Le mieux blog dans le monde!

[sigh] Librarians...

While our professional duties imply the constantly learning servants to the public (in re the dissemination of information), I am sad to say that this is not the case.

After participating the Thinking Ahead Symposium (a conference for library professionals to meet and discuss the future of libraries and library services) last Fall in Salt Lake City, I was sorely disappointed to see the fear and resistance many librarians have towards learning new information resources (which typically are in various formats of technology).

After a meeting with the professional staff of my library system this morning, I was further disappointed that many appear to share this fear or appear disinterested in furthering their skills as information resources upgrade.

Perhaps in fifteen to twenty years I'll find myself stuck in a similar rut or simply be too busy to increase my knowledge in these areas.

What is it about technology that scares us so?
* New formats are introduced before we can become proficient in the old ones.
* Fear of change is a common trait of humans (according to all the self help books I read).
* There are rumors about different tools that scare the general populace.
* Lack of resouces (ex. money) to try the new technology.

Care to add to the list?

Seattle Underground

I just can't get over the Seattle Underground.

Already, Pike's Market and the rolling hills of streets downtown made an impression: Seattle is a maze. With several levels of Pike's Market that don't seem to fall one right on top of another and with entrances and exits for the same building on different floors, it takes some getting used to figuring out where you really are. It seems the Seattle Public Library represents the city planning in its own architecture (with its somewhat disturbing color scheme--red halls that look like the inside of the body's circulatory system--and unpredictable locations of stairs and elevators).

After going on the Bill Speidel's Underground Tour, and finding out why the city has so many levels. The Wikipedia describes it:
"On June 6, 1889, most of Seattle's central business district burned to the ground in the Great Seattle Fire.

It was decided to rebuild the city one to two stories higher than the original street grade, as Pioneer Square had been built mostly on filled-in tidelands and often flooded. The new street level also assisted in ensuring that gravity-assisted flush toilets didn't back up during high tide in Elliott Bay.

Several city blocks in the downtown region were enclosed with brick and timber barricades and the pavements between were raised. This left sidewalks and some storefronts as much as 36 feet below street level.

For a time, pedestrians climbed ladders to go between street level and building entrances, but eventually the building entrances were raised, and the old sidewalks covered over, creating the area now called the Seattle Underground. Merchants carried on business in the lowest floors of buildings that survived the fire, and pedestrians continued to use the underground sidewalks lit by glass cubes (still seen on some streets) embedded in the grade level sidewalk above. In 1907 the city condemned the Underground for fear of bubonic plague, two years before the 1909 World Fair in Seattle (Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition). The basements were left to deteriorate or were used as storage. In some cases, they illegally became flophouses for the homeless, gambling halls, speakeasies, and opium dens.

Only a small part of the Seattle Underground has been restored and made safe and accessible to the general public." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground_Tour

Furthermore, the Underground Tour relates the history of plumbing in Seattle. Because of the water pressure from being so close to the Sound, when a person went to flush a toilet, the water would spew up, out of the toilet. As a result, they had to put the toilet higher about ground level (the science of all this is beyond me).

Its just so fascinating!

Obama in 2008!

Hurray!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070116/pl_nm/usa_politics_obama_dc_3

Boys Shmoys!

Dating is really getting old. I've had five in the past two weeks and am ready to take a hiatus. I need to ensure that I have at least one night available to spend with friends and at least one for "me" time (not including the nights that I have class).

And I've decided that regardless of how cool a guy may seem NO DATING GUYS I MEET @ WORK!!!!! (Even if I meet them elsewhere afterwards and think they're cool!!) Only one of my work boyfriends is okay because he's so far out there that he's not capable (cross my fingers) of being creepy (although he just bought me some orange/chocolate thin mints because they were on sale and he thought of me).

Happy New Year!

Last January I was determined to never create a list of New Year resolutions since they were never met.

However, by February I realized how important they are for me (Ms. Disorganization in her physical, mental, and emotional space!!!) in recognizing my strengths and actually accomplishing some of the desires of my heart. While I forgot the majority of my goals for 2006 a month after I created the list, what stuck in my head did help me focus on enhancing important character traits, developing talents, and learning many new lessons of life in general.

So yesterday I made a list--not too long--with measurable objectives for eaching those goals. (Hopefully, I'll remember to print the list so I can hang it where I will often see it.)

By the end of 2007, I should be healthier, a better artist, more informed about real-life (nonfiction), and have a more organized living space. When you (the reader) wonder how my behavior is going to achieve the aforementioned broad goals, please say something to me!