Leisure reading

This isn't directly related to LS560, but I thought the timing was interesting.

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The book store that I work for occasionally, Book Soup, is an independent store in West Hollywood, and I've been working there for almost six years. Many of the books that fill the shelves have recommendations written by staff members, and I've written my fair share. One of my briefest recs is for The name of the rose by Umberto Eco, which simply says that it is my favorite book ever. I realize that that's not the most informative description, but it's true, and it seems to sell a fairly steady stream of copies. While I was in Alabama for orientation, a woman came into the store, saw the recommendation, and gave the cashier her contact information to pass on to me, to see if I would be interested in doing a book club for The name of the rose. I'm not much of a book club person, but I've been meaning to reread it, and thought, what the heck.
I started reading it a couple of days ago and was struck by how relevant it is to my latest educational endeavor. The book tells the story of William of Baskerville's visit to an unspecified monastery in 1327, where monks are dying and mystery shrouds an ancient codex. The monastery has a magnificent library whose organization is so obscure that only the librarian knows where books are. William asks the abbot about access to the books, and the abbot describes it in this way:

Only the librarian has, in addition to that knowledge, the right to move through the labyrinth of the books, he alone knows where to find them and where to replace them, he alone is responsible for their safekeeping....only the librarian knows, from the collocation of the volume, from its degree of inaccessibility, what secrets, what truths or falsehoods, the volume contains. Only he decides how, when, and whether to give it to the monk who requests it; sometimes he first consults me. Because not all truths are for all ears, not all falsehoods can be recognized as such by a pious soul; and the monks, finally, are in the scriptorium to carry out a precise task, which requires them to read certain volumes and not others, and not to pursue every foolish curiosity that seizes them, whether through weakness of intellect or through pride or through diabolical prompting.

 What a delightful interpretation of the librarian's role! I'm mostly being sarcastic. I enjoy the idea of the librarian as arbiter of knowledge, though of course it's no longer practical. In the 14th century there were obviously far fewer scholars, and those that existed were working within a much narrower intellectual framework than today's scholars. I must confess that there are times when I look at the scholars at the Huntington with suspicion, wondering if they're worthy of the materials to which they have access. I like to think that I'm slightly more open-minded than this fictional 14th century abbot, but this may be something I need to work on.

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The Huntington doesn't have any photographs of Book Soup that I've found, but we do have photographs of Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, which purchased Book Soup in 2009 after the death of our owner. Vroman's opened in 1894, and in 2008 was named the Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year.

User Survey, or, My mom is smarter than I am

A lot of my classmates' interviews have been with older individuals who are not particularly inclined to using technology. I could have interviewed my dad who is in his mid-70s and pretty good with technology. He's got an iPhone and an iPad mini, he texts and emails, and he plays Words With Friends. He's not afraid of technology, but like a lot of other people's older subjects he's not interested in keeping up with the latest advances.
Instead I thought I would interview my mom. She's in her late 60s, and got her first home computer in 1982. She has an iPhone, an iPad, a gps unit, and a device that tells you how far from the pin you are on the golf course, the first two of which she uses on a daily basis. The most advanced program that she uses is Adobe Lightroom 5. When she needs to send files she uses email and Dropbox. Mom follows the latest tech developments and can fix most of the problems that arise during her regular usage.
What could make my mom's relationship with technology so different from that of other people her age? Being an early adopter was probably a big help, and she continued to be engaged with technology up to her retirement. She volunteers these days at the Chicago Botanic Garden, where she has helped lead the way towards imaging substantial portions of the gardens' collections. When I talked to her, she was getting ready to learn about the pdf creation software used at CBG so that she could develop a new template for photographing trees. When I asked her why she thinks she's so much more willing with engage with evolving technology, she said that it all depends on seeing technology as a challenge which you are up to. That's an attitude I know that I could benefit from, and will try to carry with me throughout this Master's program.

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Today I thought I would share a rare sight, a snow jump in Los Angeles, 1938.

 

Back to school

When I finished my last Master's degree, I thought I was done. That degree was in Medieval Studies, and even though I do not regret getting it, I will fully acknowledge that there weren't many career tracks leading out of it. I was ready to walk away from school and into the real world! That was 2008. Not the best time to join the real world, if you remember. So I puttered around in a book store for a year, then was hired at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. I was hired as a library assistant in the rare books section of Technical Services (home of the catalogers). 

I spent four and a half years telling anyone who asked that I would never get an MLS or MLIS. Everyone I met at the library looked on it as drudgery that you just happen to need if you want to work in the library field. Then, around the holidays last year, I realized that this is where I'm supposed to be. My parents refrained from saying "I told you so", because they're good people, but they've probably known for years that this is the direction I was headed.

Given my previous, negative attitude towards library school, I was somewhat trepidatious when I finally chose a school, the University of Alabama, and when I showed up for orientation last week I was pleased and surprised by the experience - everyone there, students and instructors, were all so motivated and enthusiastic. 

Distance education is a new experience for me, and although I use technology, I don't think of myself as a tech person. The difference between "fluency" and "literacy" that Professor Bonnici was talking about on Wednesday provides an interesting framework for thinking about how we use technology. I tend to do well on the literacy side, but am a bit of a hold-out on the fluency side. I can fix most minor malfunctions ("Have you tried turning it off and on again?") while avoiding the technical explanations. That's going to have to change now, I guess.

I thought I would end each of my posts with a picture and link to something that I've worked on at the Huntington. We'll start out with a lock of Abraham Lincoln's hair.