Why 5-star hotels suck

OK, a little rant that has nothing to do with libraries or education. Just life.

One of the great ironies when I travel is that the kind hearted, well-intentioned people who ask me to come speak and consult usually put me up in very, very nice hotels. You know the kind. Giant foyers. Lot's o' marble. Fountains in the lobby. Valet parking. Glass elevators.

For, I suppose, 99% of travelers, staying in these places is something of a dream - luxury at its finest. But, at the real risk of sounding like a terrible ingrate, I have to say that unless the conference is right in the hotel itself, I'd just as soon stay in something a little more downscale.

The alarm clock in my room this morning at a Crowne Plaza woke me twice - first with beeping and then again 15 minutes later with a very loud radio program. Not that I wasn't already awake, but it did scare the beejezus out of me. I had not set the alarm. It would probably have taken me 15 minutes to figure out how to operate this "dream machine" that sports 21 separate buttons. Yes, 21. This is what it looks like. It is now unplugged.

Like most regular travelers, I bring my own small, easy to set alarm clock with me. Sometimes I ask for a wake up call, but these tend to be undependable even in the best hotels. What I never do is use the alarm clock in the room itself. I don't have the patience to learn a new programming language each place I stay.

Fancy hotels have other downsides as well:

• Expensive room service and restaurants. The cost of the room is just the tip of the expense iceberg. Most food and other services are very high priced and rarely of the quality to justify the cost. To add insult to injury, some hotels do NOT have in-room coffee makers so one is forced to buy the expensive stuff. $12 for a pot of room service java. What a rip-off!
• No free Internet. Even the lowest cost hotel chains now offer free wireless. To pay between $10 and $20 a day for wireless is just plain nuts. And for someone who works a lot in hotel rooms (as I am doing now), not having Internet is not an option.
• Complicated alarm clocks that it takes a PHD to understand. See above.
• Poor configuration of rooms for working and reading. Too many fancy hotels (and granted, lots of cheap ones) don't provide good desks or desk chairs, convenient electrical outlets, or adequate lights. I also like a comfortable reading chair, not art deco.
• USA Today. No local paper.
• No flavor of the country. When I travel internationally on my own, I love staying in small, independent hotels. A Hilton/Radisson/Hyatt in Istabul is pretty much like a Hilton/Radisson/Hyatt
  in Beijing is pretty much like a Hilton/Radisson/Hyatt in Kansas City. Ya want a Starbucks coffee? You got it. So what's even the point of traveling if the place you are going to is just like the place you left? Give me a small room, winding stairs, a creepy desk clerk, and weird stuff on the breakfast buffet. Oh wait, that DOES sound like a place I stayed right here in Minnesota once.

I think I have that out of my system. I am genuinely grateful to the nice people who install me in nice hotels. Really I am. But given the choice, save your money. Put me in a Motel 6.

Disheartened

In response to my recent post "13 Point Library Checklist for School Principals," an anonymous commenter left a rather sad observation:

If given the article, would my principal even understand what he'd read?

signed

Disheartened

Personally, I've found that given enough time and enough effort, all administrators can learn. But it is up to the building librarians to be the instructor. Nobody else can or will do it for us.

One of my earliest published articles, "Using Planning and Reporting to Build Library Support," appeared in the Book Report (now LMC) magazine way, way back when the earth was still cooling - 1992. Based on my own efforts as a high school librarian at the time, the second part of the article talks about the necessity for an ongoing, long-term, formal communication plan aimed in large part directly at the building principal. Nothing has changed except the number and quality of tools with which we can communicate. Really.

As a profession we too often bemoan the fact that principal training programs, administrative conferences, and professional journals either ignore or malign librarians. Leading me to believe that too many of us have developed a "victim" mentality.

Here's my bold prediction: Anyone who thinks of him/herself as victim in education will wind up as one.

Somehow your principal managed to scrape together enough brains to get a college degree (probably a couple), fool somebody in an interview, and maybe even win the approval of others in your building and community. These folks are teachable. Take advantage of it.

Do U U Tube?

I hear this question, well-stated in a recent e-mail, quite a lot:

We have been debating about unblocking YouTube at school.  Have you had any experience with this?  And what is your take on this situation?  My principal and myself are totally for it but we have a lot of teachers with resistance.  They cannot see the educational benefits or uses of YouTube.  We have a staff meeting on Friday and I am sure it will turn into a heated debate.  I am contacting a few "experts" to get your take.  :)

My response:

We have never blocked YouTube in our district. I think at this point I might be lynched by teachers if I tried - even if I did want to.

There are two factors to consider when deciding to block or not block YouTube.

First is content. While plenty of YouTube content is worthless and/or tasteless, my understanding is that none is pornographic or in violation of copyright. (Some bad language, granted.) So none of YouTube falls under the CIPA requirements that sites that are "obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors" be blocked. Nor does a teacher or student violate any copyright laws by using YouTube materials. Oh, and YouTube really does have a lot of material that our teachers use for class purposes - especially materials on popular culture and current events.

Second is bandwidth. When you have a lot of people streaming video via YouTube (or any other  video site like TeacherTube), it may slow down your network. This is a standard reason that a lot of tech people give for blocking YouTube. Our solution to this problem has been to employ a packetshaper on the network that will prioritize traffic and gives YouTube a low bandwidth priority. Users will only get video as bandwidth is available.

Personally, I think a lot of teachers see YouTube as an annoyance and would prefer the district block it rather than have to monitor student use and tell kids to stay on task.

OK, Blue Skunk readers, YouTube: Block or not. And why. And if YouTube was once blocked and now it isn't, how and why did the change come about?

Let's hear it.