tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90722601217916658842024-03-19T00:43:46.727-07:00LibrarianismAndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-8091396073090494852015-03-08T18:19:00.000-07:002015-03-08T18:19:06.546-07:00New York State Library Advocacy Day<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On February 25, representatives of the Southern Tier Library System traveled to Albany for Library Advocacy Day, an annual opportunity for library staff, board members, friends and constituents to meet with legislators and make the case for state support to libraries. The main legislative goal of the event is to achieve full state aid funding, which is currently languishing at 1997 levels. Other specific issues raised this year by the group, led by STLS Executive Director Brian Hildreth, included increased aid for library building projects, extending broadband service to communities in the STLS service area, and augmenting the 2% cap on tax funding increases that we’re currently limited to. I accompanied the group to represent Penn Yan in the halls of the capitol, along with Library Friend Susan McGill.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each of the lawmakers that the group met seemed sympathetic to our cause and listened with interest to our points. Some pointed to immediate action that they could take on behalf of libraries, such as raising our concerns with the relevant committee chairs and working across the aisle to make change happen. Others pointed to the recent circumstances holding up the state budget process, such as the passing of former governor Mario Cuomo; while that important legislation remains in limbo, elected officials can offer few specifics about the ultimate shape of library aid funding.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The legislators shared our reason to be guardedly optimistic, however: the process last year saw the governor’s proposed cut to library aid raised to parity with the previous year’s budget. Judging by that precedent, there is hope that this year could see a slight increase in aid.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One sentiment was shared by all the lawmakers we met: they were impressed by the size of our group and the way it represented a wide swath of central New York. At about fifteen members strong, we did seem to be one of the larger groups present, at least as far as I could see. Sue and I joked that next year we should get more Penn Yan-area folks to swell the group’s numbers even more. I think she helped make an extra impression, providing each legislator with a copy of a recent </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finger Lakes Times</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> article that makes a nice mention of our library, underscoring what a busy and vital part of the community we are. You can’t ask for a better tool to demonstrate the value of libraries!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a great experience for me, as a young librarian, to observe some of the ‘higher-level’ concerns of the profession; it’s all too easy, if natural, to get mired down in the day-to-day affairs of your own library and lose sight of what’s going on with the broader scene. It’s important to remember that the issues we raised will have a direct impact on our operations in Penn Yan and everywhere else in the system--in the funding to support materials and programming budgets, in the ease and speed with which patrons can access the Internet, and in the money needed to repair and add to our physical stock of library buildings. I came away from the day with a greater understanding of how we get the funding to address all of that, and how perilously close we are to losing it every year. But I also came away with an understanding of how the dedication and passion of library advocates can turn the tide, year by year.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’d like to express my appreciation to Senators Catharine Young and Thomas O’Mara and Assemblymen Christopher Friend, Joseph Giglio and Phil Palmesano for meeting with us. Big thanks as well to the tireless Brian Hildreth for leading the charge (and most of the discussions!). It was a great first time for me and I look forward to attending Library Advocacy Day for years to come.</span>AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-58696603188081151672015-02-15T18:12:00.000-08:002015-02-15T18:12:42.180-08:00Programming Round Up: Analyzing Some Success and Some Failure<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, I’m three months into my first professional librarian job, and I’ve had plenty of opportunity to practice my favorite part of the job: programming. I promised way back at the start of this blog that I would occasionally share my thoughts on that topic, and I have now and then, but never before as a matter of practicality. Now I’m starting to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t in the context of my particular library community. Let’s take a quick peek at some successes and failures, shall we?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Old Timey Music--SUCCESS</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One thing you need to realize is that success isn’t always a matter of numbers. I know that’s hard to conceive in our stats-obsessed profession, but it’s true. I think that a much better, if much more imprecise, measure of success is enjoyment. It doesn’t say much about a program if you have thirty people stone-facedly enduring what you’re throwing at them.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It says a lot more to have ten or so people smiling, tapping their toes, and singing along, and that’s just what happened at the concert of Stephen Foster music I organized, aided by the extremely talented performer Dave Berger. I wasn’t sure what kind of reception we’d get, but figured people are always willing to give free live music a chance. I didn’t realize that Foster, a pioneer of American folk music, was a big part of the upbringing for folks of a certain generation. It was wonderful to see the attendees kind of going back in time to their school days before my eyes, and during our intermission more than one remarked about the memories that Dave was bringing back.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One thing I’ll say I learned: do your homework on even the most benign-seeming personalities you choose to highlight at an event like this. I didn’t really know who Foster was; I just saw that the date of his death was celebrated as “Stephen Foster Day,” and I thought it would be a good excuse for music. Briefly reading his Wikipedia bio, I saw that he was an abolitionist, so all the better. But I didn’t really take in the fact that even so, some of his music indulged in the “minstrelsy” sub-genre and contributed to the currency of some unfortunate stereotypes. Fortunately for me, Dave was much smarter and had prepared a few remarks about Foster’s place in history, tweaked a few of the most troublesome lyrics, and had a few very insightful things to say about the importance of recognizing the uncomfortable bits embedded in art from ages past. Way to go, Dave!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Old Timey Writing--FAILURE</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kind of. I mean, it’s all well and good not to be too beholden of numbers, but when, after a bit of a blitz to board members and library Friends and setting up a bulletin board right in front of the main entrance, you still only get two participants--yeah, all the enjoyment the event generates can’t really overcome those optics.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I should back up. I billed this event as a “letter writing salon” to celebrate Universal Letter Writing Week. The whole thing was very conscious of the declining role of letter-writing in our society, but I hoped to tap into the nostalgia factor. I read a great book on the subject--</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To the Letter</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Simon Garfield--and was prepared to expound on the history of the letter through the ages, and I had all kinds of cute stationery and stickers and pens. And tea. Free tea! It seemed like just the thing to appeal to the key demographic at my library, which tends to skew super-baby boomer.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was confusion about the word “salon,” or maybe it was the time of day (late afternoon). The interest just wasn’t there. Still, this is an easy-enough event to repeat, so I could adjust some of those variables and see what effect it has. If there’s still no big bite, I’ll know that my library is definitely not going to single-handedly restore the USPS to its former glory. Still, I guess my poster caught the eye of a local reporter, so there was a nice writeup in the paper about it. Maybe there’s hope after all.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Martin Luther King, Jr. Discussion--SUCCESS</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This next pair is a little confusing, but I think I’ve figured out what the deal is.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was a resounding smash. We had more than thirty people in our presentation room--my director couldn’t believe it. We watched some commemorative YouTube collages, there was music, and everyone participated in a respectful conversation about Dr. King’s legacy (with only occasional odd digressions about, er, veganism, and a sort of tone-deaf way of linking animals’ plight to African-Americans’. Whatever, moving on.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why did this work out so well? I think that most Americans identify with and revere Dr. King, to an extent. It’s a mainstream thing--he’s in our Pantheon with Washington, Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and so on. So people will come out on his day and feel pretty good about being white, upper middle class retirees doing their part for racial tolerance. I don’t mean to knock them; demonstrations of identification can be powerful and important forces, especially in a public forum like the library. I guess it’s just sort of the “pop” version of activism and cross-cultural expression.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As opposed, perhaps, to--</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Black History Month--FAILURE</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So far, anyway. We’ve still got a couple weeks left. But I can tell which way the wind is blowing. I’ve had two events scheduled so far, and I scrubbed both of them due to an overwhelming lack of interest.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why did everyone turn out for Dr. King and nobody has so far for Black History Month? I marketed them both similarly. They cover a similar topic. As near as I can figure, as opposed to Martin Luther King Day, there’s a sense that Black History Month is “for” a certain group of people and not others. This is a totally non-scientific claim I’m making, but I’m guessing it’s the case here as it is in many other small towns without a lot of diversity. Which is really unfortunate--I don’t see the various “History Months” scattered across the year as opportunities for insularity, but rather as the perfect chance for some education and dialogue to start.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m going to keep working on changing the frame of mind on this and other cultural observances in my current community.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Book Matching--SUCCESS (with prodding)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Valentine’s Day I did a Blind Date with a Book thing, but which I called Literary Speed Dating, since I had patrons choose between a few options. This one was a little labor-intensive, but totally worth it. First I searched around the library for a variety of fiction and nonfiction books, old and new, representing what I perceived to be a wide range of tastes. (I made sure there was a good handful of graphic novels in there too.) Then I wrote coy clues as to each book’s identity, in character as if that book were a person describing him- or herself to a prospective date. I made sure to keep a list of all my books with the various clues attributed to them, then began the loooong process of wrapping them in brown paper bags, leaving their barcodes exposed. (If you know anything about my history with crafts, you’ll know that the fact I did a more than halfway decent job of this, all by myself, is a pretty big deal.) Then I started transferring the clues to printable tags, choosing designs to sort of complement the character of each book and lending some visual appeal to what might otherwise be a big mess of brown with some well-meaning but bland magic marker scrawls on them. Even the way I taped the clues to the anonymous books contributed to their prettiness and, more importantly, to conveying their personalities during dates: a hectic, jagged purple mass resembling a raging fire for an adaptation of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fahrenheit 451</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a series of blocks arranged like steps in a pathway or a map for a work of nonfiction evoking wanderlust, and so on. Each book was numbered, so I found a simple template of numbers for classroom use and cut them out so patrons could draw their fates at random. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had envisioned this as a pre-registered event, thinking patrons would be intrigued by my marketing and sign up for my time slots throughout the big day. I was disappointed when not a single person actually registered. I’m learning that my library population, at least, is pretty averse to signing up in advance for my fun stuff, which just goes to show that it’s good to know your public and avoid such disappointments. I was able to remain flexible and shift to simply accosting people in the stacks, at the catalog computers, and at the circ desk--”Excuse me, sir/madam, but could I interest you in a blind date--</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with a book</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">?” Most people giggled at that point and asked for more info, then happily submitted to my will. (Still, not every event will be so easy to shift over to this kind of recruitment. Why won’t you just sign up for my fun stuff, library patron people?!)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most folks went away happy; even if their choices ended up a little off kilter from their usual taste, I think they were tickled at the whole concept and were in a good frame of mind to try something new. Only one book did I find sheepishly slipped into the return only a short time after its selection. Several people ended up with graphic novels who said they would be happy to give this strange new medium a try. Most participants kind of breezed through my clues, truly browsing--I had pictured a more intense scrutiny, some serious hefting of the tomes and careful selection, but this worked just as well; it was all the more gratifying, then, to watch the few people who really </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">did</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> sit down and take it all very seriously, poring over each clue and weighing their options as though a wrong choice really would land them on a dud date. And I suppose it’s nice that some people think of their reading like a relationship that way!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I do this in the future, I’ll know that streamlining is better. I initially thought I’d give everyone a choice between five books, but three work much better. I also went to the trouble of printing up sheets patrons could take notes on, but not even the super serious ones ended up using them. I may also make two parallel sets of books next time, one regular and one large print; it’ll take a lot more work, but there was one person who was slightly deflated at the text size she received, and I’d rather avoid that happening again.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Speaking of “she,” every single person who participated was a woman. The men I approached all demurred. Perhaps there’s some inherent female gendering in the “speed dating” terminology I’m unaware of; maybe men are uncomfortable equating anything date-like with the library, even in jest; maybe straight guys know that all books are dudes and I somehow missed that memo. I dunno. That’s the one puzzle I’d really like to figure out for the next time.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The takeaway is this: speed dating a book leads to all kinds of laughter and chatting, and people go away happy with an extra book, and that’s a great mood to have in your library.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Book Discussion--FAILURE (so far)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the other hand, nobody wants to come </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">talk about</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the books they’ve read. I’ve tried two book club sessions so far--both of the ‘thematic’ variety, allowing patrons great latitude in the books they choose--and both have been greeted with a big whomp-whomp. Maybe it’s the themes I’ve selected. Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s the time of day I’ve scheduled them. Or maybe people are shy about expressing themselves. If anyone has any hints for enticing patrons in this direction, I’m all ears. I’m certainly going to keep trying.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So there’s a selection of my programming efforts so far and my thoughts on their impact. I’d love to hear what else is going on in other libraries and your analyses of your own successes and failures. What have you learned from the process? Are there any sure-fire winners out there, or ideas that are to be avoided at all costs? As libraries shift more and more from “research center” to “community center,” it’ll be vital that we share this information and support each other in providing the best programming possible.</span></div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-23315783712455040112014-12-31T06:46:00.001-08:002014-12-31T06:46:21.991-08:002014: A Blog in ReviewBlog Year 2 complete! And as of this (somewhat cheaty) post, I'll have met my goal--matching the number of posts I wrote in 2013 and thus doubling the overall amount. I didn't think I'd make it, but a couple of bursts of productivity made it happen.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For the edification of all, here are my top 5 most-viewed posts this year...</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/02/media-binges-good-bad-and-library.html" target="_blank">Media Binges: The Good, the Bad, and the Library</a> (240 views)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/01/boarding-pass-game-of-thrones-board.html" target="_blank">Boarding Pass: Game of Thrones: The Board Game: Feast for Crows Scenario; or, That's a Lot of Colons</a> (115 views)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/04/spoiler-alert-youre-jerk.html" target="_blank">Spoiler Alert: You're a Jerk</a> (114 views)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/06/ala-sustain-thyself.html" target="_blank">ALA, Sustain Thyself</a> (98 views)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/08/troll-repellent.html" target="_blank">Troll Repellent</a> (73 views)</li>
</ul>
<div>
From that, it looks like my most popular posts have been on media, the ways we consume it, and the way it's beginning to affect us socially and culturally. Not surprising, I suppose! Also, people love board games?</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now for the lowest-ranked posts...</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/11/quarterly-media-review-summer-14.html" target="_blank">Quarterly Media Review: Summer '14</a> (13 views)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/12/an-unwritten-rule-of-library-service.html" target="_blank">An Unwritten Rule of Library Service: Too Much of a Good Thing?</a> (14 views, though to be fair I just posted it yesterday)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/12/orphan-posts.html" target="_blank">Orphan Posts</a> (16 views--again, just posted earlier this week)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/12/bridges-out-of-poverty-understanding.html" target="_blank">Bridges Out of Poverty: Understanding, Acceptance, and Libraries</a> (21 views)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/10/viva-contrarianism.html" target="_blank">Viva Contrarianism?</a> (23 views)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-brief-return-to-subject-of-binge.html" target="_blank">A Brief Return to the Subject of Binge Watching</a> (28 views)</li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-will-and-teddy.html" target="_blank">On Will and Teddy</a> (30 views)</li>
</ul>
<div>
I broadened this field slightly since it contains two posts from the past week and another from the previous month. What we learn here is that my least popular posts have been on media--wait a minute! Those were the most popular, like, a second ago. The predecessor to one of these posts is even my most-accessed post of the year--not into sequels, are we? I guess my review posts are less interesting to you than my media commentary posts. Too bad, they're easy to write and help me digest all the TV and movies I watch in a year, so Imma keep doin' 'em. I'm also surprised at the low interest in my post on poverty, given that it's an important topic, I connected it directly to libraries, and it reflects an actual experience I went out and had in the world (instead of watching it on TV...). Maybe share moar plz.? </div>
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<br /></div>
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Also, I'll never force a long-form review of a Doris Kearns Goodwin book on you again, I guess.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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My favorite posts of the year:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/05/connectivity-for-convalescent.html" target="_blank">Connectivity for the Convalescent</a></li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/02/media-binges-good-bad-and-library.html" target="_blank">Media Binges: The Good, the Bad, and the Library</a></li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/08/troll-repellent.html" target="_blank">Troll Repellent</a></li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/04/spoiler-alert-youre-jerk.html" target="_blank">Spoiler Alert: You're a Jerk</a></li>
<li><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/12/an-unwritten-rule-of-library-service.html" target="_blank">An Unwritten Rule of Library Service: Too Much of a Good Thing?</a></li>
</ul>
<div>
That's all, then--a very tumultuous year with a very tumultuous posting schedule. Hope to see you for more in 2015.</div>
</div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-47296911842856722482014-12-30T17:43:00.001-08:002014-12-30T17:43:00.687-08:00An Unwritten Rule of Library Service: Too Much of a Good Thing?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My library has an unwritten policy. I’m sure a lot of libraries have this policy. It is, put bluntly, that we don’t like to leave patrons waiting. If there is one staff member at the desk, and there are suddenly two or more patrons waiting to be served, additional staff must leap into action. If no rescuers appear, the staff on-deck may send out an SOS to try to get someone’s attention.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Help! The public is waiting!”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a nice policy. It’s a noble policy. But is it a necessary policy? Is it even a good policy?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are accustomed to waiting in most other areas of our life, in most other service situations we enter. We wait at the post office. We wait at the grocery store. We wait at the doctor’s office. We wait at the movie theater. We wait at sporting events. We wait at the DMV.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In most of those situations, we bear our waiting with good grace. We are aware that there are only so many slots of attention that those who serve us can have engaged at one time. Usually we are okay with it, with the notable exception of the DMV—and, it seems likely, at the library.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It feels like people would go nuts if ever the line at the circulation desk got more than two deep. I can’t bear this out with any evidence, of course, because we almost never let it get to that point. We send out our SOS. We leap into action.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And now people expect to be served promptly at the library, with even less than the reasonable minimal expectation of a delay. I think we’ve conditioned people in this direction with our damn attention to customer service and overall respect for our patrons. And I feel that, brooding just beneath the surface of the happy, polite patrons’ faces, is a lava flow of rage and impatience barely held in check by our persistently high-quality responsiveness.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I catch hints of it on the rare occasions when the line of patrons stretches slightly back toward the first shelf of the stacks. I can see it in the way there is, actually, no cohesive line, just a sort of general milling about, waiting for a staff member to signal for the next person. When our timing gets off, when responses slow down, when the line gets long at the library—it’s like civilization is straining at its seams.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People are okay with waiting for their Bieber concert or their Bills game. They’re less okay with waiting for the things the library offers. And they know that, by and large, they don’t have to. Librarians and library staff make sure of it.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On second thought, let’s not re-think the goodness or the necessity of this unwritten policy.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-7ef37953-9e00-abbd-36c7-c127b8100cbb"><br /></span>AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-66715474063957637682014-12-28T13:22:00.002-08:002014-12-28T13:22:53.143-08:00Orphan PostsAnother year is nearly done. I hope to find time before the clock tolls midnight on the thirty-first to log my quarterly media review for the fall (it's been a doozy) and maybe scratch out a year-in-review type post.<br />
<br />
While thinking about material for such an entry, I came across a fluttering, tattered host of forlorn Google docs--some crying out for attention, others shuddering in the death throes of their neglect. These ghouls are the various ideas for posts that came to mind over the past year and which I abandoned, permanently or otherwise--either because I lost interest in them, or they had too brief a shelf life to remain relevant by the time I could get to them, or because they were just really bad.<br />
<br />
Still, some of them show promise, and I'd hate for them to wallow in obscurity forever. At the same time, I don't want to enter the new year with too many "assignments" hanging over my head. So I thought I'd open it up to my readers--which of the following topics would you be interested in seeing fully fleshed out in a post in 2015?<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>"The Final Word on Library Usefulness": Conceived as a response to a Forbes piece suggesting that libraries could be shut down in favor of unlimited Amazon accounts, the time frame has shifted a bit on this one--but the question of facing down libraries' detractors never really goes away. Should I attempt to put the nail in the coffin of all the naysayers and budget slashers? (Because I totally have that power.)</li>
<li>"On the Misanthropy of Librarians": In which I would grapple with the shifting public perception of librarians and the ways in which I think we hold ourselves back--and maybe call out a few bad apples along the way.</li>
<li>"All the Ways Our Field is Failing Us" and/or "Alex's LIS Curriculum": I have a lot of Feelings about LIS programs as degree mills, about various weaknesses in the curricula I have known or heard of, about the shift in our professional identity from "librarian" to "information professional," about the tense balance in hiring professionals versus paraprofessionals in trying economic times...all of which I've been unable to articulate without it devolving into an unhinged rant. I'll probably give it another try, because it's Important. Why don't you think about those things, dear reader, in the meantime, so we can discuss it?</li>
<li>"The Flap Over Seed Libraries": On the more fun end of the spectrum, you could read me working myself into conniptions over temporarily agreeing with nutty right-wing survivalist groups in opposing various state-based ordinances shutting down the seed library movement. And doesn't everyone love that?</li>
<li>"Libraries and the Collaborative Economy": This one I thought I had just missed the boat on. There was a brief window when "sharing" startups like AirBnB were lighting up the cultural and corporate landscape; web think-pieces and NPR segments were all over it, so I thought I had time to add my two cents, at my leisure, on how libraries have been in on this secret for years--and could continue to push and evolve the concept. Then, screech, the conversation sort of ended. Well, now it's back, in a way-- particularly in the various controversies emanating from Uber and its unregulated carsharing activities. Is it time to look back at libraries to show the way?</li>
</ul>
<div>
Which of these fine topics would you be most interested in seeing me tackle? Bonus points if you feel like you would comment on, discuss and share the resultant posts!</div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-49000308794692582122014-12-13T12:33:00.000-08:002014-12-13T12:33:06.234-08:00Bridges Out of Poverty: Understanding, Acceptance, and Libraries<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A version of this post first appeared on the website of the <a href="http://pypl.org/" target="_blank">Penn Yan Public Library</a>. Why not check out our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pennyanpubliclibrary" target="_blank">Facebook page</a>? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A colleague and I recently attended a seminar at the Pioneer Library System facilitated by the stupendous </span><a href="http://www.ahaprocess.com/solutions/community/consultants/prudence-pease/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #727c6e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prudence Pease</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, an aha! Process Bridges Out of Poverty educator and the self-proclaimed “most controversial judge in Vermont.” Her topic? Poverty—its causes, its costs, and the insidious way it can thread through a life, influencing everything from your decision-making to your storytelling. And it’s a two-edged blade, because for all that poverty puts people at a disadvantage in so many ways, she says that it also prepares them to be more self-reliant, pragmatic, community-minded, and creative in their problem solving.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a fascinating take on the subject, and one that I never considered, looking at it from my privileged position. People who have experienced poverty have a set of skills that I, with my middle-class background, will probably never be an expert at.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But we can’t underestimate the negative impact that poverty has on those who are living it, and even on those who lived it in the past and found their way out. One of the most striking examples that Ms. Pease gave of the way life just doesn’t flow the same way for these folks is the simple chore of laundry. For many of us, it’s as simple as throwing in a load and going about our day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But imagine you’re a single parent of two kids, with no at-home washer-dryer, no car, and a Laundromat at least ten minutes away. Now the process becomes a near-Herculean task—and you can’t just do the dishes, neaten the living room or (heaven forbid) relax with a book while you’re wrangling all those moving parts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People in these circumstances experience the tasks that I take for granted in a very different way, and according to Ms. Pease, ordinary chores like this can take up to five times longer for people living in poverty. Where is someone to find the time to attend classes, give their job search the attention it needs, or take a moment to read to their kids?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These luxuries are still possible—no one suggests otherwise—but they are undeniably more difficult to attain.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s why we should look on all our fellow community members not with tolerance—a well-meaning word that often disguises disdain or annoyance—but with acceptance. Ms. Pease advised the librarians in attendance at her program that she doesn’t expect anyone to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">like</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> every action someone takes, but we have to at least try to understand </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">why </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">they took that action. That’s the doorway to acceptance, and through it, maybe some mutually beneficial dialogue.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-dd0757ed-4557-b931-0619-4d336e6706ce" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s more, Ms. Pease spoke about the life of those in poverty as being like a fragile web--one that will fall to pieces if one thread gets tugged. Transportation, employment, housing...any of these facets of life could bring the whole thing down.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, the library is another one of those threads. We provide access to information for all, helping those in poverty apply for jobs, improve their skills, seek out services, and relax with a book, movie, or some music. When library funding measures come up for a vote, it’s all too easy to dismiss it as a tax hike supporting a community luxury. But we’re a very real, and very necessary thread in the lives of struggling community members. And for pennies a year, we give every patron an excellent </span><a href="http://www.lrs.org/data-tools/public-libraries/return-on-investment/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">return on their investment</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3636363636363635; margin-bottom: 2pt; margin-top: 2pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whether you think of us as a thread or a bridge, public libraries are helping people out of poverty every day, all around the country.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To learn more about aha! Process and Bridges out of Poverty, click </span><a href="http://www.ahaprocess.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #727c6e; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span>AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-72548933347479690302014-12-07T11:33:00.000-08:002014-12-07T11:33:16.857-08:00Blowing Off Some STEM<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Am I the only one feeling a little tired of the obsessive focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) not just in our educational circles, but in American culture overall?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know these things go in cycles, but I feel like this trend has been dominating the discourse since the Cold War, with only occasional, brief time-outs to swing the other way (or, more often, to provide political cover that essentially changes nothing). And now the movement has this shiny “STEM” branding that makes us think it’s an original development, when really it’s just the same old.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, of course science and math and engineering and all that are important. No one would suggest otherwise. Kids need instruction in and exposure to all appropriate subject areas.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But no one ever suggests that every kid needs to come out of high school a poet. Why does it feel that, on the contrary, we’re being told that every kid has to come out of high school an engineer?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Newsflash: some—lots of—kids’ brains don’t work well in the STEM area. Just as we’ve always acknowledged that they don’t all work well in the lit-n-arts area.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You may say it’s not an issue—that I’m bemoaning a conflict without belligerents.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But when, exactly, in the past hundred years, have the STEM subjects been at risk of disappearing in favor of literature, grammar, foreign languages, and the arts?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is these latter subjects that are under constant threat of being cut, defunded, excised, and generally overwhelmed by the “hard stuff.” Sounds like a conflict to me.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-3503efa7-2639-9334-bfd3-3e08a1ee8489" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And while I appreciate the burgeoning “STEAM” variant that shoe-horns an “A” for “arts” in there, it doesn’t quite cut it for me. For those who are sincerely trying to push this </span><a href="http://steam-notstem.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">alternative</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, it seems like their efforts are still somewhat ghettoized, while when more “venerable” and entrenched education organizations adopt it, it feels like lip service. It’s hard to take STEAM seriously as a force when STEM is still entrenched in the way the government discusses education and even </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEM_fields#Immigration_policy" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">immigration policy</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s explicitly science and technology, after all, that are enjoying a surge in high-visibility promotional campaigns. I can’t turn on the TV without being <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiuU6a9IndU" target="_blank">reminded</a> that “we’re not popular...but we know how computers work,” meaning that all those brainless bullies “will work for us someday.” Revenge of the nerds via STEM! How charming.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then there are the big gas companies partnering with media conglomerates to turn sports into an opportunity for </span><a href="http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7n22/chevron-stem-programs" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on-the-fly scientific analysis</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that would make NASA blush. (Just once I’d like to see a commercial featuring a high school football player reflecting on the ways his chosen sport reveal the hidden nature of the human condition in the clash of antagonistic forces... ) I guess there’s always a chance that some of the kids Chevron is trying to inculcate here might end up pioneering ways to fight climate change, but that’s probably not high on any curricula they’re interested in designing.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><a href="http://www.connectamillionminds.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Connect-a-Million-Minds</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> project is based entirely on this premise that sports and STEM go together. Maybe I spoke too soon about that nerd revenge. Now I’m starting to feel like efforts are underway to cleanse all geeks from America’s shores--replace the STEMmy ones with jocks, reducing every engineering problem to “how to get the ball through the goal,” and just ignore and defund the artsy ones out of existence.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And thus a great American dream for which the red-blooded nation has been striving since the 1950s will finally be accomplished.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m exaggerating, of course. A little. The point is, STEM is deeply entrenched in the planning process of American education policy, with curricula shaped to its needs, big-time corporate conglomerates for sponsors, and a propaganda arm as wide and bristly as Stalin’s accursed mustache. STEM will be here to stay, while the vestigial appendage of the arts continues to wither, one French program and lit magazine and photography club at a time.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, as in so much else, it should be the librarian’s task to pick up the slack. Let us not give in to the drumbeat of all-consuming STEM. Let’s fill our libraries with books, materials, and marketing for all things literary and artistic. And not just for the kids—for the adults, too…you know, those larger, slightly lumbering things we insist we want to aid with “lifelong learning”? For that matter, lifelong learning need not be limited to computer training. That is, obviously, just as important for adults as for kids, if not more so. But what about creative writing? What about pottery? What about poetry? What about dance? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All kidding aside, the kids—and adults—whose brains work in the STEM mode will be very important to the future of our society. They will be the computer engineers, the architects, the urban planners, the doctors, and the mathematicians and scientists charting unheard-of new discoveries.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But where will we be if we neglect the kids (and adults!) whose talents and temperaments lie in the arts? These are the people who will be making the world a beautiful place. They will be the people helping us laugh in troubled times. They will be, like Dickens and Steinbeck and Morrison before them, the cartographers charting the moral landscape of our society.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It may be hard to pin a future value to that. But look around the stacks of your library and tell me you can’t estimate the value they’ve had every day up to now. Tell me you don’t think we should be fostering those skills and talents and temperaments just as ferociously as the STEMmy kids’.</span>AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-41689365753136085402014-11-20T17:32:00.002-08:002014-11-20T17:32:33.297-08:00Because I'm Appy: The Four C's<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://bit.ly/1xHYDc7</td></tr>
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<i>This post first appeared in slightly altered form at www.pypl.org.</i></div>
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This week let's talk about the humble app, that newest, potentially most overwhelming of computer thingamajig. My apologies to anyone who now has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM" style="color: #727c6e;">that Pharrell Williams song</a> stuck in their heads! What is an app, exactly? Well, it’s short for “application”—as in “computer application.” That just means it’s a computer program, like Microsoft Word. The trendy, shortened version has come to apply mainly to programs you use on your mobile devices—phones, tablets, brain chip, etc. (Just kidding about that last one. Or am I?) Apps tend to be small in computer-space and extremely focused in use—they have very particular <i>applications</i>, you might even say. (See what I did there?)</div>
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I recently attended a great webinar hosted by Nicole Hennig, a real expert in this emerging area of study, called “Apps for Librarians: Digital Literacy with Mobile Apps,” that described a lot of what she calls “core apps” and the ways librarians can use them to enhance services to their patrons. She’s really knowledgeable and clear, and while I had long intended to discuss apps in this space, her presentation inspired me to organize it slightly differently. I was <i>going</i> to just jump into some reviews of apps and why you should use them, but Ms. Hennig’s method of categorizing apps into four major types struck me as a better means of approaching this whole, vast topic. So, how does she split up the world of apps? She talks about apps for <i>consuming</i>, for <i>curating</i>, for <i>creation</i> and for <i>collaboration</i>.</div>
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<i>Consuming</i> apps are pretty straightforward. They know that there is stuff out there to be read, watched, heard, and so on, and give you ways to do so. They tend to gather that kind of material up and present it to you in easy-to-digest formats. E-reading apps like the Kindle app would fall under this category, as would ‘magazine’ and ‘feed’ types like Feedly and Flipboard.</div>
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Apps for <i>curation</i> start to give the user a little more power. In these apps, the content is still out there waiting to be consumed, but they allow you to collect, organize, and present it in your own way. This can include big names like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, though there are a lot more out there. You can also curate your own content with apps like Buffer, which allow you to schedule your social media posts throughout the day. (Because you wouldn’t want your kids and grandkids to go a half an hour without an update from you, right?)</div>
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<i>Creation</i> apps—this is where things start to get really interesting. These guys know that the Force is in <i>you</i>, Luke. Whatever you want to create—prose, poetry, drawings, photography, even music and 3D models—there’s an app for that. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a maestro or a rookie, because there are creative apps for every skill level. Heck, some of the apps used by digital virtuosos are equally accessible to novices. Some big names here are Adobe Ideas, Diptic, and the very cool music-making app, Thumb Jam.</div>
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Finally, we have <i>collaboration</i> apps, which bring it all together. Whatever you may do on your own in the other three categories, there’s most likely an app that allows you to do it in a group. Often they’re the very same apps. (You’ll find that there’s a lot of overlap between these categories.) Scribble on whiteboards with SyncSpace, share files with Dropbox, and play a game of multidimensional tag over Skype. (No, I’m not sure exactly how that would work, but it would be fun to figure out. Laser pointers?)</div>
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Ms. Hennig covered a lot of other interesting elements of the app revolution, but the other important one for all of you out there is the concept of <i>content ecosystems</i>—in other words, the idea that the things you create on apps can be synced up across all your devices, allowing you to travel freely between your phone, tablet, and computer(s) without losing anything.</div>
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It’s also worth mentioning that apps have incredibly positive implications for accessibility—a lot of them have features built-in to assist people in using them, and there are many that are designed precisely to help people better navigate the world. There are apps that identify currency for the blind and that help disabled teens learn. That sounds like a revolution worth supporting, right?</div>
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So that’s that for our first foray into the realm of apps. Check back in the future when I dig into some specific reviews and recommendations. Thanks again to Nicole Hennig for her awesome presentation (you can check out more about her <a href="http://nicolehennig.com/" style="color: #727c6e;">here</a>). There's a lot more to explore in our appy little realm!</div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-322515390428398292014-11-16T19:23:00.000-08:002014-11-16T19:23:41.468-08:00Being a brief reflection on my first days as grown-up librarian<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m about to start my third week as a professional public librarian. It’s gone quickly and mostly well. In the real world, it turns out, colleagues and patrons are as patient and good-natured as you might like them to be, but were secretly afraid they wouldn’t be. People are basically decent--go figure!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which isn’t to say things have gone completely smoothly. People and institutions have their entrenched ways of doing things, and entering into these systems can feel bewildering and isolating. I’ve found success by trying to adapt to the blanket methods that are in place at my new library--which mostly entails knowing what role each staff member fills, and dealing with them directly in those roles--while carving out my own methods in those areas that affect only me, or which I now find myself (unbelievably) in charge of.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That means I’ve set up my own little processes when it comes to my itty-bitty corners of the collection development budget and to planning my adult programming. It’s really helpful that the library’s director (among others, but mainly her) is very open to change and has given me carte blanche to do what I want in a few areas. That’s sort of intimidating! But after ten days at work, it’s starting to feel like, yes, I actually can exert a little authority here and there. It’s been really important to feel like I’m doing at least a couple of things “my way,” because otherwise I might find myself going a little nuts in a few months.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’ll still take some getting used to. There are three librarians here, of which I’m one, and we’re technically the heads of our departments and everyone else’s “superiors.” In practice it won’t really work that way, which is more than fine--I’m happy to defer to anyone’s wisdom and experience, whether they have an “MLS” after their name or not. (That’s a lesson a few young hotshots really should take to heart or risk an unhappy professional life.) But I do have to remind myself to inhabit my “director” role as much as possible.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One evening I was going over some circ desk procedures with one of the clerks, who was actually the most recent hire before I got there. She was telling me the policy for patron phone use. “We’re usually not allowed to let anyone use the desk phone, but the librarians can make exceptions, so just ask one of them--oh!” It wasn’t until she said it that she realized that I was one of those librarians who’s allowed to make exceptions. No hard feelings, though--I didn’t realize it at first either!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve had some great opportunities to meet a lot of active patrons and community members. There seems to be a great crew that’s in the library all the time--the kind of funny, sweet, sometimes odd folks that make me wonder why there hasn’t been a successful library-based sitcom yet. But I’m also fortunate to be coming to work at the start of the strategic planning process, and was drafted by the library director to take part in a series of community conversations intended to glean ideas and aspirations. This has been a great way to meet a lot of active, opinionated people who feel a stake in the library, but who might not be in the building every day.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you don’t happen to be starting your job in time for an opportunity like that, I’d urge you to make other efforts to meet similar people in your community. Find all the civic meetings in town and attend as many as you can--and speak up to introduce yourself. People will be delighted to meet the new librarian. Everyone here has been.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I guess if I had to sum up the lessons of my first weeks on the job…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Defer to local practices, but carve out spaces for you to make your institutional mark.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seek and use your colleagues’ experience, but don’t fail to inhabit your professional authority.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Get out there and introduce yourself to the community!</span></div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-31337486553720458092014-11-04T17:56:00.001-08:002014-11-04T17:56:32.343-08:00Solved: The Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives (Happy Midterms)<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On this Election Tuesday, I think I’ve cracked the difference between Liberals and
Conservatives. Bear with me a minute here. I'll get to the library connection at the end.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Conservatives are more
comfortable—and more capable—of thinking in terms of the individual, and less
capable of thinking in terms of aggregates of people, things, or phenomena, and liberals would be the opposite or inverse or whatever of that trend. These traist can have positive and negative consequences, but generally I think the conservative bent toward almost militant individualism is harmful to society. By this I don’t simply mean that
conservatives are more selfish than liberals, but that is part of it. Let’s look at how this works on a few policy
issues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On voting rights, both liberals and conservatives likely subscribe
to the notion that “every vote counts.”
But, whether they realize it or not, they mean two very different
things. When a liberal says it, he knows
that it is not strictly, literally true; we get that it takes lots and lots of
individual votes, working together, to make a difference, but you still need to count each and every one of them to have any effect. Conservatives, on the other hand, seem to
believe, on some level, that it is literally true that every single vote
counts. That somehow one or two votes
can decide national elections. Thus
their ravening for voter ID laws, the disenfranchisement of wide swathes of people in hopes of stopping a statistically negligible cadre of election fraudsters. The
cannier, wonkier conservatives know all about the numbers and statistics and
the effects of disenfranchising minority voters and such, but for the average
conservative, that’s all just kind of sound and fury; what matters is
that one malefactor has been thwarted in his attempt to cheat the system, and
thus, on the grounds of that “success” alone, democracy is saved. And if it happens to ensure that more
conservatives win elections, that just confirms that their way of thinking is
right. (Actual politicians exist in a grey
area between the wonks and the voters, I think.
Intellectually, most of them understand, probably, the wonky reality; but
in their actors’ hearts they have convinced themselves of the voter-in-a-tizzy
sentiment, and sell it accordingly.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The environment is another obvious realm
where this dichotomy holds sway. The
liberal-minded has absolutely no problem reconciling everyday weather phenomena
with the overwhelming evidence of a dangerously shifting climate. But the conservative is incapable of making,
or unwilling to make, that distinction.
Snow, to them, at any time and in any part of the world, is irrefutable
evidence that climate change is a “hoax” or, at best, that “the science is not yet settled.” They remain secure in their self-constructed womb that everything is as it should be, that no levees are bursting and that God put oil there for us to burn. Again, there are
layers to this. Those at the top,
working with a high level of information, can be perfectly intellectually aware
of the real dangers posed by climate change, yet it is in their interest to
serve the interests, in turn, of the corporations and systems that benefit from
climate business-as-usual. It then
becomes their job to convince the public of the lack of danger and the need for
the status quo. And those down the food
chain, to varying degrees, swallow the image of reality put forth by the
worldview of the individual phenomena as trump card in the game of Truth or
Fiction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then there are various –isms and –phobias, which, for this
purpose, can be reduced to a single social phenomenon: name-calling. (Obviously there’s a lot more to this issue
than that, but the way we treat each other on the most basic level is pretty
much where the rubber meets the road.)
To the conservative mind, a few catcalls, the occasional “sissy,”
“queer” or “fag,” and even a sprinkling of well-intentioned “boy” or “macaca”
never hurt anyone. The people who take
offense are no-fun wusses with paper-thin skin, and don’t blame me if they
can’t take a little locker-room name-calling or an honest-to-goodness
compliment! That’s lizard brain
thinking, though, folks. Decades of
(liberal-inspired) sociological research has shown the harmful impact of slurs
and unwanted advances. The conservative
sees the individual with, as he would have it, unjustified bruised
feelings that, unseemly as they are, at least have no apparent impact beyond the aggrieved party. The liberal, on the other hand, sees thousands of
youth suicides, radicalized minorities, rape and the fear of rape, and generally
negatively-impacted psyches that lead to all kinds of suboptimum life results.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It seems that this trait makes it difficult for conservative folks to comprehend how an event that impacts one person can also deeply affect the rest of his or her community. For example, some conservatives have blasted activism in Georgia around the Michael Ferguson killing as “playing the race card” and “importing a problem from another state.” They don’t seem to get how communities can be rocked by what happens to just one member. That’s the privilege of being upper-echelon, where no matter what happens to someone similar to you, your own position is secure; they don’t see that other groups are not so lucky—that things that happen to one member could easily ripple through to them, or be repeated on others if the conditions that caused the initial incident are not addressed. (It should be noted that this doesn’t break down on strictly racial lines. The Republican to whom the above negative sentiments toward the Georgia activism can be attributed is a black man—but a more insulated, more secure, and more conservative black man.)</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s funny how far this extends. As a liberal, I can recognize that my
characterization here is very generalized and that there will be liberals whose
attitudes resemble the way I characterize conservatives, and vice versa—but the
aggregate effect is, I think, accurate. Meanwhile, it's more likely that a conservative is incapable of seeing that nuance, and, if
confronted with this argument (or others, like discussion of sexism and
misogyny, homophobia, racism, etc.) would grow resentful and defensive—unable
to separate the arguer’s statements on a <i>system
in aggregate</i> with the way it reflects on the <i>arguee individually</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We see
it happen every day in political debates (“my opponent just had to play the
race card,” “why do they flaunt their sexual lifestyle choice?”, “I’m not a
misogynist—I love my wife and mother!”).
Maybe this understanding should lead liberals to approach some of their
arguing in a different way—and I am certainly in favor of trying that in the
social sphere, where strident pop sociology holds sway, where individuals’
personal outrage has been calcified into academically-anointed aphorisms and
paeans that serve no purpose but to turn one’s interlocutor away in disgust—but
I am loathe to give ground on this in the political and policy arenas, where there are so
many objective truths that have an impact on our everyday lives today and into
the future, and where change may be incremental, but nonetheless needs to
happen in order to ensure our progress and survival as a society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">This is, to me, yet another reason why librarianship is
essentially liberal and we must accept ourselves as such.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">We are all about accuracy, and the concept of
the individual-as-everything-you-need is just so false.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">In order to be accurate, you must look at
trends, statistics, repeated results.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">And I feel like we do all that in libraryland—very liberally.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">Similar to the example of “every vote
counts,” we have a sense of “every reader counts,” “every book read counts”—but
we look for the results of that reading in the aggregate: a more literate and
informed society.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">We’re a liberal
profession, people, in underlying philosophy if not in everyday belief.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;"> It is, however, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">my humble
opinion that we should all be voting liberally.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c;">Because conservatism is the philosophy that tends to think, “That one guy
looked at anthrax on the computer; he’s a threat to all society!” and “This
handful of books is amoral and should be banned, because if they reach just one
person that’s too many!” and "Information is a commodity and should be priced as such!" and so on.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But guess what? Even
if a few librarians still vote Republican, I feel like it’ll all be okay—in the
aggregate, we're fighting the good fights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #2c2c2c; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In any event, I hope you all voted today, and I hope you voted for Democrats.</span></div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-65083607720303071092014-11-02T13:00:00.000-08:002014-11-02T13:00:56.596-08:00Quarterly Media Review: Summer '14<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With everything going on in at the end of the summer and beginning of the fall, I didn’t have time for my ever-so-beloved Quarterly Media Update. Never fear! I have about five minutes to do a quick thumbnail version of what went on between June and August. Here we go.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Books</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The First Family </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by Mike Dash</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This chronicle of the rise of organized crime is slow at points; it focuses, a bit too strongly in my opinion, on the early lives of key figures, and on intricate descriptions of crimes--both the mundane, like counterfeiting, and the lurid, like murder. This should be more interesting than it sometimes is. Luckily the pace picks up when describing the complicated relationships between rival families, and especially when it delves into the various techniques used by investigators who are, depending on their fortune, either smugly confident or desperate for a win. The character profiles of some of the more prominent figures are good, notably that of pugnacious, obstreperous Inspector Petrosino, the Italian-American who made it his life’s work to destroy Italian crime in the United States. Then, especially, there’s the obscurely terrifying boss Giuseppe Morello, AKA the Clutch Hand. (And what an evocatively apt nickname that is!) With much of his criminal activity shrouded in mystery, the author does a good job of piecing together his early life and connecting him to the dark activities that plagued early twentieth century New York, and tracing him through the boom years and the busts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What really comes through in this mafia origin story is the sense of selfishness and greed that was bound up with grandiose notions of an old world gentility, a gentility that these beasts wouldn’t truly recognize if it hit them in the face. During Morello’s one lengthy prison stint, it’s clear that reform was never on his mind--indeed, that he probably felt he had no need to reform, that he had a right to his grasping crimes. As soon as he was released he got to work re-establishing his place in the mob. It’s a depressing lesson: crime may not pay in the long run, but it has enough perks to keep at it despite its dangers. And the Morello family’s criminal legacy lingers on in today’s underworld.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t think this book is essential for every library, but if you have a strong True Crime collection, this one belongs in it. It’s a sort of twisted Book of Genesis for all the mob stories of the twentieth century.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sous Chef</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Michael Gibney</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A fast-paced look at a day in the hard-drinking, sometimes philosophical life of the eponymous fine dining cook. I blazed through this compact tome, fascinated to take a more authentic look at the industry I know best from "Hell's Kitchen.” The author, himself an experienced sous chef gifted with words as well as knives, spends some time, in the few moments available for reflection, on the nature of service, whether there's really a place for ego in the kitchen, and the care with which truly gifted chefs approach every dish. There's plenty of bravado on display, too, though our unnamed protagonist (undoubtedly an author stand-in) has reached a tipping point in his career, somewhere between the vulgar boy's club of the line and the lofty concerns of the head chef--here depicted as an inscrutable, remote figure, a being who gives the impression of having transcended, somehow, even as he's high-fiving you or cussing out the prep cook.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have any cooking-themed programming, this book is a great insider look at an opaque industry for your community members!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Spy Who Came in from the Cold</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by John le Carre</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a dark, grim book of Cold War-era espionage on both sides of the Berlin Wall, filled with analog tradecraft, hard-bitten career spies and the dames who love them, and the lingering specter of German anti-semitism. It's full of exciting twists and turns as well as several important explorations of the morality of the Soviet/socialist system, the empty ethic of the west, and the soul of spying. And it's a darn depressing book, described by one contemporary critic as possessing "an atmosphere of chilly hell." Very apt. But it's also an early appearance of my beloved George Smiley (of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tinker,Tailor, Soldier, Spy</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> fame), so it's got an underlying, distant strength of kindness.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everyone loves a spy tale, but it’s good to remind your patrons that it’s not all shaken martinis and femmes fatales. Make sure you have this volume in your collection.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Graphic Novels</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saga </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">vol. 1 and 2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I like everything Brian K. Vaughan has ever written, including this gorgeously-illustrated space opera, love story, and family epic. That said, he has a definite schtick, and for me, it’s starting to wear thin. I’d like to see him write outside his normal register of “contemporary young people slang and humor in an unexpected context.” The contrast of the vulgar sitcom banter with the sci-fi visuals and situations is amusing for a while, but after a time I find that I want the story to take itself more seriously. It certainly deserves it. On the other hand, I have nothing but praise for Fiona Staples’ expressive and fluid artwork.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saga </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is an important work by an important creator, so if you have a graphic novel collection of any stature, you need to have the first few volumes, at least. But if, by his next project, Vaughan hasn’t shaken up his style, it may be time to consider thinning the holdings.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hawkeye, vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Matt Fraction, David Aja and Javier Pulido</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A great, stripped-down chronicle of what it means to be a superhero--especially for a hero in the “highly skilled” category who is nonetheless surrounded by the “godlike” on a daily basis. Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye--my longtime favorite Avenger, and so much cooler than the movie version you may know--is a wise-cracking, sardonic narrator who forces a smile between constant bruises and contusions. He just never quits. This first volume shows him making a life away from the Avengers, but demonstrates that he never takes a day off from being a hero. It’s a great microcosm that stands for the entire Marvel Universe and its ethos of “normal guy” heroes who will never pass up the opportunity to sacrifice for what’s right.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hawkeye </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is critically acclaimed for its sharp, real writing by Matt Fraction and the great geometric artwork by David Aja. This title belongs on every library shelf to demonstrate that heroes can flourish at every level of power and every level of society.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Television</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Americans </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(FX)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Season 2 was the “parenthood” season, for those of you following along at home, but I had the good fortune of bingeing out on the whole series this summer. What a tense, thrilling show! It delves into a period of our history that hasn’t gotten a ton of pop culture treatment--that is, the late Cold War of the 80’s, with all the attendant craziness of Reaganmania and various wild international developments. But it balances really great spycraft with serious family drama. Both seasons measured arcs that dealt seriously and realistically with deep-cover KGB agents settling into the middle years of their arranged sham marriage and the charged feelings that have inevitably developed between them. Season 2, specifically, juxtaposed the agents’ very normal(-ish) home life with the deadly stakes of their profession, as a complex murder mystery causes them to reassess their relationship with Mother Russia and to take serious steps to protect their clueless, American citizen children.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But none of that matters. This show makes you root for the KGB. Wrap your head around that! When this series becomes available, add it to your collection as a bookend to the aforementioned spymaster Le Carre’s work on the earlier and middle stages of the Cold War.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Leftovers </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(HBO)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A series that brings to mind the famous poem by Stephen Crane: “A man said to the universe:/‘Sir, I exist!/”However,” replied the universe,/”The fact has not created in me/a sense of obligation’”--which is actually quoted in the pivotal ninth episode. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Roughly 2% of the world’s population inexplicably vanished 3 years ago. What does it mean? Is it an event of religious ramifications or is it a freak scientific occurrence? Is it of the utmost significance or merely a particularly bizarre blip in the convoluted history of the human race? The show offers few answers to these questions, but it does a better job of answering, “How would you react if the world irrevocably changed before your eyes?” The answer: given enough of us, we’d do almost everything. Cults flourish, relationships splinter, and coping is necessary but hard to come by. This series isn’t very fun, but despite its baroque concept, it feels very real--richly drawn and intensely felt . Sometimes that’s all you need. That, and a great soundtrack, which this show also has.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rectify</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Sundance Channel)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Speaking of not very fun, but very real, here’s season two of the ponderous, philosophical Southern Gothic crime drama. Daniel’s quest to find a place in the world he missed during twenty years on death row continues, as do his loved ones’ various efforts to deal with Daniel’s slanted worldview. Meanwhile, the mystery of the murder that landed him in jail all those years ago continues to unravel. What is guilt and what is innocence? Who has baggage that needs rectifying? Will Amantha last at her Wiggly Piggly job?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bleak, meandering, thoughtful, difficult, rewarding--</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rectify</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is William Faulkner meets “Masterpiece Theatre.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Movies</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guardians of the Galaxy </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Lego Movie</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m bundling these two films together because they both succeed on the same levels (and not at all because I’m way past my self-imposed deadline and really want to get this post out…). They’re two properties that, on the surface, should not have worked--they’re just too out there. But against all odds, the third-tier comic property and the Scandinavian building block toy made perfect, fun blockbusters. They both have heart, too, in Peter Quill’s barely-concealed vulnerability and in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lego</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s live-action metastory about toys unplayed with. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guardians</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> also advances the Marvel Cinematic Universe in crucial ways--the Collector! The Celestials! The Kree!--so I’m very on-board with where it hints we’re heading in that realm. Less serious but equally fun: seeing lego versions of Batman, Gandalf, Han Solo, and Abraham Lincoln all hanging out.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Games</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sets</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A deceptively simple-looking matching game. Out of a field of cards, you have to find sets of those that exhibit each of the game’s various attributes without repeating--shape, color, outline, and number. Oy, what a headache. It’s fun, though, and good for quiet solo or group play in the library.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arkham Horror </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Fantasy Flight)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s get the bad out of the way first: the best games provide on-board text, or even better, iconography, that almost makes it possible to play out of the box without looking at the rules. Very good games at least use this text or iconography as a “crutch” so that once you have breezed through the rules, the game itself reminds you of its own ins and outs. A highly complex game, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arkham Horror</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> doesn’t really succeed in this regard. Granted, there are so many moving parts here that it would be hard to do so, but I would have really appreciated something on the board to remind me of crucial details like the round sequence, the modus operandi when opening gates, or the process used to close and seal them. For all of these elements and more, my rulebook became rather well-thumbed throughout the evening of my first play--and second, and third…</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(And okay, game makers, can we please talk about your rulebooks, particularly the indexes? I know this must be one of the most difficult elements of the design and publication process--meticulously laying out the hows and wherefores--but you’ve gotta make it accessible. That means ‘well-structured’ and ‘well-indexed.’ This marks the second super-complex game I’ve played whose rulebook is neither--the other being, of course, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Game of Thrones</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I’m starting to think I should moonlight as a volunteer rule indexer.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aside from that...what a great cooperative game! If you’re into H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, this game encapsulates it really well. It may seem a little overstuffed at times, but this isn’t an old-timey short story, after all--epic board games have more room for everything, the kitchen sink, and a shoggoth, too. Replayability is a big factor here; there are so many options for characters to play, event cards to draw, items to acquire, and--most of all--cosmic baddies to face that each outing is sure to be a brand new experience. And everything has the flavor of Lovecraft, in the pulpy bios of the playable characters, the headlines of the ‘newsflash’ cards, and in the beautiful artwork all over every square inch of the board and cards.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Word to the wise: though this is playable with as few as two people, try to get as many friends together as you can, and assign each of them an element of the game to keep track of (like that guy from </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seinfeld</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who gives everyone a job at his parties, but better). This would make a great program at your library around this time of year--you can encourage participants to dress up and really get into their roles, play freaky music, and even serve </span><a href="http://chamberofthebizarre.com/2012/10/25/try-these-h-p-lovecraft-inspired-party-snacks/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lovecraft-inspired snacks</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">!</span>AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-682092840718528002014-10-04T09:23:00.000-07:002014-10-04T09:23:39.900-07:00Viva Contrarianism?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m back after a long gap of preparing for, undergoing, and recovering from a pair of interviews--and I got the job! I am now (or soon will be) an honest-to-goodness Adult Services Librarian. Go me!</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-5a6f39e1-dbf6-c9cc-babc-2bad2dbb9e96" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The main thing I regret is the timing--the fact that I missed out working on those Librarian High Holy Days, Banned Books Week. I’d better have a great plan for next year. But I also, fortunately, missed out on another wave of anti-Banned Books Week sentiment, which seems to be ramping up in the librarian community as time goes on. For some reason we librarians have to dig into “deep” questions about what it’s all *for*, what it *means*, is it *good* or *bad* and all that.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To me, it just reinforces my feeling that librarians are, culturally, a pack of self-defeating contrarians.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think it has something to do with our desire to know that we are taken seriously academically and professionally. There’s a tendency to be overly self-critical when faced with doubt from within or without.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We need to get over this lack of confidence in the way our field is perceived and our overweening fear of being misunderstood, or of not serving every angle of every point of view in everything we do. We need to let go of this fear of not being “academic” or “rigorous” or “serious” enough. Just keep being good at research--and writing papers on intersectionality in YA literature or whatever the flavor of the year may be--and we can be sure we’re ticking all the necessary boxes.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As for the problems with Banned Books Week specifically, it’s no great mystery how we should change our contrarian thinking. No one with two brain cells (which, we have to admit, is the vast majority of people, despite cynical impressions to the contrary) will seriously think that we’re somehow in favor of banning books because of the name of a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">library</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> event--so we need to scratch that overly cautious concern with “branding” and “messaging” right quick. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Same thing with the semantic hand-wringing over the difference between “banned” and “challenged.” One may be more accurate, but one is more visceral. It’s not dishonest to go for the visceral reaction when we’re trying to grab attention.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And, perhaps most crucially, we can’t concern ourselves with every single nuance of the issue of intellectual freedom during the week in which the goal is, generally, just to raise awareness that such issues exist. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rest of the year is for working on your pet issues--and you should. That one week in September might come off as sounding superficial in comparison to your deep insights into how, say, net neutrality affects some super-specific intersectional demographic. But that’s the trouble with too much academic thinking in our field, or in any field, really--getting so specific and technical that we ignore the kinds of language and efforts that can actually educate the general public in a meaningful way.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we can accept the celebration’s role as such, I’ll be a lot happier next year when I take part in my first professional observance of Banned Books Week. </span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meanwhile, November 15 is International Games Day, so I’d better get to work thinking about what my new library will be doing to celebrate!</span>AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-168354122002530902014-08-17T15:12:00.000-07:002014-08-17T15:12:36.944-07:00Troll Repellent<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="225" src="http://horrorhomework.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/troll-choking-kid.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The classic film Troll 2 prefigured the internet by at least a decade. http://bit.ly/1pV3fVZ</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like many people out there, I get discouraged and outraged by the tenor of commentary around the web--the cesspool of ignorance, homophobia, racism, overreaction, and conspiracy theories that accompanies everything on the Internet. It doesn’t matter if you’re a journalist providing a thoughtful analysis on the situation in Gaza, or a proud fur-mommy posting Kitten’s First Meow on YouTube: you WILL be labeled something horrible. (Almost always “fag,” though.)</span></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-20aeb0b3-e5cc-ed92-db7b-030503c51725" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unlike some people, though, I have given some thought as to what might turn this Hellscape into a digital utopia, and the theory I landed on was to strip the comments section of its anonymity. It makes sense on the surface: people act out when certain they can do so from behind a veil; websites are kinda like modern-day newspapers, and newspapers don’t generally elevate the anonymous rantings they receive to publication; and so on and so forth. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, it turns out that such disclosure isn’t the silver bullet I might have assumed. Ironically enough, I found an excellent discussion of these matters in the comments section of a political blog (</span><a href="http://thedailybanter.com/2014/08/daily-banter-mail-bag-sympathizing-african-americans-attacking-twitter-trolls-big-banter-announcement/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">original post</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). Rather than reframe these views myself, I thought I’d just reproduce part of the discussion as-is here, and let you, my always-respectful commenters, add to it. What would be your strategy to defeat the plague of Internet trolls? Do services such as Twitter and Facebook have a responsibility to police their users? Where’s the line between keeping the peace and stifling expression?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For easy reference’s sake, here are two resources cited by one of the commenters below:</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/04/why-we-need-online-alter-egos-now-more-than-ever/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In defense of online anonymity.</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/29/surprisingly-good-evidence-that-real-name-policies-fail-to-improve-comments/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: blue; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Evidence that disclosure doesn’t do that much anyway.</span></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And now, the discussion.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vermillion</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 11pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yeah, removing anonymity from commenting won't prevent much. As the comment thread on the Zelda Williams piece proved, there are plenty of people who think anonymity protects them from offline harassment, and there are plenty of people who are fully aware they're assholes, and don't mind being publicly identified as such.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moderation in combination with account limiting (so it won't be so easy to open another account when one gets banned or shut down) may help, but really, it is always going to be a battle between keeping the freedom to comment without fear and the security to allow it for others. Really, what most sites need is a clear, concise and objective statement of what constitutes harassment and abuse, and the wherewithal to stick to it. That is Twitter's problem: claiming to take such matters seriously, but their system is broken and they make no attempt to even enforce the barest of rules.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Ed. note: Doesn’t sound too different from librarians’ efforts to craft thoughtful library usage policies that protect patrons and their rights!]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conundrum</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 11pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem with comments is that you get what you pay for. The answer to trolls is moderators, but good moderation is as much work as writing an article. Good moderation has to tread the fine line between supressing alternative points of view that lead to lively discussions and expelling the just plain loathsome. Writers may be willing to "pay their dues" to get published and build a career, but there is no career path for moderators, and volunteers are likely to just supress what they don't agree with.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I kind of like some blogs that work another way, pulling a few of the best comments for display between the end of the article and the start of the rabble; it lets you get the best reactions without wading through the muck.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Ed. note: I like this guy’s thoughtful understanding of the way volunteer moderation could give way to personal bias. The “featured comment” idea also strikes me as a good stop-gap, but could it be the end-all? Should we be aiming to “reform” trolls, or is that too much social engineering, and impossible besides? What will the end result be if we have a permanent division between “good” commenters and “bad” ones?]</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">iac</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 11pt; margin-left: -4.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As DB [Daily Banter, the site hosting this discussion] grows they should consider getting a couple volunteer moderators and some concrete commenting guidelines so that their writers can focus their energy on actually writing.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: -4.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The staff would then simply ensure that the moderators are enforcing the guidelines and not their personal agendas or vendettas.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: -4.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Felonious Grammar</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: -4.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The chilling effect of insisting on real names stifles political and other controversial discussions, inhibiting people from stating their views on gun laws, feminism, errorism, abortion, climate change and so on. When such debates are held face to face, in cafes and over dinner tables, there is little concern that, say, a future employer will learn what you said and decline to hire you (unless you have the misfortune to live in a regime with a Stasi-like network of citizen-spies), but as the internet increasingly becomes the venue of choice for such discussions, any opinion stated under your real name is trivially accessible. For anyone in a vulnerable position – people seeking a job, people whose beliefs are at odds with their neighbors or co-workers – the ability to participate in such discussions depends, effectively, on being able to do so pseudonymous</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/04/why-we-need-online-alter-egos-now-more-than-ever/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.wired.com/2014/04/w...</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">YouTube has joined a growing list of social media companies who think that forcing users to use their real names will make comment sections less of a trolling</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">wasteland, but there’s surprisingly good evidence from South Korea that real name policies fail at cleaning up comments. In 2007, South Korea temporarily mandated that all websites with over 100,000 viewers require real names, but scrapped it after</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: -4.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it was found to be ineffective at cleaning up abusive and malicious comments (the policy reduced unwanted comments by an estimated .09%). We don’t know how this hidden gem of evidence skipped the national debate on real identities, but it’s an important lesson for YouTube, Facebook and Google, who have assumed that fear of judgement will change online behavior for the better.</span></div>
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<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/29/surprisingly-good-evidence-that-real-name-policies-fail-to-improve-comments/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/…</span></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: -4.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Truth Hertz</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: -4.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Wired post above is the only reason I agree with the anonymity. I used to post with my real name, but a quick googling pulled up a large number of comments I have made on this, and other sites. They aren't rude or offensive per se, but they do expose a lot more of myself than I'm comfortable revealing to just any random person, one who may or may not have an impact on my life, now or at some time in the future.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4318181818181819; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: -4.5pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3f4549; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Ed. note: An interesting angle. I never give much thought to the picture my comments might conjure; I couldn’t imagine an employer sifting through so much data to find and judge me. But Google is all-powerful and can deliver my comments without much hassle. This line of discussion strikes me as overly self-interested, though. My focus in this issue is on raising the level of discourse, and limiting the prevalence of abuse, in the realm where we increasingly spend most of our time. But there are surely practical implications as well, especially for those of us whose comment history is not rude, but rather politically charged.]</span></div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-36228689731708332272014-08-03T17:59:00.000-07:002014-08-03T17:59:44.549-07:00Quarterly Media Review: Now More Libraritastic (Spring 2014)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m back with my much-delayed review of some of the notable media I consumed in the spring of 2014! Despite the lateness of the hour, I have stuck to those that I read/watched/played in April, May, and June. You’ll get your July next time. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my quest to make these recurring features ever more relevant and useful to you, my library-adjacent reading public, I have added a brief note on each item’s potential for use in your favorite biblioteca. Feel free to jump around to what interests you, but books and movies are kinda obvious--expand your mind! Read about board games and graphic novels (discussion of which falls under both movie and TV shows, oddly enough).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Books</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Bully Pulpit</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Doris Kearns Goodwin</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The book so good it’s a recent winner of the </span><a href="http://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2014/06/goldfinch-bully-pulpit-win-2014-andrew-carnegie-medals-excellence-fiction-and" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
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<a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/04/on-will-and-teddy.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My review.</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: As if you need any encouragement to add Doris Kearns Goodwin’s latest to your shelves? This would make a great centerpiece to a seminar or lecture, perhaps tied to your community’s own history during the Gilded Age.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spy books</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A mixed bag: the past and the present, the East and the West, and one instance of pointless, self-indulgent schlock.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/914756354?book_show_action=false" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My review of Jack of Spies</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by David Downing</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/918890382?book_show_action=false" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My review of Night Heron</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Adam Brookes</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/921007401?book_show_action=false" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My review of I Am Pilgrim</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, one of the few books I couldn’t finish.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: Two must-haves and a miss. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jack</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Heron</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are particularly attractive books, so adding them to a summer reading display would catch eyes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Tragedy of Arthur</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Arthur Phillips</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A mind-bending Shakespearean metafiction of a narrative nesting doll.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: This is tailor made for book clubs. There will be a lot of contrasting opinions on the scurrilous narrator, his scamp of a father, and his sympathetic but difficult sister.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/925868927?book_show_action=false" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My review.</span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cloud Atlas</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by David Mitchell</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Did someone mention mind-bending metafiction? The gold standard of the tenuously--and yet deeply--intertwined multi-narrative. Sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, travelogue, etc.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: This is one of those books, like </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">House of Leaves</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and, to a lesser extent, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">American Gods</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, that needs to be on your shelves just waiting for the reader that needs to find it, wrestle with it, figure it out, dismiss it, come back to it, lather it, rinse it, repeat it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Game of Thrones </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">season 4</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That was a rollercoaster of a season. It stretched longer than usual for me, since I was fortunate enough to attend a fan premier event in Brooklyn in late March; based on that first episode, I had high hopes for the nine that followed...hopes that were only partially met. The highs were very high: various intense scenes with pivotal and fan-favorite Oberyn Martell, that massive battle at the Wall, and some definitive turning points in numerous storylines. But there were missteps, to my mind, as well. As good as most of Oberyn’s scenes were, I came out of the season feeling like he was underutilized. Then I had some general pacing concerns, a fact born from the adaptation choice that undergirded this outing from the beginning: by and large, these episodes covered the last third of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Storm of Swords</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a sequence of pages chock full with some of the biggest shocks and cataclysmic climaxes of the entire series. Such events could leave viewers breathless and overwhelmed, but spacing them as the production did led to some uncomfortable dead space in certain storylines, space that was filled with varying degrees of success. (Space that left the series open for that controversial Jaime-Cersei scene, a moment drawn from the books that the writers and directors nonetheless seemed not to know how to approach.) I’m generally happy with the season, though, and thrilled by this year’s finale and where various characters are heading--and I can only hope that certain missing elements are being cagily held back to shock </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">everyone</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, even book readers…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: One university has already had a </span><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/08/01/inside-that-game-of-thrones-college-course-at-uva/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">major course</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> designed around this series and the books that inspired it. Why not your library? Make a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thrones </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">course for the people. Use it as an opportunity to bring in local experts to elucidate fantasy, filmmaking, adaptation, fandom, </span><a href="http://www.livinglanguage.com/dothraki" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Dothraki language</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">...</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bob’s Burgers</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What a delightful discovery this was for me. What started as an idle need to watch *something* while hanging out with a friend on chilly late spring nights turned into my latest animation obsession. It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed as hard as I did when Bob decided to live in the walls of his apartment/restaurant to avoid his overbearing in-laws (a natural, and hilarious progression of an otherwise tired TV trope). Yet somehow even that was surpassed in humor shock value in one moment of absurd cow-death. Yet more than just belly-shakers, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bob’s Burgers</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> gives us a sweet portrait of a modern-ish, struggling middle class family, with megalomaniacal and bunny eared daughter Louise to enthusiastic, unexpectedly hard-bitten mother and wife Linda, and most especially awkward, randy, blossoming young woman Tina…*uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*. But Bob himself brings new life to the trope of the schlubby, struggling, animated family man: he’s less dopey than Homer Simpson, more of a dad than Peter Griffin, and has more of a moral center than Stan Smith. H. John Benjamin’s patented everyman drawl, with its notes of improv, make Bob the most realistic guy ever incarnated in lines and color.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: The DVDs for seasons one through three are available. Give your community the gift of Bob bingeing! A’riiiiiight!!!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">American Horror Story </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">seasons 1 & 2</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One thing I’ve noticed in the two seasons of AHS that I’ve watched so far is that there isn’t necessarily enough to the writers’ initial concept to fill 13 episodes, and so they end up throwing the kitchen sink at us before circling back to the logical, thematically-satisfying conclusion to the original conceit. This season treated us to a potentially haunted asylum, a murderous maniac or three, twisted mommy issues, Nazi experiments, UFOs, the Devil, the Angel of Death...and I’m honestly not sure if more than two of those really had much of a bearing on the very effective finale. It doesn’t really give a sense that the creators have any interest in providing neatly-bound stories. But who cares? Every smidgen of it is stylish and interesting, and you’re never sure which bit will end up being relevant to the endgame. Most importantly, the cast knocks it out of the park. Jessica Lange is particularly impossible to tear your eyes away from, whether as the southern mom with a dark secret in season one or as the harsh nun who feels an honest calling to help the wretches in her care in season 2. Her various transformations, particularly throughout the second season, are transcendent.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: The lesson of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">American Horror Story</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is constant reinvention, within and between seasons. Don’t let that be lost on your library. Your Library Season One can be brought to an end; start season two with all new costumes and personalities. Season One: Haunted Library...dusty and stodgy. Season Two: Creepy experiments at the sleek info center. Am I over-extending this metaphor? Er, also, I’m sure your 20-something patrons would love an AHS themed Halloween party or something.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Veep </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">& </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Silicon Valley</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has been noted that Veep is the king of the awkward human interaction on TV. To be more appropriate, Veep is the president, and Silicon Valley’s first season makes a very strong showing for Speaker of the House, at the very least. or maybe chair of the House Science and Technology Committee? Regardless, both these shows provide laughs and groans in equal measure. While Veep continues to expose what you can’t help but feel is a very authentic portrait of the venal, self-absorbed people who populate the heights of the American government, SV is much more everyman in its take on a group of brilliant but discombobulated techies attempting to launch a web startup. I grew very fond of the hapless protagonist, in all his earnestness, and the various twists and turns of fate demonstrate the lingering uncertainty of the tech world. (And if you weren;t afraid of the possibilities inherent in self-driving cars, you will be after this season.) And Veep Selina? She’s a trainwreck, but you can’t help rooting for her self-serving grasping at power, especially as she continues to suffer numerous unnamable indignities.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: All right, I’m having trouble coming up with appropriate library ideas for these HBO and FX shows. Obviously you should own all this stuff on DVD--especially these premium-station shows that a lot of your patrons may not be willing or able to pay for...and we want to discourage piracy, don’t we? Oh, that actually gives me a grand idea. I was going to say that we could take these shows as an inspiration to hold light-hearted debates on current events and technology developments--feel free to do that too--but an even better idea is to use </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> your premium channel DVDs in an anti-piracy campaign. I don’t have all the details. That’s your job. But it would be nice for libraries to engage in this kind of thing in a variety of ways. It can be fun! And bloody and sexy, possibly. Probably.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">season 1 and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arrow </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">seasons 1 & 2</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s start with Marvel. The series (which I always enjoyed because I’m a nerd, don’t get me wrong) really picked up toward the middle of the season, after the events of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America: The Winter Soldier. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In case there are any out there who haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil the Marvel Universe-shaking revelations, but its ramifications really sent this show in a new direction. The new status quo will lead to some interesting storytelling next season, even as things are looking strange for our beloved Agent Coulson in the wake of his death and rebirth. I was, though, disappointed that, after weeks of non-stop tension, psychological drama, and even a taste of horror, the season ended with a glorified fistfight. I would have expected they’d conserve a little of the budget to send the season off with a near-cinematic climax, but no. And there were a few Chekhov’s Supervillains teased through the year that have yet to be fired, so hopefully next year we’ll get some of that. All in all, I’m looking forward to a strong season 2. My other new favorite superhero show was </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arrow</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which approached comic book adaptation in a very different--some might say more traditionally “actiony”--manner. I continue to be charmed by its cast of supporting characters, and the acrobatic antics of the title hero put the somewhat clumsy choreography of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SHIELD </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to shame. The best element of the show continues to be its parallel narratives, showing Oliver Queen as the vigilante in the present attempting to fulfil his vow to save Starling City, while in the past we witness his gradual development into a hero. The end of the second season was oddly inconclusive, though, to my taste--after a big buildup, it was certainly less climactic that season one with its doomsday device. There’s a lot to be said about the difference in approach to comic book adaptation that these two series take--not least in regards to one actually directly adapting an established character, while the other adapts an entire universe through the actions of mostly original characters--but I think that’s better left for when both series come back in the fall, and I can do real side-by-side comparisons. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: Everybody loves superheroes. (Admit it.) All these movies and TV shows are a great way to lure patrons into reading. “Love Oliver Queen in that WB show? Here’s 900 pages of his comic book adventures!” Keep these possibilities in mind the next time you’re working on your collection development. Comics and graphic novels are excellent additions to your library. Still holding out? Wanna fight about it?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guilty pleasures: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nashville</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revenge</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scandal</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can’t believe I got into </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nashville</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> this year, but there it is. It helps that my boyfriend moved down there, but I got hooked on the show in a hotel room well before that happened. The musical element is almost entirely non-obnoxious, and even pleasant more often than not. It’s some fun, slightly-trashy evening soapiness, served up with a twang and unrealistic southern righteousness, but I found myself compelled by Rayna Jaymes’ quest to redefine herself in the music industry, and there’s an interesting gay subplot that deals sensitively with self-repression in a not always welcoming context. Speaking of trashy soap, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revenge </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">happily returned to form this year, with Emily Thorne focusing more on the Graysons and less on shadowy international cabals. Victoria’s compulsion to end Emily grew ever more baroque, as a long-lost son’s return gave her all the more reasons to act the finely-appointed Hamptons mama bear. Sadly, Nolan was a little underused this year. We want more Nolan! Finally, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scandal </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">served up its usual jolts. I can’t even talk about the murder and betrayal that went on. Olivia Pope found herself at her lowest ebb, and it was heartbreaking to see this usually-composed woman racked with doubt and recrimination. To say nothing of Mellie, whose self-abnegation for the sake of her husband has forced her to endure psychological wounds that the president’s uncomprehending scorn serve only to continually tear open. And faces were licked, unfortunately.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: Okay, you got me here. But just like with romance novels, your library needs a little guilt here and there. Remember that we’re not running a boarding school! Your patrons are free to have a good time. Stock up on those DVDs.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revolution</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Farewell, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revolution</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and my favorite character, the schlubby, heroic, dispossessed tech nerd Aaron. I don’t think enough people gave this show the chance it deserved, but I suppose two seasons is more than a lot of ambitious sci-fi dramas get on network television. To be fair, I merely endured the interminable gunfights and fistfights that always seemed to leave Our Heroes only negligibly differently-off each episode. The territorial and philosophical differences between the various factions were interesting in the abstract, but when it was all reduced to fisticuffs, the appeal waned--though when “the Patriots” began brainwashing youth into killing machines, well, that offered a disturbing, dystopian element that the show needed (and hearkened back to its faux-</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hunger Games</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> roots). But for my money, the best element of the show was in the burgeoning sentience of the nanotechnology that suppressed the world’s electricity in the first place, offering a “face” to the overall threat as well as an opportunity for eventual resolution. Now we’ll never see that potential play out.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: It’s always good to invest in some alternate sci-fi--it’s not all </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Wars </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Trek</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and some of the best speculative fiction is based right here on good ol’ planet Earth.. Bonus points for dystopia and for making your patrons think about the primacy of technology in their lives. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Movies</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m gonna lump these together because I can, and we all know what I’m going to say. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> changed the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Godzilla </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">was a fun romp. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">X-Men: Days of Future Past</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was an effective reset to the X-Men movie mythos and a pretty affecting film in its own right. And </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Amazing Spider-Man </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--well, there was nothing wrong with it, but it just didn’t leave me as excited as the other movies on this list. Sony hasn’t quite got the formula down yet.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: I’m getting verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves. Here, I’ll give you a topic: The Marvel movies are way better than the (plans for the) DC movies, even considering underwhelming Spider-Man and X-Men films and really good Batman ones. Discuss.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Games</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carcassonne</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s one of those classics of the mature board game set that I had been itching to try out. It is not as thematically engaging as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Puerto Rico</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, nor as cleanly enjoyable as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Settlers of Catan</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but it is definitely a worthy game. You place tiles to build up the French countryside, extending roads, cities, and monasteries as you go. It’s a bit of a puzzler, essentially the ingredients of an abstract game given some irrelevant thematic trappings (which I absolutely appreciate--when I play games, I’d much rather feel like I am in a way rehearsing some human activity, rather than simply plugging arbitrary sockets together. Which I guess is something some humans do in real life, but I much prefer stepping back and saying “Oooooh French countryside in an alternate universeeeee, look what we didddddd”).</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: It’s always a good idea to stock up on gateway games and classic games. This one fits under both categories.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Takaido</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This game is a treasure. You and your friends compete to see who can have the nicest time strolling from Kyoto to Tokyo in feudal Japan. Each player adopts a persona, each with particular bonuses for engaging in the activities you can choose from along the way. Do you have an artistic soul? Then collect tryptichs of the splendors of nature you see from the roadside. A bit of an epicure? There are many fine meals to be sampled. Or maybe your tastes are more hedonistic; feel free to indulge in the hot spring spas that dot your path. All these and more make for a truly lovely frame to a game of collection and progress, where the slowest traveler--more intent on the pleasures of the journey, perhaps--always gets to go first, and the only requirement is that you spend each night in an inn with your fellow travelers. It sounds like it might be dull, but instead </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Takaido </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">captures the perfect balance between competition and relaxation. It is also the most beautifully designed game I have yet played, with a foundation of pure white splashed with a sheer, shimmering palette that puts me in mind of sunlight shining through cherry blossoms. No lie.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: People of all ages will love this game. This would actually be a great candidate for generation-bridging game events. Nothing to get too worked up and competitive over--just a lot of enjoyment for everyone.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Libertalia</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is it too late to talk about the pirate craze? Maybe, but this game remains fun whether Jack Sparrow is a la mode or not. I played this one early in the spring, so its details elude me, but in general each player seeks to leverage the strength and skills of their pirate crews for advantage in claiming various treasures. It’s sort of a light deck-based card game, with a lot of neat pirate ships to choose from and some entertaining scurvy cutthroats on your cards. This is a game I felt like playing again in order to better appreciate its intricacies--I just haven’t had a chance yet.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library value: What better activity for next year’s Talk Like a Pirate Day observances? (You know your library celebrates Talk Like a Pirate Day.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And that’s that. Hope you found something of use in my report. I just read and watch for fun (“</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do not read to think. I do not read to learn. I do not read to search for truth.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know the truth, the truth is hardly what I need!”--bonus points if you can name the musical)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but every little stick of media can be turned into worthwhile programming or marketing. Don’t be afraid to flavor your library with your personal tastes.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-53647732859265516422014-06-29T11:49:00.001-07:002014-06-29T11:49:25.818-07:00ALA, Sustain Thyself<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m putting my scold hat back on because I look so good in it. But I’ll try to keep it brief.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-2a0f0dac-e8eb-b244-68fa-4293211bf891" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Look: Las Vegas is an unsustainable city. So why is the American Library Association hosting its annual conference there as we speak?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="265" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/Las_Vegas_at_Night.JPG/1024px-Las_Vegas_at_Night.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://bit.ly/1yZY38i</td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: black; float: left; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ALA supports environmental sustainability, as evidenced by the recent establishment of Sustainability Round Table. Its charge is to move the profession forward “</span><a href="http://www.ala.org/sustainrt/home" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">toward a more equitable, healthy and economically viable society</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #303030; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">;” its mission is “is to provide resources for the library community to support sustainability through curriculum development; collections; exhibits; events; advocacy, communication, library buildings and space design..”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #303030; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can’t think of a bigger library “event” than the ALA annual conference, and yet I can’t imagine a worse venue for it, from a sustainability perspective, than Las Vegas. Water scarcity, air quality, urban sprawl and energy use are all major issues in Las Vegas--issues that are fed by tourist interest, and exacerbated by desires for quick fixes for human comfort, rather than systemic improvements. (Don’t take my word for it--</span><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/mrcornish/las-vegas-an-unsustainable-city" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here’s a presentation given by a British schoolteacher</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #303030; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. You can trust anything delivered in a British accent, even when it’s only in writing.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #303030; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To be fair, the city is trying. </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/las-vegas-sin-city-sustainable" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #303030; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> article highlights the environmental problems facing Vegas as well as the efforts that the mega-business owners of the Strip are making to ameliorate matters. Such efforts are admirable, but nothing will change the fact that living in and visiting places like Las Vegas and Phoenix just perpetuates the problems that such initiatives are scrambling to fix. And no subterranean stream is going to help the mess that is the </span><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-colorado-river-runs-dry-61427169/?no-ist" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Colorado River</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #303030; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, whose decline is helped along by Sin City’s demands for water. The fact is that humans weren’t meant to live in deserts, much less vacation there in luxury.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #303030; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://savethecolorado.org/images/content_area/overview_pic.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://bit.ly/1m0mCfo</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; clear: right; color: #303030; float: right; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #303030; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And yet ALA chose to bring its conference, and the dollars of thousands of librarians, to this energy-sucking, man-made desert oasis whose bright lights can be seen from space.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With a world full of options, why do we choose to support one that is so in conflict with an important contemporary value? </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And much of what I’ve seen on social media from my colleagues is excitement. I’ll admit it, when I first heard ALA ‘14 would be held in Vegas, I was excited too. That was before it sunk in what it meant. Let’s get serious: this is a city composed of knock-offs, built as a shrine to the act of gambling. It’s a playground. Any true beauty and culture developed as an afterthought. When I considered what it costs to power, cool, transport, and light the place--and I’m not just talking dollars--I decided that there was nothing to get excited about.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All for the sake of a playground.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’d like to be able to say that I’m sitting on my couch at home in Western New York right now because I decided to be principled and boycott ALA. Alas, I didn’t have the money to go anyway, rendering any such intent to boycott meaningless. Nor did I get my thoughts together in time to make a plea for other librarians to consider foregoing this year’s conference. I’m not being a very effective activist right now, am I? But that doesn’t detract from the importance of stating my view, and hoping that there are others out there who agree with me. Maybe we can mobilize to make our feelings known, and prevent ALA from making a return to the heart of unsustainability.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s the endgame, if I get my way? Well, if ALA made it a part of their platform not to patronize such cities, maybe the organizations that look to us and respect our values will make similar moves. That could end up rippling out, as libraries effect publishers, who effect distributors, who effect and effect and effect...</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which leaves the question of how to get ALA to listen. Boycotting is one way, and the great thing is that we can still get the benefit of programs and sessions without being there in person. Lots of them are accessible asynchronously, and their materials are available for the asking. Maybe not every little thing can be found without paying for some kind of attendance, but librarians aren’t really known for limiting access (especially when they’re presenters excited about their topic of interest).</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A formal petition to ALA could also have an effect. I’m going to look into starting one through one of the grassroots activism groups out there. If you agree with parts of what I’m saying, watch out for that; I’d appreciate your support.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, all those of us who care about the environment, and want to bring librarianship to a leading role in its defense, should join the Sustainability Round Table. It’s ten bucks to join, which I don’t mind paying at all. The point of this isn’t to punish ALA, after all, but to get its attention. What better way than to see a flow of money going into the round table, rather than toward registration for the next unsustainable conference?</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the parlance of Sin City, I’m putting my money on green.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1291197135"><img src="http://www.ala.org/sustainrt/sites/ala.org.sustainrt/files/content/SustainabilityRoundTable.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://bit.ly/1x0Y2in</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-77172786208414378592014-05-25T13:36:00.000-07:002014-05-25T13:36:01.680-07:00The State of the State of the Libraries<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was reading the 2014 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">State of American Libraries</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> report, as I have done every year since getting into librarying, when it struck me that I should stop because they are always pretty much the same.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-9e9a2905-3514-17cb-b074-03a45a0e57e4" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Americans love libraries! Libraries are innovating! There are challenges to face and here are a couple! The government is bad but please government increase funding for us!</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s good to hear but it’s kind of a broken record, and at this point it actually seems kind of self-indulgent. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How about instead of enumerating these things over and over again (and burying the examples of actual innovation deep within the pages of the report), we bring our greatest ideas to the fore and present them for the American people’s consideration and approval?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I would love it if we could lose the bland, neutral writing style with its rote rhythm and absolute lack of stylistic variety. Do you think Stan Lee would be open tor taking over the writing duties?</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="213" src="http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/screencrush.com/files/2012/08/stan-lee.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our savior? http://tinyurl.com/mvlxpm9</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: black; float: left; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(The few examples of more colorful writing in this year’s report are welcome but kinda underline the overall problem.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I get that a report of statistical findings--with all the white bread the idea entails--is important and serves a role. So okay, let’s not nix next year’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">State.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> But how about a companion piece, more a “missions accomplished” announcement than a status report? Take all of those great programming and outreach initiatives that the report hides deep in its guts and splash them all over the Internet in glossy, sparkly form. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And not just on Tumblr. There is a bigger world out there.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We deserve to crow a little. We do great things, and this year’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">State </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">made me swell with pride at some of our successes in 2013--when I got to them. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stan will be at ALA this year; what a great opportunity to pitch him on writing for us. Who better to let the world in on the fact that we’re superheroes?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(But seriously, read the report: </span><a href="http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2014" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2014</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-44431896137972391062014-05-14T09:45:00.000-07:002014-05-14T09:45:12.829-07:00A Brief Return to the Subject of Binge WatchingI love this line of thinking, from the AV Club's newbie <a href="http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/game-thrones-newbies-laws-gods-and-men-204527">review</a> of the most recent <i>Game of Thrones</i> (minor spoilers):<br />
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"Episodes like “The Laws Of Gods And Men” make me realize that there are increasingly two <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Game Of Thrones</i> airing every Sunday night. There’s the first 30 minutes of the show, which collects short vignettes from throughout Westeros and parts beyond, followed by a half-hour of meatier, more concentrated storytelling from King’s Landing. By crafting episodes along this divide, the show runs the risk of bisecting itself, of doing more to isolate its teeming droves of character than geography ever could. But <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Game Of Thrones </i>is smarter than that, and as “The Laws Of Gods And Men” demonstrates, David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and crew are working hard to find the threads that connect the many disparate elements of their show.</div>
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"It’s a very savvy, very modern way of structuring a television show. It plays to the binge-viewers as well as the week-by-week audience: The threads that play out across the season, but are only a small fraction of any given hour of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Game Of Thrones</i>, flow together more coherently in a binge. For us residents of the Stone Age who still enjoy gathering around the TV set at a predetermined date and time, we get the compelling, self-contained drama of storylines like The Purple Wedding or the trial of Tyrion Lannister. Nether’s the better “show,” per se—they combine to make a satisfying whole. Speaking personally, I might prefer the show-within-the-show that’s taking place in King’s Landing, but only because it sends larger, more palpable shockwaves to be felt across the Seven Kingdoms.</div>
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"Even so, “The Laws Of Gods And Men” is a neat reminder that neither half of the episode has to be one show or the other. The lengthy trial sequences demonstrate the advantages of both approaches, drawing upon details that occurred weeks, sometimes years ago in the production timeline of <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Game Of Thrones</i>. "</div>
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And the evolution of televised media marches on!</div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-65281039331874087862014-05-11T12:23:00.001-07:002014-05-11T12:23:47.011-07:00Connectivity for the Convalescent<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just a quick update/call to action today inspired by my mom’s recent health travails and, of course, Mother’s Day.</span><br />
<b id="docs-internal-guid-1059f28d-ecb9-1c2e-477f-8d6689f195be" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Moms has recently gone through a lot of stuff, including a back surgery that necessitated a several-week stay at a rehab center. She was roundly agog at the level of professionalism and care she found there, for which we are all grateful, but the place had a couple glaring cons.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Number one, it had a paltry “library” consisting of 50% awful romance novels and 50% weird melange of everything else, all out of order and without regard to, you know, real people’s reading interests.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Number two, the whole facility was wif-fi verboten.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, it is true that the majority of the facility’s patients are on the older end of the spectrum (my very “hip” and “with-it” mom was the youngest by a couple decades at least), but it’s kind of a stereotype that all old ladies only read Harlequin novels and fear the computers/rob’uts. And even if the vast majority of patients ARE rob’ut-fearing, Fabio-loving seniors, my mom’s sojourn proves that the number does not reach 100%, and so those outliers ought to have their needs addressed as best as possible--to say nothing of the families who come to visit and who might want to page through a good book or pull out the laptop to search for Bahamas cruises for Grandma when she gets out of the joint.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.societyofrobots.com/images/mechanics_dynoldpeople.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.societyofrobots.com/images/mechanics_dynoldpeople.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And that’s never mind the fact that we should be encouraging our seniors to become more comfortable engaging in modern technology, as it improves their well-being and sense of connectedness, but I won’t get into that here.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No, instead I’ll just ask my librarian colleagues reading this to keep rehab facilities in mind when thinking about outreach and community engagement efforts in the future, and to point out that they seem to fall into an underserved grey area between straight-up senior living facilities, which tend to be on librarians’ radars for bookmobiles and other services, and hospitals, which tend to have greater built-in infrastructure to see to patients’ informational and entertainment needs. (Emphasis on “tend,” of course.)</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I know that it’s just what we need--yet another node of would-be patrons who, knowingly or not, deserve a slice of our fraying, shrinking temporal and monetary resources. But we can’t ignore a need just because it’s hard. Some of these people are in real dire straits emotionally--there was a lot of difficult stuff to listen to in my mom’s center. Something as simple as a well-curated shelf of relevant and interesting books, or a visiting librarian empowered to loan out books for special, longer periods between stops, or even some intensive reader’s advisory/bibliotherapy sessions, could go a long way to easing some pain.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then there’s this, shifting to the thornier issue of connectivity:</span></div>
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<a href="http://blog.mobilebeacon.org/how-one-library-is-loaning-out-the-internet-using-mobile-technology/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://blog.mobilebeacon.org/how-one-library-is-loaning-out-the-internet-using-mobile-technology/</span></a></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That would be a library loaning out the Internet. Cool, huh? </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Obviously not every library has the funds for such a program, but as responsible trustees of the public good, librarians must not underestimate the powerful intersection of personal giving, crowdsourcing, and social media. My family was very fortunate that a friend of my mom decided to start a crowdfunded campaign to get her a mobile hotspot, keeping her connected to all of us while she recovered away from home. But such things are expensive and can come with strings attached, so they’re not an option for everyone. Enter the model introduced by the library above. Is it a perfect solution? No, but it’s the kind of innovative step that can have a big impact on people in the short term. Libraries with the will to do so should look into establishing such a program, and maybe adapt it to a bookmobile model--not necessarily to loan out a week at a time, but to make rounds to area dead zones and provide a few hours’ access throughout the week. It would be a big boon to the homebound and inpatients at places like my mom’s facility. And we’re the masters of social media, right? My mom’s campaign raised over $700 in something like 36 hours through Facebook alone. Imagine what we can do with our librarianly reach and savvy.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m not insensitive to the dictates of dwindling library resources, so I’d love some feedback from my readers about what they think is possible. Is it feasible to deputize well-established volunteers to bring selections of books to these facilities and rotate read books back as they are finished and their dates come due (and avoid cutting into library employees’ time)? Can we extend due dates beyond our current limitations for renewals to accommodate those whose circumstances cause them to take longer to finish a book? Can we reach out to these information-needy people with a kind of needs assessment to determine how we can best serve them? And what do you think about the mobile hotspot idea--any thoughts on how to improve the basic concept?</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’re so happy to have my mom home this Mother’s Day as we enjoy the sunny weather and make strawberry shortcake and look forward to her full recovery (and tonight’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Game of Thrones</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). But so many other mothers and grandmothers (and fathers and grandfathers) are still in places far from their loved ones, without a way to connect with home, without a stimulating book to read, and with nurses and staff who try their best but can’t answer every need. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it, library friends?) Our communal responsibility extends to these folks, and we should do our best to serve them. If you are a librarian, check out what your institution is doing for these types of populations, and feel free to share them with me and each other. If they’ve fallen off the radar until now, now’s always a good time to fix that.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do it for your momma!</span>AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-25892909878283690492014-04-27T16:46:00.001-07:002014-04-27T16:46:48.041-07:00On Will and Teddy<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being, in part, a review of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Bully Pulpit</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Doris Kearns Goodwin and, in larger part, a meditation on a particular beautiful epoch and on the little-recognized friendship that shaped it and the world that came after.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-4466505b-a57f-828e-c85a-fa3ff682bbda" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What did I learn about William Howard Taft from this book? I learned that he was a big-hearted, good-humored man who made a friend of everyone he met, a dedicated public servant with a passion for the law, an all-too-human figure with an unfortunate tendency toward inertia and a desperate need for approval.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What did I learn about Theodore Roosevelt?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That he was one nutty sumbitch.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://rownak.com/Presidents/THEODORE-Print2-72-web.gif</td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: black; float: left; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Roosevelt was for war. He had this need to prove himself manly enough to dodge bullets and laugh in the face of death that led to some unseemly personal and private statements. This was a guy who declared he would leave his wife’s deathbed to prove himself in mortal combat continents away. There’s something weird in the head of a guy who could take a father’s benign advice to ‘get strong’ so literally and so seriously, to make himself into the perfect Rough Rider, despite hailing from an elevated social class with no particular need to cultivate Davey Crocket-esque Renaissance Men. That he did so anyway is both a credit to him </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> somewhat pathological-seeming. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What else to say about Roosevelt? His was a life of manic, astonishingly effective lunacy: ushering guests through his office on a revolving basis, somehow completely engaging with each of them while reading three books, writing four more, fighting the bosses in the Republican Party with one hand, drafting progressive legislation with the other, and doing an end-run around Congress by scribbling an executive order to declare 105% of the North American continent protected wilderness. With his feet. Oh, and probably giving dictation for about 300 pieces of personal correspondence, including florid letters to his wife (whom he dearly loved, despite his willingness to abandon her should duty call). And that’s just during his presidency, after which you could count on him to be hunting big game with all the crowned heads of Europe while firing back telegrams on the upcoming 1912 presidential election alongside chapters of his memoir and editorials on gun control to run in all the major papers….I’m tired just thinking about it.</span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this review as in life, Teddy is sucking all the air out of the room thanks to his huge personality, his boundless ambition, and his constant need for recognition. Taft’s is a quieter presence, but one deserving of attention. It’s a shame he’s known today mainly as the president with the giant tub; I am not exaggerating when I say he may be the most underrated public figure of the 20</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">th</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> century. From his humanitarian work as Governor-general of the Philippines, to his troubled tenure in the White House, to the fulfillment of his life’s goal to preside over the Supreme Court--to say nothing of his much-cited decisions in his early judicial career--Taft left a great mark on the United States in the early 1900s. Besides all that, Taft could have given a master class in sensitive familial relations and in honorable political sportsmanship.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-stiEWsfpJb0/TrPQyzd1VyI/AAAAAAAAAFY/9ZdFSVc4NWY/s320/Taft.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="248" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://bit.ly/QSMptL</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: black; float: left; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(The third, and most atrophied, leg of this book’s narrative tripod consists of the muckraking journalists whose efforts awakened the American conscience and spurred on reformers like Roosevelt and Taft, with varying degrees of success. The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">McClure’s</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> magazine gang is interesting and important to the story of the progressive advances of the era, but I could have hoped for muted coverage of their personal lives—it bogs down the story and distracts from our presidential protagonists. But the story of the magazine’s eventual schism is fascinating--tense, even, in a political thriller kind of way. But now back to our dynamic duo.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What surprised me was to learn that these two men were close, intimate friends. Now, it’s easy to say that two public figures who served together and exchanged letters were friends without it necessarily being so, not by the standards of friendship most of us hold today. But Doris Kearns Goodwin demonstrates that T.R. and W.H.T. were just that: a pair of public servants who met early in their careers in Washington, mingling their families, enjoying some of each other’s pastimes, corresponding constantly, and, most importantly, serving as each other’s sounding boards at every stage of their policymaking. In each other they found strong political allies, full-throated advocates, and--so Roosevelt believed--a one-two punch of Progressive Presidential Power. (That is to say, following his term in office, T.R. anointed Taft his heir, and the Republican Party did as their frustrating, beloved chief bade.)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When Taft takes office, the big issues of the day get a lot drier than Roosevelt’s dramatic wrangling of the trusts and imposition of regulations on America’s burgeoning industries. Ironically, though, they take on greater implications for the success or failure of the administration. Drab-sounding debates over the staffing of the conservation department and appropriate levels for the federal tariff turn into scandals that threaten to implode the presidency of Teddy’s hand-picked successor—and bring the two friends into direct conflict.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The differences between the political fortunes of the two can be best expressed by extending the qualities of their respective inaugurations. For Roosevelt it was, almost literally, all bright skies and elated crowds, while for Taft it was often blizzards and calculated division. Taft, a more methodical and conservative brand of politician, was ill-served by the brash style of his predecessor, finding the Republican Party ready to fracture; in any other circumstances, he probably would have made for a strong conciliatory leader, but not in the age of Teddy. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Roosevelt, for his part, seems to suffer a mild psychotic break after leaving office. Gone is the charismatic firebrand who, for all his passion, was quick to forgive his friends’ opposing positions, to find a common ground. One would be forgiven for thinking that Roosevelt’s tour of the European capitals, hailed by world leaders as the most famous American, rather went to his head, convincing him that any concessions to the realities of politics made by his successor must necessarily be out of line. He is certainly cool to the beleaguered Taft upon his return to the States, and soon erupts into an all-out rival who threatens to exacerbate the growing rift in the Republican Party. He, to paraphrase Christopher Nolan’s Harvey Dent, lived long enough to be unaware of the fact that he became the well-meaning, ego-driven villain.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="320" src="http://mintwiki.pbworks.com/f/1231166036/Teddy%20Roosevelt%20by%20George%20Gardner%20Rookwood.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="245" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One no-prize to the first True Believer who photoshops<br /><div style="text-align: start;">
this into a Teddy-Two Face. <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>http://bit.ly/1lYeoGT</b></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: black; float: right; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The vicious three-way campaign that follows (hi, Woodrow Wilson and the genesis of the modern Democratic Party) has the unfortunate effect of driving the moderate-Progressive Taft deeper into party conservatism, as he feels compelled to defend the Republican brand from what he sees as Roosevelt’s radical, unconstitutional views on the judiciary (and if there’s one thing to know about Taft, it’s this: you do NOT mess with his judiciary). Even as I understood and appreciated Taft’s reasons, I couldn’t help but be dismayed at his retreat from Progressivism—and I certainly lay a good amount of the blame for it at the feet of Theodore Roosevelt. This is a good lesson for today’s radicals about how, with the best of intentions, they can shift the mechanisms of power away from their lofty aims and deeper into reactionary conservatism. Let those of us with good hearts work together to take confident steps toward progress, rather than faltering leaps that land us on our liberal faces. (In other words, liberals, enough of this “I stand with Rand” nonsense.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The issues faced by Roosevelt and Taft--and those covered by the muckrakers--are eerily similar to those of today, much of them related to the role of privilege and wealth in our society, the power of government to regulate business, and the plight of the common folk in a highly striated class system. What takes up most of our heroes’ time in a political sense is equally familiar as they contended with the radicals of both parties, crowds of firebrands who bear great resemblance to the current era’s Occupy Wall Streeters and Snowden-philes. Taft and Roosevelt, like our present leaders, had to make hard choices between gratifying and combating these bases, and their actions reaffirm my faith in the sort of tack taken by President Obama today: that progress cannot be won by capitulation to the demands of such agitators, even when we might agree, in a broad sense, with the world they earnestly hope to establish. At one point Roosevelt delivers a remarkable approximation of President Obama’s much cited exhortation not to let “the perfect be the enemy of the good”--and, not coincidentally, Roosevelt’s administration, like Obama’s, is known for its many progressive, epoch-shaping achievements, in spite of the hand-wringing of the radicals of both eras. (Roosevelt and Taft, fortunately for them, didn’t have to deal with any serious equivalent of the Tea Party.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The American century was kicked off by the turbo engine of these two men’s disparate personalities, and in many ways we can thank them for the shape of the society we enjoy today. I’m glad Teddy didn’t win the election of 1912; I shudder to think about the alternate history emanating from a Great War with the Bull Moose at the helm. But I am gratified that the planks of his separatist Progressive party have become an inextricable strand in the modern American social contract, with never a serious question as to their excision, but merely an ongoing effort to actualize and extend them. And I am glad that Taft was there, during Roosevelt’s tenure and after, to moderate the excesses of an enthusiastic but perhaps self-destructive Progressive movement--and to do so with admirable humanity and tact.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like so many of these popular histories do, this one ends with a heart-wrenching coda on the lives of its central figures. I turned the pages with apprehension, afraid to close the book on a great friendship still in ruins. I’ll leave it to you to discover if my fears were realized. Regardless, the great lesson I draw from this book is, corny as it may be, the power of friendship: the century just past was irrevocably altered because these two men, so dissimilar, one day moved to lodgings in the nation’s capital just up the street from one another. The rupture of that friendship some decades later altered the course of history again. What will you accomplish with your best friend?</span></div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-70947981734370996842014-04-13T17:57:00.002-07:002014-04-13T17:57:31.501-07:00The Fate of 42ndThis is a pretty direct transposition of an exchange I had on Facebook with a friend in response to <a href="http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/77812837917/you-want-to-photograph-me-eating-chicken-yep">this Humans of New York post</a>. I decided to present my mostly off-the-cuff response here, unedited and unalloyed, because I've seen a petition going around combating the contentious situation described by the Human of New York in question.<br />
<br />
You're entitled to your opinion on the matter; this is mine.<br />
<br />
[Context: my friend posted the entry to my Wall with the comment "DO NOT LIKE." To which I go...]<br />
<br />
I'm of two minds about this. The gut reaction is, of course, that this must be a bad thing (and I'm willing to give more credence to it as bad due to my own experience and the fact that this is a sentiment held by at least one employee of the institution). There's history here, and more importantly, there's access. We don't want to lose those.<br />
<br />
However.<br />
<br />
In today's day and age, there's really no reason we need to take up space on-site with research material in many locations--especially not in midtown Manhattan, where space is at such a premium, and where that space might be better spent fostering creativity and community in an all-too-often cloistered culture.<br />
<br />
What about all that lovely research material, you say? Well, depending on the system NYPL is able to put in place, there's no reason why it shouldn't remain just as accessible to the conscientious researcher as it is now. People don't realize all the time that the main library there is a closed stacks environment anyway--you can't just walk around browsing and take what you want. With the collection removed, if you're going to spend a few hours researching, you can submit requests and probably have what you need in your hands within the hour. The canny researcher may well submit such requests ahead of time and have it all waiting for him upon arrival. (Now, whether that works out in real life will probably be a process of working out kinks and dealing with the reality of the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. Not ideal, but for the trade-off...)<br />
<br />
And on top of that, most of the research people are going to do these days probably won't involve dusty tomes from 1850. Maybe some, but even a lot of that is being digitized. So that being the case, why should we take up seven stories of the most premium real estate in the world with books that people might want to use out of nostalgia, but don't actually *need* to use?<br />
<br />
I'm a proponent of what detractors sneeringly refer to "library-as-internet-cafe." Because that isn't what it's about--we're not trying to be Barnes and Noble. But we do have to compete with Barnes and Noble (and, increasingly, Amazon). So we might offer some superficial perks here and there to get bodies in the building. What's awesome is the stuff we do with the bodies once we have them.<br />
<br />
Wait, that came out wrong.<br />
<br />
(Disclaimer: Though I have been somewhat following this story, I don't know all of what NYPL plans to do with the research collection and how it plans to provide access to it. My comments are based primarily on the models offered by certain other institutions but which, if NYPL is smart--and it is run by some very smart people who write job descriptions I will never qualify for--they will emulate. And no, this doesn't answer the shameful reduction in the business etc. materials, which I hope they are making sensible provisions for as well.)<br />
<br />
...<br />
<br />
(PS This article confirms many of my dim recollections and assumptions, and adds a few more details and heartily-worded statements of support for the new model: http://acrlog.org/2012/05/07/the-new-york-public-library-central-library-plan-and-its-critics/<br />
I do hope that what NYPL is trying to do, in its considered and professionally vetted way, won't be subverted by the kneejerk reactions of people wedded to the past and with no knowledge of oncoming trends.)<br />
<br />
And the more I think about it, the less leeway I'm willing to give Chicken Guy, because he seems the most overly-nostalgic and kneejerk of them all.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
Now, my fellow librarians--where do you stand on this issue? And anyone else, feel free to chime in.AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-37264756584496969482014-04-07T16:32:00.000-07:002014-04-07T16:36:45.648-07:00Spoiler Alert: You're a Jerk<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Warning: This post contains spoilers for the first three seasons of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Game of Thrones</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and some pre-2014 Marvel Cinematic Universe films. It does NOT contain spoilers for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">GoT</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> s4,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Captain America: The Winter Soldier</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, or any future MCU films.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-fbe6ff80-3e7d-9e2f-a5af-15fb3e1f4de9" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve had a couple unfortunate incidents relating to spoilers in the past week, which is a big peeve of mine. And, as it’s </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Game of Thrones</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> season, as well as new Marvel movie season--basically the two things I care about most in TEH WORLD--it feels especially like I’m traipsing through a social media minefield.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what bugged me this week weren’t the spoilers themselves--both were relatively mild--but the attitudes that seem to come with them.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first incident came about on my go-to source for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Game of Thrones </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">news, <a href="http://winteriscoming.net/">winteriscoming.net</a>, which I’ve been casing all the more regularly as the fourth season has approached. I know, I know: how can I complain about spoilers when I frequent fan news sites? Well, I’ve gotten pretty good at reading the kinds of things that, as a previous fan of the books, I’m comfortable knowing about the show, and avoiding the posts that give away things I don’t want spoiled. We all have to set up these buffer zones of desired ignorance these days. For me, casting news and crew interviews and things like that are okay because they tend only to reveal, sometimes indirectly, the inclusion of elements of the story I knew had to show up on the show sooner or later. The things that I avoid are those that threaten to reveal particulars of adaptation and the shape of the season as a whole--which I think makes sense; since I know the story from the books, one of the vestiges of viewerly surprise for me is in the pacing of the season, how the creators choose to dole out incidents, and what level of significance they assign them.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The major info to avoid in that regard, then, are the episode titles, which usually start trickling into the press a few weeks before a season premiers.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, I go to read a post featuring an interview with a cast member, and what do I get in the very first sentence, before I have time to stop myself, but the title of a late-season episode? And it’s one that clearly betrays the episode’s focus on a particular character--and it’s not, like, “The Tyrion Episode” or something equally expected, but something a bit subtler. Sad pandas for Alex!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, annoyed, I post a little comment (prefaced with “Bah”--oh, the temerity!) suggesting that the site runners, who are, after all, not amateurs anymore, might consider being more considerate of those of us who consider episode titles to be overly spoilerly.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cue the arrogantly snotty reply from the site’s resident unnecessarily aggressive mod (hi, OursIsTheFury! You picked an apt handle), basically questioning my intelligence for reading pre-season news at all and my manhood (ha, I have to laugh) for being so sensitive.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cm4KDM_TjOU/UbYZIUu4sUI/AAAAAAAAAaA/lMPKNrS4_hg/s320/got5.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I recognize the dilemma here. I can’t expect my standard of appropriate spoiler policies to be in effect everywhere I browse; the onus is on me to be a careful reader. But the outright dismissal of this as a category of sensitive material left me even angrier than before, implying that it won’t matter how careful I am--on this site, at least, episode titles will be fair game, no one cares about my objection, and I won’t have a way to avoid them unless I avoid the site altogether. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That won’t do, so I’ll suck it up, and if I learn too much in advance, I’ll put on my big boy pants and try not to let it ruin my enjoyment of things.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But man, that guy’s attitude bothered me. He didn’t come in contritely and patiently explain that their policy doesn’t cover my concern. He didn’t express understanding of my feelings on the matter. He went right for the diminishment and the dismissal.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are we not your customers, sir? Do we not click your links and share your posts and provide you with the status you now enjoy? Can you not, then, treat my concern with appropriate tact, with an understanding that spoiler frontiers are not fixed, and that you should at least be nice to people who feel like you’ve messed something up for them? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can understand, definitely, how people might see my personal spoiler comfort zone as really restrictive, but it is my right to define my limits as I see fit and to at least ask you to respect them. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But even if you’re scoffing at my personal spoiler limit, I ask you to consider this: It’s one thing for book readers to expect the Red Wedding as it approaches on the show. We knew it was coming and expected where to find it regardless of whether we knew episode titles. The show had established a pattern it was not likely to break in this instance. A momentous event like that one takes on Shakespearean qualities--it doesn’t matter that you know the end. The impact will be the same--heightened, even, by the sense of expectation.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The same can’t be said of the numerous details, less-epochal shocking events, and hints of character arcs whose coordinates can be revealed by seeing the episode titles early. Thus, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for some fans to consider titles to be spoiler territory, and to ask that that info be guarded behind spoiler warnings.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s especially important for readers of the series like me to conserve what surprises we may, since many of the broad strokes of a given season are known to us. Yes, a large measure of what remains to thrill us is how those events are adapted--the visual elements, the pacing, the dialogue, and so much more. But a part of it is also the order that the adapters place them in, and the importance they ascribe to events, both of which can be revealed through episode titles.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I avoid casting news on minor characters in Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (read: one-off ‘events’ farther from the adapted source material than </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Game of Thrones </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is) for the same reason I tend to avoid episode titles before any show’s release: these characters are small details that inform the texture of a work in the motion picture entertainment medium. Additionally, in the MCU in particular, they provide a great amount of fun as the studio mines forty-plus years’ worth of bit villains and supporting cast members to round out their world-building.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I was both heartened (initially) and annoyed (just after) when a “spoiler-free” review of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> offhandedly mentioned the appearance of a small, silly classic foe whom I am inordinately fond of.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Look, of course it’s no surprise that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TWS</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> would be the Cap, Black Widow and Falcon show--that’s fine, there are your marquis characters right there. But the surprise of that little “boss level” villain would have given me more of a thrill if I had discovered it on viewing the movie, not in an article beforehand. I know because I have been pleasantly surprised by previous MCU movies (Kurse!), and even by a better-kept-secret about the current film, which I certainly won’t spoil here. (I might consider even this hint too spoilery in some cases, but I have to draw the line at some level of insanity.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These movies also contain what I think of as “grace notes”--entirely unnecessary elements that nonetheless contribute to fans’ overall enjoyment, and often set up future movies--reminding us that we are in the midst of the biggest ongoing film story ever attempted. Nothing epitomizes that wondrous quality of every Marvel movie better than their now-famous “post-credits” scenes. Here’s a hint about those in relation to your social media etiquette, folks:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DON’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THEM. Don’t even HINT. Don’t say one word about the substance of these scenes. That’s doubly true for those of you who don’t know the source material and don’t know, then, what single word might be a giveaway to a friend who has to wait til the end of the week to hit the theatre. If you thought it was cool, you can say so; confusing, sure; funny, annoying, bad--any of those basic descriptors, have at them. But avoid specifics, at the very least until after the opening weekend, and regardless, MARK SPOILERS. And even saying “Oh, that wasn’t really a setup for any future movie,” as has sometimes been the case, is too much--because that deflates our anticipation for what may be coming in these scenes, and tempers our enjoyment of what may be meant to be humorous or cathartic. BE SMART.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s just some friendly advice. People will like you better. Ruining stuff like this is like making a fart noise during a Chopin etude. Just don’t do it. Think about whether what you’re planning to say would have ruined things for you, and plan your divulgence appropriately. (For that matter, all those smug jerks who were talking about “something called the Red Wedding, wink-wink,” you’re guilty of the same kind of thing. “Gee,” thought no show-viewer ever, “I have no idea what that might refer to and will thus not ascribe any special importance to the much-mentioned wedding coming up in the traditionally-climactic ninth episode.” HINTS AND ELBOW-RIBBING AND COY REMARKS ARE SPOILERS.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Few More Kids I Have to Get Off My Lawn</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: black; float: right; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img src="http://feinbergflipside.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/oldman.jpg" height="320" width="256" /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And what’s with saying “spoiler alert” as a mid-sentence parenthetical and then continuing to the spoiler with absolutely no space in between? My brain doesn’t stop on a dime. The momentum of reading has carried me forward into more than one patch of spoilage. ALWAYS SPACE YOUR SPOILERS.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For that matter, what’s the statute of limitations on spoilers, anyway? The Red Wedding is spoken about pretty openly these days, but I would contend that it’s too soon to dispense with warnings for the few people who have not seen it (remember, I gave an alert at the top of this post!). Heck, if it were up to me, we’d still be tiptoeing around the first season’s big shockers--you know who you are.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of the universe seems to disagree.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also got into an argument with a friend about a comic book event from decades past that may or may not be due to make a film appearance in the next year or so; I said that all discussion of such an event in relation to the film should be treated carefully, while he maintained that it happened so long ago it is pretty much common knowledge. But at least 50% of the point of all these film adaptations is to reach audiences unfamiliar with the brilliant source material, who wouldn’t know Hank Pym from Scott Lang, the Nova Corps from the Green Lantern Corps, or a Hobgoblin from a Green Goblin. They should have no idea of what’s to come--not a hint--and they should be shielded from foreknowledge in the interest of their maximum enjoyment. Just like we all got to enjoy stuff for the first time, hopefully.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For the record, I’m not saying that discussion of these kinds of plot points should be shut down entirely--I merely contend that we should remain liberal with our use of spoiler warnings when getting into sensitive material.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I feel like this is all an important series of considerations in the modern media consuming era (a topic I also talk about <a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2014/02/media-binges-good-bad-and-library.html">here</a>, from a different angle)--a matter of artistic justice, as it were. The speed at which we consume, the eagerness with which we approach our material, and the nature of communication in the social media world mean we have to develop a new sensibility when it comes to safeguarding our enjoyment of our favorite media--as well as the enjoyment that our friends seek. No longer is the water cooler the only front in spoiler wars, and the stories on offer tend to have higher stakes, and thus more emotional resonance, than when America’s main concern was whatever Ross and Rachel were up to the night before. We all cared so much about that--just a couple of doofy New Yorkers’ romantic life--how much worse is it to ruin the latest life-and-death, bated-breath developments with Tyrion, Dany, Cap and Tony?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consider yourself warned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img src="http://global3.memecdn.com/Warning-Spoiler-Alert_o_109721.jpg" height="221" width="320" /></span></div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-3733479534047844432014-03-30T16:10:00.000-07:002014-03-30T16:10:01.501-07:00Hiya Hiya Hiya: I'm back; quarterly media review<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m back from a long trip, and have taken a week to dig myself out from under my piles of correspondence, tv, and dirty laundry. I wanted to swing back into action with something a little more meaty, but, well, wishes and fishes. Instead, as I so enjoyed my year-end review of media back in December, I thought I would inaugurate the practice as a quarterly thing. Writing this has left me plenty of time to finish my laundry for real (but I still haven’t).</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-7a398f11-153d-dac4-77a8-354dbaae8acd" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rest assured that I have plenty of topics in mind for the coming weeks--Snowden and the NSA! “Information scientists”! Being civil in the course of criticism! What’s a guy gotta write to go viral around here? If none of that works I’ll have to pretend I’m an adorable moppet doing a social media experiment, and nobody wants that.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Books</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Words of Radiance</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Brandon Sanderson--book 2 of “The Stormlight Archive”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I feel about Brandon Sanderson as I do about <a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2013/08/get-over-yourself-you-overgrown-damaged.html">Patrick Rothfuss</a>, but with less venom. I think both are weak writers who get way more acclaim from the fandom than they deserve, and I don’t always understand why, except that they offer certain surface-level satisfactions to fantasy fans. In Sanderson’s case, it’s uber-clever magic paired with eye-bleeding action. In this, the second volume, of his great epic, the self-indulgence afforded by all that acclaim continues on into bloat. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s more, Sanderson gives the impression of never having really lived. As a result, he replaces any human sensibility in his work with an approximation of the adrenaline rush you get from the last level of your favorite video game. He’s often praised for his cinematic writing, and I would agree, with the caveat that he fulfills only the most shallow definition of the term: he provides motion and spectacle with none of the visualized heart that good filmmakers perfected in the nineteen-aughts. Plus, he continues to double down on humor in his writing that just...needs to stop.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So that’s more of my review of Sanderson than of this book, but I think it fits.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dune </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by Frank Herbert</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hesitated to read this sci-fi classic for years; the genre is not my favorite, for one, but I also feared its space opera themes would fly over my head. (Ah, pride!) Well, it’s definitely a challenging read, but it’s also an extremely rewarding one, as well as just being beautifully written and thrilling to experience. You’ll wonder why modern Americans can’t think about the ecological future of the planet as cogently as the Fremen do about Arrakis. Now, I’m pleased to have finally rounded out my exploratory tastes of sci-fi classics--the others being </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Foundation </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--and look forward to continuing with the Dune series and beyond.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One Summer: America, 1927</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Bill Bryson</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A rollicking, romping, compulsively readable look at a particular moment in American history, one that aptly reminds us how interrelated seemingly distant happenings can be--in this case, flight, baseball, natural disasters, and more. It makes me wish Bryson would similarly treat every season of every year in world history, to tease out the fascinating connections between events. What a project that would be. For now, it’s enough to soak up this volume, and enjoy the sketches provided of Lindbergh, Ruth, Hoover and others--by turns hilarious, enlightening, and disturbing. (Try not to get choked up at Calvin Coolidge’s account of his early loss.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TV</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">True Detective</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most everything I watch is still in the thick of things right now, but this HBO series provided a compact, muscular character study of two broken men. Now, I wasn’t too dense to notice the meta-narrative going on here, with the detectives’ exploits framed by their own sometimes guarded (to say the least) reminiscences in a contemporary police interview. But, to be honest, I was too enthralled by Harrelson and McConaughey's bravura performances to worry too much about that, as well too busy keeping my eyes peeled for Lovecrafty references. But the show rewards deep thinking and subsequent rewatches, which I intend to undertake soon. And that opening credits scene is worth the price of admission all on its own.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Movies</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I haven’t seen a one yet this year! That’ll change with the next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe next week, though--</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I’ll report back at some point.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Games</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dune</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s a weird fluke: I played the board game version of a famous novel before reading it. Only barely, in this case, but still. My lack of skill with this 70s cult classic (and rather early example of the high-concept board game trend) ensured a speedy defeat in only three or so rounds, but from what I saw of the game--its network of competing factions, its sandstorm and sandworm mechanics, and its built-in capacity for betrayal--whet my appetite for more playing and more reading.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Puerto Rico</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Classic. Just ignore the optics of importing little brown meeple to work your estates. (Hey, points for historical accuracy, I guess?) This game was interesting in that players don’t seem to be competing with each other within the framework of the same representation of the island colony, but rather across separate versions of Puerto Rico, each little ‘god’ vying to make his or her version the most optimized. But then you work with the same shipping mechanic, so maybe not. It’s a little garbled that way, but it’s a lot of fun.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Masquerade</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I so enjoyed Citadels, the previous game by this designer, and Masquerade did not disappoint as a follow-up. This game has the remarkable mechanic of hidden identities--even from yourself. Each turn consists of three basic actions--you can either peek at your own face-down character card to ascertain your own identity, declare yourself to be a certain character to claim that character’s special ability, or--fun!--blind-swap your card with another player’s, ensuring that you can rarely be sure who you or your opponents are. If you opt for choice 2, though--”I am the bishop!” for example--one or more of your opponents can chime in to challenge you--”No, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the bishop!” Then you check, and whoever was right (if anyone) gets to use the power, and whoever was wrong has to give up some coin. I wouldn’t delve so deeply into the minutiae of these simple-enough rules, except that I think they’re delicious. It was a great fun time, and it’s the kind of game that stays competitive throughout.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bang</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another hidden-identity game (only this time you get to know who you are, at least). I liked this one, especially because it takes a genre I don’t usually care about--wild west--and got me invested. Before playing, I fell into the trap of thinking that mechanics for a rusty, old-timey genre would be equally dated-feeling, but Bang straddles the line between feeling thematically appropriate and happily universal. The sheriff is the only players whose identity begins open, and the first few rounds are concerned with ferreting out who his deputies are and who the outlaws are (and don’t forget about that pesky renegade!), with each side pursuing its own victory conditions. The scads of cards that modify your weaponry and range, heal your wounds and dodge fire lead to action-packed rounds. Friends take hits and justice hangs in the the balance. It also comes in a giant bullet-shaped container, so it’s really more fun that you can shake a cactus at.</span>AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-77682407714609698092014-02-16T15:24:00.000-08:002014-02-16T15:24:29.883-08:00The Learning Curve: Adventures in Self-Directed Education<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Back when I </span><a href="http://vivalibrarianism.blogspot.com/2013/04/i-hope-everyone-had-very-good-national.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">started this blog</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I promised several recurring features that I haven’t always delivered on. (I like to think that if you take the long view, all of my promises will be kept...it’s all a work in progress!)</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-4834b9b5-3d00-c002-d99e-3f32bcb36683" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of those features was discussion of self-directed continuing education, with my own experiences with setting up curricula for myself as the model. Of course, the main reason you haven’t seen much of that is because I haven’t done a great job creating and sticking to my own curricula. Well, January started a new semester, and I’ve been much more successful so far. Various web-based options are making it easier to keep up one’s education outside of the traditional bounds of the classroom, and I’m interested to hear from my readers about their own experiences or with commentary on my choices.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First off, I decided that continuing library/info studies education doesn’t necessarily have to include the stuff you might expect to find in your official program--on the contrary, there are lots of subjects that are of immediate benefit to the librarian but which don’t fit into our 2-ish years of training. For me, top on that list is Spanish.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m interested in working in large urban public libraries, and nearly every job posting I’ve responded to has listed proficiency in Spanish as a preferred qualification, if not an outright requirement. Well, this guy made the very positive, yet not so demographically savvy, decision to study French starting in middle school, going on to major in the language in college. While I very much enjoyed learning to read and discuss Hugo and Sartre in their original tongue, it hasn’t lended itself to employers snapping me up.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Spanish, I recognize, is extremely valuable to know in the American workforce today. It’s the </span><a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/13/spanish-is-the-most-spoken-non-english-language-in-u-s-homes-even-among-non-hispanics/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">most-spoken</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> non-English language in American homes, and overall there are </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language_in_the_United_States" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">69 million hispanophones</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in the US. While a great many of them also speak English fluently or very well, there’s a sizable number who do not--and besides, sometimes it’s more comfortable for people to conduct business in their native language, no matter how well they speak another. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the little community public library where I volunteer, a good proportion of the patrons I encounter every day are Spanish-speakers. I decided it was time I had the ability to at least offer the option of communicating in these folks’ first language. While it will be many years before I’m able to do so in a way that won’t make them cringe at my vocabulary and accent, I can at least get the process started with increasingly useful, rigorous and affordable online language-learning options. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For this effort I’ve chosen </span><a href="https://www.duolingo.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Duolingo</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, with which I previously had a positive experience practicing Portuguese just for fun. It’s a colorful site that offers an intuitive scaffold of each language to climb toward proficiency, breaking it down into digestible, thematic chunks--sometimes grammatically like </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pronouns</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, sometimes by subject matter like </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">food</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><img height="368px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/FAjVytNckQGi7y-j2dkBDdltRJV9Ogt-qR_QROosSJPNyZURv30PJqsvWQy6iepSiPDspgORaC7VlJoeNrBPRcGCWFDqDxxgNluJqK46qBd1fj9ZFa-Lu0ni9A" style="border: 0px solid transparent;" width="624px;" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The experience is nicely gamified to grab and hold attention: you earn points for successful lessons completed and which you can compare with those of your friends, and you earn bonuses for streaks of days practiced. During lessons, you have three hearts--make too many mistakes and lose all your hearts, and you have to restart in that area. But success also earns you some web-currency, ‘lingots,’ which you can use to purchase bonuses and upgrades, like extra hearts.</span></div>
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<b style="clear: left; float: left; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><img height="349px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/fAYd9hj28oepfqMpnGlRl7bA1nIlXgSO15YvQJnrzvxDyVLbFGp4d2CqNjvGpV4vqK4---e2owvKxP-aYOVFIcELC_Xd7KohHE4c8CSkFowvM42eJivE0MMshg" style="border: 0px solid transparent;" width="384px;" /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One feature I didn’t grasp at first, but which is actually really helpful, is aimed at combating recall decay. When you complete a lesson, you have four full bars in the skill it covers--a happy little fully-charged feeling. But as time goes by, you lose bars, and you have to go back and practice that skill to build bars back up. It’s a great visual cue to remind you to go back and really lock down that content, rather than washing your hands of it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The goal of Duolingo is to crowdsource translations of web-based content. The thought is that there are too many millions of gigabytes of content building up through such outlets as BuzzFeed for it ever to be translated in-house for global access. By teaching people some of the top world languages, Duolingo hopes to harness their new skill to fill that gap. Every now and then a dialog box pops up saying “You can now translate x% of all listicles! Why don’t you give it a try!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Frankly, I’m dubious. It’s a noble aim and I will certainly do my part if I feel like I know enough to contribute competently, but even after months of practicing Portuguese, I wasn’t confident tackling BuzzFeed translations. Especially not given the slang-heavy nature of most Web writing--Duolingo focuses on official language, so I’m really not sure how successful I’ll ever be in this part of the operation. But I applaud those who make it work.</span></div>
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<a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/7ItOW6VNgTpmfytBThegojXIKhv9lwmORqSmEnhXbzpqh7SeZZTgMYQVshTey9xISoRNmiM8_Mwid9mfGyIYcHohhZXQIHBe4bkYK05Y_GGfeXaafQS-5yR9Zg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/7ItOW6VNgTpmfytBThegojXIKhv9lwmORqSmEnhXbzpqh7SeZZTgMYQVshTey9xISoRNmiM8_Mwid9mfGyIYcHohhZXQIHBe4bkYK05Y_GGfeXaafQS-5yR9Zg" style="border: 0px solid transparent;" width="624px;" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you’re in the mood to pick up a new language, need a crash-course for a new life situation, or want to brush up on an old favorite, Duolingo is a great option. And did I mention it’s free? Money talks (several languages). And if you already have a background in a given language, you can test out of the basic lessons and dig right into the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pollo y manzanas </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(chicken and apples--as close as I can get to ‘meat and potatoes’ so far!). Eventually I will branch out from Duolingo and enlist some Hispanophone friends to converse with me and share more advanced, library-specific vocabulary...but for now I have to get my conjugations down.</span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><img height="227px;" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/vD9GRilxgQTnbQcHoH0yBy2oTkJ_JFDRymabHQYfoCu5Vtg-e-Kh-_g9pvgNf4CcPfLqMPmBTlPC_u0O5PrDYFaJXLHjkyGGt_ETAim5kuywAktRHIeFmgSPJQ" style="border: 0px solid transparent;" width="624px;" /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
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AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-28390266494625364082014-02-09T13:34:00.000-08:002014-02-09T13:34:00.668-08:00Media Binges: The Good, the Bad, and the Library<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We live in an era of a new media consumption model--the binge. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-53d6074b-1887-bbda-82b1-52168c42a2cc" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We stream whole seasons in a day and knock off DVD box sets in a week. DVRs and On-Demand services allow us to enjoy marathons of our current programming without (as many) ads or those pesky week-long waits between plot points. Spotify and iTunes playlists deliver our music to us in a neverending cycle. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And librarians are particularly responsible for making even books into objects of mass consumption--what else would you call our insistence that we cram as much reading as physically possible into each year? It’s bingeing at a slightly slower frame rate.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So what to make of this burgeoning trend? Is this a positive development, a negative one, or in between? And what role should libraries play in supporting or combating it?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I, for one, am excited about libraries’ ability to promote media-gulping. For one thing, since it’s what people are doing anyway, it’s great that libraries are already equipped to mesh with their behavior; many of us have got respectable runs of popular TV shows on DVD, ready for plowing through, and we already do a </span><a href="http://articles.courant.com/2010-07-26/business/hc-library-movies-0726-20100725_1_library-services-library-circulation-higher-circulation-rate" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">brisk business</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in DVD lending. Why pay for Netflix? (And if you want Netflix too, maybe your local library can help fill some of its frustrating online </span><a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gaps-netflixs-online-library-likely-200620240.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">gaps</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Beyond that, though, I think that media bingeing is actually a positive development, and librarians are in place to mainstream it and its benefits. My experience with reading, in particular, shows me that the longer a process is strung out, the more comprehension and command of detail suffers.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In an environment where even the most accessible of TV dramas operates on a serialized basis, and where your TV sitcom favorites undergo actual character growth and change across a season, </span><a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Cable-Is-the-New-Novel/134420/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">watching TV is more like reading a novel than ever</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. That’s a good thing, but it doesn’t really work with the traditional broadcast television model.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s been opined that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Game of Thrones </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">functions better as a season-by-season unit while some individual episodes suffer in isolation. I’ll go out on a limb and suggest the same applies for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Breaking Bad</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Homeland</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Downton Abbey</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">...heck, schlocky </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Revenge </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scandal </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are often difficult to keep track of from week to week.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So maybe for some people, it’s optimal to wait for the end of the season or for the DVD release, either for the sake of aesthetic appreciation or for personal viewer comprehension. And again, who has those DVDs ready for free (and who is hot on the trail of various streaming access options)? Don’t make me spell it out for you!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, bingeing is good and libraries promote it--but sensible consumption is a desirable outcome as well.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sitting in your basement watching all of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Breaking Bad</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a closed circuit activity unless you internalize lessons learned, share opinions, and rejoin the community with new things to say and new perspectives to offer. Happily, the Internet provides opportunities for this kind of interaction in droves, and many consumers </span><a href="http://blog.getglue.com/?tag=stats" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">avail</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> themselves of such things. But a lot do not.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Librarians have a responsibility to perform, model and instill the habits of conscientious media consumption. We need to write and post reviews, in our public and private lives both. We need to call out positive and negative examples of media citizenship--applaud diversity and inclusivity; decry stigma and exclusion. We must encourage our patrons to be canny consumers--introduce them to Goodreads and Getglue and IMDB message boards. Inspire them to become critics in their own lives. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you want to get really crazy, promote the idea of tracking amounts and types of media consumption--with the goal of demonstrating growth in terms of amounts digested, the complexity of ideas encountered, and the types of genres and media in which fluency has been achieved. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why promote all of this? Because watching TV and movies, reading books, and listening to music doesn’t have to be a totally solipsistic, zero-sum endeavor. Exposure to ideas and events should change us, and we should be able to recognize how it’s changing us--the better to place ourselves in relation to the world around us.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Slightly off my desired track, but important to note: the library is a good place to be a media consumer without resorting to thievery Librarians need to make sure potential patrons know about the damage pirating material does, and not just in a self-interested “Don’t sue me, brah!” way. Pump up the library as a legit conduit in the media consumption pipeline, much safer and happier for everyone than torrents or Russian link aggregators.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And at the end of the day, even if we can’t be THE player in binge media consumption, libraries can act as the great leveler--as we so often have. We can be the solid option for all those who can’t choose to own seven seasons of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lost</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. As always, it comes down to social justice, and equal access to entertainment is no less important an issue as access to research materials.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Truly, say otherwise and I’ll fight you. </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=IFykHHHgeakC&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=art+is+the+way+we+know+ourselves&source=bl&ots=dHCjqI2aiK&sig=g9SUI5cFBm_87WWpDttaFK2RXrk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=U_H3UvyqGoSSyAHv2oHQBg&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=art%20is%20the%20way%20we%20know%20ourselves&f=false" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Art is the way we know ourselves</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m genuinely amped about librarians’ role in promoting this paradigm, and I hope I’ve been somewhat convincing on the matter. My fear is that some self-important members of the new crop of information professionals will decide that access to binge-worthy materials isn’t “critical” enough to dedicate resources to. I hope many will join me in talking up the import of this stuff as librarianship continues to evolve.</span></div>
<br />AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9072260121791665884.post-35731858217121872902014-01-30T18:32:00.000-08:002014-01-30T18:32:13.172-08:00Midwinter Postmortem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLCtqMlvJUlFTgfA3RPOd_KGQF7SWCZ-5cJKXGim-Iicdc6IVSVkHSoZFbYhqAb6oiAmR6mWdGb_WnZWAs9MDqT7bcEUj15rDvi-6xsySCxUGCslLbQuljiw3DYv7rcU5pDHVWs0y_kY/s1600/IMG_5353.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdLCtqMlvJUlFTgfA3RPOd_KGQF7SWCZ-5cJKXGim-Iicdc6IVSVkHSoZFbYhqAb6oiAmR6mWdGb_WnZWAs9MDqT7bcEUj15rDvi-6xsySCxUGCslLbQuljiw3DYv7rcU5pDHVWs0y_kY/s1600/IMG_5353.JPG" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
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<b id="docs-internal-guid-7412b9cc-e61b-ca5f-fde9-136f7f13a199" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just wanted to do a little post mortem on the rest of my experience at the Midwinter conference in Philadelphia, which I rather criticized in my last post. Overall, the experience was very positive and helpful, and again, I don’t blame ALA for the problems I pointed out last time. LGBTQ literature, while important, is still very niche, and it is up to those of us with a stake in the benefits its existence provides to see that our organizations and publications reflect our need. Onward!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My experience in Philadelphia was very food oriented and very game oriented. The food part had little to do with actual conference happenings--it was most thanks to the </span><a href="http://www.readingterminalmarket.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reading Terminal Market</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the very good taste of my local friend Brendan--but I did attend one of those “What’s Cooking at ALA?” sessions on the exhibit hall floor, goofy as such things are, and had a great time. The one I hit was pizza-based, hosted by pizza expert, tour guide and box art specialist/record holder Scott Wiener, who was very engaging on the subject for ten o’clock in the morning. He coached the small but enthusiastic crowd on proper pizza technique (I now know how to avoid tip sag) and cooked us up a pie to sample while waiting for him to sign free copies of his book on pizza boxes for us. I liked his signature line style--he had a ready stream of questions for each of us that ensured non-awkward interaction and gave the impression of complete personalization. Mine was “What’s your least favorite pizza topping?” to which I quickly answered “black olives,” so he drew me a black olive with a no-smoking sign through it. What a sweetheart.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC8AunqR003VvBSiD63QeBUh_6nV4z26iKnAVBk3rcnhDpc7ekEKul4h0TqT2uARhW-M5pytAKKWJqs5gwTpsH-1Db07XBY-w1ne3fSs42hTOg7uHm74dk2GpBxrTV9i5xKuEVSOoUlZw/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC8AunqR003VvBSiD63QeBUh_6nV4z26iKnAVBk3rcnhDpc7ekEKul4h0TqT2uARhW-M5pytAKKWJqs5gwTpsH-1Db07XBY-w1ne3fSs42hTOg7uHm74dk2GpBxrTV9i5xKuEVSOoUlZw/s1600/photo.JPG" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A more unfortunate floor experience came when I accidentally got a book signed by Cal Thomas before I realized he was an </span><a href="http://www.calthomas.com/index.php?news=4279" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">archaeoconservative homophobe.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> I would have felt bad snubbing him, though. (I have to snicker at “the Queen Latifa” and “Ellen Degenerous” though, but seriously, stop shouting in all-caps, Cal! We can hear you.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But games! You know I love games, dear readers, and their potential for library use and enrichment. I attended two sessions hosted by the GameRT (Game Round Table--there’s a group for every interest at ALA!) in general, one by the Game-Making Interest Group in particular. Got some great ideas on how to host a board game program at a library, particularly one focused on introducing seniors to “modern” board games. There’s research to be done here, folks! Also a great description of a really fun-sounding murder mystery event out near Seattle. I would love to hold such a thing. It all goes to show that there’s a world of possibility for the incorporation of existing games and game-like behavior in libraries, and there’s an audience and a purpose for it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The game-making event was more generally informational, which was great in its own way. To my pleasant surprise, the best practices that the facilitator mentioned were provided by Mary Broussard, librarian at my alma mater! She bases her pointers off the success of her </span><a href="http://www.lycoming.edu/library/instruction/tutorials/plagiarismGame.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anti-plagiarism game</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Very cool to hear about Lycoming College in a non-alumni setting. The Game-Making IG is in need of more active members; I don’t know, should I volunteer? (If you’re interested in the best practices, other game making resources, and coding self-help that was mentioned at this session, dear readers, please let a blogger know; otherwise I shan’t trouble you.)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnsHUSnfZWGxLUgPs8iQjDWlNntFn_Wz2kc9wGq2tA6Q5Pc4acY-GAyr_YMMaiJrqzsSeDow9XWMLb8UcGagm0Ucy450H_-dAQw_INPeZ5ZzuSvY3t51noUvNKVAfIo9nyAVwjJWWBJaM/s1600/goblin+threat.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnsHUSnfZWGxLUgPs8iQjDWlNntFn_Wz2kc9wGq2tA6Q5Pc4acY-GAyr_YMMaiJrqzsSeDow9XWMLb8UcGagm0Ucy450H_-dAQw_INPeZ5ZzuSvY3t51noUvNKVAfIo9nyAVwjJWWBJaM/s1600/goblin+threat.PNG" height="189" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://www.lycoming.edu/library/instruction/tutorials/plagiarismGame.aspx</td></tr>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The president’s program was also a great time, and got me on to a new-ish organization that I hope to involve myself with at some point. The </span><a href="http://thehpalliance.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Harry Potter Alliance</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> aims to use the power of fiction, and the enthusiasm fiction inspires, to tackle real-world problems. I’m overjoyed, because I’ve long felt that </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fandom" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fandom</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> generates a lot of energy that is--well, I won’t say ‘misdirected,’ because a lot of creative stuff comes out of it, and we don’t have to judge people for simply enjoying anything and never taking it further. But I will say that with all that energy in the world, it’s good to have an alternate outlet for it towards issues of social justice and need. The organization’s founder gave a very inspirational speech, if annoyingly read directly from paper (he had been sick and had probably not had enough time to prepare; still, the parts where he went off script, either for humorous or passionate effect, were the most worthwhile parts of his two-hour talk). I encourage all of you involved in fandom of one ilk or another to check out HPA’s website and think about getting involved, especially as their very grassroots campaigns have begun to branch out from strictly Potterverse flavors. (What kind of social problems could the Game of Thrones fandom address? Several funny answers spring to mind, but war refugee relief would be a good, serious one.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were a few other bits and pieces, but those were the highlights for me. All in all this was a lonelier experience for me than ALA Annual was, lacking my buddies Esther, Natalie and Bryan (missed you guys!). But special thanks to the aforementioned Brendan, as well as Natasha and Alicia, for being stalwart dinner companions and makeshift innkeepers, and to librarians Matt and Cheng, friends who I met up with along the way (sometimes unexpectedly) to make the between-session time pass more pleasantly.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, on to Vegas!</span></div>
AndAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10884856591322801339noreply@blogger.com0