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NYPL decided to create an ad for itself using recreations of my actual college/grad-school experience. Poring over books and manuscripts for research, doing work in the Irma and Paul Milstein Division (and listen, I know you all love the Rose Reading Room, but the Milstein Division is the best place to get. shit. done.),  discovering odd and disturbing things one did not know about one’s family (possibly not actually research related), constantly hearing O Fortuna (probably just in your head, OR IS IT)… Even the hallucinations of weird people. Because drugs (and lack of sleep).

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posted : Friday, March 23rd, 2012

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“ The nature of academic and research librarianship changed today. Today, all Harvard librarians were essentially given pink slips, asked to participate in a website that has tips on rewriting your resume and changing your career, and also asked to basically re-apply for their jobs. You can read updates on twitter at #hlth
—

So this just happened. (Twitter channel.)

Well, this is alarming.

(via towerofsleep)

… I was saying boo-urns.

(via lukesimcoe)

So much worse than this quote indicates. Why? Because it was apparent at the #hlth meeting that the senior administrators did not have a damned clue as to what was even going on. They didn’t have answers to at least half of the questions and concerns that came from the library staff. Obviously it was a good idea for them to call that meeting then, right? So, I must ask, who deserves to have their jobs on the line, the librarians or the administrators being paid to not know anything? 

(Source: katherinestasaph)

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posted : Friday, January 20th, 2012

reblogged from : luke simulacrum

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The Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice Statement of Support for the Occupy Movement »

We are inspired by your courage and steadfastness. We applaud your creativity and commitment. We stand in solidarity with you as you engage in transformative conversations that aim to build a more just, open, diverse and equitable society; one that reflects the Kingdom of God.

Oh, didn’t know that The Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice had gotten off the ground and opened its doors this month? There are a great many reasons to be interested in and enjoy this new resource, but aside from the obvious there’s a bit I particularly loved as described by an archival partner in crime of mine with a heavy stake in the Center:

…it’s hardly revolutionary at this point to say that libraries are facing serious challenges to their traditional role as “the place where the books are kept.” With a growing emphasis on remote access and electronic resources, libraries are desperately searching for reasons to maintain themselves as brick-and-mortar institutions. Around the world, libraries are closing, and those that aren’t are making dramatic changes to their service models, trying to build their digital collections and online presences.

The CLBSJ moves in the opposite direction. Instead of privileging virtual space, we value physical space. Instead of focusing on a social media campaign, we’re trying to build a community of people dedicated to keeping the (very real) doors of our library open. Instead of an online conversation, we’re committed to bringing people together in a room where they can have transformative conversations, face-to-face. You could almost say we’re so old-fashioned we’re cool.

More than one sort of revolution I can get behind.

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posted : Friday, October 28th, 2011

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“ …today Alexandria is an immense Egyptian city more populous than Paris, sanctimonious and poor, but it takes pride in a beautiful library, built by a government in love with pharaonic projects, one of the emptiest libraries on the planet, symbol of the regime of Mubarak the opinionated, a beautiful grey shell in Aswan marble - nothing returns from what has been destroyed, nothing is reborn, neither dead men, nor burned libraries, nor submerged lighthouses, nor extinct species, despite the museums commemorations statues books speeches good will, of things that gone only a vague memory remains, a shadow gliding over sorrowful Alexandria a phantom shivering, and that’s all the better no doubt, all the better, you have to know how to forget, let men animals things leave…
—

- Zone

This isn’t my favorite excerpt from the 517 page long sentence, but it’s perhaps the most quotable without having to run on for another 200 pages or so.

(Source: catalog.openletterbooks.org)

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posted : Thursday, July 7th, 2011

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working the circ desk/reference can be dangerous (i’m trying to figure out how those three novels equate to world domination… he’s ALREADY a talking ape, for chrissake)

working the circ desk/reference can be dangerous

(i’m trying to figure out how those three novels equate to world domination… he’s ALREADY a talking ape, for chrissake)

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posted : Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

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softculture:

“When it was proclaimed that the Lbrary contained all books, the first impression was one of extravagant happiness. All men felt themselves to be the masters of an intact and secret treasure. There was no personal or world problem whose eloquent solution did not exist in some hexagon. The universe was justified, the universe suddenly usurped the unlimited dimensions of hope. At the time a great deal was said about the Vindications: books of apology and prophecy which vindicated for all time the acts of every man in the universe and retained prodigious arcana for his future.”

- Borges, The Library of Babel

to me this was the most terrifying story in Labyrinths.

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posted : Sunday, July 5th, 2009

reblogged from : Soft Cultural Interface

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