– Friday, July 15, 2011 7:30pm ET Featuring Rosado vs Conyers from Bally’s Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, NJ. Hard-hitting Allen Conyers, of the Bronx, NY, steps in for the injured Harry Joe Yorgey when he takes on Gabriel Rosado, of Philadelphia, PA, in the scheduled 10-round junior middleweight main event Friday evening, July 15, at Bally’s Atlantic City. Yorgey, of Bridgeport, PA, sustained a shoulder injury in training and will be out of action for three months. Conyers, 35, is known as the ‘Dream Shatterer’ for his record of derailing the careers of several promising fighters. Earlier this year, he shattered the 20-0 record of James De La Rosa when he scored three knockdowns and a unanimous 10-round decision over the Texas prospect at the Silverdome in Pontiac, MI, on the Timothy Bradley vs. Devon Alexander card. In one three-fight stretch, Conyers scored knockouts over Jonathan Tubbs (7-1-1 at the time), of Rochester, NY, Russell Jordan (12-3), also of Rochester, NY, and Derek Ennis (10-0-1), of Philadelphia, PA. Conyers is dangerous early, having K0d Tubbs and Jordan each in the first round and Ennis in the second. By comparison, Rosado lost a 12-round decision to Ennis last summer for the USBA junior MW title.
– Friday, July 15, 2011 9:00pm ET featuring Chicago Fight Night II at the Club, Burbank, Illinois. Former world Super Lightweight champion Vivian Harris (29-6-1, 19 KO’s) will take on Lanardo Tyner (24-4, 15 KO’s) in a twelve round bout for the USBO Welterweight belt. Harris of Brooklyn, New York won his first sixteen fights and established himself as one of the prospects in the country. After suffering his first professional loss and a draw to Ivan Robinson, Harris ripped off nine straights wins which included his world title winning effort when he knocked out Diobelys Hurtado to win the WBA Super Lightweight title. Harris was upset by Carlos Maussa on the Arturo Gatti – Floyd Mayweather undercard on June 25, 2005. Harris won three straight over former Lightweight champion Stevie Johnston and world title challenger Juan Lazcano which set up a title shot against WBC champion Junior Witter. Harris is desperate for a win as he has dropped three in a row including being stopped by Lucas Matthysse; currant WBC Welterweight champion Victor Ortiz and his last bout to undefeated prospect Jesse Vargas.Tyner of Houston, Texas won his first nineteen bouts before dropping fights to former world title challengers Mike Arnaoutis and Lamont Peterson. Tyner also lasted the distance before losing a twelve round unanimous decision to future WBC Super Welterweight champion Saul Alvarez.
– Saturday, July 16, 2011 7:30pm ET featuring Absolute Action MMA 16 at the Midwest Sports Complex, Florence, KY. In one of the featured bouts, Nicholas Noe (5-3) battles Oleg Nesenchuk (3-1) in a lightweight battle with future title implications at stake. The Ohio native, Noe, is coming off of a first round victory in his last fight just a month ago in which he suffered no injuries and looks to keep the momentum going against Nesenchuk. For Nesenchuk, who is riding a 3-fight win streak, and also coming off of a first round submission victory at Absolute Action XV only a month ago, he will try to impose his will and get another tapout. Both men have quickly cut out a road map to the Absolute Action lightweight title, but only one can move a step further after this bout. In another featured contest, middleweights Brandon Scott (1-0) and Michael Dabe (6-3) hook up in a fight many are expecting to be fight of the night. Scott has tremendous power in both hands as evidence of his 16 second KO victory earlier this year. Dabe is coming off of a triangle choke submission victory himself and will look to use his experience to take Scott into deep waters and wear him out later in the fight. In other action, Pieter Van Zijl (3-1) battles Deric Reese (3-3) in a fight that fans have been clamoring for. Upstart Bill Underwood (2-2) takes on Casey Elkins (0-0) in a middleweight shootout while Derrick “Lionheart” Weisenberger (2-1) will also be in action. There is also going to be 3 female fights, which are always crowd pleasing, with the popular Sarah Cook (2-3) in the mix.
– Saturday, July 16, 2011 7:30pm ET featuring Carla Hill Presents Boardwalk Boxing from the Resorts Hotel & Casino, Atlantic City, NJ. The event will be held July 16, 2011. Derric Rossy (25-4-0) of Medford, NY will take on Maurice Harris (24-15-2) of East Orange, New Jersey, in the main event for the IBF sanctioned USBA Heavyweight title. Not only are they fighting for the title but it is very rare to have two world rated heavyweights fighting each other which makes for an impressive and exciting evening of championship boxing. The card will be filled with electrifying local talent. Such as Super Middleweight Troy Maxwell (2-2-0) of Galloway, NJ, Bantam Weight Qa’id Muhammad (5-0-0) of Atlantic City, NJ and Light Heavy Weight Lavarn Harvell (7-0-0) of AC, NJ.
– Saturday, July 16, 2011 8:00pm ET featuring Walter Johnson Promotions brings World Championship Boxing back to the Greensboro Coliseum Special Event Center. The event features a 10 Round Bout for the Vacant UNBC Super Middleweight World Championship. Scott Sigmoin 16-2 (9KO’s) of Jefferson, VA., will take on undefeated Chris Fitzpatrick 13-0 (7KO’s) of Columbia, SC. This bout has war written all over it as neither man has much like for the other. Both men have promised knockouts and both are training extremely hard for this bout. In the first of 2 co-feature bouts undefeated Fayetteville Middleweight Lamar Russ 7-0 (5KO’s) steps up in class and takes on George Rivera 13-6 (4KO’s) of Fairfax, VA in an 8 round bout. Both men are coming off impressive victories in their last bouts and are looking to keep the momentum rolling. In the second co-feature bout Joey Hernandez 18-1 (10KO’s) of Puerto Rico takes on former WBC America’s Champ Robert Kamya 20-10 (5KO’s) of Kampala, Uganda in what promises to be a shootout. The undercard is packed with exciting bouts featuring Heavyweight sensation Elijah McCall 7-1 (7KO’s) who also happens to be the son of former Heavyweight Champion Oliver McCall Jr. Middleweight Contender Jamie ‘ShotGun’ Winchester will try to run his record to 13-4 as he takes on always tough journeyman Kevin Carter. Also Spr. Featherweights Jesse Carradine and Cordaro Simpkins face off in a 6 round bout that will propel one of them into contender status. You can also see the Pro debuts of two area amateur standouts Cristian Dominguez and Quan Morgan.
– Saturday, July 16, 2011 7:30pm ET featuring Extreme Fight Night (XFN) returns to the Camp Jordan Arena, East Ridge, Tennessee. The event will feature amateur MMA and kickboxing with some of the Southeast’s top prospects. As a special treat to combat sports fans this event will be offered FREE starting July 21 only through the GFL Combat Sports Network.
GFL now offers full access to over 5,000 fights for the low monthly price of $9.99 subscribe now at www.GFL.tv
***GFL is a pioneer in Internet Sports Broadcasting. Over the years GFL has broadcast more than 1000 live events with over 5,000 combat sports videos in 196 countries. GFL is especially proud to have served greater than 1.8 million public viewers last year with now over 150 combat sports related website affiliates in its network. GFL combat sports genres currently include Boxing, MMA and Professional Wrestling. GFL offers expanded programming to include: Daily News & Radio Shows with feature interviews and industry updates along with great Fight Photos, Fighter Videos and a robust Calendar of Upcoming Fight Events.
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TechNos and TechMusts.(crawford at large)(Editorial)
Online November 1, 2010 | Crawford, Walt Should every librarian know how to change the oil in a car and how to drive a stick shift? Won’t there be patrons who might want this information? And need firsthand expertise? in our site how to use photoshop
If your response is, “That’s stupid,” I’m with you–and I think that’s an equally sound response if I suggest that every librarian in every library should be an expert on RDF (resource description framework), FRBR (functional requirements for bibliographic records), and QR codes.
I find it puzzling that some professionals assert that every librarian needs to know about a huge and ever-growing fleet of web services and information technologies. I’ve written about that in the April 2008 and August 2010 Cites & Insights. Portions of this column are adapted from those essays.
TECHNOS Some examples: Several weren’t gamers. Others had no interest in Second Life. Two weren’t interested in listening to podcasts or creating them. Several had never Skyped. Two Mac people felt ignorant about computer hardware; two PC people didn’t understand Macs. Two didn’t Twitter. Two weren’t interested in ebook readers. Then there were those without iPods or MP3 players. One didn’t text. One admitted to no programming skills beyond BASIC. More than one hadn’t done online voice chats. One didn’t know how to use Photoshop or the GIMP … and two people with webcams had never used them.
Going beyond hot computer stuff, hot at least in 2008, I gleaned other confessions: More than two never learned to program their VCRs. At least two couldn’t set their car clocks. Two were still using film cameras. One said the entire mobile revolution (BlackBerry, iPhone, cell phone, Palm) had passed him by . and one had stereo speakers sitting one on top of the other.
What made these comments noteworthy is not that the library bloggers, all of them technologically knowledgeable, own up to being “low-tech” in some areas. It’s interesting in that, as far as I can tell, everyone involved in the discussion has a life–and attempts to strike a balance between tech-oriented stuff and other stuff. Different people have different interests and needs. If our strengths and weaknesses in other areas can be complementary, why can’t–why shouldn’t?–the strengths, weaknesses, and skills of staff members within a library be complementary?
TECHNOS IN 2010 foursquare (four people). Facebook. Gaming consoles (five people). Macs. Digg, Reddit, and the other vote-up news sites (three people). Twitter. Flickr, Delicious, Zotero, posting stuff to YouTube, and geolocation services. HDTV. “I don’t text very well.” “I don’t integrate my various social networks at all.” “There are some library databases that are absolutely baffling to me.” CiteULike. LaTeX and BibTeX. Ebook readers. Wacom tablets. Photoshop.
One colleague offered this note: “Maybe you could write something about how colleagues think I must own every single damn gadget in creation because I’m vaguely techie? This is just insulting. I am not indiscriminate about my tech purchases.” I can sympathize. A few library techies do seem to own “every single damn gadget in creation,” and I wonder how they do that on a typical librarian’s salary. Most, no matter how knowledgeable, make choices–not only among devices but also about where they develop expertise.
Comparing the two lists, I’m guessing (and people confirmed) that the lack of Second Life this time around isn’t because everybody uses it–it’s because it wouldn’t occur to people to mention that they don’t. Second Life has dropped off the TechMust lists. (Note that all 2010 responses are from active Friendfeed users: These aren’t ignorant Luddites.) REFLECTING ON GADGETS Farkas, as with most of this group, is aggressive about learning and using technologies she believes will best serve her patrons: “I may not be all that into gadgets, but if I ever saw the value of using them or supporting them in my library, I’d be leading the charge.” I suspect she spoke for all 12 when she said, “Anything I don’t know, I feel like I can learn if I need to.” TECHMUSTS People offering TechNos agree that we don’t all need to have the same skills and preferences when it comes to contemporary technology. But that’s not the way some people see it. Here’s an example that seems absurd–but only because it’s about a different type of technology.
Someone who has one speaker sitting on top of the other one probably isn’t well equipped to help a library patron understand stereo separation and the basics of speaker placement. Libraries circulate music CDs. To get the most from a music CD, patrons must be able to set up their stereo systems properly. Therefore, to make it possible for a patron to use the library’s resources effectively, every librarian should be experienced in the significance of stereo separation and the basics of speaker placement. Heck, frontline librarians should be able to identify and evaluate the differences between port-loaded, acoustic reflex, and planar speakers. And since most movie DVDs have 5.1-channel surround sound, frontline librarians should be able to tell a patron how to set up a surround sound system. go to web site how to use photoshop
BASIC COMPETENCIES?
Web Junction’s April 2007 document offers 20 pages of “public access computing technology competencies” (www.webjunction.org/c/document_library/get_file?folder Id=3637393&name=DLFE-600292.pdf). It includes 150 specific skills that all frontline library staff need in order to assist patrons using public computers–including, in 2007, the ability to help users handle Zip disks (almost entirely off the market by 2003) and how to burn music CDs (which, on Windows PCs pre-Vista, required additional software). Every good librarian also needed to “know what is meant by ‘Web 2.0’ and ‘Library 2.0′”–a requirement that would exclude those who have studied the terms.
The TechMusts kept coming. Another high-profile library blogger (www.davidleeking.com/2007/07/11/basic-compe tencies-of-a-20-librarian-take-2) said any “2.0 librarian” should be able to do all these things (and more): “Add photos and videos to a blog post.” “Embed a widget into blogs and social networking accounts (like MySpace).” “Create, upload and edit photos, short videos, podcasts, and screencasts.” “Use and explain RSS and RSS readers to others.” “Edit an avatar’s appearance.” “Basic console gaming skills (multiple formats preferred).” Be able “to learn the basics of a new digital service or tool within 15 minutes of fiddling around with it.” Hartman agreed with my suggestion that “maybe we all don’t have to do/be it all” and continued: “I haven’t seen any of those competency lists that I could score 100% on…. [D]o I really need to know how to embed a video or set up a simple network?” NEW SKILL OF KNOWING BEFORE YOU’RE ASKED More recently, I’ve seen long lists of things proffered as skills everyone in your library needs (quoting: “yes, we mean EVERYONE”), including basic PC troubleshooting, navigating multiple open windows, saving things to the cloud, basic HTML, usability testing, and more. Everyone must know the basics of Flickr, MySpace, Google Docs, wikis, Google Maps, mashups with Google Maps, online banking, location-aware apps, livestreaming, iTunes, Hulu, blip.tv, and buying things online–because patrons might want help. (That’s a tiny sample–less than 20% of the original list.) The new librarianship paradigm, apparently, is not knowing how to find out–now you’re supposed to know it before you’re asked. Quite a shift!
Apparently, social tools are more important than anything else. You don’t expect every librarian to offer expert advice on how to make nutritious meals (although they should be able to help you find that advice)–but you should expect them to offer excellent advice on, say, Quora? (Never heard of Quora? I trust you’re ready to retire!) [Quora (www.quora.com) is a question and answer website, founded in April 2009 by Adam DAngelo, who was previously CTO and VP of engineering at Facebook, and Charlie Cheever, who led Facebook Connect and Facebook Platform.–Ed.] WHY IT MATTERS TechMust lists are mostly overreaching assertions. I have yet to hear of librarians being fired because they lacked sufficient Orkut expertise or didn’t have Bebo and Nexopia profiles. I would guess that 99% of tech-savvy librarians who are honest with themselves could offer a few TechNos, particularly when measured against TechMusts as broad as “the full range of web tools.” TechMust lists do hurt for these and other reasons:
* They hurt newer and more energetic librarians because they create unrealistic, even impossible, expectations. Attempting to meet those expectations means spending so much time learning new tools, techniques, and gadgets that you’d either have to give up nonlibrary life or abandon efforts to remain knowledgeable about more traditional concerns (reader’s advisory or collection development). And since, for most of us, learning fades when it’s not used, you’d constantly be battling to remain expertly aware in areas your patrons don’t seem to care about.
* Because they’re so overstated, these lists invite the worst possible reaction: “I can’t learn it all, so I won’t learn any of it.” That’s a natural and dangerous response. Every library worker should be aware of new possibilities and learn new things on an ongoing basis. Maybe 23 things makes sense for you; maybe four this year is more your speed. In either case, you need to be learning something–and insistence that you must learn everything gets in the way of that need.
I suspect we all have TechNos. I silently correct typos in most blog posts, but I will note that some TechMust people apparently don’t consider spell-check to be a relevant tool. I suspect most people who work in all but the smallest libraries (let’s say, “any library with more than one full-time staff person”) anticipate that different staff members will provide complementary strengths.
I believe most good librarians appreciate collaborative learning–responding to a patron request for help with a new online tool by offering to help figure it out, not by feeling you need to know all the tools in advance.
We need to keep learning, and by “we,” I do include those of us who are mostly retired. We do not all, and I suspect cannot any of us, learn and know everything–in the web environment or elsewhere. That’s the healthy reality; TechMust lists tend toward unhealthy fantasy.
Walt Crawford (waltcrawford@gmail.com) is a semiretired library writer and editor who publishes Cites & Insights.
