The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World (1666) by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World (1666) by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. COVID-19 Recreational Reading.

An early entry in the genre that would be, much later, called science fiction. Cavendish was not the first to explore this territory of the utopia. See for instance, the earlier The City of the Sun (Italian: La città del Sole; Latin: Civitas Solis) (1602) by Tommaso Campanella. Cavendish, however, with her engaging the topic with issues of gender, power, and especially a curious and unique take on natural history set her work apart. 

"The Empress confessed that she observed Nature was infinitely various in her works, and that though the species of Creatures did continue, yet their particulars were subject to infinite changes."

Particularly notable is the use of a female lead in the work. 

“The Spirits answered, That the lives of Fame were like other lives; for some lasted long, and some died soon. 'Tis true, said the Duchess; but yet the shortest-liv'd Fame lasts longer then the longest life of Man.”

• Read: June 10, 2020

• See my complete 2020 Reading list on Goodreads.

Tropic of Cancer (1934) by Henry Miller. COVID-19 Recreational Reading

Tropic of Cancer (1934) by Henry Miller. COVID-19 Recreational Reading 

“It is now the fall of my second year in Paris. I was sent here for a reason I have not yet been able to fathom. I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.” -- Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

Where to begin when discussing Henry Miller? The misogyny? The obscenity? The challenging nature of the work? Browsing bookstores in my youth, I would always see the rows of Miller’s work on the shelves. Tropic of Cancer (1934), Tropic of Capricorn (1939), and the The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy (Sexus/Plexus/Nexus, 1949-60). Just down the shelves, were the works of the author most associated with him, Anaïs Nin (Delta of Venus, 1977, and her published diaries).

I was never quite intrigued enough at the time to read Miller. Finally, many many years later, I took the plunge. And what did I find did take on Miller? That is the story of this post … and to get to that story, I need to make a diversion to George Orwell. Orwell’s 1940 essay, “Inside the Whale Inside the Whale” is a discourse on the art of Miller with a focus on Tropic of Cancer (well, part 1, part 2 is on A.E. Houseman). Tropic of Cancer is a monologue by an American expatriate in Paris in the late 1920s, early 1930s. The narrator is, in Orwell’s phrase, “down and out”. He doesn’t move in the refined salons of Gertrude Stein. Indeed, as Orwell notes, “Miller is writing about the man in the street, and it is incidentally rather a pity that it should be a street full of brothels.” The narrator (Miller?) is crude, coarse, and unlikable. Again, as Orwell notes, “Miller is simply a hard-boiled person talking about life , an ordinary American businessman with intellectual courage and a gift for words.” And this may be true, but for me, the “talking about life” rarely rises above reportage. It is, too often as Truman Capote famously said, “not writing; that’s just typewriting.” 

Other works come to mind when analyzing Tropic of Cancer. Ulysses (1922) by James Joyce and Lolita (1955) by Vladimir Nabokov. All three were initially banned (Joyce, Nabokov, and Miller were all first published in Paris) and all are now hailed (in various quarters) as literary landmarks. Leaving aside Lolita (which has many other issues), both Ulysses and Tropic of Cancer are, in the words of Judge Woolsey (in the Ulysses obscenity case) considered to be “undoubtedly … somewhat emetic, [but] nowhere does it tend to be an aphrodisiac” (Wikipedia). In the same vein, Naked Lunch (1959) by William S. Burroughs (another Parisian imprint, which, like Lolita, was published by the Olympia Press), in my opinion the closest in terms of language and topics to Tropic of Cancer, but with more visceral impact. 

But, stripped of the narrative, Miller does create an evocative portrait of Paris and insights into the mind of the American expatriate. He also exposes, in those raptures interspersed between his typewriting, passages worthy of his muse, Walt Whitman:

“Everywhere I go people are making a mess of their lives. Everyone has his private tragedy. It’s in the blood now —misfortune, ennui, grief, suicide. The atmosphere is saturated with disaster, frustration, futility. Scratch and scratch—until there’s no skin left. However, the effect upon me is exhilarating. Instead of being discouraged, or depressed, I enjoy it. I am crying for more and more disasters, for bigger calamities, for grander failures. I want the whole world to be out of whack, I want everyone to scratch himself to death.”  -- Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer

• Read May 26, 2020 | Buy on Kindle

• See my complete 2020 Reading list on Goodreads.

Two stories by Namwali Serpell (@namwalien). Pre-COVID-19 Recreational Reading

Two stories by Namwali Serpell (@namwalien). Pre-COVID-19 Recreational Reading 

Before diving into the brilliant The Old Drift (2019) by Namwali Serpell (see notes on that title here) I picked up two short stories that were easily available. Both are an excellent introduction to her work. A current list of Serpell’s short stories, book reviews, is found on her website. It would be great to see the non-fictions reviews and essays come out (soon!) in a handy collection.

“Will Williams” (2019)

• Read: January 17, 2020 | Buy on Kindle

“Double Men: A Short Story” (2016)

• Read: January 17, 2020 | Buy on Kindle

More reading from 2020:

• See my complete 2020 Reading list on Goodreads.

Research Libraries as Catalytic Leaders in a Society in Constant Flux: A Report on the ARL-CNI Fall Forum 2019 by Mary Lee Kennedy (with an introduction by Lorraine J. Haricombe). January 2020 / @mlkennedytw / @ljharicombe / @ARLnews / @cni_org

Research Libraries as Catalytic Leaders in a Society in Constant Flux: A Report on the ARL-CNI Fall Forum 2019 by Mary Lee Kennedy (with an introduction by Lorraine J. Haricombe).  January 2020 / @mlkennedytw / @ljharicombe / @ARLnews / @cni_org. COVID-19 Professional Reading

This report consists of a summary report and synopsis of the 2019 ARL-CNI Fall Forum: “Research Libraries as Catalytic Leaders in a Society in Constant Flux.” The forum was hosted by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) and held in Washington, DC, on September 26, 2019. Participants represented over 100 institutions from Canada and the United States. 

The forum was arranged in five broad areas and participants delivered consensus recommendations for each of these: 

• Research Libraries as Catalytic Leaders in a Society in Constant Flux

• Emerging Opportunities and Research Libraries

• Research Libraries, AI & New Forms of Reality 

• Next Generation Organizations, Skills, and Competencies

• Cross-Cutting Themes on the Role of the Research Library

Lorraine J. Haricombe (Vice Provost and Director of Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin, and ARL President 2019–2020) provides an introduction to the report. Haricombe sets the stage by noting that libraries have always existed in a state of flux, “from Gutenberg to Google” (p. 3) and evolved to meet these changes. Haricombe continues:

“Embracing the role of catalyst requires embedding renewal from within. It also requires investing resources toward systematizing the kind of innovation that will further accelerate the pace of change.” -- Introduction (p. 4)

Research Libraries as Catalytic Leaders in a Society in Constant Flux

Jaron Lanier, Internet pioneer and author of key influential text, including Post-symbolic communication (2006); Wikipedia and the omniscience of collective wisdom (2006); You Are Not a Gadget (2010); Who Owns the Future? (2013); Dawn of the New Everything (2017); and Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (2018) (which, you may note show an increasing skepticism for what TCP/IP wrought. The takeaways from his discussion in the context of the forum were that libraries are the “The keepers of context” and “The last space in which people learn through manipulation free curiosity” (p. 6). 

For each topic area, I will select key participant recommendations for this topic that resonate with me: (p. 6):

• Partner in the reconfiguration of the economic infrastructure of scholarship such as SPARC’s publishing landscape analysis;

• Support knowledge creation and curation by leading information management policy and practice, particularly of research data, including data analysis and visualization, social media, and emerging and future forms of scholarship;

• Lead on open access and open educational resources in order to increase the affordability of higher education;

• Provide data-science education services, including education on ethical uses;

• Preserve the human record in print and the new historical record of data, dynamic digital scholarship, and social media

 

Emerging Opportunities and Research Libraries

Research libraries, particularly at the elite public and private institutions that are represented in this gathering, are making increasing efforts to engage, support, and identify with the communities they are embedded in: “Research libraries are extending their relationships in research institutions and in local communities as our society struggles to become more inclusive and equitable” (p. 10).

As the report notes: 

“The research library can do even more to be an interlocutor between academic research and public knowledge. They can provide access to a plurality of voices in collections, by contributing to commonly used sources of information such as Wikipedia, by posting research library content in social media such as YouTube, and by making the collections visible through partnerships with learned societies, museums, and other cultural institutions” (pp. 11-12).

The report continues: 

“Research libraries collaborate within and across institutions to navigate and  implement proven practices pertaining to free speech, civil discourse, psychological safety, inclusion, and use of libraries spaces as a center for community and connection. Including the work of research libraries more deliberately in these spaces – Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Research Libraries – provides opportunities for our institutions to support our community connections that are central to the creative and knowledgeable society” (p. 12).

Key takeaways from this discussion were (p. 13):

• Collaborate with communities and historical societies to create a shared narrative on the value of research libraries in support of higher education;

• Share and use examples of a shared community narrative;

• Create models for collaborating with galleries, archives, and museums on emerging opportunities in research and learning;

• Establish a framework for partnering with public libraries 

Research Libraries, AI & New Forms of Reality 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a topic that can safely be ignored only by those industries that are currently planning their own imminent extinction. Though many may question if AI will have an impact on the operations of libraries or their existence, one only need think of the possibilities (likelihoods) of massive automated and semantically rich metadata descriptions of digital assets to see how that sector of library work could be radically re-imagined. 

As parent organizations of libraries become consumers of AI analysis of data around costs, services, and community, the traditional role of libraries are guardians of privacy and neutrality will be further challenged. As the report notes: 

“The participant consensus was that research libraries can’t avoid using algorithmic processes so libraries must become AI literate in order to recognize and address the biases within algorithmic “black boxes” and to use them equitably”  (p. 16).

Key takeaways (p. 18): 

• Set a shared vision for research libraries as they adopt emerging technologies, given the changing nature of research and learning; 

• Make sure data is collected in a way that it is usable and stewarded over time; 

• Determine where it is most valuable to use AI and other emerging technologies, and develop a sustainable investment plan; 

• Use AI in back of house (for example, to assign metadata to records), AI assistants (such as the Alexa Education Skill API);

• Ensure the use of AI and emerging technologies brings people back into the collections.

Next Generation Organizations, Skills, and Competencies

“Next Generation” is a trigger phrase across a broad spectrum of industries. In libraries and archives, “next generation” (particularly when paired with “skills” and “competencies” will too often set off internal culture wars with combatants too often arguing the same points with differing vocabularies. Perhaps an even more challenging term, “future skill” is also introduced. “The term ‘future skills’ is defined as the ‘ability to act successful on a complex problem in a future unknown context of action.’ It refers to an individual’s disposition to act in a self-organized way, visible to the outside as performance” (p. 19).

Though few would argue (or argue successfully) that research, academia, and libraries have not undergone massive change in the past thirty years, the shape of the change curve, the velocity, and too often the value of the change, remain the subject of fruitless argument. Too often, the core of the discussion, value to funders and users, is lost. As the report notes:

“Fundamentally, research libraries must position themselves to demonstrate value and be prepared to meet the demand for new services.  This will require staff who are prepared to deliver the services in a time of continual flux when change is the norm, and leaders are able to position the research library within a confluence of priorities and external pressures on institutions in higher education, and to lead collaboratively with a broad range of partners” (p. 18).

For those who understand the need for a re-skilling of existing staff, the pace of that task, the manner in which the re-skilling is spread across the institution, and the depth of leadership support will impact its success. Too often, leaders will follow a path outlined by Clayton Christensen in The innovator's dilemma (1997) and build a disruptive unit (an innovation lab, a new media office, a digital programs and initiatives division) that fails at developing pervasive organization change (and too often creates the “us” versus “them” mentality) or proves so successful that the rest of the organization complacently passes all those “new” tasks to the usually understaffed and underfunded department. 

“Research library leaders look to create and sustain value in a broader environment of constant (but not always consistent) flux, and create a work environment that is attractive to talented people who can adapt and thrive. Research libraries seek to create agile learning organizations, to adopt value-based learning, to create inclusive environments, and to encourage innovation by making it safe to “fail,” recognizing that research libraries are also part of an evolving, sometimes slowly evolving, bureaucracy.” (p. 19)

Key takeaways (p. 21): 

• Move from competencies to values-based learning Be very clear about the nature of the work, the priorities, and forecast the workforce needs to come;

• Create strong partnerships within and external to the institution; 

• Provide resources for innovation and make it safe to fail;  

• Create more paths to success that reflect an agile organization and the collaborative work with the broader research and learning community, and update job descriptions to represent a culture of flexibility; 

• Reimagine the expertise, teams, roles, and partnerships needed to deliver on the mission today and in the future 

Cross-Cutting Themes on the Role of the Research Library

“Libraries are required to steward the past, present and future. The overarching theme that emerged from all of the sessions at the Fall Forum was that we must be bold and demonstrate our institutional and cultural leadership as technology continues to revolutionize our ways of knowing and of sharing what is known” (p. 22).

This statement clearly sums up the conundrum of the library, archive (and museum) in the quarter point of the 21st century. The cultural memory institutions of the world are vital (though flawed) stewards of the cultural, artistic, scientific, and human, evidence of discovery, creation, and preservation of the spectrum of human impact on the planet. This is a heavy burden to place on under-funded, under-staffed, and (too often) under-respected organizations. And yet, within our small worlds, our contained communities: 

“Research libraries have significant opportunities to contribute in meaningful ways in this time of constant flux” (p. 23). 

 

Global events, proceeding apace without allowing for analysis, let alone introspection, or time to develop long-term development of meaningful contributions. The events the burst onto the scene in 2020, a global pandemic, existential threats to global democracy, make how libraries and related memory institutions respond to these events paramount to the transformation of global culture:

“Are research libraries ready and are they being bold enough? Research libraries are and will continue to be catalytic leaders. This is a moment to be even bolder—individually, across research libraries, in and across research institutions, and in the broader context of our society” (p. 23).

Key Final Recommendations to the Association of Research Libraries (p. 24):

• Set a vision for the research library as an institution, and develop frameworks or models for success;

• Participate in collective work to ensure sustainable access to collections, both physical and digital;

• Create a framework for the future library organizational structure based on roles that reflect the nature of the work - Create pathways to facilitate research library transformation in order to develop and nurture the necessary expertise and talent

• Cultivate stronger library leadership and management to include skills related to branding, adaptability and innovation, change management 

• Collect and share guidance on what research libraries can stop doing

Recommended Further Reading:

• Ulf-Daniel Ehlers and Sarah A. Kellermann, Future Skills: The Future of Learning and Higher Education: International Delphi Survey of the NextSkills Project (Karlsruhe, Germany: Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University, 2019), 3, https://nextskills.org/future-skillsreport-2019/

•  Wolfram Horstmann, “Are Academic Libraries Changing Fast Enough?” Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis 42, no. 3 (2018): 433–440,  https://doi.org/10.1515/bfp-2018-0061

•  Thomas Padilla, Responsible Operations: Data Science, Machine Learning, and AI in Libraries (Dublin, OH: OCLC Research. 2019), https://doi.org/10.25333/xk7z-9g97

• Read: May 30, 2020 | Find Online

• See also a summary of the symposium with links to presentations. Brosz, J. (2020, January). "Critical Roles for Libraries in Today’s Research Enterprise". Proceedings of the 2019 Critical Roles for Libraries in Today's Research Enterprise Symposium, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111585.

• See my complete 2020 Reading list on Goodreads.

Into a Paris Quartier (2007) by Diane Johnson. Pre-COVID-19 Recreational Reading

Into a Paris Quartier (2007) by Diane Johnson. Pre-COVID-19 Recreational Reading

“Away from America, when I think about my own country, I do wonder if some of our problems are simply those of newness. It almost seems that America today is something like the France of the sixteenth century, torn with religious suspicions, cultural divisions, a huge gulf between rich and poor, dangerous streets, and so on.” -  Into a Paris Quartier.

Johnson is perhaps best known among many readers for her “Paris Trilogy”, Le Divorce (1997), Le Mariage (2000), L'Affaire ( 2003). I first discovered her through Persian Nights (1987), which then led me to some of her key earlier novels: Burning (1971), The Shadow Knows (1974), and Lying Low (1978). 

A noted essayist and critic, she has written numerous introductions to reissued fiction as well as a collection of essays Terrorists and Novelists: Essays (1982) and charming and self-effacing memoir, Flyover Lives: A Memoir (2014). For me, her 1990 novel, Health and Happiness is her finest work (though I admit to not yet having read Lulu in Marrakech (2008). 

Which brings us to Into a Paris Quartier. Though a native of “flyover land” as she describes in her memoir, she divides her time between San Francisco and Paris, specifically the neighborhood of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the topic of this brief account, published as part of the National Geographic Traveler series. As Johnson notes in Flyover Lives: 

“The one thing you, we, Americans, are not allowed to say is that there is somewhere better than America to live. This is an unspeakable apostasy, even though anyone who has lived in one of the better places knows it’s true.” - Flyover Lives

This is not a grand thought piece on Paris or the French, it’s not a travel guide. It is, like the best of travel writing, a reflection of the writer in the mirror of the place visited. In musings about St.-Germain-des-Prés, the reader feels they are sitting in one of those cafes she describes with Johnson as she rapturously talks of the Grande Épicerie, the bookstores, or the Bibliothèque Mazarine where

"the student can write or read in undisturbed splendor, and here I work, though this magnificent library is almost too grand, with its sixty-five-foot ceilings, great gilt chandeliers, leather-topped tables (nicely wired for the computer), and welcoming but always impassive librarians"  -  Into a Paris Quartier.

With that, let’s leave Johnson to work and look forward to the fruits of those labors, an American in Paris, but not, perhaps, foreign:

“So, finally, I cannot escape the idea that St.-Germain-des-Prés, French as it is, is also ourselves, the foreigners who have always been here. And, if you have always been here, can you be foreign?”  -  Into a Paris Quartier.

Aside: I had the pleasure of meeting Johnson at a reading/signing at the lamentably lost Chapters Bookstore at the launch of Le Divorce in January 1997. I also worked with Johnson’s daughter for a number of years without realizing the relationship (ah, that anonymity that comes with a name like Johnson!).

• February 7, 2020 | Buy on Kindle

• See my complete 2020 Reading list on Goodreads.