Click on this Map to see exactly where we were when we found the snake.

Went on a hike yesterday - had extreme panic. The dogs had been running off the trail the whole time. For some reason, both of the dogs were on the trail at this point. A runner was coming up the trail, as we were going down. We stopped to get out of his way. We went to the right of the trail. The dogs were stopping, we thought afraid of the runner. Not even an inch off the trail was a coiled rattlesnake. Two inches wide at his thickest point, the snake was coiled and ready to strike.

The runner ran past. My friend grabbed her dog. I grabbed my dog who was much closer. We cowered as far as we could get quickly. We’re good in crisis. My dog was about a foot away from the snake. We were clearly close to the dog. My friend’s dog puked. Apparently out of fright. It was just too much. As we sat there cowering, we heard the rattle of the snake.

To be honest, I don’t know how any of us managed to get away unscathed. The runner, my friend and I threw rocks into the bushes, and walked quickly past - carrying our dogs. We leashed them at this point. The runner was on a timed run. We talked about fate. We talked about how close that was. He took off. We took off. Running.

Click here to see what newspapers were added for searching today! I use this all the time for all of my historical research. This is a great, great, great tool.

http://blog.genealogybank.com/2008/07/genealogybank-adding-newspapers-from-22.html

I read this blog post on genealogy bank that made me really bummed. It was a beautiful building, full of lots of cool stuff, incredible history, and primary sources.

The reminder I told myself is that this is why what I’m doing is important. Digital preservation is the key to withstand these kinds of problems. Fire, flood, wind, rain, and other natural disasters that can lead to the ruin of documents. Thank goodness we have ways of dealing with this now! Go internet! Save this blog post forever-ish!

I read Gina’s blog about the idea of sharing with others what our days are like as librarians from Librarian By Day, and I really like it. Not just for the sharing aspects, but also it will be fun to see how many hats I wear in any one day. I am going to find it entertaining! So are you! There is also a wiki that shows everyone who is doing this.

I will update this post throughout the day today as I track my own experience, like a real journal. Honest, true, and accurate.

7:35 am : Checking email, checking blogs, reading the Social Responsibilities Round Table Newsletter and processing my day. Drinking green tea.

8-8:30 am : I turned on all the lights in our library, turned on all the equipment, said hello to coworkers, shelved a few state documents, reshelved a manuscript collection item that a volunteer had mis-filed, surveyed the lost and found and drew up a list of objects in our lost and found collection.

8:30 - 8:55 am: Attended a meeting on the proper placement of archives items, and learned about proper destruction of records. Also learned about the 2 week archival training institute.

8:55 am - 9 am: Opened the doors, unlocking them, greeting first customers.

9 am - 10:35 am: Answered reference questions about photos of grazing, history of the paiute-bannock war, rube robbins, history of minnie moore mine, boulder mine, photos of legislators and politicians. Answered internal questions about how to find manuscript collections in the building, how to access our server from outside the agency, how to do digital preservation, magnification of lenses, and 1936 Boise Capital News.

10:35 - 10:41 am: worked out a way for a professional services contractor to set up server access through a VPN

10:41 - 11:22 am: Helped patron fill out request for permission to use photos for promo film, several reference requests, mostly directional; IT request with co-worker; WorldCat/LiLI assistance with patron; discussion with co-workers about how access to information is equal to power.

11:23 - 11:52 am: Helped with off site requests; Discussed photocopying all of the Lander Trail diaries for an off site patron; Added two finding aids to our new web site: http://idahohistory.cdmhost.com/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=%2Fp265501coll4 ; Searched for historical maps of Lemhi, Logan and Alturas Counties from 1870s and 1880s (very few…).

11:53 am - 12:17 pm: Working on outreach & digitization plan. Reference questions go down to zero here at lunch time, except on Saturdays!

12:18 - 1 pm: Outreach flyers, outreach plan; Worked on digital instructions as needed by supervised staff.

1pm: Lunch!

I actually never get real long lunches. While eating lunch we brainstormed outreach programs, book sales, silent auctions, etc.

1:15 - 2ish pm: Touched base with digital partners and made sure that everything was going smoothly for certain purchases. Worked on printing a variety of resources for the digitization manual. Developed new quick guides for the digitization of resources.

2-3pm: Set up training for a new color copier/scanner. Got approval to get the external hard drives for the parts of our agency that have no server access at all. This way we can migrate the data to our server. Shelved 30 state documents. Organized duplicates shelf.

3-3:15 pm: Set up more outreach for genealogy.

3:15-3:45 pm: Worked with interns and volunteers on the digital grant.

3:45- 4:05 pm: Approved and edited collections and items on ContentDM. Went over the minutes from our meeting on Tuesday and checked off everything that I had already done.

4:05pm-4:25 pm: Met with co-worker about outreach, and how to do outreach for PARL. It’s hard.

4:25 - 5 pm: Learned a web based way to access ContentDM. Made the first flyer for our digital program! Yay!

6:30-7:30 pm: Meet with group I do outreach with/to.

7:30 pm: Out for beers with Librarians!!!!!

EDIT: This is not my average day. I’m seriously hoping for everything to go back to normal at some point when our digital grant is finished, but I am very devoted to this career, and there is no turning back now!

Ok, so I’m getting married this year which means I’m not going to ALA and I’m not going to SLA which kinda makes me sad. Especially since SLA looks so freaking cool and is about basically what I’m doing. I’ve been breaking the rules to status quo stuff to provide excellent services. I’ve been building bridges with partners to make our services relevant. It’s a lot of work, but it pays off, and we all have to do it.

So, should I really have been dismayed about SLA? I mean, I’m getting married that week and my best friends will be in town staying at my house! Well, I am not that sad, I just wish SLA was a different week this year.

First - VINT CERF IS SPEAKING. Second.. see below…

Does age matter?

A brief dialog between two librarians from different generations on applying information literacy standards is followed by several small table discussion on how generational views and experiences affect the work of academic librarians.

Ethical Competitive Intelligence

CI professionals abide by applicable legal and ethical norms, such as the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) code of ethics, distinguishing CI from industrial espionage. This presentation explains the law and ethics of CI. Learn how to collect CI in a legal and ethical manner, how to identify what makes an act illegal, and how to recognize the line between law and ethics.

Future of Librarians in the Workforce

Following presentations in Toronto, Baltimore and Denver the speaker will give an update on the progress of the IMLS-sponsored study that will identify the nature of anticipated labor shortages in the library and information science field over the next decade. She also will assess the number and types of library and information science jobs that will become available in the U.S. either through retirement or new job creation; determine the skills that will be required to fill such vacancies; and recommend effective approaches to recruiting and retaining workers to fill them. The study is expected to result in better tools for workforce planning and management, better match of demand and supply, and improved recruitment and retention of librarians. The presentation will discuss the data collected to date and any conclusions that may be drawn at this stage.

Government Librarians Get Savvy! Metrics, metrics, metrics!

What does Outsell’s latest benchmarking survey reveal about trends impacting information managers? How can benchmarking, ROI, and other metrics illustrate value to users and stakeholders? At this session facilitated by Outsell analysts, diverse government librarians will share challenges and best practices for applying metrics to quantify and justify their operations.

So, I’m still getting married, yes, he still loves me though I am tempted by great conferences, but there is always next year…

Tagged by Memo I’ve picked…. this picture of Venec because two weeks ago was Bring Your Kid To Work Day.. so Venec asked me, “How do you know about all these websites?” He had already figured out that I help people find information, and he helped me help people do so, but he was also really impressed by I Can Has Cheezburger. I told him that the best thing you can do is to always, always, always for the rest of your life ask people questions, always. This photo best captures that. Last year at a Basque festival he asked how to use my picture phone. Then he asked questions of others.

I am tagging Gina P, William, and Melody!

Here are the rules:

• Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

If you have never heard about the war between Idaho’s Kootenai Tribe against the United States, you’ll need to learn about it! In the 1970s Amy Trice let the Kootenai Tribe to fight for justice, education, and to fight against poverty, sickness and sadness.

Read some about it here, or attend our event on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 from 10 am - 11:30 am. More to come soon!

I love supporting exciting historical events!

Boise now has sheep grazing on the hillside. It’s miraculous and beautiful.

This daylong workshop is geared to create relationships between the refugee community and the state of Idaho’s various agencies and organizations.

It will include hands on workshops, and all sorts of opportunities to partner.

“Boise, in Idaho’s Treasure Valley, is the new home to over 10,000 refugees and immigrants from all over the world. The Treasure Valley also has a large, vibrant and diverse art community and a strong network of social service agencies. Imagine the power of these groups working together. You are invited to a workshop that will explore merging the arts with social services to better serve these newcomer communities and to enliven our community at large.”

Do you like music? How about music that was played long, long ago? Like before 1910? The stuff we don’t have recordings of? The stuff people sang around the campfire, or maybe in the Old Penitentiary? Gary Eller has been working on collecting as many songs as he can from this era, and now has his own Song of the Month web page where you can download and listen to one vocal song and one instrumental song. I help Gary do a lot of research here at the Idaho State Historical Society. I’m very impressed with his devotion to research, his thoroughness, and attention to detail!

 For example, he loves bibliographies as much as I do - check out this annotated list!