Academic Library 2.0 Concept Model Detailed

Academic Library 2.0 Concept Model Detailed

Originally uploaded by habibmi.

Michael Habib has updated his Academic Library 2.0 Model. This model has helped me visualize the importance of social interaction and the role that the library needs to play between students’ social needs and their academic ones. The concepts of Library 2.0 are incredibly important ones - and I think this model helps to illustrate this. I have used this model when talking about ways that the library can become a bridge to help connect students’ social and academic activities. I find that this generally makes sense to people - and helps them to accept some of the changes that really need to be made.

This Really Blows My Mind

I normally don’t find things incredibly offensive - it really takes a lot for me to find things distasteful. However, Michael Noer’s article from Forbes Magazine entitled Don’t Marry Career Women is truly one of the most offensive things I have read in a long time. Is he serious? Life is full of all sorts of pressures - and most of us (men and women) are just trying to make the best of what life has to offer. Sure money and careers can put tremendous pressures on a marriage or any relationship where people are committed to each other. But to warm men not to marry career women because they suck at cleaning their houses??? How many families can support themselves on one salary these days? Wow!!!

Bess at Solvitur Ambulando has a great take on this article. I particularly like this paragraph:

But notice the author isn’t saying that education and careers are a problem for everyone. Just women. I guess it’s okay when men meet someone more interesting, have extra-marital affairs, and divorce their partners. And did we mention that in his scenario the little woman left in the dust has no income or savings or job skills to pick up the pieces after his departure? Ah, the good old days.

I couldn’t say it any better.

Update August 23, 2006 7:00PM: The article has been pulled and Dorothea adds that she has been told an apology is slated for the next issue. (see Dorothea’s comments on Bess’s post at Solvitur Ambulando). On one hand, I’m glad that the article has been removed, but I really can’t believe that Forbes allowed it to be published. A link to the article can be found here.

Links:

• Blog copy of the original article
• Blog copy of the Nine Reasons to Steer Clear of Career Women

Update No. 2, August 24, 2006, 12:15PM: The article is back up if you follow the original link (or this new one) as an opinion piece with a counterpoint article entitled Counterpoint: Don’t Marry a Lazy Man by Elizabeth Corcoran. Watching the evolution of this story today has been pretty fascinating. As you might imagine, there are a number of reader comments.

Librarians at the Gate Article

Librarians at the Gate (by Joseph Huff-Hannon) is a great article about librarians. The article addresses some very important issues for librarians including topics like HR 4437 (the Sensenbrenner bill), the Patriot Act and ethics. Huff-Hannon writes:

The day-to-day challenges librarians face are inherent in the job description: defending access to controversial or banned books, staving off budget cuts, and creating and expanding programs to draw more citizens into one of the few remaining genuinely public commons in American life. While the ethic of secrecy often prevails in the gathering and dissemination of corporate and governmental information, the work of a librarian is imbued with just the opposite. Be it in the capacity of archivist, reference librarian or information technology professional, a common thread is the profession’s dogged commitment to safeguarding books, research and information to make knowledge more widespread, not less.

This article is definitely worth a read. Thanks to the Creative Librarian for the link.

Update - August 24, 2006: Rick Roche has a post over at ricklibrarian entitled Librarians as Freedom Fighters, Maybe Felons about this article that is worth a read. I very much share his concerns and confusion about H.R.4437.

WordPress’ new autosave feature just saved me from losing this post. Yeah!! 

A Rather Cruelly-Ironic Twist of Fate

I have mentioned several times that one of the classes that I am taking in the fall (ILS530 - Information Systems Analysis & Design) hasn’t had an instructor assigned to it. I, of course, have been checking the registration pages daily to see if a professor has been assigned. Classes start on September 6th - and it takes a while to get books. I’m not entirely sure why, but I had this bizarre sense that, with my luck, the professor that taught my summer class would be assigned my ILS530 section. Lo and behold, isn’t that the case? As of this morning, he is listed as the professor. Anyone who has read of my trials and tribulations with my summer class might recall that I have adamantly stated that I would not take a class with him again. And yet, here I am in one of his fall classes.

Now, that most of the angst from the summer class has passed, I am seriously thinking about taking this class. Am I nuts?? Part of me thinks so. But, I’m also a person that believes in second chances. Beyond that, there aren’t too many open classes left that I can register for in place of ILS530 - and only one that I would consider. What to do, what to do, what to do????? I kind of feel like my journey through graduate school is turning into a soap opera.