Paul Catherall of Information for Social Change has created a Google-based web search that searches websites from the international library left. Try the Radical and Progressive Library and Information Site Search and leave feedback here if you like.
Continuing in a self-congratulatory mode, I am proud to announce that I have joined the editorial board of Information for Social Change, the UK-based collective and semi-annual journal. ISC is an organization of the Left, but is extremely diverse politically and intellectually, and handles this diversity in an interesting way. I have followed their work … Read more Rory Litwin joins ISC editorial board
Kathleen de la Peña McCook has just received the Florida Library Association Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is presented to a librarian whose distinguished record of professional achievements and accomplishments has spanned decades and advanced the stature of libraries within the State of Florida via such activities as risk taking, innovation and significant change. The … Read more Kathleen de la Peña McCook wins Florida Library Association Lifetime Achievement Award
Anti-intellectualism must be at its peak. Nerdy glasses are in fashion; I hope they promise a recovery of intellectual values in the post-Bush years. Regarding the thinking of anti-intellectuals… They think: If they can’t understand it, it’s ivory tower stuff that excludes the everyday person; it’s elitist, exclusive, and probably BS. Intellectuals are irrelevant. If … Read more Brief observation about anti-intellectualism
Text from the ALA campaign for this legislation: Next week, to celebrate National Library Week, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) plans to introduce the Librarian Act of 2007. The Librarian Act of 2007 amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for Perkins student loan forgiveness to encourage individuals to become and remain librarians in … Read more The Librarian Act of 2007
Tom Englehardt (Tomdispatch.com) has posted an article by Chip Ward about the homeless problem and libraries. Chip Ward is the retired director of the Salt Lake City Public Library. (Is it this article that I have already seen somewhere, or something similar from Mr. Ward? John G., please comment if you know the answer.) Chip … Read more Chip Ward on homeless people and libraries
Regarding the Facebook group, No, I don’t look like a librarian!…. Yes, you do look like a librarian! I am not joining the group – because I think really I do not look unlike a librarian, and I think most of the people who joined that group look like the librarians that they are. And … Read more Yes, you do look like a librarian!
The Globe-Wernicke Vertical File
I think we will be hearing this idea increasingly over the coming years, that the library listserv should go, and we should switch to web-based forums with RSS-type updates instead. That link is to a thread on the Livejournal community, “Libraries.” Personally, I agree, but I have no problem being patient.
I am going to take another stab at outlining my views on “library and non-library issues.” Last time I did it I was sloppy in the way that I stated my views, and I surprised and disappointed some people who I think would not have been so surprised and disappointed if I had been clearer … Read more Library and non-library issues
From PLG’s Braverman Prize committee: Hello – We’re pleased to announce the fourth annual Miriam Braverman prize, sponsored by the Progressive Librarians Guild, for the best student paper on progressive library issues. Below are the guidelines for the prize. If anyone would like an announcement flyer, please contact me directly. Feel free to pass this … Read more Braverman Prize call for student papers
I appreciate John Pateman’s efforts in writing a review of my book, “Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library,” and I think that ultimately our underlying motives are similar. But there are real disagreements, too, as well as misunderstandings that I would like to address. The most important real difference of opinion is found … Read more Ed D’Angelo responds to John Pateman’s review of Barbarians at the Gates of the Public Library
Email to lists from Mark Rosenzweig: —- Dear SRRT members and other progressives in ALA, The PLG Coordinating Committee has compiled the following short list of Council candidates (there may be one or two we missed) we believe are truly worthy of your votes. We urge you to BULLET VOTE for the list, that is, … Read more Progressive Council Candidates
At the ALA Midwinter in Seattle, two SRRT task forces were combined into one. The Alternatives In Print Task Force was one of SRRT’s original task forces, and has consistently advocated for the collection of materials from alternative publishers as a necessary part of living up to the Library Bill of Rights in collection development. … Read more Alternative Media Task Force
This is really funny.
Recently a reader commented on a posting about Rick Anderson of last March, defending the idea that librarians should be “invisible facilitators of the flow of information in a capitalist society,” which is how I interpreted the intentions of Anderson and others like him (though I am sure that they would take issue with that). … Read more Rivers and dams
Here is an excerpt from Jesse Shera’s 1936 article in The Bulletin of the American Library Association, “The College Library and its Future.” (Vol. 30, pp. 495-501.) A PROFESSIONAL CREDO Having seen that technologically librarianship has made significant progress, and that investigatory activities have already achieved impressive beginnings, we now turn our attention to a … Read more Jesse Shera on academic librarians’ professional values
Library Juice readers on most university campuses should be able to read this new one from EDUCAUSE Review: “If the Academic Library Ceased to Exist, Would We Have to Invent It?” It’s a brief think piece that demonstrates why academic libraries are necessary, answering the idea, apparently familiar to the EDUCAUSE crowd, that they are … Read more EDUCAUSE on libraries (with friends like these…)
Thomas Mann at the Library of Congress has written an update to his critical summary of changes there: More on What’s Going On at the Library of Congress, published through the Library of Congress Professional Guild, AFSCME 2910. The cover page lists these topics in the 24 page document: Series authority records Integrating the Web … Read more More on What’s Going On at the Library of Congress
Jim Carroll blogged this on January 4th: Why “Bandwagon Innovation” Doesn’t Work. Carroll states very succinctly what is wrong with bandwagonny innovation ideas (including Web 2.0 ideas as they are commonly approached). He is a futurist whose primary interest is innovation; he is not anti-tech at all. His points about innovation bandwagons have to do … Read more “Bandwagon innovation”