Loved This Book!

This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cyrarians Can Save us All.

Marilyn Johnson

2010 – Harper Collins

978-0-06-143161 (pbk)

I finished reading This Book is Overdue today on my way home. What a fun read. I recommended it anyone interested in the Library world especially those who want to know about the digital side (which I assume is everyone). It’s an easy read and had me very much looking forward to my NYC commute. Here’s a few of my favorite pieces, I won’t give the whole book away.

Marilyn Johnson ropes you in with talk of an old lawless town and how its library is functioning on a giant scale in Second Life. Second Life has an entire chapter dedicated to it later in the book, and as someone who hasn’t been near Second Life, I’m not oddly captivated by the whole idea.

Anyways- Deadwood, South Dakota.

This is where the book starts. How can someone not keep reading? You’re a sneaky one Ms. Johnson. Getting the reader hooked early.

After reading the chapter I felt obligated as a library person to check out the Deadwood Library Website. While there isn’t much to see on the site itself, it makes me want to check out the Deadwood Library collection all the more in Second Life. The chapter also made me want to go to Deadwood and be a part of the reenactments, so take that as you wish. What I’m trying to say while getting very much distracted in the regularly forgotten awesomeness that is South Dakota, is the Deadwood Library, according to Marilyn Johnson’s book has an amazing digital collection in Second Life.

Next Point – Sickness…

Information Sickness.

I learned about this in passing in my Digital Libraries class last semester at Rutgers. Marilyn Johnson seems to share the sentiment of it being a humorous idea, while at the same time, in a weird way being absolutely plausible in some fashion. The idea comes from Ted Mooney’s novel Easy Travel to Other Planets. While I have not read this book myself, it seems that there is a character who comes down with information sickness having taken in too much information and they lose their mind or control of it or something to this affect. Like I said, I haven’t read the book; all of this is secondary information. Marilyn took a gander over at NYPL in the very building I spend much of my time, so perhaps on a slow day I’ll meander down that way and take a gander of my own. See what all the fuss is about.

The book goes on to talk about catalog upgrade nightmares and the realities of being a front line librarian including a section dedicated to poo, which was especially funny and upsetting.

More upsetting were the changes for the New York Public Library. While I have mad love for this library, I am very much a new comer to the city and The Library. The changes that went down were kind of outrageous and detrimental to the researchers of the library and the writers who used the collections as inspiration. Interestingly, I think the library has learned what it has lost in a way. For the centennial celebration, The Library hosted hundreds of writers over night to help write a book inspired by the collection and marketed the idea as revolutionary (see Find the Future). However a chapter in Marilyn Johnson’s book shed light on how the library had actually been doing this on a much greater scale where specialists and reference librarians noted for their greatness were helping writers get what they needed and become inspired. This service must have not been publicized very well, because surely there would have been uproar with the shifts away from these aids. It’s these types of things that have academically minded people flocking to The Library and why people think so highly of NYPL.  Now it seems the library is trying to reverse the damage while at the same time making it seem like something new and not really hoisting themselves back to the standards they once held. This is great publicity for the library but only mildly exciting for fans of books and those who write them.

On a lighter note, I was exposed to the American Kennel Club Library, which I now have on my top libraries to visit. Very excited it's not far.  

Her descriptions of Book Cart competitions at ALA conferences and the over all bad-asses that Librarians tend to be - Very enjoyable.

So- thank you Marilyn Johnson. I’m glad to have been exposed to the wonders of Libraries, Second Life, eccentric librarians and the bureaucracy that often overshadows the greatness of the libraries through your book. This Book is Overdue is certainly much more positive, fun, informative, ADVENTUROUS, and I encourage you to check it out.

I love Working the Ref. Desk

Sitting here at the Douglass Library helping with reference questions. A lot of help with subject searching and asking what resources people can try.

Nothing makes my day more than someone you helped two hours ago (and quite honestly didn't know if you helped at all) come back and thank you. She then showed me the stack of papers she printed out, explained why they were most relevant, and told me how she has lots more on her flash drive to weed through and how she would have been lost without me.

She's going to e-mail me and let me know how her paper goes.
Love the ambition, love the appreciation.

Thanks Rutgers students.

Neatest Of Patrons Was Right.

I finished Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. It’s a wonderful book – despite the several mentions of females being inferior. I just couldn’t put it down once I started. Orson Scott Card is a wonderful story teller.

Thank you so much for one of my new favorite stories NeatPatron. I can tell you’re going to be one of my favorite library stories many, many years to come.

The Neatest of Patrons

Story Time-

I’m working the Reference Desk at Douglass today and a guy comes in asking where he can find the books. He means the stacks (they are one floor down). I ask if there’s a particular book he needs and he pulls a small slip from his pocket with the author, title, and ‘Doug’ (I assume for ‘Douglass Library’; Rutgers has many). I look up the title, write down the call number for him and ask if he’s been to the library before. He said “no” and I offer to tag along and show him. He agrees to this and down the stairs we go.

I ask about the assignment to see if I can offer any research suggestions or help finding further information. Sounds like he has the research thing down as we track down his book (it was in the shelving stacks, glad I went with him). 

Once the book is located and we head back up to the main floor he asks me about working in the library, then he asks, “What’s your favorite book?”

I ask, “fiction? Like a novel?”

“Yeah” he replies.

I tell him it’s The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, give him a synopsis and warn him about its large number of pages, then in turn, ask him his favorite book. He responds with Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. He in turn gives me a run down and tells me it’s not a large (or long) book and I should check it out.

I thank him for the recommendation and we part ways, him to Circulation and I head back to Reference. A minute later he comes back to Reference, book in hand and hands me his paperback copy of Ender's Game and asks me to read it. Dumbfounded I stumble over a few words, thank him, but go to try and give it back (I don’t want to just take the kid’s book). He refuses, tells me again to read it, and runs out the door!

How sweet of him. Now I have a book to read, just need to find the time!