I know its been an awfully long time since I made an appearance round here, but I finally had something that inspired me.

Today our library lost one of its most faithful servants. No, he didn’t pass away or anything tragic like that. He simply received a better (and entirely different type of) offer. After 16 years of unflagging commitment to the public and to the people with whom he worked, my boss has moved on to what we all hope are bigger and better things.*

It would be impossible to overstate the impact of the man (hereafter affectionately referred to as Lumbergh, for all you Office Space fans out there) on the people that he supervised. I have never met someone with the capacity to handle crises, push forward big projects, put out intrastaff fires and absorb criticism/complaint, yet at the same time raise three daughters and serve in an extremely demanding military officer position, all the while looking as relaxed, enraptured and carefree as a kid in a candy store.

Lumbergh epitomizes what I seek in a boss. He did not direct and command, so much as he coached and supported. I can’t imagine an individual inspiring more positive energy amongst his colleagues in the workplace. And I don’t mean necessarily a “go get ‘em” kind of enthusiasm, although that was part of it. I mean more of a cozy, comfortable “everything will work out fine; you’re doing great” type of emotional security that is invaluable for morale and extremely difficult to achieve, much less maintain. I learned as much about managing interpersonal relations from Lumbergh in five short months than I have from anyone else in my entire lifetime.

It is a gross understatement to say that Lumbergh will be missed. He was a great boss. He is a great friend. Farewell, Lumbergh. Your library loves you.

* Lest you wonder what could be bigger and/or better than public librarianship, I can only divulge that the new position involves intelligence on a national security level.

For lack of better content, I guess I’ll jump on this bandwagon.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

“In this scenario, the engine will reindex the web site more frequently (thus allowing the user to find more current information with a search) and allow for a deeper listing (thus providing the advertiser to be listed with a broad variety of search terms).” – Steven M. Cohen, Keeping Current (seriously, it’s the closest book to my computer)

Folks, I have so much to say about my experience at CiL that it will be hard to find time to say it all. I promise I will put a few thoughts out there within the next week, but with us closing on our house, my transition to a new position (perhaps more on that later as well), and other unexpected social events, I just can be sure when I’ll get it all down. Sorry to keep you waiting…

Is it me or did I see Walt’s mug in the orkut Libraries community? Friendship is an interesting concept applied to the blogosphere. I’ve never met a single person on my orkut friends list, but my interactions with colleagues through this blog, email and IM have often felt more in touch than the communication I keep with my meatspace friends. In that spirit, I naturally added Walt to my friends list.

Of course, I will meet you all. Mark my words.

Somehow I was drawn into doing a vanity search for the article that I wrote last August (about which you’ve no doubt heard too much from me already). Two interesting new references emerged.

I found a blog written in Japanese that has a post referring to the article. Dying for a translation, I went to WorldLingo.com and got the following (italicized):

Librarians are great filters of information and relying on a select group to provide your daily information can be a great time-saver.

Being calling filter, so without being, it is from the just a little
わ? . If so, this statement is read, as for those where it is
expected to books staff blog, never is not just story of library
industry, don’t you think? it is.

Reason #4 – You are unique.
One of the problems with librarianship is image. Stereotypes of librarians abound. Publishing a blog is an opportunity to demonstrate your individuality
and thereby work to dispel some of those pervasive myths. Even if you don’t think of yourself as unique and fear being
redundant, your voice is yours and yours alone, So join the chorus.

“Stereotypes of libraryans” “myths” っ て here probably is what
semantic what. When it is Japan, however the “library cartoon home
page” the air does that way.

Compared to *1 honesty and image processing this thinks as proper with
main business of workshop, but therefore in addition to you take the
labor which is suitable to photographing, furthermore plainner
contents than photographing work (w

My sentiments exactly. Now if someone out there has a reading knowledge of Japanese and would care to proffer a more reasonable translation, I’d be much obliged.

The other new reference I saw was an actual citation in a grad school paper, entitled “Blogs as Tools of Preservation.” Although the author could seriously use an editor, there is an interesting discussion of authority, credibility and community, all of which leads to an interesting, if somewhat flawed, conclusion. In what I consider a bizarre connection, this paper refers to the same “Librarians are great filters of information” bit that the Japanese author does. You’d think it was the most significant piece of information to be gleaned from my article…and maybe it is.

Apparently, the most recent version of MT-Blacklist broke my Movable Type installation, which, amongst other things, made commenting impossible. I believe the problem has been fixed. If anything I’ve said in recent days elicited a remark from you, beloved reader, please come back and speak your mind. Thanks for reading and I apologize humbly for the inconvenience.

Welcome to those of you joining me from an unidentified class at San Jose State’s SLIS program. Since I can’t access your BlackBoard system, perhaps you’d tell me what class you’re visiting from and what was said on the discussion board that led you here. But if you’re the shy type, that’s OK too.

I’ve been outed on my GSLIS bulletin board as well. Not that any of my schoolmates have come to visit or say hello, but I’m not bitter.

Well, I don’t have anything pressing to say today. Last night, I came across a post (Nov. 14, sorry no permalinks) over at tarheel bloggers:

“Here’s a librarian-blogger who links to LIS students at the Univ. of Washington: Open Stacks: “…the new way to tell the world what you think”. Greg Schwartz links to a lot of other librarians, but I think it’s time he learns about the excellent bloggers at UNC’s SILS.”

Of course, the post’s author, mistersugar, is alluding to the fact that there are no SILSers on my blogroll. That’s true enough, as far as I know. But those of you familiar with my history here, on Blogsource and with the dmoz LIS Weblogs categories would understand why I find his suggestion amusing, to say the least.

Since virtually everyone who visits this blog is a regular reader of Library Stuff, I really don’t need to point out Steven’s Public Libraries article on the “New Breed” of library weblogs. But here I am, doing it anyway. As always, Steven, thanks for the publicity. I wonder how long I’ll have to keep at it to move from the “New Breed” to the “Old School.” And what will be characteristic of the new “New Breed?”

The Lipstick Librarian recently called for library catchphrases “that resonate with the Youth of Today.” Amongst her offerings:

Get the 411 @ your library
Libraries are phat!
Reading: the booty-call of free entertainment

And my personal favorite:

Wait two hours for your mom to pick you up after school @ your library

Let me offer up a few more:

Libraries: Bustin’ a cap in your information gap.
The porn filters aren’t air-tight @ your library
B to the izz-O O to the izz-K!

And in today’s thrill du jour, David Bigwood gives up some love for my library system.

After all these years, it looks like I’ll finally live out my dream of joining a Greek organization. No, not the Omega Mu‘s, the Beta Phi Mu‘s. That’s right, apparently the UIUC GSLIS faculty has deemed me worthy of being part of the renowned (had you ever heard of it?) international LIS honor society. Not that this is a particularly unique distinction – up to 25% of each graduating class can be nominated – but it’s nice to think I made a good impression in the two short (yet long enough) semesters I was in grad school. [cue announcer voice] “And a lifetime membership to the national organization is available for the low, low price of $50! Join now and we’ll give you a one year membership to your school’s chapter…absolutely free! So what are you waiting for? Pick up the phone and join Beta Phi Mu today!” No seriously, it’s cool. I’m honored.