Yeaah...this would be cool. But my parents and in-laws would probably come after me with large sticks if I decided to take their grandchild all the way to Dubai.

An exceptional international opportunity awaits an innovative and knowledgeable librarian at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (near Dubai). Providing leadership for technical services and library technology staff, the successful candidate will work collaboratively with the AUL for Public Services and the University Librarian to achieve the library's mission and goals. Length of contract can be flexible (one or more years, renewable on mutual agreement) to accommodate librarians looking for career advancement or for a sabbatical opportunity in an exciting, safe and rapidly expanding region of the world.
Qualifications
An ALA-accredited MLS degree with minimum of 3 years experience in technical services and/or library systems. Excellent oral, written and interpersonal communication skills are required.
Salary and Benefits
The university's benefits package is highly attractive with free furnished accommodation and utilities, over six weeks' annual vacation and an additional month's salary per year.
For complete job description please go to http://library.aus.edu/jobs

I'm planning a poetry program for teens that's going to be held at the end of this month. I did one last year and it was relatively easy to put together so I volunteered to do it again this year. I've been really trying to focus more on reference/adult services since starting my full time position here but somehow I still keep finding myself gravitating towards teen services too. Anyway, was knocking off some of the detail work for the program today, like contacting the english teachers and librarians at the high school and printing out flyers/posters, etc. The format for this years program is pretty much going to be the same as last years, only this time we've invited a well known published poet and playwright living in our community called Morris McCorvey. He isn't going to read his own poetry but some of his favorites from other poets. He's currently director of our Westside Community Center, very busy man and hard to get a hold of. I was needing to get some biographical information about him and rather than play phone tag for a few days I decided to give google a try. I came across a wonderful video with Morris in it that was made by a student at a local Christian University. The video was made for Black History month but he still talks about poetry, how it influenced him in his early childhood and even recites a poem at the beginning of the video. I've known Morris on a semi-personal level for a few years (I used to babysit his kids when I was in college)and this is the first time I've actually heard him recite poetry. He's always been a man with presence and his voice definitely reflects that. Can't wait to hear him recite at our poetry night.


Morris McCorvey, Poet & Playwright from OKWUeagle on Vimeo.

Speaking of Black History Month, our reference department recently ordered and recieved the eight volume African American National Biography set. Raya Kuzyk did a wonderful article in LJ highlighting the endeavor by coeditors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham to bring to fruition what turned out to be a major research project. As was noted by Morris in his interview, historians and the general public have long ignored the many contributions to the world that have been made by African Americans. Instead we focus more on slavery and the Civil Rights movement which are all important topics but African American history is far richer than that. You have only to browse through this eight volume set to figure that out.

I think what I enjoy most about this series is that the entries actually read like biographies, instead of encyclopedic entries with biographical information. They provide more intimate details, provide more insight into a persons life and influences. Take for example the following entry on famous jazz drummer Rashied Ali:

"His talented pianist aunt was asked by the famous bandleader Lionel Leo Hampton to tour with thim, but as she was not yet finished with school her grandmother would not allow it. However, Ali liked what he heard emanating from his aunt's living-room rehearsals with a local group, especially the sounds from the drummer."

I've only been ordering books for our reference collection for about a year. I've often found the task nerve-wrecking since many reference materials can cost up to $900. I think this one was about $700. Despite glowing reviews for many of the things I do order, I still worry that a collection like this will sit on the shelve unused by our public. This, however, is one series I'm very glad to have invested in. I think Raya Kuzyk is right when she refers to it as a "first of its kind".

Last summer I read about a library somewhere in the midwest that did a photography project for their library. I wish I could find the original link to the article that talked about this so I can give them credit but unfortunately the link broke shortly after I passed it around and I can't even seem to get a hold of the cache now (lots of libraries and communities are doing similar projects so the idea is certainly not novel).

The concept was pretty simple. Take a professional black and white photograph of people in your community holding their favorite book. What a perfect way to reflect the diversity of your community by exhibiting their wide range of reading tastes in a photography display.

My original "pitch" to my co-workers wasn't really a pitch at all. I simply saw an interesting article with an interesting idea and thought I'd share it with everyone. A few minutes later our admin assistant called me on the phone and said "Hey, why don't we do this". I was hesitant at first because my husband got his BA in photography and if there is one thing I know about photography its that it can be expensive. Real expensive. I just wasn't sure we could swing the budget for this kind of project, at least not on this particular level. Perhaps something more small scale, where a professional photographer was left out of the picture and staff took pictures of people with unprofessional cameras and posted them artistically on some posterboard. But I was told not to worry about the money for now. Find a photographer, get some figures and we'll talk money later.

"How do I find a professional photographer for cheap?"

Light bulb. My husband! So, I asked but Mike has always been more of a outdoor/landscape/architecture type photographer. I think he does very good portraits but he has never been as confident with his studio work and instead suggested a mutual friend of ours.

Enter Josh Williams: I met Josh through his wife, Jennifer who worked here as a reference clerk. This was just after I started working here as a reference clerk, pre-grad school days. I loved working with Jennifer. We worked the night shift together and I tell you, after answering reference questions for five hours straight, having Jennifer arrive at 5pm with her wonderful sense of wit and humor (not to mention warmth and kindness, and sometimes even a cup of cocoa just for me) was a massive whooosh of fresh air. Anyway, Josh would often pop in to say hello to his lovely wife on his way home from his job. It wasn't soon after that we realized that we were married couples with similar interests so "hey, how about we go to dinner or something". This is how we learned that Josh had embarked on an endeavor to learn photography. It started out as a hobby. He learned from books and together with his natural talent he started to make a name for himself in the community doing senior potraits and family photos. In the past few years his passion for photography has provided him with a second career and income to boot.

So I called him up and bounced the idea off him. We met and discussed the details. Through the course of our conversation I realized that he was perfect for this kind of project. Josh works as a technology advisor for a nearby school district and his wife, Jennifer, now works as a high school literature teacher so, he understood more than most the value of encouraging reading and literacy. As a photographer he understood the importance of capturing each individuals' personality on camera. He had just the vision I was looking for. So we set some dates for the photo shoots and away we went.

Models: Finding people to take pictures of was tricky. I suggested the idea of putting an ad in the newspaper, but it wasn't recieved very favorably. To me this was the best way to ensure a diverse group of models and reach out to the community in a way that would make them feel like they were taking part in something special at the library. Instead I was asked to collect names from friends and staff of people they knew to be readers and supporters of libraries. I think there may have been some fear that opening it up to the public would make things too undpredictable and leave us with too many photographs to pay for.

Scheduling: Next, we needed to decide when to have the exhibit. We chose April since it was National Library Month, Poetry Month and also gave us plenty of time to plan shoots, order prints, frames and find all the money to pay for everything.

The initial photo shoots took place in the Fall, one in August, the other in September. We also did a later shoot just for staff members. We're in the middle of revamping our websites/blogs and thought having pictures of staff members with their favorite books would be a great design feature to add, especially for blogs, as a way to introduce ourselves and visually connect with the public.

Results: In the end we had about eighty photographs to choose from. Josh did an absolutely amazing job capturing each personality. He took care to interview each person before their shoot, to ask them about their book, what it was about, why they considered it their favorite. Jennifer often accompanied him to help set up the shot, adding her own creative nuances. The end result was a very unique collection of photographs representing the reading tastes of our community.

Beth Degeer, my supervisor had the great idea of scheduling an "opening night" for the exhibit, kind of like a museum. Our unveiling took place on April 4th. We kept it pretty low key and casual with some punch and cookies for refreshment. It was a great way to thank everyone who participated. We decided to purchase all of the photos and as such, didn't have room for all of them in our exhibit hall. So, for the unveiling we bought and borrowed several easels so we could display all of the photos at once, spreading them throughout the library for everyone to see. The photographs are scheduled to be on display for two months and we plan to rotate the exhibit so everyone's photograph gets to spend some time in the exhibit hall. Afterwards, we intend to display the collection permantently in our library building.



This was a wonderful project to be involved in and I would like to thank everyone who helped make it a reality.

In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration. - Ansel Adams

Last Friday I got paid to game!



Ok, so I have to be honest, I've never really considered myself to be a big gamer. I like to game, in small doses, usually prefering things that don't take a lot of time to complete. I've done mostly table top stuff like D&D or general board/card games. When we were still in college and without a t.v. my husband used to play Everquest a lot. I loved to watch him play but never did get into playing it myself. I think it's a dexterity problem. I'm just not really good with the whole manuavering with a mouse and keyboard. And even with the table top games, I enjoy it but more as a social activity and have never really turned to it as a past time, usually prefering a good movie or book instead.

But this workshop rocked! It was led by Adrienne Butler, Youth Services Consultant at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. ODL has purchased several gaming consoles and are planning to start a loan program where libraries can borrow the consoles to do their own gaming programs. There were only about ten people at our workshop. Many of the librarians who attended were from very small rural libraries who could really benifit from such a program since purchasing gaming equipment can be quite expensive.

Adrienne started her workshop off with a lot of factual information about gaming. Her intention, I think was to provide us with the necessary "ammo" to approach our library administration, boards, city administration...whoever it is we need to persuade to support gaming programs. After years of successful library gaming events, it's frustrating to me that many librarians still need to validate these programs to their administration but it's probably because many still don't know how valuable gaming can be as an activity not just for teens but for all ages. In fact, Adrienne noted that the fastest growing group of gamers out there are women over forty.

Anyway, back to the gaming workshop. I got to play a Wii! If you had asked me about a Wii two weeks ago I would have probably said "Oh yeah, that game thing that's all over YouTube with the old people bowling and stuff." Now I've played a Whii and I want one so bad that my husband is pulling in a favor from a friend in his hometown in New York, who works at Wal-Mart and can get a Whii for a discount.
Baseball was the best. Couldn't bat worth a darn but I could pitch like a fire-cracker but I still got my butt kicked by my co-worker Cindy Yell who told me AFTER we got done playing that she was a softball player all through high school.

Although the Wii was definitely the superstar of the day, Adrienne also had several other consoles for us to try, an Xbox, Gamecube and a PlayStation. The picture provided is of me playing guitar for the game Rock Band (which apparently will be available for Wii soon). Providing vocals is the lovely Beth Degeer. She sings like Julie Andrews. Not pictured is Cindy Yell. She got to play the drums. I sucked. I was booed off stage in a matter of seconds because I didn't realize I was supposed to strum while pressing the keys on the guitar. Like I said, I have dexterity problems.

Although we may have spent most of the workshop playing games, the experience was very valuable since it allowed those of us not familiar with gaming consoles to get a sense of how they worked, what games went to what and what equipment was necessary for each one. I also really appreciate ODL's endeavor to provide gaming equipment on loan. It's going to make all the difference, I'm sure, when it comes to encouraging other libraries to provide gaming programs. Personally, I would love to do a multi-generational program where people of all ages come in and teach each other how to play different games.

Adrienne is going to be presenting a similar workshop at ODL next week. Cindy and I are planning to attend even though it's likely to be of similar format to the one we went to last Friday. The only exception is that this workshop will have two other librarians in Oklahoma who have been doing gaming programs for awhile so it will be interesting to hear their perspectives.

I heard this one on NPR this morning.

An inquiry into why the world's largest database on reproductive health blocked searches using the term "abortion" has found the restriction was put in place because of articles from an abortion advocacy magazine available on the site.

The block was an "overreaction," says Michael Klag, the dean of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, which maintains the POPLINE database. When Klag learned that the search function for abortion had been removed, he ordered it restored. The block was taken down Friday afternoon.

Restored or not I'm still shocked that this happened at all.

The federal agency that funds POPLINE, the U.S. Agency for International Development, cannot by law support abortion activities. Sandra Jordan of USAID says abortion statistics and research are acceptable. But she says the agency did have problems with some materials on the site.

Setting aside USAID's apparent attempt to remain a neutral (?) on reproductive rights, the discrepency seems to be between the idea of supporting abortion activities and reading journals that support abortion activities. I can see the same thing happening with information on terrorism. If I read a website that shows how to build a bomb, talks about building bombs for terrorist activities, does that mean I support the concept of building bombs for terrorism, that I support terrorism, or that I'm simply doing research so I can write a paper about terrorism.

Kudos to the librarians that caught this. Yeesh.