In some library land fuckery for early August 2021

It is not often I just open the blog to post something right away, but I had to jump in to share this post from Librarian Shipwreck: "All grievances do, in fact, remain connected."

 

Most of the time I do my best to tune out the drama in library land because more often than not it can be either champagne problems or just petty, but this week upped the ante. We are getting some serious drama and fuckery going on in #libraries and librarianship in the past week or so. So just read the thing. I was not aware of the assholery of the American Historical Society, but I am not surprised. Our Special Collections and Archives here I am sure gets their share of ungrateful and inconsiderate prima donnas who could not care less who keels over as long as they get their precious archival materials. As the writer states, they need to learn that "there is no such thing as a bibliographic emergency. . .". The second story story about the Temple librarian I've spoken of here and there on social media.  

 

The blog post has some very good quotes, but this one really caught my eye as it is something I have pondered often (and I may have written about it on this blog but I honestly do not feel like looking it up now): 

 

"Here’s the commonality: library workers are expendable and we are not trusted. We serve and serve and serve, and when we burn out or just up and die, that’s acceptable and there’s always more cannon fodder to replace us — or maybe the positional will be cut and our overburdened coworkers will have to pick up the slack, because they are expendable, too. Despite what should be seen as a miraculous collective track record of service, we are not trusted to do our work without close oversight from administration, whether the question is remote work or sick time. The fact of being largely a female profession double all these things down, even as they are the general neoliberal worklife condition, and Blackness, queerness, disability and other intersections multiply it more for some of us. Even those closest to us professionally, historians, value their research more than our lives. We are not considered the experts on our own profession, not trusted or allowed autonomy over our work, a resource to be burnt to fuel PR campaigns and university rankings."

 

 

A side note to thoughts on ALA Annual (Virtual) 2021, including stuff on not being a member

While I was writing the previous post, I decided for some strange reason to check this blog for any previous posts on ALA. I found at least three that I had written between 2005 and 2007. On rereading them I found that much of what I wrote then remains very relevant now. It resonates quite a bit now, for me at least. Here are some of those posts: 

• "ALA and membership." 12/16/2005. These were the days when there was still such as thing as a biblioblogosphere and I found that "this poor fellow who flies under the radar really, really gets to thinking about what exactly the dues do for him." 
• "My last on the membership thing, or librarians as martyrs?" 12/22/2005. My key question in that post, which nowadays I'd call one of those Magnificent Questions: ". . .why should librarians, or other social professions for that matter such as teachers and social workers, be martyrs just to practice their craft? How long do we let others inflict that guilt-trip on us, which is nothing more than excuse to continue exploiting those of a generous nature?"
• "Participation blues, or how many more have to be lost?" 11/13/2007.  Who would have guessed a small bit I wrote then could be prophetic? Keep in mind, these posts are all way before the pandemic. I wrote then: "And it usually boils down to this: Participating in ALA is cost prohibitive; it is pretty much limited to the few who can afford it; it would be nice if they did more things virtually." Imagine that, be nice if they did more things virtually. We have come a bit further along on that front, and the pandemic certainly proved a lot of things can easily be done virtually if there is a will. In the end, well, ALA and such "already lost me. Not that I am a big loss (or a loss of any kind, haha)."

Additionally, while I ran the searches in the blog for posts on ALA, I found other posts on small state conferences I have attended as well as other semi-related topics. I was trying to write up my thoughts on ALA Annual Conference (Virtual) 2021, and I find myself seeing topics I could update or write something new given my experiences over time. I've learned a few things. I've also learned not to give a crap about other things, things that back then as a newish librarian felt like a big deal only to discover they were not, but that may be another post for another time. 

 

Some thoughts and observations from ALA Annual Conference (Virtual) 2021

 

 

This was my first ALA Annual Conference, and I was glad that it was virtual. I was glad not just due to the ongoing pandemic but also because it meant I did not have to travel anywhere. In addition, it also meant that neither me nor my library had to get a small mortgage or a "juice loan" for me to travel someplace, pay for accommodations and travel plus the cost of the conference itself.

Let me disclose upfront that the main reason I went was because the Appalachian College Association (ACA), one of our local consortia, had some spots for college members to send some of their staff to ALA Annual. Apparently there were some leftover professional development funds that had not been used due to the pandemic. At any rate, I applied, and I got them to pay for the conference. Thank you ACA. Otherwise I probably would not have bothered. I have not been an ALA member for years, and a big reason is ALA's prohibitive costs for things, plus I will just say I have other issues with ALA and how they run things, but that is another post for another time. 

ALA Annual is not know for its academic offerings. That is what ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) is for, which I attended once back in 2013 (link to my first post on the conference. If you search the blog you can find the other post notes I made). So I decided to focus more on collection development, specially graphic novels. Our library has an excellent graphic novels collection, and as of this post it is our most circulating collection. I also tried to focus on civics and civil rights issues, topics important to librarians, but that I rarely hear about here. A lot of not hearing about such things here is having to deal with the daily grind of everyday work. There is not much time left to think about things like big picture politics when I am more concerned with working with my students, local projects, so on. But I am digressing, so let me get back on track. 

I did the following sessions at the conference: 

• Wednesday, June 23: 
• Danny Trejo, speaker. Sponsored by Simon and Schuster. I did a few other sessions, but for me this first session set the tone for the rest of the conference, and it was my highlight. Like most speakers at ALA Annual, he was pitching his new book, his memoir Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood. As of this post, I am currently reading the book, and I hope to have a review of it on The Itinerant Librarian soon. Danny Trejo is very strong as a moving and authentically sincere speaker and individual with a raw honesty. 
• Declan Shalvey, author of Time Before Time, presented by Image Comics. I made a note that this title can be a possible addition to our library's graphic novel collection. 
• Darryl Cunningham, the cartoonist of Billionaires: the Lives of the Rich and Powerful, presented by Drawn and Quarterly. I noted this one sounds like a good addition to my personal TBR list as well as possible acquisition for our library. The book looks at the lives of Jeff Bezos, the Koch brothers, and Rupert Murdoch. I think it may be a timely selection in these Hard Times. On a side note, Mr. Cunningham also has a forthcoming graphic novel about Vladimir Putin that sounds interesting too: Putin's Russia: the Rise of a Dictator.
  
• Guy Delisle, cartoonist of Factory Summers, presented by Drawn and Quarterly. In the book, the author looks back at his high school job. During the presentation, author mentions all the years he can spend writing on a book we might read in two hours, but if we are reading it, he feels he has done his work. He adds comics are good for illustration and also for explaining things. As reader and librarian, I've often found a good nonfiction GN can be a great tool to explain and teach on a complex topic (or not so complex but visual works better). 
• Keiler Roberts, cartoonist of My Begging Chart and Joe Ollman, cartoonist of Fictional Father, both from Drawn and Quarterly.
• June 24: 
• I listened to Nicole Hannah-Jones discuss her 1619 Project. She spoke on how in school African American history was never taught. Now that you mention it, I did not get a whole lot of that either in school nor even as an undergrad. I think 1st formal African American history course I took was in grad school.For me, aside from grad school, a lot of what I have learned on this has been effort on my own to find books and resources to learn. 
• Listened to Belgian author Judith Vanistendael now. A new author to me, presented by Europe Comics. The author was a pleasure to listen to, very warm, and the company rep was good too overall. At one point during the presentation, audience member asked about her art process (she is author/illustrator). She has actually pulled out some of her sketches to show us the process of how the book developed, then compared to a book page. Very visual. 
• David Copperfield speaking of magic, his personal magic museum, and his new book David Copperfield's History of Magic.  Presented by Simon and Schuster. Copperfield speaks of magic as an art form. Magic brings out in us a sense of wonder and discovery.
• Via Gibbs Smith, I listened to Peter Hiller, author of The Life and Times of Jo Mora: Iconic Artist of the American West. I knew very little of Jo Mora, so finding this fascinating.
• Listened to the Red Hen Press author showcase featuring Dariel Suarez, Lily Hoang, Thea Prieto, and Kazim Ali. Ali's book, New Moons, sounded interesting and possible acquisition for our library. It is a compilation of Muslim voices in America.At the time of this post, Edelweiss Plus had a review copy of this, which I downloaded. I hope to write a review of it for The Itinerant Librarian after I read it.
• Dr. Leana Wen spoke on public health, COVID-19, the pandemic, and her memoir Lifelines.  Her three takeaways: 
• Public health saved your life today. You just don't know it. 
• All of us and all of you (in libraries) are public health warriors too. 
• We all need to make our own tables, not wait for anyone else to go first.
• June 25: 
• Via Drawn and Quarterly, listened to Sophie Yanow, cartoonist of The Contradictions.
• Stanley Tucci talking about cooking, and of course his new cookbook, Taste: My Life Through Food, was interesting and a bit of fun. 
• June 28:
• I caught the encore of the session on the First Amendment and libraries. What I noted at the time: To be honest, as much as they are trying to be somewhat optimistic, this is seriously depressing given the clusterfuck in the U.S. and how rights are being suppressed in states while the federal administration seems asleep at the wheel.
• And I ended it listening to former President Barack Obama on June 29. What I jotted down at the time: There may be things I do not agree with him (I think like many Dems he can be seriously milquetoast), but some good points, and he seems to mostly act in good faith.

A challenge for me is that the conference offered sessions with many authors and publishers that sounded interesting, so selecting which ones to listen to at the time was not easy. Still, I do appreciate some of the recordings of sessions were available later for me to go back and listen to things I may have missed the first time. 

Since I am not a member, I pretty much ignored the administrivia and member organization meetings. To be honest, if I was a member, I'd probably ignore them too. This makes me glad that as a librarian, I am not on a tenure line or such. One of my colleagues was on a tenure line at a previous place, and she says only reason she had to go to ALA or ACRL was because tenure work required it (the "service" part). 

I took very minimal notes, and at the time I mostly did small live tweets on Twitter mentioning sessions and brief impressions or comments. You can look up my handle (@bloodravenlib) and add the hashtag #ALAAC21 to the search, and you can find my notes if interested. I also used that thread to make a list of titles I was interested in both to read personally as well as for possible library acquisition. 

 

Overall, I did like the virtual experience. Getting some professional development done from my desk without expensive travel was worth it. Would I do ALA Annual again? If they offer a virtual option for folks like me, I'd consider asking if my library would fund it. I am not saying for them not to do in person. Go right ahead, and if travel is your thing and you got the money for it, you do you. I am saying the virtual option should also be available as an alternative for folks who may need a more affordable option, refuse to or cannot travel, so on. 

Short book review: Academic Library Services for First-Generation Students

Xan Arch and Isaac Gilman, Academic Services for First-Generation Students. Denver, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2020.  ISBN: 9781440870170. 

 

Genre: nonfiction, library science

Subgenre: academic libraries, first-generation students, surveys and case studies, higher education

Format: trade paperback

Source: Interlibrary Loan via Hutchins Library, Berea College. Book came from Owensboro (KY) Community and Technical College Library.

 

Doing a short review as I ran out of time in reading it, and I rushed reading to the end. I borrowed this via Interlibrary Loan, and the lending library refused to renew it, so time is up and I have to return it. I borrowed this because in my library and college we have a big interest in first-generation students (as we do in all of our students of course). A lot of our student population are first-generation students, so I was hoping to find a few new things to learn about them and how libraries can help them better. I liked the book, but it was just not as helpful as I thought it would be for our situation. 

Let me make some quick notes for me to remember about the book: 

• Book is arranged into seven chapters. First three chapters, which is almost half the book, is mostly the usual literature review and backgrounder material you usually get in a lot of the library literature. If you have kept up with these topics, then you have a pretty good idea of the basics the authors are presenting. On the other hand, if you need a quick primer on the condition of the literature and some key concepts, then this will do the job. It does refer to a good amount of the "we did good" kind of articles also common in the library literature. The rest of the book looks at the topics of library space, library instruction, outreach and partnerships, and path forward for academic libraries. Book also includes 2 appendices, which are basically survey instruments the authors used in their research. This can prove useful for folks trying to do similar research on their campuses. 
• Each chapter has a list of reference notes at the end.
  
• A big thesis of the book is that libraries, and their institutions, need to get away from seeing first-generation students as needing remediation and/or needing to adapt to whatever systems are in place. Instead, the institutions need to change and adapt for the skills and assets that these students bring. The institutions need to check their privilege and stop favoring the "usual" white middle class "typical" students. 
• The book seems mainly geared to large universities and institutions. To be honest, I did not feel there was much for us in small colleges. 
• As I read the book, given our college's mission and history, I feel that we already do a lot of what the authors are suggesting. While there is always room to improve, I can say overall we are in good shape when compared to some of those larger places out there. 
• Four areas the authors say institutions need to work on/concentrate to make change: 
• Affirming assets/belonging.
• Support services/help seeking.
• Pedagogy/curriculum.
• Approaches to family. 
•  In reading the chapter on student perceptions, where they surveyed high school college admission counselors, I felt as if those counselors had no idea what it is many modern academic libraries do or have been building up and doing. From their responses, some of those folks need to take a trip to some of their local colleges and universities and their libraries nearby. At least for us, a lot of the academic services they say we ought to have we already have. 
• Do keep in mind this book and the activities described were pre-pandemic of COVID-19. I think it will be interesting to see how things adjust as we come back from that pandemic. 
  
  

Overall, this book is a good primer on the topic. If your library or institution needs to do serious work, this book will give you ways to get started on the work. On the other hand, if you are already doing the work, you may not find much here that is new to you. I liked it, and I would recommend it to folks needing to get a crash course on the topic or for administrators who may need a better understanding about how to serve first-generation students and how their campus libraries work. 

3 out of 5 stars. 

 

Article note: On assessing and communicating liaison librarians' work

The authors start by asserting that the academic libraries' narrative has been moving from telling the story of collecting resources to telling the story of libraries connecting to their campus communities, going outside the library. This is not exactly new; this has been going on for a while now, and they show some of that ongoing narrative in their literature review. Anyhow, this article looks at the efforts and roles of liaison librarians at Rutgers University Libraries, New Brunswick. The highlight is their account of the creation of a Liaison Assessment Committee. 

My interest in the article is that, like many academic librarians, I do some liaison work at my library. Here are some things I took away from the article. 

• Some things have not really changed. The authors cite Laurence Miller, who was writing in the 1970s or so that when it came to liaison relationships "those relationships required more than occasional contact and speculated that they would likely result in routine work receiving priority over more creative but less tangible activity" (286). Here we are in 2021, and more often than not when it comes to liaison work it is basically something you do if and when you can get to it because you have to prioritize the routine work that keeps the library functioning. We often start out with great intentions, but as soon as the daily priorities take over, the intentions do not go very far. After all, given how busy we often are, the higher ups never have a good answer to the question of "if you want us to do this, what are you willing to drop?"
  
• Along with that are the ever popular budgetary concerns: "As budgets tighten, liaisons have assumed more roles that require new skills and more specialized expertise. No longer can liaisons become proficient themselves in each new capacity; rather, they must partner with other specialized colleagues and, at the same time, communicate their own expert capabilities more efficiently" (290).  
• However, more often than not, money is not as much of an issue as time is, especially since no higher up wants to drop stuff being done to add or exchange for additional more focused liaison work. Collection development per se lessens as libraries become more reliant on things like patron driven acquisitions, standing order plans, and buying resources by the bundle. This makes the acquisitions process less humane (but that is another question for another time).
  
• Later on, a bit more of the same in 2009, this time the authors cite Karla Hahn writing for Research Library Issues: "While research libraries may agree on the importance of the position, how to reconfigure liaison work has become a topic of broad concern. Identifying emerging roles and determining how to develop corresponding liaison capabilities are common challenges" (288). 
• We do need to keep in mind that this article was written pre-pandemic. I have not seen much on liaison work in light of the pandemic, but I have seen more on things like services to students, which is fine by me, they should be our main focus in my humble opinion. But still, if things were difficult to keep up liaison work, the pandemic has not done any favors for us. 
• Keep in mind also that Rutgers is a very large campus, and their librarians have a lot of specialties. That level of specialization is not an option in a small campus like mine. Liaison work here can be specialized subject or functional. We do both here to varying degrees. 
• Recommendation from the article: "redefining job descriptions for new recruits to reflect a variety of functional specialties to engage more actively on campus on issues related to data, copyright, Web and digital services, the undergraduate experience, and instructional design" (292).
• We did that here, for example, when a position was created and filled for a Digital Initiatives Librarian. 
• Recommendation from the article: "It was also recommended that the liaison librarians create an internal, online portal that includes policy documents, tools to aid in the delivery and assessment of instruction, outreach strategies, and information about how to articulate and communicate liaison activities efficiently" (297). 
• Another idea from the article: "In addition to centralized, virtual reference services, the librarians offer local, pop-up reference assistance at the Cook Campus Stephen and Lucy Chang Science Library" (298). The idea of doing pop-up reference in locations outside of the library is something I have considered in and out since before the pandemic. I think it would be nice to offer it, but for me, the question is besides me, who else would be willing to put the time for it? I do not anticipate others jumping at the idea. But still, maybe once the pandemic slows down enough to allow some degree of movement. 
• An example from their art librarian: ". . . the art librarian began in 2014 to hold weekly office hours in the lobbies of those distant units to meet with potential users. Arranged to suit student schedules, the art librarian brings a sign, laptop, brochures, candy, and sometimes library materials or a button maker" (299). In addition to the benefit to students, this additional visibility meant more engagement with the art faculty for the librarian. For me, something like this remains a nice idea, but then I get reminded of time factors and the question of whether the administration would support it or not (and support it more than just saying, sure go for it but you still have all the other stuff you have to do). 
• Still, there are benefits according to the authors that can make this worth it: "This successful initiative demonstrates that spending as little as two hours a week in a place where users learn and convene reaps big benefits for the library and its users, building stronger relationships with a liaison librarian and fostering a solid foundation for engaging with departments" (299). If nothing else, two extra hours does not sound that heavy in terms of load. I am not too likely to carry a button maker; we have one here, but it is an older extremely bulky model you can barely move. Such an initiative does have potential to help increase library support for students in addition to research consultations, virtual reference, and visits to the reference desk.  
• From the article, some ways to get more engagement include: 
• "work more proactively with their community, not just provide services to it" 
• "assess skills needed to achieve their goals" (this implies goals are being set and there is some commitment to do the professional development to develop skills plus administrative support)
• "tell their story more effectively to both library and campus colleagues" (building and maintaining communications is a key point of the article)
• Article includes checklists to help assess liaison efforts and for planning. 
  

 

 

Citation for the article: Kranich, Nancy, et.al., "Moving from Collecting to Connecting: Articulating, Assessing, and Communicating the Work of Liaison Librarians." portal: Libraries and the Academy 20.2 (April 2020): 285-304.