MetaFilter posts tagged with librarians and books

A cautionary tail

Horace Rumpole — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:04:02 -0800

The end of Moore’s influence came when, years later, she tried to block the publication of a book by E. B. White. Watching Moore stand in the way of “Stuart Little,” White’s editor, Ursula Nordstrom, remembered, was like watching a horse fall down, its spindly legs crumpling beneath its great weight. Although librarians don't come out all that well in this story, archivists figure quite heroically in the author's sidebar on her research into the saga.

Enemies of Books!

carsonb — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 13:27:29 -0800

Librarians as Enemies of Books
via the delightfully uptight Steve Mauer at BookMine.

IshmaelGraves — Mon, 07 Oct 2002 09:49:58 -0800

In 1972 the librarians were revolting. Now they're at it again. Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West are compiling a sequel to the famous (or infamous) classic of radical librarianship. [more inside]

ed — Thu, 30 May 2002 07:51:18 -0800

In Philadelphia, the ratio of students to librarians has increased dramatically. Schools are not only cutting the jobs of librarians, but they are failing to hire those who are qualified to perform the task. Some people, including principals, seem to have the notion that school libraries are a nonessential facet of high school education or are adopting idiosynchratic measures to keep school libraries in existence. The Toronto District School Board, for example, has decided that it will only offer a full-time librarian to schools with more than 710 pupils, leaving school libraries that are closed half the time or that remain substantially inaccessible to students. Laura Bush's Foundation for America's Libraries is an admirable idea, but will merely talking about the importance of libraries hammer the point home? What does it take to convince administrative types of the importance of school libraries? Where did the idea of the school library go astray? And what can we do to ensure that a reasonably accessible school library is there for any student who needs it?