2011 Books in Brief

Remember last year when I posted all about what books I read, when, and what I thought of them? That was really great, wasn’t it? I started 2011 fully intending on doing another series like that, but, well, it didn’t happen. As you know too well by now, Jen and I moved to Arkansas, and we both started new jobs. That said, we certainly did not stop reading. I think overall our reading pace slowed some, but overall, things were about the same. Except for keeping track of the books!

Well, instead of a series of posts about what I read this year, (and lacking a list) allow me to point out some highlights from my reading this year.



And here they are, in reverse order:

• James Turrell: The Wolfsburg Project I love Turrell and the piece he did in Wolfsburg. And, it came with a cool bookmark!



• Baseball : a literary anthology Of course, this was mixed - some pieces were great, and others were not as great. Still, one of the best books I read this year!



• The Island of the Colorblind Jen and I both love the writing of Oliver Sacks. This is one of his older titles, but it’s still great!



• Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865 I finally finished Lincoln’s collected writings, and true to form, this second volume of later writings was much better than his first. It was interesting to see his development as a writer, and how great stress and responsibility improved his writing.



• Print the Legend: Photography and the American West I will freely admit that this is a surprising best book choice for 2011. It ties together almost all of my interests and passions, though - American history, photography, books, and printing. Sandweiss’ writing style is quite readable, but it is certainly a serious study of photography and its impact on our perceptions of what the West is, and the native and non-native cultures within it.

So, there you have it. I apologize for not keeping good track of the books I have read this year, and I have a plan in place to rectify this. Namely, my Goodreads profile.

I have started tracking what I have read, and what is in my reading queue now, and I will give it my best effort to keep it current and updated. If you are on Goodreads, please add me as a friend (as this makes it much more fun for everyone) and if you are not, consider signing up and add me as a friend.

That said, I would love to hear about any books you really enjoyed this year. Have a great 2012!!

Dickson Street Bookshop

It’s a little hard to believe that Jen and I have lived in northwest Arkansas for just under a year. It has been quite a year indeed for us, but more about that in another post. For now, let me share with you one of the places in Fayetteville that we loved, and still love going to: the Dickson Street Bookshop.

Twenty Favorites

One of the benefits of working in an art museum is having an art collection just a few steps away that one can enjoy during the course of the work day, or while visiting as a guest after working hours. Supporting research of the art (both artists, works, and supporting themes) requires a basic working knowledge of the collection. I would argue that this basic working knowledge includes not just facts on a sheet, but spending time with the works in the collection on the walls. I feel strongly that a reproduction is a poor substitute to the actual item, and that this holds especially true for artworks. The nuances of paint and brushstrokes, perspective, and small detail all escape even the best reproduction.

With this in mind, I have spent a reasonable amount of time with the art in the galleries at the museum. I am also hopng that you good readers might come visit some day, and in this hope and with my experience being among these artworks, I want to share with you my favorite 20 items from the collection, in the order in which they appear in the galleries. Some are simply listed, but others have some information taken from the collection catalog.

A Bibliographic Framework for the Digital Age: My Take

At one of my committee meetings at the University of Arkansas this week, I was asked to give a brief overview of the document shared by the Library of Congress, titled A Bibliographic Framework for the Digital Age. I begin this post with my cover note, and then pick up with the thoughts I shared with the committee and want to share with you, reader. If you have any comments about the report, or my opinions about it, I would love to hear from you!

Cataloging Nursery Catalogs

Readers, I have been working on this paper about cataloging nursery catalogs for the past few weeks, and I think I am ready to share it. I would love to hear your feedback! (PS - thanks to Jen and Penny Baker for their help!) The paper is below the jump!

Catalogers on the Reference Desk

To start the post this week, I would like to start with a quote from Autocat, the cataloger’s discussion listserv:

There is no question that technical services librarians who serve on the reference desk often come back with a great idea or two for improving entries in the catalog. Where the unfairness lies is that reference librarians are not expected to do the reverse. A better knowledge of cataloging would be a huge benefit to reference librarians and yet, while you see many technical services positions advertised that require evening and weekend hours on the reference desk, how many reference positions do you see advertised that require cataloging knowledge and experience? I am willing to bet that if you go to a library jobs site right now and check the first few reference position openings, you are unlikely to see even one that requires a contribution in technical services. It's a double standard. I suspect that this is the reason why many good catalogers will not apply for positions that require reference work.

OCLC WorldCat Quality Report

My job as a cataloger (as you probably know) requires me to use OCLC’s WorldCat daily, through the Connexion Client. For you intrepid readers that skimmed that jargon-heavy first sentence, allow me to explain. WorldCat is the largest bibliographic database in the world - meaning that it has more catalog records in it than any other database. It is where I start when I catalog a book, as well as where I do the majority of my work. As we are an OCLC member library, we are expected to contribute records (and update our holdings) for every item we have in the library collection. As you can imagine, in the course of cataloging items in the collection, I come into contact with records of a wide array of quality, from very minimal level records, to records that (to me) seem to have too much information in them. There is truly no standard level of quality in the WorldCat database, and even records indicated to be of the best quality are often not exactly that. When my colleague Penny Baker at the Clark posted this tweet recently (in her usual humorous style), I came across OCLC’s report on the quality of records in the WorldCat database.

In the Shadow of Lincoln

I’ve always had things that I read or discover in passing that pique my interest and push me into reading extensively about a subject. Among my more recent interests in this vein has been Abraham Lincoln. My interest first came when I read the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin shortly after it was released. It was a fascinating book - one that changed my view of this incredible man and his presidency. I subsequently read both of the books by William Lee Miller about Lincoln (Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography, and President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman) and these in turn prompted me to read the two-volume set of Lincoln’s collected writings. I really wanted to “watch” the man develop as both a thinker and a writer. Part of me hoped (and still does) that some of his writing style will rub off on me, as I find his style very eloquent and succinct - something rare in any day and age, especially ours. His legacies as a president, a man, and a writer cast very long shadows over Americans in almost any walk of life.

Preservation and Access

Despite what you might think, or learn in library school, librarianship is a profession of paradoxes and challenges. Many times librarians and other individuals outside the profession talk at length about new technologies and trends that present librarians with challenges externally. However, there are challenges inherent in the job we do as librarians, and one in particular is balancing the mutually exclusive demands of preservation and access.

Why I Love the 903

At the outset I feel obligated to tell you that this should be my last post about cameras for a while. I plan on resuming my usual rambling next week, but I feel as though after my last post about cameras, I left the door open to talking about my newest camera - my 903SWC. I’ve run several rolls through this camera now, and have the results back (see the slideshow below!) to confirm my suspicions about the camera, as well as having used it enough to see if it’s “for me.”

A Leg Up on Information

The digital communications technology that was once imagined as a universe of transparent and perpetual illumination, in which cancerous falsehoods would perish beneath a saturation bombardment of irradiating data, has instead generated a much murkier and verification-free habitat where a google-generated search will deliver an electronic page on which links to lies and lunacy appear in identical format as those to truths and sanity. But why should we ever have assumed that technology and reason would be mutually self-reinforcing? The quickest visit to say, a site called Stormfront will persuade you that the demonic is in fact the best customer of the electronic. pp. 86-87

Schama, Simon. 2010. Scribble, scribble, scribble: writings on politics, ice cream, Churchill, and my mother. New York: Ecco.

Simon Schama’s most recent book had many thought-provoking quotes in it - and this one in particular got me to thinking about the information that we share and consume online.

Cameras: A Litany

Last week’s post loosely traced my development as a man and my use of the square frame as a photographer. I intentionally edited out any real mention of specific cameras, as I thought it might be interesting to do a second post about my development and my choice of camera. Before I start, I want to share with you that I have mixed feelings about this post. I think it’s interesting, but as I have gotten older, what a photographer uses as a camera has mattered less and less to me. I love talking cameras with people, but the camera that a photographer uses is no indicator as to whether or not they are good at photographing. I remember on Monhegan that a woman had an M9 that she was reading the manual for when she wasn’t taking photos. At least she is learning, I suppose - but I feel that that is a nice illustration to my point - the camera does not make a photographer. And now I am going to put that out of mind and begin my narrative.

Porta Brace CS-DC2R

I thought you all might enjoy, or, laugh at my video review for this camera bag. Cosby comes in about halfway through. Ha!

Thoughts on the Square Image

Jen and I are back from our vacation in Maine. We had a lovely time, and I am sure we will write more than you might want to read about the trip. As you might suspect, we took our cameras with us and made many photographs (360 to be exact) on the trip. We are waiting on the film to be developed and scanned so we can share our images with you. In the course of photographing (and thinking about cameras, in general) I thought a great deal about photography, as well as the choices that I make in my hobby. What originally started out as an homage to the square image has now become some hybrid of a homage and a narrative about how I feel about photography now.

A friend loaned me the book that has the perfect quote in it, describing the square in a bit more objective manner:

Authors, Recent and Favorite

Every night, Jen and I usually retire to the bedroom about 8:30 or 9. Now, before you make inappropriate jokes about this little phrase, we go get in bed, prop our pillows up, and tuck into whatever book we are reading at the time. This has grown to be not only something we look forward to, but part of our nightly routine. It has reminded me of why I “fell in love” with reading in the first place - and it has also given me a new opportunity to think about what I like and who my favorite authors are. So, rather than giving some exhaustive list of what I like reading, I would like to focus on authors, something Jen and I discussed as we were walking into the Fayetteville Public Library on Saturday. So here they are, in no particular order:

On the Impossibility of Classification

Last week was an exciting week for me, cataloging-wise, as the library where I work just received our subscriptions to Cataloger’s Desktop and Classification Web. In addition, we wrapped up training on our integrated library system, Millennium. I also finished up the new book of Alberto Manguel’s compiling his writings, A Reader on Reading. I don’t think there is a more erudite and pleasant author who writes on books and libraries than Manguel. Of course, little did I know that the Classification Web subscription and finishing the Manguel book would end up in the same busy week, prompting me to write this short discourse.

A Cataloging Education

As seen on p. 12 May/June 2011 American Libraries:

Periodically there is a post on Autocat, the cataloger discussion list, with some variation on “as a single professional in a (fill in type of library), I am faced with having to catalog. I did not take a cataloging course in library school. How can I…?”

I’ve just been corresponding with one librarian with that problem, who did not even know that the Library of Congress Classification existed as a print publication. Fortunately, she is writing her library school to express her dissatisfaction at being placed in this situation.

Apart from knowing something about cataloging making one a better reference librarian or administrator, cataloging is a basic skill of librarianship, which every holder of an MLS or an MLIS should have.

Isn’t it past time the American Library Association made providing a basic introduction to cataloging a required course, as part of accreditation requirements?

-J. McRee (Mac) Elrod
Vancouver, British Columbia

ArLiS: Closing Thoughts

The past several posts here at The Dean Files have been about my experiences and thoughts on the content presented and shared at ArLiS/NA’s annual conference (2011) in Minneapolis. I focused primarily on the content of the conference, and not on the conference itself. In reflecting on the content, I gave a great deal of thought to the presentation and the format of the content, and I have some constructive criticism in four points I would like to share with you, reader.

ArLiS: Sunday, March 27

Well, readers, here it is: my final post about ArLiS in Minneapolis. I think this was my favorite day, as it had two sessions of great interest to me - the Museum Libraries division meeting, as well as the RDA Test Kitchen presentation in the Cataloging Section meeting. I only thought it appropriate to include a photo of the art cataloging godfather, Sherman Clarke:

ArLiS: Saturday, March 26

Several interesting sessions filled up my Saturday attending ArLiS in Minneapolis. My day was filled with many sessions, but the two that interested me were about book clubs in an art library, as well as ebooks in the same setting.

Transforming our Bibliographic Framework

Well, readers, it has been a while since we broke virtual bread together. What brings me out of my real-life cave and into the warmth of the binary internet sun? This wonderful little announcement coming from our library overlords, the Library of Congress:

Transforming our Bibliographic Framework: A Statement from the Library of Congress

ArLiS: Friday, March 25

It’s time for my second post about the ArLiS conference in Minneapolis, and today I will be writing about my first full day at the conference, Friday. As I am looking at my notes from the day, there was one very good session, and the rest were a “mixed bag,” as I like to say.

My first session on Friday was the opening plenary, which ostensibly was about copyright, and how bridges can be built between educational users and copyright holders.

ArLiS: Thursday, March 24

Well, readers, it’s a blog post from Jason – gasp! What august event caused me to sit down and write another post? The short answer is that I just returned from the 2011 ArLiS/NA+VRA annual conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As you can imagine the conference put lots of new thoughts and ideas into my head, ones which I want to share with you here. In thinking over the past few days how I wanted to share my experiences and reflections with you, and I think (as librarian extraordinaire Erin Dorney does) I will do it on a day by day basis, with some overall thoughts and reflections at the end.

And, as it is brief, allow me to start with my first day, Thursday, March 24th.

Surprise No.1 : Architecture

You all know how that Jen and I are architecture nuts. We love architecture, and loved being around the great buildings of Fort Worth - the Kimbell, the Carter, and the Modern. I set myself up to be alright without any real architecture when we moved here, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the architecture that is here.

Reading...

I miss reading, friends. I just haven't been reading as much as I would like to recently. As a matter of fact, I have two New Yorkers piled up on my bedside table waiting to be read. Why have my reading habits changed so much? I've been thinking about this for a while, and what follows is my best answer to that question.

On Getting Settled

Well, readers, Jen and I have been residents of northwest Arkansas for a month now. It seems to have gone by so quickly - with moving and starting a new way of life together. I am happy to report that things are becoming more and more settled - our routines and our new lives together. I thought I'd share some photos to commemorate the one month anniversary of our move for the post...

Snow Day

Readers, it is snowing like mad outside, and the meteorologists are predicting up to 10 inches of snow, which is incredible! As a matter of fact, Jen made this video earlier today, and I want you to see what this looks like:



Of course, this might look like nothing for many of you readers in the northeast, but it's quite a sight to see for two transplanted Texans.

These Exciting Times

I know, you can hardly believe it - post three this week! There's a lot going on with Jen and I, but I want to tell you that I am making a commitment to blog regularly again - so excuse me if the posts aren't up to what I usually write, let me get my "writing legs" back, so to speak. Jen's posts are consistently great - so that should help make up for my rustiness. I want to talk very briefly about my new job, as well as some other museum things.

Facebook as a Catalog

Well, readers, I have been inundated with periodicals lately. One article that stood out from the flood was From Friending to Research, by Anne Pemberton. I thought this was a great idea - using something familiar to many people (facebook) to explain some of the more abstract concepts associated with librarianship. I have a couple of favorites I want to highlight...

William, the Conqueror of Information

Well, hello again, readers! The internet has arrived at our home, and so I am now able to post on a regular basis. As I am sure you are aware of, I started my new job on Monday, which is exhilarating. I'll talk more about that later. In this post, I want to share with you an interesting idea I've been mulling over recently.

From Space to Home

Well, good readers, this marks the first night we have spent in our new home. I choose the word “home” carefully, as up until now, it was really much more of a place than a home. All of the boxes are unpacked, our art is hung, and all we are really waiting for is the delivery of some new furniture we ordered to make the place “whole.” It does feel absolutely wonderful now, though.

Arkansas Update, V.2

Hello readers!

Well, due to some spotty free wifi here at the apartment, I am able to give you an update from the chilly hills of northwest Arkansas! It's hard to believe that it has been five days since we sent an update your way from up here, but the AT&T Uverse technicians don't arrive until the 13th, so our internet is in and out - other than the iPhones we brought with us. Fortunately, Jen brought her laptop and so I sat down and found some free wifi we can use for the time being. I still will say we'll be pretty much off the grid until the 13th, though.

Arkansas: Day One

Well, good readers, Jen and I are coming to you live and in person from our new place in Rogers, Arkansas. Cosby is back at our house holding the fort down, and we will move him up here at the end of the week. We drove up from Fort Worth today, and what an adventure it has been thus far!