“A book is somehow sacred. A dictator can kill and maim people, can sink any kind of tyranny and only be hated, but when books are burned, the ultimate in tyranny has happened. This we cannot forgive.” — John Steinbeck So opens Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning…

A curious thing always happens at the end of one year and the beginning of another. For starters, just about every website publishes a “best of” list of books for the year and most also throw in a themed gift guide or two. But before you can even make a…

“Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of “wrong” ideas.” — Kindred, by Octavia Butler “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” — The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”…

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the…

When I was in library school, I had an advisor whose almost constant refrain was “Don’t become a librarian just because you love books.” She was trying to impress upon us that libraries are about so much more than physical materials. I still think about her words often, especially as…

I’m a librarian, and throwing away books is a big part of my job. I love it! Why? Because it means more space on the shelves for new books and other materials that are of current interest to our patrons. Weeding is a fundamental part of the life cycle of…

I often see information science students and library workers who are new to the field asking how they can learn to catalog MARC records. It’s a valid question but one that, when asked on social media and listservs, often gets derailed by opinionated and theoretical discussions. MARC (machine-readable cataloging) was…