Read to Survive

Monster Librarian

Clever

Zach Weinersmith

The Shepherds of Knowledge

"The Shepherds of Knowledge." Mooresville TRibune / Stan Thompson.
Mooresville, NC : Mooresville Tribune Online, October 22nd 2012.

"As part of my spiel when pitching this then-controversial approach, I’d often point out that the very notion of a “workplace” has become quaint. In a knowledge-and-skills economy, work occurs wherever the worker thinks. No one ever heard of a “thinkplace.”

But perhaps there is a “thinkplace” after all: the library.

It’s the traditional intersection of huge amounts of information with the silence that enables its assimilation into our minds and values and imaginations. And its shepherded by knowing, caring librarians who can understand where we’re trying to go and point out the most enjoyable paths."

Libraries, Who Needs ‘Em? We Do

"Libraries, Who Needs ‘Em? We Do." Myrtle Beach Online Editorial / Carolyn Murray.
Myrtle Beach, SC: Myrtle Beach Online, October 25th 2012.

"Libraries are one of the important places left in our society where everybody is equal. Rich or poor, powerful or a nobody, you can have the same access to books and resources as everybody else. They are one of the great levelers of society, where the poor man has exactly the same opportunity for improvement as the rich man. To abolish this democratization of knowledge out of some misguided notion that it is no longer needed in the digital age would wrongly transform books and knowledge into a luxury item, to be purchased by those who can afford them, rather than offered to all who ask for them."

Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/10/25/3135081/libraries-who-needs-em-we-do.html#storylink=cpy

Rethinking How We Help Those Who Don’t Ask

"Rethinking How We Help Those Who Don’t Ask." American Libraries / Meredith Farkas.
Chicago: American Libraries Online, October 23rd 2012.

"For years, my experiences fueled my desire to make the reference desk more approachable. There’s considerable research on library anxiety, and many people see libraries as a place with lots of rules they don’t understand. I still believe in the value of making the library more user-friendly, but I don’t think approachability is the only reason why people aren’t using reference services.

Like me, many people simply want to figure things out for themselves. And when there’s something about the library they don’t understand, they won’t go to the reference desk. They’ll go elsewhere."

Younger Americans’ Reading & Library Habits

Younger Americans’ Reading & Library Habits / Pew Research Center.
Washington: Pew Research Center, October 2012.

Great Library Stereotypometer

Librarian by Day; Batgirl by Night

What Kind of Book Reader Are You?

"What Kind of Book Reader Are You?" Atlantic Wire / Jen Doll.

Boston: The Atlantic Online, August 29th 2012.

"Delayed Onset Reader #1. You are without a doubt a book lover, and when you walk into a bookstore or any place books are available, you can't help yourself, you buy one or many. When you get home you put them aside, often reverently, as if they were art, displaying them on a bookshelf or propping them up on your bedside table, pages ready to meet your eyes as soon as you have the moment. But you're very, very busy, and days, weeks, or months may go by before you actually crack open one of these books. It's not for lack of trying! When you finally do, you will be overjoyed by all the learning and emotional depth and humor and writing quality that exists in this book that's been sitting within reach all along, and you will be amazed that you waited so long to ever open it. Suggested delayed onset #1 suggestions: The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman; The Princess Bride, by William Goldman; Lolita by Nabokov; Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery."

See Also:
Many More Types of Book Readers 

The Future of Libraries in a Digital Culture

"The Future of Libraries in a Digital Culture." Huffington  Post / Patricia Martin.
America: Huffington Post Online, October 11th 2012.

"My library is a remarkable value -- a banquet of books and periodicals, earnest service, and free WiFi. Lately, libraries are playing an unheralded role in the economic recovery by helping people find work and build businesses."

Bored Librarian

Funny!

Sometimes, That Happens

Sometimes, This Happens

Library in Transition

"Library in Transition." Harvard Gazette / Corydon Ireland.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Gazette Online, October 4th 2012.

"What’s required is “very different than the library of the past, that tried to contain things,” said [Mary Lee] Kennedy. “You really can’t contain information anymore.”

The Male Librarian and the Feminine Image: A Survey of Stereotype, Status, & Gender Perceptions

"The Male Librarian and the Feminine Image: A Survey of Stereotype, Status, & Gender Perceptions." Library & Information Science Research / James V. Carmichael.
North Carolina: Elsevier, 1992.

"An individual's sex is identified at birth; the social roles individuals are expected to perform because of their sex relate to gender. The growing corpus of both men's and women's studies provide evidence of a growing awareness of inequities suffered by women throughout history, and the reaction of men who feel similarly trapped by social expectations of them. ... Nearly 60% of subjects confirmed the existence of a male librarian stereotype (see Table III, p. 428). By age group, the largest percentage of affirmative responses received to the stereotype question were in their 20s (81%) and the smallest percentage were 60 or older (44%). By library type, school librarians were more aware of a stereotype than any other group (72%), and special librarians, least aware (53'o). Over 69% of gay men recognized the existence of a stereotype, almost 10% more than the average for the whole sample. These results would suggest a heightened sensitivity to negative stereotyping by those working in the most highly feminized area of librarianship, and by those who have reason to have experienced sexual oppression."

Date Stamp Art

The Library With No Rules

"The Library With No Rules." The Guardian / Jon Henley.
UK: The Guardian Online, September 23rd 2012.

"Books, believes Hernando Guanlao, need to live. And they're only alive if they are being read. Thought and effort, time and money went into making them; they will never repay it lying idle in a cabinet or on a shelf. Books need to be set free. So walk by his home on Balagtas Street in Makati, downtown Manila, and it seems books are pretty much all you'll see. Thousands of them, on shelves and in crates outside on the pavement, piled high in the garage and on the stairs, each one free to anyone who wants it.

"People can borrow, take home, bring back or keep," says Guanlao, 60, a former tax accountant, ice-cream salesman and government employee known by all as Nanie. "Or they can share and pass on to another. But basically they should just take, take!" Guanlao reckons books "have lives, and have to lead them. They have work to do. And the act of giving a book …it makes you complete. It makes your life meaningful and abundant."

Why Do We Still Need Libraries?

"Why Do We Still Need Libraries?" Thought Catalog / Chels Knorr.
New York: Thought Catalog, September 30th 2012.

"This library not only holds stories, it tells them."