Category: Observations

  • Facebook’s going crazy, and I’m not talking about privacy (really)

    It seems a little goofy that in a week where people are deleting their Facebook accounts due to Facebook’s stance on privacy and going rogue. Criticizing Facebook is nothing new, I mean check out the Wikiepedia page. The rumored “Places” feature coming to Facebook is already freaking people out. So people are deleting their accounts…

  • DIY Mentorships

    Last month I blogged that I’m accepting applications for a mentor. (Applications are still open, by the way…) Well, this week one of my mentors/role models/heroes, Sarah Glassmeyer, blogged about Libpunk Mentorship. It’s great advice to any wayward librarian (or professional whatever) looking for direction. Her five main points are: Own Your Shit It’s OK…

  • Peformance based tenure – Here’s to good work!

    Today’s AP wire had an article about Ohio State University, the largest university in the country, possibly changing the rules for granting tenure: The leader of the country’s largest university thinks it’s time to re-examine how professors are awarded tenure, a type of job-for-life protection virtually unknown outside academia. Ohio State University President Gordon Gee…

  • Tenure and Academic Freedom: Times are changing.

    Last week I asked if academic librarians should be faculty. The issue of academic freedom came up, as faculty status (and tenure) should protect librarians. Is that really the case though? Is tenure the only way to achieve that? According to the American Association of University Professors it is. The bottom line is that librarians…

  • Wanted: Mentor. Now accepting applications.

    Last week, when I was deep in the TRB 2010 Annual Meeting, one of my transportation library colleagues ask me if I had a mentor who “couldn’t directly benefit from [my] actions” and didn’t “have any direct control” over my career. When he put it like that, my answer had to be no. I have…