Questions from ALA Midwinter
Monday, January 22, 2007 at 08:43AM Greetings from beautiful Seattle where I've been participating in the ALA Midwinter conference. Despite the promise I made to myself to take on no ALA/AASL "jobs" until my time on the ISTE board is over, I was offered some interesting committee (yes, it sounds like an oxymoron) assignments that I could not pass up: the 2008 Nominating Committee and the Standards Revision Committee. (More on Standards later.) Anyway just some short, mostly nonsensical observations and questions
The image above is a new ALA "Read" poster. Created by the popular (with librarians anyway) cartoonists of Unshelved. For the life of me, I can't quite figure out what is meant by "reading responsibly." I suspect it may have something to do with getting your library materials back in time and in good condition which seems to reinforce the worst in librarian stereotypes. But on an intellectual level, what does a "responsible" reader do? I know what a lazy one does. When I asked one librarian what she thought it meant, she said since read the Blue Skunk blog, she did not feel qualified to answer. Ha, ha.
Never buy chewing gum in a metal box. While at Starbucks (yes, they have them here), I bought chewing gum that came in a small tin cannister and I rattled whenever I walked for the whole conference.
I heard of a web resource called ReadWriteThink. At first glance, the materials there look useful. My question is: shouldn't it be ReadThinkWrite?
Like most large cities, Seattle has it's share of panhandlers. Call me heartless, but I rarely toss money their way, preferring to help the destitute by giving to the United Way, Salvation Army, my college age son, etc. But I made an exception while in Seattle. One person wasn't asking for money for himself, but for food for his very, very sad and scrofulous looking dog. If I ever find myself homeless, I am getting a dog who inspires sympathy.
As I mentioned earlier, I am on a committee that is looking at the revision of our national library standards. The penalty for revealing anything said in the meetings is slow death by card catalog rod, but I do have to say this will be a challenging task. We are a profession with wide ranging interests, a wide sets of skill sets, and a wide range of work circumstances. Add to that, librarians have to be among the most opinionated people I know (and I include myself as a poster child) and that the future of education, technology and the field is nearly unknowable as it changes on a daily basis. How does one write standards for people who are both Web -1.0 and Web 2.0.+, rapidly spinning into an unknowable future?
I did get a chance to see in action one of my new heroes, Stephen Abram. He gave a short lively talk at the Sirsi/Dynix booth on Saturday morning. He's taller in person than he is on his blog. Since I am name dropping, I also got the chance to have a wonderful lunch with two of the school library field's true visionaries, David Loertcher and Joyce Valenza. Worth the price of admission alone. And of course I got to see lots of old friends at the Affiliate Assembly on Sunday morning and in the halls and meet a few folks in person I'd only met virtually before. Always fun. I have to say, however, that Alice Yucht is a bad influence during meetings. We got shushed a couple times for having our own running commentary during the official procedings. Were we in class, I am sure the teacher would have had to move our desks to the opposite sides of the room.
Heading home tonight on the red eye getting to Minneapolis at 6 with an in-district principals' meeting at 9. It ought to be an interesting day.
So what does a "responsible reader" look like?
