Comments on: Embrace Your Shallowness

By: Gary Barthe

Gary Barthe — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 18:58:38 +0000

You speak of dealing with “whiny” co-workers…this entire work is one big whine!

By: Librarian with a sense of humor

Librarian with a sense of humor — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:42:00 +0000

I must be a terrible librarian because I would have enjoyed his speech much more than the speech I saw at my state’s library conference, which was from a “relevant” person. Give me a break. Anyone who attended the conference knew who the keynote speaker was and could have chosen to skip his “shallow, vapid speech.” It’s just an opportunity for fun(something that seems to be severely lacking on this blog and in the comments). So for all of you who found Mr. Kelly not intelligent enough for the likes of you, I say bah humbug. You all probably still wear nude hose underneath your dress pants too…

By: François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:37:13 +0000

Given that Rutgers paid Snookie $32k for a Q&A session and paid Toni Morrisson $30k for giving the commencement address, I don’t think that this should be all that surprising. It’s certainly representative of our value system of society as a whole. It’s the same reason why Donald Trump just won’t go away or how legitimate news organizations treat Sarah Palin like she can sprinkle fairy dust on people and make them think they can fly.

The truly sad part is that we have been like this forever. Just 25 years ago we were listening to how Michael Jackson and his friends were out there to save the children. Reporters would interview Bob Hope about politics like he actually had two brain cells to devote to anything other than golf. We actually live in a world where Keith Richards (KEITH RICHARDS!) is paid money to speak to kids not to do drugs.

So no, it doesn’t surprise me at all that they great ACRL thinks that some fashion guru is more important to listen to than, let’s face it, any person with a library degree or working in a library related industry. I could have put a student worker on the podium and the talk would have been more relevant. For that matter, Dewey the library cat!

By: Fat Guy

Fat Guy — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:48:05 +0000

Ah, another post reporting from the cushy locale of another librarian conference where you gaily point out the “shallowness” of everyone else without giving your readers much evidence showing why those “other” librarians are so much shallower than thou. Does the Snoopy dance of Smugness ever get tiresome for you? You’ve tilted at these windmills before, sweetie, and at least somewhat more interestingly in the past. Don’t you think it’s time for you to get out of your wheelhouse?

By: rpglibrarian

rpglibrarian — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:34:47 +0000

I’d be more impressed if Kelly gave every library $5000, on the condition that they bring their needs-to-be-weeded books to New York; and then take them book shopping for two hours.

By: ACRL attendee

ACRL attendee — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:43:34 +0000

I was surprised at how few people attended Jaron Lanier’s talk. It was very good and gave us lots to think about. I’m sure the two-point-opians hated it.

I was disappointed with the invited speakers. None of them had anything to do with libraries or librarians or books or anything related.

Hopefully, lots of people did what I did, which was blow off the final speaker and go sight-seeing in Philly. Mainly, I had never heard of him before, and reading the description did not make me want to hear him speak.

AL, I did miss your annual April 1 retirement gag. You always catch some people out!

By: The Lit Witch

The Lit Witch — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:57:40 +0000

While I certainly agree with all of your points, I have to point out that a lot of professional conferences do this brainless stuff for their finales. I’m an eye doctor when I’m not blogging books and most of our national conferences seem to wrap up with comedians or some other form of celebutard. As if that’s what we’re travelling all that way and sitting through all of those lectures to “really” see. Bleh.

By: LittleLibrarian

LittleLibrarian — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:17:26 +0000

Re: Saint Minutia – While our culture may largely believe that a woman is only judged according to appearance, how can we assume that is what was implied by hosting Mr. Kelly? You know and I know that this judgment of a woman isn’t true, even if many people act as though it is. I also know, and I believe that AnnoyedLibrarian would agree, that many librarians are not actually terribly up to par when it comes to their professional appearance.

Can we please separate this issue from the issue of the stretch that this conference made when they contracted with Mr. Kelly? Odd choice, maybe not entirely substantive when it comes to talking about change, maybe would have been better to have him come to a targetd professional development seminar rather than addressing the entire conference as a keynote speaker. The vapidity can be separated from your frustration with assumed implications.

Librarians as a whole may not dress well, we could possibly. Some do, some don’t. This needs to stop being such a fun cultural issue to discuss. HR departments need to address it. We like to think of ourselves as creative human beings, but you can dress well for work and not wear heels. Where is the middle ground of feminine professionalism? This is not the 60′s, 70′s, or 80′s! I, as a 20 something woman, do NOT have to dress like a man in the workplace, and I do NOT have to dress like I’m going out on the town. Yes, patrons will still make inappropriate comments no matter what. We work with the public (in public libraries anyways) Can we advocate this middle ground instead of making the conversation about prudery vs sexiness?

By: Elisa

Elisa — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:58:26 +0000

I believe Clinton Kelly was at ALA Midwinter so he’s definitely getting around.

By: Annoyed Librarian

Annoyed Librarian — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:18:21 +0000

Oh, Retiring Librarian, I never get over myself. That’s part of my charm. Paula Poundstone is smart and funny. Bringing this vapid speaker so totally at odds with the educational mission of the academy to an academic library conference is more like having Sarah Palin speak at PLA.