Jeopardy! Librarian Contestant Used Brain, Wikipedia

Chicago Tribune

Librarian's episode on Jeapordy to air Dec. 31 Chicago Tribune Ana Peso, a librarian at Glenbrook North High School, has become a celebrity of sorts after her appearance on the game show "Jeopardy" – even though she can't say how she did until it airs on Dec. 31. "It was like fulfilling a dream I've had," Peso said.

Let's take a moment to congratulate Ana Peso on appearing on Jeopardy! and doing however she did.  Not many people in the history of the world have done this great achievement (seriously, look it up, it's like billions to six or something).

But while cruising through the article linked above, we noticed something funny with the way she prepared for this tournament of intellectual giants.  We have selected and put in "bold" the areas of the article we were most concerned about because we just learned what that giant "B" is for in the "Edit" menu:

With a bachelor's degree in history and a master's in library science and educational psychology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, she reads novels from Agatha Christy to historical fiction and frequently reads Wikipedia and clicks on their links.

....

"I reviewed history in Wikipedia. I tried to read geography, too and brush up on all my capitols, lakes and rivers," she said.

So, here we are on a national stage, a librarian representative showing the world the power of the written word... And Wikipedia gets not one but two shout outs?  I could see saying, "I used Wikipedia to find better articles on the internet," or simply "I used Internet resources," but a children's librarian basically saying she prepped for what is known in most circles as "that smart show" by using a poor, hobbled together study guide...  Examples, examples, please be examples of good researching, librarians.

Also, the article did not get Agatha Christie's name correct, which just... Holy crap, Chicago Tribune, even my spell check got that right.  Unless they knew some famous trivia novelist named Agatha Christy who wrote bathroom readers or something.  Then, okay, you got me.

Webster Dictionary Mournes Britannica, Vows Revenge

The copy of the Webster's Dictionary in the Banned Library is in mourning after the announcement that the Encyclopaedia Britannica will have no more updated print editions released.  Librarians and the current Britannica edition attempted to appeal to the book's sense of honor in upholding information relevancy, but the dictionary would not have it.

"You sons of bitches don't understand," Webster's Dictionary was quoted as saying, "This is not the first nor the last time I have seen this happen.  When they came for the Farmer's Almanac, I said nothing.  When they came for Americana, I said nothing.  But now they got Britannica?!  That mother was old, dude!  Before long the only resources on the reference shelf will be me, Chase's Calendar of Events and Guinness Book of World Records, and have you tried holding a conversation with a date freak and a drunk?  'Today's the annual Rutabaga Festival in I Don't Care, Arkansas.  Didja know the oldest lady is hiccup Irish crap...'  Well, you know what?  I'm not going down without a fight.  I'm coming after you, Wikipedia.  Do you have a word for Dictionary Death, Urban Dictionary?  You're about to."

Information Security experts have been put on alert after Mr. Dictionary escaped confinement at the Banned Library and disappeared.  Librarians at the Banned Library said not to worry that the edition could not get far as it does not include any maps but are worried as it is a paperback edition and will not be able to endure the spring rains.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Closes Book On Hard Copies - NPR

Library Book and Tech News: Cyber-Book-a-Tron

I am a librarian from the future.  I am sent from the future to save you, the librarian who will save us from the coming information apocalypse.  Come with me if you want to read.

Netflix announced that it will not pursue the separation of its DVD and streaming services.  Customers of Netflix have already quit or made their decisions.  NYTimes

Charlaine Harris, who already announced her True Blood-based Sookie Sackhouse vampire novel series is almost over, will be writing a graphic novel.  The new series will be based on supernatural stuff and probably be better than the AMC TV series that it was based on.  USAToday

After DC made an exclusive deal with Amazon for their graphic novels, the bookchain Barnes and Noble removed around 100 graphic novels from their shelves.  The break up is set to be a sad one, with B&N sitting alone crying and burning old pictures of Superman.  WSJ

The FCC has passed a resolution that all cellphones must have GPS capabilites by 2018.  Get ready to be tracked by a government agency grasping for relevancy.  techcrunch via geekologie

Italian Wikipedia is no more due to an Italian law that states that if a person has a problem with information shown on any web content, a statement of contradiction must be added to the page in a unaltered form whether it is true or not.  As Wikipedia is constantly updated, this negates their business model.  There goes my Italian Stallion page.  wikimedia via boingboing

Miramax CEO Mike Lang stated that diversity of services offering online content is more important than battling online piracy.  Monopolies cornering the market through exclusive deals can hurt content more than people randomly sharing the content online.  torrentfreak via boingboing

Librarians Don't Like Wikipedia: Whaaaaaaaa?

Your source for all information about Optimus Prime.

I have been threatening to talk about Wikipedia for a while.  I will not say all I have to say, but today we talk about groundbreaking article that is about seven years too late.  This article tells the masses that librarians do not like Wikipedia as a primary, secondary, or as a general source of information.  Gasp!

Have we all used Wikipedia?  Yes.  If you are reading this right now on a computer, then you have used Wikipedia.  That is okay.  If you need quick information that is widely known or some bit of knowledge in pop culture to settle a bar bet, knock yourself out.  But if you are researching a paper and cite a Wikipedia article as a credible source you should be castrated with your laptop so the rest of us do not have to look at your dumbass children.

Does Wikipedia have a place in research?  Hell yes. Sometimes (better now than in the past) authors on Wikipedia cite their sources way down at the bottom of the article.  These sources can then often be used as legitimate reference points.

So, the next time you find yourself about to cite Wikipedia in a paper or any other writing/speech that is the least bit important, think about this:  The Wikipedia article for George Washington is about 8,800 words as of this writing.  The article for Optimus Prime is around 10,800 words.  The people who write for Wikipedia care more about the leader of the Autobots than for the first president of this country and you lazy bastards trust them with providing you research!

Reach Out and Google a Library

Like most people, I use the Google search engine for just about all of my web searching.  This has gotten so dumb, I found myself typing my own website address into the google search bar to get to it.  That is not even how I log in.

Shit, how do I spell my own name?

 Well, I got to thinking, how does Google, and by extension the world, view libraries? Why is it important to look at Google's results from the "library" search term?  Because Google's results are the popular results, the collection of human interest and knowledge.  The results reflect what people think about a word by presenting the most popular choice.  In essence, what the collective choose as the idea becomes the what the word means.  Or the rich pay to be at the top.  However cynical you choose to be.  At least I did not use Yahoo.

The following is my totally non-scientific, non-bibliographic, and nearly non-pornographic findings about what happens when you type "library" into the search bar.

1. Web

The first 10 findings under the web search are your basic hits.  There are physical addresses for local libraries, internet addresses for Internet Public Library and publiclibraries.com as well as large library websites, such as the New York Public Library.  Two things here bother me. First, no porn sites.  There was a time when a Google search on "paper clips" would get you at least three hits on the porn site whitehouse.com.

History for that joke:  whitehouse.com was once a porn site.  whitehouse.gov has always been the real site.

 The second is one of the highest hits on any Google search:  Wikipedia.  I will spend more time on Wikipedia later, but for now I will say it saddens me that one of the top three sites on a search about an information institution is an untrustworthy information site.  That is... well, that is what whitehouse.com was to whitehouse.gov:  a mockery of the institution.

2.  Images
Google image search of "library" fills me with pride, sadness, and a little regret.  Here's the first image I found:

I do not want to get to serious on this site, Banned Library takes no real stance on any subject.  We make dick jokes about most library subjects, in fact.  Looking at all these pictures, though, I am seeing the public perception of the library while I live in the crappy reality.  Take a look at these pictures.   Count how many computers you see.  I saw about 5 images with computers within the first 5 pages.  Out of around 125 images from across the Internet, most showed shelves and books and people reading to shelves and books.  For the most part, these images were of stately manner libraries, with columns and shit.  Look around your library and listen to your patrons.  Hell, I am doing this whole thing about a Google search.  Computers, ebooks, all that crap, are libraries now.  These grand institutions have already given away to Internet cafes, yet the public at large seems to have an alternate image in their minds.  And yes, I know people like pretty things and that there are gorgeous libraries out there.  There are also 15,000 item collections in fucking mobile homes and the patrons still demand wifi access.  But I digress.

3. Videos
Here's Mr. Bean in a library:



4.  News
Google News search is actually a pretty good source of news.  I have gotten several of the articles on this site from there.  However, library news is often pretty boring and repetitive.  No, I do not think the library director who stole all that money is interesting.  If she worked in a bank it would not hit the library radar.  The same goes for the book sales, hirings, firings and budget crisis.  I am not saying that those are not worthwhile and meaningful topics, especially when taken in scope and context, but they make for boring news individually.  Of course, right in the middle of writing this, I find the Mysterious Case of the Urine.

5.  Shopping
Why include shopping?  It tickles me.  Check out this great deal on a book case!

3 Shelf Storage Shelves Cabinet Bookcase Bookshelf Bookshelves- Light Cherry Finish