Just a few thoughts

This book is really fascinating. Same with Blair, what struck me most is the conflict and reconciliation of the two professions in the process of professionalization which were embodied in building public libraries. Van Slyck must be highly sensitive and insightful to be able to sense all the subtle relationships including controls, conflicts, struggles, cooperations, etc.

However, I am somewhat surprised by the comments on the last two chapters. To me, these chapters make the story complete, both in structure and in content.

Lacan?

With all of the discussion about observing others/gaze/etc, did anyone else out there expect Lacan to turn up somewhere along the line?

Chronicle of Higher Education piece on academic library design

Just in time for our discussion of library architecture and social relations tomorrow comes this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled Thoughtful Design Keeps New Libraries Relevant:

The Internet brought predictions of the demise of the library and, on some campuses, the marginalization of librarians themselves. But now librarians increasingly find that administrators, professors, and students see the library building as essential, a romanticized heart of the campus. At the same time, though, libraries have changed radically from the stodgy and stuffy repositories of years past. Some people wonder whether libraries have loosened up too much, and what libraries will look like in the future.

Unlike most Chronicle articles, this one is free to view at the link above. One particular tidbit describes a recent study on library use correlated with library space:

After his library opened at Penn State Harrisburg, Hal Shill was interested in finding and ranking the features that brought people in. He and Shawn C. Tonner, director of the library at Reinhardt College, in Waleska, Ga., sent survey forms to fellow library directors, asking them about various aspects of their buildings and to rate how those aspects affected library use.

The responses from about 180 institutions revealed surprising patterns. For example, Mr. Shill found that the location of a library on a campus made little difference in its popularity among students. Library size did not matter, nor did the number of study rooms in a building or the availability of wireless access. "The presence of a cybercafe -- that was a wash," he says. "It was not a statistically significant feature, but I would recommend it as a creature comfort."

More basic comforts rated highly: the quality of natural lighting, the quality of work spaces, the quality of the heating and air-conditioning system, and the overall ambiance of the building. Computer and Internet access -- such as the number of data ports, the quality of the telecommunication system, and the quality of the public-access workstations -- were also vital to the success of a building.

[...]

His report had a salient point: If a library is deserted, it's not necessarily because the Internet has taken over. It's more likely, he says, that the building itself is outdated, poorly lit, underfinanced, and depressing -- say, a 1960s relic that is less attractive than another place to study, like a friend's house or a local coffee shop. It could be that the library has not added amenities like data ports, group-study areas, and casual learning spaces to accommodate the way students work today.

Any thoughts from the class?

Thoughts & Discussion for Friday on Free to All

I agree with you, Irene, that the last two chapters do not seem to be historically rich as the rest of the book. I was disappointed the book was not enriched by first person accounts relating their library experiences (especially in terms of immigrant children) - though I recognize Van Slyck says there are not enough records about this.

I found it interesting, both Apostles of Culture and Free to All discuss feminization of librarianship and library efficiency. Van Slyck mentions Bertam's emphasis on reducing "elaborate architectual expression" which led to smaller appropriations given to the Carnegie libraries which in turn resulted in "substantially smaller annual maintenance funds." Further, she adds that "library boards were more included to hire lower-paid females for library work." Here, female librarianship is considered a convenience. In Apostles, we read about female librarians as genteel hostesses. How do we reconcile (if that is the case) these views of the feminization of librarianship?

Van Slyck also elaborates on the role of a centrally located charging desk playing a major part in library efficiency and its perception within the library, especially when it was no longer considered a barrier to books. My first thought was whether this "ideal" was carried out today. We now have information desks, reference desks, and circulation desks, so instead of one point of contact, we generally have two. Other libraries have even implemented a triage system. I would be interested to hear other's reactions to Van Slyck's emphasis on the role of the charging desk and how/why it evolved into several service points in the library.

Unlike Apostles, which discusses the East, Van Slyck mentions how in the West, it was "more common for middle -class women to take responsibility for establishing town libraries. Western women were so active in establishing and administering libraries for their towns that in 1933 the American Library Association credited women's clubs with initiating 75 percent of the public libraries then in existence." One question I thought I would throw out into the open is what were the club women's responses to Carnegie libraries (for instance, we read the club women tended to take on the siting strategies of local churches to in order for readers to pursue more wholesome activities)?

A possible Citation for Kate

Hi!

While browsing Journal of Education for Library and Information Studies, I came across the following article:

"Locating Information Science: Changes in Ph.D. Dissertations During the Past Three Decades" by Woo-seob Jeong. Volume 42, Number 4, Fall 2001. Pages 308 - 324.

Citation Sharing

If anyone is interested, I left in my mailbox (117) a copy each of the syllabus from 569 when I took it and the supplementary reading lists. Feel free to photocopy them.

Fun Van Slyck Article

An article by Abigail Van Slyck that I really enjoy is "The Lady and the Library Loafer: Gender and Public Space in Victorian America." It is published in Winterthur Portfolio, Vol 31 (winter 1996) on pages 221 - 241.

Project Proposal

My project will center around Ph.D. programs in library and information science. Mostly, I am concerned with how these programs developed over time. I think I will focus from the time period of the 1940s to current trends of today, but that may be too broad. Especially interesting to research may be what courses directors and faculty considered essential to doctoral studies. Also, I would like to investigate why students chose to enter into doctoral studies. One document I plan to use is a Ph.D. program proposal by the University of Maryland. I also have a few source materials from the 40s-50s.

Some thoughts on Hays

I also found Hays' idea of change and continuity very insightful and intriguing although I am not familiar with the state of historical research. He also points out many useful directions and perspectives for scholars to do historical studies. However, I feel that something is missed in his article. It would even more interesting if he could have pointed out the best ways to combine the studies on the "given moments" with the changing and continuing course of history because such studies provide rich resources for studying the changes and continuity over time, and only when we understand the "given moments" can we analyze the differences between the "given moments", namely, changes.

Another thing is about the "breakpoints" and "periodizing". If I understand him correctly, he suggests that a breakpoint for a certain phenomenon does not necessarily a good one for others. So how one periodize the history should depend on one's subject, perspective and emphasis. Is that correct? He suggests we redefine the periods of history to emphasize the change and continuity, and the first step is to study a "given phenomenon". I am thinking, even in one single discipline, in a given period of time, we have so many options as to the topics or phenomena. Depending on one's perspective, one can choose whichever phenomenon as the starting point to redefine the periods and find out a set of breakpoints in that particular phenomenon. Wouldn’t it be confusing sometimes? If we all use different sets of breakpoints and periodize the history in different ways, how can we get the general and holistic picture of the history? Or did I somewhat misunderstand his suggestion?

Awa's Proposal

E-resources Licensing and the Academic Library's User Community

From mid 1990's, "licensing" was widely adopted by information vendors as the marketing strategy to sell the electronic information products to libraries. When libraries negotiate with vendors on licensing agreements, how to define "authorized users" of the target e-resources is an issue that both parties have to consider because it is directly related to pricing methods, technical requirements, copyright issues, and so on. Some licenses define users as students, faculty, researchers, and staff of institutions, some include walk-in users of the institutions' library facilities as well, some also permit remote access by authorized users, and include students in distance education programs.

My purpose is to, by studying how academic libraries (or academic library consortia) define their "authorized users" and negotiate this issue with vendors, find out how libraries (or library consortia) define the community that they are serving, and find out whether there are some changes in the way that libraries look at their user community. For now I will narrow this topic down to one library or one library system, say memorial library or UW library system since it is not possible for me to investigate a larger scope in one semester. The specific questions that I will try to answer include:

1. How did/does the library see itself and its user community when defining "authorized users"?
2. If there were/are different versions (in time or for different e-resources) of "authorized users", why? Based on what assumptions and expectations did/does the library make such different policies?
3. If there was/is difficulty balancing the needs of the user community and its own limitation (e.g., financial restriction and technical limitation), how did/does the library deal with the situation?

The primary sources would be the licensing agreements that this library signed throughout the years, the licensing guidelines that they adopted, conference presentations and journal papers of the librarians in this library on related issues, and personal interviews of librarians concerned.

My Proposal ;-)

During the early half of the twentieth century, the Americanization Movement worked to assimilate new immigrants. Complicit in the propagation of this movement was the American Library Association and, consequently, American public libraries. Specifically, during the years immediately preceding, during, and after World War I, libraries engaged in the dissemination and production of materials and initiated programs intended to help assimilate the “foreign born,” while renewing the patriotism of citizens within communities (Wiegand 1989, Jones 1999). During this period, libraries (coordinating with the U. S. government) operated as, borrowing from Bordieu, institutions imparting “Symbolic Capital” to immigrant populations, using literacy as an “instrument of domination” (1991).

To assess the role of libraries during the Americanization Movement, we must address the following questions: How did libraries across the U. S. enact assimilation programs? How and what did libraries communicate with one another, the American Library Association, and the U. S. government? And perhaps most importantly, when libraries asserted this role as educators of immigrants, where did communities meet? Where were “contact zones” located, and how did these communities (immigrants, libraries, government) “grapple with each other” (Pratt 1991).

Using Brandt’s approach of identifying and analyzing “sponsors of literacy” (1998), this paper analyzes the ways in which essays in professional library journals such as Library Journal created community among librarians engaged in Americanization projects. In particular, I focus on essays written by practicing librarians which describe Americanization programs, explain the ways in which these programs might be replicated elsewhere, and encourage their fellow librarians to ‘take up’ with this national project. In addition, I analyze statements addressed to librarians from the U. S. Committee on Public Information (established by executive order in April of 1917 with the intention of selling the war to the American public) and documents published and distributed by the American Library Association’s Library War Council. Through these materials, I examine the ways in which libraries operated as hegemonic tools to assimilate new immigrants using literacy programs, and the resistance to and acceptance of such programs as described in these publications.

Boys & Reading in 1918

For those interested in children's reading and gender, I just found the article "The School and the Boy's Books and Reading" in the January 1918 The Wilson Bulletin. (vol. 1, iss. 12)

In many ways, this could have been written today!

Blogs and Community

There is an article in Kairos, an online journal focusing on rhetoric and technology, about blogs as places. The link to the table of contents is here: http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/10.1/

Actually, the whole issue looks great.

k8

women and wages

So, I was looking briefly at Passet's Cultural Crusaders and she cites correspondence from women librarians (early 1900s) complaining about low wages. Doesn't Garrison claim that the poor passive dears didn't fret or complain about wages?

Theoretical Approaches

Harris, in his response to Fain, brings up the notion of interpretive frameworks, and the ways in which his and Garrison's differ. When I read this, it reminded me of Wiegand's use of Foucault's idea of 'discursive formations' in the essay from week one. (I told myself that I was going to avoid the "F" word in this class, but there it is). How might we use the works of theorists such as Foucault, Bordieu, Gramsci, Althusser, or whomever else we might think of, to approach library history?

Would such an approach be considered appropriate by those who seek "accountability"? Or would Williams' charts be more gladly received by the accountability police?

Is there room for both? How might such a project look?

Do LIS scholars prefer one mode over the other? This is jumping ahead, but when I read Bushman last year, I was annoyed early on in the text when he writes that people in LIS really don't read Foucault and Haberman, resulting in the need for him (Buschman) to tell us all why they are important/useful. Is this really the case? I was a little insulted because I have read multiple texts by both. However, in my other program it is expected that we know them and that we know them well. I know people who, for Halloween, have actually dressed up as Discipline and Punishment. So maybe we go a little overboard. What do you think?

Libraries and Their Intended Patrons

Harris and Javersak both bring into play notions of who libraries were intended for (and exactly who it was doing this intending) and how potential patrons viewed the library. Harris discusses the use of the public library as a mode of 'social control,' control that those belonging to the local power structure deemed necessary to maintain their ideas of what their community should be. Javersak mentions that one of the Labor arguments against the Carnegie library/money was that a Carnegie library would promote anti-labor materials. Another argument was that the poor would be funding (through taxes) a "convenience" for the rich.

How do we reconcile these accounts? Do we need to? In our writing, how will we account for competing narratives of history and intentions?

Those Census Records

OK, this is as much a heads up as anything. On page 182, Williams cites "Groff" (and the name is listed this way in the end notes, too) and his work to help validate his use of these census figures. I have to admit, I was initially a little perturbed that Williams got the name wrong. Harvey Graff is a major (MAJOR) figure in literacy studies. His book The Literacy Myth has become a current (well, 1979) foundational text in my other field of study. But ultimately, what bothers me more, is that Williams, after discussing Wisconsin Census Data, uses Graff to validate this work, stating only that Graff worked on a different period and a different area. The fact of the matter is that Graff's census data was not U.S. census data. Graff's work used Canadian census data.

So my question is, methodologically, is this a fair comparison? Can Williams validate his use of U. S. Census data for this study based on the validation of Canadian census data? How does/can this knowledge affect how we view Williams' study? Or doesn't it?

Gendered Histories

In Harris' response to Fain, he argues that garrison's project is one that works to "gain an understanding of a problem extending far beyond librarianship," one of the intersections between gender and historical narratives, while his project is to "understand library development" and to create a "philosophy of library service" (107).

Is Harris suggesting that his project somehow lies outside of gender - that it is in some way neutral? If so, I know that I question his understanding of the gendered implications (which to me seem fairly explicit) in his argument about the authoritarian, patriarchal power of early promoters of public libraries.

I know, that was more of a statement than a question, but I am interested in what y'all think about the issue.

Introduction From Kate

Hello! I am a first-year doctoral student in SLIS. I recently came from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Libraries working as a Resident Librarian. As one of two Resident Librarians I had the opportunity to work in a few areas of the University's libraries including reference, archives, cataloging, electronic licensing, and collection managment.

I have many areas of interest including children's and young adult literature - mainly graphic novels and zines, LIS education, history of libraries, special collections, print culture, and diversity issues.

I would love to be on the road to a mastery paper resulting from this course, but I'll have to wait and see how my first semester goes. Any advice to a first-year would be much appreciated!

"Bilingual Material in Libraries Draws Some Criticism" (NYT/AP)

An Associated Press article today in the New York Times illustrates the local debates playing out around the country concerning which communities should count in terms of public library service: "In some places [...] critics say taxpayer money should not be spent on a population that can include illegal immigrants or on proposals that promote languages other than English." For example, in Denver, CO:

In Denver, where the foreign-born population tripled between 1990 and 2000, largely because of Mexican immigrants, the public library system is considering reorganizing some of its branches to emphasize bilingual services and material.

[...]

Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, sent a public letter to Mayor John W. Hickenlooper of Denver this summer asking if the library was considering Spanish-only branches or converting to Spanish-language material at the expense of English material. Mr. Tancredo, an outspoken critic of American immigration policies, said he had been contacted by concerned librarians and patrons.

"When you have a strong cultural identity and there aren't set incentives to become American, it creates a lot of tension and divides the community," said Mr. Tancredo's spokesman, Will Adams.

Those concerns were echoed by Michael Corbin, a radio talk show host who helped organize a protest outside Denver's central library after sexually graphic content was found in some Spanish-language adult comic books, which were later removed.

Denver library officials say they are not considering Spanish-only branches in their reorganization plan but are simply trying to accommodate a city where 35 percent of residents are Hispanic.

Janet Cox, adult services supervisor at the Pueblo Library District, said: "We provide material to meet the needs of the people in the area, whether that be in English or Spanish or another language. That's important. That's what libraries do."

Hmmm ... I find it interesting how both a Republican representative and a local talk-radio personality are both mobilizing against library service to a third of the city's population. I find it interesting that reading Spanish-language material is not considered a valid part of "becoming American" when that language had permeated the continent's culture centuries earlier than 1776. And I find it interesting that there's a bait-and-switch going on somehow linking "sexually graphic content" and "comic books" with Spanish language material on order to stereotype this culture's reading interests as prurient and juvenile.

What do the rest of you think?

Something about Awa ^_^

Hi all,
My name is Xiaohua Zhu which few people here are able to pronounce, so I'm known as Awa – a name that I gave to myself randomly only to make people feel easy to call me. Before I came to the United States last year, I just got my master's degree in library science from Sun Yat-sen University, a beautiful university in South China. And before that, I got one bachelor's degree in information science and another from computer science.

Now it is my second year in LIS PhD program and the 21st year in my "school life", and I'm still wandering in the field, looking for a clear direction for future study. Technology background didn't give me the passion to create new things – although of course I'm fascinated by the digital products, instead it leads me to care more about people, as individual and as a member of a group. What are people's attitudes to technology? How can technology serve people best? Another area that attracts me most is the academic libraries and their users. Coming from a developing country, I deeply feel the importance of the academic libraries and the indifference that many people show to them.

I've been looking forward to this course for a long time, because I am sure that I'll learn a lot about American libraries from this course, which interests me very much. However, I'm not very sure whether I can contribute much because I'm from a country where there is no clear concept of "community". I look forward to meeting you all tomorrow and learning from you all.

- Awa