Comments on: What do we do and why do we do it?

By: New How To Discover Your Perfect Value Proposition – Stephen's Lighthouse

New How To Discover Your Perfect Value Proposition – Stephen's Lighthouse — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:57:29 +0000

[...] Ford, E. (2012, August 8). What we do and why we do it? In the Library With a Lead Pipe. Retrieved from http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2012/what-do-we-do-and-why-do-we-do-it/. [...]

By: Library Juice » Academic Libraries, Information Literacy, and the Value of Our Values

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:24:10 +0000

[...] a recent post from In the Library With a Lead Pipe, Emily Ford asks us to consider the “why” of what we do as an intervention in what she sees as failed [...]

By: Why We Do What We Do | Peer to Peer Review

Why We Do What We Do | Peer to Peer Review — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:43:56 +0000

[...] 2012 Leave a Comment Last month In the Library with the Lead Pipe published a long essay asking What Do We Do and Why Do We Do It? It calls for a philosophy of librarianship, noting that people have been calling for such a thing [...]

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:37:04 +0000

Yes, I have taken some wording from above, but what about Motto: “Libraries/librarians facilitating the engagement and preservation of knowledge.”

By: Emily Ford

Emily Ford — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 00:42:34 +0000

Thanks, Rebecca, for the tip. This is going on my “to read” list.

By: Living our values | Information Wants To Be Free

Living our values | Information Wants To Be Free — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:35:52 +0000

[...] colleague, Emily Ford, wrote a brilliant piece about our identity, philosophy, and expression of value as a profession. Following up on [...]

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:38:31 +0000

Perhaps one of the best discussions I’ve read about the historical purpose/philosophy of librarianship is Todd Honma’s treatment of it in his article “Trippin’ Over the Color Line: The Invisibility of Race in Library and Information Studies.” I see so much of his article that feeds directly in this much-needed conversation about praxis, and I’d recommend reading it – particularly the “Library ontologies and the construction of whiteness” section. I believe that portion of the article speaks to the issue of “cultural diversity” that commenter Jonesy touches upon above.

It’s available here: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nj0w1mp.

By: Keeping the end in mind (also: public libraries and cross-country travel) | Chasing Reference

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:58:09 +0000

[...] approaches to this topic than my personal anecdotes – Emily Ford’s indispensible take on developing a philosophy of librarianship and Lane Wilkinson’s discussion of librarians as experts on the “chain of testimony” are the [...]

By: James

James — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 22:34:30 +0000

To be honest, our biggest problem is that we spend too much time talking to each other, and not enough time talking to those outside the profession. We also tend to talk and talk endlessly instead of eventually doing something, which is why we’re still stuck with things like MARC records and Dewey.

By: Emily Ford

Emily Ford — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:35:21 +0000

I’m a fan of “radical, militant librarian” myself. :)

But seriously, it’s a huge failing that ALA has a motto on its web site that only discusses “reading.” We do so. much. more.