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Re: Liberry Skule



Daniel, I think you miss why people are upset.  I don't think it is this particular article that has made librarians and archivists upset.  I think it is because whenever you go to a cocktail party or any new social situation one hears from college educated persons (usually with a second degree or a doctor of whatever) "You need a degree to shelve books!"  Personally, I've never shelved books except when I was a student page.  It gets extremely tiresome.  One doesn't want to see the same nonsense printed because people BELIEVE it.  The results of the belief are shown in how poorly archivists and librarians are paid.
 

"Sokolow, Daniel" wrote:

Ya know, I was all hot under the collar on this when I saw the original
story.  "What a dope!  What an ignoramus! They don't know the first thing
about Libraries!"

Fortunately, I kept all that to myself.  By the time I got through the
hundreds of emails about it, I realized the author had intended to be funny.
Something he/she/it failed to do tremendously.  Well, I make fun of computer
geeks, science nerds make fun of me, the world goes on.

What I think is really coming out of all this is that archivists &
librarians seem to have no sense of humor.  I know for a fact that's not
true - there are some very funny people on the list, including Jeff O in
warm sunny Saskatooooon.  Maybe even our Friday Funny specialist, Dick King.
(They are funny, sometimes, DK.  Really :P )

Yet all the emails to that Library list seem to have been sent by the very
AR, bookish schoolmarms the author was writing about.  We sure ain't gonna
have the world taking us seriously by getting all huffy at some yokel in a
Geology department with bad grammar and poor taste.  It's a college
newspaper, for cryin' out loud.

So, to the high-blood pressure librarians & archivists out there, may I
suggest you strike back the correct way?  Write something FUNNY back.  Poke
as many holes as you like at the author (gently please, the kid's probably
about 19), his course of study, his writing, whatever.

As most of us have managed to do, let's chill out, huh?  Life's serious
enough.

DS

______________________________________
Daniel Sokolow, Archives Coordinator
David Taylor Archives
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
155 Community Drive
Great Neck, NY 11021
mailto:dsokolow@nshs.edu

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