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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Michael Pollan
Non-Fiction, History, Nutrition, Anthropology
464 pages
Published 2007
Michael Pollan acts as detective, tracking down the exact origins of four different meals. He takes us through industrial, organic, ethical, and personal approaches to food. Along the way, he compares the size of the carbon footprint and ethical implications of each approach. This book was a bestselling title in 2007.
To me this book was okay. I appreciated the in-depth view of the current standard American diet. The poor grammar was a little distracting. The first part seemed to go on a bit too long about corn. I was tempted to scrap the whole thing but instead I skipped some corn sections and found most of the rest of the book interesting. I especially enjoyed the section on Polyface Farm where Joe Salatin is a profoundly successful farmer producing delicious food by letting each form of life on the farm fully express itself.
It is possible that this book will be the "Diet For a Small Planet" of the new millennium.
Citation for the article:
Luo, Lili. "Chat Reference Evaluation: A Framework of Perspectives and Measures." Reference Services Review 36.1 (2008): 71-85.
Read via Emerald.
I just wanted to make a note of this article, but I don't have anything substantial enough for the main blog. It provides a review of procedures for evaluating chat reference services. It basically goes through the literature, and it summarizes the various approaches available for evaluating chat reference. Overall, a decent overview.
In other Unshelved news: library humor + trebucket humor = WIN!!
In other other news it has been 50 (FIFTY) days since I have posted a RH song.
Gotta fix that...
I won't do you no harm I just wanna show what's in my fridge
The true forefather of the World Wide Web and hypertext ...born in 1868 ...created hypertext in 1898 and the first version of the World Wide Web in 1934... Paul Otlet - a Librarian!
Today from 5 - 7 PM (Central Time), we have author Tom Swift coming in to talk about, sell, and sign his book - Chief Bender's Burden: The Silent Struggle of a Baseball Star. Mr. Swift is probably the most well known author that we have had at me library and I really hope people turn out. However, I am not holding me breath because me library's community does not like to attend anything.
Anyway, you can find out more about the book and purchase it HERE, if you are into what it is about that is.
The library system in which I now find myself working is looking at changing our business hours. Why? Well, you should know, but I will still tell you. GAS! Apparently there is a gas crisis going on in the US of A, who knew? Anyway, we are currently open for only 3 hours on Saturdays and that is just a waste of time to be driving all the way to work.
Anyway, please give me your opinions as to which possible working schedule sounds best to you.
1. Open Monday - Thursday from 8 AM to 7 PM; Closed Friday - Sunday
2. Open Tuesday - Friday from 8 AM to 7 PM; Closed Saturday - Monday
3. Open Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9 AM - 6 PM; Tuesday & Thursday 10 AM - 7 PM; Closed Saturday and Sunday
4. Open Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9 AM - 6 PM; Tuesday & Thursday 10 AM - 7 PM; My Branch open Saturday from 9 AM - 6 PM with workers from all other branches helping fill in; All other branches closed Saturday
5. Open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday 8 AM - 7 PM; Closed Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday
Our current hours are MWF 9 - 6 ; TTR 10 - 7; SAT 9 - 12; Sunday closed
What do you think?
I just discovered that the journals of Lewis and Clark are available for free online. This edition is the
edited edition
from Gary E. Moulton. It is considered one the most accurate and
complete editions of the journals. I read this version a few years ago in hard
copy and thoroughly enjoyed it. I felt like I was there with Lewis and Clark,
living their moments. The journals reveal things we have forgotten or that are
not taught in school.
Sacajawea was not technically their guide - her husband was. And she was forced to go on the journey by her husband who was paid by Lewis and Clark. It was sheer luck that she was there since it turned out that her husband had a rotten sense of direction. She wasn't leading them to be nice; she was leading them for the sheer purpose of survival. And it was also lucky that she was there because they traversed through the lands of her family tribe who would not have been as friendly to the travelers had they not had Sacajawea with them. Lewis or Clark (I cannot remember which one because it has been awhile since I read these) was appalled by how her husband treated her.
Voting Rights
Another interesting fact was that this expedition is the first record in
American history where a black man and a woman were included in the democratic process
of voting. Whenever the traveling group needed to make a big decision they
voted on it and votes from both their black servant and Sacajawea were
included.
Dictionaries and Grammar
What really hit me when I was reading the journals was a deep
appreciation for dictionaries and for basic rules of
Appreciation
A big shout out of appreciation should go out to the Center for Great Plains Studies, the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities in the UNL Libraries, and the University of Nebraska Press for making access to this incredible piece of American history freely available and accessible to all.
Last night was Food Group at me library. The theme was "cakes and pies." We had a good turnout. I don't think I could eat more sweets if I wanted to at the moment...
There was another table filled with cakes and pies, but you get the general idea. I had to have some of everything.
Well that is a bit pretentious title for a blog post: thoughts on leadership, as if I knew much about the topic. Sure, I have had a thought or two now and then.But I am certainly nowhere in the league of the folks at ACRL or certain high level library directors who write on the topic but likely have not walked among the troops recently. Once in a while the topic of leadership comes up in the librarian sector of the blogosphere, then it winds down, then comes back up again. It's one of those things you can count on. I have some interest in the topic, but since I know no one in their right mind would name me to direct their library, and I would not want to anyhow, I don't do more than give it some cursory thinking now and then. At any rate, I came across this little editorial in my readings:
McMenemy, David. "'Or you got it or you ain't': the nature of leadership in libraries." Library Review 57.4 (2008): 265-268.
Read via Emerald.
The thrust of the article is that the author believes that when it comes to leadership, you either have it, or you don't. At least that is the philosophy he agrees with. His point is that the notion of books and workshops to teach leadership skills is flawed. I agree to an extent. You either have the nature to be a leader, or you don't. However, you are not born with the skills, which means you have to do some learning, and those parts can be learned. Personally I think they can be learned by reading more of the classics and less of the leadership trendy books we find today. I think what Professor McMenemy is trying to say is that we should not equate leadership with management, which is something I would agree to as well. But I think when it comes to developing leadership the truth is somewhere in the middle. You need to have some of it in your nature, but the rest you can certainly train and polish.
McMenemy also says that experience is crucial, and this is true. Unfortunately the fact is that librarianship as a whole is very reluctant or short sighted when it comes to providing experiences for leaders to be groomed and to grow. This has also been written about in the librarian sector of the blogosphere, but other than getting written about, it does not look like the old guard have any interest or inclination in truly training leaders for the future. Succession planning is not exactly high on their radar, which not only means a lack of future leadership. It also means a possible loss of institutional memories if the experiences, information, and knowledge of those senior leaders is not passed down.
Here are some of the ideas from McMenemy's article:
- "Furthermore, I feel the discourse around leadership to be potentially troublesome, since the basis by which assumptions are made about leadership being something that can be taught lead to it being seen as just another management skill that can be acquired; the reality is that it is far more important than that, and such views trivialise something that is of vital importance in our profession" (265). Here is the key point in the article.
- One concern, and it is one we seem to be missing in the profession: "Thus positions that in the past were defined as professional librarians change their focus to become overtly management roles. The irony is that such positions were always so, but with a change in emphasis and discourse comes legitimacy in the eyes of other managers. Rather than being merely a librarian, one can say they are a manager, with all the potential this has for career development!" (266). Notice the use of the phrase "merely a librarian." If that does not raise an eyebrow or two, I am not sure what will.
- The eternal reminder. This is what I wish a few of those honchos in places like ACRL and a good number of the big research campuses would get through their skulls when they pontificate yet again about leadership: "Undoubtedly, while leaders may manage, managers do not necessarily lead. Leadership being interpreted as solely being about performance measures and achieve strategic objectives is a sad indictment of our professional discourse, yet it remains a cliche" (266).
- On certain leadership programs. I am sure to a savvy reader or two, they may be reminded of certain programs the national professional organization puts up: "Yet they [the programs] work on the basis of plucking a handful of people from the relative obscurity of their library to be chosen as future leaders; in essence a Pop Idol for librarians. My major concern with such initiatives relates to the criteria for selection and the danger that candidates can be chosen because they are young, are potentially good managers, and say the right things, which equates good leadership in the mindsets of some" (266-267). I don' think I can add much more to that. Then again, I am just a librarian in the field. I just happen to believe a lot of true leadership happens quietly in the front lines; those folks will never be plucked for some fancy program.
- "In our profession's leaders, we must seek more than a good manager or someone who has attended the correct courses; we must seek experience, vision, integrity, and an understanding of the potential of the organisation and the people within it. Just as importantly, we need leaders who wish to take their place as part of the profession, not see their roles as merely caretakers of a service" (267).
- Another concern that many so called "library leaders" seem to be missing: "The movement towards bringing people from outside of the profession to lead is dangerous because it presupposes that the notion of the leader as manager supersedes the experienced professional librarian as leader, and this is dangerous to the long-term viability of the profession" (267). The fact that our profession is willing to tolerate, and even endorse in some cases, bringing some non-librarian to run our facilities is, at best, disrespectful, at worse, a clear example of devaluing our profession.
Floyd overhead me referring to him a rodent and has taken severe exception with me about it. Apparently raccoons do not belong to the Fraternal Order of Rodents. So much for funning around with "The Roaming Rodent" sobriquet.
When checking out Floyd's assertion, I was amused to discover that on Yahoo Answers, you get to control reality by voting for the answer you like best. If the true answer doesn't rock, well hey--pick one that does! The winning answer to "Are raccoons rodents?" was "If they are in your house, then yes."
Suppose we did that on Reference Desk!
"Oh, you don't like the forms you'll have to fill out to get your Stimulus Payment this year? How about this--jot your address down on the back of a cocktail napkin and drop it in a mailbox!"
'Why, yes, there ARE federal grants to start your own business! Tons of them! And once you get it started, there are more grants to pay for your employees and your bookkeeping and a really big car for you to ride around in! Now you know how Bill Gates did it."
"You want to know if you're related to Princess Diana? Okay, just give me a second to pull up your personal genealogy back to 1610--it's right here on the Internet. Now, how do you spell your last name? Yep, you sure are related to Princess Diana! Also to Buckminster Fuller, Happy Rockefeller, and The Fabulous Moolah! Aren't you something!"
It's a revolutionary new reference method--give people whatever they want. Let's call it the Zingerman Technique, after the people who taught us "We don't live on a planet called 'Fair. ' " They don't live on a planet called "Reality" either, so that shoe oughta fit.
