Librarian's Lament

[adcooper]

First of all, I'm not a real librarian. I have the wrong education. I didn't get a Library "Science" degree, I did my studies in literature and writing. So what do I know. I didn't memorize the Dewey Decimal system, I just read the books.

Our library is now launching a big early literacy program. Fine and dandy. But we have to turn it into a major project, as though libraries haven't ALWAYS been a basic supplier of "literacy materials," which we used to quaintly call books.

Today I received a big batch of papers to hand out to parents of young children. These papers give loads of advice about how to prepare your child to read--much of it redundant, awkwardly written, and dotted with grammatical and mechanical errors. I would rather eat toads than hand that stuff out, but I will be expected to do it in the name of library "science."

I know this is not peculiar to libraries. Every workplace has its little ironic agonies. I'm just peevish about this one.

[Goalie]

I think you have a right to be peeved about that Ann. It doesn't make much sense, does it? Is there anyway those papers could disappear mysteriously(like send them to me) ? I'll never tell, I promise.

[HokieThea]

Is there any way you can access the computer file and correct the mistakes? Maybe under the pretense that you want to add something.

Long, long ago I worked for a small hometown newspaper. Our editor was a bit of a know-it-all on a power trip. One day he wrote an article that had unbelievably glaring mistakes in word usage. The sports guy and I tried to tell him he was wrong, but shoot, we were just the dumb underlings, what did we know. Well, we knew how to wait until said editor went home, and we went into his file, changed the mistakes, and alerted the printer we would be sending a revised article. Editor never knew the difference, and we felt so much better!

That sports guy was a hottie.

[adcooper]

HT, you are BOLD! I have actually tried to submit publicity directly to the local paper and been reprimanded for it in the past. Once burned, twice shy. Actually, in my case, twice burned, must be stupid! Fortunately, my boss agrees that this stuff is junk and is willing to say so. I won't have to distribute it, I don't think. But it makes me sad for the planet when paper is wasted on such junk.

By the way, when I have proofread at the local paper, I HAVE been able to correct errors in items about my own programs! Reprimand me for THAT! (This town is entirely too small.)

[Lynne]

Shread the paper and throw it in the compost heap!

Thanks for being the kind of person that stands up for your principles and what you know. And thanks for having helped me out in that situation! I'm eternally grateful.

Woulsn't it be cool if the collective "we" could just get kids excited about imagination and books. Sometimes here it seems that we try to force it down their throats in language they don't understand instead of inviting them into the secret garden.

[Lynne]

Sorry, Ann, for the bit of a hijack.....but we actually do that with writing here to. Kids HATE it because we force it on them instead of inviting them into it.

Done with that now. Must get excited about school.

Sorry about the blecht of the job.

[HokieThea]

Funny story about typos: Whe I worked at this smalltown newspaper, I once wrote an article about the newly built boat dock down by the river. The next day, after the peper came out, I got a call from a sweet old gentleman who very uncomfortably informed me that there was a bad word in my story. He refused to tell me what the word was. I went back and re-read my story. Yup, I included several sentences about the boat dick down at the river!

[adcooper]

THEA! ;D Don't you love small town papers and their readers?!

And, Lynne, I know just what you mean. Educators and librarians so often seem to take a simple exchange of information and escalate it to some high-falutin' folderol. I once had a writing teacher who tried to unteach us all the boring stuff we'd learned previously. He said that usually if you show a man a picture of a horse, you don't have to write "H O R S E" underneath it. He wanted our writing to be more ike the picture and less like the label.

As for recycling the goofy print stuff that's been sent to me--we can cut it up and use it for note paper--you know, librarians are always jotting down call numbers and info to help them remember what they're looking for. Which this leads to another crazy-making development. Thanks to corporate criminals and reactionary Ohio legislators, we now have a state documents retention act. We have to KEEP AND STORE every "document" we use at work so that if a criminal investigation ever takes place that "evidence" will not have been destroyed. This nonsense begins sometime this fall. We are trying to figure out what is and is not a "document." Apparently, if you come into the library and ask me to help you find a book about equine dentistry, and I jot down your name, number and the words "equine dentistry books" on a slip of paper so that I remember to actually LOOK for it, I have to keep that piece of paper in some sort of orderly system with the gazillions of other bits because someday I may be investigated for corruption. (I offered to renew the overdue book and waive your fine!!!!)

I so need a vacation.

[Bara]

Oooh - I worked for a local weekly, too! Aren't they fun. I was about 6 .. oh, ok, but it was my first job. Mine was in a small town in Africa ...

I thought I was Lois Lane! And with all that real politics going on around me, I wrote : 'The Women's Page', I was also Madame Zarzara (easy one!) writing the astrology column every week (I hope no-one ever took my advice!)

Then, 'Features' where I was sent out with a photographer and had to choose a subject for Vox Pop stuff - and best of all .... I ran the 'Letters to the editor' page. We never got any. So I conducted long-running arguments with myself over such world-shattering controversies as 'Littering', 'Television', 'Eating Healthily'.

Then I would come back, file copy - and have to typeset it! ;D

And stay, until the dratted thing was printed ...

[sarafina]

Oh, my, Ad. I'd be with you regarding the ridiculous materials. I feel you on a number of different levels here at Ye Olde Federale Governmente. It amazes me there are trees left with all the paper we waste following up our electronic charting with paper nonsense. I was aghast at the employee orientation materials that were distributed with horrific grammatical travesties.

Further, I've yet to receive an ID card (which I find funny, since they're all on about security). Funny.....

Finally, I went the extra mile for you and posted with capital letters in all their correct places. It is my sincere wish that this be an error-free message for your comfort.

[adcooper]

Now you're making fun of an elderly English teacher, aren't you!

[brian]

They have ESL classes that meet twice a week at the church. They call it "Literacy Council " . I made a sign to direct people to the right classrooms and misspelled it.

I minored in journalism a Cal Poly. I took a class in magazine writing that had this totally anal professor who insisted you submit your work on ditto paper , so that every mistake you made was indelible. ( Students in this day and age with 'puters have no idea how good they have it. ) Then he'd write snide comments like " Illiterate spelling and typing " on and circulate it to all the other students in the class.

I didn't try writing anything for the next twenty years.

[adcooper]

Shoot. Why are the worst teachers so hard to forget!?

[sarafina]

so not making fun of you, ad. just appealing to maintaining mental set without pesky errors. (like, when you're reading along in a great book, and all of the sudden, a typo pops out - then you're totally out of mental set and thinking about the typo, and the luscious feeling of being engaged in the story slips away...) my interns swear i'm a card-carrying member of the grammar police. i recoil when i read some of the reports, but i try to be gentle.

i remember i had an old supervisor with this hilarious stamp that said something like, "redundancy department of redundancy" which he would stamp liberally on our report drafts when our writing wasn't terribly concise. it was cute, because he didn't intimate that he perfect.

but i also had another supervisor who would circle errors in pink pen. he was totally repressed. sigh.

brian, you're right, the age of computers makes things MUCH easier for word processing. that ditto paper crap sounds hideous. i wouldn't have written sh_t either. i now have MS outlook email, which corrects my capitalization impairment and grammar (and occasionally hates the words i use...sigh...). but i digress....

[Lynne]

its all good............

or is that it's all good?

all is well?

Hooray?