“Pogosticking”
This is a great term from Jared Spool’s article Galleries: The Hardest Working Page on Your Site on the User Interface Engineering web site referred to in the Week #13 Lecture. “When a gallery doesn’t contain the necessary information for the user to decide, they have to resort to ‘pogosticking’. Named after the children’s bouncing toy, pogosticking is when the user jumps up and down in the hierarchy of the site, hoping they’ll eventually hit the content they desire.” When Spool criticizes the interface of SonyEricsson’s and Motorola’s websites I want to cry, not because I have any love for cell phone companies, but because I applied his criticism to the databases that my student’s use.
The User Interface of a Standard Educational Database
When a student does a search on say GALE’s Student Resource Center Gold for a common high school topic like Maya Angelou they are brought to a page with 7 tabs. If they remember what I’ve taught them about the database they can navigate the different tabs (another level of granularity) if not they are unknowingly stuck in sources that are just reference rather than magazines, academic journals, news, creative works, etc. My point is that if ‘pogosticking’ is said to be frustrating to people who want to buy a cell phone, then the kind of ‘pogosticking’ that students do using a standard educational database is outrageous. Educational databases have so far to go before they even begin to match the usability of a common website.
Misconceptions About Teenagers
If you are going to work with teens and computers this is a great page (wwww.useit.com/alertbox/teenagers.html)to spend three minutes reading! “Teenagers are not in fact superior Web geniuses who can use anything a site throws at them. We measured a success rate of only 55 percent for the teenage users in this study, which is substantially lower than the 66 percent success rate we found for adult users. . . . Teens’ poor performance is caused by three factors: insufficient reading skills, less sophisticated research strategies, and a dramatically lower patience level.” This is of absolutely no surprise to me. I see examples of this everyday (yesterday I had a student express gratified surprise when I showed him how easy it was to use the help function in imovie)! The next time I hear some administrator spouting off about “digital natives” I’m going to send this article.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
#$@*&^%$!!!
If you had been watching me read Anthony Bernier’s “A Case Study Like No Other: Taking the San Jose Challenge”, you would have seen me yelling at the screen, slamming my fists down on the desk, and getting up and having to count to ten. I’ve had a few days to calm down, but this discussion post is a revision of angry notes that I took as I was reading the piece. I am angry at Dan Noyes for being a lazy, irresponsible news journalist out to stupidly exploit the reputation of the King Library for ratings. I am angry at Pete Constant for being a thoughtless and possibly corrupt or opportunistic city councilman who submitted a proposal to the city council that is frankly insulting to librarians and the educated citizens of San Jose. And I hold a little resentment towards the leadership of The King Library that they haven’t fought back harder against this kind of ignorant slander. So I chose to answer Bernier’s questions that he poses at the end of his case study. First though, I’ll give you my angry notes.
As I was reading, the first thing I did was to look at Constant’s proposal. There is a very special feeling that you get when you are reading and you find that your own mind has sprinted ahead and is unknowingly following the same train of thought as that of an author. Anyone who has had this experience will understand my excitement when I found that the very part of Constant’s proposal that made me yell at the screen was the same quote that Bernier cites:
“For a temporary unblock request, the patron should make the request to a library employee, who will refer it to the IT specialist on duty. If the IT specialist determines that the site is appropriate for viewing (i.e. falls outside the appropriate filtering categories) the site will be unblocked for 24 hours.” from Pete Constant’s proposal to the San Jose City Council.
IT specialists are supposed to get to decide what is appropriate or not for people to view??? This is insulting at best and fascist at worst! I’m not saying that IT specialists aren’t proponents of intellectual freedom, in fact I think most IT specialists are. But for an enlightened and intelligent city like San Jose and more importantly a university to reduce a question of intellectual freedom to the level of spam filter (falls outside the appropriate filtering categories?!) is ludicrous and shows just how far Pete Constant is from having any sort of intellectual value system!
Ok, calm down. Let’s think about this. Why are we simply assuming that filtering is the best solution here? Has there even been an attempt to think about other possibilities? Well after reading about all of the work and thought that was put into the Joint Library agreement with the city I find that yes, other possibilities had been considered but Noyes either chose not to report them (possibly to sensationalize the story) or he never did the research himself (a measure of incompetence, in my opinion, for an investigative reporter). And while we are on the topic—why would any investigative reporter worth his or her own salt attack a library that is trying to uphold complete unfettered access to information. Yes, that means that we will have to suffer pornography, hate speech, and other abuses, but the answer to bad speech is good speech not limited speech. But I cringe even to write that because it has been said better by so many for so long that I’m flabbergasted that we are even having this tiresome rerun of a debate which is what made me think about this from an entirely different perspective. Who would gain from the King Library implementing a filtering system?
I want to examine the role that the very influential tech industry in San Jose played in Pete Constant’s proposal. How many companies that write “Filtering Software” are based in San Jose? In reading Marianne Messina’s article in Metroactive, “An Unsexy Truth: Myths and misconceptions in the debate over library filters.” We find that Secure Computing which owns “SmartFilter” the program mentioned by name in the news article does indeed have its corporate headquarters in San Jose. . . 4810 Harwood Road to be exact. Did any tech companies contribute to Constants campaign financing? Which ones? Ok, maybe this is cynical, maybe it is dead on, but my point is instead of asking this question, “At the request of the Council’s Rules Committee, the Library engaged a variety of research steps” (Bernier).
What about the news report? It is very trendy to go into libraries now with hidden cameras to “expose” this. It is absolutely exploitative journalism. If I were the San Jose’s Library director I would want to have a long talk with the ABC 7 News Director and Dan Noyes about what it means to value the Truth. On top of that if Noyes is going to attack Jane Light’s professionalism as a librarian she needs to attack his “professionalism” as a journalist!
“And the Martin Luther King Library has a problem with pornography. They have no rule against viewing photographs or full-screen sex videos from Internet sites, even with children nearby.” (Porn, Sex Crimes At Libraries http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=i_team&id=4808374)
Aside from the fact that the headline and this entire story is trying to sell sleaze and titillation as news, Noyes is passing off opinions as if they were fact—“The Martin Luther King Library has a problem with pornography.” That is an opinion! It’s one thing to get a quote from a citizen saying this; it is sloppy, lazy, and unethical for a journalist to say this themselves in their “investigative reporting.”
And what about the fact that the public library is also the university library which by definition will have very adult and controversial material. “You might recall here that
universities are among the very least likely institution to be challenged for
their collections and services.” (Bernier) Why wasn’t this a part of the news story?? That is very irresponsible journalism! Isn’t the public of San Jose more enlightened than this???
So to finally get to Bernier’s questions, “Have the complex organizational and bureaucratic resources this matter consumed been worth what will likely (though still not determined) amount to no change in library policy or practice? What are the costs of assembling and mounting such a process? How much did this process cost in terms of staff hours to research synthesize, and weigh? How much money did the meetings of the ULB cost in deliberation over the University’s side of the equation (15+ full-time faculty members)? What are the outcomes of these various processes? Who benefits and how are those benefits determined? As new professionals you should respond to these questions.”
Damn right we should respond! I think the library’s response has been too passive. The library director has done research, and investigations, and reported to boards! What about getting the right story out to the people who saw that irresponsible slander against the city’s public library and heart of the university? Instead of worrying with the ULB or even the City Council, the library should be getting the story out to the public, through other news media, through the library itself, though political action.
Anthony Bernier’s claim that “while most of the procedures thus far have been more on the Library’s terms, a more public exposure will likely also now attract and re-activate the interests that support the filtering proposal” shows very little faith in the citizens of San Jose to understand the value of intellectual freedom if given a chance to hear about the issues on an equal basis. Even Tom Sims of the San Jose Police Department doesn’t see this as a grass roots issue: “the push to filter ‘is not City Council putting this forth but a certain organization putting this forth before City Council and their concern is adult pornography.’" I think it is clear here that the problem lies in the possible public perception that came from an irresponsible news story, not with the library. An effort needs to be made to change that public perception. And I don’t believe that it would be that hard a fight. Bernier seems to fear a “silent majority” when he writes, “none of the supporters of the Councilmember’s proposal appeared at the Library Commission meeting? One answer might be that there was very little support for this proposal. But that would be naïve.” I don’t think it is naïve to believe that the majority of San Jose’s citizens are just as intelligent as most librarians and when given the full story will agree to the King Library’s original and current policy. All that is required is clear and visible opposition to this absurdity. Part of that opposition is going to be a critique of the ABC 7 News show. The library should not be intimidated by TV journalists and should ask in competing TV news media serious questions about the reporting that was done.
I’m interested in finding out the statistics behind how much ratings go up for the ABC 7 News show when the word “sex” is used in a story title, or how about simply listing the number of times ABC 7 has had a news story with the word “sex” in it.
I mean come on, as Bernier says, “complex organizational and bureaucratic resources” have been consumed which means that all of that time and money was basically spent not addressing the real problem: public perception after a lazy piece of yellow journalism. Instead of doing what is in our comfort zone, which is staying quiet and doing redundant research to prove what we already know to be true, we should be bringing the fight to Dan Noyes and Pete Constant.
As I was reading, the first thing I did was to look at Constant’s proposal. There is a very special feeling that you get when you are reading and you find that your own mind has sprinted ahead and is unknowingly following the same train of thought as that of an author. Anyone who has had this experience will understand my excitement when I found that the very part of Constant’s proposal that made me yell at the screen was the same quote that Bernier cites:
“For a temporary unblock request, the patron should make the request to a library employee, who will refer it to the IT specialist on duty. If the IT specialist determines that the site is appropriate for viewing (i.e. falls outside the appropriate filtering categories) the site will be unblocked for 24 hours.” from Pete Constant’s proposal to the San Jose City Council.
IT specialists are supposed to get to decide what is appropriate or not for people to view??? This is insulting at best and fascist at worst! I’m not saying that IT specialists aren’t proponents of intellectual freedom, in fact I think most IT specialists are. But for an enlightened and intelligent city like San Jose and more importantly a university to reduce a question of intellectual freedom to the level of spam filter (falls outside the appropriate filtering categories?!) is ludicrous and shows just how far Pete Constant is from having any sort of intellectual value system!
Ok, calm down. Let’s think about this. Why are we simply assuming that filtering is the best solution here? Has there even been an attempt to think about other possibilities? Well after reading about all of the work and thought that was put into the Joint Library agreement with the city I find that yes, other possibilities had been considered but Noyes either chose not to report them (possibly to sensationalize the story) or he never did the research himself (a measure of incompetence, in my opinion, for an investigative reporter). And while we are on the topic—why would any investigative reporter worth his or her own salt attack a library that is trying to uphold complete unfettered access to information. Yes, that means that we will have to suffer pornography, hate speech, and other abuses, but the answer to bad speech is good speech not limited speech. But I cringe even to write that because it has been said better by so many for so long that I’m flabbergasted that we are even having this tiresome rerun of a debate which is what made me think about this from an entirely different perspective. Who would gain from the King Library implementing a filtering system?
I want to examine the role that the very influential tech industry in San Jose played in Pete Constant’s proposal. How many companies that write “Filtering Software” are based in San Jose? In reading Marianne Messina’s article in Metroactive, “An Unsexy Truth: Myths and misconceptions in the debate over library filters.” We find that Secure Computing which owns “SmartFilter” the program mentioned by name in the news article does indeed have its corporate headquarters in San Jose. . . 4810 Harwood Road to be exact. Did any tech companies contribute to Constants campaign financing? Which ones? Ok, maybe this is cynical, maybe it is dead on, but my point is instead of asking this question, “At the request of the Council’s Rules Committee, the Library engaged a variety of research steps” (Bernier).
What about the news report? It is very trendy to go into libraries now with hidden cameras to “expose” this. It is absolutely exploitative journalism. If I were the San Jose’s Library director I would want to have a long talk with the ABC 7 News Director and Dan Noyes about what it means to value the Truth. On top of that if Noyes is going to attack Jane Light’s professionalism as a librarian she needs to attack his “professionalism” as a journalist!
“And the Martin Luther King Library has a problem with pornography. They have no rule against viewing photographs or full-screen sex videos from Internet sites, even with children nearby.” (Porn, Sex Crimes At Libraries http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=i_team&id=4808374)
Aside from the fact that the headline and this entire story is trying to sell sleaze and titillation as news, Noyes is passing off opinions as if they were fact—“The Martin Luther King Library has a problem with pornography.” That is an opinion! It’s one thing to get a quote from a citizen saying this; it is sloppy, lazy, and unethical for a journalist to say this themselves in their “investigative reporting.”
And what about the fact that the public library is also the university library which by definition will have very adult and controversial material. “You might recall here that
universities are among the very least likely institution to be challenged for
their collections and services.” (Bernier) Why wasn’t this a part of the news story?? That is very irresponsible journalism! Isn’t the public of San Jose more enlightened than this???
So to finally get to Bernier’s questions, “Have the complex organizational and bureaucratic resources this matter consumed been worth what will likely (though still not determined) amount to no change in library policy or practice? What are the costs of assembling and mounting such a process? How much did this process cost in terms of staff hours to research synthesize, and weigh? How much money did the meetings of the ULB cost in deliberation over the University’s side of the equation (15+ full-time faculty members)? What are the outcomes of these various processes? Who benefits and how are those benefits determined? As new professionals you should respond to these questions.”
Damn right we should respond! I think the library’s response has been too passive. The library director has done research, and investigations, and reported to boards! What about getting the right story out to the people who saw that irresponsible slander against the city’s public library and heart of the university? Instead of worrying with the ULB or even the City Council, the library should be getting the story out to the public, through other news media, through the library itself, though political action.
Anthony Bernier’s claim that “while most of the procedures thus far have been more on the Library’s terms, a more public exposure will likely also now attract and re-activate the interests that support the filtering proposal” shows very little faith in the citizens of San Jose to understand the value of intellectual freedom if given a chance to hear about the issues on an equal basis. Even Tom Sims of the San Jose Police Department doesn’t see this as a grass roots issue: “the push to filter ‘is not City Council putting this forth but a certain organization putting this forth before City Council and their concern is adult pornography.’" I think it is clear here that the problem lies in the possible public perception that came from an irresponsible news story, not with the library. An effort needs to be made to change that public perception. And I don’t believe that it would be that hard a fight. Bernier seems to fear a “silent majority” when he writes, “none of the supporters of the Councilmember’s proposal appeared at the Library Commission meeting? One answer might be that there was very little support for this proposal. But that would be naïve.” I don’t think it is naïve to believe that the majority of San Jose’s citizens are just as intelligent as most librarians and when given the full story will agree to the King Library’s original and current policy. All that is required is clear and visible opposition to this absurdity. Part of that opposition is going to be a critique of the ABC 7 News show. The library should not be intimidated by TV journalists and should ask in competing TV news media serious questions about the reporting that was done.
I’m interested in finding out the statistics behind how much ratings go up for the ABC 7 News show when the word “sex” is used in a story title, or how about simply listing the number of times ABC 7 has had a news story with the word “sex” in it.
I mean come on, as Bernier says, “complex organizational and bureaucratic resources” have been consumed which means that all of that time and money was basically spent not addressing the real problem: public perception after a lazy piece of yellow journalism. Instead of doing what is in our comfort zone, which is staying quiet and doing redundant research to prove what we already know to be true, we should be bringing the fight to Dan Noyes and Pete Constant.
Reference Librarian's Moonlighting Dream
Ok, so I was reading Twitter's Blog and came across a reference to ChaCha. Check out this video for a short explanation.
Now rather than freaking out and bewailing the fate of librarians everywhere when companies are offering information "hack" services, I think this is a great opportunity for reference librarians. If you are sitting at the reference desk answering questions from people smart enough to use the library, you might as well get double paid for your time answering questions from people who are clueless about the library but have heard of ChaCha. Here's the job description for "guides".
Now rather than freaking out and bewailing the fate of librarians everywhere when companies are offering information "hack" services, I think this is a great opportunity for reference librarians. If you are sitting at the reference desk answering questions from people smart enough to use the library, you might as well get double paid for your time answering questions from people who are clueless about the library but have heard of ChaCha. Here's the job description for "guides".
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Being a good information intermediary
Being an intermediary for domain experts
“Helping an inexperienced searcher who is knowledgeable in the general subject matter of the search but not the database, and who has had an inconclusive search result, may be among the most difficult tasks for the intermediary” (Meadow 294). Ironically enough, being a school librarian puts me in this position quite often. When I help a student with a database they are generally pretty flexible and there is a natural give and take in the research interview; however, when I am working with a teacher on a database I feel a definite tension in the interview. The threat of “not knowing something” gets in the way. . . on my part as well as theirs. I try my best to disarm this kind of thing with jokes and whatnot, but it is real. Also when a teacher has the domain expertise and is not able to find something, the immediate reaction is to believe that the database must be faulty since they know their content, History, English, Science etc. I’ve heard more than once a teacher embarrassingly say that they know they should know how to use the library better, but just haven’t had the chance to learn and now they feel too embarrassed to ask and this is even more true with databases.
Automated Search Mediation 14.4
The first thing I thought of when I read Meadow's section on automated search mediation was (forgive the nerd factor here) a Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode, 6th Season titled “Schisms”. If you are a fan, you’ll recall the episode as the one in which Troi, Riker, Geordi, Worf, and Kaminer all go to the holodeck to reconstruct their fragmented memories of an alien abduction. If you would like to boldly go, watch the scene here:
Watching it again, I realize this is more the creation of a record rather than the retrieval of one, but it is interesting to see some of the parallels to information retrieval. I like the way that they must identify attributes “metallic” rather than “wooden” and also narrow the search “Troi: computer -- show me a table... COMPUTER VOICE: There are five thousand forty-seven classifications of tables on file. Specify design parameters.” -heh
At first I remembered the computer voice taking a little more active role in their memory reconstruction, but reviewing it I see that Troi was still functioning as an intermediary in some respects to the “database.” I also like Geordi’s frustration with the “interface.”
Don’t wait for the ASK, go searching for it!
If you go into a store often a clerk will greet you and later ask you if you need any help finding anything. If you go to a restaurant a waiter will take your order, bring you your food and then ask you if everything is alright. Imagine a library that gave the service of a great restaurant. Firstly it would take a much larger staff than most libraries have, but the service could be fantastic. You walk into a library and a librarian gives you a quick tour and shows you to a comfortable seat. He or she then asks you your information need and goes to fetch you a wireless reading device, a portable DVD player, MP3 player, or laptop. While you wait, you enjoy nibbling on entertaining information bits, today’s headlines or recent Flikr photos scrolling on a Chumby. I know that this may be counter to what many think of the library, but this is certainly achievable and people will love it.
“Helping an inexperienced searcher who is knowledgeable in the general subject matter of the search but not the database, and who has had an inconclusive search result, may be among the most difficult tasks for the intermediary” (Meadow 294). Ironically enough, being a school librarian puts me in this position quite often. When I help a student with a database they are generally pretty flexible and there is a natural give and take in the research interview; however, when I am working with a teacher on a database I feel a definite tension in the interview. The threat of “not knowing something” gets in the way. . . on my part as well as theirs. I try my best to disarm this kind of thing with jokes and whatnot, but it is real. Also when a teacher has the domain expertise and is not able to find something, the immediate reaction is to believe that the database must be faulty since they know their content, History, English, Science etc. I’ve heard more than once a teacher embarrassingly say that they know they should know how to use the library better, but just haven’t had the chance to learn and now they feel too embarrassed to ask and this is even more true with databases.
Automated Search Mediation 14.4
The first thing I thought of when I read Meadow's section on automated search mediation was (forgive the nerd factor here) a Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode, 6th Season titled “Schisms”. If you are a fan, you’ll recall the episode as the one in which Troi, Riker, Geordi, Worf, and Kaminer all go to the holodeck to reconstruct their fragmented memories of an alien abduction. If you would like to boldly go, watch the scene here:
Watching it again, I realize this is more the creation of a record rather than the retrieval of one, but it is interesting to see some of the parallels to information retrieval. I like the way that they must identify attributes “metallic” rather than “wooden” and also narrow the search “Troi: computer -- show me a table... COMPUTER VOICE: There are five thousand forty-seven classifications of tables on file. Specify design parameters.” -heh
At first I remembered the computer voice taking a little more active role in their memory reconstruction, but reviewing it I see that Troi was still functioning as an intermediary in some respects to the “database.” I also like Geordi’s frustration with the “interface.”
Don’t wait for the ASK, go searching for it!
If you go into a store often a clerk will greet you and later ask you if you need any help finding anything. If you go to a restaurant a waiter will take your order, bring you your food and then ask you if everything is alright. Imagine a library that gave the service of a great restaurant. Firstly it would take a much larger staff than most libraries have, but the service could be fantastic. You walk into a library and a librarian gives you a quick tour and shows you to a comfortable seat. He or she then asks you your information need and goes to fetch you a wireless reading device, a portable DVD player, MP3 player, or laptop. While you wait, you enjoy nibbling on entertaining information bits, today’s headlines or recent Flikr photos scrolling on a Chumby. I know that this may be counter to what many think of the library, but this is certainly achievable and people will love it.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
I'd like to tax you for my personal information infrastructure
My personal information infrastructure
“Taken together, these types of knowledge, skills, and attitudes compose our personal information infrastructure” (Marchionini p. 61). I thought it might be interesting to actually reflect on my own PII if you can forgive yet another acronym. I feel like so much of what we are reading stays in the abstract or feels so barren of real life that I have this continual urge to humanize the concepts that we cover. Formally I have knowledge and skills in English language and literature and I’m developing my knowledge and skills in library and information science. Do problem domains map out to the DDC subject headings or the LC subject headings? I have knowledge and skills for the search system and setting of our school library, the Gale databases, and the World Wide Web but they are still developing. My attitude is the strongest element of my personal information infrastructure. I’m very curious, I am no stranger to ambiguity and uncertainty, and I have a lot of confidence and tenacity when it comes to looking for information.
Studies of professional information seekers
“One approach is to use the various online searching patterns, strategies, and tactics identified in studies of professional online searchers to create systems that optimize thos activities.” (Marchionini p. 75) What struck me about this quote was the idea of doing studies of professional searchers. Reading Marchionini’s observation that journalists, librarians, and detectives are all engaged in the same general activity, stimulated me to wonder what it would be like to follow and observe information seeking professionals at work. I would love to shadow several different professionals as they engage an information problem. I imagine that at the “move” level of granularity there would be much difference between even individuals in the same field, but I also imagine that as we move up to the coarser levels we would see some of the same patterns showing up.
Recording my own information seeking process
In an attempt to understand this more I want to try to record my own moves, tactics, strategies and patterns as I encounter different information needs. I’m just not sure what the best way of doing this would be. I can see keeping a small tape recorder with me and then as a student asks me for help, or a teacher needs some information, or if I need to know something take the time to turn on the recorder and try to describe my thoughts as I go. I wonder what an information seeking diary would look like after just a week? Would the process of recording and reflecting on moves, tactics, strategies, and patterns change that very process? How many case-studies are already out there describing the processes that professional information seekers engage in?
“Taken together, these types of knowledge, skills, and attitudes compose our personal information infrastructure” (Marchionini p. 61). I thought it might be interesting to actually reflect on my own PII if you can forgive yet another acronym. I feel like so much of what we are reading stays in the abstract or feels so barren of real life that I have this continual urge to humanize the concepts that we cover. Formally I have knowledge and skills in English language and literature and I’m developing my knowledge and skills in library and information science. Do problem domains map out to the DDC subject headings or the LC subject headings? I have knowledge and skills for the search system and setting of our school library, the Gale databases, and the World Wide Web but they are still developing. My attitude is the strongest element of my personal information infrastructure. I’m very curious, I am no stranger to ambiguity and uncertainty, and I have a lot of confidence and tenacity when it comes to looking for information.
Studies of professional information seekers
“One approach is to use the various online searching patterns, strategies, and tactics identified in studies of professional online searchers to create systems that optimize thos activities.” (Marchionini p. 75) What struck me about this quote was the idea of doing studies of professional searchers. Reading Marchionini’s observation that journalists, librarians, and detectives are all engaged in the same general activity, stimulated me to wonder what it would be like to follow and observe information seeking professionals at work. I would love to shadow several different professionals as they engage an information problem. I imagine that at the “move” level of granularity there would be much difference between even individuals in the same field, but I also imagine that as we move up to the coarser levels we would see some of the same patterns showing up.
Recording my own information seeking process
In an attempt to understand this more I want to try to record my own moves, tactics, strategies and patterns as I encounter different information needs. I’m just not sure what the best way of doing this would be. I can see keeping a small tape recorder with me and then as a student asks me for help, or a teacher needs some information, or if I need to know something take the time to turn on the recorder and try to describe my thoughts as I go. I wonder what an information seeking diary would look like after just a week? Would the process of recording and reflecting on moves, tactics, strategies, and patterns change that very process? How many case-studies are already out there describing the processes that professional information seekers engage in?
Monday, April 7, 2008
The Archivist by Martha Cooley
An unlikely protagonist (or is it antagonist?) named, Matthias Lane, a “grey-mustached” 60year old archivist overseeing “The Mason Room”, (presumably the rare-books and manuscripts room at Princeton) narrates The Archivist. The central conflict begins when an attractive grad student and poet named Roberta Spire comes to Matt and says, “I want . . . to read the Emily Hale letters.” Unfortunately this is impossible since the love letters by Emily Hale to T.S. Eliot are unavailable to the public until 2020 at the bequest of Hale. And thus begins a beautiful battle of wills between the librarian, Matt and the poet, Roberta. Matt’s initial response is an unqualified “No”, but he is intrigued because grey-green eyed Roberta reminds him of his dead wife Judith. The novel then splits into point and counterpoint chapters, one thread describing Matt’s memories of Judith’s slow decent into obsession and depression and the other his interactions with the passionate and persistent Roberta, the only person able to get him to admit his wife’s suicide. Over-arching all of this are Matt’s insightful biographical observations of T.S. Eliot’s relationship with Emily Hale.
This is a psychologically intense story revealing the background of the solitary Matthias, Judith and her paranoid obsession with the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, Matt’s alcoholic father and overly religious mother, Judith’s activist parents who were killed when she was an infant, Judith’s emotionally distant aunt and uncle who raised her. But the psychological depth does not just reside with our librarian and his wife. On Roberta’s side, we learn of her passionate curiosity about Eliot’s conversion, and the reasons for her own parents’ self-protective conversion from Judaism to Christianity. Of course this triangle of Matt, his wife Judith and Roberta explores and echoes the historical triangle between T.S. Eliot, his wife Vivienne and Emily Hale.
Matthias Lane certainly falls under several of the librarian stereotypes, but I did find him to be a psychologically realistic character. He fits the librarian stereotypes on the surface, but Cooley is an astute enough observer of humanity to show the complexities that simmer just beneath Matthias’s stereotypical skin. He is the male counter-part to the Crone/Old Maid. Rather he is an Old Widower, an elderly white male, essentially emphasizing his sexless-ness. Yet there is certainly subtle flirtation and a sexual tension between he and Roberta as she pushes to get access to the Hale letters and he rebuffs her attempts (a sort of reversal of the male/female courtship pattern). He is the gatekeeper (one of several in the novel) to the letters and in this he is the stereotypical Enforcer. But again Cooley undermines this stereotype and shows Mathias’s psychological complexity as we learn that he has indeed read the letters and isn’t above breaking the rules of the Mason Room, as we find in the unexpected resolution. Matthias is certainly a Representative of Civilization and Culture appreciating good food, wine, jazz and of course literature, and he is indeed an Intellectual (contrary to our lecture’s contention that male librarians aren’t accorded the same kind of intelligence) making unforgettable observations such as, “existence is infinitely cross-referenced.”
As to why Cooley chose a librarian, an archivist for this particular character’s persona, it is readily apparent that this was an organic choice grown out of Cooley’s passion and interest in the relationship of T.S. Eliot and Emily Hale. An archivist must be a solitary creature or at least not feel threatened by working alone, and “aloneness” is one of the Viet motifs that Cooley explores. Matthias’s occupation is not simply ornamentation for an interesting character, it defines him . . . and the novel. There are many examples throughout the novel that Cooley has experienced the library as a working environment, specifically Matt’s conversations with his supervisor Edith. Her complaints about the board and the onerous responsibility of overseeing grad-students gives one the sense that Cooley has sat in on or overheard these kinds of conversations before.
Overall this is an impressive first novel, and a surprisingly good read despite some of the more grueling descriptions of Judith’s depression and life in the mental ward.
This is a psychologically intense story revealing the background of the solitary Matthias, Judith and her paranoid obsession with the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, Matt’s alcoholic father and overly religious mother, Judith’s activist parents who were killed when she was an infant, Judith’s emotionally distant aunt and uncle who raised her. But the psychological depth does not just reside with our librarian and his wife. On Roberta’s side, we learn of her passionate curiosity about Eliot’s conversion, and the reasons for her own parents’ self-protective conversion from Judaism to Christianity. Of course this triangle of Matt, his wife Judith and Roberta explores and echoes the historical triangle between T.S. Eliot, his wife Vivienne and Emily Hale.
Matthias Lane certainly falls under several of the librarian stereotypes, but I did find him to be a psychologically realistic character. He fits the librarian stereotypes on the surface, but Cooley is an astute enough observer of humanity to show the complexities that simmer just beneath Matthias’s stereotypical skin. He is the male counter-part to the Crone/Old Maid. Rather he is an Old Widower, an elderly white male, essentially emphasizing his sexless-ness. Yet there is certainly subtle flirtation and a sexual tension between he and Roberta as she pushes to get access to the Hale letters and he rebuffs her attempts (a sort of reversal of the male/female courtship pattern). He is the gatekeeper (one of several in the novel) to the letters and in this he is the stereotypical Enforcer. But again Cooley undermines this stereotype and shows Mathias’s psychological complexity as we learn that he has indeed read the letters and isn’t above breaking the rules of the Mason Room, as we find in the unexpected resolution. Matthias is certainly a Representative of Civilization and Culture appreciating good food, wine, jazz and of course literature, and he is indeed an Intellectual (contrary to our lecture’s contention that male librarians aren’t accorded the same kind of intelligence) making unforgettable observations such as, “existence is infinitely cross-referenced.”
As to why Cooley chose a librarian, an archivist for this particular character’s persona, it is readily apparent that this was an organic choice grown out of Cooley’s passion and interest in the relationship of T.S. Eliot and Emily Hale. An archivist must be a solitary creature or at least not feel threatened by working alone, and “aloneness” is one of the Viet motifs that Cooley explores. Matthias’s occupation is not simply ornamentation for an interesting character, it defines him . . . and the novel. There are many examples throughout the novel that Cooley has experienced the library as a working environment, specifically Matt’s conversations with his supervisor Edith. Her complaints about the board and the onerous responsibility of overseeing grad-students gives one the sense that Cooley has sat in on or overheard these kinds of conversations before.
Overall this is an impressive first novel, and a surprisingly good read despite some of the more grueling descriptions of Judith’s depression and life in the mental ward.
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