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
Results 1-5 of 31
... librarianship First new law Second new law 60 61 62 63 Third new law 65 Fourth new law Fifth new law 67 69 Change , Problems , and Realities Change makes you stupid 73 Outsourcing 74 Scholarly journals 75 Foreign languages 76 Modern ...
... ? 184 Universal bibliographic control 186 Illuminated manuscripts 188 The librarianship of love 190 Manuscripts 191 Singular strengths 192 Closing libraries 193 195 Preface The Rinzai sect of Buddhism uses the koan as xi Preface.
... librarianship , and being a librarian today . The word koan means , literally , " public plan / proposal , " and , taken together , these meditations offer such a plan or proposal for any librarian who may find it useful . When I was ...
... librarian , being a librarian , or just getting through the day . They seek to do nothing more than to sug- gest and ... librarianship and indi- vidual library lives , it will have been well worth the writing . Michael Gorman Fresno ...
... librarianship , which has made so many contributions to both . I believe that all libraries and librarians share a common purpose and that solidarity and mutual assistance should be among our guiding professional lights . If this book ...
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 |