Library Anecdotes, Facetiae, Satire, etc.
For those of you who are younger librarians, or perhaps non-catalogers: "Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, etc." was a standard subdivision for Library of Congress subject headings. Alas, they've since replaced it with subheadings like "Humor." (Example)
This page is unfiltered. Some links may not be suitable for all viewers
This page:
Anecdotes |
Facetiae |
Satire |
Etc. 1: Librarians—Classification |
Etc. 2: Librarians—Biography
Anecdotes
- Alexandrine Librarian - Blog telling the story of Yarrl, a librarian at the Great Library of Alexandria in the 5th Century CE
- Cackling Library Hens - "The happenings and goings-on in a small college library in the Northeast"
- Casanova was a Librarian - Web site for a book by Kathleen Low on great moments in the history of librarians
- Dispatches from a Public Librarian by Scott Douglas (McSweeney's)
- Feel-good Librarian - By a reference librarian who feels good about her patrons (all of them)
- Love the Liberry - More accounts from the reference desk
- Pop Goes the Library - "Using pop culture to make libraries better"
- Ref Grunt - Comments from the reference desk
- Swiss Army Librarian - Reference question of the week and other stories from Brian Herzog
- Lest we get too cynical: In Defense of Stupid Users (Library Journal, March 15, 2005)
- Favorite Librarians, below
- Librarians, Libertines, and Lenin's Wife: Looking at Famous People as Librarians
- The Hollywood Librarian: Librarians in Cinema and Society - Web page for the 2007 documentary
- Librarians in the Movies: An Annotated Filmography by Martin Raish
- Top Ten Films Featuring Libraries, Librarians, and the Book Arts
- I am a Librarian - Cynthia Wilson's project to take photographs of librarians showing our full range of diversity
- Libraries and Librarians - Photos (Flickr)
- This is What a Librarian Looks Like - An array of pictures
- Library, Librarian, and Librarianship Quotes (John Ellison, University of Buffalo)
- Quotations about Libraries and Librarians (IFLA)
- Dewey Seximal System - Nonfiction (maybe) tales of sex in the stacks of college libraries
- The Image of Librarians in Pornography - No, there aren't pictures. It's a scholarly account of librarians in pornographic novels. (There are descriptions — some quite graphic — and quotes, however.)
- Librarians are Sexy (Holly Black)
- Library Romance - Seeking stories from couples who fell in love in a library
- Library Science Jargon that Sounds Dirty (McSweeney's)
- Sex in the Stacks: Librarian Porn Novel Reviews by Candi Strecker
- Why Are Librarians So Sexy? - By David Austin, with quotes from Foucault and erotic novels. For a longer taste, see "Quiet Please", the story about the librarian from The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender. (Warning: erotic content. Don't say I didn't tell you.)
Famous Librarians:
See also
Librarians in Movies:
The Image of Librarians:
See also
I've avoided this topic until now, because I think some librarians obsess about it. But "I am a Librarian" was just too cool to resist
Quotations:
Sex (and Love) in the Library:
These sites kept popping up, I swear. I had no choice but to make a new category
Facetiae
- Cabinet National Library - See also Building the Cabinet National Library
- Great Moments in the History of Technical Services
- A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette - Blog on etiquette, mostly for librarians but sometimes for patrons, too. (Nice touch: the inverted, index-style headings, such as "Bore, Risk of becoming a" and "Television, On not admitting to watching any.")
- Library Cats Maps - Find library cats all over the country, if you must. In my experience, they usually find you
- Library Humour (IFLA)
- Peep Research - How Peeps (yes, those Peeps) use the library
- You are a Librarian! - Click the reload/refresh button a couple of times until you get the perfect description of yourself (TangognaT)
- Library Science Jeopardy
Library Games:
Satire
- Gondwanaland - A comic about three radical librarians who save the world. One of them looks familiar
- Library Girl
- Unshelved - Formerly Overdue
Library Comics:
Etc. 1: Librarians — Classification
See also
- The Image of Librarians, above
- Library Blogs, which includes some that are not listed here
- Anarchist Librarians
- Barbarian Librarian
- Bastard Librarian from Hell
- Batgirl was a Librarian - Links to library humor, cataloging reference tools, and little-known facts about our favorite superheroine
- The Bellydancing Librarian
- Biker Librarian Tami Sutcliffe
- Bodybuilding Librarian
I'm a sucker for "The [fill in the blank] Librarian" sites. However, you should be sure to read Rory Litwin's insights "On the 'Wild Librarian' Websites"
- Cataloging
- Sanford Berman, below
- Bibliographic Wilderness
- Catalogablog - A Blog on cataloging issues (David Bigwood)
- Cataloging Futures
- Cataloging Thoughts
- The Cataloguing Librarian - Laurel Tarulli, Nova Scotia
- Every Moment's a Little Bit Later - Nacowafer writes about cataloging and other aspects of life
- A Gentleman's Guide to Cataloguing "and life there after"
- Kate Drones On About Cataloging
- Z666.7.B39 - Jennifer Baxmeyer's "musings related to metadata, cataloging, and the 'great big' world of librarianship (plus some other stuff)…"
- Planet Cataloging - An aggregation of several blogs about cataloging and metadata
Catalogers' Blogs:
See also
Aggregation:
Or an anthology or maybe even a festschrift
- Chic librarians? There are some, as the sites linked on this page will show you. However, librarian chic is something else
- Conan the Librarian
- Confessions of a Mad Librarian - Miss Eli
- Deaducated: The Dead[head] Librarians' Society
- Depraved Librarian - "A carnival of news and information about culture, law, music, technology and research, from a computer librarian, Palminatrix, and choral singer." Frequently updated blog, nice blogroll, too
- Eclectic Librarian Anna Creech
- Eclectic Librarian Jennie Stoltz
- The Flaky Librarian - Blog
- Glamour Librarian
- Hip Librarian - With a hip list of links!
- Hipster Librarian - A new blog by an anonymous high school librarian in New York
- Indie Rock Librarian - "Because being a librarian doesn't mean you have to wear your hair in a bun"
- Kinky Librarian - "Information. Intelligence. Sex. What more could you want?"
- Kung-Fu Librarian
- Laughing Librarian
- The Leather Librarian - "Dedicated to librarian assertiveness training"
- Librarian Avengers (formerly "Thwart not the Librarian") [new domain]
- Don't miss:
Why You Should Fall to Your Knees and Worship a Librarian
("People become librarians because they know too much") - Library Bitch - A NextGen librarian blog
- Library Chicks of the World Unite
- Libraryman - Blog by Michael Porter of OCLC
- Lipstick Librarian - She's Bold, She's Sassy, She's Helpful!
- Marginal Librarian
- Male Librarian Centerfold - A blog
- Modified Librarian - If you have to ask ..
- Naked Librarians - Jessamyn West's most popular page
- Neo-Traditional Librarian
- Pernicious Librarian Chris Zammarelli, who brought us L.A.C.K. (Librarians are Corrupting Kids)
- (Left) Foot in Mouth - Marylaine Block, "Ex Libris," Nov. 5, 2004
- Presidential Poll Results - Michael McGrorty, Oct. 28, 2004
- Progressive Librarianship & the New Librarians: The personal [and professional] is political - A talk by Jessamyn West, Dec. 4, 2004
- Concerned Archivists Alliance - Formed in January 2017 in response to an an administration hostile to the proper keeping of archives
- Critlib - "Critical librarianship, in real life & on the Twitters
- Free Range Librarian - Karen Schneider writes on filters and other issues of free access to information
- Libr.org - Rory Litwin edits the Library Juice blog and provides other sites for Progressive Librarians and Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies
- Librarian.net - Although Jessamyn West considers herself more of an anarchist, she has become known beyond the library world for her opposition to the USA PATRIOT Act
- LibrarianActivist.org
- Progressive Librarians Guild - "Providing a forum for the open exchange of readical views on library issues"
- Progressive Librarian - Journal
- Radical Librarians Collective - "Building solidarity for those critical of the marketisation of libraries & commodification of information"
- Social Responsibilities Roundtable (SRRT) (American Library Association)
- Shush
- Tomeboy - Loves to tweak the ALA
Political Librarians:
Not surprisingly, librarians differ about how political we should be
Liberal/Progressive:
Conservative:
- Practical Librarian - Library product cautionary tales
- Rabid Librarian's Ravings in the Wind
- Renegade Librarian
- Revolting Librarians - This is the book that inspired many of us to get into the profession, the book that told us librarianship could be cool, revolutionary even! Not only is much of it available online, but a sequel, Revolting Librarians Redux, is now available. Order it here
- Secret Librarian Michael Garrett Farrelly is also the author of the Library Rakehell column on Bookslut
- Shy Librarian - A newsletter with marketing ideas
- Spooky Librarians
- Stripping Librarian - You'll have to find it yourself, and it's not work-safe
- Fling Fling by Sulkbrarian
- That Librarian - Blog
- Uncaged Librarian - Shirl Kennedy, contributor to INFOdocket, Current Cites; author of lots of great stuff
- Virtual Librarian - Tools for the librarian in cyberspace
- Warrior Librarian Weekly - Biblia the warrior librarian is a creation of Australian school librarian Amanda Credaro
- Witty Librarian
- Zen Librarian Sample koan: "`What is knowledge?' the student intern asked the Zen Librarian. `The photographs which are not in the Wall Street Journal,' answered the Zen Librarian." Also, Librarian's Lao-Tzu
- alt.librarian Webring
- Cool Librarians - I'm honored to be among them
- Cool Librarians of fact and fiction
- Librarians Rule - Links to more types of librarians
- Libraristic Links: Librarians on Parade
- Library Underground
- Wear lipstick, have a tattoo, belly-dance, then get naked: the making of a virtual librarian - Anthony Brewerton has made a study of non-stereotypical librarians
Web Directories of Librarians' Sites:
Etc. 2: Librarians — Biography
Henriette Avram: The mother of MARC. She transformed libraries, as her obituary in the Washington Post put it.
Reva Basch: She's an inspiration and a longtime supersearcher, helping other librarians learn the tricks of the trade through her many writings and conference presentations. When the general public started to discover what we were doing, she imparted some of her wisdom to them in Researching Online for Dummies. She's got a home on the Well and Reva's space. See also Marylaine Block's guru interview with her
Some of my favorite librarians, past and present
- Kiss My Filing Indicators - A festschrift3 put together by Katia Roberto
- Sandy Berman's Valedictory - Delivered at ALA, 1999
Sanford Berman1:
Radical cataloger2 and an inspiration to a generation of librarians. The Sanford Berman Website is a great compilation of writings by and about Sandy. (Note: Links are hidden, but you can see them with a "view source" command.)More Bermaniana:
Notes:
1. Not being a big fan of the Internet, Sandy doesn't have his own Web page, but the Sanford
Berman Website has everything you could want. (Note: Links are hidden, but you can see them with a "view source" command.)
2. If you think "radical cataloger" is an oxymoron, read this article — Sandy
Berman's Last Stand — about how he has fought for his beliefs
3. Festschrift is a word catalogers love. It means a collection of
writings to honor someone on a significant occasion, like retirement or a major birthday. Filing indicators are less interesting
David Dodd - He doesn't know it, but I feel some kind of connection to David Dodd, having taken his place as the house eclectic at good ol' FRM. Dodd is the author of the Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics (soon to be published as a book) and the Librarian in Tie-Dye blog
Michael Gorman:
Gorman has been a leading thinker about libraries in general, and cataloging in particular, in the computer age. (Unfortunately, he's made some short-sighted statements during his tenure as president of the American Library Association.)
Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress 1899-1939, the only one with actual library experience. He made LC a true national library. Putnam was a pioneer in shared cataloging (card program), national bibliography (the National Union Catalog and Monthly List of State Publications) and other publications, interlibrary loan, classification (LC classification), professionalism, and acquisitions of gifts, purchases, and foreign materials. Antonio Panizzi made similar reforms at the British Museum
Favorite book: Rosenberg, Jane Aikin. The Nation's Great Library: Herbert Putnam and the Library of Congress, 1899-1939 (University of Illinois Press, 1993)
- Eugene Garfield on Ranganathan:
- "Five Laws of Library Science"
- Ranganathan's faceted Colon Classification system, and the ideas behind it, led to Yahoo and much else
- An Introduction to the Thought of S. R. Ranganathan for Information Architects
- More about facets: How to Make a Faceted Classification and Put it on the Web and Putting Facets on the Web: An Annotated Bibliography, both by William Denton
- Excerpts from Ranganathan's Prolegomena to Library Classification
S. R. Ranganathan
A hero in library public service:
A hero in classification (a.k.a. taxonomy, a.k.a. ontology):
Karen Schneider - Librarian and writer on filters and other issues of intellectual freedom in the Internet age. Free Range Librarian is her blog
Carolyn Ulrich - In addition to compiling what later became Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory, she made contributions in children's services, outreach, and circulation as well as serials.
- Librarian.net -
"By a librarian for rarin' librarians, info junkies, freedom lovers and
other weirdos"
- Jessamyn.com - Her home page
- Abada Abada -
Journal
- Jessamyn.info - Her other home page
- More about Jessamyn - Her journal, her cam, her trips between Washington and Vermont
Jessamyn West:
Freelance researcher, Web designer, bloggist
- Dead Germans Project - Biographies of library science heroes, the equivalent of the "dead Germans" in some other fields
Web Directory of Library Biography:
As seen in Marylaine Block's Neat
New Stuff on the Net, May 2, 2003