Aaron Swartz embodied many of the values librarians hold dear.
“At an early age, he’d discovered what he loved to do: find information, organize it, and share it with anyone who cared to look.”
Planted more carrots and some Swiss chard. No sign of the potatoes yet. Also started some zinnias and scabiosas. Looking forward to a very colorful spring!
On academic privilege
From Aaron Swartz’s Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto:
“Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It’s outrageous and unacceptable.
“I agree,” many say, “but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it’s perfectly legal—there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” But there is something we can, something that’s already being done: we can fight back.
Those with access to these resources—students, librarians, scientists—you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not—indeed, morally, you cannot—keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world.”
Look to the library
Yes. Let’s change the world:
“Mr. Geffert is starting a new publishing operation overseen by the library and committed to open access, called the Amherst College Press. It will produce a handful of edited, peer-reviewed, digital-first books on “a very small number of subjects,” the librarian says.”
Source: For New Ideas in Scholarly Publishing, Look to the Library
ACRL Battledecks is coming
Special thanks to John LeMasney for the design!
Put down the Oreos
So I contacted Widen+Kennedy, the ad company that made the Oreo commercial. ( wanted to find out where they filed it… it was filmed on a set in the Ontario airport). Anyway, they also sent me this link: they have a lending library in their Portland office!
The doctor said our baby has “a beautiful aortic root” which of course got me thinking of my fav line from the Wife of Bath’s tale: “It tikleth me aboute myn herte roote.” Which (of course) makes one think of Skelton’s line “He ys the kynges derlyng and his swete harte rote.” All this to say, I have a new nickname for the baby: myne herteroote. Right up there next to “mon petit chou.”
Tell ’em the story raindrop
Got too busy explaining / Now it’s just rainin’ pain / Pain in form of a raindrop / Yes a rain drop made of pain / Tell ‘em the story raindrop / “I don’t wanna tell ’em mister” / Tell ’em the story raindrop / “I don’t wanna tell ’em.”
Reframing library space
“Further, the library must be willing to allow dedicated time for what happens after exploration. The “serve ‘em and send ‘em along” model is no longer serving a patronage whose information needs include planning, building and executing projects that utilize the strengths of librarianship (information organization and broad contextualization). Reframing the library as a productive place, a creative place engaged in producing and creating something – whether that be digital scholarly works or something else entirely – will open the door to allow the library into the life of the user.”
Source: Micah Vandegrift and Stewart Varner, “Evolving in Common: Creating Mutually Supportive Relationships Between Libraries and the Digital Humanities.”
Evolving toward a studio model
VA Tech is one of my models for what academic libraries should be in the 21st century. Even though I risk my UVA-degreed soul when I say that.
“At Virginia Tech we’re positioning ourselves to not only provide content, but to support content production. We think of this as not only about access to information, but also about enabling the creation of new knowledge. We’re evolving from a warehouse model toward a studio model.”
Source: Brian Matthews, ITERATE OR DIE: Reflecting on Blockbuster & Atari