User:Simon/Trim4/Thesis outline third draft

From XPUB & Lens-Based wiki

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?

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 (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
    • 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?

4. CREATING A SYMBOLIC LINK BETWEEN TEXTS AND READERS

  • 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