S.s. Librarianship

This Week...Mind Grapes:  Alli's been going down a podcast rabbit hole with Kevin Allison's Risk Podcast on the Max Fun network. Sam is cautiously optimistic about new Sci-Fi television in the form of Extant.Class Z(ed): We put together an oft-requested conversation about the job hunting process. Both Sam and Alli have had some leaps forward recently by scoring their first jobs out of library school. Moving from the search through to the interview, we give our tips and advice about what the process looked like for us. We would like to add the disclaimer that this is our extremely subjective view - things may be very different where you are - but we would love to hear what the job hunt looks like from all sides. So let us know what you think!Links: Risk PodcastExtantI Need a Library JobPartnership Job Board (Canada)ALA Job ListIndeed.com Lifehacker - lots of good general tips about application, resume, cover letter, and interview strategiesPEW Research Center  

This week, with special guest Jon Newell...Mind Grapes: Sam saw Monty Python Live (Mostly); Jon's all about the Dying Earth this week; and Alli's been bingewatching lady coming-of-age stories.NERD ALERT!: Jon sits in for the inaugural edition of a new segment where we tackle issues in nerd culture - this week, a freewheeling, wide-ranging conversation about what it means to be a "fan", and why it is that we use fandom to define ourselves and create connections with each other.Links:Monty Python Live (Mostly)The Book of the New Sun by Gene WolfThe Dying Earth genreMy Mad Fat DiaryGirlsWhy I'm Not a Fan by John RoderickIdea Channel: Is Doctor Who a Religion?Millenials in Adulthood from PEW 

This Week...Mind Grapes: Sam watches last year's Oscar winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom about the history and lives of back-up singers. Alli gets out and gets running with the app Zombies, RUN! - a combination storytelling, run tracking, and motivational running program. Where Do We Put This?: Alli has been using her plethora of free time to do a great bookshelf re-organization. We talk about how we've organized our (many) books and where that drive in us comes from. We also want to know - how do you organize your books?Special Advice Segment: We answer some questions we got through a fan email! We've talked previously about how we survived the MLIS, but what do you do when it's a fully online program? We have a few ideas, but are also interested in hearing what you have to say. Links: 20 Feet from Stardom Merry Clayton Lisa Fischer Tata VegaClaudia Lennear Zombies, RUN!#bookshelfies on Tumblr 

Mind Grapes: We're all about the summer movies this week - Alli was touched by the just-sweet-enough Jon Favreau vehicle Chef, and Sam has sore ribs from giggling her way though 22 Jump Street.Where Do We Put This?: We jump in, finally, to the #ireadYA conversation, talking about the books that shaped us, and the ones we still see as important for adults to delve into.Links:Chef22 Jump StreetKeith and Kenny LucasAgainst YA from Slate 

This week with special guests Tamarack Hockin and Ashley Van Dijk...Mind Grapes: Alli is going back to vintage strategy games with Heroes of Might and Magic III: Restoration of Erathia. Ashley is following up on recommendations with Lev Grossman's The Magicians. Tamarack is reading catching up with teen land reading with the The Lunar Chronicals by Marissa Meyer and All our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill, both virtually visiting the Surrey Public Library Teen Reading Club this summer by online chat. Sam finally got on the Wicked bandwagon with the tour that swept through Vancouver this week. We also discuss video game difficulty, time travel mechanics, and the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series. Class Z(ed): Ashley and Tamarack are library technicians - a designation that many of us were unaware of before entering the library world. We discuss the differences between the MLIS and Lib Tech education and job duties. We also touch on the relationship b

Download this episode directly. This week, with very special guest Kate Tkacik...Mind Grapes: Sam has been utterly charmed by a certain fictional community radio host; Kate has embarked on a year of female authors, and has something old and something new to recommend; Alli's been enjoying a lighter American take on a supernatural British drama.Class Z(ed): We're honoured this week to have Kate Tkacik on board to talk to us about her path to librarianship - from building collections and programming for at-risk youth, to library school and Library Journal, to her current gig as a Research Analyst for the BMO group. We also discuss the genesis of the Tumblarians movement, and the importance of outreach, community-building, and putting a human face on your work in every library context.Links:Welcome to Night ValeMansfield ParkMeaty by Samantha IrbyBeing Human (US)Kate on Tumblr and TwitterThe Tumblarians ListKate on Library Journal: Tumblr 101, The Class of TwentySomething, LJ Mover & Shaker profile

This week on a S.S. Librarianship Classic...Mind Grapes: Alli gets to the art-house cinema to get some vampire movie action with Only Lovers Left Alive. Sam has been seeing some improv comedy, but also binging on The Good Wife on NetFlix.  Class Z(ed): We talk about Sam's experience at the Research Commons at UBC. We talk about how we need these kinds of spaces to serve the graduate student and faculty communities in our universities - a user base that we often take for granted but can't any more. We hit on programming, workshops, and providing the space to get graduate students out of their lonely silos. Links: Only Lovers Left AliveMaven of the Eventide - Only Lovers Left Alive ReviewMoonThe Good WifeSuits - Gina Torres being awesome. Research Commons at UBCMendeley (Citation Management Software) 

This week, with special guest David Waddell... Mind Grapes: Sam's been listening to Sheezus, and finds it a little diluted by domestic bliss; David's been stepping out of his comfort zone with The Famished Road and World War Z, but also returning to an old favourite; Alli's been reading two very different books, both by boundary-pushing women - Mindy Kaling's memoir and Kathryn Boo's exploration of Indian slum life.Where Do We Put This?: David is here to engage us in conversation about the library as a vessel for the public imagination. Among other topics, our wide-ranging conversation touches on the reference interaction as teachable moment, the librarian as guide and listener, and the library as a space that needs to balance present needs and future potentials.Links:SheezusThe Famished RoadWorld War Z (audio book)House, MDIs Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?Behind the Beautiful ForeversDavid on Twitter

**Disclaimer - Apologies for the bad metadata, but the issue wasn't fixed and I didn't want to keep everyone waiting! We will fix it as soon as we can.**This week with special guest Chelsea Shriver...Mind Grapes: Alli is watching some vintage high school comedies and catching up on some reading. Chelsea has an album and a show for us to check out, but also wants us to go see Ira Glass. And Sam made us all have a new appreciation for Keanu Reeves with his new documentary, on Netflix now. Class Z(ed): Chelsea is another one of our amazing and unique librarian friends who works in the Rare Books and Special Collections division of the UBC Library. She explains to us what makes the collection unique, how UBC is currently trying to expand that collection, and some of the amazing exhibits she has helped to curate. Moral of the story: if you are in Vancouver, go visit the UBC special collections! And if you are not, find some special collections near you and visit them too!Links: Heathers (1988)B

MINOR SPOILER WARNINGS for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Mind Grapes: We've been reading! Alli's almost done (and already ready for a reread of) Lexicon, and Sam's been pleasantly surprised by Sarek. Plus, we talk our impressions of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and its fascinating friendships - as well as its fallout on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.Class Z(ed): We finished our M.L.I.S. degrees! Yay us! We take a little retrospective tour back through some of the grad school/library school do's and don'ts we've picked up over the past two-and-a-half years - and put a call out for your contributions to the list.Links:Lexicon by Max BarrySarek by A.C. CrispinCaptain America: The Winter Soldier and its amazing fandom (just one corner, but a fairly representative one; enter the "stucky" tag on Tumblr at your own risk, especially if you have to work in the morning :p). 

This week with very special returning guests Emily Booth, Michael Wynne, and Melanie Cassidy...Mind Grapes: What are we looking forward to doing this summer? Alli and Sam are interested in two of the summer blockbuster comic book movies, Michael is catching up on some old sci-fi, Emily endeavours to do ALL THE THINGS in Skyrim, and Melanie is getting a jump on some work for the BC Open Educational Resources group. Class Z(ed):We have all been told different things about cataloguing courses at Library School. Some say it is absolutely vital to a well rounded librarian education. Others say it is useless to take a full course - most cataloguing these days is copy cataloguing anyway! Well, this term, the five of us were lucky enough to be in the same Cataloguing and Classification course at our iSchool and we try to answer the question: should library school students take cataloguing? The answer may surprise you! Or not. Depends on how much you like cataloguing, I guess. Links: Days of Future

Trigger Warning: This week's edition of The ReRoll includes mentions of suicide and rape, and some discussion of mental illness.Spoiler Warning: This week's Mind Grapes contains spoilers for the final episode of How I Met Your Mother. Mind Grapes: Sam was pleasantly surprised by some of the nuance in the finale of How I Met Your Mother; Alli learned a new and very complex colonialist board game; Jon is reading about female Horatio Hornblower in space.The ReRoll: A new segment that revisits recurring themes on the podcast from new perspectives. Jon Newell returns to bring together a few topics we've previously explored on the show - Dungeons & Dragons, book banning, gamer culture. He leads us through a discussion of the phenomenon of moral panic, focusing on the "Satanic Panic" surrounding D&D in the seventies and eighties.Links: Archipelago official siteArchipelago at Board Game GeekOn Basilisk Station (Honor Harington #1) by David Weber at GoodReadsThe Honorverse at wikiaThe Satanic Panic:Dark Dun

This week, with special guest Jonathan Kift...Mind Grapes: Alli's watching some new, potentially mediocre science fiction with The 100. Jonathan tries to quell that potential mediocrity with his old stand-by science fiction with Babylon 5. And Sam has been jumping on the contemporary adult fiction bandwagon with everyone's favourite Gone Girl. Where Do We Put This?: Jonathan shares his wealth of knowledge about BOARD GAMES. And the conversation is hardly boring. We discuss how to figure out what kind of gamer you are. Do you fall in line with the highly complex Eurogamers? Or are you more interested in narrative and socializing with the Ameritrashers? Let's all learn together. Links:The 100Babylon 5Gone Girl by Gillian FlynnBoard Game GeekEurogames / EurogamersAmeritrashScott Nicholson - Gaming Categories Handout (ALA2012) - Because Play Matters BlogKevin Maroney - My Entire Waking Life (definitions of gaming) 

The S.S. Librarianship Meetup on April 2nd - RSVP here! This week, with special guest Mitchell Meler...Mind Grapes: Alli's been jumping on the Veronica Mars bandwagon, and thinks the mother did it; Mitchell tells us about the importance of queer representation in Dragon Age; and Sam waxes poetic about attending UBC Slam.Where Do We Put This?: Mitchell leads us through an exploration of the narrative potential of video games, particularly when it comes to the future of reading and books.Links:Veronica MarsDragon Age UBC SlamSam's favourite slam poets (so far): Taylor Mali & Mike McGeeGaymerXTalks: BioWare Talks About Romance in Video GamesDiscussion: BioWare's David Gaider's Response

Download this episode directly. This week, with special guest Emily Booth...Mind Grapes: Emily likes creepy non-fiction books about medical deformities and mutations, but is tempering that interest with a book about puritans. Sam is kind of enjoying the science fiction of 2009's V. And Alli is time travelling and full of weird freaky magic. Where Do We Put This?: What the heck is an archive? What goes in there? What makes it different from a library? Why do archivists hate librarians? All these answers and more when Emily Booth gives us a basic primer of the archive. Links:Mutants: on Genetic Variety and the Human Body by Armand Marie LeroiThe Wordy Shipmates by Sarah VowellV (television series)The Anubis Gates by Tim PowersEmily Booth on Twitter

SPOILER WARNING: Minor spoilers for Inside Llewyn Davis. Download this episode directly.This week, with special 3rd time guest Mary Jinglewski...Mind Grapes: Sam enjoyed the quiet mediocrity of Inside Llewyn Davis; Mary learned to play Seven Wonders, which launches a discussion of how to schedule tabletop gaming sessions; Alli saw the new Wes Anderson, and lo, it was good.Where Do We Put This?: We recap our many thoughts and feels about last week's Data Camp North Vancouver unconference, where librarians and libraries intersect with coding, design, and open data.Links:"Please Mr. Kennedy" from Inside Llewyn DavisSeven WondersThe Grand Budapest Hotel Data Camp North Van (including links to notes, speakers, and social media)In the trying times ahead (peak oil, climate change, ponzi economy), my bet is on librarians to see us through #datacampnv— Dethe Elza (@dethe) March 14, 2014

This week, with special return guest Melanie Cassidy...Mind Grapes:Sam has found time to do some reading and shares her latest literary adventure. Alli is on a Shonda Rimes binge and has picked up Scandal. Melanie tells about a yearly podcast she likes and tells us all about her adventure on the JoCo Cruise Crazy! Class Z(ed): Last week was Canada's Freedom to Read Week (like a Canadian Banned Books Week) and Melanie did some library programming and media, so she knows all about it! Plus, a few book challenges that we dug out of the records that provide some interesting insight to properly considering a book and not just rejecting challenges out of hand.Links: JoCo Cruise    Jim BoggiaNewtons Cannon by J. Gregory KeyesScandalFreedom to ReadBanned Books ResourcesAnalyze Phish/FishGloom (The Amazing Card Game)  

Download this episode directly.This week, with special guest Erin Fields...Mind Grapes: Alli's been reading at her age level; Sam thoroughly enjoyed a midwinter action flick's A-list cast; and Erin's all about the historical fiction this week, both on TV and in books.Class Z(ed): This week, we talk to Erin about her trajectory from teacher to librarian, as well as her current position as the University of British Columbia's Teaching and Learning (Flexible Learning) Librarian. Among other topics, we discuss information literacy instruction, MOOCs, and the changing role of the academic librarian.Links:City of Glass by Paul AusterRobocopVikingsThe Hangman's Daughter by Oliver PötzschUBC LibraryErin on Twitter

Download this episode directly. This week... (SPOILER WARNING: Mild Sherlock Season 3 spoilers)Mind Grapes: Sam is working her way through Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, and her discovery of video games is adorable. Spoiler warning: she is a menace to her crew. Alli's all caught up with Sherlock and both loves and hates figuring out the mystery before it is revealed. We also talk about the evolution of TV, and supplementary content from shows and web series.  Where Do We Put This: Where do we put social media in the library? How does the library create a social media persona? How do libraries navigate having several social media accounts? We're not answering these questions, really. More like just asking them. Plus a discussion of how libraries can teach patrons about social media.Links:Star Trek: Elite ForceSherlock Season 3 | Mini EpisodeCommunity Season 5House of Cards Season 2Is House of Cards TV? by Spencer Kornhaber (The Atlantic)Dirty Work (the web series that Alli couldn

Download this episode directly. This week, with special guest Matthew Murray...Mind Grapes: Matthew introduces us to the wacky world of Tsutomu Nihei; Alli's been rewatching the arguably even wackier Mystery Science Theater 3000; Sam breaks her New Year's resolution just a teeny bit to revisit Pastwatch.Class Z(ed): Matthew fills us in on the world of zines - what they are, the vast diversity in their style and content, how they're made/traded/sold/shared, and the way they empower their creators and consumers (who are very often one and the same). Plus, we talk zines about librarians, zines in traditional libraries, and homegrown libraries of zines.Links:Blame!Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher ColumbusMST3KNight FilmThe Matthew MurrayBiomega: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomega_(manga)Raiders of the Lost Archives at the IPRC: http://raiders.iprc.org/ (More info: http://www.iprc.org/calendar/raiders-of-the-lost-archives)VPL Zine collection: http://guides.vpl.ca/zinesZine Pavilion at