Remembering Shirley Bookey, 1926-2011

My partner Seth's mother, Shirley Bookey, passed away Friday. I knew her for several years before her stroke in 2008, as she welcomed me into her home in Great Neck for frequent visits. Now that I live in the same home I see and feel her influence every day. She was always kind to me, and she continued to be as she lived her final years. Her senses of creativity and justice live on in her sons, Seth and Sandy. I am grateful to have known her.



Read Seth's tribute: Remembering Shirley Bookey, 1926-2011.

(I'll pass along to Seth any pertinent messages; my email address is here.)

Promoting Libraries at Breakfast

I was surprised to see, on the back of a cereal box, a full-panel promotion for libraries, including exhortations to use the library for:

• Reference services
• Business services
• Internet access
• Books-by-mail
• Interlibrary loan
• Literacy services

There's a lot of copy promoting the use of the library for kids with a boy (or a girl with a pageboy haircut) behind books and two hip teen girls in front of some stacks. "Consider the library next time you are looking for a place to hang out." (Should we hang out at the abandoned factory? No, let's try the library instead, since ShopRite says so.)

Anyway, the cereal box was a nice surprise for a library fan/librarian like me.

See a bigger (PDF) copy of the box in Google Docs.

The meaning of value-added research, from some top info pros

The students in our Principles of Searching class are studying the effective presentation of search results this week, as they prepare their final term reports for their clients. So it was timely that one of my favorite info pros (Mary Ellen Bates, via her Librarian of Fortune blog) reminded me that we should strive to provide insight, not just information, and that Colorado is home to some of the best independent researchers around.

These include Bates Information Services, Phelps Research (Marcy Phelps) and the team from Access/Information (Wanda McDavid, Judy Goater and Marcy Dunning).

In addition to their own consulting services, all offer free newsletters with tips on effective searching and presentation skills. The April 2010 Access/Information newsletter provides "a great summary of what 'value added research' means," Bates writes. 

Here are links to the newsletters offered by these great Centennial State info pros:

• Access/Information Newsletter
• Bates InfoTip
• Bates Info-Entrepreneur Tip
• ResearchNOTES from Phelps Research

Nearsighted No Longer

Yesterday's laser eye surgery was a success, and I now have 20/20 vision without glasses. My eyes are still dry and red (I have to take extra care for the next week), and I'll need to keep wearing sunglasses as usual. It's a big adjustment after 25+ years of wearing glasses all the time.

My new profile photo on Blogger, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., was taken in March by Nat Clymer for my part-time job at Rutgers' School of Communication and Information. If I appear a little nearsighted in the picture, it's because I was.

Seth has been there the whole way to support me. Thanks, Honey!

Betty Turock Kicks Off ALA Scholarship Fund-Raising With $100K Donation

Betty Turock, past president of the American Library Association and a professor and dean emerita at Rutgers, has donated $100,000 to provide scholarships to MLS candidates from traditionally underrepresented groups. She made the donation as a challenge toward a $1 million goal.

For more information please see the news article.

For more about Betty please see her Friends of Rutgers School of Communication and Information entry and a 2001 ALA news release about a scholarship in her name funded by her family.

Erik the Librarian Mysteries on YouTube

Ego-surfing led me to the Erik the Librarian channel on YouTube (also on Blip.tv). There is a slight physical resemblance between the actor Erik Charles Neilson and me (and we share first and middle names, too, with just one letter's difference!). I just hope I'm a little less insane than the character.

Erik the Librarian is a 60Frames original series, but you'll notice that the 60Frames site is down. The OfficeTally blog tells us that Brent Forrester from NBC-TV's The Office writes and directs Erik the Librarian. And the lovely and talented Mindy Kaling (Kelly Kapoor on The Office) plays a patron who suffers through Erik's rants.

It looks like there's just the four Erik episodes, uploaded about a year ago.

— Eric Charles Schwarz
(another Eric the Librarian but no relation to Erik)

85 Reasons to be Thankful for Librarians (via Zen College Life)

(Twitter: @staceygreenwell) I'm not sure who Jonathan is, or which college he's at, but I'm thankful that he's posted 85 Reasons to be Thankful for Librarians.

Of course, not every reason applies to every library, but some do because they focus on the skills librarians (or information professionals) bring to the table, no matter what the setting. Here are three of my favorites from Jonathan's list:

32. Libraries have much better quality control than the vast majority of websites.
49. Unlike the internet, libraries are careful that the information they contain is checked for usefulness before being included.
85. Regardless of what form a library takes, a librarian will always be ready to guide you to the information you need.

P.S. Thanks, for alerting me, Stacey!