Librarians talking about ALA Annual 2014

I am really excited about the American Library Association's annual conference this year! And so are these fine people! Annual conferences are always super rewarding, and there are so many reasons to make your way there--one being that the fantastic Kyle Cassidy (whose librarian photos can also be found on Slate) will be there to take pictures of any and all who would like to share with others.

Erin Berman

Courtney Young

Yours truly

Ingrid Abrams

Mel Gooch

Leigh Milligan

Sarah Levin

Lalitha Nataraj

If you are going, let's meet! Let's talk about libraries, literacy, youth advocacy, technology, comic books, reference, whatever! And I bet the same goes for most you'll meet at the conference. Oh, and pro-tip: if it's your first time, find some New Member Round Table meetings--I've been going for a few years, and I still learn a lot from NMRT meetings and socials! And, with full transparency as I am a member, don't forget to come by ALAPlay!

A brief review of the American Library Association Mid-winter 2014 Conference

I have been waiting on this post. Initially, I had intended to blog from the conference itself (which turned out to be pretty unrealistic for this humble blogger) and then to write immediately upon returning; somewhere there is a draft which is really more of a list--events, sessions, etc. And while this may be interesting to some, it obfuscates the most important lesson I took home (and no, it had nothing to do with better shoes for polar vortices--though I did overpack--in cold weather just bring warm shoes and leave it at that).

from the Latvian Society of Pennsylvania.
EveryLibrary / Mango Afterhours Film Fest

 For transparency's sake, I am a member of LITA, YALSA, AASL, GamesRT, and the New Members Round Table--which means there are usually multiple simultaneous sessions which I find interesting; there were award ceremonies and free books (thanks YALSA!), great discussions around gender and technology, work which was accomplished, and plenty of social events. Which brings me to the idea I wish to promote. In previous years, I have attended conferences, listened to really smart people, and have brought some of that experience and learning back to my community (I work at a independent high school). But thus far, I have been really more of a consumer, or, perhaps better, a messenger: I receive ideas, contain them, and ferry them back to my library.

This year, I decided to dip my toes into getting involved. And it could not have been a better choice! I wish I had done so sooner! I learned so much about the structure of ALA by attending the New Members Round Table; was excited to help plan events for the annual in Las Vegas, and was stoked to help work on a beginning stage of a youth advocacy packet with YALSA. Not only that, but attending library-related social events meant that I could meet so many interesting people who were just as interested as I am in similar things--everything from a Tublarian meet-up to a YA librarian social at the Mutter Museum to dinner with friends at great restaurants.


ALA's next conference is in Las Vegas, and if you're an information professional, not only do I think you should go, but I think you should get involved! People want to hear you, want to talk with you, and want to share ideas with you--you just have to start a conversation. And if you're going to the summer conference, let's talk!

Banned Books Week 2013

September 22 began Banned Books Week--seven days when libraries and educators encourage everyone to consider the history and effects of censorship. Librarians are a varied group of people--they have different belief systems and different politics; yet, did you know that American librarians subscribe to an ethical code? Right?! Number two on that list reads, "We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources."  Yet the question still remains, "Why?" I mean shouldn't some materials be censored? Aren't some books* dangerous?

Well, yes; ideas are dangerous, just as they are vital, challenging, and absolutely necessary. Censorship is so offensive because at it's center it is dehumanizing. It makes that assumption that the reader does not have the intellectual capacity to disagree with an opinion, or to recognize the difference between written narratives and the realities of his or her life. Censorship is also dehumanizing to the censor as it limits one of humans' greatest strengths: communication. No longer can the censor have a conversation with another as that information has been removed from the dialogue entirely. Being human is to swim in a world of ideas and communicate those in order to learn more about the world.

Banned Books Week on Twitter

We must accept the responsibilities posed by education, by knowledge, and by wisdom. If we are lucky enough to have free access to information, then I think we must also take responsibility for our communities, and for making sure that freedom of information is played forward to others. Kurt Vonnegut once stated that, "Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad." Wisdom is gained through experience and dialogue and sometimes, if we are lucky, through observation (either of real people and situations or those found in books and movies). (To take a look at some other literary greats' thoughts on censorship, take a look here.) So this is a good week to go visit your local library! Check out a banned book!

---

*And let's not get started about comics! The Comic Code Authority came about mostly thanks to this guy, and we've felt the impact ever since. Comics are some of the least recognized, but most often challenged and banned books. Luckily we have the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund today and they are totally worth checking out.

Interesting story on librarians' tough decisions...

It's a tough reality that librarians have to weed collections--that means getting rid of books. Sometimes there are books sales, sometimes donations, and sometimes straight-up destruction. If this is something you find interesting, you may want to take a look at Libraries Really Do Destroy Books over at NPR.org

Three of my favorite things! Poems, indices, comics together in one post

Never have I had the pleasure of labeling a post with three of my favorites: poetry, libraries, and comics. Yet thanks to Eric Baus, I can do so today. Eric's post at Jacket2 "...explores the poem as index, bibliography, catalog, or otherwise arranged list."

Of specific interest, Eric writes:

I am interested in what the arrangement and interplay between selected materials suggests as well as how indexical forms often point to the hidden, the unacknowledged, the invisible, the partial.

This is a topic that fascinates me as well. I am curious about syndetic structures. What rules act as their structure, what atypical forms might an index utilize and how might one use this creatively, and how do they look when they are evolved/automated as with somefolksonomies? These are just some ideas to play with you listen though the post, which can be read here:

https://jacket2.org/commentary/back

If you have patiently read thus far wondering when the comic angle was going to appear, then, first, thank you, and second, be sure to scroll down to Alice Notley's recorded poem which uses comic book titles to exist as both the poem and non-alphabetized concordance. Mar-vell-ous!

Banned Book Week

This week, and until October 2, is Banned Books Week! I'm not going get on my pedestal too much here, but obviously it's pretty damn stupid to allow one group to tell another what they are allowed to read (if, for some, another type of rhetoric is more helpful, we can call this type of censorship Un-American. See? There's the librarianesque preference for "yes, and" rather than "no, but").



In any case, books get challenged all the time all over the place (check out the map linked below), and it's my job, and yours, to advocate for our freedom to read whatever we choose and for libraries to carry what their varied communities want. I've yet to meet anyone who has admitted to challenging a book, probably because deep down they know it's a jack move. With that, remember: you can call their bluff, and shame them into reconsideration.

Check out the links below for other Banned Book Week resources:

• 
  Map of Censored Books
  


• 
  Voice of Youth Advocates Banned Book Page
  


• 
  American Library Association of America's Most Often Challenged Books of the Century
  

Librarians do rock.

Thanks Wired for posting this and thank you Central Rappahannock Regional Librarians for making librarianship a little more awesome.

Libraries!!!

Thanks Nedroid!

for those interested in martial arts and librarianship...

...just discovered that bojutsu has its own classification in the Dewey Decimal System: 796.86.

Specifically:

.86 : Fencing

Including bojutsu, kendo

Class here sword fighting.

Awesome (though I am a little sad to see it under 796, which is "Athletic and outdoor sports and games").

Awful library books...

Can be seen here: http://awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/.

This site is awesome--from crazy old Satanist scare books from the 80s and 90s to how to jump start excitement with Tape Recording. Really, it's worth checking out!



See why weeding really can be fun!

Punk Passage at San Francisco Public Library

For those interested in punk rock, San Francisco, and photography, the SF public library will be hosting Punk Passage, an exhibit on the SF punk scene from 1977-1981. Included are photos from shows, posters and fliers, video footage, and other ephemera. Also of interest: tomorrow, Tuesday 9/17, there will be a panel discussion with band Queer Punk, and how being Queer influenced their music and their memories of the original SF punk scene. The exhibit runs through December 6. Read more at: http://sfpl.lib.ca.us/news/exhibitions.htm.

"The photographs represent some of San Francisco’s contribution to the international punk movement. The message is unabashed individualism, creativity, do-it-yourself activism and black humor. Bands such as The Avengers, the Dead Kennedys, the Dils, Crime, Sleepers, the Mutants and others are represented, placing them within the historic context as an important part of San Francisco’s counter-cultural history, as innovative for its time as the beat and hippie movements were."

Public Libraries and Provocateurs

Reposted from the September 19, 2009 San Francisco Chronicle article the "Public Option" by M.C. Blakeman:


Of all the current assaults on our noble republic, perhaps none is more dangerous than the public option - specifically, the public library option.

For far too long, this menace has undermined the very foundations of our economy. While companies like Amazon and Barnes & Noble struggle valiantlyeach day to sell books, these communistic cabals known as libraries undercut the hard work of good corporate citizens by letting people read their books for free. How is the private sector supposed to compete with free? And just what does this public option give us? People can spend hours and hours in these dens of socialism without having to buy so much as a cappuccino.

Furthermore, not only can anyone read books for free in the library, they can take them home, too. They get a simple card that can be used at any library in town. No checking on the previous condition of books they've read. No literacy test. Nothing. Yet, do these libertines of literature let you choose any book you want, anytime you want it? No. Have you ever tried to get the latest best-seller at a public library? They put you on a waiting list for that, my friend. And if you do ask these government apparatchiks a question about a book, they start talking your ear off, and pretty soon they're telling you what to read.

Of course, if you break one of their petty rules and return a book late, you have to pay fines that mount grotesquely each day. Even if you die, your overdue fees keep piling up. Is that not a death tax? How long must the elderly live in fear of burdening their children with these unfair sanctions on their estates?

Don't be fooled for a minute. Somebody has to pay for these "free" libraries, and I'll tell you who it is, pal. Those good ol' suckers, the
American taxpayers, that's who.

Have you ever wondered who's really behind this public library option?
And don't you think it's fishy that they mask their nefarious activities with benign-sounding names, like Friends of the Library? What's their real agenda - and why do they have so many "volunteer" meetings, anyway?

No, my fellow Americans. We cannot wait until we're all goose-stepped into a massive book checkout line. This assault on capitalism and our very way of life has got to end. Be subversive ... burn your library card! Go out and buy a book!

...

Friends, if this made you mad, then you definitely need to read this.

Y'all know that I love technology, but this is heart-breakingingly...

...dumb. And sad.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/04/a_library_without_the_books/

James Tracy, Headmaster of Cushing Academy says, “When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ and has successfully pushed for a book-less library. *sigh*

And one more quote from the article--this time one I agree with:
"William Powers, author of a forthcoming book based on a paper he published at Harvard called Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal, called the changes at Cushing 'radical' and 'a tremendous loss for students.'

'There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only available from actual books,’ he said. 'There is a kind of deep-dive, meditative reading that’s almost impossible to do on a screen. Without books, students are more likely to do the grazing or quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author’s ideas.'"

And what about the simple arithmetic of constantly changing technology? With a library with books, once a book is bought it can be used until the contents are no longer relevant; that's a pretty long shelf-life! With a room full of kindles and laptops (which are perfectly wonderful tools in addition to books) what happens when these machines are no longer a supported format and the library cannot afford to purchase another $15,000 to $50,000 worth of new hardware?

Well, it's a first--I'll give Cushing that.