TASKS OF THE CONTINGENT LIBRARIAN

1. ACQUIRING TEXTS

why do we need texts? what is their function?
- the technology of language and its evolution through orality > literacy
- preservation of memory - language inscribed in oral traditions, and in writing
- social - the recollection of this memory forms narratives that constitutes subjects
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, redesigning, reprinting, make-do workflows
personal experience of using libraries?

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)

conversion between formats for diverse reading needs (academic/technical/social etc)
- how do people read texts? how do machines read them?
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
the importance of locality (in both physical and virtual domains) and its relation to a library's survival
- making it public vs making it private
pirate vs commercial models - what’s at stake?

a definition of the symbolic (Lacan’s example of a door and its uses outside of binary open/closed)
- what are the conditions for this symbolic link to resonate and persevere?
what strategies can be adopted to initiate and maintain this?
- associating texts with the people who read, annotate, and discuss them
  - written & oral discourse around texts - how can these be published?
- shifting power relations from top-down to bottom-up models of library infrastructure
- supporting the sociability of libraries through
  - collectively organised cataloguing and classifying systems
  - bootlegging and "unofficial" publishing practices
  - localised distribution methods