I forgot my travel mug, so bought a glass one in Woolies and grabbed a coffee from the Urban Bean on the way to the Margaret River Cultural Centre for the first day of the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival. Thanks War on Waste Episode 3 for putting this purchase in the centre of my thoughts..

Being Friday, with many people yet to travel down from Perth, there was just one track of sessions all day. Sessions about:

• the beach and surfing (is poetry, photography or prose the best way to capture the experience?)
• best ways to write a recipe in a cook book (Stephanie Alexander suggests not presuming that readers know things like “only to use the leaves of parsley” and to respectfully include this kind of information)
• what it is like to write a novel when one is a Young Adult, but then to read reviews that the novel seems to break the conventions of YA writing, although it is about that demographic ?
• why it is important to focus education about sustainability and the environment on the positives of what one will get out of it, rather than use scare tactics ?
• how one writes about making one’s own path and leaving the influence of one’s family, while also dealing with the family stories that continue to intertwine one’s experience ?

But the session that stimulated me the most, where I wanted to say “wait, hold on…just let that idea sink in before you go on to the next one…” was one called “The right to belong“, with William Yeoman facilitating a conversation between Tim Costello, Abdi Aden and Isabelle Li . Too much to totally unpack in a single blog post, but I will try to touch on the important bits tomorrow.

Go to tangential events outside of professional conferences that may make your heart sing a bit.

Like the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, which I am attending over the Western Australian long weekend.

(Which is why there will be a couple of rather abbreviated #blogjune posts for the next few days)

Nice to see the folk at the Curtis ( Curtin University Information Studies club) blog are going to be blogging 30 questions relevant to the field for this year’s #blogjune.

It’s been lovely to see the students in our department get united and get active via Curtis. When I was a student, our group was “Adlibs” … but it has been many, many years since there was an Information Studies group.

I didn’t really want to start #blogjune with some kind of reflection on blogging, or create one of those “I am answering 10 questions using the names of my favourite pork recipes” filler posts … so I thought a bit about what I now feel qualified to talk about … and it is probably offering polite, sage-sounding hints to Information Studies students…

I think I will have a few up my sleeve this June. While snail and Paul and Ellen and Ceridwyn  confess to having pre-scheduled posts, I have not been nearly so organised – so my hints will be more random than in priority order.

So…

Number One:

Do some nipping and tucking to change a “one-size fits all” unit to something that fits you. 

When you study, what you are MEANT to be doing with your time is to read and think about many disciplinary topics.

Professionals in the field would give their eye teeth to be able to spend even two hours devoted to this. Managers would love to spend hours engaging with the latest disciplinary thinking about staff rewards and motivation, understanding it enough to be able to write cogently about it – but are often too busy, trying to reward and motivate staff, to do so.

When you write that management essay, you are not just learning things that these professionals know, but are immersing yourself in the latest thinking and, through writing, forming and articulating your own philosophies and opinions of how we do this thing of managing an information service. In a lot of ways, this time to immerse yourself in the discipline is the learning gift, rather than the single actual topics that you study.

While we lecturers set readings and notes that are useful to find out about a topic, we are setting these for a “one size fits all” student, not for you. Use the time that is set aside to do the reading that YOU need to do to understand what you want to know about the topic. Don’t neglect the “do this to get marks” reading that is essential, but if your time budget is such that your choice is between having slightly higher marks or having a better understanding of the topic, go for the latter. Employers would prefer it.

You know where your strengths lie. You know whether you are already familiar with a topic or something is totally new ground to you. You know the skills you would like to develop. You know where you interests are. You know whether you prefer conceptual, or hands-on, or passionate types of readings. Do the basic reading, but you will get the most out of your studies if you are curious and follow up your own programme of readings (or YouTube viewings, or chats with mentors who know their stuff, or try to teach what you know to your granny because that is the BEST way to discover whether you know something thoroughly or not) … follow your own programme that lets you tailor a unit from “This Unit For EveryStudent” to “This Unit for ME” (or if you are feeling hipster, “An Artisan-Wrought Bespoke Unit”).

Your lecturer does not know all of the above about you. If you think the readings are too hard, old or irrelevant or that you need extra reading to get up to speed, first have a look in the library databases to find some disciplinary reading around the topic. Even the hunting about can give you a nice feeling of the “shape” of the knowledge landscape about the topic that you may not have had before. Then, share it on the Discussion Boards with your fellow students. In an upcoming post I will share why I think this step is so important..

Lovely, clever Peta has created an automated way to register for this year’s #blogjune .

Blog June started on library-focussed blogs in Australia as a way of kickstarting again what used to be wonderful, vibrant daily conversations. It is still happening and has spread beyond Australia and beyond Libraryland.

I will be giving it a go again this year … I think I have not managed to complete the challenge properly for quite a while… but I get a great deal of fun out of it. And get to read everyone else’s thoughts (the best bit). And practice my writing and thinking (which reminds me that I can do both …)

Please pop over to Peta’s blog and read how to register (by just tweeting the URL of your blog and the hashtag #registerblogjune ), Blogjune 2017 join the challenge.

If you do not blog now… start one. If you cannot start one, follow the #blogjune hashtag on Twitter. Comment. Retweet posts. Comment via Twitter. Or – just read and enjoy … or have the seed planted that … next year … next year … you will play …

I petered out on #blogjune 2016 a bit toward the end.

Two good reasons. My work style involves intensive all-nighters (into all-dayers) when I have something to achieve… and I enjoyed my time in South Africa so much that I got off the fence I had been sitting on since January and decided to travel to the UK in July for the CILIP conference and the Radical Librarians Collective meeting in Brighton, plus take some annual leave either side. Right now I am in a haze of caffeine and sugar fuelled online writing as I try to get everything wrapped up before I jet out on Tuesday.

Like Con, I have enjoyed writing again for #blogjune so much that I am convinced that I will keep it up, especially when I have something interesting and relevant to report on like the events in Brighton.Right? Right???  Instead of a conference dinner we are all getting fish and chips and a chance to ride for free the attractions on the end of the Brighton Pier (which I coincidentally visited this time last year) …

I have been reading my feedly feed daily and really, really enjoying hearing the big and small news and thoughts of everyone. Reminds me that there are other points of view and of the interesting things I could be doing if I took the time to arrange something different, or even if I tried looking at the world with the perspective that others have – really what a community of bloggers should do. While it is easy to say “I should try looking at the world differently” actually walking in the shoes and mind of someone else – even briefly and even around something that they consider trivial or obvious, is such a bonus that blogjune brings each year. My imagination cannot stretch to have such empathy that I can imagine another point of view so accurately (which is not a failure on my part but really logical, because if I could stretch that far, then I would actually be seeing from my point of view…).

Just a few random bits that I really enjoyed (although I have enjoyed so many posts that I don’t want people not mentioned to think I did not appreciate or read their efforts. I did. Just that my Lindt-chocolate/Large-latte/I’ve-been-on-a-work-bender-for-two-days brain at the moment is filtering in random, not comprehensive, ideas)…

Big, big props to Peta for her effort to comment on so many blog posts. Keeping the conversation going, engaging and encouraging is so, so important. If I have one wrist-slap for myself it is that I did not take the time to comment when I knew how wonderful it is for a blogger to receive comments in these Days of Twitter. Maybe next #blogjune we should have a signup for commenters as well as bloggers? I’d be all for putting my efforts into encouraging and engaging with others (especially those brave, brave newbies sticking their toes in the water), instead of committing to posting.

Two blogs that I shoulda woulda commented on were Tony’s posts about his travels and Andrew’s intelligent and very generous sharing of his experience and reflection. Both were travelling to some of my favourite spots and I wanted to say “oh please check out THIS place, it is fab” ..but didn’t. Andrew in particular epitomises generosity and thoughtfulness in his posts – I always enjoy reading about his inspiring career path and his reflections on the experience. His posts are well written, avoid the boring bits and I always feel like I have learned something. Tony’s trip really did trace the path and places that I would choose, but then I was totally flabbergasted when he posted yesterday about visiting one of my favourite places on Earth on the way home, Tiger Balm Gardens. Really, truly…. here are my images Tiger Balm Gardens from my set of 60 photos when I travelled there in 2008, including a set of the Ten Courts of Hell. ( And check out what happens in the afterlife if you deface books.)

Kate-In-Canberra and Rachel-In-Queensland were two bloggers whose consistent and gentle voices I love to listen to. I think that they could write about how they prepare themselves weetbix or tie their shoelaces and could make it interesting for me. I love the wide-ranging subject matter they choose and the way they generously engage with the rest of the #blogjune bloggers. I enjoyed hearing life snippets again from Kate-In-Queensland, snail and Fiona … as well as continuing to engage with what Kim has to share, although she sets a great example to the rest of us and actually shares outside of June too…

The one blog that made the most impression on me, and has for the last couple of #blogjunes, was Elizabeth‘s articulate, confronting and ultimately very compassionate posts about her journey as a young archivist living with end stage cancer. I feel privileged that she shares what she does, how she does. It sounds a little trite and somehow too small to say that I wish her the absolute best that there can be on the rest of her journey and thank her with great gratitude for her blogging, but I do.

I now have a truckload of work to do before the weekend. I’m a little buoyed up again by the thought of taking my skates in my suitcase and doing some outdoor skating, although maybe not a hill like this from last year again…

 

Although some time in the next month or so, all things going well, I will be putting on my red shorts and getting out there in the UK and skating away…

 

Now THIS is a case for crowdsourcing (and crowdpersuading if that is a word).

The most useful, versatile and FREE WordPress theme I have ever used has been discontinued from 22 June 2016, Suffusion not available any more . It will not be updated and is no longer available in the WordPress directory. You can see it here at Librarians Matter and how it is being used at the Grove Library .

I just discovered this because I am moving one of my WordPress MU installations and needed to install the theme on my new server. Nope. Not there. Luckily I had a copy of the theme in every single other blog I have ever created, so I could upload one to the new site.

In the post about it, Sayontan, who has been maintaining and updating this for love and service, rather than money, explained that there were unfounded concerns about security of the plugin and that to make it comply would require a complete re-write, which he does not have time nor inclination to do.

This really is a situation where either the thousands and thousands of people who use Suffusion should persuade Sayontan to quit his day job and maintain the theme (heck, I would pay $50 or more a year to support a project like this)… or for a community to form around the plugin, do the rewrite and continue to maintain the update.

Here’s hoping tomorrow is better.

Just as I FINALLY finished editing one unit outline, ready to copy it to its Open University version, I saw THIS when I saved:

Like an optimistic fool, I phoned the IT helpdesk number on the right of the screen in the hope they could help. The helpful message on the phone (at 6:30pm) told me helpfully that the help desk is closed but is open until 9pm every weeknight. Last time I looked Friday was a week night.

And meanwhile, over in Europe the UK has decided to exit the European Union, causing the Australian dollar to keel over – and for some reason a German court has decided that there is a new kind of copyright “we have the physical copy of a painting in the public domain, so you can’t publish a photo of it” (even if you are the Wikimedia Foundation).

The world was a bit friendlier before bedtime last night. I think I will see whether calling it a day and going to sleep makes a nicer world to wake up to…

Final marks are in at work. Boards of Examiners to be sat in the next couple of weeks. Online Learning Management System units to be re-jigged and unit outlines to be re-written. Readings and notes to be updated. Same as last year. And the year before.

If you teach undergraduates or postgraduates who follow semester-long cycles, you have a very predictable year of teaching commitments. The first few weeks of semester students don’t realise that they can, actually, do this and often need a lot of help to settle into the unit. Lots of emails. Just when you finish writing the final updates to the teaching materials, the first assessments start coming in. Then there are weeks of marking or moderation, along with releasing material, giving tutes or lectures, or interacting online. Then you see many students who find their feet and grow and learn quite independently,  far more than they had thought they would. The two or three students who, for a multitude of reasons, by this point in the semester need four, five, six exchanges of emails before they have sorted out their issue with the course/assessment/tutor/university/themselves/other students. Then the rush for final marks. Board of Examiners. Repeat…

For academics and academic libraries, the three weeks over Christmas tend to be so quiet that some universities (like my own) actually shut down the campus and ask staff to take holidays then. The last time I moved briefly from an academic library to a public library, which is where I had started 15 years before, I was shocked by the difference in busy-ness. Around Christmas time people who had forgotten the library suddenly materialise and there is demand from kids who are on holidays and people who are on annual leave. When I was a public librarian, this period was only beaten by Easter, where the day before Good Friday people seemed to presume that the library was closing for the next four weeks, not four days, and borrow as much as they could. I never understood this panic-borrowing. I don’t know whether it still happens.

I imagine that corporate libraries have similar ebbs and flows. I can see that parliamentary libraries would have very unbalanced and predictable cycles, with a good dose of “find me everything about this unpredicted thing that is happening NOW” and “let’s have an election” thrown in. Do health libraries have a similar cycle? Geological libraries? I am pretty sure that school libraries would have very similar patterns to academic libraries?

Does your library have a predictable cycle of busy-ness ?

.. but sick in bed today. Just a cold and asthma, but have not slept well for 3 days or so, so am taking the morning off work to snuggle under the covers and listen to the rain outside and try to catch up on sleep. (Also gives my workmates respite from the continuous coughing coming from my office…)

This is a bit like the email that says “Thanks, I got your email”…

When people ask me whether they should choose my first name (Kathryn) for their baby, I answer “nope”.

There are so many variant spellings, many as common as each other, that inevitably if someone else writes your first name it will be spelled wrong. Your options are then to:

1. Correct the spelling and feel like Ms Pedant from Pedantville
2. Not correct the spelling and feel like you are vaguely deceiving them

Of course, there is 3. “Just get over it”, but it’s not something I have been able to do.

This morning I ordered a latte at my usual Saturday morning place and was served by a young woman who had just started working there. As she took my order she wrote on the top of a lid “Latte +1 Lg Catherine”.

When I received my mug, however, this had been changed to “Latte +1 Lg Kathryn” (spelled the way I spell my name). I wondered aloud whether the barista had changed it. (As far as I knew, I had always taken approach number 2 in this coffee shop …)

Nope – the woman behind the counter had. But, how had she known? She said that she had seen the way my name was spelled on my credit card and then made the change before handing the lid on to the barista.

A small act of empathy than really went a long way toward putting an upward kick into my morning 🙂