Tag: Ask Roger Anything

Ask Roger Anything is the mortar of this blog

YOU are my mortar.

Writing about the blog’s TENTH anniversary last month, it occurred to me that I have a lot of components already available for posts, things that interest me: birthdays (personal and popular culture), deaths, anniversaries, musical musings, movie reviews.

Then there is often something in the news, which inevitably segues into politics, racism/ sexism/ homophobia, and religion.

But what of those OTHER days? Those tend to be the more difficult posts to write. ABC Wednesday helps quite a bit in forcing a topic framework.

Ultimately, though, I appreciate the opportunity for YOU to provide direction for the content of the blog. To wit: Ask Roger Anything, in which you, er, ah, hmm…how shall I put it? You ASK ROGER ANYTHING. He is compelled to answer, basically honestly, with perhaps a soupcon of obfuscation.

Those ARA questions fill in the gaps in this panorama I call Ramblin’ with Roger. It helps to hold all the other elements of the blog together, like mortar binds “building blocks such as stones, bricks, and concrete masonry units together, fill and seal the irregular gaps between them, and sometimes add decorative colors or patterns in masonry walls.”

In other words, YOU are my mortar, a daunting responsibility, no doubt.

Please ask away.

The professional challenges of being a librarian

EVERYTHING I have read suggests that books, paper books are generally preferable.

Librarian_black_grandeNear-twin Gordon, whose birthday is the day before mine, only a few decades later, says:

OK, here’s a question:
Working in the librarian/information field, what do you see are your key professional challenges?

On March 14, 2015, I attended this workshop primarily of the board of the Albany Public Library. I was invited as the president of the Friends of the APL. One of the issues was that very subject.

One of the challenges is that some people associate the library with only books, not realizing that libraries do so much more than lend tomes. Almost every librarian I know have asked whether the library will be defunct in X number of years, AND that, because of Google, there will be no need for librarians.

Frankly, it used to irritate me, but now I laugh, LAUGH, I do. Because one of my primary responses is that a lot of the things found on Google is, to put it mildly, CRAP. Part of our job is not to find the first answer that shows up on an online search but to discern what is the USEFUL and USABLE information.

Statistics show that about 90% of all people in the US are in support of libraries, conceptually, but most people don’t quite know what they DO. This is both a challenge and an opportunity.

The Albany Public Library, specifically, engages in online database use, has developed local history expertise, lends eBooks and audiobooks, has a 3D printer and other skill tools.

The library is often the only free Internet some folks have, which people use to look for and apply for jobs. There’s this myth that young people magically understand the newer technology, but that’s only true if they have ACCESS to it. Lots of kids use the computer rooms at APL, and undoubtedly, most libraries.

For me, as a business librarian, the wonder that is the Internet means two specific challenges.

1) People see information out there that comes from some expensive research consortium and want that research.
2) People see information out there that is bogus and want us to verify it, or find out more about it.

Information has gotten expensive. We have access to some databases, and that helps our counselors assist their clients. One of the great advantages of using some resources, whether they be free or fee, is that you understand the nuances of what’s available.

I use freely available Census data a lot because most people can’t figure out how to use it. Heck, sometimes, I need help from people with greater expertise.

One of the things that is true of the vast majority of librarians is that they display collegiality by nature, rather than competitiveness. I noticed that even back at library school in the 1990s, a refreshing change from my failed attempt at getting a Master’s in Public Administration a decade earlier.

Fillyjonk reflects:

Riffing on Gordon’s question: What do you see as the future of libraries?

I think the answer depends on how well the supports for libraries tell the story. If they allow the narrative to be “libraries were useful once upon a time, but they’re so 20th century,” and this is not challenged, then libraries will suffer.

The New York State Library took some massive cuts in years past, which meant a reduction in public hours, and a slashing of staff. I knew people who worked there. Librarians, by their very nature, want to find the answer, but if you limit their ability to do so, it is very discouraging. I think the NYSL took a hit that it’s only starting to recover from.

Libraries nationally have suffered. The number of library workers is clearly down. Friends’ groups and others have to advocate for libraries, ESPECIALLY when politicians act inanely.

I participated in my very first Library Advocacy Day at the state legislature in February 2015. Staff can share their own narrative, but taxpayers think that they are just worried about their own jobs. USERS who tell the tale are much more powerful ambassadors for libraries.

What do you think about the college (can’t remember if it was a 2-year or 4-year) that decided to go 100% digital with its library?

I assume you are referring to this San Antonio library, which came up in our meeting. It’s a branch of a larger library/ Per public demand, it’s needed to be at least a drop-off and pickup point for actual books.

Follow up question: are those of us who prefer paper books going to be like dragons with hoards of inky treasure?

EVERYTHING I have read suggests that books, paper books are generally preferable. Better absorption of the information, less interference with sleep patterns, reduces stress.

This is not to say that books WILL win out. There are plenty of examples where the lesser technology (VCR over Betamax, e.g.) won out. But I have hope. Children, in particular, need books, which require the tactile adventure that electronics simply cannot provide.

Pictured T-shirt is available HERE.

Disinclined to get a smart phone

It would take a cheap, idiot-proof technology for me to get a smartphone. Or someone else paying for it.

smartphonesArthur, the Windy City Kiwi, writes:

Here’s another one for you: You’ve written about your lack of enthusiasm for smart phones, but do you see a time in the future when you might be persuaded to embrace them, and, related, what would it take for that to happen? For example, some people say that the ability to pay for things using their phone (rather than cash or card) would push them. That may or may not be true for you, but is there something that might be?

This is a far more complicated issue than merely smartphones. This has to do with me and technology in general.

1) I embrace technology, but technology does not always embrace me. There was a period when we would have our work computers were swapped out after so many months, and mine would always be a couple of months earlier than others. One of our techies theorized that I had some sort of anti-electronics aura, seriously.

I have had two Android devices, and they both have died, much earlier than they should have. I ENJOYED having them, but I was happy I had not become dependent upon them.

2) I have no instinctive understanding of technology. It took me days to figure out the way to start my cellphone was to press the red-colored END button; that made no sense to me. I can take pictures on my phone, but I’ve yet to figure out how to RETRIEVE them. I’ve read the manual, but it didn’t help. After a while, it just wasn’t that important to me.

I participated in the Pebble smartwatch Kickstarter. STILL haven’t figured out how it works. Yes, there’s a website that offers tech support, but anything that REQUIRES tech support just to find out how to turn it on quite literally gives me a headache from exhaustion. That was neither the first or last bit of technology I’ve purchased that I couldn’t suss out how to use.

3) I don’t want to become dependent on technology that I will lose, or will break, or otherwise not be able to use. I see people who are lost without their devices, and I don’t want to be one of those people. And I’ve misplaced my cellphone for days on end. Moreover, I’m convinced this true: Increased smartphone use equals lower GPA among college students; for some people, at least, it seems to take away their ability to think.

4) Similarly, I don’t want to be one of those people whose attention is buried in the device, oblivious to the surroundings. I see that a LOT on the bus each day.

5) I don’t always trust technology. This is actually more true of GPS that has taken me to wrong exits or around in circles, but smartphones have similar features.

6) I am very wary of geolocation. I don’t want to be omnipresent in the world, or hacked, or sent ads telling me what stores are nearby that I “want” to go to. Frankly, being able to pay for something on a smartphone is a disincentive. This is also why I hate the fact that The Wife has E-Z Pass on the car; the privacy concerns, for me, trumps the convenience of getting through the toll booths faster.

7) I find it very expensive. It’s not the phone, but all of the various deals for service. I see this ad about a “good price” for a family plan and it’s $175 a month for four people; gave me sticker shock. Moreover, they all seem to be tied to plans I loathe being trapped into.

The cellphones that the Wife and I have cost $14 per month, plus tax, total. It allows me to text, though in fact, I HATE to text, that’s more tied to not wanting to be always available. That’s is why I have an answering machine and caller ID at home.

So it would take cheap, idiot-proof, privacy-providing technology for me to get a smartphone. Or someone else paying for the monthly service.

It wouldn’t hurt if someone actually showed me how to do things. I went to the Apple store with my father-in-law a couple of years ago to investigate the possibilities, and these “helpers” spoke in a different language, assuming I understood terminology that I found incomprehensible. It probably had to do with 3G and 4G, or some such, but my eyes glazed over.

Arthur, you have a spouse who seems to be tech-savvy; I do not. Maybe the Daughter will figure out someone else’s smartphone to a degree that she can explain it to me in terms I can understand, and that might crack the door open.

Still, I don’t need one, I don’t feel deprived without it. Now if you want to SEND me one, my address is…

Now, one might say, “But Roger, if you’re so bad at technology, how have you blogged for ten years?”

Trial and error. Blogger had a product, I think it was called Picasa, to use to put photos in the blog; I NEVER got it to work. But I stumbled upon another way. (Blogger has made it much easier since then, of course.)

I remember one of the first times I used WordPress, for my Times Union blog seven years ago, there was a picture of either former New York governor Eliot Spitzer or the cartoon character Dudley Do-Right – they look alike, I theorized – that was three times the size of the page, and I didn’t know how to fix it. Now, I’ve looked at enough simple HTML code to correct the problem, using math. Basic MATH I understand.

Because I’m a librarian, I’ve occasionally been thrown into the deep end of technology. Usually, I drown, but now and then I swim, especially compared with someone actually computerphobic. I’ve actually helped people at the public library with their user problems, which are minor to my mind, but massive in theirs. It’s all a matter of degree.

Once I’m SHOWN many technologies, as opposed to being told or fumbling through the manual, I’m perfectly happy to use them.

I’ve learned how to fake it reasonably well. I know how to reboot, whether it be my computer or my home Internet/cable system; turning things off and on works remarkably effectively 80% of the time. But only if I can find the OFF button. Have you noticed the OFF buttons on computer hardware are never in the same place? That’s not user incompetence, it’s DESIGN error.
***
I DO need, however, the Selfie Shoe.

Variations on the name Richard

“Around the 16th century Dick started to be synonymous with ‘man’, ‘lad’, or ‘fellow’, sort of a general name for any ‘Tom, Dick, or Francis”.

richard nixonRegarding my post of March 8, the Windy City Kiwi, Arthur@AmeriNZ, wrote:

HUGE props to you for doing a post relevant to International Women’s Day without making it about it. I tend to think the most powerful feminism from men is when it’s not about being feminist. Maybe that’s just me.

But I want to challenge you a bit. You wrote that you object to “the C-word” in part because of the “the reduction of a woman to a body part”. But, do you similarly object to a man being called a “dumb prick” or, more simply, a “dick”? That’s reducing a man to a body part, after all, but no one—ever—says “the D-word” or similar. Is it really any less objectionable and, if not, why not?

An “Ask Roger” question without being prompted!

Obviously I agree with the gist of your post, and I challenge myself far more than I challenge others. But I do wonder sometimes if we have cultural blinders on, and so, don’t see oppressive language in all its manifestations.

I suppose I didn’t think about this side of the equation very much, maybe because this is still a male-centric culture. It’s usually men that I hear using these terms, surely far more often than I hear women sharing them.

Perhaps others use the term because of the cliche – which may be true – that men sometimes (often?) seem to think to think with their “little heads”, that men are, as a whole, a less evolved species.

I will say that these aren’t words that I would use, personally. Indeed, there are a whole slew of terms for male body parts that I tend not to choose to describe the whole man. But is that a function of sensitivity or just me being a prude? The only time I use the word prick is when I get blood drawn and they prick my finger, which, BTW, hurts more than one would think.

The only people named Richard that I regularly referred to as Dick were Nixon and Cheney.

My father-in-law is named Richard. My mother-in-law calls him Dick, as do most of his friends in his age range, but I call him Richard. This is, undoubtedly a reaction, when I was a kid, to some poor boy named Richard being verbally tortured for his nickname.

And there are so many other choices for Richard: Rich, Richie, Rick. I wondered how How Dick Came to be Short for Richard:

Due to people having to write everything by hand, shortened versions of Richard were common, such as ‘Ric’ or ‘Rich’. This in turn gave rise to nicknames like ‘Richie’, ‘Rick’, and ‘Ricket’, among others. People also used to like to use rhyming names; thus, someone who was nicknamed Rich might further be nicknamed Hitch. Thus, Richard -> Ric -> Rick gave rise to nicknames like Dick and Hick around the early 13th century.

This s also how William became Bill, Robert became Bob, et al.

While few today call Richards ‘Hick’, the nickname ‘Dick’ has stuck around, and of course has come to mean many other things as well. Its persistence as associated with Richard is probably in part because around the 16th century Dick started to be synonymous with ‘man’, ‘lad’, or ‘fellow’, sort of a general name for any ‘Tom, Dick, or Francis” (which by the way appears in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, written in the late 16th century, with Dick at this point firmly established as an “every man” name). It may well be that this association with ‘man’ is in turn how ‘dick’ eventually came to mean ‘penis’.

But the more vulgar reference is much later, from the last quarter of the 19th century.

The etymological roots of the word Dick, as a replacement for an everyday guy, which somehow segued into something more vulgar, makes me no less eager to use the term, but it was something I learned that I did not know.

Justification for Ask Roger Anything

You can ask me ANYTHING, and I will absotively, possilutely answer.

Absolutely no one has written to me saying: “Roger, why are you such a lazy blogger, asking your readers to do the heavy lifting by coming up with topics for your blog FOUR times a year?”

My answer would be that when the bloggers I know, such as Jaquandor – like clockwork in the beginning of February and August – and SamuraiFrog and Arthur the AmeriNZ ask for questions, I always oblige them.

In fact, this time around, I was chomping at the bit  to ask Jaquandor about Mario Cuomo vis a vis other New York State governors, and about the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

My assumption is that, by doing this exercise on a regular basis, I can inspire your meanest, nastiest, rottenest questions to me. Since that actually hasn’t actually happened, I’m left with the conclusion that you are all rather swell people, which is also nice.

Last time out, I found questions from Melanie to be the most difficult because they were the most philosophical.

I feel throwing the floor open to youse folk – ah, the flaw of the English language – helps me as a writer, and a thinker, and a person. If this were a Nicholas Sparks novel, I’d write, “You fulfill me!” But it’s not. So I won’t.

The rules remain that you can ask me ANYTHING, and I will absotively, possilutely answer. Swear to whatever deity you follow, and relatively soon, within the month.

I promise to respond to your questions to the best of my ability and memory. Naturally, memory is a tricky thing – self-selecting, imprecise; ask Brian Williams. As always, a little obfuscation is allowed, because it’s more fun for me.

You can leave your comments below, or send them to me on Facebook (I’m the Roger Green as the duck) or Twitter (@ersie). If you prefer to remain anonymous, that’s OK; you should e-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, and note that you want to remain anonymous. Otherwise, I will cite you, or give you a citation, or…

Consider this a late birthday present to me. I LOVE presents.

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