Let them Steal Books
The article written by David Isaacson is a discussion about the types of people stealing books from the library. Throughout the article the author discusses various book thieves, from the reprehensible to the forgivable. It is the latter that I would like to discuss. I agree with what the author says about the type of thief that is, “the absent minded idealist.” (p. 68). The thief embodies what many teachers and librarians hope for, someone who passionately loves the story and simply forgets to check out the book. These are the people intending no malice, but are absentminded. There should be a more lenient punishment for them because as the author says, these are the people that will be the friends of the library forever.
Give Them What They Want
Shirley D. Kennedy discusses the balance of searching for information using library databases and the quick and easy approach many use by going to Google. Something that struck me as interesting was what she says about research, “I specialize in quick, cheap, and dirty guerrilla research training on the fly. Yes, people are going to use Google. Almost certainly, they are going to use it first.” I agree with this statement, Google has become a part of daily vocabulary. If one talks to a child or a teen and they don’t know the answer, Google is the key to finding the answer. Therefore, if a library is able to show how to use Google effectively in a primary search, they can apply that knowledge to future searches that may be on other search engines or databases.
What Literature
The article discusses different views that people have of what constitutes children’s literature and their merits. “The appreciation of literature, however, is not something that is born (Cart, 161)”. One of my teachers in undergrad talked about how to foster a love of reading with the child, suggesting to start even before the child was born. Stating that a few minutes a day the parents should come together and read aloud, it didn’t have to be a picture book, but something they were reading. By having this approach then a child would have a better chance of developing a love of reading. I believe the concept has merit to develop and instill the seed of appreciation for literature.
Submit or Resist: Librarianship in the Age of Google
The overall concept of the article is that librarians should embrace the change occurring within database design due to the overarching use of Google. I believe this is true to a degree, however, not completely. Google is a wonderful resource, but I feel that databases can yield more efficient results at times. Personally, if I am going to do research for a paper I prefer a database because the set up is more efficient in meeting my needs. I can pick what to include and what to hold back. Google tends to spout all sorts of results and the categories to narrow the results down are not very good. Therefore, I feel it would be better to create a hybrid of the best features of both to effectively meet the searching needs of the users.
Article 6: General Provisions
I felt this was an interesting overview of the minimal requirements to run a library. There is a great deal of specificity in how to meet those needs that I feel is very informative and interesting. Something that I felt was particularly helpful were the specific definitions of terms that may be familiar but have an alternate meaning. On the whole I felt it was an informative layout of how to effectively run a library with the minimum requirements.
I agree that those who keep library books certainly shouldn't have any punishment handed down as if he/she is the same as someone who tried to walk out of a store with an item. However, I feel like it gets into a gray area to try to assess the motives for a theft and determine "punishment" from that.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your comments in regard to "Submit or Resist." A fellow SLIS student was telling me today about an article she read describing one librarian's attempts to point out the massive flaws in Google Scholar. The author searched President Obama as an author to books written before 1960, which yielded over two dozen obviously impossible results. It takes far more than a simple reference desk interaction to explain to people how careful they need to be in assuming such results are correct from a seemingly reliable source.