That new iPhone

I preordered that new iPhone. It was sitting on my front porch waiting for me while I watched students with theirs on Friday. Little did I know, it would take me three days to get it operational, and I'm still double-phoning...

Friday: Backup and upgrade iPhone 4. Realize computer OS will not support requisite iTunes version for activating new computer. Worry.

Saturday: Backup iPhone 4 to iCloud. Not having a physical backup makes me queasy. This takes about two hours as computer must be 1. plugged in 2. locked and 3. connected to wifi.

Sunday: Restore iPhone 5 from iCloud backup. Find number in AT&T support forums to call and complete activation. Had lots of fun "finding my iPhone." It is gorgeous, faster, and feather-weight.

Note: When I got my iPhone 4, my original iPhone looked like it had been through the wars, and the display was beginning to deteriorate. More than two years later, my iPhone 4 looks mint.

I like all the new wrinkles, especially Passbook. It does look like this version of iOS is really dependent on Location Services for proper functioning. Like the iCloud backup, not something I'm crazy about, but I worry I won't be really using the device to its fullest without it.

In related news, my kitten seems to have broken my first-gen iPad. I think it took an especially vicious knock when he pushed it off the dining room table, and now the display is all mottled, so I will be using my backup, a Motorola Xoom, while I travel about and think about what I need in a tablet.

Discovery and voice

I just finished Rebecca Harrington's Penelope and want to tell everyone I know about it. The story of a Harvard freshman, it's pitch-perfect and laugh-out-loud funny. It instantly transports you back to the strange sociological splinter and stilted conversations of college.

I couldn't remember reading about the novel before I saw a copy, pink with a sweet H-crested waffle, in an airport bookstore Labor Day weekend. Which is unusual, considering the number of book reviews I scan. It was in PW, turns out...And then I discovered ex post facto Goodreads crowd-rates it at 3 stars. (And the reviews make me worry for humanity! Authors, stay away from there.) But I would argue it's a potential Alex title. I might suggest it.

All this goes to say that books remain highly individuated. I occasionally worry we are all whirling towards one Harry Potter and Game of Thrones fantastical vortex, but then something as quirky and charming as Penelope reminds me that realistic, deadpan voice still exists, even if not completely appreciated. And where were the recommender systems (or even standard review mechanisms) on this one?

A very busy fall

This morning I'm taking about Cataloging with my colleagues from Madison County. But in addition to still settling in at my new job, I have many things scribbled on the calendar for this fall.

Early in October, I'll be in Georgia speaking at COMO about Teens and Technology.

I will be presenting a preconference workshop and two concurrent sessions at TASL, the Tennessee Association of School Librarians.

Then in November, my work done, I'll get to enjoy my two favorite literature events, the third YALSA Literature Symposium in St. Louis...

.... and ALAN in Las Vegas.

Like Cathy Jo Nelson, I wish I could make it to the AASL Fall Forum in Greenville, SC, but the drive is epic, and I'm already planning to drive to Macon (5 1/2 hours) and St. Louis (6 hours).  I also wish I could make the School Library Journal Summit in Philadelphia, but I have been hearing great things about TASL for years, and they overlap this year in a most un-fortuitous way. And more and more emails are arriving referencing Midwinter...

Facebook is so very over

I know at least one person theorizing that Facebook's loss of popularity was directly related to its lackluster market performance. And I've overheard some interesting comments about that once-so-ubiquitous social networking site at school:

Girl, to another girl: He's not on Facebook. He has a girlfriend, so he said that he doesn't need it.

Interesting thinking, huh? And given the statistics about Facebook being named in divorce suits, not entirely inexplicable.

And what about the statistics about social network penetration and demographics? How reliable are they?

Eleventh grade girl: How do you get Facebook to stop sending you messages?

Twelfth grade girl: I don't know how we did that. I deleted mine.There's too much drama on there.

Eleventh grade girl: I have three. I forgot the passwords, so I made a new one. I don't have Internet at my house, anyway.

Twelfth grade girl: I don't have Internet at my house, either. I use my phone.

Eleventh grade girl: Look at how long it's been since I've been on here. It's the last day of school. "Here's to our crazy amazing summer! Ha." So, should I make another Facebook? It's tempting.

And just who's using Facebook? I think I know the answer.

Twelfth grade girl: What's my mama's Facebook password? She has pictures [of the student's baby] on her Facebook.

But this may be the best strategy yet:

TIL Not having a FB account is pretentious. Having a FB account that you use so erratically that you torque people off is true balla.
— Samantha Helmick (@SHelmick) August 29, 2012

Culture shock

It's taken some adjustment. Things are different at my new school. In both cases, the administration had established policies which really influence the tone of the library. It seems like I will have a lot more time to interact positively with students and teachers if I don't have to enforce policies I didn't put into place.

Where I am now, students can bring their book bags into the library and food and drink, too. There are no overdue fines (and hence no real emphasis on due dates). There are no costs associated with printing, and as a consequence, printing is not library-mediated.

There are generic logins on public machines so students search the Internet or for books immediately, without loading a profile to the local computer. There is a default printer, so I don't have to walk the kids through choosing the correct one, and the home page set on all the public machines is the library catalog. There is open wifi. Kids and their parents sign a usage agreement, and computer services actually gives them network access.

Other things are different, too. I'm currently suffering from a compulsion to lock everything up. But I look up and it's a whole different world. Students can get to email. Teachers ask students for their email, and they use it to communicate. Imagine that.