None of this means that I am going to start writing in my blog again. I’m just waiting for this damned thing to upload to a website I’m working on and I’m really bored.

Books, once considered the the pinnacle of human civilization, have slowly gone into retreat. Whether it’s technology, modern society or time, the reason behind the demise is widely debated, but what we know for sure is that books today, are still a great way to experience adventure thrills, learn about faraway places and contemplate the future

These are the sort of unsubstantiated statements that drive a good librarian crazy. (Those who love comma splices will adore this post, by the way.) When I did a brief search for publishing stats I found that The Association of American Publishers reported we bought 24 billion dollars worth of books last year. Mr. Neagu is correct, that dollar amount is less than what was earned in 2007 but 24 billion is still a lot of money. As far as the “widely debated” reasons for this decline…can anyone say recession? I’m thinking that people are reading the books they bought last year when they were flush and didn’t have the time to read. And they are using their public libraries more. And I’m sure they are reading on the internet more but I will bet you my untouched first edition hardcover copy of Infinite Jest that they are not reading novels on the computer.

I also have to take issue with the sites that Make Use Of chose to review and the criteria used to evaluate them. The post is entitled “The 8 Best Book Review Sites” but only gives us four. (The other four are newspapers with book sections.) And they are clearly not the “best” because the evaluative comments include “nothing remarkable but worth a read,” “slightly better organized than the others,” and this train wreck of a paragraph describing AllReaders.com:

AllReaders.com, with a design stuck in 1999, the apogee of humanity according to the Matrix. Their library is comprehensive and the search engine highly customizable, but the reviews are generally short and superficial. “Gordon invites readers, authors and publishers to enter books and reviews in a process that takes about 10 minutes,” and that’s exactly the problem with the site. Instead of knowledgeable readers and writers, you will sometimes risk finding a common illiterate species: the internet troll. The advantage of reading through many viewpoints is undeniable so go on and visit it here.

Apogee of what according to whom?

Geez, I thought this post was supposed to review the eight BEST sites not the NY Times and three mediocre ones found in the first results page in a google search for book reviews. I’m sorry to be so critical of a single blog post out of so many good ones from Make Use Of but I have come to expect better. I won’t comment on the writing. I just won’t.

I rely on Publisher’s Weekly, New York Times, The New York Review of Books and Amazon to get recommendations on what I should read next.

Make Use Of, you make, me crabby.

Scenario: I am a student and I need to log in to my school email for the first time. I am given a login box. I type in my credentials, nothing happens. There’s no link that says something to the effect of “login help.” The help link is called “need more info.” um…ok. Remember that I am a first time user. Here’s what the “need more info” link gives me: [and what the student is thinking when and if they actually read this carefully]

What is my Log In ID?
Your Log In ID and initial e-mail password were sent to you in a letter when the account was created. [what letter?]
If you are not sure of your MyCOD student portal Log In ID, you can find that information in MyAccess (https://myaccess.cod.edu). [I thought I was in the student portal already. What's the student portal then? Isn't that where my email is? Shouldn't both usernames and passwords be the same?] After signing into MyAccess you will find your email address listed by first selecting “MyAccess for Students” on the Main Menu and then by clicking on “My Profile” in the “Academic Profile” section of the “MyAccess for Students Menu” page. [What? Where is this?] The part before the @dupage.edu in your email address is your Log In ID for the MyCOD student portal. Do not include @dupage.edu as part of the Log In ID. [Oh, so this is a different thing...I wonder what my login information is for that.]
What is my initial password? [for the email or for the other thing?]
The initial password, for a new account, is shown on the letter you received from registration. [letter? which of the five letters I got in the mail might have this information?]
If you were enrolled in classes between Fall 2005 and Spring 2009, your default password is the first two letters of the city you live in, plus your PIN. For example, if a student lived in West Chicago, and had a PIN of 1070 then their initial password would be: we1070. If you were not enrolled in classes at COD between Fall 2005 and Spring 2009 then your default password takes the form mmddyy where mm is the month of your birth, dd is the day of your birth, and yy is the last two digits of the year of your birth. For example, if your date of birth was January 4, 1984, your default password would be 010484.
[oh, ok...what? Why can't all new user passwords be the same format?]
What if I changed my password but cannot remember it? [changed it from what again?]
First, try following the “What is my password?” link above. You will be prompted with your password hint. [why don't you give me this link in the first place?] If you are unable to recover your password using the password hint, you’ll need to call the Student Support Helpdesk at 630-942-2999. [I called the student helpdesk. Instead of telling me what to do, they took my SS number and reset my password...and now I can't access my account until 6:00 am tomorrow. I give up.]

How long after registering for my first class at COD should I expect my account to be created?
As of May 1, 2009 all accounts are created the night that you register and should be ready for your use the next day. An informational letter will be sent to your house after your account is created. [oh, THAT letter...]

The College has changed so much in the last ten years, people have come and gone, the focus has gone from the students to the money and we are in a very dark period of our College’s history. In short, work has been difficult. But that doesn’t mean I’ve chosen the wrong career. There are still students there. Many of whom are just like me when I started at Henry Ford CC in 1993–scared and unsure. I can still be a librarian who works for CC students even though the place where I do this work is completely messed up. The students need the support of the Library now more than ever! I’m a community college librarian. I cannot imagine doing anything else. So, I’m not going to change the name of my blog. And I’m going to remember who I am every single day when I go to work.

Change has occurred in copious amounts at my place of work during the last few weeks, some of it not so great.   My personal life had changed considerably. Of course I didn’t realize it until I woke up one day to a huge dose of Different.   Now, I could rail against these changes and be all upset and anxious.  I could be angry that my workplace is confused and depressing and that my life is a little more complicated than usual at the moment.  But, really, what good would that do? So, I’m thinking that since a change flurry is swirling all around me  I should totally capitalize on it and make a bunch of other changes too.  One of those changes is making something better/different out of  this yawn of a blog.  I never write in it anymore. Why? Because I was totally bored with not saying what was really on my mind  because people at work read it.   Not that I want to be all opinionated or tell secrets or bitch about work.   I just think I pigeon-holed myself with dedicating the blog to my profession.  When this blog comes back, the word librarian will not be in the title, but I might post about libraries because I really like them.

First step:  picking a pretty new theme.  Trying to browse wordpress’s themes selection is sort of like browsing Zappo’s so this is going to take awhile.

See you soon, my three readers and my mother.  Thank you for sticking around.

Oh..

We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.
~W.H. Auden

Simple: GMAC should be out of business…how can a company who delivers an exam relied upon by so many graduate schools have such lousy security? Why are they still in business? Secondly, its not like the students wrote down these “live” questions on their hands or made a crib sheet out of them when they sat for the GMAT. Hello, GMAC and all the schools who are considering expelling students who purchased a study guide on the internet: welcome to the last two decades, for God’s sake. These students purchased and used an Internet study guide! This is not plagiarism. At least they cared enough about getting into grad school that they bothered to study! How about getting rid of these ridiculous graduate tests altogether and just relying on a student’s academic background and their application materials instead? How about interviewing students for admission? How about stopping the kickback scam that is the GRE, LSAT, GMAT, etc.? I’ve been told by more than one PhD program that they only use the GRE scores as “tie breakers” when they have more applications than available slots. One told me that they don’t even look at the scores, wink wink. Some programs have stopped requiring these exams and I congratulate them. Every person who loses an opportunity in life like grad school because of GMAC’s incompetence should file their own lawsuit.