librarians trying to break Guinness Book’s read aloud record

Posted on by jessamyn

Librarians from Henderson District Public Libraries [NV] are trying to break the Guiness Book record for reading aloud right now. Their goal is 100 hours, thoroughly smashing the existing record of 81 hours and 15 minutes. Read their blog, see their Flickr pictures, learn more. From an email I got from them

We are sleep-deprived, punchy, and silly, but the Henderson staff and other libraries throughout the state seem to be getting a kick out of it.

Anyhow, this is the most bizarre thing I’ve done in the name of libraries and reading yet!

Oh, why are we doing this? We have recently purchased a bookmobile. We have gotten local corporate sponsors, and the money from that will go to our nascent outreach program. We are also highlighting literacy as well.

update: “Jessamyn West is excellent about posting bizarre crackpot stunts in the library world.” may have to be my new tagline

Clark Atlanta library school closes, follow-up meeting planned at ALA

Posted on by jessamyn

Clark Atlanta University School of Library and Information Studies graduated its last class of students and is now closed. The former library school is having a meeting at ALA Sunday, June 26, 2005, 5:30-7:30pm for people to talk about Clark Atlanta and discuss the school’s legacy. The Black Caucus of ALA has a bit more information. The loss of one of the only library schools at a traditionally black university is another blow against increasing diversity in the library profession. If you’re interested in this issue, you might want to keep an eye on Save Library & Information Studies. They’ve got a good collection of required reading and, it appears, a good designer. [thanks tim]

Radical Reference @ ALA

Posted on by jessamyn

Radical Reference is doing a bunch of things at ALA in Chicago. The Boston events that I went to were fun and low key and very welcoming to newcomers. If you’re interested in the work they do, swing by and say hello. I’ll be doing a short skillshare called “Oh No He Didn’t! Rumor Control As an Essential Part of Event Based Radical Reference” Monday the 27th at 2:30.

subversive gardening, or why wikis?

Posted on by jessamyn

A metaphor for wiki understanding: the community garden. If you’vbe got a little time to do some reading today, I’d dive into Luke’s article about Ranganathan, gardening and Wikipedia.

…there is no monolithic point of view, there is no monopoly on truth. From a critical perspective, if the object lesson centers around a Wikipedia article as the participants negotiate and carefully choose language to approximate NPOV (the Wikipedian “neutral point of view”), it’s going to be a pretty effective lesson, which will teach above all that no source — not even Wikipedia — should be taken on its own in constructing meaning. If, on the other hand, the questioning student is handed a Britannica article — equally anonymous but somehow anointed with some magical pixie-dust librarians call “authority” but fail to satisfactorily explain to anyone outside the profession — the lesson will fail (again, from a critical pedagogical perspective, at least).