Fast [In(fo]od)

With messaging services such as Meebo now used to answer reference inquiries, patrons are encouraged into a fast food mentality. In this instance, fast info.

This way of doing business makes for the Creation of False Expectations--getting something immediate and reliable and without effort.

(At a fast info counter)
"What'll you have, sir/madam?"
"I want a complete-answer with a side order of right-away and, to drink, an easy-to-understand."
(A millisecond later) "Here it is--and it's free."

Library workers cannot compete with Google and company when it comes to speed, but may when it comes to relevance. They can personalize interaction and through an interview get a feeling for what the user wants and maybe what the user ought to have. Ironically, one of the attractions of Google, and perhaps Meebo, is its impersonalization. The user is free from being judged by the intelligence or type of a question.

Pig Win

"Penguin halts e-books sales to libraries" is a recent sample newspaper headline concerning the discontinuation by the publisher Penguin Group (USA) of selling e-books to libraries. Yet these headlines could be much more invigorating. Here are some possibilities.

"Penguin Gives Libraries the Bird"

"Penguin Cold Shoulders Libraries"

"'Let Them Eat (Fish) Cake' Penguin Tells Libraries"

"Question: What Do Penguins and Libraries Have in Common? Answer: Nothing"
"Penguin Wings Away from Libraries"
"March of the Penguins--and They're Carrying Away E-Books with Them"
"What's Black and White and Red All Over? It's No Longer a Penguin in a Library"
"'So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'"--Penguin Leaves Libraries in Lurch

Weed This

“A library is not just a building full of books. It is a garden to cultivate individuals” —Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon (quoted in American Libraries Direct).

With this quote in mind, consider how some terms associated with the library relate to the garden and horticulture:

• annual

• arChives

• browsing

• carr(ot)els

• currant periodicals

• dew date

• I pea address

• jour(mi)nal

• kaleword searching

• microfarm

• newspepper

• on vine database

• peariodical

• refe-reed

• serial

And would those who dig into text, but remain uncultivated, be "weeders"?