TILT #82 — Have fun storming the cas^H^H^H ALA!
Welcome back from ALA Midwinter, if you went. I will be the incoming Vermont Representative to ALA Council, dog help me.
In the world of library association missteps, under the “So quick you might have missed it” heading, was ALA’s decision to have a “Free Speech Zone” or, in their words, a “designated area for the expression of social beliefs on the exhibit floor.” They retooled quickly when people alerted them that this was not really the right way to move forward with this, but wow.
Amusing, to me, was the fact that I’m not even entirely sure why they did this. I assume it’s because of the protests around the CIA booth at the last conference, but possibly it was because Macmillan was at Midwinter and many librarians are, rightfully, #stillmad. Or maybe anticipating trouble from Seattle Public Library doubling down on their decision to rent a meeting room to TERF-y group Women’s Liberation Front? So many aggravating things in libraries lately!
Also annoyances in the Archives. I think this kerfuffle at the National Archives — and the exhibit image they altered to avoid offense — worked out okay, but not everyone agrees.
I’ve been keeping myself Winter-busy by filling in some gaps in Wikipedia’s coverage of state library associations. If you’re interested in writing a teeny article for a state library association without a page and want a simple template to follow, let me know.
What is striking to me is the huge variation in publicly available information about state library associations. Some are thoroughly researched with rich histories in the “About Us” pages of the association’s website (nice job Utah) and others are just really spare (West Virginia, you okay?). Some have really professional logos (South Dakota!) and some are just letters (New Hampshire!) This story about the Tennessee Valley Authority Toolbox Libraries is a great bit of library history, so glad someone from TLA wrote it down. AKLA wrote Culturally Responsive Guidelines for Alaska Public Libraries, to help their libraries offer culturally appropriate service to their indigenous patrons. This list of what a free library does for a country town (from Connecticut) is both quaint and concerning.
One of the great places for library association research is old newspapers. I am pleased that the Wikipedia Library gives unaffiliated goofs like me access to JSTOR, newspapers.com and other database resources. Writing a few articles is a small price to pay for this kind of access.
I call the Wikipedia work I do “digital tidying,” making sure things are where they should be, assigning proper categories, ramping up findability and authority control. Another way many people do this is with lists. Here are some lists I’ve liked lately.
- Joe Hardenbrook has a great page on his blog with lists of sample questions you are likely to be asked in a library job interview.Thorough and helpful.
- I’m always looking for the perfect podcast (QI’s No Such Thing as a Fish is my fave). Bookriot has a list of must-hear librarian podcasts as well as an older list of podcasts about libraries and librarians.
- A whiskerlist!
In the Things To Be Concerned About category:
- One of the world’s largest private equity firms just bought Overdrive — the ebook marketplace is tough enough without toxic megacorporations trying to wring every dollar they can out of libraries.
- Corporate Surveillance Still Sucks — if you’ve struggled to extract the facts from the sensationalist headlines about corporate tracking and information brokering, the EFF has broken it down for you. When I am giving privacy talks I’ll often talk about that piece of luggage I didn’t buy at eBags that then shows up in other website’s ads “Are you sure you don’t want to buy this?”
Technology + library = improvements!
- I like the idea of a Mystery Skype as a way to get kids interested and involved in problem solving, a great project for a school library.
- Kamloops library launches Dating Over 50 Sessions, not just for help with profiles but also learning about good ways to interact with people online generally.
- I read about the Gwinnet County Public Library (GA) system closing to abolish Dewey and switching to a bookstore model, but now I really want to know how it went.
- Really like this Mental Health Initiative video series by California Library Services (funded by IMLS) helping libraries better serve patrons with mental health challenges and support staff at the same time.
All of these books were quite good in different ways. I did finish that Vermont baseball book and was glad I read it. Now reading The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and… wow it’s uneven.
Happy Superbowl to those who celebrate it.
Today in Librarian Tabs is written irregularly by Jessamyn West who also maintains librarian.net. It’s available in more-accessible format your inbox via TinyLetter. Thanks for reading.
