Beginning the chapter about government communication, and tipping the balance thereof towards education and away from propaganda, I was insulted by the first few paragraphs dumping on polisci as not examining the avenues of power that is so central to their disscussions on how governments operate. What about Constructivism? Neo Liberals, and their emphasis on the importance of nongovernmental actors? Only Classical Realism regards all of a country as a solitary rational actor!
Then, through the Carter references and the last paragraph in the conclusion, I realized that this article is from before the 80s. A thirty plus year old article, wherefrom much of the theories, arguments and evidence from my political science training come from after that. (Constructivism is from 83 or 87, I can't remember).
From this side of the Reagan era, it's easy to see that this article is prescient in its warnings of the government being able to promote its messages and agendas as its own agent (albeit a really big gorilla of an agent) in the ideas marketplace. The Republicans (and Clinton) seem to have become really good at this, and Obama less so. Hence phenomena like the media coverage of the Tea Party rally with Glenn Beck on the Mall, versus the amount of coverage Jon Stewart's rally got, even though more than two and a half times the number of people showed up to support Stewart.
I was struck by his point about school teachers as government agents of information spread, it seemed a powerful argument, until you consider how stubborn and pre opinionated most schoolteachers are. Maybe that is a Madison phenomenon bias however, to do with the power of the union here and how uppity it can make them.
Aside from good civics (and everybody needs more civics education) I didn't quite follow what this was supposed to contribute to libraries and librarians discussion, aside from the fact that we count as government agents too.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Week three
Welcome to the land of Procrastinia, I am their Queen.
(if you would like to join our ranks, please allow me to point out the PBS show Sherlock, a modern update of that Holmes business, which is the best thing on tv that I have seen in months. And I watch a shit ton of tv. Start with "A Study in Pink" http://video.pbs.org/video/1619685888/ Full episode, no commercials, god I love pbs.)
But on to the week three readings
Having read some of Pawley's other work, I was leery of her article for this week's reading, but I found it one of the most readable and compelling of this batch. I had a conservative political science professor who had pointed out the disturbing disconnect between the liberal encouragements of "Promote Diversity" and multiculturalism, and the emphasis on treating everybody the same ("just be nice to everybody" as one of the quoted librarian's in Pawley's introduction put it.
I like how Pawley zeroes in on this from a completely different direction, and how it affects library work, but more importantly (especially from our perspective) how it affects library training. I only wish she had gone into more specifics.
(if you would like to join our ranks, please allow me to point out the PBS show Sherlock, a modern update of that Holmes business, which is the best thing on tv that I have seen in months. And I watch a shit ton of tv. Start with "A Study in Pink" http://video.pbs.org/video/1619685888/ Full episode, no commercials, god I love pbs.)
But on to the week three readings
Having read some of Pawley's other work, I was leery of her article for this week's reading, but I found it one of the most readable and compelling of this batch. I had a conservative political science professor who had pointed out the disturbing disconnect between the liberal encouragements of "Promote Diversity" and multiculturalism, and the emphasis on treating everybody the same ("just be nice to everybody" as one of the quoted librarian's in Pawley's introduction put it.
I like how Pawley zeroes in on this from a completely different direction, and how it affects library work, but more importantly (especially from our perspective) how it affects library training. I only wish she had gone into more specifics.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Copyright Readings
I- hmmm.
I have stolen digital content on the internet, and I am likely to do so again. I self justify some of these thefts with later purchase of the works involved, but by no means all. Usually I steal things because their legitimate formats are unavailable to me (I don't own a tv, and also (therefore?) don't have cable) such as British tv, tv shows whose network does streaming with commercials, but using a horribly coded engine to do it with (I'm looking at you, CBS).
I understand and acknowledge that this is illegal. But I don't agree with the way that the law is currently set up. The systems in place to try and answer the reasons I steal have become much better (hulu, netflix, audible), but they still aren't optimized, and neither are the laws and underlying philosophical definitions of property and ownership of digital content.
Reading the readings this week I was saddened at how much hasn't changed law-wise since many of the readings were written (1996? Modems?), how much this is still a muddle.
In the Revising chapter, I enjoyed the history of copyrights, and I liked how the author pointed out the current disconnect in the "copyright bargain," which seems a very good way to think of it, even if that bargain is a drunken three way of a mess.
The Liberal state reading was good, but perphrastic. Immoderately so.
I have stolen digital content on the internet, and I am likely to do so again. I self justify some of these thefts with later purchase of the works involved, but by no means all. Usually I steal things because their legitimate formats are unavailable to me (I don't own a tv, and also (therefore?) don't have cable) such as British tv, tv shows whose network does streaming with commercials, but using a horribly coded engine to do it with (I'm looking at you, CBS).
I understand and acknowledge that this is illegal. But I don't agree with the way that the law is currently set up. The systems in place to try and answer the reasons I steal have become much better (hulu, netflix, audible), but they still aren't optimized, and neither are the laws and underlying philosophical definitions of property and ownership of digital content.
Reading the readings this week I was saddened at how much hasn't changed law-wise since many of the readings were written (1996? Modems?), how much this is still a muddle.
In the Revising chapter, I enjoyed the history of copyrights, and I liked how the author pointed out the current disconnect in the "copyright bargain," which seems a very good way to think of it, even if that bargain is a drunken three way of a mess.
The Liberal state reading was good, but perphrastic. Immoderately so.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Literacy
I was having trouble coming up with what I wanted to say about this week's book, Literacy in American Lives by Deborah Brandt, so read a few of my fellow students' blog entries for this book. I agree with them on how difficult this book was to read, especially finding the argument, or even the point to many paragraphs. Brandt has lots of great anecdotal literacy histories, but she doesn't say anything definitive with her data. (maybe that's my science background speaking). I feel like many of the paragraphs in the conclusion were plug and chug along the lines of
"Of course [obvious and very general statement about literacy]. And while [extreme statement about the seedy and/or spurious economic motives for promoting literacy] is too extreme a thesis [idyllic naive happy fluffy bunnies universe of all good reading] is also false. Literacy Literacy literacy. we must keep in mind [urban/rural, rich/poor, racial, cultural, generational] factors when thinking about literacy, like in chapter[s 1-9].
Unlike others in this class, I did not see my family's literary history depicted in one or more of Brandt's subjects, in that my family's generational differences skewed her generational norms (my grandfather-my father's father- was a veteran of WWI, born in 1894), we didn't follow her rural to urban to suburban trend (all but one were urban and stayed so), nor did education level dramatically increase. My grandfather was a blue collar mechanic on train engines, but read his library out of books in the genres he preferred (westerns, mysteries, science fiction), and kept up correspondence with 10 siblings. My other grandfather was an optometrist, and very active in political causes, rating the op ed page in three different regional newspapers at least once a month.
I understand that this is not typical for this region, or from her examples in book.
I did like how broadly Brandt cast the net of literacy, and made the point that definitions of literacy have broadened and become more complicated from 'ability to sign one's name."
"Of course [obvious and very general statement about literacy]. And while [extreme statement about the seedy and/or spurious economic motives for promoting literacy] is too extreme a thesis [idyllic naive happy fluffy bunnies universe of all good reading] is also false. Literacy Literacy literacy. we must keep in mind [urban/rural, rich/poor, racial, cultural, generational] factors when thinking about literacy, like in chapter[s 1-9].
Unlike others in this class, I did not see my family's literary history depicted in one or more of Brandt's subjects, in that my family's generational differences skewed her generational norms (my grandfather-my father's father- was a veteran of WWI, born in 1894), we didn't follow her rural to urban to suburban trend (all but one were urban and stayed so), nor did education level dramatically increase. My grandfather was a blue collar mechanic on train engines, but read his library out of books in the genres he preferred (westerns, mysteries, science fiction), and kept up correspondence with 10 siblings. My other grandfather was an optometrist, and very active in political causes, rating the op ed page in three different regional newspapers at least once a month.
I understand that this is not typical for this region, or from her examples in book.
I did like how broadly Brandt cast the net of literacy, and made the point that definitions of literacy have broadened and become more complicated from 'ability to sign one's name."
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Hela, informed consent, psychology of the interview
I had two fillings done today, at 8 am. I wasn't thinking about HeLa or Henrietta Lacks during, just clutching my hands and trying to listen to my audiobook instead of the drill, but after, it occurred to me that there is a lot dissatisfying to me about the way I'm treated at the dentist's office- not the dentistry, but the doctor patient relationship, the part that involves informed consent is lacking.
Much of this is on my shoulders, in that I don't take charge of making sure I'm satisfied and feel like I know what's going on, but I think the psychology of the dentist interaction is also at fault. I had my first filling a long time ago, when parents came along to the dentist, but I didn't know then that I could have the entire procedure explained and all my questions asked and answered. Since I've had lots of fillings, my dental health folks assume that I know all that I want to about the matter, and it's on me to ask if I have more questions, but the nature of the dentist visit discourages seeking informed consent. The person that greets you in the waiting room is the assistant, not the dentist, not the person who will perform your procedure. When the dentist does arrive, you are sitting in the chair, she enters and sits behind you, so no eye contact can be obtained. You converse, but it's usually chit chat, ice-breaking on how one is doing, and that is done as you are lowered into what I usually think of as the Position of Helplessness. It's hard to be assertive and feel in charge laying on your back with your feet above you, a bright light in your eyes (akin to interrogation scenes on TV). You feel vulnerable, exposed, and you want to please those in charge precisely because of your powerlessness. Then they stick fingers in your mouth, and your ability to communicate is severely diminished. The dentist and her assistant discuss what they are doing, and the general condition of what they find, but as they are professionals consulting with each other the conversation is going (literally) over your head. The dentist usually takes her leave before the chair has even sat up, so followup questions or concerns can't usually be addressed by her.
At the dentist I arrive feeling anxious, cowed and docile. I leave feeling shaky and a little violated. And I have a good dentist! Trying to be forthright, or even curious in this mindset is difficult, and even when you ask questions (which I try to do) and even if there are good replies, I'm not in the frame of mind to fully absorb the information.
All through reading the Henrietta Lacks book this week I was intrigued by the difficult ethical questions brought up in the book, but I was having trouble tying them into libraries in ways we haven't covered in class (privacy, authority of librarian, help or body blocking medical questions). The bio ethics questions, especially those raised by the underhanded doctor behavior with the Mo cell line are tangled in such a way that neither side is in the right as to how this should be handled, but the current state of affairs is unsustainable. Too tangled an issue for one class.
Today it came to me, in that I was struck when reading the passage discussing Day's general medical reaction when he gave autopsy permission- that his response is yes to what the doctor says and wants. The Henrietta sections also emphasized her lack of information and understanding when it came to her medical care, especially when it came to conditions like her neurosyphilis. This surprised me as my doctor relationship has never been that way, even as I child my pediatrician would explain diseases, symptoms and mechanics, and treatment options.
So what the heck does my dentist visit and Skloot's book have to do with library stuff? It has a lot to do with reference interviews. My dad is a reference librarian, and when I was little the reference desk, just like the Circulation desk, was high up, with the librarian sitting on a stool above the patron, and the computer screen only facing the librarian. I was weirded out and nonplussed when the model shifted to what is currently in vogue (tho not at Memorial Library) where the librarian sits at a low desk with a chair for the patron as well, and a swiveling screen that is patron inclusive in design. I was bothered by how much less authoritative the lowered desk looked, but it's essential to its purpose, which is equalizing. Making the librarian less intimidating, and less distanced makes them more approachable, the shared screen makes searching for information more collaborative, and even if it makes the finding of the information take longer, it also makes the how to find the information (our new emphasis, teaching) much easier. So does the structure of the interview, with lots of leading questions, tips and preferences, and checks that the patron is satisfied or has any further questions.
I understand that the physical limitations of dentistry preclude any sort of equal standing (really sitting) to occur, but I wish it would be something that they try to improve. My doctor experiences are nothing like those that the Lacks family went through, but my dentist ones bear a resemblance. HeLa helped me in a professional sense in that it emphasized that ease and feeling of control are important things for the patron to feel in any interview for it to be a successful one.
Much of this is on my shoulders, in that I don't take charge of making sure I'm satisfied and feel like I know what's going on, but I think the psychology of the dentist interaction is also at fault. I had my first filling a long time ago, when parents came along to the dentist, but I didn't know then that I could have the entire procedure explained and all my questions asked and answered. Since I've had lots of fillings, my dental health folks assume that I know all that I want to about the matter, and it's on me to ask if I have more questions, but the nature of the dentist visit discourages seeking informed consent. The person that greets you in the waiting room is the assistant, not the dentist, not the person who will perform your procedure. When the dentist does arrive, you are sitting in the chair, she enters and sits behind you, so no eye contact can be obtained. You converse, but it's usually chit chat, ice-breaking on how one is doing, and that is done as you are lowered into what I usually think of as the Position of Helplessness. It's hard to be assertive and feel in charge laying on your back with your feet above you, a bright light in your eyes (akin to interrogation scenes on TV). You feel vulnerable, exposed, and you want to please those in charge precisely because of your powerlessness. Then they stick fingers in your mouth, and your ability to communicate is severely diminished. The dentist and her assistant discuss what they are doing, and the general condition of what they find, but as they are professionals consulting with each other the conversation is going (literally) over your head. The dentist usually takes her leave before the chair has even sat up, so followup questions or concerns can't usually be addressed by her.
At the dentist I arrive feeling anxious, cowed and docile. I leave feeling shaky and a little violated. And I have a good dentist! Trying to be forthright, or even curious in this mindset is difficult, and even when you ask questions (which I try to do) and even if there are good replies, I'm not in the frame of mind to fully absorb the information.
All through reading the Henrietta Lacks book this week I was intrigued by the difficult ethical questions brought up in the book, but I was having trouble tying them into libraries in ways we haven't covered in class (privacy, authority of librarian, help or body blocking medical questions). The bio ethics questions, especially those raised by the underhanded doctor behavior with the Mo cell line are tangled in such a way that neither side is in the right as to how this should be handled, but the current state of affairs is unsustainable. Too tangled an issue for one class.
Today it came to me, in that I was struck when reading the passage discussing Day's general medical reaction when he gave autopsy permission- that his response is yes to what the doctor says and wants. The Henrietta sections also emphasized her lack of information and understanding when it came to her medical care, especially when it came to conditions like her neurosyphilis. This surprised me as my doctor relationship has never been that way, even as I child my pediatrician would explain diseases, symptoms and mechanics, and treatment options.
So what the heck does my dentist visit and Skloot's book have to do with library stuff? It has a lot to do with reference interviews. My dad is a reference librarian, and when I was little the reference desk, just like the Circulation desk, was high up, with the librarian sitting on a stool above the patron, and the computer screen only facing the librarian. I was weirded out and nonplussed when the model shifted to what is currently in vogue (tho not at Memorial Library) where the librarian sits at a low desk with a chair for the patron as well, and a swiveling screen that is patron inclusive in design. I was bothered by how much less authoritative the lowered desk looked, but it's essential to its purpose, which is equalizing. Making the librarian less intimidating, and less distanced makes them more approachable, the shared screen makes searching for information more collaborative, and even if it makes the finding of the information take longer, it also makes the how to find the information (our new emphasis, teaching) much easier. So does the structure of the interview, with lots of leading questions, tips and preferences, and checks that the patron is satisfied or has any further questions.
I understand that the physical limitations of dentistry preclude any sort of equal standing (really sitting) to occur, but I wish it would be something that they try to improve. My doctor experiences are nothing like those that the Lacks family went through, but my dentist ones bear a resemblance. HeLa helped me in a professional sense in that it emphasized that ease and feeling of control are important things for the patron to feel in any interview for it to be a successful one.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
It's the patron, stupid
My dad is from Mason City Iowa, the city were Meredith Wilson is from, the city that the Music Man's River City is based on. I've been to Marian the Librarian's house, walked across the "Till there was you" bridge, etc. Marian, as a librarian was in love with her collection, and not particularly bothered about getting the city to read the things that she loved. It's Harold Hill who interests the town in reading ("the professor told us to read those books, and we simply adored them all- Chaucer, Rabelais, Balzac!"). Marian is the traditional Guardian librarian, like the Irish monks who copied and Illuminated their texts through the dark ages, not understanding them, but understanding the need to preserve and protect.
I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. In the spinoff show that follows the redeemed vampire Angel, they always emphasize his status as a champion- helping those who are helpless, being their partisan against all the forces of evil.
The articles this week were all about mentally moving away from the guardian librarian mentality, where the collection, and the knowledge is the primary concern of the librarian to a champion model, where the patron is the focus, where all the library collections and the librarian's knowledge are tools in helping the patron.
This isn't a perfect metaphor (it's pretty dorky I know) but changing the viewpoint from guardian to champion is a hard one to do.
I found the article on teaching at the desk to be most helpful of this week's readings, as it outlined the teach a man to fish training I've received and tried to emulate. It's not every patron who needs it, or every patron who's interested, but helping someone master or gain proficiency in a previously bewildering task is more satisfying than being the master of the knowledge, or the guardian, or even the Hermione Granger.
I am a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. In the spinoff show that follows the redeemed vampire Angel, they always emphasize his status as a champion- helping those who are helpless, being their partisan against all the forces of evil.
The articles this week were all about mentally moving away from the guardian librarian mentality, where the collection, and the knowledge is the primary concern of the librarian to a champion model, where the patron is the focus, where all the library collections and the librarian's knowledge are tools in helping the patron.
This isn't a perfect metaphor (it's pretty dorky I know) but changing the viewpoint from guardian to champion is a hard one to do.
I found the article on teaching at the desk to be most helpful of this week's readings, as it outlined the teach a man to fish training I've received and tried to emulate. It's not every patron who needs it, or every patron who's interested, but helping someone master or gain proficiency in a previously bewildering task is more satisfying than being the master of the knowledge, or the guardian, or even the Hermione Granger.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Third order?
I am 24, and I have always had a computer. I understand this is rare, and that first computer was green type on a black screen, but the idea of digital information and the revolution of organizational concepts that it implies does not seem radical to me, just an obvious point about the searchability and the OCD attractiveness of digital information and the possibilities of organizing to your taste. When I was ten I filed my books alphabetically by author first name because they were my books and that was how I wanted them. While Weinberger points out interesting applications of the accessibility of digital information, nothing he points out as remarkable or game changing strikes me (as a member of my generation) as game-changing as he seems to think I ought to. It has always been thus. Sure, there are new data collections since I was aware of this (Amazon, Wikipedia, Itunes Flickr), but they all file under the same thesis, just like all the examples in Weinberger's book.
It must seem amazing to have so many systems of information digitized when one originally learned them analog, but to me, that overlooks that the old organizing schemas are absolutely still necessary- we don't live in a perfectly digital world, even sitting in front of screens all day. I have my personal books (currently organized alphabetically by second word in title) put together so I can find what I want, I still only have so much shelfspace in my pantry. None of these can conform to digital organization options, there is no search box in my closet (unlike Cher in Clueless), so while its cool to think about how customizable and unlimited by conventional physics of dimensions digital organization can be, its just one set of things in one set of schemas.
It must seem amazing to have so many systems of information digitized when one originally learned them analog, but to me, that overlooks that the old organizing schemas are absolutely still necessary- we don't live in a perfectly digital world, even sitting in front of screens all day. I have my personal books (currently organized alphabetically by second word in title) put together so I can find what I want, I still only have so much shelfspace in my pantry. None of these can conform to digital organization options, there is no search box in my closet (unlike Cher in Clueless), so while its cool to think about how customizable and unlimited by conventional physics of dimensions digital organization can be, its just one set of things in one set of schemas.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Week 5 readings
I apologize for the lack of weeks three and four reading blogs absence. They will be up shortly
Byrne, David S.(2010) 'Access to Online Local Government Public Records: The Privacy Paradox', Legal
Reference Services Quarterly, 29: 1, 1 — 21
I loved the readability of this article, and how close it is to some of the work I have done, and am doing now. The history of science department had a flood in their storage room this summer, and because of it they lost three boxes of records. This led the newly appointed chair to realize that nobody had touched their records (or thrown anything away) going back to the inception of the program in 1947. She rightly thought that this would upset those in authority, if they learned of it, and so I was hired to figure out what they ought to have been doing all along, and then quietly do it. So started a month of learning what documents count as public records and what is supposed to be done with them, and then going through what they have in order to dispose of it properly.
The stuff I found ranged from the eye gougingly mundane to the hilariously fascinating (a 1970s era professor defending his unorthodox hippie grading rubric to an unamused 1950s era department chair). I also have gone through the student records of about 100 people, found 10 social security numbers, and read some extremely personal correspondence. Most of these documents are going to Archives, but eventually they will be digitized, and freely available to any who are curious.
Avoiding giving away very important personal data is a scary reality in this case, but I was heartened by the case studies which were grave, but not as bleak as they might be.
My parents are currently dealing with a fraud case in which someone has co-opted their phone number and address. To what purpose is not yet clear, but the implications might be chilling.
All of the articles this week deal with the right to privacy, and how murky the legal surroundings are on every front for this issue. I was slightly aghast at some of the implications with the tissue issues brought up by the Charo article. While my personal opinions on the use of fetal tissue to create stem cell lines is uninformedly pro, the article also gave me pause with how much say is given up when such a donation is given.. One of my favorite science fiction series deals with a tissue sample is stolen from the protagonist and a clone grown from it becomes a major character- not the soulless abomination in the eyes of god that some pundits of the issue would have you believe be the outcome, but a separate person, and by law, the protagonists baby brother. (The Vorkosigan Saga)
We relinquish our right to to the privacy of our waste, be it bodily or otherwise, when we abandon it- leaving it to be picked up by the garbage men, or in the toilet, but if you lost a diamond ring down the drain, and it was recovered at the sewage plant, would they allow you to reclaim it? I think (tho the chances would be slim) that they would. Is the biological wealth of our tissue different? This most bugged me with the University of Washington's miserly reluctance to have the prostate tissue samples leave their university with the professor who collected them.
The right to privacy is an important one for librarians to pay especial attention to, especially for the reason you (Alan) mentioned in class, that sooner or later we are all health librarians, we are all privy to the worries, problems and needs of our patrons.
Byrne, David S.(2010) 'Access to Online Local Government Public Records: The Privacy Paradox', Legal
Reference Services Quarterly, 29: 1, 1 — 21
I loved the readability of this article, and how close it is to some of the work I have done, and am doing now. The history of science department had a flood in their storage room this summer, and because of it they lost three boxes of records. This led the newly appointed chair to realize that nobody had touched their records (or thrown anything away) going back to the inception of the program in 1947. She rightly thought that this would upset those in authority, if they learned of it, and so I was hired to figure out what they ought to have been doing all along, and then quietly do it. So started a month of learning what documents count as public records and what is supposed to be done with them, and then going through what they have in order to dispose of it properly.
The stuff I found ranged from the eye gougingly mundane to the hilariously fascinating (a 1970s era professor defending his unorthodox hippie grading rubric to an unamused 1950s era department chair). I also have gone through the student records of about 100 people, found 10 social security numbers, and read some extremely personal correspondence. Most of these documents are going to Archives, but eventually they will be digitized, and freely available to any who are curious.
Avoiding giving away very important personal data is a scary reality in this case, but I was heartened by the case studies which were grave, but not as bleak as they might be.
My parents are currently dealing with a fraud case in which someone has co-opted their phone number and address. To what purpose is not yet clear, but the implications might be chilling.
All of the articles this week deal with the right to privacy, and how murky the legal surroundings are on every front for this issue. I was slightly aghast at some of the implications with the tissue issues brought up by the Charo article. While my personal opinions on the use of fetal tissue to create stem cell lines is uninformedly pro, the article also gave me pause with how much say is given up when such a donation is given.. One of my favorite science fiction series deals with a tissue sample is stolen from the protagonist and a clone grown from it becomes a major character- not the soulless abomination in the eyes of god that some pundits of the issue would have you believe be the outcome, but a separate person, and by law, the protagonists baby brother. (The Vorkosigan Saga)
We relinquish our right to to the privacy of our waste, be it bodily or otherwise, when we abandon it- leaving it to be picked up by the garbage men, or in the toilet, but if you lost a diamond ring down the drain, and it was recovered at the sewage plant, would they allow you to reclaim it? I think (tho the chances would be slim) that they would. Is the biological wealth of our tissue different? This most bugged me with the University of Washington's miserly reluctance to have the prostate tissue samples leave their university with the professor who collected them.
The right to privacy is an important one for librarians to pay especial attention to, especially for the reason you (Alan) mentioned in class, that sooner or later we are all health librarians, we are all privy to the worries, problems and needs of our patrons.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Assignment 1 - State of the Libraries: Montana
Almost all of the articles I found to discuss the state of libraries in Montana could describe any state. My favorite bit of local culture that I could winkle was that any discussion of new services or budgetary considerations was very careful to lay out the exact amount required, even down to cost per household.
Montana has a state holiday to celebrate the library. This is cool, and unfair. School libraries all over Montana are in trouble though. Budget cuts mean that the school district featured in the article no longer has sufficient staff for their elementary schools libraries to be accredited or even open for the entire school week. Access for school children is much harder outside of classes scheduled in the library, which everyone agrees is the wrong message to send to kids. In an older article I found about Butte elementary schools, they were forced to terminate all of their “library monitors” leaving all libraries staffed by a licensed teacher split half time between library duties and being the technology teacher. Much of the informal and personally motivated access to the library is cut off by the budget cuts.
Also near Butte, the public library has tried to increase access and convenience by setting up a pickup and drop off-site in a grocery store on the opposite end of town. I liked this concept especially as it is a good illustration of the shift in attitudes towards the goals of librarians, from the 19th century perception that the collection is paramount to clearly putting the patron and the patron needs first. A remote site to pick up ones holds also would not be possible without the digital presence of a library, allowing for remote and asynchronous use of the library.
I found a few articles about the main library on the University of Montana- Missoula campus, but the vast majority of them were on events at the library, and not about the library itself. In the United Kingdom, bars or taverns are called pubs, which is short for ‘public house,’ and when I lived there I was struck by how much communal living goes on in them. Even the knitting club met in the pub. Perhaps because of the stigma of establishments that serve alcohol, in the United States, that role is very often filled by the library. My favorite Montanan example of this was the Strong Women Project exhibit, although there were dozens of events to choose from. The Strong Women Project is such local celebration of the women in the community, and in a space devoted to community, I was delighted at the idea, and that many of the images were available online. The picture at the top is of one such strong woman.
The Maureen and Mike Mansfield library on the University of Montana- Missoula also played host to a fracas this summer, for the only article I could find that dealt with the business of the library. A community user was arrested for disorderly conduct stemming from trying to incite other in the library to protest the new policy of limiting access to the majority of library computers by requiring a student log- in. Community use is still allowed on eight of the hundred or so computers, but only for hour- long stints, when prior to this policy change some community patrons would use the academic library’s computers for six to eight hour stretches. The change was made to allow students access to new digital resources that were not available to the public due to licensing agreements. When I first started this article I was worried that the librarians at Mansfield Library weren’t upholding what Marilyn Johnson called the ideal of little‘d’ democracy, in that access was being denied or limited. Reading further assured me that this was not the case.
When I first compiled these articles, initially grateful that they all fit within the requirements of the assignment, I was at a loss as to how to tie them together with a concept or theme of this class, as the purview, audience, and duties of each of these library types are so different. But as I read my summaries, I realized that they are all about issues of information access through the catalyst that is the library. For the Public library in Silver Bow, it’s a celebration of increasing access. For the elementary schools in the north western part of Montana, it’s about bemoaning a sharp decrease in access, both to the library facility and to a school librarian’s time for each student. For Mansfield Library in Missoula, it’s differentiating between the services meant for the community they serve, the university, and the citizenry at large.
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/article_71ebeee2-c12e-11df-b922-001cc4c03286.html
http://ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=2W61170567323&site=ehost-live
http://ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=2W62410805144&site=ehost-live
http://missoulian.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/article_f48f32fa-3367-11df-a7a3-001cc4c002e0.html
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_a765bc7f-687c-5482-9dfb-38af3ceeb2bc.html
Sunday, September 12, 2010
pans narrans- Week 2 readings
In The Science of Discworld II: the Globe Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen describe the way the human brain and mind interact, and use the term pans narrans as a much better species descriptor than homo sapien.
Pans narrans or the storytelling ape is how McKemmish starts her chapter Traces, and I wish she was more coherent through the rest of it. I enjoyed her example of Children Overboard, but I had difficulty with the writing style, that made verbs of adjectives and wasn't particularly readable. Describing what archives are, what records are, and how they become so shouldn't be as abstruse as she made it. I did find her emphasis of the importance of context informing the meaning and information encoded into a document to make it a record, with the same photographs representing totally different bits of story depending on what archive had them as a record especially helpful in thinking about the concepts she was trying to get across.
I enjoyed the encyclopedia entries by Pawley and Rusch-Feja as things I already knew about put in complete, precise, cogent terms. I didn't learn anything by reading them (except the names of a few minor historic figures and the cool fact that the Soviet Union had a library for every two thousand citizens), but they were helpful as a connotation-check of many of these terms and concepts at a basic level.
Pans narrans or the storytelling ape is how McKemmish starts her chapter Traces, and I wish she was more coherent through the rest of it. I enjoyed her example of Children Overboard, but I had difficulty with the writing style, that made verbs of adjectives and wasn't particularly readable. Describing what archives are, what records are, and how they become so shouldn't be as abstruse as she made it. I did find her emphasis of the importance of context informing the meaning and information encoded into a document to make it a record, with the same photographs representing totally different bits of story depending on what archive had them as a record especially helpful in thinking about the concepts she was trying to get across.
I enjoyed the encyclopedia entries by Pawley and Rusch-Feja as things I already knew about put in complete, precise, cogent terms. I didn't learn anything by reading them (except the names of a few minor historic figures and the cool fact that the Soviet Union had a library for every two thousand citizens), but they were helpful as a connotation-check of many of these terms and concepts at a basic level.
Carrot Cake
This is the second LIS assignment blog I've had, but this one seems more systematized with all that other online profile business.
As a favorite character says, Let's see what happens.
Some biographical background. I am a Madison native, a second year special student (it's complicated), in my fourth class at SLIS. I've worked in four libraries and six different departments. I don't feel like I've been flitting as much as that statement denotes. I would like to be a Reference librarian in an academic library when I grow up.
All through Johnson's This Book is Overdue (I won't dignify the attempt to coin a terrible word by including the subtitle) I found myself enjoying what she had to say about libraries and librarians, but I only felt any sort of spark or recognition when things were going wrong for the librarians. When the narrative went all "Gee whiz!" I was more alienated, especially during the second life section.
I made carrot cake today for my fathers 64th birthday, which was yesterday. Yesterday was a brainspike of Lord of the Rings extended edition (brainspike: watching the entirety of something in basically one sitting or at one go.) and oniondip. I seem to be beating cream cheese into other things to make delicious unhealthfulnesses this weekend.
Look for a post on the Week 2 Readings later tonight
As a favorite character says, Let's see what happens.
Some biographical background. I am a Madison native, a second year special student (it's complicated), in my fourth class at SLIS. I've worked in four libraries and six different departments. I don't feel like I've been flitting as much as that statement denotes. I would like to be a Reference librarian in an academic library when I grow up.
All through Johnson's This Book is Overdue (I won't dignify the attempt to coin a terrible word by including the subtitle) I found myself enjoying what she had to say about libraries and librarians, but I only felt any sort of spark or recognition when things were going wrong for the librarians. When the narrative went all "Gee whiz!" I was more alienated, especially during the second life section.
I made carrot cake today for my fathers 64th birthday, which was yesterday. Yesterday was a brainspike of Lord of the Rings extended edition (brainspike: watching the entirety of something in basically one sitting or at one go.) and oniondip. I seem to be beating cream cheese into other things to make delicious unhealthfulnesses this weekend.
Look for a post on the Week 2 Readings later tonight
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