I was prepared to log-in to my madcat account and search LexisNexis and track down serious news articles about libraries in the the United States of America's first state to accept the US Constitution--Delaware. Much was my relief when I discovered that I had to provide links to the articles and thus exempting me from a thoughtful search through proprietary databases in favor of the short-but-sweet articles typically found online. Delaware is one of the least populated states and as such library activities in Dover, their capital and a little over twice the size of Middleton, affects much the rest of the state.Wilmington, the largest city, is part of the megalopolis that runs from Richmond, Virginia up to Boston but is still less than half the size of the City of Madison so it too has a comparatively small town feel.
The first article is a terse account of the Greater Dover Committee pledging their "support" for an under construction public library on Loockerman St. This 20+ year old committee of business executives has charged itself with no greater a duty than to "improve the quality of life for the people of central Delaware" and considers this library the perfect sort of expenditure for them. Going back into early modern Europe it has been customary for the wealthy and privileged do donate a portion of their wealth to the betterment of their community. A Marxist would say they are simply diverting attention from their disproportionate possession of wealth while producing nothing meaningful for it. A Libertarian would see this as a model for what should be privately funded libraries across the country and install coin slots for story time. And a Tea Bagger forgets that a progressive income tax let's them write donations off whereas a flat tax wouldn't. Those who would like to be involved in the library committee are asked to call the director, Margaret Cyr. Yes--a woman in an administrative position.
For the sake of discussion I'd like to say that while state lines are convenient to understand what citizen is entitled to what rights and laws, the meanings of borders in megalopolises like on the eastern seaboard is relatively meaningless. I mean, Joe Biden commuted to D.C. when he was a senator. If someone can go from D.C. to Wilmington like you hop on the bus, flu shots in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Delaware County immediately north of the largest city in the state should count for something. These last three sentences do not count towards the 750 word minimum. (But that one, and this, does)
The third (or second) article concerns the discovery of 81 images by photographer Earl Brooks in the Delaware Museum Archives. Perhaps bespeaking of localist keywords and signs known to natives but not us (read: Traces) the article cautions the reader that no landscapes were found. Unlike Wisconsin's own H.H. Bennett this fellow Brooks does not have his own Wikipedia page. Also found was a portrait of a member of the DuPont family. Wilmington has a long history of corporatism since it usually had the laxest business laws and the DuPonts gave them a chemical support industry as a legacy. When better living through chemistry was all the rage I suspect that suited Delaware just fine.
On Wednesday September 22nd the University of Delaware will hold a workshop "Transition to RefWorks 2.0" to train patrons on the use of RefWorks, the reference manager that allows people to easily control their database work and facilitate easier research, but unfortunately it's only for people already familiar with RefWorks. Classes "Introduction", "Citing Using APA and RefWorks", and "Beyond the Basics" will be available over the next month and be taught by various reference personnel. As basic information is readily available on the Web and more people believe that everything is on the Internet it is imperative that librarians display their expertise as information specialists even as many people joke that books will go the way of the steamcar and the evening newspaper. Ignoring the idealistic duty that librarians have to those who can't afford a Kindle or Internet access, they have a legitimate claim to drudging through the informational muck that greater access has created. The Harris article about cataloger de-skilling made a remark of coming changes for reference personnel but their longevity increases the more they remind users they don't innately know this field better than someone who does it for a living and provide useful services like reference control.
Sadly I found no easily attainable articles on minorities and libraries but I suspect the reason is that the Internet news is not a suitable medium for a discussion of racial disparities in arcane library literature. A third of the readings (at least in part) concerned racism. A fourth discussed sexism. Just under half the total articles so far were hard to relate at a meaningful level to the news bites available on websites with linkable pages.
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