The Latest News From In the Stacks

Ask A Librarian: Naomi

Guest Librarian In the Stacks: Naomi House

The Same 5 Questions We Ask Everyone

1. What’s the best thing about being a Librarian?

First I am a former librarian, I consider myself library-adjacent through INALJ.com (library jobs) & T160K.org (crowdfunding for African Librarian hero, Dr Abdul Kadar Haidara and his rescued Timbuktu manuscripts).  I like being able to make job hunting a bit easier for LIS job hunters and helping connect Librarian hero Dr. Haidara with much needed funding for his preservation and cataloging work, which continues and T160K.org crowdfunds for.

2. What role(s) you see Libraries taking in the future?

The same ones they always have, serving their communities and helping them access information.  I feel this answer is lacking so I follow many LIS / library professionals on Twitter and when in doubt read their thoughts on the subject.  @libraryleadpipe is a great place to start.

3. What’s your Librarian Superpower?  

I have been reading on women's leadership / business blogs that this is the ONE question you should know if you have vision.  I however, lack this concept of vision, lol.  My first thought is a superpower to make enough money to take care of myself and my family, but that is more of a wish and less superpower (can't think of an Avenger with this one yet...).  Then when I do think of comic-based superpowers they mostly seem like things I would not want like flying because, yikes, heights!  Or things I should not have do to impulse control (anything with fire because I might sneeze and cause a fire).  So what Librarian Superpower would I want (which was your question after all): GOOD GRAMMAR.  I lack any spelling and grammar skills.  I would still continue to not care about other's grammar/spelling but it'd be nice to actually not wonder anymore if I was making mistakes in this respect.

4. In what ways has your job become Digital?

With INALJ it has always lived online, first as a daily email pdf, then as jobs on the site INALJ.com and now as pdfs on INALJ.com.

T160K.org is a web-based crowdfunding platform I co-founded raising funds for African patrimony projects such as the rescued Timbuktu manuscripts cataloging project in Mali, starting a Center for the preservation of Africa's photographic heritage in Benin, the world famous Fendika Music Club who is trying to buy the land the club is on in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, dance scholarships in African dance that can lead to employment in the field in Burkina Faso, and preserving Mali's languages through translating music documentaries by the wonderful Instruments 4 Africa!

T160K.org has had its first crowdfunding success with the social justice circus in Ethiopia, Circus Debre Berhan, thanks to all of our donors (all whom donated on the web, so digitally!)

5. What are your Top 5 favorite books?

This list will change with mood, time of day, day of the week, week to week... you get the picture.

1. Possession by A.S, Byatt

2. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

3. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was an early fav

5. High-Rise by J.G. Ballard 

 

 

Ask A Librarian: Andrew

Guest Librarian In the Stacks: Andrew Demcak

The Same 5 Questions We Ask Everyone

1. What’s the best thing about being a Librarian?

Being able to interact with the information seeking public.

2. What role(s) you see Libraries taking in the future?

Evaluators of information in all forms, physical and digital.

3. What’s your Librarian Superpower?

Locate out-of-print DVDs.

4. In what ways has your job become Digital?

In most ways. I rarely touch a physical object any more.

5. What are your Top 5 favorite books?

Out Of The Body Travel - Stanley Plumly

Escape to Witch Mountain - Alexander Key

On Being Blue - William H. Gass

The Art of French Cooking - Julia Child

& anything I have written.

Ask A Librarian: Sarah

Guest Librarian In the Stacks: Sarah Houghton

We interviewed the Librarian In Black, Sarah Houghton. Here's what she had to say:

The Same 5 Questions We Ask Everyone

1. What’s the best thing about being a Librarian?

The power to say yes to people—to empower staff to try daring things, to empower residents to learn and grow, and to empower the community as a whole to become better, stronger, and smarter.

2. What role(s) you see Libraries taking in the future?

Libraries will continue to be the great equalizer—the one place in any community (be it a town, school, or other grouping) where anyone can learn anything. What that looks like has changed over time and will continue to change, but our equalizing factor will not.

3. What’s your Librarian Superpower?

Pattern recognition. Being able to scan data, situations, people—and see where the problem or irregularity is immediately.

4. In what ways has your job become Digital?

Ha! I started out my librarian life as an electronic resources librarian (now known as Digital Initiatives Managers, or the like). Now, as a Library Director, my job is more analog than it has ever been—more about the people, facilities, the physical and digital materials. I feel like my career has taken the opposite path of the way libraries have gone in the two decades I've worked in libraries. Odd, that.

5. What are your Top 5 favorite books?

Griffin and Sabine, the Sandman series (that counts as one book, right?), The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, Atlas Shrugged, and Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.

Thank you Sarah!

Ask A Librarian: Adele

Guest Librarian In the Stacks: Adele Fasick

The Same 5 Questions We Ask Everyone

1. What’s the best thing about being a Librarian?

The best thing about having been a librarian over several decades has been being on the forefront of the information revolution. I’ve participated as our ways of finding information have changed from searching through a limited, print-based collection, to searching through a mass of digital information presented in both text and images.

2. What role(s) you see Libraries taking in the future?

Libraries in the future will play an ever- larger role in taming the masses of data available online and in print. Libraries will be centers where individuals can find exactly the kind of book or image or digital information they need and are ready for.

3. What’s your Librarian Superpower?

My superpower is serving as a bridge between people’s needs and the materials available anywhere in the world.

4. In what ways has your job become Digital?

The job has become digital because so much of the world’s art and information is collected, stored, accessed and provided in digital format. But librarians are not exclusively concerned with format. Personal interactions are still at the heart of being a librarian.

5. What are your Top 5 favorite books?

I couldn’t possibly name just five. My favorite book is almost always the one I’m reading right now. At the moment I’m just finishing Lab Girl by Hope Jahren and finding it fascinating. Another favorite that I read recently is How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid.  

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