D is for Digitize (Not Just Another Google Book Settlement Conference)

This conference announcement popped up in my email today.  I’m just sorry it is next week, a bit too short notice  for me, but it looks good!

D is for Digitize (Not Just Another Google Book Settlement Conference)

The proposed Google Book Search settlement appeals to one of the most complex questions faced by an evolving library community: What is the future of access to books and digital information? The settlement touches on many issues central to libraries, such as information access, reader privacy, fair use, and freedom of inquiry. Through a class action settlement, the agreement combines complicated legal, economic, and policy questions that many feel should be carefully scrutinized through the lens of equitable public access to information. Libraries have been key players in digitization initiatives, years before the Google Book settlement. Do our strategies change in light of the settlement?  How can we continue our mission to be stewards of the world’s cultural heritage? The D is for Digitize conference brings together leading public interest, academic, legal and business minds to tackle these important and timely topics.

When: October 8-10, 2009

Where: New York Law School, 185 West Broadway, New York, NY 10013

For more information, see:

http://www.nyls.edu/centers/harlan_scholar_centers/institute_for_information_law_and_policy/events/d_is_for_digitize

What are we doing here when this happens?

I found this article both amusing and disturbing.  But, getting this news makes me want to consider a career change . . . just kidding.  I guess these online degrees work for some.  Then again, if you get caught you would probably be very fired.  So, if you want to get your favorite pooch a degree this might be your best bet, but I would advise the humans, especially all current students, to stick to the real thing.

Unmuzzling Diploma Mills: Dog Earns M.B.A. Online

Post-Blogging Workshop

Our blog workshop went well last Thursday.  See my pre-workshop post here.  We had a total of thirteen in attendance, mostly staff, and the conversation was wonderfully engaging. 

My colleague opened with talking about her very organized and well thought out blog.  How she came up with the idea, who her intended audience was (and is), what she writes about and the strategies she uses to attract readers to her blog, as well as increase the chances of readers finding it in an internet search.  Her blog encompasses her life as a librarian and artist.  So, what are some of the things she does to get people to come to her blog?  Well, she is wonderfully unapologetic about her name dropping.  She deliberately includes lots of artists and author names (known and less known) to increase the chances internet searchers will find her blog when searching for a particular name.  Additionally she takes everyone opportunity to talk about her blog (workshops, conferences), includes the URL in her email signature, sent an email blast to her art contacts once it was up and running, listed it on her Facebook page, and, through what she has put on her blog she has started to make some professional connections.  She does much more than this, and has lots of plans for the future.  I am definitely going to follow what she does as she has some great ideas.  The biggest thing that stands out for me with her blog is how organized she is with it and how she keeps a regular schedule for posting.  I, on the other hand, am not so good with the regular posts. 

I then followed with my part of the workshop.  I gave some background to the starting of my blog, why I started it, what I hope to accomplish, etc.  Also, during all of this the attendants had plenty of good questions that kept the conversation moving the entire time.  This is part of why I love doing faculty and staff workshops.  You can plan them down to the minute and you will never be able to include it all because of all the great questions and great conversation.  The things I do to make my blog better . . . writing (of course, like I noted before, I could always do this a bit more often.  If you don’t, your readers will disappear.  No new posts, no readers.), reading and commenting on other blogs (always include your URL!), linking to articles, blogs, and books I write about, I tag (a lot), my blog is linked to Twitter and my Twitter account is linked to my Facebook account so that all my followers know when I have a new post. 

Then we shared other things they could add to their blogs: polls, changes in design, pictures, include posts on ‘hot topics’ (i.e. stirring up controversy by expressing your opinion is not always a bad thing), thank people when they link to your blog, keep your blog organized with tags and categories, and consider inviting others to be a guest bloggers.

Really, the intention of the workshop was to share what we do with our blogs and give our attendants ideas they can adopt, modify, etc.  Naturally, one of the best things to do is talk to others about what they do.  But also visiting other blogs to get ideas is great, as well as reading up on ideas folks share on the web and in books.  I included some links in my last post prior to the workshop.  But we also showed some books we found to be useful in creating the workshop.  I’m not going to recommend any specific ones here but there are plenty to be found at your local library, through interlibrary loan and at your bookstore.  They are easy enough to find. 

It was really a good workshop.  Although, I was surprised by one thing, how many of our attendees didn’t actually have a blog yet.  Many of them were there to learn more about blogs because they have heard about them from friends and family.  Hopefully, we were able to meet their expectations.  And I’m sure we will be repeating this workshop next semester.

Preparing for a workshop on blogs

So a colleague and I are giving a workshop tomorrow to faculty and staff on ways they can improve their blogs once they have started them.  To start, we have decided to talk about our own experiences writing our own blogs by sharing the basic hows, whys and whats.  The intention is to get our attendees to start thinking about what they can apply/adopt /adapt to their own blogs by sharing what we decided to do.  We also hope that it will inspire them to talk about what they are currently doing, or want to do.  Of course we will give them concrete ways to boost traffic on their blogs and track success.  I hope it goes well.  Well, I’m not worried that it will go well.  I guess I’m just curious about exactly how it will turn out.  What will be really interesting will be how the presentation of each of our blogs come off, seeing as we took two very different approaches to creating them.  Mine was unstructured and had very little focus to start.  My colleague gave her blog far more thought and keeps it much more organized than I do mine.  Her posts are awesome, they are like mini essays.  Take a look for yourself.  And wish us luck tomorrow.

And here are a couple things I plan to share with the group.  Because there are multi-part posts on improving your blog I have included instructions on how to get to them and not just the links:

The Journalism Iconoclast  http://patthorntonfiles.com/blog/  “So you have a blog.  Now what?”  vols. 1-3  (can be found under ‘Blogging’ category)

Social Signal http://socialsignal.com  Under blog tab, search ‘blog roi’ to get links to a ten part series called “10 ways to maximize your blogs ROI”

Two weeks into the semester . . . according to me

No!  I haven’t had any medical mishaps since I last wrote . . . in case you were wondering.  I’ve just been busy trying to catch up and sort of stay afloat at work.  But, that boat may sink anyway, if only under the weight of my information overload.  Speaking of which, I think Maura Smale put it best. 

It is Sunday and I am finishing my last hour of a six hour shift.  My only weekend shift of the semester, thankfully.  And, I came in intending to do loads of work, and naturally got almost none of it done.  What was I doing to blow my Sunday?  Well . . . let’s just say that the internet is a HUGE time wasting trap for the modern bride. ;)

So what has it been like since I have been back?  The campus is now under construction, literally at the library’s doorsteps.  The campus has this huge mall area that the library sits in the middle of.  They are digging it all up and redoing it.  This causes navigation problems for the healthiest of students.  For the recently hospitalized . . . a few challenges.  My breathing is fine at this point, but I am still having problems with my leg.  As a result, my two speeds are slow and gradually slower.  Running?  Forget it.  Walking fast?  Are you kidding?  Typically I can start at a normal pace, and then the tiring ache kicks in and forces me to really slow down.  So, if I am walking with anyone on campus I tell them I will start off good and gradually slow down.  Naturally, one of my colleagues is now calling me Pokey.  I’ve learned to just let people pass me and if they get annoyed with my slowness that is their problem.  I figure I will eventually get to where I want to be.  At this point though, the problems with my leg are mildly concerning (my doctor says I may have problems for the rest of my life . . . yipee!), but mostly annoying.  If I sit too much my leg will hurt.  If I walk too much my leg will hurt and my toes will start feeling numb.  So, I do some of both and that normally only makes it ache.  I just wish I didn’t have to navigate around the construction, but at least I’m not alone in that.  The problem is I never make it on campus to get a spot in the parking lot closest to the library.  The second closest one has the construction between it and the library.  And if I lose out of that one then I get a nice loong walk.  Well, really there is a simple solution to this, I just need to get up earlier and get on campus sooner.  Yeah, hasn’t worked out since I have been back, maybe next week (hey, who’s laughing?).

Anyway, besides that I’m trying to dig myself out of the layer of dead trees on my desk.  I’ve finally managed to return all my phone calls, handled most of the interlibrary loan requests, been to a few meetings, skipped a bunch of campus events, taught no classes, worked my reference shifts and filled in for a few, but I still have plenty to do. 

I haven’t touched any of the mail addressed to me, very little research-related reading  has been done, I still need to set up a schedule with my student worker, and don’t even talk to me about interlibrary loan overdues (What gorilla in the room?  I don’t see any gorilla . . . Oh!  You mean THAT gorilla.  Well, I think of him more as a monkey that won’t get off my back.  Stupid monkey.).  So, needless to say, I feel a bit harassed by all the things I need to do, but am feeling very secure in my job.  I take a little comfort in the fact that I am needed here because no one else wants to do my job.  I just wish it had been a vacation that had kept me away.  Although the recoveries are thankfully fading into the back of my memory, cloaked in the hope that I don’t have to go through such things again.  Yet, despite being needed here, I would really rather be doing tastings with potential caterers for my wedding. ;)

Anyway, time to go home and clean the shower . . .

Fell off the radar again . . . ’cause I came close to death.

Yeah, so how is that for a post title?  I’m not going to go into too many of the ugly details but let’s see if I can give you some sort of idea what happened.

So, if you have been following my blog you may have read about the pulled calf muscle in my left leg.  Guess what?  Not a pulled calf muscle, not at all.  My leg had been bothering me off and on since about mid-June.  Sometimes it would be ok, sometimes it would hurt so much it made me cry.  But I kept thinking I was not giving myself enough time to heal.  Boy was I wrong.  I had an ultrasound in July to rule out the possibility of a blood clot and the test came back clear (unfortunately). 

As August came in I went to the IDS Project Conference in Oswego, NY and had one hell of a time driving home because my leg was hurting again.  I thought it was because I had been doing so much walking at the conference andthe muscles in my leg were punishing me for it.  Little did I know, I was flirting with something far worse.  The day after I got home I went for my tonsillectomy, which I have already written about here.  At the end of that recovery I went into New York City for a meeting, that was August 21st.  My throat was fine, my leg wasn’t great, but I had to go.  The city was sweltering that day and I was ducking in and out of shops to take advantage of the air conditioning.  Got to my meeting on time, and then as I as leaving I suddenly became very out of breath.  I explained it away as the heat, stress, and adrenaline from trying to stay focused at the meeting (yeah . . . it was none of that).  Before getting on the train home I did some shopping at Borders, Staples and a bakery in Penn Station.  When I got home I got a take out pizza and crashed on the couch, thinking I was just really exhausted. 

The next day, Aug. 22nd, my sweetie and I met my brother and his family at the Bronx Zoo.  It was a humid day with a lot of walking and my leg was again crying by the time we got in the car to go home.  I thought, two days of walking after being off of it for about two weeks was making me pay.  We went out to dinner that night to celebrate our engagement (yes, we got engaged folks).  Sunday was a quiet day at home but I found even walking across the room to open the window was getting me out of breath.  Strange, I couldn’t understand why I was so winded. 

August 24th was my first day back to work.  I was  happy to go and very ready to get back on track.  When I got to work it tookme about forty minutes to walk from my car to the library because I was so out of breath.  I had to stop five times to calm down andcatch my breath.  Finally got in and parked my butt at my desk, talked to folks who stopped by to welcome me back and see how I was doing, andthen went to a Reference meeting that lasted from 10:30 to 12.  It was good to be back at work, but this being out of breath thing was surreal.  I actually had to have a colleague get me a sandwich because I could not walk the short distance for myself.  In the afternoon I just worked on catching up on the ILL backlog, unpacking materials and getting some requests put through.  Then, about 3:30, my left arm went all numb andtingly (this was the second time this had happened, it had also happened on Aug. 13th).  I shared this information with some of my colleagues and they thought I should call someone ASAP.  So, I called my doctor andwaited for her to call me back.  That was a very long ten minute wait, but I was hoping she would say I was fine.  When I got on the phone with her and described my symptoms she told me I needed to go to an ER, not a clinic, an ER at a hospital, and I shouldn’t drive myself.  My reaction was pretty much, HOLY SHIT!  And of course started crying.  Thankfully, some of my colleagues (and they know who they are) helped me out.  One offered to drive me to Greenwich Hospital and the other made sure I got out the library the easiest way possible.

At the hospital ER we pulled up to valet parking (yes, valet parking folks) and was pretty much taken right away.  The ER doctor I saw initially thought I just had anxiety, as I have a history of it, but decided to do a CAT scan of my chest anyway, since I was having trouble breathing.  The CAT scan was my ticket to admission.  I had very large blood clots in both lungs, pulmonary embolism is the technical phrase.  I was taken to the telemetry ward, which is basically a step down from the ICU.  Honestly, I did not know how bad my condition was, and that was probably good or I would have freaked out.  I spent the next three and a half days “tied” to the wall while they monitored my heart, oxygen levels, and kept me on oxygen.  They wouldn’t even let me out of bed!  I won’t trouble you with the details of that.  But suffice it to say you lose all your dignity when you are confined to a hospital bed.  And boy was my hair in need of a good washing!

The Friday after I was admitted they, thankfully, moved me to a regular floor andlucky me got a private room.  I say thankfully because they had put a dying woman in the bed next to me late Thursday night.  By the time they moved me the room was filled with her family members and I only had a curtain separating me from all that drama.  Then, I spent about another three and a half days on the regular floor before I was allowed to go home.  Basically, they needed to make sure that no more clots were going to move, my heart rate and oxygen levels were ok, and I had enough anticoagulant drugs in me to prevent any more clots.  The final verdict, I had DVT(deep vein thrombosis) in my left leg.  THAT was what all the pain was, it had nothing to do with my muscles.  And some of that had gone to my lungs.  My condition was very serious, I’m just lucky that, despite my delayed diagnosis, it didn’t get any worse than it did.  Such problems can kill, I am one of the survivors.  Actually, one of my nurses (andlet me say they were all AWESOME) mentioned that there was recently a girl in the ICU at Greenwich withthe same problem but she had had a stroke.  I was sent home on Monday, August 31st, with a prescription for Coumadin and a charge to see my doctor on Wednesday.

So, now I am recovering at home and hoping to go back to work on Sept. 7th, maybe for some half days.  And my sweetie is recovering too.  He says he is fine, but he spent seven days driving back and forth from his work and our apartment in NJ to the Greenwich Hospital.  The whole ordeal had taken a lot out of both of us.  But it is wonderful to have someone there for you everyday when you are stuck in the hospital.  My parents were there for several days too and both my brothers each made a visit.  So, I certainly was not in need of company.  It also helped to focus on our engagement instead of the fact that I was stuck in the hospital. 

So, what caused all this?  Good question.  There were probably several factors.  Long trips can cause such problems, but I had not been on any significantly long trips recently to say that was what caused the problem.  The one thing my doctors andI think was probably the biggest contributing factor was birth control pills.  Yes, we have all heard the warnings on the TV ads, but of course you never think it will happen to you.  Well, it may not, but it happened to me and I hope that for some girls it will maybe make them stop and pause for a moment and maybe make a more educated decision about taking them.  I am not advocating against or for them, they were great for me for many many years, but making sure they really are the right choice for you should not be taken lightly.  I am off them now and will not go back to taking them.  My doctor and I will also be checking to make sure I don’t have any genetic predisposition for blood clots.  I will have to be on Coumadin for at least six months and have my blood tested regularly to make sure my PT/INR levels are ok (should be between 2 and3, right now it is about 2.2).  While I am on it can bruise easily, if I get a cut it will bleed longer, if I hit my head or are in any kind of accident, I will have to go to the ER to get checked out.  As for the clots, my body should get rid of them with time, it takes a while.  And, I cannot get pregnant during this time because the drug can cause serious birth defects.  Yeah, all a bit of a downer, but I’m out of the hospital, I’m alive, and I’m looking forward to a lot.  I am thankful and lucky I have a future to look forward to. 

Andthat future includes, beyond being the Coumadin poster child, getting back to work at the library, planning a wedding, and much more.  Not sure how I’m going to do it, I guess just one day at a time.  So, enough drama here.  Hopefully I can get back to posting about more mundane library-related things soon.  Meanwhile I will go back to trying to remove more of the adhesive residue from all the stuff stuck to me while I was in the hospital.  Ick.

Oh, I just want to say, Greenwich Hospital is absolutely lovely.  The doctors and nurses are great and the facilities themselves are to die for, better than some hotels I have seen.