The annual Computers in Libraries conference is being held online from March 22 through March 25, 2021. I will be speaking again this year. 

In my session, I will discuss remote productivity and leadership. Here is the full session description:

The pandemic pushed many libraries and organizations to pivot quickly to remote work. Remote work and leadership are vastly different from the traditional office experience. An alternative set of skills are necessary to lead a productive remote team. It takes a balance of technology, management, and empathy. In this session, Kowalski will share best practices for remote leadership that encourage collaboration and camaraderie. She will also discuss tools and techniques that foster productivity including popular tools like Trello, Evernote, Bullet Journals, and more. Additionally, the session will cover techniques, like the Pomodoro and Getting Things Done methods. The session will show techniques and processes for integrating these tools and activities into your leadership and management to help create strong and productive remote teams.

If you're interested in hearing from me or any of the other great speakers, you can register here.

I have a tendency to add sequels to my TBR list even when I haven't read the first book. That's what happened here.

Hero Dinners: Complete One-Pan Meals that Save the Day
Marge Perry and David Bonom

I have always been a fan of one dish, one pan dinners. The fewer dishes I need to wash, the better. Now that we have a toddler in daycare, these dinners are even more important. By the time we pick her up, I need to start cooking in order to get dinner ready before she a) hollers my ear off or b) needs to start bedtime. We already have a few favorite easy dinners, but I wanted to add more variety to our palettes. Our kiddo is already a pretty good eater for her age, but I want to introduce her to as many tastes and ingredients as I can. 

DC received it's first real snow in years at the beginning of this week. My winter loving husband was a fan. Our toddler was neutral on the subject. I enjoy snow but am not a fan of the cold. I prefer to watch winter weather from the comfort and warmth of our home.

​Luckily, while the weather did reduce our daycare's operating hours, the storm itself was more pretty than disruptive. It ended in the kind of snow that coats everything and makes the world look like a powdered donut. 

Now onto the things I enjoyed this week.

This is a new kind of post I want to try out. I am constantly Googling, Alexa-ing, and generally researching random things every day. That's partly because of my career path but also because I just need to know. In this series, I want to share those things I look up in a given week.
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• Miguel Angel Felix Gallerdo - We finally wrapped up watching season 2 of Narcos: Mexico. I looked up this drug lord several times both for hints of spoilers and to see if what the series showed was true to life.
• Amado Carrillo Fuentes - Ditto above but also for the final conversation in the last episode.
• Carcinoma - A lot of my random research is driven by reading the news. In this case, it was CNN's alert that Saved by the Bell actor Dustin Diamond had died.
• Scranton - I was watching The Office and Pam was talking about going to "the lake." I wanted to see a map of the lakes near Scranton. Turns out, there is a Lake Scranton. When I zoomed in to the map to get a sense of the the size, the Radisson near the Lackawanna Train Station was highlighted... which is hilarious if you're a big fan of the show. That Radisson looks way better than the one they put on the show.  Also, I learned that Lake Scranton is about 25.5 miles square in size and has a 3.5 mile running track around it.
• 1426 H St., NW - I read a story that a new Cheesecake Factory was opening in DC and want to know exactly where it was going.
• Lake Wallenpaupack - [See Scranton] Watching the booze cruise episode and needed to know if it was real. It is. Then needed to know where in the state it was.
  

Here are the projects that have my attention this week.
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• Putting together a reading list and learning resources guide for the African-American Read-In.
• Marketing and managing our upcoming Faculty Webinar Series. Each session will share information about a specific library database. If I get one, non-library attendee during the live sessions, I will be happy. I spent over three hours individually emailing all of our faculty this week. I did see a spike in registrants after that but it was A LOT of tiring work. At least I could use templates and listen to podcasts.
• Working through the archives of the Planet Money podcast. I had listened to most of this show before I removed it during the OMGIHAVEABABYNOW purge. I missed it, so I put it back. I'm a podcast completionist so I've listening and relistening to all the old episodes that are in my feed. Some of the episodes that really delight me will show up in the The Weekly Wrap on Sundays.
• One of my quarantine projects was digitizing mementos, photo albums, and journals. I have two journals and a stack of The Kid's new artwork left. Before I get to those final items, I'm editing some images from the last batch of bullet journal digitization. It's just cropping and adjustments but it takes a little while. At least I can do it while binging The Office.

Do you ever watch TV and see an advertisement for a show and think, "Wait? Wasn't that a book first?" I do. And, in this case, after seeing the trailer for A Discovery of Witches, I added the entire series to my TBR list.

Here are the recent additions to my TBR list.

You can see my complete TBR list on Pinterest.

How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen
Joanna Faber and Julie King

I have an 18-month old. If you have kids or have been around kids, you know that communication is critical... also confusing, hilarious, and frustrating. Our kiddo's vocabulary consists mainly of "up," "dada," and "DOG!" I picked up this book to help me learn a few tricks and remind me that patience and respect are key.

I used to post regularly over on Blogger. (You can read my old blog here.) But then I had a baby and a pandemic hit. 

Now I'm ready to get back to writing regularly. I missed it. 

Well. If I'm being honest - I only missed some aspects of my old blog. All that time away gave me some perspective on what I like about writing and what I am ready to keep in the archives. 

Soon, I will get back to regular posting. I'll share what I'm working on, highlight my recommendations for the week, and give you an insight into those everyday things we look up. I will also post the occasional essay when the mood strikes. 

I spent some time thinking about what I want this fresh start to be.  In the end, I decided that I want this blog to do is encourage readers to indulge their curiosity. Daily life has constant moments of learning which we can share to grow both personally and professionally.

Feel free to comment regularly! I love learning. I also love seeing what others are excited about.