To be filed under the catagory of “so right”

30Aug08

Yesterday two google searches for “i hate librarians” led to hits on Closed Stacks.  Was it something we said?

Filed under: By: Librarian About Town   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: haters

A spoonful of sugar

27Aug08

Journey back to a time when parking in Providence was abundant, and the fabulous apartments of the Closed Stacks librarians had not yet been built.  I could easily spend a day scrolling and zooming inside of this 1880 map of Providence.  Seeing the city from this perspective is almost as cool as the clear view of my kitchen window as witnessed from my seat in [...]

Filed under: By: Librarian About Town   |  1 Comment
Tags: boston, history, Maps, Providence

…but is it on the reading list?

21Aug08

Recently a young boy came into Youth Services (where I’ve been working part-time since January) with his mother and approached me for some recommendations. Apparently, her son was a precocious reader, far above his reading level (of course), and she was very worried that he would get bored. “What do you like to [...]

Filed under: A Day in the Life, By: The Librarienne, Intellectual Freedom   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: Binnicula, Illiterate parents, reading lists, youth services

Don’t worry, the research will save us!

20Aug08

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a winning strategy for increasing city funding for Providence Public Library. I want to tell you what it is, but I don’t want you to think I’m self-centered …
What, did you forget that PPL is still in a funding crisis? It’s easy to do when it’s all business-as-usual, [...]

Filed under: By: Librrrarian, change or die   |  7 Comments
Tags: childrens services, fund raising, OCLC, Providence Public Library, research

Love Your Librarian

19Aug08

The New York Times’ parent company, the Carnegie Corporation, is hosting something like a Miss America for the fabulous librarians in your life called the “I Love my Librarian” award. Librarians from all walks of life are eligible. (Actually, they don’t mention archivists or special libraries, but I bet you could nominate your friendly neighborhood [...]

Filed under: A Day in the Life, By: Miss Information, News   |  1 Comment
Tags: Carnegie Corporation, I Love my Librarian, New York Times

The dull. The weird. The male librarian.

18Aug08

Headline from guardian.co.uk: Internet paedophile ‘librarian’ given indefinite jail term
I am awfully offended by The Guardian’s use of the term “librarian” to describe a convicted sex offender at the helm of an internet child pornography ring. It’s clear that Philip Thompson, an unemployed paedophile who lived with his mother, is in no way a [...]

Filed under: By: Librarian About Town   |  2 Comments
Tags: Christina Ricci movies, librarian stereotypes, male librarian

Cite Your Sources, Candidates

15Aug08

The blogosphere is abuzz after a Wikipedia editor e-mailed Political Insider claiming John McCain had plagiarized an entry on Georgia in his speech about the Georgian/Russian conflict.The McCain camp has, of course, denied that our hero’s mini-history lesson of a speech came from anywhere besides his heart (or, maybe, Jesus).
Being fresh off a Reference [...]

Filed under: By: Miss Information, MLIS, News, change or die, libraries   |  6 Comments
Tags: 2008, Aides, election, Georgia, information literacy, internet, John McCain, McCain, News, Political Insider, politics, Russia, Wikipedia

No, You’re Just Wrong

13Aug08

I don’t care how many sources I read it in, I simply refuse to believe that scientists are working to actually create an invisibility cloak. And you know what? If that is what they are spending their time doing, I certainly hope they aren’t using tax dollars to do it. I just don’t see its [...]

Filed under: By: Miss Information, News, libraries, pop culture   |  2 Comments
Tags: harry potter, invisibility cloak, libraries, magic, muggles

Librarians Embrace Cliches – Thank Goodness

12Aug08

Perhaps it was meant as a cruel joke when someone shoved a small fluffy orange cat into the book return at the Spencer Public Library in Spencer, Iowa. Perhaps they thought that since hospitals often take abandoned babies, reason tells us that libraries would be where abandoned cats are accepted. Regardless, when the library director [...]

Filed under: Book Review, By: Miss Information, libraries, pop culture   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: books, cats, dewey decimal, Dewey Readmore Books, Iowa, Oscar, professional animals, Providence, public libraries, puss in boots, pussy

A metapost, mostly

12Aug08

As a community college employee, with eight years at a public university under my belt, and a recent run of elbow rubbing with the private school crowd, I devoured William Deresiewicz’s essay on The Disadvantages of an Elite Eduation in The American Scholar.  This controversial article would annoy me if it didn’t tell so many truths.  I agree that an Ivy League education might [...]

Filed under: A Day in the Life, By: Librarian About Town, News   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: deep web, google, Ivy League, peer review, Wikipedia