Is this for real?

Yesterday was the first day of week two of art school. As I sat in class sketching, I couldn't help but think is this for real?

Yup. Real. And awesome.

Just like I loved my music classes in my first go-around at undergrad (GO HOPE!), I'm loving everything about art school. I love the discussions I'm having in my art history and visual rhetoric classes. I love the assignments in my studio classes even when it is "just" drawing lines and ovals. Freehand drawing parallel straight lines is really hard, by the way.

But I love it. And on top of that, I'm singing a lot. I have a soloist position at Grace Episcopal Church--Gerald Ford's home church--which has been truly enjoyable. It's a great group of people. I'm also doing a lot of singing with the Grand Rapids Symphony beyond the usual chorus duties. Last weekend was a show called "Broadway Rocks!" The music was so fun (who could not love singing songs from Hairspray! and Rent?) and the soloists were amazing. Look up Carpathia Jenkins, Anne Ranoluffson (sp?) and Rob Evan when you get a chance. They treated us like real people and were just all around great. Next week I'll be singing in "Play!" It's a show full of video game music. Check out the program; it'll be another awesome show.

In March, I have two solo gigs. The first is a solo cantata for the Pre-Festival Bach's Birthday Concert. March 15 at Central Reformed Church, 8pm. Just over a week later, I'll be at Fountain Street Church on the 24th singing the alto solo in Beethoven's "Mass in C." The concert is at 4pm in case you are interested.

And for all those that might be interested, here's what I'm taking this semester:

Academic:

KCAH 111 Western Art I: Prehistoric through the Renaissance 3 Credits
An overview of the Western Art tradition from prehistory through the Renaissance using a socio- cultural methodology in a chronological framework.

KCHU 340 Visual Rhetoric 3 Credits
Focuses on the analysis of numerous forms of visual discourse, including their rhetorical effectiveness, impact on audiences, and social/cultural influences.

Studio:

KCDS 142 Design Drawing I 3 Credits Freehand drawing using basic perspective principles and quick sketch techniques. 

KCGD 113 Design and Color 3 Credits

An introduction to the visual and verbal vocabularies of design and color theory as they relate to graphic design.

KCGD 120 Introduction to Graphic Design Communications 3 Credits

Focuses on the principles, elements, and working procedures of the design and visual presentation of communication pieces.

And here's one of my sketches from yesterday (more can be found on my tumblr). The photo isn't so great, but I snapped it with my phone before I had to turn my sketches in for the day.

mmm... donuts....

Design in Libraries

A reflection on "Appearances do matter!" in C&RL News by Nancy Fawley

A new issue of College & Research Libraries News arrived in my mailbox sometime late last week.  Typically, this publication is one that's more a browser than a reader for me.  The articles tend to be fairly short and you can get a lot out of just skimming them. This time, however, I stopped to read Nancy Fawley's article "Appearances do matter! What libraries can learn from Clinton Kelly."

Let me first say, I used to be a "What Not to Wear" addict.  I had cable while in graduate school and it was the perfect guilty pleasure.  I've learned a lot from Stacy and Clinton over the years and I think I'm definitely more stylish for having watched the show. When I saw Clinton was the closing keynote for ACRL last year, I was geeked.

Clinton's talk was fun, to say the least, and was insightful in discussing the way we present ourselves, not just in our fashion choices, but in the way we treat people, too. In seeing Fawley's article about Clinton, I was curious to read her opinions on how Clinton's advice applies to libraries.

While the article is not in depth by any means, it gives some great pointers as to why we, as librarians, should care about things like design, branding, and the visual appeal of the building. If I were you and hadn't read the article, I'd go check it out right now.

Nothing Fawley said was new to me.  I've been passionate about the way that libraries represent themselves to the people they serve for a long while. What was refreshing, however, was the fact that this is what I'm hoping to help accomplish here at GVSU in the coming year.  In less than a year, we will be moving into a new building that is on the cutting edge of library design. I'm excited for the opportunities we'll have to reach out to the campus in new ways.

This also means we have a unique opportunity to rebrand ourselves-to recreate our image. We've already started creating the approachable image through our @gvsuMaryI Twitter account.

There are many conversations that still need to occur and many decisions that need to be made before we're ready to move into the new library and a new chapter of the University Libraries as an organization at Grand Valley.   I think it will be an exciting process and am glad to know that others, like Fawley, agree that appearance is important even in the library.

No matter how many times we may say not to judge a book by its cover, we all know that we do and there's no stopping it.

It's official

I am a bad blogger.  I do not keep up with this often enough.  And I'm ok with that.

I just have a couple things to share this time around.  First is a design project I did for the library here at GVSU.  I created buttons for Open Access Week.  They were a big hit!  Here they are!

They make me smile.  I have a whole set that i pinned to a string on the shelf right above my desk.

I've also been working on some tutorials.  They are on my SlideShare account.  Here's a teaser.

You'll have to go on SlideShare to see the rest!

Hope you all are enjoying what is possible our first snowy day of the year - I've heard reports of snow, but haven't seen any myself.

Time flies

Was it really August when I last posted?  I really need to get better at this!

I'm going to try and post weekly, and I'm going to read Chris Brogan's article about how to write good blog posts to make my posts more interesting.

So, September was busy with lots of instruction sessions and the like - I only have two more this semester.  Crazy, huh?

Next week is MHSLA - Michigan Health Sciences Libraries Association.  I'm excited to have a few social days.  My cube can sometimes feel like a cave - especially now that I don't have overhead lights.

Why no overhead lights, you say? Well, I was getting dizzy and getting migraines from the fluorescent lights.  I also get migraines from riding the bus.  Who knew motion sickness caused migraines?  I also have to get up before 8:30 everyday to avoid migraines.  Bye bye sleeping in. (not that 8:30 isn't sleeping in, but there will no longer be those 9:30 or 10:00 days).

My last effort to completely rid myself of chronic headaches is an eye doctor appointment next week.  I cannot wait.  While I wish I could get new frames, it'd be a waste of money, so I'm going to try to get lenses in a pair of my old frames.

Lately, I've really been missing being a musician.  I've sent e-mails to several ensembles in GR and am hoping to be able to audition for at least one in the near future.  That means I've started practicing again and so the cats look at me funny during warm-ups.  I'm hoping to regain my range fairly quickly as I'll be going to Hope College's homecoming in a couple of weeks to sing with the Chapel Choir.  I could not be happier about it!!

I've also been feeling as if maybe I missed my calling a bit.  I am not a huge fan of sitting in an office for most, if not all, of the day.  I think the only way I could do it is if I were a graphic designer.  Luckily I'm working on some awesome presentations to put on my libguide to help people be better searchers without me having to explain it every time.  Don't get me wrong - I love teaching.  It's the best part of my job.  But it'd be nice to be able to point students to an online resource for them to use when I'm asleep and they are not because they are crazy college kids.

I've also been thinking about going back to school.  Not now - I like my job fine and we are settled and I'm more than willing to stay here for a few years while we pay off loans and get some money saved up and such.  Maybe I'll start taking some classes.  I get to do that for free.  But if I do go back, I'm still thinking about historical musicology - perhaps focusing on the political nature of music.  Ties in with my paper about the sociopolitical implications of Paul Simon's album Graceland.

But I don't know.  Like I already said - I love graphic design.  Do they even let you go back for a bachelor's when you have a master's?  A B.F.A. in graphic design would be cool.  Maybe I could just be a full-time student for the rest of my life.  Although I'd get burnt out.  That last semester of grad school was a little bit torturous.

In other news, we've had some interesting family occurrences lately.  I'm not going to go into detail, but, man, am I so stinkin' blessed!  My family is AWESOME.  I have great brothers and sisters and my brother by blood continues to surprise me.  I think being a father has really changed his perspective in life a bit.  He's become quite compassionate.  And my new family as of just over a year ago is spectacular.  I love Sami - she's adorable.  And she's begun to really open up to me.  She gives the best hugs, seriously.  Dorian is cute as always and Elliott is still his cute baby self but is getting more and more personality everyday.  Parents are extremely supportive and it's great to have them around, even though having them so close was a concern when we were deciding whether or not to come to GR.

And now, I will wrap up by saying that I absolutely love Grand River Church.

Oh, and if you need a photographer, you need to check out Wellington Photography! (shameless plug)

In case you haven't heard...

... I got the job at Grand Valley!  I will be the Liaison Librarian for Nursing.  Steve and I will be living and working downtown Grand Rapids.  I'm so excited!  We're moving in just under two weeks.

I've had some time to do some fun stuff, so I've got some things to show!  First off, is Steve's website.  It was a challenge to build a site for someone on the pickier side, but it was good to stretch myself and learn new things.  Check it out at wellington-photography.com.  And if you're in Michigan (especially West Michigan) and need some pictures, let us know!  We've been having a blast doing photography together.

I've also been doing some fun design work.  I wanted to get a calendar for my office, but everything 2010 is gone or is ridiculous (think puppies hiding in flower baskets).  So I designed some calendar pages for the rest of the year myself!  They've got kind of a retro feel to them - I like it!

In other news... I've been knitting a lot, too!  Tons of craftiness at the Bedford household!

So busy!

Oh wow... it's been a couple weeks!  Definitely time for an update!

I've been very busy with school and work.  I'm really enjoying my jobs this semester.  I'm continuing on at the Health Sciences Libraries as a reference librarian, assistant instructor, and random project doer.  It's much nicer this semester because we're back at Taubman Medical Library with the rest of the HSL staff.

I'm also working with one of the librarians at HSL on a subcontract from the National Library of Medicine Greater Midwest Region.  It's a social network/instructional website focusing on teaching public health professionals how to use social media within the context of public health.  I'm the graphic designer, web designer (we'll be using Ning to create the network).  I'm also working on a lot of the content for the learning modules.  I'm very excited about it!  We've settled on a logo (although Ning just redesigned theirs and it's similar... sad day when I saw that...) and a color scheme already, which is great!!

As far as classes go, they're busy, too.  Today starts the fourth week of classes, but only the second time I've been to my Monday classes, so everything in those classes is starting off with a bang.  I'm working with the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum with a group evaluating their Action For Earth program.  The people that are our contacts are both SI grads, so we're a pretty lucky team -- they know what we need to get our project done.

I'm also going to be writing a grant this semester.  I decided to get out of library land and write a grant for an extracurricular arts education program.  Back to my music ed roots!  I'm just starting out on my research, but it's coming along!

Also, I got a small job from a friend here at SI doing web design.  It was just a basic e-portfolio site, but it was a snap to put together.   I was really impressed with how well I was able to fit the site to the needs and desires of the "client" and how quickly I was able to complete it.

I also took a book repair class this weekend at Hollander's.  I cannot tell you how much fun it was!  I repaired some broken hinges on bindings, broken or chewed corners of cloth-covered books, and various kinds of page tears -- even a missing corner of a page!  This coming weekend will be a second class at Hollander's - box making.  It'll be great for things that you don't want to repair, but want to store securely in an acid-free environment.

That's it for now... I'll try to update after the class this weekend!

End of semester

So it's the end of the semester, and I'm actually quite relaxed.  Probably the calmest end of semester I've ever experienced.  I've had a few interesting projects to do, including an identity package for graphic design, finishing my critical bibliography on the 'Enigma' Variaitons for music bibliography and a few interesting coding assignments for my complex websites class.  I also had to do a project analyzing subject access for a particular topic for my cataloging class, which turned out to be kind of interesting.

I was able to synthesize a few projects from my complex websites and graphic design class to create a spiffy new e-portfolio (still in progress, but looks pretty good!).

In other news, I've been looking at Google Wave more and finding that it's useful, but only if you have a huge amount of buy-in.  Not everyone who has an account uses it or knows many people who have it, so it makes it difficult to have a huge amount of uses for it at this point.  My friends and I have been planning an event using Wave and it's going ok, but it is just about the same as using an e-mail thread using reply all.  I guess you can't accidentally reply to only one person using Wave...

And I have 19 invites, so if you want one, let me know!