Critical Mass and Democratic Society

I don't read the local entertainment rag in Charlotte because I became accustomed to the actually interesting and well written stories in the Village Voice. If I were familiar with Tara Servatius' writing I would have known that, in addition to hating the freedom of access to information that Libraries provide, she also does not care for cycling, she prefers pollution.
http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/the_cycling_epidemic/Content?oid=996069

That's funny that she doesn't like a critical mass blocking traffic to exercise their rights and express their opinions, so sorry Tara, but that that's the point of a critical mass!

http://times-up.org/index.php?page=critical-mass-what
Critical Mass is an event that began in San Francisco in the early 1990s and has since spread to hundreds of cities around the world. It usually occurs monthly (sometimes weekly). as bicyclists spontaneously come together to ride the ordinarily car-clogged streets of their cities. Critical Mass focuses on the rights of bicyclists and the rights of pedestrians on our own streets. It also brings attention to the deteriorating quality of life -- starting with the toxic levels of air and noise pollution -- that cars create for cities.

Bike lift at Critical Mass. It is a leaderless ride, free and open to all, where bicyclists take to the streets to promote bicycling as the best means of urban transit.

Bicyclists are just as much traffic and have just as much right to be on the roads and travel at their own speed as anyone else. Having said that, TIME'S UP! recommends all road users obey all New York City traffic laws, especially one-way street restrictions and traffic lights. Remember, the respect we seek as cyclists must be matched by our respect for the rights of other people, including pedestrians and drivers.

Do Journalists Really Need a Literate Readership?

Today in Charlotte local "journalist" or free-lance opinion columnist, whatever she is-Tara Servatius posted this gem of an article about the age old question of whether Libraries are still relevant? Isn't she darling?

http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/do_we_really_need_our_libraries_/Content?oid=1262028

Many people think that a several hundred dollar gadget such as an e-reader is affordable for all people. Even the children who used to get story-time 7 days/week at the many branches our fair cities public libraries, why don't they just buy an e-reader? Well you know what, even e-reader books cost something and your library card is a privilege granted to every citizen of Mecklenburg County. This is to keep knowledge and information accessible to everyone, because we want to live in a civilized society.
I don't usually read Creative Loafing, but if I did, I would know that Tara Servatius is a pain in the arse and is an elitist:
http://charlotte.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/the_cycling_epidemic/Content?oid=996069
That's funny that she doesn't like a critical mass blocking traffic to exercise their rights and express their opinions, so sorry Tara, but that that's the point of a critical mass!

Thanks for your hateful opinion Tara and thank you for disabling comments on your article. Free speech is no longer allowed either? There is a book in the Library titled 1984 by George Orwell, let's burn it this weekend?

This is an example of a post (by Amy Buris Shapiro) that was censored from the comments page of this article:

Libraries offer ...programming for adults and children. They serve as community meeting spaces. They provide a safety net for those who cannot afford home computers or Kindles. Our public libraries are striving to meet the challenges of the new reality of e-books by offering e-books for check out, just as libraries adapted to challenges to their niche by home computers and the internet.

Libraries in five years may not look the same as today, but they will continue to adapt, thrive and offer information to all citizens.

Research on Library Telecommuting

I read several articles on telecommuting or working from home and these are the main reasons why university libraries should implement a policy on creating flexible working schedules that include telecommuting. This is the outline for the "Action Research" presentation I will deliver to my Organizational Behavior class this evening.

We already work from home. Our primary function is to serve the students, staff and community. Library services naturally must be very flexible, we work many evenings and weekends. When out of town or working at home for other reasons, we need to stay in touch remotely. Establishing a telecommuting policy will address this action already in practice.

Emergency Preparedness. In the event of pandemic illness, the Library should have in place a policy on telecommuting to address concerns of productivity and maintaining services. From Managing Information, 2009

Environmental Conservation. U.S. Telecommuters Save 840 Million Gallons Of Gas Per Year. In an attempt to be environmentally conscious, the Library should have a telecommuting policy in place to conserve natural resources and reduce traffic pollution. From the newsletter: Environmental and Energy Management News.

To increase productivity. There are times when a project is best worked on from home. To be completely undisturbed can be ideal for completion of certain work. From Computers in Libraries, 2004.

Quality of Life for employees will improve. There are many reasons why this could benefit employees and employers, but the overall quality of work should also improve when employees telecommute. For example: When attending a professional development training or conference, employees can be out of the office for several days. If possible, having a day at home following a few days out of the office will allow the employee to fully catch up on email and to hit the ground running upon return to the office.

The Library will continue to trail blaze. Other faculty departments already have telecommuting policies, some merely take it on a case by case basis. To adopt a formal method for making this work could be admired and copied by other university departments.

How to take action. Establish a team of Library faculty and staff to work on developing this policy. Have a trial of suggested methods of implementation. Determine whether this policy will work effectively.

We are Not The Royals

In light of our beloved Kate and William, I am again thinking about how my boyfriend of three years and I will likely not be having a grand ceremony anytime soon. This is a mutual agreement, a bond if you will. We do not want children and we politely decline to make a legal commitment.
I feel comfortable in the agreement to be monogamous, respectful, supportive, best friends. What more could you ask for? If I was Prince William or Kate Middleton and had the entire world breathing down my neck, I might just bite the bullet. But that is very much a political transaction as much as it is a legal contract that settles a lot of material questions. I am pretty sure that if they were not getting married, they would continue to have the same fun, interesting relationship they have enjoyed for many years now.
In this research article titled: Are There Gains to Delaying Marriage? The Effect of Age at First Marriage on Career Development and Wages by Loughran, David; Zissimopoulos, Julie I read this statement, which applies to myself and many of my peers at this time: ...Using panel data methods that exploit longitudinal variation in wages and marriage timing, the authors estimate that delaying marriage increases hourly wages of women by nearly four percent for each year they delay. Marriage timing has no impact on the wages of men.
So really, I have more to lose than to gain by making a commitment at this time. If I wait until near death to actually "tie the legal knot," then I will make quite a lot more money! My boyfriend and I will be a lot happier if we can take more vacations on those extra earning$.
There is a lot of literature out there that has encouraged me to this path and I'm sure there are similar influences for him too, but it seems to me, smart people marry later if they do it at all. I've read The Second Sex, where Simone deBeauvoir essentially states that "marriage and motherhood is the end of the intellectual woman."
There are two more contemporary books that I need to read that address this topic: The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family by Dan Savage and Committed: A Love Story by Elizabeth Gilbert. For a summer project I will read both of these and submit my book report to the blog.
As far as public administration, I think towns, states and the fed need to consider this changing pattern of domestic partnership. There has to be a form of tax revenue that they are missing!

Anime and Manga Cosplay Festival at UNCP

On March 28, you may have seen some of your favorite Japanese anime and manga characters running around the University Center Annex area. You could have seen Yourichi from the manga novel Bleach, Kagome from Inu Yasha or even Claire Redfield from the popular video game and movie franchise Resident Evil.
The Mary Livermore Library has a large collection of Japanese Animation DVD's or "Anime" and also a growing collection of graphic novels that are also called manga. These items are not widely known, but those who enjoy them were thrilled to have this festival to celebrate them!
"Cosplay" focused on the costumes of the beloved characters in the books and movies; the word "Cosplay" itself is a mash up of the words "costume" and "play." I believe this word is appropriated from the science fiction conventions for which this has been happening for decades, think "trekkie."
To promote the libraries collections, to support literacy, to collaborate with many other departments on campus, namely The Asian Studies Minor, who hosted a speaker on April 7, we had this Anime and Manga Cosplay Fest!
The festival itself took place over the course of two and a half hours of singing, dancing, costume judging, video games, crafts, "Magic the Gathering." At the beginning of all this mirth, we reflected with a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the recent tragic earthquake in Japan. The Scotland County Chapter of the American Red Cross was on site to provide information and to collect donations for relief efforts.
The other related event is a lecture from Dr. Anne Allison, a Japanese cultural anthropologist at Duke University. Dr. Allison was brought to campus by Dr. Annika Culver, chairperson of the Asian History Minor. That lecture was followed by discussion and the next day celebrated with a "Cosplay Lunch" hosted by the Office of Multicultural and Minority Affairs.
The amazing promotional poster you may have seen around campus was designed by Margie Labadies ART 2500 class and is truly a work of art. It celebrates the tradition of manga style storytelling with panels featuring the Festival, the Digital Content Consortium (where I will present the promotional poster,) the lecture of Dr. Anne Allison and finally the Cosplay Lunch in the OMMA office.
The series of events in all was a great success; a product of the collaboration by many departments helped to better promote, compare notes, help each other in planning and will be utilized in the future for more campus collaborations. Many people need to be thanked for their volunteer time and donated materials: Dr. Kevin Freeman, Michael Alewine, Robert Arndt, Virgil Oxendine, Angela Carter, Jeremy Salzer, Mia Hawkins, Grant Merritt, The UNCP Book Store, Mighty J's Restaurant and Sodexo.

Train Your Brain at the Mary Livermore Library

Libraries will always fit into that "third place" category for many people; first and second typically being home and work respectively. Third is somewhere like the bar or the gym or another favorite "other place to be." For many students the third place must be the university library, but a lot of people choose to make the place they enjoy spending their time the Library.
Typically, the Library is known to welcome self-study or group study; but there is another mode of self-improvement going on at the Mary Livermore Library that motivates students, staff and community member's alike to reach outside of the normal comfort zone and learn about something entirely new!
This program is called Train Your Brain and it is a new program provided by the myself, the instructional services librarian at the Mary Livermore Library of UNCP. My main job is to provide classroom instruction to classes to show them how to use the Library's resources. Other times I am allowed to be really creative and do something like this! So far the Train Your Brain program has had two GRE Preparation instruction sessions attended by UNCP students, staff and community members, the purpose of the one hour evening session was to provide basic information about preparing for the GRE, how to go about registering, study tips and introduction to the free resources available.
The feedback was excellent and the most frequent suggestion for improvement was to "have more like this." So I listened and there will be another Train Your Brain session on April 14 to recognize national "Money Smart Week," for which the topic will be educating people about investment resources such as titles by popular investment experts such as Suze Orman, exploring free government savings website guides, free online calculators and budgeting tools, plus introduction to free NC Live databases like the Morningstar Mutual Fund Database.
For the installment following that, we will have a series in May that covers basic computer training. There will be two rounds of Introduction to the Internet, Introduction to Microsoft Word and Introduction to Microsoft Excel. This series will begin in May, when most of our UNCP students are off campus, but who knows? Maybe the community will come visit us in full force? I certainly hope to see you there!