I’m not a gamer, or a parent or roommate of a gamer, so I’ve been only lightly scanning the gaming in libraries discussions that have been going around. However, reading Jenny’s recent [and popular] post about a gaming conference she went to, made me think more about games. Her phrase “embedded librarian” — though maybe a bit too reminiscent of wartime endeavors — definitely piqued my interest. It’s a concept that is applicable to many sorts of “outside the box” librarianship, from Radical Reference to freelance information brokers to simple “outside the building” outreach initiatives. My assertion has always been that everyone has a use for their own librarian from time to time. I have even been known, after solving particularly vexing information problems in my day to day life, to say “Who’s your librarian? I am right? A librarian solved that problem for you” I’m sure it makes me somewhat insufferable, but to keep the profession alive, we’ve all got to be poster children for the things we do, at work or elsewhere.
Author: jessamyn
the librarian shortage in the US and abroad
More on the librarian shortage. Remember, just because librarians are retiring doesn’t mean new ones will get jobs. A great article and post by one of my favorite Australian library bloggers whose Exploded Library blog is now going to be archived by the PANDORA project of the National Library of Australia.
a few ALA wrap-ups
I finally made it back to my house after an extended trip home [extra time in airports, extra time in Boston, extra time on the bus] and it’s great to be here. I felt that this was one of my most productive conferences yet, even though it was a bit lacking in the “seeing all the friends I don’t see often enough” scale. I’m still putting together a wrap up, but in the meantime, feel free to read the ones I’ve found online:
- Pink Sneakers blog
- Karen’s LITA Councilors report
- Rochelle’s Council wrap-up from which I will pull this list of notable resolutions and add one that was important to me at the end
- Resolution in Suport of Immigrants Rights to Free Public Library Access
- Resolution on Disinformation, Media Manipulation & the Destruction of Public Information
- Resolution on the Connection between the Iraq War and Libraries
- Resolution on Threats to Library Materials Related to Sex, Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation
- Resolution on Support for Community Broadband Initiatives [paraphrased for now]
- Some official numbers from ALA, record-breaking attendance.
gorman, coda
Incoming ALA President Michael Gorman’s last line in his [brief] inaugural address: “My completed remarks will be on my blog in the morning.” Classic.
later days of ALA
I’m working on a longer report about Council and Membership meetings, but for now, here are some things you can go look at.
- My conference pictures on Flickr & other conference pix on Flickr
- My notes for my skillshare on rumor control are online in slightly unconventional format. It was fun to have people walk by the Counterpoise booth and see a bunch of people sitting on the floor and say “wow, that looks interesting” and stay.
- Photos of the blogger get together or, as I like to call it The Steven Cohen Experience are here
- ALA launched another rss feed for their press releases. You can see it right on the main page
- Thanks to all who came to the membership meetings. It was really gratifying to see a quorum and see some business get done there.
- Jenny gave me a poster that came from a part of this session she went to. Interesting conclusions gained from interesting premises. They manage to say both that books aren’t going away, but that traditional libraries will. If you plan for this and don’t just fight it, you can go some interesting places. Read more.
- Andrea uploaded some video clips from the Obama speech to the PLABlog