Grumpator has asked for input for next week’s carnival, in particular, suggesting "Tales of good library ideas gone bad," and I’ve been wanting, meaning and needing to make some comments about the virtual journal club experiment.
OK, that was a bit harsh. I believe it was a good idea. And it certainly didn’t go bad. It just never really went. That’s OK. It just didn’t work for this group of people at this time.
I would like to place the Virtual Journal Club on hiatus. Maybe in the future something like this will work for some folks. I fully include myself in those who just didn’t have the time in the end. Of course, if Rikhei wants her space back then she is certainly welcome to it. If she has no current use and wants to let it lie fallow for now, that is great too. And a very big thank you from all of my heart to Rikhei for sharing her space with us!
I would really, really love to hear from folks as to why it did not work out for them. I have several ideas that might apply to different statistical persons, but what about you, in your specific context? I did hear from one person around the time of the last "meeting" and I fully agree with her about just not having time. Hell, turns out this semester I don’t have the time either.
Was it having to ILL documents? But the 2nd month was all on the web.
Was it metadata and archives as topics?
Was it the end of a semester and the holidays?
Was it the start of a semester?
Was it the format of the forums? If so, what about them?
No time between jobkidsschoollife?
What have I not considered?
I will more than happily keep any comments anonymous if you desire. You can either send me a private message at the forum or send me an email at the address on my About Page. Of course, anyone else who has any ideas whether or not you meant to give it a try, what do you think may have been some of the issues with the VJC?
Thanks to all who at least meant to give it a try. I wish it could’ve worked out better for us at this time, but that’s life. I am going to try again in the future I think.
For me, it was very simple. I completely forgot about it due to, well, life, specifically work. Once my teaching schedule really kicked in, I had little time for nothing else. Last week for instance, taught 12 classes, and Friday was the only real day I had to sit down and look at other stuff. So, it was a great idea, and I still like it, but for me, the call of work did me in. ILL was not really an issue. Usually, my ILL here is pretty good about getting things, and since we always had enough time, it worked out. The first time I had to ILL, second time, like you pointed out, it was all online. Anyways, a great idea overall.
As always, best and keep on blogging.
Hi Angel! Yes, that is what I imagined for you. It really is pretty simple in many cases–life at the moment.
I have a good idea about you, and say Jenica, because I read your blogs. Plus, you were in on the early ILL discussions.
I fully understand the “life at the moment” though. So many things are slipping by the wayside rapidly. I haven’t even read the back blurb on Buddenbrooks which will get read within 2 weeks for my Mimesis group. Heck, I skipped my Sunday morning newspaper routine today. At least last week, I got the paper finally in the afternoon. This week there ain’t no time to ogle the newspaper. Prince Valiant and Arn are own again this week….
For Cataloging schoolwork this weekend, I realized that I didn’t have to pick a thesaurus and play with it because MeSH is on the list and we’ve been using that for Indexing & Abstracting. Of course, I would rather take the opportunity to explore another one … but, alas, no time for that uppity stuff.
Thanks, of course, for the input. It is better to “know” than just believe.
Honestly, it’s time. I just don’t have enough of it.
I agree with you on all counts — it’s a great idea, it just didn’t work out right now with this group. I wanted to do it. I really did. But my daily workload is such that I don’t have time to read/think/respond while I’m at work, which means I’d have to make the time to think/read/respond at home, or in additional hours in my office. I… just can’t do that right now.
But that’s not a reflection on the idea, or the execution. Just on the state of my life.
I think it’s actually a broad and sad commentary on the profession as a whole. We’re all so busy doing our jobs, being practitioners, and succeeding in our profession, that we don’t have the time or energy to contribute to the (very important) broader discussion about what we do. And until our employers start prioritizing that intellectual contribution, we have to make a personal effort to contribute, as an additional energy expenditure. Even if you believe in the community of professionals, and want to contribute to the intellectual content of that community, it’s hard to make the choice to sacrifice personal time in order to do it.
Unfortunately for me, too, it was a matter of time and other things in my life taking priority. (I’ve hardly been blogging, either.) I did managed to read the first article, but didn’t have anything new to contribute.
I agree with Jenica that it’s a broad and sad commentary on our profession – it is hard to make the choice to sacrifice personal time in order to contribute, especially if we feel we’re already sacrificing personal time (and/or other things) for our profession.
As for the disk space, I’m happy to let the forums remain there indefinitely. Maybe we’ll all have more time in a few months.
Hi Jenica and Rikhei,
Yes, agreed all around! And, I too, think it is an indictment of our profession. Here we are as a profession, organizing and providing access to the world’s knowledge, often operating as a gatekeeper since this is *such* precious knowledge, but we don’t take the time to have broader discussions and, except for those pursuing tenure, few are worrying about any intellectual contribution.
What is it that causes us to think that the above tasks (or however you want to parse our tasks) do not require rigorous intellectual work? Because we went to school for 15 months to 2 years and got us a Masters degree, we now just know “stuff?”
All I can say is two things: I’m glad we tried; and ladies you’ll have my undying gratitude for giving it a try!
As much as the lack of time sucks, I just want to know what folks will tell me so if it is something else for them, that can possibly be changed/overcome next time.
Rikhei, thanks again for the location! If, like you said, it’s OK then please just leave them in place. Maybe in the future…?
“These train conversations are passing me by
And I don’t have nothing to say
You get what you pay for
But I just had no intention of living this way…”
(Counting Crows, Raining in Baltimore)