random ramblings

Going to Zinefest last week was more proof that my LIS classes are taking over my brain, since everything I saw there connected in some way to ideas in library studies.  First of all, it was exciting to experience the community there for a short time.  It seems that networks like the zine scene are few and far between, at least in my life.  My experience growing up in Iowa has been that the art and music scenes are scattered and shared between several mid-sized towns (like Iowa City, Des Moines, the Quad Cities, Madison).  Even the larger mid-western cities seem to share scenes, as evidenced by the large number of Zinefest attendees from Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Chicago. 

It was great to see all these artists and authors physically converge on College Library and putting themselves out there in their self-published magazines and mini-comics.  To me, the act of zine-making and distributing takes more backbone than blogging, even though blogs are likely to reach more people.  Blogging is virtually anonymous.  I can delete negative comments if I wish.  Zines typically require a face-to-face connection to hand off works, or if not then may involve receiving a lovely hand-lettered package in the mail, ordered through a site like Etsy (I think I've made it clear how I feel about physical works of art or music, so I'll spare you the same old speech).  The by-product of this social interaction is a system of supporters, collaborators, consumers (or traders), and friends.  I fear I may be getting too starry-eyed about all of this, but it made me realize just how much I crave that kind of community and socialization when I spend so much of my time online. 

One of the most interesting things presented at Zinefest was the Queer Zine Archive Project, or QZAP.  The presenter told us how he and his partner had taken it upon themselves to collect and digitize zines about GLBTQ issues.  It's great to see that people who are passionate about a specific type of zine have the foresight to gather and preserve obscure but important literature and artwork for future generations.  In the interest of fairness and accuracy, I think it's important that these voices find a way into history.  Zine creators have found a means to communicate outside the restraints of mainstream publishing in the same way that blogs have provided a place to be heard for so many.  I made the initial mistake of thinking that zines are like blogs.  No, blogs are like zines in the sense that they can provide agency to those who might not otherwise be heard.

illustration from Wave by Suzy Lee

photo from weheartbooks.com

Libraries: Digital, electronic, and hybrid 
by D.D. Rusch-Feja

My initial sense when reading this article was that it lacked a human element.  However, as I continued I tried to take the perspective that the complex systems outlined are the basis for user-friendly virtual libraries.  That said, I did appreciate the concept of the "life cycle" of digital libraries: "'from information creation, access and use, to archiving and presentation'".  I know that all libraries go through such a cycle, but digital librarians face unique challenges as they attempt to keep pace with the internet, an issue that Johnson also raised when she wrote of attempting to save rapidly changing and disappearing web content.  I had a momentary mental image of a tsunami-sized wall of information about to crash over librarians armed with buckets, trying to scoop up the information and whisk it away into relevant and usable organizational format.  That involves discernment of quality and worth, an act that seems subjective and sticky, as in Johnson's discussion of the papers of Joe Hamburger.  I have more to learn about archiving and how it relates to library collection management.

Traces: Document, record, archive, archives
by Sue McKemmish

I liked way that "Traces" placed archiving within a more human context.  When archivers are described as keepers of stories it gives their work a mystical bend--not that archiving involves anything resembling magic, but it demonstrates archiving's a purpose on a grander scale. 

I had never before thought of archiving in the broadest sense, as preservation of anything--the environment, architecture, and so forth.  The chapter also stretched my understanding of what can actually be archived.  I had always thought of archiving as keeping intentionally-created items such as books or websites, and not so much preserving the "traces" of events, like photographs, recordings, and news reports.  "Traces" also impressed on me the great responsibility placed on archivists since there must be a very deliberate hand in selecting (or discarding) records which in turn shapes the "social and organizational structures of remembering and forgetting" (17).  The way in which information is selected, classified, and organized sends a specific message that could be used for good or ill.  This conjures images of history being rewritten in 1984, but in the case of archiving the facts do not need rewriting, only careful retention and deletion, classification and labeling. 

 Libraries
by Christine Pawley

It is incredible to me how relatively quickly libraries have evolved from simple collections to multimedia hybrids.  Librarians' list of tasks have also grown.  Every day I see my school's media specialist taking on technology tasks that fall to no one else.  In the public schools, I have observed the tug-of-war between buying physical materials versus digital services.  In many cases, as I'm sure is the case in libraries as well, we'd like to have the best of both worlds. 

Information Science
by Tefko Saracevic

It makes sense that information science is interdisciplinary because of the interdisciplinary nature of libraries themselves.  It is interesting to see how information science correlates to information literacy, the topic of my other course this semester.  I think information literacy is what a person has when they have mastered the basics of information science.  Also, both information literacy and science deal with computer literacy and science, but are do not solely involve technology.  The article added to my understanding of information and how to qualify it--the value of information is based on the difference the information makes in one's decision-making process.  Information, like information science and literacy, are broad and abstract terms, but perhaps rightly so, since the work of librarians and the tasks of libraries are ever-changing.  The aspects of information literacy that interest me are practical applications in social and educational settings, which is not surprising as I'm on my way to school librarianship.