I’ll be at the [Midwest] Library Technology Conference 2009 next week. I’ll be presenting a poster on our library’s widgets along with Doreen Hansen, a member of our Computer Work Team. Say hello if you’ll be there and you know me from here. I haven’t networked in Minnesota like I should…
Librarians facing an expanse of free time this economic season, please contact me with your project ideas for Library Juice Press. I know from first-hand experience how good unemployment can be for creative projects, and how creative projects can end up leading to employment or at least things to boast about on a resumé. Let … Read more Open Invitation
Issue 166, March 2009, of the SRRT Newsletter is just published. This issue contains the minutes from Midwinter’s meetings in Denver, where Action Council decided to publish the newsletter on the web only, and to move to a quarterly publication schedule. For some time, the newsletter was SRRT’s largest single expense, even at a twice-yearly … Read more SRRT Newsletter 166
I’m giving the keynote lecture at the 4th Annual University of Arizona SIRLS Graduate Symposium this Saturday. My talk is called “From duality to dilemma: balancing the library on mission, community, and democracy.” (It had a longer, bulkier title that is still floating around out there.) If anybody is interested, I have posted handouts from … Read more From Duality to Dilemma
Gathering at the Waters: Embracing Our Spirits, Telling Our Stories Proceedings of the First National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) October 11-15, 2006, Dallas, Texas Edited by Gladys Smiley Bell I made a bid to publish this in book form, but the preference was to do it online, and they have obviously done … Read more JCLC Conference Proceedings
When I started Library Juice Press, I was aware of some librarian-publishers who came before me, whose presses are still around. There may be others. I like to think that despite changes in publishing that make it easier to dive in I am more in line with this tradition of librarian-publishers than I am with … Read more Some other librarian-publishers
Kathleen de la Peña McCook has linked to a review of David Denby’s new book, Snark, published in Salon recently, aiming her post at a particularly snarky and nasty blogger who likes to attack her personally. Kathleen is right on the money in bringing this book to the attention of the blogosphere. Snark: …snide, undermining … Read more Snark
Intellectual Freedom is a right that has a range of threats to it. Most obviously, governments have banned books and censored the internet. But there are other dimensions to the threats to intellectual freedom. Publishers have refused to publish books for fear of controversy. Criticism of corporations is squelched by pulling out of advertising contracts; … Read more Age Appropriateness and IF
You may have seen this already, but I have to share it: Bound to the Word: Guardians of truth and knowledge, librarians must be thanked for their role as champions of privacy, literacy, independent thinking, and most of all reading. “President -Elect Barack Obama keynoted the opening general session at the ALA Annual Conference in … Read more Barack Obama on libraries
Series on Critical Multiculturalism and Librarianship Isabel Espinal, Series Editor Library Juice Press seeks book proposals and manuscripts for a new series, Critical Multiculturalism and Librarianship, edited by Isabel Espinal. This series aims to publish works from practical, theoretical and personal perspectives that critically engage issues of cultural and racial diversity, and cultural and racial … Read more LJP Series on Critical Multiculturalism and Librarianship
Monika Antonelli has an important article in the new Electronic Green Journal called The Green Library Movement: An Overview and Beyond. Here is the abstract: The creation of green libraries is approaching a tipping point, generating a Green Library Movement, which is comprised of librarians, libraries, cities, towns, college and university campuses committed to greening … Read more The Green Library Movement
Just published: Information and Liberation: Writings on the Politics of Information and Librarianship Author: Shiraz Durrani Price: $45.00 (or £22.00) ISBN: 978-0-9802004-0-9 7″ by 10″ 385 Pages Printed on acid-free paper. Information and Liberation is a retrospective collection of Shiraz Durrani’s articles and conference papers on the politics of information. The book documents the struggle … Read more Shiraz Durrani anthology – Information and Liberation
Series on Gender and Sexuality in Librarianship Emily Drabinski, Series Editor Library Juice Press seeks book proposals and manuscripts for a new series, Gender and Sexuality in Librarianship, edited by Emily Drabinski. This series will publish works from both practical and theoretical perspectives that critically engage issues in the LIS field related to gender and … Read more LJP Series on Gender and Sexuality in Librarianship
A friend of mine reported a Rodney Dangerfield moment to me yesterday, and it was something that I think I can relate to. This friend is a middle aged male reference librarian at an academic library, like me, and, like me, he stayed up late Tuesday night at an election party. Joe the librarian (not … Read more There goes a failure in life
The Ethics of Information Organization – Conference Announcement and Call for Papers May 22-23, 2009 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Information organization (IO), like other major functions of the information profession, faces many ethical challenges. In the IO literature, ethical concerns have been raised with regard to, for example, the role of national and international IO standards, … Read more The Ethics of Information Organization – Conference Announcement and Call for Papers
Canadian Association for Information Science: Call for Papers The Canadian Association for Information Science invites abstract submissions for its 37th Annual Conference, to be held May 28-30, 2009 at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as part of the 2009 Congress of the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Deadline for proposals is January … Read more Call for Papers: Mapping the 21st Century Information Landscape: Borders, Bridges and Byways
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 15, 2008 Librarian documentary to begin DVD sales on website MADISON, WI – The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film today launched sales of the DVD version at its website, www.hollywoodlibrarian.com. The feature length documentary, which premiered in Washington D.C. in June 2007 and has been screened in 13 … Read more Hollywood Librarian press release – DVD on sale
Here’s a short video on the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, which aids librarians who need financial assistance for legal or other needs when facing the consequences of taking a stand for a principle in their workplaces. It’s from the ALA OIF blog.
Over time, Radical Reference moved from being simply an experimental virtual reference service for political radicals to being an activist organization sharing the same space as PLG and SRRT, but offering a different flavor and a different set of political ideas. Its primary activity, however, remains what it was when the group was originally formed … Read more A question for Radical Reference
Wisconsin Public Radio’s To the Best of Our Knowledge has an hour-long program this week on libraries, books and reading. Interviewed are Maryanne Wolfe, author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain” (which has some pessimistic things to say about the internet); Geraldine Brooks, who talks about the rare … Read more Some good listening