Gary Snyder: Axe Handles
I am sorry I disturbed you.
I broke into your house last night
To use your library.
There were some things that I had to look up.
A large book fell
and knocked over the others.
Afraid you'd wake and find me
and be truly alarmed
I left
Without picking up.
I got your name from the mailbox
As I fled, to write you and explain.
Question:
What builds the ideals of a democratic society?
Answer:
Libraries do. Get it?
Document View: "Libraries build ideals of democratic society
"I will preface my letter by informing you that I am a local architect and a partner of a firm that is working on a portion of the proposed library project. Unlike many who have entered the debate, I am willing to inform people of my position and relationship to this project.
As a taxpayer, I am willing to pay for this project, and I would do so even if my firm was not working on the project. Libraries are the last public entities to build on the true ideals of a democratic society. Our democracy depends on the sharing of knowledge and our libraries and their architecture speak well of a community's pride while reinforcing our community values as an educated society.
I am most disturbed that the president of our local school board has chosen to speak out against this project. I am concerned that our tax watch associations are also against this project, and seem more interested in self-promotion rather than accurate dissemination of information. This community has constantly missed opportunities to build on and promote its success. We are failing to envision our potential and build toward a progressive future, choosing instead to retreat from change and challenges when it comes to urban planning and public projects.
We always frame these debates by only looking at the bottom line for capital expense and with no consideration to the future development such as an investment would make. It is no wonder that young people continue to leave this community for other places that embrace change and build toward success.
The citizens of Allen County need to put our money where our mouths are, and our nationally recognized library is a sound place to make such an investment on our future."
--MICHAEL A. McKAY
Question:
If you can't write well, can you read and comprehend with fluency/literacy? Would an increased ability to write contribute to information fluency?
Answer:
Often I hear this statement, "I don't like to read," then followed quickly by, "now, can you just find me a source for my paper," which if you haven't figured what I think, are intimately tied together. Better writers are better readers and understand that their ability to write well is contributed to by their ability to read. If reading is fundamental to writing, then what prevents one or the other from developing?
This article says self-talk determines the outcome of ones abilities. Th authors are write/right. I know this from experience. I've actually used Autogenic Training to master other changes I need to make within myself. AT is just a specific form of self-talk.
Quote:
"Writing apprenesion is a manifestion of evaluation anxiety and apperas to have much in common with test anxiety. Like test anxiety, it is mediated by negative self-talk."
Reading apprehensives could be doing the same thing. There could also be a mixed type that is apprehensive about both reading and writing. Imagine the consequences: a whole generation of learners that think writing, reading, mathematics is some inborn skill. Rather than talent we all possess which can be cultivated.
Source that points to this question:
"Madigan, R., Linton, P., & Johnson, S. (1996). The Paradox of Writing Apprehension. In C. Levy & S. Ransdell (Eds.) The Science of Writing: Theories, Methods, Individual Differences and Applications. New Jersey: Laurence Erlbaum Associates"
potential link.
Question:
How can you speed up your OODA loop?
Answer:
First, Orientate. Then, act. Google it -if you don't know what an OODA loop is.
Link:
Librarians & IM
"...Please take just a few moments to complete this little survey about librarians and IM. I'm doing some background work for a brief talk at Computers in Libraries 2006 as well as collecting some data for my upcoming Library Technology Report 'Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software.' I'm interested to see how many librarians are using IM at their desks to communicate with colleagues and as a reference point.
Thanks! :-) ..."
Thoughts:
So, I IM and use it to talk to different departments all over the university and to people in my own department -the library.
www.meebo.com
Meebo's an ajax web-based aggregator of IM Names/clients; Therefore, you install no software. Goto their website, sign-in and your IMIMIMIMIMIM-minng. I have some purely pratical techniques for using meebo that work great. Like it's the only site I use in IE because when you get a new message the task bar flashes -but if you're in Firefox and launch meebo in a tab, you can't see when someone sends you a new message. Get it? I know I'm assuming a lot of things about that whole process: like, you're using Firefox right?
Question:
You remember something from years before and are trying to relate it something you know now; how do you look to make connections?
Define: hybridity: a hybrid condition.
1837 DARWIN in Life & Lett. (1887) II. 8 It would lead to closest examination of hybridity. 1842 PRICHARD Nat. Hist. Man 12 Briefly surveying the phenomena of hybridity. 1890 STUART GLENNIE in Nature 2 Oct., The Aryan languages present such indications of hybridity as would correspond with such racial intermixture.
Oxford English Dictionary hybridity
Questions:
Why search for meaning and purpose? These are not mine; but I sure wish they were.
Quotes/Questions:
"What is the level and intensity of spiritual experiences among today’s college students? How are spiritual searching and behavior changing on campus? And what does this mean for higher education institutions and students? Funded by the John Templeton Foundation, this major new program of research tracks the spiritual growth of students during their college years."
Summary and Asnwer:
"A National Study of College Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose"
Question:
Are libraries and librarians relevant? Are libraries needed? Are libraries outdated? Are libraries old-fashioned? Are libraries necessary? Are libraries obsolete? Are libraries dead? Are libraries good for anything anymore?
Summary:
Yes, yes they are. Not because I have vested interest in seeing my profession continue (while that's not totally irrelevant) but because the library profession must become the transcendent bridge between old world information and new world information. I am a blended librarian as much as I am a transcendent-information-professional. Transcendent means: to cross what seems to be a limitless chasm.
Quotes:
Katz has this to say: "The Reference desk ...[read library]... in it's present form no longer is important. Granted a central point is needed to answer directional queries, as well as short reference questions, but beyond that the old ...[library]... will be modified into an electronic data center ...[or an information collaboration center]..."
ISBN 0070342776
Bell and Shank say this:
LearningTimes Network: Library Online Community: "The Blended Librarian: A Manifesto for Redefining the Role of the Academic Librarian for 21st Century Higher Education "
Question:
What are ways that we integrate student learning using various technologies while integrating/incorporating the libraries resources?
Answer:
Tools that capture content; librarians that ride along virtually adding resources to the subject matter; fusing multiple methods of content into a coherent, easy-to-use electronic packaging.
Quote:
"Mightier Than the Pen Alone"
"...computerized system enables students to view course lectures alongside their own notes..."
Question:
You're a library. You do things the way everyone else does them? What happens? Can you beat the averages?
Anwswer:
This happnes, and I quote Paul Graham again,
Beating the Averages: "The average big company grows at about ten percent a year. So if you're running a big company and you do everything the way the average big company does it, you can expect to do as well as the average big company-- that is, to grow about ten percent a year."
Question:
What is a good way to understand things?
Answer:
Question, write, question write, talk, question write and talk.
Quote:
The Roots of Lisp: "In 1960, John McCarthy published a remarkable paper in which he did for programming something like what Euclid did for geometry. He showed how, given a handful of simple operators and a notation for functions, you can build a whole programming language. He called this language Lisp, for 'List Processing,' because one of his key ideas was to use a simple data structure called a list for both code and data."
ACM Crossroads: "ACM Crossroads
The Student Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery"
Question:
What's a great interview meaning what are great questions to ask and great responses to get?
Answer:
Read the ACM Crossroads: Issue 12.3/ 2006. "The future of programming: An interview with Paul Graham."