Val's best books: 2013 edition

I decided I was going to keep track of my reading this year. Despite starting off strong, averaging 4/5 books a month, I ended up only finishing 26 books (including the one I'm reading now, which I promise to finish before the year's up! Still, a few were pretty heavy volumes (literally and/or metaphorically) so I'm pretty happy with my effort.

Last year I was wildly into historical romance, but this year was dominated by sci-fi/fantasy and non-fiction. You can see the whole list, with my comments, but I figured I'd just highlight my favorites for now.

This was a really good one. I liked the organization, there was a logical progression to it. I particularly liked the articles on quantum computing, bitcoin, and the Turing Test.

Every volume of this book is amazing. Like, literally. Science is amazing. Anyway... This edition did have 2 articles in common with the above compilation, but it's worth reading even if only for the fantastic forward by physicist Michio Kaku.

I realize pretty much everyone on the planet has read this book by now, but if you haven't: read it! I had some trouble getting into it at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it, because when it got going, it got GOOD. It could just be that I love love. And also, magic. The hero was a teensy bit douchey at points, but for some reason it didn't bother me much. Maybe because the heroine was awesome enough to make up for it.

I'm 2 books into the Sandman Slim series, and really enjoying it. Gritty, but not offensively so. Reminds me of a cross between Jim Butcher and Charlaine Harris. It's meshing perfectly with my recent Supernatural binge-watching. I just wish Kadrey would embrace the concept of a chapter; deciding where to break for the night is a bitch.

Misfit children with special powers being hunted down is not a super original concept, but I couldn't put this book down. Looking forward to the sequel that's due out in January.

I found her writing awkward at first, but I loved the story. I love soul-matey historical fiction. That's totally a thing, right? This is the third in a trilogy though, so you may want to start with the first and second before reading this one. [http://www.stephanielaurens.com/books/cynster-sisters-trilogy/]

CUNY IT Conference - Building Academic Websites (in the Real World)

I'm presenting tomorrow at the 2013 CUNY IT Conference, where Brian Farr (our Systems Manager) and I will be talking about the process of developing our new library website. If you'll be at the conference, consider coming to see our talk at 2:15pm. [Conference schedule]

• Slides from our talk
• List of Helpful WordPress Resources
• Tutorial for using scripts to add functionality to Google Forms
• Slides from a similar talk I gave for ACRL-NY, which are more boring, but also more informational

I also have some fun slideshows of the site-building process, with screenshots and mockups and crazy marked up documents, which I'll add next week.

Zen and the art of the conference proposal

(This post originally appeared on Letters to a Young Librarian, and was edited by Jessica Olin.)

Your first year as tenure-track faculty is an odd one. You’re not expected to publish right away, but it’s encouraged that you keep your CV active by adding to it in one way or another. Given the amount of time you spend acclimating to a new workplace during your first year (anywhere, not just in academia), you don’t necessarily have the time or the connections to do anything major. Often you’re expected to spend that first year choosing future research projects, and starting to design your research studies and maybe collect some data if you’re lucky. Sometimes, if you’re like me, you were hired to work on a specific project, and will spend much of your time tackling minor practicalities like building a website from scratch and migrating the entire former site’s content to it. Pish posh.

This forces you to be a bit creative with adding lines to your CV. I’ve looked for limited time and energy-commitment obligations, like less formal writing projects and talks at local chapter meetings. One opportunity I stumbled across on one of the CFP blogs I follow was a call for conference proposal reviewers. I’ve acted as a peer reviewer in the past, so it seemed like a good opportunity for some professional service.

About halfway through the 20-or-so proposals assigned to me for review, I realized that this was much more than just a line on my CV. I’ve submitted many conference proposals in the past (a handful of which were actually accepted,) but being on the other side of the submission process gave me some useful insights for the future. (For the record, the conference was not library-focused, and it was a blind review process, so I feel ok about talking about it publicly.)

First, I shouldn’t have to say this, but based on many of the submissions I reviewed it warrants a mention: Follow. The. Instructions. You’ll read this advice a lot in posts about applying for jobs, but it goes for pretty much any official process in the professional world. Sometimes you think can skip steps. Maybe you know someone. Maybe you’re a big name in the field. Maybe you presented last year. Well, I can’t see your name and I wasn’t at last year’s conference, so do us all a favor and complete all the fields in the form. If I don’t need a certain piece of information I’ll skim over it. Better safe than sorry.

Here’s another piece of advice that comes directly from job application best practices: customize, customize, customize. Maybe you’re submitting a similar proposal to several similar conferences. I don’t care. Take the time to tweak your proposal to at least touch upon this specific conference’s mission and theme. I know you have to put out a lot of proposals just to get a few acceptances, but try to make it feel like this conference is one you actually *want* to present at.

GradHacker recently did a post on Killer Conference Proposals, and while all their tips are good ones, I think their final tip is of particular importance: “Explicitly state an audience takeaway.” Of course *you* find your research interesting and relevant (or at least I hope so). But take a step back and think like a marketer. What are you offering presentation/panel attendees? So many proposals I reviewed talked exclusively about their own experience without in any way addressing why that experience should matter to anyone else. Is the technology you used attainably-priced? Are your assessment standards widely accepted? What kind of implementation time/resources did it take? I’ve sat through many presentations where the project discussed was fabulous, but I came away frustrated because the presenters made no effort to tell me how I could replicate all or part of it, or apply the knowledge elsewhere. Give me something I can use, or reserve this talk for a showcase or project update event.

My last piece of advice doesn’t really apply to a blind review, but I’ll mention it anyway. When I’m participating in an event, I make sure to publicize it throughout my own networks. I like to think this gives a person a reputation as someone who will actively work to help draw in attendees, and thus be an asset to future events.

If anyone else has been part of the conference proposal review process, please leave some tips in the comments! What causes you to reject a proposal outright? What puts a presenter on your good side right away?