them drunk patrons keep me employed .. my firehall is across from a Major Canadian University ,, party time all the time .. pee is nothing .. we had a elevator burn up ,, nearly fried the residence
- johnpiercy
*puts on biohazard suit and grabs the baby wipes* Wait, an *employee*? :(
- Derrick
There's a reason that staff christmas parties need to be dry.
- DJF
Can't say I've had to have that one happen here...yet. But we did have some boys "decorate" the downstairs bathroom one night.
- Abigail
Ooph. I have to know, did someone witness this or find out the hard way that the furniture had been peed on?
- Rachel Walden
The worst we've had biohazard-wise lately is students leaving banana peels on the floor or on the computer tables. We have had students with anger management issues kick in the walls in our men's room. All the walls in that room are now plywood instead of drywall, most of it tiled some just painted.
- John Dupuis
Rachel - Witnessed. When guards & my 3rd shift super woke him up, he was still intoxicated & urinated on the leather seat & floor. The amazing thing is that this actually happens really rarely - happened way more when I was at Kentucky than here!
- Archangel ωαřмaiden
ωαřмaiden - so he basically pissed himself when woken up, rather than intentionally urinating on the chair?
- Michael R. Bernstein
yeah he did. we're not sure we can bill him for the cleaning, but we're gonna try. It was one of those things that happens when someone drinks way too much. Im sure it wasn't intentional, he jut lost control. Nonetheless, it defaced the library's property.
- Mary Carmen
Three items: wine, lemon juice (from concentrate), dried apricots. (Other fruit juices, like cranberry and grape, too.) They all seem to do something similar, though at a low to moderate level, if I have just a bit too much. For a few minutes, my throat will feel like it's swelling up a bit. Also, I start to feel a bit asthmatic, though I do not have asthma (of which I know). Breathing issues don't happen every time.
- Julian
I suddenly realized what I needed to look up while watching the episode of Good Eats about making fruitcake. Dried apricots were an ingredient, and Alton mentioned that they usually contain sulfites as a preservative.
- Julian
Oh yeah. Almost forgot fruit juice boxes. Not that I drink them all that often anymore. No problem with beer, though. No problem with not from concentrate, "all-natural" orange juice, either.
- Julian
I can't eat dried apricots because of the sulfites that are typically used as a preservative. Triggers my asthma and makes me wildly wheezy.
- Stephen Francoeur
We just saw that Good Eats episode last night! I had a friend who couldn't drink red wine because of the sulfites.
- laura x
I am really sensitive to sulfites too. for a while I couldn't have red wine, but thankfully that isn't the case anymore. it only hits me once in a while
- holly
Yeah, the red wine reaction is rare these days for me too.
- Stephen Francoeur
We were recently talking about the idea of declining M&S in the LSW FF room. What's your rationale?
- s t e v e
I'd rather be informally appreciated by my peers for the work I do than formally recognized by a magazine campaign that (not coincidentally) does a really good job of pushing web traffic to LJ's site.
- J450N
Dude, ya rawk! (there's your informal recognition, seriously)
- Stephen Francoeur
that's pretty rad - that somebody respects and appreciates you enough to nominate you, and that you have the convictions and principle to decline. that is punk.
- Kendra <3 Three Lions
Thanks! You're right, Steve, about it being hard to separate criticism of the campaign and peers that have been named M&Sers.
- J450N
This exchange, combined with something Iris suggested last year, is giving me an idea of what to do with Shovers and Makers in 2010.
- s t e v e
ah, the irony! the people who most deserves an award are the people who will decline it :)
- marthalib
I'd like to informally again recognize Jason Kucsma as a honest-to-deity mover and shaker. In 2010, I think we're going to see a bunch of interesting projects that he's deeply involved with.
- Stephen Francoeur
they've gotta have some crazy Canadian moonshine in those vans they're living out of for a month in an NYC winter.
- J450N
Jason: This CBC video that Amy Buckland shared with me features the local Tree Ladies from my block and helps explain the phenomenon of Quebecois tree sellers in NYC. http://www.cbc.ca/video...
- Stephen Francoeur
Regarding Quebecois who come to NYC to sell Christmas trees every year (they live in vans parked next to their sidewalk stands, and eat and shower in nearby businesses and homes of friendly NYers).
- Stephen Francoeur
My sister, who is wildlife biologist for all 5 airports in NYC area, just had to ask me to run a query for her in free FAA database about birdstrikes and email the results to her because her IT people changed some settings on the network. #techfail
Yep, she's got not only birds to worry about (they get sucked into engines) but also feral cats, tortoises on the runways, coyotes, etc.
- Stephen Francoeur
Where I live (rural Wyoming), I have to have a landline in order to get internet, because DSL is all that's available.
- laura x
yup. Landlines are critical infrastructure. and they're low-tech enough even today that they pretty much ALWAYS work, as long as your central office wasn't the thing that was hit.
- DJF
That's why I keep my landline. I grew up in earthquake country.
- Betsy (bentley) Vera
Yep. Do note, though: You need at least one "plain" phone on the landline--one that doesn't use its own AC (i.e., one with no answering-machine function or caller-ID screen). (DJF: Seems to me most central offices have very substantial battery backup...but I could be wrong.)
- Walt Crawford
Walt, the central offices certainly do seem to have backup power. In the 2003 blackout, our boring hardwired phone worked for at least a couple of days after the power failed. But if the central office burns down, your phone won't work regardless.
- DJF
Walt: I've got a 20+ year old phone that requires no AC and has survived more falls (and attacks from toddlers) than you can imagine.
- Stephen Francoeur
Well, yes, if the central office burns down, you're in trouble... Stephen: The handset at my desk is probably almost as old; we picked it up at Radio Shack for next to nothing (Sprint-branded, for some reason), and it's a great secondary handset. With better call quality than our wireless/digital primary handset.
- Walt Crawford
Walt: I do. My sister gave me an old-fashioned, not-electronic, rotary-dial phone years ago. I seldom use it, because it's inconveniently placed (stuff tends to stack up in front of it), but it's ready in case of emergencies. I still have my grandmother's 1960's phone boxed up somewhere, too.
- Betsy (bentley) Vera
In the early '90s, I bought a Western Electric model 500 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) at a local surplus store. It's a great phone, and had the best sound quality. It's also great for causing blunt force trauma, when that's called for.
- DJF
I just saw an official press release from a prestigious university boast about how their Twitterfeed was ranked in the top ten of 100 "Best Twitter Feeds for Savvy Business Students" by DegreeUs.com. Unbelievable.
And this is where the Achilles heel in the Digital Humanities Now service becomes clearly apparent: friend of friend tweets that are clearly off topic.
- Stephen Francoeur
He knows nothing of transformers yet ;)
- JSNFLMNG
from iPod
That's so cute to favorite these in flickr for your son.
- Stephen Francoeur
That might be a better way to go about it, but actually we go through google image search and then I copy and paste the links manually into ff.
- JSNFLMNG
from iPod
These are the final projects done by students in my library's GIS course that was taught by Frank Donnelly (we offer about 7-8 three-credit courses and an information studies minor).
- Stephen Francoeur
I'm going to be teaching a 3-credit course that the library offers (Information Research in Social Sciences and Humanities) and am busy now crafting a syllabus for the spring 2010 semester. Any suggestions to this list of terms & concepts I expect students to be conversant with by the end of the semester? Feel free to add to the document....
Fantastic list. What do you expect them to know or be able to do pertaining to evaluation?
- marthalib
Ditto to Martha's comment, plus perhaps a general 'research ethics' and 'information ethics' heading
- Pete
What Martha and Pete said. What kind of preparation/prerequisites will the students have coming in? Is this a first course, or one for students beginning upper-level study in their majors?
- Catherine Pellegrino
Martha: for evaluation, I want them to have a set of criteria that they can applied depending on the information need they have. So if they need to make sure source is authoritative, they will know how to research who the author is and that author's expertise on a given subject. I'll also emphasize the usual criteria: timeliness (may or may not be important depending on the need), relevance, quality of argument, etc.
- Stephen Francoeur
When we teach this course in the fall, it's mostly all freshman. In the spring, when I'll be teaching it, it will be mostly sophomores and juniors. No pre-reqs.
- Stephen Francoeur
Ah, yes. We assign a similar exercise, but it is tough to get students come up with their own set of evaluation criteria, so I'm looking for suggestions regarding how to do this. I still get students who say, "It is a credible article because it is peer-reviewed" and think that is sufficient.
- marthalib
That looks excellent, then. For the sophomores and juniors, I would definitely include something on what I think of as "the economics of information," which it looks like you're getting at with "publish or perish" and commercial vs. open-access publishing. Something about who owns information, and how money changes hands for the use and access to it.
- Catherine Pellegrino
I'm not thinking so much that the students need to come up with their own criteria but rather that they have an intentional set of criteria that they can selectively apply depending on the context.
- Stephen Francoeur
Martha- I use a clothing analogy to introduce ideas of time and place appropriateness, registers etc
- Pete
Ooooh, I like the clothing analogy. Martha: oops, just saw your other thread...moving my comment there!
- Catherine Pellegrino
Feel free to threadjack, Martha. I like where the conversation is going anyway.
- Stephen Francoeur
I truly don't mean to be a smartass, Stephen, but define "information" and "knowledge"? Seriously? Perhaps in the context of your evaluation criteria above--regarding their particular info need--that's possible. Or is it more like an intro level philosophy course definition in that you can define it in the context of the argument you are critiquing/making? I ask because I am not audacious enough to try & define either of those terms and they are both special areas of interest for me.
- Mar₭ Liŋdŋer
Operational definitions perhaps- one you can use in everyday work, not a fully worked out philopsophically rigorous analysis?
- Pete
Right, that's the short way to put it, Pete. Thanks. But there are so damn many of them and every one is seriously limited, even in an armchair analysis. But then they may be of value in limited domains if not pushed too far. Tis a minor point but wondering what Stephen is going for. All in all, I think this sounds like an excellent course. :D
- Mar₭ Liŋdŋer
if it were me, I think my goal would be to show the fish that they're swimming in water, if you take my meaning. The exact composition of the water is less a concern at that level.
- D0r0th34
More potential terms for the list: primary and secondary sources, evidence, argument, thesis.
- marthalib
Personally, I'd be a lot more interested in seeing how you structure the assignments. It might be interesting, for example, to get them to work on defining the academic discipline they're working on. Lists of terms kind of turn me off, Like D I'm more interested in whether or not the students can take part in a conversation about the nature of scholarly communications in a couple of disciplines. BTW, I think this xkcd is relevant: http://xkcd.com/675/
- John Dupuis
Just had a great conversation with the head of instruction here and am rethinking my overall approach to this course. I'll comment more when I get off the reference desk later this afternoon.
- Stephen Francoeur
Don't forget to take your stuff off Etherpad, if you wish to keep it.
- carolh
Wow, so do your students really know and understand all those concepts by the end of the semester?
- Joan
Joan: Don't know. I haven't taught the course yet (will be doing so for the first time this spring).
- Stephen Francoeur
I'm thinking now more about framing my course less on "how to library" and more on exploring how the process of inquiry and the process of researching what others have said will lead to knowledge or insight or argument. I want them to see how inquiry + research will lead to them to their own point of view. When I get a syllabus put together, I'll share it here.
- Stephen Francoeur
Stephen, that sounds like a good way to go about it.
- s t e v e
As a librarian with an interest in chat reference and transcripts from chat services, this item in my feeds jumped out at me, even if it was not at all relevant to my interests.
- Stephen Francoeur