This semester came after a very short break since the Summer Session II course ended. I am taking Organization and Management of Academic Libaries taught by Professor Marcum.  One of the projects we must submit is a journal of the notes ond cogitations of article which we read.  I am working at a rate of about two to three articles per week.  Already, I have read about skills that librarians will need in the coming decade, how to handle the information deluge, and a review of the Journal of Academic Librarianship.

While the course is a lot longer than the summer course and more relaxed, I wil need all of the extra time to do the work. 

The textbook, Academic Librarianship, is easy to read and full of useful information about managing academic libraries, including budgets.

More blogs as the semester progesses.

This summer I took Organization and Management taught by Professor Arthur Friedman.  It was an intense course that lasted six weeks. Some 8 papers were expected to be written during that short period.  The course was based on didactic sessions and the reading of numerous handouts on management issues related to libraries.

I found the course very useful. Six precis papers were required.  Each of five papers, using a maximum of 125 words, describing management articles selected by the student. The other was a summary of Naude’s book entitled  Advise on Establishing a Library and was limited to 500 words.

A final project that consisted of a proposal of an innovation, including a cover letter to a grantmaker requesting funding, was expected.

This summer I volunteered at the Touro-Harlem Medical Library and got some hands on experience with the integrated library system.  I read selected chapters in the Medical Library Association’s Guide to Managing Health Care Libraries, which gave me a good orientation to the experience and began learning about Millennium, the integrated library system, that library uses.

I created two PowerPoint slide presentations-one on Using NCBI and one on using the Clinical Queries feature of PubMed. I also created a poster.  These were expected tasks that a medical librarian would perform.  I sat in on a session about using PubMed and a class on evidence -based medicine, both of which were useful.  I discussed aspects of medical library management with the director or the electronic resource librarian alsmot daily.

The experience was useful, informative and stimulating.  Many thanks to Dr. Shelly Warwick,director of the library, and Bill Lundmark, electronic resources librarian.

Recently, I met my brother in Boston for a few days. In addition to the usual fun and games, I took the opportunity to visit the Museum of the History of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Treadwell Library of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Countway Library of Medicine affiliated with Harvard.

The museum was interesting and full of interesting topics.  The death mask of Carl Maria von Weber was there.  His brain, they say, was important.  The Phrenological Society found several significant prominences in his skull that suggested his brain was enlarged in several areas…

At the Treadwell, I met with a medical secretary turned medical librarian, who was very generous and filled with interesting answers to my questions about the types of medical librarians at Treadwell and their roles and duties.  I got so engrossed in the conversation I forgot to request a tour.

At Countway, I met the circulation librarian, who was more than helpful with answers to my questions about the role of networking.  She was very enthusiastic about her work and, too, was generous with her answers.  She suggested that I speak with Dr. Osterbur, who was generous enough to see me, answer my questions-all on the spur of the moment.  He even invited me to view the displays of the museum that were scattered around the library.  A couple of texts broke the rhythm of the chat…and I was off to another event.

The rarefied air of high acedemia was evident in these two libraries.  I wondered if I would like to work at either of them and decided that I should a tour of each place first.

Well, the semester is over. I spent so much time on class work that I had virtually no time to blog.  I took The Technology of Information (LBSCI 700).  We learned about HTML, Sea Monkey and Dreamweaver.  The final project was to create a simple website using Dreamweaver and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).  The project took many hours filled with frustration and discovery. 

The course was excellent.  The professor, Walter Valero, was organized, energetic, knowledgeable and attentive.  The course was packed full of new information and learning experiences.  The course was one of the first “new and improved” 700 courses and it was well worth the time and effort.

Browsing the stacks is one of my most cherished activities.  Before you say, “Get a life!,” let me say that I developed this habit in undergraduate school.  The stacks were warm and smelled of old books.  I was at home there.  The inability to browse online was the topic of discussion one day at Rosenthal Library.  You just can’t pick up a volume of encyclopedia online and flip through it until  you find something of interest and then browse the articles surrounding it.  There is something to browsing the stacks until you find an interesting book, a red cover, or an oddly titled book that just might be the one that has just what you need to develop that idea you have been wanting to develop.

Recently, while roaming around the library, I browsed the new book section at Rosenthal and found two interesting books:

1. True Stories of Censorship Battles in American Libraries, editied by Valerie Nye and Kathy Barco and

2. Building Library 3.0: Issues in creating a culture of participation by Woody Evans.

They both address issues in librarianship today. I am curious to learn what they have to say. No annotations until I read them, though.

In a February 9, 2012, article on Paidcontent.org Laura Hazard Owen writes that Penguin Books made this comment, “In these ever changing times, it is vital that we forge relationships with libraries and build a future together. We care about preserving the value of our authors’ work as well as helping libraries continue to serve their communities. Our ongoing partnership with the [American Library Association] is more important than ever, and our recent talks with ALA leadership helped bring everything into focus. Looking ahead, we are continuing to talk about our future plans for eBook and digital audiobook availability for library lending with a number of partners providing these services. Because of these discussions, as of February 10, 2012, Penguin will no longer offer additional copies of eBooks and audiobooks for purchase via Overdrive. Physical editions of Penguin’s new and backlist titles will continue to be available in libraries everywhere.”

These days technology seems to taking over and doing so at a rapid pace.  Sometimes we forget, though, that traditional businesses, like old fashioned publishing houses, still provide useful services, that is, bringing many good titles to the public.  There is no reason that old fashioned publishing houses like Penguin have to jump on the technology band wagon and they are showing us who is boss.

Does this mean that they will lose significant market share?  Maybe, maybe not.  We shall see.

Like the offended and immature lover who, angry at his helpful partner, reduces himself to curing and obnoxious behavior and who hides his hand when called to task, we may find that the new technology often forgets to acknowledge how dependent it is on the traditional publishing houses and just how much power the traditional publishing houses wield.

What does this mean for the future of e-books and books?  We shall see.

If you are looking for a website that offers new ideas, go to TED.com.  There you will find some innovative and thought provoking discussions about interesting topics.  For example, at

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/brewster_kahle_builds_a_free_digital_library.html  Librarian Brewster Kahle talks about building a digital library;

at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jay_walker_s_library_of_human_imagination.html Curator Jay Walker talks about the library of human imagination; and

at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/joshua_prince_ramus_on_seattle_s_library.html Architect Joshua Prince Ramus talks a bit about the Seattle Public Library and two other architectural projects.

Class ended earlier this year.  I still have my hands full with applying for scholarships and reading…a lot.  Right now, I am researching social media and libraries as it relates to helping youth use social media responsibly and safely.  There are some studies and articles on this topic.  I even asked my teenage nephews what they think.

I plan to explore the literature on social media and academic libraries during the break along with visiting some websites mentioned in our textbook on health science reference.  The list of health sciences references in our textbook is long and intimidating.  I suppose the only way to explore them is to start at the beginning and work through the tutorials in each or selected online resource.

Answering Consumer Health Questions is a small and useful book.  We only read a few pages of it this semester.  Now would be a good time to read the rest of the book.

Next semester I am scheduled to take 700.  I expect to find it interesting and useful.

Getting postgraduate work can be a challenge.  While browsing the Internet for websites of interest  to health sciences librarians, I found Open Cover Letters.com.  It may be found at http://opencoverletters.com  I found it useful and interesting.  It even had some sample cover letters for applicants to health sciences libraries. These sample letters are written well and highlight the skills of the applicant who was successful at obtaining work.

Check it out.

As I find other useful websites, I will post them on the blog.