TILT #44 Objects make history slow
Disorder arises when too many conditions of order are imposed
Kipple is a concept every librarian should not just learn but internalize — the ceaseless imposition of sinister and self-replicating rubbish. As we organize, we must be mindful that organization, while useful, can also be a trap. The trick is to organize just enough to create order and meaning, but not so much that you become enslaved by process.
Pun lovers may enjoy this exploration of another sort of kippling.
I oversee a facebook group called Libraries Step Up (In Times of Crisis) with Scotty Bonner and a few other people. Not a lot goes on there in an average week, but it’s a good meeting for librarians or libraries needing help. And things have been busy there lately. A few pointers on things happening recently.
- Lisa Peet wrote a terrific article on how Charlottesville was handling the aftermath of the neo-Nazi violence.
- Ways to support libraries affected by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana: TLA’s response, status blog of Louisiana Libraries
- Southern Poverty Law Center published Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide (downloadable PDF)
- Two GoFundMes set up for the two librarian victims in the shooting at the Clovis-Carver Public Library in Clovis, New Mexico: Wanda Walters, Krissie Carter.
Some unfolding stories about book and author popularity, and book fraud, that are gripping reading:
- Did This Book Buy Its Way Onto The New York Times Bestseller List? (tl;dr yes)
- Meet John Smelcer, Native American Literature’s “Living Con Job”
I love old books about libraries. I love old catalog cards. I love fonts. Margo Burns has made my month by creating a font called Dana Library Hand which combines all these wonderful things and is in the public domain. Thank you Margo.
Longer reads worth your time:
- #BlackSpecFic — a report on the state of representation of Black authors within the speculative short fiction market and other essays, all by Black authors,
- What Happens on a Typical Day in the Ultimate Movie Library — a day in the life of the Margaret Herrick Library the library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (Herrick and I went to the same library school!)
Coming back around to the order/disorder dichotomy, meet JJ Cromer, a librarian by training and artist by profession. He creates lovely and compelling “outsider” artwork.
In his artist’s statement:
In retrospect art became a kind of counterweight to my work as a librarian. As a librarian I’m concerned with certainties and predictable order. As an artist, though, I’m excited by ambiguity and exploration, skepticism and play. Drawing for me is creating a world, mapping it, and finding myself lost in it, all at the same time.
Here is his illustration titled Reference Librarian in his Jobs I’ve Met series.
I love the idea of larger libraries doing their own Comic Cons. Here’s the poster and page for the Boise Public Library’s Comic Con which was last weekend. Fun fun fun Instagram.
In the next week or two, I’ll be back to a bit of “stuff I tweeted about” (w/r/t “toxicity” in comments and bias in data sets), but for now I’ll leave you with something someone else tweeted that I greatly enjoyed.
Today in Librarian Tabs is written irregularly by Jessamyn West who also maintains librarian.net. It’s also available in your inbox via TinyLetter. Thanks for reading.
