Has a book ever turned on you? It begins one way – with beautiful langauge and a simple character with a small life. Then, unexpectedly, it turns on you and becomes a different story, not so simple and oh, so not what you thought it was. The power of words that our main character Bolsover believe will bring order out of chaos do nothing of the kind. But the words in By Chance linger.

Culpability, identity, morality, and luck–all these play a part in a story that echoes our own lives.

By Chance: A Nove by Martin Corrick

I’m chagrined. I have not been blogging often enough. My feeble excuse is that I don’t want to write to complain and bemoan my trying existence (which includes daily trials and tribulations with commuting in the DC area!) OK, I know that this existence is really not so trying… no death, sickness or pestilence for me and mine …so I will count my blessings in this new year. Learning is one of my blessings.

As the first semester at my new job concluded, a favorite blogger of mine, Professor Hacker, reminded me to “Write an End of the Semester Roundup Post” on my blog. But, he also suggested to unplug at the end of the semester – so I did that first! For about a week!

A new semester gives me a chance – not to start over – but to build on what I’ve learned (and what I need to learn) about my new workplace. Reading helps me learn.

Who’d have thought there was so much to learn about management. Daniel Pink, who first taught us about A Whole New Mind, has a new book I highly recommend – Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. What motivates us? Autonomy. Mastery. Purpose. More importantly, to do work  “ in the service of a cause greater than ourselves.”

We know that human beings are not merely smaller, slower, better-smelling horses galloping after that day’s carrot. We know – if we’ve spent time with young children or remember ourselves at our best – that we are not destined to be passive and compliant, but designed to be active and engaged. And we know that the richest experiences in our lives aren’t when we’re clamoring for validation from others, but when we’re listening to our own voice – doing something that matters, doing it well, and doing it in the service of a cause greater than ourselves.

I’m also reading Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life by Bruce Rosenstein so that I can particpate in a SLA-DC book discussion group with fellow librarians in January.

I’m trying to be positive while commuting, the job is good and Science Librarian and blogger, John Dupuis tells us why in this post: Optimism?

What I learned in my first semester…

• Building Physics, Engineering & Architecture LibGuides.
• Serials…I have a lot to learn.
• I like to learn and most of my best moments this past year were spent learning.
• Don’t forget to be inspired by the art in everyday living and go to an Art gallery whenever you can!

You may have read about the High School Library in MA that is completely electronic and and has no physical books. How very sad. Now, I am not a Luddite (…yet) and I believe in technology as a force for good in the world, but I also believe in curiosity and serendipity and where better to discover those entities than a bookshelf.

Yesterday, I moved books. It was wonderful, a little dusty and real.

Between the LC Call Numbers G and GA (Class G — Geography. Anthropology. Recreation) on a shelf in the Engineering & Architecture Library at the Catholic University of America I was delighted to find…

Object-Based Image Analysis and Treaty Verification : New Approaches in Remote Sensing – Applied to Nuclear Facilities in Iran by Sven Nussbaum and Gunter Menz.

This book describes recent progress in object-based image interpretation, and also presents many new results in its application to verification of nuclear non-proliferation. A comprehensive workflow and newly developed algorithms for object-based high resolution image (pre-) processing, feature extraction, change detection, classification and interpretation are developed, applied and evaluated. The entire analysis chain is demonstrated with high resolution imagery acquired over Iranian nuclear facilities. [Publisher book description: Springer]

Atlas of Medieval Europe edited by David Ditchburn, Simon MacLean and Angus Mackay.

The Atlas of Medieval Europe covers the period from the fall of the Roman Empire through to the beginnings of the Renaissance, spreading from the Atlantic coast to the Russian steppes. Each map approaches a separate issue or series of events in medieval history, and a commentary locates it in its broader context.
This second edition has over forty new maps covering a variety of topics including:

* the Moravian Empire
* environmental change
* the travels and correspondence of Froissart and travellers in the east
* the layout of great castles and palaces. [From Amazon product description]

and

Cosmography: a Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity by R. Buckminster Fuller

Fuller was one of the truly original thinkers of the 20th century. This book is a collection of his thoughts about life, progress, and humanity’s role in the universe as he voiced them during the last four years of his life. Transcribed by his “adjuvant” Kiyoshi Kuromiya, they range over a panoply of topics. Among other things, he attempts to explain politics, sociology, economics, and history by metaphorically extending physical and mathematical structures to describe human behavior. Although modesty was not his strongest point, Fuller was undeniably an exceptional person. His fame alone suggests that libraries should add this book to their collection. However, most readers will find it difficult to understand. – Harold D. Shane, Baruch Coll., CUNY Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. [From Library Journal]

The mind boggles…what’s on your bookshelf?

OK, now I’m at college…here is what I’ve learned as we pass the midterm point of the first semester. I suspect that many of my former students facing their first term at college are learning some of the same lessons!

Time Management – there are just not enough hours in the day to complete all the work. I appreciate walking the campus. There is a lot of walking, and as I have mentioned before – often uphill. But, now that the Autumn is here and the weather is cool – it is lovely walking. The Autumn foliage in Virginia doesn’t blaze – it glows. I even appreciate walking in the rain. Have I mentioned how important it is to have comfy shoes, a lightweight raincoat and an umbrella everywhere? The workload can be overwhelming. But, isn’t it nice not to have bells? I appreciate Saturday and Sunday showers (the bathing kind and the weather kind) because I don’t have to rush – and rainy weekends slow me down and I read a lot.

I do worry that I am getting very anal. I need to know at all times – where my phone is, where my University ID card is (so very important because I can buy coffee, lunch, or items at the bookstore – and it gets me into buildings and lets me make copies anywhere), where my train ticket and Metro SmartTrip card are so I can get home.

It is always good to be reminded that learning about time management is one of the life-long lessons. I met yesterday with a young English graduate student to discuss her students and upcoming library instruction sessions. We met at lunch time and she brought her eight-month old daughter and her grandmother. She was not harried – she was upbeat and positive and looking forward to helping her students do a good job on their 8-page paper. She obviously was juggling her time, classes, job and family – and enjoying the journey. That darling baby’s smiles kept me grinning foolishly all afternoon.

I’ve learned that I can do the weekend Washington Post Samurai Soduko (5-sided) on Saturday or Sunday morning – but if I wait until the afternoon or evening, I erase a lot! I’ve learned there really are some tasks that need time and uninterrupted thought to do well. I’ve learned that keeping touch with friends and family afar takes time but is always so worth the effort.

Information Management – There is so much new “stuff” to learn in a new job. Where is the stuff? How do I find it? How do I answer all the emails? How do I communicate the information? How do I teach faculty and students how to find the stuff? Do I cloud compute? Do I carry around a USB with my life on it (actually I have 4 – sad, I know!) How do I know where my files are when working from home, and traveling between 4 different buildings at work? Am I learning anything in the depth it should be learned? It’s my job after all.

Stress Management – Well, I’m not doing so well on this one. I can tell by my many nights of uninterrupted sleep. I awake at three or four in the morning and …think. The caffeine I mainline daily probably contributes to this cycle, don’t you think? I know that I’m not eating well during the week. I don’t like eating dinner so late at night. I crave fruits and vegetables on the weekends.

Music and poetry calm the savage beast in this Librarian. Reading always is a stress reliever – and life saving grace – for me. Saturday afternoon Mass and prayer is a respite and a time for reflection sorely needed in my life.

Management – who knew I would be spending so much time worrying about being a good manager? I am learning that my most important time is spent in listening to the people I work with. I probably need to spend more time listening to the beloved people I live with!

Over and over, I am reminded what I’m learning is … it’s all about the journey. It’s about being able to ask for help. It is about being kind. It’s about being curious. It’s about learning all the time.

I’ve been wondering lately where I will be buried. It’s bothering me. Ghoulish? Yes.

But, it is autumn and the hallowing days of October. I have just spent a weekend exploring battlefields and cemeteries; so, you can see where my thoughts have led me.

I feel displaced. We moved this year…quickly… far away from family and friends – for employment. We’ve been lucky in these disastrous economic times. We sold and bought a home. We, all three of us – husband, son and I – are gainfully employed.

But, fear and loneliness aren’t too far away these days. And, so I wonder, if anything were to happen, where would I be buried?

In Michigan… where I was born and spent the first 22 years of my life? Near the sand dunes of the western shore of Michigan, or Tiger Stadium (the real one!) in Detroit, or Jackson, Michigan where the grandparents homestead saw so many happy times. Or, maybe, at the lake near Remus, MI where the family cottage stands. How about Lockport, NY where both of my children were born? My in-laws are there in Cold Springs Cemetery and I visit them when I can. Or, maybe Rochester, NY where we lived as the boys grew up and would visit Mt. Hope Cemetery for history lessons. Maybe I should be buried in Resurrection Cemetery in Toledo, OH just blocks from where my sons got their first jobs and became college graduates and good men; and where so many dear, dear friends still live.

Here in VA? This land seems strange to me. What did famous and not-so-famous men of Virginia feel during the Civil War days that led them to fight for their state and secede from their country? I don’t understand that…yet. When we talk with people here in our new home state we ask where they are from. Few are from here. Many, like us, are here because of work.

This past weekend I visited Fredericksburg and Cold Harbor – Civil War scenes of so many lives gone – and I walked the graveyards adjacent to the battlefields. Many men had no choice and many were buried in unmarked graves. Marked gravestones tell the story of men from NY, OH, PA, NH, NJ, DE, ME, and VT buried far away from home and loved ones. The graves that spoke to me were the gravestones that marked not with a state…but marked US. Is that what they fought for? Or did they know it didn’t matter where they were buried…it mattered how they lived.

So, maybe, like my Dad, I will not be buried, but cremated. There won’t be a grave or gravestone. Instead you will hear me laughing over Frenchman’s Bay in Acadia ME. Or maybe you will hear me singing – if you are lucky enough to visit Dingle Bay in Ireland. You might hear the whisper of my teaching in the halls of School #43 in Rochester, NY; or in the Library of Central Catholic High School of Toledo, OH; or in the Engineering Building at Catholic University of America. You surely will hear me cheering some October in the future when the Tigers win the World Series again. You might be able to hear my prayer – for my country, for my beloved men – at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

I’ve been worried lately about …well, everything. I realize that I’ve been missing the geese. All my life I’ve heard and seen Canadian geese in their flocks, calling as they migrate and then return home. I thought maybe I was living too far east or south now to have them near. But, no, I heard and saw them flying in their V- formation as I looked toward the Atlantic Ocean this past weekend while visiting Fort Monroe in Hampton, VA. And, today, as I write this, they are overheard calling and flying south. They know it is autumn. I bet they don’t worry where they will fall and be buried. Like the Canadian geese – monogamous and faithful – home is where my mate is…”in the family of things.”

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
© Mary Oliver.

Before 7AM I am looking up at the sky as I stand on the VRE train platform at Burke Center. I peer over the tree line to see if the shade of blue of the sky pleases my eye. I peer down the track to determine the mist quotient to determine just how hot and steamy will it be today.

Immersed in reading and texting while riding on the train, I remind myself to look out and look up as we cross the Potomac River approaching Washington DC. I don’t want to miss the majestic Washington Monument and greet Thomas Jefferson as he steadfastly stands in his memorial. Interestingly enough, it was said of Jefferson that

he had placed his house and his mind “on an elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the universe.”

Between the L’Enfant train stop and Union Station, I look over the massive parking lots and up at the rear of the United States Capitol. Those parking lots remind me that real people go to work there everyday and what they accomplish there is not insignificant to all of our lives.

Coming up out of the tunnel from Union Station on the struggling red line Metro train I look up to see first government buildings, then neighborhood streets and finally I see the dome of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Knight’s Tower. I have arrived at the Brookland-CUA Metro station to come out from underground and look up at my new workplace the Pangborn Engineering Building at Catholic University of America.

As I approach the building…
I look up…
I laugh as I realize that’s what librarians do …look up information.

I’m ready to :
…up the stakes
…raise the bar
…reach for the stars
…stretch my mind
…elevate my game
…boost morale
…advance the front
…spread the word
…promote …enhance …progress …anticipate …dream…

To look up and look farther and do more.

Isn’t Facebook fun? I can keep up with friends from afar – especially my students. Those interesting kids from the Class of 2009 are now posting their thoughts and worries about going to college. They are shopping for dorm stuff, some can’t wait to leave home, they wonder and worry about new roommates, and they ask “am I smart enough for college?” This summer, I can relate. I, too, made the transition from high school to college.

In May, the last question of my day long interview for a university librarian position was “you’ve talked about helping the 1st year students make the transition to college, how are you going to make the transition from high school librarian to college librarian?” Good question. I began my new position as an academic librarian on a college campus on July 6.

One month in – how am I handling that transition? Some days are better than others. I, too, ask the question…am I smart enough?

Being on a college campus is – fun. Being in a community of fellow academic librarians is – fun. [Beware*****Library humor*****What is a group of librarians called...a shelf of librarians?] I had the opportunity to attend a Journal Club meeting – how cool is it that a bunch of librarians all read the same scholarly articles and then get together to discuss them and talk about how the topic impacts their university community? I smiled about that meeting for days! That was fun.

I would advise my students just beginning college to re-configure their personal learning networks. I read many blogs and am in email contact with other librarians from public libraries, high school libraries and university libraries. My emphasis has necessarily changed and I search out other academic science librarians to see what they are reading and what they are doing and recommending. The tools I use to do this are constantly changing – though I wiki, tweet, facebook, igoogle for calendars and documents, and IM; I now need to do it [m] on my mobile phone as I’m a commuter for three hours a day.

I still read some favorite blogs as they have become my learning network for technology in education, and I am wondering if the integration of tech tools moves faster in high schools than it does in college? Jeff Utrecht on his blog The Thinking Stick gives an international perspective and speaks of stages of learning networks. Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza are prolific bloggers about technology and education and libraries.

But my online reading is more content specific these days:
EurekaAlert!
NSF Discoveries
Confessions of a Science Librarian
ACRLog
Humanities, Librarianship and Technology
Points of Reference
Marginal Revolution

My professional memberships have changed as well to include ACSA (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) and ASEE (American Society for Engineering Education,) as well as SLA (Special Libraries Association – which has the best list-serv ever!) and ALA (American Library Association.)

Going to college for me means the job is bigger. The campus and community are bigger and more diverse. The subject matter is, well, college level – undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral research level.

The needs of my library users are the much the same. They need the library open. They need qualified people to answer questions, even if they only need to know how to make copies. The need service, instruction, quality materials, and a place to think and work.

Oh, yeah! I’d also advise my high school students and friends to go to the bookstore and buy a college shirt. I like the red one.

Uphill from the Metro to my new job at the Catholic University of America…uphill from my office in the Engineering building to the main Library (Mullen)…uphill from the Engineering building to the Student Center (and more importantly – the Starbucks!)…and, maybe worst of all… uphill – walking, walking, walking – from the VRE station at the end of the day to home. Never has a phrase so aptly described my first week at a new job.

The job is good – kind and professional colleagues, an intellectual challenge, surrounded by books always and back to my academic roots in Engineering. It isn’t the job that is the biggest challenge for me this first week. The biggest challenge for me is the travel. From the troubled Metro Red line, to the crowds in Union Station; from the VRE (Virginia Railway Express) platform etiquette rules (oh, why does no one smile?) to the hills – real and metaphoric. I travel uphill and it isn’t easy.

Any change, like a new location, a new home and a new job, is bound to be stressful. There is less stress for me in the work, than the travel. This is a surprise to me.

I will take heart from the title of this blog. I will just do good work and hope to grow into a savvy DC traveler who smiles now and then.

I’m on my favorite porch in western NY, savoring the season – strawberry season that is!

I’ve picked, plucked, mashed, made jam and just finished my first strawberry shortcake (make with a piece of angel food cake, one scoop of vanilla ice cream, as many heaping tablespoons of freshly mashed and lightly sugared strawberries as you can take and a dollop (or three) of whipped cream) yummmm! It is the official taste of summer for me.

Thirty years ago, as a new bride, I was taken to the strawberry fields by my sisters-in-law. My new mother-in-law very patiently coaxed me in the art of jam cooking and canning. Nobody really had to teach me how to eat or appreciate the fruit of the fields. I’m a fan of the strawberry in any form, but they are best eaten in the field warm from the sun.

This year, my son, daughter-in-law, niece and nephew were my strawberry partners in crime. Our timing wasn’t great as it’s been a rough strawberry season this year in Western NY. A too cool and wet spring has left the fields uneven. But, we picked the small but very sweet ripe berries from our search on a hot day in Niagara County, NY. Before we took the strawberries home, we visited my mother-in-law and father-in-law at Cold Springs Cemetery – to commune and remember.

We took shifts plucking, mashing, eating and drinking strawberries – and today I finished the jam cooking in the same kitchen where I learned to make jam. Thanks to Gladys Hoffman for one of the most endearing pleasures of my life. I’m blogging from her front porch that Patty, Alex & Johanna share with me so charmingly when I visit them.

Thanks, SLA! (that is the Special Libraries Association, celebrating 100 years and so, no doubt, due to be rebranded – I heard “Information Professional” so many times at the opening ceremony that even I heard the future.)

SLA is celebrating at the 2009 National Convention in Washington DC this week. SLA President Gloria Zamora noted that “change is our tradition.” Well, that’s an idea I’m learning to live with as change has been my constant companion the past few months as we adjust to townhouse living in a new city and I look forward to a new job. Change…love it or die…is my motto.

Sunday’s SLA Convention keynote address by General Colin Powell was well received. No, he didn’t answer any nagging questions about the use of information in 2003, but he did invite us to be Information Professionals and think about our roles as leaders in this world of information.

Powell reminded me that success is equal parts preparation, hard work and learning from failure. “It’s a transactional world,” Powell intoned, speaking from the stage without teleprompters and comfortable and engaging in his story telling.

Most appropriate for me was his advice on leadership (he has some experience in this field, don’t you know!) Leaders must convey a sense of purpose, show passion for their work, invest in their work force, congratulate and compliment co-workers , discipline when needed and trust people to work hard and do their best.

I take to heart his words that “Transitions are hard.” And “Human connection is what makes an organization successful.”

Aside: I thought about taking pictures for my blog while sitting in the audience. I really wanted to take in the experience and pay attention to the moment. The really good thing about living in this part of the country is what you get to see and who you get to hear speak and the world of ideas right on my new doorstep. I also knew that I would be able to find numerous pictures of the event, so my thanks to the numerous people taking pictures during the event.
Flickr photostream of the keynote: Thank you, Ms. Nengard.

I look forward to seeing and hearing Neil DeGrasse Tyson Wednesday and touring the National Institute of Health on Thursday with fellow librarians…oh, I mean, information professionals.