A great book for graduate students

Robert Peter`s Getting What Yu Come For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D. is an excellent book for graduate students, especially for those who is planning to purse a Ph D. This book is not only a survival guide but also provides practical advice how to deal with the stress and the graduate school politics. I am very impressed by the comprehensive coverage. The auther gives a lot of incredible suggestions and advice that you might not receive from your counselor. The book is in a conversational style but very well written. - a must read book for the current and future graduate students.

War Dance (2006): A film leaves you nothing but tears

The film is about the Northern Uganda children who lost their families, and now live in the refugee camp called Patongo with suffer and scars. Their stories were presented from their perspective in their own words. With the horrific experience, they are putting the horrific experience behind their backs and participating dance and music at the refugee camp school. They were invited to the prestige national music festival competition. They feel of pride and accomplishment when they perform their tribe folk dance and music. One of the young boy said, “Even though we are the children of war, we can make something great.” – What a great young man!

The cinematography and editing was amazing. The music, the real life stories from the children, the singing, the dancing, the captured rebel young soldier’s conversation with one of the young boy ... it is the kind of documentary that leave you in tears but feel a glimmer of hope.

Wrenching stories with happy ending. Highly recommended.

This is a book about BOOKS

We have seen so many newspapers and publishers offer electronic versions for their readers. Many libraries and librarians welcome this radical change because the limited space. Most people believe that the print era will be gone in no time. .. The problem is that there are so many book lovers, including myself. I love books. I love to read. I love to hold my book with my own hands while I am reading. I just cannot picture myself sitting in front of my computer and read directly from the screen.

Written by Robert Danton, The Case for Book, explores the print books versus the coming digital revolution. This does not give you “pros and cons” opinions of e-books and books. Instead, it provides the long history of book and how books have survived in nowadays digital era. The contents of the book have been carefully arranged. The title of this book is The Case for Book: Past, Present, and Future. I expect to read the in this order - the history of the book, the past, present and then the future. But as soon as I open the book, I found that the chapters have been intentionally arranged “backward.” It starts from "Chapter 1 Google and the Future of Books” and ends with "Chapter 11 What Is the History of Books?” - it's amazing.

The essays are very enjoyable. It ertainly proves that “e-book is “a supplement to, not a substitute for [books]”!

All book lovers should read this book. Highly recommended.

Piper Kerman's Orange Is the New Black

I found this book when I am looking up reading materials for the paralegal students.

Piper Kerman, a graduate from Smith College, involved with a wrong woman and participated in criminal activities in 1993. A decade later, in February 2004 she was convicted of drug smuggling and money laundry was sent to the prison for fifteen months. She was released after she served thirteen months at the minimum security correctional facility in Danbury Connecticut. The book, Orange Is the New Black, records Piper’s life in the prison. She was warned by her counselor NOT to make friend when she first arrived. Somehow she was able to make friends during her time in the prison. She learned fast of the rules and the frequent humiliating strip search and head counts.

-Another MUST read book on my list.

National Library

It is always a great pleasure to visit the national libraries on the we. it is also b is a very good way to know the libraries all over the world.
National libraries of the world link: http://www.publiclibraries.com/world.htm

I have physically visited the Royal Library in Belgium, the British Library, and the Royal Library in Copenhagen last summer. But there are a few more librries that I visit frequently via Internet:

Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/index.html

Library and Archives Canada: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/index-e.html

The British Library: http://www.bl.uk/

National Library of Australia: http://www.nla.gov.au/

National Library Singapore: http://www.nl.sg/

National Central Library (Florence): http://www.bncf.firenze.sbn.it/

The Royal Library (Copenhagen): http://www.kb.dk/en

The Royal Library of Belgium: http://www.kbr.be/

The National Library of the Netherlands: http://www.kb.nl/index-en.html

I do not recommend this book

Adam Ruben's Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision To Go To Grad School.

The title of this book drew my attention when I visited the local bookstore. Later I borrowed it from my library. I have to say ... the title is very attractive but if you want to get some "hints" and "tips" from this book, you will be very disappointed. I also found some of the words are inappropriate such as "Tought shit" "F... it". I know it is not a literature book but the usage of slang words should be in a minimum level, especially the target readers are graduate students. Yet it is a personal "insight" of Grad School.  - Not recommended.

Read it and make your own judgement. - maybe you find this book is helpful and prove that I am wrong.

Doctoral students MUST read: Grobman's book: Just Don't Do it!

Grobman's Just Don't Do it! is a MUST read for anyone who is interested in PhD culture or is considering to pursue a PhD. Accroding to Grobman, if you are thinking to do a PhD in Social Sciences or Humanities, you better don't do it because you won't have any contributions to the fields you are in; and you do not make a difference for others in the same fields - that's a very interesting theory.

I learn from this book:
(1) The term "PhD" comes from Latin Philosphiae Doctor - means "Teacher of Philosophy".
(2) The first doctorate was granted on September 5, 1692 - it is a honorary doctorate degree. It was conferred upon Haravard's president, Increase Matter.
(3) Every year more than 45,000 doctorate degree was awarded in the US. However the dropout rate of PhD program is staying very high, between 50 to 60%. Female students have a higher dropouts rate than male students.
(4) Founded in 1974, Harvard University Kennedy School of Public Administration MPA program was NOT accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Administration ubtil 2004!!!! - That's a BIG surprise!
(5) PhD online schools - revenues in 2004 is $2,5 billion; $10 billion in 2006 with 1.7 million students enrolled!! - selling fake degrees is a big business.
(6) Having a PhD doesn't gurantee success in life, sometime it turns out as tragedies - doctoral students cracked under the pressure and "abused" and perpetrated violence against faculty members. Here are some examples:
- 1991 University of Iowa: a PhD student, Gabg Liu killed his faculty's advisor Christopher Goerz, his fellow doctorate student, department head, the associate vice-president.
- 1998 Wayne State University: a doctoral student murdered his doctoral advisor.
- 2000 University of Arkansas: a PhD student in English James Easton Kelly shot his facultu advisor after he was being dropped from the program for lack of academic progress.
- After spending a few years in the PhD program you will find yourself talking "funny" by using "big words."

... sigh:)

The most impressive chapter of this book (for me) is "Tips on surviving in a PhD program." The author also provides a very "useful" link for reader who would like to explore more PhD culture stories:

http://www.phdculture.com/ - in my opinion, it should be considered a "company" link to:
http://www.thegradcafe.com/

Book: Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken.

I don't have to look at the book cover and instantly knew that Louise is a White Leghorn chicken - bright red comb with snow white feather. Why? I know so well because I have one of those kinds of chicken! Leghorns love to "escape" from the coop and explore the world! My pet chicken "Pumpkin" does that ALL THE TIME. She longs for adventure. She always flys over the fence and "escapes;" and she runs FAST - but when you call out loud "Pumpkin!", she will come out from "nowhere!" 

Having read Kate Dicamillo's books, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Magician's Elephant, I knew my heart that Louis, The Adventures of a Chicken is another excellent book. I don't have to flip the pages to find out it is a delighted book. Great illustrations and humorous stories. Honestly I picked up this book simply because I have a pet chicken of my own. The title caught my attention immediately! In this book Louise's has lots of excitement - captured by hungry pirates, survived from a sinking ship, "accidentally" joined the circus, caged with other chickens ... eventually be home in her comfortable coop. - you just cannot put down the book. Readers always wonder what will be Louise' adventure?

Remember: "You don't have to be a child to ENJOY THIS BOOK!"

History in their own voices - Ken Burns' The War

Ken Burns" The War is a company to Geoffrey Ward's The War: An Intimate History, 1941-1945. The stories of the people and soldiers who were from four American town, Waterbury (Connecticut), Mobile (Alabama), Luverne (Minnesota) and Sacramento (California). Having read the book, I was NOT disappointed - usually films are not as good as books when the film is based on a book. It is an exceptional documentary film. Great stories! - the young nurses, the heart-breaking battery fields scenes, the unknown heores, and the "missing in action" soldier suddenly appeared at the doorstep and made his mom and sister fainted on the floor! You just hold your breath and keep following the stories - it took me five conseutive evenings to finish the entire series!

Toni Morrison's Who's Got Game? Three fables

Last Saturday when I served at the Reference Desk, I noticed that there are three children books on the reserved shelf - Who's Got Game?: The Ant or the Grasshopper? The Lion or the Mouse? Poppy or the Snake? First, I thought it probably is a "mistake" - we are an academic library and most of our students are in Graduate School. And, we do not have children literature class on campus. Why do we have children on reserve? My second thought was... Toni Morrison writes children books? SO, out of my curiosity, I picked up one of the books and started reading during my break. The stories are very familiar and certainly bring back my childhood memory. (a big smile)

A very very sad statement ...

In the past few days, I repeatedly overheard some of my colleagues said, "I am a librarian, but I do not read." "I am not a public librarian, I don't have to read." What a pity! A librarian who doesn't read! I guess, for most people, it doesn't matter in nowadays digital age - Books (prints) are dead; "everything" is now can be found on Google/Internet. But that's SO WRONG! The Internet is only a tool of getting information and it definitely CANNOT replace books. - I wonder why so many people cannot spell or write - it's because everything can be done by "clicking" on the keyboard. - SAD, SAD ...

FREE access full-text academic journals

We really don't know when the BUDGET CUT! is the very first prior at libraries. Librarians are trying EXTRA hard to locate FREE academic journals for their students.

Here are the two popular FREE full-text articles sites:
http://www.findarticles.com/
http://www.magportal.com/

In addition to these two FREE databases, I found a very comprehensive scholarly and academic full-text database yesterday! Excited? Yes, you can access to thousands and thousands of full-text journals FREE! I have demonstrated yesterday afternoon for almost four hours. Such a good news! The database provides indexing, abstracting and full-text content to journal articles in a variety of disciplines. BUT... there is a bad news for most students. The journals are written in Japanese with or wtithout English abstracts. It is provided by Japanese National Institute of Informatics.

http://ci.nii.ac.jp/

Try it, if you have the ability of reading Japanese. If not, at least you can read the abstract and find out what are the popular topics in your fields.

Book: This Book Is Overdue!

Marilyn Johnson's This Book Is Overdue! is an advocate for librarians. - I finished this book just in one day. Yes, we, the librarians, are NOT dead yet in the electonic age. I have heard so many times, "We have Google; and we donot need librarian." WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! As Johnson points out in the first chapter, "we are not dinosaurs." (p. 9) - If you think "we are ded" then you need to READ this book, PLEASE!

This book provides insight into the new role of librarinas and the new world of libraries. It is very informative and at the same time very funny.

Nous sommes les bibliothecaires; nous sommes pas morts poutant.
我々は、図書館員です。しかし、ながら 私たちが 死んでいません。
我們是圖書館員，我們還沒死。
We are the librarians; we are not dead yet.

Book: Joie de Vivre: Simple Fernch Style for Everyday Living

UN TRES BON LIVRE!
Don't be misled by the title! This is NOT a cookbook even though trhere are 50 receipes throughout the book. In Joie de Vivre, Robert Arbor presents the French philosophy on life and argues for its adoption by Americans in a very funny way. This book is very entertaining. As a "below average" French reader, I am able to experience the French way of life without living in France. Excellent book!

Love this book! - Words in a French Life.

LA VIE EN FRANCE!
I REALLY enjoy this book! First I picked up this book because I was captured by the humorous stories; then I was impressed how the author puts her stories and the everyday French words together in a "little book." I love this book. Written by Kristin Espinasse, Words in a French Life is a book about auother's everyday life stories in the southern part of country; yet it is also a book that readers will pick up a word or two of French words - The author inserts the most useful daily French vocabulary in each chapter. I particularly love the descriptions and the "tiny lessons" that the author provides in the book. A reader like me who has a "rustic French" background will be able to brush up French in an "entertaining" and amusing easy way.  - it is one of those must-read book.

May 5, Mexican's Independence Day! - Cinco de Maya!

I have to confess that I was not aware the existing of this Latino holiday until I moved to the States and worked at the public library.  - Hack! I was NOT a very good librarian back then.

In the "old" day (I mean fifteen, sixteen years ago) when Internet is NOT part of our daily life, books were the only resource to find out information such as "cinco de maya."  Nowadays the fastest way to look up for informatuion is just a few clicks on the computer. Here you go, "click, click, click" ... Voila! the history and the meaning of "cinco de maya" pops up on your computer monitor in a second!

The Cinco de Maya history:
http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm

The signicance of Cinco de Maya
http://www.mexica.net/literat/Cinco.php

Book: Laughing without an accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen

Written by Firoozeh Dumas, Laughing without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen is a delightful book. This book actually is built on the author's first book, Funny in Farsi (2003), offering more stories from her life . But it is not quite as homourous as her first book, in my opinion. I think the "problem" is that I love her first book and then when I read her second book, I have more "unreasonable" expectations. Both Firoozeh books are fun to read. The books unveil the differences and commonalities between Iranian culture and the American Culture. - I have lived in different parts of the globe and met so many people who are from all over the places. Some of Firoozeh's immigration experience can relate to what I have experienced - it makes me loud and being sentimental.

Online MLS degrees vs. campus-based MLS degrees

A friend of mine received her online MLS degree a few months ago. After job searching for a few very frustrating months, she asked me whether she should mention that her MLS degree was an online degree on her resume. Frankly speaking, I have no answers. As soon as it is an ALA accredited program, I don't think there is any different between the online and the cmpus-based MLS degrees for the hiring employer. Talking about long distance learning students, there are disadvantages of being an online student.

The challenges are varied - here are some examples:
(1) some "technology-intensive courses particularly with lab, equipment" might not be available to students not on-campus. I still remembered that I had spent hours and hours at the library school lab to work on my assignments. There are things that you cannot work at home, for instance OCLC cataloging and DIALOG databases exercises - those exercises need to be done on campus library lab only.
(2) books for assignments might be very difficult to locate.
(3) lack of personal interaction with your classmates and professors.

My BIGGEST concern of the online program is the academic fraud. So how the unviersity and professors verify who the person is and that person is ACTUALLY doing the work? - I have witnessed a co-worker who is working her online PhD degree in education. One day I ran into her office and noticed that one of her assistants is editing her citations! I am so surprised, no actually I am very disappointed. I am disappointed because it happens under the roof of a higher education institution; I am disappointed because someone misused her "authorization." - Oh well ...

It is MAY!!!! - Stressful graduate students wandering at the library.

The Spring semeter will be over in two weeks.  - The weather is so nice outside but so many students come in the library with a stressful look on their faces. They are preparing finals and term papers. Yesterday (Saturday) a graduate student approached the Refernce Desk and said, "I am a graduate student at the Social Welfare Department. It is my second semester but I haven't used the library. I need to submit my term paper on Monday... I do not know how and where to look for information." Oh boy, again, again, and again. Yes graduate school can be very stressful, especially when you DO NOT have a study plan! It is not easy to assist a student to do research in such a short time period - most non-reference books probably are checked out by other students who is working on similar topic. The only hope for the "last minutes" student is the electronic resources and e-journals. I love to help student for their research but NOT happy to be in such a hurry! - I do hope that the graduate school will teach the new coming graduate students a short course on "time management" before they start their classes.

Book: I am Nujood, age 10 and divorced

This is a book about the first child bride in Yeman who win a divorce, but lose her innocent. Nujood's father arranged her to marry a man who is three times of her age just simply because "one less mouth." Nujood was hastily married off just in a few days. Her husband beat her. So Nujood gathered all her strengths to escape her fate. She asked someone to take her to a judge and then she requested a divorce from three different judges. She was asked many intimidating questions, for instance, a judge even asked her, "Are you virgin?" Nujood replied, "No, I am bled." - This book unveils the secret that has destroyed so many lives of young gilrs in Yeman. - it took my breath away.