Library stuff

I love the fact that I have two academic libraries at my disposal. It's so very nice to have all those resources.

I recently discovered that Curtin's FindIt thingy has some lovely little things that JCU's FindIt thingy doesn't.

When you click on "FindIt at Curtin" in Google Scholar (you can set it to pick up Curtin in preferences whether you're a library member or not) it doesn't take you immediately to the article. It takes you to a page where you have a number of options depending on the article...

And one of those options (more often than not) is downloading the citation into EndNote. You don't even have to sign in! As long as you've got EndNote on your computer, it will just download the citation information for you. So, even if you don't have access to that article through Curtin, you can still get something useful out of them.

Very nice if you, like me, occasionally can't be bothered trying to figure out how each particular database wants to play with EndNote when you're doing your research in the first place.

My latest brilliant idea

I think my university should go bilingual.

I think they should pick a language which a) has a sizable number of "home language" speakers in the region and b) is spoken by a large number of prospective intentional students (and, maybe: c) is spoken by a sizable group of the international community). They should then offer subjects and, yes, maybe even courses in that language as well as English.

I love the idea of people being able to come here to take a degree entirely in Italian or German. I love the idea of local students having the opportunity to study subjects in a language other than English. How cool would it be to be able to study German literature in German? Or Italian cinema in Italian? And all without having to move to the other side of the country or another continent?

Imagine how much our student base would swell if, in addition to the students we already get because we're the "local" university, and the students we get because we advertise well overseas, we also attracted students who wanted to study in an English speaking country but didn't think their English was up to the challenge? Or potential mature-aged students from all over the country who speak English as a shaky second language but would still love to get a degree?

It could be the best and most vibrant thing we ever did - and could probably net us all sorts of interesting funding options from the government.

Of course, they would have to stock the library with enough books in that language to make it viable. And, of course, the existing staff would be offered free language courses to cope with the new bilingual environment, while the ability to speak XXX would be a valuable skill in potential employees...

A challenge? Yes. Expensive? Well, duh. But honestly, sometimes you get good returns from putting in a bit of effort.

A Lack of Clear Guidance

Or: My Kingdom For a Flowchart

I used them all the time when I was teaching - visual guides for how to set out an assignment.

They came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but my favourite ones (and the ones my students seemed to like best) were flowcharts.

They were wonderful, magic things that helped you to understand the form of an essay by literally showing you the shape of one - a box standing in for the sentence you would write here, a line guiding you through the checklist needed for a good paragraph there.

If you put your main points in the appropriate boxes, writing the assignment was like running a hot knife through butter. It was a simple matter of wrapping some sentences around those points according to the specified rules (this sentence must give a general introduction, this one must point back to your thesis, that sort of thing).

I know how useful these things are. I know how much they benefited me when I was stuck on an assignment, and how much my students appreciated them. I still direct students to them all the time.

But I can't find one for a thesis. I've been asked if I know of one, and I've looked, but no one seems to think such a thing is worth producing. Now that I'm writing my own Masters thesis, I'm really feeling the lack of such a clear, simple guide.

You want a guide for writing a thesis? Here, have a whole book on the subject, full of wonderful things you don't have time to read and not a single thing resembling the simple, clear flowchart you desire. Or, here, look at a couple of examples of other theses. Surely you can glean what you want from here? Or, wait, here are some general guidelines for things you should think about when writing a thesis - what do you mean, they don't give you any actual writing guidance in regards to form? Why would you want that?

Just draw me a picture, man! Show me what the shape of the thing is supposed to look like.

I don't have time to read half your prattle - especially when most of it is great advice, but not relevant to the particular problem I have right now.

I want to see the form. I want to have it staring in my face. I want to be able to assemble my sentences like one of those jigsaw puzzles that have the shape of the missing pieces etched into the backboard. I've got fifteen thousand words to write, and I want to make sure I know where each of them are supposed to go before I waste any more time.

Oh, and if someone out there actually has such a flowchart, what the heck are you calling it? Why isn't it turning up in any of the most logical searches? What book have you buried it in without mentioning it to anyone?

Really, people, it's quite frustrating.

My Scathingly Brilliant Idea

"I've got it!" I said proudly, declaring my genius to everyone in the room. Sadly, that consisted of the cat and me. "It's perfect! Everything will work! All I have to do is convince my boss to create a job that doesn't exist and hire me for it."

As often happens in my life, I'm facing an unnecessary choice between several things that all seem like really good options. Unfortunately, they can't co-exist.

On the one hand, I really like my job. I love being a librarian. I specifically love being a liaison librarian at an academic library. I also love working with the people I'm currently working with, and although I think the institution I'm currently working for could do with a bit of work, I'm don't mind working here at all. So, staying exactly where I am and doing exactly what I'm doing seems to be a pretty good option.

Except that, I would also like to get another job at another library in one of the capital cities. When I first took this job my boss suggested it would be good for my career if I looked at staying here for a couple of years and then working at another academic library, and I thought that sounded like a pretty good plan. I still think it sounds like a pretty good plan - particularly as I like the idea of moving to Brisbane or Melbourne for a couple of years.

On top of that, I also want to go back to studies. Specifically, I want to study a language degree majoring in German. There are a couple of universities that offer part-time Diplomas in Modern Languages, which I could possibly do via distance education and would take about three years to complete. In theory, I could do those wherever I happened to be working...

BUT...

But I have seen the course I want to do, and I don't think I can do it via distance education. I don't even know if I want to do it via distance education. It's a brilliant three-year full-time Bachelor of Languages programme that offers all sorts of delicious subjects in Linguistics including such treasures as Traditional Grammar and Phonetics of Spoken Language along with literature subjects in the target language. I could do Classic Literature and Modern Theatre! As well as the actual "learning the language" subjects!

You can't do that in the part-time Diploma programmes. And while I believe you probably could undertake a course like that via distance education, it would be so much better to actually be on campus and talk to the lecturers and tutors face-to-face - as well as interacting with the other students. The evening course I'm doing at the moment has reminded me how beneficial sitting in a classroom with other human beings can be.

Only...

Only I'd have to be physically located in Canberra in order to undertake this course. Over the years I have previously wanted to live in Canberra. I almost got a job there at least twice (only each time I ended up choosing another job somewhere else). At the moment, though, it's not ticking my boxes for a place I want to live in. The thought of living in Brisbane fills my mind with interesting possibilities. Ditto for Melbourne. Sydney not so much, but I think I could make it work. Canberra, though, currently filling me with a sense of "eh". It's too much like Townsville without having the things I love about Townsville, and none of the things I've been hoping to get involved with in Brisbane.

But still, every time I think of that course, I start salivating.

Only...

Only I'd have to find a job in Canberra. And if I'm studying full time, I'd have to work part time. And getting part time work as a librarian isn't that easy in this present economic climate. And I love being a librarian.

Then it came to me - my brilliant idea. You see, where I work we used to have a position that involved providing liaison support to off-campus and micro-campus students. When the guy who held that position shifted into a new position, his job was disbanded. That is, all of the liaison librarians took on the role of supporting those students, instead of having someone who was specifically there as their first contact point.

I've often thought it would be nice if we brought that role back and expanded it, so that the off-campus/micro-campus liaison would actually create and deliver Information Literacy Training specifically designed for students whose main contact with the library was completely remote. We currently do a little bit of that, but it's not a major focus.

Now, in theory, a position could be created which involved creating and delivering online and remote IL training and information and research support. This position could be a part-time consideration operated in the afternoons (when distance students who work full time will be home and looking at their assignments) and, since the role involves helping students who aren't actually on campus, there would be no real need for the person filling this role to be on campus either.

I could, in theory, work remotely during semester time and come back to touch base during the inter-semester weeks. I could also be physically on the campus where I work during O-Week to help with the training, so I wouldn't be completely dead weight. That way I would still, sort of, be working here with these lovely people, while at the same time doing this course I want to do.

So now all I have to do is convince my bosses to create a position that they probably don't want to make and hire me for it even though it would mean they have to fill my current position with someone else - all in order to make life easier for me. What do you think my chances are?

The trouble with working in a library...

I had a strange desire to see if we had any books by H. Rider Haggard in the library so that I might try reading one.

Then I remembered that I own a copy of King Solomon's Mines which I've never gotten around to reading...

Stairs

"Go up those stairs," I say, pointing to the stairs to which I refer, "and go right down to that side of the building," I continue, pointing to the side of the building I'm talking about.

The stairs to which I refer are to my right. I think raising my right arm and stretching it out to the right of me as I point directly at the stairs (which can be seen from where I am sitting and, more importantly, can be seen from where the patron is sitting) is a reasonably clear indication of which flight of stairs I mean.

"Go upstairs and go down that side of the building?" the patron asks, in confirmation.

"Yes, that's right," I say, still waving my right hand towards the stairs which are on my right.

"Okay," she says, and promptly walks over to the other flight of stairs - the one to the left of me, and walks up those stairs instead.

I admit those stairs are closer to where we are currently sitting, but they are not closer to her goal. In fact, had she taken the flight of stairs I had indicated (which she should have been able to see from her position), she would have been on the same side of the building as the book she sought. It would have been a simple matter to walk down to the relevant section. By taking the stairs on my left, she doubled the distance she would have to travel and gave herself more opportunities to get confused along the way.

She is not the first person to watch me point to the stairs on my right, and then take the stairs on my left. I have seen it happen many a time, as has every single one of my colleagues.

I just don't get it. Are they so blinded by the "big" staircase that they cannot fathom the existence of another? Do they think we would send them the longer way if a shorter one existed? Do they have a problem with recognising the direction our fingers are pointing?

Is it possible they simply don't understand what we mean when we point at something? If that is so, then will they also go to the wrong part of the building to look for their books?

I fear I know the answer to that question, and it makes me wonder about the human gene pool.

Udolpho, or novel bashing

So far, it's feeling a little bit like Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded. Which, as I'm sure you remember, did not fill me with joy.

I mentioned previously that Jane Austen mocks this book in Northanger Abbey, which is interesting for a couple of reasons. The one I feel like mentioning at the moment is the fact that she engages in novel bashing while, at the same time, pointing out that novelists who engage in novel bashing are hypocrites.

It's obvious Austen has little respect for anyone who would read a novel like Udolpho, yet she also makes a point of mentioning that it's a bit rich when a novelist tries to establish the intellectual superiority of their heroines by suggesting they never read novels.

There's some sort of hidden cleverness in this. Like someone who sings a parody song about how parody songs show a lack of imagination.

I love the tradition of novel bashing. It's been around as long as novels have. Apparently, so the argument went, novels encourage sentimentality, which is a grave handicap to foster in a young woman. It makes them want to do crazy things, like marry for love instead of money. It also excites their imaginations, which is just asking for trouble, really.

Really, it's this strange desire we have to trash whatever is popular and enjoyable. These days, we bash novels which are popular enough to have everyone reading them. Twilight and the Potter novels are bashed by all and sundry just because they're insanely popular. Otherwise, they would be completely ignored. I wonder of the Brontës had to deal with the same thing? I can just imagine the kind of trash talk that would have gone on about Jane and Rochester...

When I was studying 18th Century literature I used a piece from an afterplay for an exam. Can't remember the title of the thing at the moment, and the Internet isn't as helpful as it could be. I'll have to look it up when I get home. Anyway, the whole play was about a girl who read too many novels, which made her susceptible to being emotionally manipulated by a conman who was trying to woe her in order to steal... something. Can't remember if it was her father's fortune or her virtue.

Actually, what I remember most about that afterplay was the girl's father. Man, that guy was a jerk. She wouldn't marry the man he chose for her because she was in love with the conman, so he spent the whole play calling her a "wanton hussy". That happened a lot in 18th Century plays, actually. Not to mention folk songs dating back to the Middle Ages. Girls who were saving themselves for a certain someone special being called whores and hussies by their fathers, who were essentially hoping to "sell" them to the highest bidder. Talk about double standards. Or maybe that was mixed messages.

What was I talking about anyway? Oh, yeah, novel bashing. Fun stuff.