Man Booker and the Seven Deadly Sins

The following is an excerpt from the user manual for a textbase L. and I made our first semester in library school. It was written tongue-in-cheek, so please read it as such.

Man Booker and the Seven Deadly Sins:

a meta-analysis of the themes of Man Booker award-winning novels, as viewed

through the lens of the Seven Deadly Sins

The Man Booker Prize is awarded annually to a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations or the Republic of Ireland for a work of fiction. Established in 1968, it is the most prestigious English-language literary award. Even novels that did not win but were considered (“shortlisted”) become successful.

This textbase is intended to be used by university students of English literature. Who else would be more in need of the ability to search Man Booker Prize winners, than English majors?  Possible research themes in our textbase include comparing authors’ country of residency with the setting of their books; demographic changes in prize winners (e.g. country of residence); changes in literary themes and writing styles over the years. From serious students researching current English-language fiction, to ambitious students dreaming of becoming the next Margaret Atwood, our textbase has useful information for English majors.

We noticed a lot of negative themes like revenge, murder and extramarital affairs. This is true of great literature the world over – Anna Karenina, Quo Vadis, The Odyssey, East of Eden…the most ecumenical experience is suffering. Dark-themed literature tends to speak to more people than stories of happy families and well-adjusted individuals. The Seven Deadly Sins presented us with a ready-made set of keywords. We went through the records and assigned books to their applicable sins.

Some stories did have happier themes, like triumphing over adversity or acceptance of one’s life. Drawing from the Catholic tradition of Seven Contrary Virtues (which contrast directly with the Seven Deadly Sins), we added applicable virtues in order to recognize the few positive themes in this collection. There are also larger plot arcs identified (e.g. politics, family discord, loss), providing a meta-analysis of the sort of fiction that has won the Man Booker Prize. The identified sins, virtues and plot arcs make up the controlled vocabulary for this textbase and can be found in the thesaurus at the end of this manual. We have provided both basic and advanced search options.

…

Sample natural language search:

Sample advanced controlled language search:

…

Our colour scheme adds character without straining the eyes. The modern font used for “Man Booker” was chosen to complement the modern logo of the Prize, while the calligraphic font used for “and the 7 Deadly Sins” was chosen because it looked dark and evil. Since our textbase is, by nature, very textual, we thought having a visual of one of the deadly sins was appropriate and added a nice ambience to the main menu.

Since we feel that separate textbases for author information versus book information would be useful for relational searches of overarching themes, we intentionally “left the door open” for a later inclusion of this feature.

MLIS

So…the MLIS has been officially granted! Convocation is not until June 6^th, but my transcript reads: Master of Library & Info St Granted:  May 2012.

This past weekend I was at Kent State University attending their Conference on Information and Religion. Two faculty members at their library school are former ministers. Several years ago the then-director said to them, “How many library schools have two professors who used to be ministers? You should do something with this.” So they founded the Center for the Study of Information and Religion.

I was there presenting a poster and was so nervous at first… “My poster looks so hokey next to the others.” “Did I come to the right conclusions in my research?” “Oh my goodness, what am I even doing here!” Fortunately I was able to regain objectivity and after a while I was more relaxed.

Overall I enjoyed the conference very much. One presenter talked about appraising records for a religious archives. She had recently helped her synagogue start their own archives and talked about the differences between secular and religious archives – on one level, records are records, but on another level, you are trying to document the intangible. Religious records contain evidential value but also symbolic value that demonstrates belief.

Another presenter talked about Hymnary.org, a non-subscription hymn database. I was impressed, not just as a church musician, but also having studied taxonomies and faceted searching. Hymnary presents many facets by which to search, including the incipit of a melody. You type in the notes or solfège. Isn’t that neat?

Myths of Digitization and Paper

I am not anti-digitization – I appreciate it. But there a lot of limitations and it seems people are largely unaware of them.

Recently I was listening to two librarians discuss their work in eScholarship at a university library. This is not a critique of them or their work. They themselves mentioned many limitations of digitization – the main one being accessibility and migration.

Over the past 10-15 years we have seen remarkable changes in technology. When I was in high school we used diskettes. In university we switched to CDs and then to USB keys. What did you do with the work you had saved to diskettes? Did you print it and save it on paper? Did you migrate it to another digital format? Did you make sure you had a computer with a disk drive so you could read it?

Myth 1: Digitization is a great method of preservation

Digitization is a helpful auxiliary to your paper records or print holdings. It reduces wear and tear on older print versions, such as that yearbook from 1912. Need to consult a thesis in a library far away? Being able to consult the digital version is very convenient.

The issue is making sure to migrate all your e-content when the technology changes…and becomes obsolete. Because it will. And migration will be expensive. The example I always hear is, “Remember ‘Word Perfect?’ Can you still access documents saved in that format?”

At their university, theses and dissertations are no longer printed and stored in the library. The version of record is electronic. They do get backed up – onto tape and stored off-site (seriously – microfilm is very stable). They are stored in PDF-A – that is the current archival quality technology. Operative word being “current.” So what happens when some new format comes out and our computers can no longer access PDF-As? Is their library prepared to spend a ton of money and time migrating all its theses and dissertations?

I wonder why this decision was made, instead of continuing to print them and using digitization as an auxiliary medium. Sounds to me like digitization for digitization’s sake.

Digital formats are not that stable. Acid-free paper (not newsprint) is remarkably stable, as is microfilm. The two most stable media for long-term preservation…and we are moving away from them. Smart.

Myth 2: We’ll save space and money by digitizing everything

Creating born-digital records is one thing. Digitizing paper records is very expensive.

Myth 3: Paper is a fire hazard

Digital media can succumb to fire, too. Use them to back up important paper records and store them in a separate place.

Myth 4: Paper can get wet

So can computers. And while wet paper documents can be salvaged, I don’t think electronic media is that flexible. We had a flood at the Archives in September. When paper documents get wet, the main issue is making sure the ink doesn’t run. So you freeze them to stop the ink from running. And then you freeze-dry them to remove the water (this prevents the paper from getting crinkly).

Myth 5: Print versions waste trees

The “paperless office” is an oxymoron. We actually use more paper now, often from printing everything out, or from using more paper than necessary to get a job done. Case in point: the town clerk where I grew up used to type out vehicle registrations on little slips of paper. Then she switched to typing them on a computer and printing them out. I really don’t need a full sheet of paper to prove my car is registered. What a waste.

Tales Out of Library School

Inside jokes abound in every profession. A fellow student posted these “bad archives session titles” today, taken from http://www.archivesnext.com/?p=2116. From the website (some titles have been removed in the name of decency):
How did this start? I think I tweeted about a session here at ACA called “Pimp My Finding Aid” and that inspired @nnn to set it off. Presented here, for your amusement, with the names stripped out in case someone in a future hiring position doesn’t have a sense of humor, are the #badarchivessessiontitles tweets so far:
Real Housewives of the National Archives

Eating in the Processing Room: I’m Lovin’ It.

Fonds of Steel

Three Dutch Archivists Walk Into A Bar…: What we can learn from Muller, Feith, and Fruin

Tales From the Crypt: Working in Cemetery Archives

Original Order: Special Victims Unit

Buffy the Vinegar Syndrome Slayer

Stripper, Drugdealer, Doctor: Lucrative Alternatives to Being an Archivist

Show Me The Money: The State of American Archives, Presented by Klaus

Silverfish: Pests or handy deaccessioners?

Miscellaneous Topics

Celebrating the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War: Aren’t We Sick of this Yet?

Beyond Rock, Paper, and Scissors: Creative Appraisal

You are what you EAD.

Community Archives and Digital Preservation: Cut it out, you guys that’s our job.

O RLY? YA RLY: LOLspeak for finding aids

The 10% Rule: That’s what we call “Archives Power”

Lacquer?! I don’t even know her!: Identifying audio materials in your archives

Get out of here and stop touching our things: How to deal with users

Is It Hot in Here or Is It Just Me?: Caring for Your HVAC System

Oops!…Oh, Well. Nobody Will Probably Ever Know It Was *Your* Coffee Mug Ring: True Processing Confessions

Just Call It Misc! : MPLP In Action

Archives 180: Then, Now, Meh

Do, Make, Say, Think…Archive? It’s what you do!: New Youth Media Campaigns to Recruit a Hip, Attentive Workforce

Oot and Aboot: Archival Outreach in Canada

Because We Think You’re Gullible: Baby Boomer Retirements and Archives Job Opportunities

Extreme Archives Makeover: MPLP Edition

Survivor: the Basement

Backup? We Don’t Need No Stinking Backup: Neo-Jenkinsonian Approaches to Digital Archives

Exploding the myths about nitrate film

There’s Always Room for One More: Accessioning Irrelevant Collections

Improving the past: altering historic documents for fun and profit

What’s past is prolonged: delaying inconvenient research requests

When you just don’t have a clue: Creating Miscellaneous Folders

Crack In The Stacks: How Selling Drugs Can Increase Funding AND Morale

“Hey- I’m sitting here with 3 lawyers who have records management questions…” How bad archival Fridays end

Everything is Miscellaneous: How to lose donors and alienate patrons without really trying

Pull the Plug: Managing Electronic Records in Small Archives

No One Cares about Your Ancestors: Providing Reference Services to Genealogists

“Ignorance is Bliss: Putting It In a Box Counts As Appraisal”

Obsolete technology: Sisyphus in the Stacks

News clippings collections: to mulch or compost?

Archival Ethics: Why Bother?

Weed ‘em and reap: selling off your most valuable records

Rectum? Damn Near Killed ‘Em: A Perspective from the Medical Archives

From Inclusive Dates to Bulk Dates: A Dating Guide for Archivists

But I already Googled it!: Getting useful responses from #thatdarnlist

The Weakest Linked Data

If They Only Had a Brain: Teaching Users How to Handle Archival Materials

International Archival Standards & Terminology: It’s All Greek to Me!

Juste Pour Rire

I am writing this in the library because I started laughing audibly and the girl two desks down gave me A Look, so I decided to take a break and meander over to the computers.

I was reading for my Knowledge Management class and this week we are discussing organizational culture. When you practice KM, it is very important to understand the culture of the organization you are working with, because in order for change to last and become permanent, people have to internalize it and this means their culture has to change. [ETA 2015: Not necessarily. In fact, it’s better for KM to fit around the organizational culture to begin with. I just didn’t realize that at the time.]

Organizational culture per se is not a funny topic – it was reading a paragraph about the role of stories and anecdotes in transmitting culture to new employees, and then remembering some from my last job, that made me laugh loudly enough for forcible exile from my study carrel. Right up until a week before school started I worked in customer service at YBP Library Services (a book vendor). This is the anecdote in question:

“K. and S. have great stories about the old times here at YBP, when everyone sat surrounded by huge piles of paper and smoked cigarettes like Keith Richards.”

Tidy Up!

In doing my Archival reading I came across this gem in a case study:

“Initially, the old files were stored on open shelving, then in boxes, and later it appears that staff just opened the door and threw the old files into the room.”

Kind of reminds me of my college dorm room. It was like there was an invisible fence between my side and Roommate’s side – hers was clean and mine had papers all over it. Technically mine was clean, too – it just wasn’t tidy :) A big congratulations to Roommate, who is getting married on Friday! Wish I could be there!

gratitude

This week we had midterms :(
But now they are over :)

That’s definitely something to be grateful for!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Follow That Tattooed Librarian

One day this past spring my sister and I were listening to an interview on the radio. The woman being interviewed was Marilyn Johnson, who wrote This Book is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All (HarperCollins Publishers, 2010). Before I left for library school my sister gave me a copy. It’s so funny! I love the author’s writing style, very smooth, light, and funny. Especially Chapter 5, “Follow That Tattooed Librarian,” an excerpt of which is given below:

By and large, [librarians] are cat people, not dog people. Librarians’ favorite wall decorations are posters of the goofy “LOLcats,” adorable cat pictures with misspelled legends: I Can Has Cheezburger? or drunk dial kitteh callin u at 2 am. Is it the misspellings that crack them up?

As a breed, librarians tend to share a sense of humor that is quirky, sardonic, and full of wordplay […]

 

Salvete!

I’ve decided to keep a blog about my experience at library school. This is my first year in the Masters of Library and Information Studies program and I have chosen to specialize in Archival Studies.

The Tabularium was a building in the Roman forum housing the Roman Public Record Office. This was where the state archives were held, including deeds, laws, treaties, and Senate decrees. It was built in 78 BC (http://en.museicapitolini.org/percorsi/percorsipersale/tabularium). I thought it would make a neat name for my blog (if you know me, you know I like Latin and history and all things old).

I am taking four courses: Information System Design (right now we are learning to build a database); Information and Society (“an introduction to the world of information, documents and information agencies from a historical and social perspective”); Archival Principles and Practice (pretty much what it sounds like); and Knowledge Management Foundations (extra credit will given for those who look up one of the many KM definitions).

I joined the our student chapter of the Association of Canadian Archivists and am one of the two first-year student representatives.

That’s it for now!