Librarians

Library freedom, free speech and the freedom to tinker

Submitted by Blake on February 11, 2016 - 6:17pm

But, we’re not as great at dealing with our patrons’ digital interactions. We’re not as great at making sure their web transactions are secure, we’re not as great at making sure their wifi transactions are secure, that they can browse the internet securely. And so there’s this awesome project called the Library Freedom Project, which is all about raising awareness about that issue, number one, but number two actually giving libraries the tools that they need in order to do this. I mean we’re a democracy and so part of that is that everybody is equal to every other person. And you deserve, you know, the same rights to life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, that kind of thing, as everybody else gets. But in reality we’re a very tiered system where people who are more rich or more powerful have access to more and better services, more and better access to things, to tools, to jobs — as well, to obscure stuff like privacy.

From Library freedom, free speech and the freedom to tinker — Medium

Topic: 
Librarians

‘Master of the River’: A 71-year-old librarian’s 15 years of water commutes

Submitted by Blake on February 9, 2016 - 11:00am

Today, the head of the law cataloguing section of the Library of Congress has retirement on his mind. Later this month , he’ll leave his job managing the inflow of 20,000 books annually, and his more than a decade of cross-river commutes will cease.

From his home in Cheverly, he embarks on a 15-minute bike ride to Bladensburg Waterfront Park. There, he climbs into his fiberglass rowing shell, which he navigates about five miles downriver to the Anacostia Community Boathouse. At the boathouse he climbs onto another bike, whisking through downtown Washington and arriving at the Library of Congress about 90 minutes after leaving home.

From ‘Master of the River’: A 71-year-old librarian’s 15 years of water commutes - The Washington Post

Topic: 
Librarians

Meme Librarian for Tumblr

Submitted by birdie on December 23, 2015 - 12:49pm

Amanda Brennan is a librarian for the Internet. Her career in meme librarianism began in graduate school at Rutgers, where she received a master’s in library science.

But instead of heading to a brick-and-mortar library, Brennan continued documenting online phenomena at Know Your Meme and then at Tumblr, where she solidified her profession as information desk for doge, mmm whatcha say and the other viral Internet sensations in need of classification, categorization and preservation.

Here's the meme-ish story from the Washington Post.

Topic: 
Internet
Librarians
Social Networking

Bringing libraries closer to Wikipedia: Merrilee Proffitt

Submitted by Blake on December 21, 2015 - 1:56pm

Merrilee Proffitt (Merrilee) is on a mission to bring American librarians closer to Wikipedia—a group she think is hesitant towards the idea of a community edited encyclopedia.

From Bringing libraries closer to Wikipedia: Merrilee Proffitt « Wikimedia blog

Topic: 
Librarians

Librarians take legal battle against library closures to government

Submitted by Blake on December 17, 2015 - 8:37pm

“We’ve had enough. We’ve marked our line in the sand here. The government is behaving as if it doesn’t have a duty of care and they do, under the law. We think it’s time to be clear about what that means,” said Nick Poole, the chief executive of Cilip, after it was announced that more than 100 library branches were shut last year, and as further branches up and down the UK face closure.

From Librarians take legal battle against library closures to government | Books | The Guardian

Topic: 
Librarians
Libraries

Looking Back: the biggest changes in Librarianship this year

Submitted by Blake on December 15, 2015 - 9:44am

As we approach the end of 2015, we asked our Library book series editors Paul T. Jaeger, John Carlo Bertot and Samantha Hines to summarize the biggest changes in Librarianship this year and what they predict to be the main changes during 2016.

From Emerald | Looking Back, Looking Ahead with Jaeger, Bertot and Hines

Topic: 
Librarians

Video of Josh Hanagame of the Salt Lake City Library

Submitted by birdie on December 15, 2015 - 9:40am

KUER's VideoWest/RadioWest's intro to the video Ties the Room Together. "Josh Hanagarne is a writer and a librarian in Salt Lake City who's written beautifully about his experiences with Tourette syndrome. We had him on RadioWest to talk about his 2013 book The World's Strongest Librarian. We want to thank Josh for letting us tag along and pry into his life."

Here's a photo of Josh holding an "In My Book, you're quite a character" card in the beautiful SLCPL .

Shipping is free during December, visit www.inmybook.com for more details.

Topic: 
Librarians
People N Patrons
Public Libraries

"Tsundoku," the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language

Submitted by Blake on December 13, 2015 - 9:03pm

There are some words out there that are brilliantly evocative and at the same time impossible to fully translate. Yiddish has the word shlimazl, which basically means a perpetually unlucky person. German has the word Backpfeifengesicht, which roughly means a face that is badly in need of a fist. And then there’s the Japanese word tsundoku, which perfectly describes the state of my apartment. It means buying books and letting them pile up unread.

From "Tsundoku," the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language | Open Culture

Topic: 
Librarians

Making Openness My Business

Submitted by Blake on November 24, 2015 - 6:27pm

I am still getting daily lessons on what it means to be an advocate for and practitioner of openness. Before I started my professional career I didn't recognize the perseverance needed, or the political savvy, or the tenacity of trusting your gut when it tells you that what you are doing is worth the worry that you are faced with a Sisyphean task well beyond your abilities. If you take anything away from this, know that you do not have to be a researcher to be an important advocate for openness, nor do you have to be an expert in the many facets of openness.

From The Winnower | Making Openness My Business

Topic: 
Librarians

Do Librarians Swear? F-yeah They Do

Submitted by birdie on November 12, 2015 - 9:41am

A sampling of more colorful librarian language from librarian/humorist Roz Warren.

Topic: 
Humor
Librarians

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