Thursday, July 21, 2011

Leaving librarianship?

There is an article titled, leaving librarianship caught my attention. - it's so sad that to see so many librarians who are unemployed or unemployed. According to a national survey, there are only 1.3% librarians who are unemployed. The number does not reflect who the professionals are facing in this economic environment. If you keep a close eye on the librarian job postings, you will notice that half of the postings ar either temporary positions or part-time positions. This phenomena has been going on and on for at least five years. ...

Generation-D at the library

Generation-D is the students who was  born in the digital age. They are also called "digital natives." For them computer is not the new technology (really?) They prefer typing rather note-taking in the classroom. Librarians and professors must have IT skills to teach this particular groups of students. Some librarians suggest that the traditional librray bibliographic instruction classes are no longer relevant to Generation-D students. I will argue that IT skills are not the vital part of information literacy. Additionally, when we focus on serving the Generation-D students, we migth unintentionally ignore for the non-tradiitonal students who are in the same classroom with the Genration-D students. Librarians still play a very important part of providing information access services to students, whether they are the Generatin-D students or mature students.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

DVD: Every Day

YOu cannot tell from the title (Every Day) what this movie is about. But as soon as I started watching it, I like it. It is a great stroy about real life. A middle-aged man's married life - a stressful career, an aging father-in-law, and a son who is gay. In a way, I can relate to this movie. A few years ago, I took care of my aging father while I was struggling between job and graduate school.

It is a move that you shouldn't miss.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

July 7, 1937 Sino-Japanese War

July 7, 1937 the Japanese shelled the Marco Polo Bridge (Lugouqiao) between Manchuria and China, marking the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Followed the events of World War II, the German invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.

Those events seems too far away from the United States. On July 7, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attended an All-Star game and he threw out the first pitch at Griffith Stadium.  - he becomes the first President to attend an All-Star game. The War seems not close to home YET.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Book: Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling

Asian American are considered "over-achievers." Most of them grew up and was taught that to be success, you stay at you desk and work hard; then your boss will notice and recognize your work ethics. Most of them do not tell their bosses what they have done and how wonderful tasks they have accomplished. They wait for their bosses to "discover". In fact, that actually is an obstacle for Asian American to move up from the organization because of the lack of communication between them and the bosses.

In this book, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling, Jane Hyun provides career strategies for Asian American - how to move up, how to be noticed, most importantly, how to reach the top.

Highly recommended.

A very interesting research topic

I searched the dissertation databases and found that one of the popular research topics in Europe is the 'portrayal of librarians in the newspapers.'  - I haven't seen that in the North America academia yet. That might be because it is a historical research which unfortunately considered NOT an academic research topic particularly in Canada. I have been told by one of the Professors at McGill that descriptive or historical research is NOT an appropriate research topic for a PhD dissertation. He advised that PhD students not conduct any research with that research methodology. I wonder why .... shouldn't we judge an academic research in that way? I have seen PhD dissertations of the Japanese camps' libraries, the library services during the colonial era... those are all very valuable and good research topics.

I have discussed this with professors from different institutions. Most of them disagree with the McGill professor. I guess it depends who you are talking to...

No social networks in China?

I have learned from one of my friends that there are no social networks in China. Really? No Google, twitter, Facebook, Yahoo... I could believe that.

Social networks are not only part of our lives in the 21st century, if you look at the theses and dissertations databases, you will notice that in the past decade, the social networks have become one of research areas in the US academia - I haven't seen that happens in Europe or other countries. It is just a matter of time....

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Article: 'What good is an old book?"

Daniel Traister's article, "What good is an old book?" provides insights of the "well-publicized" canonial literature in the eighteenth century. According to Traister, if we look closely to the Anglo-American literacy tradition, it contains no surprises that eighty-five percent of the "canonical authors" awere male, Protestant, were White, and none of them was working class. Little known literature has not been taken seriously or has any chances to "survivie." This canonial theory at academia has been a great impact on curriculum and as well, on the standards of the literacy collection at the libraries.

The most "striking" part of this article is that Traister suggess that the "power" of the librarian is "the literacy critic's act of discovery, the shock of recognition."

The entire article was published in Rare Books and Manuscripts, March 20, 1992, Vol. 7, No.1, pp. 26-41.

Citizens of the United States?

On my way to work this morninig, there's a special interview with the author of the book, Citizens of the United States. - Her husband is an immigrant from Holland. She mentioned that the immigrants appreciate what American offers them such as 911 calls and kids are able to go to school FREE. What she mentioned might be true; yet she did not mention that how much the immigrants have to "pay" for the price such as being discriminated in many aspects such as job opportunities, bullying at neighborhoods, schools and workplace. The author keeps saying how great the Ameria is. ... Oh did she forget to mention that all the citizens of the America have to pay a big price for health insurance?  

I have a best friend she retired ten years ago. She was a special education teacher and served the same school distrcit for over 35 years. Yet she still keeps working part-time because she have to pay for her own health insurance. That is the most ridiculous thing I learned.