A work in progress

This post will change over the next couple weeks as my research begins to unfold more details, but I can't help wonder what the hell the director of the Frederick County Public Libraries was thinking and whether he holds an MLS?! I believe that the most important issue that is instilled in us during library school is our professional ethics (thank you very much, John Berry), and Mr. Batson's actions go again every ethic we are taught. your thoughts and comments are appreciated on this issue.

Why you should go to the library

A concise list, via The Green Lantern Gallery's most excellent blog.

Reanimation Library Re-opening on Friday, September 19th

Hello All,

I wanted to mention that the Reanimation Library is reopening this Friday (see message from Andrew below). I went to a reading sponsored by the library over the summer and the artists and Andrew were so appreciative of the support and everyone I met was so open to conversation and creative. So come on out and support not only the incredible endeavors that are the Reanimation Library and Proteus Gowanus, but the amazing people behind it as well (yes I gush but it is deserved).

___________________________________________________________________
Hello,
After taking the last three months off, I am pleased to announce thatthe Reanimation Library will be resuming its regular hours beginning Saturday, September 20th. To mark this occasion, and to launch theProteus Gowanus 2008-2009 show on the theme "mend", the Library andProteus Gowanus will be hosting an opening on Friday, September 19thfrom 6 to 9 PM. Please join us!
The Reanimation Library and Proteus Gowanus(http://www.proteusgowanus.com) are both loacted at 543 Union Street,Brooklyn, NY, at the corner of Union and Nevins.http://maps.google.com/maps?q=543+Union+St,+Brooklyn,+NY+11215,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title
During the library's summer hiatus, I was busy traveling and acquiringnew goodies for the collection. Please see the news page forspecifics: http://www.reanimationlibrary.org/pages/news.htm
Also, please be sure to check out Denise Iris' minimental about theReanimation Library:http://minimentals.net/MMs%20with%20logo/ReanimationLibrary.mp4
She filmed the footage a few years back, just before the library movedinto its current home by the Gowanus. It pretty much rules.
Thanks. Hope to see you on the 19th.
Andrew

CLIR report to research libraries: Get with the times.

Via Library Journal's Academic Newswire.

The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) has put together a report outlining some of the innovations Research Libraries might consider adopting in order to stay relevant and take advantage of 21st century tools and technologies. The report can be found here, if you're interested.

Welcome back, Cannoneers.

Herman Melville: Fan of Librarians

From Moby Dick:

EXTRACTS (Supplied by a Sub-Sub-Librarian).

It will be seen that this mere painstaking burrower and grub-worm of a poor devil of a Sub-Sub appears to have gone through the long Vaticans and street-stalls of the earth, picking up whatever random allusions to whales he could anyways find in any book whatsoever, sacred or profane. Therefore you must not, in every case at least, take the higgledy-piggledy whale statements, however authentic, in these extracts, for veritable gospel cetology. Far from it. As touching the ancient authors generally, as well as the poets here appearing, these extracts are solely valuable or entertaining, as affording a glancing bird's eye view of what has been promiscuously said, thought, fancied, and sung of Leviathan, by many nations and generations, including our own.

So fare thee well, poor devil of a Sub-Sub, whose commentator I am. Thou belongest to that hopeless, sallow tribe which no wine of this world will ever warm; and for whom even Pale Sherry would be too rosy-strong; but with whom one sometimes loves to sit, and feel poor-devilish, too; and grow convivial upon tears; and say to them bluntly, with full eyes and empty glasses, and in not altogether unpleasant sadness--Give it up, Sub-Subs! For by how much the more pains ye take to please the world, by so much the more shall ye forever go thankless! Would that I could clear out Hampton Court and the Tuileries for ye! But gulp down your tears and hie aloft to the royal-mast with your hearts; for your friends who have gone before are clearing out the seven-storied heavens, and making refugees of long-pampered Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, against your coming. Here ye strike but splintered hearts together--there, ye shall strike unsplinterable glasses!

My new sideline?

I came across a healthcare site called Organized Wisdom tonight in a roundabout way, and I was curious about a healthcare website with a cool name like Organized Wisdom, so I checked it out. It turns out, you can apply to become a "guide", and get paid to create informational "WisdomCards" about different healthcare issues (diseases and conditions, drugs, alternative therapies, etc). This seems like a great way for soon-to-be medical librarians to do some reference work and really dig into sources, which I may want to do after a semester of "Online Health Databases."

So then I started to wonder, how do they pay people to put all this free information out there? The answer, of course, is advertisements. Still, they seem to have a strict editorial policy keeping the ads separate from the "wisdom." Hmm...

Of course, beyond my own personal interest in getting paid to do reference work online, this does seem to bode well for reference librarians. This is a chance to do some good public service work, provide much-needed, quality information to the public at no cost, and get paid to do it. Am I overlooking the negative aspect? Can this model be applied to other fields as well?

retrospective censorship of information

this is bullshit. providing access to information IS NOT the same as endorsing or promoting its content. any librarian worth their weight in catalogs cards know that!