ALA Anaheim: The Late Show

Some speakers deliberately (it seems) begin a program late out of fear it will otherwise run short and as a result they'll be implicitly accused by an audience that it's not getting its money’s worth. Talking to the end also suggests that the speaker had so much more to say but ran out of time. Such a talk has one of two effects on the audience. People observe either, "The subject was getting warmed up, and the speaker just couldn't cram everything in"; or, "At long last that's over."

ACRL Philadelphia: Trust Me

As I've stated, some of the talks I attended were dense—or arguably I was too thick. However, not understanding a thing does not prove the information circulated either true or false. While a speaker brings a "trust me" aura to his (her) role, as part of the audience I remain an entrenched skeptic, figuratively and literally a Missourian.

I feel a quote coming on: "Suspended judgment is the greatest triumph of intellectual discipline"—W. K. Brooks

"One in an ACRL Philadelphia series. Collect the whole set."

ACRL Philadelphia: Excess of Evil

If Emily Litella had been a librarian, when a speaker referred to the "axis of evil" she may have heard "access of evil." Maybe she would then have gone on a rant defending the right of libraries to retain pornography.

Or she might have thought of the schedule heading, "Good and evil" (BJ1400-1408.5), which has sub-divisions for "Origin of evil. Depravity of human nature" and "Value of evil" but nothing correspondingly about good. Does this reflect that evil is more widespread than good, if only in the heads of catalogers?

Never mind.

"One in an ACRL Philadelphia series. Collect the whole set."

ACRL Philadelphia: Testing (1)

Before a talk, to determine the efficacy of a microphone, a technician often says "Testing." I wish the tester were more creative. For a library conference, such as ACRL, that person should pronounce the words "Dewey" or "LC," and if more needs to come, start through the schedules.

If poetry were favored, there's Shakespeare's "Give every man thy ear but few thy voice." Me, I'd vote for a recital of Milton: "High on a throne of royal state."



"One in an ACRL Philadelphia series. Collect the whole set."