But then. Maybe librarians shouldn’t try to be, maybe the library should be a place where one can focus on the written word, where people can enter the inner conversation instead of the mundane blabber. The library as a place to connect with someone far away (the author) and someone deep inside (the mental model of the reader); the library as a church instead of just another social space.
Blake
Don’t Touch That Dial: Standardizing a Consortial Library System
These issues elicit a lot of crocodile tears, hyperbole, and toxic brinkmanship from those trying to get their way. It’s pointless bickering. We can instead focus only on what’s demonstrably best to alter, making warranted changes at the network level, and leaving the rest alone. To avoid the worst case scenario of a lack of cooperation within a library system, the proactive enactment of best practices and decisive enforcement of consortia-wide settings helps minimize technical errors and redundant efforts; avoids the paradox of choice amongst those with disparate customization philosophies; eliminates unsustainable variations merely based on arbitrary precedents or skeuomorphic design; and ensures our collective installations are as usable, future-proof, and efficiently run as possible, rather than an illustration of how “freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.”
From Don’t Touch That Dial: Standardizing a Consortial Library System – Medium
How Banning Books Marginalizes Children
When librarians and teachers reject works that may be “emotionally inappropriate” for children (a common reason), they’re adhering to the traditional and mostly prevailing view that children’s literature should avoid controversial topics. It’s understandable that adults want to minimize children’s anxiety, and schools are often under intense social and financial pressure to maintain established standards. But it ‘s also important to recognize that this tradition was established in the 19th century to serve the needs of the white, wealthy Protestant producers and consumers who have dominated the field of American children’s literature for much of the past 200 years.
Why Libraries’ Survival Matters
In advance of “Do Libraries Have a Future?” a Zócalo Public Square event in partnership with WeHo Reads, we asked eight writers to reflect on the most memorable library they ever visited, what it meant to them, and whether it should exist in 100 years.
The media of our expression seems to have decreasing longevity.
This experience set me to thinking again about the ephemeral nature of our artifacts and the possibility that the centuries well before ours will be better known than ours will be unless we are persistent about preserving digital content. The earlier media seem to have a kind of timeless longevity while modern media from the 1800s forward seem to have shrinking lifetimes. Just as the monks and Muslims of the Middle Ages preserved content by copying into new media, won’t we need to do the same for our modern content?
From ‘We’re Going Backward!’ | October 2016 | Communications of the ACM
In plot twist, independent bookstores survive forecasted doom
Independent bookstores like hers seem to have turned the page on predictions of their economic doom. The American Booksellers Association reports that sales nationally rose by more than 10 percent in 2015 compared to the same period a year earlier and sales in the first two quarters on 2016 remained strong. Blue Willow, too, has seen a 5 percent uptick each of the past couple of years.
From In plot twist, independent bookstores survive forecasted doom – Houston Chronicle
Google swallows 11,000 novels to improve AI’s conversation
As writers learn that tech giant has processed their work without permission, the Authors Guild condemns ‘blatantly commercial use of expressive authorship’
From Google swallows 11,000 novels to improve AI’s conversation | Books | The Guardian
The world’s oldest library gets a 21st century face lift
“We were always discovering things as we were ripping out walls,” she says. One standout discovery for her was a hidden room that had a 12th century cupola made with intricate lattice wood.
“It was this extremely refined and unusual type of roof that was hidden away,” she recalls. “It’s typical of the element of surprise you fine in Fez. You’ll have these narrow streets and find a small door that enters into an amazing courtyard.”
From The world’s oldest library gets a 21st century face lift – CNN.com
Librarians Stand Again Against FBI Overreach
“The Connecticut Four” libarians who fought FBI “national security letters” seeking information on patrons and compelling librarians’ silence on the demands are speaking out again. Fresh efforts are afoot in the U.S. Senate to expand the FBI’s ability to require libraries to hand over private information in the absence of a judge’s order.
From Librarians Stand Again Against FBI Overreach – Hartford Courant
Don’t Call Me Baby, Sweetie or Cupcake!
I’ve worked at my local public library long enough to be on a first-name basis with many of our patrons. And the rest greet me with the courtesy and respect that, as a trained professional, not to mention a woman over 50, I deserve.
Except for when they don’t. From time to time, a patron will call me “sweetie.” Or “honey-bunch.” Or “dear.” I have to put up with it, but I don’t have to like it. And I‘m not alone. Recently a fellow librarian posted this lament on Facebook: “A patron just called me baby. Can I go home now?”
The comments this inspired from other librarians were sympathetic:
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