
I was doing a little RSS reading after coming home from class and came across a list of resources for job searches in the library field. The first link was for North Suburban Libray System. Their front page reads " On May 31, 2010, all NSLS full-time employees (except delivery staff) were laid off. The only member service NSLS will provide in the immediate future is van delivery. This scaled down version of the NSLS website will remain up until further notice."
FUUUUUUUUU
Well, here's hoping that in two years there will be employment prospects again. I should really get started on cultivating expertise somewhere to make myself more employable, but I find it difficult to find the time in between the classes I am taking, which are are as introductory as you can get (with the possible exception of Organization of Information, but that one drives me a bit nuts.)
I am still holding out judgement on this whole ten weeks a semester thing. Way too short in my opinion, but then again, I am looking forward to taking classes that are more relevant to my focus.
I am currently in the interview process for two different jobs. Both are full time and rather decent. What I -really- want is a call back from the libraries in Rangeview, but I'm not sure if that would happen. I turned in three separate applications to them on Monday, and because the computer was having a terrible time interpreting the file I had to go over every little check box individually and double check that it wasn't changed from the last time I loaded the file. I realized after I had printed that I was not thorough enough and one check had gotten through, and then, when I could not find any white out, decided to fix the issue when I got to the library I was submitting everything to. Of course by the time I got to the library I had forgotten about this, and so two applications say that I was previously an employee of Rangeview and one says correctly that I have not. I literally did not have a moment to do anything today, so I guess tomorrow I'll have to call them and set things right. Bleh.
So far I've gotten a whole sentence translated of the Japanese book I'm trying to go through. I don't think I'll get very far, but some Far East Language skills would really help, and I need to brush up VERY badly.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
CALCON Report
PHEW. The last three days have been the most busy since I drove West, and considering the fact that I have been intensely busy for months now that is an achievement. I was up in Loveland volunteering my time at the CAL Conference since I couldn't justify the cost of simply attending, and, as I mentioned before, events are just more fun when you're working behind the scenes. That's where you meet the cool people
And boy did I meet a ton of cool people. I know a big part of attending conferences and participating in clubs and groups has to do with networking, but if the Denver Library community is a web then I am tangled all up in it. I must have met a dozen or so awesome people, and have spent the time after the conference trying desperately to keep their names and faces straight in my head. I figure if I can recognize half the people I met at a later date I did ok. I won't go into specifics because it would take forever to cover everyone and what made them awesome, and I don't want to commit the crime of forgetting someone important.
Because I was volunteering for a good portion of the time, and was playing DDR when I wasn't volunteering, and chatting when I wasn't doing -that- I didn't actually attend very many of the seminars or panels. I'm not much of a seminar person anyway. It reminds me too much of class, and besides, I wasn't registered. I did sit in on a talk given by the staff at anythink Libraries (small a) and was extremely impressed. The entire district when from being a "dump" to the ideal that all public libraries should strive to achieve. When I think of my own time trapped in the hell of suburbia, I know I would have loved to have a library as forward thinking as anythink. I would have preferred they not be so extreme that they do away with capitalization though. And that's not to say my hometown library is -bad-. It's just not nearly as good.
Besides the parade of friendly and fascinating people, the highlight of CAL has to be the Battledecks competition Friday night. Competitors had to improvise a speech that followed the conference theme (Transformation and Illumination), plus a bonus theme that was different for each person (Urkel an H1N1, American Bacon vs. Canadian Bacon), all without seeing any of their slides before hand. And the slides were a collection of lolcats and non-sequitur captions. I have not laughed so hard in a very long while. Every presenter was hilarious, and a few of them straight up killed the audience. Apparently the winner of the competition was the state librarian, so if I ever meet him face to face I'll have to compliment him on his ability to make squid pants relevant to the library profession.
There was an auction table at the conference with some interesting stuff, including a plush owl and some exquisite woodblock etchings, but the item that really grabbed my attention was a three credit tuition waver, worth almost 3k. I had a chance at cutting 1k out of my tuition right there, but unfortunately I ended up with competition at the very end, and wasn't willing to get into a bidding war just so I could pay up front nearly the whole cost of a single class. Oh well.
The weather has taken a turn for the cold. Just last week I was hot in a t-shirt, and now it's 50 degrees and I'm sitting with a blanket, turtleneck, and sweater. I'm going to have to go out and pick up a box of tissues.
So now that that week is over, I have time to relax, right?
Haha. No.
This week I have to:
Wish me luck.
And boy did I meet a ton of cool people. I know a big part of attending conferences and participating in clubs and groups has to do with networking, but if the Denver Library community is a web then I am tangled all up in it. I must have met a dozen or so awesome people, and have spent the time after the conference trying desperately to keep their names and faces straight in my head. I figure if I can recognize half the people I met at a later date I did ok. I won't go into specifics because it would take forever to cover everyone and what made them awesome, and I don't want to commit the crime of forgetting someone important.
Because I was volunteering for a good portion of the time, and was playing DDR when I wasn't volunteering, and chatting when I wasn't doing -that- I didn't actually attend very many of the seminars or panels. I'm not much of a seminar person anyway. It reminds me too much of class, and besides, I wasn't registered. I did sit in on a talk given by the staff at anythink Libraries (small a) and was extremely impressed. The entire district when from being a "dump" to the ideal that all public libraries should strive to achieve. When I think of my own time trapped in the hell of suburbia, I know I would have loved to have a library as forward thinking as anythink. I would have preferred they not be so extreme that they do away with capitalization though. And that's not to say my hometown library is -bad-. It's just not nearly as good.
Besides the parade of friendly and fascinating people, the highlight of CAL has to be the Battledecks competition Friday night. Competitors had to improvise a speech that followed the conference theme (Transformation and Illumination), plus a bonus theme that was different for each person (Urkel an H1N1, American Bacon vs. Canadian Bacon), all without seeing any of their slides before hand. And the slides were a collection of lolcats and non-sequitur captions. I have not laughed so hard in a very long while. Every presenter was hilarious, and a few of them straight up killed the audience. Apparently the winner of the competition was the state librarian, so if I ever meet him face to face I'll have to compliment him on his ability to make squid pants relevant to the library profession.
There was an auction table at the conference with some interesting stuff, including a plush owl and some exquisite woodblock etchings, but the item that really grabbed my attention was a three credit tuition waver, worth almost 3k. I had a chance at cutting 1k out of my tuition right there, but unfortunately I ended up with competition at the very end, and wasn't willing to get into a bidding war just so I could pay up front nearly the whole cost of a single class. Oh well.
The weather has taken a turn for the cold. Just last week I was hot in a t-shirt, and now it's 50 degrees and I'm sitting with a blanket, turtleneck, and sweater. I'm going to have to go out and pick up a box of tissues.
So now that that week is over, I have time to relax, right?
Haha. No.
This week I have to:
- Arrange an advising meeting and get next semester sorted out.
- Visit the Asian collection in UC Boulder for two separate classes.
- Finish a comparative paper. (And read the papers I need to be comparing.)
- Create a service bibliography
- Submit applications for every position Rangview library has open, because Rangeview is awesome.
- Attend a volunteer orientation at the local animal shelter.
- Register to volunteer at the DPL CTC
- Attend two job interviews on Monday
- Build my new website and put up the intro tutorial to web design
- Contact someone at the Talking Books Library about volunteering there
- Cajole the Michigan Lighthouse Conservatory into providing me with their collections list for upload into librarything
- Post flyers for the Denver satellite to the Rally to Restore Sanity
- Add another 100 prompts to a fantasy project
- Do some research on spy libraries
- Finish reading a book in Internet Neutrality
- Review one e-book, and two magazines
- Find some time to eat and sleep.
Wish me luck.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
This week has been a bit of a roller coaster. I think I am going through the phases of grief in terms of my job search. I was firmly in the Anger zone on Friday, and am anticipating a long stay in Depression land, but am doing my damnedest to ward off the mental and physical stagnation that this usually brings on. Having so much that simply needs to get done helps, but my meals have been taking a bit of a hit.
This last week I:
http://stackedup.tv/#read Quick interviews with writers and other bookish creators.
http://eap.bl.uk/index.a4d The endangered archives program. Some of these projects sound ridiculously awesome. Going through them keeps me focused on gathering up the skills/qualifications to participate in something like this.
This last week I:
- Spoke to a Chinese teacher and realized I was -really- overreaching, so I'm sticking with Japanese for a bit
- Attended an amazing concert of Brahm's German Requiem in a beautiful cathedral
- Ate at a "fast food" Japanese restaurant that almost killed udon for me
- Restarted an old project (because that's what I do when I'm stressed, start projects) that has nothing to do with anything else I'm doing currently but will be moderately time consuming
- Submitted more reviews for Tangent Online, which, by the way, has now published everything
- Started doing research on grants and linguistics, of all things
- Got furniture for my room, including a dresser, which remains empty as I choose to leave everything strewn across the floor
- Finished up my first group project of the semester just in time to dive into the second
- Bought something to transfer my photos onto the computer and realized immediately after that my computer has a SD cardslot compatible with my camera.
- So, pictures:
The living room, with Rufus giving the tour in the corner.
The little dining room right behind it. The roommate I replaced took that table, so now it's just open space.
The kitchen. You can't see them but some of the things on the fridge are hilarious.
Lord of the domain, Rufus.
Rufus lording over me as I try to do work.
The catlord is pleased with my obedience.
===
http://stackedup.tv/#read Quick interviews with writers and other bookish creators.
http://eap.bl.uk/index.a4d The endangered archives program. Some of these projects sound ridiculously awesome. Going through them keeps me focused on gathering up the skills/qualifications to participate in something like this.
===
Friday, October 1, 2010
Awesome Archival!
For this week, the evolution of a service medal, the first presented by the fresh new country of the U.S.A. This is one of the great things about archival; being able to follow the thought process of those who are long dead and gone.
http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/blog/2010/09/libertas-americana/
http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/blog/2010/09/libertas-americana/
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