Living under a rockrandom

by Meredith Farkas on 7/21/2005 with 7 comments

I know this may be shocking to some, but I just started reading those Harry Potter books for the first time, and you know what? They’re a pretty good read! Since I’d seen the first three movies, I decided to read The Goblet of Fire and immediately after finishing it (which I did very quickly …

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The “kept-up” distance learning librarianALA, blogging, job search, libraries, library school, RSS and Syndication, screencasting, social bookmarking, tech trends

by Meredith Farkas on 7/21/2005 with 15 comments

I have gotten several emails from library students who feel that their programs are not teaching them enough about technology. The student I heard from a few days ago expressed concerns that she would be at a distinct disadvantage when she got out of school and wondered if I learned what I know about technology …

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Research-phobialibrary school

by Meredith Farkas on 7/15/2005 with 6 comments

Joy at Wanderings of a Student Librarian wrote a great post on what’s wrong with so many Research Methods classes. Research Methods classes often seem to be taught because they’re a requirement and not to actually inspire in library students a passion for research and scholarly literature. For me, the passion for research came from …

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To the Lighthouseblogging

by Meredith Farkas on 7/12/2005 with Comments Off on To the Lighthouse

Thanks to Steven Cohen, I just learned that Stephen Abram has a new blog, entitled Stephen’s Lighthouse. What an exciting new addition to the biblioblogosphere. He’s already written an insightful piece on Virtual Reference and the fact that, increasingly, patrons’ only interactions with the library will be virtual. That certainly was the case for me …

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“Just do it”libraries, random, Wikis

by Meredith Farkas on 7/12/2005 with Comments Off on “Just do it”

Library Success wasn’t the only wiki to come out last week. We also saw the birth of the LISWiki, which has been criticized by various people in the biblioblogosphere (love that term! Thanks Karen!). I do agree with some of the critics that the LIS Wiki needs more of a defined focus and purpose, and …

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The Job Hunt: What I Learnedjob search

by Meredith Farkas on 7/9/2005 with 23 comments

Over the past few weeks, I’ve taken some time to reflect on my job search. I spent a long time looking for a job; longer than I’d expected, though a shorter time than many others I’ve met or read about. I’ve heard about new librarians having anywhere between 200 rejection letters to only having to …

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Safe bloggingblogging

by Meredith Farkas on 7/5/2005 with 11 comments

Now that I have a job, I’ve started thinking about how my work will affect my blog. I was even asked by a soon-to-be colleague how I would handle blogging in the workplace. There are some things I know. I certainly wouldn’t blog anything that would hurt people’s feelings and I wouldn’t blog anything negative …

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About

by Meredith Farkas on 6/30/2005 with 10 comments

  Meredith Farkas is a faculty librarian at Portland Community College in Oregon. She was previously the Head of Instructional Services at Portland State University where she was engaged in building and assessing new approaches to instruction as well as building online tutorials and learning tools to support online and face-to-face courses. For her work in leading …

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ALA Day 1: StarstruckALA, blogging

by Meredith Farkas on 6/24/2005 with Comments Off on ALA Day 1: Starstruck

My day didn’t really get started until mid-afternoon, but boy was the latter half of the day fabulous! You know when you’re around people who just “get it”? People you don’t have to sell on blogging and new technologies and change? Well, I had the pleasure of being in a room entirely filled with people …

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Wesleyan librarian alums unite!General

by Meredith Farkas on 6/22/2005 with 3 comments

Andrea, one of my librarian heroes, has come up with this genius idea for a Librarians and Wesleyan Connection Meetup during ALA. Here is the announcement from the wiki: Librarians & Wesleyan Connection Meet Up at the PLA President’s Reception, Hyatt Regency Chicago McCormick Room/Regency Ballroom, 7:30pm. If you went to Wesleyan, or are somehow …

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ALA Conference Schedule (revised)ALA, blogging, random

by Meredith Farkas on 6/22/2005 with Comments Off on ALA Conference Schedule (revised)

Whew! We’re finally back in Chicago after being out of town for almost the entire month of June. Can’t say I missed the traffic (Vermont is really nice that way). I’m totally worn out, but happy, and am so excited about the ALA Conference. There are so many amazing people I am dying to meet, …

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Life is goodblogging, job search

by Meredith Farkas on 6/22/2005 with 17 comments

I’ve been wanting to blog about this for a while… I got a job. 🙂 I was offered the position about 11 days ago, but was nervous about blogging about something that was not yet in writing. After having lunch yesterday with the Library Director and her husband, I realized that yes, I really do …

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Calling out into cyberspacerandom

by Meredith Farkas on 6/14/2005 with 1 comment

I know this is a totally weird way to get in touch with someone, but I got a really exciting email two weeks ago from a woman who wanted to work with me on creating a wiki, but she must have given me the incorrect email address since my emails keep bouncing back. So Nancy …

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Road trip!blogging

by Meredith Farkas on 6/14/2005 with 1 comment

I won’t be posting much (if anything) over the next week since tomorrow I’ll be starting a major road trip with my hubby and Internet access may be sporadic at best. I’ll be back in Chicago on the 22nd and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at ALA!!! If you want to grab lunch, dinner, …

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