Month: July 2005

one link from a book

Posted on by jessamyn

My friend Matthew works in a bookstore and we talk about bookish things often. From my inbox: “So, we just got this silly book in at the store called “The Lazy Person’s Handbook: Shortcuts to Getting Everything You Want with the Least Possible Effort” [link]

Chapter two is “The Short Cut to Arriving at the Right Answer” – it consists of five successive steps (e.g. guess, process of elimination, google it, ask random folk, etc.) – but #5 is Ask a Librarian then they say:

‘When all else fails, turn to the information experts. Today’s librarians are not your parents’ librarians. They are highly trained information specialists, with wide-ranging knowledge of subject areas, information sources, & search tools.'”

I’m not sure if being low on the lazy list is better than being high on the lazy list, but I guess it’s an honor just to be nominated, huh?

The Case for Privatizing Public Libraries

Posted on by jessamyn

This is not my perspective at all, however I don’t think it’s tough to see where these people are coming from. I’m not sure if the linking to fee-based database articles locked behind a password entry page is intentional [see links under the words “been scandalous”] but it has an inadvertent side effect of driving home the opposing viewpoint: we learn and understand through free exchange of information. What that exchange is limited through fees, accessibility, or censorship, we all learn a little less. [thanks steven]

In case you thought it wasn’t happening – GLBT proscription

Posted on by jessamyn

The Left2Right blog discusses Hillsborough County [FL] and their legislation requiring that government agencies — including the West Gate library — “abstain from acknowledging, promoting, and participating in Gay Pride recognition and events”

[M]andated silence on the topic seems antithetical to what libraries are about. Libraries are for learning stuff, and displays don’t have to take sides. That’s why I say proponents and opponents of gay rights alike ought to agree that the county blew it, in a big, bad, awful way. The real divide here is between those fond of vibrant democratic debate and those opposed to it. So I’d let the library mount a display airing all sides of the dispute. Indeed, I’d encourage them to. Precisely because there is ongoing controversy about gay rights, and because we think (don’t we?) that both sides have legitimate views, no reasonable observer would take a library exhibit’s inclusion of critics of gay rights as silently scornful. The county’s measure makes it seem like they think the very topic of gay pride is unspeakable, indecent — something that must remain deeply closeted. That position, and not any measured view on gay marriage or civil unions or antidiscrimination laws, is reprehensible.

some ALA resolution information

Posted on by jessamyn

Rory includes the full text of the Iraq resolution that passed through ALA Council this past session. He’s also included the Resolution on Disinformation & Media Manipulation and the Destruction of Public Information and the Resolution on Threats to Library Materials Related to Sex, Gender Identity, or Sexual Orientation. Remember, ALA isn’t a legislative body and so these resolutions are, at best, statements of good intentions, position papers if you will. If any of these resolutions [and I’ll be trying to find the text of the rest of them this week] are applicable to your library situation, feel free to print them out and tell whoever needs to know “The largest library association in the world thinks this is important” James Casey who serves with me on Council and always distributed his post-Council reports widely, had this to say about the importance of wide-ranging resolutions.

Discussions were intense and substantive (most of the time), but there was a surprising tendency in this session for the Councilors not to worry about straying from “Library Issues”. In fact, I don’t recall hearing that term : “This is not a Library issue.” even once from the floor of Council during the whole of this Conference. There was a clearer connection in the minds of Councilors — at least in my own mind — how the manipulation, destruction and spinning of information can result in wars, ecological disasters and other calamities that were previously thought best to be left to the “experts” who supposedly run our government on our behalf. Librarians who believe in the value and importance of access to accurate and truthful information may come to view government actions predicated upon an endless tapestry of lies and misinformation, to be a matter relevant to their professional concerns. Instead of a “leftward tilt” on Council evident, I detected more of a realization that what you don’t know — or aren’t allowed to know — can literally kill you and a lot of other folks as well.