Kathleen de la Peña McCook just pointed me to a very interesting Master’s Thesis by Carla Valetich: The Response of Socially Aware Librarians to National Crisis: A Case Study of … Read more The Response of Socially Aware Librarians to National Crisis…
First of all, this post is inspired by a new Facebook group called “Zero Based Library School,” which derives from an analogy to Zero Based Budgeting, where nothing is carried … Read more A note on library “traditionalism”
Readers who speak French, you probably already know you are favored here. So for your special benefit, here is a link to a very enjoyable podcast from the radio show … Read more French podcast on libraries
I love that CAKE song, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifestyle,” and thought of it during that thread on “A Hipper Crowd of Shushers.” Liz of the LibraryTavern blog wrote great new … Read more How do you afford your 2.0 biblio-lifestyle?
I was tickled to see today’s NY Times article in the Fashion section, “A Hipper Crowd of Shushers,” about how hip and cool younger librarians are now, in contrast to … Read more The judgment of taste and the “hipper crowd of shushers”
Monika Antonelli is developing what I think is an important new conceptual direction for libraries, on the basis of ideas from the permaculture movement. She has just started a website, … Read more Green Libraries
New essay by Thomas Mann, “The Peloponnesian War and the Future of Reference, Cataloging, and Scholarship in Research Libraries” (June 13, 2007). PDF, 41 pp. ABSTRACT: The paper is an … Read more Thomas Mann’s new one
Tracy Nectoux, a library student at UIUC, is taking a class whose students were assigned to visit a bookstore and compare the atmosphere to a library’s atmosphere. This is what … Read more Tracy Nectoux on Libraries versus Bookstores
Arch Conservative Bush advisor Grover Norquist has been pushing the “Starve the Beast” strategy for a long time. This is the strategy that says run up a huge budget debt … Read more Savanna River Ecology Laboratory closing, thanks to Bush Administration small-esse
Steven Bell has an article in the current Inside Higher Ed, entitled, “Good at Reviewing Books But Not Each Other,” about the major disfunctionality in LIS discourse: our excessive “niceness” … Read more Steven Bell tough on LIS discourse in Inside Higher Ed
Paul Catherall of Information for Social Change has created a Google-based web search that searches websites from the international library left. Try the Radical and Progressive Library and Information Site … Read more Radical and Progressive Library and Information Site Search
Continuing in a self-congratulatory mode, I am proud to announce that I have joined the editorial board of Information for Social Change, the UK-based collective and semi-annual journal. ISC is … Read more Rory Litwin joins ISC editorial board
Kathleen de la Peña McCook has just received the Florida Library Association Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is presented to a librarian whose distinguished record of professional achievements and accomplishments … Read more Kathleen de la Peña McCook wins Florida Library Association Lifetime Achievement Award
Anti-intellectualism must be at its peak. Nerdy glasses are in fashion; I hope they promise a recovery of intellectual values in the post-Bush years. Regarding the thinking of anti-intellectuals… They … Read more Brief observation about anti-intellectualism
Text from the ALA campaign for this legislation: Next week, to celebrate National Library Week, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) plans to introduce the Librarian Act of 2007. The Librarian Act … Read more The Librarian Act of 2007
Tom Englehardt (Tomdispatch.com) has posted an article by Chip Ward about the homeless problem and libraries. Chip Ward is the retired director of the Salt Lake City Public Library. (Is … Read more Chip Ward on homeless people and libraries
Regarding the Facebook group, No, I don’t look like a librarian!…. Yes, you do look like a librarian! I am not joining the group – because I think really I … Read more Yes, you do look like a librarian!
The Globe-Wernicke Vertical File
I think we will be hearing this idea increasingly over the coming years, that the library listserv should go, and we should switch to web-based forums with RSS-type updates instead. … Read more Voices calling for an end to the library listserv
I am going to take another stab at outlining my views on “library and non-library issues.” Last time I did it I was sloppy in the way that I stated … Read more Library and non-library issues