Article Series (6): How is your writing ability?

“Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it.  Our civilization is decadent and our language–so the argument runs–much inevitably share in the general collapse.  It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes.  Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.” (77)

This is how George Orwell’s essay titled “Politics and the English Language” begins.  It can be found in his collection of essays Shooting an Elephant New York: Harcourt, Brace & World (1950), 77-92.  Now, while this essay is a commentary on political writing it is also packed full of great writing advice.  I originally came across it through a series of emails that were circulating on campus amongst the faculty and one suggested that we should all go back and review this essay.  Seeing as I had never read it I decided to give it a try. 

Near the beginning of the essay, Orwell gives five examples of poor political writing, which he later comments on in detail, but all have two common qualities: “staleness of imagery” and “lack of precision”.  He then goes on to illustrate the ways that prose-construction is avoided:

• “Dying metaphors.  A newly invented metaphor assists thought by evoking a visual image, while on the other hand a metaphor which is technically ‘dead’ . . . has in effect reverted to being an ordinary word and can generally be used without loss of vividness.  But in between these two classes there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.” (80)
• “Operators or verbal false limbs.  These save the trouble of picking out appropriate verbs and nouns, and at the same time pad each sentence with extra syllables which give it an appearance of symmetry.” (80)
• “Pretentious diction . . . [results in] an increase in slovenliness and vagueness.” (81-2)
• “Meaningless words.“ (82)  Orwell describes this best, but I think the phrase is descriptive itself. 

Honestly, I recommend you take the time to read this essay.  It is a quick read and full of constructive advice.

“As I have tried to show, modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make their meaning clearer.  It consists of gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug.  The attraction of this way of writing is that it is easy.  It is easier–even quicker, once you have the habit–to say In my opinion it is not an unjustifiable assumption that than to say I think.” (85)

I love his sarcasm here:

“By using stale metaphors, similes and idioms, you save much mental effort, at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for yourself.” (85-6)

He quickly moves to further advice:

“A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus:  What am I trying to say?  What words will express it?  What image or idiom will make it clearer?  Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?  And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly?  Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?  But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble.  You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in.” (86-7)

As he gets further into his commentary about political writing, Orwell does not hide his opinion:

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.  When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.” (88-9) 

Are you a cuttlefish?

And, predictably, the author admits he has probably committed many of these offenses himself. (89) He is in part, like others, influenced by his environment.

“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.  A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better.” (89)

As he nears the end of the essay, Orwell makes several more writing recommendations and then clearly maps out six rules to follow when logical instinct fails in the writing process:

“(i)  Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii)  Never use a long word where a short one will do.

(iii)  If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv)  Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v)  Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(vi)  Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

These rules sound elementary, and so they are, but they demand a deep change of attitude in anyone who has grown used to writing in the style  now fashionable.  One could keep all of them and still write bad English, but one could not write the kind of stuff that I quoted in those five specimens at the beginning of this article.” (91-2)

So, how are you doing with your writing?  Well, I certainly have a lot of room for improvement.  In a time where self-publishing is so easy, I think we should make a conscious effort to review and revise what we publish on a regular basis.  Well, at lease I should.  Wish me luck!  And go read Orwell’s essay.

Snoring in the basement of the library . . . hee, hee

I could just tweet this but I thought I would share this here. Yesterday I was down in the stacks pulling books to send out.  Around the perimeter of the main stacks we have a series of small study rooms that students love to use for lots of reasons (although I won’t go into detail here) which we call “the cages,” because some of them have wire covering the area where a window would normally be.  While I was pulling books yesterday, just before lunch, I could hear snoring coming from the cages.  And not just an occasional soft sound, this was a consistent and loud snore.  I didn’t investigate where it was actually coming from but I’m sure that person wasn’t making the students around them happy.  And, it gives a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘user experience.’

Mid-semester update- Crazy? Yep!

Hi, I thought I would put in a quick post letting you know what has been going on with me.  So, let’s see if I can do this without boring you too much. 

It has been really busy this semester.  And when I say really busy, I mean really busy.  Several of us in the library have remarked on the overall activity level this semester.  Since the start of the semester, there has not been any significant lull in the amount of activity.  We typically have a few really busy weeks at the beginning of the semester and then it calms down a bit.  No such luck this semester.  I our primary instruction librarians have had full schedules this semester, I’m not sure they have had any time to even breathe.  It has been flat out in interlibrary loan as well.  I have been keeping track of questions that come through my office, one day two weeks ago I had twenty questions.  Yes, I said twenty, just in my office alone, this was not at the reference desk.  I have yet to calculate the number of interlibrary loan transactions for October but my initial guess is the numbers are going to be high.  If only I had the time to pull the statistics together.  My days are basically filled with processing requests, packing up books, copying and scanning articles, checking in materials, and fielding questions.  When not doing those things I am typically at a meeting of some sort or other.  Overall, there has been little to no time for anything extra.  I leave every evening with piles of stuff that are waiting for me when I come back the next morning.  As for overdue notices from other libraries . . . I’m waiting for them to start sending me hate mail or send over their library brute squad.  I wish I just had the time to tell them I’m not ignoring them.  Hmm, maybe this week . . .

(I’m not even going to start on the contiuing doctor appointments I’ve had.  Can you say “At least one a week?”)

And of course on top of that I am trying to keep up on the literature.  I’m actually glad, even though it has only been a short time so far, for my article review project.  It is one of the few constants in my erratic schedule these days.  Not sure what I will do this week, but I’ve got my eyes peeled.  Stay tuned!

Article Series (5): Oh Bartleby! Do you know someone like him?

Melville, Herman.  (1962).  ”Bartleby The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.”  Three Shorter Novels of Herman Melville.  New York: Harper.  109-155.

***This is the copy I happened to find and read.  This has been published by a variety of different publishers over the years in various collections, etc.***

This post is more of a philosophical one than just a review of something I read.  It is really ‘food for thought’ at best.

On the morning of September 29th, I heard a piece on NPR, while driving to work.  Richard Russo was being interviewed about some of the books he likes to read.  Here is the link to the accompanying article.  Mr. Russo  spoke about loathing the idea of working in an office, but he loves reading stories that are set in offices.  Of the several books he recommended, the last was Bartleby The Scrivener by Herman Melville.  The recommendation intrigued me because he said the following:

“The question becomes: What happens in an office when you have an individual who would prefer not to? What if there isn’t, really, a shared sense of purpose?”

The narrator, who is Bartleby’s boss, had offices in Manhattan and practiced law.  Naturally he employed law-copyists.  He was not unfamiliar with the eccentricities of employees.  But, Bartleby left him perplexed with how to deal with him through to the end of the story.  As the narrator’s business improved he had more work to do and so employed Bartleby.  At the start, Bartleby was a quiet, hard worker.  And throughout the story he remained quite passive (some may say passive aggressive) and said very little.  Problems arose when Bartleby was asked to do things beyond sitting at his desk and copying documents.  His standard response to requests such as comparing copies, summoning someone from the next room, or doing general office tasks was “I would prefer not to.”  When pressed, Bartleby typically would repeat is original response.  The narrator found this disconcerting from the start:

“Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance.  If the individual so resisted be of not inhumane temper, and the resisting one perfectly harmless in his passivity; then, in the better moods of the former, he will endeavour charitably to construe to his imagination what prove impossible to be solved by his judgment.”  (123-4)

Because the narrator received very little feed back from Bartleby when questioned, he was inclined to develop a sense of pity for Bartleby.  This, most readers will find disconcerting.  What do you do with an employee or co-worker who refuses to participate and is virtually unresponsive when questioned?  Some may be inclined, as the narrator, to stop making requests of such a person:

“Now and then, in the eagerness of despatching pressing business, I would inadvertently summon Bartleby, in a short, rapid tone, to put his finger, say, on the incipient tie of a bit of red tape with which I was about compressing some papers.  Of course, from behind the screen the usual answer, ‘I prefer not to,’ was sure to come; and then, how could a human creature with the common infirmities of our nature, refrain from bitterly exclaiming upon such perverseness–such unreasonableness.  However, every added repulse of this sort which I received only tended to lessen the probability of my repeating the inadventure.”  (127)

And, despite all the narrator did to get Bartleby to work, and to eventually be rid of him, nothing resolved the matter:

“Indeed, it was his wonderful mildness chiefly, which not only disarmed me, but unmanned me, as it were.”  (128)

The story goes on to include circumstances we would never encounter in our workplaces.  The narrator found Bartleby was living in the offices.  Bartleby eventually stopped working altogether.  He was dismissed but would not leave.  Eventually, the narrator moved his offices.  Unfortunately, his former landlord sought him out to complain about the strange man who would not leave the previously occupied offices.  The narrator visited Bartleby but could not convince him to leave.  Bartleby was eventually arrested.  While Bartleby was in jail, the narrator visited him on a few occasions.  On the last visit, Bartleby was found dead. 

So ends the story of Bartleby.  But what about our stories?  Our situations?  Our circumstances?  How do we navigate the professional workplace, committees, associations, etc. when there are people who have conflicting work ethics?  Or there are persons who flatly refuse to participate in certain tasks, projects, or events?  What is to be done when people, to quote Mr. Russo, don’t have a ’shared sense of purpose’?  Is there anything to be ‘done’?  Should something be ‘done’?  What impact does such a colleague have on others?  What impact does such circumstances have on patrons/customers/students/faculty/members?  What impact does it have on your institution/library/association/company?  How does it impact other employees and co-workers?  Do we ask and/or expect less of such a person?   I will assume as employees we are expected to deliver a certain amount of work while at or workplace.  And, when asked to do something we respond accordingly.  What happens when a supervisor is met with a no response?  Are there consequences?  Is someone else charged with the task?  What does it mean when a co-worker gradually does less and less work?  And, like Bartleby, is largely passive and unresponsive?

I’m not even going to attempt to answer these questions here, partly because I am still struggling with the questions myself.  I’m not really sure how I would answer them.  Although each situation will probably warrant a different solution.  But, I think they are questions that need to be taken seriously in situations where we are faced with folks like Bartleby.  And of course, feel free to share your comments here.

Article Series (4): Clear Coping Mechanisms for Dealing with Information Overload

Houghton-Jan, Sarah.  “Being Wired or Being Tired: 10 Ways to cope with Information Overload.”  Ariadne.  56 (2008): 1-13.  Web.  20 Sep. 2009.

Ah, the wonderful world of information overload!  We all experience it.  We all worry about it.  Most of us have no idea what to do about it.  (Boy is that soooo true!)  Well, here is a good article for those of you who want to try to do something about this.  This was recommended in a post by Maura Smale on ACRLog titled “Damming the Information Streams.”  So, lots of thanks and praise to Maura for recommending it.  And, upon reading it, I thought the article appropriate for my article series.  Although, I really suggest you read the article in its entirety if you can, as well as Maura’s post.  There is much more to the article than I am going to cover here.  Sarah does a much better job than I can in fleshing out her suggested strategies for coping with information overload.

At the risk of being boring, I am going to give you an outline that includes all of Sarah’s headings and subheadings from the article.  I will include some quotations with commentary for some of the sections (in italics).  But I think the outline is important if you want to pick out the sections you may find useful to you.  Not all of her advice is going to be useful to everyone.

A.  Introduction

B.  The History of Information Overload

“Information overload is not a new concept, believe it or not.  As far back as the sixteenth century people were complaining about the wide range of information they had to consume in order to contribute to society.  During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries an intellectual revolution occurred as books and written information became more widely produced and disseminated, while innovations and new relationships in economics and the sciences emerged.”  (1)

So, this isn’t a new concept/complaint.  Like so many things, this is an issue that has been around for a long time in a wide variety permutations.

C.  The Effects of Information Overload

“Information flowing in from the multitude of devices, organisations, and technologies distracts, pressures, and stresses us. And yet we continue to produce information for ourselves and for others. Every time we send out information, information returns to us, usually two-fold. We deal with both interruptive and non-interruptive information every day. When constantly interrupted with that information, we never have those periods of time when you can think, plan and ponder. As a result, our ability to push our lives and our institutions forward has been greatly compromised.” (2)

Should we stop producing so much information?  Should we make an effort to ‘unplug’ so that we can regroup on a regular basis?  Do you think that being plugged in all the time compromises our efforts to move our lives and institutions forward?  Well, I can’t speak for everyone but I will (sheepishly) admit that I am not as productive at work when I have Twitter and Facebook going throughout the day.  Don’t get me wrong, I think both have their uses, both socially and professionally, but on a daily basis I am more focused when I am a bit more unplugged.  I can multi-task just like most, but I do better and more quality work when I focus on one or two things at a time. 

D.  The Role of Librarians and Other Information Professionals

“So, how do we combat information overload, also known as ADT? Hallowell recommends face-to-face interactions every few hours (what he calls a ‘a human moment’), exercise, enough sleep, a good diet, keeping one’s workspace tidy, breaking large tasks down into smaller ones, and setting aside part of your day as ‘appointment and email free.’ But what really works? What do the people working in the field do to help themselves?” (3)

What works for you?  Maybe we should all try some of these ideas.  I have been trying a few of these things.  My take so far?  They are useful.  I actually have started to clear off the nightmare that is my desk, it keeps me from feeling so overwhelmed.  And I definitely work better when I get some face time with my colleagues each day.

E.  Ten Techniques to Manage the Overload

1.  General Organisational Techniques

a.  Make an Inventory of Information Received

b.  Make and Inventory of Your Devices

c.  Read Up

Some of the books recommended in this section could be useful, but I am a bit cautious because the most recent of these is from 2007.  And, as most things regarding information change so fast these days the content in these books might not be so timely.

d.  Think Before Sending

What is the best way to communicate with someone?  Do you prefer using email, IM, voicemail?  But what is the best way in relation to the information need and/or what is the most effective way to communicate with a particular person?  Maybe speaking to the person face to face is the best method.

e.  Schedule Yourself

f.  Schedule Unscheduled Work

g.  Use Your ‘Down Time’ to Your Benefit

h.  Stay Tidy and on Top

i.  Keep a Waiting List

This might be useful, but only if your list isn’t a mile long.

2.  Filtering Information Received

 a.  Weed, Baby Weed!

b.  Teach Others

c.  Schedule Unplugged Times

d.  Unplug at Will

3.  RSS Overload Techniques

a.  Use RSS When Applicable

b.  Remind Yourself

c.  Limit the Number of Feeds

Yep, I have too many feeds and not enough time to read them.  I think it is time to ‘weed’ some of them out.

d.  Organise Feeds

4.  Interruptive Technology Overload Techniques

a.  Use Interruptive Technology When Appropriate

b.  Check When You Want to

c.  Do Not Interrupt Yourself

d.  Importance of the Status Message

e.  Lobby for IM in Your Workplace

5.  Phone Overload Techniques

a.  Use the Phone When Appropriate

b.  Turn Your Mobile Phone Off

c.  Keep You Number Private

d.  Let It Ring

e.  Work=Work; Home=Home

6.  Email Overload Techniques

a.  Stop ‘Doing Email’

b.  Schedule Email Scanning Times

You got that right!

c.  Deal with Email by Subject

d.  Use Email When Appropriate

e.  Keep Your Inbox Empty

f.  Filter your Messages

g.  File Your Messages

I do some of this, but my problem I tend not to visit those folders very often.  Things get ignored.

h.  Limit Listservs

i.  Follow Good Email Etiquette

j.  Delete and Archive

7.  Print Media Overload Techniques

a.  Just Because You Can Touch It Does Not Mean You Have to Keep It

“Treat physical data the same way you would treat digital data: if you do not absolutely need it, throw it out.” (10)

Oh boy, this one is a lot harder than I can say.  I looove having piles of books around.  They definitely keep me company and provide me quite a bit of comfort.  I love ‘em!

b.  Cancel, Cancel, Cancel

c.  Weed What You Have

8.  Multimedia Overload Techniques

a.  Choose Entertainment  Carefully

b.  Limit Television Viewing

c.  Use Your Commute to Your Benefit

9.  Social Network Overload Techniques

a.  Schedule Time on Your Networks

“Allot yourself a set amount of time to deal with your social networks. Logging in at the beginning of the day can be very dangerous – the friend requests, messages, photo and wall comments, new status updates, blog posts, and fun applications can suck hours out of every day if you let them. Stick to whatever time you allotted yourself.” (11)

Oh . . . so true.  It is so easy for me to lose track of time when I log on in the morning.

b.  Pick a Primary Network

c.  Limit Your IM

10.  Time and Stress Management

a.  Use Your Calendar

b.  Take Breaks

c.  Eliminate Stressful Interruptions

“If you find yourself jumping at audio signals like IM notifications or phones ringing, then silence them. If you feel a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you look at your email, then do not look at it as often. Think about those stressors and do what you can to reduce them.” (12)

I turned off the sound on my computer a long time ago.  It is such a relief!

d.  Look for Software Help

e.  Balance Your Life and Work

“If you find yourself tapping at a keyboard next to your partner on the sofa while you are watching a movie, instead of sidling up next to him or her, you may have a work/life balance problem. Think long and hard about whether or not you have your priorities in the right place. If you know you do not, then you should seek help to re-balance your time.” (12)

I’m not sure I completely agree with this one.  Seeing as I am here, on the sofa, watching a movie, while sitting next to my sweetie.  And I am completely fine with that.  I just don’t do this all the time.

F.  Conclusion

“Consciously thinking about the effectiveness and desirability of each stream of information, and of ways to improve them, will help to get the best information to you in the best way.” (12)

Which is basically what this article can help you do.  It all boils down to this.

“I believe that, as information professionals, we are best equipped to recognise information overload and deal with its effects. We know information; it is our business. We are better positioned than anyone to deal with our own information load and to share those skills and techniques with those we serve. Make the topic of information overload a subject at a staff meeting, the topic of a customer training, and a topic of research for your organisation’s training or technology teams. Together we can help people in general to deal with this deluge of information. But first, we have to deal with our own flood. Happy sailing!” (12)

Well, I’m not sure I’m ready to give others advice.  But I’m certainly ready to deal with my own overload.  So, how about you?

Article Series (3): Lending e-books via interlibrary loan. When?

So the conversation seems to be picking up about e-books in the interlibrary loan community and how we can loan them.  I’ve been asking around for about the last  six months to find out if anyone knows how this is going to eventually happen.  I’m not getting much of a response.  This week the conversation popped up on one of the interlibrary loan listservs.  As part of the conversation someone posted the following article:

Vigen, Jens and Paulson, Kari. (2003)  “E-books and interlibrary loan: an academic centric model for lending.”  Proceedings of the 8th Interlending and Document Supply Conference, Canberra, available at: http://www.nla.gov.au/ilds/abstracts/VigenJ.pdf.  (10/26/09)

So, I read it, but I don’t really think that it is really that current.  And, the authors were really only promoting their particular project.  I’m also a bit reluctant to blindly accept the ideas in the paper because of the authors’ corporate connections (CERN and eBooks Corporation).  Those connections make me wonder if they had any agenda meant to serve their companies, some of what is in the paper makes me believe they did.  Yet, we also cannot dismiss that our vendors will play a role in our eventual solutions to this question.  And, despite any agenda and the age of the paper, about 6 years, some of the issues they address are still relevant today.  Although I have to say, it amazes me that these issues are still unresolved today in 2009.  As a result, I’m not sure this article is really that useful today.  But, I will share some of the more interesting quotes anyway because I think it is an important issue.  E-books will eventually be lent through interlibrary loan, it is just a question of when and how.

“Ebook library solutions have not yet fully made their impact in libraries mainly because of a lack of relevant content and a failure to create a library platform which satisfies librarians’ needs.  Ebook library vendors have also failed to embrace the kinds of new lending models and interactivity that technology makes possible.”  (2)

This quote addresses some of the major problems that keep us from lending ebooks at this point.  No, I have no solutions myself, but it would be nice to be part of the conversation as it moves forward.  I do wish I knew what publishers were thinking about this issue.  Do they even really care at this point?   

“Including functionality such as traditional interlibrary loan into an ebook lending model would no doubt be hard to sell to publishers. To suggest that making ebooks available for ILL would be like creating a librarian’s Napster would certainly be overstating their objection. But publishers do have valid concern about the vulnerability of content in digital format. While publishers may have control over who gets to their content initially, unless a contract governs what the user can do with the content afterwards, they have no control over what happens with the book after that. Without careful consideration of lending permissions, ebooks could threaten to cannibalize the already suffering print book. Publishers do not wish to find that, by making ebooks too accessible, they one day face a market where one ebook serves the need that was once served by ten print books.”  (3)

Maybe these are some of the same issues that they have today.  Maybe there are more.  But the authors make an interesting argument:

“Making ebooks available for ILL may not be appealing to publishers at first glance. However, the publishing industry has much more to gain by introducing an ebook lending model for ILL than by preserving the present situation which favours the courier and leaves the author, the publisher and the librarian out of pocket.”  (4)

So, what are the answers to this conundrum?  I don’t think we are even close to a solution, but there are definitely more people asking questions about how this can happen.  How soon before we start making progress?  Does the solution lie first with the publishers?  The aggregators/vendors?   Libraries?  Well, to start, I’m sure there are more recent blog posts and articles about this issue.  The search continues . . .  

               

 

Celebrating one year of blogging

A year ago I started this blog and really had no idea what I was going to do with it.  Well, of course I knew I was going to post stuff, but I had no overarching theme aside from writing about what it is like to be an academic librarian.  Now, I could write about what I have written in the past year, wax poetic about what my experience has been like this past year . . . nah.  I will say I am glad I started this blog.  But I’m still not sure what this blog is all about, I’m not even sure I have conveyed what it is like to be an academic librarian in the past year.  However, I think I am one year closer to defining what it is that I do here.  Can I convey that today?  Of course not.  But today, one year in, I am going to continue this blog and hopefully provide my few readers with something that may be constructive for them. 

So, thanks for reading and I hope you stick around for the next year.

ACRL/NY Symposium is Fast Approaching, 12.4.09

I will be spending the day at Aldephi-Mahattan with my ACRL/NY colleagues.  We will be going over the final preparations for the symposium on December 4th, at Baruch College right in the middle of Manhattan, and having an Executive Board meeting to reassess our technology needs as we move into the future.  It should be a constructive day. 

Hey, did you hear the symposium is titled “Emerging Leadership in Academic Libraries”?

So, are you going to the symposium?  I hope you are.

What are “Feral Professionals” in librarianship? (Part 2)

So I read the James Neal article from 2006 in Library Journal.  He certainly fleshed out the conversations surrounding the topic of feral professionals.  But I am still confused as ever as to what a clear definition of a feral professional is.  Maybe there isn’t one . . . Although, I am still waiting for someone else to weigh in on the topic.

Neal, James.  “Raised By Wolves: Integrating the new generation of feral professionals into the academic library.”  Library Journal.  131.3 (2006): 42-44.

What are “Feral Professionals” within librarianship?

I’m sure I am way behind a lot of you, but I heard the term “Feral Professionals” for the first time at the LACUNY Institute, held at the CUNY Graduate Center this past Friday, October 23rd.  The person who defined this group of people had a very distinct definition as to who/what they are.   But then based on some of the further discussions I got the sense that the definition wasn’t so clear.  I’m curious to know how others define them.  Please, share your thoughts.  Meanwhile, I’ll do some investigating of my own . . .