the real intersection of knowledge and power?

Inside Higher Ed :: Silence in the Stacks

Recent posts here might lead one to think I am a Marxist. I am not--they threw me out early on, and I was merely curious. From my vague recollections of political philosophy, I think I am a utopian socialist. From each...to each, etc. Even if there is no utopia, not even in speculative fiction.

Aside: Wikipedia says

Utopian Socialists were important in the formation of modern movements for intentional community and cooperatives, such as Open Source and Techno Communism.

Cool, though apparently the big thinkers were 18th and early nineteenth century.

I need to poke holes in McLemee's ideas. First off, I don't see the need for one academic librarian/s' blog to define the genre. The blogosphere is about many, many voices, as many as possible, each adding their notes to a glorious polyphonic choir. OK, some of the notes are clankers. We readers get to pick out the strains that interest us most, and add our voices. /overblown analogy

I can easily think of six interesting blogs by academic librarians:

Catalogablog
Caveat Lector
diglet
Dilettante's Ball
Information Wants To Be Free
j's scratchpad

I didn't even make it to the "L"s. LISNews has an academic library section. I cannot believe anyone who does not read LISNews qualifies as "kept up." But I think you need to read all the sections if you really want to keep up.

The six blogs I've listed cover cataloging, digitization, information literacy, newspapers--among my interests. I, however, am not an academic librarian. I think I can learn from all types of libraries. On high-falutin' days, I think an academic librarian might find something worth reading in B-cubed. Our collective experiences can and should be used to inform us, and policymakers, and funders, and our publics. In fact, I even follow some non-librarian blogs. I doubt the bloggers of BoingBoing think of how their work can inform librarians. I know I am not the only librarian to read it. Applying a librarian lens to BoingBoing? I know librarians who claim reading People is important to their jobs. I think they probably have a point; not knowing who many many celebs are does slow me down at the reference desk sometimes. But I tell myself I have other strong points; I am not reading People. But I will continue to read blogs; I'm still sampling broadly. Eventually the blogroll and I may settle down.