Web Librarian

This job was just sent to the Listserv and I soooooo wish I were in a position to apply for it. How many jobs start you at such a nice pay rate AND are in fun New York?! I could totally do it all now if I had my degree and completed with my internship already. *Sigh* Maybe there will be another opportunity like this in the future….when I am done and have some more experience under my belt.

Web Services Librarian

The Ehrman Medical Library, of New York University Medical Center, invites applicants for the position of Web Services Librarian. The Web Services Librarian will join the Library Medical Informatics Group (LMIG) in the provision of high-quality computing services to the faculty and staff of the Ehrman Medical Library, as well as to the Library’s constituencies in the Medical Center. The Web Services Librarian will take the lead role in coordinating the design, creation and maintenance of the Library’s web sites so as to support development of unique web-based tools and resources tailored to meet the teaching, learning and research needs of the Library’s users and staff.

Responsibilities:

* design, develop and maintain Library web sites and Library web projects; maintain a consistent site architecture under guidelines established by the NYU Medical Center Information Technology Department
* work closely and collaboratively with Public Services librarians in developing creative web-based tools and resources
* ensure close integration among Library web sites and other Library and Medical Center online systems and resources.
* promote the use of current technologies, such as wikis, information portals, XML, and web architecture into interface design and implementation.
* lead efforts to evaluate utility and efficiency web-based Library services and resources using web log analysis and other tools
* facilitate communication and coordination among Web team members, branch libraries, content developers, and instruction/outreach services
* participate on Library-wide and Medical Center-wide committees
* provide staff training and ongoing technical support
* create appropriate templates to assist content authors; provide ongoing training to content authors
* teach classes in computers skills to students, staff and faculty at the Medical Center
* participate in staffing the Information Desk
* engage in research and service to meet requirements for University promotion and tenure

Requirements:

The ideal candidate will possess: an MLS from an ALA-accredited school, have 2-3 years library experience, including experience building and maintaining high quality web sites. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment. Technical skills include knowledge of, and demonstrable skill in HTML/XML, MySQL/Oracle, Cold Fusion, Dreamweaver. Familiarity with Photoshop, Flash and streaming audio/video preferred.

This is a full-time faculty position reporting to the Associate Director for Library Informatics. Salary will begin at $55,000 and is negotiable depending on experience.

New York University Medical Center is located in mid-Manhattan and is affiliated with Bellevue Hospital, the Manhattan VA Hospital, and the Hospital for Joint Diseases.

Review of applications will begin immediately with a closing date of October 30, 2006. Submit letters of application and CV, including URLs for recent web sites designed by the candidate to:

Twenty Something….almost Thirty

Okay, I FINALLY got Emily Giffin’s first book called Something Borrowed. For those of you who don’t know, I accidentally read the second book first.

Anyway….because lately I’ve been thinking a lot about getting older, the first chapter really hit a chord with me. Especially since my being 27 will soon end. I’m at a weird point and the first chapter sort of helped alleviate any “getting older” anxiety I am feeling. I will now write practically the whole first chapter. [Note: the following is NOT my writing. It is quoted from Emily Giffin’s book Something Borrowed.} You may want to make the font in your browser bigger if the following italic text looks too small for you. Click on “view” and then “text size” or “make text bigger” or “text zoom” (it depends on your browser). Hopefully that helps.

I was in fifth grade the first time I thought about turning thirty. My best friend Darcy and I came across a perpetual calendar in the back of the phone book, where you could look up any date in the future, and by using this little grid determine what the day of the week would be. So we located our birthdays in the following year, mine in May and hers in September. I got Wednesday, a school night. She got a Friday. A small victory, but typical. Darcy was always the lucky one. Her skin tanned more quickly, her hair feathered more easily, and she didn’t need braces. Her moonwalk was superior, as were her cartwheels and her front handspring (I couldn’t do a handspring at all). She had a better sticker collection. More Michael Jackson pins. Forenza sweaters in turquoise, red, and peach (my mother allowed me none- said they were too trendy and expensive). And a pair of fifty-dollar Guess jeans with zippers at the ankles (ditto). Darcy had double-pierced ears and a sibling- even if it was just a brother, it was better than being an only child as I was. But at least I was a few months older and she would never quite catch up. That’s when I decided to check out my thirtieth birthday-in a year so far away that it sounded like science fiction. It fell on a Sunday, which meant that my dashing husband and I would secure a responsible babysitter for our two (possibly three) children on that Saturday evening, dine at a fancy French restaurant with cloth napkins, and stay out past midnight, so technically we would be celebrating my actual birthday. I would have just won a big case- somehow proven that an innocent man didn’t do it. And my husband would toast me: “To Rachel, my beautiful wife, the mother of my children, and the finest lawyer in Indy.” I shared my fantasy with Darcy as we discovered her thirtieth birthday fell on a Monday. Bummer for her. I watched her purse her lips as she processed this information.

“You know, Rachel, who cares what day of week we turn thirty?” she said, shrugging a smooth, olive shoulder. “We’ll be old by then. Birthdays don’t matter when you get that old.”

I thought of my parents, who were in their thirties, and their lackluster approach to their own birthdays. My dad had just given my mom a new toaster for her birthday because ours broke the week before. The new one toasted four slices at a time instead of just two. It wasn’t much of a gift. But my mom had seemed pleased enough with her new appliance; nowhere did I detect disappointment that I felt when my Christmas stash didn’t quite meet expectations. So Darcy was probably right. Fun stuff like birthdays probably wouldn’t matter much bt the time we reached thirty.

The next time I really thought about being thirty was our senior year in high school, when Darcy and I started watching Thirtysomething together. It wasn’t one of our favorites- we preferred cheerful sitcoms like Who’s the Boss? and Growing Pains- but we watched it anyway. My big problem with Thirtysomething was the whiny characters and their depressing issues that they seemed to bring upon themselves. I remember thinking that they should grow up, suck it up. Stop pondering the meaning of life and start making grocery lists. That was back when I thought my teenage years were dragging and my twenties would surely last forever.

Then I reached my twenties. And the early twenties did seem to last forever. When I heard acquaintances a few years older lament the end of their youth, I felt smug, not yet in the danger zone myself. I had plenty of time. Until about age twenty-seven, when the days of being carded were long gone and I began to marvel at the sudden acceleration of years (reminding myself of my mother’s annual monoloque as she pulled out our Christmas decorations) and the accompanying lines and stray gray hairs. At twenty-nine the real dread set in, and I realized that in a lot of ways I might as well be thirty. But not quite. Because I could still say that I was in my twenties. I still had something in common with college seniors.

I realize thirty is just a number, that you’re only as old as you feel and all of that. I also realize that in the grand scheme of things, thirty is still young. But it’s not that young. It is past the most ripe, prime child-bearing years, for example. It is too old to, say, start training for an Olympic medal. Even in the best die-of-old-age scenario, you are still about one-third of the way to the finish line. So I can’t help but feeling a little uneasy as I perch on an overstuffed maroon couch in a dark lounge on the Upper West side at my surprise birthday party, organized by Darcy, who is still my best friend.

Tomorrow is the Sunday that I first contemplated as a fifth-grader playing with our phone book. After tonight my twenties will be over, a chapter closed forever. The feeling reminds me of New Year’s Eve, when the countdown is coming and I’m not quite sure whether to grab my camera or just live in the moment. Usually I grab the camera and later regret it when the picture doesn’t turn out. Then I feel enormously let down and think to myself that the night would have been more fun if it didn’t quite mean so much, if I weren’t forced to analyze where I’ve been and where I’m going.

Like New Year’s Eve, tonight is an ending and a beginning. I don’t like endings and beginnings. I would always prefer to churn about in the middle.

Wouldn’t we all?!

I must say…I feel exactly the same way. My twenties seem to have lasted for what feels like a lifetime. I’ve LOVED my twenties and I’m really going to miss them when they’re gone. I probably loved my twenties more than any other age because of how much change and growth I’ve experienced. Teenage years are always so hard and confusing. Even upon entering college right after high school I remember feeling slightly lost. I was eighteen, but I just as well could have been fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen. I felt the same as I did in high school. Apathetic. The real shift happened in my twenties. As I’m sure it does for most. I got to know myself. I felt comfortable in my own shoes. My views about a lot of things changed and I found myself caring about things I never cared about before. I guess you could say I grew up.

I know I’ll hit thirty sooner rather than later and it will still feel the same as it did when I turn twenty eight, but I’m still going to try and savor what’s left of my twenties before thinking about what being thirty will mean for me.

I guess it’s the procrastinator in me always waiting till the last minute. Time will surely tell.

Jim Gaffigan

Click the Image to begin laughing.

If Jim doesn’t crack you up my laughing in the background will. Ha ha ha ha!

Comedy Night

Jeff and I went on a “date” Saturday night; with some friends and Jim Gaffigan. It’s been a while since I laughed so hard. I think I may have even lost a pound or two!

I forgot to turn the flash off as you can see.

A video of Jim Gaffigan to come in a few; where you will also hear Jeff and I laughing hysterically in the background, all the while making you the viewer sick from the camera’s profuse shaking.

Better Late Than Never Right?!

All from Labor Day this year. Some from the Hamtramck Labor Day Parade and a couple from our friend Claire’s (her family’s) Labor Day barbe-que in Howell, MI.

Good times.

Grey’s Anatomy in the news

I even love reading about Grey’s Anatomy. I think the article sums up it’s attractiveness quite well. I love this quote from the article because I too can “relate” (as some of you may recall from my undergraduate years):

I had an ill-fated connection with a “McDreamy,” a chemical force of a man who could knock me off my feet with the slightest glance. He remains the occasional awkward presence in my life.

Nothing like relating to television shows I tell ya!

Good times.

Umm….yeah.

Okay, so I haven’t felt much like writing lately. Especially since I had a work night from hell. All I’m going to say after tonight is….please, please, please consider upgrading your computer or OS if you have one or all of the following by chance:
A) Windows 98
B) Floppy drive (which is useless for your excessively large Excel files)
C) Low Memory (which I’m surprised opens those Excel spreadsheets)
C) CD-ROM drive (no burner)
D) USB ports (but no driver installed)
E) You do not have an ethernet port nor do you have a dongle for the card (so we can NOT connect to the network at this point in time…plus those might be hard to come by considering how OLD your computer is)
F) You DO NOT have Windows Special Edition 2 like you said you had, which makes the USB driver we so kindly downloaded and burned onto a disk for you and then installed for you….completely useless (which was WAY above the call of duty), which means you may not be able to get those files off your archaic computer because the drivers listed only went back to Special Edition 2 not 1. whatever you have. Also, after you first ejected the CD-ROM, that horrendous noise coming from the drive (before we put the disk in) was your computer screaming “I’m dying!!! Let me go already!!!” Lastly, it is NOT my fault you lost your only backup copy (4 years worth) on one of our lab computers. YOUR CD-RW failed you. It happens. Technology sometimes fails us. Blame the technology. Blame yourself. But DO NOT blame me. Always make multiple copies of something THAT important to you.

Seriously. Let this patron’s scenario be a lesson. Upgrade to the 21st century already so you are not upset and frustrated after you lose your one and only backup file and cannot get the last copies OFF your ridiculously old and useless computer. Plus, it makes librarians and tech staff happy that you understand the library’s limitations and liability.

Anyway…moving on. Barely. Perhaps an aspirin or many will do.

*Shifting gears*

I’m pretty excited about tommorrow evening. A whole new season of Grey’s Anatomy begins!!! I LOVE that show which explains why I felt the urge to capitalize all four letters of the word “love.” I just watched the sneak peak of the season premiere here. I can’t wait to begin my addiction all over again. McDreamy take me away………..since Calgon won’t anytime soon. Or ever, since we do not have a bathtub

McDreamy will do though.

These Beautiful Kitties Need a Home

My friend at work has been a foster mom to two wonderful cats, but she is looking for a home for them. If you are interested: both of them are neutered and spayed, have updated shots, are healthy, have only back claws, are litterbox trained, and are very loving and playful. I wish I could take them myself, but I had two cats when I met Jeff that I had to surrender to my mother because he’s allergic. I would absolutely LOVE them though. Look at them!!! How can you NOT want them. Too cute!!

If you are interested. E-mail me at the address under my “about” page and I will give you her contact information.

If you take home one of the two kitties, you will be rewarded with many fuzzy kisses as well as the content sound of their purring. Wouldn’t you be happy to be living with you?!!

Just do it!! E-mail me now to learn how one or both can become your pet.

*Must live in or around the Detroit, MI (USA) area. Unless you plan on jumping on a a plane and coming here to pick one or both up. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind taking their first flight out of state or country though *

Congrats to Jason & Vicki!

Not sure how often you stop by Jason, but I just want to wish you a big fat CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Jason and his wife had their first baby (boy) on September 10th, 2006. They named him Liam.

Looking forward to meeting him soon Jason!!

From the Producers of Bambi, Finding Nemo, and Cinderella…

Walt Disney brings you…. VD Attack Plan.

AND……The Story of Menstruation.

Both videos were found by Jeff. I happened to walk in on him watching the VD Attack video and said “what in the sam hell are you watching?!” my face all scrunched up. I couldn’t look away though. It was like watching a horror movie and peeking through my fingers at the parts I didn’t quite want to see……but still kinda did.