Library Dust

Dear Diary

Today I was searching for books at a thrift store when I came across a nice little book with a fabric cover.  It was a blank book and would have been fine for conference notes.  I bought it for that and later discovered that it had been used as a diary.  This is about the third or fourth diary I've found at that thrift store.  People begin them and then simply quit--the diary has always been the manual version of the weblog.  Note:  Names have been changed from the originals in the diary.

The entries:

January, 31, 1999

At this point in time my feelings are quite complicated.  I really want someone to love me.  I doubt it will happen until I lose weight.  I can't believe in myself so neither can anyone else.  I want to be happy and have fun.  I want to be able to shop at any store I choose.  It feels like the only way that I can be happy is if I lose weight.  But a lot of times it feels like my existence doesn't matter so why should I even try to lose weight.  I met Mark yesterday and had a pretty good time with him.  I think he was really disappointed and I doubt I'll hear from him again.  I just want to go back to California to be close to my friends.  I really miss all of the hugs from Joe and Steve.  I'm afraid that being so far away from them will make us drift apart.  I really care about both of them.  I care about all of my camp friends, but Joe and Steve are special.  Steve and I are so similar that we have an unmatchable bond.  Pete is so sweet that I wish I could be with him all of the time.  They're both in California and for now I just have to deal with that.  But I would really love to be able to surprise them by coming home thin.

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February 8, 1999

I decided to spend some of my money to buy a plane ticket to go home for Nancy's party.  I'm really excited to be able to see some of my friends.  i hope most of them will be able to come.  Sue, Joe and Steve have helped me to start the process of learning to like myself.  At this moment in time I would like to weigh less, for me, not anybody else.  I want to be successful at the (name of weight program).  I would really like to have an exercise routine that I would do at least three times a week. My goal for this week is to try to work exercising into my schedule.  In regards to my last entry Mark is still talking to me, we're just friends, but I don't want or exect anything else.  I've talked to Joe and Steve and I think my relationships with both of them are even stronger than they were before.  I'm trying to take life one day at a time and am trying to remind and convince myself that I really am a special person.

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January 13, 2000

It's been almost a year since I've written in here.  A lot has happened, but my situation appears to be the same.  I still don't have anyone that loves me and I'm still not as thin as I would likek to be.  I thought Donald and I were in love and thought we were on our way to a relationship.  We oved past the Laura thing and things were going really well.  Then Tina entered the picture.  She'll drive him anywhere he needs to go at any time.  She buys him as many expensive gifts as she can and is willing to have a sexual relationship with him no strings attached.  Making love really means something to me.  I can't just sleep with someone without loving them and them loving me back.  So I guess Tina wins and I lose.  Losing really hurts and I'm very jealous that I was not the winner.  But I have to move on.  There must be someone out there who love me.  Pleas God send me someone to love who loves me back.

 

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January 31, 2000

Another airplane crashed today.  80-something people were killed.  It's sad, but it seems to happen so often that I think our country is getting used to hearing news like this.  Amidst all of this tragedy the only concerns that I had were 1) if 7th Heaven was going to show so that I could see Lance from InSync and 2) Is anyone ever going to love me.  Tom came over tonight to bring me dinner.  He is so nice.  I really enjoy spending time with him.  I found out today that he has a 14 year old son.  I'm not really sure how I feel about that.  Right now Bill is in my bedroom using my computer.  He talked to his girlfriend on the phone for a while.  He is so sweet and caring towards her, but he says that she's very unemotional towards him.  I would do anything to have someone care about me as much as he cares about her.  How can she not appreciate what she has in him.  Is there anyone out there for me?  If there is will we find each other? 

Today was a medical nightmare for me.  I'm afraid I have pneumonia and 2 doctors appointments later I don't have any more answers.  Is my cancer going to come back?  Will I die due to someone's ignorance?  Please God help me to find the silver lining in all of the dark clouds. 

 

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February 21, 2000

Well, it was pneumonia and 3 week and 2 antibiotic courses later I'm finally feeling better!  I was supposed to have a birthday party 2 days ago, but when Linda called to cancel at the last minute I couldn't take it anymore and ended up canceling the whole thing.  She's been very inconsiderate and rude lately and for the moment I do not consider her a friend. . . I'm glad her relationship with that 38 year old guy blew up in her face . . . Joanne mixed up my b-day with one of her friend's b-days and ended up sending me a Mr. Potatohead balloon a week early . . I was supposed to have lunch with Paul today, but I stood him up.  I know it's a terrible thing to do but it's pouring rain and I'm feeling very antisocial with the whole birthday party aftermath.  I'm still looking for love and am really hoping that it finds its way to me soon.

[And that was the last dated entry.]

Michael McGrorty

Dewey's Words

In reading his Simplified Library School Rules, one finds quite a few Dewey Bombs tossed about--the man simply had to do things his own way, and we thus have the following creations:

"Alfabetico-clast catalog.  An altabetic subject catalog in which the subjects are groupt in broad classes with numerous alfabetic subdivisions.  It may also include author and title entries in the same alfabet."

"Bibliografee.  One who is the subject of a bibliografy."

We also have the terms relativ location; indefinit intercalation and adjectiv, not to mention pamflet, autobiografy and bibliografy. 

But that is a small nut to chew compared to learning Cutter's colon abbreviations.  Are those still in use?

Michael McGrorty

Dewey in Writing

Now we come to grips with the issue of library handwriting, to which our mentor Mr. Dewey (or Dui, as he once wrote it) thought important enough to devote a section to in this little handbook for librarians of the 20th Century.

"Requirements:  Legibility, speed.  Nothing pays better for the time it costs the candidate for a library position than to be able to write a satisfactory library hand.  In this, legibility is the main consideration.  The catalog hand can not be written as fast as a running business hand, but skilful writers acquire reasonable speed without sacrificing legibility. The time of the writer is, however, of small importance compared with that of the reader. . . uniformity is vital to a neat appearance, and has much to do with legibility.  Tho (sic) every letter is perfectly formd, (sic) unless it is uniform with the other letters, the effect is like print in which perfect letters from different fonts are used in the same word.  Uniformity is essential among the various catalogers in the same library, as well as in individual practise.  A style should be carefully adopted by a library and all assistants required to follow it."

Dewey establishes rules for two types of library hand:  "Joind and disjoind," by which he means cursive writing and what we call hand printed letters.  What makes joind writing different from ordinary cursive?  Dewey insists that his students "Make letters upright with as little slant as possible, and uniformly the same, preferring a trifle backward rather than forward slant."  I do not find in this book any claim or reference to compactness, which seems to be the commonplace explanation for library hand--Dewey does insist on form, neatness and uniformity.  Here is a sample of joind hand:

 

And here a catalog card in the same:

 

And a sample including "alternativ" forms:

 

And the disjoind hand:

 

And there you have the essence of the Dewey library hand and style. 

Michael McGrorty

Dewey, Continued

Next in our little series we have an example of that library hand being used to write the entries for a shelf list.   

 

And here is a sample shelf list sheet for Serials:

 

Your postmodern librarian will doubtless suck in a huge breath when she realizes just how much writing was done in the old days--the accessions books and shelf lists of even a moderate-sized library could take up quite a few shelves, not to mention those catalog cards!  You knew of course that the American spelling of "catalog" was one of the few surviving remnants of Dewey's little spree with alternative spelling?  Well, you know now.  But just think of how much more library employment there would be if we still did things the old way.  More to come.

Michael McGrorty

Mr. Dewey's Hand

Lately on one of the library listservs there has been some writing about “library hand,” with a brief explanation by some folk who perhaps were senior enough to have experience of that bypassed bit of the librarian’s craft.

 

We are in possession of the late Mr. Dewey’s own Simplified Library School Rules, which contains some examples of that type of writing and more amusements as well.  This book was published in 1904, though the spine reads "1898." 

 

This book was once the possession of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.  As you can see by the bookplate below, they dedicated it to the memory of their Head Cataloger, Miss Catherine Anderson--although this didn't prevent their tossing it out in the fullness of time.  And of course, some clumsy fool had to stamp WITHDRAWN through the bookplate.

 

 

 

At rear of the book is the plate of a subsequent owner, whose biography I will leave to other hands.

 

  The following photograph is of a tool that contemporary librarians may never have seen.  It is an accession book, about which Dewey writes,

 

"To this the librarian turns for final reference in doubtful cases.  Here is the complete story of each volume, fully told, but in the most compact form.  It is the official indicator for the whole collection, the most permanent of library records.  Each line is a separate pigeonhole, in which, if not exactly the book, all the condenst (sic--Dewey's famous "simplified spelling" about which more anon) facts about the book are placed.  Thence they are never removed, they are not stolen, or lent, or condemd (sic) or withdrawn, or sent to the binder, or lost.  The card is never misplaced, the entry does not mysteriously disappear, a new edition never supersedes, the entry never needs to be rewritten.  The librarian may turn to his accession book to lean what, and where, and when, and whence, and how much, and feel sure of his answwer.  A well made accession book has an element of mathematical exactness unknown to the card catalog or shelf list.  It is the editio princips. 

 

 

 

Note that the entries in this accession book sample were made in library hand--but what does that mean?  We will explain a bit more in the next posting.

 

Michael McGrorty

American Libraries

Here is a postcard I received back in 2001 from the publishers of American Libraries.

 

 

I later got a nice unsigned letter from them indicating that they could not find a place for the piece--which by the way does exist.  I doubt they ever read it.

Michael McGrorty

EFCA Reviewed [part one]

Over the past few months a few friends have asked me what I thought about the Employee Free Choice Act, now wending its way through the Congress.  These friends are people I’ve known for many years, most of them involved, like me, in some aspect of the labor movement.  Most of the time I try to keep my answer to a few generalities about the process rather than any prediction of outcome or analysis of the bill—this last being the most difficult thing because I am by nature and employment an analyst of labor matters.  Silence is harder than comment. 

 

Another difficulty is that labor people, though a particularly discursive lot, are not in the way of suffering apostasy—and they draw the line quite close to prevailing doctrine.  Such doctrines as exist tend to emanate from the leadership of unions and from larger organizations like the AFL-CIO. 

 

The current stance on the Employee Free Choice Act, held by practically all the unions in the country, is that the Act would make organizing a much quicker and fairer process.  The bill’s authors claim is that workers who have tried to organize have failed because of the unconscionable delaying tactics and anti-union animus of employers. 

 

I don’t think that EFCA in its present state will ever see a President’s signature.  And I think that if it did pass, that it would not have nearly the effect claimed by its supporters.  Simply put, the difficulty in organizing private firms won’t be greatly eased by any provision in the current legislation.

 

What I do think is that EFCA is a rather poor piece of legislation thrown at a problem whose essence is really the inability of private-sector unions to win over workers—even and perhaps especially workers in the sort of industries wherein unions used to prevail.

 

What labor wants to achieve through EFCA is a reversal of fate through a transformation of process.  Labor spokesmen will tell you that what they are after is simply the effect that followed the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935.  EFCA would require the substitution of card check approval for the present scheme and schedule of elections, thus eliminating the long spell of time during which employers have communicated their own version of events, which messages often enough include promises to cease operations or move the facility.  Unionists consider these to be unfair threats; companies consider them the exercise of free speech.  What both sides agree upon is that the tactic has been remarkably effective, especially when organized by outside firms specializing in these affairs. 

 

And the reason that the company message has been so effective is that it has the ring, or perhaps the stink, of truth:  private firms do close and certainly do move overseas because of union organizing.  And they also take other measures, such as cutting hours to eliminate full-time employees and their more costly benefits. 

 

In any organizing campaign the worker hears three messages:  that of the union, that of the company, and the voice of common sense, that song of experience and hard-won knowledge.  An organizer’s traditional burden has always been overcoming the employer’s claims.  In the past, the voice of common sense told workers that a union shop was preferable to the alternative, making the argument two-against-one in favor of the union from the start.  Now the shoe is on the other foot.  Though every poll shows that workers believe unions to be a good thing, when push comes to secret ballot, many vote the other way.  Unionists insult the intelligence of their prospective members by suggesting that the company has frightened the bargaining unit with false claims.  The truth is, those who vote against a union are generally pretty well informed about the state and nature of employment conditions and outcomes in America.

 

Nobody in the HR department has to tell them that they are fortunate to have jobs, especially jobs with decent benefits, and nobody has to warn them that all of this can disappear in the wink of an eye.  When management puts out bad vibes about moving or closing shop it is only adding volume to the warning voice of common sense. 

 

The present generation of unionists seems shocked at this sort of thing, as though they didn’t realize that a deal their forefathers cut with Capital a long time ago ensured a constant struggle with an enterprising foe.  The advantage in the long run goes to the private firms, which can shift shape, combine, and when necessary, vanish.  They also own the plant and the job.  Workers possess only their own labor, an article whose current value is measured in world markets against all comers.  That much any worker knows, and he balances that knowledge against the argument of the union organizer.

 

Most of the 20^th Century success of trade unionism came about because enough elements of a scheme found acceptable to the Congress and the representatives of labor at the time of the Great Depression survived attack to remain in operation for a couple of decades after passage of the law.  That, as they say, was yesterday.  Today’s worker needs a job more than he wishes a union, and he feels it is unlikely he can have both.  The unionists have thrown EFCA at the problem, a bill that does nothing to silence the harsh song of common sense, and which has no remedy for its causes.

 

Michael McGrorty

 

Spanish Dancer

I found a Spanish dancer in my garden this morning.  Here she is, leaping in the sunlight.

 

Michael McGrorty

Jesus hates unions

This little gem of wisdom emanates from a bunch of our evangelical friends.  There's a lot more if you go to their website. 

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"Neither the well-nigh universal acceptance of labor union membership by Western society nor the nearly unanimous approval of labor union membership by the churches settles the issue of membership in a union for the Christian workingman.  The practice of the world is certainly not the standard of the life of the Christian.  But neither is the example of the majority of churches the standard, especially not when it is evident that their approval of labor union membership is not obedience to the Word of God, but mere conformity to the world.

Scripture is the standard of the life of the Christian workingman.  Scripture alone is the standard.

This is the basis of the examination of labor union membership that follows, as the title of the pamphlet indicates: “ Labor Union Membership in the Light of Scripture.”  The issue is not labor union membership in the light of strong pressures to join unions in Chicago or some other big city; labor union membership in the light of the well-nigh universal tolerance of labor union membership by the churches, particularly the Reformed churches; or even, labor union membership in light of the fact that refusing to join a labor union may mean the loss of a good job, indeed any job at all, and therefore starvation and death.

What does Scripture teach? 

Scripture, we Reformed Christians confess, is our only rule for faith and life.  Life includes work.  The decisive question for the Christian workingman in Chicago at the beginning of the twenty-first century AD, as it was the decisive question in Ephesus, or Colosse, or the regions in the Middle East where the scattered saints lived to whom James wrote, in the first century AD is, 'What does God say?'

The question is, “What pleases God in the realm of labor?”  Pleasing God is far more precious to the Christian workingman than job, job-security, good wages, comfortable working conditions, and big pensions.  Pleasing God is far more precious to the faithful church than the approval of men.

If Scripture is our basis in the matter of union membership, the issue is clear and conclusive.  Scripture condemns labor union membership as revolution against the authority of the sovereign God.  Scripture forbids the disciple of Christ to join a union and requires him to renounce membership, if he is presently a member. 

This pamphlet will demonstrate that Scripture addresses the issue of membership in the union and that Scripture forbids membership, especially because labor union membership is revolution against God-ordained authority."

Source: http://www.prca.org/pamphlets/pamphlet_86.html

Well, that settles it for me.  I'll have to tell my boss that I'd rather obey Jesus than pull down a salary from a satanist trade union organization. 

Michael McGrorty

Dressing the Part

As I have oft written, there are folks who will tell you that thrift store clothing is nothing but garb for scarecrows.  Not so, friends.  Well, maybe sometimes.  You be the judge of the duds below.

 

Here's a memory from the seventies, a Hart Schaffner & Marx union-made jacket.  Wish the pants had been there!  Fits me perfectly.  Just the thing for that big presentation. 

 

And here's a closeup of the delicious weave of this wonderful coat.  I believe those are golf clubs.

 

And this is the shirt I intend to wear to make the ensemble complete.  The ties are also vintage--one cotton, the other genuine polyester, a clip-on, and stiff as a week-old meatloaf. 

All I need to do now is dig up a swell pair of trousers, throw on some wing tips and I'm off to the races.  Mind you, I do buy a lot of clothing at the thrift store, but most of it is less flamboyant. 

Michael McGrorty