TASKS OF THE CONTINGENT LIBRARIAN
1. ACQUIRING TEXTS
- why do we need texts? what is their function?
* technology of language and its evolution through orality > literacy
* preservation of memory - language inscribed in code
* social - the recollection of this memory forms narratives that constitutes subjectivity
- ways of reading: browsing vs searching, skimming vs scanning
- access to texts (or lack thereof) - where do they come from?
- copyright law and authorship - Eva Weinmayr’s essay
- technical methods of digitising printed texts
* scanning, processing text
- personal experience of using libraries?
2. CLASSIFYING AND CATALOGUING THEM
- aspects of classification
* social, linguistic, semiotic, political
* collections of texts
* professional, amateur, critical librarianship practices and how they relate to these aspects
- what connects the books and the readers
- how does locality relate to the collection?
- proximity
* in the infrastructure of the library (the catalogue, the shelves, the folders, the interface)
3. MAKING TEXTS ACCESSIBLE
- conversion between formats for diverse reading needs
- knowledge distribution methods and networks (distinction between digital and analog methods is blurry as they are often combined)
* social
* distribution of objects arranged through a social network:
* governmental
* copyright law and its restrictions on distribution of knowledge
* municipal
* public libraries, social initatives (e.g. Leeszaal)
* pirate
* bootlegging, samizdat, warez, zine culture, unofficial/uncatalogued publications
- locality
- making it public vs making it private - the survival of the library
- pirate vs commercial models - what’s at stake?
4. CREATING A SYMBOLIC LINK BETWEEN TEXTS AND READERS
- Why?
- the sociability of libraries
- bootlegging and unofficial publishing practices
- the symbolic (Lacan’s example of a door and its uses outside of binary open/closed)
