Regarding the previous post

So I was thinking about my previous post and the impression it must have made on any readers who don't know me personally. Like usual I was being hard on myself. I was upset that I had let this particular CD slip through the cracks. I made it sound like I have no clue when it comes to music. The fact of the matter is that I have a collection of several thousand CDs and LPs. I know music VERY well.

What precipitated all of this was an excellent article I found online about the 50 Best CDs of the Decade.

I've been wanting to increase my collection of more current bands and find some new music. I discovered this list and while I had a bunch of the titles already there were a lot of things on the list that I had been meaning to check out. I ended up ordering about 20 of the titles through inter-library loan. So expect to see a bunch of CD reviews soon.

Review of Yankee Foxtrot Hotel

I have a "problem" in life that has been a recurring one.

My problem is that I often find out about great albums and bands after the fact. Once the band has broken up or is no longer "cool" is when I'll finally discover them. By then it's too late to see the band live in their prime or perhaps even see them at all.

The latest example of this is Wilco and the "Yankee Foxtrot Hotel" album. Sometimes the reason I don't listen to things when they first come out is because of the hype. There was a lot of hype about this album when it came out. The story behind its release is now an internet legend. I remember reading about it at the time and thinking, "how good could this album be?"

It's simply one of the best albums I've heard in years. I'm kicking myself that I denied myself the pleasure of listening to this album for the last 8 years! When will I ever learn that sometimes you should believe the hype?

Facebook and patrons and religion

So I've been having some "issues" with one of our regular patrons.

As a librarian one of my job duties is to talk to the lonely people who come into the library. After awhile you learn who the "regulars" are. Some of these people just want to be left alone and want peace and quite. Some of these people want to come and chat with you for a bit every single day.

Well, one of my groupies has asked me several times over the past year to become his friend on Facebook. I can tell that he's a lonely guy and he wants more friends. I've really thought about this and decided awhile ago that as a professional librarian I needed to make certain "rules" regarding my behavior in the Web 2.0 world. For instance, I try to never explicitly say where I work in my blog. I never try to talk about specific issues at my work. The wild and crazy internal politics that could, quite frankly, make this blog a LOT more interesting! but could also get me fired and/or make a bad impression on any potential employer.

One of my other "rules" I made for myself was that I would not accept friend requests from patrons. I dunno... it just seems to cross some sort of "line" for me. Of course all of this Web 2.0 stuff is new and it seems like the rules are still being worked out but I'm doing what I feel comfortable with. I have pictures of my kids up. Personal info about my work and school history. I have all of this set to private so only my friends can see the good stuff. It just doesn't seem right to me to open up this level of personal information to whoever walks in off the street into the library. Even if they do want to come up and chat with me each day.

This same patron recently asked me about a Facebook "issue" he was having and wanted my advice on. He had put up a series of questions that were all sort of philosophy/religion 101 sort of stuff. Most of them were quasi religious questions. He was upset because not a single one of his Facebook friends had bothered to put up a single answer/response to any of his questions. He first wanted me to become his Facebook friend so I could contribute some answers to his questions. I explained to him again that I have a "rule" about that. Then he wanted me to read his questions and let him know what I thought and why nobody was answering them. Where they bad questions? I read them and I thought there were somewhat thought provoking and I told him so. He really wanted to know why nobody had answered them. I didn't know what to say and really didn't want to be involved in this mess in the first place. Fortunately it was closing time so I got off the hook.

But his questions and concerns nagged at me when I got home. Why hadn't any of his friends answered his questions? Then it hit me. They were all about God and religion. I for one won't touch religion in Facebook. It's to personal, to controversial... If I see one of my friends post something of a religious matter in Facebook I don't post a comment on it. I think because I feel religion is so personal and controversial I would be worried about possibly offending one of my friends. Even if it wasn't intentional.

So I've been wanting to talk to this particular patron again about this. I feel in a funny way like things were left hanging the last time because we closed. Although I was glad about it because I was able to think about it all a little more and articulate my thoughts. I expect I'll see him soon.

Julie & Julia and Blogging

I just finished watching the film "Julie & Julia". It was an interesting film to watch given that I read the Julie Powell book several months ago. While I was watching it I thought about the whole blogging "thing". First of all, it's very clear to me that nobody reads my blog. So why should I bother? I've been told over and over that it's a good thing to do if I'm looking for a job. Some potential employer might be out there checking me out.

right!

I'll try not to laugh to hard!

I suppose it could happen though... and I suppose more people would read this blog if I actually posted to it more frequently.

I can't think of a "theme" that I could right about every day however like Julie Powell that is interesting and will keep people coming back day after day. I would like to write about technical issues in libraries but it would hard for me to write about that every day.

So I've decided to write about what I know best. Music and movies. I always wanted to be a music or film critic. I'm also very interested in getting an adult reference job working with music and film. So why not go with what I know and love? If nothing else it should improve my writing skills. I'm going to try to start putting something up on the blog almost every day. We'll see how this goes.

Challenger Comics

I've been noticing something recently. Every day I read articles about the death of the printed word and how books are disappearing. Yet, here in Chicago at least, I've noticed something strange. It seems that there are new comic books stores opening up all over town. Comic books at least seem more popular than ever. Maybe it's the recent slew of superhero movies?

I think the real reason is that right now there is somewhat of a comic "renaissance" going on. Comics are better drawn and better written now then perhaps at any time in history. The plots and stories are so much more interesting and well developed compared to the comics that were available with I was a kid in the 60's and 70's. There is perhaps a danger in that many comics are more "mature" now and feature more adult oriented plots. But both Marvel and DC use a rating system on their comics that is much like the rating systems kids are used to with video games. Comics are rated as E for everyone, T for teen, and T+ for more mature comics.

I've visited a number of the new comic book stores but there is one store in particular that stands out and that is Challenger Comics.

Challenger Comics Website

I think libraries and librarians can learn a lot from this site. It is very well designed and uses a number of Web 2.0 features.

The site features a web cam so you can see what's going on in the store while it's open.

The site also highly encourages customer interaction through the use of message boards and reviews. They've already started to develop a strong web based community that also goes into the store.

The site also features links to all of the most popular Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook and Twitter where Challenger Comics also has a presence.

There is an event calendar that is prominently displayed that is constantly updated with new events. At Challenger Comics they have weekly readings for both kids and adults and other special events as well. I've never seen a comic book store with so many events. They have several things going on every week.

There is a link to sign up for a weekly newsletter that arrives via email. An email then arrives each week with details of upcoming events and all the new releases for that week along with recommendations and reviews.

All in all a site that is very well designed, very user friendly, and obviously helps Challenger Comics do what they want to do, sell more comics.

Funny Library story

So I came into work today and got a doozy from the very first patron who walked up to the desk.

She handed me a piece of paper and said her son was looking for this book and could I help her find it for him. "The Game" by Neil Strauss.

I went to our catalog and did a search for the author as I thought there were probably too many titles out there with "The Game" in the title. I quickly got a list of the books by Neil Strauss in our system and saw the game.

One of the "habits" I've gotten into as a reference librarian is to always repeat the title when I find it to make sure I'm on the same page as the patron. When I see a full title that includes a colon I repeat the full title to make sure I'm getting the correct book for the patron.

So in this case, out of habit, I automatically started to say "The Game : Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists".

As the words slipped off my tongue, my brain started to catch up, and something seemed odd about this particular situation.

The woman in front of me blushed, gasped, and said, "Oh my God, is that what my 19 year old son wants to read?!"

I couldn't help but laugh and said, "well... if he was 13 you might have a problem on your hands! When I was 19 I might have wanted to check out this book myself. Luckily I'm very happily married so I don't think I need it at this point!"

She laughed as well and I asked her if she would like me to put a hold on it for her son as we didn't have a copy in our library. She said, "Certainly not! I'm not going to get this book for him." She left pretty quickly and seemed embarrassed about the whole thing. For me it was one the highlights of my week!

First time for me... Kaballah conspiracy!

On the evenings that I work at the Library one of my responsibilities when closing up is to check and turn off the lights in the bathrooms.

I have no problem with the guys room but I must admit I always find it a little creepy to deal with the woman's room. For virtually my whole life this room has been forbidden to me. On a rational level I know it's not a big deal and I deal with it every day with no problem. But deep inside of me there's a little part of me that would really rather not deal with the woman's room. A guy can get cooties that way don't you know!

Well the other night I had a librarian first for me. While I was checking out the woman's room I discovered that someone had left a pile of Kabbalah literature above the sink. This was fascinating to me. First of all I had no idea that the Kabbalah were into proselytizing like that. I had never seen Kabbalah propaganda like that. It was pretty slick. Much nicer than a lot of the born again Christian stuff I'm more used to seeing. I can see how a Material Girl like Madonna could find an attraction.

I'm very curious who left this in the woman's bathroom. I'm going to be watching for more. Now I have something to look forward to when I check the woman's room. I wish I could spy a little better to try to figure out who left it there. :-)