Editorial: Getting to Know You… even better – In the Library with the Lead Pipe Skip to Main Content Open Menu Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Ikumi Crocoll Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search Home About Awards & Good Words Contact Editorial Board Denisse Solis Ian Beilin Ikumi Crocoll Jaena Rae Cabrera Kellee Warren Nicole Cooke Ryan Randall Emeritus Announcements Authors Archives Conduct Submission Guidelines Lead Pipe Publication Process Style Guide Search 2008 24 Dec Editorial Board, Brett Bonfield and Ellie Collier /7 Comments Editorial: Getting to Know You… even better Photo by Flickr user “Muffet” (CC BY 2.0) By Editorial Board, Brett Bonfield and Ellie Collier Happy holidays from In the Library With the Lead Pipe! We had so much fun putting together our November 26 post, “Getting to Know You,” that we’ve decided to do it again! In the spirit of vacation and merrymaking, we’ve put together another trio of semi-personal questions selected and answered by yours truly. 1. What is your professional new year’s resolution? Brett: It’s sort of a meta-resolution, but I plan to: Make a list of the projects I’m working on (or that I’m thinking about working on); Figure out which ones seem most likely to succeed in ways that are important to me; Determine which ones seem likely to benefit the most from my participation; Identify what I hope each one can achieve in 2009; Specify what I’m going to do to help them get there. Emily: Simple and completely unglamorous—to find another job for when my grant funding runs out. Derik: To think more carefully about what I get myself involved in (no, not an allusion to this blog) and how much I get involved in it (I don’t want to dilute my efforts in quantity). Learn more programming. Learn more about learning and instructional design. Start my posts for this blog earlier. Hilary: I’d like to diversify my professional reading, take a little more time to investigate online tools such as sproutbuilder.com, leverage our library system’s collection intelligence tools to programmatically manage data about our collections and use that information to do targeted marketing of our collections. Kim: As we tighten our belts I resolve to more fully appreciate what I have: a great job with lovable colleagues, lots of variety, independence, and the freedom (if not the funding) to travel, explore the latest technologies, and try new approaches to my work. Heck, I’ve got one of the Best Careers for 2009 according to US News & World Report! Life is good. Ellie: To incorporate more of the research I’ve been doing on instruction into my actual practice. 2. What are your three favorite novels? Brett: Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace), Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides), and Cockfighter (Charles Willeford). I wouldn’t argue that they’re the best novels I’ve ever read (that is, the three novels I think other people should read) or the three I most wish I’d written or anything like that, but if I had to spend the rest of my life re-reading three novels I’ve read at least once, I think these are the three I’d choose. Emily: I’m no good with favorite novels (my favorite book is non-fiction–Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks–but that doesn’t follow the rules). I’m not apt to re-read much of anything that is fiction. That being said, the fiction I am liable to strongly recommend are as follows: Doris: An Anthology 1991-2001 by Cindy Crabb (I find her narrative voice deeply moving), The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall (sad, hilarious, and gross all at once), and a novel by an acquaintance recently published that is on my to read list– Couch by Benjamin Parzybok. Derik: 1) The Recognitions by William Gaddis: 900 pages of art, religion, 50s New York parties, fakers, and fun. 2) This is Not a Novel by David Markson: 100 pages of unattributed quotes, famous deaths, odd facts about artists, and more. 3) Le Chiendent (translated either as “Witch Grass” or “Bark Tree”) by Raymond Queneau: Philosophy as fiction, funny and deep, chaotic yet highly structured. (I didn’t even have to think about this one.) Hilary: Honestly I don’t have a lot of time for pleasure reading now, but at one time I did. So, a few random titles: Five Hundred Years of Printing by S.H. Steinberg; The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, anything by Richard Brautigan. Kim: I’m ridiculously all over the place when it comes to reading fiction. So I’m going to go with 1) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy for sheer moving tragic power; 2) Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey as a book that changed the course of my life; and as for 3) yes I’ll admit it, The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien as the biggest, fattest, funnest book I’ve read every few years since I was a kid and enjoyed it immensely every time. Ellie: Only 3, so hard. I’ll go with a childhood favorite that stuck with me – The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman, a high school favorite that got me bragging rights on an important final paper – David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, and a recent favorite that I recommend to everyone – Anathem by Neal Stephenson. 3. What three computer or Web applications can’t you live without? Brett: Firefox (w/can’t-live-without-’em-extensions Adblock Plus, CustomizeGoogle, Linkification, No Squint, and Scrollbar Anywhere), Dropbox, and rss2email. Emily: Tab mix plus (the best Firefox extension to exist), Firefox, and I hate to say it, all of those lovely webapps owned by Google: Google Reader, Google Talk, Google Mail, Google Docs, Google Calendar. These might give me a bit of a guilty conscience, but they are so good with interfaces that I have just acquiesced. Derik: 1) Tinderbox:  A wonderfully versatile application that I use to store my note and records for work, for planning presentations, and for plotting my comic, as well as the occasional html export. 2) WordPress: It runs this blog, my own blog, and my comic’s site. 3) iTunes: Where would I be without my music, podcasts, and online listening to NPR? Hilary: Google stuff, spreadsheet programs (stuck with Excel for now), starting to get into Basecamp for managing team projects at work. Kim: Chalk me up as another Google addict. And I’m pretty sure I’d fall apart with Delicious + Firefox’s Delicious add-on. Clicking that button to pull up the whole list of my bookmarks in a sidebar in my browser… it’s sheer organizational beauty. Last on my list, as a more recent addiction, is the musical brilliance of Pandora. Ellie: Another Google and Firefox disciple here, the imperative extension being Better Gmail 2. I run all my email through one main account thanks to the included Folders4Gmail and Gmail’s account option to “send mail as.” We’d like to get to know you, too! What are your answers to the three questions above? Please post them in the comments below. about us, interview Presentation = Speech + Slides In Praise of the Internet: Shifting Focus and Engaging Critical Thinking Skills 7 Responses Empress Jeneya 2008–12–24 at 8:07 am 1. What is your professional new year’s resolution? Take the GRE’s and get into an MSLS with Gender Studies program. Double masters program, I must be insane. 2. What are your three favorite novels? How about I give you authors… Edward Gorey, Dorothy Parker, Egdar Allen Poe, bell hooks, Langston Hughes, etc. 3. What three computer or Web applications can’t you live without? Anything created be Google (GMAIL, Google Reader, Google Calender, iGoogle, Picasa, etc.) Hulu.com is great for a for movies and TV. Why pay for cable when you can get most of it online. Pandora has great music. sylvie szafranski 2008–12–24 at 8:19 am 1. What is your professional new year’s resolution? same as my personal one, become a better listener. 2. What are your three favorite novels? Lamb (Christopher Moore), The Perfume (Patrick Suskin), Double Whammy (Carl Hiaasen) but I could go on and on and on… 3. What three computer or Web applications can’t you live without? flickr, hotmail, bloglines rqwyrzjf 2011–04–22 at 10:30 pm hoh8dE edmvawbkmsls Linda 2008–12–26 at 2:58 am 1. What is your professional new year’s resolution? Well a mixture of personal and professional, Publish, continue to learn more, finding a full time position, be more active in the online blogging scene. 2. What are your three favorite novels? Jane Eyre, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Memoirs of a Geisha 3. What three computer or Web applications can’t you live without? Agreeing with people on this one.. Google selected products, WordPress that houses three of my blogs, Twitter Jeremy McGinniss 2008–12–27 at 11:04 pm 1. What is your professional new year’s resolution? 1.To continue to help the users of my library realize what tools are available even in our small library and develop better research practices. 2. Finish my master’s degree;one semester left. 2. What are your three favorite novels? The Tin Drum Gunter Grass. Hands down this is awesome. I’m blown away by this book every time and it can be re-read over and over again. Generation X Douglass Coupland. Again another book that can be read over and over again. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace. Admittedly, this book is not a novel but a collection of essays. However, it is brilliant, witty and remarkably perceptive without emanating ivory-tower vibes. 3. What three computer or Web applications can’t you live without? Firefox with Zotero, Scribefire and Foxmarks. I also use Gmail, Google Reader and am loving on the iTunes. Sam 2009–01–04 at 9:56 pm 1. Professional new years res: Significantly improve my presentation skills. 2. Three of my favorite novels at the moment: Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami Love Burns, by Edna Mazya 3. Web apps I can’t live without: GoogleDocs Jing Bloglines although i have to say the the term “application” is a little bit fuzzy for me – I would normally think of an application as a specific tool added on to a larger site or piece of software to make it work in a way that is more to my liking – like firefox extensions, for example. On the other hand, many people seem to use ‘application’ to describe any social media tool/site they use online, large or small, specific or general. Gerry 2009–01–05 at 6:45 pm 1. What is your professional new year’s resolution? The same as my nonprofessional resolution: to be more patient with and less unconstructively critical of other people. And with/of myself. 2. What are your three favorite novels? These are the books I reread often, so I guess they are my favorites: Sirens of Titan/Galapogos/Cat’s Cradle/Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Animal Farm by George Orwell. 3. What three computer or Web applications can’t you live without? Whatever powers my iPod and my DVR, and Firefox. This work is licensed under a CC Attribution 4.0 License. ISSN 1944-6195. About this Journal | Archives | Submissions | Conduct