What do I do when I need help?

Turn on the p2.0wer. Yes, that was corny.

I need your help. I've been looking but I need to find more ways to help my friend:

• journals that would publish incredible analysis on Shepard Fairey and Obey Giant

• journals that would publish radical critiques of community-based writing & publishing groups

"...I'm looking to publish my work on Shepard Fairey and Obey Giant, as well as some of my thesis research on community-based writing and publishing groups. These are two very different topics that would go in very different types of journals.
The former would probably be cultural studies- type journals and the latter would probably be appropriate for composition journals or any journal interested non-academic forms of writing instruction.
The thesis stuff also would be appropriate for journals focusing on community-building efforts in movements for social change and justice..."

You are helping me help a friend who is a brilliant woman.

reach me: leblanc.lee[at]gmail

What embedded this way comes?

Often the way we share information is about so much more than information. Trite as it may be, it only gets better; even at the worst time, like an IRS audit. Now, to become a millionaire. lmao.

On another note, speaking of information:

"Inspired by a recording of an IBM mainframe computer which Jóhann’s father, Jóhann Gunnarsson, made on a reel-to-reel tape machine more than 30 years ago... incorporated electronics alongside those original tape recordings of the singing computer."

http://www.ausersmanual.com/

Chance to share your thoughts?

Barbara Stites:
"Would you share this Call for Papers with your colleagues both here in Florida and afar? As the new Editor for Resource Sharing & Information Networks, I am looking for all types of articles relating to Resource Sharing including:

• Administration and Leadership of Networks, Cooperatives, and Consortia

• Resource Sharing

• Electronic Resource Management Systems (ERMS)

• Training and Continuing Education

• New Academic/Industry Roles & Economics

• Institutional Repositories

• Cooperative Purchasing

• New International Roles for Consortia

• New Publisher Roles

Email: bstites[at]gmail.com

What is good "information" career advice?

This: not so much; while there is some good stuff to be found within the posts the perspective is skewed.

1. Before you got to "library school" accept that libraries are part of the world of data, information, & knowledge. By the time you get out of school, there could be an entirely new ubiquitous field of information wrangling -could you be the one to figure it out? If you only think of working in a library, then probably not. But, maybe you're going to library school to re-invent libraries because you love them -cool. That's information change.

Opening yourself up to interesting, intriguing, and other "library-type" jobs just may help you view the world from a perspective that gets you a j-o-b -unless you want something more. That's information inspiration. Don't just pay lip service to the work of finding work. People work hard at creating & crafting their careers . It doesn't hurt to be on listservs or to have wise librarian mentors. I owe my greatest work/career fortunes to mentoring librarians. Without their years of experience & guidance, I would not be writing these words.

2. quaere: ask. Ask stupid questions.
Ask questions all the time. Ask why it's important. Ask for whatever to be explained. Ask in a way that makes people open up to you & build upon your ideas. Ask someone to give you the alternative view of the idea they just put forth -because if they say your question is stupid, then they are not listening. Ask why people are think they are above answering basic questions like where the restrooms are. Ask why not. Above all else: never let anyone intimidate you into not asking your question and never let anyone convince you you're stupid because your thought process works completely different from theirs. That's information strategy.

Most people use a decision-making process that factors 1, and at most 2 variables, as they quickly move past any question you put forth. Additionally, there are hidden traps in decision-making. You can learn to make better decisions & asking questions (whether someone else artificially determines that your question holds a depth of stupidity is irrelevant to you) begins the process . Law enforcement individuals would tell you asking questions of all types is at the heart of learning about anything & that any question matters. Maybe it's not that there are dumb questions, but maybe there better people to address such questions. quid bovi.

I remember once solving a problem as Airman Basic in the USAF by asking what happened if this little piece of metal fell off. "Nothing" was the answer and it ended up saving thousands of dollars and tremendous labor hours. Oh, to change the part that lost a tiny piece of metal gearing required large sections of a turbofan engine to be removed to get at it: in the military, time is money and often lives. All because I asked a stupid question about a piece of metal falling off.

3. Read about new ways to work.
Surround yourself with people who rely fascinating ideas to you. That's information compression. Michael & Jenny make you consider ideas in ways you wouldn't normally and ask you continually to apply those ideas to your work/life. Ben and Penelope talk about work as if it's part of your life. Imagine seeing work as something that was removed from your "life." Generations before us used to live this way. Now, how can you possibly separate 40-60-80 hours of your life out & believe your job doesn't affect who you are? Welcome to our time. Your job/work/occupation/ affects who you are; should it define you -maybe, maybe not? But, the old whimsical line about being on your death bed and wishing you hadn't spent more time in the office: is a trifling point that does not matter. Your final act as you die should be to look back upon your life and enjoy it a second time. Work & all.

4. And as the super-smart Rachel says: network.

Why is it time for a renaissance?

We live in the time of a great renaissance. And, this slideshare thing is a great way to share your presentations. Sweeeeet.

What should you work for in your life?

Just a presentation I did on the mostly intangible elements we build our lives around. In the end, our deeply embedded connections matter the most.

Are we teachers, first?

Yes we are.
http://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/archives/2007/04/786_teaching_na.html#more

http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?PAGE_ID=5989&bhcp=1

What else you gonna do when you're home sick?

YouTube On Blogging
Originally uploaded by iblee....

Blog, Surf, Youtube, Rinse, Repeat. Found via Brazen Careerist.

When someone makes a great comment on your blog is it worth its own post?

Yes. Yes, it is worth it. And for the record I love made up words.


"iblee, people make mistakes. I once spelled Katie Couric's name wrong on my blog and the very same day a college library I applied to was checking me out (I saw in my stats). I still got the interview.

This is one of the things I am often talking about with blogging. We do it, most of us, for free and on our own (meaning no paid editors). We blog because we love what we do and can't wait to share our thoughts and experiences, and in many ways our readers and fellow bloggers are also our peer review and editor. We must be gentle with one another (a friend of mine gently commented with the correct Couric spelling. Ironically, the post was about a Frontline episode addressing the threat of blogs to the traditional newspapers).

At work it's similar. If we have the luxury of working at a library that supports this kind of thing, maybe we have colleagues and committees and teams to work on projects - checking each others' work and giving constructive feedback. But not all of us do and as librarians I hope we can be gentle in finding error. Personally, I want that same kind of treatment in return. I want folks to give me some latitude on a bad day, as I would give them. So I spelled something wrong. End of world?

But anyway... there are bigger things in life than an extra apostrophe. There are a few common mistakes that Word and others just never catch. The beauty of the fact that I am not a robot is just that: I am human. Flesh and bone, mistakes and all. Fragile and strong. And while I may not get everything right all the time, I am passionate about it, and I do it with style. I'll take a flawed poster encouraging students over a nit-picky snarkment any day. And don't get me started on a few of my readers who can't stand my made up words.....

The subject of language as a living breathing evolving organ can be a whole other essay. I've apostrophied on way too long here. :)"


Well said jennimi. I found your comment: prescient and humble. Or preshumblent -for the record, that's my made up word. It means humble while sharing the ability to see things unfold in the future. Like our own future mistakes.

Part 2: So I made mistake on a poster for my library: why?

Its :P right on.

What's funny is that I had read this before I chose to start posting mistakes, warts, guffaws, errors, idiocies, bleeps, and all.

Rather than make sure my blog entries are perfect, pictures are perfect, code is perfect, grammar is perfect -I thought: why not just push to get more stuff out of my head and up on the web --share my thoughts --push my creative limits-- be less worried about getting it right and be more worried about getting it done.

"Below average" as a writer accurately describes my writing abilities. I only wrote my first paper (shudder when I call it that) in 1996. Yes, 1996. While 11 years have passed, consistent writing still escapes me. To feel I mastered what I should have learned from grade school & high school in the same time I'm supposed to be writing at the graduate level is a joke --on myself. I'm still learning some basics now.

While I write "for" the graduate level and do a pretty good job, most times it is an arduous struggle to produce a work I am proud of. I had not wrote a single paper in high school, did very little in depth writing in the military (mostly short, bulleted, tech reports.) In fact, the very first paper I wrote in college was, ...hold your breath... 3 pages! And I got a "C" on that paper.

Now it's years later and I realize I'm missing critical writing skills. But, I am slowly picking them up. Being years behind in the basics doesn't make it easy. Working hard to develop my writing I feel the thoughts/ideas in my head & the words I see don't even come close to articulating what I want to say. Then I make mistakes -oh that's just great.

Now you add the horror of people thinking you are less intelligent +your mistakes +lack of ability to articulate +desire to produce thought provoking quality writing +the fact that you don't know most people go through or have gone thru this process and it = performance anxiety, that is, until you face it. The research on reading & writing prove this true.

It's just funny that the week I push myself to experiment more, I get vociferous feedback, indirectly, on a minor mistake. (I shared it for comments to be sure.) Here I am trying: to publish more of my work, to grow professionally, to challenge myself by exposing more of my raw creative process. I post something and the first thing people do, while compliment it, is criticize it. Seems backhanded. I like being criticized; as long as I know it's coming. I'm not opposed to it at all and produce my best work, usually, only after someone totally shreds it.

When you think it's such a horrible error why not contact me directly like one poster on my flickr account did. I found that admirable. And indirect comments show that we have a tendency to do one thing first: find fault. I'm not crying over it. I'm not hurt or sad or remiss. Actually, it's emboldening. I'm quite distant from the happenings & only know about it indirectly.

What I am doing is using this as a writing exercise. There are a lot of reasons but this helps. Sorry if you can't handle a wide swatch of language but: don't stomp on me because you are living in fear. I gave that up a long time ago. I wish to bring civility back, because it's not about the cell phone. I would like to see courtesy, respect, and dialogue, not discussion, rise.

Any and all mistakes are my own.

Want to be amazed this morning?

Check this out
Originally uploaded by iblee....

Then check this out. It's a theremin.