the Library Loon @LibraryLoon@octodon.social
The Library Loon (Gavia libraria) is a large, solitary, pugnacious creature, alert to her surroundings, shy of online environments and some professional ones.
Joined Aug 2018
Pinned oot
Oh, and just to be clear, it is perfectly fine to boost the Loon's blog posts here in the fediverse, and even to link to them on birdsite should you be so moved.
That the Loon has departed birdsite does not mean she has any onus against those still there.
Hm. This is very interesting. https://write.as/privacy
Big Deal cancelled, sky does not fall: https://www.alpsp.org/write/MediaUploads/Conference/1809AIC/1809AIC%20Ppts/Parallel_2a_Jean-Francois_Lutz.pdf
Does the Loon sound angry? Good. She is angry.
She is not angry at the person who accidentally outed her. Accidents happen, and this was hardly the first accident with the Loon's Boring Alter Ego's identity; it was only the accident that happened to take place in the BAE's workplace.
No, the Loon is furiously angry that she is this frightened -- that she has good and sufficient reason to be this frightened.
If she could be and feel safer...
One thing you might do -- right now, this very moment -- is sign the #LibrarianAF petition asking the University of California to endorse academic freedom for librarians.
Feel free to do so in the name of the Library Loon, who never had academic freedom.
https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/petition-in-support-of-uc-librarians-and-academic-freedom.html
You miss the Loon? Do you also miss her Boring Alter Ego, who was silenced long ago?
Those offended that the Loon took down her archives, do you understand that her BAE is unemployable in libraries? Do you understand how that happened? That several times during Gavia's run the Loon's BAE was threatened over it? That many libraries and library vendors still scour social media for something they can use to smear a librarian they don't like?
If you understand this, what are you doing about it?
One thing she is considering is that an intentional archival silence on her part might matter, might lead to larger discussions of silencing in the information professions. The Loon tried to goose that conversation into existence a few years ago, and a few voices took it up, but...
... eventually silence drowned the conversation about silencing.
You miss the Loon? How many other silenced voices do you not even know you miss?
Re the archives of Gavia Libraria:
Let us be clear about one thing: Gavia Libraria was a blog. It was not a scholarly anything; if the Loon's Boring Alter Ego had wished to publish in The Litrachoor, she could have done so. (She has, in fact.)
The Loon owes the scholarly record exactly nothing whatever.
The Loon owes the historical record exactly nothing whatever.
The Loon owes the web record exactly nothing whatever.
Are we clear? Good. The Loon is still considering her archives.
independent thought Show more
As best the Loon can tell, opinion on birdsite about the shutdown of Gavia Libraria is evenly split between regret and jubilation.
This seems, on the whole, fitting.
This was probably always the destined end. The Loon is rather surprised to have survived as long as she did.
Nonetheless: the lesson here is not to dox incorporeal pseudonyms, lest their contributions (whatsoever they may be) be lost.
An end to blogging https://gavialib.com/2018/10/an-end-to-blogging/
This is unfortunate, but the Loon is in a tight corner and sees no way out of it.
Oh, and just to be clear, it is perfectly fine to boost the Loon's blog posts here in the fediverse, and even to link to them on birdsite should you be so moved.
That the Loon has departed birdsite does not mean she has any onus against those still there.
On teaching ethics, to technologists or otherwise
https://gavialib.com/2018/10/on-teaching-ethics-to-technologists-or-otherwise/
@vickysteeves The Loon has indeed left birdsite. She is here in the fediverse.
100 days without Elsevier in Sweden, and the sky has not fallen: http://openaccess.blogg.kb.se/2018/10/11/100-days-post-cancellation-of-elsevier/
Here we go again. https://www.infodocket.com/2018/10/03/american-chemical-society-acs-and-elsevier-file-copyright-infringement-lawsuit-in-u-s-vs-researchgate/
The Loon's earlier assessment, which she sees little reason to change: https://gavialib.com/2017/10/researchgate-we-hardly-knew-ye/
It seems to be a day for interesting material. In the category "any gameable measure will be gamed," this: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.07841
Oh, the Loon did enjoy this (from https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=2163):
"Inevitably the question of academic freedom came up. Smits noted where to publish is about academic choice, not academic freedom. He said academic freedom is about researching what you want to pursue, not publishing where you want. If you take the academic freedom argument, he asked, what about wanting to stop people from publishing in predatory journals? Is that not also preventing academic freedom?"
An interesting piece for many reasons, but one is the quiet assertion that the best way to make a scholarly-communication librarian position work was... to ignore open access.
There is doubtless more to this story. The Loon notices how very, very invisible the rest of the library is in it, for example, including the library's so-called leadership.
https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/eblip/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/29468/21937
The Loon is not a Linux insider (or indeed outsider), but if she had to hazard a guess re Linus Torvalds's apology and break... it would have quite a bit to do with https://gavialib.com/2015/09/free-association-and-voluntarism/
If she is right, the lesson would be "do not volunteer for sick organizations; they will not change until they have no other sustainable choice, if then."
The Library Loon (Gavia libraria) is a large, solitary, pugnacious creature, alert to her surroundings, shy of online environments and some professional ones.
Joined Aug 2018
