Stephen Francoeur › Comments

Ewww. - Junebug (aka Sarah Jill)

Feh. - josh neff, geek at large

Time to start circulating (one-time use only, please) Depends? - Stephen Francoeur

*paging Derrick* THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF LIBRARIANS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! - Sarah G.

Student or other? - LAMB

employee from elsewhere on campus, actually. - Archangel ωαřмaiden

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

Ick. Ick, ick, ick. - Mary Beth Sancomb Moran

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

ewwwwwwwwwwww - VAL D. Zone

Just another day in the library. - Miriella

this reminds me of working for the phone company, actually... - Joe Silence

There are six million stories in the Naked Library. So why do we always have to see these ones?...Colleen, this is truly blech - Pete

The Naked Library, eh? i need to get a card there. - Joe Silence

The American Nudist Research Library: http://www.anrl.org/ - DJF

That is a "special library" if ever I have seen one, but no one from ANRL is a member of SLA. - Joe

o_O.... wait, unless you're in Europe, ain't it kinda early to be *that drunk*? - MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS

ewww..that's so gross...but i worked some place & a patron's colostomy bag sprung a leak..:( - Anna Lynn M.

Did you send him the chair as a memento of the occasion? - ♫Geek in the 410♫

O.o - Jason Huebel

Is he fired? - Baroness Von SmashAHomie

ωαřмaiden - so he basically pissed himself when woken up, rather than intentionally urinating on the chair? - Michael R. Bernstein

Food allergies are no fun. - LAMB

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

notify.me seems okay (thanks, Sameer)....but I miss ZapTXT. :( - David Rothman (☤)

xFruits http://www.xfruits.com/ - Stephen Francoeur

Dang. - Stephen Francoeur

yes - Meg v. Meg v. 1.0.0.1

Shoot. - Stephen Francoeur

rain forcasted here for christmas, just not fair, cause i bet ms carmen woulda gotten rain too if she'd stay'd at home, :( - chaz2b

Glad ya'll made it safely! Have a great visit! - tab thinks you're awesome

Im totally okay with not getting snow. This may be a sacrilege, but I don't miss the white stuff....at all. - Mary Carmen

i got sick of snow living in vermont, but now that i'm back where it doesnt stick around for the next FOUR MONTHS, i'm okay with it again, ;) - chaz2b

Have fun, MC! - Ayşe E.

Thanks, friends. Also, WHY IS IT SO COLD HERE?!?!? ;-) - Mary Carmen

Our hemisphere's been tilting away from the sun lately. - Stephen Francoeur

Stephen, I love a man with a good sense of humor :-) - Mary Carmen

your still too far south for REAL COLD, ;) - chaz2b

you're right, buy im more north than im used to. - Mary Carmen

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

That's pretty close to what I was trying to say in LSW: http://ff.im/aLqES - s t e v e

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

Stern librarian approves of this action. - cecily

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

More on NYC Xmas trees and sellers: http://www.nytimes.com/2001... - Stephen Francoeur

And this: http://www.nytimes.com/1997... - Stephen Francoeur

That video made me so happy. Love his chuckle. - Stephen Francoeur

yes. <3 that Simon laugh :) - holly

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

http://ntlsearch.bts.gov/tris... - Kendra <3 Three Lions

Yep, that's her world. She goes to an annual conference just on birdstrikes. - Stephen Francoeur

Sorry about the #techfail, but that does sound like a really awesome job. - Catherine Pellegrino

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

It wasn't us, was it? - Stephen Francoeur

Was it "us"? - Meg v. Meg v. 1.0.0.1

Happy Anniversary! :) - josh neff, geek at large

Happy Anniversary! - Bren -- feeling merry from iPhone

They say 7 is a magical number. Congrats! Happy Anniversary! - Carl Cabading

happy anniversary to you and ms. adf :) - holly

Does your wife know?! http://instantrimshot.com/ Happy Anniversary! - Rochelle Rochelle

Happy Anniversary! - Abigail

POIDH. - Stephen Francoeur

happy anniversary - Anna Lynn M.

happy anniversary! :) - Nikki D.

Hah, no each one fulfilled a very short lived desire by my toddler to see something - JSNFLMNG from iPod

And now my heart beams with the thought of the little one checking these out. :) - Derrick

I also kind of want them to transform. - Derrick

He knows nothing of transformers yet ;) - JSNFLMNG from iPod

That's so cute to favorite these in flickr for your son. - Stephen Francoeur

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

Yes, trying not to threadjack :) - marthalib

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

Nicely put, D. :D - Mar₭ Liŋdŋer

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