Author Archives: Rachel

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May 13, 2009

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Research & Scholarship

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Electronic Health Records & Your Privacy

So this is what I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks instead of posting to my blog…  I’m trying to graduate from Library School (just two semesters left — halfway there!), and this is one of the projects I was working on this semester in my Information Policy class.

If you want to read about Obama, Britney Spears, Admiral John Poindexter, and the Department of Defense’s creepy plan to collect all kinds of data on you and then mine that data to predict whether or not you’re a terrorist, this is the article for you!  OK, so that’s kind of unfair — I really only mention Obama and Britney Spears in passing.  But I’m hoping its still an informative and entertaining piece on important things happening with your electronic health records RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE.

I am too bedraggled and brain-frozen right now to do any cool “click here to cut to the rest of the article” things, so for the time being it will just be a PDF: Your Liberty and Your Health: Protecting Electronic Health Records on the Nationwide Health Information Network.

More to come in the next few days:  a lovingly-written paper on Critical Information Literacy in Public Libraries (an issue near and dear to my heart), and a rundown of the Iowa Library Association’s Technology Petting Zoo, which is happening this Friday.

(*edit: my brain is working much better today.  Full text available below:)

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April 28, 2009

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Workshops & Conferences

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Technology Petting Zoo

I’m pretty excited about the Iowa Library Association Support Staff Conference coming up on Friday, May 15.  They’re calling it the Technology Petting Zoo (isn’t that such a great name?!) and it looks like we’re going to get lots of fun hands-on experience with all kinds of tech toys — Kindles, iPhones, RSS feeds, GPS, etc, etc…  Check back here after the 15th for some photos and a run-down of the day’s events!

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April 25, 2009

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Booklists & Reviews

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Tried and True Faves

So I’ve been thinking a LOT about Young Adult Fiction lately, probably because I’m really looking forward to the possibility of working with teens in a public library next year.  This got me thinking about what books I really loved when I was coming into my own as a reader.  I chatted up one of the YA librarians at the library yesterday, and I felt really dated inquiring about some of my old favorites.  But she did confirm that some teens are still actually reading these old-timer classics.  Anyway, I just wanted to mention some of them here for posterity:

The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death by Daniel Pinkwater 

Walter and Winston set out to rescue the inventor of the Alligatron, a computer developed from an avocado which is the world’s last defense against the space-realtors.
A Wrinkle in Time A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle 

Meg’s father mysteriously disappears after experimenting with the fifth dimension of time travel. Determined to rescue him, Meg and her friends must outwit the forces of evil on a heart-stopping journey through space and time.
Black Cauldron The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander 

Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper of Prydain, volunteers to assist in the destruction of the dreaded Black Cauldron, the chief implement of the evil powers of Arawn, lord of the Land of Death.

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April 25, 2009

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YA Reading List

Yesterday I went to the absolutely fabulous Marion Public Library and one of the really helpful reference librarians recommended some YA fiction for me to read.  I’m pretty excited about the list we came up with:

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (YALSA pick)
Miracle Wimp Miracle Wimp by Eric P. Kraft
Fat Kid Rules the World Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going

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April 18, 2009

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Banana Suit Life

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What’s a librarian doing in a Banana Suit?!

Hi guys, I’m a library student at the University of Iowa.  I’m really interested in public librarianship, reference and information literacy.  Oh, and I also really love dressing up in a banana suit.  I just started this blog at  WordPress.com to teach myself more about blogging, podcasting, and other Internet applications that will help make me a better librarian.