A kind reader forwarded me something about radical reference group meeting of some kind in her area. I'm not sure if this meeting was affiliated with the "official" Radical Reference folks, but if not then they're conceptually related, along with the Regressive Librarians Guild and the Social Responsibilities Round Table. There are definitely differences among them. The Radical Reference librarians actually answer reference questions, while the Regressive Librarians Guild and the SRRT don't do much at all besides make radical librarians feel good about themselves. However, they're all dedicated to social justice and niceness instead of evil and things like that, but I find it hard to take these groups seriously. It's not because I disagree with their goals, though I might. The goals of groups of the left are so disparate that it's hard to generalize. There have always been leftists ranging from totalitarian communists to free loving hippie anarchists. V.I. Lenin and John ...
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This blog post came to my attention in a roundabout way and I'm glad it did. It's about a teen workshop supposedly from the Jericho Public Library on Long Island. I say supposedly only because it doesn't say the name of the library on the picture of the flyer and I can't verify it on the Jericho library website. It's not on their calendar of events, nor is it on their teen programs flyer. Unfortunately, the teen program flyer is for March / April, so it's not much help in general. However, it's a pity that I've already missed the class on scrapbooking and the Rock Band 2 event, not to mention "Anything in a Blanket." The description: "Not just pigs anymore - what else can you put in a blanket and eat?" The possible answers beggar the imagination. But anyway, here's the description of the workshop: "Graffiti has tagged everything -- subways, walls, cars & more.  Now its your turn to create graffiti." I'm also a little suspicious about the lack of ...
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It's nice to see librarians keeping up their reputations as safeguarding busybodies. Thanks to one particular busybody in Nazareth, PA, a seven year old boy who's been visiting the Nazareth library every two weeks for two years burst into tears while vowing never to go a library again. Way to go, "female employee of the Nazareth Library"! The story is a bit complicated, but it seems a seven year old boy was very excited about joining the summer reading program at the Nazareth public library, and who really can blame him. There's not much more exciting than a summer reading program, especially if free Slurpees are involved! "Dominick Philip was so excited about participating in the summer reading program at the library in Nazareth Borough he circled the date of Wednesday's kickoff event on a calendar in his room several weeks ago. Dominick led the parade of children around the library Wednesday and went home with books from his favorite series, the 'Magic ...
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I'm giving you a short one today, and it has nothing to do with the fact that I'm feeling a bit down in the mouth. Chip thinks I might have the swine flu, but I'm pretty sure he's not a licensed physician. No, I'm giving you a short one because I want to take a survey of sorts. Some colleagues and I were arguing over what the criterion is for being a librarian. It's amazing how heated a silly argument could be, but we were all in disagreement. Is a librarian anyone with an MLS? Would someone with an MLS, but who didn't work in a library or as a librarian, still be considered a librarian? My position was that just having an MLS doesn't make someone a librarian. One has to actually work as a librarian or in a library to be a "librarian." But what about those people who do work in libraries, and who do high level work normally considered professional, but who don't have an MLS? Can they ever be considered librarians? I said yes, but I was distinctly in the minority. And ...
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Some of you might have already seen this news story a kind reader sent to me. I'm finding the whole story a bit odd, and wondered what you all think. Supposedly there's a shortage of librarians. You've heard this before, I know, but this time it's more specific. There's supposedly a shortage of librarians in Montana. That came as a surprise to me, because I didn't even know there were any libraries in Montana. I thought it was all mountains and moose. The Montana State Library thinks librarians are hard to come by. "The state library is currently running a media campaign promoting librarianship as a career. In past years the Montana State Library has also offered scholarships for Montanans pursuing library graduate degrees." A media campaign. Wow! That should solve the problem, if indeed they have a problem. Oh, and those scholarships? Where did they come from? Money from an irrational IMLS grant in 2003, part of the US Government's ALA-inspired and utterly misguided effort ...
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Just a thought in passing before I begin. As is probably obvious to a lot of you, I get some of my blog fodder from LIS News (as well as Library Stuff, Library Link of the Day, my favorite newsy Twopointopian, and of course my lovely readers). Lately, I've been wondering what is up with posts like this one. Several by this guy have been "cross posted" to his own blog. W, as the kids today say, TF? LIS News is for LIS news, not for exploitation by some librarian desperate to draw attention to his blog. If you want people to read your blog, write something worth reading. If you have some LIS news to share, post it to LIS news. How hard is this? Sheesh , have a little respect for the readers. Plus, do we really want libraries partnering with Ben and Jerry's? Aren't librarians heavy enough already? I just find that sad. So on to Dewey, or the lack thereof. The Library Journal - the best library news magazine in the whole bloody world! ® - reported that the Rangeview Library ...
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