Library Juice 6:8 - Library Juice is now a book and a blog

Library Juice 6:8 - April 3, 2003

Contents:
1. Links
2. On the Politics of Numbers
3. ALA Ballot picks
4. War as a library issue
5. SLA name change led by "Branding Task Force"
6. Great reasons to go to the new SF main library (1917)
7. Embattled Library (poem)
8. Andrei Codrescu on librarians and book jackets
9. Amusing Searches

Quote for the week:
"The first casualty of War is Truth."
Variously attributed to US Senator Hiram Johnson, Arthur Ponsonby, Samuel
Johnson, and Aeschylus. But mostly Hiram Johnson. See -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21510,00.html

Homepage of the week: Robert McChesney
http://www.robertmcchesney.com/

_________________________________________________________________________top

1. Links
-----
Bush Issues New Secrecy Executive Order (extremely important)
SAA New Release (good overview)
http://www.archivists.org/news/secrecyorder.asp
EXECUTIVE ORDER 13292
http://www.fas.org/sgp/bush/eoamend.html
Op-Ed piece from The Forward
by Steven Aftergood
http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.03.28/oped1.html
-----
ÉPHÉMÉRIDES bulletin d'information
A French language publication inspired by Library Juice
http://pages.globetrotter.net/charro/ephe/default.htm
[ Found in logs ]
-----
HERMÈS : revue critique no 9 (Hiver 2003)
http://pages.globetrotter.net/charro/HERMES9/tdem9.htm
[ surfin' ]
-----
Un-public domain
Will DRM and the challenges to fair use spell the end for your local
library?
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/28/13gripe_1.html
[ Dan Mitchel ]
-----
The Researching Librarian
Web resources helpful for librarians doing research
http://www.researchinglibrarian.com
[ From LISNews ]
-----
ICOM and the International Committee of the Blue Shield
http://icom.museum/emergency.html
-----
NBC Fires Peter Arnett after interview with Iraqi television,
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/31/sprj.irq.arnett/index.html
[ Michael Malinconico ]
-----
Libronaut's "Dot Gov" - Abigail Plumb's Gov't Info weblog
http://www.libronaut.com/dotgov/
[ surfin' ]
-----
Database of anti-war slogans
http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/index.php?link=slogans
[ Catherine Saum ]
-----
Baghdad Looks Back for Its Future
Nostalgic Residents Long for a Revival of Ancient City's Past Glory
Washington Post Foreign Service
Washington Post, March 10, p. A01
http://www.iraqfoundation.org/news/2003/cmar/10_future.html
[ Michael McGrorty ]
-----
CIRCULO DE ESTUDIOS SOBRE BIBLIOTECOLOGIA POLITICA Y SOCIAL
STUDY CIRCLE ON POLITICAL AND SOCIAL LIBRARIANSHIP
(MEXICO)
http://mx.groups.yahoo.com/group/biblio-progresistas/
[ Martin Vera ]
-----
Librarians' Index to the Internet - resources on the Iraq war
http://lii.org/warandpeace
-----
Howard Besser's photos from the March 22 protest in NYC
(Includes librarians!)
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~howard/Personal/Iraq/2003-03-22-ny/3.html
[ Jenna Freedman ]
-----
Semantic Applications, or Revenge of the Librarians
Darwin Magazine, March 2003
http://www.darwinmag.com/read/030103/semantic.html
[ Library Link of the Day - http://www.tk421.net/librarylink/ ]
-----
disinfojournal - new ejournal on disinformation and misinformation
published by the Institute for the Examination of Information Behavior
at the Internet (IEIBI)
http://www.disinfojournal.net/
[ Sue Maret ]
-----
Hey, There's a Federal Agent In My Book!
by Jessamyn West, published in Slingshot
http://slingshot.tao.ca/displaybi.php?0077010
[ librarian.net ]
-----
Progressive Librarians Guild Statement on the Florida State Library badness
http://www.libr.org/PLG/FloridaStatement.html
[ Alison Lewis ]
-----
"Librarians Say 'Stop the War Now'" - petition in English, Spanish and French
http://libr.org/peace/Iraq-war.html
-----
Release of Documents Is Delayed (washingtonpost.com)
(Important development in lack of access to gov't info.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29446-2003Mar25.html
[ LisNews.com ]
-----
Known North American terrorist Orlando Bosch
http://perso.club-internet.fr/vdedaj/cuba/lazy_orlando_bosch.html
[ Found in logs ]
-----
Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Children's Anti-War Book List in the Making
http://www.sol-plus.net/peace.htm
[ Caren Koh ]
-----
joana-albret - Basque Librarians
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/joana-albret/
[ Found in logs ]
-----
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0326.pdf
Librarians and Publishers as Collaborators and Competitors [EDUCAUSE Review]
[ Library Link of the Day - http://www.tk421.net/librarylink/ ]
_________________________________________________________________________top

2. On the Politics of Numbers
By Michael McGrorty
"It isn't so good with money as it's bad without."
-- Sam Levinson
Years from now, when the state and local governments are flush again, when
the tap flows once more to local services, when we reach that state of
near-equilibrium that passes for good times in the public library, the
wiser heads among us will look back at the chaos of this time and wonder if
there wasn't some way to prevent it.
And of course, as with all hindsight, the answers will seem painfully
obvious: We should have planned better; there should have been reserves;
we should have remembered that the curve always tends downward, that
tomorrow always comes.
The problem is that, though the answers are simple, the responses required
are complex and difficult. For one thing, the 'we' of the equation is not
composed of librarians, but of administrators, managers and (ultimately)
politicians on many levels. Our first problem is that we may run the
functions of the library, but we don't control its lifeblood. Those
strings are held in other hands, but then, so are the strings of every
other public entity, from garbage collection to street lighting. And so it
may be reasonably asked, should we just hunker down and endure as do other
public services? Perhaps just take our lumps as we have in this rough
cycle of boom and crunch, accepting this as the natural order of things in
a tax-funded world?
The question is provocative, but it isn't the right one to ask-for one
thing, the answer is moot: we haven't any other option under the present
arrangements. Which brings us to the crux of the matter, which is that the
present arrangements are not doing us very much good at all.
Talking Trash
Though the library is a permanent institution of civic provenance, the
mechanism of the service is fragile and easily disrupted. The library is a
collection of interconnected systems like the gears in a clock; damage any
part and the function suffers immediately.
By comparison, even an essential service like rubbish collection is a model
of resilience and adaptability. Trash is collected on a given schedule;
the system can be expanded to optimal dimensions or contracted in hard
times because it is essentially a linear setup: there is forward and
reverse and not much else; reducing service by half would mean collection
every other week-- essentially the same service with a greater gap of time
between applications. For that matter, a reduction in force would impact
only slightly. With apologies to the workers involved, trash collecting is
easily taught, and not many folks pursue it as a career. The expansions
and contractions of the city budget don't deal irreversible blows to the
apparatus. For that matter, contracting out the entire service would have
only a minor impact on the community at large.
Compare the library: The public library, here and everywhere else in
America works as a collection of systems. The most apparent system is the
mechanism through which materials are acquired and maintained for public
use. Another system involves the people who operate the library, who
provide its essential services; finally there is the physical plant. Taken
together these make possible the process.
The library is especially vulnerable in hard economic times because these
systems are highly integrated, rely upon the performance of individuals and
are not strictly linear in development or operation. The library doesn't
shrink well, it doesn't grow back arms like a starfish; it is a collection
of serial operations like the knitting of a garment: drop a stitch and you
will show the gap forever. The classic example of this occurs in the case
of funding shortfalls. The available choices for the library are all bad.
Layoffs leave not only blank spots but force re-arrangements of staff, often
placing specialists where they don't belong, while forcing them to neglect
their assigned work. The ripple effect is damaging; service suffers,
though the public isn't immediately aware.
Slashing materials budgets immediately puts the library at odds with its
responsibility to provide new offerings and maintain the worthy older ones.
Dropping serials is a painfully familiar example, but making gaps in
reference purchases and popular fiction shoots holes in the collection that
aren't easily mended, either. Books become unavailable; the time frame for
the 'hot' biography or best-selling novel passes, and with it the chance to
give somebody their reading-the reading they expected from us.
The reason libraries tend to cut hours is because the clock is the easiest
and least-damaging element to fool with-- though the public generally do
not see it that way.
In short, trying to determine what to cut from the average library's budget
is like deciding which leg to cut from a chair. This circumstance occurs
fairly often with the inevitable downturns in our economy; whether these
are the result of inanimate forces or human error hardly matters. There is
no way to control the economic or political forces that bring these events
to pass. Given the nature of the library and the hard facts of our system,
there is no real solution, only mitigation-- something to flatten the
curve, reduce the worst effects of hard times.
Rainy Day Reserves
Many libraries, particularly smaller ones, have a difficult time finding
money to do anything beyond the basic functions-and those only with a lot
of scrambling. Larger systems have more leeway, but have the burden of
greater overhead. Neither of them have a blank check or deep pockets to
draw from in time of need. The idea of maintaining a reserve for hard
times is appealing in the abstract, but the reality is that most agencies
in local government have a hard time justifying their budgets without
having the city council know they possess a nest egg somewhere behind the
stacks. Apart from that, reliance upon a reserve merely delays the
inevitable day of reckoning.
Looking at California
California, as many have observed, is an interesting place. It is rightly
considered one of the world's great economies; only differing in a few
important regards, such as the ability to coin money. The state has a
vibrant economy, but the relative wealth of its communities varies
considerably, as does their commitment to library funding. Nor is the
state inclined to make up the difference, as anyone who reads library
funding statistics knows.
California's public libraries used the past decade of prosperity as a
recovery room for the damage wrought in the decade before; some of them
caught up, a few got a bit ahead; then the floor dropped away, and we found
ourselves at square one with our pockets sticking out like the ears of a
donkey.
Ratios
The problem with the funding of public libraries is that the ratio of income
to need varies over time to the extent that it creates hardship and damage
that subsequent infusions cannot repair. The library is not a pothole, nor
it is a policeman. The first is an easy fix, and the second occupies a
position in the mind of the public which renders him nearly exempt from
fiscal cutbacks.
On the other side, our fortunate librarian finds herself, unlike the
policeman, in the position of being considered a Most Worthy Personage, the
civic embodiment of unimpeachable service, performing arguably the most
desirable non-essential job made possible by tax dollars (even the
schoolteacher has gone a peg below owing to her stubborn insistence on a
living wage). Nevertheless, the mantle of Belovedness is a thin garment in
the harsh wind of fiscal reality, and to further mix metaphor, you can't
take it to the bank.
There probably isn't any reason to expect that the library will come to
occupy a place in the public mentality like the police or fire departments,
nor even like trash collection. Those agencies enjoy a set of
associations, almost automatic conceptions in the public mind, which keep
them protected. We do not; we will not. If you can't swallow this,
remember that the Information Revolution has arrived, and ordinary folks
seek their guidance from software peddlers.
Solutions
Somehow, in order to flatten the curve of our finances, we have to go from
the resources we have in the direction of what it is we need. The gap
between them is vast, but we're not looking for it to disappear in an hour
or a week. Apart from that, we need to put something together, add
something to the mechanism of our present successes, that will render a
benefit to the majority of public libraries; any other idea is just a
refinement of selfishness and will collapse upon us in the end.
To begin with, I don't think there is any way we can force radical change in
the way we are perceived by the public. On the other hand, I think we can
help them view us in a more profitable light by establishing some measure
that will help our friends to do more than hold our coats in subsequent
budget fights.
Without doubt we need a measure, a boundary-line for successful operation.
We should eliminate debate on this issue by admitting at the start that no
single figure or set of numbers can gauge the success of a library-and then
create one or more of them. The teachers of this state have done fairly
well by convincing the folks in power that the optimal classroom will
contain no more than twenty students. Not 19; not 21. If you don't think
this idea has stuck like gum to pavement, go to your nearest search engine
and look it up.
Remember, this figure is as much for us as it is for them; something between
a slogan and a mantra, but with sufficient mooring in reality to give it
actual content. We can't fix an idea without something to hook it to.
Let's decide on a reference and hang with it until it does something, or
dies. How many books? How many dollars? What is sufficient staffing?
How many hours a week? We should take the common vocabulary of our trade
and convert it into a message that will resonate.
The only thing we remind the public of now is that they ought to read
something. How about if we had posters of movie stars saying, 'California
ranks 42nd in library funding. I'm moving to Cleveland.' I'd buy a decent
dinner for anybody who could put our plight-and our goals-in a sentence
that would make people sit up and take notice. How's that for a National
Library Week project?
_________________________________________________________________________top

3. ALA Ballot picks
First of all, Library Juice endorses Carol Brey for ALA President, and
doesn't have a pick for Treasurer.
For your ALA Council vote, I will leave you with the following ideas.
Remember, the fewer votes you cast, the greater weight each of your votes
will carry (but the fewer good candidates you will help).
-----
Mark Rosenzweig's picks:
ISMAIL ABDULAHI
ED FURSA
MARIE JONES
MARK ROSENZWEIG
THERESA TOBIN
JESSAMYN WEST
-----
Feminist Task Force endorsements
Theresa Tobin
Loriene Roy
Jessamyn West
Marie F. Jones
-----
SRRT Members running for Council
Ismail Abdullahi
Hampton (Skip) Auld
David L. Easterbrook
Phyllis D. Fisher
Mario M. Gonzalez
Marie F. Jones
Norman L. Maas
Deborah Mazzolini
Michael J. Miller
Virginia (Ginnie) Moore
Floyd Pentlin
Edmond Fursa
Roland C. Hansen
Larry Romans
Mark Rosenzweig
Loriene Roy
Theresa Tobin
Jessamyn West
-----
ALA COUNCIL CANDIDATES WHO ARE MEMBERS OF DIVERSITY COUNCIL CONSTITUENT
GROUPS [AILA, APALA, BCALA, CALA, GLBTRT, REFORMA]
Ismail Abdullahi [BCALA]
Rosie L. Albritton [BCALA]
Gladys Smiley Bell [BCALA], [APALA]
John C. DeSantis [GLBTRT]
David L. Easterbrook [GLBTRT]
Phyllis D. Fisher [BCALA]
Josephine Fulcher-Anderson [BCALA]
Martin Garnar [GLBTRT]
Carolyn Giambra [BCALA]
Roland C. Hansen [GLBTRT]
Dora T. Ho [CALA], [APALA]
Andrew P. Jackson (Sekou Molefi Baako) [BCALA]
Joyce E. Jelks [BCALA]
Les Kong [APALA]
Edward G. McCormack [BCALA]
David Midyette [GLBTRT]
Michael J. Miller [GLBTRT]
Loretta O'Brien Parham [BCALA]
Loriene Roy [AILA]
Stephen Stratton [GLBTRT]
Julie C. Su [CALA]
Karolyn S. Thompson [BCALA]
Sha Li Zhang [CALA]
Mario M. Gonzalez [REFORMA]
Virginia (Ginny) Moore [BCALA]
Larry Romans [GLBTRT]
Kenneth A. Yamashita [APALA], [CALA]
_________________________________________________________________________top

4. War as a library issue
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 07:05:06 -0500
From: kmccook[at]tampabay.rr.com
To: plgnet-l[at]listproc.sjsu.edu
We had a minor uprising on the school discussion list--too
much discussion of politics (they sound A LOT like some
ALA Council members)..I thought the statement below was
just an outstanding refutation of the whiners.
------- Forwarded message follows -------
In a democracy, I believethat any war, including the possible
war with Iraq, is a library issue for these reasons:
* When the nation's leaders are faced with a decisionon
whether or not to declare war, responsible citizens need
to be informed and make their views known to their
elected representatives. Libraries and librarians are
logical sources of relevant information on theoretical
topics, such as the "just war" theory, and practical
topics, such as the likely cost of a particular war.
* The threat of war tends to be very unsettling for
individuals, families, and communities. Anxieties may
be assuaged by dialogue and discussion of coping
methods, and libraries can provide valuable timely
programs for their patrons if librarians are aware,
informed, resourceful, and caring.
* Wars -- even those perceived as necessary for national
defense -- are expensive. During times of war, funds
otherwise allotted for domestic purposes, including
support of libraries, may be diverted to pay for weapons
and other expenses. Even if a library supports a war, its
director and staff need to be aware of how the war might
affect the library's budget.
* When cities are bombed, libraries, museums, and other
cultural heritage sites are destroyed. The destruction of
one such cultural treasure should be a concern to all
professional librarians.
* Libraries and museums share a common mission of
public education that can be most effectively carried out
in times of peace. War diverts human and other
resources away from education and focuses them on
survival, destruction of enemies, and victory. UNESCO,
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization, which the United States rejoined late last
year, advocates education for peace and has numerous
publications aimed at helpingnations and peoplemake
the transition From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of
Peace. The foregoing is one of many peace-oriented
UNESCO publications. Another alluding to librarians'
responsibility as cultural heritage custodians is The
Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed
Conflict. UNESCO has identified 2001-2010 as the
International Decade for a Culture of Peace and
Nonviolence for the Children of the World. Following
are the URLS for UNESCO Publishing and
UNESCO,Peace Is In Our Hands:
http://upo.unesco.org http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/
I am sympathetic to the recently posted expressions of
fatigue and frustration caused by "listserve overload." I often
feel quite stressed by the demands imposed on us by
technology, which, ironically, was supposed to make our lives
less stressful. I do, however, respectfully disagree with the
statement that "the war is not a library issue" for the above
reasons. Thanks to all who took the time to read this.
Carmine Bell
USF SLIS Graduate Student
_________________________________________________________________________top

5. SLA name change led by "Branding Task Force"
I say, let them drop the world "library" from their name. We all
benefit when a spade is called a spade. I know that many of their
members work in government libraries, in news libraries, and in
non-profit institutions, where they really do manage libraries that
deserve to be called such, or at least struggle to; libraries that bear
an actual relationship to the concept that motivates us, guides us, and
provides us with a model to bring to other fields in society. But most
of them are corporate servants, who want an association that is actively,
resolutely pro-capitalist - hence the leadership role of the "Association
Branding Task Force." Their "information centers" really aren't
libraries by another name - they are in actuality something different with
which its best if we aren't associated by any claim of their being represented
by a "library association." Let them disassociate themselves from us
out of "embarrassment."
So, leave us free, SLA, to preserve culture and protect democracy and rational
discourse without our intentions being confused by your oxymoronic "corporate libraries."
Have a pleasant brand.
-Editor

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Abram [mailto:sabram[at]micromedia.on.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 6:35 AM
To: Leadership
Cc: BRANDING (E-mail)
Subject: Branding News
Leaders:
We, members of the Association Branding Task Force, would like to thank
all of you who have done things to engender a healthy membership
conversation about our Association's branding decision. We've read many
thoughtful discussion list postings; we've seen numerous articles about
branding and/or the winter summit in your bulletins; we've been invited
to a few chapter meetings; I've had many useful personal notes; and
we've had donations of questions and resources to the FAQ and website.
Don't forget to encourage your members to review the information that we
have created so that they can make an informed decision.
http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/assocbrand/index.cfm
I've copied the note below from the A&M division. It's another great
resource for us - not just for Association branding but covering the
issues related to our personal and organizational branding. Personally,
I think the articles on acronyms are very interesting! We thank this
division for their excellent work as well as commending it to you.
We have been avoiding responding to each and every posting although we
have responded to a few. We prefer to have the members go through their
own debate. It seems to be following a pattern - emotional response,
thoughtful response, some catharsis, then a more informed approach!
Maybe we're learning something about change processes in the Association
too. We look forward to another spike in the conversations when we mail
out the notice of the vote.
I have collected a few postings that introduce the topic but it might be
useful for you to share with each other on this list. Your choice.
Thanks. You're doing a great job as leaders.
Cheers,
Stephen
Chair, Branding Task Force
--
Stephen Abram, MLS
Vice President, Corporate Development
Micromedia ProQuest
20 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5C 2N8
        Phone   (416) 369-2594
        Fax     (416) 362-1699 or 362-5743
        Toll free    1-800-387-2689 ext. 2594
        URL     http://www.micromedia.ca
        E-mail  sabram[at]micromedia.ca
-----Original Message-----
From: Gwen_Loeffler[at]nyc.yr.com [mailto:Gwen_Loeffler[at]nyc.yr.com]
Sent: March 5, 2003 9:13 AM
To: Advertising and Marketing Division
Subject: Launch of "The Branding Resource"
Announcing the launch of
THE BRANDING RESOURCE:
A product of the
Advertising & Marketing Division,
Special Libraries Association
In an effort to direct association members to resources that can help
them make an informed choice about a possible new name for the Special
Libraries Association, the Advertising & Marketing Division has started
to assemble a list of recommended readings about naming and branding
strategies. In addition, it is our intent that this resource provide
members with an educational tool for applying branding strategies in
their own settings. This resource will grow and change over time with
the addition of new resources recommended by you - our members.
You can link to the Branding Resource list on our web site at
http://www.sla.org/division/dam/resources/branding.html
Though our Division as a group has not played a major role in the
rebranding effort thus far, this is an opportunity for us to share our
specialized knowledge with members of the association and make a
significant contribution to the process. If you have additional items to
add to this list, please forward them to Gwen Loeffler at
gwen_loeffler[at]nyc.yr.com. Items might include citations of or links to
articles, books and case studies on the subjects of branding,
positioning, and of course, name changes.
This resource was conceived by Chris Olson, long-time division member,
and principal consultant at Chris Olson & Associates, information and
marketing consultants. Chris has used her expertise to create a special
list that is available on our branding page. Be sure to check it out.
_________________________________________________________________________top

6. Great reasons to go to the new SF main library (1917)
Library Offers Wisdom to Knowledge Seekers
There Isn't Any Subject One Can't Get Facts About Among Books
San Francisco Examiner
Feb 18, 1917
Is your mind a series of empty rooms in which a few lonely ideas rattle
around with no company except an echo? Have you dragged them out in all
sorts of company and batted them around conversationally until they are
worn to fringes? If so - then now is the time to furbish up the blank
spaces with full grown thoughts, practical, ornamental, witty and heavy.
Go to the clearing house of ideas, the new City Library in the Civic
Center, where there are 182,000 volumes and get yourself a new set.
If you have grown to be a chronic quotation mark, constantly repeating the
opinions of your friends, adapting them to your own uses it is time for you
to spend an hour in the reading room with the 399 people who are crowding
there daily. Don't condemn a political candidate, a presidential policy, a
crusade or attempt to discuss international affairs until you have stored
away genuine information. There is no easier way to tincture your words
with foolishness than to speak when half-informed.
Room for Music Lovers
A great room, drenched with south sun, has been set aside for music lovers.
The shelves are loaded with scores of operas and sheet music, critical
works and the complete scores so that no one need attend a musical
programme without a complete understanding of the numbers.
Should you care to run over a song alone then there is a sound-proof music
room and a piano for your convenience. It was Victor Herbert, the
composer, who is supposed to have ordered a sound-proof studio in New York
and discovered that it was also air-proof. This one has the advantage of
perfect ventilation.
For the domestic soul who is content without dabbling in "cultchaw" there
are excellent books on balanced menus, dietetics, and the dispensation of
the household budget. Should she be puzzled about a point of dinner
service or the ingredients of a salad dressing then the library is the
place to go at once.
Books for All Desires
If she desires to make over her house in keeping with the best taste of the
time there are books on interior decorating which plan the furnishings of
an average home from curtains to carpets and design the rooms from kitchen
to sun porch.
Engineers are to have a gathering place of their own, a sort of club room
reserved for books about kilowatts and ions, suspension bridges and
tunnels. Under lock and key a wonderful collection of art books are kept
sacred for young painters and architects. You will find them there with
their cameras taking time exposures of engravings for permanent use.
In spite of the fact that this library is only ten years old it is a
rendezvous for collectors of California data. Tier upon tier of shelves
hold copies of newspapers dating from the fifties. One entire set is given
over to those which dealt with the fire of 1906. It contains the Eastern
editions in which appear the ludicrous exaggerations which represented the
city as sliding into the sea on the crest of a tidal wave. The collection
of city directories begins with 1850, a tiny dot of a book hardly larger
than a pamphlet.
According to Robert Rea, the librarian, and a State inspector of libraries,
the local institution is a meeting place for what he terms "real
Bohemians." He does not mean the variety who prove their ability in
juggling strings of macaroni washed down with red paint, who soulfully look
into each other's eyes and exchange long passages from Swinburne and Oscar
Wilde. He refers to a set of writers and artists who already wearing the
mantle of fame make frequent pilgrimages to consult greater masters.
20,000 Daily Visitors
During one day the library received 20,000 visitors who set their approval
upon the city's latest achievement. On the same day, in spite of the
natural confusion of settling down, 4,000 books were "borrowed." The
conveying of volumes between departments is done by machinery which
minimizes the rushing about of employees which in some libraries has become
a nuisance. Cork floors deaden every footfall. Enormous windows give the
maximum of light.
For the forty women employees there is a group of delightful rooms, a rest
room in brown wicker and cretonne; a dressing room with a shower bath in
case some girl wishes to dress there for a dinner party or the theatre
without first going home; a cunning kitchen and a cheery dining room
looking out over the prim little park.
Get Library Habit
With such a wonderful library, a room with 50,000 volumes in which you may
amble about until title catches your fancy; a children's section whch some
day will be decorated with mural sof Mother Goose characters and another
room of 100,000 reference volumes there is no excuse for such conversation
as "I gained a pound last week," or "I lost a pound last month," and the
many other standard forms of inanity.
Get the library habit so that you do not have to say "I don't know" about
the same thing twice.
Get it and when you open your mouth to speak you will always be able to say
something.
_________________________________________________________________________top

7. Embattled Library
The doors yawn open at the usual hour
Specimens of the public saunter in pick out books read magazines,
Ask their reference questions make
       the chairs creak in reassuring manner

War?
This place that hasn't known a skirmish since the last cornered Indian
Took the cross or died;
Our few breathing veterans never stanched attack
Within sight of their homes much less
       searched for Mother in the rubble

War is something we have the sense and power
To visit upon others better they smell the cordite;
For us at worst the Victory Garden Rationed Gas Forced Overtime
       most often nothing much different at all

Power gives the right
To hold things as they are
To keep it tidy Here and untidy Elsewhere preferably
Far Overseas where those deserving of our wrath
       writhe in wicked dens

The public stream in:
Selfsame whose voice or silence gets us
Into this though they will blame whatever Nixon
Throws the switch to complete the circuit
       that their ignorance creates

But here, in our secular sanctum
The oiled gears of the People's University mesh silently:
No uniforms in sight,
The files of shelves march nowhere and 
The Clerk's wooden bayonet finds only the guts 
       of the Sunday Times
Michael McGrorty
_________________________________________________________________________top

8. Andrei Codrescu on librarians and book jackets
Published by permission
WHAT (SOME) AMERICAN LIBRARIES DO TO BOOKS
by Andrei Codrescu
Can somebody explain to me why certain libraries remove book jackets? The
results look like plucked birds, you can't tell a chicken from a pheasant.
All that's left are lumps of text without author photo, bio, blurbs or cover
art.. What do librarians do with the jackets? Do they take them home and
wallpaper their modest homes? Or is there an illicit trade in these things,
sort of like baseball cards? Books without jackets are slobs, as they used
to say in the old days about men without jackets. In the Sixties when
everything went to rack and ruin, men took off their jackets for good.
That's when the old days ended. The downslide was vertiginous. At first,
sweaters replaced jackets, then long-sleeved shirts, then the sleeves got
rolled up, then everything puddled into the tee-shirt. In California even
the tee-shirts came off, though most restaurants, to their credit, require
some kind of cloth over large bellies. I'm just trying to establish a
timeline here. Did librarians start ripping out book jackets at about the
time dress codes relaxed in the Sixties? It's a shaky analogy, I know,
because jackets on men were replaced by something, whereas book jackets in
libraries haven't. Removing a book jacket is, let's face it, castrating.
Which brings us back to that old conundrum of libraries and censorship. Are
librarians censoring the bookjacket information to keep children from
looking at authors' pictures? Authors aren't that good looking, most of
them aren't anyway, but if there is one thing we know about authors, it's
this: they are perverts. Until the Sixties, authors on book covers were
depicted smoking cigarettes and/or holding a highball. After the Sixties,
cigarettes became uncool and alcohol a no-no, so authors slid out of their
jackets and had themselves photographed looking like they couldn't wait to
get out of there to have a smoke and a drink. Repression. Somewhere between
the men's peeling off their jackets, and the general decay of manners in
our time, lies the answer to the castration of books in libraries. Or is
there some other explanation?
Copyright Gambit Weekly, 2002
_________________________________________________________________________top

9. Amusing Searches
The following are amusing search expressions that led web surfers from
search engines (mostly Google) to pages on Libr.org during the month of
March...
www.police chases.com
people who stare
universidad de texas fireman
"girl's name" rory
How important energy is in our lives, types of energy and pictures of things which use enrgy ONLY
sexy gagged dentists
what is the procedure for being strip searched at an airport
what are the common ailments of the toungue
why do we need different definitions of MONEY
What is the purpose of a Tree [why do we need them]
transcended the impetus
quotes on gumballs
relation boy and girl
find the email addresses of 2003 of women above forty in usa
values should prevail
is pam st clement a lesbian
"chris tomer" ass
I hate this job. I had more responsibilities at the Library than what I did here.
pictures of Idi Amin penis
What qualities should a successful man have?
"smelly employee"
articles with photographs of real life human sexual reproduction
instructions making gas mask b o n g s
Independent Good Sex Taker
SINCE 1990 WE WAS FUSSING WITH IRAQ WHY?
los angeles what to say in voir dire to avoid being on a jury
does racism still exist today in the 21 century?
fidel castro (why so many speeches?)
gi joe clothing print out
_________________________________________________________________________top

L I B R A R Y J U I C E
| http://libr.org/Juice/
|
| Library Juice is supported by a voluntary subscription
| fee of $10 per year, variable based on ability and
| desire to pay. You may send a check payable in US funds
| to Rory Litwin, at 1821 'O' St. Apt. 9, Sacramento, CA 95814,
| or, alternatively, you may use PayPal, by going to:
| https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=rlitwin%40earthlink.net
|
| To subscribe, email majordomo[at]libr.org with the message
| "subscribe juice".
|
| To unsubscribe, email majordomo[at]libr.org with the message
| "unsubscribe juice".
|
| Other majordomo commands are available in the help file,
| which you can get by emailing majordomo[at]libr.org with the
| message "help".
|
| Original material and added value in Library Juice
| are dedicated to the public domain and may be copied
| freely with appropriate attribution; beyond that the
| publisher makes no guarantees. Library Juice is a
| free weekly publication edited and published by
| Rory Litwin. Original senders are credited wherever
| possible; opinions are theirs. If you are the author
| of some email in Library Juice which you want removed
| from the web, please write to me and I will remove it.
|
| Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
|
| Rory[at]libr.org