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I have a better idea about this (will not be specific with this indexical) site that I will probably see again at the beginning of November. (I use “probably” because a type of social action may cause a cancellation of my visit.)
On another front, it seems that I caused a stir on a listserv with my comments on businessese as the “newspeak.” The outside world, or the most potent part of it, defines librarians or information professionals in its own terms, but that is not unexpected. What is, then, unexpected? Hmm, I think it’s our willingness to adopt that language, and make it part of our own, as if we should replace our preexistent language. Somehow, this phenomenon reminds me of entire ethnic groups who were forced to adopt a dominant group’s language as a way to survive. That must be it: we, information professionals, should we wish to survive, will have to forget out identity, since we cannot use our language, so to speak, and adopt a new one, which is defined by the faculty, business world, and others.
We will reformulate identity which is not ours anymore, but that becomes ours since we will speak the language of those who define us. Does this make sense?
I’m reading an article on “genres” in LIS: it is so abstruse right now because it does not seem to clarify what a genre is (will re-read it several times, though). Would need to write a few words about that. Soon.
It appears as if I’ve given up on writing: I haven’t. It’s been quite hectic here, especially in the last two months, but I’d rather say no more. I wish I could master describing the trivia, but I don’t and, likely, I won’t.
Though not an event, or series of events, doing some reading was quite enjoyable, particularly when I got somewhat tired of job hunting—which, usually, happens in the evening. A few days ago—or what is yesterday?— I realized that I have not done any search with Dialog for quite a while, and that worries me because when I don’t practice a skill, I tend to believe that almost forget it. It might have been this concern that almost pushed me to buy a book about online searching for librarians—not bad at all, the book, I mean, considering that I still need to hone my searching skills.
For some reason, I have the feeling that I may end up working in US, although I prefer to stay here, where I am. Will try to rationalize– or attempt a sensible explanation of — this thought, but I believe that’s too early now (for reasons that I prefer to keep to myself).
Will finish this book, “How to talk about book you haven’t read,” by Pierre Bayard, in a couple of days. It appears that, when talking about books without reading them, we can get away with some astucity. The author thinks that the so-called non-reading is even better, because we all have our “inner” books, whether they are individual or collective. My understanding is that, if this is the case, our cultural being can be so rigid that we impose our own cultural grids on any book. Well, what if we just glorify the power of incommunicability? Meaning that a clash of cultures is almost inevitable, or, to put it nicely, a dialogue of the deaf. In this case, it is a dialogue of non-readers– will they be ever understanding what is the Other’s marked identity? That is the Other’s writing, speech, and rhetoric…
Librarians would be saviours since they don’t need to know the content of books, but only their relationships, or how books are positioned within a cultural chain–according to Bayard. Yet, a book may have its own personality, so distinct in fact, that putting it in a relation with other books, or in a subject category, would make us play, unknowingly, Procustes’ role.
Almost a month after the famous move, I feel that I am slowly settling down and also have a better idea about my new environment. Now, as I am facing a new reality, I am ready for the real challenge in a city in which I know well a couple of people( at the most): that is, the job hunt (haunt).
Will describe, along the way, how that goes.
I’ve done a lot of reading and, to be able to skim faster through so many sites, I discovered the wonders of RSS. Now, that I have played a bit with Zotero, I regret that I have not used it in the library school, as it would have saved a lot of time when I was fervently writing bibliographies.
Anyway, I’ll be back soon with more details about the job hunt. (To say that this effort is challenging is a preposterous understatement.)
It’s been quite a break since I have written an entry in my diary: for various reasons, one more—or, perhaps, less— compelling than another. First of all, one should have seen me answering interview questions by phone while I was surrounded by boxes of books and personal items: at that time, I was in the process of packing. Understandably, I had to postpone any packing as it was imperative to prepare for those interviews. Even if I may not get a job with those employers, I can still say that the lessons learned are invaluable. It seems to me that my expertise is fine, but there is an obvious (to me) issue with how I present the final product. The effort that must be put into a sort of presentation feels so close to an ordeal: well, so be it–it’s worth it.
Update on 20 July 2008. I finally moved to To, facing some situations that some people might characterize as extreme. One major lesson is that I need to do a thorough background checkup of movers, especially when a recent acquaintance suggests their services.
Overall, I like the new apartment and its location. Now, it remains to be seen whether I will finally stay here or move somewhere else.
Pretending that I’m busy, I haven’t written an entry for quite a few days.
I would have liked to be a little bit more open here, but, understandably, various reasons prevent me from jotting down some of my thoughts (another attempt to get away from writing).
As if I have never moved, it felt overwhelming to race against time to fill boxes—filling with vengeance, as someone put it. Not surprisingly, the boxes with books are the heaviest of all. Having the librarian streak, I’ve attempted to group the books by categories, not necessarily connected to an easily definable category, or perhaps to the ones that my own mind invented on the spot, as I almost desperately rushed to impose some sort of categorial order to finish off a daunting job. At the end, I simply gave in to our eternal, invisible master—the Time. In other words, categories that would have, or had, existed at the beginning of my packing simply merged into a huge, bookish Babylon. Up to me to figure out how I will re-place them on the shelves.
Simply put, it’s madness: packing, preparing for interviews (and they just keep coming), then having to answer questions either face to face or by phone, and dealing with other, more personal affairs—unquestionably, the latter one is not a subject to depict in this blog.
In the rest of the time, in addition to reading articles of philosophy, psychology, education, and—of course—writing, I continue to look at lib lit. As for the last one, there is a plethora of research that– as my chance to discuss with several kinds of librarians that I would like to meet on a regular basis is currently slim– substitutes for an understandably, more desirable professional contact. And all of a sudden I realize that the time seems to have compressed to the point that I live now with the perception that there is no time for anything else: one task continues with another, without my having any restful intermezzo.
It’s funny how some people undermine themselves by displaying behaviours of greed when they see that you could give them some business somewhat regularly. Specifically, I used the services of a print shop for some personal business (I will leave other details aside), the last time charging me $0.06 per copy, although it was clearly specified in their ad that for more than a thousand copies one is charged $0.04 per copy. When I made this observation in my second to the last use of their services, they have changed the figures, and I gladly gave them the benefit of the doubt. This time, though, I didn’t– justifiably so, and, since I do not believe that being too assertive is always the best approach to solve problems, I paid the full amount, promising myself that I really do not have a reason to go to that printshop anymore (as I’m leaving the city sooner rather than later).
I found Charles Taylor’s article, “The dynamics of democratic exclusion,” interesting in the sense that he sees that people (whether majorities or minorities) in simultaneously democratic and multicultural societies operate politically on two not-so-mutually-exclusive models: the procedural one (we look at each other from the most basic perspective, as humans, but we ignore what really makes us individuals) and the Herderian model (we are complementary to each other precisely because our differences). First, he describes patterns of exclusion of minorities in different Western societies (Germany, Canada), before he proposes his two-prong model. He goes on to say that the two models share linguistically some elements with the “postmodernist” discourse (namely, some of its terms seem to be semantically close to those used by procedural liberals—seemingly ideological enemies of the “postmodernists,” but it would have been interesting if Taylor had come up with some examples to better support his assertion. What Charles Taylor actually does is to clearly define terms, propose an ideological model of how a Western democracy should work, admit that the matters can get worse before they might get better, but he ends up with some gracious generalities (e.g. “we must fight free of some of the powerful philosophical illusions of our age,” pag. 156).
Matching up your text with theirs— the essence of an employer’s request for hiring academic librarians. It is up to the candidates to perform a close reading of a job ad, and figure out– and express that in their response– if their skills correspond to what employers are looking for. But what bothers me is that if the candidates do not have any practical experience, since they are applying for one resident program or another, they will likely have a vague idea to perform that critical close reading, a reading that allows them to include the expected tags, or rather categories within which particular examples must be given to reflect the sought-after skills.
So it all comes down to reading well—librarians’ fundamental skill, intimately linked to their majestic ability to put a written or an oral message into their audience’s words. Speaking of audiences, but changing gears, I had the chance to read some of my colleagues’ pieces of writing that they have posted on a sort of blog. Rather unsurprised by how well most of them write, I could not help comparing my writing skills to theirs, having realized, now more than ever, that I have to master the idioms and, constantly, absorb new words in their various contexts: a titanic work—there is little doubt here.
Today, 19 June 2008, I have looked for what I believe to be relevant articles about the pros and cons of the Google Scholar, which was a daunting task. Having now those articles at hand, it is imperative that I focus on a research question leading to an information literacy lecture for ESL students. The somewhat imposed question is, what are the positive and negative aspects of using Google Scholar (GS) in researching into plagiarism? ( I am being asked to subtly convey the idea that if there are any negative aspects resulting from the use of GS, then the positive ones must be in the realm of libraries, or librarians.)
Though saddened when I have realized that I have no time to write my essay for a newsletter, I found some comfort in the thought that I could write it for a later date, at my pace. Under the pressure to ponder the texts within a limited time frame, analyze and synthesize them, and shape up a reasonably literary input, I would have come up with rambling, unfinished thoughts. Yet, one major benefit of skimming those texts is that I found, amongst many others, an evolutionary perspective on the nature of the relationship between different groups’ expressed perceptions of environmental issues and their political weight in our society. Librarians may be interested in this nature, or rather its dynamics, but I am not quite sure if they can influence it, or on which side they should be. (Well, I am allowed to guess, but I’ll keep that to myself for now.)
I have tried to find the subject heading for a concept, quite familiar though, but rather difficult to express in a few words that would describe it well. It is a concept which could be regarded from at least two facets: one’s present casts a gloom over one’s life, and, thus, one catches a straw of felicitous, past memories, as if, in moments of despair, the straw itself grows into a twig. Would it be that this psychological state touches the border between pathology and nostalgia (in the LCC lingo, the concept that I am thinking about covers simultaneously some well-defined areas of the BF and RC schedules)? Have to give some more thought to that, but, undoubtedly, that would be a difficult reference question.
Under the stress of finding a temporary storage place for books, since the departure is now within sight, I am navigating back and forth to my computer to check my emails, as if I am corresponding with an army of librarians, or with my relatives. In fact, I don’t, because I pretend to keep myself busy all day long.
Young and educated abroad, coming from an Eastern land, she’s really one of a kind. Her bright black eyes, so full of life, were in fact deceiving, as my friend said a bit later. He argued that one does not sign a contract in faith and, thereafter, is told a fundamental detail that, if known, would have made a difference before signing. Yes, I’m still learning here. One could say that learning business skills would never be on my list of priorities, unless I have a wrong perception of how a business person should behave (more likely—but there is less and less time to learn that too).
I enjoyed a small talk with professors and colleagues who were present at the reception. Almost inexplicably, I had an outburst, especially when I was just about to converse with one instructor whom I owe the perception of becoming a self-learner. She was the one who helped me to cross that imaginary bridge—oh yes, an imperfect and cheap metaphor, but still a metaphor.
In a conversation with another teacher, I mentioned that I know of one of my colleagues who accepted to work as a library technician. The teacher said something predictable, but I still wanted to confirm it– unless you’re really desperate, you should avoid being sidetracked and accept having your professional status lowered. Actually, this is more complicated, considering that colleague’s particular situation (immigrant with less than near-native speaking skills).
I cannot believe how cool it is in Montreal these days: the maximum for today in my part of the island is 16C, although it is sunny.
Again, I have not written for a few days.
Before I went to get my convocation gown, I had gone to the school office to ask a few questions, and I had run into one of the instructors. A small conversation was revealing of how cultural expectations and differences are so entrenched in our mindsets: a trip to Europe seems to mean mostly traveling rather that going to simply see one’s family, some members of whom I haven’t seen for four years. But there you have it.
It appears that this summer will be quite hot, and that adjective does not refer to the weather conditions, but to job hunting techniques and professional networking—the latter concept being a nagging keyword in our profession. But what can you do?
I have noticed that, since I have written less frequently in this diary, my vocabulary suffers enormously. To keep on functioning, my brain needs a continuous lexical input, preferably arranged in some form of thoughts. Otherwise, it runs idle, and when I need to articulate something, those thoughts come out in basic words. This state of mind reminds me of that one of the main character in “Flowers for Algernon,” who becomes smart at one point, but, after that, he slowly and painfully loses his IQ.
I have just finished reading a few articles on representing meaning through conceptual mapping. What that means is, for example, being able to summarize a text, or a book, using a conceptual mapping procedure (we learned something similar to brainstorning techniques in writing). The most difficult part is to find the main idea of the text and then represent it in concepts and propositions (categories of concepts), using relationships. I have thought of a text, which I just finished reading, which I will use to build that map. Apparently, conceptual mapping proved to be a useful tool in learning meaningfully rather than rote learning. It seems that there is a continuum between meaningful learning (learning purposefully by using a variety of scaffolds) and rote learning, rather than two completely separate approaches of learning.
