This is absurd. I’m really ticked off. This story has been picked up by multiple blogs already, but we were discussing Thesaurus(es? i?) in class yesterday, I thought it was really interesting.
Limiting search terms hurts everyone. By removing a commonly used MEDICAL TERM from the thesaurus with no warning is irresponsible and is a violation of trust.
By limiting results as a search, both sides are hurt. Anti-Abortion rights activists cannot access information that would help him, and Pro Abortion Rights activists cannot access information that would help them. It doesn’t matter what side of this debate you are on, the censorship of a common medical term hurts everyone. Say you wanted to write an editorial about abortion and wanted to search this database for information to make your point… because it is a federal funded database, you wouldn’t be able to get your information.
OpenLibrary.org is so effin’ COOL. It has a lot of potential, and it’s an incredibly ambitious project, but it is made of awesome. I hope it works out really really well, because just think of the access people can have.
As the archival assistant here, I tend to get old video tapes chucked at me a lot. This is both interesting and frustrating. Interesting, because it turns shelving into a puzzle that involves moving vast numbers of VHS tapes around and frustrating because I don’t know if the tapes are important or if we have any paper description of them anywhere.
Today, I transcribed a tape at the 2002 Student Service Awards. It was a speech given by Late Senator Paul Wellstone. Seeing that he was kind of a big deal here, I decided to search for the text of the speech. Alas, Sen. Wellstone gave two speeches that day. One was two the DFL convention, and the other was at this awards ceremony. The speech did not appear anywhere online.
So, I called up the state archives. I talked to a lovely Reference Librarian who informed me that while the text of his speech probably exists in their archives, it has possibly not been accessioned yet, and, 6 years on (and this is just my understanding), they have not come to an agreement with the Wellstone family on how much should be released to the public. Being a member of the public, it’s tough luck for me.
So, this morning was spent infront of a TV that has no remote control running back in forth, pausing it, rewinding it, playing it, and trying to type it out at the same time. But we now have a paper copy of the text.
As a self-proclaimed mini!librarian, there are many things I’m rather unsure of. I’m trying to learn as much as possible before I leave for Pitt, but every once in a while things stump me.
Because of commuting issues this morning, I am rather cranky and tired. That will be my excuse for being rather short.
I have discovered the power of the double take: I told a co-worker at my unconventional other job I was a librarian (leaving off the “Mini” part), and her jaw dropped. She then apologized for what she liked to read.
I’m going to make this statement once:
I don’t care what you read. If you’re enjoying it and will read more, then GREAT. If you’re reading classics just to impress, then what’s the point?
This is mildly, but not completely, related to the current Michael Gorman/Britannica Blog librarian drama, which relates more to social information tools such as wikipedia, blogging, and citizen journalism. Unfortunately, the idea that academia knows best is not a new one: there are “Good” things to read and “Bad” things to read. “Good” things have been praised to the heavens by academics. “Bad” things are the books you’d hide from your high school English teacher
The problem comes people who only read “Bad” books may feel that if they can’t get their brains around something “Good” there is no point in reading at all. Reading begets reading, and if there is a fundamental segregation between those who read “Good” books and those who read “Bad” books, then we’ve only succeeded in another form of playground bullying, with the nerdy elite as the perpetrators.
In my work as a mini!Librarian at a non-profit, I’ve been working on a way to write a training manual for the rest of the office. As a start, I made a lovely power point (AKA.: Library database 101).
I am aware there are errors, I just hope there aren’t too many of them. I have to present next week Thursday.
