Announcing http://eagledawg.net, my new home If youre already subscribed via RSS nothing should change for your feedreader after I transfer it Tuesday morning to the new domain. Im not 100% sure if thats the case for email though. I look forward to continuing the journey with you there! Reflection My first post on March 22, 2008 was entitled A New Flight. This was after I had graduated from the University of North Texas with a Master of Science in Information Science, but I was still employed in payroll & human resources and not a Real Librarian yet. Lets see some of what I had to say: I still dont think of myself as a real blogger because, for the time being, I dont have practical deep and profound brain things inside my head about the medical library profession since Im not actually in it yet. Im full of theory as any new graduate who is considered young by our professions standards should be, but old enough to keep quiet and observe for now without expounding in public. I didnt do a very good job about that keeping quiet part or expounding in public part for very long did I? Ill likely continue to not do a good job at that and, quite honestly, I still dont think of myself as a real blogger. I like investigating things and talking about them, and theres still so much to explore in the new year and decade ahead. Onward!

Merry Christmas from my bubble-wrapped antique glass fish ornament.

Edit from about another hour ago: **** PUBMED-ALERTS NOTICE **** In my inbox about an hour ago, no sign of any RSS alerts in feed reader yet **** PUBMED-ALERTS NOTICE **** You are receiving this message as a subscribed member of PUBMED-ALERTS, an announcement service available from the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).

Do not reply to this message. To contact NLM, write to NLM Customer Service at custserv@nlm.nih.gov or click "Write to the Help Desk" on any PubMed screen.

For LISTSERV commands and Frequently Asked Questions, see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/listserv/resources_assistance.html

This is my intended final post of substance (maybe this weeks Friday Foolery, well see) over here. Do Not Panic.* As this year and Blogger gig comes to a close there may be another ending to report as well. If youre not already familiar with the Clinical Reader saga you can see the bottom of the original post or this summary: I blogged to call out false endorsements and images weirdness, they threatened to sue me on Twitter unless I took down my post, all sorts of weirdness occurred, and librarians are a pack of rabid wolves. Heres what things looked like on November 28, 2009 according to Google: Since then, theres been this: Some subpages are still publicly accessible but dropping off the Google radar like flies, which still holds clinical reader twitter steady as a suggested search term and has since at least September. Speaking of Clinical Reader Twitter, another related Twitter account has been deleted (@allan_marks) though the highly inactive @Clinical_Reader still references it as a last tweet: Whats the scoop? I dont know. According to a comment supposedly made by Clinical Reader staff over at David Rothmans post last month about their unauthorized use of a New England Journal of Medicine video, "We’re currently in the process of being taken over by a large publisher who intends to integrate our technology into their own systems." If anyone sees the publisher press release about that or the latest Clinical Reader Twitter account/website incarnation, do let me know. Even if this strange story is now over and done, it showed us how ephemeral and difficult it is to efficiently reference and archive social media discourse. This will live on as a case study submitted by Marcus Banks as part of his chapter for a grey literature book that will be published in early 2010. I agree with Marcus point that

it [Twitter, Facebook, etc.] is also not meaningless, from both an evidentiary and anthropological standpoint. This is how many people are communicating today.

QuoteURL was of great assistance in capturing deleted tweets in June yet it is already broken, TwapperKeeper and related services are helping to archive hashtags today, but what will be the WayBackMachine of social media discourse tomorrow? *Very soon youll see whats in store thanks to the awesome (thanks Cynthia!) fabulous (thanks Joelle!) hard work (thanks Mel!) of, as my beloved husband put it, winning the Boobiethon. I can hardly wait to share it all with you!

As the bell brought in midwinter I waited for a sign A shadow of a wing This has always been The children know this, That she will come to them To them, to them Snow angel, snow angel, snow angel Shell make her way and shell stay For a time, for a time

This gets a little naughty at 2:00-2:06 (and nothing that would trigger the not safe for work alarms compared to some of the crap people post on Facebook), just a warning. Otherwise this remix is obnoxiously catchy and medically compelling: If YouTube is blocked at work, youd rather not risk it, or youre a vegetarian full of love and passion I also bring you the Bacon=Freedom, Lettuce=Love, Tomato=Passion scented BLT Candles.

In my philosophic musings I asked myself what is better than a BLT? As much as I try, I cant eat a BLT at every meal and I cant grill bacon 24 hours a day. Then I asked myself: What is the meaning of Bacon? What is the meaning of Lettuce? What is the meaning of Tomato? What is the meaning of life? Then the epiphany: BLT-scented votive candles! Isnt it obvious?

Really, Im not making this up.

What can I possibly write except that I am so sorry that 4 officers of the peace who were working on their laptops in a coffee shop just as thousands of us do daily were killed apparently because of the uniforms they wore yesterday? There are no words. My heart hurts for their families. May justice be served swiftly, safely, and very soon. As of tonight the suspect is still on the loose (edit: he was killed early Dec. 1st), and for most of today many in Seattle were trying to figure out what exactly was going on as the police went from one neighborhood to another to check out tips. Its not too much of a stretch to use librarian jargon, this really is information seeking behavior in an emergent stressful situation. How can we understand where users turn to fulfill these types of information needs? There are always the usual media sources; newspaper, television & radio in what I now think of as three forms - traditional, website & social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, etc) in addition to everyone else participating online as well in social media. Then things went in an interesting direction when The Seattle Times proposed this on Twitter: I was one of the first 25 there. It eventually ballooned up to over 500 individual Wave accounts and bots, then it appears the Wave has died & lost functionality as of this afternoon. Google Wave is only in preview mode and been pretty unwieldy once the numbers were over 100 in other waves Im on so I cant say Im too surprised. It was an interesting ride while it lasted though. These are some brief points of observation from my perspective of how it was used that may be helpful as Google Wave further develops and others consider using it as a community or emergency communication channel. I welcome additional perspectives in comments (moderated due to spamalopes), if you were there whats your take on how it was used and progressed? * People initially joined and created new blips (discussion threads) asking and replying to questions. * People then self-organized, still creating new blips but turning one towards the top into a type of wiki functionality with general sections and links to information. * People refined the wiki functionality by adding deletes, citations, timestamps and other identifiers to the information in addition to creating new blips. * People then wondered if it was ok to delete outdated/extraneous blips, decided among themselves it was since the Playback feature would record them all, and did so. This is a screenshot towards the end of the third stage, click to enlarge: Where I went librarian with an undergrad communications/journalism background was picked up as updates number 1 and 5 at Gizmodo.coms coverage of this use of Google Wave. The comments in Another Google Wave Use: Manhunt at TechCrunch are excellent thoughts to consider: What if people deliberately posted misleading information there? What about spam? Sure enough someone did put some rather annoying robots in the Wave and the ability to remove them is nonexistent at this point in Google Waves development. The screenshot TechCrunch got is during the initial self-organization phase. My hope is this entry is close to my normal blogging. Ive sustained a minor head injury tonight and like the good medical librarian I am Im neither panicking nor diagnosing myself but I keep mentally running down the head injury symptoms checklist to see if theres anything troublesome. So far there isnt!

Strange Floridian photographer reindeer in front of the Victorias Secret Outlet, International Drive, Orlando Nuff said.

“I think a lot of people didn’t know they had it in them.” from the Beaverton Valley Times

What beautiful people, and yes this is an authorized use of the song from singer Jay Sean. Unfortunately Im disappointed to learn information that came across what I thought was a reliable listserv was false about Medline (the glove company, not from the National Library of Medicine) making a donation beyond their normal sales contribution if the video reached 1,000,000 views according to snopes. I really hate it when that happens :(

My yearly Thanksgiving post to increase awareness of the signs of a heart attack, still the #1 killer for women. Heres why, and heres the source for the information below.

HERE ARE SOME SIGNS A HEART ATTACK MAY BE HAPPENING:

* Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain. * Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach. * Shortness of breath. This feeling may occur with or without chest discomfort. * Other signs of discomfort. These may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness. * As with men, womens most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain. If you or someone you are with has chest discomfort, especially with one or more of the other signs, dont wait longer than five minutes before calling 9-1-1 for help.

Please, please dont wait. It is far better to have a family members chest pain and discomfort turn out to be pneumonia in an ambulance than to inherit your grandmas car knowing her last time driving it was to the hospital where she died within hours. Trust me.

I can never attend the designated Healthcare Communication Social Media (abbreviated hcsm, affix a hashtag and you get #hcsm) community chat on Twitter in real time on Sunday nights, but have usually seen several medical librarians actively engaged and I enjoy catching up on the conversation when I can. Tonight I also noticed mention of a blog entry entitled The Pew Internet/Health FAQ by Susannah Fox on epatients.net about how people search for quality health information that contained a shoutout to the Medical Library Association (MLA), a comment from medical librarian Luke Rosenberger with an explanation about how the Google as diagnostician article isnt necessarily accurate, and offered a comment of my own with more quality health information evaluation resources. Part of the #hcsm discussion? Bring it on! While Im happy about steps that MLA is taking to advocate for the role of hospital librarians, such as the recent Vital pathways for hospital librarians: present and future article and others from the October 2009 Journal of the Medical Library Association, Id love to see the profession take a more active role for medical librarian advocacy in non-traditional settings as well. There are plenty of us there already at @medlibs on Twitter and elsewhere.

Yesterday was the happy conjunction of World Toilet Day AND the Great American Smokeout. What an amazing day for the United States to extinguish their butts! Unfortunately, all of yesterday did not go so well. I know you will be as crestfallen as I am that I heard about w00t.com too late to secure my very own Screaming Monkey with Hippie Rainbow Smiley Cape to share with you. I believe this is karma paying me back for usurping the MLA webcast hashtag by six minutes on Wednesday because I missed the monkey sellout point by under a half hour. Imagine the possbilities of "slingshot rubber arms" and a "professed 50-foot flight range"! This is devastating.

It all started last month when I realized QuoteURL was (sadly) no longer functional, I had a small conference worth of tweets I didnt want to lose after the two week Twitter search grace period, and began scrambling frantically for free web-based Twitter archiving alternatives. Enter TwapperKeeper.com Seriously, how can you resist ripped Velcro school nostalgia combined with Twitter? Initially I thought Twapper Keeper wouldnt work retroactively to capture the search results but it did much to my relief. Trust an 80s-inspired product to go retro appropriately! All 469 small conference tweets (#pncmla09) are there in the 500 limit view and I also set up Twapper Keeper for an enormous conference with low Twitter participation from last week (#eval09) Then I went and subverted the presenters of todays webcast from the Medical Library Association (MLA, Cut the Cord: Connecting to our Mobile Users) by about six minutes when I set up a Twapper Keeper for a 2 hour presentation that has over 500 tweets thus far (#mlamobile). That was one great presentation by the way, check out the archive and the DVD when its available later if you missed it. In retrospect a unique hashtag may be better because the original plan of #mlawebcast & reusing it might result in a massive archive of confusion: which #mlawebcast when? We are librarians after all, Im sure well start referencing points from previous MLA webcast hashtags along with future tweets or whatever incarnation social media takes by the Spring 2010 webcast. WTHashtag.com looks pretty cool as well (#mlamobile) with the ability to add a comprehensive definition of the hashtag, generate statistics and a transcript. Im concerned about the number discrepancy (546 to Twapper Keepers 566 currently) and Im not sure how long the results hang around for reference. I still miss QuoteURL for its ability to create Twitter conversation threads though and am glad the original reason why still works (one, two, three, and four) although Ill back that up right now.

Enhancing Evaluation and Evaluation Practice Using Web 2.0 One of the sessions this morning from the American Evaluation Association conference is a veritable meta-hot topic for my National Network of Library of Medicine (NN/LM) and medical librarian colleagues: Using Adobe Connect for evaluation, and evaluating a Second Life class for health administrators who used it for an emergency preparedness (EP) training scenario. Some highlights and fun * What was life like BT (Before Twitter)? * President Obama uses Adobe Connect for meetings to cut travel costs * Great collaboration possibilities in Adobe Connect I never even thought of before * Traditional eval areas: Knowledge, skills, application, decision making * Newish eval areas: Participation, interactivity, constructivism, situativity, visualization, collaboration * Challenge: Recognizing that learning will be made of immersive experiences rather than knowledge transfer between teacher and student. I was quite disappointed that one of the presentations I was looking forward to about the use of wikis to engage stakeholders in meaningful discussions about their program and its evaluation was not offered due to the presenters change of jobs. Thats always a risk with the time lag between proposals and conferences but the first time Ive had it happen with something I really wanted to learn more about!

The Evaluation of Distributed Learning and Computer-Enabled Environments to Support Instruction Im highlighting this session from the American Evaluation Association conference since its not only of high interest to me but many other information professionals who are offering instructional resources and training via web-based and other distance learning modalities. The session (my notes available in title link) refers to distributed learning (whats that?) and this is honestly the first time Ive come across that term although its been around for a while. My guess is it may be in more frequent use within the evaluation and education fields instead of the terms distance or hybrid that Im used to in order to describe education settings exclusive of face-to-face instruction or including some along with distance modalities. Its good to get out of my library & medical terminology areas once in a while to take a look at other fields, but for the purpose of my own Im using mine in my blog so I sound like me. The three paper presentations were about * The role of computer-assisted instruction in the field of statistics (a strongly positive indicator was found for face to face instruction along with a strongly negative one in distance learning, but observe the caveat in my notes) * The role of collaborative communication in a hybrid engineering course (Communication? Engineering? Surprise, these two things arent mutually exclusive after all and those who exhibit that are more engaged with exploring education tools) * The role of discussion board quality in online professional development (Dive in and DOH with Homer Simpson about the structure and importance of the instructors own posts. I didnt make DOH up, the presenters said it!) We had quite a discussion afterward until we were kicked out of the room due to time. I hope this information is beneficial to others working in distance education and the challenges of effective discussion boards in their classes, and Im looking forward to seeing more research along these lines.

...WHAT?! Yes, World Toilet Day is for real next week on Thursday, November 19th. Need a celebration activity? Squat at noon. Why World Toilet Day? This strange but legitimate high school teacher singing on the can puts it far better than I could ever hope to.

Unfortunately I cut out of the first workshop a bit early through no fault of the facilitators; I lost all the time I had planned to edit & post about the morning sessions in an insanely long line for lunch. I plan to remedy this tomorrow by brown bagging it from the grocery store! How To Do Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis by Boru Douthwaite and Sophie Alvarez Abstract: In this workshop, participants will be introduced to Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA) and develop impact pathways for their own program. PIPA is a practical planning and evaluation approach fast being adopted for use with complex programs in the water and food sectors (see http://impactpathways.pbwiki.com). PIPA begins with a participatory workshop where stakeholders make explicit their assumptions about how their program will achieve impact. Participants construct problem trees, carry out a visioning exercise and draw network maps to help them clarify their program theory in the form of impact pathways. Impact pathways describe which actors need to change to achieve the program vision, what are those changes and which strategies are needed to make them happen. PIPA goes beyond the traditional use of logic models and logframes by engaging stakeholders in a structured participatory process, promoting learning and providing a framework for action research on processes of change. Next up were some interesting applications of a Key Evaluation Checklist (KEC) in the role of strategic planning management (apparently the term strategic planning is used more often in the corporate world and strategic management for academia) that Im looking forward to exploring more when I return since I was part of an environmental scan for strategic planning (even though Im an academic) & want to learn more about it. Enhancing the Strategic Management Process Through the Use of Evaluation Measures (Chair Michael Scriven unable to attend, Michelle Woodhouse-Jackson & Nadini Persaud presenting) Abstract: Research has shown that companies (both for profit and non-profit) that engage in formal strategic planning tend to be more successful than companies that do not. Therefore, the strategic management process should be an integral part of every company or organization. Strategy evaluation is identified as one of the three phases of this process; however, the evaluative nature of this process has limitations which could be revamped using principles from evaluation methodology. This multi-paper session will focus on the evaluative nature of the strategic management process, with special emphasis on the widely-used Fred David strategic model, and will also highlight the similarities and differences between this model and the KEC (Key Evaluation checklist), a practical tool which can be used to conduct evaluations. The session will end with suggestions on how evaluation methods could potentially improve the strategic management process. Ill cover the third session tomorrow morning in a post of its own, Im still thinking about our great group discussion afterward that continued past the ending time until we were kicked out of our meeting room!

I began the day not at the plenary session (sorry, just couldnt get going early enough after visiting with friends the night before and a 3 hour jetlag in full force!) but at a workshop with James Altschuld from The Ohio State University (why is it so important to include the The?) whom I remembered from last year in Denver as being a particularly engaging and thoughtful speaker. I was pleased to discover that was the case again today and we dove into a great discussion of Setting Those Needs-Based Priorities Abstract: Many evaluators, while familiar with what needs are and procedures for assessing them, are much less knowledgeable about ways to formally establish priorities in situations where many needs exist. This short workshop will begin with questions asked of participants as to how they work with organizations to select priority needs. From that starting point a short overview will be given of criteria commonly used to prioritize needs (importance, feasibility, risk factors, etc.) and methods (weighting criteria, screening needs candidates, variations of rank ordering techniques, and so forth) employed. Participants will apply some of the methods on typical scenarios that might occur in needs assessments. The workshop concludes with a group discussion of perceptions of the prioritizing process and what might work best in different settings and why it is important to fully consider the nature of how final needs are chosen. No Google doc of notes as his slides were very text heavy and I want to digest their content when I receive them later. The terms needs and needs assessment are tossed around a lot though and it is helpful to keep in mind for the context of evaluation that need is defined as the measurable discrepancy between what is and what should be, not about projecting solutions as part of them but using verbs (desired, likely to occur, etc) to describe them. Needs assessment is a systematic way of setting and making decisions about needs-based priorities. (both terms Witkin & Altschuld, 1995) As a medical librarian, I briefly wondered what (if any) needs assessment work was done regarding the new PubMed layout.... but I wont get into that here! Next up was a deviation from the title and abstract that made for a great presentation and discussion with the group. The deviation? There Is No Checklist :) The title is also a link to the Google doc of my notes. Establishing Effective Relationships: Presentation of a New Checklist to Help Evaluators Understand and Work With Diverse Clients with Gary Mikron and Nakia James, Western Michigan University Abstract: This skill-building session will introduce a new checklist that is designed to help evaluators establish relationships and work effectively with their clients. Broadly speaking, the checklist covers a list of issues and common obstacles that evaluators face when working with diverse clients. Checkpoints will highlight strategies and practices that will help ensure effective relationships are built and maintained. The checklist draws upon three key sources of information: (i) relevant literature, (iii) interviews with experienced evaluators and program officers that oversee evaluation contracts, and (ii) the national and international experience of the presenters. While the checklist is intended to be concise and provide only prompts for evaluators, the presentation and paper will allow a more in-depth description of the dos and donts when it comes to working with evaluation clients.

For the next few days I am attending the American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference in Orlando FL, which is just about as far as you can get from Seattle in everything from geographic distance to climate. I had to find my summer stash of clothing which I had packed away until next year when I was packing for here, with temperatures in the 80s... about as hot as it normally gets in Seattle during the summer! The opening plenary began with a polite inquiry from a passerby in the aisle as I was booting up my computer: "Excuse me, is that Office 07 on your computer?" When the answer was affirmative, he then asked if he could borrow my laptop (!) It turns out that the passerby was Leonard Bickman, one of the plenary panel members. The panel had saved their Powerpoint in 2007 and it was incompatible with the 2003 version the presentation computer had. I suggested getting a flash drive of the presentation that Id be happy to convert for them, did so, and on they went. The hyperlink of the title leads to a Google document of my notes from the plenary& below that is a paraphrased abstract. The Impact Of Context On Evaluation Choices: Lessons For Three Cases Jody Fitzpatrick moderated a discussion with Leonard Bickman, Ross Conner, and Katrina Bledsoe about specific evaluations they conducted. The discussion focused on ways in which the contexts of those evaluations influenced the choices they made about the questions to be addressed in the evaluation, the methods used, the role of stakeholders, and their efforts regarding use. Enhancing Organizational Learning with Technology: Implications of Diversity, Improving Response Rates, and Increasing Evaluation Capacity A multipaper session sponsored by the Integrating Technology into Evaluation topic interest group.

Being a proper grammarian about How To Use An Apostrophe AND involving bacon! What better way to lead more people away from the sadly prevalent trend of writing its when its is called for?

As a recent Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) scholarship University of North Texas (UNT, the Eagle of Eagle Dawg) distance learning degree graduate myself, I am thrilled to help promote the South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana (SWIM) Regional Collaborative Library Education Project at http://msl.mt.gov/swim/. The program is for 50 residents of these four states who want to become librarians but not relocate in order to earn a professional degree (see how there are no American Library Association accredited resident programs there), and who will continue to serve their communities as professional librarians after earning their distance learning degrees. The scholarships pay up to 80% of the tuition and fees for the degree (almost $13,000). I particularly love this concise yet dead-on accurate assessment to help determine if a professional distance learning degree is right for you from the Ask Yourself page: The combination of the reality of distance learning (critical to have support for your learning and how much time it takes) with active participation in local professional organizations does lead to the best chance for success as a new graduate. Applications are being accepted now, good luck!

A wonderful person at the National Library of Medicine wrote me after last weeks post asking if I knew about bacolicio.us, which I had covered for the New Year. I was hopeful they would deck out the bacon in a costume by now for Halloween but that appears not to be the case. Are you sick of societys (and my own ) bacon obsession in the first place? Then veg.bacolicio.us is just the thing for your website viewing pleasure with an abundance of fresh broccoli! In my opinion broccoli and bacon should coexist as Broccoli Salad with Raisins and Bacon, but that might be way too much for some people to handle. Here is the soundtrack for your broccoli website viewing pleasure.... *Yes last week was also #57, because the week before that while I had probable You Know What 1 flu-like illness I called it #56 when it should have been #55. Ive gone back and corrected the sequence now. My bad.

Trends in medical searches online: How e-patients use the internet was rather general despite the "new trend charts" and has left me puzzled. The only Medical Library Association chapter meeting that was happening yesterday didnt have Pew on the program. Whats the context of this presentation? Were you one of these medical librarians? How was the discussion? Or was the crowd in shock about PubMed launching forward for good and thats why I havent heard anything about it?

10/29 Edit: Yep, we all know its changed now! In addition to the stuff below, Need a SlideShare Presentation? Sorry, couldnt resist. Unexpected exclamation points do that to me. At approximately 10:00 am Pacific time today the PubMed Preview transitioned to the main page, held steady for a little bit, then died. After a while the prior version was put back into place with notice via a listserv (more on that below) that the switch would happen in a few days. Thats normal enough, weve all had databases go down for much longer than a few hours, but this is also your wakeup call: Get familiar with the new redesign now if you havent already! Dont make me resurrect this post :) Need quick help and handouts? Redesigned PubMed QuickTours - by author, author & subject, simple subject, journal Updated Trifolds - PubMed Basics, Searching PubMed with MeSH, MyNCBI Where Has It Gone? - comparison resource from University of Washington Health Sciences Need National Library of Medicine PubMed webinars with questions & answers? October 2009 webcast - most recent updated information August 2009 Western regions - please ignore my voice and pay attention to the Q&As August 2009 Midwest/Southern regions -more written Q&As August 2009 Eastern regions - no written Q&As Need a WordPress video tutorial? MyNCBI -Custom Filters by Melissa Rethlefsen at Mayo Clinics Need YouTube? PubMed - New Interface Demonstration by U Manitoba While the announcement of the transition on the PUBMED-ALERTS listserv was at the same time the PubMed New and Noteworthy RSS feed broadcast (albeit with a broken website link) this morning, notice of the reinstatement (as of 9:45 pm Pacific) still has not appeared on the RSS feed. I consider it noteworthy that a transition had to go in reverse. I dont like having to second guess which communication channel regarding PubMed is most accurate and reliable. The RSS feed is prominently promoted from the redesigned PubMed front page and theres no mention of the listserv. Communication about PubMed, unlike making sure the entire database platform is stable, should be simple and not require digging nor duplication.

Me with Bill Barnes & Gene Ambaum, creators of Unshelved Does it get any better than hanging out with our local hometown heroes of the library comic strip world and receiving an autographed copy of their latest book for free as a thank you present for helping out? As a bonus I can add that I know how to operate those credit/debit card swipe machines to my CV! The truth about the bacon bookmark: Pretty much every library meeting and conference Unshelved goes to (including ours) has someone in attendance who has experienced this strange user phenomenon in their returned books. Its about 50/50 whether the bacon is raw or cooked. Have you had this happen at your library?