Jeff Lilburn has reviewed Questioning Library Neutrality for the blog LibrarianActivist. His review is careful not to be overly excited by the book, but is much appreciated as the first review of the book to hit the screens, and by a person who understands what the book is trying to say. Thank you Jeff and … Read more Review of Questioning Library Neutrality
It is still not dead. A resolution has just been sent to the ALA Council list for discussion, calling on ALA to recognize the dissident “independent librarians” as members of the library community who deserve our support as colleagues, calling for the return of “library materials” to the “independent libraries,” and calling for the release … Read more The Cuba Debate – Why the “middle” is not the middle
Are you going to be at the ALA Conference in Anaheim later this month? Litwin Books / Library Juice Press will be holding a reception. I will be showing the eight books we have published so far and networking with readers and authors. I look forward to meeting you at the reception if you’re interested … Read more Library Juice Press / Litwin Books Reception at ALA in Anaheim
Thomas Mann’s Foreword to David Bade’s Responsible Librarianship: Library Policies for Unreliable Systems: There is a kind of “code word” situation that has developed in the library profession in recent decades; it is manifested in an appeal to a set of beliefs that, while largely unarticulated, is nonetheless socially endorsed without a perceived need for … Read more Thomas Mann’s Foreword to Responsible Librarianship
I don’t read a lot of blogs. I won’t say why, as other people have said enough about what is wrong with blogs, but I want to give you a fun a propos link. One type of blog that I kind of enjoy seeing, which I won’t link to here, is the class assignment blog, … Read more An example of a blog
Media Release Contact: Dr. Terrence W. Epperson Chair, Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize Committee Progressive Librarians Guild Phone: 609/771-3352 FAX: 609/637-5177 E-Mail: epperson@tcnj.edu April 29, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Miriam Braverman Memorial Prize Winner Announced (The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ) ‚Äì The Progressive Librarians Guild is pleased to announce the winner of the 2008 … Read more 2008 Braverman Winner
American Libraries’ April issue was focused on the environment and global warming, and had an “On My Mind” piece by The Progressive Librarians Guild‘s Elaine Harger: Global Warming and Us: Assessing Our Environmnetal and Professional Liability. This brief article is thought provoking and worth a read.
From Caroline Nappo of the UIUC GSLIS PLG chapter: Dear Colleagues, Last week the University of Illinois GSLIS chapter of the Progressive Librarians Guild hosted a panel discussion titled “What is a ‘Progressive Librarian’?” Our guests were Carolyn Anthony, Sanford Berman, Allison Sutton, and Anke Voss. Professor Abdul Alkalimat moderated the discussion. An audio recording … Read more What is a progressive librarian?
Felipe Meneses of Mexico City has written a brief review of David Bade’s Responsible Librarianship: Library Policies for Unreliable Systems. It’s in Spanish, so you may or may not be able to read it without a friend to help. Thanks, Felipe!
I rarely read Annoyed Librarian. When I do it’s usually because Word Press tells me that she’s linked to a Library Juice posting, and I go and see what she wrote. I’m usually shocked by how rude and vitriolic this anonymous person is. I went to her site today looking to see if I could … Read more On Annoyed Librarian and anonymous posting
Powell’s Books is the option for many people who want to buy a book online from a union shop, so I’m very happy that they are stocking books from Litwin Books and Library Juice Press. This note is to announce that they have added the latest book, Lara Moore’s Restoring Order: the Ecole des Chartes … Read more Lara Moore’s book now available from Powell’s
Carmen D’Avino created a lot of recognizeable animation in the 60s and 70s, some of it for The Electric Company, a PBS show for graduates of Sesame Street that I remember well. Here’s his animated bit about Libraries for The Electric Company:
I just caught some of this on the radio and want to share it. The new episode of Wisconsin Public Radio’s “To the Best of Our Knowledge” is called Dumbing Down and Smartening Up, and features interviews with Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason (mentioned here March 16th); George Saunders, author of … Read more An Hour of Good Listening
The March 20th issue of The New York Review of Books has a review of John Broughton‘s book, Wikipedia: The Missing Manual, by Nicholson Baker: The Charms of Wikipedia. Nicholson Baker delights in writing about technology, as you may know, but if you’ve read Baker’s writings on card catalogs and microfilmed newspapers you might be … Read more Nicholson Baker on Wikipedia
Let’s start from the common premise that an important part of being a librarian in this time of rapid change is to keep a close eye on trends. How are things changing? We need to know so that we can keep up, so that we can modify our services to meet society’s changing needs, to … Read more Library trendspotting if you happen to like Susan Jacoby
Michael Zimmer is the guest editor for the just released special issue of the open access journal First Monday: Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0. Here is the table of contents: Volume 13, Number 3 – 3 March 2008 Special issue: Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0 edited by Michael Zimmer Preface: Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0 … Read more First Monday Special Issue: Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0
David Bade is a cataloger at the University of Chicago who has written books and articles on issues in bibliographic control and other topics. Lately, he’s has gained some attention in cataloging circles for his intelligent criticism of the Library of Congress in their recent decisions concerning the future of bibliographic description. Library Juice Press … Read more Interview with David Bade
The current issue of LRC: Literary Review of Canada has a light essay by an acquaintance of Marshall McLuhan, discussing what the man was like and assessing his influence: In the Garden with the Guru. If you’re only vaguely familiar with Marshall McLuhan I definitely recommend it for a little taste of he was like … Read more Bob Rodgers remembers Marshall McLuhan
We’re presently awash in talk about a great paradigm shift that puts the user at the center of our planning for services. This is sometimes referred to simply as user-centered librarianship. It has been a hot idea for at least a decade, but has gained new power and momentum because of ideas about the interactivity … Read more Dueling Paradigm Shifts
The price we pay for the growth in egalitarianism offered by the Internet is the decentralised access to unedited stories. In this medium, contributions by intellectuals lose their power to create a focus. That’s Jürgen Habermas, originator of the concept of the public sphere, on Web 2.0, in his acceptance speech on winning the Bruno … Read more Habermas on Web 2.0