Reading between Librarians’ lines

It is a well known fact that librarians, as professionals go, are not among the world's most demonstrative people. I can say that with impunity because I am one. It's one thing for a man to slight his own profession; quite another when someone else presumes to do it. But given that librarians are a placid sort, just mention the phrase "intellectual freedom," or utter the word "censorship," and the usually calm demeanor of the librarian becomes as agitated as the water between Charybdis and Scylla! This article addresses three aspects of the issue of intellectual freedom and attempts to define the difference between the phrases "free speech" and "free expression." First to be explored will be the nature of intellectual freedom as defined by the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Manual; second, the underlying philosophy implicit in that expression; and third, an alternative to both the manual, and its philosophical presuppositions.

Kicking a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Yes, of course I know the expression is “Don’t look,” not kicking, but our collective professional behavior makes “kicking” the more operative and appropriate verbal. More about this in due course. As an expression, “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” comes to us from the Lain, Noli equi dentes inspicere donate. Some argue Jerome said it first in 400 A.D., in which his words, very nearly our Latin literally translated, ran, “Never inspect the teeth of a gift horse.”

Reading Is, Like, You Know, Sooooo Gross!

“Huge Decline in Book Reading” ran one headline. “Cultural Atrophy!” read another. “Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline Spent in Reading” ran one for the “Duh!” award. “Americans are Closing the Book on Reading” said one, vying for the pun-acious trophy.

Performance Management for Faculty and Staff

This report examines the process used to evaluated faculty and staff, including the evaluation timeline, administrative oversight, technological tools, and performance management trainings for faculty and staff managers. Additionally, this report describes how administrators use annual performance evaluations to award merit-based pay.

Frances Lander Spain Papers - Accession 4

The Frances Lander Spain Papers consists of correspondence, clippings, photographs, memorabilia, and copies of her publications relating to her involvement with professional library organizations such as the American Library Association; her library work in Thailand as a Fulbright and Rockefeller Foundation grantee (1951-1952 and 1964-1965); and her work as coordinator of children’s services at the N.Y. Public Library (1953-1961). Correspondents include librarian Louis Round Wilson. There is also a family history which includes the family names Chambers, Collier, Cook, Crossland, Dantzler, Gran, Hardeman, Lander, McDaniel, McPherson, Miller, Pearce, Pierce, Schenk, Snead, Spain, Sparks, Warlick and Zimmerman.

Matt Christopher Papers - Accession 1092

The Matt Christopher Papers consist of published manuscripts, published short stories (1943-1994) (drafts, synopses, plot outlines, and magazines, comics, and newspapers with articles and short stories), galleys (1954-1990s), leather bound author’s editions (1954-1991), and publisher’s editions of Matt Christopher’s children’s books (1954-2004). The collection contains many unpublished manuscripts and drafts outside the children’s book field (1954-1997), unpublished poems (1938-1993), unpublished screenplays (1940-1997), and unpublished short stories (1954-1997). Also included are taped (audio and video) interviews of Matt Christopher, as well as, puzzles for children (1988-1992), research materials and notes (1954-1997), sports rule-books (1954-1995), and writing guides (1909-1995), personal (1949-1997) and business correspondence (1952-2002), contract agreements (1952-1993), royalty statements (1954-1999), and biographical information (1917-2004), memorabilia (personalized baseball bat, framed pictures and award certificates, etc.), fan mail (1964-1999) and his personal book collection (1847-1995) (some signed by authors).

Juanita H. Neely Papers - Accession 6

The Juanita H. Neely Papers consist of correspondence, autobiographical and biographical data, speeches, radio talks, clippings, photographs, and articles mainly relating to her work with the South Carolina Home Demonstration Extension Service. There is also family history material relating to the Neely family. This collection is a good source of information concerning the South Carolina Home Economics Extension program in the first half of the twentieth century. While the papers range from 1911 to about 1970, the more valuable and greater part of the collection extends from the mid-1920s to 1957, when Juanita Neely rose from a county home economics extension agent to the State Demonstration Agent. The collection contains many of her speeches, radio talks and articles made during this period; the reference material that she used for her speeches; letters of appreciation from agents and others upon her retirement; and materials relating to the Winthrop-Clemson controversy in 1955 concerning the location of the Home Economics Extension Program. There is also biographical material, award notices, and some correspondence dating after Juanita Neely's retirement from the Home Economics Extension Program. Additional Neely information may be found by referring to the Winthrop Archives, record group 412, and the 1958-1959 edition of Who’s Who of American Women.