A few thoughts about The library book

The Library Book by Susan Orlean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a history of the Los Angeles Public Library, focused on the central library building. It is both about a library fire, and not about this. It contains interesting descriptions of daily work of public libraries, and shows some of the collections and services provided by Los Angeles Public Library. It highlights the importance of qualified and experienced library staff. Selected resources used for the research are listed. There is no index. This book is likely to appeal to people who enjoy descriptive accounts, and I really enjoyed many parts of this book. There is an interesting section on the early librarians who ran the Los Angeles Public Library - not all were librarians and there were some dastardly deeds as at least one librarian was forced out of her job.

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reblogging RA for All: Becky's Response to the Whiteness as Collections

RA for All: Becky's Response to the Whiteness as Collections b...: Over the last few days, the post entitled, " Whiteness as Collections " by Sofia Leung an academic librarian with a focus on libra...



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I am reblogging this because I think this is such an important discussion - head over to @raforall and read the blog post and the links.

A few thoughts on The Feminist Reference Desk: Concepts, Critiques, and Conversations

The Feminist Reference Desk: Concepts, Critiques, and Conversations by Maria T. Accardi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This provides an interesting way of looking at reference and information services. I liked the point about allowing space for silence in a reference interview, even if that is not always practical because of work pressures. It was a useful reminder that for some people asking for assistance is not easy. They will not have formulated what they want to ask, and they will need space and time to be able to answer your questions so that you can help them. Culturally there may need to be a discussion for context, and there needs to be space (and time) to be able to do this. This may need a different approach to some service, but that would enable it to be provided with equity, and and this can be really important for all service provision. It also highlighted that the 'reference interview is a conversation, a dialectical exchange between two people with an exchange of ideas and information with the goal of meeting the information need' p53.

There are many useful references which will lead to further reading. It is another excellent publication by Library Juice.

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Content unavailable webpage - how do you let your searchers know?

While following a link I came across the content unavailable image below. It is from the National Maritime Museum (England) . I found this a cheery way to tell me, and it was a great use of an image of rescue.

Cheerful content unavailable page from National Maritime Museum, England