The Oberlausitzische Library of Sciences in Gorlitz, Germany. Credit Florian Monheim/Arcaid via Corbis

Plato, in the “Timaeus,” says that when one of the wisest men of Greece, the statesman Solon, visited Egypt, he was told by an old priest that the Greeks were like mere children because they possessed no truly ancient traditions or notions “gray with time.” In Egypt, the priest continued proudly, “there is nothing great or beautiful or remarkable that is done here, or in your country, or in any other land that has not been long since put into writing and preserved in our temples.”

Such colossal ambition coalesced under the Ptolemaic dynasty. In the third century B.C., more than half a century after Plato wrote his dialogues, the kings ordered that every book in the known world be collected and placed in the great library they had founded in Alexandria. Hardly anything is known of it except its fame: neither its site (it was perhaps a section of the House of the Muses) nor how it was used, nor even how it came to its end. Yet, as one of history’s most distinguished ghosts, the Library of Alexandria became the archetype of all libraries.

Libraries come in countless shapes and sizes. They can be like the Library of Congress or as modest as that of the children’s concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the older girls were in charge of eight volumes that had to be hidden every night so that the Nazi guards wouldn’t confiscate them. They can be built from books found in the garbage, like the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., set up in 1980 by the 24-year-old Aaron Lansky from volumes discarded by the younger generations who no longer spoke the tongue of their elders, or they can be catalogued in the mind of their exiled readers, in the hope of resurrection, like the libraries plundered by the Israeli soldiers in the occupied territories of Palestine. It is in the nature of libraries to adapt to changing circumstances and threats, and all libraries exist in constant danger of being destroyed by war, vermin, fire, water or the idiocies of bureaucracy.

Read more: http://nyti.ms/1R0E2G8

Deutsches Historiches Museum/Arne Psille/Art Resource Heinrich Lukas Arnold: The Reading Room, circa 1840

Of the many institutions suffering through the world’s metamorphosis from analog to digital (real to virtual, offline to online), few are as beleaguered as that bedrock of our culture, the public library. Budgets are being slashed by state and local governments. Even the best libraries are cutting staff and hours. Their information desks are seemingly superseded by Google, their encyclopedias are gathering dust. And their defining product, the one that lines their shelves, now arrives in the form of a weightless doppelgänger that doesn’t require shelves.

In the technocracy, all the world’s information comes to us on screens—desk, pocket, wrist, goggles—and no one trudges through wind and rain with library card in hand to find a single worn object. After all, when you want the text of Magna Carta, you don’t track down the original. Same with books? “Libraries are screwed,” said Eli Neiburger, a Michigan library director, in a much-quoted presentation at a Library Journalconference in 2010. “Libraries are screwed because we are invested in the codex, and the codex has become outmoded.”

So is the library, storehouse and lender of books, as anachronistic as the record store, the telephone booth, and the Playboy centerfold? Perversely, the most popular service at some libraries has become free Internet access. People wait in line for terminals that will let them play solitaire and Minecraft, and librarians provide coffee. Other patrons stay in their cars outside just to use the Wi-Fi. No one can be happy with a situation that reduces the library to a Starbucks wannabe.

Perhaps worst of all: the “bookless library” is now a thing. You can look it up in Wikipedia.

Read more:http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/oct/26/what-libraries-can-still-do-bibliotech/

October 28, 2010 Issue

The following talk was given at the opening of a conference at Harvard on October 1 to discuss the possibility of creating a National Digital Library.

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss a question of vital importance to the cultural life of our country: Can we create a National Digital Library? That is, a comprehensive library of digitized books that will be easily accessible to the general public. Simple as it sounds, the question is extraordinarily complex. It involves issues that concern the nature of the library to be built, the technological difficulties of designing it, the legal obstacles to getting it off the ground, the financial costs of constructing and maintaining it, and the political problems of mobilizing support for it.

Despite the complexities, the fundamental idea of a National Digital Library (or NDL) is, at its core, straightforward. The NDL would make the cultural patrimony of this country freely available to all of its citizens. It would be the digital equivalent of the Library of Congress, but instead of being confined to Capitol Hill, it would exist everywhere, bringing millions of books and other digitized material within clicking distance of public libraries, high schools, junior colleges, universities, retirement communities, and any person with access to the Internet.

The ambition behind this project goes back to the founding of this country. Thomas Jefferson formulated it succinctly: “Knowledge is the common property of mankind.” He was right—in principle. But in practice, most of humanity has been cut off from the accumulated wisdom of the ages. In Jefferson’s day, only a tiny elite had access to the world of learning. Today, thanks to the Internet, we can open up that world to all of our fellow citizens. We have the technical means to make Jefferson’s dream come true, but do we have the will? Read more…http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/28/can-we-create-national-digital-library/

via Parks and Recreation and Reddit

I come from a family that doesn’t have work email, retirement stocks, or salaries. My parents and siblings, my “people,” are name tag and hairnet people. Clock-out for your lunch break people. With four older siblings, I was the first to graduate high school and then the first in my family to go to college. Now, as I finish my last year of graduate school, I continue to reconcile the distance between my “working poor” upbringing with my professional future.

It’s a terrifying and privileged distance, to be a first-generation college student. The distance started long before college or grad school. In grade school, I was aware of all my selves: my school self, my home self, my true self. For me, the library was a refuge for that true self. It was the sweet spot, where I could admit to not knowing and begin to explore communities of ideas. I imagine leagues of first-generation librarians who hold this same kernel of an experience at the center of their professional story.

Two of my favorite librarians, Cecily Walker (@skeskali) and Sarah Crissinger (@SarahCrissinger), have done a better job discussing Bridging the Experience Gap for first-generation librarians, organizing a first gen #L1S Twitter conversation, and highlighting the importance of first gen discussions in the profession. You should go read those things. What I want to offer, are just a few notes for my fellow first-generation college students, as we navigate library school and prepare for the profession together. Read more…

By April Witteveen on December 3, 2015

Higher ed is changing fast right now, and so is librarianship. Traditional in-person library and information science (LIS) education provided students with a robust network of peers for support. Over the last couple of decades, however, trends in higher education have reduced that automatic peer group—not only asynchronous online courses but also “unbundling,” in which students take classes at their own pace and from a variety of institutions. Postgraduate professional development opportunities, ranging from one-day conferences to workshops to certificate programs, were already more isolated, and these, too, have felt the further distancing impact of the digital shift. In addition, the proliferation of new competencies in librarianship can mean that a given librarian’s coworkers may have few if any points of overlap with what they do every day or need to learn—especially if they’re the sole representative on staff of a new library function.

Fortunately, there’s a movement afoot offering learners increased peer support without forgoing the benefits of self-directed and distance learning. Back in 2004, in a College Quarterly article titled “Cohort Based Learning: Application to Learning Organizations and Student Academic Success,” Kristine Fenning defined the term, noting that a paradigm shift toward learning communities, particularly those supported by a cohort-based framework, was under way. The cohort model has gained significant traction in higher ed. Cohorts are also growing in popularity across the LIS field, creating new venues for professional development and project management at multiple points in career paths, from MLS graduates just starting out to seasoned library leaders.

How it works

A cohort is a group of learners who share common learning experiences in order to build a stable, ongoing professional community. A cohort-based model, Fenning writes, results in a positive feeling toward the subject matter and learning becomes more meaningful. The social environment of a cohort is “the key to preventing isolation [on] the learning journey.”

Read more…

Do you get tongue-tied when asked about your strengths on a job interview? Are people often surprised by your skills? Would you rather eat glass than risk sounding like a braggart? If so, keep reading!

Tooting your own horn (gracefully) is a vital business competency. This age of hyper-communication does not reward obscurity. Nevertheless, most of us still don’t know half of the best things about the people around us. That’s kind of sad, isn’t it?

No one knows exactly what you can do faster, more resourcefully, more precisely, or with as few end-user problems, as you do. If your boss (or prospective boss), your clients, or your customers don’t know what you’re capable of, they may find someone else to do it. You would tell them about an issue that put them at a disadvantage, wouldn’t you? Well, they have just as much of a right to know what you’re great at.

You can get more buy-in, strengthen your network, become the go-to person in your specialty, and garner more respect and trust if you follow these four principles:

1. What you can do is only relevant to someone who needs it.

It’s about your skill, not about ”you.” Know who your audience is and target your message to their needs. You may not need to tell your coworkers you doubled your sales from last year, but the VP of marketing may benefit from knowing how you did that.

2. Give credit where credit is due.

Nobody achieves greatness alone. By acknowledging others’ contributions, you also point to your role in the achievement. It can be more powerful to let that be implied, rather than stated outright. No harm in making that acknowledgement in front of your boss, though. Read more…

Chief Justice John Roberts in Washington in 2013. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Reaffirming our commitment to protecting free expression

On the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, PEN International has issued a statement aimed at encouraging governments to protect critical voices and freedom of expression.

IFLA and dozens of other free-speech organisations, institutes, and associations have added their signature to the statement in support of the crucial principles outlined and addressed.

The statement calls on all Governments to:

• Uphold their international obligations to protect the rights of freedom of expression and information for all, and especially for journalists, writers, artists and human rights defenders to publish, write and speak freely;
• Promote a safe and enabling environment for those who exercise their right to freedom of expression, and ensure that journalists, artists and human rights defenders may perform their work without interference;
• Combat impunity for threats and violations aimed at journalists and others exercising their right to freedom of expression, and ensure impartial, timely and thorough investigations that bring the executors and masterminds behind such crimes to justice. Also ensure victims and their families have expedient access to appropriate remedies;
• Repeal legislation which restricts the right to legitimate freedom of expression, especially vague and overbroad national security, sedition, obscenity, blasphemy and criminal defamation laws, and other legislation used to imprison, harass and silence critical voices, including on social media and online;
• Ensure that respect for human rights is at the heart of communication surveillance policy. Laws and legal standards governing communication surveillance must therefore be updated, strengthened and brought under legislative and judicial control. Any interference can only be justified if it is clearly defined by law, pursues a legitimate aim and is strictly necessary to the aim pursued.

Read the full statement: English | français

Because today’s librarians must be experts in dealing with both physical and digital information, we have identified the Top 5 skills every librarian must have, or develop, in order to succeed now and into the future. I will touch on all five today and explore them individually in the weeks to come.

1. Information Curation

Since the primary role of any type of library is information curation, the need for that skill set will never go away. However it will evolve as volume and variety of information expands. As content creation becomes available to all, information curation becomes a more critical skill. Librarians are becoming increasingly vital in the process of evaluating and editing what is most valuable, as well as categorizing and classifying it for easy retrieval and use.

2. In-Depth, High Value Research

The digital information environment operates mostly on a ‘Find It Yourself’ paradigm, a model that has threatened the very existence of librarians. Yet finding what they need and want can be a significant challenge for consumers and users of information. Most people lack good research skills and all of us are dealing with a velocity and volume of information that is difficult to manage. As the proverbial haystack gets bigger, finding the needle gets tougher, making librarians a valuable go-to resource. Read more…

IMAGE: Getty Images

Want a shot at landing your dream startup gig? While having a polished resume and company connections can help get your foot in the door, it’s your ingrained character traits that will likely determine your ability to thrive and make an impact on the business you’re so eager to work for.

Ten entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) share qualities they believe all new hires must possess in order to land a coveted position in their business.

1. Adaptability

The Internet space changes so quickly that what worked even two years ago may not work now. The best employees are not necessarily the most experienced, but are rather those who can learn the new rules of the game the quickest. Usually these people are smart, creative, have an insatiable love of learning and are always striving to improve their game.–Charlie Graham, Shop It To Me, Inc.

2. Coachability

I’ve found that with the right hire, new skills and procedures can be easily learned. That willingness to learn new things and forget old ways, however, will probably never change. That’s why I look at a new hire’s coachability first, and their previous knowledge second.–Elle Kaplan, LexION Capital

3. Agility

In a startup, everything changes quickly — whether it is your product roadmap, skills of your employee, titles, or market/industry you are in. For example, in the last two years, we rewrote our whole product and changed the tech stack. It is very important that the new hire does not become stuck on what title and role she is looking for or a certain type of work she wants to perform. You should join a startup for the vision.–Shilpi Sharma, Kvantum Inc.

4. Respectfulness

Respect means a new hire will treat his co-workers, clients and others fairly and consistently. When a new hire has respect for differing opinions and positions, mutually agreeable resolutions can be discovered. Respect also means accepting the cultural, socio-economic and personal beliefs of others without letting those interfere with getting the job done.–Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now  Read more…

AApril 26, 2016  By Summer Brennan

Like a lot of avid readers, I enjoyed Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up but bristled when it came to the section about books. The gist of her now-famous method is this: go through all your possessions by category, touch everything, keep only that which “sparks joy,” and watch as your world is transformed. It seems simple enough, but Kondo gives minimalism the hard sell when it comes to books, urging readers to ditch as many of them as they can. You may think that a book sparks joy, she argues, but you’re probably wrong and should get rid of it, especially if you haven’t read it yet.

Paring down one’s wardrobe is one thing, but what kind of degenerate only wants to own 30 books (or fewer) at a time on purpose? What sort of psychopath rips out pages from their favorite books and throws away the rest so they can, as Kondo puts it, “keep only the words they like?” For those of us for whom even the word “book” sparks joy, this constitutes a serious disconnect. Still, as the weather gets warmer, many readers will tackle their spring cleaning with The Life-Changing Magic in hand.

I wondered, can Kondo’s Spartan methods be adapted for someone who feels about books the way the National Rifle Association feels about guns, invoking the phrase “cold dead hands”? I decided to give it a try. Read more…

I write about money and career for millennials at optimisticmillennial.com.

Summer break for college students has finally arrived. They have plans to spend time at the beach, lake, or music festivals. Relaxation is important, but they may not realize that there are hidden costs if they don’t use this time to complete an internship before they graduate.

The costs are in the form of career potential, earnings, and time. All of these are important, but which are most significant to a new graduate?

Inability to Compete with Other Graduates

As students don their black robes and graduation caps this spring, they’ll enter a competitive pool of job seekers. Do you know how you stack up against your peers?

In 2014, 75% of graduates left school with at least one internship completed. Further, employers are now looking for work experience above other factors in selecting entry-level candidates.

It comes back to the all-too-painful chicken and egg reality most millennials have faced. They are told they need experience to get a job, but they need a job to get experience.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education and the American Public Media’s Marketplace survey, internship experience is the single most important credential for recent graduates to have on their resume in their job search.

Adding an internship to your resume before you hit the real world will at least keep you on pace with your peers, if not give you an edge.

Lose Out on ‘Foot in the Door’ Opportunities

Most job seekers are familiar with online job submissions being referred to as the “black hole” where their resume disappears, never to be found again.

One of the ways to get a foot in the door to your first job is to find an internship at a company that regularly hires their interns as full-time employees.  Read more…

Robert Fulford | June 6, 2016 2:59 PM ET

by Sarah Tanksalvala

For librarians, being more progressive means embracing new ways of approaching their job and the role of the library in a university. Progressive librarians are working to revitalize libraries by making them more than simply places that store information. Part museum, part lab, progressive libraries are exploring and defining their services based on people’s needs.

“Librarians find themselves in the midst of trying to reinvent themselves and what they do,” says Sebastien Marion, virtual services librarian at New York Institute of Technology. “The challenge is how to go from book-storage places to collection places to places that engage with skills.”

by Bahark Yousefi

Thursday, May 19, 2016

I am in the business of encouraging librarians to apply for library management jobs. When I come across smart, awesome, politically progressive librarians (which happens with delightful frequency), I try to convince them to consider management. This is not because I think management is the only path forward for these wonderful humans, but because I want more smart, awesome, and politically progressive folks at those tables. I want them there because libraries need to be changing in big, fundamental ways, and right now, as things stand, that’s where the power to push for those changes resides. Often, the librarian (aka my target) will ask me what I think it takes to be a good library manager and my answer, without fail, is “be a decent human being.” Now, as true as that may be, I appreciate that it is not very specific. What follows is an attempt to expand the list, in no particular order:

1. Be a decent human being (still #1).
2. Be the kind of boss that tells employees about their rights and then helps them claim and exercise those rights.
3. Be absolutely committed to transparency. Do not assume that you know what others need/don’t need to know (of course, be mindful of all the legal and ethical stuff).
4. Have a vision. Care very, very passionately about something and make sure everyone knows what that is.
5. Make absolutely sure that people who work for you have the resources to do their work. If resources are scarce, then change their work. Do less with less and more with more. Read more…