1. Why add to the population of orphaned works?
2. Don’t presume that new work improves on old
3. Honor our ancestors by recycling their wisdom
4. The ideology of originality is arrogant and wasteful
5. Dregs are the sweetest drink
6. And leftovers were spared for a reason
7. Actors don’t get a fair shake the first time around, let’s give them another
8. The pleasure of recognition warms us on cold nights and cools us in hot summers
9. We approach the future by typically roundabout means
10. We hope the future is listening, and the past hopes we are too
11. What’s gone is irretrievable, but might also predict the future
12. Access to what’s already happened is cheaper than access to what’s happening now
13. Archives are justified by use
14. Make a quilt not an advertisement

I recommend you read the article, each of these points are explained in greater depth.

After being rejected for another job after an interview that both I and the panel agreed was excellent, I feel like when I finally do get a job I will want to say “No Thanks” to those colleges and universities who rejected me for now 43 positions.

Yes, 43. 43 applications, 6 interviews, one stupidly rejected offer. From tenure-track positions at top schools to part time library tech jobs anywhere, I have applied to everything. My catch-22: libraries in urban centres say I need more experience, while those in more remote areas will not even call me for an interview.

I know I didn’t get reference experience during my library degree. That was my first stupid mistake, saying I would be faithful to my old office job by working weekends, thereby messing my schedule for hours I was offered on the reference desk.

So, since no one will give me a job I have to find some kind of way of staying engaged. I have worked on my resume and cover letter until my eyes have watered. The multiple librarians who have reviewed it have said it was excellent, including the chair of the last hiring committee I spoke with.

I want to at least be engaged with ideas and write about things so I can keep my name out there. I feel that without the support of a position and a title people will soon forget about me. And then new graduates will come out of library school and I will have to explain what I have been doing these 6 or 8 months when I compete against them.

My second catch-22: I want to write in order to stay focused on getting a position, but I feel like I cannot write without some professional experience. I am sick of living my life in books, articles, and theories. I want to see what the real issues are. I want to know exactly where my energy needs to be directed. Before I embark on writing and thinking about things I want to identify where the real issues are.

But how do I do that without a job? Catch-22……

But there is also, I believe, a job for a public philosophy to perform: the job that Plato and Aristotle and Seneca tried to perform in their own day. The job, that is, of clarifying thinking on matters of public urgency through one’s own thought and writing. And this is a job that American professors of philosophy perform far too seldom nowadays, and have not performed well since the time of John Dewey and William James…. Nonetheless, part of the blame must also rest with academic philosophy itself, which too often speaks a jargon-laden language and doesn’t learn how to write in a way that would engage a non-specialist.

The first thing that can be said is that the choice between pursuing one’s own work and writing for the general public need not be seen so exclusively and so tragically. For in fact the general public is hungry for philosophical work addressing ethical and political issues — so long as this work is written by someone who sounds like a person. There is little excuse for the horrible quality of writing in philosophical journals. It is lazy and often, even in its air of precision, imprecise. It is perfectly possible to write something intelligible, and even moving, that a college-educated member of the general public can read with interest.

I wasn’t willing, or wasn’t able from the perspective of graduate schools I guess, to do philosophy in this way. And I wasn’t able to ignore works from history, politics, sociology etc which bring important answers to philosophical discussions. Becoming a librarian was not a step backwards from academics. For me it was a step into a world without distinctions between Humanities and Social Sciences, or between disciplines.

They say that one must first become a specialist before becoming a generalist, which is why all the most distinguished thinkers become distinguished in their own area before branching out. But I was not ready for that kind of obsession for 5 or more years to the detriment of all my other reading interests.

Here is a somewhat dark picture of the group of us who participated in the National Summit on Library Human Resources.

I am on the far right. We are sitting in a revolving restaurant at the top of the hotel in Ottawa.

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Next Post: The 8Rs Canadian Library Human Resource Study

It has been a week since I left for the National Summit on Library Human Resources and I just wanted to go over my introductory thoughts before I give a more detailed blow-by-blow account of the two day’s events. I will say that it was at times welcoming and intimidating, inspiring and immensely frustrating, and energizing and utterly exhausting.

One of the best points I could say about the meeting was that it typified an essential trait of Canadians and their institutions. Despite the diversity in our experience and points of view we all can come together with the recognition that the issues facing libraries are real. We were all willing to do what it takes to act in the face of looming challenges. At the same time, as Maureen Sullivan noted, we also had an exciting opportunity to collaborate, to examine what works and doesn’t work in other contexts, and plan our future actions in this area.

I had the feeling that we were all impressed and inspired by the words of one of the first day’s speakers Daniel Caron of LAC-BAC. He argued that it was our job to define ourselves and what we want our profession to be based not on what has come before, but to really examine what our constituents and stakeholders demand of us. Our practice should no longer be governed by ideas and practices that are quickly becoming obsolete.

I hope to go into some of the details of the 8Rs study in my next post, but again and again one of the key issues identified as facing libraries in terms of human resources was the perceived approaching deficiencies between the need for library staff at all levels and the number of individuals working in libraries in the next 10 to 20 years. As someone who has been looking for a professional position for six months I had the standard incredulity about the job prospects for our profession, but many times over the weekend I met librarians and administrators who noted they could not even get people to apply for their postings, let alone find qualified candidates for the positions. The need for more definite data in the area was raised on numerous occasions.

The question of our future needs is by no means settled, but what we all agreed upon is that there are many of us who want to become library technicians or librarians, and our leadership should be directed towards the lowering of barriers to those ambitions: barriers of geography, of finance, of diversity, and of education. This also includes barriers of knowledge about the profession, demolished by successful marketing. Part of our efforts must be directed towards introducing to students a field which is noble, dedicated to public service, and full of intellectual curiosity on par with other distinguished professions. For those currently working in libraries as well, whether they are looking to formalize their knowledge or kept abreast of the latest trends we have to encourage individuals and employers of the importance of continuing professional development. Life long learning not only keeps people intellectually satisfied but the time and salary spent on education will bring great returns for those institutions willing to make the investment.

Many times participants urged us to remember that these issues are facing qualified library technicians as much as they face qualified librarians. In our discussion of education in particular the group continued to remind ourselves that we were not just discussing “library schools” but “library education” in general.

Lastly, beyond what our associations and institutions choose to do, we all have a role in this process and should be inspired to contribute our time. What came up time and again was the emphasis on leadership. Often librarians are reluctant to step into positions of leadership, and students and new graduates are often unaware of the importance of management skills. Institutions are therefore forced to go outside to other professional communities to fill their needs. Yet, all of us from the first to the last show need to adopt an ethos of leadership, inspiring others towards passion and professional achievement and exhibiting these traits in ourselves.

Overall I met a number of wonderful people and spent an interesting two days following the discussion and making my own contribution where possible. I felt the whole time that all of the senior participants were respectful of the experience and knowledge I brought to the discussion as a recent student and were willing to take my thoughts into consideration. The level of energy and concern was inspiring and I hope I can live up to the challenge of leadership in the library field myself as I gain more experience and knowledge.

A confession: I have had the worst summer in recent memory. It goes back to having a very poor final semester. I hope to write more specifically about my school experience later. I will say that that last semester killed almost all of the excitement I had entering school. Even at the end of the winter semester I felt like I had so much passion and dedication, and my experience basically killed it.

Except for the possibility of employment. I made it through that final semester with the hope that my first position would make it better. I gambled all of my hopes on the fact that if I could only suffer through useless assignments, “lectures” dominated by group presentations, a disappointing practicum, and an administration which could be distant from the reality of students, I would be able to secure a fulfilling position which would allow me to keep learning, to keep doing research and investigation, and really help people with their work and research.

I didn’t expect to have a position right out of school. First thing, my school had no successful work study or co-op, but only a practicum which was about 100 hours of work, so I didn’t expect to be set up with a position. And, I want to be an academic librarian, which means there is less flexibility in hiring.

Now, six months after finishing my last essay, I am having a really difficult time staying motivated, keeping my passion. I remember how I used to just pull books off the shelve–on librarianship, on the history of libraries, on the future of information. All summer I have not really been able to read substantially on a topic.

Admittedly, I had a single job offer. However, I did not have a positive feeling from my communications with the people there, and it was far away, and it would have thrown my household and family into shambles. Nevertheless, I have submitted more than 30 applications and have had only four interviews.

My…depression I guess you could call it, although it is more like a slump… my slump has only deepened as time goes on because I don’t really understand what more I can do. I was in the top 20 percent of my graduating class. I have had my resume reviewed with excellent feedback. I have followed up with selection panels who only have good things to say about my interviews.

And now I have lost my student job at the library, so I am unemployed. So, that has been the general downturn of my entire summer. I have not been writing, or reading, or connecting with other librarians. I expected to be well on my way to preparing a paper for publication, participating with colleagues on projects, and working on some kind of presentation to a conference or professional meeting. How can I do all that when I am now worrying about paying my rent?

I will say one positive thing: I have been invited to participate as a junior professional and a blogger in the Canadian Library Association’s National Summit on Library Human Resources (blog, press release). The meeting over two days next week between senior professionals from every area in librarians as well as executive members of the CLA will address the future of human resources in Canadian libraries. I was nominated for a fully funded trip to Ottawa, which is a great privilege and I am very excited. Please, if you are interested, read the proceedings from me and the other bloggers involved.

Lastly, I have thought seriously about closing this blog. I’ve noticed that the library blog sphere has died lately. Or, at least, I have not read anything in my reader which I feel like I need to comment on. Maybe it is me. Or maybe not. Maybe there is really nothing much said anymore.

However, I think I will keep writing. If only for myself, to get back into having my own thoughts. It has taken me all summer to detox from the horrible experience which was the last semester of school.

I noted that in the last two days I have learned two things which could later help me offer service doing research. The context of the first instance is this book review I have to write for Library Journal on the life of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Now, not being an English major, Hopkins is enough of an outside character in literature that I haven’t heard of him. So I was required to get some books out of the library and read about his life and work so I can evaluating the biography. And another piece of knowledge learned, much of his life story can be explained by the influence of the Oxford Movement, also called the Tractarian Movement. This I had not heard of either. So now I have the beginnings of knowledge and a vocabulary for this area, and can being to speak with readers on this topic.

The second case was the theory that women’s liberation, education, and empowerment contributes to the health of her and her children, and ultimately their IQ, contributing to the Flynn Effect or climbing IQs. This I learned from reading a review of two books on birth control in the New York Review of Books. I had known about the Flynn Effect, but now I know it has a name.

In an interview last week, I had a little bit of an intimate moment, where I told an anecdote about how when I was young I used to read the encyclopedia almost exclusively. To go into more depth here, I remember that I would read volumes and articles out of order, without any systematic approach. But over the years in my parents house I must have read all of the articles which were interesting to me. I can remember enjoying history, politics and war, anthropology and archaeology, linguistics and particularly historical language development. I don’t know if I read about philosophy as it is practiced by the academicians, but I do remember reading about Justice, Freedom, Democracy and other articles of that kind.

Preparing for the interview, thinking about my passion, that memory strongly affected me. I kind of felt at peace with where I was going and what I was spending my intellectual effort on. The more of the most important works in each area I can read, the better I will be able to serve. What kind of special gift is that, on top of everything else?

The wonderful CBC Radio show Search Engine has posted an interview with Minister Prentice (MP3), where he hums and haws on a number of listener submitted questions.

Then the host Jesse Brown gets to the real issue with the law: while it allows for a number of different fair dealing rights, all of those rights are taken away by the fact that breaking any “digital lock,” digital rights management, or technical protection measure is a violation of copyright, regardless of the rights of the individual involved. This includes copying DRM’d CDs to your iPod, unlocking your phone to use overseas, or playing DVDs on Linux which requires an unauthorized decryption of some discs.

As Prentice is fighting to get off the phone, he comes out with the real motivation behind his copyright legislation: the free hand of the market will decide whether producers create works DRM’d up the wazoo, or whether demand will head towards unencrypted works which facilitate our legal rights.

I don’t want to say that the government grants us these rights. Copyright, the property right granted to creators as incentive for them to continue to create, is an artificial creation of society. Information cannot be owned, and the first pirates of the printing press will show. Society is gifting this right to creators, it is not inherent in their act of creation. So to say that the government is giving us fair use rights is incorrect: these are the rights we retain for ourselves. The right to quote for democratic and academic discourse. The right to make secure copies incase our original is destroyed. The right to enter interlibrary loan agreements. And the right to enjoy our purchased product in whatever manner we choose.

Prentice and the government sees a future where whatever freedoms we have with our cultural products are only those which are given by corporations, (or the “market”, as if a free and equal one exists). This is again the error of submitting what we hold as most dear to the logic of the market–add to this health care and education, which I am sure Harper would love to get his hands on (or off).

Actually, perhaps Prentice is correct. Maybe the market will rule, and people will stop buying these goods from large companies, and go back to a time when individuals interacted directly with the artists and creators themselves. While this required one to be a travelling musician in the past, now all one needs is five thousand dollars of recording equipment and a pretty website to make money. And I don’t think those dinosaurs in business and government have understood that reality yet.

Thelonious Monk was an eccentric jazz musician of the bebop area. He often played with John Coltrane, although I read once that he and Miles Davis did not get along too well. Monk’s eccentricities are legendary. Often he wore a different strange hat for an extendid period—I think after a tour in Japan he wore a “coolie hat” on stage for a while. He rarely spoke, and when he did he often mumbled. During a concert he would regularly cease playing and dance in a tight circle on stage.

A documentary featuring largely contemporary footage about Monk, Straight, No Chaser (from a title of one of his pieces) was produced by Clint Eastwood argued that he suffered from some form of mental illness. Interview’s in that film with Monk’s son show that he was often distant and was hospitalized a number of times. What amazes me as well is that he just one day refused to play anymore—after spending all of his time on the thing, he just retreated into himself too far to touch it anymore. Like his time with it was finished.

“Crepuscule with Nellie” is one of those works that makes you feel a ripple deep in your soul. For me, I think my soul sits at the bottom of my stomach, because it flops and turns with every repeated playing of this track. If you get the 15 disc Riverside Recordings you get like half a dozen various versions of this song.

Crepuscule means twilight, and Nellie was his wife who was with him his entire life. Being so unique and having very special needs, Nellie was on every tour and travelled with him extensively, particularly has his condition got harder for him. For me I’d like to think that this song was him giving back to her. I often feel the power of this song and upset because I have the same feelings for my partner in life, but I won’t be able to write her something this good to express it. This version I found is not the best one in my opinion: there are four different takes of the song on Disc 4 of Riverside, and they are masterpieces.

This one does have a short interview with him at the beginning, the actual song starts at 1:57. I love this song because you can here his heavy handed handed style, where he seems to wait until the very last second to place each note, and then throws his hand down on the keys. He sometimes seems to be unsure just where each note is supposed to go, but you know he always picks the exact right one. When he has a full band for this song, it begins slow with just him and a wire brush on a drum, but slowly the rest of the pieces come in at the end to burn slowly.

The first part of the book details that myth, from Marshal McLuhan to Alvin Toffler to Nicholas Negroponte. What I am enjoying right now is the second half, which goes on to show that other technological developments where lauded in their time with the exact same language that we use to describe the Internet.

Any of these quotes sound familiar:

The Telegraph

• “the nerve of international life, transmitting knowledge of events, removing causes of misunderstanding, and promoting peace and harmony throughout the world.”
• “Our whole human existence is being transformed.”

Electrification

• “It is no longer a matter of choice whether or not one shall become acquainted with the general facts and principles of electric science. Such an acquaintance has become a matter of necessity. So intimately does electricity enter into our everyday life that to know nothing of its peculiar properties or applications is, to say the least, to be severely handicapped in the struggle for existence.” (does this call for Electronic Literacy anyone?)

The Telephone

• the harbinger of “a new social order”
• “a moral obligation for a considerate husband and a good citizen.”
• This would lead to an acceleration of democracy in politics and social life since we are all equals on the telephone.
• others welcomed the likely breakdown in class and family boundaries.

Radio

• “the greatest force yet developed by man in his march down the slopes of time.
• “a means for general and perpetual peace on earth.”
• “it has restored the demos upon which republican government is founded.”
• “Every home has the potentiality of becoming an extension of Carnegie Hall or Harvard University.”

Television

• “a torch of hope in a troubled world” (seriously!)
• will make “the attendance of classes in any one place…as obsolete as the buggy of twenty-five years ago”
• “television will usher in a new era of friendly intercourse between the nations of the earth”
• The new medium was predicted to be so potent that writers began to speak of a “pre-television” era and admonished those who were foolish enough to cling to the “habits of thinking” that characterized this time as “trapped in another anachronism.” (Library 2.0?)
• “Television is no instrument of imperialism. It belongs to the people as does radio. It comes at a time in history when the world needs to have an eye kept upon it for the welfare of civilization.”
• Additional examples give new hope for community television in low-income areas, for direct contact with candidates for electoral office, and for a transformation in the quantity and quality of citizen communication with government officials.
• “an “information highway.”

What Mosco is arguing is that, sooner or later, all of these new technologies become banal. He notes at one point that the average home now has 8 radios. Where the telephone was once seen by people as some kind of mythological device, now we do not think twice about it. In the 1930’s television was to be this great democratic and educational tool–now we see it as exactly the opposite.

So too with the Internet. This honeymoon many of us are still having with the Internet, and certain sub-technologies on the Internet (Blogs/Tagging/Social Software will save the world!) will quickly come to the end as new youngsters cease seeing the technology around them as something sacred, but as something purely profane.

In retrospect I felt like I said a lot, and was able to put forward my philosophy of service and professional practice. They asked me about 10 or 12 questions–after that I was so worried, because we had scheduled 45 mins and it had only been about 25 or 30. But, I had a lot of questions and we talked a bit about them, so I actually think we went about 5 minutes over time.

I have this particular philosophy of teaching, and of reference service, and although I know I have certain beliefs, it is exciting to actually express them in words. One of the best questions in the interview was “Name a book which has changed your outlook in the last year” or something. I named Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It is such a wonderful book, and it has change my outlook and my general interactions with students.

I am really looking forward to just getting out there and helping people, being active, working on projects. Let’s just hope this comes through in the next week and I can talk about how excited I am about this position.

Yesterday as well I spent the day reading a soon to be published book of philosophy, and wrote my little review in the late night. This morning I got an acknowledgment from my editor, and I had a chance to re-read what I had written.

It made me think how connected to this older kind of librarianship the act of writing book reviews continues to be. I admit that it is also connected to that aristocratic ideal that librarians would be the judge of good books, but I think I really enjoy looking over a book, considering why it would be good or useful, and giving my little judgment of its contents in order that other people can inform their decision.

I have always felt that I was more of a reader than a writer, or that I enjoyed the process of reading over the process of writing. But I do find it easy to write about books, regardless of how connected I am to the Internet or whatever is supposed to replace books.

How do you know it is the end of the semester? Inbox is empty….