Another Round of Shameless Self-Promotion

Just in case some of you don't read Closed Stacks (why don't you? it's awesome), LibrarianRx, otherwise known as yours truly, had another great (I think) post on life as a medical librarian.  You should most definitely check it out. 

Also, on another self-promotion note, I'm on Twitter.  Have been for a while, but never posted about it.  So if you are on Twitter, feel the need to follow yet another blogger, and want to read the random comments I make, you may do so by following @LibrarianLizy. 

Recipe: Grilled Shrimp Skewers

My family loves grilling.  Take a gander at our weekly menu plans and I guarantee there will be something grilled on it. One of the things that we love to grill is seafood.  Grilled fish is a common occurrence, typically we have fish on Fridays (thanks to Lenten habits that perpetuate throughout the year), and I prefer grilled salmon over almost any fish out there.  We have shrimp a good bit as well; either cooked by my dad or in some sort of scampi.  We have been known to grill shrimp once or twice, and when we do, we use this recipe.

Grilled Shrimp Skewers - Adapted from Bobby Flay

4-6 long wooden grilling skewers

20-30 large shrimp, peeled and devined

1/2 cup soy sauce (low sodium is best)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (or 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger)

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon lime juice

1/4 cup oil (Bobby suggests peanut, but we use vegetable)

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted, divided

Soak the skewers in water for an hour.  This will keep them from burning during the grilling.  Thread 5-6 shrimp on each skewer, making sure they lay flat.  Place in large tupperwear container or a 9x13 inch baking dish.

Mix soy sauce and next 6 ingredients (through the oil) in a small bowl; reserve 1/4 of the marinade for a sauce if desired.  Sprinkle shrimp lightly with salt and pepper on both sides.  Pour marinade and 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds over shrimp skewers and cover container.  Allow to marinate in the fridge, 30 minutes to an hour, turning skewers halfway through the time.

Preheat grill to medium high.  Grill shrimp 2 minutes per side or until just cooked through.  Put cooked shrimp on a serving dish and sprinkle with remaining toasted sesame seeds.  Serve with reserved sauce, if desired.

Served with grilled vegetables.

What I Wish I Learned in Library School, Part II

Last week, I blogged about how I wish I had done library school differently.  This week I'm here to tell you what classes I wish I had taken and the things I should have paid more attention to.  I did learn a lot in library school, a ton really.  I couldn't be a librarian without the skills I acquired in school.  But knowing that doesn't stop me from wishing I had had more time, more courses, a better sense of the job market and that it was/is necessary to be as marketable as possible, and a better focus.  

I am NOT a good student.  Sure, I appear to be.  I made straight A's in library school, including reference which is by and large considered to be the toughest class in the program.  (That is, if it is taught by Margaret Dalton.  And it should be; that's the only way to roll.)  I graduated magna cum laude from undergrad which is where I learned to write lengthy papers with no purpose whatsoever (a skill necessary in library school).  Despite that, I am a terrible student.  I played games on my computer in class, I rarely did the reading, I crammed for finals, and wrote papers in 12 hour stints, putting it off until the last possible moment.  Knowing this about myself, I can't really say that I wish I had done things differently in school, because I know that I wouldn't have done the learning part differently.  I always started out each semester with good intentions; I did my reading, focused in class, asked intelligent questions.  But unless the class was particularly interesting and/or entertaining (which only happened twice), I stopped doing the reading, starting gchatting my friends, and occasionally job hunted (in my last semester at least) during class.  

I do wish, however, that in certain circumstances I had paid more attention.  In my organization of information course we briefly touched on cataloging for a class or two.  It confused me greatly and I drowned my confusion in yet another game of BrickBreaker.  I learned very little about cataloging and what I did learn/understand made me stay away from the cataloging course.  In the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, "Big mistake. Huge".  I needed that class.  Not only would it have made me infinitely more marketable in my job search, it would have been tremendous help to me now.  But no.  I ignored the class both semesters it was offered.  

Another course I wish I had taken was Special Libraries.  I actually thought about taking this one, because I knew that cool research jobs occasionally came open and they were primarily in special libraries, but there were so many people who wanted to take the course that I opted out so not to take the place of someone who really wanted to take it.  The class is only offered once a year, and I thought that I was doing the nice thing.  After all, I wouldn't be working in a special library.  I was going to be an academic reference librarian (right?  RIGHT?)

Along those same lines is management.  I took the required management course; in fact, I took two.  I took both Academic and Public Libraries.  I can honestly say that Academic Libraries is the class I learned the least in and paid attention the least.  I spent that class buried in the back row with my roommate, playing games, eating lunch, and generally not learning.  Public Libraries was decent.  My professor was the director of our local public library, and when she was on her game, taught us a whole lot about real life in a public library.  Her class actually made me want to work in a public library.  But honestly, I didn't learn anything about management.  Management is, along with some other things, a skill that I will address in my next post, but it's also something I was really unprepared for and one that taking the Special Libraries class or the regular library management course may have helped fix. 

Other courses I wish I taken were Information Resources in the Sciences, mostly because there are ton of jobs open as health science librarians in academic institutions (and because it would help me now); user instruction, which was actually offered, but I was too busy with my history classes, and medical libraries, which wasn't offered until I graduated, but wow would that have been a help.  Most of this would have simply made me a more well-rounded librarian.  If I had taken cataloging and the Sciences course, I could have applied for more than double of the jobs I qualified for.  I may not want to be a cataloger, but after 5 months of unemployment, I would have started applying for anything, had I been qualified.  

Check back next week, when I will discuss all the skills that I wish had been taught or that I wish I had acquired.  In the meantime, share your thoughts.  What classes do you wish you had taken in library school?

Menu Plan Monday

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend.  We spent the weekend relaxing around the house and watching movies.  I took a half a day off on Friday (more on why later) and I have today off.  I have very few plans; I'm potentially going to see a movie with a friend, but other than that, I'm laying low and enjoying my day off.  Our grill got a big workout this weekend and I'm learning to grill!  Dad is very patiently teaching me the ins and outs so I can one day man the grill myself!

This weekend we enjoyed:

Friday: Grilled Shrimp Skewers, Veggie Skewers, Rice Pilaf (shrimp and veggie recipes coming soon!)

Saturday: Grilled Steak, Roasted Potatoes and Asparagus 

Sunday: Grilled Chicken and Italian sausage, Corn on the Cob, Asian Slaw

My mom is off this week from work and I'm gladly turning the kitchen over to her!  This week we will be having: 

Monday: Pasta tossed with Broccoli, olive oil, and toasted garlic

Tuesday: Veggie night!

Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Horseradish Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Peas

Shhh...The Library is a Quiet Space

This week my mom pointed out an editorial in our local paper that featured someone complaining about the noise in his local public library.  He had gone in to read and have some quiet time on a weekend afternoon and was shocked to find that the library was not the somber, boring place he remembered it once being.  He was angry, wondering when the library had become a playground.

This short piece made me angry on several levels.  First off, this is not the time to be complaining about the library.  This person obviously has no clue that his local library branch is probably in danger of closing because of lack of funding.  I bet he wouldn't be complaining if he knew that the government wanted to fire librarians, close branches, and take away his precious "quiet space" to save the city some money.  

It also made me angry because why should libraries be quiet?  Who says that is the way it's supposed to be that way?  The old lady in the bun and glasses saying "shh" at the desk?  I'm fairly sure she left the library along with Dialog-based databases.  Aren't libraries supposed to be part of the community, a place for families to gather and spend time together?  Isn't that part of what we are afraid of losing with the closure of public libraries?  

This patron was obviously distressed about the amount of children.  I do have a problem with parents who use the library as a babysitter or who allow their children to run wild in the library (or really in any public place), but libraries, especially on the weekends, are going to be full of children.  And children make noise.  That's just a simple fact.  Children make even more noise when they are with parents who are taking time to spend time with them, perhaps at a fun story time.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this; in fact, I think it is one of our biggest library treasures.  

I think this patron was clueless as to what a public library has become in the past few years. It is now a social space where you go to get a cup of coffee, play on the computer, check out some movies, listen to an author, or maybe attend a story time.  The library, the public library in any case, is no longer a place for quiet, personal study time or a place to sit and read a deep book and think deep thoughts.  You can, of course, still do that if you like, but be prepared for noise and children.  The library is a community space, and the more people who recognize this and use it as such, the better off all of our communities will be.

If a patron like this complained to you, what would you say?  Do you think the library should still be a quiet zone?

Food Waste Friday

I was really hoping to make this yet another no-waste week, but a banana and a potato got in the way.  Last week was the quarterly warehouse sale at one of our local grocery stores, and like always, we stocked up on meat.  We were also able to get toilet paper at a very discounted price and 5 pounds of potatoes for around a dollar.  Remembering what happened the last time I had too many potatoes, I was quick to look through them and check for bad spots.  I thought they were okay, until I started smelling that funny smell again, and sure enough, found a potato beginning to go bad.  I was able to rescue the rest of the lot, and am looking forward to some mashed potatoes with our horseradish meatloaf this weekend.  

The banana was another good catch.  I grabbed a banana on the way out the door this week and noticed that another had a really bad spot.  I told my dad to eat it, but he forgot, and by the next day more than half the banana was bad and it couldn't be salvaged.  Oh well.  It could have been way worse.

I didn't get a picture of either the banana or the potato so please enjoy this picture of dancing bananas instead.  

Did you waste any food this week?  Share it at The Frugal Girl!

Guest Post: The Life and Times of a New Librarian

Today my former roommate from library school, Lydia of the not-so-often updated blog, Metadata Maven, joins me in the last guest post of my series, The Life and Times of a New Librarian.  Lydia and I graduated SLIS in December and Lydia was able to find a job much faster than I, although her job path took her to the public library sphere, rather than to an academic library like she would have preferred.  Lydia is here today to share her experiences (the good and the bad), as a new public reference librarian at a small library. 

I recently began my job as a reference librarian at a small, southern public library. While I didn’t always know that I wanted to be a reference librarian, I did know that the academic world was for me.   Having only ever worked in the academic library setting, adjusting to this new world was difficult and enlightening.   While in school, I never really pictured myself working at a public library because I did not think that the work would be able to hold my attention.  I also believed that I would spend most of my time answering basic questions rather than helping with in-depth research.  

And I was totally right.   Instead of spending my day helping students to complete their education, I find myself answering the phone and signing people up to use public access computers.  Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered going to grad school.  While I do sometimes have reference questions that require more work than a basic Google search, more often than not, my day is spent finding phone numbers and telling people how to create email addresses.  While I know these are necessary, I sometimes feel as if my job could be done by a competent high school student.  

Even when I do have someone in need of real reference help, I find myself becoming frustrated because they do not put in the effort needed to do any type of real research.  At least once a week I have a patron come in asking for journal articles they need for a paper.  After showing the patron how to access the databases and how to use them effectively, I leave them to their research.  Almost every time they leave within 30 minutes having given up on their search because I did not do it for them.   The general public does not seem to realize how difficult research can be.  I find my patience growing shorter and shorter as more and more people expect me to do their work for them.  While I am sure this same frustration is felt in the academic world, I believe that it would not be as bad because academic librarians are working with people who clearly care about their education, or they would not be in college. 

Collection development is my favorite part of my job, but even that has had to undergo a change as I became more aware of the, dare I say, simple needs of my patrons.  Rather than being able to let my history and literature loving heart run wild through the book catalogs, ordering all kinds of specialized, specific, non-fiction materials, I have to spend my time looking for sappy romance novels about cowboys and vampires finding love.  While I accept that these kinds of books have their place and that they do have value for some people, it’s totally lost on me.  Even when reviewing reference materials I have had to totally change my expectation of what the materials should provide for my patrons.  The first reference catalog I looked at I thought there was nothing of value because every item was listed as either middle school and up or 9th grade and up.  I thought to myself that these books would never work for me because I’m an adult services librarian.  Well, as I spent more time at the reference desk and interacting with the patrons, I learned that maybe middle school materials were at the correct level for majority of people that come into the library, which is actually a very depressing thought. 

The public library world isn’t all doom and gloom.  There are some bright moments when I believe that I really am making a difference.  Anytime I have a patron that actually stays and does research after I have helped them to get started makes my day wonderful.  Hopefully, as I continue to work in the public library, I will become accustom to the needs of the general public and will stop comparing this totally different world to the academic library world.  

Do you have any advice or suggestions for Lydia?  What can she do to better adjust to life in a public library?