Learn it, Live it, Love it

It’s not okay to ignore common courtesy and make others uncomfortable.

It’s not okay to be a class A jerk.

It’s not okay to belittle others feelings.

Do we really need to address this again?

Yes!

In a jury pool I was in a few years ago all but 1 woman, who was never called to be interviewed as a potential juror, stated that they had been stalked at least once, many multiple times.  Many of the male jurors had also been stalked, those who hadn’t had at least one family member or partner who had been stalked.  The stalker in the case was a woman, I did not get called to serve on the jury.

Posts by Others:

My Privileged World

http://www.thisview.org/?p=22

The Inhuman Response to Rebecca Watson

http://blogs.plos.org/retort/2011/07/07/the-inhuman-response-to-rebecca-watson/

Dear Richard Dawkins (I’d been thinking about blogging this topic for a while, but this post pushed me over the edge.)

http://skepchick.org/2011/07/dear-richard-dawkins/

Bullying: Personal, Professional and Workplace by Stephen Abram

http://stephenslighthouse.com/2011/07/07/bullying-personal-professional-and-workplace/

Assholes are Killing Your Projects (See it’s not just about sex!)

http://blip.tv/tech-love-live/osb09-donnie-berkholz-assholes-are-killing-your-project-2464449

It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, straight or LGBTQ, when someone doesn’t want to be pursued by you and indicates that the matter should be closed.  Pursuing someone aggressively after they’ve turned you down doesn’t show your strength it makes you a creepy stalker and you just shouldn’t go there.

People who gracefully take rejection have my respect, those who are aggressive and are less willing to take no for an answer go in the creapy stalker I don’t ever want to be alone with you category.

Be courteous, don’t make people feel bad is easy to say, here’s some tips:

If you would be ashamed to say something to even one person you respect it is not a good line to use on a new acquaintance, especially if you are trying to hookup with them.

Trying to pressure someone who has said no into going out with you makes you a jerk and a bully.

Groping people is never appropriate.  It is not a joke, and it isn’t fun or funny, just say no to groping!  Touching people who you haven’t been introduced to is not appropriate unless you are saving them from harm.  You can generally catch someone’s attention with your voice just fine.

Just because someone looks young to you doesn’t mean they are.  Don’t talk down to anyone and you’ll avoid a lot of conflict.  Assume everyone you talk to is a highly intelligent mature adult as smart or smarter than you unless they prove you wrong.  No one likes to be talked down to, especially not by a potential romantic partner.  Loose the condensation and you’ll have better success.

Do not follow people, do not follow people in your car.  Do not follow them in your car and try and get them in your car, especially if you are a stranger.  Even if you know the person this is creapy and stalkerish.  This is NOT acceptable behavior.  The same goes for hounding people via e-mail, social networks, and phone.

Don’t call people names, your friends may have rude names for each other but we don’t know you at all/that well so now is not the time to be calling people something that would have got your mouth washed out with soap 50 years ago.  If someone indicates they are not interested in you romantically not calling them names is especially important for not coming off as a total jerk.

Accusing people of lying about their age, marital, or relationship status, or any other fact they use to fend you off is a total turn off, you have now gone from person we are not interested in to person we are seriously thinking of calling security/police on if you don’t go away and stop harassing us. (We are generally telling you the truth, it’s too much effort to lie to a stranger.  If we are lying, so what, obviously we are NOT interested in you.)

It is none of your business what we wear, who we hang out with, what our marital status, sexual orientation, or any other personal information about us.  Not interested is not interested.

*If you think this advice is a little extreme all of these circumstances have happened to me, generally multiple times.  That’s bad enough, but sadly I’d estimate that the majority of the people from any marginalized group have experienced most if not all of these as well.

The Road to Success

In the spirit of open scholarship I thought I’d share my recent uploads to the UNL institutional repository.

This talk was arranged by Roy Brooks  and originally presented via Elluminate for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, April 26, 2011, at 12:00pm CDT.  (Sorry about that skip to the end button!  My mouse just really wanted to click it!)

Brian Leaf

Leaders of Tomorrow is a series of short interviews with new librarians and library school students. These are the people I’m watching and I am sure we’ll see great things from them.

Meet Brian Leaf

Brian is a triple threat who is intelligent, charming, and fun! Brian is currently an Instructional Assistant at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where he is also completing a MSLS.

I met Brain through our mutual participation in ARL’s Diversity Programs and can’t wait to see what he does next!

1.  How did you first become interested in librarianship?

I’ve always been interested in contributing to society in some way, and many problems seem to revolve around information. Regardless of our field, we make decisions based on the information we have or are able to get. Those decisions can have both positive and negative consequences. In a hospital, for example, accurate and timely information can mean the difference between life and death. Librarianship–which I perceived as inherently interdisciplinary–seemed to address those issues, or at least have the potential to.

2. How would you describe yourself in 5 words or less?

Tireless lifelong learner.

3.  What do you see as some of the major challenges facing librarians in the coming years?

They seem to be the same challenges that the library world has appeared to face the past several years: Deciding how to be who we want to be, and then consistently selling it so we can do our jobs–even in an economic downturn.

4. What would you like to accomplish or work towards as a librarian?

My continuing overall goal is to improve how people receive, seek, and use information–whether it’s in the form of a quality education, personal consumption, everyday decisions, or even policy-making.

5. When you aren’t on the clock how do you like to relax?

Running helps me clear my mind, and the dance floor is where I have my fun. I also enjoy traveling, exploring new places, and trying new things when I can. On the toughest days, sleeping proves to be fairly effective.

My Typical Academic Desktop

*Updated 12/16/10 – Extended Call For Proposal’s Date

If you e-mailed a proposal for the original 12/03/10 deadline and have not received an acceptance or rejection letter then your proposal was not received, please resend.

Risk taking is something that we talk a lot about doing, but that is always difficult to implement.  In this case I took a risk and it paid off, as some of you may know I submitted a co-edited chapter book proposal many months ago.  Through a lot of work and a little bit of luck, and with the support of my friends and colleagues  everything worked out.

I’d like to present the call for chapters for:

Succession Planning and Implementation in Libraries: Practices and Resources

Editors:

Kiyomi D. Deards, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Gene R. Springs, Rutgers University

Call for Chapters:
Proposals Submission Deadline: January 3, 2011
Full Chapters Due: March 31, 2011

Introduction
Succession planning concerns methods of transitioning from the out-going employee to their replacement. In most cases, succession planning is used in the context of replacing the leader of an organization. The majority of the existing literature focuses on the preparation and promotion of internal candidates, and how to choose a replacement. This publication will expand the literature by focusing on the importance of the development of library culture, policies, and documentation as integral parts of succession planning.

Objective of the Book
As leaders in the library community change jobs or retire, the need for thoughtful development of library culture, policies, and documentation are necessary to develop effective leaders and ensure smooth transitions of power. This publication will add to the existing literature by addressing key components of succession planning providing a thoughtful overview of methods to ensure successful changes in leadership. The unique characteristics of this book are its focus on creation of policy, documentation, and the development of professional library culture.

Target Audience
The prospective audience for this book will be: college, university and research libraries, library and information science faculty concerned with management issues, human resources officers, personal officers, organizational officers, administrators, librarians, library and information science students, and others interested in library leadership issues.
Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Succession Planning: The Importance
Strategic Planning
Leadership
Communities of Practice
Documentation
Recruitment
Advancement and Retention
Inclusion
International Librarianship
Resistance
Assessment
The Future

Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before December 3, 2010, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by December 20, 2010 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by March 15, 2011. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2012.

Important Dates
December 3, 2010: Proposal Submission Deadline
December 20, 2010: Notification of Acceptance
March 15, 2011: Full Chapter Submission
June 10, 2011: Review Results Returned
July 20, 2011: Final Chapter Submission
August 7, 2011: Final Deadline

Editorial Advisory Board Members
Jon Cawthorne, San Diego State University, USA
Joan Giesecke, University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA
Beth McNeil, Purdue University, USA
Lisa Norberg, Barnard College and Columbia University, USA
Maureen Sullivan, Maureen Sullivan Associates, USA

Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document)
Kiyomi D. Deards
University of Nebraska Lincoln
N219 Love Library, PO Box 884100, Lincoln NE 68588-4100
Tel.: 402-472-2554 • Fax: 402-472-5181
E-mail: kdeards2@unl.edu