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Archive for the ‘me’ Category

Projects projects projects!

Here’s some of the projects I’ve been working on in the last few months:

GIL-Find — An installation of the VuFind social catalog interface. It’s currently being tested at several institutions across the state, and ours is one of them! The students love it, and it’s way more functional than our Voyager catalog (relevance ranking and persistent links! w00t!).
Vtext — A DSpace digital repository for VSU. It’s stable and running, now the fun part: marketing to faculty!
I built Odum Library Search applications for Facebook and MySpace as part of a forthcoming writing project. I’ll talk more about it when it comes out.
Pagan Archives Network — I’m working with several Pagan Studies scholars to develop a web-based finding aid for primary and secondary resources. It’s still in development, but a few Pagan librarians have already started to volunteer their time to develop taxonomies and work on finding/inputting collections!
SaveTheMantas.org — Volunteering as a researcher, pulling together research and photos for their site. Give them a tax-deductible donation!
And last, but not least, I just did a re-design of clifflandis.net using the Go Green template. I hope you enjoy!

Posted by Cliff on September 16th, 2009

A little bookbinding fun

I did this book, entitled “The Journals of Cambrin de Soto” (hence the big “C” on the cover) for my awesome, hilarious, and talented friend Jenica.

Posted by Cliff on February 16th, 2009

Firehooping

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And now for something completely different, to distract you from LibraryLand. This is me firehooping a few years ago for a couple of friends.

Posted by Cliff on December 4th, 2008

Tolerance for courageous suckage

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I don’t typically do comment posts, but I would like to comment on a post by Merlin Mann over at 43 folders. In it, Mann explores his growing skill in photography, and the uncomfortable feelings that we get when we’re learning something new and have to realize that we’re not instantaneously brilliant at it.

Nobody likes feeling like a noob, especially when you’re getting constant pressure on all sides to never stick out in an unflattering way. And, in this godforsaken just-add-Wikipedia era of make-believe insight and instant expertise, it’s natural to start believing you must never suck at anything or admit to knowing less than everything — even when you’re just starting out. Clarinets should never squawk, sketch lines should never be visible, and dictionaries are just big, dumb books of words for cheaters and fancy people. Right?

I think finding your own comfort with the process (whatever that process ends up being) might just be the whole game here — being willing to put in your time, learn the craft, and never lose the courageousness to be caught in the middle of making something you care about, even when it might be shit and you might look like an idiot fumbling to make it. What’s the worst thing that could happen?

When I speak, I try to emphasize the joy of failure. The recognition that when you’re learning something new, that you’re not going to do it perfectly the first time. When I’m learning a new skill, craft, or language, I have to be patient with myself, and constantly reassure that part of myself that (to this day!) tells me that “I’m doing it wrong and I should just quit.” I have to be patient with myself.

As librarians, we’re always changing and trying new things to adapt to our world and our users (and if you’re not, you should probably change careers). So we can’t expect to be perfect the first time. So as you create your library’s new Alternate Reality Game, write that article on SMS in libraries, or figure out a way to de-suck your library’s catalog, remember that you won’t get it right the first time. But that’s no reason to quit trying. The only way to rock is to pratice.

Posted by Cliff on December 2nd, 2008

Thoughts on Anger

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I’ve shared my thoughts on anger with friends and family members, and folks have asked me to write them down–so here you go. It can all be summed up into a single aphorism:

We get angry when we see someone violating values that we hold dear.

I value things like hard work, consideration, kindness, a clean and simple space, honesty, responsibility, and self-discipline. When I see people violating these values, I get angry. It took examining my anger over a long period of time to come to this realization.

In fact, I have used my anger as a trigger point to help me be aware of what I truly value in life. When I see someone being inconsiderate of a friend’s feelings, I get angry at them. When I see myself slipping on my responsiblities, I get angry with myself. When I see libraries offer bad service to users because we’re lazy, it makes me furious. But that’s because consideration, responsiblity and hard work are my values.

Sometimes it is inappropriate for me to force my values on someone else (I won’t tell someone else to clean their house before I visit, for example). Sometimes values conflict with each other and must be carefully balanced (sometimes you can’t deliver both fast and in-depth service to a Reference Services user!). Sometimes you have to discuss your values with friends/family/coworkers to iron out anger and conflict. Sometimes you have to recognize that your values are yours, and then you can let small, trivial anger go.

Look at what makes you angry. What are your values? What are your institution’s values? How can you use your anger as a driving force for growth?

Posted by Cliff on November 5th, 2008