I’ve paid particular attention to obituaries since finishing Marilyn Johnson’s excellent book Dead Beat. There are some great librarian obituaries; a life of pulbic service seems to lend itself to this. A local librarian pal pointed this one out to me and I thought it was worth sharing: Brenda Moon: University librarian who had a clear vision of the transformative effects of digitisation, here is a personal rememberance of Ms. Moon at The Guardian. [thanks Barbara!]
Category: librarians
two slightly random-seeming UW libgrad spottings
Some of you may know that I went to the University of Washington at a point where it was “between deans” and well before it was an ischool. I thought I got a good education there. Every now and again I run into a former classmate doing something nifty. This weekend I tripped over two of them and I thought you might find this as interesting as I did.
- Christopher Platt who spent some time at NYPL and then at Baker and Taylor and is now back at NYPL as director of collections and circulation and is quoted [along with perrennial librarian.net favorite Eli Neiburger] in this NPR story about the future of libraries and ebooks. Notable quote: The HarperCollins limit isn’t going to stick. I agree.
- My friend and volleyball buddy Diana Inch, now a high school librarian in Salem Oregon, won $5,000 from Yahoo for being the only one of three million entrants to correctly pick the Final Four teams in the NCAA basketball tournament. Here’s a photo of her and here’s a short interview.
Australian librarians and their copyright dance – puttin’ on the writs
Video of staff from the National Library of Australia performing at their 2010 Christmas party. Fun! [thanks iain!]
Morris Cohen – spitfire legal librarian, RIP
I first became aware of Morris Cohen because he has the same name as my grandfather only spelled slightly differently. We exchanged emails a few times and I finally met him at Yale when I was in town for the Reblaw conference. He went out of his way to find a time we could have coffee and chitchat about quasi-radical librarianship and he made an impression on me as both a deeply principled and interesting person as well as someone who cared about mentoring and passing on his legacy. I was saddened to learn of his passing this week. There are good obituaries available at the New York Times and Library Journal.
She Was A Booklegger: Remembering Celeste West at Bitch Magazine
Bitch magazine has a lending library in Portland Oregon. The library has a blog and they would like your zine donations. They make posts about books in their collection and today’s post is about Celeste West and a new book out on Library Juice Press celebrating her life. [via]
She Was A Booklegger: Remembering Celeste West is a collection of essays, excerpts, and photos that attempt to capture the spirit of Celeste West, a woman whose influence on feminist librarianship, publishing, journalism, and activism was monumental. After West passed away in 2008, a few friends and admirers (Toni Samek, Moyra Lang, and K.R. Roberto) decided to embark on a project that would honor West’s work and life. This book, which acts as a comprehensive and compassionate obituary, was the result.