Confusion

I'm not entirely sure how this post is organized (What with it titling itself 20 best picture books for children and only providing 3 images, then linking to a list without saying that the link is the real 20 best picture books link and THEN including a picture not on the list at all, which is sad, because that is what prompted me to write this post. Phew. That was a run-on and a half), but I found an image I want you to look at and not think about. I'm serious. If I catch you even contemplating the subject matter of the third picture in this post, you're toast.

Outlook not good.

In trying to find an interesting and concisely written metadata blog, I came across this blog post from Organizing Stuff.  It's from the beginning of the summer, but seemed interesting enough, so why not?  The article focuses on the library field's inability to move beyond their systems and self-generated issues.  So... there is no escaping that after graduation, is there?  Read the third paragraph, beginning with, "But what I don't..." and tell me you didn't imagine HIB.  Go on, I dare you.  Granted, now I've goaded you into thinking only about this article in the context of HIB.  So really, I've tainted you.  Oh well.  Read that ish anyway.  

Thing 13; or, you've got to be kidding me.

After an extended hiatus of a self-created two week Spring Break, I return to blog with a vengeance. Either I'm really excited about getting back into the swing of things, or I'm extraordinarily bored at work and want to provide some lackluster entertainment for Danielle (who is also bored to tears at work). You decide. Bring on the Thing! (that's what she said)

Ahem. Thing 13 leads the traveler of this pointless journey of 2.0 learning to the highly beloved del.icio.us social bookmarking. We're going to do this a little differently today. First, we're going to make assumptions about what they would want us to do, and then we're going to see what it is they actually want us to do. Sound good? Wonderful.

Assumptions
Well, I anticipate that it is School Library Learning 2.0's greatest desire to instruct us how to create a del.icio.us account. Not only that, but we should then explore the web and let the tagging rumpus start. Then, we'll take one of the blogs that we've been reading and tag it with a very distinct tag so we can all find it later and become great friends and have a gay ole time chatting about using del.icio.us in the future.

Bitter, cold reality
They want me to do what?! Oh, that's right. Nothing. First things first: a video tutorial. ENH--wrong answer. After I'm done, not watching this tutorial I'm to explore someone else's account. Well, all right. That's not so bad, but only because it would be helpful when I get pigeonholed into working in a school, as all the public library jobs will cease to exist once city budgeters get their way. So: SJLibraryLearning2. Now comes the hard part. Do you think you can handle it? I am only bravely venturing there because you expect so much from me and I wouldn't dream of letting you down in this great time of need. ::Holds breath::

Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags they used to catgorize this reference?

OMGOMGOMGOMG I don't know if I can do it. Rather, I don't know if I want to do it. Next! ... So the last bulleted instruction does NOT include creating a del.icio.us account. I've created an avatar, which will most certainly not help me in the library field, but it's only optional to create a del.icio.us account? What the? No, the last instruction is a touchy-feely sobfest about how this tool can be useful in libraries. Ready for it? Here I go:

The one website that would actually be beneficial to librarians, they only made it optional to create an account. This is utter nonsense. Yes, I can see the potential of this for research assistance! Can't you? Clearly not, otherwise there would be a fifth instruction to create one. But I digress.

I get weekly updates from the Librarian's Internet Index with a slew of websites that might be helpful. Without del.icio.us I would never be able to access those in the rare case someone comes to the reference desk looking for information on endangered frogs. Since del.icio.us does exist, I can help that patron in the .0001% chance they come to me. Also, instead of making pathfinders no one uses, librarians can update their library's del.icio.us account. It brings the information to the patron's domain instead of waiting for the patron to come to us. Plus, we can study the language and words people use to tag items and then apply it to materials in the library to aid findability.

Reasons why this Thing didn't waste all of my time
Libraries that del.icio.us
The aforementioned SJLibraryLearning2

Thing Seven--Technology Update

Man, these 23 things are starting to get annoying. I feel as if I should have looked in advance to see if there were a few things I didn't already know about. Alas, I must finish what I start; that's just how I roll. This thing is really an assignment is to take some sort of technological advance and blog about it. Since I've already blogged about flickr a few times, I'm gonna go ahead and ignore that suggestion. How about Danbury Library's catalog? Widgets and tagging and blogging, oh my!

I am totally pumped for this new system--you have no idea. Somehow, since coming to SCILS, I've become all about folksonomies and user-driven tags. I eat, sleep and breathe metadata. In fact, i feel bad for Danielle if she's reading this, since this website was actually brought up in our cataloging class (which I am totally digging). Anyway, she can just stop reading now, if she likes.

As for this new take on the public library catalog, it's simply awesome. I highly recommend going into the catalog and searching for a book. Any book. I looked up Harry Potter, being obsessed with everything about him and his universe, and found all sorts of tags that users applied to open an entirely new way of surfing the library catalog. Instead of dealing only with LC's subject headings (because really, some of them just don't make sense. see also: anime being classified as "Animation (Cinematography) Japan"), users can search for material on their own terms. This is a great usage of new 2.0 technology and a great step for libraries everywhere. I can't wait to use something like this in my school library's automation--you know, when I get a school library and can convince the school board that it's a great idea. So... maybe never, but we'll see.

Death of Dewey?

This just in (okay, not really... this article was published in July):

According to a post on The Chronicle of Higher Education, there are a select few public libraries in Arizona forgoing the traditional Dewey Decimal system. And while the comments are littered with several librarians whose reactions might suggest that such a move is blasphemy, there are a few points in support of it.

The article argues from an academic standpoint, which is understandable when considering the source, but the libraries in question are public libraries. Personally, I think it might be a good move, depending on the patrons. One of the comments suggested that better library instruction is called for, not an overhaul of the entire classification system. That is just plain silly. Anyone familiar with CISSL or the campaign for school libraries led by names like Carol Kuhlthau and Ross Todd would know that we are already attempting better instruction. Despite our best efforts, children are still not grasping Dewey. How can they when dogs are separated from other animals? Kids don't strategize their searches thinking, hmmm... I bet dogs would be located under applied technology because they are domesticated. And raising pets is probably referred to as animal husbandry. Yeah, that's the ticket... Not!

There is a growing body of academic research pertaining to children and their understanding of categorization. (Trust me, I had to read pretty much all of it for a paper last semester. If you're interested, here is a large portion of my bibliography. Knock yourselves out). Liz Cooper's findings were especially interesting in light of this article, because when children were asked to come up with categories for their own libraries, they came up with suggestions rather similar to those found at a store like Barnes and Noble. So, perhaps it is the library that needs to change, since children's cognition and understanding is a tad harder to mold.

Apparently I'm into Metadata

So the next book I read after An Abundance of Katherines also contained fun footnotes and anagrams and excellent metadata--it's weird how that works out without planning (Note: I actually read Pretties and Specials in between Katherines and the book in question, but those two are as addicting as I imagine crack to be, so they are practically not books, but a one-way ticket to rehab. More on them in a later post--I'm waiting to finish Extras). What book is it? Well, I probably shouldn't tell you about it. Or, at least, I feel like the author would be pretty T.Oed if I told you. It's secret. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. I read The Name of This Book is Secret and learned about scary events that may or may not have happened to people potentially named Cass and Max-Ernest. But I didn't say that.

First, the juicy metadata. Apparently authors and publishing companies are really into flipping around the copyright information. Because this book is the second book I read over winterbreak that deviates from the boring ole slop of yesteryear's books. Though, of the two, this one is more overt, seeing as the information is splayed out on odd angles across the page. Oh! And not only does the author include footnotes, but he (or is it she?) includes an appendix! The appendix features a glossary defining all sorts of circus slang, but that's not all! It also teaches the reader a nifty card trick. Sweetness! Now I can blend in when I show up at my ten year high school reunion telling everyone I joined the circus immediately after graduation and impress them with my skills.

On to the less pleasant task of my post. Sigh. Much as I enjoyed this book, I had an overwhelming sense of deja vu. The author refuses to go on with his/her story at intermittent points because the events portrayed are too horrific. The author also reveals strange details about him/herself by informing the reader that dark chocolate from Europe (with a high cacao percentage) is a preferred vice. And the biggest aspect of this book that seemed a little too familiar is that the author's mysterious identity. Now, don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and don't think that it intentionally replicated A Series of Unfortunate Events, but the similarities are kinda scary. I definitely recommend this book if a kid just finished Lemony's books and is hungering for more.

A Good Day for Metadata

Winter break has proven to be quite nice. I am holed up in my boyfriend's railroad style apartment in Hoboken, reading book after book that is purely for entertainment and enlightenment purposes. Today happened to be a day sackful of metadata. Now, how does one get so lucky, you might ask. Well, when a librarian and a book love each other very much, they get very intimate. So intimate, that she looks ::gasp:: at the copyright information!!

Actually, I only bothered to look at the copyright information of Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography because, well, he's Lemony friggin' Snicket. Clearly I can find cleverly coded information to augment my understanding of the VFD and perhaps even locate the missing sugar bowl. Sadly, the data did not elucidate any kitchen utensil whereabouts, but it did provide a few chuckles. As this could be viewed as a review of sorts (though, admittedly, not a very good one if you wish to know what the book was actually about), I am going to reproduce the copyright information here, for your enjoyment.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced, destroyed, tampered with, or eaten without written permission except in the case of brief, possibly coded quotations embodied in critical articles, reviews and subpoenas. Allegedly printed in the United States of America. For information address Harper Collins Children's Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019, although the people at this publishing house have no idea where the documents enclosed in this book came from. If you recognize yourself in any of the photographs of illustrations in this book you may find yourself in Very Frightening Danger and/or slightly embarrassed but there is nothing you can do about it. Please note that the author has been called a fraud, a criminal, a bestseller, a corpse, a fictional character, an unreliable narrator, an objective flaneur, an embattled gentleman, a magnetic field, an arsonist, and late for dinner by an odd number of dubious authorities. Send help at once. All rights reserved. Wouldn't you rather read about ponies?

All that and more is precisely why I am secretly courting Mr. Snicket by reading every stitch of material available to me, especially the metadata. I saw that the copyright page looked a tad bit wordier than usual, but this is just absurd. And he just kills it in the end with that bit about ponies.

Mr. Snicket doesn't end there. How could he be the unreliable narrator he claims to have been labled in the past if he only provides one bit of intriguing metadata. Oh no, his index is quite something as well. Let's see if you can follow this thread of associations. Ahem. Imagine you wished to find out exactly where Sunny Baudelaire is mentioned in the text. Why, just check the index and it will promptly bring you to the correct pages, no? No. No, it doesn't. Instead it tells you to:

See Baudelaire orphans (which tells you to)
See Baudelaire case (which tells you to)
See Snicket file (which tells you to)
See solemn vows (which tells you to)
See noble causes (which tells you to)
See necessary evils (which tells you to)
See moral uncertainty (which tells you to)
See villainy (which tells you to)
See conspiracies (which tells you to)
See overall feeling of doom (which tells you to)
See doom, overall feeling of

From this last bit, the eager researcher is then instructed to turn to pages ix-211 (i.e., the whole book) to find this information. Now, I've read the book and can assure you that Sunny Baudelaire is not mentioned on every single page. This chain of markers referring one elsewhere in the index is not alone. "Winnipeg, Duchess of" may lead you to a specific cluster of pages, but it also tells you to "See noble causes" which we are all well aware by now leads to moral uncertainty and then a large assortment of other key terms. Now, I may not have taken courses about indexing practices yet, but I don't think this is a very helpful index (not that it was Mr. Snicket's intent to allow information to be easily accessed).

Once I finished Mr. Snicket's tome, I moved on to finally reading An Abundance of Katherines. And while I am only a few chapters deep, I am thoroughly delighted by the abundance of footnotes. It's as if John Green, the authordude, dove deep inside my brain and found hidden amidst squishy tissues and neurons my secret passion for footnotes and sprinkled it throughout the lovely book just for me. Or maybe not, but I sure as hell love a good footnote. Especially footnotes that involve graphs and bell curve charts. FOOTNOTES!! If I could figure out how to add footnotes to everything in life, I would. Just watch me.