The first mow

Last week I finally got fed up with weeding the lawn by hand and just took the mower to it. It looks great all freshly shorn. I left a patch that has some daffodils growing out of it. I'm only a little surprised at how many bulbs were not uncovered by all the digging and rototilling.

I don't mind the daffodils and croci. There's even a couple tulips. But the bluebells are monsters! I can't believe people actually plant these things. They always threatened to take over the back yard, and post-remodel, they continue to do so. They have even been punching through the landscaping clothe in a few places. Moreover, where there are bunches of them, the make this little mound under the clothe, like a bluebell pimple.

Before leaving town (I'm in Tucson again) we got our first tulip. Shanghai seems to be in line with us on the tulip issue. The camellia are in full force (even shedding a bit). The daffodils are almost finished (but hanging in there for what seems like a very long bloom this year: I think it's been a little cooler than usual). And there are a few forget-me-nots beginning to show color. The peonies have broken through the ground, and I suspect that pretty soon all the tulips will start to catch up with my early fringed yellow friend outside the bedroom window.

Sage words.

No, not mine, but Jessamyn's. Part of the reason that librarian.net is the one library blog that I go back to over and over again is that sometimes she comes back to something she was talking about earlier and says "I've been thinking about this a little more."

The above linked post is commentary on this earlier one, which links to a few other people's posts about 'how to lose your technically oriented librarians.' (OK, the word they all use is 'techie' a word I despise and hate. Oh, she's a book-y librarian. He's a grumpy old catalogy guy. I'm a librarian who manages a computer-based service.) All these posts are entertaining and speak to a variety of truisms, but the later commentary post tries to get at some of the underlying problems of communication that frustrate people who work building, managing, and mediating computer-based services. And the conclusion that I draw from it is that it is essentially a reference problem. Somewhere along the line conversations are had that fail. Misperceptions multiply. Perhaps feelings are hurt. And then office politics begin. Failed conversations are failed reference interviews.

Go back and read the '50 ways to lose your techies' again and think about this: Maybe we can see that many problems stem from technologly workers not being able to (or given the time to) explain why something should or should not be done. Or it might be the opposite: perhaps an administrator is not listening to the line employees, or is asking for something unreasonable to be done. I've never actually heard someone in a meeting where a technology project was being discussed say "Can you explain to me why that needs to be done?" Or from the opposite direction "What exactly do you want this system to do for you?" These can be any variety of probing, 'please explain to me what you're looking for' type questions. If we spent as much effort trying to communicate with our colleagues as we do with our readers, we might actually get more work done.

I appreciate the effort, but...

Hey boing boing, hey Siva, I think what you're looking for is Library and Information Science.

Lots of "economists, sociologists, linguists, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, communication scholars, lawyers, computer scientists, philosophers, and librarians" have contributed to this field.

And, well, I guess I can see why someone would want to invent a new one, as us here in library-land haven't done a very good job of protecting the information commons from enclosure.

sigh.

Blown gasket

Looking at the past few entries, I'm a little hesitant to write this, but what the heck.

For weeks I'd been contemplating walking in the boss's (or the boss's boss's) office and asking for a few days off. Well, yesterday it was the boss's boss's boss and she just looked at me and said 'go.' So simple.

Of course, it won't solve the underlying problem of having too much to do and too little time to do it in, but at least it will take the immediate pressure off of the quarter, as the stated reason for the time is to do homework.

Anyway, it was a rather resounding vote of support and I appreciate it.

Now if I could just get my mind off of it.