Hogwart's textbook covers by Allysah

Because I missed yesterday, have two posts today: Allysah's Hogwart's textbooks covers. They are delightfully retro and someone sixteen years old designed them? Seriously? Props. Hijacked from The Mary Sue via Flavorwire. It's hard to pick a favourite. One of these three!

10 of the coolest librarians alive

10 of the coolest librarians alive (at least according to flavorwire). I've been a fan of #4 for years now; 6, 7, and 8 have great ideas. Alex, sounds like you and Audrey Barbakoff would get along famously. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that meeting.

What to bring to an interview

Today, a link for job-hunting: what to bring to an interview by Julia Philips for 4BN. Maybe it's not strictly library-related, but hey. I just graduated. This kind of article is good for me at least.

In summary:
1. Your ID. Social security card, driver's license and so on.
2. Copies of the resume. More than one copy.
3. References.
4. Original copies of official transcripts - academic credits, licenses, degrees, and so on.
5. Good attitude.

While Julia recommends resumes be on plain white paper, I personally think that colour printing, if available, shows you've gone an extra step in presenting yourself favourably.

I would also suggest a sixth item:
6. A pen.

People tend to forget pens. You might need a pen to take notes or jot things down; your interviewer might need a pen, too, if he or she forgot to bring one or their own pen doesn't work. Even if you don't write anything, having a pen out shows you are prepared. If you lend that pen for a rescue? Bonus points. In my opinion, anyway. PS: make sure your pen works.

Marketing and elevator speeches

Another useful link from one of the groups I follow on LinkedIn - On men, elevator speeches, and market segments.

"But who uses a library nowadays, anyway?" 

"I can get books somewhere else."

I hear those two phrases much more often than I'd like. The blog post linked above suggests having two or three ideas prepared for people who will ask you "what's the benefit of a library?" In particular, the post concentrates on men, but keeping some suggestions on hand is a great idea.

Usually I counter 'what's a library good for' by listing the features of my local library system:

1. You can get books from all 33 branches and, given a bit of time, they will be sent to the branch of your choosing, which makes it easier to pick them up. You can't do it last minute, since it could take a few days to cross the city. Still - 33 branches is a lot of books. Not being limited to one branch is amazing.
1. You can order books from home. You don't even have to go into a library if you don't want to. Sometimes this is where I throw in something like 'you don't even need to get out of your pajama pants', depending on who I'm talking to.
2. 'You can return your books at any branch' is great for selling this feature, too. 
2. The library doesn't just have books - they also have DVDs, CDs, audiobooks, ebooks, and video games. Usually this garners a look of disbelief - DVDs? Video games? WHY? To make them available to everyone, as long as they have a library card... which is free.
3. Databases! I love databases so much. And I always forget...
4. Book recommendations. Reader's advisory. I am hesitant to offer it out, because reader's advisory is difficult (in my opinion) and hard to do if you haven't read books in the genre the patron's looking for. I fear someone approaching a librarian looking for science fiction only to be told they 'don't know the genre' and 'can't be any help'. 

Book recommendation: Don't make me think, Steve Krug

The instructor of my Library Software class had a few book recommendations for us when we began. At the time, I was also taking a Reader's Advisory class, so most of my reading time was spent on books I'd selected for that. I got the e-book of Steve Krug's Don't make me think and kept it until I could choose what I was reading again.

I F'd my blog a little more. It was always pretty F'd up. 

This is a great book! If you are at all interested in web design or in software, grab this book and give it a read. It's not long - the author stated he wanted to write a book that could be read during one plane ride - and it's pretty funny, or at least I think so. The concept is pretty simple: web navigation should be as easy and intuitive as possible; don't make the user slow down to think. I'm not finished it yet, but I've already made a small change on this site because of this book: I've changed the colours of the links so they're brighter and more obvious. I'm pretty happy with the rearranged sidebar, too, though I shifted that around before reading the book - that was a result of one of the LS classes, too, which touched on the F-layout design.

Snow White and the seven formats: a digital preservation fairy tale

Meanwhile (or I suppose a while ago), at the Library of Congress...

"In a recent meeting, some colleagues and I discussed the age in which individuals should start understanding the basics of digital preservation. I suggested that, with children creating digital files earlier and earlier, it should be taught as early as possible. The question, of course, is how to get youngsters interested in preserving their data. Fortunately, while doing some research I was able to find a digital preservation fairy tale in the digital archives of the Brothers Grimm. Here is the never-before published tale of Snow Byte and the Seven Formats (movie rights pending). I promise it will make a great bedtime story – they’ll fall right to sleep.  (I would like to thank my wonderful classmate Sara Allen for her invaluable contribution and illustrations)."

I laughed. Also I've been wanting to use that 'Post-It Note' picture on the left for ages now. I actually still have a stack of these in a desk drawer.

I like digitization - especially searchable text content - but constantly updating the file formats is maybe not so awesome.

Actually, while we're at it... I really like this table, too. Did anyone else absently thumb slide the metal bits on these disks back and forth like I did?

Film School Rejects: 7 unexplained movie moments that you'll only get if you've read the book

From Film School Rejects, 7 Unexplained Movie Moments That You’ll Only Get If You’ve Read the Book (Or Seen the Original). Random trivia is fun!

Open cover letters

I recently had to write a cover letter. I don't particularly enjoy writing them; I don't like to toot my own horn. Despite that, apparently they were impressed by the cover letter and it may have been what got me an interview. Anyway, here is a site with cover letters from anonymous cover letters from hired librarians and archivists. I may have snagged this from Only connect a while ago.

Ancient Egypt vs. the internet

Well, it's not untrue.

The Stephen King universe flow chart and friends

One thing I like about the internet is that people do obsessive things and share them with others so I don't have to the footwork to learn interesting things like how characters are connected in Stephen King's books. For one, I only own a few of King's books (The Dead Zone in paperback and The Stand as an ebook with some copy of the first Dark Tower book somewhere on the shelves), so there's no way I could have charted this one out. I'm a little sad about George Bannerman now, though. But thank you, Gillian James! Also of interest: The Lord of the Rings Project.

It all started when Johansson was 14 and reading Tolkien's The Silmarillion, or trying to. There are so many freaking characters in the book that the young fan felt he needed a giant family tree to keep track of all of them. So he created just that.

Both links taken from Cracked's 6 mind-blowing pop culture questions answered by super fans. Surely someone did this for Game of Thrones? Though there's the A Song of Ice and Fire Wiki, which maybe doesn't have a chart but does have chapter summaries that are super useful if you feel like you're missing something or forgetting something as you read.

A Hunger Games Pinterest board

Oh no, Pinterest. I know I'll spend too long on this site, so I only look at the weekly recommendations and try not to explore further. Here's a good one relating to The Hunger Games.

40 books you won't be able to put down

From the Half Price Books blog, 40 books you won't be able to put down. At a quick glance, this looks like a blog for a chain of used book stores. The website looks pretty active. I wonder if they see more business due to their dedication to their website? Books on the list I had a hard time putting down:

• Card, Orson Scott - Ender's Game
• Collins, Suzanne - The Hunger Games
• Goldman, William - The Princess Bride
• Larsson, Stieg - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
• Larsson, Stieg - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Stockett, Kathryn - The Help

Books I would add to the list:

• Irving, John - A Prayer for Owen Meany: Longtime favourite once suggested to me by an English teacher I had in high school. Best book recommendation I've ever had. She was spot on.
• Russell, Maria Doria - The Sparrow: Oh wow. By the last few chapters I could not put it down. Could not, would not. I actually pulled an all-nighter to finish this book. This is one of my all-time favourite books.