Wednesday, January 30, 2013

It's about time - changing the doctoral curriculum

I am particularly blunt when I read, "changing the doctoral curriculum must involve Ph.D.'s who have left academia."

An article published on The Chronicle of Higher Education dated February 1, 2013.

http://chronicle.com/article/Dont-Reform-Graduate/136825/

Thursday, January 24, 2013

PhD holders make contributions outside academia

I have not heard the term/occupation of "independent scholar" until I read an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education (dated Janaury 21, 2013). According to the author, scholars chose to be an "independent scholar" for many reasons such as unable to land a tenure position after applying for more than 30 positions, Finished a PhD at the age of 47, family resposibilities etc.

Being an independent scholar sounds very attractive  - compared to tenure positions at universities, it has less stress, working full-time on research projects and/or writing books.

The title of the article is, "Some Ph.D.'s choose to work off the grid":
http://chronicle.com/article/Some-PhDs-Choose-to-Work/136729/

Article titled, "Drowning Books"

If you like "smelling books", you need to read this article.

If you like "folding" pages with your fingers, you cannot miss this article.

If you like highlighting books, you have to read this article."

AN articles published on The Chronicle of Highere Education, dated Janyary 21, 2013. Ilan Stavans, "Drowning books."

http://chronicle.com/article/Fluid-Thoughts/136689/

Thursday, January 3, 2013

The library humor

This is one of the books that I read during my term break - titled, The Laughing Librarian: A History of American Library Humor.

I have a "high hope" of this book simply because Will Manley wrote an Introduction for this book. Yet, I finished this book with a disappointment - there is nothing about the "history" of library humor at all. 

The highlights of this book, in my view, are the cartoons/illusrtations that selected from varied cartoonists. Thise are indeed the "humor" of the entire book. 

The secret lives of librarian

I was attracted to the title of this book; but I finished the book with disappointment.

In this book, the writer caputred the "dramas" at a bracnh library in the State of Florida. Having served more than a decade at publi libraries, I have witnessed many similar dramas which depicted inthis book such as unethical library managers, weired behaviors of librarians, strange questions from library patrons, inappropriate behviors of library users, etc. My disappointment came from the ending of the book - the author indeed became one of public library's drams - he married a library staff.