The Library Time Travel Conference

I was at an interesting conference recently.  There was a panel featuring Henry David Thoreau, famed naturalist and Walden Pond resident.  William Shakespeare,bard, joined us as did Melville Dewey, inventor and librarian, and Mark Twain, the noted writer and essayist.  The panel also included  50 cent, the noted rapper.  The topic was books, education, and how to present these two topics most effectively.


Moderator:  Henry David, in this era of emerging technologies, how will the book hold up?

Henry David:  "A truly good book teaches me better than how to read it.  I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint.  What I began by reading, I must finish by acting."

Moderator:    William, how do we teach our patrons in this new era of social media?

William Shakespeare:  "'Tis better to be brief than tedious."

Moderator:  Mark, how do we best educate youth in this ever changing world?

Mark Twain:  "I have never let schooling interfere with my education."

Moderator::  Melville, what do you think about the Internet?

Melville Dewey:  The eternal conflict of the good and the best with bad and the worst is on.

Moderator:  50, what do you think about libraries and librarians?

50 Cent:   I love you like a fat kid loves cake.

Moderator:  Mark, what should the rule be about checking out kindles and nooks at our libraries?

Mark Twain:  Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

Moderator:  Henry, what do you think about drive up hold pick up at the library?

Henry David:  A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man's life as in a book.  Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping.  Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not the cars."

Moderator:  50, would you think we should do more musical programming in our libraries?

50 Cent:  Don't much good come from me, but my music is a gift from God, so I'm gonna use it.

Moderator:  Will, what would you say to people who feel that libraries are over, finished?

William S:  'Tis better to be vile than esteemed When not to be receives reproach of being, And the Just Pleasures lost, which is so deemed, Not by our feeling, but by others seeing For why should others' false adulterate eyes Give salutation to my Sportive blood?


Moderator: ????

Melvelle Dewey:  The librarian must be the librarian militant before he can be the librarian triumphant.

Like I say, it was a great conference.  Wish you could have been there!

December 10th is Melvil Dewey's Birth Anniversary

Melvil Dewey, American librarian and inventor of the Dewey decimal book classification system was born at Adams Center, NY.  Born Melville Louis Kosuth Dewey (say that three times fast!), he was an advocate of spelling reform, urged use of the metric system and was interested in many other education reforms.

Well, things have changed a bit since Melvil's day.  For example:  at the library where I work....we have put the ESL materials all together.  We don't shelve them in strict call number order.  We place them together by type:Course, Tutors, TOEFL, Vocabulary, etc.

People are looking for user friendly classifications...."Psychology", "Self Help", "Writing", etc.  We librarians are working to make our collections accessible in every sense of the word.

A woman that I work with has put "series labels" on the mysteries.....Not all of the mysteries are as obvious as Sue Grafton's "A is for...." or Janet Evanovich's "One for the Money", etc.  These series labels allow the shelf browser to see what series he or she is looking at and what number in the series he or she is dealing with.  I love this!

Leaping, Libertine Librarians thrill at user friendly shelf arrangements!