Learning

 "...I think you should learn, of course, and some days you must learn a great deal. But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything. And you can feel it inside you. If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you. You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them. It's hollow."
--Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg, 1967)

Big Talk From Small Libraries

Attending the Big Talk From Small Libraries webinar hosted by the Nebraska Library Commission! #btsl

Whirlwind

Busy doesn't even begin to describe this semester...and I cannot get over how fast it's moving along. It's been a whirlwind...

I've been spending my time doing homework/reading for LIS 7996, working at my practicum site (Caro Area District Library), and attending workshops to broaden my learning experiences...

Earlier in October, as part of my practicum project, I launched a survey in hopes of raising awareness and gaining insight into the information needs and practices of the legal community in Tuscola County. This morning, a similar survey targeting patrons and their legal information needs was launched within the library. 

Last week, I attended two "meet the candidate" sessions at Thumb area libraries which were facilitated by Bryon Sitler, Director of White Pine Library Cooperative. Session 1 was at Rawson Memorial District Library and featured 84th District House candidates Terry Brown (D) and Dan Grimshaw (R). The second session was held at Sandusky District Library and featured 83rd District House candidate Carol Campbell (D) -- Paul Muxlow (R, incumbent) was not present. All of the questions in which Sitler asked were relevant to libraries and the various issues in which they face.

Terry Brown (D), Me, Dan Grimshaw (R)

Carol Campbell (D) and I

To bed I go...

A Fair Assessment

From the epigraph in chapter 4 of Applications of Social Research Methods to Questions in Information and Library Science (Wildemuth, 2009): 

"To describe is to draw a picture of what happened, or of how things are proceeding, or of what a situation or a person or an event is like. Description is concerned with making complicated things understandable." --Keith Punch (1998)

This afternoon, I start my practicum at Caro Area District Library under the supervision of Library Director Marcia Dievendorf. To say that I am excited is an understatement and to mention that I am nervous is a fair assessment. For my practicum class, I am required to keep a blog (embedded within Blackboard) to record my candid thoughts, observations, and reflections. I plan on doing a watered-down version here that will just capture my experiences without reporting any sensitive or confidential information.

In other bookish news, yesterday afternoon, I picked up materials from Sandusky District Library for the upcoming book discussion groups that I am leading for The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I've been squeezing in a chapter here and there in between my readings for LIS 7996 so that the story will be fresh in my mind. I should probably record my thoughts and a few of my favorite passages here...

Adventures in the Z Class

Yesterday, I seized the day by visiting the Library of Michigan while I am still on break between semesters and got lost in the Z class for a few hours browsing my favorite topic: censorship and intellectual freedom.

Between interviewing directors and practicing librarians as well as reading a fabulous book titled True Stories of Censorship Battles in America's Libraries -- edited by Kathy Barco and Valerie Nye -- I seem to have a pretty good grasp on the patron-side of challenges and censorship which prompted me to explore materials from the view of  librarians that are actually pro-censorship. So...I picked up Censorship: Opposing Viewpoints and read Thomas Storck's essay titled, A Case for Censorship: Defending the Poor from the Jaded Rich. 

Needless to say, I was pretty floored and as a result ended up logging into Facebook to capture a sentence in the essay's introduction. My status update read, "There is something wrong with the following sentence: 'Storck, a librarian in Washington, D.C., insists that censorship can both prevent harmful acts and facilitate society's intellectual pursuit of truth.'"

Thomas Storck (1994) posits: 

"For, human nature being what it is, it is naive to think we can freely read and view things that promote or portray evil deeds without sometimes feeling encouraged to commit such deeds. And if this is the case, then censorship can sometimes be a necessity...[case for censorship]...It can be stated in the following simple thesis: ideas lead to actions, and bad ideas often lead to bad acts, bringing harm to individuals and possible ruin to societies. Just as the state has the right to restrict and direct a person's activities when he is a physical threat to the community, so also in the matter of intellectual or cultural threats, the authorities have duties to protect the community." (Pages 18-19)

Further... 

"The ideal censor is not some ill-educated, parochial bigot, but someone of liberal education and continued wide reading, someone with a grasp of first principles and enough experience and wisdom to see how they should be put into practice." (Page 23)

"A final point that must be noted is the connection between anti-censorship arguments and the free market...It is primarily the rich who promote and subsidize ideas and art that undermine traditional ways of life, and it is primarily the poor who suffer on that account. Society exists to protect and promote the welfare of all, but especially of the poor and the workingman. To exalt the free and irresponsible expression of the individual is to take up a position contrary to the community's duty of protecting the poor...Only those with sufficient money and ennui have the time or resources to produce ideas or art that corrupt or debase." (Page 23 - 24)

My thoughts...
I wholeheartedly concur with the sentiments of Lester Asheim -- "Selection seeks to protect the right of the reader to read; censorship seeks to protect—not the right—but the reader from himself from the fancied effects of his reading. The selector has faith in the intelligence of the reader; the censor has faith only in his own."

While some might be disgusted by the availability of a book they deem 'morally bankrupt', I align myself with good old Ranganathan and his 5 laws of library science -- specifically: (2) Every reader his (or her) book; and, (3) Every book its reader. We live in a free society and people have the right to read what they wish to read...and not be censored by some "well meaning" individual. I wholeheartedly believe that a good public library will truly have something to offend everyone...and if it doesn't...then it's someone's private library.

Reflections of a Former Potty Mouth

Rather than inundating my social network with bookish thoughts, concerns, and rants, I think it'll be better if I saved them for this blog... which I'll then share in link form on Facebook. (?!?!)

Three-quarters of the way through reading the graphic novel Persepolis: The Story of Childhood by Marjane Satrapi for an upcoming book talk project, I watched the lecture for my young adult lit class which was published yesterday morning. Much to my dislike and subsequent dismay, I took note that all materials selected for the course need to have been published within last 5 years. With the exception, of course, those materials selected for the classics project. Persepolis was published in 2002. Fail, fail, fail! 

Thankfully, while browsing at BN yesterday evening, I stumbled upon Tina's Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary by Keshni Kashyap which was published in January of 2012. It looked really interesting which is why I purchased it for my private collection. I was especially intrigued by the fact that the book gave the perspective of an Indian-American high school girl coming of age.

While I would've loved this graphic novel if it had been published when I was back in high school; however, as an adult I am now flinching at the idea of promoting it for young adults via a book talk for a class project. Why? Lots of references to sex and drugs...not to mention a heap of naughty words including the infamous 'f-word.' I'll admit that while working in the male-dominated criminal justice field, I could cuss along with the best of them and had even taken to being creative with my vocabulary (note: it gave me cred with the boys -- they didn't view me as 'too girly'). I've since cleaned up my mouth...for the most part. However, in the role of a librarian, I can already imagine the complaints teachers and parents might have over this particular selection...  On the flip side, Booklist gave the work a starred review and Kirkus said, "A charming, hip, illustrated coming-of-age tale."

A young JC...

Setting aside the use of explicit language, I'm already half-way through this book and am very impressed by how Kashyap shows Tina coping with life's various challenges (e.g. losing her best friend) in a realistic fashion that is sure to hit home with today's teens. In reflection, I think that this book would've been one of my favorites and definitely a comfort read for me back in the day. Confession: I think it's already one of my new favorites.

Citing the wise Ranganathan via the Five Laws of Library Science,

"Every reader his [or her] book and every reader its book." 

Conclusion: I am going forth and using this [insert string of expletives] book for this project! (Hahaha.) Stay tuned for the book talk...

Mein Kampf: Case Study

For LIS 7790 - History of Books, Printing, and Publishing, each student was required to complete a case study for the course. Because of my research interest in 'censorship and intellectual freedom during the Third Reich', I chose to study the infamous Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.

I was invited to contribute to the SLIS Ideas Blog and thought that the Mein Kampf case study would be perfect as the book is quite controversial yet quite a lot of people are not familiar with the work and its inherent creepiness. So with the help of my good friend Christie Williams, I made some minor revisions to the case study by making a more definitive introduction and conclusion. I then recorded the audio, found public domain photos, pieced the whole enchilada together, and published the vlog via YouTube.

Without further ado, you can view my case study in vlog format by visiting "Ideas from the School of Library and Information Science" or more directly via the embedded video below; however, I strongly encourage you to take a moment to please check out the fabulous Ideas Blog and browse the other postings from fellow students and SLIS faculty:

Note: If you hang out until the very end of the vlog, you'll find a list of sources in which consulted for the project -- great reading, if you're interested in the topic! (I highly suggest Hitler's Mein Kampf in Britain and America: A Publishing History 1930-39 by James J. Barnes and P. Barnes)

Rural Libraries Conference: Photos

I didn't take many photos from my time at the conference, but here are a few
that I managed to snap. (After all, I was busy learning!)

I managed to snap a photo of a sign for the Rural Libraries Conference and the sign right next to it: GVSU's Master of Social Work hooding ceremony. Why? Well, if I had stayed in my previous career, I would've been pursuing a MSW. It was an interesting moment when I saw the two signs side by side...made me think of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

LIS Blog

Thanks to Devan, via my Bibliothekar circle on Google+, I am now following a pretty nifty LIS-themed blog by Jessica Olin!

Please check out:

Letters to a Young Librarian