Mark Kille

the preservation function is the only characteristic of the library profession that I feel precisely no connection to. - Jenica

Well, business model is "how do you pay for what you do." A bookstore gets books from booksellers by buying them, and recoups that expense by selling books to customers. A library gets books from booksellers by buying them, and recoups that expense from tuition/endowments/taxes/grants/memberships/whatever. The library business model allows us to, for example, provide access to online information without people having to either pay for it themselves or sign in or accept cookies that collect identifying information. Instead, we pay for it, or the library's account gets used, or the library's computer gets the cookie. Technically, though, paying cash at an unfamiliar bookstore requires less personal information than using a library card to check out a book; borrowing someone's laptop at a free wi-fi hotspot would require less information than authenticating oneself to access online library resources (either remotely or locally for time-management software). In any case, "we can give you what others give you for less financial and personal cost" doesn't sound like a function to me, but a philosophy about and way to do a common function in a particularly appealing way. - Mark Kille

2. I am amazed at how people who disagree stick with the conversations, over multiple threads if need be, and generally walk themselves back to a place of respectfulness. - Mark Kille

Possibly because I've been somewhat under the weather, I seem to have missed the whole foofaraw ('sok, don't point me to it), but Mark's commentary here is, I think pretty much on the money. (And I know now that some conversations are best avoided...) - walt crawford

...difficulty searching the literature and also would have few places to publish their results. The system is evil, and it doesn't have to be and shouldn't be." God, how I wish OW were here for this one. - Mark Kille

Because it is very likely to pop up, under whatever name, whenever historical and/or sociological perspectives on sexism do. - Mark Kille

Read this book before. Great book! - aaron

Aaron, you might appreciate his recent follow-up article: http://crl.acrl.org/content... - Mark Kille

Mark, Thanks.. Very old school stuff. Even this article is 2000! Do people actually do collection development evaluation like this anymore? The last time i looked in 2007, no-one seem to be publishing much in the literature on evaluation of collection strength. How do you evaluate whether you are buying the "Right stuff"? That might be a different through related question.. Just look at whether the books you buying are being loaned out? The PDA model seems to suggest that is the goal... - aaron

now you've got me wondering who the editor and writer were, but yes, this gives voice to how I feel exactly - John: Thread Killer

from one of the bingo cards "i don't really have white privilege because I'm gay/poor/disabled/Irish/a woman" (linked from the post) - Christina Pikas

Thank you for this! - Katy S

Beth Brown has a nice post on this too: http://www.science3point0.com/sociald... - John Dupuis

E.g., correlation != causality, achieving this goal requires library services that leverage library collections, etc. - Mark Kille

I would think "go! go! go!" because I want to know the answer to this question. Badly. - barbara fister

That is not a bad joke. That is my favorite joke. - laura x

Although I prefer it phrased "What did the man say when he walked into the bar?" Or "Three men walked into a bar. The fourth one ducked." - laura x

Oh, it is my favorite as well! Bad jokes are like the fast food of humor. - Mark Kille

I also like the follow-up: "A man walked into a bar, which was odd, because he saw that other guy do it just a minute before." - Mark Kille

"An analysis of research papers written in first-year composition courses at 15 colleges reveals that many students simply copy chunks of text from the sources they cite without truly grasping the underlying argument, quality or context." - Mark Kille

I'm with joan. And Iris and everyone else who has good ideas about this topic. And boo hiss to APA and MLA rules and bad assignments that only exist so that students will be ready for more bad assignments. Librarians and first year comp instructors are both in a bit of bind over this expectation. - barbara fister

I liked that line too! - barbara fister

I was also especially fond of: "what I call 'excellence,' or skeptics might call 'waste'" :) - Mark Kille

You have no idea how that line is resonating with me right about now. - Angel R. Rivera

As he sets it up in his blog post, this may be true for Wayne or for Wayne's library on his campus, but it's not true at my library on my campus. Here, we're directly involved in all 5 points of the ACRL standards either at the level of working with students or at the level of developing assignments or curricula in collaboration with others on campus. That said, it's a mistake to think that librarians are the *only* people who play a large direct role in information literacy. The student, the professor, other academic support units on campus, and the library all play roles to varying degrees depending on the student and the course. - lris

Thanks, Iris! - Mark Kille

I'm going see if we can start to do the same thing here, but this may have to get past legal... - Joe