Nine Screens in My Daily Life

I just heard a commentary on "Morning Edition" about the number of screens people use in their daily life.  I have eight, wait nine.  Is that average??  Frankly I wish I could consolidate some. It's a pain when I travel and take my itouch, kindle, camera, cell phone, and laptop.

1. itouch
   
2. kindle
   
3. t.v. 
   
4. t.v.
   
5. MacbBook at home
   
6. laptop at work
   
7. cell phone
   
8. portable DVD player
   
9. camera
   

Abbreviations

When I first became a reference librarian, I spent a lot of time deciphering journal abbreviations. Once you had the title you could search the online catalog, which initially didn't have keyword searching! I just saw that CAS has come out with an abbreviation tool for free on the web. Helen and I have been arguing about whether anyone but librarians really use these kinds of things anymore. Certainly the number of questions coming to us has decreased dramatically. I've seen lots of students use google to figure out abbreviation.s You type in as much of the citation as you have and maybe a more complete citation will come up or even the full text of the article. Cool tool but that horse may have already left the stall.....

A Book a Week for 2009

I set a goal for myself last January to read a book a week and lo and behold I did it! Many were children's books and several were re-reads, but they still count!

1. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie Alan Bradley 2009 KINDLE
2. When You Reach Me Rebecca Stead 2009
3. Un Lun Dun China Mieville 2008
4. Cocktails for Three Madeleine Wickham 2001
5. Fantastic Mr. Fox Roald Dahl 2007
6. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid Jeff Kinney 2007
7. Anywhere but Here Mona Simpson 1992
8. Seven Up (Stephanie Plum, No. 7) Janet Evanovich 2002
9. The Tennis Partner - A Doctor's Story Of Friendship And Loss - Abraham Verghese 1998
   
10. The Moorchild Eloise McGraw 1998
11. Cutting for Stone: A novel Abraham Verghese 2009 Hands down the best book of 2009
12. Room for One More Anna Perrott Rose 1950 Reread
13. Finn Family Moomintroll. Tove. Jansson 1989
14. Moominsummer Madness (Puffin Books) Tove Jansson 1973
15. Light a Penny Candle Maeve Binchy 1983
16. The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 2008 Reread, but still love this book
17. Matters of Chance: A Novel Jeannette Haien 1998
18. My Family and Other Animals Gerald Durrell 2004
19. Certain Girls: A Novel Jennifer Weiner 2009
20. Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) Stephenie Meyer 2006
21. A Fatal Grace Louise Penny 2006 KINDLE This was a close second for "best"
22. The Archivist: A Novel Martha Cooley 1999
23. Elsewhere Gabrielle Zevin 2007
24. Valley of the Dolls Jacqueline Susann 1997
25. All-of-a-kind Family Sydney Taylor 1980 Reread
26. The Witches of Worm Zilpha Keatley Snyder 1986
27. The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2007
28. Fearless Fourteen Janet Evanovich 2008
29. The Whistling Season Ivan Doig 2007
30. Talk Before Sleep A Novel Elizabeth Berg 1997
31. Breath: Life in the Rhythm of an Iron Lung Martha Mason 2003
32. Finding Betty Crocker Susan Marks 2005
33. The Senator's Wife Sue Miller 2009
34. Coraline Neil Gaiman 2006
35. The Great Gilly Hopkins Katherine Paterson 1987
36. Eat Cake Jeanne Ray 2004
37. Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World Vicki Myron 2008
38. The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger 2004
39. Homeless Bird Gloria Whelan 2001
40. The Addict: One Patient, One Doctor, One Year Michael Stein 2009
41. Water for Elephants: A Novel Sara Gruen 2007
42. Lucky Everyday Bapsy Jain 2009
43. I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti: A Memoir Giulia Melucci 2009
44. The Know-It-All A. J. Jacobs 2005
45. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame 2006 Stanza
46. Twelve Sharp Janet Evanovich 2006
47. Hungry Monkey Matthew Amster-Burton Good enough to read twice in one year.
    
48. The Laws of Harmony: A Novel Judith R. Hendricks
49. Academy X: A Novel Andrew Trees 2007
50. The Middle Kingdom Andrea Barrett 1992
51. Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited Elyse Schein 2008
    
52. Back When We Were Grownups Anne Tyler 2004
    
    

This Reference Librarian Made a Difference

Frankly I live vicariously through my reference librarians. I push papers all day. I guess I do make sure my advisees remember to register for classes, but what I do seems very far removed from real students most days. Here is an email (with personal information removed) from a student to one of my reference librarians. Wow. This made my day and the praise isn't even for me!

"Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with me! Your help was just what I needed to finally get my paper right. It hasn't been graded yet, but the TA really liked it when he reviewed my rough draft! It was a really fun paper to research and write, and I honestly would not have written a paper as good as this one without all the sources and database know-how you taught me. I am very grateful and I hope you have a great holiday!"