The Liminal Librarian

Since I've finally waded my way out of the Deathly Hallows (and don't even get me started on that ending!), it seems timely to point to "Teens Weigh in on Changes in Publishing, Media" over at O'Reilly Radar. This quote cracks me up:

"As high school students with busy lives, going to a bookstore is just not part of our schedule. It isn't that we don't want to read, but with schoolwork, sports, and personal life, not enough time is left open to both find interesting books, as well as read them."

Yeah, gosh, that is different than when I went to high school... but, sarcasm aside, some thoughts there about reading for information v. reading literature. And about movie hype v. book hype, which displays a pretty major lack of understanding as to the comparative economics there, but so it goes.

On that note, we're also off to play the blogs vs. print game again... Current Cites points to "What a Difference a Publisher Makes" over at OptimalScholarship, with a fascinating look at recent studies on copy editing changes and the implications for repositories. Stephanie Willen Brown at CogSci Librarian asks which is better, blogging or print publishing, and Jim Rettig responds over at Twilight Librarian.

Brown writes: "...does it matter that librarians are writing more on blogs than in print?" Are they? This, I'm not so sure about. Some librarians are writing more on blogs than in print. Some librarians are reading more on blogs than in print. Some librarians still wouldn't know a blog if it came up and bit them. I think it's more useful to argue that different formats serve different purposes. Brown quotes Stephen Abram along the lines of: "It doesn't matter where you write, just get your ideas out there." Well, yes, and no. It does matter where you write if you're working towards tenure. It does matter where you write if you are targeting a specific audience, or trying to impress your boss, or your work needs some editing editing, if you are worried about the longevity of your work, or want a bigger audience than might flock to your brand new blog, or ... It does matter where you write if you are concerned about timeliness or if your thoughts flow more freely in a more informal medium or if you have a built in audience online, or ...

In principle, though, Abram has it right. The answer to the question of blogs or print is: YES. The more of us that participate, in whatever medium, the wealthier and more robust our profession.

Then again, publishers don't help themselves in cases like Eric Schnell's, who details his two-year saga over at The Medium is the Message in "Where is My Manuscript? part 1 and part 2. Perhaps one of our measures of a journal's prestige should relate to its responsiveness and timeliness. T. Scott weighs in here with "Publishing Faster," talking about the five-six month turnaround time at JMLA and the basic issues with timeliness and quarterly publication.

Note also his comments on the other issues with Haworth journals when considering where you might yourself wish to publish... Then again, you could always self-publish on Amazon.com!

Labels: amazon, blogging, blogs, editing, haworth, print, publishing, reading

Way back in December, I read Dorothea Salo's post on "Why I Am the Enemy," checked "keep new" in Bloglines with the intention of responding to the bit of her post containing a lament about the slow pace of print publishing, and then... well... didn't. (I guess the faster pace of blogging only works if bloggers are on the ball!)

I already talked last year about some of my reasons for the continued viability of book publishing. Now that I've been blogging a bit longer, I still believe in all of those pluses -- but also in the complementary nature of the two formats. I believe that a big chunk of the readers who see Dorothea's chapter in the upcoming Information Tomorrow book will be unfamiliar with her blog, and that her ideas need to be seen by this different audience. I believe that conversation about her work, and that of the other contributors to the collection, will explode online post-publication, and that this is a Good Thing.

ALA Editions posted an interesting book production timeline on their blog a while back, which might provide some insight into why book publishing takes so darn long. And yes, I get frustrated with the slow pace of print publishing as well, but understand it a bit better now that I'm seeing it from the other side.

Labels: blogging, books, publishing

Take a look at this interesting little article (via Bitch PhD) in the New York Times about op-ed writing seminars for women.

Ms. Orenstein asked: Could every woman at the large rectangular table name one specific subject that she is an expert in and say why? The author of “Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale,” Ms. Orenstein began by saying, “Little Red Riding Hood” and writing the words in orange marker on an oversize white pad.

Of the next four women who spoke, three started with a qualification or apology. “I’m really too young to be an expert in anything,” said Caitlin Petre, 23.

“Let’s stop,” Ms. Orenstein said. “It happens in every single session I do with women, and it’s never happened with men.” Women tend to back away from “what we know and why we know it,” she said.

....

After the presentations Ms. Orenstein returned to the orange-colored words “Little Red Riding Hood” written on the pad, saying that if she had limited herself to that subject, her contribution to public debate would be about the size of a tack.

“I would have to reframe myself,” she said, drawing a triangle around the words. At each of the three points she explained how she set about enlarging her area of expertise: from Riding Hood to female heroines to women; from fairy tales to myths to stories we tell and are told; from the nursery to popular culture.

This is true for professional writing, as well -- not to mention true of our larger careers. When we negate our own expertise, we become less effective in imparting our importance as professionals, and our self-effacing attitude hurts us in areas from salaries, to promotions, to our ability to grasp new opportunities.

As I'm going through the responses to the alternative careers survey, it's becoming clear that the ability to claim, reframe, and broaden our knowledge bases and skillsets is essential, not only when moving to a nontraditional setting, but in responding to both internal and external changes.

Labels: altcareers, oped, publishing, women, writing

Penguin is experimenting with a web-based, collaborative, wiki novel called -- what else -- A Million Penguins. "'This is an experiment. It may end up like reading a bowl of alphabet spaghetti,' Jeremy Ettinghausen, head of digital publishing at Penguin UK said, adding there were no plans as yet to publish the completed work."

Talk about a test of the wisdom of crowds! Some of the alternative versions are pretty amusing... enjoy, even if you're not inspired to contribute.

(Why am I blogging so much today? Well, being home with a cold and a kid with pinkeye, of course!)

Labels: authorship, penguins, publishing, wikis