Favorite Montana Books from Nancy Pearl

Being a native of Montana and much in love with my home state, I was excited to read Nancy Pearl's "Check It Out" column in Publishers Weekly (July 9, 2012).

In her "Books to Read Before You Die" section, she said:

"There is a song by a Montana singer named Connie Kaldor that I love called "Sky with Nothing to Get in the Way." I love it because hearing it always reminds me of how fond I am of nearly everything literary that has to do with Montana.  I suspect that I was supposed to be born in Montana, but something went badly awry and I ended up in Detroit.  I read Montana fiction and non-fiction rather obsessively, and here are some of my favorites."

Fiction

• One Sweet Quarrel by Deirdre McNamer
• The Girls from the Five Great Valleys by Elizabeth Savage
• The Corner of Rife and Pacific by Thomas Savage
• Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling
• The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley
• The Edge of the Crazies by Jamie Harrison

Nonfiction:

• Bad Land: an American Romance by Jonathan Raban
• Homestead by Annick Smith

Collections:

• Writing Montana: Literature Under the Big Sky edited by Rick Newby and Suzanne Hunger
• The Last Best Place: a Montana Anthology edited by William Kittredge and Annick Smith

5 Cool Ideas for Meeting Your Goal

5 cool ideas for meeting your goal

By Michael Angelo Caruso - August 8, 2012 (Reprinted with permission)

Life is full of distractions.

Sometimes these diversions are good, but most of the time, they just pull us away from what we should be doing.

I teach presentation skills. Every client I’ve ever had could be a better speaker if they just practiced their presentation more. But people get distracted by PowerPoint and modeling ineffective communication techniques.

Goals in and of themselves are not always difficult. But focusing on one big goal and seeing it through to completion can be quite challenging, if one is distracted.

While most of us regularly make a “to do list,” we might do better to create a “not to do list.”

 

The 5 Cool Ideas ...

1. Study your desired goal for one hour a day. There’s no shortage of books, white papers, magazine articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. Within a few months, you’ll be an expert. Achieving your goal will be much easier when you actually know what you’re doing.

2. Get in better physical shape. Even if your goal has nothing to do with athletic performance, you’ll gain increased energy, better stamina, and more confidence.

3. Network like crazy. Associate with others who are connected to your goal. Seek out people who share your goal, ideally people who have already achieved something similar. Connecting with these folks will almost guarantee more opportunities and a faster learning curve.

4. Approach your goal differently. History tends to remember people who take the road less traveled.

5. Work toward small victories. Keep your eyes on the big prize, but be ready to celebrate small victories.

 

5 Behaviors that Drive Bosses Crazy

5 Behaviors that Drive Bosses Crazy

Food for thought!  Are you guilty of any of these things?  (Read the full article for all the details).

Here are some of the top offenses:

1. Impersonating an ostrich. You may know problems are cropping up. Don't keep your manager in the dark. Bosses don't like to have to confront problems either, but they also don't want them to be neglected until it's too late.

Speak up when there's a problem that's too big to ignore.

2. Being high maintenance.  Bosses appreciate professionals who take ownership of their tasks and can work without constantly needing guidance or positive reinforcement.

Though you should ask for help when you're truly unsure about how to proceed with a project, be careful not to monopolize your manager's time and attention. Focus instead on improving your listening skills and acting on the feedback you receive so you can learn to work more independently.

3. Thinking the office is your stage. Some people think the office is their outlet for drama. Managers don't agree. Few things become more tiresome to bosses and colleagues than working alongside people who make mountains out of molehills and manufacture conflict.

4. Talking a good game. A good way to exasperate your manager is to continually promise big things -- "Sure, I'll have that project completed by Friday," -- and fail to deliver. This behavior can become such a pattern that bosses end up feeling uneasy counting on an employee to do what is promised and disappointed in themselves for allowing the predictable cycle to repeat itself.

5. Deflecting criticism. Almost everyone drops the ball at one point or another. But rather than making excuses or being overly sensitive to constructive criticism, own up to mistakes and let your manager know how you plan to avoid similar problems in the future. Your boss will appreciate your willingness to confront less-than-ideal outcomes and will come to see you as someone who can be trusted to respond appropriately, no matter what the situation.

Compfight

Even though it's been around for a while, I just learned about Compfight, a service that lets you quickly search Flickr for Creative Commons-licensed photos that you can use in your blogs, syllabuses, presentations, and more.

"Compfight is an image search engine tailored to efficiently locate images for blogs, comps, inspiration, and research."

Compfight is easy to use.  You can search by tags associated with photos, or throughout all of the text (title, description, comments, and tags). You can also do a general Creative Commons license search, or look only for photos that permit commercial use; check to see if the photo you’re using is an original; and can toggle safe search. It would be nice to be able to search for specific license parameters, but that isn't available.

Awful Library Books

Just for fun .... Awful Library Books! 

About this site: "This site is a collection of library holdings that we find amusing and maybe questionable for libraries trying to maintain a current and relevant collection. Contained in this site are actual library holdings."

Wonder if we have any "awful books" in the BSC Library collection?  Although we try to collect well and be diligent about weeding, things can go awry.

Effective Leadership - 5 Cool Ideas

5 Cool Ideas for effective leadership from Michael Caruso: 

1. The team improves right after the leader does.

• Enough said.  

2. It's true that if you train your employees, some will leave.

• Training can be expensive and it never seems to be finished. Sometimes you'll spend time, energy, and money grooming employees only to have them leave your employ. This is a far better scenario than not training your people and having them stay.

3. Motivation remains a mystery to many leaders.

• Uncle Aristotle said it first. Later, Sigmund Freud published his famous Pain/Pleasure Principle, which states that two basic things motivate people:
• a) The anticipation of pleasure, and
• b) The avoidance of pain.
• Strong leaders use both hot and cold water to motivate, and, as usual, the magic is in the details.

4. Leaders should not solve problems for direct reports.

• When a leader becomes known as a "fixer," the team stops trying to solve its own problems and brings all its issues to management.

5. A leader's greatest skill is the ability to speak to groups.

• Sure, we like leaders who can compose well-written memos. Yes, it's important for leaders to read budget reports. But the ability to think and speak on your feet can make or break a career.

A Fresh Look!

As part of the "More Things on a Stick" program, I changed my blog's template and also did some customization of link colors and title colors.  In addition, I moved a couple of gadgets around and made revisions to the Labels gadget.  Making these changes on Blogger this time was very easy.  After my experience with the Campus Read blog last fall, I was a little leery. I was prompted to change the template and really struggled to make it look the way I wanted it to look.  Initially, the sidebar didn't display on the first page even though it looked that way in preview mode.  I tried various things and gave up various times before I finally got the look I wanted by eliminating a gadget field.

When I made the change to the Campus Read blog, the move to new templates with more features was new.  Perhaps Blogger has enhanced and refined the process since then.  At any rate, I like the new look!