We need an apocalypse

Before you start gathering your pitchforks to protest the title, hear me out (and forgive the deviation from my normal topics).

I was recently introduced to a very interesting article through a professional mailing list I subscribe to. The article, written by Junot Diaz, is titled "Apocalypse: What Disasters Reveal" and appeared in the May/June 2011 Boston Review. Diaz's exploration of the meaning of apocalypse and what an apocalypse is was particularly intriguing to me. Drawing from James Berger, he explained that there are three types of apocalypses, yet all three types have one common thread: "it must be revelatory" (para. 3).

The idea of an apocalypse as a revelation, while perhaps not a new idea in general, was a revelation in itself to me. Continuing this train of thought, it makes sense then to find the Catholic/Christian description of the Apocalypse (read: end of the world as we know it) to be contained in the last part of the Bible, the book of Revelations. I started to examine the world at large with this new perspective, and I think it is indeed time for an apocalypse.

The point of Diaz's article was that an apocalypse can reveal inherent social and socio-economic problems, which close examination and reflection show were indirect or direct causes of the apocalypse. He concentrates on the earthquake at Haiti to illustrate the facets of his discussion, and the more I read, the more the article made me think (which all good articles do).

We're coming up on 2012, a year that has gained infamy due, in part, to the Mayan calendar that mysteriously stops at December 21, 2012 (I personally think they just ran out of room to include more days). Many people in many professions from astronomy to archeology theorize what the end of the calendar means, what will happen on that day, and what those events will mean for us.  A movie came out recently depicting the Hollywood version of what will happen during this year. I don't think that world-wide catastrophe is in our future, but I really hope we have an apocalypse of the third kind, "a disruptive event that provokes revelation" (Diaz, 2011, para. 3). Look around at our society, our world. We need it, otherwise I worry that things won't change--or they'll get worse.

I've posted before about the great (drastic) changes that are happening around the world. Natural disasters, economic and social turmoil, political division, and revolution seem to be happening with greater frequency. The attitude of our society, and perhaps the global society to some extent, has become very "me-orientated" with a strong sense of entitlement (I deserve to have this, no matter the cost). I think part of this is due to our survival instinct kicking in because our livelihood is threatened and we revert to an every-man-for-himself strategy. But as I see problems in some areas worsening and many others so slow to recover, I can't help but think that we all need an attitude adjustment. We need a strategy to promote cohesiveness and compromise because I truly believe that we're only going to successfully get through our current and future troubles as one.

So we need that apocalypse to give us a revelation to help shift our attitudes and give us perspective. We need a jolt to our system to see our way clear through to the other side. Regardless of whether the doomsday predictions are true, 2012 will be a year of change--which we must be prepared to meet.

Diaz, J. (2011). Apocalypse: What disasters reveal. Boston Review, May/June. Retrieved from http://bostonreview.net/BR36.3/junot_diaz_apocalypse_haiti_earthquake.php

Thanksgiving Leftovers

The holiday crunch has begun. We are all now in that Annual Marathon between Thanksgiving and Christmas where the focus everywhere is food, family, gifts, and giving. Scooter and I did the nearly unthinkable (at least in my family)--we went out of town (just the two of us) to my aunt and uncle's vacation home on the coast for all of Thanksgiving weekend. I cooked the traditional dinner with our Guest of Honor, Mr. Tom Turkey, as the table centerpiece; my first turkey I cooked by myself and he turned out pretty darn good. We watched several Thanksgiving parades--McDonald's Parade in Chicago, and the Macy's Parade in New York--relaxed in the hot tub, marveled at the rare blue sky outside, and ate until we couldn't eat anymore.

This is only the second Thanksgiving I have ever spent away from family. The first time was when I was in college and drove to the LA area to spend it with several friends. The condition of my going was that I called my parents on Thanksgiving to at least talk to them. Since the entire extended family was also there for the holiday, the phone was passed around. Twenty "How are you?'s" later, I said my goodbyes and wished my
parents well. My family is all about spending time together, so any holiday spent away from The Family raises eyebrows at the very least. It's certainly not a bad thing--I'm proud to say that my family has some very strong ties, even considering the conflicts (mostly normal family stuff) that come up. But it does make traveling plans around the holidays difficult, unless the whole family goes too--which we did one year for Christmas (that was a really fun trip).

One thing Thanksgiving always seems to result in is leftovers. Regardless of how many people you have over for Thanksgiving, you still end up with them. It almost seems like a Law of the Universe--no matter the size of the crowd, you'll be eating mashed potatoes, turkey, and gravy for days. Now while I'm all for eating turkey, it can get tiresome after a couple of days. So I tried to figure out what can be done with the rest of the turkey and came up with a couple of ideas. All the leftovers were put in the freezer for turkey soup (to be made sometime this month during the cold weather) and a turkey pot pie recipe I came up with to help use some of those leftovers. Here's what you'll need to make your own turkey pot pie:

What you'll need:
1 9-in pie crust
2 to 2 1/2 c. shredded turkey
1 1/2 c. turkey gravy
1/2 12-oz. bag of frozen peas and carrots
1 1/2 to 2 c. mashed potatoes

What you'll need to do:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place the pie crust in an ungreased pie pan and gently mold the dough to the sides of the pan. Shape and trim the edges of the pie crust as desired.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, add the shredded turkey, the frozen peas and carrots (no need to defrost them), and the gravy. Mix until all the turkey and veggies are coated with gravy.
3. Add the turkey mixture to the pie crust and spread until it forms an even layer. Add the mashed potatoes to the top and create an even top crust (like a shepherd's pie).
4. Place the pie pan on a rimmed baking sheet and put in the oven. Bake for 45 minutes or until the pie is bubbling around the edges. Serve with leftover pumpkin pie for dessert!

The great thing about this recipe is that it's fairly easy to put together, and if you don't have some of the necessary ingredients, you can make some fairly quickly or buy from the store. The pie crust can be homemade or easily bought to cut down on prep time. If you've gotten low or run out of gravy, you can buy a 12-oz. jar to use instead. If there are no mashed potatoes left (or the leftovers have already turned into a science project), boil 1 1/2 russet potatoes and mash with 2 Tbs. butter, 4 oz. cream cheese, and a handful of chopped chives or crumbled bacon pieces (optional)--or go the really easy route and get instant mashed potatoes. I would definitely recommend a hot pot pie for cold weather.

Enjoy!

Getting involved

I recently (about a month ago) became a member of the Friends of the Library group for my local public library. The last newsletter noted that the next meeting would be November 15th (last night). I joined the Friends partly because I wanted to do something good for our public library and show support through the fact of my membership, and partly I joined because I wanted to be more involved. It was probably the best choice I could have made.

My full-time job does restrict my ability to do big things with and for my library. My hours and my commute preclude me from being able to attend virtually all events at the library I would like to--they happen during the day when I am at work. I'm not able to participate in a formal internship at the library for the same reason. It requires too many weekly hours. Until technology allows me to be in two places at once, I have to say no to a lot of events and opportunities I wish I could say yes to.

Which is where the Friends come in. Last night's meeting was really enlightening and encouraging. It's wonderful to see "my" library doing so well (I was definitely feeling a sense of civic pride) and I was so glad to learn about some of the many things the Friends group does for the library. Being a library student, I learn about one side of the picture (the librarian's side), and I don't really get to learn about everything that happens on the community side. The branch manager attended last night's meeting and presented her "wish list" for the library for the next year--and all of it is being factored into the Friends' budget for next year. How incredibly lucky the community is to have the library, and how incredibly lucky the library is to have its Friends group. I feel so privileged to have a library that is doing so well because it really speaks to how much support its community provides.

I know a few library students that also work full-time and not at libraries. For those individuals, I would recommend getting involved with the local library's Friends group. As a member of the Friends, I can get involved and be active with the time I'm able to offer. I've already offered my services for the December booksale, and I intend to help out on both days. I'm only giving four hours of my time the whole weekend, and I get to start directly helping out my library (which I've wanted to do for some time now).

I'm really looking forward to future involvement with my library and its Friends.

Libraries are growing out of the box

We are living in interesting times. Global stability is not a reality but a dream (and perhaps for some a goal). The worldwide economy is currently in upheaval, from our own recession (funny how they won't use the D-word and yet we're seeing some of the worst unemployment rates and economic outlooks since the 1930s) to the financial crisis in Greece. People in other nations are forming their own revolutions against their leaders; Egypt and Libya did it, who's next? Protest seems to be the buzzword of the day, and even here in the US we have no end in sight for dedicated groups of people participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Take a moment and think about this: we're all right now in the middle of history. Each one of these events will be making it into history books and will almost certainly be discussed and theorized about; students will be writing papers about these events. And we're living it.

Libraries, in their own way, are also going through revolutionary changes. Even before some of the more recent economic and political struggles, libraries were evolving. Technology can take some (a lot) of the credit for that. Our libraries have had to change and adapt to match their communities' needs, and so many of the "traditional" ideas about libraries have been turned upside-down. For decades, libraries were seen as a place that houses books, and librarians were the gatekeepers (perhaps "guards" better describes the public attitude). Now, more and more libraries have drawn away from the idea that they are a house of books and now try to promote the idea that they are a haven of information. And that information takes any and all forms: books, DVDs, CDs, websites, classes and workshops, story times, game nights, job seeking support, and on and on. Libraries are growing out of the box they had been in for some time, and the rate of change seems to be increasing, not slowing down. Librarians now wear more hats then ever: researcher, guide, tech savant, entertainer, social worker (often not by choice), decoder, event coordinator, career advisor, detective, and any other position needed to provide their patrons with needed information or services.

The Occupy Wall Street libraries that have cropped up seem to be "breaking the rules" even more drastically. Instead of having a building that patrons must go to in order to access the physical materials, the libraries have gone to the people. At Zuccotti Park, books are stored in bins at the OWS camp's People's Library. They are cataloged--a nod to a traditional part of the life of a book in the library--but its circulation system is one that would likely make many library administrators shudder. There is no formal system policing the taking and returning of books. Anyone can come by and take a book if they want it, and they can keep it as long as they like, returning it only when they're done (or not at all). The catalog, then, is not the accurate listing of materials in the library that its counterpart in brick-and-mortar libraries is. Rather, it's a record of what has passed through the OWS library. To those long used to the "normal" way libraries are run, this kind of library (and it is a library in truth) is drastically different, maybe even alarmingly so. For more information about the People's Library, you can check their blog.

On another note, Scooter and I have continued to try recipes from the slow cooker cookbook I mentioned in my last post. This last Sunday, we made the slow cooker risotto recipe. Now, I love risotto, and I was a little unsure about how good this recipe would taste. I was pleasantly surprised. It was easier than my favorite recipe, and it still delivered a good flavor and texture. Scooter and I, as always, changed some of it, so here's our recipe:

What you'll need:
1/4 c. olive oil
4 shallots, minced
1/2 c. white wine (we used a Riesling)
1 1/4 c. Arborio rice
3 14.5-oz. cans chicken broth
1/2 c. grated Romano cheese
salt to taste

What you'll need to do:
1. In a skillet (cast iron preferred), heat the oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and saute until softened. You don't want to brown them, so if they are cooking too fast, turn down the heat a little.
2. Add the wine and cook 1-2 minutes, allowing the liquid to cook down a bit. Add the rice and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Don't brown the rice.
3. Remove from heat and scrape the rice mixture into the slow-cooker. Add the broth and salt, then set to HIGH. Cook for 2 hours until the broth and wine have been absorbed by the rice. The rice should be moist, not dry.
4. Turn off the heat or put on KEEP WARM and add the grated Romano cheese. Stir it in completely and serve.

We fried up some chicken in the skillet and had the risotto with it (yum!). The shallots have a mild flavor, so if you like the flavor of onions, I would recommend substituting the shallots with either yellow or red onion. Also, you want the Arborio rice or another thick-grain rice for this recipe; something like a basmati rice is too thin and won't hold up. The original recipe calls for Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, but I like a stronger flavor, so we opted for the Romano. One great thing about risotto is that you can add other ingredients along with the basics. I like mine with mushrooms too. However, since this recipe uses a slow cooker, you may have to experiment a little since not everything can keep its texture and flavor in a slow cooker.

Enjoy!

Finally...another recipe!

Happy Belated Halloween! I sincerely hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday. My apartment complex celebrated with our own get-together potluck. My contribution was the edible pumpkin patch to the right. This project idea was from the Hello Cupcake! book I've mentioned before in other posts. If you like being creative, definitely pick this book up! I will take credit for the presentation idea. The plate is my pizza pan and the "grass" is coconut colored with a little bit of green food coloring--perfect for making a "home" for the pumpkins. Since I am known in the complex as the one with the vegetable garden, making a pumpkin patch seemed like a cute idea.

I've also acquired another cookbook recently. My aunt and uncle got Scooter and me a slow cooker cookbook to help us save time since we're now both working full-time. We've already tried two recipes (both a success), and I'll be putting another one to the test tomorrow. If you want to check out the book for yourself, it can be found here on Amazon. We made the Chicken with Golden Raisins recipe this last weekend, and of course changed it up a bit. Here's our version (and it was soooooooo good!).

What you'll need:
1 lb. thick-cut bacon
3/4 c. flour
8 bone-in chicken thighs, with the skin
1 c. dry red wine (we used the Clos du Bois Cabernet Sauvignon)
1 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. golden raisins
salt and pepper to taste
4-qt. slow cooker

What you'll need to do:
1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, fry up the bacon. I suggest a cast-iron skillet if you have it, as it will cook the chicken evenly and crisp the skin nicely. You can cook the bacon in batches, pouring the excess bacon fat into a coffee mug. Bacon should be cooked until slightly soft. Set the bacon aside for later.
2. Keeping the skillet over medium-high heat, add a thin layer of retained bacon grease to the bottom of the pan. Put the flour into a flat dish or pie pan. Take each piece of chicken one at a time and dredge in the flour, then add it to the skillet skin-side down (don't crowd the chicken--you may need to cook it in batches). Cook the chicken until it is brown on each side and the skin is crispy, about 5-8 minutes per side.
3. Move the chicken to your slow-cooker. Once all the chicken is cooked, add the wine to the skillet a little at a time. Be very careful!! Adding the wine to the hot grease all at once could cause the hot liquid to splash or the wine to ignite if you're using a gas stove! After adding the wine, scrape the bottom of the pan to get all of the drippings. Once the wine has cooked down--after about 2-3 minutes--add the liquid from the skillet to the slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper. Note that the bacon will be adding salt to the recipe, so you may want to hold back a bit with the salt.
4. Cover and set the slow cooker setting to LOW and cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
5. Stir in the cream, raisins, and bacon. Cover and set the slow cooker to HIGH and cook for 1 hour. Serve hot over rice or noodles.

The wine you use to cook with is a nice accompanyment to the dish itself, especially if you get one you like to drink. Enjoy!

Library ethics and online sources

In my reference class this semester, we recently tackled the topic of ethics in the profession. As one of the authors we read for this unit noted, the library profession is unique because its Code of Professional Ethics is unenforceable, exactly the opposite of other professions like law and medicine: "the ethical conduct of attorneys and physicians has been heavily regulated by individual states and informed by national associations, most notably the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association...ALA, however, lacks any such mechanism" (Sturgeon, 2007, p. 57). Since the profession has several controversial challenges, including user privacy rights and intellectual freedom rights, this makes things rather murky. There can be a lot of grey area. I took some time to reflect on this and responded to the issue with the following post to my class's discussion board (citation information has been added to for readers' benefit here):

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Ethics to me is such a complex issue, and we can easily get tangled up in it, especially in the position we have as library professionals. Our professional and personal ethics don't necessarily have to be separate (and for many of us, we may find that there is a lot of cross-over); however, it doesn't automatically follow that they will always be parallel either. There are many situations, some of which have been highlighted by our readings this week, where these two sets of ethics may potentially come into conflict and we are presented with a choice that requires courage to follow either way: which code (personal or professional) do we choose? It's a Catch-22 situation--damned if you do, and damned if you don't. My personal feelings about this issue is that it will require a lot more thought and reflection on my part before I am satisfied and confident of my ability to choose for myself when that time comes (and I know inevitably it will).

Katz's (1992) quote “Find all requested material. The librarian is not in the position of being a judge” is in part highlighted by Dowd's (1989) study. [Dowd did a study where he told 13 librarians at different libraries "I want to learn how to freebase cocaine."] To some extent, I can see the logic in this, and I think Dowd (1989) provides a compelling argument as to why we can't restrict information--we have no way to intuit exactly the reason why a person asks a question, and as Dowd (1989) explains in response to his own question he posed librarians, a medical student and a writer could both have equally harmless reasons for requesting to know how to freebase cocaine. One thing that it's important to note--and something that Dowd (1989) did not explicitly state in his article--the information itself is not illegal. Having the information breaks no laws (as far as I am aware). It's what is done with the information that may be criminal or harmless, and librarians have no reasonable and reliable means by which to make that judgment. So, as Katz (1992) implies, we shouldn't judge in the first place.

I think Foskett's (1962) statement “No politics, no religion, no morals” is another way to look at the same thing Katz (1992) was arguing for. If we let go our own political, religious, and moral bias, it becomes easier to withhold judgment of those who approach us to find controversial information. McMenemy's (2007) article quotes Foskett as stating that librarians "must be the reader's alter ego, immersed in his politics, his religion, his morals" (p. 178). By putting aside our own bias and "accepting" those of the patron, we attempt to find those resources in the best interests of the patron and not ourselves. I put quotations around accepting because I mean it more in terms of understanding and accepting where the patron is coming from more than truly making their biases our own.

Ethics truly is a tangled web, an issue with many sides that provoke many (often heated) debates. However, in order to fulfill our duty as librarians, it is one that I truly believe we all must examine and reflect on.
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As you can see from the dates of the sources, this is not a new topic, but it's one that the profession continues to struggle with. And I understand that from this exposure that it will be something I may struggle with myself in the future from time to time when controversial questions and inquiries for "questionable" information present themselves.

On a slightly different tangent, a classmate posted some interesting current events about libraries that I thought I would share. The first is a video on Youtube done by Librarian in Black, a fairly well-known blogger who comments about current issues in the profession. Her video is a call to action and commentary about some of the not-so-good aspects of the recent Amazon agreement to provide libraries with digital materials through the Overdrive service. The next is an article about the People's Library that has been created in the Occupy movement in New York. According to the article, other similar libraries seem to be forming at other Occupy locations across the nation, including in San Francisco, Portland, and Boston.

With two big papers done and turned in, I'm hoping to return to a more "business-as-usual" schedule with future posts.

 
References:
Dowd, R.C. (1989). I want to find out how to freebase cocaine or yet another unobtrusive test of reference performance. Reference Librarian, 25/26, 483-493.

Foskett, D.J. (1962). The creed of a librarian: No politics, no religion, no morals. Library Association Occasional Papers No. 3. London: Library Association.

Katz, B. (1992). Introduction to reference work. New York: McGraw-Hill.

McMenemy, D. (2007). Librarians and ethical neutrality: Revisiting the creed of a librarian. Library Review 56(3). 177-181.

Sturgeon, R. (2007). Laying down the law: ALA's ethics codes are enforceable rules needed for information professionals? American Libraries 38 (10). 56-57.

Print vs. Online Reference

I realize that it has been awhile since my last post--and for that, I apologize to my readers. A lack of inspiration and a wealth of school projects and assignments have conspired to make life busy and force me to prioritize. For anyone working full-time and going to school on top of that, prioritizing is a reality (so those of you thinking about enrolling in an academic program while continuing to work--take note!).

One of my recent assignments--one that I'm still working on--has been a great introduction into what reference materials have to offer. The project has been extremely time-consuming, but I think in part that is due to my stubbornness when it comes to using print sources instead of online sources. I hate to rely on online resources because 1) not everyone library patrons is familiar enough with a computer to use them easily (so I would hate to only be able to recommend these sources to library patrons) and 2) online resources are not 100% infallible. Computers/servers/websites can freeze or break down; being unfamiliar with print resources if this were to happen would be a huge detriment to connecting patrons with the information they need. So, given the choice to use print or online versions, I will choose print and exhaust that source before trying the online version.

The online version usually has one major benefit (aside from the obvious one of accessibility) over the print version: better searchability. I saw this in practice when utilizing one source to search for information needed for my current assignment. A print source, Encyclopedia of Associations, had four separate volumes (although 3 were parts 1, 2, and 3 of Volume 1). A concerted search of what I was looking for was unsuccessful because I was trying to reconcile my terminology with the terminology the resource used in its various indexes. Also, since this wasn't the most recent edition of the resource, this fact could also have been a factor in my search being unsuccessful--the information just wasn't available when the edition I was using was published. And so, I turned to the electronic version, Associations Unlimited (this source is available to me through my university's library. Not only was I able to make much more complicated searches than the print version indexes allowed, I could also use some of my terminology since the online version was more forgiving in its recognized searching terminology.

Despite, the advantages of currency and searchability of the online resources, I still do like and appreciate print sources. I like being able to glance at an encyclopedia page and see sub-headings that may lead me to exactly the information I need. Depending on the encyclopedia's website (if it has one), a user may or may not be able to do the same thing without scrolling through a long entry or having to click to another page. The print sources that I got acquainted with as part of this assignment were (for the most part) easy to navigate. I was also surprised with some of the sources I found just by browsing around the shelf of a source I needed; The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft was one unusual find. I like this serendipitous finding of other interesting resources that comes with browsing through print sources. This doesn't always happen with online sources.

 I can't imagine that I am alone in my preference for print sources, although I keep reading opinion pieces where people claim that books are going the way of the dinosaur. I would be interested to hear other opinions on this. Are print or online resources preferable? And why?

Research is not exactly what I thought it was

With school now back in session for the fall, the seemingly unending round of reading and class discussions have restarted as well. One of my classes uses The Craft of Research (see full citation below) as the required text, but I have to say that for required reading this is turning out to be an extremely helpful book. Reading just the first chunk has resulted in some interesting introspection on my research "process" and what I think about the topic. I thought that I would post what I wrote on the class discussion board in response to the first part of the book we were assigned to read.

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I'm finding this book very interesting, namely because it challenges some of my dearly-held preconceived notions and assumptions about research. On the very first page of the preface, the authors introduce the idea of the research project as anything but linear: "Experienced researchers loop back and forth, move forward a step or two before going back in order to move ahead again, [and] change direction..." (Booth, Colomb, & Joseph, 2008, p. xi). All throughout my academic career, I had viewed research (the action) as a process with a definite beginning, middle, and end that followed a straight path and process. The authors of this book are describing something that is fluid, almost with a life of its own. The path from concept (research idea) to product (the final draft) cannot be definitively defined as I had thought, and I understand the logic behind the idea of research as a cycle, rather than a linear path.

A line from Chapter 1 also caught my eye: "Research reported by others, in writing, is the source of most of what we believe" (Booth et al., 2008, p. 9). A common-sense line, but still profound because it's something we don't think about (at least I don't). It also helps to emphasize how important it is that research be accurate, factual, and unbiased. We have a duty to each other when we write; we rely on the written word for information about everything one could possibly imagine. Such information must not be misleading if we are to learn by it and use it to further expand our knowledge. As Booth et al (2008) notes, we must "think for others" when we write (p. 14), meaning we must think of those who would read/use our work--the "audience." This is something I know that I will have to work on.

I guess what this first chunk of the book has taught me is that research is so much bigger than one person. One person may be gathering the information and reporting it, but the benefit is for everyone. Past research affects the present, and current research will affect the future. Research is not the dry, dead thing I saw it as, but a living idea that is fluid and changing.
Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., Williams, J. M. (2008). The Craft of Research (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

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To anyone who is trying to teach the concept of research--why it's done, what one needs, how to do it--I would definitely recommend including this book as part of the curriculum. The language and writing style would probably appeal to a younger crowd and to those who are not necessarily required to conduct research as a part of their career. I think it would also provide a useful perspective to those in various academic communities who perform and report research on a regular basis.

"A Blueprint For Great Schools"

I am a member of several professional organizations, including the CLA, or California Library Association. Today, through this network, I saw a message posted regarding a California Department of Education News Release about a report that was released on Tuesday that addresses the many challenges currently in California public schools and the recommended strategies to address them. The report is called A Blueprint For Great Schools. The person that posted the report noted that nothing is mentioned about improvement in the libraries of the public schools. I read through the report to find that this seems to indeed be the case.

While the report provides recommendations to solve many problems and issues that certainly have helped to create the dire situation many of our public schools are in, I feel that it ignores the huge benefit school libraries can provide if time, effort, and money is invested in these bodies as well. I couldn't leave my thoughts unspoken, so I responded to the report by sending a message to the email provided in the news release. My response is below:

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To Whom It May Concern:

I was very interested to see the outcome of the "Blueprint for Great Schools Report" and related plans for impovement in California schools. Having previously been a teacher in the California public school system, I've had first-hand experience with the extreme challenges faced both by the students and by the teachers and administrators who provide their education. I was pleased to note a lot of my own observations being addressed in the report, including the high percentage of ELs in our classrooms and the instructional challenges this poses; a need for changes in student and school accountability that currently doesn't consider challenges caused by the student's background or the local community's resources; and a need for a partnership between schools, parents, and the community to support each student's education. I truly think that recognizing these and other issues our state schools face is an important step towards re-establishing California as a leader in education in the nation.

However, I was disappointed to see no mention made of improving the schools' libraries and media centers. According to the report, the principles these strategies follow "take into account the changing demands of a 21st century knowledge-based, technology-driven economy and society."[1] If you are serious about creating an environment that truly prepares students for a 21st-century world, you will not discount the resources and support that a school library can provide, and I hope that you will consider amending your strategies to include school libraries. The report notes that "With the adoption of new standards and assessments, there is urgency in ensuring that schools have more rapid and ready access to appropriate instructional materials — including digital materials — to support learning."[2] Librarians have a lot of expertise on resources of all types and on finding out which ones are perfect for any topic. Taking a class to the library is not all about story time. Librarians often are creating their own "lessons" that use library resources to support material that is a part of classroom curriculum. While it may seem like teachers would be able to do the same thing, librarians have an uncanny ability to find and combine resources that teachers don't know about simply because they were not trained in the same way.

Teachers and school librarians are working towards the same goal: to educate California's youth. However, they go about it in different ways. Classroom teachers must focus on the curriculum they teach; there is a lot of subject matter they must expose their students to in order to explain the world around us and show their students the why and how of things. Librarians explain information--how to find good information; how to tell if information is false, misleading, or biased; what resources are available to students wanting to find information (and getting them to think of other, more effective resources than Google!); how to collect pieces of information from various resources to build a whole picture; the list goes on. There are so many sources of information and so many traps and pitfalls in the world of information--including keeping your privacy intact--and classroom teachers lack the training and the knowledge to show this to their students. We live in a digital age where information is infinite and everywhere. In this "technology-driven...society" as it is classified in the report, we have to teach our students how to effectively navigate the vast wealth of information there is without being overwhelmed or becoming victim to those who use the digital world to prey upon others. You will find that librarians are the best teachers of this lesson--it is, after all, what we are trained to do.

I'm in no way trying to degrade what teachers do; I'm only trying to make you aware of what librarians do as well. Librarians and teachers are part of the solution. Bringing our schools back to life and creating strong learning environments will require not only strengthening our teachers, but also strengthening the libraries that provide such valuable classroom support. You can't build a bridge without making sure it has the necessary support to stand, or the bridge will collapse. Education is the bridge between our students and the world they live in; make sure the bridge is sound enough not to fail them.

Thank you for considering my position. I look forward to the revival of our state's education.

[1] "Strategies for a New System of Education." Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/bp/bpstrategies.asp

[2] "Curriculum and Assessment." Retrieved from http://www.cde.ca.gov/eo/in/bp/bpstrategy2.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If I get a response, I will make sure to add it to another post.

Keeping the "free" in public libraries

I came across an editorial today titled "Rethinking Government: Why We Need Library Rental Fees." The article discusses how incorporating operational fees into more public library services could help to bridge the budget gap that threatens so many public libraries. My first reaction was a gut-wrenching "NO WAY!" followed swiftly by a mental call-to-arms to denounce and take down this town selectman who thinks he knows everything. But then I took a step back and tried to see his points in a more objective way.

When the modern library was still in the process of evolution, there were several "types" that emerged before the public library as we know it dominated the industry (if such a thing can be called that). One of these, as the writer of the article points out, was the subscription library that required a membership fee to be able to utilize its resources. It seems that Mr. Greenfield wants to reinstate this idea to a certain degree and charge patrons $.50 per book they wish to borrow. He notes that the cost of a new book has greatly increased since the beginnings of the free public library, which of course means that the cost for the library to acquire said books has also greatly increased--a valid point. A vast majority of the money to pay for these and other costs comes from local taxes, and most if not all of us are aware how much local governments across the nation are struggling to afford many necessary services that include not only libraries but fire and police forces, social services, and educational programs. Knowing all this, I can understand Mr. Greenfield's suggestion that the community pitches in a little more to boost the library's available monies and provide some relief to the local budget.

Yet I still feel that his solution would not really solve the problem. A $.50 fee per book would be prohibitive. Statistics produced by many sources (including the ALA's 2011 State of America's Libraries Report) show library use increasing, a fact Mr. Greenfield mentions in his article. What he doesn't note is that a large percentage of those who do visit and use the library are those with little money, the unemployed, and the undereducated--all evidenced by the trends that libraries continue to see increase: more demand for job-seeking and job preparation resources, patrons placing higher value in programs promoting education and life-long learning, and increased circulation as patrons try to cut back their own personal costs by utilizing the free services and resources offered by public libraries. How would these patrons be able to afford more charges and more fees for things they rely on being able to use or borrow for free? Realistically, there will be patrons who can afford the additional costs, but there will always be a number of patrons who will not. This distinctly conflicts with the mission of the library to provide equal (and free) access to materials to all patrons. Tagging on borrowing fees will not provide equal access to patrons--the additional costs will prohibit some patrons from utilizing those resources.

I wonder if Mr. Greenfield also thought about the many families that use the library. A poorer family would be able to afford borrowing items even less than poorer individuals. Children often rely on library materials for school projects and to supplement their own education. Many schools have had to close or severely restrict their own library operations, meaning that children in those schools would be relying on their local public library even more. Children of the poorer families who need information for projects would not be able to borrow the resources they require--thereby diminishing their educational success. Every child in this country has the right to a public education. One could argue that this would include access to the public library.

Just to put a more practical face on this, let's assume there is a public library that decided to take Mr. Greenfield's advice and each item is $.50 to borrow. A mother takes her three children there after school one afternoon to get some books the school recommended for her sixth grader's India project and her first grader's bean seed project, and a couple of picture books for her toddler. She also wants to get a book for herself to read in the evening after her children have gone to bed. After her children have made their selections, they check out all the items and the mother has to pay $4.00 for the eight items they have borrowed. This is a weekly visit, so the mother will end up spending $16.00 a month (perhaps more) for their library privaledges. This may not seem like a lot, but to someone who is trying to make ends meet, every dollar is precious.

As a side note, my local public library system allows patrons to take out 65 books at a time--a limit that would cost a patron $32.50 who was being charged per item. That doesn't take into account the CD or DVD limit, which combined would add on another $15.00. Granted very few people actually do reach that limit, but it shows potentially how expensive using the library could be.

My point is that $.50 an item can easily add up and become cost-prohibitive to many patrons, discouraging continued visits and usage of library items. Circulation is one of the quantitative measurements that can be taken of library patronage (qualitative measurements are much harder to acquire). Libraries often rely on their circulation to help support their efforts to have their budgets approved: "See how many items have been borrowed over the last three months compared to the same time last year? Patrons are increasing their use of our resources, so we need the funding to continue to provide them." (Yes I know this is a rather simplified version of any library's budget discussion and the actual debate would include a lot more talking points.) If additional fees cause circulation to decrease, that could have lasting ramifications affecting many aspects of a library's operation since such a trend could directly affect future budget proposals.

And here's another thought: who would want to spend money for a service their taxes already pay for?

I would highly recommend reading through the comments of Mr. Greenfield's article. There were a lot of interesting points made on both sides of the table. Which side do you agree with?

A response to Mr. Greenfield's editorial written by ALA's executive director can be found here. He discusses a few of the points I made above, as well as a number of other points.

Two New Recipes FYE (for your enjoyment)

I know that I have been a bit behind with recipes, so I'm posting two today. The first is one from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook: zucchini bread. My garden is doing very well and I'm picking zucchini and squash faster than I can eat it. To help use up all the zucchini, I tried this recipe--which ended up being a big hit!

What you'll need:
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 egg
1 c. sugar
1 c. finely shredded zucchini (unpeeled)
1/4 c. cooking oil
1/2 c. pecans

What you'll need to do:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease an 8x4x2-in loaf pan.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, add the egg and gently beat it. Add the sugar, oil, and shredded zucchini. Mix until completely combined.
4. Add the zucchini mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just moistened. The batter will be lumpy, so an electric mixer is not necessary. Add the pecans and mix until well-combined.
5. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 50 to 55 minutes. A toothpick inserted near the center should come out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Remove from pan and store.

A couple of tips about this recipe:
1) It is really easy to make 2-3 batches of this at once to give away. If you do this, use disposable loaf pans--you will not need to remove the loaves from them before gifting and the loaf pans will make transportation easy.
2) If you have a small oven, do not cook more than two loaves at a time. Otherwise, you may need to increase your cooking time as much as 15-20 minutes.
3) This is great when eaten warm, and it's a perfect compliment to coffee or tea (according to my mother).

OK, now to the next recipe. This was something Scooter and I managed to pull together with no prep time using only what we had on hand. It was inspired in part by a recipe that we made one night awhile ago when cooking for my parents. This is our "Beat that Hamburger Helper!" recipe--named such because I had suggested getting Hamburger Helper from the store for an easy dinner and Scooter replying that we could do better--and he was right!

What you'll need:
1 lb. hamburger meat
1/4 purple onion, chopped into large chunks
1 1/2 Tbs. garlic powder
1 Tbs. cinnamon
2 tsp. dried sage
1 c. beer
3 heaping Tbs. tomato paste
1/2 to 2/3 c. tomato sauce
1 Tbs. brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste

What you'll need to do:
1. In a large frying pan, brown the hamburger meat until almost all the pink is gone. Drain the excess fat.
2. Add the onions and saute over med-high heat until softened, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the garlic powder, cinnamon, and sage, mixing well. Add the beer and simmer until nearly all the liquid has cooked off, about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add the tomato paste and stir until mixture is well-combined. Sauce will be thick.
5. Add the tomato sauce a little at a time and mix well until sauce has thinned to desired consistency (about as thick as chunky pasta sauce).
6. Add the brown sugar, salt, and pepper. Mix well and simmer for 2-3 more minutes. Remove from heat and serve over rice.

The flavor of the beef in this recipe ends up being similar to a Greek dish I posted about before. Of course this improv recipe uses beef instead of lamb, and we used sage in place of the more traditional Greek flavor of oregano. We did keep the cinnamon, which provides a very complex and wonderful flavor to the dish, in conjunction with the beer (I would recommend a dark or stout beer) and the brown sugar. I was quite pleased with the result, and I think Scooter was too, judging by how fast he was trying to eat his dinner that night.

Enjoy!

Late Night Musings

I know that other women will understand what I mean when I mention how the mind can wander and roam with no end in the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, this seems to be a more common occurrence as of late, but on the up-side I've had a chance to mull over where I am in my program and where I really want to go.

No longer a "noob" in my program, I have gained some knowledge and exposure to the profession to help me become a little more focused in how I want to shape my future. I still have a lot to learn, and after this upcoming semester, all the other classes I choose to take will shape my focus. After becoming more involved with various groups within the profession and reading more comments/blogs/etc from individuals in the profession, I've learned that there is a much broader field of positions available to someone who holds an MLIS than I originally thought. I'm connecting with and reading about "librarians" or "information specialists" in nearly every industry. My options for the future have really opened up.

And yet, even with knowing that I could conceivably end up almost anywhere doing almost anything, I see myself being pulling in two directions. As a children's and youth services librarian, I would be able to work with children (something I would love to do), create and manage programs for all ages and even families, and really promote learning for the youngest generations. As a librarian that specialize in community outreach and library social services, I would be able to help the less-fortunate members of our society and my community by providing services through the library that are specifically targeted for them--as well as building community ties between the library and its local area and helping to make the library a "community place" that its locals are proud of.

So which do I choose? It may come down to doing an unofficial internship at my local library through a children's librarian I connected with there (an official internship would be too demanding and require too many hours). Getting some practical experience in library services for children and youth would be, well, awesome (if I may use the slang term). From what I've gathered in some of my professional groups, internships are excellent gauging tools, can be a lot of fun, and are great for building experience. If I do end up pursuing a position as a children's/youth librarian, I will need the experience to get an edge when I apply for those positions.

This next year--Fall 2011 and Spring 2012--will hopefully bring clarity and better focus for my profession. I hope to have a better, more decisive idea of what kind of librarian I intend to be. In the meantime, I have a lot of academic and professional growth to undergo. I'm anticipating the upcoming semester with a lot of enthusiasm!

Catching Up Part 2

So here is my continued effort to catch up to the present day--and tomorrow will hopefully be the post that brings me fully up to date.

The holiday weekend at the beginning of the month gave Scooter and I the perfect opportunity to have another adventure on a day trip. We knew that we would be dealing with 1) the possibility of a lot of traffic because of like-minded people and 2) the definite reality of large crowds at our intended destination. We left extra early to avoid the traffic (and successfully did so, I might add), and debated the whole way to the coast about how many people would be there and how many rides we could expect to ride before 5:00pm.

The brief telling of the story: we got in a lot of rides and had an all-around good time. There were a lot of people where we were. The park we were at was right on the beach, giving us a good view of the crowds of people that had escaped to the coast for the holiday weekend. The vast number of not only people but tarps, umbrellas, and canopies made the beach look like a city of nomads had sprung out of the sand in a matter of hours (which I suppose it did). Scooter likened it to a huge flea market.

We left in the late afternoon to continue our way up the coast, and things made a turn for the worse once we left the park on the beach. I won't go into a lot of detail, just to say that we were tired, frustrated, and irrate by the time we were able to head home.

Independence Day itself was quiet. My parents had my sister and us over for barbecued hot dogs. My contribution to dinner was a homemade apple pie (recipe seen below). The evening was finished with several West Wing episodes--a Saturday night tradition we had to push back since my parents were out of town. We could hear some fireworks going off, which are not allowed in our area (you might call us a "dry" town). The only fireworks Scooter and I saw were some small ones a couple of people set off on the corner across the street.

Now for the recipe: all-American apple pie with crumb topping. The original recipe is from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I'll start with the pie crust first.

What you'll need:
1 1/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup shortening
4 to 5 Tbs. ice-cold water

What you'll need to do:
1. In a medium mixing bowl, add the flour and salt.
2. Add in the shortening. Using your fingertips or a pastry blender, blend it into the flour mixture until it looks like large crumbs.
3. Add in the ice water one tablespoon at a time. Stir each addition into the flour mixture. Stop adding water when all the flour is moistened and the dough holds together.
4. Roll dough into a ball. If you are making the dough ahead of time, you can wrap it in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge up to 24 hours.
5. Lightly flour a flat surface and roll out the dough into a 12-in circle. Move to a 9-in pie pan and lightly press to mold it to all sides of the pie pan. Trim the edges of the dough to the edge of the pie pan.

Now you're ready for the filling and crumb topping.

What you'll need:
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 Tbs. butter
2 Granny Smith apples
4 small Gala apples
3/4 c. sugar
2 Tbs. flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

What you'll need to do:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, add the 1/2 cup flour and the brown sugar. Using your fingers or a pastry blender, mix in the butter until the topping looks like large crumbs. Set aside.
3. Peel, core, and thinly slice the six apples. Set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, the remaining two tablespoons of flour, the cinnamon, and the nutmeg. Add in the apple slices and stir until the apples are all well-covered.
5. Add the apple mixture to the prepared pie crust. Carefully sprinkle on the crumb topping.
6. Cover the edges with foil and bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the apples are tender.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Enjoy!

Catching Up Part 1

I know I have been neglecting my blog lately; and to those who read and enjoy it, I apologize. Time has been running away from me with all due haste, and it is with no little amazement that I find myself already well into July.

A lot has been happening since my last post--a few metaphorical fires at work that I've had to help solve, a Swedish holiday that resulted in much merriment and the usual traditional skoll, my bother visiting from the East Coast, and my adventures during this last weekend to celebrate Independence Day--not to mention any library-related events/topics/issues/etc. I'm going to try to post consistently over the next few days in an effort to catch up. I will also try and post a couple of recipes (including the apple pie I made Monday). Today will focus on Midsummer.

Midsummer is a Swedish holiday that celebrates the longest day of the year. Ironically, the official day for Midsummer is not on the Summer Solstice, but rather a few days after on June 25. Sil, or herring, is always part of the menu. This year, because my family was not celebrating alone, we added some other Swedish foods as well: hard-boiled eggs, Swedish cheese, Kalas caviar, homemade rye bread, smoked salmon to stand in for the gravlax, and four kinds of sil. For those who are not used to Swedish food or don't like it, the menu can understandably be a bit of a turn-off. For those in attendance, however, it was all very delicious. Dessert was coffee and fresh strawberries, another very traditional part of the holiday.

I had the pleasure to be in Sweden for Midsummer in 2000 and had the opportunity to celebrate the holiday with the Swedish relatives. My cousin took me just outside of the town he lives in and had me pick a bouquet of seven wildflowers on Midsummer's Eve. Tradition says that any unwed girl who does this and places her bouquet under her pillow on Midsummer's Eve will dream of the man she will marry that night. My bouquet did indeed rest under my pillow that night, but I woke up the next morning sadly with no recollection of any dreams. To this day, I still don't know if I dreamed of my future husband that night.

Another Swedish tradition that I was able to enjoy was the dancing around the May pole (I have no idea why it's called a May pole when the holiday is in June). Where my cousins live, the celebration is held just outside of town in a big field with a small grassy mound that gives a perfect view of the dancing. The dancers wear a traditional costume; each Swedish province has its own traditional dress. Live music is played, and everyone watches and has a good time--sometimes even joining in with the dancing. Reminiscing now makes me want to go back and see it all again.

Below are a couple of pictures of our Midsummer dinner table. Tomorrow I'll post again about 4th of July weekend (and the apple pie recipe) before returning to the topic of libraries over the weekend.



An overview of the Midsummer table. Can't tell it's a Swedish celebration, can you? ;)



A close-up of one of the Swedish figurines my mom uses to decorate the table.

An indication of the times

For millions of people, the often-comforting, sometimes-frustrating presence of the Internet is one that we can no longer imagine being without. The near-infinite amount of information that is now at our fingertips boggles the mind. In many ways, our lives are easier; shopping, keeping in touch with long-lost friends and family, and looking up the process for changing oil in your specific make/model of car are only a very few examples of things that the Internet has made almost effortless. However, there have been some fallout from our willingness to integrate this beast so completely into our lives. The idea of a right to information is butting heads constantly with the right of an individual's privacy in many forms. It also doesn't help that people don't realize a very important truth about the Internet: nothing posted online can ever be guaranteed privacy. Someone somewhere will be able to access it, read/view/listen to it, and distribute it to anyone he/she pleases.

But I'm deviating from the focus of this post: our access to the Internet. It has by far become the norm. Even people in countries we would not necessarily associate with technology are hooking up to the Internet via computers and mobile devices. Our world is truly developing into a global community, one where all the best and worst of humanity is laid bare for all to see. Well, almost all--there are still areas of the world where the government has a say in what their citizens get to view online.

I think that the best indicator of our continued reliance on the Internet and how much an individual's worth can be measured by their online presence is a recent declaration by the United Nations. The UN's report, dated May 16, explains the importance of the Internet for many various reasons relating to other human rights and the means of human progress. According to the UN, blocking people from the Internet is a human rights violation. The report goes on to say that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is applicable to the forms of information exchange that take place on the Internet, thereby protecting them and access to them as it would other forms of information exchange. One interesting part of the report explains the very specific circumstances in which a restriction of the Internet would not constitute such a violation. Simply because the government is "trying to keep the peace" is not reason enough. It put me in mind of the Egyptian government's attempt to block the online coordination of rebels a few months ago when the old government was (relatively peacefully) overthrown.

"What does this have to do with libraries?" I hear you ask. Well, perhaps not much overtly, but at the heart of the purpose of public libraries is a free exchange of ideas. Libraries are perhaps the best physical embodiment of the First Amendment in the US Constitution and the right of free speech and freedom of expression guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They provide the forum for us, the people, to find any information on any topic that we want. They provide the resources for us to explore any idea, no matter how controversial, so that we can make our own informed opinion of what we believe. And now with the rise of the Internet that I've been talking about during this whole post, libraries have included access to the online world and all the resources that it can provide as well. Libraries have continued to advocate by example the free exchange of ideas on all platforms--digital and otherwise--something that the UN has officially come to recognize as well.

Okay, on to a lighter topic, I do have another recipe to post: mocha pudding cake. This is a slow-cooker recipe, which makes me think that it may not take much tweaking to adapt the recipe to a dutch-oven heated over a campfire or with barbecue coals.

What you'll need:
1 1/3 c. sugar
1 c. flour
1/2 c. butter--melted
4 eggs--lightly beaten
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa
1/4 c. chopped pecans
2 tsp. instant coffee granules
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract

What you'll need to do:
1. In a large bowl, add the sugar, flour, cocoa, instant coffee, ground cinnamon, and salt. In a smaller bowl, mix together the eggs and vanilla extract.
2. Add the egg mixture to the large bowl along with the melted butter and pecans. Mix everything together until well-blended.
3. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 3-quart slow cooker. Add the batter and cover.
4. Cook on the low setting for 2 to 2 1/2 hours until set around the edges but still soft and slightly gooey in the center. Let stand for 30 minutes (still covered) and serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

There's no such thing as a summer off

I don't remember my undergraduate years being as constant a thought/worry/etc when I wasn't going to class. Even when I was going to class, I didn't feel so much "pressure." Graduate school seems to have completely changed that. School finished over three weeks ago, and it's still something uppermost in my mind. I thought that by not taking classes this summer, I would have some time to relax and "forget" about school. That's true to a point, except I register for classes for the Fall 2011 semester next week which means I have to 1) figure out which classes I want to take since I'm almost done with my required courses, 2) complete my FAFSA to make sure I'll have funding for the fall, and 3) pull together and submit all the paperwork for my employer for tuition reimbursement. I may not be in class this summer, but I will still be taking care of stuff for school.

This brings me to my next piece of advice for anyone looking to go back to school and/or already back in school: get required paperwork/tasks done early! It would be so easy to just put things off, but in the end this would do more harm than good. Waiting to register for classes would mean I likely would not be able to take the classes and sections that I want. Procrastinating on the FAFSA would have serious financial ramifications and my best friend K would certainly have something to say about it with her experience as a financial aid officer (I hear many stories). No, it would be much better all around for me to get everything done as early as possible.

On a more positive note, my summer project--my garden--is coming along quite well. The local weather had me worried, as we were experiencing more rain and cold weather a lot later in the year than is normal. For a vegetable garden, this isn't always a good thing--especially if you are trying to grow plants that thrive in sunshine and warmer weather. Which of course comprises most of the garden. I'm sure the local farmers were also sharing my anxiety. Luckily, the sun has come out and is expected to stay out and the days are warming up. My garden seems to have responded almost overnight to this "change in the air." I've already been able to use the herbs in a fresh pasta sauce I made on Memorial Day weekend, and Scooter has harvested the strawberries that have been coming in. I'm looking forward to the squash and zucchini blossoms that I've finally seen just barely beginning to form. Some of those will be sacrificed for stuffed blossoms--a recipe that I will post when I make them.



The picture above is what the garden looked like a couple of weeks ago. It's quite a difference from what the garden looks like now.



This is what the garden looks like now. Everything is "coming up roses!" :)

 More to be posted later. In the meantime, it's back to "taking care of business."

Another amusing video

The library has existed for millennia--although it has not by any means existed in the same form or even always for the same purpose. It was not always a "public" institution, even though that term seems almost synonymous with the library today. Before the invention of the printing press, books were much rarer and much more valuable because of the enormous amount of time and energy that went into the creation of a single volume. Books were not available to the average person, but the "average" person during that point in history also could not read most of the time.

A colleague sent me this video on the Medieval helpdesk of a library. While there are a lot of historic inconsistensies, I found it a rather amusing video. I bet a vast number of librarians would be able to find some similarities between this exchange and many of their own!

My favorite recipe: quick and easy

I admit that it's hard to do complex cooking when working full time. It's even harder during a semester when my evenings are taken up by schoolwork. It's one of the reasons I always take advantage of my time on the weekends and get as much cooking time in as I can.

However, sometimes even then I don't have the time for a complex meal. I have a few projects going on right now: getting my garden going (I'll post pictures for sure this weekend), finally getting the shelving into the apartment that Scooter and I have been wanting, and various projects that family and friends ask for help with (mom's garden improvements, aunt moving to a new house, etc.). For times like these, it's really nice having a repertoire of recipes that I can use that involve 1) little prep, 2) few ingredients, and either 3) cook relatively fast or 4) don't need me to watch the food. A couple of years ago, my best friend K gave me a book called The Four Ingredient Cookbook. This week's recipe is taken from there. Here's a fast and easy way to make honey mustard chicken.

What you'll need:
1/2 c. Miracle Whip dressing (I used the Light)
2 Tbs. dijon mustard
1 Tbs. honey
4 skinless/boneless chicken breasts

What you'll need to do:
1. Set oven to the "Broil" setting and raise rack if necessary.
2. Mix together the Miracle Whip dressing, dijon mustard, and honey until it's well combined.
3. Brush the chicken breasts with about half of the dressing mixture and place in a pyrex or metal pan to broil.
4. Broil 8-10 minutes on each side, longer if the pieces are thicker. After turning the chicken, brush on the remaining mixture. Serve with risotto.

I know that there are some people who don't like the taste of Miracle Whip, and I have to say that by itself it would not be my first choice of condiment. However, when mixed with the dijon and honey, the flavor of it is definitely diffused. Those who are not fond of the dressing may still like this recipe.

This may put a smile on your face...

A podcast I listened to recently mentioned that what is new in libraries is not new FOR libraries--meaning that "new ideas" used in the library world have been--to borrow a phrase--begged, borrowed, or stolen from other industries (and please don't mistake me for condemning libraries for that). Example: the bar code is used by libraries everywhere to scan items for circulation purposes (in layman's terms: to check items in and out), but the bar code was invented for the food industry. There is a lot of creativity in the profession, but we unfortunately don't have time or the budget to fund serious inventing endeavors. Listening to the podcast made me wonder what truly new innovations librarians would be able to come up with if we were given the time and the money to do it.

A colleague of mine sent me links to a few videos that put me in mind of library innovation. Each video is a funny and creative way the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University is working to promote their services.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ArIj236UHs

http://www.youtube.com/user/hbllproduction#p/u/2/GIUiH3PNOAE

http://www.youtube.com/user/hbllproduction#p/u/5/llD1AY5fsjc

I bet they'll put a smile on your face. They certainly put a smile on mine.

Yet Another Reason to Support your Public Library

I’m thinking of a place where you can go for free computer classes that can help you learn basic computer programs. This same place will have free workshops on everything from Chinese Medicine to the culinary arts to knitting blankets. You’ll also be able to pick up the latest book by Charlaine Harris for free, then log on to check your email (for free) before getting your pressing question about the national health care plan answered. Meanwhile, your 9-year-old son is getting (free) help with his homework assignment for Math before choosing a copy of “Shrek 3” to take home and watch. A coffee for you and an orange juice for him wrap up your visit to this magical place where all this happens on a regular basis.

What place could I possibly be talking about? The public library.

Our society has turned into one where money is no longer the only currency: information is the new fad. And libraries, information brokers since the dawn of time (not literally, but you know what I mean), are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this. And the kicker is that they provide their services for free. An article I read mentioned that if the idea of libraries had been proposed now, there would be no way that they would have been created. I have to agree; there would not be nearly enough funding to create enough public libraries across the nation, and people would likely begrudge the thought of any more money being squeezed out of what little they have by the government. In a time when it seems that nothing is free anymore and people’s ability to afford more than the bare minimum is almost non-existent (and in some cases it is), we should be valuing the benefit of the public library.

Lucky for us, it seems that a significant percentage of the population does. ALA’s 2011 The State of American Libraries Report has shown that visits to the library and the utilization of library services continue to steadily increase. People know and appreciate what the library can provide for them. After all, the library is the only free place you can go that connects people with the information they need and helps to bridge the Digital Divide (a claim Google would not be able to make).

If you’re not convinced that the library is still valuable with all of the digital and Internet resources you now have at your fingertips, I encourage you to take a look at this article. I think that the first point is the most important: “Libraries serve the disenfranchised.” Right now, there are a lot of have-nots in the country. People can’t afford the hardware/software/Internet connection/Wi-Fi/etc (the Digital Divide issue I just mentioned) that is steadily becoming the norm for looking up government forms (ex. unemployment benefit forms), searching and applying for jobs (many if not most companies only post open positions online), and staying connected with family and friends (social networking). So what happens to those that don’t have a computer but still want to be able to do these things? They go to their local library.

Sony, Google and Apple are all under fire for various reasons regarding their customer’s privacy. Sony’s PS3 Network was hacked, and millions of users’ information was obtained in the attack. Google and Apple are currently dealing with lawsuits that allege their violation of users’ privacy in the type and amount of information that their smart phones have been secretly collecting. I take comfort that I will never have this problem in the library: “Libraries are interested in your privacy.” The librarian is no stranger to defending her patrons’ privacy, and the ALA also offers guidelines on confidentiality and privacy in the library.

The public library—and what it has to offer—is a role model for society.

Catching Up: Part 3 of 3

So I mentioned something about balsamic vinegar in my last post. If you were to strike up a conversation about this particular condiment, it likely would not include “ice cream” or “cheese” as items to serve with the vinegar. Before now, I would never have thought that either item would go well with balsamic vinegar. Today, I am a changed woman.

There was a booth at the festival selling various kinds of balsamic vinegar. Now being a good Italian girl, I know the value of a good oil and vinegar, especially to dip fresh bread into or serve on top of a green salad. This is not that kind of vinegar.

First of all, it’s much thicker. Regular vinegar is akin to water in fluidity and texture (though not taste of course). This type is more like runny syrup. Second, this vinegar has been aged—and I don’t think the average vinegar is aged much. Third, this vinegar has added flavors from things that have been added to it, like raspberries or black currents. This creates a wonderfully flavorful, sweet (but not too sugary), and tangy food that now has so much more flexibility with foods and flavors it can be paired with. I’ve already snacked on some with bread and brie, and the combination was really good!

Being the food lover and cook that I am, the vinegar has inspired me to create a meal around the two types I bought (which were the raspberry and vanilla fig). I’ve already figured out how many courses I will have (five), each of which will include one of the two vinegars in some way. Mom, if you’re reading this (which I know you will at some point), you and Papa will be coming over to share this experimentation in the culinary arts.

And since I have a lot of catching-up to do in regards to recipes as well, I will finish this post with two recipes, a dinner and dessert if you will. We’ll start off with the main part of the meal: beef stroganoff.

I know that I have posted a beef stroganoff recipe before, but what makes this one different is that it’s “low-fat.” It can be made on the stove or in a slow-cooker, and it doesn’t sacrifice flavor in its effort to be more healthy. The original recipe comes from Fix It and Forget-It Lightly.

What you’ll need:
1 ½ lbs. round steak
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. fresh ground black pepper
1 lb. fresh mushrooms
1 can 98% fat-free cream of mushroom soup
1 c. water
1 c. fat-free sour cream

What you’ll need to do:
1. Cut the steak into strips about 1 inch long and approximately half an inch wide.
2. In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown the meat on all sides. Add the onion and garlic. Cook until the onion is softened, about 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in the mushrooms and add the salt and pepper. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Mix the soup and water together. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the soup mixture to the skillet. Cover and cook until mixture simmers, about 15 minutes.
4. Add the sour cream and cook for a few more minutes until heated through. Remove from heat and serve.

To use a slow cooker, put all the ingredients except the sour cream into the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Add the sour cream at the very end and cook on high until it's heated through. This is a good recipe to serve over egg noodles or rice. For those who are interested, this recipe is only 7g of fat per serving (six servings total).

Once you’ve filled up on beef stroganoff, you can top it off with dessert: easy sticky buns. I caught this recipe on an episode of The Barefoot Contessa. I ended up substituting half of the light brown sugar with dark brown (because I unexpected ran out of the light), and the flavor was still really good. My only warning would be to eat these as soon as they are cool enough to handle—they don’t taste as good if they’ve cooled and been reheated. The original recipe can be found here.

What you’ll need:
12 Tbs. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 c. brown sugar (I did half light, half dark brown)
½ c. pecans, chopped in very large pieces
1 pkg. frozen puffy pastry, defrosted*
2 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 c. light brown sugar
1/3 c. dark brown sugar
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 c. raisins

What you’ll need to do:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put a 12-cup muffin tin onto a baking sheet. This will keep any melted butter and sugar from spilling and dirtying your oven (I know this from personal experience).
2. In a medium mixing bowl, add the 12 Tbs. of butter with the 1/3 c. mixed brown sugar and mix until thoroughly combined. Distribute evenly into the 12 cups of the muffin tin. Add the pecans to each cup on top of the sugar and butter mixture.
3. Lightly flour a wooden board and unfold 1 of the puff pastry sheets. The folds should be going left to right. Brush the sheet with the melted butter. Sprinkle half of the 1/3 c. light brown sugar over the sheet while leaving a 1-inch border at the ends. Repeat with half of the 1/3 c. dark brown sugar. Sprinkle 1 ½ tsp. of the cinnamon and ½ c. of the raisins.
4. Start with the end closest to you and roll up the pastry like a jelly roll. End with the seam side facing down. Trim about ½ inch from each end of the roll and discard. Slice the roll into six equal pieces.
5. Put each slice with the spiral side up into half of the prepared muffin cups. Press gently on the top.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 with the second sheet of pastry.
7. Put in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the buns are golden brown on the top and firm to the touch. Cool slightly (only enough to handle them), then scoop each out of the muffin tins and flip them over so the pecans are on the top. Serve warm!

*Do not let the puff pastry defrost up to room temperature. This will make the dough stick together and it will be a hassle to separate. I would recommend putting the frozen puff pastry into the fridge the day before to defrost but keep cold—this should allow it to keep its shape and not stick together.

Enjoy!

Catching Up: Part 2 of 3

Now I feel like I should talk about this weekend. Scooter and I have escaped to the coast, and it comes at a time when I’m in desperate need of a break. Work and school have been steadily wearing me down, like a rivulet of water slowly eroding exposed rock. We came up with the full intention of doing nothing but cooking good food, making an adult beverage, and soaking in the hot tub. Science has shown that such a prescription is exactly what you need to cure insomnia, lift depression, regain vitality, and even improve appetite. Well not really, but it does help me feel like I can finish this semester, and I do have a lot of fun being up here.

So, we drove to the coast. I’m lucky enough to have family with a vacation house in a coastal town that I’ve known since early childhood. I actually have baby pictures of my first steps here in the house where I’m writing this post, and my first impression of the sandy beaches of the harbor. The house is a little different from the memories that I have of summers spent here; but it still has a bed in the loft where I sleep just like I did years ago, and it still smells the same. The view from the front windows is beautiful. I have a straight view up the channel of the harbor that leads out to the larger bay and ocean waters. Right now, the tide is low—I can see the mud exposed from the areas of shallow waters. In really low tides, the whole harbor will lay bare and only the channel will have water.

I couldn’t describe the weather as anything less than perfect. It’s been a perfectly clear blue sky all day yesterday and today—a rarity even in the summer. Usually fog rolls in each morning and evening, but for whatever reason, the sun has shone uninterrupted since we arrived yesterday morning. The birds have been very active too. Since spring is in full force, birds are nesting everywhere. Yesterday, I saw a bird building its nest in the cavity of a wooden pillar along one of the piers around the harbor. I seem to also have a scrub jay visiting the deck every few minutes to pick at the seed I put in the feeder. He’s out there right now, bobbing his head as he grabs food to fill his crop, looking around him for predators every few seconds. Ah, there he goes, flying away to whatever nest he may be keeping nearby.

This weekend also hails an annual festival that Scooter and I went to earlier. So many booths full of homemade goods—flatware, clothing, woodwork, stonework, jewelry (lots of jewelry!), and even llama-fur woven items. Five llamas from local farms were there with their owners, some of whom were spinning the shaved fur for the public to see. There was also some excellent fish and chips, with fish that had to have been fresh-caught this morning, mere hours before it was cooked and served for us. Scooter and I definitely got our fill of trinkets; I came home with a canvas bag made with a heron on the front, a wooden clock carved into the shape of a dragon, an amethyst necklace, and balsamic vinegar (more about that in my next post).

Then we had a tough afternoon—we had to come home, fix a plate of snacks and soak in the hot tub. Then I sunbathed on the deck for a little while as I read. I had to come in sooner than I would have liked because we didn’t have sunscreen. Like I said, a tough afternoon.

Just what the doctor ordered.

Catching Up: Part 1 of 3?

There’s a lot to right about. This weekend, food, and a webinar I attended are only some of the topics I wish to cover today. So to accommodate all the information, I will be posting a few times today. Here is the first.

The webinar that I attended was one for librarians regarding serving a physical and digital population of patrons. In this day and age when so many services are being offered both in-person and online, I think it's important to see what libraries (in the case of this webinar, academic libraries) are providing to their local and distant patrons, and how equivalent services are being offered and conducted for both groups. For schools that offer distance education, I can see how valuable equivalent services become for DE students. From the standpoint of a librarian, I would want to ensure that students are getting the best and most helpful and relevant services available. From the standpoint of a student (and being a DE student myself), I want to know that I can get the resources and services that I need to successfully complete my program. DE students should never feel short-changed because they are not located on or near their school’s campus.
One of the panelists who presented at the webinar offered a lot of suggestions that I really liked and would like to implement at the school I currently work at. Things like online tutorials for database searching, using the school library’s OPAC (in layman’s terms: online catalog), even things like working out math problems or a specific objective from one of our programs—done by an instructor of course—would be very helpful both for our on-campus students and our students currently taking online classes. I could get really creative and even do virtual tours of the library, showing where everything is located and how to find physical materials. One thing about our library’s website is that it has a lot of text—not overwhelmingly so, but enough that upon reflection I realize many of our students would not find it attractive. So in order to make it attractive to our students, I’ll need to add more in the way of other mediums to get our information to them.

Another panelist talked about a number of “untraditional” projects that the library on his campus sponsored. This did two thing: effectively got the name and presence of the library out to the students on campus, and created things that student want and continuously use. A few examples: a piranha tank with a live piranha donated by a student, a Frisbee golf course, a skateboard half-pipe, and a music recording studio. These were all projects that fit that population of students well, they add a new dimension to the campus’s student life, and they really made the library known around campus. While these projects would not be possible at my school, they do open the door to more creativity that what is “normally” found in a library. Plus, it gives me inspiration for projects that the student leadership team could develop and initiate, with the help of the campus library of course.

There were a lot of helpful ideas and advice given by the panelists of this webinar. One goal I’m setting for myself is to come up with my own creative contribution to the school that can inspire students and possibly help spread the name of the library. This summer would be the perfect time to get started.

Dragging Slowly Forward

One month from now, I will be almost done with my semester. It will be close enough to taste it, and I will be anticipating the moment I turn in my final paper for both of my classes. Right now, I'm looking at the rest of the semester with a rather large sense of dread--I have two group projects (one being the presentation I mentioned in a previous post) plus the two aforementioned final papers. Ironically, I can't help but look at the big picture, and it's the big picture that is decidedly overwhelming me.

So I take a deep breath and look at my immediate future objectively, and I would recommend anyone else under stress from numerous deadlines/projects whether or not they are related to an academic program to do the same. The project in my management class is virtually finished, aside from a bit of polishing and a run-through with my team. The project in my database class is in the planning stages, so not a lot of concrete work can be done right now. As for my final papers, I have a topic for one decided and the topic for the other is chosen for me. All in all, there's no call for panic--but my mind seems to have a tough time fully understanding that. I blame the worry gene that seems to be inherent in the women in my family.

Part of the underlying problem is also how fast this semester is going--it's very hard for me to really believe that it's April. Part of the problem is also my determination to finish this program with a 4.0--I'm a perfectionist and I intend to do everything as well as absolutely possible. A secret hope and wish is to graduate as Valedictorian (do you even get recognized as such in graduate school?). Younger foolishness kept me from having that distinction in high school or for my undergraduate degree--something I very much regret. I knew that I could do better than I did.

Anyway, enough about the past (although I seem to wax eloquent on the topic of my past sometimes, don't I?). Here's another recipe, one that I used to make a lot for myself when I was living on my own. With Scooter around, I seem to be experimenting in food and cooking a lot more. This recipe is from a book of chicken recipes I got during my freshman year of college and I made it again last weekend: chicken and sweet potatoes with orange glaze.

What you'll need:
4 chicken leg quarters or 6-8 chicken thighs
1/2 c. orange juice concentrate
1/2 c. maple syrup
2 Tbs. fresh rosemary, chopped fine
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks 1/2-in. thick

What you'll need to do:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash the chicken pieces and pat dry with paper towels.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the orange juice concentrate, maple syrup, fresh rosemary, and half of the salt and pepper.
3. In a deep baking pan, spread the sweet potato chunks out on the bottom. Lay the chicken pieces on top and sprinkle the rest of the salt and pepper over the chicken. Brush the chicken with half of the glaze. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
3. Brush the rest of the glaze over the chicken, turning pieces to brush both sides. Cook for another 25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through to the bone and sweet potatoes are soft. Remove from oven, cool slightly, then serve.

If you like the sweet-and-savory flavor, you should consider doubling the glaze. I tend to double it myself so the sweet potatoes can also cook in the glaze. This weekend will be my next attempt at "special" cupcakes. If they turn out well, I'll be sure to take pictures to post. I hope you like the chicken!

Enjoy!