![[information springs from everyplace!]](http://www.librarian.net/pics/springlib.gif)
Hi. I did a little email interview for BUST Magazine that will be coming out sometime soonish. Please come and see me at ALA in a few weeks if you're going to be in San Diego. In the meantime, please carry your reference materials prominently no matter what the FBI might think.
![[link to it]](http://www.librarian.net/pics/linktoit.gif)
30Dec03hi How far should libraries go to accomodate patrons who are "leaving text behind" Should we be spending 20% of our acquisitions budget on DVDs? Some very interesting numbers at the end of this article. [thanks tammi]
Pennsylvania was the state that had the first lending library in the US and now its public library system ranks 40th in the nation... and this is an improvement over a few years ago, apparently. [thanks stessa]
Laura Bush the First Lady & former librarian trails way behind Hillary Clinton, former First Lady and current US Senator, in the recent most admired women poll.
If it's a slow work week, go check out the long article over at Library Juice entitled "A Librarian's Work." A great view of the profession from way back in the 1870's.
Bizarre gift item: Library of Congress baseball from the LoC's Yahoo storefront. "Had Mr. Jefferson not been born long before the game of baseball was invented, this is the ball he would have had in his collection!"
28Dec03hi Hi. I hope you had a wonderful holiday in whatever way you chose to celebrate it. Remember the days are just going to get longer and longer even as -- in Vermont anyhow -- the nights continue to get colder.
I joke that there are 300 santas in my house thanks to my decorating-fanatic landlady. This is nothing compared to this Knoxville librarian.
Librarian finds smallpox scabs in 19th century book about the Civil War.
I have been working on a library website redesign lately at work. It's different designing for a more rural and less online population. You need to underline links and have much clearer navigation than you would in, say, Seattle. I have been reading up on the habits of the barely-online. In 2000, half of all adults in the US were not online. As of this month, that number is now 63%.
22Dec03hi Hi. I have gotten many emails over the last week or so clearly in response to Nat Hentoff's columns in the Village Voice which have recently been about ALA's silence on the Cuban "independent librarian" issue. My basic response has been that ALA does nothing without consulting its members and the next chance to do that will be at the Midwinter meeting in the second week of January. ALA Council has been discussing the issue and I would not be surprised if there were a resolution passed about the issue. I think calling the ALA names because they are slow-moving and have not made this a top priority issue in a year that gave us CIPA and PATRIOT II may be a good way to get a lot of press but is not the most effective way of dealing with this extremely controversial issue.
Naked corporate librarian. [nsfw, thanks tom]
One sexy librarian tells her secrets for arranging rendezvous with patrons in the sultry stacks. [nsfw]
19Dec03rarely do I brag, but.... Hi. I try not to brag too much here, but I think it really is neat that I have my own Google/dmoz category.
18Dec03elvis goofiness Librarians apparently don't go in for that sweat-soaked rag toss. Sorry Elvis. [thanks allen]
If you like goofy flash animation, click on "librarian". [thanks simon]
Man lives in house made of wooden books. [thanks sara]
The FCC has made some changes to the e-rate program to prohibit schools from buying computers cheaply and selling them to wealthier schools to make a profit. You can read about it on their website but you'll need Word or Acrobat.
In which the blogger discusses the [potential] dangers of abstracting while drunk.
Searching for more on drunken abstracting led me to this strange blog. Who knows what it might have been?
Chief Librarian Barnius may look familiar to some.
More on the drunken librarian meme.
I got the ‘eureka’ moment that there might be hot guys at this party. Yeah, I was already fucked up. Hot guys at a library party? Sure. That could happen. It’s almost as likely as Marcus Schenkenberg and Tyson Beckford showing up at a Star Trek convention. But in my drunken mind, it seemed like a possibility.
17Dec03hi Hi. I've been having a bit of trouble with my Movable Type install which means that posting has been troublesome and slowish. I'm working it out this week but updates may be sporadic. Plus the holdays and all....
You mean I may be able to search inside the book without having to have all those soul-searching discussions about how sucky Amazon is and how maybe my library should be more like them anyhow....? Google beta-tests inside the book searching.
15Dec03hi Hi. I had to stay home from work today because of a crazy snowstorm. I dislike staying home from work so I did workish things here -- dealt with my work budget, looked at the website I am working on from a lot of different browsers, messed with this site. I got the bad news from our OPAC provider at work. They do not support Netscape. This was their response when I pointed out a really egregious formatting error that I had gotten when doing a routine query. Problem solved on their end, I guess "Oh, we don't support that." I wonder what other browsers they don't support? Probably all of them except Internet Explorer So, I may not be able to change what is already broken at my library, but I've been looking into Open Source systems again. LISnews had a link to a very informative pdf HOWTO discussing how to distribute Open Source software CD's in your library.
In another somewhat strange library altercation, man with assistance dog is allowed to proceed with his lawsuit against the library because the library cat [now deceased] scratched his dog. You remember the lawsuit right? Well it's going ahead as scheduled. [thanks eric]
"Perhaps [librarians] would have been more at home with a portrait of Lucifer?" Slight overreaction from the president of the Catholic League from librarians' decision to remove some, but not all, depictions of Jesus from a library art exhibit. The library stands by its decision, but ALA-OIF says the library policy doesn't make sense. [thanks Natalia]
One of the nicest online collections I've seen, and seasonlly appropriate: the photographs of Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley at the Schwerdtfeger Library at UW. [thanks rebecca]
New York City is voting on their anti-PATRIOT Act resolution today. Hopefully we'll have good news tomorrow.
A few little birds have told me that it's calendar time again this year. In this one, librarians pose naked for charity. Maybe American libraries will start doing this as a way to raise funds for their own libraries.[thanks all]
Do you think you'd really like it if your library were more like Amazon.com?[thanks rus]
Tough decisions with falling stock prices. Do you sell the nice books to fix the library? The library director of the Providence Athenaeum didn't think so, he's resigned and the debate is growing ugly.
New York City is voting on their anti-PATRIOT Act resolution today. Hopefully we'll have good news tomorrow.
13Dec03sane advice Just in case you were curious, ALA gives some advice about the CIPA-legality of various types of filter disabling.
12Dec03new blogerrific features on liscareers.com Liscareer.com is adding a commenting feature tho their newly added article. All the articles added in December 2003 -- such as this one on mentoring -- give readers the ability to comment on the articles.
When I talk about library action figures, I usually try to bring up Super Librarian, the mascot of New Jersey's libraries. Check out the new video on that page. [thanks dan]
Jay Dougherty reviews Revolting Librarians Redux and seems to like it!
9Dec03why hate library weblogs? well let nanette tell you why. Nanette hates library weblogs [except this one, and a few others] for some good reasons.
Still reading the Bookslut Interview with me done by Michael Farrely. Just noticed that bookslut and book lust [Nancy Pearl's book] are anagrams. Maybe I'll call my memoirs BooKults.
And congrats to ALA President Carla Hayden on being named one of Ms Magazines ten Women of the Year
I know this casting call doesn't say "librarians" anyplace but the person who sent me the link assures me they are looking for librarians. This despite protestations by me and ALA staffers that since librarians have master's degrees, they are tough [though not impossible] to find in the 19-25 age range.
7Dec03hi Hi. I have updated my ALA schedule to include my book signing on Sunday at 12:30 or 1. McFarland assures me they will have more than six books. Also changed the NY Times login link to the left. I will no longer be supporting librarian.net logins to the NYTimes though I will try to offer working links instead.
Marylaine celebrates her 200th issue of Ex Libris and invites readers to share with her what they think about it. Drop her a note, will you?
One Vermont library is considering their role in the community and asking residents how they see the library fitting in. The VT Department of Libraries [just look at that web site, will you] is playing a shrinking role as a provider of regional library services, yet many towns in Vermont [including mine] still have no library. When there is a library it is generally funded by foundations and town allotments, which can make funding erratic at best and non-existent at worst.
I am joining Karen Schneider in shaking my head at the lack of wireless access at ALA's Midwinter conference.
The Shifted Librarian finds IE plug-ins for searching library catalogs.
From the "liner notes": Ever wonder what librarians do after hours when they remove their glasses, lose the orthopedic shoes and let their hair hang down? Do you think librarians fuck?? The always innovative Jim Holliday offers MIDNIGHT LIBRARIANS - a past, present and future time capsule into this previously unexplored porn area. [nsfw]
Finally, a merger you can feel good about Rachel from lisjobs.com and Sarah from Library Job Postings on the Internet have combined forces and combined their jobs postings which are searchable and have an RSS feed.
4Dec03hi Hi. It seems like in response to my plaintive yowling the ALA voice mail system is now a) in order and b) includes all the numbers. If I achieve only one thing in my three year tenure as an ALA Councilor, it would be okay if this were it.
I'm sort of happy I don't really understand what is going on in these pictures. Just a bunch of girls in a library, fully dressed. Perfectly normal, right? [thanks edlef]
Vancouver Public Library, one of my favorite Big Beautiful Libraries [with a kickass website], but one with a severe budget shortfall, is finally getting the funding to not have to close for a week in the summer, and expand hours.[thanks andrew]
Once more with the librarian who was also an S/M dom, had a website, had her contract "not renewed" in the small town she worked in. Here's an absolutely fascinating transcript of the board meeting where this issue was discussed. Of particular note is a defense of the librarian by her own sister. I've pulled some good bits for quotes but it's really worth reading the whole thing.
"we have a lady ... public domain with a website. Anybody could access it. So we have a lady who has gone public domain with her beliefs.... if she’s gone pubic already, why would she not go public in her workplace, in a place like a library. That’s a trust issue that people are concerned with. If she’s gone public, and obviously she has, why would she stop at the workplace.
"We’re trying to protect them from simple spankings and stuff like this, and yet these things are okay for adults? I can’t stand the thought of it. I don’t care if it’s behind closed doors. If they think it’s okay for them that’s fine, but I just can’t stand the thought that you can say…it’s a double standard. It’s just wrong."
"It’s very easy to discriminate against something and somebody else when you can look at them, when you can see what they’re doing. That’s one reason I’m so tolerant. I don’t give a ____ if she has these problems. I don’t care if she’s put it out in the public. If you’re worried about your kids reading this, then you can look after them. That’s what parents are really supposed to do. That is our job."
"It’s not that I think it makes the woman a bad person. What anyone does privately is strictly their own - the fact that she made this a non-private issue by having a website. I don’t think anyone here thinks this makes her a bad person, it’s just how it affects the library."
[thanks jason]
"We’re trying to protect them from simple spankings and stuff like this, and yet these things are okay for adults? I can’t stand the thought of it. I don’t care if it’s behind closed doors. If they think it’s okay for them that’s fine, but I just can’t stand the thought that you can say…it’s a double standard. It’s just wrong."
"It’s very easy to discriminate against something and somebody else when you can look at them, when you can see what they’re doing. That’s one reason I’m so tolerant. I don’t give a ____ if she has these problems. I don’t care if she’s put it out in the public. If you’re worried about your kids reading this, then you can look after them. That’s what parents are really supposed to do. That is our job."
"It’s not that I think it makes the woman a bad person. What anyone does privately is strictly their own - the fact that she made this a non-private issue by having a website. I don’t think anyone here thinks this makes her a bad person, it’s just how it affects the library."
[thanks jason]
2Dec03hi Did I ever mention that I am now a member of AFSCME? They take $6 a week and in return I get to agitate for things like Professional Days when I go to ALA. It's an okay trade off. I am well-compensated. Things in King County aren't going as well, the administration is stalling the procdess of getting newly-unionized workers their first contract. [thanks bill]
Speaking of job security, the librarian who had a website advertising her S/M services has not had her contract renewed. [thanks jemmy]
Beyond the Job: a new worthwhile blog for information professionals. Good stuff here already, go see. From your favorite career advisors Sarah Johnson and Rachel Singer Gordon.
Short article about using the census data to help plan services for your library. I was really sort of astounded when I did our community analysis that there were almost no people in our service area who don't speak English. I sort of assumed that as a default, you should pay attetnion to diferent cultural and language groups when plannign services. The sad fact about Vermont, or at least where I live, is that it can be pretty ethnically homogenous, even if there are still wide cultural and class differences. [thanks mac]
1Dec03hi Hi. This year like many years past I am observing World AIDS Day. Please go see what lii.org has to offer in this category and spend a little time familiarizing yourself with this deadly pandemic which has not gone away.
Here is a list of online libraries and archives dealing with HIV/AIDS information.
The Rural AIDS Action Network in Minnesota is launching a Libraries Fight HIV/AIDS campaign in partnership with the MLA today.
Many libraries are hosting exhibits or events for World AIDS Day including: The National Library of Trinidad & Tobago, the Salt Lake City public library, the Maine College of Art library, the Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro Vermont, Novato Public Library in Marin County and the Ames Public Library in Iowa.
And, as some worthwhile related reading if you're not too up on the gay library subculture: "They Sure Got to Prove It on Me": Millennial
Thoughts on Gay Archives, Gay Biography, and
Gay Library History by James Carmichael from Libraries and Culture.
Without putting too fine a point on recent findings that suggest
that, even in urban collections, gay literature and gay studies have
received uneven treatment or recent evidence of a backlash against
social responsibilities as a part of the librarian mandate, it is probably no
exaggeration to claim that gay studies have progressed in spite of librarianship
as well as because of it. [pdf]
A South African library association's newsletter asks if librarians are doing enough about the HIV/AIDS pandemic. [pdf]
NYPL does HIV/AIDS technology training workshops at their libraries and have a helpful PDF pathfinder [also in Spanish] for finding AIDS/HIV information online.