Librarian of Progress

July 1, 2015 8:54 AM

Librarian of Progress
James Billington, longtime Librarian of Congress, is retiring. This is a job opening that only comes around every few decades and is incredibly important. I made a little website to help share useful information about why it's important and what librarians care about.

Role: maker

posted by jessamyn (12 comments total)

This project was posted to MetaFilter by metaquarry on July 1, 2015: Librarian of Progress

Awesome!
posted by cortex at 8:54 AM on July 1, 2015

This looks pretty cool, and as a wannabe librarian I look forward to diving in. My vote for LOC is jessamyn!
posted by monju_bosatsu at 9:29 AM on July 1, 2015

This is really cool. Good job, jessamyn, it's obvious you put a lot of work into this!
posted by Juliet Banana at 10:00 AM on July 1, 2015

This is both cool (and I wish it was on The Blue) and seriously important for the reasons, well, described in the website, basically. From experience, I am not good at writing posts for The Blue on library matters, but am hoping someone else does and includes a link to this.
posted by Wordshore at 11:23 AM on July 1, 2015

(Hit 'Post Comment' too soon) In addition, I like how this is not personalized i.e. not judgmental or negative about the failings and shortcomings of the current/outgoing Librarian, but focuses instead firmly on the future and specifically what is required.
posted by Wordshore at 11:26 AM on July 1, 2015

Thanks! So much rage went into this, so many opportunities squandered by LoC over the years, but they've really been trying to turn things around (many people who work there are brilliant but are hampered by bad management and micromanagement) with some moderate successes. So I wanted anyone who worked there to feel proud about what they've been able to do but also get across the "This appointment is IMPORTANT" aspect of the future path. Billington did some great work in fundraising and branding of the LoC as a big deal, now someone else can work on making the library in a leader of ... library things in this century.
posted by jessamyn at 11:36 AM on July 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

I should have checked The Blue immediately before commenting here. There is a post there about this.
posted by Wordshore at 11:44 AM on July 1, 2015

Oh! Okay, I've just got/realized the Pro- Con- thing you did there. Dammit! Stop being super-smart, Jessamyn! :)
posted by Wordshore at 12:37 PM on July 1, 2015

jessamyn, this is a beautifully laid out site and very informative, nice work!
posted by capricorn at 1:37 PM on July 1, 2015

Thanks, I take no credit for the design except picking some images. The template is Creative Commons licensed and you can see it and others by the same designer here.
posted by jessamyn at 2:04 PM on July 1, 2015

DRAFT JESSAMYN

I'd kinda like to, but because of this comment, and remembering an increasingly exasperated Elizabeth Warren saying "Which part of I'm not running / don't want the job do you not understand?" or similar, sadly this door is closed.
posted by Wordshore at 8:01 PM on July 1, 2015

Thank you. For caring and for doing stuff.
posted by amtho at 10:33 PM on July 1, 2015 [1 favorite]