From Kittens to Kats

Thanks to Katy for that most excellent previous post.

For those of you who are new to Klub Katalog, you may be wondering "What does that name mean?" Or "I hope these librarians are single because I'd like to check all of them OUT!"

In response to the thousands of emails I've been receiving about the blog, I thought I'd take some time to answer some FAQs:

Why do you insist on calling yourselves Klub Kat?
It's a funny story that pretty much sums up our Library School experience. We were all in an introductory library class whose main purpose was to waste our time and introduce us to the various types of librarianship. A school media specialist spoke to us one evening and described how the school library meets the needs of students by providing space for clubs and meetings - much like its older sister the public library. This particular librarian had an eager student who wanted to create a club for cat lovers; they would meet once a week and talk about cats, look at books and magazines and pretty much indulge in their cat fancy. The librarian asked the girl what she named the club, to which the girl looked at her and replied, "Club Cat." (Duh.)

From this story, which blew all of our minds and warmed all of our hearts, Klub Kat was born. After that we had a unique way to convey our message of goodwill, librarianship and good times in general. We had a trivia team and actual handmade cat ears to lend our group an air of sophistication.

So Klub Katalog is just a klever way to kontinue Klub Kat, while kombining it with an element of librarianship, the kard katalog?
Exactly.

Wow, you guys are really smart. I bet all of you are hot, taken and employed!
Yes, we are all hot. The great part about Klub Kat is that while we are diverse in background, age, specialization, heritage, ethnicity and beliefs, we are all, in fact, smoking hot.

In regards to relationship status, some are married, some are seriously dating and others are in committed relationships with their pets, DVRs and/or Jake Gyllenhaal. Interested parties should submit a headshot and resume to KlubKat2010@gmail.com

You will find throughout the posts on this blog that we are in various stages of employment in varying areas of information and libraries. For those of us who are not employed, tales from the job search are still extremely valuable in this shifting economy and information landscape.

So this Klub Kat in kollege, was it only girls?
It was grad school, not college.

No, we have many members spanning many states. There were a few select gentlemen, whom you can learn more about here and here.

But we're all in the information business and it's extremely satisfying to have such a strong network to bounce ideas and questions off of.

Do you have any ideas for theme parties?
That's a great question and I'm glad you asked. Klub Kat is happy to help you plan your special event. Previous fetes include:

• Klub Kat Halloween 2008
• Klub Kat Halloween 2009 (Daria & Friends)
• Konnichiwa, Kelly (Disney themed)
• My Sweet Sixteen (Pink & Hello Kitty themed)
• Dinner Klub
• Twilight Trivia

I'm thinking of getting a cat. How many is too many?
Another great question. I feel strongly that two is enough. I'm also partial to chinchillas and ferrets. Be sure to have plenty of space and plenty of CLEANING SUPPLIES like Swiffers, vacuums and air fresheners.

And don't forget to find your pet at your local shelter!

"ENG100"

Does anyone else get super excited for students/patrons when you see the assignment they will be working on? I do. And I have a feeling I am super nerdy for it. At the university I work at all freshmen have to take a ENG100-type class. The assignment that we do research instruction for is called the Argumentative Synthesis Assignment. Students get to pick topics which can be a movie, an album by a particular artist/music group, a TV show, or a controversial topic in their field/major. They then have to find two articles that discuss the topic and synthesize the views in the articles with their own views. Isn't that COOL?

The examples I use in my instruction sessions are Twilight, Jersey Shore, and Britney Spears "Oops I Did It Again." Obvi I just got a little excited about the assignment so I used examples that I personally would use if given the assignment. I also chose them because I can highlight phrase searching ("jersey shore") and of course those Boolean operators. I tell them to think of their search for reviews as a formula: "Topic" AND review. We have them use Academic Search Complete which has some pretty stellar features.

Screenshot of my handout (upper portion)

Yesterday I observed a session done by my supervisor. This particular class was designated as one that had a tutor, which I assumed meant the students might be less engaged or have more trouble with the material. In fact, the students were super energetic, knew what was going on, and actually seemed excited about their topics. One student was going to do the movie Juno and discuss a possible pro life stance of the film (oh, did I mention I work at a Catholic university?) Another student was going to do The Godfather and it's depiction of the Italian family unit. I probably freaked them out a bit because I sort of hovered because I was intrigued. A previous class of mine had students that wanted to do movies like The Hangover, Billy Madison, and Pineapple Express... which is fine, but they weren't really thinking about the scholarly approach like this class was. Lesson learned: don't judge a class by a label created by the registrar/university. The class dynamics could actually be really awesome and make for a really great instruction session. Oh, and a chance to really geek out about combining scholarly research and pop culture makes work really fun.