Race and Place MIS

"And though I held my laptop bag too close at first-forgetting that I was home, that I had not to long ago been on the other side of the stare-there was something about that walk that revived my hope in the social realities and divides that this profession is uniquely positioned to confront and perhaps transform." (Race and Place pg 4)

I found this sentance irratating because I really don't understand how this sentence developed. First the author was talking about how her old neighboorhood had reamined destitute, and how she herself was afraid to walk through it. Then she all of a sudden feels her hope revived about her profession. Why the sudden 180? To me, there doesn't seem to be a reason for the change. The authors old home is the same as ever and she hasn't even seen the "yellow palace" yet, so a renewal of hope doesn't make sense to me. Maybe the author thinks that the library can still become a leveling ground for everybody, but in the context of the story this sentance still seems confusing.

Race and Place MIS

"But to localize that moment, to act as if as it belonged to that one specific library, would be too simple. Rules that unintentionally compound and redouble social exclusion, economic isolation, and, inevitably, race and class lines abound in libraries. There is no indemnity." Hall, pg. 33.

I think this quote sums up the theme of the entire article. Written by someone who works for the library, you can feel the frustration that the author feels about this harsh reality. Libraries, which are meant to be a beacon of equality and learning, are plagued by race and class problems the same way many other American institutions are. Hall speaks about the shock that her grandmother went into when they visited a library in a more affluent neighborhood, and how even at a young age, she noticed the inequality and discrimination that effected her local library. While Hall does point out that some libraries are making attempts to appeal to the needs and wants of their communities, she also explains how some libraries have material that is so irrelevant to the surrounding community, that books are hardly even taken out. This article, written by a woman who knows the library system, is placing the blame of library inequality on the people who work in the libraries. She asks them to take the responsibility and make libraries a less discriminatory, more equal institution. 

MIS for 2/2

From Public Library Use in New York City:

"In these neighborhoods, extra efforts and, therefore, extra funds are necessary to increase the circulations of the library branches. With the current funding system of budgets being proportional to circulation figures, the self-perpetuating cycles of under-utilization in disadvantaged neighborhoods will continue."

Such a blatently obvious statement, but libraries just don't even think to do things this way. Economicaly speaking that is poor allocation of resources. Afterall, the system as a whole will be suppar, and in the case of New York, a stellar library in Manhattan doesn't make up for the fact that libraries in Harlem or the Bronx are failing, and to be failing in the mission of the library to provide literary materials of merit to all citizens is a poor reflection on the system. When money is there, making the Manhattan libraries more spectacular should be discouraged in favor of bringing failing libraries up to par, for at the end of the day New York is responsible for the whole library system, and their tax dollars, investments, and private funding are donated to the system more often than a particular branch, so it is time to stop spending massive amounts of money to make superb libraries minimaly better and to start spending money to make failing libraries significantly better. In this way, the whole system will be using scarce resources at optimal efficiency to enhance the intellect of all patrons and community members of the United State's largest city.

MIS For Discussion 2/2

The MIS I chose for last week's discussion was from Putnam's "Bowling Alone" article, and is found on page 19, paragraph 3:

"...If he comes into contact with his neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community."

I thought that this sentence was important to the theme of the article, and to my life personally. Regarding its importance to the article as a whole, I believe that this sentence gives the reader a good idea of what the effect of accumulating social capital is. From this sentence, the reader can understand that by attaining social capital, one's own social needs can be taken care of, and in turn, this social potential can affect the rest of the community through repeated instances of achieving social capital. In my own life, I can see that social capital is important, because it connects us to others in a social network. When we become connected to others, we might become more productive, creating a "public good" (pg 20).

"Race and Place"

"Though I'd excitedly turned my library card over and over in my hand all the way to the library and though my mother announced that I could check out more than one book because she didn't have time to bring me back midweek for another, the shock on my grandmother's face dampened my appetite. The inequities between the two libraries had restated our insignificance. 'There is something inferior about the people who live over there,' the white cathedral seemed to be taunting. I left the library without checking out one book." pg. 32

I found this paragraph to be especially thought provoking. I thought it was very sad that seeing something as simple as a library that was especially nice in another neighborhood made the author feel inadequate in some way. I feel really bad for the child in this story after reading this part. I also thought it showed that there really are many views on every situation. While the people from the richer neighborhood probably think that they deserve the nicer library since they use it more, the people from the poorer neighborhood see it as a kind of slap in the face that the wealth for public space is so unevenly divided. I think this paragraph could bring up many issues about how public money should be divided.

MIS week 2

"The techno-utopian belief that access to unlimited information automatically translates into understanding and knowledge has proved to be false."

-Better Together, pg. 48

I thought that this quote really hits home, especially for students. I don't know how many times I have been writing a paper or just looking up something random and got hundreds of thousands of hits from google, only to find that just one website actually had what I was looking for. This is exactly the point brought up earlier in the reading that emphasizes the importance of librarians to help distinguish good information from bad. I think that this is one of the main reasons why libraries haven't been replaced by the internet. With so much information available out there, libraries and librarians are as important as ever, but in a slightly different role.