A friend and I were discussing work dress codes the other day. I really, really, really dislike dress codes! I think most of my dislike comes from the fact that I spent years working at a place where it didn't really matter what you wore as long as it was neat.  I have been known to whine about it.

I understand that companies want to present a certain public image which means they sometimes need to put limitations on what people wear.  I also understand that these dress codes have to be very specific otherwise employees can claim "I didn't know" when they get written up for violations.  Things that might seem obvious to many people, such as the fact that your clothes cannot have holes or be worn out, have to be spelled out.  The problem is, I see outfits every single day that meet the requirements of the dress code, but are definitely NOT professional looking.  I see women who are dressed to go out clubbing and I see men in dress pants with the crotch hanging at their knees.  NOT professional!


So, how about it we focus on teaching employees what it looks like to be professional?  Follow that with how to behave professionally (yes I see lots of unprofessional behavior too).  With the focus on that, maybe people will be more likely to dress professionally without have a dress code.

Oh, and can someone please explain the difference between cropped pants and capris?  I'm supposedly allowed to wear one but not the other.  

A number of people have commented over the years on how neat I keep my desk and the library.  I know some of them chalk it up to the fact that I'm a librarian.  In reality, that is the only way I can function at work and I think it has very little to do with the librarian thing.  

At home, my "office" is a mess.  Right now I have a messy stack of sticky notes on my desk, a pile of articles on the floor, a stack of papers on one end of my couch, as box of papers I need to sort through on the floor in front of the couch, and a box full of ceramics that I took off the top of a bookcase that I have moved.  Someday, I will get through all of this and have a neat office.  Maybe.

The subject of this post is supposed to be about organizing books, so I guess I should move on to that.  I know librarians and non-librarians who are very particular about the organization of their personal book, CD, and/or DVD collections.  My husband is responsible for our DVDs and they are all arranged alphabetically by title.  Same with his CDs, video games, and everything else he has.  I know other people who obsessively organize their books either by topic, author, color, size or some other means.  That is so not me!  

My books are roughly grouped by topic.  Beyond that, I can't say much.  If I pull a book off the shelf to use it, i may or may not get put back somewhere close to where it was.  I've thought about this dichotomy in the past and I think I know the cause.  Work is stressful.  Work is work.  Outside of work, I just want to relax and not have to worry about where stuff it.  So I don't.  

How do you organize your books and other collections?

Welcome to the Inner Librarian blog.  When I chose the name, I was thinking about what it is that makes me a librarian.  A degree.  Duh!  Actually, it is more than that.  There is something in my personality that is librarianish.  I think a lot of people, degreed librarians or not, who are librarians on the inside.  Thus, the name.

First, a little bit about me.  Then I will get on with it and explain this blog's parameters.  I am an academic librarian currently working in the private sector.  I live in the southwestern United States.  In my "spare time", I am passionate about Chinese Internal Martial Arts.  

Now, the parameters:

1. I write under a pseudonym and WILL NOT discuss my employer or work in anything other than the broadest terms.
2. I will post about librarianship in general, especially relating to Information Literacy.
3. I WILL NOT post about politics or religion.  I only discuss those things with a select few people.
4. I may OCCASIONALLY post something about martial arts, but only in broad terms.  I will not discuss my school, classmates, or teacher.  They are family and deserve their privacy.

Does this leave anything worth blogging about?  I have no idea.  We'll have to find out.
I've chosen the pseudonym Qilin the Librarian.  For those of you not in the know, the Qilin comes from Chinese mythology.  In some schools it is considered the Chinese version of the unicorn.  If you want to know more, read the entry on Wikipedia.  Qilin also has a personal meaning for me.  In the art I practice, one of the moves is called "Qilin vomits book".  Get the idea?  :)