Labor Day Weekend

September 8th, 2009

Labor Day Weekend was a nice escape from all the pressure and work that I have been tackling through this semester, however it was not without its drawback…the main drawback being professors still left plenty to be done during this weekend. I split up the work and tackled it little by little, between a day at the beach or between sleeping hours I would read here and do a homework assignment there. Overall though, there was just so much that it just piled itself on me and although the weekend was relaxing and a nice break, coming back from it was not very nice. Quizzes waited for me to take them and thankfully they are now over and I can finally take a breath until tomorrow morning when I will be back on the grind. There were things going on all over town, maybe the most eventful Labor Day that I have ever seen. I visited a few beaches, a few friends houses, laughed tons, and really just tried to enjoy the break which has sadly now come to an end.

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North Carolina’s Public Libraries

September 7th, 2009

As a former employee of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, I was delighted when Amy Rudersdorf, director of the Digital Information Management Program at the State Library of North Carolina, informed me of their digital collection on North Carolina's public libraries. The collection is entitled "Transforming the Tar Heel State: The Legacy of Public Libraries in North Carolina" and it is located here. The collection consists of scans of the State Library of North Carolina's Public Library History Files and images contributed by cooperating public libraries around the state. It also contains histories of many of the libraries. With hundreds of digital projects being conducted by libraries throughout the nation, it is unfortunate that there are not more projects that focus on the history of libraries. The State Library of North Carolina is to be commended for its contribution to the appreciation and preservation of our nation's library heritage.The postcard above shows the Carnegie library building in Charlotte which has been razed.

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Song of the Library Staff

September 5th, 2009

Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911), Librarian of the Somerville (Massachusetts) Public Library from1898 to 1911, was also a popular poet. At the 1906 Annual Meeting of the American Library Association, he read his poem entitled "The Song of the Library Staff". The poem has five stanzas each devoted to a different staff position. The stanza below is about the cataloger.

Oh, joy! to see the Library staff perpetually jogging,
And to see the Cataloger in the act of cataloging.
("Catalogs - Log-books for cattle," was the school-boy's definition,-
A statment not to be despised for insight and precision)
Every language spoke at Babel in the books that pile her table,
Every theme discussed since Adam -- song or story, fact or fable!
And she sweetly takes all knowledge for her province, as did Bacon,
All the fruit that's dropped and mellowed since
the Knowledge tree was shaken,
All the ologies of the college, all the isms of the schools,
All the unassorted knowledges she assorts by Cutter's rules;
Or tags upon each author in large labels that are gluey
Their place in Thought's great Pantheon in decimals of Dewey;
Oh, joy! to see the Library staff perpetually jogging.
And to see the Cataloger in the act of cataloging.

The poem illustrated by Merle Johnson was published in 1906 by John R. Anderson. The Library Alcoves and Other Library Writings by Sam Walter Foss selected and edited by Norman Stevens was published by McFarland in 1987. The poem was also included in Songs of the Average Man by Foss which was published in 1907. His most popular poem was "The House by the Side of the Road". There is a good article by historian J. Dennis Robinson on Foss which he wrote for SeacoastNH.com.

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Congressional Testimony Mashup!

September 4th, 2009

Check this out: it’s a new opera called “The Gonzales Cantata” based on the testimony of Alberto Gonzales, the former U.S. attorney general, before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Here’s a trailer of the opera, featuring Gonzales’ quote, “I don’t recall”:

See a webcast of the actual hearing at http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=2632

For a brief interview of the composer, Melissa Dunphy, see this Wall Street Journal article.

Find out more about Gleeson Library’s government information collection by visiting our homepage or contacting Carol Spector (the Government Information Librarian) at csspectorusfca.edu.