Sonya Schryer Norris

Before the Boudoir Went Plum

The worst edited “video” of all time… I created this in February before I discovered the actual video feature on my iPhone. This is a tour of our master bedroom before I began redesigning it. https://youtu.be/N10YRKGG21o More on this soon!

9: The Polar Bear Book

Secretly, I wanted something very specific from my degree: skills to manage library websites. At the Library of Michigan, I’d been the web site administrator since the early 2000’s, mainly because I was conversant with the software. I was still full-time in the Braille and Talking Book Library, where I had also created an IntranetContinueContinue reading “9: The Polar Bear Book”

8: Cataloging fact #2: Mohammedanism

Peace Be Upon You In 1988, I went into my local public library (in a progressive, university town), looking for information on Islam. I was very proud of my facility with the card catalog and I went straight for the “I’s.” Nothing. I went to a librarian who cheerfully led me back to the wallContinueContinue reading “8: Cataloging fact #2: Mohammedanism”

7: Admission

Yup, it’s true, I’ve never shelved a book. I also did not understand the difference between the Dewey Decimal System and the Library of Congress Classification System until cataloging. Chapter 8 of my cataloging textbook provided me with that answer, including philosophical differences between the two systems dating back to Aristotle and involving the likesContinueContinue reading “7: Admission”

Birthday in a pandemic

So… I don’t really talk about the fact that we’re living (and dying) in a zombie apocalypse – AKA #COVID19 pandemic. I initially wanted to blog my whole experience, but I opted not to, at least at this point. Recent pic of me. As I post the Library School Diaries saga that I wrote lastContinueContinue reading “Birthday in a pandemic”

6: Cataloging fact #1

Librarians measure books in centimeters because Melville Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal system and a New Yorker, was a francophile. We measure VHS, CD, and DVD containers in inches because Dewey was dead when they were invented Unless you’re in this profession there’s no reason to know this, but Dewey was a long, strangeContinueContinue reading “6: Cataloging fact #1”

5: Reference: The Chase Calendar, Pyramids of Sandwiches, and the Fear of Public Speaking

My reference class was a morality tale on adult education. I had one general reference class and it was taught by a local library director. She was so dedicated, so knowledgeable, so wise, so hardworking, and so kind, that I feel affection for her to this day. She brought tome after tome after tome ofContinueContinue reading “5: Reference: The Chase Calendar, Pyramids of Sandwiches, and the Fear of Public Speaking”