The Dude has been working on the IMLS SLAA (State Library Administrative Agency) survey. Yes, I can relate to the frustration associated with trying to gather the correct and accurate data for these kinds of things because I have to do it too. I asked some of my colleagues here at the commission for answers to some of these survey questions, and one of them responded that they were suffering from Data Dirge. Alas, keep in mind that the data collected on these surveys is helpful and often does result in illustrations that show library trends. That’s the story, anyway.
Reminders were sent to libraries this week about the upcoming (in about a month) deadline for the public library survey. You can log in to your survey from the
Bibliostat section of the NLC website. Since the Dude has been busy working on other things, such as reviewing your submitted surveys and drafting Advocacy Day hand-outs, he didn’t have a whole ton of time to fashion this blog post. Thus, we will end with a quote he found humorous, from the writer, Bidisha, and published in
The Guardian. Bidisha mentions seven things she’ll miss about the traditional library (all of which will disppear when the library is “modernized”), one of which is the stereotypical librarian:
“Librarians would prefer it if libraries had no people in them mucking things up; then they could just walk along the aisles alphabetising everything and dusting book spines. They have developed a higher consciousness, hyper-sensitive to specks of dust, sounds and movements well beyond the normal range of human cognisance. Should we speak in the no-speaky zone, we will be punished. Should we be late giving back that copy of Madhur Jaffrey’s classic Indian recipes, we will be penalised. If the photocopier is malfunctioning they will sigh heavily and imply that we have somehow sabotaged its workings. They might sometimes seem petty and insular, but where would we be without librarians’ moral certainty and exceptional dress sense? Any combination of taut and ropy tweed, plastic pastel beads, glasses on a chain, frosted Angel Delight hair, blue eyeliner, high collared nylon blouses, comfortably soled shoes and flesh toned hosiery will do.”
And speaking of wardrobes, there is a
website devoted to photos of librarian styles. If you are looking to kill some time, check out some of the photos that alleged librarians have posted there. You won’t find the Dude there, but you might find a few laughs. Shaka.
The Dude has been working on the IMLS SLAA (State Library Administrative Agency) survey. Yes, I can relate to the frustration associated with trying to gather the correct and accurate data for these kinds of things because I have to do it too. I asked some of my colleagues here at the commission for answers to some of these survey questions, and one of them responded that they were suffering from Data Dirge. Alas, keep in mind that the data collected on these surveys is helpful and often does result in illustrations that show library trends. That’s the story, anyway.
Reminders were sent to libraries this week about the upcoming (in about a month) deadline for the public library survey. You can log in to your survey from the Bibliostat section of the NLC website. Since the Dude has been busy working on other things, such as reviewing your submitted surveys and drafting Advocacy Day hand-outs, he didn’t have a whole ton of time to fashion this blog post. Thus, we will end with a quote he found humorous, from the writer, Bidisha, and published in The Guardian. Bidisha mentions seven things she’ll miss about the traditional library (all of which will disppear when the library is “modernized”), one of which is the stereotypical librarian:
