ACRL 2013 - Librarians and Ideas

I had the opportunity to attend the national conference for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) a couple of weeks ago in Indianapolis. This was my first national conference, as I usually attend state and regional conferences. I knew going into it that it would be the biggest conference I had ever been to, but I approached it with optimism and hope that I could bring some good ideas home.

On that first morning, it hit me like a ton of bricks: there are a ton of librarians in this country.

There were thousands of librarians at the conference, and 1100 of us were first-timers. The keynotes of Geoffrey Canada and Henry Rollins were really interesting, but I was there to hear from librarians who had tried new things, had success with projects, tried new teaching methods, and figured out ways to assess their work better. See, most library conferences are great because people are looking to find out what works, what doesn't, and how we can evolve our craft. Normally you go home with a large amount of notes on ways to improve what you do. At a regular state or regional conference you might go home with a grocery bag of ideas. At this conference I felt like I was trying to capture an avalanche of ideas.

One of the best parts of attending was discovering that there are a number of things we are doing at our institution that closely resemble what some of the 'bleeding edge' libraries are doing. That makes you feel like you're having a big impact. However, there are many areas that we have to work on as well. But that's the whole point of going, to discover how to get better and serve your patron community the best you can. So even though it was overwhelming (so many people!), it was a wonderful group of people to hang out with, ask questions of, and bounce ideas off of. There are times when you feel like you could keep conference-ing for weeks, but then you realize you are exhausted and have to recharge at the end of the day.

It was great to see current friends and colleagues, like my buddy Carl who is just about to graduate from library school at Illinois, and my friend Robin at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Plus, I got to see lots of old friends from library school. Best of all was meeting new people and starting new relationships. Those are the kinds of things I want to keep doing because those relationships are where some of the best, new ideas will come from. And hopefully I can reciprocate.

So all in all, it was a great time and Indianapolis was a nice city. It all happened so quickly but I hope I can join my colleagues again in Portland for the 2015 conference.

Boston and Dr. Tyson

Just a quick post this morning.

Last night, I traveled up to Iowa City to see Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson with two of my friends. He was fantastic. He brought the humor, the science, the passion that he is known for. It was a wonderful night, especially after a long day at work and learning about the Boston Marathon Attack.

Near the end of his talk, Dr. Tyson reminded us all of something incredibly important that transcends everything he had talked about before. Invoking the spirit of Carl Sagan, he showed the audience a photo (seen below) that the Cassini probe took of a Saturn-solar eclipse. Saturn was sitting in front of the sun, creating an eerie glow around the planet and its rings. But hidden off to the left of the rings was, as Sagan so famously called it, the Pale Blue Dot.

It is Earth.

Dr. Tyson reminded us, as his mentor Carl Sagan did, that on that tiny pale blue dot exists everything you have ever known, including all the rulers, bloodshed, and accomplishments of history. It even includes the tragedy of Boston. When we look at the Pale Blue Dot, we must remember to be humble, to treat each other with kindness, and to remember that we are all a part of a greater universe.

When we teach people that, let us hope that they understand the importance of this life on Earth and make it the best one they can. If we teach this way, we can hopefully snuff out the evil that exists and lingers in our world. And hopefully never have another Boston attack again.

NOVA: Meteor Strike

I had a delightful evening a couple of weeks ago when I happened upon an excellent NOVA program on PBS entitled "Meteor Strike." The program detailed not only the threat to Earth from space-bound rocks but showed examples of previous meteorite strikes. I learned that some meteors are actually made almost entirely out of metal. A British museum showed how one of their meteorites had actually been crafted into a perfect trailer hitch.

The main part of the episode, though, focused on the recent February meteorite strike near Chelyabinsk, Russia. This was the most documented meteorite strike in world history, thanks to so many Russian dashboard cameras. On a side note, Russians are terrible at driving and require huge amounts of expensive insurance, so lots of people carry these cams on their dashes to prove what happened. Who would have ever guessed they would record an historic, scientific event?

The science in the episode is breathtaking. One of my favorite parts involved a scientist who traveled from the U.S. to Chelyabinsk to find the spots from which most of the videos had been taken. Using these measurements, he and his team were able to then pinpoint where the meteorite originated in outer space and what track it came at through the atmosphere. They were also able to determine the size, speed, and trajectory of the object  as well. They even found shards of it in the nearby Chelyabinsk fields. 

Programs like this help us understand nature quite a bit but they also remind us that we need to remember that we are not immortal. If this strike had occurred just a little differently over a larger populated area, there could have been many casualties. We also need to be aware that we are intelligent enough as a species to prevent these kinds of things from harming us in the future. We need to fund the programs that track these objects and build orbital systems to intercept them. It's entirely possible, but we just need the money to do it.

Finally, this video is one of my favorites from the recent Chelyabinsk event.

Death from the Skies!

My most recent read was from astronomer Phil Plait, who writes the Bad Astronomy blog over at Slate. "Death from the Skies" chronicles all of the possible ways that our planet, and life as we know it, could be destroyed by non-terrestrial natural events. This is definitely not light reading nor does it always perk you up, but it is funny, highly informative, and humbling. Plait's description of our solar system, galaxy, and universe help you to appreciate our position in the cosmos. But how do we survive? Here's how.

Plait covers a wide range of deadly outer space culprits in an attempt to show you just how powerful nature is. The list includes: gamma ray bursts from black holes, solar flares/coronal mass ejections, asteroid impact, comet impact, galactic collision (that's a slow death), and many others. Each chapter starts with a fun little 2-3 page story of humans observing these things from Earth, and they can be a bit scary. After that, the writing is filled with excellent science writing mixed with Plait's clever humor. You come away from this book with far more knowledge of nature than just what can kill us. Plait does an excellent job of explaining how so many different natural forces work, from gravity to chemistry to geology to quantum mechanics.

Here's the good news: most of these things are not going to kill us. The chances of gamma ray bursts or galactic collisions happening are slim. However, the two chapters that I enjoyed the most are actually the chapters the tell the story of our two most likely killers: solar radiation and asteroid/comet impacts.

Plait makes a great case near the end to increase funding towards protecting our planet against solar radiation and impacts from extra-terrestrial bodies like comets and asteroids. There are some great ideas, scientists, and programs out there that just need more funding to get their plans off the ground. A coronal mass ejection could wipe out our power grid and send us plunging into medieval times. It could even damage our ozone layer, which leads to huge long-term problems. And we all know what an asteroid or comet impact could do. The dinosaurs know all about that. But we can prevent these, the most likely problems, if we just work harder at it.

This was a fun, engaging read that I recommend to folks who enjoy a good science book, especially those of you who enjoy astronomy.