Comments on: Thoughts on reports from conferences

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Family Man Librarian » Blog Archive » To squee or not to squee — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 19:18:34 +0000

[...] To squee or not to squee?! That is the question. I’ve been getting some criticism over the past few weeks about my stated dislike of gushing praise for librarian luminaries such as Lorcan Dempsey. This was in reaction to some reports by conference goers at the recent Computers in Libraries conference, made in a previous post entitled "Thoughts on reports from conferences." Dorothea Salo of Caveat Lector started it all by using two words in one of her posts on the conference that I had never heard before: ‘fangirl’ and ’squee.’ I recently looked up the definition of ’squee’ (the meaning of ‘fangirl’ is pretty clear) and here what I found via Answers.com (which in turn derives this from Wikipedia): [...]

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Steve — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 16:21:32 +0000

Fangirl, I honestly don’t have an answer for your question, which is a valid one. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a poster child for juggling everything successfully. The opposite is true. Something’s gotta give, somewhere. That’s my experience, anyway. Participating professionally, whether it is via blogs and commenting on blogs, or participating in conferences, or more formal (article-level) writing, takes significant time and energy. It comes at the expense of other things. I guess what it boils down to is what are your priorities. If you think something like blogging and commenting on blogs (participating in “the discussion”) are important, you make the time for them and spend less time on other things that are less important to you.

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Fangirl — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 09:59:31 +0000

What I would like to know is how do so many bloggers have time to write their blogs, do their daily jobs, take care of their families, and comment on other people’s blogs? When I read the comments on blogs, they are mostly being written by other bloggers. How do you guys do it – write your own blogs – read all the other blogs – comment on the other blogs – and still have time to do your real jobs and take care of your families? It’s beyond me. Share the knowledge.

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Random Access Mazar » Long Live the Fangirl! — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 01:57:57 +0000

[...] Dorothea hits all the right notes as she talks about blogging while employed, and also something else I never thought I’d see: apparently she’s been accused of being too fangirly. So, there’s two important points I want to touch on; blogging and having a job, and this idea of the perils of fangirlism (shall we say). [...]

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Steve — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:39:04 +0000

Thanks, Chadwick. Good to hear from you again! And also thanks to you, Mark, for your comment. I reread what I wrote and it seems a little (well, maybe more than a little) self-righteous in tone. Or “look at me, how good I am for doing such and such.” I didn’t mean it that way. Truth is, I also bowed out of lots of professional involvement because I was not doing my job with it. E.g. not turning in assigned writing on time or not at all, failing to meet deadlines, etc. etc. Other people with families or multiple obligations may be able to juggle everything well, but I’m not good at that.

And speaking of parenting, well, the level of guilt I feel over the job I’ve done or am doing is so high, I’m not sure I can even articulate it! It has been, and continues to be, a very humbling experience.

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...the thoughts are broken... — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 00:33:55 +0000

On the use of fangirl/boy and squee…

Recently, Dorothea Salo of Caveat Lector used the word ‘fangirl’ in regards to Lorcan Dempsey. That use got commented on in a few places (it’s all good, Family Man Librarian), and she followed it up here. I then used ‘fanboy’ the other night in re…

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Mark — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 18:58:05 +0000

Let me congratulate you all on some fine discussion here. It is something that gets talked about a lot in the biblioblogosphere, but that I rarely, in fact, see. I hope to be commenting on just that topic soon on my blog.

As for you family men, I say more power to you! Those decisions are tough, but I think you make the right one (not that that should matter to either of you). As much as it would complicate matters for me now in school, and as I begin my career as a librarian, my family is just what I miss most in life. I did not have the proper respect for my family for years and ended up making my career 1st. There is not a day that I don’t regret that decision. I only hope to be given another chance some day, compications and all.

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Chadwick Seagraves — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 13:53:28 +0000

Steve,
I too know the difficulties of managing professional pursuits with family. I have a list of things I am involved in that take coordination with my wife so we can keep our two kids supported.

I was at CIL2006 and came away energized and excited. Sometimes I sacrifice my “technology” time for family and get behind on what is happening on the edge. While I had seen some of the content in other places, I just skipped those sessions or moved to another if I found it was repetitive.

There definitely are folks that I respect in our community, as well I should, but the degree of veneration is usually a subjective and personal thing. If I had known there might be groupies, I might have joined the profession sooner.
Anyway, I am still a relative newbie in the profession, so I can point to many past conferences for comparision. I was pleased and impressed at the amount of blogging that went on about CIL and included many links to notes and summaries in the report for my grant.

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Steve — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:42:37 +0000

Angel, thank you for commenting. Especially thanks for the encouragement to “keep on blogging.” Simple words but they were encouraging to me!

Also, you’re right about the lack of family in discussions in the biblioblogosphere. I’ve observed that there are many examples of “successful” librarians who have chosen not to have a family. Their professional life is their life, period. Or so it seems, sometimes. I used to be that way. I used to devote 99% of my time and energy to professional things. I found that while fulfilling up to a point, professional success can never, ever match the importance of my role as husband and father.

On the other hand, I am not saying that one must have a family to be fulfilled. I do think, however, that sometimes when all one has is professional success, that life seems to be a bit empty. It seems that way to me, anyway. The incorporation of family into this blog is purposeful. It probably turns off many people. Oh well. It is just a reflection of who I am and what I consider important.

I have added your blog to my aggregator. I appreciate the thought and insight you expend on the topics you write about. So let me be of some encouragement back to you: Keep up the good work!

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Steve — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:50:46 +0000

Andrew, thanks for your comments. Let me address a few of them in response, if I may. First, I was in agreement with Lorcan’s observation, not opposed to it or negative about it. I also felt he stated it far better than I could! Second, the problems with ILSs and OPACs in particular do indeed require ongoing discussion. And both you and Roy do a fine job of articulating the good and the bad. I was reacting, though, to the fact that I’ve heard all this before, sometimes in multiple places. If you examine or pay attention to different speaking engagements that some prominent speakers have (including Roy), oftentimes what they have to say is repetitive (or at least portions are repetitive). That’s just the way it is. One example of this that I can think of is how many dozens of presentations have been given on the OCLC Environmental Scan report. As someone who reads about many (most?) of these presentations remotely via the web, the valid and important points made in them begin to pall after reading about them over and over again.

As for the “squee” issue…well, like I stated already, it’s a personal opinion/taste issue. Your point about “squee” being “no less palatable than blogging professional navel-gazing with actually affecting change in libraries” is puzzling to me. I’m not sure what (or who) is the intended target of that statement. At the risk of sounding defensive or offended (when I don’t intend to be, at all)… If — and that’s a BIG if — you’re including me in the category of professional navel-gazers who don’t actually affect change in libraries, then you are betraying an acute lack of judgment and knowledge about me personally and about my entire professional outlook.

Finally, let me address the issue of “getting out there” and giving presentations, participating actively, etc. Andrew — and again, at the risk of coming across as somewhat “on my high horse” — I have been there and done that. I have been extremely active in the profession, including giving a large number of invited presentations here in the U.S. as well as in other countries. When I got married and began to have a family, I made a conscious decision that they were and are far more important than ANYTHING and ANYONE to do with my career as a librarian. I turned down big opportunities for service. I resigned from committees and editorial boards. I cut back attendance at conferences. This is my statement, such as it is, about the relative importance of career vs. family. My current position at Endeavor was taken for family reasons. Yet, I remain very passionate about libraries. This is a season in my life and once the critical early years of raising young children are past, I hope to “get out there” a lot more often. Honestly I greatly miss the active participation that I once had. This blog is one way in which I can continue to participate and “get out there” but in a different way.

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond to some of the issues raised in my post.