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random thoughts on libraries, librarianship, and textual culture

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LiteraTecs, LibraTecs

Librarians as LibraTecs?

“A reader?” she said with surprise. “In here?” “So it seems. How far away?” She flipped the device open and stared at the flickering needle blankly. […] “We’re clear. The reader is…er, two paragraphs ahead of us.” “Are you sure?” (more…)

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The Library and the Church

The Library and the Church

In Modern Family (season 5, episode 21), Haley Dunphy utters another library aphorism: “That’s a library? I thought it was a church for a religion that didn’t allow makeup.” (more…)

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Don't be a twerp! Don't borrow books!

Don’t be a twerp! Don’t borrow books!

In his Armageddon in Retrospect, Kurt Vonnegut has something to say about the practice of borrowing and lending books: “But don’t borrow it [sc. the book]. For God’s sake, buy it! I consider anybody who borrows a book instead of buying it, or lends one, a twerp.When I was a student at Shortridge High School a million years ago, a twerp was defined as a guy who put a set of false teeth up his rear…

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The Library as a Bathroom

The Library as a Bathroom

The Dunphy family has to go unplugged for an entire week. The daughters try to argue with their mom. – “I have a huge science paper due.” – “And we have a great set of encyclopedias. Somewhere. What do you think the public library is for?” – “I thought that was a bathroom for homeless people.” Modern Family, Season 2, episode 5

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Das Alibibuch in der Bibliothek

Das Alibibuch in der Bibliothek

Bibliotheken brüsten sich (zurzeit) gerne damit, öffentliche Orte ohne Konsumzwang zu sein, die allen Gesellschaftsschichten offen stünden, und versuchen sich so von Orten wie Starbucks* abzugrenzen, die (auch) freies WLAN anbieten und gerne als Arbeitsorte angenommen werden. Aber besteht wirklich kein Konsumzwang in Bibliotheken? (more…)

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Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover

Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover … because sometimes the back and cover are by far the best parts of it, as Mr. Brownlow informed little Oliver Twist: (more…)

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Bibliothekskataloge als Persönliche Assistenten?

Bibliothekskataloge als Persönliche Assistenten?

Was fehlt in Bibliothekskatalogen, Discovery Systemen und BibliotheksApps? (more…)

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Rock Star Librarian?

“Wasn’t his checkered past half the attraction? What was the point of becoming attracted to a rock musician, if she wanted him to behave like a librarian?” (– Nick Hornby, Juliet, Naked) Still, our reputation is somewhat cliché. This sure can come in handy (when convincing a potential landlord of one’s eligibility) – but most of the time it should encourage us to be more iridescent. 

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Serendipity in Bibliotheken?

Ist Serendipity in Bibliotheken ein Problem?

Dem “Zufallsfund” in Bibliotheken (zur Abgrenzung von Serendipity gegenüber Zufallsfund u. dgl. vgl. den englischen Wikipedia-Artikel) wird oftmals, v.a. von NichtbibliothekarInnen, hohe Wertschätzung entgegengebracht. (more…)

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Small Libraries as a Mind Palace

Small is always better? What is true for marshmallows on pancakes, is equally true for libraries? At least that’s the opinion stated by Levitin in his book ‘The Organized Mind’ (he is not talking about marshmallows, though): (more…)

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The librarian as a scholar's scholar A nice description of the (academic) librarian's job found in Levitin's book. Somewhere between ideal and reality (especially as regards the up to date part).

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Library Neutrality? Chicago 1927

With all the talk about libraries as community hubs and supporters of social action, about library neutrality, libraries as cultural heritage institutions, and librarians as the stewards of open access and collective memory, let’s not forget the darker episodes of our occupation. One of those episodes is described by Bill Bryson in his book about the Summer of 1927: “[Chicago Mayor William Hale…

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Data Driven Librarianship

Data Driven Librarianship. eine (kurze) annotierte Literaturliste

Data Driven Librarianship — auf ein deutsches Pendant zu diesem in den USA gängigen Konzept bin ich bislang noch nicht gestoßen (“datengestütztes Bibliotheksmanagement”?) — zielt darauf ab, Entscheidungen zur Weiterentwicklung der Bibliothek begründet treffen und qualifiziert die Sache der Bibliothek gegenüber Unterhalts- und Entscheidungsträgern vertreten zu können. Daten ermöglichen es, die…

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Librarians and eScience

“Another thing making collaboration more difficult is a sort of hesitancy from libraries to really delve deeply into the technologies that scientists are using. I think one way to foster collaborations is to remove that technology barrier and start using the same tools our researchers use.” Chris Erdmann http://esciencecommunity.umassmed.edu/2015/06/01/a-discussion-with-chris-erdmann/

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Bibliotheken und Armutsbekämpfung

Helfen Bibliotheken Armut zu überwinden? Kommentar zur Presseerklärung von @bibverband

Die Behauptung wird immer wieder aufs neue aufgestellt, so auch in der aktuellen Presseerklärung des DBV: Bibliotheken unterstützen Armutsüberwindung durch die kostenfreie Bereitstellung von Informationen. (more…)

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Lesen jenseits von (tl;dr) und [ESC]

Warum lesen wir #Bücher?

In den letzten Monaten habe ich viel gelesen. Vielleicht zu viel. Vielleicht nicht immer das Richtige.

Warum überhaupt lesend Zeit verbringen? (more…)

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Libraries cannot puzzle out their future alone

A thought-provoking piece on the importance of learning to listen and the differences between stewardship and ownership is published in today’s Inside Higher Ed: (more…)

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