Category: Uncategorized

  • Professional associations: maybe we should start from scratch?

    Girls in View Ridge, 1960 flickr photo by Seattle Municipal Archives shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license I’ve been thinking a lot about the structures, roles, and necessity of professional associations since it seems like every one is going through some existential issues. TRB has its Strategic Alignment, to update the structure and make…

  • You know why metadata matters.

    Beauty queens with time capsule rock, Dana Point, 1966 flickr photo by Orange County Archives shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license I often forget that information workers (librarians, archivists, what have you) have a different way of viewing the world than others. How things are described and presented so that people might be able…

  • #MeToo, Redemption, and moving forward without forgetting in the Library Profession

    Royal Australian Air Force in Australia during World War II flickr photo by State Library Victoria Collections shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license In the post-#MeToo era, it’s hard not to think about sexism in the form of abuse, assault, and harassment. What started in the entertainment industry has spread. We’ve seen it in…

  • A Manifesto for Professional Associations like SLA

    I have threatened, hinted, and joked about writing a manifesto for SLA. This is a very brief and measured version of my thoughts about the association and other professional associations for information and knowledge workers. As such, it’s more general than a pointedly SLA treatise would be, but at the same time it’s important to…

  • Terminology matters: When the personal informs the professional – safety edition.

    Ghost Bike – Emeryville CA flickr photo by roger jones shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license (If you aren’t familiar with them, go read about ghost bike memorials.) I’ve been meaning to write a blog post about this topic for a while. There have been discussions in library circles about the need to change…