http://www.markpneyer.com/wp/2009/08/13/a-mathematical-model-of-happiness/

By the numbers, I don’t think so!

I’ve compiled annual reports and statistics; this week  I am figuring budget cuts and real-life budget woes with a spouse laid-off…is this the measure of my work and my life? I don’t think so.

My annual report at work didn’t really tell the story. The statistics (compiled, configured and calculated every which way!) seem, well, delusional.  I usually find beauty in numbers, formulas and graphs; but, faith in numbers, and much else, eludes me this summer.

I was directed to an article detailing a study on  academic Libraries and their ROI (return on investment.) From the story, ”ROI is one tool for measuring and demonstrating the value of the library,” I’m not sure many people know what ROI is and just how would we measure it?  I know that I did not mention ROI in my annual report. But again, the whole report detailed who we serve and how we serve them…with instruction, resources and reference.

What is the return on investment of a day, of a job, of a life? Can numbers even begin to tell the story? I don’t think so.

How do you measure job satisfaction? How do you measure friendship? How do you measure love?  I celebrated a birthday last month and am now obsessed by these bad middle years. I live in the DC area and have been devastated by the heat and the commuting…so many days over 90 degrees, the hottest month in history, the longest and maybe worst summer of my life!

Yet, in this hard summer there have been visits from good friends and family;  I’ve heard beautiful music outdoors; I picnic-ed with nieces and nephews; I spent time with my sons; I was soundly beaten at Boggle by my darling daughter-in-law. I spend lots of time watching the man I love struggle –  I admire his fortitude and good humor. I have lost my fortitude…if you see  it, please return it!

What is the measure? Drops, buckets, or oceans of anxiety? Comments, columns or rants from every media direction on any subject you choose? Giggles, chuckles or guffaws at the plans we make and find thwarted at every turn? All of the above… and more.

This summer doesn’t tell the story of my life. I will continue to just do good work, hold his hand and look for moments of grace. As for measuring…being here, being there, being in the moment is my only measure.

(I can hear you rolling your eyes at me and my too many ellipses, my son!)

So, after the “King James” debacle last night – poor, poor Cleveland; and yet another blow to Ohio – I’m thinking about the meaning of loyalty. [BTW I hope Dan Gilbert's Open letter to fans comes to pass. I love  irony.]

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Deadly_Sins#Catholic_Seven_Virtues

So, loyalty… according to wikipedia it is not a virtue, at least not in the original Latin, nor in the Catholic lexicon. I, of course, consulted my favorite source, the Oxford English Dictionary ,  which gently reminded me that loyalty was to oneself (one’s promise, oath, word of honour; faithfulness, fidelity) , or to one’s country (to the sovereign or lawful government.) I needed that reminder – loyalty need not be to one’s employer or employee, nor to a team, nor to a city, I guess. But, I hasten to note the obvious,  that loyalty to a spouse is implied as we promise fidelity!

I have been a Detroit Tigers Fan all my life. I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and as the oldest daughter of a Dad with three daughters (poor man!) My earliest memories were of listening to the Detroit Tigers play – on the radio. Some of my best times with my Dad were at Tigers games. We often fondly remembered the 1971 All Star game at Tiger Stadium when we saw Reggie Jackson, Hank Aaron and Roberto Clemente play. When I moved to upstate NY after marrying, I likened my attendance at the Rochester Red Wings AAA ball games to adultery – the Rochester team was the farm team of fierce Detroit Tiger rivals the Baltimore Orioles. I felt disloyal just sitting in the stands.

I again am watching loved ones struggle with being laid off – and the mental and emotional challenge of where loyalties lie.

Loyalty may not be a virtue, but it adds depth and meaning and connection to our existence. We are less human for the lack of loyalty in today’s world.

Wait till October! Go get 'em, Tigers!

Nomenclature for non-Librarians reading this blog:

ALA is the acronym for American Library Association
ACRL – Association of College and Research Libraries, division of ALA
LITA – Library and Information Technology
YALSA – Young Adult Library Services Association
AASL – American Association of School Librarians

2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington DC – WOW…that was a big – hot – conference [25,444 attendess and temperatures seldom below 95 degrees for the 6 day conference.]  Here is where you will get all the  “good stuff” links wise. I guess you had to be there to actually get the good stuff if the multiple bulging bags of books and the lines in the mail/shipping  center were any indication of getting good stuff. The exhibition area was huge, unwieldly and like another planet without basic provisions like food and water and coffee!  I navigated with due caution (and probably missed out on lots of good stuff – fondly known in Librarian parlance as “swag”. ) I never learned how to do swag in Library school. By Monday afternoon, after attending an author “tea” I did figure out that if I stood in the hall after the talks the publisher reps just handed me books – then I got them signed and I will give them away to deserving homes – after I read them!

It looked to me – a “newbie” first time attender – like the conference was many things to many people. Will Manley saw it this way – book people and machine people.

It was an organizational meeting grounds. I spoke with other Librarians who attended and were on ALA committees and they used much of the times attending ALA meetings. I did sit in on the YALSA  Best Fiction for Young Adults meeting and realized… ah ha, that’s how they pick the best books lists.

The conference was a showcase for best practices in libraries – but I have to say I was somewhat dismayed by most of the Librarians presentation styles. Bad powerpoints abounded. I tried to stick with my division of ALA – ACRL; but, discovered the LITA presentations had much more thought,  content and presentation panache. [More on the best, most thoughtful session of ALA DC 2010 Top Tech Trends soon.] Some intrepid Librarians know that presenting the  message is important and they practice with hilarity at Battledecks!

Be inspired at your conference, seemed to be another theme for me at the ALA Conference. I caught some (but unfortunately, not all) of the big name speakers. Toni Morrison spoke Saturday evening and was quietly eloquent. I did get to hear Mr. Eppo van Nispen tot Sevenaer (Director of DOK Delft – The Most Modern Library in the World) and so appreciated his F^5 approach to design and services. [Stay tuned and I will link my presentation describing this – here, soon] See him  at  TedxRotterdam 2010 here.

I was reminded everywhere during the conference…  Libraries are all about FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY! Librarians are teachers -all the time- and information literacy is a challenge and a calling. But, I always knew that Libraries are all about READING!

And though I attended sessions on Mobile Reference, eBooks, Marketing your Library services, and Tech Trends, as well as, talking and networking with our vendors like a good academic librarian should – I loved the time I got to spend with the authors and editors who were so eloquent and passionate about their books and reading.

Don’t forget Libraries are all about READING!

“There is nothing more beautiful than a beautiful story.”  (Eppo’s father!) ALA DC 2010 was the story of Libraries in all their organizations, contradictions, beauty and necessity.

I learn so much reading blogs. Who thinks reading blogs is declining? I was reading Is Twitter Replacing the RSS Feeder? – while cleaning out my RSS feeds in prep for going being out of the office for five days. If you think blog reading is declining, check out John Dupuis doing great work with blogs and instruction!

I’m trying to catch up on all my work…submitting time sheets, processing new books, finalizing performance reviews and clearing my RSS feeds so I can attend the ALA Annual Conference guilt free. How serendipitous to read this blog entry by Nancy Pearl written by her husband, Joe about a book – Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh- and then to just get up from my desk and find the book in my Physics Library at CUA. So. my RSS feeds and blog reading led me to this book! I love good books and I’m checking this one out. But I won’t be reading it this weekend…I’ll be at ALA.

Nancy Pearl is going to ALA, too!

From the ALA Wiki:

ALA Auditorium Speaker Series

Nancy Pearl with Mary McDonagh Murphy

Saturday, June 26, 8:00 -9:00 am
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird, an American classic, Nancy Pearl will interview Mary McDonagh Murphy, Emmy award-winning filmmaker and author of the upcoming book, Scout, Atticus and Boo: A Celebration of Fify Years of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Nancy Pearl speaks about the pleasures of reading to library and community groups throughout the world and comments on books regularly on NPR’s Morning Edition. She’s the author of Book Crush: For Kids and Teens: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Interest; Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason; and More Book Lust: 1,000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason, all published by Sasquatch Books. In 2004, she was awarded the Women’s National Book Association Award, given to ” a living American woman who… has done meritorious work in the world of books beyond the duties or responsibilities of her profession or occupation.” In 1998, Library Journal named her Fiction Reviewer of the Year. She is the model for the Librarian Action Figure. On her monthly television show, Book Lust with Nancy Pearl, she has interviewed authors as diverse as E.L. Doctorow, Ann Patchett and Terry Pratchett.

Sponsored by HarperCollins

Thanks to PBS for this widget

I am so NOT good at this. Is it just me? Or, are all of my fellow country men and women having trouble embracing uncertainty?  It seems to me that I and others are retreating into the cave, afraid of the future. That is just so un-American. As people are treated as commodities in their work lives and no employer seemingly can be trusted, we are losing our confidence in the future to uncertainty.

I wonder if this is a generational feeling. I was brought up to “do good work” as my dues for a life in America and my down payment as a human being to the future. I take pride in my work and have sought to do a job that adds to peoples’ lives – first, in Engineering to build a better future; and now, through Librarianship and teaching and service. I want to live – as one of my favorite authors  Diana Gabaldon writes  -   an “eminently useful life.” I thought by doing good work, in service to others and the future, that I was “of value.”

But, I am watching so many of my peers and beloved family members struggling with work – downsizing and layoffs – and what that does to a person’s belief in themselves and the future. What truly does make a life of value? And where and how much should we invest in work?

Broadway reminds us that life may not be measured in work… the Broadway musical Rent says, “measure your life in Love.”  La Cage Aux Folles reminds us that the “best of times is now, so live and love as hard as you know how!” And my favorite, Les Miserables (Ah, the irony of such a metaphor in such a time as this!) always comforts me as I remember that “to love another person is to see the face of God.”

The book I am gifting this summer – The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha – short essays on the really awesome things in life remind me that it isn’t the big things that make you happy. It is the little things (and the “small people”), like real letters in the mail, warm towels, crying and laughing that truly makes people happy.  It is just too scary to look at the big picture right now, so concentrate on and count your blessings. But, I feel that the times I live in call for more from me.

We watch that d%!* oil leak in real time and are faced with our own failure. It is the failure of technology, the failure of conservation and, most importantly, the failure to provide a better future for coming generations, a “mortal hemorrage.” On a gut level, we know that we are failing the earth. We are more connected to the earth than our daily lives seem, especially those of us that live in urban, heavily populated places. We need to look at the big picture and make some big changes.

Maybe instead of embracing uncertainty – we need to grapple with it. Know any good wrestling holds that work?

I have a new techno-toy, a netbook. Now, I will type on the train. Will it make my writing any better? Will it make my commute any better? I’ll let you be the judge of the first and I’ll keep you posted on the second. I hope it will add to my blogging prowess ?!

I had a recent comment on one of my blog posts that I should include more video links in my blog, because there is too much to read. I started this whole blogging adventure four years ago – to improve my writing. So, if I find a good video, which enhances the message of the blog, I will put it in. But, for the most part, this is a blog of prose and if I’m inspired and very, very lucky…poetry.

I also hope to read books on my netbook – ebooks and audio books I download from my favorite public library. (The truth is I have never met a public library I haven’t liked.) The Fairfax County Public Library uses the Overdrive software to deliver ebooks, so I will begin with that. I also hope to be printing a lot less – so I can now read journal articles on the train on the netbook, articles about how to help students and faculty with mobile literacies. Ah, biblio-irony!

In this increasingly mobile- technology-enhanced  world, I am now a mobile writer and reader. But, I keep thinking how do we afford all this mobility?  And what are mobile thoughts? And what are my mobile aspirations?

Mobile posts to come…

David Brooks always makes me think…today’s column American Power Act is no exception.

When you read that history, you’re reminded that large efforts are generally plagued by stupidity, error and corruption. But by the sheer act of stumbling forward, it’s possible, sometimes, to achieve important things.

This whole academic year has been me “stumbling forward.”  I will need to reflect more on whether or not anything has been achieved.

I think April’s big question is…will this semester ever end? But, others think April’s big question is:

Isn’t this an ever-expanding universe of tech goodies? Will we be forced to chase hot tools and social platforms to stay competitive? How the heck are we supposed to stay up to speed on all the latest stuff and be successful using it personally and professionally?

How do we keep up?

I like new technology tools. I love getting my “news feeds” from twitter. Have you seen Neil deGrasse Tyson’s tweets on aliens? They makes me smile! So, we all learn and use technology tools to “keep up.”  My newest tool is  Prezi – I learned it works better in Firefox than in IE; and, if you put in graphics, they need to be very high quality to project well. I also learned about QR codes, but am still figuring out which is the best software to use on my phone to read all QR codes. All QR creator sites are not created equally good.  So, yes, I use technology tools to keep up.

But, as it is the end of the semester here at the Catholic University of America, and the end of my first academic year on the job. I need to find time to reflect about what worked this year…and what didn’t. To learn my new job I’ve read management books, built LibGuides, “selected” for subject areas, kept track of seven subject budgets and two  staff budgets, all the while, still learning how to commute. And I’m thinking, maybe – every now and then – I need to step back to keep up.

It was kismet then today when I read a lecture [delivered to the plebe class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in October of last year reprinted in theAmericanScholar.org Spring 2010] by William Deresiewicz (essayist and critic) on Solitude and Leadership: If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts .

So it’s perfectly natural to have doubts, or questions, or even just difficulties. The question is, what do you do with them? Do you suppress them, do you distract yourself from them, do you pretend they don’t exist? Or do you confront them directly, honestly, courageously? If you decide to do so, you will find that the answers to these dilemmas are not to be found on Twitter or Comedy Central or even in The New York Times. They can only be found within—without distractions, without peer pressure, in solitude.

It reminded me of the Thomas Merton quote that I have always loved and think of often:

“It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them…. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.”

Deresiewicz talks about the new technology tools – and why reading books is better than reading tweets. [Though I love the heavenly irony that I found this lecture through a tweet.] When  he rhapsodizes about the importance of solitude and friendship… well, I am still reflecting about why this speaks to me…but it does!  Read the whole essay…and then reflect about it for a while.

On tweets and books…

So why is reading books any better than reading tweets or wall posts? Well, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes, you need to put down your book, if only to think about what you’re reading, what you think about what you’re reading. But a book has two advantages over a tweet. First, the person who wrote it thought about it a lot more carefully. The book is the result of his solitude, his attempt to think for himself.

Second, most books are old. This is not a disadvantage: this is precisely what makes them valuable. They stand against the conventional wisdom of today simply because they’re not from today. Even if they merely reflect the conventional wisdom of their own day, they say something different from what you hear all the time. But the great books, the ones you find on a syllabus, the ones people have continued to read, don’t reflect the conventional wisdom of their day. They say things that have the permanent power to disrupt our habits of thought. They were revolutionary in their own time, and they are still revolutionary today. And when I say “revolutionary,” I am deliberately evoking the American Revolution, because it was a result of precisely this kind of independent thinking. Without solitude—the solitude of Adams and Jefferson and Hamilton and Madison and Thomas Paine—there would be no America.

On solitude and friendship…

So solitude can mean introspection, it can mean the concentration of focused work, and it can mean sustained reading. All of these help you to know yourself better. But there’s one more thing I’m going to include as a form of solitude, and it will seem counterintuitive: friendship. Of course friendship is the opposite of solitude; it means being with other people. But I’m talking about one kind of friendship in particular, the deep friendship of intimate conversation. Long, uninterrupted talk with one other person. Not Skyping with three people and texting with two others at the same time while you hang out in a friend’s room listening to music and studying. That’s what Emerson meant when he said that “the soul environs itself with friends, that it may enter into a grander self-acquaintance or solitude.”

And, in this reflective mode I have checked out the book Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton and will leave you with his prayer [because I often have no idea where I am going] as I reflect and hope, as my friend Adele says, that the big guy/gal is indeed pleased.

I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. - from “Thoughts in Solitude” by Thomas Merton

End of semester craziness back here on the job …great conference, lots of good stuff to go back and use, following lots of new folk on Twitter and Blogs and how cool is it that we will all be in the Library of Congress as they collect our tweets…or will we?!  See David Ferriero’s take in AOTUS: Collector in Chief weighs in on why Twitter archives.

This will be a short post, but I don’t want to lose valuable information from CIL2010 Day 3.

Ken Haycock in his keynote address on Wednesday says “public good is dead” …SAY IT ISN’T SO!

The next thing… After the 23 Things see what Nebraska is doing for the 24 thing and beyond.

Lori Reed says the next thing is scary and bad news for libraries. Help  SaveLibraries.org !

Productivity Tools

And presenting right from his blog LibraryStuff on What’s Hot in RSS was Steven Cohen.

E-Books Landscape: Brian Hulsey ; Bobbi Newman [http://url4.eu/2jqvq] ; Jason Griffey

Saved the Day: Megan K. Fox on  Mobile Practices & Search: What’s Hot! In Mobile Technologies.

Hey, did you learn about QR codes? I did – here is the QR code for this blog.

I’m now following David Ferriero [dferriero] on Twitter. I’ll add his blog AOTUS: Collector in Chief to my RSS feeds. Dr. Ferriero, Archivist of the US, was interviewed by Paul Holdengraber [no lightwieght, himself - Director of Public Programs at the New York Public Library(known as "LIVE from the NYPL"] as the keynote activity at today’s CiL2010 Conference. Holdengraber teased Ferriero, describing him as the “most powerful librarian.”

Dr. Ferriero noted, “It’s nice having a boss down the street, but not in your face.” But Dr. Ferriero has his orders – as in  Executive Orders signed by his boss, Barack Obama – the Open Government Initiative where every Feredal Agency will demonstrate transparency, collaboration and participation; and the Classified National Security Information which will attempt to de-classify over 400 million documents. “You can’t have open government if you don’t have good records.”

Dr. Ferriero outlined  two main goals of his job. 1) To improve the quality of workplace for employees of the National Archives (I think he mentioned in 42 locations around the US); and 2) To “open up the archives” with robust education programs, content rich web sites for K-12 education and new exhibits to encourage kids (of all ages) to be excited about records and encourage all Americans to be “Citizen Archivists.”

I applaud his passion for records and the freedom implied in open information. He lives the  National Archives mantra “Democracy Starts Here.” I was also impressed by his managerial vision which “recognizes the value in every piece of the job employees do that bring value to the agency.”

Best interview question this morning – what keeps Dr. Ferriero up at night – electronic records management  which is the largest, messiest and most expensive challenge. And to be fair , his greatest joy is working with the staff of the National Archives and “great records.” Dr. Ferriero charmed the audience this morning when he shared his current reading, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith and Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War by Robert Roper. We should ask every presenter what they are currently reading!

See this interview streamed live at  CiLlive on USTREAM.

You can listen to a Dr. Ferriero lecture Are We Losing Our Memory? The View from the National Archives presented at Duke University Provost Lecture Series. [Hear Audio of Dr. Ferriero’s Presentation Here.]

Other ideas from today…

Critical Thinking for Decision Making with Rebecca Jones and Deb Wallace (HBS)

WOW (not WoW)! See this very huge project  presented as Reference for a Digital World, but was realy VoIP and SKYPE Reference Service. Talk about vision! Thanks, Jan Dawson.

Lori Reed and eLearning tools.

Crafting Online Personas with Craig J. Anderson, Reference Librarian, Kean University and JP Porcaro, Virtual Services Librarian, New Jersey City University – Can library staff create a professional online persona without adopting a new, secret identity? Jury is still out – but these guys suggest branding yourself, controlling the message and, oh yeah, filter! But, maybe, being a responsible librarian means showing up and being where your users are. See their blog.

Great April 13 blog post on WoW [World of Warcraft] session later in the day. Thanks libraryguy!

Libraries and Transliteracy at Computers in Libraries #cil2010

I’m still thinking about  Chad Mairn’s presentation on Information Fluency Strategies – very cool use of twitter posts in powerpoint presentation. I need to learn how to do that.

I missed this one yesterday  Gen X Librarians: Leading From the Middle.

For those of you not at Computers in Libraries 2010 see John Kennerly’s post  “Going to the Conference without being there.”

And just for fun… Free Lookups.