For a profession based in large part on its ability to organize information many of us would not pass an elementary cataloging class if our MARC records looked like our desks. Is the ability to organize millions of bibliographic records and coordinate all sorts of different electronic resources and reference services based in an organizational mind? I am not so sure that a passion for the information profession necessarily equates to an organizational discipline that it would seem to imply.

What do you other circulators think? How much organization exists in your personal sphere and how does it relate to what you do? I, for one, go through an ebb and flow (accumulate and purge?) based on the gravitation pull of the moon on sticky notes and random meeting notes I rarely look at again.

A blog is a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web.

What jumped out at me, though, is whether Gorman broke his own rule in Our Singular Strengths: “Respect all forms by which knowledge is communicated.” This is according to a wikipedia entry, and therefore I am not sure of how well it reflects what Gorman actually wrote.

Since I have not read this work and cannot answer it for myself, but I have just placed a request for the book at my library. To be continued…

Seeking real good information on the internet (school stuff for example) is still very hard. If you try to find some good information about aerodynamics, it’s your day-job. I have been searching for hours, and the only things I found were things I already knew. The idea of the internet being one big library maybe there, but finding scientific information is a pain in the ass. Luckily there’s still an old-fashioned library with books and stuff, so I have been able to find what I was looking for. The internet really needs to grow a lot before it can take the role of being a really good “info-dealer.”

“Radical Militant Librarian – Defending Access, Defending Privacy, Defending Freedom.”

The buttons will cost $2.00, unless bought in bulk (at which time the cost goes down). What a radical bargain! And in the colors of France!

ALA claims that the slogan on the button is a response to FBI complaints about politically “radical, militant librarians” who raised their voices over the PATRIOT Act.

My anticipation is that many of our least radical, and certainly least militant librarians will happily, jauntily purchase a button and sport it at work the following week. The kitsch value of this button is irresistible (”Must… buy… buttoon… must… have one for my blazer.”) I also anticipate that many of our most militant library spokespeople will not be wearing this button at ALA this summer.

From the OED:

Militant: 3. a. Combative; aggressively persistent; strongly espousing a cause; entrenched, adamant.

Radical: 3. e. Characterized by independence of, or departure from, what is usual or traditional; progressive, unorthodox, or revolutionary (in outlook, conception, design, etc.).

That this button is a fundraiser is a granted point. But the slogan strikes me as blind, purchasable flagwaving that can (and will) be worn by librarians who will hardly deserve the label. “Revolutionary”? “Aggressively persistent”? How many of us can claim such a thing? The trumpet is hardly loud enough to be heard over the wall, much less bring it down.

Maybe this button should be given by ALA to the deserving few.

My own button would realistically read: “Clean, Showered Librarian: Defending Thai Food, Defending Lost, Defending Wisconsin Cheese.”