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2005-02-25 Home Front: Culture Wars

Library Man Fears Attack of the Blog People!!!

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Posted by Desert Blondie 2005-02-25 9:37:29 AM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar

I sense someone who couldn't get laid with $10,000, ten pounds of coke, and a tanker full of Jack Daniels.

I especially liked his "I'm not just worried about the jobs of librarians" line, since two sentences later he's whining that private money won't be going to pay for more librarians.

Oh, and check out the "platform" under which he ran for president of the ALA. My favorite point is the second:

Lead the opposition to the USA PATRIOT Act, any extension of such laws and regulations, and any further infringement on the rights of library users

In other words, he thinks librarians shouldn't have to obey a subpoena like the rest of us.

Then there are his recent "papers":

"The value and values of libraries"

"Authority Control in the Context of Bibliographic Control in the Electronic Environment"

"How the English See the French, a Personal View"

"A profession that looks like America?"

Three of them are political; the only technical one relates to a system described by a Slashdot poster as (in essence) a massive card-catalog. Gorman's beef with Google's plan isn't just that the money isn't going to hire albino Asian transgendered librarians, but that it's taking away from his pet project.

Oh, and that Google would actually let you READ THE CONTENT of the material; his system would say, "Oh, you want to read this dozen books for that subject. None of them are in your local library, but if you wait four to six months, they might become available through interlibrary loan."

Here's a book he co-wrote, explaining a decade ago how electronic libraries are bad for us.

And -- no shit -- he's given multiple speeches titled "Whither library education?"

Yet another academic convinced that his "discipline" is the end-all and be-all of human progress. If he were any more full of himself, he'd explode.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2005-02-25 10:26:06 AM|| [http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-02-25 10:26:06 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 I also looked at some of his ~~toilet~~ papers. He seems to talk a lot in circles, and say very little. We are not encountering a man in search of ideas, more like it seems we are encountering ideas in search of a man. Yeech...

Posted by BigEd 2005-02-25 11:55:19 AM|| 2005-02-25 11:55:19 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 I kinda feel sorry for the ol' dinosaur. His little world (arranged and cataloged by subject, author or title) has fallen apart since the Huns have invaded publishing.

Posted by 2b 2005-02-25 12:06:15 PM|| 2005-02-25 12:06:15 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 In contrast, check out the Information Science & Policy PhD program at SUNY Albany. It's co-owned by the old library school, the comp sci department, the business school and the Rockafeller Public Policy school.

They're doing it right, and some of their doctoral students are experienced librarians.

Posted by Robin Burk 2005-02-25 12:47:09 PM|| 2005-02-25 12:47:09 PM|| Front Page Top

Oh, Library man...library man:

BEWARE - - -
WE ARE THERE!

Posted by BigEd 2005-02-25 5:58:56 PM|| 2005-02-25 5:58:56 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 He seemed so... French. But apparently he's not:
http://mg.csufresno.edu/biography.htm

Posted by Tom 2005-02-25 6:40:46 PM|| 2005-02-25 6:40:46 PM|| Front Page Top

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