As the ALA Mardi Gras…er, I mean, convention, rolls up the carpet on another year, I’m struck by how active and positive and amazing so many of my peers are. Unlike me, the original misanthrope, who is not at all bitter that I was #alaleftbehind. Nope, not me. At all. Bitter? HA! As if.
…Right, so now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s get to what I was doing instead of partying networking at #ala11:
Classes, work, and The MLS Project by Boyd Keith Swigger. I mentioned this book on this blog earlier, stating that a) I had not finished it yet but that b) anyone who wants to debate the future of the MLS needs to read this book or STFU.
Now having finished the book, I hold opinion b) even more strongly. There isn’t an argument on the defense or offense of the MLS that hasn’t already been made and addressed in Swigger’s book (you may think you are being creative and busting ideas wide open, but trust me, you really really aren’t). That is because most of the discussion going on now is but a mere shadow (or mirror) of what went on during the creation of the MSL, sixty years ago.
The fact that the topics, complaints, and suggests are pretty much the same as they were in 1951 is fairly damning, IMHO.
However, there is so much to unpack in this thin little tome that I feel to simply recap it in a short blog post not only does the book a disservice, but our entire profession as well. Over the next month or so I will devote a full blog post to each of the book’s eight chapters. I am aiming for twice a week but eh, I do have summer classes, vacation, and a new full time job to consider. I’ll try.
The next post in the series will give an overview of the book and the author, by way of introduction. After that I will take each chapter in turn.
I look forward to feedback on this project. This is, of course, a platform for my own opinions both on the book and the MLS project itself, however I welcome dialogue on the issue. Most of all I hope that you pick up a copy of the book and read it for yourself. You will be shocked by what you find there; I certainly was.
