University of Western Ontario Librarians are on strike. (Link goes to recent news from the Faculty Association.) From the press release announcing the strike: “It is with great regret that … Read more University of Western Ontario Librarians On Strike
2012 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color Call for Proposals The 2012 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color, JCLC 2012: Gathering at the Waters: Celebrating Stories and Embracing Communities will … Read more CFP: 2012 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color
As a friend pointed out to me that The Daily Show has noted, the debate about the debt ceiling is ongoing because of a bullshit problem. I realized this while … Read more The bullshit problem #debtceiling
At my university, there is a group of student tour guides who give tours of the campus to prospective students and their families. The library is included in their tour, … Read more Overheard
McMaster University Librarian Jeff Trzeciak’s recently revealed in a talk at Penn State that he plans not to hire librarians in the future at his library, setting off a firestorm … Read more University of Alberta PLG on McMaster University Librarian Jeff Trzeciak’s rather open comments
Librarians have responded to the internet and other technologies that have reduced people’s demand for our services in a couple of complementary ways over the past 20 years or so … Read more Turning the Reference Desk into a Reference Bureau
Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for LGBTQ Librarians Editor: Tracy Nectoux Price: $30.00 Published: May 2011 ISBN: 978-1-936117-03-1 Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for LGBTQ Librarians is an … Read more New book: Out Behind the Desk
An interesting library-related paper from MiT7, by a media studies scholar: Knowledge Experiments: Technology and the Library, Paulina Mickiewicz Abstract: In April of 2005, the Grande Bibliothèque du Québec opened … Read more Paulina Mickiewicz on library architecture
I find this quite a good statement of the reason librarianship should require a master’s degree. I also found the video interesting in the way that it mixes media together.
The use of certain library statistics, mainly related to circulation and its electronic semi-equivalents, has taken on a high degree of importance in library management since 1979, when Charlie Robinson … Read more Some objections to our use of library statistics
Toni Samek (winner of Library Journal‘s first annual teaching award in 2007) has a review of R. J. Cox’s The Demise of the Library School: Personal Reflections on Professional Education … Read more Toni Samek reviews R. J. Cox’s The Demise of the Library School
Folks at the Progressive Librarians Guild have put the full text of back issues of their journal, Progressive Librarian, online. Coverage goes back to issue number one, from 1990. I … Read more Progressive Librarian in full text
Yes, it is that time of year again. Soon, your American Library Association membership renewal form will be arriving in the mail. Receipt of this renewal notice prompts many ALA … Read more Why you should renew your ALA membership
Beyond Article 19: Libraries and Social and Cultural Rights Editors: Julie Biando Edwards and Stephan P. Edwards Price: $28.00 Published: October 2010 ISBN: 978-1-936117-19-2 Printed on acid-free paper Beyond Article … Read more Beyond Article 19: Libraries and Social and Cultural Rights
“Library, Inc., by David Goldstein, in the new Chronicle Review, begins: From industry-backed research to CEO-style executive salaries and perquisites, the influence of corporate America on universities has been the … Read more Library, Inc. (Chronicle Review)
I just read and enjoyed this paper by MaryBeth Meszaros, “Who’s In Charge Here? Authority, Authoritativeness, and the Undergraduate Researcher,” in Communications in Information Literacy, vol 4, no. 1 (2010). … Read more Undergraduates and the crisis of cognitive authority
Michael Bugeja wrote in Inside Higher Ed (a month ago – sorry for not blogging it sooner) about the proposed discontinuation and reorganization of the journalism school at the University … Read more J-Schools in question – a familiar story
The 1980s began the “give ’em what they want” era of library collection development, when it became irredeemably elitist for librarians to think they occupy some kind of teaching role … Read more Brief note on libraries and elitism
More and more, I find that the library profession’s efforts to stay relevant in the age of information technology are in fact eroding our relevance. As a result of these … Read more Our niche and how to get back into it
If Library Juice Press were to set up a symposium for reflections on Jesse Shera’s 1972 book Foundations of Education for Librarianship, who would you like to see participating? The … Read more Question for readers