K. R. Roberto

Inspiring collection of "alternative" viewpoints. Like the annoyed librarian but with a social conscious. It felt good to finish it on MLK Day. It took me a long time to finish only because it consisted of many small pieces so I just dipped into it from time to time. Essential reading for those wanting to go to library school. Some of the links are old, but discovering which ones are still alive is part of the joy.

Did I say it was inspiring? It is also depressing in that a lot of negative trends called out within these pages have continued unabated. Particularly,the de facto corporate censorship of library collections by the elimination of local collections, small presses, and minority viewpoints. This is doubly true since the advent of DRM'ed digital content from third party vendors that libraries have embraced. This is an dystopian nightmare the likes of which even the cynics in this book could not have predicted. Or perhaps they did. From the introduction: "Be cyber-skeptic, while art-directed. Reward analog, anomaly, and high concept, high touch, low-cost anything."

Still, this volume has renewed my commitment to libraries, community, free software, an open internet, the elimination of poverty, and workers' rights. It also reminded me of Rory Litwin's indelible contribution to our profession. Rory is still going strong at Library Juice (http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/).… (mer)

pg. 5, Sandy Berman:
"Maudlin as it may sound, I actually felt almost every day, as a cataloger, that I was liberating library books and audiovisual materials, as well as the information and ideas they contained, by crafting bibliographic records that included clarifying (and searchable) notes, generous topical and other access points... no arcane or intimidating abbreviations, and subject headings formulated in both familiar and unbiased language, and representing contemporary themes and events in a timely way."… (mer)