The Personal Librarian

Some of my readers need to know that this book is NOT about the Personal Librarian concept employed at some colleges. However, it is a fictional account of Belle da Costa Green, The Personal Librarian of millionaire J.P. Morgan. This new book, co-written by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, provides a behind the scenes look at her experiences serving as the first director of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City.

Serving as the library's first director, Belle da Costa Greene was in charge of developing and cataloging Morgan's collection of art and rare manuscripts. Doing so, provided her the opportunity to rub shoulders with the creme de la creme of New York as well as top art and rare book and manuscript scholars and collectors from aroud the world. During the early part of the 20th century, this was a plum position for a woman in a very patriarchal society. However, da Costa Greene also had some family secrets she was hiding. Her family background makes her accomplishments all the more significant.

The Personal Librarian is an enjoyable look at New York society in the early 20th century. The rich and powerful of the U.S.A and the numerous societal shifts that are beginning to take place in terms of women's suffrage, civil rights, and the sexual revolution are included. Being about a librarian who made significant contributions to the field and to history makes the story that much more interesting.

I received a complementary copy of The Personal Librarian from Berkley Publishing via NetGalley. I am not required to provide a positive review.

The Digital World: Darker than You Realized

The Dark Side of Our Digital World: And What You Can Do about It takes a deep dive into all of the ways technology has become an impervious and seemingly inescapable part of our lives. In four parts, Andrew Weiss considers how  information distracts us, how we suffer from information overload, how conspiracy theories seem to be lurking behind every bush, the realities of disinformation, misinformation, and fake news, and then concludes with what we can do to protect our privacy, defeat trolls, and preserve democracy. Weiss, a librarian at California State University Northridge, presents an extremely well-researched dossier of how technology is in many ways "the genie out of the bottle." Even for those who consider themselves well-informed about technology and privacy issues or "fake news" will be shocked at the ways in which our lives, businesses, and the government are shaped and manipulated by big technology.

Although written by a librarian with an audience of librarians in mind, this book could easily be read by any professional who is concerned about technology and in particular the rise of privacy issues and dis/misinformation. Libraries and librarians in particular are mentioned a few times but not so much that would prevent others from reading and enjoying this book. I see the information shared in this book become the basis for many information sessions and webpages regarding digital privacy, fake news, and other technology related items. Weiss provides wonderful succinct, and often times memorable, definitions that describe the issues our world is facing and makes the important case that information literacy should not be confined to libraries but is key to not only education but the survival of democracy and the free world. The Dark Side of Our Digital World: And What You Can Do about It is highly recommended for librarians, educators, and anyone who cares about democracy and privacy. Be warned that this is not a quick and easy book to read.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received The Dark Side of Our Digital World: And What You Can Do About It from Rowmand & Littlefield via NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

The August Crazies

When I first started writing this post, I had been absent from the blogosphere for almost a month while experiencing the back-to-school hub-bub. Since my husband and I both work in academia, August is a bit of a crazy month at our house. That combined with several other activities and family events creates a storm of activity which resulted in something going on nearly every day and very few evenings at home. Although I have posted since initially writing this, I wanted to share my month of crazies anyway.

This month the library I work at hosted our annual library mystery which is part of our freshman orientation. This was our 3rd year to host the mystery and each year we tweak it a bit in our continual effort to improve. This year I took our mystery content and we transformed it into a computerized game. I used LiveCode to create a game in which students used library resources to answer clues, entered their answers in the game, and then found the resources to receive the next clue. Having the game come together and work satisfactorily as very exciting. We ended up having a few hardware issues the evening of the game such as laptops which wouldn't connect to the internet but overall the mystery ran smoothly. The students seemed to have a good time and our objective of introducing students to the library and our library staff in a fun, non-threatening atmosphere succeeded. The winning teams are always very excited to receive certificates for homemade cookies.

Family birthday's highlight August and this year was particularly eventful. This year we celebrated my dad's 80th birthday with a surprise family gathering after church on Sunday. A week later we celebrated a milestone birthday in my life as well. We had a smaller family celebrating at Olive Garden, but my special day received its due as well. My husband in particular outdid himself this year for a present. He put together an envelope of certificates for various goods and services around the home such as cooking a fancy dinner, doing any chore I request, and offering a day or evening sans kids for whatever reason I need, in addition to several others. He also sent a beautiful bouquet of flowers which graced the library for two weeks.

Why I Love Being a Librarian

I serve on the school board for the K-8 elementary school my children go to. The individual who is currently serving as the part-time librarian recently asked for assistance in locating a system to automate the library's small collection. I researched several products and found some nice reviews. I also sent a query to several library related listservs I'm on to get some feedback from various users. The response was absolutely amazing in that I received multiple suggestions from a variety of librarians who currently serve in school libraries or are familiar with the needs of schools and other very small libraries. Today, I was completely blown away in that the librarian whom I've never met and lives in another state and who authored a review of a particular automation system emailed to give her input. After a few emails back and forth, she offered to provide consulting services via email as well. It happens that the product she reviewed is at the top of the short list I presented to our school system as suggested products and is reasonably priced as well so it is quite likely I will have questions for her. This is yet another example of the ways in which fellow librarians have responded to random questions posed to assist with purchasing decisions, technology help, and other needs. I hope I have been able to assist other librarians in similar ways.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about librarianship, particularly related to my workplace. I'd really like to implement some library 2.0 ideas and I'd like to re-do our entire library website. However, neither of those ideas are picking up speed with the people that can enable them to move forward. In fact, one of the ideas was squashed unilaterally with no discussion at all. Yet, among all of these things I have had some research ideas and some project ideas that have surfaced.

1. Reading about library 2.0 and particularly one author's ideas of catalog 2.0 raises questions of how library 2.0 relates to information literacy. By making things easier and more convenient for patrons are we undermining making them more information literate?

2. I'd like to do a lot more screencasts, podcasts and other resources to help educate pratrons on our resources and services. In fact, at least one professor has inquired about a specific resource and a second professor just informed me that there isn't room for my usual presentation in his upcoming compacted class which would give me the perfect reason to begin these projects. Yet, I wonder to what extent having resources professors can assign students to view or that patrons can view at their convenience would impact the number of information literacy sessions offered. Hopefully, these resources would allow class time to explore deeper concepts, but professors and students are so easily contented by surface level content.

3. Related to the past post, our institution is working on reformatting our freshman orientation and experience. This is a great opportunity to include more library exposure for everyone. Unfortunately, knowing that everyone has had a very basic, initial exposure might cause more professors to assume students know what to do or believe them when students claim they have experience. We'll have to really push the fact that students need the support of library instruction that is specific to a course and an assignment rather than general.

4. This morning I finished reading Thinking Outside the Book. I've marked numerous essays to peruse more intently later and take notes on. One essay described how a library created an index of state periodicals not indexed anywhere else. Several ideas come to mind as I know that our library carries numerous publications that aren't indexed anywhere else. Yet I am most intrigued in the possibility of creating an index or specialized finding aid for faculty publications (both books and articles). Thinking about it, it seems a shame that we don't have such an aid already. It would also be interesting to take this idea a step beyond and do a list of alumni publications which could tie in another current institutional initiative.

So many ideas and so little time!