Guest post over at "Letters to a young librarian"

I'm slow at this (really slow actually) but I wrote a guest post for "Letters to a Young Librarian" which is an awesome, awesome blog by Jessica Olin where different library type folks write advice on their jobs or aspects of librarianship, and Jessica of course shares her own viewpoints on things.

Right, so I wrote a guest post on being an ILL Librarian and you can find it here.  Feel free to ask questions if you wish, but do make sure you add Jessica's blog to your list of those to keep up with!

Book Review--The Cute Girl Network

The Cute Girl Network
MK Reed, Greg Means and Joe Flood (Illustrations)

FirstSecond

November 2013

Jane's just moved to town to reboot her life a bit. Jack is a bit of a loser, who well...means well, that mans a Soup cart in the middle of the city. The two meet when Jane wipes out on her skateboard right in front of Jack's Soup cart! And well one thing leads to another and the two agree to a date. That is...until the "Cute Girl Network," an information group of local single woman, seek to put a stop to it. You see most of them have dated Jack before and well...he has a rather spotty romantic history. He's not mean or anything, he's just not Prince Charming. And Jane is about to learn every detail of Jack's past dates whether she wants to or not. Will Jack and Jane ever hook up? Or with the Cute Girl Network prevail?

I admit the first time I read this story it didn't quite catch my fancy.  I mean it was good and I enjoyed it, heck I even got it signed at SPX.  But it took another read through to catch some of what the authors were saying.  That we all have different ideas of what prince or princess charming should be.  The man that maybe a flop for some, is going to be just right for someone else and maybe, just maybe we shouldn't judge them because they didn't work out for us.  This is a graphic novel for teens (and adults) that doesn't play to stereotypes.  Jane rides and skateboard, works at a skateboard shop and is open about her life.  And Jack...well Jack plays the everyman, whose a bit clueless, but means well. And these two characters work great together! And that's what keeps the story moving, is that you see hope for them regardless of what everyone else thinks.  And Jane is a fantastic role model, because she doesn't listen to what the network says about Jack.  She trusts what she knows and feels and follows her heart to where it leads her.  And that's the best thing about this story.

Joe Flood's character designs for the book are pitch perfect.  He captures that goofy awkwardness and gentle self confidence of Jack easily.  You can look at him in the very first panel and know that while he's a bit clumsy, he really is a good guy.  And that Jane is one of those kick ass ladies that takes names, but knows what she wants and is sure of herself.  It's great to have that type of feeling and connection to the characters.  The illustrations remind me a lot of the artwork of Faith Erin Hicks or Stephen McCraine, who does the "Mal and Chad" series.  Nice solid designs, with some nice detail hidden in there, but nothing that overwhelms the reader or makes them lose track of the story.

The one minor issue with the book is that while this would be a great book for teens, it has to be one whose parents are comfortable with the mention of sex and depiction of nudity. It's not a lot, but it's enough to make me a bit wary about recommending it to some of my normal readers.  Other than that I enjoyed the book and I'd give the book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

ARC provided by Gina from FirstSecond

Book Review --- Lawrence in Arabia

Lawrence in Arabia

Scott Anderson

The Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

August 2013

Lawrence of Arabia.  The name conjures a dashing figure that helped change the world, one that is strong, stoic, and full of courage to face challenges head on!  And yet... what is reality?  Would you be able to recognize the real Lawrence, Thomas Edward Lawrence, knowing that he was 5 foot 5 and weighed in at just 135 pounds?  Not quite the dashing figure that we dream of.  But, he still was a force to be reckoned with in the creation of the modern Middle East.

In this book, Lawrence in Arabia, Scott Anderson helps us place not only Lawrence’s role in the creation of the modern Middle East, but other figures as well.  Working from years of intensive primary document research, Anderson weaves together the complex story of Lawrence, German scholar-spy Curt Prufer, Zionist Aaron Aaronsohn, and William Yale of Standard Oil.  These four men, waged wars, spied for their homelands, and attempted to do their best to steer the area to a different future...only to watch it fall apart at the hands of others (the British and French on one side, the German and Ottoman on the other).  Anderson does not even need to make a commentary on the mistakes made that helped create the troubles in the Middle East today, instead he only needs to present history in a way that we’ve long ignored and stumbled around.

Even though this is an extremely complex story, and one that would be easy to get lost in as it covers history and politics and so many other areas, Anderson creates an extremely readable and gripping story.  He deftly covers the War from multiple viewpoints of our four main “personas” and gives the reader a solid idea of how each action built to create a force that was beyond their control.

This is a great book for any fan of history or the Middle East.  I give the book 4 out of 5 stars.

Review copy provided by the publisher

Giving your first presentation?

I could (and should) write a whole blog post (and probably will soon) about giving your first presentation at a conference.  Because honestly I wasn't there that long ago...well 5 years, but it's not that long.

But I digress. My friends Maurice Coleman and Jill Hurst-Wahl are doing a free webinar on Tuesday October 8 on some tips and tricks on how to give your first presentation (or even your second, third, fourth, and so on.) I've know both Jill and Maurice for a few years now and both of them are excellent presenters and provide great advice in simple, easy to understand language. In other words its not an academic paper being read on how to do a presentation. It's a presentation on things they've learned over the years to help you make a better presentation.  And even if you're given presentations before you can always learn more.  I plan on attending it just for that reason!

So I highly recommend that you check out their presentation.

The details are below:


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Are you a new professional, who needs to give presentations in order to advance in your career?  Will you need to give a presentation as part of a job interview?  Have you given professional presentations and wonder how you can improve?  If you answer "yes" to any of those questions, then this is for you!

Join Jill Hurst-Wahl and Maurice Coleman on Tuesday, October 8, 7:00-8:00 p.m. EST, for a free webinar on how to give an outstanding presentation. During "Giving Your First Conference Presentation: What No One Tells You (or When PowerPoint and Good Intentions Meet Reality)", Jill and Maurice will share what they have learned from the presentations that they have given, and from the presentations that they have seen and sometime suffered through.  After this webinar, you will be more confident during your presentation because you will know what to do and what to avoid.

To register for this free webinar, go http://ischool.syr.edu/contact/20yrswebseriesRSVP.aspx  Please note that this webinar will use Adobe Connect, which requires no special equipment except your computer and an Internet connection. 
Who are Jill and Maurice?

Jill Hurst-Wahl is an associate professor of practice in Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and the director of both its library and information science & LIS with school media specialization programs. She is a member of SLA’s Board of Directors and the USNY Technology Policy and Practices Council. As her schedule allows, she participates in the bimonthly library training podcast T is for Training (@tisfortraining).

Jill has been giving presentations for several decades, and in 2013 spoke at several state library association conferences, the Computers in Libraries Conference, and the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference. She is often asked for her advice on how to improve a formal or informal presentation.

You can find Jill on Twitter at @jill_hw and through her blog, Digitization 101.

Maurice Coleman is the author of Crash Course in Presentations, which will be released by ABC-Clio Publishing in 2014. He is the technical trainer at Harford County (MD) Public Library, host of the long running library training podcast T is for Training (@tisfortraining), and a member of the board of the American Library Association’s Learning RoundTable.

Maurice has over 20 years of experience training all ages how to sensibly use technology and computer hardware and software. He has presented at numerous conferences on topics such as digital personal branding, technology implementation, presentation and training skills, community development and effectively using social media.

For his work, Maurice was named a 2010 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and received the Citizens for Maryland Libraries Davis McCarn Technology Award. You can find him on Twitter at @baldgeekinmd.