Our Singular Strengths: Meditations for LibrariansMichael Gorman, one of librarianship's most accomplished and impassioned practitioners, is back. Drawing on his four decades of library experience, Gorman has written a thoughtful and humanizing book that not only reminds librarians why they chose their craft, but reinforces the importance of their work. Our Singular Strengths is a compilation of 144 comforting and uplifting thoughts about library work presented in the popular meditations format: a quotation, a short essay, and a resolution. The book is designed to present a topic, thought, or story that encapsulates some aspect of libraries and learning as an aid to understanding and reassessment, and to simply provide comfort to beleaguered librarians. Gorman takes his passion for libraries and their importance to society and offers observations rooted in experience and reason that may provide insight into libraries, librarianship, and being a librarian in today's ever-changing world. |
From inside the book
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... created a set of beliefs that underpin everything I do . I believe passionately in libraries — in their social and cultural value , their redemptive power , and their centrality to learning and civilization . I be- lieve in the ...
... created a set of beliefs that underpin everything I do . I believe passionately in libraries — in their social and cultural value , their redemptive power , and their centrality to learning and civilization . I believe in the ...
... create new circumstances , new lives . It is hard to overestimate the importance of libraries as repositories of knowledge for those faced with life's difficulties , particularly young people without the life experience that could ...
... create a human rela- tionship with the librarians and the library itself . Though huge libraries can inspire awe , it is very often the small library that inspires affection . In the end , it is the human scale and human relationships ...
... have unfettered access to all lawful publications . I will stand with our sisters and brothers in defense of intellectual freedom against officious and fearful Bumbledom . " Non Omnis Moriar " I have created a monument 33 Three: Lives.
Contents
Mysteries | 103 |
The Impossibility of Classification | 104 |
Political Correctness? | 105 |
ALA Conferences | 106 |
Problem Colleagues | 107 |
The Library Great Person | 108 |
The Outsider Syndrome | 109 |
The War of AACR2 | 110 |
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Pity the Poor Administrator | 41 |
Andrew Carnegie 18351919 | 43 |
What Do You Remember from Library School? | 45 |
Melvil Dewey 18511931 | 46 |
Lonely People | 48 |
Miss Colwell | 49 |
Retirement | 50 |
Laws | 51 |
Ranganathans Five Laws | 53 |
Ranganathans Second Law | 55 |
Ranganathans Third Law | 56 |
Ranganathans Fourth Law | 57 |
Ranganathans Fifth Law | 58 |
Five New Laws of Librarianship | 59 |
First New Law | 60 |
Second New Law | 61 |
Third New Law | 63 |
Fourth New Law | 65 |
Fifth New Law | 67 |
Change Problems Realities | 69 |
Change Makes You Stupid | 71 |
Scholarly Journals | 73 |
Foreign Languages | 74 |
Modern Library Budgets | 75 |
The Newbery Medal | 76 |
Books into Films | 77 |
Burnout | 78 |
Reference Collections | 79 |
Distant Learning | 80 |
The Problem Patron | 81 |
My Ideal Library | 82 |
Present Future | 83 |
Libraries and Democracy | 85 |
The Tax Revolt | 87 |
Copyright and Electronic Documents | 88 |
The PaperFull Society | 90 |
Downsizing | 91 |
Different in Kind | 93 |
Virtual Lives | 94 |
People or Kiosks? | 95 |
Museums of Failed Technology | 96 |
Library or Pipelined | 97 |
Night Thoughts | 98 |
Librarians | 99 |
The Image of the Librarian | 101 |
Women in Libraries | 111 |
A Word for Ned Ludd | 112 |
Places | 113 |
The Library as a Public Place | 115 |
Cotleigh Road Branch Library | 117 |
Beyond the Museum | 118 |
Ssshh | 119 |
Prisons | 120 |
Home Base | 121 |
Libraries and the Mall | 122 |
California Dreams | 124 |
Art and Decoration in the Library | 125 |
The Flowering of the Imagination | 126 |
The Love of Libraries | 128 |
Reading Writing | 129 |
Electronic Books | 131 |
The Gift of Reading | 133 |
The Continuum of Literacy | 134 |
The Ladder of Learning | 135 |
Back to Basics | 137 |
Paperbacks | 138 |
Library Literature | 139 |
Collecting Books | 140 |
Jabberwocky | 141 |
The Library Hand | 143 |
Reading | 145 |
The Wider World | 147 |
The ADA | 149 |
Bookstores | 151 |
Story Time | 152 |
Multiple Identities | 153 |
International Book Sharing | 154 |
UnBooksr | 155 |
Time Machines | 156 |
Reports Statistics and All That Jazz | 157 |
Technology as Religion | 158 |
Thin Places | 159 |
84 Charing Cross Road | 160 |
Practicalities | 161 |
Bindings | 163 |
No Food No Drink | 165 |
Coral Reefs | 166 |
Circulation | 167 |
Filing | 168 |
Indexes and Indexing | 169 |
Interlibrary Loan | 170 |
Indecency Online | 171 |
Fifty Cent Technology | 172 |
Descriptive Cataloguing in 131 Words | 173 |
Central Libraries vs Branch Libraries | 174 |
Eternal Promises | 175 |
Sunrise | 177 |
Reminders of Continuity | 179 |
Where Love Begins | 180 |
Occams Management Theory | 181 |
What Is Information? | 182 |
Universal Bibliographic Control | 184 |
Illuminated Manuscripts | 186 |
The Librarianship of Love | 188 |
Manuscripts | 189 |
Singular Strengths | 190 |
Closing Libraries | 191 |
Epilogue | 193 |