I’ve been thinking more about the Dominican summer reading study, mostly about how useless it is for achieving what it seems to want: more and better funding and support for summer reading programs.  I’m all for summer reading programs, or at least summer reading, but even demonstrating that they help keep poor children from falling behind their peers in reading ability over the summer probably won’t help anyone. I suggested last time that the arguments had to be political somehow. It’s only IF those in our society with the power to change things want every student to have good opportunities and be able to read sufficiently and critically enough to become successful, productive citizens that we will have adequate funding not just for summer reading programs, but for libraries and schools in general. It's possible that we don’t have adequate funding for public education in general, or at the very least that the funding is spread so disproportionately between the rich ...
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One can only wonder at what passes for "research" at some library schools these days. If you’re curious, check out the “Dominican Study” on Public Library Summer Reading Programs: Close the Reading Gap. Three professors at Dominican (and a whole bunch of people across the country) spent three years and almost half a million dollars (almost $300,000 from an IMLS grant—your tax dollars at work!) to show that kids who like to read have better reading scores than those who don’t. The most significant thing we should notice about the study is that it appears on Dominican's website rather than in a peer-reviewed journal. Peer review would help this study, so I'm providing some. What the study seems to show, if you read only the executive summary, is that public library summer reading programs have a positive effect on children's reading ability. The study even claims it has shown this, based on a final study of 149 students. Consider these three quotes from the study, ...
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The tone among some librarians these days seems to be "all or nothing." Even in states with terrible budget deficits and high unemployment, librarians think that they alone should be spared from cuts. I’ve been reading about and hearing from librarians all over the country bemoaning their fate or, much more aggressively, protesting budget cuts. We’ve been in a recession for the past two years, and the only people who aren’t suffering are investment bankers and unionized public sector workers, both of whom are shielded from the worst. Many people out in the world have lost their jobs or had their pay or hours reduced. They’ve had no raises. They’ve had their homes foreclosed upon. And yet there are librarians (and public school teachers as well) who act as if what they do is so sacred that it cannot possibly be cut. At ALA, I had a somewhat tense conversation with a librarian from one of the states in huge financial trouble who was complaining about state funding ...
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The news about public libraries just seems to get worse every day. Closings, budget cuts, reduced hours. It’s so bad we have silly signs like this one posted on Flickr: The Dark Ages began with Closing a Library. Reading around today I noticed lots of darkness and light metaphors about libraries. Every time a library closes a candle out, etc. As always, my mission is to find the silver lining in any cloud, and I’m here to tell you: we won’t be entering any dark age, and if we do, it won’t be because of public library closures, which seems to be the implication of the sign. All hyperbole aside, the “dark ages” didn’t begin with closing a library. (I notice that picture has no citation backing up the claim.) The “dark ages” were dark because a gigantic meteor struck the earth and the dust cloud was so thick that it blotted out the sun. No, wait, that’s how the dinosaurs went extinct. The “dark ages” were dark because of the breakdown of government and ...
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Believe it or not, I generally like being a librarian.  I enjoy my job and most of my colleagues.  I like having access to a good library.  I like that I work at a university with a reasonably attractive campus and not in a strip mall or an office park somewhere. So what annoys me?  It’s all the vapidity in the profession as a whole.  It’s the low standards that allow the dimmest of wits to become “librarians.”  And it’s all the times I look at a conference presentation or a library speaker and think to myself, my god, how could anyone take this stuff seriously? The latest is the Handheld Librarian Online Conference, which seems appropriately named because it looks like a bunch of sub-normal masturbatory low-jinks. Get a load of some of the “keynotes.” KEYNOTE: "Creating the Future of Mobile Library Services" Description: This audience-driven session will use input from you to highlight current trends, best practices, and emerging futures of mobile ...
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Many of you probably saw the Chicago Fox News opinion piece (which for some bizarre reason they and others call a “news” story) a couple of weeks ago asking if public libraries were necessary or a “waste of tax money.” This was followed by a long, well reasoned reply by the Commissioner of the Chicago Public Library. The reply was completely unnecessary, and I think the Commissioner should have just kept quiet. Why? Several reasons. First, people who read the Fox “News” are incapable of reasoning, much like the average reader of the Daily Worker. People go to Fox “News” for the same reasons people go to church or union meetings--to have their beliefs reassured, not tested. Trying to argue with the average Fox “News” devotee is like trying to argue with Jehovah’s Witnesses when they come a-knocking on your door.  They have a script and they stick to it. Their silence while you speak is no indication of comprehension; they're just waiting for you to shut ...
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