About Texas

While I was in Syracuse, when people asked me where I was from, I replied, “Texas.” Many people wanted to know more about Texas, and I tried to give them a fair description - but I really did not do a good job. This has bothered me since returning to my native state, and I have been searching for a decent description of the state. I discovered this passage about Texas in a book I just finished, titled The Big Rich by Bryan Burrough.

It’s hard to tell people about Texas. It is. It’s hard to explain what it means to be a Texan. To anyone who grew up in the North, it probably means nothing. The idea of a state “identity,” or that a state’s citizens might adopt it as a part of their own self-image, seems a quaint, almost antebellum notion. Folks in Iowa don’t strut around introducing themselves as Iowans, at least none I know.

But if you grew up in Texas, as I did, it becomes a part of you, as if you’re a member of a club. It’s a product of the state’s enduring, and to my mind, endearing, parochialism, a genetic tie to the days when Texas was a standalone nation borne of its own fight for independence, which produced its own set of national myths. Ohio doesn’t have an Alamo. I’m not sure Ohioans, as wonderful as they are, have a distinct culture. As a child I was always vaguely ashamed I wasn’t born in Texas. I’ll never forget the day a boy in my fifth-grade class actually called me a carpetbagger. How on earth would he even know what that was?

I thought that was somewhat insightful into the identities of many Texans. Although, to be fair, I am a native Texan, though I am not one who has a bumper sticker to prove it.

- Jason Dean

Syracuse Rare Books

My seven days in Syracuse were very busy and productive, so much so that I am only now getting around to providing you, good reader, with the highlights from the trip.

For me, the highlight of all the class experiences was the rare books presentation. Dr. Lavender took us through the history of the book by showing us actual examples of the changing nature of books over time.

We started off with a small cuneiform tablet from Nineveh, approximately four thousand years old. Next was the development of paper - he showed us a piece of papyrus from the reign of Cleopatra, about two thousand years ago. Next were handmade manuscripts from the middle ages. I found these manuscripts to be most impressive. You might have seen illuminated manuscripts online, but those images do not portray the three-dimensionality of the images on the actual page. After nearly six hundred years, the script and accompanying images have an amazing amount of color and contrast.

We moved on to the intersection of the middle ages and the renaissance. The book example of this was a printed book on medical botany - one that included Unicorns. We also saw Galileo’s book, the first movable book (Arien’s Cosmography), as well as a book from Elizabeth I’s library.

As a student of library science, I loved seeing where we “came from.” For me, it helps to put the “what’s next” in context, and will help me to make better choices as a librarian.

- Jason Dean

In Appreciation of Catalogers

This article was shared with me by the director of the Amon Carter Museum Library, and I very much enjoyed it - so I will pass it on to you. Enjoy!

Jason Dean

http://www.criminallawlibraryblog.com/2009/07/in_appreciation_of_library_cat.html

Excerpt:
“… we need to realize that although much of their work is behind the scenes and invisible to most of us, catalogers continue to play an important, critical role in enabling us to find the information essential to our going about our daily lives both at work and at home. Although search services are often useful, even vital, they are no substitute online catalogs when searching for bibliographic materials housed in libraries, groups of libraries or similar organizations.”

Dr. Ranganathan’s Five Laws

Earlier this week, I mentioned Rangantathan’s Five Laws of Library Science. Today, I am going to post these five laws, let you gnaw on them, and let me know what you think about them - their overall accuracy, and their validity in a digital age. I want to hear from you all in the comments!

1. Books are for use.
2. For every reader, his or her book.
3. For every book, its reader.
4. Save the time of the reader.
5. A library is a growing organism.

- Jason Dean

Censorship

Are you ready for another dip into the pool of the ethics of librarianship? Come on in, the water is fine.

Today’s post is about the key role librarians play in fighting censorship.

Since I have been referencing the code of ethics of the American Library Association, I feel as I should quote from it now:

We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor
library resources.

Like the other ethics statements of the ALA, this one is broad, and is meant to be a general guideline for librarians. I think one can look at this statement in two areas: traditional and electronic items in the library’s collection.

The traditional battleground for this fight has been books with what individuals deemed “objectionable content.” This includes classics such as Catcher in the Rye, and Ulysses. Librarians are expected, and actively do, fight against censorship of any item in their collection. Sometimes, these efforts are successful, and other times they are not. Much of what librarians must do in situations where items in the library collection are challenged is juggle disparate and competing interests. I’ll go more into this juggling in a moment, but allow me to acknowledge a very controversial topic that fits nicely under this censorship heading: internet filters.

Filtering of internet resources is a very controversial topic in the overall concept of censorship. According to the quote I gave you above, librarians should fight against this filtering. It’s not as simple as that, though. There are many issues at play.

The first issue that comes to mind is funding. Federal, state, and local technology funding is tied to the use of internet filters, and many libraries would be unable to provide free internet access without this finding assistance.

The second issue that occurs to me is that librarians do not practice their profession in a void: they are also members of the community in which they work, as well as individuals. Each of these identities brings with it a different set of ethics. One’s personal set of ethics might conflict (and they commonly do on internet filtering) with the code of ethics of librarians. Nevertheless, in the library, you are expected to adhere to that code of ethics. That’s why those ethics are very broadly defined, and why I hesitate to say that all librarians do exactly what is stated in the ethics code all the time.

However, in general first amendment rights have no greater friends than librarians. And, to me, I like that.

Jason Dean

Information Stewardship

This post will be the first part of a two-part examination of the widely accepted code of ethics of librarians. After writing that summation, I feel as if I should issue a disclaimer

DISCLAIMER:
I do not know that all librarians everywhere always practice every part of the ethical code to its highest level. We are human, thus we make mistakes, and we are all different. I am simply sharing with you that which I understand that we librarians agree on and try to practice in our careers.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, let me tell you the roadmap for this overall idea. As you read last week, librarians have a broad set of stated ethics for their profession, and I would like to focus on two specific areas within that code of ethics:
1. Librarians are stewards of information.
2. Part of the job of the librarian is to fight censorship and be a key stakeholder in the First Amendment rights of all Americans.
Today I will write about the idea that librarians are stewards of information.

As the interface between people, or library patrons, and the information they seek, we librarians are most responsible for the information at our disposal. We execute these responsibilities in many ways. To wit, I can think of three broad areas: development, preservation, and protection of information.

Collection development asks the question: “What do our patrons want?” This is true of any library – from the special to the public, libraries exist to serve the information needs of their patrons. Librarians must also ask, “How does this fit into our collection?” Libraries all have their strengths, but there are also areas in which the collection would benefit from additional information available to the patrons. There are other steps in this process, but those are the key questions to ask when adding new items to the library collection.

Preservation is another important area for librarians. Preserving the collective memory of the society they serve is incredibly important. More than historians, librarians are responsible for the memory of our society, and that is one of the reasons why we hold ourselves to such a high ethical standard. This concept of preservation applies when librarians go through the collection and decide which items are to be eliminated, kept, or placed in a special collection. To be fair, not all items need to, or should be, kept in the collection. It is part of the job of librarians to make these difficult decisions. Beyond simple item selection, we are also responsible for the physical preservation of these physical objects. Librarians are active in the “rescuing” of items – broken spines, destroyed covers, less than optimal physical conditions – librarians play a role in all these areas. What is the point of possessing these obscure items if the items cannot be used, viewed, and researched by patrons?

Finally, librarians are also ethically responsible for the protection of information. This concept includes the protection of sensitive patron data from prying eyes, including those of the government, businesses, and hackers. In some situations, librarians might be required to keep certain pieces of information confidential within an organization. Furthermore, we are responsible for protecting the information in our collections from those who seek to destroy that information. This leads me to my next post topic: Censorship. Check back tomorrow for my thoughts on that topic!

- Jason Dean

Cosby Update

Well, our little kitten is thirteen weeks old now, and is very healthy. He is eating the right amount, and does not have any of the diseases or parasites that plague kittens. He has gained about a pound and a half since we brought him home, and his coat is very lustrous, with flecks of silver in it. Last week, he had his second round of shots, and he did very well with them. He has one more round to go, and then he has to go “under the knife” to get his boy cat parts “taken care of.”

He is learning how to hunt. I love to watch him stalk what he thinks is his prey, and pounce on it. Jen loves it when he gets up on his hindquarters, almost like a Meerkat. He’s a wonderful little guy, and a perfect addition to our home.

This gives me a great opportunity to share this video with you about cats, one of Jen and I’s favorites: