Elizabeth Skene

Lance, of New Archivist, has been so kind as to have me as a guest blogger with a post about my Alternative Spring Break experience at the National Library of Medicine this past March.

Even if you aren’t a U of M SI student, there’s information for organizations — you could host an SI student next Spring Break! –, for those interested in medical archives/librarianship — they have a great fellows program — or anyone who wants to learn more about volunteering.

Check out my post, but also be sure to browse through the other posts there – there’s a LOT of great resources for those of us who are [or hope to be] information professionals.

PS – The title ‘na gosti’ [на гости] means ‘to have, or be, a guest’ in Bulgarian.

What a beautiful, sunny day!

I posted my first refection blog over on the ASB site. We’re required to do two blogs & this first one gives an overview on our project & some thoughts on service. You can read the blog & see a photo of me with my co-volunteer & project mentor right here.

Michigan Radio is having their spring pledge drive right now & you can download a Michigan Radio word search to complete & submit to be entered in a drawing. I did!!

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day! Last year it was beautiful & I wore a dress, spent almost the entire day outside & got sunburn. Unfortunately I work tomorrow, but there should be plenty of daylight & lots of friends to make it an equally great day.

But today,
I’m having a rough day…
At least my life is full of love & I have so many hugs to share.

Gosh it feels like I’ve been home forever already!
We drove home from Indiana Saturday night, arriving back in Ypsilanti around 2am. Sunday was spent sleeping & frantically doing homework. I somehow managed to write an article summary for my international development class and a organizational design case study for my management class and turn both of them in yesterday.

I spent as much time outside as I could today – it was over 50 degrees, sunny & glorious!! I even went running outside for the first time in a few months & was happy to discover I’m not as out of shape as I had expected. Plus it was a good excuse to use my fancy Nike+.

Reflection on the conference:
It was a really great experience & I’m glad to have it under my belt. On the advice of my professor, I didn’t use PowerPoint & approached it a little more formally, which served me well. I think next time I’ll be a little more extemporaneous, but overall I’m pleased. It was especially exciting to meet and listen to others that are going into the archives field – I definitely left energized and excited!!

Until I get my ABS reflection post formulated, you can read about others’ experiences at the Alternative Spring Break blog.

This is a great list of different archives blogs. I’ve been thinking a lot about web 2.0 & archives involvement in social media, especially since a part of my internship this summer will be doing outreach through those mediums. I think there’s a lot of potential for institutions to get the word out about what their collections hold & cultivate cooperation. On that note – make sure to become a fan of the National Library of Medicine on Facebook!

Check out this awesome book alphabet!

Our internet isn’t very good at home, but I’m slowly but surely adding some photos from Spring Break onto Flickr. You can check for them here [including a really nerdy photo I took of myself with a Library of Congress card catalog]

Now that I’m home I’ll start making regular posts that make sense & have a bit more content.
I suppose I should stop avoiding homework. I’ve already vacuumed, mopped & did the dishes, now I’m listening to Debussy & relaxing.
[51 days until Egypt - time is flying!!]

I’m thankful for our fireplace – today is one of those cloudy, damp days where the chills seeps in. There’s nothing like a fire to warm me up [& to get rid of that pile of junk mail & cardboard!]

Joel shared this quote with me the other day & I really like it:

“These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves.” -Gilbert Highet

I’ve posted before about the Let’s Save Michigan campaign, a fantastic local organizations. Together with the DIA, they are hosting a poster contest and finalists were announced today. There are 60 posters & you can vote for multiple posters, but only  once a day for each poster. All of the entries are inspiring & wonderful, but these are my favorites:

Today and Sunday I spent some time at local thrift stores. As I get ready to head to DC next week to work at the National Library of Medicine, it’s become clear that the “business casual” part of my wardrobe is sorely lacking. Luckily, people in Ann Arbor give away really nice clothes and I was able to pick up some great pants & shirts. Also, I’ve been on the lookout for clothing that would be good to take with me to Egypt this summer. It’s a very conservative country, so I’ll be wearing a lot of long skirts, loose tops and keeping my shoulders to myself. [65 days!!!!]

I enjoyed this article from the Boston Globe titled, In the Digital Age, Librarians are Pioneers, a review of Marilyn Johnson’s book This Book Is Overdue. Not only does the book show librarians to be the daring & innovative crew that they are, but she calls archivists the “unsung heros of the library.” Additionally, we are “magicians that deftly distinguish between detritus and artifact, capturing history before it disappears because of a broken link or outdated software.” A wonderful statement [even if it might be up for debate in my appraisal of archives class]!!

Oh!! I just got an email that the University of Michigan is hosting their own TED conference next year. How exciting – I’ll definitely be there!! That is, if I’m selected – attendance is through application & invitation only.

This Flickr group, Looking Into the Past, is a creative way to use photos. By aligning an old photo within it’s modern day setting, the passage of time is clearly visible. I’d love to do this around Ypsilanti! Here are some of my favorites:

Now: homework!

The snow has come as promised! Joel’s work has already closed for tomorrow & I’ll be taking the day off work [since everyone else probably will], which means SNOW DAY!! So exciting!

Today at work I came across the oldest plant I’ve seen so far, from 1870:

According to the annotation tag, it’s hyoscyamus niger & was collected in nearby, in Detroit. Not familiar with the plant, I looked it up & this is what I learned [& it's really interesting!!]:

Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), also known as stinking nightshade, is a plant of the family Solanaceae that originated in Eurasia, though it is now globally distributed.

It was historically used in combination with other plants, such as mandrake, deadly nightshade, and datura as an anaesthetic potion, as well as for its psychoactive properties in “magic brews.” These psychoactive properties include visual hallucinations and a sensation of flight.

It was sometimes one of the ingredients in grut, traditionally used in beers as a flavouring, until replaced by hops in the 11th to 16th centuries.

Henbane is thought to have been the “hebenon” poured into the ear of Hamlet’s father.

I’m also working on another project at work where I’m putting bryophyte  specimens [non-vascular plants, like moss] from Greenland into new packets & gluing the labels onto the front. These specimens were collected in the 1950s.

Plans are settled for the ASB/conference conflict – I’ll work at half day at the National Library of Medicine on Friday, fly out of Washington National at 4pm, land in Indy at 6pm & drive to Bloomington where we’ll spend the night & I’ll present the next day. I bought the plane ticket & booked the hotel room & it feels great to have those crossed off my list.

Lately, my thoughts frequently drift to the fertile crescent & this beautiful library.
It’s only about 4 months away, Insha’Allah…

While I’ve been writing this, Gwen has come & perched herself on my shoulder. She’s adorable.

Time to do homework & watch the snowflakes fall.