Is it hip to be a librarian?

The recent New York Times article “A Hipper Crowd of Shushers” has already provoked a number of responses from across the biblioblogosphere, specifically from IU/SLIS folks, because my friends Pete and Sarah are mentioned. I was in the audience that night at Selam, and spoke to the reporter about being a librarian. I remember being a bit over the top, trying to express my passion for cataloging and metadata. (I think I used the term “cataloging culture” and tried to explain the concept of authority). I also pointed out the difference between libraries and archives. Too much perhaps, but what I find “hip” [can we please have a new word?!] about librarians, archivists, and information professionals is are those who desire to make their workplaces, and more broadly, their profession better by direct involvement (by getting involved directly through new media, rather than waiting a year or more to get their opinions published in a journal). This openness to more voices–diverse, experienced (and not-so-experienced)–helps to promote a better conversation I believe.

On the other hand, I believe libraries and archives are institutions which are meant to be a repository of human knowledge and creativity. How can we share materials if we can’t keep the bits alive, the books free of silverfish, and the acetate discs from delaminating? We must have a balance of preservation and access, so that we can serve future generations as well as those that walk in the door tomorrow.

Pete recently reminded me that I once said that I was a “culture conservative.” By this I don’t mean social, economic, religious, or political. I mean that I have an interest in preserving and encouraging the continued performance and cultivation of traditional forms of artistic and cultural expression. I do this by listening to classical music on the radio, as well as other forms of noncommercial radio. Whether it’s classical, jazz, show music, oldtime radio, stories, folk, country, or bluegrass. Where is the place for innovation in all this preserving? It’s an age-old question, that everyone has to make for themselves–because it is ultimately a question about taste. Aesthetically, I consider myself a blend of a formalist and a humanist, because I think that the elements of the artform are essential to the construction and intrinsic to the worthiness of a piece of art. And art is best when it informs the human condition, makes us ask questions of ourselves, and helps us to understanding what it means to be a human being. (This paragraph brought to you from memories of my aesthetics class in grad school). I don’t mean this as a high-low art comparison, because there’s place for both (and everything in between) in life.

ALA 2007: The Rest of Friday

New Members Round Table: Conference 101.

What do I take away from x? Did it change my thinking? Am I a better person, employee, researcher, librarian… Some very good generic questions to ask yourself about something whether you’re talking about a degree program, a specific session at a conference, or about friendships and partnerships.

There’s red ships, and green ships, but there’s no ship like partnership (Callum Keith Rennie, Due South, season 3, “Call of the Wild, Pt. II”)

Okay, I’ll stop.

On entering the room, I saw Tiffany whom I met at Catholic University’s library school as part of a career day panel back in March. (Yes, Audio Artifacts readers, I have been having a life while I’ve been ignoring my blog). She had found a job—yeah! Then I saw another person who I knew from interning at the Library of Congress. Her name was Emily and she was a Junior Fellow Summer Intern with me during the summer of 2005. I guess this just shows that if you make your way through a haystack, you’ll eventually recognize a needle or two. (Did I just utterly mangle that metaphor? Oh well)

It was a good introduction to the workings of ALA. The four panelists talked about the exhibits, the structure of the organization, the meetings, the programs, and how we can get involved in the organization even as “younger” members. Even this session was standing room only, with lots of folks standing and sitting in the back of the room. I left there with a good sense of what I wanted to accomplish at the conference, but I was willing to leave myself open to the possibility of going to meetings I wouldn’t normally think about. But at 5:30 (and with a 7:00 meeting ahead), I was hungry and wanted to get some food before the festivities continued.

Foodie comments: I went to Acadiana on the same square as the convention center. I couldn’t get a table, so I ate at the bar. Just a couple of appetizers, and a tasty beverage: 1) roasted sweet corn and blue crab soup; and 2) trio of deviled eggs with crabmeat ravigote, shrimp rémoulade, and louisiana choupique caviar. Yum.

ALCTS 101

Then I headed back to the convention and went to the ALCTS 101 session. (ALCTS stands for the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services). Those newbies (like myself) in attendance got to meet many of the veteran members, and the latter made speeches encouraging us young bucks to get involved, commit, and serve wherever we were needed. Upon rejoining ALA, I rejoined ALCTS (which I just learned is pronounced “uh-lex”). I have only found their periodical Library Resources & Technical Services to be delightfully geeky and helpful as one interested in cataloging, metadata, and preservation issues. They had a light dessert reception for us, and I got to meet some heavy hitters in the field, including Bruce Johnson (who works for the Cataloging Distribution Service at the Library of Congress). I also recognized the incoming president Dina Giambi (University of Delaware) from that same career panel at Catholic University. You never know where you’re going to see these people again, so always try to make a good first impression.
I felt welcomed, but not overwhelmed. These were clearly my people—even the serials librarians. (That was a joke).

Note: If you don’t see enough links or content, don’t despair gentle reader, I’ll be updating these entries and adding links to powerpoints and useful websites as I find them and the notes I’ve scribbled over various handouts.

More to come on Saturday: Libraries as conversations, Shakespeare in libraries, drinking with the music librarians, and clubbing with the Next Generation library crowd.

ALA 2007: Registration and reflection

Friday, June 22, 2-4 pm:

Today I worked for half-a-day, and then went over to the Convention Center to register. As I said in a previous post, I decided to go to this conference a little bit late in the game.
In May, I rejoined ALA, which wasn’t that big of the pain with the easy online registration they offer. Then I waited a few weeks before registering for the conference.

They were tremendously efficient at handling all aspects of my membership, except for a little matter about reconciling my old membership with my new membership.

Can we say database people, help!

I arrived at the will call line, and there weren’t many people waiting. (Unlike the badge holder check-in line, which is very long—lesson: procrastination does pay sometimes).

The official numbers are in, and the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Washington, DC, was indeed a record breaker. The show drew 28,635 people, including 21,466 registrants and 7,169 exhibitors. The previous record was 27,962, set in Chicago in 2005.

(“ALA 2007 roundup: stats, SPARC, Google, and innovation,” Libraryjournal.com, June 28, 2007.

This conference is vast beyond the scope of anything I’ve experienced to date. I would imagine it would be like attending a presidential primary convention. After signing in and getting my badge, tickets to certain events, and a bag of goodies, I headed to the ALA store to peruse what they were selling, and just walked around the Convention Center to get my bearings. I had close to an hour before attending “Conference 101”, a session hosted the New Members Round Table, or NMRT (per the ALA Acronym list provided in the Program Guide). I felt like I had just purchased a study packet, when I got my guide. It was shrink-wrapped with the Exhibits guide (which was a bit briefer in volume). Sitting on the stairs of the Convention Center, I began to ponder what we all had in common, that would bring so many librarians of so many varying interests, types of institutions, subject specialties, and different publics. It was a heady question to begin with, but I wondered if the hive would coalesce around a central theme or idea; or remain disparate and factional.

More to come on the NMRT session.

Remembering ALA 2007: Introduction

If you’ve been a regular reader of Audio Artifacts in the past, I hope you’ll continue reading for a series of posts coming up on my experiences at this year’s American Library Association conference, held in the city I live…Washington, D.C. Many other bloggers have already talked about their experiences, and it is in this esprit de corps that I offer these posts, which are really not audio-related, but relate to the larger sphere in which I work: through cataloging, music librarianship, and media archives.

I had not planned to go to conference one month ago. (Or else I would have payed a lot less). This was poor planning on my part, but with a lot of pressures and frustrations in my life, I just thought it was not important. I was wrong. The chance to attend the nation’s largest library conference is an event not to be missed. I don’t know if I will ever have the chance to go again, but it was rewarding on a number of levels.

I was not an official blogger, nor do I intend to represent any one, or any organization besides myself. It was a mini-vacation for me, but one that helped me revisit some of the lessons I learned in library school two years ago.