The In Season Christian Librarian

2008-04-15T09:11:00.002-04:00

Time for a Break
As you can tell, I've not been very systematic or faithful with entries in any blog recently.
One reason is that I have been writing for a class I'm auditing and am preparing material for two presentations.

Please accept my apologies for not adding material for until after July. I hope to come back with new material and links by then.

2008-04-09T09:42:00.002-04:00

One more advertisement about Get Expelled because I haven't heard about it except on the ACL discussion list and when I was drowsily watching Fox network a few days ago. Interested in free speech or dogma? I have just finished reading the Tale of Melibee by Chaucer in whicn some of Melibee's so-called advisers shout down other advisers because their words are contrary to what they want to hear. The Wikipedia reference does not do the Tale justice, but unless you are willing to follow medieval format, you probably won't want to read the whole thing.

My advice is not to shout this movie down or stop your ears--as some in the Bible once did when unwelcome news came-- until you read this.

Hope it is somewhere neare here so I can see it.

2008-04-07T11:31:00.000-04:00

NLW idea

Absolutely, maybe, definitely not? Has anyone done this?

2008-04-01T16:06:00.002-04:00

April 1 is
International Edible Book Festival [via]

2008-03-25T07:49:00.004-04:00

Christian Audio Book Winners
On December 3, 2003, I posted a link to the Faithful Reader which provides a satisfying amount of information on current popular Christian reading. For those of you who maintain a spoken word or audio book collection, This site reported on the list of Christian reading finalists from the Audies Award announcement. Which ones do you think will win?
Here they are:
Inspirational/Faith-Based Fiction
EVER AFTER (Zondervan)
NOT EASILY BROKEN (BBC Audiobooks America)
THE PENNY (Hachette Audio)
RENOVATING BECKY MILLER (Recorded Books)
RIVER RISING (Recorded Books)
Inspirational/Spiritual
ANA'S STORY (HarperAudio)
ANGER (Oasis Audio)
FINDING HOME (Oasis Audio)
THE GREAT OMISSION (ChristianAudio)
INSPIRED BY... THE BIBLE EXPERIENCE: OLD TESTAMENT (Zondervan)
VIENNA PRELUDE (FamilyAudioLibrary.com)

2008-03-19T09:22:00.003-04:00

Easter Wishes

Since I already have a survey question still out there, I was wondering if anyone does an Easter display of books and materials for this Holy Week. I'm surprised I've never mentioned The Encyclopedia of Easter Carnival and Lent. In publication since 2002, this compendium covers history, terminology, practices and customs of this season from all parts of the world. Nearly every article has references to both print and Internet sites. The one detraction for me are the illustrations which are entirely in black and white and mainly charcoal drawings. Hmmm Cheese week. Excuse me while I continue reading. Have a wonderful holiday.

2008-03-14T10:53:00.002-04:00

I've finally finished with classes for a few days and can work on other items which occur every Spring like this, this, and this. We may combine our efforts into one event with spin-off items during the month. And for those of you that are quilters, Happy Quilting Day tomorrow.

If you didn't see already here is an interesting article about God and Norman Mailer might prove an interesting discussion with humanities professors.

2008-03-13T07:57:00.002-04:00

Questions for you

Google has a polling addition to the blog and since I am considering changing the purpose statement for the blog, the first question I'm interested in relates to the variety of topics I have. Feel free to send comments as well.

I have at least three other posts lined up to write and the response or lack thereof will help me know which to choose first.

2008-03-03T08:19:00.002-05:00

Count the Days

A week ago I sat down with a teacher who had suddenly requested a library session for her classes. "I counted the number of classes in the semester," she said, "And I found I had an 30 instead of 29. And I want to add a library session."

I wish I were as good at counting the days and sessions. I completely missed writing about the Leap Day and I've even almost missed writing about the Lenten season. (I might still miss.) Apparently, this Easter is one of the earliest in the calendar. If you go to my archive for October 26, 2006, I blogged about multifaith calendars. Are there "catch-up" days in other calendars? Yes. Maybe if you missed celebrating that extra day last week, you can find another somewhere. The one online source which focuses on religious holidays and calendars is a book by that name now in its third edition (2004).

2008-02-26T08:04:00.003-05:00

More Heart.

The Book a Month Challenge featured stories related to heart this February. I need to add two "heart" nonfiction stories to that list: I call them stories more than treatises because they are less analytical than narrative.

Let My Heart be Broken by Richard Gehman, (McGraw-Hill, 1960) tells the story of start of World Vision and its founder.

Eternity in Their Hearts - now up to 5 editions, according to WorldCat by Don Richardson (Regal Books, 1981), describes the attraction of Christianity to people of other religions.

2008-02-21T07:53:00.002-05:00

It's All Good

In the course of following a CHE article about a new game announced at the Serious Games Summit , I found a link to this link which led to the 2007 book awards press release by the AAR. Incidentally, since I haven't found the connecting link, I will be updating this. No further comments, except I like looking through press releases and research links as they can locate environmental scanning material.

2008-02-20T08:47:00.003-05:00

Prophecies, prophecies...

picture uploaded from SpaceWeather.com

Tonight, the moon will turn to blood--actually an lunar eclipse will make the moon appear to be red. Does this fulfill a biblical prophecy even if it regularly? Likewise, do visions of

chaotic libraries become prophetic, or mortgage crisis indicate a true recession? Or do our fears and denials create self-fulfilling prophecies?

2008-02-19T08:03:00.002-05:00

Season of Waiting

We are on Winter Break and I had planned to use this time to update my skills in several software packages in our Library Instruction Lab. However, other priorities--oh replacing faulty wiring--in the building have put those plans on hold. I had also planned to lead a workshop on developing better powerpoints but that too is on hold. Instead I downloaded some software to my office computer, located and printed more information about my presentations, and prepared for very hands-on class in business next week.

Waiting is not my strong suit, especially when in your heart of hearts you believe that some of the waiting was unnecessary. When jobs are set up so that one person can make or break the momentum to complete a project--and I speak both in generalities and specificities here without naming names--with impunity, workplace performance for everyone suffers.
The timing for working on the wiring was good, and I don't mind waiting for that. Missing opportune moments because of bad workflow is quite another.

So I end with two questions for you: what does "in a timely manner" mean to you, and where in your job should you be acting as a conduit but you really are a dam?
In the meantime, I've determined to learn the blocked step so that I can do it and teach someone else to also do it and make everyone look good

2008-02-14T12:29:00.003-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day

I was trying out the accessory paint software on Windows and achieved a little success. The link above links to this book on the history of Valentine's Day

Valentine's day doesn't have all the hoopla of other holidays. Most people may not even know about Saint Valentine, but everyone likes to be remembered on this day. Actually, we like to be remembered everyday, another topic entirely.
We've put valentine cookies, cakes, candies, and other snacks in our staff lounge as a treat for student workers. Hope your day is a happy one.

2008-02-11T09:07:00.000-05:00

Today is the Tomorrow # 2

Have you discovered how alerts can improve your reference and research skills? I use every alert I can find. Kudos to Google Alerts for helping me find this:
Here's an article comparing the violence in the Bible to Videogames. I think the difference is that children aren't as exposed to those scenes in Judges and Song of Solomon without parental supervision as they would be to some Fantasy. The old fingerpointing routine doesn't justify a problem. We appreciate readers' advisors. Why not Video game advisers. Oh here's one. [via]
Any others?

2008-02-09T15:13:00.000-05:00

Today is the Tomorrow

Ok, I've been so busy imitating the Red Queen in Alice, that I haven't finished a single blog anywhere. I'm still preparing for my presentation at ACL on Games and Information Literacy, not the title but the gist of the presentation. And I've been reading new blogs and nings as part of that presentation. I also went and bought a Nintendo DS and a few games. So that's my mea culpa for now.
Lots of prayers are going up for Union University right now. Let's not forget the tomorrows with rebuilding that must be done and continue to hold them up in prayer.

2008-01-18T09:46:00.000-05:00

Quick, Grab the Camera

The Library of Congress pictures are on flickr. Copyright issues are clear for each picture. I did a search for churches, prayer, and religion and found a few pictures such as this one taken of workers before a church. I tried more specific terms such as Amish but had little luck[via] My own lament here is that I do too little with digital photography--time and expense mainly--and know how important these resources are to memorialize a time and place. Thanks LOC. Does anyone know of church or denomination archives who have published their pictures online?

2008-01-11T14:56:00.000-05:00

Haven't We Been Here Before?

January is the month for looking forward and backward; hence the name. If you haven't looked at Youth Specialties Newsletter lately, now is the time to go back and take another look at the resources and issues linked here because your Freshmen were once these students. One new addition is videos.

Looking forward, I'm working on a presentation for ACL about using games to teach information literacy standards in higher education. I can't say playing games seems like working.
I spent part of my vacation playing Guitar Hero and Games on Nintendo DS. We also tried playing a trivia game on books but none of us had read any of them. It was a good excuse anyway. I finished an InfoChallenge game which is online at the Center for Teaching Learning and Technology. It's found under the General section at the very end. Yes, I know it's not flashy. I would appreciate any comments and I would be interested in any questions about religious research that you might like substituted for one of the more inane questions here.

Lots to look forward to; lots to review. Be seeing you.

2008-01-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

New Year, Old Topics, Resolutions.

One common misperception in our society is that somehow religion is peripheral to the culture around us. Some of this may be in unapologetic biases toward anything nonsecular. Sightings from The Martin Marty Center seeks to identify religious issues in our current culture.
The archives go back to 1999. Some of the topics in 2007 included global warming, the movie, The Golden Compass, The new Atheists, Obama's Faith, and Musicians in Black Churches or lack thereof. Subscribers are invited to submit topics as well. While these op/eds are not primary sources, they help provide the missing dimension --or links to them--many of our students want to find for papers.
Resolved: To provide more links to religious materials on popular culture.

2007-12-29T13:00:00.001-05:00

Hi, Again

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a Joyous New Year! I plan to start regular posts later this week.

2007-12-11T13:33:00.000-05:00

Shop til...

Yesterday, when posting the comment on the Golden Compass, I was thinking about this video and website but didn't have time to pull up. Thoughtful. And then UnShelved gave me one reason for libraries -- We don't have to choose? This is the December 11 if you need the archive.

2007-12-08T08:30:00.000-05:00

Christmas Cookies
(no not this kind!) I'm definitely a semi-homemade kind of cook. Yesterday, I assembled two - no bake cookies here and here (although I tweaked the recipes)and still one more pan cookie to go before leaving for vacation where I hope to bake even more. These cookies I'm doing now go to very hungry student workers. Have you noticed that the number of ounces in older recipes does not match the number of ounces on a package?

2007-12-06T14:49:00.000-05:00

Season for Advent

Online Advent Calendars are b a-a-a-a-a-ck to help track the days. (Now if someone will just put Christmas books or a library funding idea behind each door.) Oh lookee here, a library has done one.
Enjoy

2007-11-29T13:11:00.000-05:00

All I want for Christmas is

A Facebook account for the library. Unfortunately, it's not that easy here in Whoville. The idea of an account is wonderful. What to put on it is another issue. And so the meetings begin. I wonder if that's why so few libraries have published pages as yet?

2007-11-28T12:49:00.000-05:00

More Reads
You may have missed this directory which reviews "the best" blogs. I did a search for blogs dealing with religions topics and retrieved only 3. The last entry in their blog was June 7. Does that mean there are no good blogs since then?[via] (Even the link which accessed it has ceased.)

If you have visions of creating a Gingerbread House, but no time for the real version, go to the Craft Magazine site for a Virtual version. I'll try to make one and share it online later. How about a contest?