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DIPTYCH: LOUD
Today’s diptych is coming out late night because it’s LOUD. Well, actually, because we had Nicole and Carolyn over for dinner (we talked about CARL and Controlled Vocabularies and Georgian wine. It was exciting). But still, here you go – LOUD.
If you’re wondering, the record in the picture is Spencer Krug’s experimental Moonface EP. Download the digital version (for free! legally!) and let it invade your dreams. Oh, and Miss Grace’s “Loud” is just about the loudest photograph in the history of loud photographs. Listen up over here.
ON CONFERENCES
In 1891 the annual American Library Association conference ventured to the West Coast for the first time. The ALA came at the behest of the San Francisco Free Public Library and its director, John Vance Cheney. He had spent the greater part of the prior conference lobbying for the privilege of hosting the gathering. While San Francisco was already a sizable city – the self-proclaimed Paris of the West – it was still a far-off frontier to the East Coast American library establishment. After all, much of the region between East Coast and West – Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and the Dakotas – had only gained statehood in the two years prior, and Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona still remained territories. It took a three month round-trip for the caravan of librarians to arrive at the City by the Bay, in what sounds to me must have been a fascinating train ride (for the companionship of so many librarians, for so long, crossing a territory so vast). It must have made for quite the “pre-conference”.
The Papers and Proceedings of the ALA for 1891 and 1892 – available freely on Google Books – are filled with interesting personal and professional notes on the event, including one late night tour of subterranean Chinatown haunts (complete with Chinese opera). Librarians have been writing up accounts of their adventures for far longer than the Age of Blogging!
In 2010, the ALA Conference remains a mainstay event, but with far more than the 50 attendees of 1891 (and developed in ways that Cheney, Dewey and Windsor likely never anticipated). Meanwhile, there is an endless number of focused events a librarian can attend based on specialty, region, and various other factors. Some now take place entirely online (robbing us of the charm of the three month train trip…)
So far I’ve only dipped my toe in one library conference, the 2008 California Library Association (CLA) Conference. I was a San José State SLIS student at the time and was able to attend free of charge in return for volunteer hours at the Infopeople Booth. It was a worthy trade. I found a presentation on Zotero to be quite useful, and greatly enjoyed the keynote speakers Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman. The booth time itself turned out to be a great hands-on learning experience with a variety of interesting gadgets and gizmos (with varying degrees of library-related usefulness). However, because of other commitments my time at the conference was limited.
I’ll have a more substantial conference experience with the upcoming California Academic and Research Libraries conference in Sacramento, April 8-10. I plan on attending the entire event (I’ll be commuting in each day with my friend Carolyn in lieu of the cross-country train ride). And while my experience in Sacramento may lack late night adventures in Chinese Opera, I’ll still do my best to write up accounts of my adventures on these digital pages here.
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DIPTYCH: CLOSED
Today we’re slamming the door in your face. Our diptych subject is “closed”. Next week, though? We’ll get “loud”. Don’t forget to check out Miss Grace’s version here, and visit my partner-in-photography Nicole’s site too. The explanation of this project, in case you’re new to the party, is archived here.
CARL SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE
Last fall when I was writing my e-Portfolio for graduation from my School of Library and Information Science, I was asked to define how as a professional I would “contribute to the cultural, economic, educational and social well-being of our communities”. As part of my multi-pronged answer, I explained that I would seek to contribute to relevant professional organizations because I believe “it is important for librarians and archivists to support each other intellectually, share our ideas, and promote our organizations together, even as our resources and tools change with each technological advancement.” To me, one of the communities to which a librarian belongs is his or her profession, and we are beholden to helping each other.
I feel fortunate that I am now able to turn those promises into concrete action.
I am very proud and excited to announce that I have been nominated to join the Ilene F. Rockman Scholarship Committee on behalf of the California Academic & Research Libraries (CARL) association. CARL is the California chapter of the ACRL, which in turn is the division of the ALA (American Library Association) that focuses on the needs of academic and research librarians. I will be one of five committee members who promotes the scholarships, reviews applications and helps select winners (current Master’s Students in Library and Information Science). The scholarship is given to two recipients in even numbered years to help fund the recipients’ participation in the biennial CARL conference, and in odd numbered years it sponsors one student’s trip to the national ACRL conference. The hope is that budding professionals will have the opportunity to participate in conferences and thereby learn themselves how to become active in their profession.
This opportunity is due entirely to the great Penny Scott, outgoing chairperson of the Rockman Scholarship Committee, a fantastic mentor who has provided me a sterling example of how to give back to the profession, and whose path I feel honored to follow.
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DIPTYCH: OPEN
We are open for business.
More takes on this week’s topic can be found at Miss Grace’s Disgrace, and my partner Nicole posts these at Intense Drama.
CATALOG AT HOME!
What’s the ultimate library geek accessory (well, aside from a tattoo)? Your very own card catalog, of course! It carries all the retro-chic of vinyl record players, 35mm cameras, and typewriters, plus that something extra-special that reveals your affinity for books and the Dewey Decimal System.
Holy Names University in Oakland is selling two vintage cabinets. A quick survey via Google suggests they should sell somewhere in the amorphous hundreds-of-dollars range. If you’re not in Northern California, various other libraries are selling off their cabinets on eBay.
The narrow drawers are perfect for a variety of crafty purposes, like skeins of yarn or children’s art tools and toys. Or you could fully catalog your home library if digital tools like LibraryThing aren’t your thing. Alternatively, you could use it to house your cocktail recipes.
A wine country candy shop’s card catalog, courtesy Adina Leitner
What would you do with your own card catalog cabinet?
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DIPTYCH: SHINE
Just as my first contribution to this project, my photo for this week’s diptych was taken at my current place of work, the California Academy of Sciences. However, unlike that abstract image (which was an underwater angle of the penguin tank), this one is immediately recognizable to anyone who’s been inside the building: it’s the massive glass sphere, containing a four story rainforest and hundreds of free-flying butterflies, an iconic image of the institution. This is merely one angle of it, highlighting the combination of natural and unnatural light shining inside.
My partner Nicole’s take on the subject is obviously quite different. The joy of the diptych.
ON TATTOED LIBRARIANS
To be fair, the recent Salon.com interview with writer Marilyn Johnson about her new tome, This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, is not the first place I’ve seen the “librarians can be hip! Librarians can have tattoos!” theme. In fact, that’s part of the problem — I’ve seen that canard a few too many times now and it’s beginning to bug me. Even the director of my graduate school is guilty of the same maneuver.
Of course librarians have tattoos.
Some even have professionally relevant tattoos! I have one friend, an MLIS, with an entire scene from Where the Wild Things Are across her back (the subject of a children’s lit research paper she wrote at SLIS). But tattoos are hardly new. Body art has a legacy stretching back thousands of years, and the contemporary, widespread popularity of tattoos — blossoming in the early nineties, still going strong twenty years on — shows no signs of abating. Tattoos aren’t limited to record store clerks anymore. My wife has two tattoos — and she’s an accounting paraprofessional. So are accountants considered hip now too?
At the root of all this is a defensiveness about our profession that some librarians have adopted. Are we really so afraid of hair buns and cardigans? Libraries and librarians have real-world challenges to deal with. Budgets are being slashed. Technology is transforming information use. We’re still figuring out what is the 21st century librarian’s skill set.
Meanwhile, any and all trades with practitioners under 40 are going to have plenty of tattooed or otherwise hip professionals, just as they are bound to also have a few nerdy, bookish types. Heck, there are plenty of people over 40 with tattoos. It’s become…unremarkable. So the more we remark on it, the more we try and make a big deal about the appearance of librarians, the more silly and vain we look. Librarians can and do come in every stripe, every style, every age. That’s no longer the point.
Johnson does point out a number of great things libraries do — this entire passage is on point: “As for librarians, they’re civil servants. They deal with all kinds of social welfare problems, from childcare to homelessness to people who can’t navigate the bureaucracy to get benefits or help finding a job. The buck stops at the library. If we keep cutting library aid, people who can’t figure out how to file for taxes, or how to use e-mail, are going to be out of luck. About 20 percent of the population is not wired; they don’t have Internet access or a smart phone.”
These are the talking points librarians should use when trying to influence public perception, not the punkish color of our hair or the trendiness of our musical taste (though it’s unfortunate, as my friend Nicole pointed out to me, that Johnson doesn’t highlight the value academic and special librarians bring as well; public libraries are only one sector of the profession).
When you get down to it, that kid who always talks about how hip or popular he or she is is never actually hip or popular. Let’s stop being afraid of a harmless stereotype and have a little fun with it, and get serious when we talk about all the good things we can do.
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