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I had been patiently waiting for the new edition of the Penguin History of New Zealand. I had the impression that a sparkling updated edition would be published this March –  I can’t remember why I thought that. Then I did a little research and realized a new edition was likely not forthcoming, at least not one written by the original author.

With that in mind, I’m updating my friends on my goings-on for the next few months, in case we overlap on this side of the heavenly divide. And here’s a link to a summary and audio of the panel discussion I was on last month at the Independent Book Publishers Association meeting in San Francisco with Peter Brantley and Sarah Houghton. As fun as that was (the room was packed!), the best part of my morning there were the one-on-ones with authors I did after the panel — how satisfying in a biblish manner to connect with authors and answer questions.

April 3-4, ER&L: As noted last week, whooshing in and out of Austin to participate in a closing panel.

April 12, OCLC member webinar: “Join us for a live, one-hour Web session and hear from Karen Schneider of Holy Names University as she discusses how WorldCat Local transformed her users’ library experience.” Wait, that’s me! And I need to do my slides! It should be fun. Standard disclaimer: no software by itself can tranform user experience — but combined with an awesome Team Library, WCL has played a key role.

April 27: DPLA West, by Digital Public Library of America (San Francisco). I didn’t realize this event was happening until I saw a travel scholarship for it. Since it’s $4 round-trip for me, I passed on the scholarship, but I am looking forward to rubbing shoulders with the bibliodigerati.

May 4: Library Journal Design Institute (Denver). “This one-day educational seminar brings together leading architects, librarians, and vendors to address the challenges and opportunities we face in building anew, renovating, or upgrading existing buildings…” LJ’s institutes are generally quite good, and I chose this one as part of my DIY effort to learn about building projects. The orientation tends to be public libraries, which in my book is a plus — lots of emphasis on curb appeal and user comfort.

June 21-26: American Library Association, Anaheim. Speaking of digerati, I’m going to make every effort to attend the Opening General Session, featuring Rebecca MacKinnon, global information activist and author of Consent of the Networked. What an outstanding choice! I’m also pondering attending the ACRL Standards workshop, particularly given its utility for accreditation self-study.

September 23 – 26: LIANZA, Palmerston North, New Zealand. See this earlier post. I am thinking I will need to take two or three personal retreat days after Commencement to work on my presentation, catch up on reading, and wrap my head around both the travel logistics and the event. But I’m thrilled to be attending and glad that I am being ch

Goose, by Flickr user HVargas

I am doing a keynote address this coming Friday for the California Clearinghouse on Library Instruction and I cannot get my brain past the first three ideas I want to share. Help! Goose me!

The title of my talk is “Take the best and leave the rest,” which is the first problem. My original title was “Everything You Know is Wrong,” but I think they wanted something peppy. I’m the one who suggested “Take the best and leave the rest” as an alternate title, but it doesn’t even sound like me. It’s all squeaky and namby-pamby and sing-song and… ugh.

I do plan to address the title’s topic in my point about leveraging times of crisis for controlled burns–it’s a great time to let go of practices we know we shouldn’t be doing, under cover of economic crisis–but it’s not the focus of my talk.

However, I did one thing right: I just wrote to ask to be connected with my IT support for the talk. Years ago, when I was on the speaking circuit a lot on my own recognizance, I always, always did that, and it always, always was the right thing to do. I learned to do that the hard way, because there are a few too many people in LibraryLand who are simply dumbfounded by something like ensuring the projector doomaflatchy is available. You might think that someone wouldn’t organize a major event and fly someone cross-country–someone who has spent many hours cooking up a talk–and yet not make sure the crucial doomaflatchies were available, but you’d be wrong. (And now that I’m on a MacBook I absolutely must tape that little white video dongle to my forehead before I leave the house on the day of the talk.)

I feel in my heart of hearts that CCLI, of all groups, would get this stuff right, but What If the person in charge of all things important gets sick or has a family crisis? (That has happened.) Or What If it’s a venue they haven’t used before, and we’re both badly surprised? (That has happened, too.)  I’ll sleep better, and that’s reason enough for this belt-and-suspenders approach. (Sometimes it takes persistence–”Don’t worry, we have it under control!”–but I do have this ace up my sleeve: I’m the speaker.)

Naturally, “Everything You Know is Wrong” is intended to be playful, but the core of my talk is about moving toward evidence-based, well, everything, so it isn’t wrong. I’m starting with research findings related to students’ information-seeking behaviors. I’m using data from OCLC, Project Information Literacy (yes, I am on the PiL board–my compensation is I sometimes get to yak with Alison Head, one of the most interesting people I know), and anything else I can find in the next week.

One of the findings that emerges again and again is that librarians are at the bottom of the list of the resources students will use for help with research papers and other information needs. I keep worrying that finding is old hat and I’ll come across as some old geezer yammering about stuff everyone already knows and they’ll all start Tweeting about how they could have invited someone really sharp to come talk but no, they are wasting their time listening to an old wash-up. Which is scary because I usually go into a presentation thinking I’ll do at least credibly.

Should I pull a Lee Rainie and find some tweets about myself–cri

Sunday, February 22, I leave for Code4Lib, and will be in Providence til midday Friday. I keynoted in 2007, didn’t get there in 2008, and am back as a free-floating attendee (one of the developers is attending, so that we’ll have someone there who actually understands what’s being presented), though I am taking my video camera to help with the recordings.  As for My Place of Work, they not only are a sponsor, when Code4Lib lost a sponsor they stepped in and increased their contribution. MPOW is careful with money, but knows when it’s right to open the purse again.

I am thinking of renting a car Thursday after the last talk and driving around the Cape that afternoon, then returning it to the airport the next day. I had a great haircut last June in Provincetown and I’m wondering if I can remember where Danny works (somewhere on Commercial Street) and if he’s available, and yes I’d drive up 6 and back for an exceptional haircut.  Oh wait — I bet I put that purchase on a credit card. *lightbulb over head*

Meanwhile, working on the upcoming Evergreen conference (May 20-22 in Athens, Georgia) has made me very aware of what it takes to pull together an effort — details as big as hotel contracts and as small as badge-holders, and skill sets from sponsorship machers to the person what does the website — and that would be Laura at SOLINET and we would all be so grateful!

In fact, SOLINET has been generous with their expertise, and I am forever indebted to them (and promise to stop teasing them about their new name, LYRASIS… hey, if they want to sound like a mouthwash, that’s cool). All three organizations involved in the planning have been workin’ it, but it is really invaluable to have someone on board who has Been There.

Speaking of Being There, as a conference speaker I am sometimes not expeditious about returning email with questions or filling out forms. I am truly sorry and I humbly repent (Alane is grinning at that, I’m sure). Our two keynoters for Evergreen, Joe Lucia and Jessamyn West, have been so prompt and good. I grovel before them.

I have a feeling this first conference planning experience is like a first pregnancy — that there are even more details ahead of me that I’m blissfully unaware of until they happen.  But it will All Be Good!

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This afternoon I drive to Norcross, kicking off over a month of travel here and there (with many mini-trips built in).

10/12 - 10/16: TLH to Norcross. Working on-site at My Place Of Work. Mini-trips include Newton County Library System, Athens Public Library, and COMO. I wanted to touch base with a colleague who said sorry, she’s a bit busy with the 2nd annual Atlanta Queer Literary Festival.

WHAT!! I said. But of course I must put that on my homosexual agenda! So in between doing research for various trips and reading excellent drafts of software documentation by the illustrious Evergreen Docs Crew, I am gulping down Heaven’s Coast in preparation for hearing Mark Doty — and waving at busy Cal Gough from afar! I’m trying to see if I have courage to approach the open mike or will just sit there feeling like a wimp (and no, I’m not the Karen G. hosting that mike!).

10/16-10/17. Return to TLH. I’m largely pre-packed for Cincinnatti (just need to grind fresh Peet’s), which fortuitiously requires a very different set of clothes than what I’m wearing in ATL.

10/17 - 10/19: LITA National Forum. I was really going to learn (I find Forum is a great learning conference) but last week my colleague and fellow UIUC alum Aaron Trehub asked me to emcee a panel on distributed networks for digital preservation. I’m thrilled, because this is a topic that I feel very strongly about but don’t work directly in these days. I hope Tim Spalding’s talk is taped because the way the flights went I am going to walk in halfway through it at best.

10/19 - 10/22. Shelter in place in TLH. Vote on 10/20 (first day of early voting).

10/22 - 10/25. Statewide directors’ meeting in Baton Rouge; talking about open source and what it means to be a community librarian (good for me to have it figured out by then!). I get to Louisiana with enough time to make some liberry visits — I’m flying into NOLA specifically for that reason. I stay over in NOLA Friday night because Sandy has a conference there. Handy! We fly back to TLH together.

10/25 - 10/26. Wash, pay bills, and pack.

10/26 - 10/29. Norcross, with some internal round-trips.

10/29 - 11/1. TLH. Hunker in and work.

11/1 - 11/16. (or 11/15, unclear just yet). VALA/CAVAL 30th anniversary; five speaking stops. My itinerary in Australia takes me around what looks to me like the southern belt of the country. I believe I will actually get to meet Kathryn Greenhill and Fiona Bradley face-to-face! I’ve heard from some other folks I know. My co-presenter and I will be sightseeing a bit together too. I’m reading several fat travel books and a little Bill Bryson — if you have one you think is good to travel with, give a holler soon.

In prep for VALA/CAVAL, I’m also reading a slew of books I haven’t quite figured out how to track. Some are in PINEs, some are in WorldCat, some are local… I may try Zotero. I’d like something that would let me present an annotated bibliography online, in the order I choose.

My keynote at Access 2008 was a kind of early version of that talk, btw, sans the research I hope to bring to this. The working title (also used at Access) is “open++.”

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This is about two women, a blog, and a statewide mentoring program.

I recently had to write a midway review for my participation in the 2007-2008 Sunshine State Library Leadership Institute — also known as the “mentoring program.”

Mentors are like favorite aunts. We can hone in on helping our mentees with a focus that isn’t always possible from the most caring supervisor. Cheryl has a bucket of great ideas, a passion for librarianship, and a genuine heart. As we worked our way through the goals process and listed all the things she could do, it became clear that she had an idea pulling at her sleeve: a poetry blog that would serve poets, readers, and librarians in this part of the country.

So The Poetry Scene lives — and it’s marvelous. Talk about a focused site for under-served populations!

For all the other activities she’s done in the program, Cheryl’s ability to start with two things she cared about — poetry and librarianship — and turn them into a living, breathing service is the standout example of what a joy it has been to be part of her world. But our relationship has also been a reminder of what has brought me joy as a librarian.

As I summarized the value this program has had for me, I realized that my relationship with Cheryl, my mentee, has reinforced something I have learned over the past decade.

As a junior manager, I thought the “people” side of work was a chore to be dealt with as hastily as possible, and that my own skills were my central contribution. But in several successive jobs I learned that it’s not about me, it’s about the people I work with. I needed to back off, be less invested in “my way,” listen more carefully, go fight for the tools and training and time they need to do their job, know when to hold my breath and be patient while they figured things out for themselves, and help tip back the bushel so their lights would shine.

In many cases people have terrific skills and potential, and they don’t need “larnin’” as much as they need a cheerleader — someone to coach them to their natural excellence and ensure them that their ideas can really take root. They also need someone who just plain cares about them and is in their corner for their success. There is no shiny new tool, no public accolade, no triumphant “win” that can hold even the feeblest dimestore birthday-candle glimmer to the warmth you can experience by helping someone else fill the world with their brilliant light.

Supervision is tough work, and mentoring (by definition a highly self-selected relationship) only exposes us to the fun, cool side of it. I can’t imagine a mentoring relationship where I’d have to tell someone that her job was eliminated or that she smelled. (It’s actually harder to tell someone they smell — and I mean pee-yew, “patrons are talking” odiferous. A decade later, and I can still feel my blood pressure rise just thinking about that conversation.) Mentoring relationships also sidestep the boring, routine paperwork, the picayune tasks, and the quotidian slog.

But participating in the mentoring program has been a deeply satisfying reminder of my own progress as a professional — and what it means to be a part of someone’s success. I can have a strong, happy career without ever supervising again (much as I’m a Real Woman without having had a child), but if that’s my career trajectory, I’m going to make a point of being a “favorite aunt” as often as possible.

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Lauren Digital Portrait Painting by Kayleen West I completed this portrait tonight. I was using a program I mentioned in the previous post to record the painting in progress however it distorted the image and so I am yet to provide you with a video. I am using (or trying to use) Capturix 5.61.630 but it was difficult to paint with it as I noticed it slowed the brush stokes down and as a result