AskMetafilter recently had the following question posed which led to some great discussion.Did libraries (public and university) stop requiring people to be quiet in the last few years, or is it just me?At home on a recent break, I tried studying in a number of public libraries and found that most were noisier than the […]
“Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.” – Jean Anouilh, Ardele“We can and do spend too much time worrying whether librarianship is a craft or an art, a job or a profession, irrespective of whether it is one or the other, all or none, librarianship has three major values: service, intellectual freedom, and preservation […]
LISNews.org names The Top Ten LIS Stories of 2006 (via Stephen’s Lighthouse) The list is a bit tech-heavy and a bit US-centric but otherwise, provides a good overview of the year in libraryland. (That's kind of a goofy phrase but since a prof used it recently, I've started using it too!)I didn't do this when […]
I mentioned the idea of (re)starting an alumni association in the “50 Ways To Improve FIMS” post a couple days ago. Someone wrote to let me know there is a group that exists online via Western's Purple Cirlces community portal. The MLIS one is called (in very logical fashion) MLIS Alumni Network. I don't think […]
Here is another massive list – “50 Good Things About FIMS” to complete the “95(+5) Theses of FIMS” I started yesterday with my “50 Ways To Improve FIMS” post.
Here is the granddaddy of all library school lists – 50 ways that FIMS could be improved. Some are incredibly simple, small changes; some are pretty significant and maybe even unrealistic (or would require a lot of work and bureaucratic maneuvering which makes them unlikely to happen, even if they are possible.)
(Thanks to Denise H. for the tip!)
As with any sector, there are a lot of unchallenged statements, pieces of accepted wisdom and politically incorrect sentiments in the library world that seem to be lurking just beneath the surface. But for a profession concerned with freedom of expression and sharing of information, this restraint seems to be especially preposterous. So here are […]
“Librarians are extremely liberal and, thanks to our tax dollars, insulated from their consumers' preferences.” The National Post looks at the bias against conservative books in bookstores and public libraries in an article titled “Ignoring Canada's Conservative Readers”. (Thanks to Christina W. for the tip!) (By the way, the second last book I read […]
Here at library school, we talk a lot about what we call things. Patrons or customers or clients or users (or even neighbours as one classmate suggested.) You also have libraries or resource centres or information centres or Idea Stores.The trend seems to be towards taking the traditional terms – “library” and “patron” – out of […]
